[Note: So this is just my way of dealing with the next few weeks of reruns. Plus, I wondered how that prayer could be answered. PS I'm just borrowing the characters for a joy ride, please, don't try to take my money.]

Why, O Lord do you stand afar off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

-Psalms 10:1

Then

-South Dakota- Singer Salvage

"Please…I can't…I need some help. Please?"

-Knoxville, Tennessee- Suncrest Apartments

Go!

Astrid sat straight up in her bed. The lingering command echoed not in her ears but in her heart and soul. She'd been called. Part of her wanted to plead and beg off this burden, but she'd been given a ten year respite from what she was. She had nothing to offer, and a knowledge that defying this command to live the life she loved would lead only to pain. She threw off the sheets and comforter, grabbed a duffel bag, and started shoving clothing into it. She pulled on a pair of jeans, bra, and a tank top that she was pretty sure was clean. She grabbed her car keys, duffel, and laptop, and flung open the door, nearly running over the petite woman who was about to knock.

"Ella? Is everything okay? It's the middle of the night," Astrid said after she caught her balance.

"I'm coming with you."

Astrid finally noticed the full duffel bag sitting beside the door. For the first time since she had woken up, she smiled. "Thank God," Astrid said softly.

After they got in Astrid's blue Rogue, Ella asked, "Any idea where we are going?"

"Not yet, but we'll know when we get there."

Now

A week later, Astrid and Ella pulled into a town in South Dakota. It was late at night and the town was eerily quiet.

"This is it, isn't it?" Ella murmured sleepily as she sat up stretching in her seat.

They stayed in a motel last night, but there had been an urgency in her all day that kept her on the road much later than normal. Astrid couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She glanced at the clock-three in the morning.

"Close, really close, Ella," Astrid said with conviction her blue eyes almost glowing in the light from the dash. She went through the one red light in town. The urgency was becoming more insistent. Please…I don't understand, she silently prayed.

All of sudden Ella grabbed her arm and said, "GO! FAST!"

Astrid hit the gas trusting her friend not to screw with her. She felt something slam into the side of the car, but she didn't stop. Looking in her rearview mirror, her heart skipped a beat, and a nervous laugh bubbled out of her. "Effing great, we've been sucked into a b-rate zombie flick."

Behind her the street was being filled with people, and not normal people. They were freaking revenants. Ella's voice was a high pitched whisper as she said, "Oh, Holy God…Trid, they are so hungry."

Glancing at her friend, she saw she'd doubled over and was clenching her stomach. Not good, not good at all. Eyes flashing back to the road, she nearly crashed as she jerked the wheel to avoid a zombie standing in the middle of her lane. She managed to control the car as went off the road onto a dirt track through the woods. Are they trying to herd us?

All of the sudden, she felt her tires spin as she got stuck in a giant mud puddle. "Seriously? I mean, seriously? This is ridiculous." She slammed her hands on the steering wheel.

Ella chocolate browns were gleaming with tears of pain as she looked at her for what to do next. Astrid's brain ran through their options. Option A- stay in car, no weapons, become zombie food. Option B- leave car, run like hell, avoid becoming zombie food as long as possible. Talking to herself, "Option B, it is? Hope you've got on your running shoes, Ella!"

She had briefly materialistic moment over leaving her car and stuff as she flung open the door and took off with Ella right beside her, but she had a feeling the zombies weren't going to be interested in her empty car. She refused to glance back to see if anything was there. As they broke through the tree line, they both saw the house with all the lights on. Behind it was what looked a graveyard of cars. Great another choice, go in the house and possibly find a weapon and a defensible position or keep running through the salvage yard until they became zombie food because they were too tired to keep going or one jumped out and got them. "These choices suck, Ella."

"Yeah…in the house?" Ella squeezed out as she ran.

"In the house…" Astrid said unhappily, running up the steps. The door, thank the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was unlocked. Then again that was probably a bad sign. Ella slammed the door shut and flipped the lock.

"Hello?" Astrid called as she crept cautiously through the entryway. Steps lead up to a second floor and on one side was a wide doorway that appeared to be a study with tons of old books, a desk, and a couch. Ella was inches behind her. Her head was twisting to keep an eye in all directions.

"Just so you know," she whispered, "we are not splitting up to search the freaking house. That's how people die in horror movies."

She grinned crookedly despite herself. "Going into the house was an equally bad idea, in that case."

"Yeah, but the graveyard of abandoned cars seemed even worse."

"Yeah," Astrid whispered back as they stepped through a doorway into a kitchen. Her eyes lit and then quickly dimmed. Okay knives were weapons, but she sure as heck did not want to be close enough to a zombie to have to fight with a knife. Her gut also said that a knife wasn't going to do much damage to the undead. Still, a weapon was a freaking weapon.

"Ella, you might want to grab a knife. Might not be much use, but well at least it would be something."

Ella walked over to the counter and nervously grabbed a knife. Now that Astrid could see her, she could see the lines of tension around her eyes and mouth. "Ella, you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, just got to focus on keeping it all out."

A creak from the outside porch had Astrid putting her finger to her lips as she crept over to the back door. Peering out, she didn't see anything, but her instincts told her something was there. Behind her, Ella shrieked, "Zombie!" Astrid turned in time to see her throw the knife crazily at the intruder who had a shotgun pointed at her.

Astrid face palmed at her actions. "We are so going to die."

The man lowered the gun, and said, "Who the hell are you?"

"Zombie food." Astrid said sarcastically. As Ella said, "Uh…Ella."

"Smartass," the man mumbled under his breath. "Did you seriously think a knife was going to do anything?"

Astrid shook her head, "No, but I couldn't find my bazooka. It doesn't fit into my purse." She was on a roll tonight.

Before the man had time to say anything, Ella hissed, "We need to go, now!"

The man gave her an incredulous look. "Seriously, where are we going to go?"

Astrid felt something coming as well. Every hair on her arms stood on end. This was the something that had pulled her across the country. "She's usually right about these things."

Suddenly another man was in the kitchen with them. "Dean."

"Where the hell have you been, Cas?"

"We need to go, Dean," the man in the trench coat told the man with the shotgun.

"Can you take all of us?" he asked as he indicated the two women.

Ella curled in on herself. "No time."

Astrid jumped away from the back door as the glass shattered and the wood split. A zombie stepped through as Dean shot him. It barely slowed the zombie down. Backpedaling as fast as she could to where Ella was, she grabbed the smaller woman by the arm dragging her towards the two men but not directly in front of them.

"Get them out of here, Cas," Dean said as they backed out of the kitchen as the zombies were still coming for them. The man, called Cas, reached out and touched Ella and Astrid on their foreheads. Astrid blinked as her friend disappeared, but she was still in the house with the two men.

The man named Cas gave her a funny look and Dean glanced at them forcing them back towards the front of the house. "What the hell are you waiting for?"

"My power will not work on her, Dean."

"Dammit, I can't leave her here. We'll have to make a break for it," He said as he deftly reloaded the shotgun.

The sound of the front door exploding brought a groan to Astrid's lip. Seriously, God? What am I suppose to do with zombies? We could really use a break right about now.

The door swung open not to reveal the zombie they expected, but another man with a shotgun. "Let's go, Dean!"

Dean held the shotgun in one hand, grabbed her arm, and all but drug her smaller frame after him as he ran after the man who'd busted the door. The man in the trench coat disappeared. The zombies of course chased them, but the man in front was already in the driver's seat of a black car passenger door open for them. Dean flung her through the open door, climbed in behind her, yelled, "Go, Sam" as he slammed the door shut.

Sam plowed through the zombies that jumped in front of them. His foot never seemed to come off the gas as he took off a down a gravel drive. Sam and Dean had a conversation about people that she had never met. Apparently, Bobby and Sheriff Mills were holding down the fort with the rest of the town. They were good when he left except Bobby was upset over his zombie wife. The car slowed as they came to a fortified building where it seemed the living inhabitants of the town had taken refuge.

The two men got out of the car first. Putting her in between them they moved to the door. Sam banged on the door, and shouted, "Bobby, Sheriff, its Sam and Dean."

The door swung open and a gravelly voice said, "Well, get the hell in here, you idjits." They entered the building. Dean helped swing the door closed and bar it shut.

Astrid was concerned for her friend now that the immediate danger had passed. Cas was obviously more than a man, but he wasn't around to explain what he had done with her friend. Her thoughts had her so distracted that it wasn't until she felt the knife at her throat that she realized something was wrong.

"Who are you?" Dean asked a fierce expression on his face.

Trying not to jostle the very sharp knife at her throat, she gave him a dirty look. Her day just kept getting better and better. She was tired, frightened for her friend, and pissed. "The zombie queen, duh. Can't you tell by the way I'm noshing on your arm? Ass."

"Dean, this might not be the time for this," Sam said as the townspeople looked at them like they were a bunch of crazies.

"Yeah, Dean, great idea, spook the people trapped in a building, surrounded by zombies," Astrid ground out in a whisper. "Have you ever seen a horror movie? All we need is for them to get crazy in here."

"Son, whatever she's done it can wait," the gravelly voice said.

The knife lowered, but Dean gave her a dirty look and said, "This isn't over." He stomped away. Sam her a half smile and followed him.

"You gonna tell me your name without being a smartass," the gravelly voice asked and she turned to see a man in wheelchair.

Smiling politely, she said, "Astrid," as she extended her hand. His hand enfolded her hers. She could feel the calluses and the roughness. He looked like a trucker with a trucker hat and flannel shirt over a t-shirt. Everything in her said that this was a man to be trusted. She released his hand.

"TRID!" a familiar voice yelped right before she was grasped in a hug.

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