Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. I own the writing and story.

Fandom: Supernatural
Notes: Been getting ideas for this Team Free Will 2.0 for a while, and decided to write this down. I might continue a short series of these three if the inspiration comes.
Summary: After Eve killed the Winchester's and banished all the angels to Heaven, the world is in an Apocalypse. All kinds of creatures roam free and humans fight to survive. Three very special young people come together in this darkness to strengthen the bonds that already tie them together.

8*8*8*8*8

Prologue

2017. September 7. Chicago. The weather was cool, the plants had all turned brown and stiff. The sun would be down in an hour. There was basically no more pavement. Weeds had taken over, cracking it, punching holes in the ground and growing wild. Even the largest cities looked like jungles.

Most of the humans had been wiped out by the creatures. The military had stuck around longest, fighting like the soldiers that they were. But they didn't know everything. They didn't know how to kill creatures; they just tried blowing their heads off. It wasn't like they didn't know these things weren't human; sorry, that cat had been out of the bag for six years now. They just didn't understand it properly. Not everyone was a hunter.

There were a few hunters still left, creating small pockets of fighters, resistance camps that were just about the safest places in the world. It was rare for anyone to travel on their own, but it happened. They were wanderers, never staying in one place long, occasionally joining a camp for a few weeks before going off again.

Ben Braeden was one of these. It wasn't that he didn't like being around people; everyone missed a human companion once in a while. But he had a different mindset. He had known about the supernatural for ten of his eighteen years of life and he had been prepared for this Apocalypse because of Dean. Lisa had lasted until last January, where some newer creature Eve had cooked up got her and there was no way to stop the beast. Ben had been on his own since then. Instead of staying in a camp, he liked traveling. Camps reminded him of his mother and he how he had failed her, and he didn't need any more negatives in his life.

Shotgun in hand, Ben walked through the weeds, backpack filled with minimal supplies. Dean's jacket finally fit him properly, and he rarely took the old leather thing off. He was looking for a place to crash for the a few hours. You could never stay in one place too long after dark, especially when you were on your own. Ben rarely slept more than two hours at a time, and with that, it was very light and hardly energizing.

When he heard the first rustle, he just assumed it was a deer or some kind of animal. It wasn't common for creatures to come out during the day, even though most of them could. He didn't expect anyone to be out this way, because most people stayed away from cities because there were too many places for predators to hide in.

He was not expecting, however, to round a corner and find two people, teenagers like him, standing there. He raised his shotgun out of reflex, aiming it at the guy first.

"Stop right there!" Ben raised his voice slightly. There was no need to scream. They were right there.

Both of them didn't even flinch. The guy looked very rough around the edges; with a few days of scruff on his face and eyes…they looked like death. The girl was, actually, very pretty. She had her blonde hair pulled back away from her face, a gun and knife hanging from her belt and what appeared to be scars running the whole length of her arms. She wasn't wearing a jacket, however Ben noticed two packs lying on the hood of a rusted out car which was also in the vicinity.

"I would put that down if I were you," the girl cautioned, noticing that Ben had his weapon focused entirely on her companion. "You don't want to get him angry."

"Who the fuck are you?" Ben continued, not lowering the weapon. They could very well be creatures.

"Humans, thank you very much," the girl replied. "Hunters, if you wanna slap a label on us."

Ben lowered his weapon a half an inch. "How can I believe you?"

The girl tilted her head to the side. "Come on, dude, if we were gunna kill you, we would have already." She glanced over at her friend. "And what're you doing alone, anyway?"

"I don't like camps," Ben said shortly, lowering his weapon bit by bit.

"Same here."

The three stood in silence for a few moments before Ben finally lowered his gun completely. "Alright, I believe you. But if you try to trick me, I'll blow your head off."

"Fair is fair," she said, raising her hands. "I'm Claire, by the way. Claire Novak."

"Ben. Ben Braeden."

"And that's Jesse," Claire introduced the remaining figure. "He's having an off day. Don't mind him."

Ben nodded his way. Jesse just turned and grabbed his pack off the roof of the car. "We should go," Jesse said shortly.

"Right," Claire said, grabbing her bag as well. "You should come."

Ben licked his bottom lip and looked over his shoulder.

"C'mon, three is better than two at keeping watch," Claire insisted, waving at him to follow, since Jesse had already started walking and she had taken a few step to follow.

Heaving a sigh, Ben complied, and fell into step next to Claire. "I don't think he likes me," he said after a while, waving toward Jesse, who was a few paces in front of them.

Claire shrugged, gripping the straps of her bag with both hands. "You did point a gun in his face. You're just lucky he didn't turn you into a toy or something," she added under her breath.

Ben didn't comment, mostly because he wasn't sure he heard her words correctly. "You don't seem the hunting type," he mentioned after a few more moments of silent walking.

She looked down at her feet and luckily caught herself before she tripped over a bumper. "Um…it wasn't my choice." With a sigh, she held out her left arm and ran her right index finger over the scars. Now that he was closer, he saw that they were precise looking sigils. "My dad…he became a vessel for this angel. And I never saw him again, except this once, when he came back and some shit went down and I ended up possessed by the angel instead." She sucked in a breath and dropped her arms. "After that…well…not right after, but when my mom went to the mental hospital and I was sent to foster care, I started researching angels and found all these symbols that were supposed to repel them or something. I wrote them all down and carved them under my bed and went pretty crazy myself. After the whole Apocalypse thing…I met Jesse and he burned them into my skin. Branded me, kinda."

The story would have sounded crazy if this was any normal world, but it wasn't. Ben took it all in stride, however it sounded even crazier than he was used to hearing. "What do they mean?"

"They keep angels out. And away," Claire added with bitterness in her voice. "I don't want them anywhere near me. They destroyed my family. Sometimes I think that the angels are just as bad as the demons. Worse…even." She looked down at her feet once again before speeding up and jogging up to Jesse. She walked close to him, allowing his jacket material to brush against her bare arms, but she didn't touch him outright.

Ben stayed behind, watching them, and thinking…many things. About Claire's story and how much worse she had it than he did. And he also couldn't help but wonder what was up with Jesse. Especially since the end of Claire's story had the guy burning sigils into her skin. Ben wouldn't say he trusted them, or that he didn't think they could easily turn out to be creatures, but he wouldn't say that he wasn't intrigued by them. Wary, but interested.