This is my first Supernatural Fanfic. I tend to like End!verse characterization because I think there is a lot of uncharted ground and speculation to play with, plus Cas is just too damn cute. Poor thing. The first chapter isn't very long, I'm sorry.
Title: In the Dead of Night
Summary: December 2013. The Croatoan virus is becoming inescapable. Invited into camp Chitaqua after a nearly deadly altercation with survivors of the viral apocalypse, Dean and Cas attempt to help rebuild a semblance of the world they were prepared to die for. Camp politics become tense, and resident angel disappears.
Rated: T for now…Could become M.
Obligatory disclaimer: None of this is mine. It belongs to Eric Kripke and Co.
Prologue
"Oh so we started torturing again? Classy."
-2009 Dean, Season 5 Episode 4: The End
Castiel, Angel of the Lord didn't whimper, didn't cower…did not feel true pain.
Cas, the exoskeleton of an angel whimpered quietly, turning his face away from his aggressor in an attempt to stifle the sound. He was not going to give them the satisfaction –he was not. "I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me," Pslam 69:29 fell quietly from the angel's bloodied, swollen lips, an enochian whisper of a prayer. He didn't know if his Father would answer or not, but there was comfort in those familiar words.
It wasn't lost on his tormentor. "He doesn't care Cas," the man spat, grabbing the angel's jaw roughly, forcing Cas to look into his sneering face. "And even if he did…why would he care about you?" The man ran a thumb along Castiel's chin, purposefully dragging his finger through a trickle of blood. "It's time you understand the pain of being mortal."
Despite himself, Cas trembled slightly, pain and exhaustion bringing his vessel to its physical limits. He couldn't heal. His wrists ached against his bonds, strung up tightly above his head. "Dean…"
"Shut up!" Castiel's head was snapped to the side with frightening force. "I'm getting tired of hearing you talk, angel boy. I wanna hear you scream."
Somewhere outside of Detroit, Sam Winchester bolted awake, skull pulsating with the pain of his vision. It wasn't a vision he was unfamiliar with. For the third time that week, he attempted to warn Dean, but with no success. This time, however, his own cell phone had no service. Cell towers apparently didn't last long during an apocalypse.
SPN
The power shut off, blanketing their world into blackness and confirming what Bobby, Dean, and Cas had already presumed –the Croatoan virus had advanced. Souix Falls was going berserk, one at a time, then a few at a time. There was no cure, there was no stopping it.
After that, events had escalated quickly. Castiel's angelic ability had allowed him some vision in the dark, and he managed to collect the flash lights, giving one to Dean then to Bobby. Castiel disappeared briefly –seconds. When he returned, his face was grave. "We can't stay here, Dean. It's futile."
"We need to hunt for survivors-!" Dean's protest was cut short.
"There are none. Not this time."
"Cas-"
"I checked everywhere, Dean." The angel's voice was severe, low. Castiel, although learning how to lie, was terrible at it. And there was no lie in these words. "We need to leave. Now." A flash light beam glared in Castiel's face. The angel didn't even blink, unfazed. "Time is a luxury."
He reached his fingers towards Dean and Bobby's foreheads, but was cut short by a curt slap. Dean growled warningly, "Cas…what about Baby?"
The angel's shoulders sagged with an impatient sigh. "Dean…it's too dangerous; the roads are …..thin sheets. You said so yourself-"
"Sheet ice, Cas!"
"Precisely," Castiel persisted.
Dean glowered darkly, unyielding. "Dude. I am not leaving without my Baby. Bobby, back me up, here."
The grizzled hunter gave a slow sigh. "Feathers has a point Dean. He can shazam us out of here…."
"Unbelievable." There was a jingle of metal as Dean stubbornly slipped his keys from his coat pocket. A crashing sound was heard outside; glass shattered, and then loaded silence. "Uh, Cas…"
The angel was gone.
Bobby guessed Castiel's intentions before Dean. "We should shield our eyes…just in case." Getting the hint, Dean mirrored the older hunter, throwing an arm over his face and ducking his head. The windows exploded, and painfully bright white light purified the darkness. Searing screams penetrated the air. Dean had underestimated the amount of angel left in the…well, angel.
Cas was clearing the way. He reappeared. "We need to keep moving," the angel growled, voice more urgent. "Go. Now."
Fumbling outside in the darkness, Dean unlocked the car, blinking back the sleet like rain that stung his face like pins and needles. There was a crack as the ice shattered on the hinges. It was a typical storm for the Dakotas. It was also the typical Winchester brand of luck.
Something soft yielded under Dean's foot, unlike the frozen ground. Looking down, the hunter jerked his foot back distastefully. "Now that's just gross. Couldn't keep the body count away from Baby, Cas?"
He angel frowned impatiently. "My apologies," he muttered, rolling his eyes skyward, anything but remorseful.
"You're using sarcasm now?" Dean raised his brows disbelievingly.
Cas crossed his arms, leveling the young hunter with a blue glare –a characteristic Castiel pout. "What is it you humans say?...oh yes, if the boot fits."
Dean snorted derisively, pausing with the car door hanging open. He shook his head. "I don't mean to ruffle your angelic feathers, but you keep saying these phrases, and I don't think you know what they mean."
Castiel turned away, glaring into the icy darkness. "My feathers are pristine, Dean."
Sitting in his wheelchair, grumpily waiting for an opportunity to be helped into the Impala, Bobby had heard enough. "You two idgits can argue over the toilet seat later, just get moving."
Silence.
"Bobby I don't understand-"
"Can it, Cas!" Dean demanded crossly, patience running thin.
A few moments later, the three of them were seated in the Impala. Cas was sulking in the back seat, crushed beside Bobby's wheel chair. His eyes flickered anxiously as he scrutinized the windows with angelic detail. The ignition turned and Baby whirred into life. The windshield wipers swiped harshly, sloshing the icy mess from Dean's view.
Dean hit the gas. The wheels spun on the ice.
"This is a bad idea." Cas voiced exasperatedly. "We tried it your way, now-"
Dean manipulated the steering; giving the wheels traction and the Impala tore up the ground before starting through the junk yard.
Cas pressed his lips together, biting back further complaints. "I'll keep the pathway clear."
Chapter 1
For once, Dean didn't have a plan. In all those zombie horror movies, everyone tries to get to the CDC. A cure exists. You just have to find it. Protect it.
The hunter laughed wryly; encouraged by Castiel's tilt of the head and curious, yet reprimanding, expression. "Cas, you need to see a Romero film…or watch more T.V.."
The angel sighed wearily. "It doesn't appear as though we will have electricity in the future, Dean."
"At least someone has some vision," Bobby muttered from the front seat.
Cas leaned back behind the driver's seat, impatient, cramped, annoyed and feeling very…human. "Stop the car."
"Come again?"
"Stop the car," the angel insisted. "It's cramped back here." He didn't know if it was the feeling of being trapped in a mortal skin or the exhaustion of his Grace…or a mixture of the two. He was a soldier of Heaven –or was, but this was outside his experience. Lately everything was outside of his experience.
They need to read a suitable stretch of highway to make camp before dark. Feeling pressed for time, Dean denied his request. "Go fly around or something."
There was silence.
"I can't…." Cas's full lips pressed into a distressed line. "My vessel is…tired." He drew a deep breath, uncharacteristic of an angel who was rarely aware of the human need to breathe.
Dean slowed the Impala, pulling onto the side of the road beside a disheveled Ford Taurus that had clearly seen much better days before it was abandoned, rotting in the ditch. "You refuel or whatever, Cas. I'm going to refuel Baby." Castiel tentatively touched the door handle, but had no time to open it as Dean was already free of his seat and pulling the rear passenger door open. "Come on, fresh air. Now."
Standing outside of the Impala Cas rolled his shoulders stiffly, staring down the road. It was dotted with wreckage…abandoned cars, over turned semi-trucks. Dean had not needed to stop at a gas station for quite a few days, which was just as well. Syphoning gasoline was proving to more than supply Baby's need for fuel, which was admittedly worse than the more modern machines.
Bobby watched the surrounding cars. Had he had the full capacity of his legs, he would have been salvaging them for anything useful.
Cas allowed himself to feel the chill of the wind on the vessel's pale skin, which was surprisingly refreshing. For the first time, he felt the pinprick, frigid thrill of goose-bumps spotting flesh. An involuntary shudder contracted his muscles, lost on the two hunters. "There's an ambulance ahead."
Dean looked up, cold hands tightening the gas cap on Baby. It would take time to scavenge supplies…Cas wouldn't know what he was looking for, and Bobby wouldn't be any help. He could barely see the white box and red cross in the distance. Castiel still had his angel sight.
However, Castiel's mojo was draining at an alarming rate and as much as Dean didn't want to admit it, the angel was soon going to be good for nothing more than cheap tricks. He couldn't shoot, not well. He would constantly be in danger.
He also was unable to heal others, and there was an unspoken realization that soon he would no longer be able to heal himself.
Gathering more medical supplies would not be a mistake. "Let's go check it out, Feathers." Dean clapped Cas lightly on the shoulder, drawing him into walking beside him. "Bobby, stay in the car! We'll be back!"
Bobby grimaced. It wasn't as though he could easily go anywhere else. "Balls," he muttered under his breath. "Those idgits."
Dean's quick strides kept him well ahead of the smaller framed, ever stoic angel. Cas finally was forced to put up a light jog to keep at the hunter's side. It was strange, being forced to increase his movements to keep up with a human being. It was as exhilarating as it was alarming, feeling the icy air filling up his lungs. That was new.
They reached the ambulance in 10 minutes time. It was oddly intact, doors closed. Walking around to its front, pistol drawn, Dean warily examined the interior through the busted, bloodied windshield. The remains of what had most likely been human (once upon a time) grinned a toothy, fleshless grin at him from the driver's seat. "Awesome." Dean scowled disapprovingly, in disgust. "Cas?"
"Something's alive in the back." The angel was standing, staring interestedly at the locked double doors. A bicycle chain and lock –which was probably the closest thing anyone could find, was looped around the handles, preventing escape.
Dean noted the discarded bike several yards away, leaning unwanted against an equally abandoned car. He contemplated walking away…but they needed these supplies, before more vultures showed up.
"Don't move," A voice cautioned with more calm than Dean felt comfortable with, and it was a pretty uncomfortable situation regardless. Freezing, the hunter glanced at Cas silently imploring the angel not to move or do anything heroic. Normally he wouldn't have much to worry over…Cas had always had the uncanny, but handy, ability to heal himself of bullet wounds –or any wound. However, at this point, he was betting that catching a bullet could be enough to set the angel back, if not place him in the ground. Unbidden images of Castiel covered in blood, blue lipped and pale rushed to the surface of his mind.
"Cas…" Dean warned slowly. "Don't. Move."
Cas watched Dean, holding perfectly still. Dean was not even sure those huge blue eyes were blinking, confused but unafraid.
To be continued….
Yup, cliff hanger. Love it, right? I'm going to attempt to update every other week, pretty regularly. Although I may update sooner if time is provided.
Please review, thank you!