... and Dean woke with a start nearly hitting his head on the Impala's passenger side window. "tiel!" He had just enough time to look his brother in the face and see his worried expression when the pain hit. White light flashed, stronger than lightning, lances of pain into his eyes, like red-hot spikes of ice. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt in Heaven, Hell or Earth. Dean tasted acid at the back of his throat as he jerked his hands up with a strangled shout. Vision vanished in a universe of shattered light, then returned. Returned without even after images, as if something had been switched off with a click. The pain was gone too, instantly.

Only silence remained. Compete silence, not even the rumble of the Impala's engine could he heard. Wait, what?

"Dean, what the hell just happened," Sam asked as the car slowly came to a stop in the middle of the road.

"I have no idea," Dean didn't even know where to begin. "I think Cas was tiring to tell me something...,"

"Cas actually spoke to you?" Interupted Sam. "I thought you haven't talked to him since he opened Purgatory."

"Dude, I know. But he sounded like he was worried and had to make sure I got the message...,"

"Which was?" Sam interrupted again.

"'The world as you knew it is over. The Winchester line must survive'," Dean quoted.

"You Sure?"

"Positive and what is wrong with the car?"

"I don't know it just died when the pain and binding light stopped. I don't suppose Cas warned yon about that did he? "

"No," wondering why the angel had even bothered to contact him if he wasn't going to give them anything useful.

"What do you think could have happened to the car?"

"I have no idea. I'd better take a look."

"It's pretty dark out, I'll grab the flashlight."

Both brothers got out of the car, Dean headed for the hood and Sam headed for the trunk. It was pitch black out and Dean only found the hood catch pole by memory. With the hood open he waited for Sam to find the flashlight. As he waited his eyes began to adjust to the darkness. Even though it was only about 8 at night it was mid March and the sun had set an hour ago.

They had been traveling through Alabama on their way north, with the vague intention of going to South Dakota if nothing came up between here and there. They'd just come from a large underground poker game and hand won, big. It had been a 10,000 dollar buy in and with all the money they could scrounge and a front by Bobby they had both been able to enter. Sam was still not the poker player Dean was but after his win against the man-witch they'd come up with the biggest hustle to date.

They would enter the game separately and Sam would win as much as he could before carefully loosing most of it to Dean, then Dean would have to win the rest. The crazy thing was, it actually worked. There had been 10 players total at 2 separate tables. The top five would then combine into one table for winner takes all game. Dean had worried and agonized over how Sam was doing at the other table but had been proud when his brother had sat down for the final five with most of the money from his table. After that it had been a long slow process for Sam to win some and loose more and not always to Dean. But he'd done it and sometimes for Dean it was a hard press win. Sam not always letting his tells through. In the end they were sitting on a cook 100 grand. They'd left the game as they'd come and had met up in George with $50,000 left after they gave Bobby his cut. Technically the older hunter was only supposed to get a quarter of the total winnings but Dean and Sam had agreed that half was more than fair for everything Bobby did for them. Dean had sent the money by overnight express 2 nights ago so at least if there was something seriously wrong with the Impala, Bobby wouldn't have to wait for the money. He should already have it by now.

Thinking about the car brought Dean back to the here and now and the fact that it had been several minutes and Sam still hadn't brought he flashlight. "Sammy? You get lost back there or what?" Dean hollered at his brother.

"Dude their not working."

"Just change the battery,"

"You don't think I haven't tried that already? Besides, that's not all that's not working. My phone is dead and so is my watch."

"What? Come on Sam stop playing around."

"Come here and check for yourself if you don't believe me."

"Fine," Dean said as he made his way to the truck pulling out his phone at the same time. He clicked it to life expecting to use the screen light to illuminate the trunks interior, but nothing happened. He stopped next to Sam and clicked it again. Nothing. "It can't be dead already. I charged it before we left the motel and haven't used it since."

"Same here, now check your watch."

Dean moved his phone to his left hand and used his right to hit the backlight on his watch, nothing. "What the hell, this watch in nearly indestructible. No way the light has just gone out."

"The watches, phones, flashlights, even the GPS and my laptop. Nothing electronic works. I had to use my lighter to even find anything. Dean I think..."

Dean waited for Sam to finish but he never did. He could just make out Sam's features in the light of the half moon and nearly cloudless sky. Sam was looking up at the stars but Dean was sure he wasn't stargazing. It looked like he was looking for something. "Sam, what? Don't leave me hanging here. What do you think?"

"I think," Sam began, still looking at the sky. But Dean could not hear the rest as a deafening whine and torrent of air rushed past over head. An instant latter a huge explosion tossed both brothers to their knees. As Dean stood back up he could see the red-orange glow that could only come from a massive fire a mile or two away. A fire that hadn't been there just a moment before.

Sam came to stand beside him and clasped his shoulder and said in a hushed voice, "I think we were just attacked with an EMP."

Swallowing hard, Dean tried not to think about what that fire represented and tried instead to focus on what Sam had said. Turning away from the fire he said, "An EMP... Like in Ocean's 11. But that only took out a few square miles and didn't effect," he stopped and couldn't help looking back at the fires glow against the clouds. "Airplanes," he finished.

"It does if it's a nuke detonated in the lower parts of the atmosphere. One or two set off in just the right spot could take out the whole country."

Dean sagged against the car. The emotional high he'd been running just a few moments before was completely gone. If Sam was right, and Dean had no reason to doubt him, then a plane full of people had just crashed to the east of them. No doubt there were other planes falling from the sky killing thousands.

The brothers stood their leaning on the Impala trying to contemplate the huge loss of life happening, unseen, all around them, and specifically to the east as the only light for miles. As hard as the Winchester tried to same people, they knew and understood that they couldn't save everyone. But they hadn't' even seen this coming and wouldn't' even know how to stop it if they'd known.

"The end of the world as we know it," Dean whispered.

"What are we going to do?" Sam whispered back.

"Survive," replied Dean with more conviction then he felt.

Sam hmpfed beside him, "How?"

"By getting to the Midwest's farmlands as fast as possible," he said as he pushed off the car. "But first we need a fire I'm freezing." And he was. The days in Alabama were comfortable in the mid 60's, but the nights could get down into the low 40's. But it wasn't just the temperature that was chilling him. But he pushed everything else aside as he made for the edge of the road. Thankfully Sam didn't question him further and the two began to collect deadfall and dry grass for kindling.

Soon they had a small fire burning and enough wood to keep it going most of the night. They had also moved the car off to the side to act as a wind break for their fire. Sam waited until they'd both eaten a granola bar from Sam's pack and Dean was half way through a beer before saying, "We'll never make it."

"We don't have a choice. The east is too crowed. By the end of the week it will be anarchy."

"How can you know that? There's got to be enough food in the supermarket to last at least that long"

"There isn't. After Zachariah sent me into the future and I saw what the Croatoan virus did, I started looking up other apocalyptic situations and found a survival blog. It was...sobering. To say the least. One article hit a cord. It said that 2% of the US's feeds the other 98% and that as early as six months after and end of the world scenario up to 90% of the population would be dead. The article estimated a few weeks, two months at most, then everyone is out of food."

"It's almost 800 miles to Kansas from here. And that's the closest breadbasket state."

"But we may have a head start. Most people will assume this is just a blackout or if they think it's something more will still stay in their homes waiting for the government to fix it. And if that's true then we'll be no worse off than we are here. But if it's not something the government can fix. If this is lasts more than a few months then a few days head start might be the difference between living or starving to death."

"No, this can't be happening. I mean, why did we save the world only for someone to destroy it?"

"Cause no one knows the world was saved," came Dean's flippant remark.

"No this isn't real. I don't believe it." Dean was instantly on alert. Sam only talked like this, only lost his grip on reality when he was extremely stressed or upset. Sometimes even extreme exhaustion would bring on the delusions. After Cas and broken the wall in Sam's head and Sam had somehow fought his way back to conciseness Dean soon learned that Sam's awaking came with a price. In the beginning he could barley tell the difference between reality and fantasy, believing he was still in hell and Lucifer had created the real world as a dream to torture Sam into believing he was free when he wasn't. Or sometimes it was Michael, still looking like Adam, who would taunt Sam saying he shouldn't be free for the things he'd done. That he should still be in Hell were he belonged. Sam had even pulled a gun on him thinking that Dean was nothing more than a hallucination. Had even chambered a round before Dean convinced him that he was real. That Sam was real. And that he was safe.

"SAM!" Dean said loudly, putting a hand on each side of his brothers face. Physical contact seemed to anchor him in the here and now. "It's real, trust me. I don't like it either but its real. Just like I'm real. Just like your real. This isn't in your head."

It took a moment for Sam's eyes to focus back on him and when Sam's hazel finally met Deans green Dean spoke in a clam voice, "Stay with me Sammy. If the world has gone tits up then I need you by my side you got me?"

"Yeah," came Sam's horse reply. "I'm here. I got you, I got your back."

"Good," and Dean let go of Sam's face and turned back to the fire letting Sam have a moment to collect himself.

When Sam began speaking again, he acted as if nothing had happened and Dean let him. What could he do? It was either crazy Sam, comatose Sam, or dead Sam. He would take door number one, because at least crazy Sam might still be fixable. There wasn't much he could do with the two latter options.

"So Kansas. If what you say is true and all the food will be gone by the end of the month, then we can't take the most direct route. That will lead us through 3 major cities and dozens of suburbs," Sam began to reason out.

Dean nodded as he pulled out a map of the US and the bent over it. "We're here," Sam continued, pointing to the western edge of Alabama. "We were about an hour's drive from the Mississippi border just south of Tuscaloosa, AL."

"Pretty rural," observed Dean."That'll work in our favor. It will be less likely that anyone will know what's up."

"There are a few military bases on the way and they'll be quicker on the up-take," Sam warned.

"Yeah, but there in the same boat we are. If this is as widespread as we think then none of their electronics will be working either."

"They have guns. A lot of guns. And will have declared Martial Law long before we get there."

"We have guns."

"They have better guns."

"Come one Sam try to show a little optimism."

"I'm trying to be realistic. Living on false hope isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Alright fine. But let's worry about that when we come to it. First we need to get to the nearest town and get as many supplies as possible. Luckily we've got the cash for it."

"Yeah lucky. In a few days that money won't be worth the paper it's printed on."

"But until then we have the advantage over everyone else using credit. With the machines down, cash looks a lot more attractive."

"OK, supplies. Well there's a small town a few hours walk from here and in the direction we need to go. Hopefully it will be big enough to have a supermarket and hunting supply store."

"Dude, we're in rural Alabama, remember? Of course they have a hunting supply store."

They then spent a few hours going over their own supplies and deciding on what they needed to get. Without the car they could only take what they could carry. At the moment they only had their weapons cash and a few clothes to worry about. But they would need sleeping bags, canteens for water and enough food to get them to Kansas.

Sam tried to find out what Dean's plans were if they even reached the Sunflower State, but Dean kept directing them back to the topic at hand. Truthfully he didn't know what they were going to do and didn't want Sam worrying about something they couldn't control. For now it was just a goal to strive for.

They finally called it a night after they'd come up with a few lists depending on what the town offered. Putting out the fire and climbing into the Impala for a little more protection from the wind if not the cold they huddled under their emergency blankets in the back seat. His baby had warmed a little from the heat of the fire but quickly began to cool despite their combined body heat. As the temperature dropped Dean once again could see the fire still burning from the downed plane. They had sat with their backs to it most of the night, but now Dean could not help but look at the orange glow through the windshield. His last thoughts as he fell into a fitful sleep were, at least their struggle is over. The Winchesters' were just beginning.