Dean waited until the sun started rising before he decided it was time to get moving. Alec had gotten a few hours of sleep and now it was time to find Sam. Alec had slept leaning against him, and even though his butt fell asleep, it was warmer with them sharing body heat.
Dean had spent most of the time trying to come up with a way to find Sam and take out the Wendigo, while at the same time, making sure Alec kept breathing. He'd almost dozed off a few times, but he managed to shake himself awake each time.
"Alec," Dean whispered, nudging his little brother to try and get him to wake up by himself. He didn't; Alec always made things more difficult than they needed to be. Dean shook him a little more, and Alec kind of grumbled back but then snuggled against him a little more to get comfortable again.
"Alec," Dean said louder, and Alec finally sort of jumped awake.
"Wha'?" Alec slurred, blinking bleary eyes up at him.
"We gotta get moving and find Sam," Dean said. He slowly started to move so get himself up, but he kept his hands on Alec's shoulders to keep him steady. Alec pressed a hand against his ribs as he tried to stretch out the kinks from sleeping the way he had. "How're you feeling?" Dean asked once he was on his feet.
"'M alright…" Alec muttered. He held his hand up so Dean could help him. Dean grabbed his hand and pulled him up, and then wrapped his arm around Alec's waist when he wavered. "Oh man, I'm dizzy…" Alec admitted when he was standing.
Dean started second guessing bringing Alec with him to look for Sam. He couldn't exactly leave him by himself here, but he could take him back to the car…
"I'm alright, I just needed to adjust," Alec said quickly, seeing the look on his face.
"Alright…" Dean said, but he was still doubtful. Alec could get hurt even more hunting like this, but he didn't have many options. But he did have some breakfast for them, so that was something. Dean went to the duffle bags and looked for the food. He started grumbling when all he found were granola bars. He should have never let Sam be in charge of packing the food.
"So where do we start?" Alec asked after a moment. Dean tossed him one of the granola bars and he was glad to see Alec was able to catch it easily. At least he still had his reflexes.
Dean bit off about half of his bar, and then said around his mouthful, "There were some tracks leading away from the rock wall. Hopefully, the tracks will lead us right to where we need to go…"
"But that's not likely, cause we have the worst luck," Alec finished with a smile.
"That's right," Dean replied, also smiling. He lightly ruffled Alec's hair as they slowly started for the rock walk. "We're a cursed family, kiddo. And you're part of this family now, so you've got the curse."
"Man, I wish you guys would've told me that before I decided to stay," Alec teased. "I could've been adopted by a family that might've had some luck."
Dean chuckled, but then he had to reach out and catch Alec as he stumbled.
Alec had to take a second, and then he said with a light laugh, "Almost dying really takes it outta ya…"
"I hear ya," Dean agreed as they started moving again. "But the plan is, find Sam, kill the Wendigo, and then get back to the car and head to the closest hospital."
"Everything sounds great, except the hospital. Unless, it's for Sam of course, then it's fine," Alec said.
"For you too," Dean replied casually. He was now used to arguing with Alec about going to the hospital and he knew he could get Alec to go eventually. "Little brothers who try to check out on you get an automatic trip to the hospital."
"I feel fine," Alec argued, but he stumbled again, completely ruining his argument. He shook his head a little, knowing he was going to lose this one. He looked back up at Dean and held up one finger and said, "No overnight stay and I mean it."
Dean couldn't help chuckling, "Alright, we'll see."
"No 'we'll see'," Alec said with a scowl. "That just means we'll do whatever you say."
"Damn straight," Dean said, shooting a smile over to Alec. He just glared back.
They were at the rock wall now and Dean crouched down to look at the tracks. Alec leaned against the wall, but he seemed to be looking in the direction that the tracks led. There was no way to tell how far the tracks went or if they even went all the way to where the Wendigo was.
Dean stayed crouched down for just a moment longer before he stood. He motioned for Alec to stay where he was while he went back for their bags. He rearranged some of their things, trying to be sneaky, and then he brought all three bags back to the wall.
Alec immediately held out his hand to take one of the bags, and instead of arguing, Dean gave him the lightest bag. Alec scowled like he knew what Dean was doing, but he didn't say anything. Dean shouldered the other two bags and got the flare guns out before they started following the tracks.
Alec was dragging. He wasn't kidding when he said that almost dying really took it out of him. Going back to the car had sounded wonderful, but he wasn't leaving Sam and Dean. Sam had gotten taken by the monster for cryin' out loud; there was no way he was giving up now.
"Dammit," Dean muttered. They had been following the trail all day; the sun was setting now and it was getting harder to see.
"'S to the left a little," Alec mumbled. He was almost slurring when he spoke, so he hadn't been saying much. He had been practically walking like a drunk and now he was going to start talking like a drunk too. But he could still see just fine.
"Thanks," Dean said, moving to the left a little and picking up the trail again.
Alec just nodded and slowly followed behind Dean. He knew he was going to be less than useless when they actually found the Wendigo, but maybe he could protect Sam at least.
Dean stopped again a few minutes later and looked around. "Damn," he breathed out. It was almost completely dark now and Alec didn't know what the plan was going to be. He knew that Dean had wanted to find Sam today, but Alec hadn't been able to move as fast as he should have been. He was slowing everything down.
Dean suddenly looked him over, and then set down the two duffle bags he was carrying.
"I can keep going," Alec immediately protested, refusing to set his bag down.
"We're just taking a break," Dean said as he grabbed Alec's bag and put it next to the others. "I'm as tired as you are kiddo." Dean sat on the ground with his elbows resting on his knees.
"Just five minutes, ok?" Alec said, still standing.
"Fine," Dean relented and Alec finally sat down next to his older brother.
It felt so good to sit down; he was afraid he would never get back up. He was worried that Dean would have the same problem. Then they would never get to Sam.
"You think Sam's ok?" Alec asked after just a moment. He'd been trying to keep his worry down and focus on walking, but now they weren't walking anymore. Sam had a broken leg and he'd been taken by a man eating monster. There was definitely a reason to worry.
"Yeah I think he'll be ok…" Dean replied. "We've been in this situation before, and we've made it out alright…"
"What happened the last time you hunted one of these?" Alec asked curiously.
"I was actually taken by the Wendigo and Sam had to find me," Dean said quietly.
"These things suck," Alec said after a minute. "I vote that we don't hunt another one for a while."
Dean chuckled and bumped against Alec's shoulder with his own, "I definitely agree with you there."
They rested for just a few minutes more, and then Dean slowly got to his feet. Alec held out his hand and Dean helped him up. He was dizzy again, but Dean kept him steady while he adjusted. Alec tried to take a deep breath to reorient himself, but it wasn't all that deep. His ribs were protesting the extra movement and his lungs weren't expanding like they were supposed to. His breaths were a lot shorter than usual. He actually probably needed to see a doctor after all this was over.
He looked around for a minute, and even though it was dark, he could see what was around them. So far, the Wendigo had followed the lake. The water was on their right side and the trees were on their left. Alec looked ahead to see where they would be walking next and almost groaned at the hill they had to climb.
"You ready to keep going?" Dean asked softly.
He just nodded back, and they slowly started moving again. Dean relied on him a lot more this time around, because he could see in the dark and he could follow the trail. They were both stumbling when they reached the hill; they were exhausted from lack of sleep and from everything that had happened the day before.
They were almost to the top of the hill when the tracks disappeared.
"I lost 'em," Alec muttered, slightly breathless and scanning the ground to pick them up again.
Dean scanned the ground too, but neither of them could see any trace of where the Wendigo had taken Sam.
Alec started to head to the edge of the hill where it dropped off just to see what was on the other side.
"Alec, be careful," Dean said when he saw how close to the edge he was.
Alec waved him off and leaned out further over the side. Dean came up beside him and put a hand against his chest to hold him back. But Alec saw what could give them hope of finding Sam again.
"Look," Alec pointed down a ways to where a trail might be. "That could be something, right?"
"I can't see that Alec," Dean said slowly.
"Well it looks like there might be a trail down there," Alec said. "There might be a cave or something down there, don't you think?"
"We're gonna practically kill ourselves gettin' down there…" Dean replied.
"But there's a chance," Alec prodded. He didn't know why, but he really thought that Sam could be down there.
"Alright," Dean finally agreed. "We'll check it out."
Alec couldn't help his smile as he looked for a safe way to start out. It was going to be a nightmare going down since he wasn't moving like he was used to and he'd have to tell Dean where to step. It was going to be slow and painful, but Alec couldn't ignore his feeling.
Sam hurt all over, but the most pain was coming from his leg. It was throbbing in time to the beat of his heart and his eyes started to tear up with the pain. He blinked them away and tried to focus on what was going on, where he was, and what had happened.
His arms were killing him and he figured out that he was tied up, just like how he'd found Dean with the last Wendigo. It was dark where he was, so he couldn't really tell what was what.
The last thing he remembered was the Wendigo coming into their camp. It'd taken out Dean and Alec, and then it had gone for him. He didn't remember anything after that. It must have knocked him out and drug him to its camp.
"You alright?" A voice suddenly breathed in the dark. Sam tried to turn to see who it was, but he could only catch a glimpse of another man near him.
"Yeah…" Sam replied slowly.
"What's your name?" The man asked. His voice was barely above a whisper and it sounded like he hadn't spoken in a long time.
"Sam. What's yours?"
"Zach," he replied.
"Wait, Zach Peters?" Sam questioned in surprise.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Zach asked curiously.
"Me and my brothers came out here to find what took you…" Sam slowly explained.
"Well, looks like you found it," Zach replied with a light chuckle.
"How are you still alive? You were taken a while ago, right?"
"Yeah, but I escaped for a while. I got lost though and started walking in circles, and then this thing got me again." Zach answered. "You said you and your brothers came out here to find this thing? Why?"
"It's kinda what we do…" Sam hedged. "But they'll be looking for me, and I know they'll find me."
"Even if they do find us, it won't really matter," Zach said in defeat. "This thing is way too fast. It'll catch us and then kill us. It was munchin' on one of the campers, Paul I think, but he's almost completely gone now…"
"Zach, we can't give up," Sam tried to encourage. "We know how to kill this thing…we've done it before."
"You have?" Zach asked, sounding just a little more hopeful than he had a moment ago.
"Yeah, and my brothers are going to find us. They'll get us out of here," Sam replied. He was really just hoping that his brothers were ok. He remembered that Alec had been thrown in the lake, unconscious, and he had no idea if Dean would have gotten to him in time. He couldn't think about that right now though, he had to try and come up with a way to escape, just to help his brothers out a little.
It was quiet for a minute, and then Zach asked, "Who patched up your leg?"
"My brother Alec," Sam replied, he tried to pull on the ropes around his hands, but they were on really tight. And even when he was trying to keep his brothers out of his thoughts, they were brought up again.
"He did a good job it looks like," Zach muttered. "Where'd he learn how to do that?"
"He…um, he was in the military," Sam lied. He couldn't just come out and say the truth to this stranger. "What'd you do before you got caught up in all of this?" Sam asked to change the subject.
"Me and my brother are Doctors. We have a clinic near my house," Zach replied.
"Well, when we get out of this, you think your brother would be up for some patients," Sam asked with a small smile.
"He better be," Zach said with a chuckle. "If your brothers get us out of here, you guys are welcome to whatever you want."
"Oh they'll get us out," Sam replied without a doubt in his mind. He started to say something else, but then stopped at the sound of footsteps.
"You hear that?" Zach whispered.
Sam didn't answer; all of his attention was to where he'd heard the footsteps. It was too dark for him to see and as soon as Zach had whispered, the footsteps had disappeared.
"Sam?" Dean suddenly whispered and Sam's heart jumped with joy.
"Dean!" Sam whispered back. He didn't know if the Wendigo was around here or not, but it was best to stay on the safe side.
"You were right," Dean whispered, but it sounded like he was talking to someone else.
"Is Alec with you?" Sam asked in concern.
"Yeah, he's here. We're on our way," Dean replied.
It was another few seconds before Sam could see two people slowly walking towards him. It was so dark that he could hardly make out any details. But then they were in front of him and he could see their smiles.
"'S good to see ya Sammy," Dean said, pulling out a knife and cutting the rope around his hands. Sam couldn't see Alec anymore and he expected Alec was cutting Zach down.
"How'd you guys find me?" Sam asked as Dean helped him to the ground.
"Alec," Dean said in reply. And really that's all he needed to say; Sam should've guess that in the first place. "How's the leg?"
"Hurts," Sam answered. "Sooner we get out of here, the better."
"I know…Do you know if it's here?"
"I haven't seen it…" Sam mumbled.
"The cave goes back a ways," Zach suddenly said. "It's probably back there because I haven't seen it leave."
"Alright," Dean said after a moment. "I'll go back there and see."
"You mean, we'll go back there," Alec immediately cut in.
"No, I mean I'll," Dean argued.
"It's gonna be hard to find it considering you can't see in the dark," Alec pointed out. "I'd go by myself, but I think you'd throw a fit."
"You're not going by yourself," Sam and Dean said at the same time.
"Then neither is Dean," Alec hissed.
"Fine," Dean said through clenched teeth. He handed Sam one of the flare guns, and then stood.
"Be careful, alright?" Sam said.
"We will," Dean replied. He started to turn, with Alec close beside him. "We'll be back in a minute."
More soon...