A few weeks had passed since the vaccine idea was announced to the public. Dean got Castiel clean, it had been a hard uphill battle, but he seemed to be getting the hang of it. Sam spent his time recovering, drinking tons of water and eating a little more food than usual. Mark worked on the chemical workup of the vaccine, he also had to care for Derek who seemed to be healing just fine. Ellen, Jo, and Bobby helped wherever they could.

As for Chuck, well Chuck was simply trying to keep the camp from falling apart. He made sure to keep those opposed to the vaccine away from those for it, especially away from Sam and Mark. Well, more Sam than Mark, but nobody had to know that. He tried his best to talk those against the vaccine into being for it, but some minds are too stubborn to change. He supposed that a camp full of diverse opinions was better than a camp with no opinions at all.

Mark had called the vaccine team to the infirmary for a meeting after lunch one day. The vaccine team now consisted of Sam, Dean, Castiel, Mark, Ellen, Jo, Bobby, the almost healed Derek, Chuck himself, and one civilian, a spunky little red head named Charlie. Everyone in the camp demanded to have one of their own in so they knew that no dirty business was going on behind the scenes.

When everyone was situated, Mark started the meeting, "Alright, so I called you guys here today because I have finally came up with an idea for the vaccine. I have a list of all the chemicals and medicines I need in order to make it." he handed the list to Dean, "I need some of you guys to go out and get this stuff."

Dean read over the list, shaking his head, "What is all of this stuff?"

"There's saline, which will act as a suspending fluid, antibiotics, for obvious reasons, formaldehyde, which is commonly used in inactive vaccines like the one we're putting together, MSG, to keep the vaccine from changing itself over time. I also put Thimerosal on there which will be necessary in case we need to store the vaccine anywhere," Mark explained.

Dean nodded, it seemed obvious that all of the medicine talk went straight over his (and everyone else's for that matter) head, "Okay." His eyes glanced over the list again, "I need a team of five or six then," he looked up to Bobby.

"Pick away, boy," Bobby waved his hand at everyone in the room.

"I want Sam, Cas, Jo, Charlie, and Chuck," Dean stated.

Mark furrowed his eyebrows, "Leave Sam and Cas here," he said the word Cas as if it were poison rolling off his tongue.

"No, you heard Bobby, I get to pick my team," Dean retorted.

"What if Sam gets hurt? He could lose blood which will put the process back a few steps," Mark argued.

Dean crossed his arms, "It's an easy run, he'll be fine,"

"You said that about Derek's run," Mark raised an eyebrow.

"That was a fluke, and Sam has way more experience. No offense Derek."

Derek shrugged, "None taken,"

"What about Castiel? He's hardly fit enough to go on a run," Mark changed the subject, glaring.

Dean smirked, "Do you really trust him to be here on his own?"

Mark pursed his lips, "Fine, take the addict, but Sam's staying here,"

"That's the thing, I don't trust you with Sam. Not after what happened last time," Dean glared.

Judging by the look on his face, Mark knew he had lost, "Fine, take who you like, just get back in one piece this time,"

Dean nodded, "Great, let's get going then,"

"I'm going to start the vaccine as soon as you get back." Mark called out as Dean and his team started to walk out of the infirmary to plan their mission, "Dean, don't let your brother get hurt!"

Chuck looked up to Dean, seeing that he'd ignored Mark, "What's the plan?"


Dean stood with his group huddled around him. He had no idea where he would find the ingredients he needed. He thought about medicine and where they usually found it and decided to devise a risky plan. He knew he should have been keeping it safe, but there was this unfamiliar small, but powerful voice in the back of his mind screaming at him to take a risk, and for some reason, he couldn't ignore it, "I'm not sure where exactly we'd find this stuff, but I have an idea. The hospital and the pharmacy are our best bet of finding what we need. We can't hit both in one day, there's not enough time, and staying out after dark is too dangerous. My idea is that we split up. One group to the hospital, one to the pharmacy.

"Why don't we just go back out tomorrow if we don't find anything?" Charlie asked.

"I need Mark off my case. There's no way he'd accept letting Sam and Cas go back out tomorrow, he's barely letting them out today." Dean explained, "I want Cas and Charlie to come with me to the pharmacy," he purposely picked the two weaker links to go with him. He knew there was no way any of them would survive without one of the Winchesters, but he also knew he needed to keep Sam as safe as possible, "I want Chuck and Jo to go with Sam to the hospital," he figured if anything bad was going to happen, it might as well happen at a hospital, "When we're through, we meet back here,"

No one in the group seemed to want to argue so they set off on their separate paths.

Dean's group walked mostly in silence, Charlie occasionally sighing or kicking a rock or two in the path. When they finally reached the pharmacy, they weren't surprised to see the window broken. Most windows were broken nowadays. Broken windows made it easier to get in. The three of them climbed through the window, heading straight for the medicine. They found saline and antibiotics quickly.

Then the harder part came. They were met with a cabinet full of different medications, all guarded by an electric key pad. Dean took out his knife. Using the handle end to hit the glass, he beat it as hard as he could with no result aside form the shallow cut in his hand, "Shit," he muttered.

"What do we do now?" Cas asked quietly.

Dean shook his head, clearly angry, "No idea," he glared, bringing his fist down on to the seemingly unbreakable glass.

"Wait," Charlie said, "I've seen this before,"

"Congratulations Red, but your Deja Vu isn't going to help us here," Dean rolled his eyes.

"No, the key pad. I've seen it before," she smiled, "Before all of this, I was an IT employee." she smirked before adding, "I may or may not have had a few problems with authority, which may or may not have lead to the hacking of a few government websites," she giggled a little bit, approaching the key pad.

"You think you can get it open?" Dean questioned.

"I can try," Charlie replied. As she examined the safe, her smile grew wider and wider, until she was almost grinning, "I can do it, one of you get me a magnet,"

Dean searched around until he found a tub of magnets by the cash register of the pharmacy, he brought it back to her and handed it to her. She immediately started on unlocking the safe. She started moving the magnet around on the key pad and typing in different codes into the keys. Within approximately five minutes, she had the damned thing open. It was safe to say, Dean was impressed. Charlie had earned herself Dean's respect.

"How did you do that?"

Charlie shrugged, "It was easy, I'm surprised it took me that long, I must be a little rusty,"

Dean shook his head, "Damn." he looked to the opened door in amazement, "Let's get looking,"

They searched through nearly every package of pills, and every bottle of liquid to try and find what they needed. The only thing they could find was Thimerosal. He hoped Sam had better luck.

The put all their medicines back into their bag, making sure to close the door to the safe incase they ever needed more. They couldn't risk anyone discovering it opened. They slowly made their way back to the start of their journey. Making themselves comfortable while they waited for Sam's group to come back. Dean knew it would take them longer as they had more ground to search.


Jo, Sam, and Chuck made their way to the hospital fairly quickly. They talked along the way, all of them cracking jokes and laughing quietly. Jo loved being in Dean's group for missions because he was always in control, she always felt controlled and safe, but with Sam, she always felt relaxed. She felt like danger and injury wasn't even possible. She felt like she was out hunting some harmless, no name ghost, not in the middle of the apocalypse.

They stepped through the doors of the hospital, dreading having to search through the whole building. Jo didn't want to think about how many Croats roamed the halls of the hospital.

"We stick together alright?" Sam said, "Stay close,"

Chuck touched Jo's arm, smiling awkwardly as he sang in a very off-key voice, "We're all in this together,"

Jo had to restrain herself from laughing, Chuck was an avid, but closet, High School Musical fan. Only Jo knew. Chuck and her had a shift babysitting the kids of the camp together while their parents were working. He always talked about the High School Musical movies with them. Occasionally they sang the songs together. It had been their inside joke ever since their first shift.

They continued their journey through the hospital, trying to find any sign of drugs. They checked room to room, finally deciding to avoid the patient rooms. There didn't seem to be anything there.

As they were walking down the halls Jo spotted a sign that said 'Hospital Pharmacy'. She gave herself a mental slap on the face for not thinking of that to begin with, "Hey, do you guys think there might be something in the Hospital Pharmacy?" She asked sarcastically.

Sam turned his head to where she was looking, "You've got to be kidding me,"

Chuck laughed and started walking towards it, Jo and Sam closely behind him. They started sifting through the shelves of medicine, searching for the ingredients to the vaccine. Antibiotics and saline were among the first things they found. After a few minutes they found Formaldehyde and themerosal, then shortly after that, the found the MSG.

"Is that all of it?" Jo asked.

"I think so," Sam replied, smiling, "That was easy."

Jo nodded, he was right. She had been expecting to run into dozens of Croats before they could even get into the hospital, "I know, it's a nice surprise," Things had been way to hard for them and the rest of the settlement as of late. It was nice for them to catch a break.

The group of three started to retrace their steps to get back out of the hospital, "Do you remember where the stairs were?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah... At least I think. They should be right up here," Sam said, his eyes focused on what Jo assumed were the stairs.

Luckily, he was right. Right where he was leading them to were a set of double doors labeled 'Stairs'. She could see Sam smiling, he always liked being right. He didn't smile as much as he used to. Compared to his brother, he used to be Grinny McGee, but it seemed like all of the bad had finally caught up to him. It made it to were a smile on his face was a rare sight. He did always have a real sincere, genuine smile. He used to be able to light up the room just by showing his teeth. But the times had changed, it seemed like most of his smiles were forced or just not as happy. The one on his face now was happy, genuine, fresh. Jo could tell that being out in the action, out in the hunt, out in his element was good for him.

Unfortunately, she was too busy focusing on Sam's stupid smile to realize that he had opened the door to four Croats. The second she noticed, she whipped out her knife, quickly killing one. She glanced over to watch Chuck as he took down another and Sam as began to fight the last two. She and Chuck quickly launched into action trying to help fend them off.

For some reason, these two were strong. They were powerful and filled with determination to kill, kill, kill. They were just as fast as they were strong. They seemed to dodge every attempt to kill them with ease, even when they were out numbered.

Some Croats were wiser than others. Jo noticed that the ones who'd looked like they'd been infected longer seemed to have a better control over their evil. They were smart, knowing when to dodge and where to hit. The newer ones seemed to be rugged, savage. The simply fought to fight, hitting whatever they could as hard as they could.

These two were definitely smart. One of them, the bigger one, had managed to gain control over Jo's gun. The other had grabbed Chuck's angel blade. As much as the two of them fought, they simply couldn't do it.

It didn't take long for Jo to realize what was happening. If the Croat could get her gun and not use it on her, something was very wrong. They weren't trying to fight her or even Chuck. They had most of their attention on Sam. They were giving him the beating of his lifetime, and all Chuck and Jo seemed to be able to do was try to slow them down, all the while Jo was screaming, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" as if that would help.

They hit and hit and hit. Using the butt end of the shotgun, and the handle of the knife to hit Sam anywhere and everywhere they could. He was on the ground, trying to stab them with one hand, and trying to shield himself with the other.

After what felt like hours to Jo, but must have only been about a minute, they suddenly stopped. They stood up straight, their heads tilted to the side. It would have been comical had they not just been beating Sam. Jo and Chuck stood back in shock, trying to figure out what was going on. They stood in an eerie, uneasy silence for about ten seconds.

Suddenly, the Croats jumped into action. The one with the gun cocked it and pulled the trigger, the bullet finding its way into Sam's abdomen. The one with the blade brought it down into Sam's shoulder. They stood still for a few seconds, giving Chuck enough time to grab Sam's knife and behead the both of them.

Chuck and Jo looked at each other with fear in their eyes. What the hell just happened?

Jo darted her eyes to Sam, who was laying on the ground, his eyes wide. Sam Winchester was a brave man. Not much could phase him. He had seen everything. He knew there was evil out there, and he knew how to kill it. He didn't get scared. Jo knew this for a fact... Or she thought she did. In that moment, Sam looked terrified. His face was pale in all the places where it wasn't bruising, and his breathing was rapid. He was most definitely in pain. She could see it in the way his eyes were watering, in the way his jaw was clenching. She could see all of the signs of pain drawn on his face like a painting.

She knew he was doing everything in his power not to scream. Even though he was this group's leader, she knew that she had to step up and take charge.

She kneeled down next to Sam, putting her hands on the bullet wound. She immediately starting shouting orders back at Chuck, "I need bandages ASAP. If you can, go find one of those rolly things, damn what are they called..."

"A gurney?"

"Yes! A gurney! See if you can find anything for pain. If you can't find anything quickly then don't bother, but its going to be a long way home," she called out, she then lowered her voice, "Sam, I know you're trying to be brave in the face of pain or whatever, but I know this hurts like a son of a bitch. You're allowed to scream. You're allowed to cry. Trust me on this, you'll feel better,"

He nodded, tears rolling down his face.

"Chuck, hurry up!" Jo yelled, using her free hand to rub Sam's head. She always appreciated when her mother did that for her when she was hurting, she could only hope he did too.

A few minutes had passed before Chuck got back to them with the supplies. Jo grabbed the bandages and began to apply them to the bullet wound, "Please tell me you got pain killers,"

"I couldn't find any, I'm sorry," Chuck apologized, tears starting to spring in his eyes too.

Jo shook her head, "No, you do not get to cry. If you cry, I'll cry, and you do not want me to start crying," she ordered him, as she worked "Please for the love of God, don't cry!"

"Okay, okay, do you need help?" he asked, blinking away whatever bit of tears he had.

"Help me get him onto here," she said, pointing from Sam to the gurney. She let her eyes meet Sam's, "Listen, I don't know how bad this is going to hurt, but it has to be done. You're a big guy, we can't carry you all the way back to camp," she smiled a little, trying to lighten the mood, "Just remember what I said before, okay?"

Once Chuck and Jo got themselves in position to pick Sam up, the looked at each other. Jo could feel the reality of the situation starting to set in. Sam was hurt. Bad. And Sam being hurt meant a string of bad events to follow. The vaccine was going to have to be put on hold. Mark would be mad about that. The people of the camp are going to freak the hell out. They got panicky when Derek got hurt, now one of the leaders is hurt. But what scared her the most was Dean... Dean was going to livid.

She shook the thoughts out of her mind. She had to hold out and be strong a little bit longer. She had to get Sam back to the camp, "On three... One... Two... Three,"

They heaved Sam up onto the gurney, he cried out in pain. He screamed and screamed. At this point a steady stream of tears was flowing down his face.

"I know, I know, let it out," Jo said, trying to reassure him as her and Chuck lifted the gurney up to carry it down stairs. Luckily they were only one story up.

They reached the bottom in about three or four minutes, finally able to roll the gurney to their meeting spot with Dean's team. Sam had mercifully passed out. Even though she told him he could cry, it was just too hard for her to hear it...


Dean sat under a tree with Charlie and Cas. They had been waiting for the other group for a few hours. Dean was beginning to get worried. Had something happened? Shouldn't they be there by now? He was starting to get a really bad feeling.

Charlie was the one to voice his thoughts, "How long should this be taking?"

"Not this long," Dean shook his head.

He could see the look of fear flash over Charlie's and surprisingly even's Cas' faces.

He looked down, closed his eyes, and wondered if praying would help the situation at all. He'd always hoped God was out there, watching them, keeping them safe, but at this point it didn't seem likely. God wouldn't have let Lucifer take things this far. He wouldn't have allowed the complete destruction of most of his creation. At least Dean didn't think he would. He had always wondered if God knew what was going on. After all, he didn't seem to be reaching out to anyone. Not even the angels had heard from him. Did God even know what was happening down there?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Charlie gasping, she stood up and bolted towards a figure running towards them. As his eyes adjusted, he realized it wasn't a figure, but a few figures. There were two people rolling what looked like a gurney. He stood up and followed her to them.

He could feel his heart sink deep into his chest when he realized that it was Chuck and Jo rolling an unconscious Sam to them. He started sprinting towards them, desperately needing to get to Sam's side, "What happened?"

Jo shook her head, "The Croats, they wouldn't stop... They were strong... We couldn't kill them fast enough." She paused, a tear rolling down her cheek, "I'm so sorry Dean,"


Alright, sorry this took so long. I didn't mean for that to happen, I got a bit busy, but better late than never yeah? So things are starting to pick up here, we're beginning to get to a very important plot point.

I finally got Charlie in there, I've been trying to find a way to write her in for a while now. I'm not sure how good I did portraying her, but I tried my best :)

There will be a very important character introduced in the next chapter. I'm sure you guys will be all over it.

Other than that, thanks for reading! I love all of you! Tell me what you think! Feel free to drop a review, any feedback, good or bad, is extremely helpful! -XOXO