Whattttt? Another chapter so soon? I'm on fire.
Thank you so much to RHatch89, GreenHoneyTea, BooksWriteMusic, Julia, dixie326, 0nymus, Blue-10-Spades, KoldFusion for reviewing! I don't know if it was unclear but each chapter or section is in a different POV. So for any given section you will only be inside ONE person's head. Someone asked why Dean didn't notice something in the last chapter... but that was because we were in Beth's head! Hopefully that's clear. Let me know if y'all want me to actually list who's head we are in.
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Chapter 7: Timesplitters
"Son of a bitch!" Dean shouted as the door slammed shut behind him.
He was plunged into darkness but that didn't stop him from slamming his fists against the metallic door repeatedly.
When his eyes adjusted to the dim light coming through small cracks in the train car, the first thing he saw was a flash of blonde hair. Beth was on her knees already, scouring the ground for something.
Dean had been a complete idiot. He was so concerned with getting this girl back to her family that he had let his guard down. And now they were locked in a steel box. When they arrived in Terminus on foot—thankfully Dean had the forethought to park the Impala a few miles away outside an abandoned warehouse—he should have noticed something was off immediately. But it wasn't until Dean saw the meat on the grill that he became suspicious. He knew meat. He had eaten more burgers in his life than even a fairy could count. So he knew that meat sitting on the grill was not normal. Plus there was the obvious fact that there were no animals, nor any sign of animals around, despite the huge amount of fresh meat being cooked.
While he had been staring at the food, Beth had been looking at something else.
"That's Daryl's," she had said loudly pointing to a crossbow slung over a man's shoulder.
He didn't even have time to tell her to be quiet before she continued pointing out other things around them, "Michonne's sword… and Maggie's poncho…" her voice tapered off in disbelief.
Dean pulled his weapon but it was too late. There were about 30 other guns pointed back at him, including snipers on two of the roofs. He pushed Beth behind him but he knew it wouldn't do any good. They were outgunned. The guy named Gareth told them to drop their weapons and after evaluating the situation, and realized there was no way to get out of there alive, he set his Colt on the ground next to Beth's Glock and they both surrendered their knives.
"I don't like the looks of him," said an older woman with red hair and a semi-automatic pointed at his head. "Frisk him, Alex."
One of the guys with curly hair frisked him with an apologetic glint in his eye. However, the kid managed to find his other gun and two other knives he had hidden.
After that there were a handful of people who escorted the pair to a train car marked with a white letter "D." They were pushed inside with guns still trained on them as the metal door slammed shut with a clank.
Now, he saw empty packets of powdered milk and baby food scattered around the dingy wooden floor. He wondered how long they would be trapped in here. And he was slightly embarrassed to have been caught by a bunch of humans.
Cannibals by the looks of it. But still, just humans.
"I'll find a way out of this. Been trapped in places a hell of a lot worse than this," Dean tried to assure the girl. He had managed to escape purgatory; there was no way he would be killed here.
"I know we will." Even in the dark he could see her huge, toothy grin from where she was still on her knees in the corner of the train car. The smile was out of place in their current predicament.
"What are you doing over there?" he finally grumbled.
"Tryin' to pull up the nails. You gonna help or are you just gonna punch the walls like a toddler?" she whispered but then laughed as his mouth fell open in shock.
He pushed off of the wall he had been leaning against and saw something shiny catch the light in her hand.
"Is that a knife?" he asked, trying to keep his voice low in case there was someone standing guard outside their box.
"Mhmm," she affirmed.
"What? How did you get that?" Dean squatted down next to her and she placed the small silver switchblade into his palm.
"They didn't check my boot, one of the perks of lookin' like Goldilocks." Beth shrugged and smiled again. "Think we can get these nails out and pry the boards up?"
"Hell yeah!" Now Dean was smiling too.
Maybe this girl wasn't as useless as he originally thought.
They had gone back and forth on a plan—Dean wanted to make a run for the Impala, come back with more weapons and stealth.
"I'm not going to leave them. I know they're here," she insisted stubbornly when he suggested it.
"It's not an option, Beth. We are out numbered and out gunned and we're on their turf," he growled.
He didn't faze Beth; she just kept clawing at the floorboards and stated in her infuriatingly stubborn southern accent, "I ain't askin' for your permission."
Dean considered separating. Leaving her to check the other train cars while he went for weapons… but too much could happen in the time it would take him to get to the car and back. Even with all the weapons in the Impala, he would still be outgunned. The Winchesters always had more weapons to take down creatures than humans and holy water wasn't going to work on these assholes. He couldn't take the chance of someone catching her and then being prepared for his attack.
So he sighed in defeat and laid out a plan they both agreed on.
They took turns prying up rusty nails for hours. Both of their hands were covered in bloody splinters but by nightfall they had gotten five boards up. Beth would easily fit through the hole and Dean thought he could make it if he squeezed.
Neither of them slept, but Dean still waited until his watch said it was 3am. He didn't really know if his watch was accurate according to the John-Winchester-marine- standards these days but he figured it was close enough.
"Ready?" Dean asked the blonde.
"Let's do this." The smile she wore had dulled over the hours of pulling up boards and was now replaced by worry lines creasing between her eyebrows.
Dean lifted the boards up carefully. Beth moved to slip out but he grabbed her arm to stop her. Dean had the knife in hand and he shimmied out of the train car headfirst so he could see if anything was going to come at him. The hunter breathed in the fresh outside air. He was thankful that the boxcar was lifted on wheels because if their car had been flat on the ground there would have been no way to escape. He barely fit through the hole, having to maneuver one shoulder through at a time, but he shimmied over to the edge of the car and peaked out. There was a fence not far off to his right and two large brick buildings on his left. Everything was quiet and empty as far as he could see. He strained his ears but only heard the distant sound of Croats growling. Beth army crawled up next to him.
He silently pointed towards the building that was farther away from them. Assuming that they would not keep anything important in the buildings closest to the perimeter. She nodded and they both shot out at a half-run, half-tip-toe towards the building. Their heads were swiveling back and forth to check for anything moving in the night.
The outside door to the building was unlocked, which Dean took as a bad sign. But they rushed through the main hallway anyways. It looked like this used to be an office building because there were many closed doors off of the main hallway.
Dean's muscles were so tense he thought they might snap. This building probably served as bedrooms. Meaning it was probably filled with sleeping enemies right now.
They had run right into the lion's den.
He stopped, unable to decide if they should turn around to exit the way they entered or keep going.
The building was almost pitch black but his eyes were well adjusted and could tell that Beth was staring up at him, looking for answers.
Dean kept pushing forward. They needed weapons if they had any hope of finding her family and getting out of here.
The next building was more promising. There was a vast room filled with unused furniture and had a few small hallways sprouting off the main room. Dean peaked around a corner into a hallway and spotted a dark figure sitting on a metal folding chair in front of a door. A guard. Definitely something important behind door number one, Dean thought. And Dean was about to give this guard something to do. He motioned for Beth to go hide under some old desks pushed into a messy clump in the corner.
Then he picked up a dusty desk organizer from one of the piles and dropped it loudly on the ground. He pressed himself as close to the wall as he could manage and waited.
When the man came around the corner, Dean grabbed him and immediately plunged the small knife into his neck.
But the man didn't drop.
Definitely not human, he thought as he took in the figure's appearance close up.
Wendigo. He realized as he looked the creature's skin.
Dean took one second to appreciate the fact that at least he hadn't been trapped by regular humans.
The pair started throwing punches but Dean knew that all the punches in the world wouldn't stop the Wendigo.
"I was getting hungry. How nice of you to volunteer as my snack," the monster screeched as he punched Dean in the stomach.
He needed the colt that was sitting back in the glove box of the Impala, or the angel blade he stopped carrying around two years ago after all of the angels had vanished from earth.
Or he could burn this piece of crap, he remembered.
"You sure you're allowed to eat me?" Dean mocked. "Don't you need to ask your human owners?" Dean was backing up, no longer attacking the creature but instead focusing on moving into the open space between the piles of furniture.
"Of course I'm allowed to! We run this place! We just put the humans out front to keep up the charade, to lure more humans in," the arm covered in slimy, graying skin shot out and connected with Dean's jaw. "They'll either become one of us or become food too one day."
"You think you're in charge?" Dean laughed openly in the monster's face. "People in charge don't sit on guard duty!"
This enraged the monster and Dean let himself be thrown violently across the room into a pile of wooden benches. He used this time to reach into the small pocket inside his jacket and pulled out the lighter. When the Wendigo got close, poised to take a bite right out of Dean's shoulder, Dean flicked the lighter and touched the flame to the creature's face.
The Wendigo screamed in pain and tried to pull away but Dean kept ahold of it, pressing the lighter into its gray skin until it began bubbling from burns. He knew he would probably have burns on his own arm, but he didn't care just then. The monster lit up in flames and was dead within a minute.
The flame begun spreading to the furniture nearby but Dean didn't bother trying to put it out before turning and running back towards where Beth was hiding.
She had already crawled out from under the desk and was standing with her mouth agape, staring at the inhuman thing now turning to ash.
"Move! Others definitely heard those screams," he kept his lighter in his uninjured hand and passed the knife to Beth. Dean grabbed her arm, pulling the shocked girl behind him into the room the Wendigo had been guarding.
The tables were full. Weapons were laid out on tables across the entire right side of the room and after a cursory glance that assured him there was no one else inside the room he ran to the table and began filling his pockets with weapons. He easily recognized his own gun, which miraculously still had bullets in it, and holstered it where it belonged.
His left hand was still stinging in pain, the seared flesh on his arm smelled awful, but he knew they needed to leave.
"Beth?" he hissed. The girl was standing on the left side of the room, picking through belongings with her fingertips. "What the hell are you doing?"
Dean saw the tabletop was overflowing with teddy bears, clothing, jewelry and other similar items. Nothing useful for them right now. Which meant Dean did not have time to care about it. But the horrified expression plastered on Beth's face said she understood. "All these people…" she muttered.
"Snap out of it! We've gotta go, now!" he wanted to shake her but his words were enough.
She raced to the other table and scooped up weapons too. Dean raced towards the door in the back of the room, he could tell from the windows that it would lead outside. But his companion stopped short again.
"Dean!" her voice was an urgent whisper.
Annoyed, he prepared to toss her over his shoulder and drag her outside. But when he saw what she was pulling out from under one of the weapons table, a smile cracked across his face.
They kept their footfalls as quiet as possible as they ran outside.
There were shouts coming from the direction of the other buildings in the center of the compound.
"Check the train cars," he commanded.
She started opening the doors, whispering "Maggie?" as she flitted from one box to another. Dean stood with a gun in one hand and a lighter in his already injured one while she searched.
When he saw three figures round the corner, he could tell even from a distance by the way they moved that they were Wendigos too.
"What the hell is taking you so long?" he yelled over his shoulder at the blonde.
The first Wendigo reached him and before throwing a punch, he immediately lit its jacket on fire. The creature screamed and frantically tried to pull his arms out of the sleeves. While that one was preoccupied, he turned to face the other two that simultaneously converged on him. Dean got in a few punches but he was taking more hits than he was landing. At one point, one of them had gotten close enough to biting his neck from behind that he felt the disgusting, hot breath move his hair. Luckily that he was ready with the lighter and he tossed the lit Bic directly into the monster's open mouth. That's when he saw a Wendigo moving towards Beth. She had her back turned, using an axe to break a pad lock, so she didn't see it coming.
"Beth!" He hit the other Wendigo hard enough that the thing fell backwards onto the ground.
She was his responsibility. He had promised that he would get her back to her family, how the hell was he going to keep that promise if she got killed?
She responded to his shout by turning and swinging the axe in one fluid motion. She made contact with the Wendigo's torso on the first swing and managed to get a second hit on its head when it moved away. It would feel the hits but that wouldn't keep him off her for long.
A slimy hand clamping down on his own neck snapped him back into his own fight. He pulled the gasoline bottle he'd found in the warehouse out of his jacket and doused the creature. He ended up getting more than enough on himself in the tussle too. The Wendigo tried to run when he realized Dean had another lighter but it was too late. He tossed the Zippo and the orange flames erupted. Dean backed away quickly, not wanting the flames to catch him too.
He turned back to Beth and the piece of crap that she was still fighting. The girl looked beaten; blood sputtering out of her nose and clearly favoring her left arm. The monster was illuminated by his buddies on fire and while it was Dean easily grabbed it by the shoulders and slammed it on the ground. It's head connected with the concrete and while it was momentarily disoriented, Dean lit it on fire too.
He picked up the gasoline can, sprayed some on all of them for good measure and then grabbed Beth.
She was leaning against the side of an empty train car, breathing heavily and trying to stop the blood running out of her nose.
"Gotta keep moving. You good?" He already started dragging her along without waiting for her answer.
Unfortunately, the pair couldn't catch a break. When they came around the next corner, some of the humans they had seen when they first entered Terminus were fast approaching. Instinctively, Dean pulled the girl behind his back, shielding her as he pushed her to hide behind another train car. When the Termites fired the first shot and Dean felt it graze his left shoulder, he whipped out his own colt and begun firing.
"Climb!" He motioned to the chain link fence behind her, "I'll cover you!" She didn't move towards the fence but instead he saw her shaky arm reach for her own gun. "Dammit! Take the launcher and just go!" Dean commanded while still firing. He'd hit at least four but there were still six more he could see ducking behind walls.
She snapped into action. Beth actually followed his direction, picking up the fallen weapons and sprinting towards the fence, while Dean took out three more men who tried to shoot at the blonde.
After she was safely out of firing range in the trees outside of Terminus, Dean ducked behind the boxcar to reload. In the moment when bullets were no longer firing, he heard voices screaming for help.
The muffled sound of the voices and metallic banging, it was clear that there were people stuck inside another rail car.
Dean ran towards the sound of the voices. Luckily, the Termites that had been shooting at him did not expect to run away from the fence so when he ran out from behind his shelter, no one had a clear shot on him. He was thankful that this car didn't have a pad lock on it, so he simply lifted the handle and flung the door open.
But shots were coming towards him again.
He took shelter in the train car labeled with a large "A" that he had just opened.
"Who the hell are you?" one voice grumbled out.
Dean took only a second to glance around. There were at least 10 people inside, "I'm the guy who's breaking you out of prison. Didn't have time to make a cake." He pulled out the four knives and two fully loaded guns he'd pocketed in the warehouse and passed them to the bearded man closest to him.
"What's the plan?" A brunette woman asked.
"No plan. Just run for it." Dean didn't bother giving them any more instruction, but aimed his gun and pushed back outside.
The bearded man with the gun joined him and together they took out the three more humans who were firing at them while the others from the train car filed over the fences.
"There's still more of them. Don't know where they're hiding," Dean told the man next to him when the last cannibal in sight hit the ground.
"They're eating people. I don't know where they are but I will find 'em… and kill 'em." The bearded man had a cold, murderous look in his eyes that made Dean feel certain this man was crazy enough to run there right now alone with only a half-full magazine.
But they were interrupted by the sound of growls from behind them. The croats finally followed the sound of gunfire to the fence line. The group that had clambered over the chain link only moments ago was now fighting off the croats. They were using the knives Dean had given them along with makeshift weapons. Dean saw that one woman had grabbed a thick tree branch and an Asian man held a hefty rock that was already covered in fresh blood.
Dean and his bearded companion scaled the fence quickly, Dean still looking over his shoulder for any other Wendigos or humans coming up behind them.
The group from train car A made such quick work of the croats that by the time Dean was on the other side of the fence all the croats were dead.
"Can you find the weapons again in the dark?" A black woman with dreadlocks asked a leather-clad man with long brown hair.
The man just scoffed and took off at a trot, with the others began trailing behind him.
When Dean didn't fall in line behind them, but instead turned in the other direction, the Asian man with the rock stopped and told Dean, "You can come with us. It's safer in numbers than going out there alone."
"I'm not alone. Girl I was with got hurt, I need to go back and find Beth. We'll be all right on our own," he said already running back to where Beth had leapt over the fence earlier.
"Did you say… Beth?" He thought he heard the Asian man say behind him, but he was already running so he couldn't be sure.
When he got back to the spot where Beth and Dean had separated, he looked around but didn't find anyone.
"Dammit Blondie. I don't have time to play hide and seek!"
Dean kept walking through the trees away from Terminus. After a few minutes, he heard growls and headed straight for them.
Inside a circle of croats, he saw a flash of blonde.
He whipped out his knife and started slicing heads, careful to avoid the girl who was still stabbing croats even as she was backed up against a tree.
When all the things were lying still in the dirt, Beth sagged into the tree.
"Took you long enough. Thought you came to your senses and left me," she joked, looking up at him with an exhausted smile.
Dean couldn't believe she could smile at that moment. There were broken twigs and leaves in her hair, dried blood crusted on her upper lip, her clothes were torn and bloody, she was cradling her right arm, and even in the dark he could see bruises on her face already purpling. He could see fresh blood spreading along her jeans where Sam had stitched up her leg a few days ago.
"Told you, leaving defenseless kids alone ain't on my resume," he wiped his knife clean and moved towards her.
"I'm not defenseless," she insisted indignantly. "I killed three of them before I climbed up the tree."
"Uh huh? So how'd you end up back on the ground then if you had it so under control?"
"The branch broke."
Dean laughed, that at least explained the twigs in her hair.
"You look like shit. Let's get you back to the car and patched up," she hobbled over the dead bodies and picked up the rocket launcher she had obviously dropped in the fight.
"Wait here," he commanded as he took the weapon from her hand.
He left her with the dead bodies, trusting the rotting smell to mask her own and keep her safe for now. When he got back to the fence of Terminus, Dean aimed the rocket launcher from his shoulder. He fired deep into the middle of the compound, hoping that this would finish off the rest of the Wendigos. His ears were ringing after the explosion but he just smiled at the fire.
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I wrote this chapter a while ago and then went through again and hated it... sooooo I made a LOT of edits and I hope you liked it!
Please comment to let me know what you are thinking about the story! Have big plans in motion for the next chapter. :) Follow the story! I am hoping to get another update out in the next few days.
