Demon Virus
Chapter Nine: Under the Gun
Real life... Gotta love it, right? Anyway, the action continues! Enjoy!
The sun had set before Danielle woke up, and Sam could sense how much better she was feeling physically. Her emotions, on the other hand, were more than a bit jumbled.
"I felt the same the first time it happened," he told her quietly.
Danielle took a moment before her eyes met Sam's. "How do you deal?" she asked.
"Dean," Sam said simply. "Even when he's freaked the hell out, he still does what he can to make sure I'm coping."
Danielle looked up at him before smiling slightly. "You don't worry that he'll get tired of it all? That he might give up?"
"That's the thing," Sam said after a moment's thought. "I know he's tired. I mean, it's not like he has to say anything, and he doesn't hide it very well." Sam never let himself think about this particular topic, but that didn't mean he didn't want to talk about it. "Our dad sold his soul to Hell to save our lives, and it really weighs on him. I loved my dad, but he and Dean always got along better than I did. It wasn't like I wouldn't try, but we'd almost always end up arguing, and when Azazel kidnapped me, all I could think about was getting free and apologizing for everything." He ran a hand through his hair. "I always felt like Dean was the better son, like I never quite fit in anywhere, no matter how hard I tried." He looked away. "And then there's the fact that I've pretty much always been Dean's responsibility, and it shouldn't be like that now that I'm older —"
"But you don't think you'd cope with everything without him," Danielle finished for him softly.
"I'm not strong enough without him," Sam agreed. "It isn't fair to him, and I hate that things are this way."
"But Dean's still willing," Danielle pointed out, and Sam smiled softly.
"I know," he said. "Sometimes it makes me feel even worse."
Neither psychic said anything for a moment. "You're lucky he cares so much," Danielle finally said. "Most older siblings aren't really like that."
"Sarah cares about you," Sam said.
"Yeah," Danielle said, "but given the autism, I think I'm one of those exceptions to the rule. You and Dean are fully capable in all areas of your life, but Dean has pretty much always been there for you. That's pretty rare."
Sam felt his smile grow a little bit bigger. "He's the best big brother I could ask for," he admitted.
"More chick-flick moments?" Dean said from the doorway, grinning tightly as he leaned against the doorway. Sam rolled his eyes.
"We can't all be awesomely butch like you," he teased, and Dean let out a snort.
"You feeling better?" he asked Danielle, clearly choosing to ignore Sam's comment.
"I'm feeling much better now," Danielle answered before glancing out the doorway. "The crazies still out there?"
"Practically surrounding the place," Dean said with a groan. "I asked Mike — the Sergeant — about fighting our way out, and he says most everyone out there'll have gun training. I think we might have to make explosives if we wanna get outta here alive. I mean, Night of the Living Dead didn't end pretty, and I'd rather not go the same way."
Sam sighed. "Well, this clinic should have what we need to make something —"
They were interrupted by the sound of someone banging on the front door of the clinic. "Help!"
"He feels normal," Danielle said, sliding off her makeshift bed and combing a hand through her hair. "I don't think he's infected."
"I agree," Sam said, leading the way out to the waiting room. Mike the Sergeant was opening the front door to let in —
"It's Duane Tanner," he called out to Sam, Dean and Danielle as they entered the room.
"That's him," Sam breathed.
"You mean the one I…" He made a small gesture like he was killing someone.
Sam nodded.
"Oh, thank God," Duane all but cried the moment Mike had shut the clinic door behind him. "Who else is here?" He started to walk forward and Dean had a brief flash of panic before he stepped forward to block Duane's progress.
"Easy there, cowboy," he told Duane, placing his hands on the guy's shoulders. "Doc, give him a good once-over, would you?"
"What?" Duane asked, genuinely confused. "Why? What's going on? Who are you?"
"Never mind that for now," Dean answered. "Doctor?" Dr. Lee directed the group into an exam room silently.
Duane began to protest when Sam spotted blood on his leg. "How'd you get that?" he asked, pointing out Duane's ripped and bloodied jeans.
"I was running," Duane said. "I think I tripped. What's going on? I went out fishing yesterday, got back this afternoon and saw Roger McGill getting dragged out of his house by people we know. They started cutting him with knives!" He swallowed hard, eyes wide. "I ran and hid in the woods and I only just —" He broke off and swallowed. "Has anyone seen my mom and dad? What about Jake, d'you know if they're okay?"
Dean stepped back and leaned over to Sam. "Awkward," he muttered and Sam pressed his lips together to avoid saying anything.
"We need to tie him up," Mike finally said, "we can't take the risk that he was infected, too."
"Infected?" Duane asked, eyes somehow managing to go wider as Mike left the room. "What are you talking about?"
Dean pulled out his gun and directed Duane to the nearest chair. "Did they bleed on you?" he asked.
"What?" Duane gaped and started shaking his head as he sat down shakily. He seemed so confused by everything that was going on.
"Is he lying?" Dean asked abruptly, turning to Sam and Danielle.
"Doesn't feel like it," Danielle answered softly. Sam stared at Duane before stepping forward.
"Did anything strange happen during your fishing trip?" Sam asked, willing Duane to answer him truthfully. "Anything you can recall?"
"No, nothing," Duane answered at once as Mike returned with some rope. "All the strange stuff happened once I got back into town."
"Do you remember coming in contact with anyone else's blood?" Sam asked next.
"No," Duane said, "I swear, I just cut my leg on a branch or something!"
"What if they got him before he left the lake?" Dean asked. "What if the virus is still dormant or something?"
"Did you sleep up there?" Sam asked Duane.
"Yeah," Duane said with a shrug, "two-day fishing trip, you know?"
"So they coulda gotten to him while he was sleepin'," Dean said.
There were too many questions and the sheer number of people in the room was starting to get to Sam again, only much worse than before. He turned away, scrunching his eyes shut and trying to focus.
"We need to get you out of here," Danielle said quietly. "Sam —"
Without thinking, Sam reached out blindly and snagged Danielle's hand.
Suddenly, the emotions around him muted significantly and Danielle gasped.
"You two all right?" Mike asked as Sam opened bleary eyes.
He couldn't sense Danielle's emotions, but her voice wasn't very sturdy when she spoke. "We're fine," she told him. "C'mon, Sam." She tugged on Sam's hand and he allowed her to guide him from the room, Dean following them.
"Were there too many emotions again?" he asked the moment they were out of ear-shot of the others.
"Yeah," Danielle said, "only Sam's capable of something else now."
Dean's emotions went in about seven different directions at once and Sam only felt confused. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
Danielle raised her eyebrows and lifted their connected hands. "I just became your mental shield, Sam."
There was a long moment of silence as both Sam and Dean came to terms with what Danielle had just said. Sam tried to tug his hand away, but Danielle surprised him by only tightening her own grip. "You're definitely not ready to go it alone right now," she told him firmly. "I can handle it, I promise."
Sam closed his eyes and forced himself to accept it. "So, what do we do about Duane?" he asked. "He was telling the truth earlier, I made sure of that."
"But he could be infected," Dean said. "Duane's dad and brother didn't have any wounds on them apart from the one on Jake's arm when he infected his mom, so how did they get infected in the first place?"
"I don't know, Dean," Sam sighed, "but so long as his emotional state doesn't change, then he should be fine."
"His entire family was infected," Dean argued.
"Which is why we should just leave him tied up until we know for sure," Sam retorted.
"Wait?" Dean said incredulously. "You wanna sit around and wait for him to Hulk out like his mom did on Dani? I'm not taking that chance." He stood up to leave and Sam felt the last of his patience snap. Without considering things, he silently forced Dean to stop.
"The fuck —?" Dean broke off and glared at Sam. "Stop that," he snapped, but Sam held his ground.
"Dean —"
"Jesus, you think I'm happy about this?" Dean asked, angry all over.
"No, obviously —" Sam began.
"It's a fucking tough job," Dean cut him off, "and you know it."
"Yeah, it is tough, Dean," Sam snapped back, "that's the whole point. We're supposed to struggle with this, especially when it's my fucking vision coming true!"
"And what does struggling with this buy us?" Dean asked with narrowed eyes.
"Guys —" Danielle said, tugging on Sam's hand.
"A clear conscience," Sam said, ignoring Danielle and focusing on his brother.
"Too late for that," Dean retorted and Sam felt his mouth fall open in shock.
"What the hell happened to you?" Sam asked. "You might kill an innocent man and you don't even want to care about the repercussions?"
"The only thing that I want," Dean said, voice going quiet in that way that meant he was at the end of his own rope, "is for you to stop using your fucking Jedi shit on me so I can go and make the best decision I can for what remains of the sane people in this stupid-ass town."
Sam swallowed hard and relented at once. "Dean —"
"Save it," Dean snapped, striding from the room and slamming the door shut behind him. A moment later, Sam heard the lock click into place.
There was total silence in the room. "This is my vision," Sam breathed. "God, Duane isn't even infected."
"We aren't 100% certain, Sam," Danielle said softly. "Beverly felt completely normal until she wasn't. We don't know that Duane won't do the same."
Sam felt his shoulders slump. "That lock won't hold us," Danielle added after a moment, "unless you want it to."
It took a moment before Sam could meet Danielle's eyes. "I'm not gonna be able to reason with him after that," he told her. "He's older, he's not suffering from any problems associated with being a freak like me, and he's pretty much in charge, now."
"You're not a freak," Danielle said softly, and her eyes were kind as she squeezed his hand comfortingly. "I never thought you were."
Sam somehow managed a smile in return, even though he was still incredibly worried about what Dean was going to do. The fact of the matter was, however, that unless he wanted to make things worse, then the best thing he could do was step back.
"Thanks," he whispered.
Dean was well aware that the lock on the door wouldn't hold Sam in, but he got the feeling that neither he nor Danielle were going to come after him. Well, that was just fine. Vision or no vision, Dean had to make this call. He stopped outside of Dr. Lee's office long enough to check that his gun was properly loaded, and then he stepped into the room.
Duane was tied up, as expected, and the others were still in the room.
"Oh, no," Duane breathed, eyes so wide Dean was amazed they were still in their sockets. "You're not gonna…" Dean let off the safety. "No!" Duane cried, clearly panicked. "I swear, it's not in me!"
"Oh, God," Pamela breathed, "we're all gonna die."
"Maybe he's telling the truth," Mike said, taking Dean by surprise. All that talk earlier and he chose now to have second thoughts?
"I don't wanna take that chance," Dean said, wondering how he was still managing any semblance of patience. "We took it with his mom, and she almost infected my partner."
"My mom?" Duane whimpered. "She… she went crazy?"
"After your dad and brother got to her, yeah," Dean snapped.
"Oh my God," Duane mumbled, closing his eyes. "My family…" He looked back up at Dean. "That doesn't mean it's in me," he told him. "Ask the doctor!"
Dean looked over at Dr. Lee. "I… I can't tell," she said, and Duane's shoulders slumped as a few tears escaped and slid down his cheeks.
"Please," he sobbed, "don't."
Dean hesitated. He didn't want to take any chances, not after the kid's entire family had gone whacko, but he was tied up, and he had two Empaths who could tell him in an instant if he changed at all.
"We're supposed to struggle with this!" Sam's words reverberated in his mind, and suddenly, he couldn't do it.
"Dammit," he muttered, putting the safety back on and turning away. "Keep him tied up until we're 100% certain he's clean."
Duane started sobbing in earnest relief, but Dean was done. He walked back to where Sam and Danielle were waiting for him, unlocking the door and entering.
"You didn't do it," Sam said quietly, not quite meeting his eyes.
"Yeah," Dean sighed, putting his gun away and taking the nearest seat. "I guess we'll give it a few hours, wait and see, you know?"
"Yeah," Sam said. The three sat in silence for a few minutes.
"So," Danielle spoke up, "how do we go about making explosives?" She looked between the two brothers. "That's still the plan, right?"
Dean sighed and nodded.
Four hours later found Sam and Dean working with Danielle to make explosives using potassium chlorate and other supplies they'd found in the clinic. Danielle had caught on pretty quick and was turning out to be useful.
"He still feel normal?" Dean asked abruptly.
He watched Danielle glance at Sam before nodding. "I don't think he's infected."
Dean nodded and stood. "I'll go untie him, then."
He headed out of the room and over to where Duane was sitting in his chair, tied up and silent.
"Gonna kill me now?" he asked dully when Dean entered the room.
"No," Dean said, working hard to keep his voice neutral. "I mean, unless the doctor's found something in your blood…" He looked over to where Dr. Lee was staring through a microscope.
"There's nothing," she told Dean, "no sulfuric residue or anything."
"All right, then," Dean said. "You're clean, kid. Let's get you outta these ropes, maybe get some food in ya."
Duane nodded as Dean started on the ropes, silently admiring Mark's knots. They really were a thing of beauty…
And then Danielle screamed.
"Getting more alcohol?" Sam asked as he worked on his next explosive.
Danielle nodded as she finished standing. "Do we need anything else?"
"I think we're good for now," Sam answered.
Danielle nodded again and headed into the dispensary to grab more bottles. Pamela had been in there for the past hour, organizing supplies so they'd have an easier time finding what they needed. "Hey," she said.
"Hi," Pamela said. "How the explosives-making thing going?"
"Good," Danielle answered. She reached up to grab what she need and felt the stitches on her chest pull, and she lowered her arm at once, hissing in pain.
"Lemme look at that," Pamela said at once. "You probably need the bandage changed, anyway."
"I'm fine," Danielle tried as Pamela pulled her back over to the table where Sam was sitting.
"Of course," Pamela answered, gently peeling the bandage off while Sam watched. The bandage wasn't soaked in blood, but there was still enough that Danielle figured it probably was time to get it changed. "Sam, can you hand me a new bandage?"
Sam turned away while Pamela reached into her pocket, and then her emotions changed.
Danielle tried to jerk away, but it was too late. Pamela pulled her hand from her pocket, revealing yet another scalpel, and she cut straight through all the stitches Dr. Lee had done nearly twelve hours ago. Danielle couldn't stop her scream of pain.
Pamela slashed through her own hand as Sam whipped around, and then she was knocking him to the ground and slashing at his chest, pressing her hand against the cut she'd inflicted there before he managed to get his super strength in gear to throw her off. She slammed into a shelving unit, but seemed undeterred.
"Dean!" Sam yelled as he sat up, but it was too late. Pamela flew at Danielle, pressing her cut hand against the freshly opened cut on her chest, emotions filled with anger and excitement.
"I've been waiting for this since you two showed up," she hissed as the door banged open.
Pamela was suddenly torn away from Danielle with enough force to be caused by Sam's telekinesis, and she crashed back into the shelves. Not even a second later, Danielle heard Dean's gun go off and Pamela's body jerked as the bullet went straight through her head. She was dead instantly.
Danielle couldn't think straight as she stared at the blonde's corpse. She'd been infected the entire time and never once showed any of the signs. This virus was even more terrifying than it had been before.
"She got them both," came Mike's voice from the background. "They've got it. They've got the virus."
Danielle snapped back to reality, meeting Sam's eyes as she pressed her hand against the reopened wound to try and stem the renewed bleeding. And then she understood. Tara's instructions last week, the sulfuric residue in the blood, Sam's vision…
"This was all a trap," she whispered as she stared at Sam. "For us."
Sam swallowed hard and she knew he got it, too.
TBC...
