By the next night, we were in Philadelphia. Dean pulled into another local motel and booked us a room. I guess he was feeling a bit generous tonight because he booked two rooms. One for us and one for him. It seemed more likely that he was just getting tired of us drilling him with questions, trying to figure out why the hell Sam's not with him anymore. Since War in Ohio, we haven't had to deal with demons and we didn't stop to sleep in a bed, we only took little pit stops for food, bathrooms and gas. We offered to switch places with Dean so he could catch some Z's but his love for his car was greater than his need for sleep. So he went without sleep for over 24 hours and finally decided to stop when it got dark. We left Dean alone in his room knowing that he needed the sleep. After all, he was basically being our chauffer although we would never say that joke to him again. When Dylan said it, he stopped looking at the road and stared at his gun which was riding shotgun, and then it got pretty silent after that. When Dean walked into his room, Castiel was sitting in a chair waiting for him. Dean didn't even jump. He didn't see the point of complaining about Castiel's inhumanly behavior because it wasn't ever going to change.

"What are you doing here Cass? I need to sleep." Dean said aggravated.

"To defeat Lucifer you will need all the fire power you can get, and since you and your brother insist on being separated, you need more."

"More? Look, I'm working with freaking witches man, and were getting along, what else can I do? Side with demons? Over my dead body."

"No, not demons. It's not a being, it's a weapon. The only gun that can kill him."

"You're talking about the Colt, right? As in the colt?" Dean asked Castiel. Dean was lying down now fighting to stay awake. Cass nodded. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would demons keep a gun around that kills demons?" Dean asked the obvious question. "They should have melted it down by now."

"Well I hear differently and if it's true it would be very useful."

"So how do we get it?" Dean asked.

"I do not know. You and the girls will have to figure that part out." Castiel answered. "I know that you haven't known them for too long but you are going to have to start looking at them as your partners. Equal partners. Get some rest and tell them the situation tomorrow. You can't keep them in the dark Dean. They are good at what they do. Trust me." Dean glared at the ceiling and thought to himself.

"They have no idea what they do. They're new at it." Castiel stared him down until Dean sighed and broke eye contact. "Fine. I will talk to them in the morning. I just hope you're right about them." Then Cass disappeared and left Dean to sleep. Dean was finally resting when his phone went off. He rolled over and grunted and then picked up the phone.

"What?" Dean growled.

"Dean?" Dean's eyes popped open when he recognized the voice on the other end. It was Sam.

"Sammy?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, it's me." Sam's voice sounded too serious for this to be a check up call.

"What's going on?" Dean asked.

"I saw him again. Lucifer came to me." Dean tensed.

"What did he say?"

"Some crap about me being destined to be his one and only vessel. Same old bull." Sam sighed restlessly. "So, what are we going to do about it?" Dean raised his eyebrows.

"What do you want to do about it?" Dean asked back.

"Well, I want back in for starters." Dean thought it over in his mind. "I am sick of being a puppet to these sons of bitches." Sam continued. Sam sighed again. "I'm going to hunt him down Dean."

"Oh, so we're back to revenge? Yea, because that worked out so well last time." Dean said sarcastically.

"Not revenge. Redemption." Sam clarified.

"So, we're just going to walk back in and we're going to be the dynamic duo again?" Dean asked. His famous sarcasm was really starting to piss Sam off but he kept his cool.

"Look, Dean I can do this. I can. I'm going to prove it to you." Sam sounded determined. Dean felt like his heart and his brain were at war trying to figure out whether or not he should accept Sam's suggestion or not. Finally he spoke.

"Look, Sam… it doesn't matter whatever we do. It turns out that you and I are the fire and oil to Armageddon."Sam stayed silent, not knowing how to argue against that valid point. "And on that basis alone we should just pick a hemisphere. Stay away from each other for good."

"Dean, it doesn't have to be like this. You, me, the girls… we can fight it." Sam tried.

"Yeah, we can. But not together. We're not stronger when we're together. Sam, I think we're weaker because whatever we have between us, love, family, whatever it is, they are always going to use it against us. You know that." Dean said. Sam again could not argue. "We are better off apart. We got a better chance of dodging Lucifer and Michael and this whole damn thing if we just go our own ways."

"Dean." Sam tried to protest.

"Bye Sam." Dean said and then Sam heard the other line disconnect and then there was silence. Not just on the phone, but in his heart.


"What do you think happened between them?" Dylan asked.

"Who knows? They were never exactly the loving family type." Kimberly shrugged.

"Well, they are brothers. They're supposed to fight. I just think they need someone to steer them in the right direction, only they are too stubborn to even call each other." I said.

"Well, it's not really our business. Besides we have too much on our plate anyways." Kim said.

"True. Like yelling at our parents." Dylan said. As she spoke the words she became angry all over again. "I still can't believe they did this to us!" she vented.

"It's not like they had a choice about what they are or we are." I pointed out trying to calm her down.

"I know but they did have a choice about binding our powers and keeping our powers secret from us for all these freaking years." I knew that she was right; I just wanted her to calm down. The Charmed Ones tend to upgrade in powers when they get angry.

"Well, we can definitely give them a piece of our minds as soon as we get back." We were all in our jammies now getting ready for bed. I grabbed my phone out of my bag and got up.

"Where you going?" Kim asked.

"I'm going to go rejoin the real world and check my messages."

"Good, please tell your boyfriend to stop calling me looking for you." Dylan said. I smiled at her.

"You're such a great friend." I said sarcastically. I stepped out into the hall and sat on a nearby bench. I turned on my phone and couldn't believe how many voice mails and text messages I had. I clicked through the texts, not reading any of them, just seeing who they were from. It was a mixture of my mom, Kim's cousin Jevaun and my boyfriend Sean. If my mom had any sense she would stop calling me but I felt bad ignoring Sean and Jevy. They are always there when we need them, and they are probably worried sick about us. Then I shook my head to clear it. I didn't come out here to get in touch with the world; I turned my phone on to talk to Sam. If Dean wouldn't listen, maybe the sweeter brother would.

"Hello?" I heard on the other line.

"Sam?" I was happy he answered. It was kind of late after all.

"Sharnel?" I smiled at the fact that he recognized my voice.

"Yeah, it's me. How are you?"

"I'm fine, I guess. What's wrong? Did something happen?" he sounded frantic.

"Everything is fine Sam. Well, the girls are good, but I'm not calling to talk about that."

"So then what's up?" he asked.

"Sam, you need to come back." Sam sighed.

"Sharnel, this is really none of your business." Sam spoke.

"I'm so completely tired of you two pretending like you have more power than us. Aren't we supposed to be working together?" I was irritated with them. They make it seem like they are our bosses and we are their employees. "Sam, I don't know what's going on between you and your brother, but whatever it is, it doesn't matter. You have to put the greater good ahead of your own petty differences. If I got into a huge fight with Dylan or Kim, yeah we'd give each other space, but we would still put the power of three first."

"Don't lecture me about putting the greater good first Phoebe." Sam said. He sounded different, almost cold. "I recall Phoebe saying screw the power of three when Piper and Paige thought that Cole was evil."

"Yes, and you see that worked out so well for them didn't it?" I said sarcastically. He sighed.

"Look, if it were up to me, I'd come back but Dean won't have it."

"And what are you scared of him? He's not your maker or your keeper."

"It's not like that Sharnel, but you are right. You don't know what's going on, so why don't you just butt out okay? I got to go, bye." Click. He hung up. Jeez, they truly are related. Stubborn as a mule. I let out a restless sigh and just sat in the hallway thinking. I tried and had my say. If they want to doom themselves then I will let them. Then my phone vibrated. I looked at it thinking it was Sam calling to reconsider, but it wasn't. it was Sean texting me again.

Idk wats goin on, but im worried about u. all of u. plz call me. ur mom said u went away but she didn't say when u'd b back, but then y r u not answerin. I love u

I felt like a terrible person, especially since the last time I spoke to him we got into a big argument. I don't want him to think I'm done with him, but I can't call him because I have no idea what I'm supposed to tell him. Even if I did come up with some excuse, that still wouldn't explain why all three of us have been ignoring the world. I couldn't call him. He'd have to wait like everyone else. I went back inside and went to bed.


Dean slowly woke up as he rolled against the terrible spring and as he came to, he looked around and hopped up. The wall was all worn and chipped, the iron heater was all rusted and everything looked gray and dirty. "What the hell." He thought to himself. He walked over to the broken window that only had small shards of glass poking out and looked outside and then his confusion doubled and he began to wonder what the hell he had slept through. Cars were flipped over and buildings were torn to smithereens. There were street lights but they were all busted. The place looked like a nuclear bomb went off. He ran to our room and knocked.

"Come on guys! Get up!" He turned the handle and the door all but fell on him. He looked at it and shook his head trying to figure out how things could have gotten this bad, but that's when he realized that the room was empty. He looked around for signs that we had left and were coming back, but there were no clothes or bags of any kind, just a lot of rust. He then searched the place for sulfur but that was a dead end too so he decided to leave. He was in disbelief as he walked through the streets. He couldn't have seriously slept through the apocalypse. Could he? Then he heard something and followed the sound into an alley, hoping for some type of normalcy in this bizarre world he had awoken in. There was a little girl, kneeling on the ground. She was covered in filth and her hair looked like she hadn't combed it in months. She was looking at a teddy bear that was dirty as well. She was probably homeless and helpless. "Little girl?"Dean called out. She didn't answer. She didn't even move. "Little girl?" Dean repeated taking a few steps closer. "Are you hurt? You know the not talking thing is kind of creepy right?" he knelt down beside her and saw a drop of blood fall from her mouth. Then suddenly, she grabbed a piece of glass and swung after Dean with it. She sliced him on his side as he jumped back. But then he punched her and knocked the little girl out. That was when he saw it and his heart sank. He no longer cared that he slept through the apocalypse. He only cared that he was trapped deep inside of it. He saw the world 'CROATOAN' written in big letters in blood. it was on the wall. "Oh crap." He said to himself. Then before he could fully process this, a group of people turned the corner on him who were all under that same spell from Ohio. War was taken care of but that didn't stop Croatoan from spreading. He took off running in the opposite direction as they followed. He could only hope he didn't fall as he ran block after block right into a fence. He turned to meet his fate and then militia came out from behind the fence, shooting at the crazy people. Dean took cover as they shot countless numbers of innocent people. He hid out until they were gone and then was on the move again. He managed to break through the fence and climb through, figuring that the militia side was the safer side. He saw a sign that seemed to clear up almost all of his questions.

NO ENTRY

BY ORDER OF ACTING REGIONAL COMMAND

AUGUST 1ST 2020

KANSAS CITY