Echo on the wind chapter 9

What does she do?

Sam pov

"We have a flat!" Kevin announces from the front of the makeshift go cart. "How do you have a flat tire when the tires are wood?!" Mark calls back, Gwen laughs. "He means the raft went flat." Gwen informs pointing to the deflated plastic.

"Hey guys, what is a western buggie with a flat tire?" Nathalia tosses out from her spot on top of the crates, she's in that bathing suit again tanning.

"Okay, I'll bite. What is it?" I ask. "A horse with a sprained hoof." Nathalia replies. "Seriously Nat, that was so stupid it was actually funny." Kevin informs.

"yeah, I wasn't destined to be a comedian." She sighs happily, she reminds me of a cat right now, she has Dean's leather jacket bunched up under her face acting as a pillow, one arm is hanging off one side of the crate and one leg is hanging off the opposite side. She's just laying up there being lazy, of course I'm guessing that she was out all night exploring again.

"No but I think you and Dean might have been destined to be marriage counselors." Gwen says in her typical Smart ass way.

"I resent that. We get along just fine, we just get along in our way." Nat retorts. "If you call that getting along I hate to see what an argument is." Kevin remarks. "That usually ends with Dean pulling a gun on her and her daring him to pull the trigger. Trust me kid, they are not doctor Phil's star pupils of a perfect couple." Samuel informs.

"Yeah she's a bitch." Dean informs. "And you're a jackass so shut up." Nathalia replies. "Woman, do not make me come up there and let Kevin drive." Dean snaps back. "Hey, was that a poke at Asians being bad drivers?" Kevin demands sounding a bit offended.

"No Kevin, which was a jab at the kid who locked himself in the closet of a boat because you thought that was the safest place. I'm talking about the same kid who's introduction was 'I'm Kevin Tran advanced placement' after running head long into my brother then turning around and running into a tree." Dean replies earning laughter from everyone including myself.

"I thought Sam was the tree." Kevin mutters, I can't help but be at ease listening to this banter, we actually sound like a normal family right now.

Even Kellie and Rachel are working on Kellies' depression problem the same way an aunt would council her niece.

Brad is sitting with the other kid what was his name Randy? Their over at the bottom of the crates sharpening sticks again, Samuel and Mark are leant against the ice chests and gas can's half asleep. Gwen is sitting on a shorter stack of the crates. Kevin is up front with Dean and I'm sitting on the crate behind Nathalia under her leg that is still hanging over my head.

Nathalia pov

My feet hit the pavement, we've been traveling for twelve hours now and we're only just now getting to the narrow foot bridge. And mind you this metal structure is the only over the thousand foot chasm between this mountain and the next one.

"Oh goody. Another challenge just what we need." Kellie remarks as we all take a look at the bridge, about a hundred feet across and only four feet wide. There's no way this cart thing is going to make it across.

"It's a challenge we will work on in the morning. It's almost midnight let's just sleep." Gwen yawns; even Samuel is too tired to argue with that statement.

So with that I watch as everyone starts to unpack and get camp set up for the night.

Meanwhile I grab my leather bag and head off across the bridge, however I stop when I hear foot steps behind me.

"You never got to exploring last night." Dean says from a few steps behind me, he's right I ended up going back because I was too cold to wander around anymore.

"Okay, follow the leader?" I ask him, he nods in approval so I continue back across the bridge till we're just inside the trees.

Dean expects me to follow the trail but I don't I leap up into the brush and clamber into a tree to get a better look of where the trail goes. And it goes off to the right which is the fire trail, however, something I didn't notice last winter when I came through here at three AM. Off to the left is an abandoned camp site. There are some Croats down there right now, but if I can find a way down there I can kill them and maybe find a vehicle to bring up here and we can get back down the mountain much more easily.

Forgetting Dean is with me I leap down out of the tree and start running down the trail, the trail leads across a rather wide ridge then comes to a fork. Either go left and off a rather steep cliff into a small lake pond. Or right down the fire trail, the fire trail would seem to be the safest bet for travelers on foot, but for me I'm not out here for safety. I'm here to fix things, or screw shit up, usually it's the latter of the two, but right now my goal is to fix a huge problem.

So without a single thought I hurtle myself off the cliff and down into the lake pond. I don't remember Dean is with me until I surface and he's hitting the water right where I was moments ago.

He comes up and looks at me with wide eyes. "Are you insane?!" He shouts. "Typically, yes." I reply, then splash water in his face and swim for shore.

"So you go out at night tearing shit up, leaping off cliffs just on a whim?" Dean asks. "Dean, I said you could follow, I didn't say you could question the things that I do that I don't even question doing." I reply quietly as possible, I pull the angel blades free as I walk towards the only light source here. A street lamp placed over the outhouse.

The Croats are underneath it looking up at the bugs flitting around the light, it's all they have for food right now. Somewhere nearby I can hear Nicki Minaj playing over someone's radio, I would like to bet that song has been on repeat for a while.

Before Dean can stop me I launch into battle, lopping off Croatoan infected heads, Dean pulls his demon knife but I warn him to stay back until I drop the last one.

"You tell me to stay out of it, yet you can get bit to." Dean snaps. "I'm Immune?" I remind him, he shrugs at me but says nothing more.

"So what are we down here for?" Dean asks, I point to the parking lot ahead of us where there are several vehicles parked as well as a very nice coach motor home.

"Huh." Dean grunts, he continues following me thinking I'm going straight for the vehicles but I stop and slice open camping tents looking for anything usable. Sleeping bags, lanterns, fishing poles, rope, anything.

"Dean, this you can help with. Go investigate, just don't get infected okay?" I say to him, he nods and goes over into another tent to investigate.

Dean pov

"I have another question." I say to Nathalia as we gather up the things we dug up in the camp sites.

"What's that" She asks as she piles the stuff into a little plastic playschool wagon, I toss my armful of items down.

"If you are constantly finding things, where do you put everything?" I ask her. "Usually if it doesn't fit in this I don't bring it with me. Lately I've been putting things in that crate I usually fall asleep on. And on the same note, I'm not always scavenging. I scout ahead and take down demons and Croats, makes things easier on the rest of us." Nat replies then turns to drag the wagon towards the Mercedes off road I broke into for her.

"How many times have you taken on those things by yourself?" I demand. "Dean, didn't anyone ever tell you? This entire last year before I met up with you, I was traveling alone, that's how I've become so good at working out problems. Scavenging, Samuel taught me everything I know about basic survival, the…primal side of things didn't come into effect until all this happened." Nathalia explains beckoning around us to the dead bodies and destruction.

"I knew you we're alone but I didn't realize you didn't travel with a group ever?" I reply to her explanation, she shrugs then starts tossing things into the car.

"Can you manage to get into that Jeep over there?" She asks as she points to a brand new white jeep grand Cherokee.

"Yep…

Sam pov

"Where the hell are they? Nathalia is generally back by now. Do you think their hurt or something?" Gwen stresses, just as I'm about to declare that I'm gonna go searching for them I hear a car honking. I look across the bridge to see a newer Mercedes off road, Nathalia driving and Dean in a white jeep Cherokee behind her.

"No, they found cars." Samuel informs as if we didn't notice that already…

Kevin pov

"Sorry it took us so long to get back. We we're up all night trying to get these cars to start, then once they started we needed at least our normal two hours Z time." Dean apologizes to everyone except Samuel who's driving the white jeep behind us, in that car he has Kellie, the doctor and the two boys.

"That's fine, we we're just worried something happened to you both." Gwen informs from the seat behind mine.

"So what exactly do you do when you take off?" Sam asks Nathalia who just cracks a smile. "A girl has to keep some of her secrets." Nathalia replies as she floors it to go over a dip in the road.

"Wahoo!" She yowls happily. "Nathalia, this is not an off roading camping trip." Mark reminds but the blonde appears not to hear him, if she does she is not listening because she's on a straight away with a slope that goes up and she's not slowing down.

"She didn't get to play on the way up there. Just hang on." Dean warns everyone, in a flash we're scrambling for seat belts. Who would've thought that we'd actually wear them after we get to a point where there is no law saying we have to.

"AHHHHOOO!" Nathalia howls excitedly as we haul ass down the dirt fire lane, she only slows down for turns or boulders in the road, then she rock climbs over them instead of going around.

This is going to be a very long ride, I think to myself as I decide to give up on reading the tablet for right now before it flies out of my hand knocks someone out…..