A/N...yeah, this is gonna be a long story... hope that's okay...

Dean had reluctantly given up the keys to Sam and now sat pouting in the back of the SUV as his brother maneuvered the large vehicle and the long wide trailer. Bobby was outside the car, directing the way through the snow ridden car park.

"I'm not an invalid" Dean grouched, but Sam ignored him.

Finally getting the difficult vehicle around he stopped for Bobby to get in and the drove off.

There were not many places they could grab a drive through breakfast, and even fewer that could accommodate the large vehicle so eventually Sam just pulled over so they could order take away.

Bobby was happy enough to place the orders while the brothers sat in the car, the motor still running to keep the heat on.

"Dean"

No answer.

Sam swiveled around to look at his brother, who was looking out of the window.

"Dean"

"Sammy, just leave it"

Sam ran a hound through his hair.

"The dreams you're having. They're of me, aren't they?"

Dean just sat and looked out of the window, not moving.

A tear spilled down one cheek but Sam said nothing.

Dean swiped it away, though he didn't look at his brother.

"There were times, in hell, when they'd pull you off the rack, they'd throw you into any situation that they could torture you, or manipulate you…."

He turned and looked at Sam, his focus was far away. "For the first few years they would leave me naked, straight after getting my guts ripped put, they'd leave me in this wilderness, just, I dunno, snow and ice as far as you can see. Nothing else"

He took in a ragged breath. "And I'd look, I'd search, and I'd find you, always you, sometimes you were a baby, or a little kid, or like you are now, but you'd be dead, cut up and frozen, or sometimes still warm, but always dead.."

Sam felt his lip quiver with emotion as he watched his brother suffer.

"Then as I started to freeze, I'd be back on the rack, and it would all start over again."

Dean turned and looked out of the window as another tear scrolled its way through the freshly shaved cheek.

"Why are you dreaming this now?" Sam asked, his voice not much more than a whisper.

"Dunno. Maybe when I found out this hunt was in the snow I started to think about it, and the fever made it worse? Don't know, don't care. Just wish it would stop"

They both jumped as Bobby opened the front passenger door, Dean angrily wiping the tears away.

Bobby noticed the somber mood, he looked from one brother to another as he climbed in the car, but he didn't comment.

Instead he handed coffee to Dean and Sam, and a wrapped bundle of toast to Dean. The hunter just looked at it and placed it on the seat beside him.

Sam pulled out as snow started to gently fall, and Bobby opened up the newspaper.

"Looks there mighta been another one"

Sam propped his coffee into the cup holder and pulled his breakfast burger out of the wrapper. "What's it say?"

"This one is a bit different. Came up outta a frozen lake, crashed through several feet a ice and snapped off fisherman one by one."

"How do we know it's the same thing?" Sam asked around a mouthful of food.

"Says it was a massive alligator"

"Same area?"

Bobby folded the paper to make it easier to handle while he juggled his breakfast. He looked across at Sam and then at the rear-view. Sam got the hint and looked back to check on his brother.

"About two hundred miles away, still, it's close enough to be the same thing, seein' as how all the attacks are within two to three hundred miles apart"

Sam frowned at the sight of Dean, coffee forgotten in the cup holder, breakfast going cold on the seat beside him as he stared blankly out of the side window.

"Ah, Dean?" he called out.

Dean flicked his eyes over to catch Sam's in the mirror.

"You need some more Tylenol?"

Dean didn't answer, he just went back to staring out of the window.

Sam glanced at Bobby and saw the same amount of worry and concern that he was feeling. Bobby looked up to make eye contact and shrugged.

"Anyways, closest I can find to the place I think this thing is holed up is a bunch of cave formations in the highest peaks…here" he held a map for Sam to see.

"Access is gonna be a bitch"

"Well, we got the snow cats"

Sam nodded and turned his full attention to the road, which was very quickly becoming snow bound.

Dean had not stirred, he just continued to stare out of the window. After an hour or so Bobby leaned over and placed a rolled up sweater between Dean's sleeping head and the cold window.

No one spoke.

X

X

X

Sherry-Anne thought her lungs would burst through her chest any minute, but she couldn't stop. Whoever was dragging her was still racing ahead, the dimly lit caves a weaving maze of sharp edges and stumbling loose rocks.

After what seemed and age they came to a fork and they hit this, arms outstretched, moving too fast to turn.

Someone smacked into her and she slumped to the ground, a desperate, oxygen deprived sob escaping her.

"Oh God, I'm sorry" it was Alec's voice. "I was just running blind, I'm sorry"

"Hey, guys, it's okay" The professor was right there, and he grabbed Sherry-Anne up into his arms and hugged her.

She sobbed silently as he held her. Alec also started to cry, so the red haired man held out his arms and comforted both the frightened children, allowing them to catch their breath while he tried to figure out which way to go.

He let the teenagers go after a moment and flashed his light down one passage, then the other.

"Up or down?" he quietly asked the darkness. "Which is the right way?"

Alec stood beside him. "Down"

"Why down, son?"

Alec shrugged. "We're in a mountain, so up means we're going up the mountain, down means we might get closer to getting out"

"Down might also be the way that thing goes to get in and out" the professor glumly replied. "But I think you're right, we gotta try something, so down it is"

He held his hand out to the blonde teenager, half expecting that he would have to man handle her to her feet, that she'd be near paralyzed with shock, but to his surprise Sherry-Anne stood determinedly and squared her little shoulders.

"All right then. Let's get a move on" she accepted the older man's hand and they took the right hand passage, the floor a gentle, winding slope down into – or out of, the bowels of the mountain.

They set a brisk pace, the uneven floor making any faster progress difficult, but the three survivors attempted to move as fast as they could. Being stuck in the cave with the monster was a great incentive to keep them going.

Sherry-Anne was doing her best not to think of what happened to her friends. Every time her mind led back to the moment she squeezed the professor's hand tighter. He seemed to understand, and gave a little squeeze back.

They stumbled this way for hours, tired, thirsty, sweating despite the cold, until Alec fell with a muffled cry.

Sherry-Anne and the professor turned to help him up, and Alec started to scramble backwards.

"Unh! Unh! Unh!" he groaned as he rubbed a hand across his face in horror.

The professor shone his light to see what had upset the young man.

The bright, narrow beam hit the spine and pelvis of a recently deceased person, blood and gore still painted over the bones. The head lay close by, but all skin had been torn off, just glimpses of bare bone and muscle visible.

"It's come through here" hissed Sherry-Anne.

Alec managed to regain his feet, sliding his back up along the cave wall. "It's not….it isn't…"

"It's a grown man" whispered the red haired man back to him. "It's not your friends. Let's move on. I'm sure that it can't have passed us, there's been no adjoining passages apart from the fork earlier."

Alec still scrubbed at his face, one hand stretched out to grab Sherry-Anne's. The professor took her other hand and they moved a little slower, at first becoming alarmed and upset every time they had to step over another body part, but after dong this dozens of times they once again fell silent, only occasionally warning one of the others about a large bone or difficult spot.

Once again they came to a decision when the cave split into two.

"Well guys, what do you think? Up or down?"

Alec wrapped his arm around Sherry-Anne's shoulders and leaned forward to look into the two passages.

"How about we keep going down? May as well stick with our first decision"

Sherry-Anne sneezed. "I think down, too…and I think I have a fever"

The professor pulled off his glove and felt her head. "I can't tell. Even with gloves my hands are too cold. Okay then" he slipped his glove back on "We need to get out of here. Now. I'm not letting anything else happen to any of you. We'll all get out of here together. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" the teenagers chimed in unison.

He took the young girl's hand and started off, Alec grabbing her free hand as they marched forward, filled with more bravado than they actually felt. The cavern led them steadily downward, the floor covered with less free rocks than before, and there were fewer bones and body parts to avoid so they made quite good progress.

This time it was the professor who fell, he fell heavily, dragging Sherry-Anne and Alec down with him.

Alec reeled back, his lip split and one eye momentarily blinded. He grabbed for Sherry-Anne, her nose bleeding, her forehead scraped.

The professor was unmoving.

"Professor? Are you okay?" Sherry-Anne pulled his arm and grabbed the tiny flashlight, shining it onto his face.

The red haired man had taken the brunt of the fall on his forehead, he had a large gash and was unconscious.

"God, Alec, is he breathing?"

Alec didn't answer.

Sherry-Anne turned to him, her flashlight hitting his white face.

He looked at her, then back at what had given him such a fright.

The cavern opened up, they hadn't noticed as they were marching forward, but it was quite a large chamber, and they had been tracing the left wall. To the right was a pile of bodies, some new, some rather old.

The professor had tripped over the legs of a woman, her body propped up against the pile of human remains.

"There must be at least fifty people here" whispered Alec.

He had been leaning on the leg of the woman as he looked at the pile, and jumped back with a cry as the leg moved.

"What is it?" hissed Sherry-Anne.

"I think she's alive" Alec reached forward and touched her arm.

The woman was warm, and there was a pulse. It was faint, but it was there.

Sherry-Anne touched the woman's face and gasped when her eyes flew open.

"My god, lady, can you speak?" Alec asked her.

She turned her eyes to the young boy, then looked back at Sherry-Anne.

"I'm alive?" she whispered. "How…that thing…"

Sherry-Anne tried to pull the woman away from the pile of bodies, Alec realized what she was doing and helped drag her across the cave to prop her up against the wall.

They then grabbed the professor and moved him next to the woman.

"Lady? Can you tell me your name?" Sherry-Anne whispered.

"Erna. My name is Erna"

"Did that thing drag you here? The monster thing?" Alec asked her.

The woman struggled to sit a bit straighter. "I…I was on a trail riding group. Something…I don't know….something attacked us. My horse threw me and I got knocked out. That was the last thing I remember."

The professor groaned and his eyes fluttered open. He swiped at the blood dripping down his face, and looked with blood shot eyes at the teenagers, then the woman propped up beside him.

"What happened?"

"You fell over this lady, Erna. Knocked yourself out" Alec explained.

The professor looked back at the woman.

"I know you" the woman whispered. "You and your brother led the trail riding group"

The professor looked at her, his face scrunched with confusion.

"He's got amnesia" Sherry-Anne explained. "Didn't know his own name till he found his I.D."

"You said I had a brother?"

Erna gave him a weak smile. "There was a lady, as well. Pretty"

"Any of this sound familiar?" asked Alec.

The professor shrugged. "No. So I got a brother, maybe a sister as well?"

Erna didn't reply. Her eyes had closed.

Sherry-Anne pulled off her glove and felt for a pulse at the woman's neck. "She's alive, maybe she just passed out"

The professor pulled himself to his feet. "We should check if anyone else is alive" What he didn't want to say, was 'we should check if my brother and sister are there'.

If they were, would he recognize them?

Sherry-Anne sneezed again. "Be quick, then. We need to move before that thing comes back" she sneezed again, and again.

"Jeez Louise, you must be getting sick" Alec gave Sherry-Anne a gentle slap on the back. "You're right, we need to get moving. I'll help the proff check the carnage, you sit with Emma"

"Erna" Sherry-Anne corrected him, and sneezed again.

The professor stood after a few moments. "Most of these people have been dead a little while, they're near frozen. I don't think anyone else is alive'

Alec reached down to help Sherry-Anne to her feet. "What are we going to do about the lady…we can't leave her here"

Sherry-Anne turned back to her. "I don't know if she's hurt bad or not. And you" she turned to the professor. "You've been knocked out twice now, that can't be good"

"None of us can stay here, and we can't afford to wait till we're feeling better" The professor moved back to the bodies. "I'm going to try to find her another coat, maybe a hat and heavier gloves. Then you try to wake her. We must get out of here, and I don't want to leave anyone else behind"

Alec placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "You didn't leave them behind, dude"

The professor nodded. "I know. It's just.." He sighed. "This is just such a bad, weird, strange situation, I don't know what that thing is, I don't even know my own name. And now I have three people depending on me"

Sherry-Anne sneezed again. "No, sir, we are depending on each other. We are going to get out of here, and we are going to do it by helping each other'

The red haired man smiled at her. "You're a real little fire cracker, aren't you?"

Sherry-Anne smiled back, in spite of the situation they were in. "I guess so. Just don't make me think of anything other than getting out. Deal?"

"Deal" both Alec and the professor answered.

X

X

X

X

Dean awoke alone. The car was cool, not yet cold, and he had two heavy parkas over him to keep him warm. He stretched and sat up, a little confused. He had to scrub at the window to remove the fog, but it was so iced from the outside he could barely see anything.

It was white.

All white.

As far as the eye could see.

Dean felt his guts twist, like a knife plunged deep inside him.

A frozen knife.

He leaned over to the other side of the car and scrubbed at the window.

Crime scene.

There was police, lights, tape, snow mobile, trees, dead horses and chunks of frozen…well, that must be bodies, he guessed.

He took a deep, shaky breath, thankful that the white had not continued unbroken around him.

The two front doors opened simultaneously as Sam and Bobby jumped into the large SUV, puffing, blowing and shaking off the snow and cold.

"Mornin' princess" Bobby called to him as he noticed the sitting man in the back seat.

"How you feeling?" Sam asked.

Dean frowned. "How long I been asleep?"

"A while. Doesn't matter. We thought we'd just let you go while we scoped the scene"

"Didn't learn much more than we already know, though" Bobby added. "They got no idea what it was, or how many people missing. Too many body pieces. Hell, they haven't even started cleanin' them up yet"

"We have got an idea where this thing is holed up" Sam pointed out of the windscreen, but Dean couldn't see anything other than white. He shivered involuntarily.

"Dean?" Bobby spoke very quietly.

Dean turned to look at him, but his gaze seemed far away for a moment. He shook his head, a physical effort to rid himself of the vision of white.

"I caint see nuthnin' from here, it's too fogged up"

"Um, it's the mountains Bobby plotted earlier. You know, the map, we think that's where the Saltys is?"

Dean scowled. "I'm not short bus, Sam. I know what you mean"

"Well, good then. Coz that's where we're headed next" Bobby pulled out a thermos as Sam started the car and turned it around.

"Where's the trailer?" Dean asked. "And do we have snow chains on?"

Sam met his eyes in the rear view. "The trailer's at the cabin. Bobby and I put the chains on"

Dean swiped his hand across his mouth, then traced it up his face, through his hair and let it rest gently on the cut on the back of his neck. "How long was I asleep?"

Sam looked at Bobby, who gave a little nod. Dean hated that. They were acting like over protective parents, and it was annoying him.

Trouble was, he probably needed it. Not that he was going to admit it.

"Seven hours"

He felt his stomach drop. Seven hours? What the hell had that Taggi done to him?

"Why didn't you wake me up?

Bobby turned to face him. "Tried, at first. Then we thought it might be better. You know, metabolize off the poison, and all that" He handed Dean a plastic cup of coffee from the thermos.

"So, we were thinking we'd hit the mountains even though it's starting to get late. If we're gonna be in caves anyway, doesn't matter if it's light out or not"

"Yeah. Sure"

"You can stay in the cabin, if you want, Dean" Bobby gave Sam a sharp look at that.

He'd told Sam to back off, and what does the kid do? Go all mother hen first chance he gets.

Idjit.

"You think I'll stay at some cabin while you hunt a giant multi armed crocodile headed snake. Sure. Fine. I'll get pizza and popcorn and watch movies"

"Really?" Sam asked, glancing up in the mirror.

Dean frowned. "Ppfft. No, not really, you douche"

Blobby smiled. Banter was good. And Dean seemed to have a bit more color in his face.

Maybe things would be all right, after all.

A/N... I guess no one leaves reviews anymore...