They walked outside and saw Liv standing next to her car. There were no other cars in the lot so they figured no one was watching them, yet.
Dean took charge, "Liv come here for a second," He opened the back door of the Impala, motioned for her to get in he closed her door, then he and Sam sat slid into the driver's and passenger's seat shut their doors. "Just in case they're in the shadows listening, didn't feel like being overheard. We need to drive to an apartment complex that has underground parking. Once we get there we'll grab some things from the trunk and pile into your car then take the long way to a hardware store. Baby's too recognizable and easy to follow."
"Underground parking so we can tell if we're being followed?" She asked.
"Yup and one that has multiple exits would be best. If it's an apartment complex there's a fair chance that they'll think you live there and hang out for awhile to see if we leave. Standard protocol when someone you're tailing goes into a parking complex you wait outside of it because you don't want to be spotted. It should buy us some time. "
"Okay, why a hardware store?"
Dean gave her a sly wink, "You'll see. Let's roll."
"All right." She got out of the Impala, got back in her car and drove off.
The brothers pulled in behind Liv's white Civic once they hit the main road. "Good thing she doesn't have anything too crazy on her car, no stickers or things hanging from the rear view mirror. Harder to track," Sam said.
"That's why I decided to do it this way. There's only one downside to Baby, she stands out like a sore thumb sometimes."
"I'll admit I didn't see this plan coming," Sam added, "What else did you find out about these things in her journals?"
"No other real details, but putting what I read together with how they've been acting, let's just go with they're hunters, like us. They're not just looking for dinner, they're looking for payback and they've studied how hunters act, just like we study lore. They're not scared of us, that should be fairly obvious."
"True, most monsters we deal with are."
"Yup, so we don't act like typical hunters. Turns the tables on them."
"Got it," Now that he and Dean were on the same page Sam understood the hardware store side trip. "Iron nails dipped in that crap that kills them, some 2 or 3 inch thick wood beams?"
"Now you're getting the idea."
"Perfect. Make 'em suffer."
They drove for about forty five minutes, making several turns, backtracking on their route once or twice and in general making things as difficult as possible for anyone who may be following them. Liv finally pulled into a parking structure that looked to be something she could afford, not too high class but not in the ghetto either. "Not sure if that's been her or Tracy's brain giving her clues on what to do but I almost lost her a few times," Dean confessed as they pulled into the spot next to her.
"Yeah, pretty impressive for an ME," Sam agreed.
They got out and walked to the trunk, she stayed in the car and kept the engine running. Once they gathered up what they needed and put all of it into the trunk of her car Sam opened the door and slid into the front seat, Dean slid into the back and she pulled out of the spot and headed to the exit on the complete opposite side of the way they'd come in.
"Nice driving," Dean complimented her.
"I'm beginning to understand how Tracy, and I assume you two, stay so far ahead of the cops," she replied. "Hunters take paranoia and hyper-awareness to whole new levels don't you?"
Dean chuckled, "Keeps us breathing. We weren't followed from what I could see."
"Yeah, same here. We'll hit a hardware store going in the opposite direction of where the cabin is. The road to the cabin is a two lane curvy one so that should make it easy to see if anyone has managed to keep track of us through all this."
"Sounds good," Sam stated.
"So," she stated somewhat hesitantly, "Now that I've had some time to process all of this, demons are real? Vampires? Magic is actually a thing? I mean I guess I shouldn't be all that shocked being a zombie but still."
"Tonight on conversations you never thought you'd have," Dean quipped.
Sam shot a disapproving look at Dean, "Yes. It's all real."
"Wow, okay. You know, until now I thought the scariest thing I'd learn about was the underground criminal element in the city and how they act. All of a sudden a Korean street gang seems rather prosaic."
"The more you know.." Sam started,
"The less you want to know," she finished. "Yeah. So do you want me to keep an eye out and the engine running while you guys get whatever it is you're getting?"
"Preferably," Sam answered, "It won't take us too long."
"All right."
They got to the hardware store, she parked and the brothers got out and went inside. Stay calm, stay calm. After she'd finished off Tracy's brain more and more memories of hunts, feelings and things about Sam and Dean had crowded out her own thoughts. So many in fact she was still trying to get a hold on them. I can't get adrenaline rushes this early, I can't. How could she stand being this keyed up all the time? It's like she was never really not calm and it's seriously not helping me. I learned too much too fast. The minutes ticked by, forever and twenty minutes later the brothers came back out with several bags, and Dean had several sections of wood slung over his shoulder. She popped the trunk, they put everything away and got back in the car.
"Okay, next stop, the cabin," Dean directed. "Hope you're ready for a long night."
"I don't sleep much anyway."
Their eyes met in the rear view mirror, "Yeah, guess not. You still with us? You're pretty keyed up."
"I'll be fine," she replied. As she pulled onto the freeway she looked to her right and noticed Sam looking torn, like he wanted to ask something but was afraid to. "Sam? Something on your mind? Talk or quit worrying."
His eyes widened, "You keep doing that, sounding like her. It throws me off."
"That's not what you wanted to say." So much for compassion, hunters don't go in for much of that I guess.
"Never mind," Sam tried to back away from the conversation, "I don't want to know."
"I'll save you some brain power, yes, it was Tracy I used to finish healing," Disgust filled his eyes as she watched then redirected her gaze out the windshield, "And you'd better brace yourself because her personality will probably emerge more and more over the next day or two. I usually don't eat that much at one sitting so this taking on who they are is more subtle. You can get sick about it later, right now we have things to kill. Got it lover?" Too much! Damn it. "Sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't..." She looked back at him and saw his face cycle from grief to hate in less than three seconds.
"Yeah, we do." He met her eyes, "Not mad at you." Then he looked out the window and lapsed back into silence.
Dean hadn't said anything during the exchange but she did notice the slightly concerned look he gave Sam. "Hey, her and I can set this up if you want to head back to Tracy's room and see if our friends show up there, or keep an eye on Ravi."
"No, in case they somehow managed to follow us you'll need me," Sam countered. "It's fine and I doubt that they care about Ravi."
"He's out of town anyway," she informed them, "He decided it would be a good time to go visit his brother in San Francisco for a few days. He told the office it was a family emergency, we hid what was left of the broken table. We can requisition a new one next month when budgets are reviewed again."
"Good plan," Sam said. "Glad he's safe, he seems like a good guy."
"One of the best."
The rest of the trip was spent in silence and repeatedly checking for cars in the mirrors. None of them seemed to be specifically following them but there was only one way to make sure. She got ready to turn right onto a smaller two lane road, "Here we go guys, heads up." They made the turn and she accelerated as quickly as was safe to, no cars turned with her. "Why doesn't that make me feel better?"
"Because in our line of work, you're never safe until you know what you're after is dead," Sam answered, "Things have a way of surprising you."
The road took them through what seemed like an older growth forest, trees loomed up in the darkness on either side of them as the it curved around. There were some small hills that when they crested the top of all three of them looked back, but no lights appeared behind them. After several miles she took a left down a gravel road and they could see the skeletal ruins of an old saw mill. She pulled past that, down the road, past a small pond and up to a small stone cabin. The cabin was crafted of actual rocks stacked on top of each other and held together by some old form of mortar. It was maybe seven or eight feet tall, squat and the roof was barely peaked. The door looked to be several inches thick and had cast iron straps across it that had started to rust over the years.
"How'd you know about this place? It's pretty remote." Dean asked as they got out.
"Major and I used to come out here when I needed a break from school. He had some friends who's parents used to work at the mill."
Dean nodded, "Makes sense."
"Here, let me help." She grabbed a few bags, they picked up the rest and walked to the front door. Sam turned the knob and shoved against the door, it resisted for a moment then slowly creaked open.
"No locks?" Sam asked, "Door's still pretty solid though."
"No one's lived out here for years, this was supposedly some old homesteader's place from who knows how long ago. It's just always been here."
"This will be perfect," Dean noted as he walked around after clicking his flashlight on, "Small windows, one door, the roof looks decent. Hopefully we can bottleneck these bastards and get them tripping over each other trying to get to us."
"Optimist," Sam muttered as he started unpacking.
There wasn't much inside the place, a few rotting chairs and an old wood table. The kitchen had the remnants of counters and an old cast iron stove along the wall.
As she watched they pulled a small arsenal out of their duffel bags. I've never held a gun in my life and yet I know how to field strip these things, their calibers and models and exactly how to use them. Joy. Then she saw the iron knives, and I know that she liked to dual wield knives. Guess that will come in handy.
"We picked up some extras," Sam said, "Just in case you picked up how she handled knives."
He's trying to hide how uncomfortable this makes him, God this sucks. "Thanks and it just sort of hit when I saw them." She picked one up, tested the weight and took a few practice swings, ""These will work. Thanks."
Sam just nodded in reply, then he and Dean took out a box of huge nails, two hammers and set the pieces of wood on the table, leaving the ends of the wood hanging off the edge.
"Spiked clubs?" She asked.
"Yup," Dean answered then took a quick look at his watch. "In about an hour we make that crap that will kill these things. The nails are iron, we're going to dip them in that stuff and use it as a way to slow them down enough to get a heart shot. We have iron buckshot for the shotguns we're going to do the same thing to."
"But the journal seemed to say that stuff only worked if you got it into their heart, that's what she remembers too."
"We've learned over the years that what kills things can act as a slow poison too," Sam stated as he started hammering nails through the wood so they stuck out the other side. "Not sure why Min didn't say that or we could just be way off base but if nothing else this will hurt them one way or another."
"They could also use all that against you," she pointed out, "Why take the risk and give them another weapon to use against you?"
"When you're up against something supernatural you try to do what you can to even the odds," Dean replied, "It's a calculated risk. These things are acting like hunters, not monsters. Like I told Sam, if they were just looking for dinner it would be one thing, but they're not. I think they've trapped other hunters the same way they trapped Tracy based on what you said and some things I know about. So we need to up the ante, switch things up a bit."
"It took so long to get to you bitch," Cici purred long bloody claws where her finger should be, "All the others were just to get your attention. We were starting to lose hope that you were still alive at all. Years, we've waited years."
She bit back a scream as Cici slowly peeled another piece of flesh off of her arm.
"We were scared at first, right Charles?" Cici said to the looming, huge, black furred creature that walked out of the shadows. It's teeth were bared and the low rumbling growl coming from it seemed to echo inside her bones. "Scared of hunters, so we started watching, learning, and we decided to hunt the hunter. Why should we be scared of you stupid humans. You're nothing without your guns and knives, nothing at all, except delicious."
The sound of hammers being pulled back on guns brought her back to reality.
"Liv!" Dean shouted.
She felt the blades in her hand and realized she was holding them in a guard stance. "Sorry..."
"What did you see?"
"That you're right, they aren't scared of hunters at all and Cici's brother's name is Charles. His other form is bigger than hers, with a shit ton of teeth. They've studied hunters, how they act, what they do for years."
"Figured as much but nice to have some confirmation," Dean said as he put his gun back down.
"I hope you don't have visions when they show up," Sam pointed out, "You'll be a sitting duck if you do."
"Yeah, I know. We'll just have to see."
Sam put his gun down and picked the hammer back up, "You must be getting a better handle on it though. Your eyes didn't go red."
"I just hope they do when I need them to," she said as she placed the knives back on the table.
"I have no doubts about that," Dean assured her, "If adrenaline is what kicks you into zombie mode, you'll have plenty of that running through you when this goes down."
"Really Captain Obvious? You don't say."