[Dead Men Walking]
All the cars were parked and ready to go, but the members of Rick's group weren't in them. Instead they stood around the charred remains of their fire.
Most of them were silent, waiting for Rick to speak, though Shane kept shooting dirty looks from his bruised face at Dean.
Dean for his part, ignored Shane, his hands loosely slipped into his jacket pockets. Sam, Daryl, and Cas stood next to him. It was plain to everyone that Dean already had a group following. That meant that if Dean moved on from the group, some of the best fighters would be leaving with him.
"We have decisions to make." Rick started, standing next to the cold fire so everyone could see him. "We need to decide whether we want to continue to Fort Benning or do we want to strike out somewhere else." He waited for a beat, glancing around for any kind of reaction. Most faces were blank, they were just tired and didn't wait to think, but Rick could see the Winchesters looked thoughtful. The brothers shared a look and then Dean spoke up.
"I don't think we should continue up to Fort Benning." All eyes turned to settle on him. "The government had no idea about the monsters before this mess happened."
"But they can protect us." Lori interjected, receiving nods from various members. "And they have more weapons than us." Dean snorted a little.
"Lady, have you seen what's in the impala's trunk?" Dean didn't wait for her to answer instead addressing what she first said, "The government can't protect you from things they don't understand."
"Who then?" Andrea asked.
"Hunters." Sam said, joining the conversation. "There are other people that are like us out there. They know the evil that's out in the dark. They'll have places around the states that are protected." Sam shot a look at Dean. "Like the Roadhouse or Bobby's old place." Dean nodded his agreement.
"I know that in Kansas there will be a base of operations that is ─ will be fighting to stop the dev…the walkers." Rick frowned at Dean's broken answer.
"How do you know about that?" Rick looked at Shane who had been living in this apocalypse much longer than he had. "Have you heard about this place, Shane?" Shane shook his head.
Rick turned back to Dean, "Do you know who's running it?" Dean's lips twitched almost like he wanted to smile.
"Trust me. I know what I'm talking about." Rick was starting to get a little annoyed at Dean's cryptic answers.
"Who's leading it? Would I know him?"
"Yeah, I think you might." Daryl's head swiveled around catching sight of Dean's quick smile. Dean was completely messing with Rick. Daryl shook his head, but kept his mouth shut.
Sam grabbed Dean's arm. "Can I talk to you for a second?" He didn't wait for an answer; instead he roughly jerked Dean out of the circle.
No one could quite hear what was being said, but Daryl could make out the occasional, "Dean, shut up." Daryl felt his own lips pull into a smile.
The group waited for Sam to finish scolding Dean, most grinning at the brothers' backs.
When Sam had finished saying his piece, they both turned and joined the circle again.
Dean cleared his throat, his smile disappearing. "I know that we'll be safe there. The Croats won't be able to get us." There was complete sincerity in his voice, which everyone could hear.
Rick turned to give everyone a good look, silently asking what they thought of Dean's plan.
"Why should we trust you?" Shane said loudly. Dean squeezed his eyes shut, but then turned his head so that Shane was in his gaze.
"Have we given you reason not to?" He shot back.
Shane disregarded this, instead saying, "We've known you boys for what, three days? That's barely enough time to decide what our favorite color is."
"Easy," Dean quipped, "Green."
"Dean…" Sam groaned.
"You know what, you son of a─,"
"Shane, stop!" Rick growled, cutting off the insult. He didn't need another fistfight on his hands.
"Maybe we should take a vote." Glenn said from his corner. There was a murmur of agreement.
"Okay," Rick said, relieved that someone had spoken up. "Those of you that want to continue on to Fort Benning, raise your hand."
There was a slight pause and then Shane raised his hand, followed by Lori, Andrea and Dale.
Shane kept his hand up, waiting for anyone else.
"Alright," Rick said after a few seconds. "All who want to follow Dean to Kansas and his safe place."
Dean and Sam kept their arms down by their sides because everyone knew where Dean stood. They knew that wherever Dean went his brother would follow. Castiel also didn't need to say anything, because again he would follow his friends.
"Hell, y'all know I'm in." Daryl said. Daryl was quickly followed by Glenn, Hershel, Maggie, Carol, and T-Dog.
There was complete silence after the vote, and then Rick said, "Well, I guess that settles the matter. We're heading to Kansas."
After they had been driving for a few hours, Sam turned to face Dean. He reached his large hand over and turned down AC/DC, that Dean had been playing for the past fifty miles or so on loop.
"Hey." Dean protested, though he didn't reach over to turn it back up again.
"Dean," Sam said his voice serious. "What do you think we're going to find when we get there?" Dean shrugged his eyes facing the front, glued on Daryl's bike that led the party.
"You can't promise these people safety and have no clue of what's there!" Sam's voice began to rise, but he dropped it low again when Castiel shifted in his sleep from his seat in the back.
"What was I supposed to do, Sam? Huh? Just let them go off to some other place that may or may not give them protection?" Dean gave Sam a quick, angry look. "You know as well as I do that everyone runs to the nearest form of military in a time of crisis."
He jerked on the wheel angrily, causing the impala to swerve. Dean righted the car and shot another glare at Sam.
"At least we know that something is going to be set up in Kansas."
"No, Dean. You think you know something will be there. I don't know. I wasn't there, seeing as I was too busy being the devil." Sam snapped. Dean pressed his lips together, tightly.
"Well, I guess you'll just have to trust me, Sam. I hope you can do that." Sam frowned angrily.
"What's that suppose to mean?" He demanded.
"You know what it means." Dean retorted and then bit off what he was going to say. "Nevermind."
"No, Dean, I want to know what you were going to say. Tell me." Sam said, his voice mock curious.
"Dammit, Sam. Just drop it and trust me." Sam opened his mouth to snap something back, but he seemed to think better about it and shut it.
Dean and Sam kept a frosty silence between them for the rest of the ride, but as the sun was just beginning to set Sam broke the silence. He knew that he would have to tell Dean about Aries. Dean couldn't hear it from anyone else but him.
Sam cleared his throat, earning him an uninterested look from Dean.
"Dean."
"Hmm?" Sam raked a hand through his long hair, letting it flop back on his forehead.
"I didn't tell you everything about what happened back in the forest with Daryl and me." Dean frowned, not liking where this was going.
"We didn't just run into a Wendigo. Locke and Royce were out there too." Sam didn't wait for Dean to say something. "There was also this other guy named Aries. I've never heard of him―,"
"Wait, wait!" Dean interjected, "Aries?"
"What?" Sam demanded.
"We hunted a creepy ass monster in Wisconsin when you were still in school and I was running hunts on my own. He was a bit of a douchebag and cold as hell, but good at the job."
"Oh." Sam said not sure how to proceed. "Daryl and I ran into all three of them. They weren't very friendly."
"Hunters rarely are, Sam."
"They tried to kill us."
Dean slammed on the brakes and the Impala jerked and swerved across the road, receiving a blaring horn from Shane, who was driving behind them.
The impala skidded to a halt in the middle of the road, causing the rest of the cars to stop suddenly to avoid hitting them.
Dean shoved open his door ignoring whatever it was that Sam was yelling at him.
He stalked toward the RV, knowing that it would be where they were keeping Aries.
The others were starting to get out of their respective cars, all shooting confused looks at each other.
"What the hell is goin' on, Dean?" Rick shouted coming around his own car. He stopped midstride when he was the glare on Dean's face. "Dammit…" He muttered.
Rick started to run toward Dean. "Dean, you need to stay away from him! You can't kill him."
Dean didn't even spare a glance at Rick. He wrenched open the RV door, almost breaking it off its hinges.
Rick swore as Dean disappeared into the depths of the RV. Beckoning Shane to him, Rick dashed to the door and was about to enter when Dean came stomping back out, Aries in one hand.
Dean shoved Rick and Shane out of the way and threw Aries onto the gravel.
He turned his back to the group, his hand going into his jacket. When he faced Aries and the group again, Dean held his KA-Bar in his hand.
"Dean!" Sam shouted, from the Impala's side. He raced forward to restrain his hotheaded brother.
Dean raised his free hand to ward Sam off. "Stay back, Sammy."
Sam skidded to a halt in front Aries and Dean. "Dean, stop this. We don't kill humans. We hunt monsters."
"This guy is a monster in my book." Dean said not missing a beat. "Look, Sam. Gordon, Roy, Walt…We let them go. Gordon came back, not once. Twice. How much do you wanna bet Aries got his information on you from Walt and Roy?" Dean said ignoring everyone, but his brother. He put a booted foot on Aries's chest and looked down at the man.
"He needs to die." Dean said. Lori gasped from where she stood next to a car. Her hands tightened around Carl's shoulders.
Rick slowly began to move closer to Dean, his eyes earnest.
"Look, Dean. I understand that you don't want Sam to get hurt or anything, but we don't kill the living."
"You might not, but I can and will if I have to." Dean said, giving Rick a hard look. Rick shot Sam a pleading look.
"Dean, if you think that you're doing me a favor, you're wrong. I don't want him dead. You know that." Sam said pleadingly.
Dean's jaw jumped and his hold around his knife tightened. He glared down at Aries, who was trying not to look afraid, but failing somewhat.
Dean was struggling internally with what he wanted to do and with what Sam wanted him to do. He tried to think about the issue with a clear and logically mind, but his mind was buzzing with anger and guilt.
He gritted his teeth, glaring down at Aries.
Dean let out a breath, with it his anger. He lowered his knife. When had he ever put his wants in front of Sam's? Sam wanted Aries to live, so Aries would live.
Dean rested his chin on his hands. From the pale glow of the fire, he could see the sidelong looks that the rest of the group was giving him. They had almost seen him kill a human being today and they were disgusted with him. He knew that. But he would have done whatever was necessary to keep Sam safe, even if that meant killing another hunter.
Sam had gone into the impala an hour ago, sleeping in the passenger side while Cas was conked out in the back. Dean didn't feel much like sleeping. There were too many thoughts racing through his mind.
He stiffened as there was a scuffle of movement next to him and someone sat down in one of the two empty spots near him.
Dean turned his head to the side to see who his visitor was.
It was Daryl. Dean frowned a little.
Daryl gave him a nod and balanced his crossbow on his knees.
"I would've killed him." Dean didn't need to ask who Daryl meant. "Wha' these people," Daryl threw his hand out, indicating the group that huddled in small circles around the fire and RV, "don' know is wha' they got ta do ta survive."
Daryl put his hands on his crossbow, fiddling with his arrows. He didn't look at Dean, instead keeping his eyes on the flickering flames of the small fire.
"Sure they migh' think they know. But they don' see the threat tha' Aries is. He's another mouth ta feed and take care of. We can' spare the men ta keep watch over him and if he gits away, you can be damn sure tha' he'll be headin' right back ta his group."
Dean didn't say anything, waiting for Daryl to continue with his rare speech.
"When Aries finds his group, they'll come gunning fer us."
"I know." Dean said after a moment, but didn't say anything else. The decision had been made.
He gave Daryl a hard look, trying to figure out the man. Daryl stubbornly kept his eyes on the fire.
"Daryl." Dean said, waiting a beat for Daryl to look at him, but Daryl didn't. Dean swallowed unsure of how to continue with what he wanted to tell his friend. He finally settled with a simple, but true sentence.
"You're a decent man."
Daryl woke suddenly. He blinked at the ceiling of RV.
He spent a moment lying on his back, Dean's words from the night before echoing through his mind.
You're a decent man.
Obviously Dean didn't know him very well. Daryl sat up from his mess of covers and rubbed the heel of his palms into his gritty eyes.
He shot a quick glance around the RV, noting that Dale and Andrea weren't in their usual spots.
There was a sudden, but piercing scream from outside. He jerked to his feet and shoved open the screen door, loading an arrow onto his crossbow.
The screen door banged behind him as he looked for an immediate threat; after a moment, Daryl lowered his crossbow when he didn't see any walkers.
"Wha' the hell is goin' on?" He demanded as he saw Rick, Shane and the Winchesters by the stone cold fire. He ignored the rest of the camp that was slowly beginning to come out from their various sleeping areas, woken by the scream.
The broad back of Sam was blocking his view of whatever was lying on the ground; all that he could see was a dark shape laying at their feet.
Daryl could now hear quiet sobs coming from where the men stood.
He growled in frustration when they didn't answer him. He stalked to where they stood and pushed his way between the Winchesters.
Daryl stopped in his tracks.
Dale's lifeless eyes stared up at him from the ground, his mouth hanging open slightly. Daryl swallowed as his eyes trailed down Dale's body, noting the fact that his stomach was split open from underneath his chin to his belly button. Most of Dale's insides seemed to be missing. The side of his head also had a puncture wound, with a trail of red blood down the side.
Daryl cast a quick glance at Andrea, who knelt next to her dead friend; her hands bloody and her eyes swollen from crying.
"I just…came out to…see if Dale wanted company…" She gasped out to him. "He was dead." Andrea cried out, burying her hands into her face. Her shoulders shook with her sobs.
Daryl didn't say anything to her, knowing that you had to get the pain out somehow.
He focused his gaze back on their dead comrade and frowned. He crouched down, putting his knees on the gravel.
Daryl reached out and gently touched the blood that had pooled around the old man's torso. The blood was still sticky and clung to his fingers.
Daryl cast a glance up at Rick, then at Dean.
"Walker got him?" He asked quietly. Rick mutely nodded. Daryl turned back to the body, the frown still etched on his face.
"Tha' don't make no sense." He muttered. If a walker had gotten Dale, then why wasn't there more blood? Why did the bloody body look much too clean to be the hands of mindless walkers?
Daryl got his feet, keeping his thoughts to himself. He briefly rested his hand on Andrea's shoulder, before moving away from the body.
Daryl went to the RV, leaning against it. He watched as the Winchesters helped Shane and Rick carry the body away from the main area of the camp to the side of the road, while the rest of the group watched with somber eyes.
Daryl narrowed his eyes as Dean started coming towards him. Dean stopped in front of him and coughed.
"I heard you over there." Dean said, "You don't think that Dale was attacked by a Croat do you?"
Daryl didn't say anything.
"Neither do I." Dean said, leaning closer, his voice dropping. "I don't know what got Dale, but something knew what it was doing when it ate or took out Dale's insides. The job was clean and quick. You touched the blood; it was still sticky. That means that it must have happened sometime this morning, when Dale took watch from Glenn."
Daryl listened, not moving, but staring intently at Dean.
"Keep an eye out, okay, Daryl?" Daryl nodded, tightening his grip on his crossbow. Dean turned to leave, but then stopped and turned back.
"One more thing…Whatever this thing was, it only went for Dale. Why? It could have gotten me, Sam or Cas. We were sleeping in the impala away from the rest of the group, but it left us alone. Whatever it is, it's still out there…and it's only getting started."
A/N: Okay, so I know that I took way too long to finish this chapter and the result is kinda blah.
I'm not very happy with this chapter. Oh well...
I just wanted to welcome all the new readers and thank those who reviewed. ^_^
I also wanted to address what one of my guest reviewers said (by the way, thanks for the great review!). My guest mentioned that Lauren Cohan who plays Maggie on TWD also plays Bela in SPN. I totally forgot about that and I was thinking, after that review, to maybe include something about the boys recognizing her as Bela. Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to work that in my story plan. But it was a good idea!
My guest also said that I need to put more life into the other characters...so I'll be trying to do that from now on...please tell me when someone is acting too wooden, okay?
Lastly, even if I take forever to get chapters out I haven't abandoned this story! I won't stop until it's finished. You have my word.
