1 chapter and the epilogue left! Last chapter was rather pathetic, so here's a big, long chapter to make up for it!
Balthzar is a sassy asshole and we all know it
0o0o0
Chapter 13 – Light Flare.
Dean.
They didn't even get past the final mile mark before it was clear that something was very, very wrong. People were travelling in droves away from the camp. Most were wounded; some carried injured family members and friends. One man even appeared to be carrying his wife's dead body. Horrified, Dean set into a sprint, wind screaming against his face. Balthazar and Chuck were left shocked, staring from the crowds to the disappearing figure that was sprinting towards the epicentre.
Dean was at the gate when the burly stranger threw him to the ground. He huffed from the sudden change in momentum and the rough impact as the man smashed him into the ground. Bruises already forming from his meeting with Balthazar earlier burst into renewed pain, and the green-eyed man groaned in pain.
"Frank! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" bellowed a dishevelled Bobby from just inside the gate, a frightened Adam clutching his leg. At least they were alive. Dean turned his head and glared at the man towering over him.
"He's the bastard that brought that filthy freak here in the first place! My wife is dead because of him!" Frank jabbed his thick, sausage-like finger at Dean to punctuate the final word.
Oh God, Dean's heart faltered, Sam. He was too late. He scrambled to his feet.
"Where is he? Where's Sammy?" he choked out.
"He's gone son, took off when the other infected showed up. Took down a hell of a lot of them on his way out, let me tell you," Bobby explained with a conflicted look. He had a gash on his forehead but seemed okay apart from that.
"Really?" choked out Dean, "He-he took down infected? Not people?"
Bobby's face twisted. "He took a turn half way through the chaos, I mean, he saved Adam's life!" The older man ruffled the child's hair absently. "But... at the beginning…" Dean looked away; he didn't need to hear this. "Dean, it wasn't him, he didn't- he didn't do this. But Cas-"
Dean whipped around to look at Bobby, whose eyes were soft and sympathetic. "He's hurt real bad, Dean."
Dean didn't need to know anything else at the moment. He looked Bobby dead in the eye, and with the steadiest tone he could muster, he demanded, "Take me to him."
Bobby nodded, picking up Adam and walking apprehensively towards the building where Sam had been being kept. The place where it all started, or maybe the place where it all ended.
0o0o0
Silently grinning, the man on the roof folded himself further into the shadows. He had no idea what had stirred up the infected ravishing the streets – maybe that camp in the south of the city, who knew? – but he couldn't find himself caring. A makeshift slingshot and a pile of pebbles were his only companions, mischievous gold-brown eyes fixed on a particularly stupid-looking infected stumbling around mindlessly below him. Every time a pebble hit it, it jerked and screeched comically, and stumbled drunkenly for a few seconds before going back to its wobbling path up the street.
In the street bellow, browning weeds broke through the cracks in the concrete slabs. The road was beaten and full of potholes – a result of that first rush of panic to get out of the city back when it all began – and apart from the sounds of the infected in the distance, and the occasional 'snap' of his slingshot, the streets were silent.
Eventually, however, the man's entertainment wandered off. Standing and stretching, face turned towards the early summer sun, Gabriel was about to slide down off the roof when another infected, all gangly, thin limbs and sickly-white skin, hair and eyes, skidded around the corner and into the street. Gabriel slipped back into the shadows at easily as if he had never left them, eyes narrowing dangerously as he traced its path along the pavement.
This one was tall – maybe a recently turned half-gone – body intact, eyes entirely white, gaze on the sky as he sniffed the air madly. Panting and snarling, more beast than human now, he looked like the first real threat Gabe had seen in a while – and when he turned around to face the Gabriel, something like a hallucination seemed to take over him. A flash of humanity seemed to overtake the darkness in his eyes as he cowered away from something on the ground, something that obviously was only there in his head.
Gabriel's heart went out to the kid, it really did, but he was past the point of no return now. Raising his weapon, this time a handgun with a silencer, the man narrowed his eyes and took aim. Sure, the braindead infected were harmless, but this one…
Suddenly, it clicked.
Sam.
0o0o0
He looked so peaceful. Ellen had taken the time to lay him out on the table Sam had used to be strapped too, had washed his wounds and given him a beaten old IV like Sam had had. But Cas didn't need the restraints that had bound Sam. He wasn't moving. For a second Dean thought he was dead, until he saw his chest rise as a shallow breath passed through his pale lips. Ellen walked away from his bedside, leaving Jo to reapply the disinfectant to the wound on Cas' neck. She walked over to Dean and took his hand in hers, sounding more like a therapist than his friend.
"He lost a lot of blood, but he'll make a full recovery. He's a fighter. He might even wake up soon." She had meant it to be reassuring, but the weight behind the 'might' didn't go unnoticed.
Dean walked tentatively over to Cas and took his hand in his. It was so cold, the usual rough warmth seemed to have drained from grasp. A tear slid silently down Dean's cheek and splashed onto Cas' wrist.
"Please," whispered Dean. "I can't lose both of you."
No sooner than the words had passed between Dean's lips had Cas given Dean's hand a feeble squeeze. His eyes fluttered open and met Dean's shocked, tear-stained face.
"I'm not going anywhere," he croaked.
"Well we are," piped up a British voice from the doorway. "Bobby has informed us that Sam has done a runner, so I guess we should try and find him and get him the cure, perfect test subject for the cure he is. Though we'd have more luck trying to unsink the Titanic."
Chuck sighed and shook his head. "For God's sake Balthazar! Empathy!" He turned to face Dean and Cas. "We'll give you some time with your boyfriend, Dean, and then if you want to find Sam we need to go soon; before he gets too far." He gave a curt nod and pushed Balthazar out the door.
"Hear that Dean?" croaked Cas, "I'm your boyfriend!" He giggled hoarsely and Dean turned and gave Jo a very concerned look, convinced that Cas was having some sort of mental breakdown.
"Pain meds," she explained, turning on her heel to leave.
"Wait!" groaned Cas, whole demeanour changing in a second, rolling off the metal table onto Dean and ripping the IV out of his arm. "How long 'till this stuff wears off?" Dean tried to push him back onto the table, ending up in a tangle of limbs with Cas hanging off his waist and looking at Jo expectantly.
"Uh," she said, looking from Dean's death glare to Cas' puppy dog eyes. "An hour? Maybe two?" she ventured cautiously as she backed out of the room, wary of the argument about to start.
"So it's settled then," slurred Cas in a matter of fact tone, "I'm coming with you to find Sam."
Dean pushed him back onto the table with enough force that he couldn't resist, but enough tenderness that he wasn't hurt. "Like hell you are!" Dean shouted disparagingly. "You almost died! And- and now what? You want to go on a suicide mission to find the thing that put you there?"
Cas was shocked into silence. "It's Sam, Dean. It's our Sammy. He's one of us. He's family. Of course, we're going to go find him." His quiet tone was thick with sorrow and disbelief.
Dean shook his head. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that. Sam didn't attack you. Sam is the one who killed a group of infected to save my half-brother. Sam is the one who we're going to find and cure. Sam is the one who is going to bake me a fucking pie to say thank you once I've saved his sorry ass."
Cas stood up unsteadily and threw his arms around Dean. "I see through your jokes you big softy. Now find my shoes, I'm coming whether you like it or not." Dean wrapped his arms around Cas to steady him, and to steady himself, even if it was in a different way.
A few minute later Dean emerged from the building with his arm around Cas' waist to support him.
"Dean, not to be rude, but are sure you want to bring him? He's injured, he'll slow us down and do himself more damage," queried Chuck. Before Dean could answer, Cas butted in.
"Dean doesn't have a choice and he knows it. Either we go together and he can support me and look out for me, or I crawl after you. He wisely went for option A". Chuck nodded and turned to lead the party out of the compound – Balthzar coughed (1), bringing up the rear and letting Cas and Dean stand in the middle of the group.
"Let's go unsink the Titanic," muttered Balthazar in annoyance.
0o0o0
She watched from afar, following the group as they traced that diseased monster's trail. What was Dean thinking, taking her Cas into danger like this?
It didn't matter, that idiotic mouth breather wouldn't be breathing soon enough.
They stopped at a bush and inspected something red and white on the leaves, muttering between each other before turning sideways towards the mouth of the forest. Wonderful, thought Meg, they were finally out of the open.
She padded silently into the forest, gliding through the underbrush and scaling a nearby tree to gain a better vantage point nearer the group. Her baseball bat was clutched tightly in her hand.
"- it's not going to happen!" Dean's voice cut through the sleepy forest and reached her where she was perched. "I'm not leaving Cas alone!" Oh, thought Meg with a vile grin twisting her lips, this sounded promising.
"He won't be alone!" retorted the stranger with the thick British accent, "He'll be with us. You'll be alone."
Less promising. But hey, even if she couldn't get to Cas, she could always take out the competition. She spun the baseball bat expertly with her free hand and grinned at Dean with a sadistic glint in her eyes. This was going to be fun.
0o0o0
Dean huffed in annoyance as he trudged along one of the two possible trails they had identified. He been walking for less than 5 minutes when he heard a sudden rustle of leaves and a dull thud as something heavy hit the ground behind him. He whipped around to see a black-haired woman staring back at him with a heavy bat in her hands. Slowly, she gave a wide and toothy grin that sent shivers through him.
"Dean!" screamed a voice from behind the thick forestry to his left, "get away from her!" He turned back to look at the woman, who was now wearing a full-on vicious, bloodthirsty grin. Dean only had a second to twist and shout for Cas to run before she swung her bat and the world was engulfed in shadows.
0o0o0
"You okay there, Dean-o?" asked an unfamiliar and chirpy voice. Dean stared at the figure looming over him through his blurry, unfocused eyes. "You're lucky I was in the area or that chick would have ended you." The figure chuckled and slid slowly into focus, extending a hand to help him up as Cas burst through the bracken. Whether it was the blood loss or the panic, Cas was extremely pale.
"Whoa! You alright there, brother?" asked the maybe-not-so-stranger.
"Gabriel?" squeaked Cas, staring at the man wide-eyed. "B-But, Meg?" he stuttered, his eyes soon falling on the unconscious figure on the ground. "Dean?"
"I'm fine, Cas. I just-" he replied, but was cut off by a ferocious roar.
"Sam," chorused the three men, sprinting towards the source of the noise leaving an unconscious Meg to be stumbled upon by an extremely confused Chuck and a mildly amused Balthazar. Cas, Dean and Gabe ran for what felt like hours, before they burst into a clearing to see Sam on his knees with his back to the group. His patchy-white hair was slick with red and white blood alike. They stood still for a second; afraid to disturb him in case it triggered an episode.
A minute passed and Chuck and Balthazar appeared by their side. They looked between Sam and the group, before Chuck leaned in and whispered, "We assumed that the girl was unconscious for a reason, so we tied her to a tree."
"Yeah, okay," murmured Dean, slowly inching towards Sam, Cas' hand gripped tightly in his own. He was about a meter away from Sam when he turned around. His pale milky eyes leaked from the corners as he cocked his head to look at Cas. Anguish – raw, real, human anguish – filled his eyes.
"You're dead." His voice shook. "This isn't real. I killed you. YOU'RE DEAD!" he screamed, standing up and staring at Cas, his whole body tense and shaking.
He took a step forward, but whether he was actually going to hurt Cas would never be known, because at that moment he was tackled to the ground by Balthazar.
"This is for your own good, kid!" he mumbled as he jammed the needle into Sam's leg. Sammy screamed and writhed under Balthazar, but soon went still.
Too still.
"Sammy?"
Silence.
"Sam? No, no, no, no, no! Sammy?!"
Dean's voice rose, so loud that Chuck flinched and birds scattered from the treetops around them.
"SAM!"
0o0o0
(1) *cough*wHIPPED*cough*
Also, this is probably the most evil I have ever been.