You can't save anyone, Dean.
As he looked out at the forest, listening to the sounds of demons and dogs grow closer and closer, Dean felt like he was in the ocean again. He was numb, paralyzed, like freezing water had stabbed his skin like a thousand needles again and was now dragging him down into its dark depths. It left him unable to do anything else but just stare and realize how everyone of his fears had come true.
What if they failed? What if the demons found them before they ever made it to Roman's lodge? What if Andrea couldn't distract the demons for very long? What if the demons found Cas and Benny and the kids first? What if the monster found them instead? What if they all died?
"Are they headed toward us? Do they know we're here?! How did they find us—" Dean could hear Sam asking Benny, the fear in his voice. He didn't hear the vampire's reply though; maybe it was lost in a booming bark of a hellhound, or the Benny's silence was the only one they needed. The answer was obvious, and in the long run, it didn't matter how the demons had found them either. All that mattered was that they were here, heavily armed, with their dogs. And they were coming for them.
And that meant Andrea was probably dead — and she had said this could all go wrong, hadn't she? She had said that the demons and the monster might find them first — and their tiny little group was in trouble. They were out on the beach with barely any hiding spaces to speak off (how long could grass possibly hide them anyway?), and no way they could fight the demons with any hope of winning. And if the monster was with them...
Dean swallowed painfully, feeling like he was sinking now. Had Sam's plan been for nothing? he wondered then. Had Andrea's sacrifice had been pointless? Was their one-and-only chance to escape gone just like that? They had come this far, survived this much… Did that matter for anything?
His eyes moved then, over to Cas, the angel still mumbling away in his sleep. Was this it? Dean thought, feeling like this was drowning now. Was this how they were going to die?
"We have to get out of here," Sam hissed, sounding desperate now. It made Dean slowly look over, seeing Sam was staring out at the forest too. When his brother turned back to him and Benny, his eyes were wide, frantic. "We're too exposed here. We need to get somewhere safe."
"Where's that at?" Benny asked, voice raw and tired. When Dean looked over at him, he could see the vampire's eyes were red-rimmed and wet, lips slightly trembling. Still, he was trying to soothe a whimpering Drake, petting his wild hair while the toddler wiggled away in Benny's jacket. The boy wasn't the only vampire child scared; when Dean glanced down at the others in the grass, he saw the fear on the girls' faces. He turned back when Benny croaked out, "How do we get there without them tracking us down?"
As if answering him, one of the distant hellhounds howled, making Dean's heart spike and hand go for his rifle. Sam only flinched, his eyes flickering from side-to-side, forming a plan as fast as he could think it up. "Demons are practically blind to what they can't smell, right?" he said then with a snap of his fingers, and then looked between them again. "We can use the kelp — coat our scents. Then we'll head for the meadow, and from there, we'll go for Roman's base. All of us. We'll follow the river."
Would that work? Dean wondered, feeling the tiniest stirring of hope as he glanced back at Benny. The vampire really didn't look all that convinced though; he just looked exhausted, like all the fight had been drained from him, and he was just standing just because. The grief on his face grew more prominent when he looked down at Sophia and Elpis, the girls exchanging worried glances. "And if the daemons find us before we get there?" he asked then, eyes lifting back to Sam's. "What then?"
Sam's mouth clicked shut at that, and he stared at Benny for a long moment before he glanced away. An uncomfortable and uncertain look crossed his face, and Dean grew confused, not knowing why. (Maybe Sam didn't think they could do this?) But then his brother squeezed his eyes shut, lips pursing, before he nodded once; he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion, because when he turned back, his face was set in grim determination.
"Then we'll push the daemons back. We'll fight them." Sam's grip tightened on his rifle, and then his eyes narrowed. "And I'll kill them all if I have to."
It took Dean a moment, but he realized how big that was for his brother. Knowing Sam, he would have wanted to spare the daemon's lives if he could; only kill them in self-defense if there was no other choice. But it was also more than that: Sam was saying he'd fight for them… the people he had given up on, should have fought for all along...
His brother looked at him then, that grim determination never leaving his eyes. "Dean?" he asked, and Dean blinked in surprise. "Are you with me?"
Dean's heart leapt; Sam needed his help with this new plan, and he had promised himself he'd be whatever his brother needed him to be. He nodded quickly, and Sam's lips twitched toward a smile before he turned to Benny.
The question wasn't asked; it didn't need to be. Benny's lips pursed as he stared at Sam, before he glanced down at the children again. The grief still warred on his face, but when Elpis grasped his free hand, and Sophia touched his arm, it seemed to give him strength he needed. He let out one long shuddering breath, before he looked back up at them. The same grim determination filled his eyes too, and he nodded once.
"I won't let Andrea's sacrifice be meaningless," he murmured quietly.
Sam's lips twitched again, this time toward a grimace, before he started ushering them over. "We need to move now then. Dean, prep Castiel the best you can. We can't keep the stretcher; it'll slow us down. Sophia, is it? Can you get us some more kelp? And Benny, you might have to carry Castiel; Dean and I need our hands free—"
While Benny fished Drake out of his jacket to hand to Sophia (who put him in her own puffy vest), Dean moved to do as told, hobbling over to Cas's side. He sucked in a deep breath as he did, hoping it would help calm that sinking feeling still in his stomach. Sam was right, he told himself, absently glancing toward the trees when he heard another demon shout in the distance. They weren't done yet — they could still do this. If they could get to the meadow, they'd lose the demons, and from there...
Sophia suddenly let out a warning shout, and it was only then that Dean noticed the dark shapes moving between the trees in front of him.
That was the only view he got before a demon stepped out from behind a trunk and aimed his rifle right at him.
Dean remembered yelling something to the others. Gun! maybe. Demon! most likely. Either way, he had never thrown himself to the ground so fast, the air knocked out of him when he hit dirt.
It was not a moment too soon though, bullets flying through the air above him and tearing into a tree trunk behind him. Pulverized wood flew into the air, and thankfully that was it, the others having ducked and taken cover behind the rocks where Cas was.
Dean had to look them quickly over just to make sure they were okay, eyes shooting first to Sam, his brother's back against the rock, wide-eyed with his gun against his chest. Sophia was next to him, arms encircled around Drake in her vest, while Benny had curled around Elpis, body acting a shield. Cas was the only one lying unawares, tossing fitfully in his sleep still.
They were alright, but wouldn't be for long. Through the grass, Dean could the demon gesturing two others to move up, the second and third darting to opposite trees. They would try to pin them in place then, Dean realized. Two of them would keep their group from moving away from the rocks with a constant barrage of suppression fire. While they did that, the third could circle around and finish them off.
Son of a bitch, Dean thought. They had to get the others out before they were trapped, and they had to do it quickly. For that, they could use the demons' own tactics against them, and Dean quickly looked back at Sam to tell him. As another wave of bullets flew over them, he communicated to Sam using hand signals, explaining what they needed to do with a quick flick of his fingers. His brother gave a quick jerk of his head in understanding when he finished, and then tapped at Benny to whisper the same to him. The vampire looked at both of them in confusion and surprise, but nodded, hand reaching for Elpis's and Sophia's.
They were ready then. On the count of three, Dean said with his fingers. Through the grass, he could see one of the demons moving closer. One, two—
"Three!" Sam yelled as he swung around the rock, and started firing. From the ground, Dean joined him, shooting through the grass and catching the demon moving between the trees dead in the center. The other demons let out yells and ducked back behind the trees, Sam adjusting his aim to keep them pinned down. Dean focused on the other one, only glancing away long enough to see Benny and the others dart away into the grass, ducking low to avoid being seen.
Dean's heart lifted at, but that still left Sam and Cas. In between another exchange of bullets with the demons, he yelled at his brother, "Sammy! Get Cas and go!"
Sam dove for Cas, going for the straps at his legs first. The demon he had been keeping pinned down peered around the tree at the lull, but Dean was on him, firing another wave of bullets at him. He missed, barely, the demon ducking back behind the tree with a loud curse. Dean's eyes swept from him to the other demon, but he was at an angle he couldn't hit him unless he moved to a better position. The demon had dragged his fallen comrade over to his side — Dean could see injured demon was cursing and trying to stop the blood that was slowing staining his jacket — and was shouting something, Dean hearing just snippets of it over the gunfire. "My position... Vampires with them, the angel—"
Son of a bitch, Dean thought again. He was telling the other demons where they were.
They had to move now. Sam cried his name and Dean looked back at him, seeing that brother had Cas over his shoulder again, their supply bag hanging off his arm. (Dean got a glimpse of Cas's face scrunched up in pain, no in doubt hurting from being jostled around again.) His brother needed covering fire so he could make his own run for it, and Dean paused from shooting long enough to scramble to his feet. His knee buckled when he did, and he fell against the rocks where Sam was, a stabbing pain streaking up his leg. But he couldn't worry about it, noticing the demons twisting around the trees, rifles up. Dean turned to Sam and yelled, "Sammy, run!"
His brother did, and Dean snapped his rifle up to start firing again. As the demons went for cover again, he shoved himself off the rock, leg buckling again but holding his weight while he slowly backed over toward the grass himself. He kept up his fire, waiting for the best moment when he could take off before the demons realized he had stopped firing, and they came after him. He started a mental countdown in his head, sucking in deep breaths as he prepared himself to start running, knowing his leg would not like it...
Still, he counted. One… Two… Three...
From the trees off to Dean's side, something dark and massive flew onto the beach, skidding on the rocks when it landed. Dean looked over without thinking, and then his heart dropped straight to his stomach when he realized what it was. The hellhound turned toward him, white fangs revealed when it let out a booming bark, red eyes flashing in the ever-darkening sky.
"Son of a bitch," Dean muttered, as the dog hackles raised, and then it started running straight toward him.
There was no outrunning a hellhound, but that didn't mean Dean didn't try. And run he did, plunging through the grass, rifle bouncing against his side and aching ribs, knee so stiff he could barely bend it but he made it anyway. He could hear the demons behind him shouting, bullets pinging off rocks and tearing into the grass as he ran through it. They stopped a moment later, and it was clear why: Dean glanced over his shoulder and saw the hellhound right on his heel, getting closer, closer, closer—
There was a tree ahead of him; Dean grabbed it without thinking and used it to swing around to the side. Sam's evasive trick worked though (Dean realizing a heartbeat later that was what it was): The hellhound flew past him and Dean took off for the beach this time, aiming for a jutting rock. He hit it and shoved off just as the hellhound caught up to him again, the dog slamming into the rock with thump. Dean didn't stop to look though, running again down the beach now, ocean waves crashing against the surf and sending spray high into the air. The hellhound let out a vicious bark from behind him, giving chase again.
There were no traps to stop the dog this time, but then Dean saw Sam on the beach ahead of him. He was yelling his name and waving his hand, motioning at Dean to move to the side, before he lifted his rifle up. With a curse, Dean threw himself to the side, hitting the rocks and knocking the air out of him again. Sam opened fire right as he did, the hellhound going to fast to dodge and running right into the hail of bullets.
Nothing short of a close-range shotgun blast or a well-placed bullet from a high-caliber rifle could take a hellhound down in one go. But Sam did a damn good job of trying to prove that wrong, firing bullet after bullet into the dog, little puffs of blood mist filling the air along with the hellhound's yips of pain. He stopped firing when the hellhound tripped, its body hitting the ground and sliding along until it came to a stop near Sam's feet.
Son of a bitch, Dean thought again from where he was lying on the rocks, his heart pounding away in his chest. That had been close, too close, he thought as he stared at the dog, half-afraid it would get up again. (It wasn't dead yet either, whimpering away on the ground while blood pooled around it.) That sinking sensation came back as he did, leaving him feeling like he couldn't breathe. If Sam hadn't been there—
He only looked away when Sam yelled his name again, his brother at his side and grabbing his arm. "Dean, come on, come on, " he breathed, pulling and tugging, while Dean's ribs protested angrily. But he couldn't even register it, a stab of panic going through him when he realized that Sam was alone.
"The others? Cas?!" he asked Sam desperately, looking around for them. Where were they?
"Over there," Sam reassured with a bob of his head toward them, and Dean's eyes flicked over in that direction. That was he saw them, or at least the top of Sophia's head poking out from what looked like a hole in the ground on the beach. Benny emerged from it a moment later, darting up the slope to solid ground. He looked over them, while Sam muttered, "He took Castiel from me so I could come help you."
Then Cas had to be in that hole thing (or whatever it was) with the children, Dean thought, and a wave of relief coursed through his veins. Sam tugged on him again, and though his ribs and knee fought it, Dean pushed to get himself up too. "We need to move fast, Dean. Before the daemons pin us down again," Sam said breathlessly as he heaved Dean to his feet, and then a thread of panic filled his voice, "Or another hellhound finds us."
That was going to be easier said than done. They both looked over when they heard a shout, and saw the demons from earlier coming up the beach toward them. As Dean cursed and reached for his rifle, Sam grabbed his too and then looked behind him. "Benny!" he yelled, "Get the children and— Benny! Watch out!"
Confused, Dean twisted around in time to see a second hellhound burst from the forest. It landed, and then bounded up, flying right at Benny.
Unlike them however, the vampire never saw it coming.
A lot happened in the handful of seconds where the hellhound tackled Benny and sent them both back into the hole, and Dean had run over to shoot at it. Over the sounds of screaming children and the demons shooting at them, he could hear the dog: the snap of its jaws, the way its claws dragged against the rocks, the long wet growl that was accompanied by Benny's scream of pain. It had Dean's heart pounding as he leapt into the hole — which was actually a long, wide crevice in the rocks — seeing the hellhound on top of the vampire, shaking its head back-and-forth rapidly like it had a chew toy. Except the chew toy in this case looked to be Benny's arm, and Dean only had time to let out the quickest pray that he didn't hit the vampire with a stray bullet before he had opened fire on the hellhound.
Distance and plenty of bullets were what brought down hellhounds; turned out Dean had neither. He got a volley in before his gun clicked empty, and the bullets he had shot hadn't been enough to take the dog down. When it whipped around on him, there was no room to maneuver inside the crevice; as Dean scrambled for his pistol tucked away in his waistband, the dog snarled and leapt toward him.
Shit, was all Dean could really think. (Why was it always hellhounds, though?)
There was a blur of movement from his side, and Dean didn't know what it was that hit the dog's side, sending it stumbling into the wall. It became clear a second later: on the hellhound's side was Sophia, her long nails digging into its flesh as she climbed on top of it. Then she bared her fangs with the most vicious snarl Dean had ever heard, before she sank them right into the dog's neck. The hellhound yipped in surprise and turned to try to bite her, its jaws missing by inches as the vampire clambered up its body out of the way. The hellhound tried to buck her off — Dean having to stumble out of the way when it slammed against the wall again — but Sophia wasn't deterred. She just pushed her legs against dog's side and sank her teeth in again.
In the grand scheme of things, for a vampire who had thrown herself at an angel to protect her family, a hellhound wasn't nearly as terrifying. But Dean still couldn't believe she had done it, or that she was basically riding the dog as it tried to bite and buck her off. (More impressively, she was holding on with one arm too, her injured one still in its scarf-sling.) It wasn't just an act of bravery though: She had attacked the dog with her best weapon, her venom. It was already starting to work, too, Dean noticing how the dog's movements grew sluggish as it tried to bite her again, legs starting to buckle. That was his cue then, Dean yelling at her as he lifted up his pistol and took aim.
"Sophia, move!"
She did, wrenching herself free and falling off the dog, hitting the ground with an 'oof.' Dean, opened fire, unloading bullet after bullet into the dog's head, face, shoulder, whatever he could hit. With the venom in its system, the hellhound wasn't fast enough to react, yipping as each bullet sank in. It backed up, toward the ocean, trying to move away from the onslaught; Dean followed it to the mouth of the crevice, firing again and again. It took the entire clip to bring it down, but with one final pained sound, it collapsed right in the waves. Surf swept in around it and batted at its body, blood-stained water and foam pulled back into the ocean.
The smell of blood and gunpowder was heavy in the air, the dog's dying whimpering the only sounds besides the waves for a moment. Dean could feel himself shaking and panting again, once more waiting long enough to see if the hellhound would rise again before he instinctively looked over at the others. Sophia was with Benny, her scarf gone and pushed against the vampire's arm to stop the bleeding; he could see Benny too, alive, his head tossing back and forth, teeth gritting in pain. The other vampires were over by Cas in the back of the crevice, Elpis curled around Drake, sobbing and trying to lift the toddler up with her as she got to her feet. Cas himself was half-sitting against the wall, brow creased as he mumbled away in his sleep. "They're in trouble," Dean heard him whispering, "They're in trouble. I have to help, I have to help..."
The only one missing was Sam, and Dean's heart leapt when he remember he had left his brother fighting off two demons on his own. The crevice was almost as deep as he was tall, but where he was at, jutting rocks to their side blocked his view of the beach and of Sam. But before he could scramble up over the crevice to go help, Sam appeared, literally sliding inside.
It wasn't a moment too soon: Bullets followed him, pinging off the lip of the crevice and whizzing over them, Dean hearing the demons shouting in frustration. Sam's eyes were wide with fear and he was breathing heavily — no surprise when he had probably sprinted to the crevice to get inside before the demons hit him — and he quickly sought Dean out. They reached for each other at the same time, clasping arms as Sam blurted out, "Dean?"
There were a dozen questions in that word alone, and Dean didn't know how to answer any of them. (Were they okay? was the main question, but Dean didn't know what condition Benny was in yet.) They both flinched when bullets hit the rocks again, and then quickly peered over to see the demons moving toward them, darting from cover to cover. It made Sam curse, and then start digging into their supply bag next to Cas, where their extra ammo clips were. "We can't let them pin us down again," he growled as he reloaded, empty magazine clinking against the ground when it fell. He slapped a fresh one in, and then pulled hard on the operating rod of the rifle. "Get everyone ready to move, Dean!"
It wasn't that simple, but there was no time to tell Sam; his brother had already turned around, pressing himself up against the rock and bracing his rifle against the crevices' edge. He started firing at the demons again, who both ducked for their covers; meanwhile, Dean cursed and then scrambled over to Benny's side, crawling over Cas's legs to do so. Though it was wide enough they could it in it, there wasn't much room to maneuver inside their shelter; as he passed Cas, he heard the angel whisper, "I have to help, I have to help—"
The vampire had moved up some to prop himself up on the wall, the scarf Sophia still pressed against his shoulder black with blood. Elpis sat on his other side, sobbing away with a crying Drake wrapped up in her arms. Benny, pale, sweating and breathing heavily, was trying to reassure her by holding her hand with his non-injured one. His blue eyes, brimming in clear pain, flickered over when Dean dropped beside him, and he managed to grin. His teeth were bloody as he muttered to Elpis, "See? See? The doctor's here t' make me all better."
If only I was, Dean thought, but he knew even a doctor would have been lost in their current situation with no supplies and demons shooting at them. Dean gestured Sophia away so he could look at Benny's injuries, but with the ever darkening sky and with all the blood, it was hard to see the full extent of the damage. Dean peeled apart the giant tears now in Benny's jacket to examine his wound, grimacing when torn skin moved with the fabric (not good). The blood-soaked pink underneath was definitely muscle, and possibly a peak of bone too (really not good), gouge marks up and down his arm saying the hellhound had bitten him twice before it started tearing into him.
Dean hissed under his breath as he glanced up at the vampire, Benny's lips twitching toward a grimace this time. He reached over, and patted his side, shirt torn like it had been slashed with a knife several times. (The hellhound's claws were sharp as blades though.) "Somethin' is wrong with my ribs too, brother," he muttered. "The dog landed on them, and it was kind of heavy."
Son of a bitch, Dean found himself thinking. That wasn't good. Worse than his arm actually — at least Dean could wrap that up and could deal with it when they weren't being shot at. Broken ribs were a whole other story, and Dean didn't know how he was going to deal with those uet. First though, he had to stop the bleeding in Benny's arm, and Sophia's scarf was a wet mess now. He reached for their supply bag again, where they also had some fresh clothes, and found a shirt. He tore it in two, and then wrapped it around the wound, pulling it tight to add pressure. The vampire let out a pained hiss, eyes squeezing shut.
Dean muttered a quick apology, and then looked over when Sam yelled at him. His brother ducked beneath the crevice edge again, reaching for another ammo clip. There were still bullets flying over them, their standoff with the demons apparently going nowhere; Sam looked surprised to see they weren't ready, his eyes flicking from Benny and then back. "Dean?" he asked again, frantic.
There was another dozen questions in that single one again. What was wrong? Why weren't they ready? Was Benny okay? Could he move? This time, Dean didn't want to answer, glancing back at the vampires. Because that one was a definitive no: If Benny had broken ribs, he might be able to walk… But it'd be slow, and he'd risk puncturing a lung or worse. And they needed to run, get off the beach as fast as they could before the rest of the demons found them and trapped them. Dean couldn't exactly build another stretcher for Benny, and they still had Cas, who had his own broken ribs to deal with. They couldn't carry them both, not when at least one of them needed their hands free to use their weapons—
Benny seemed to realize what Dean was thinking, his eyes going wide before he visibly gulped. He reached over then, latching onto Dean's wrist. "Just leave me behind, brother," he whispered, and Dean went still. "Take them and go. I-I'll be alright."
Dean's stomach dropped at that, but any words he might have said were lost when the other vampires immediately protested. "No, Benny, no, we are not leaving you," Sophia snapped in her deep voice while Elpis went quiet mid-sob, her eyes going wide as she seemed to realize what he said. Benny looked away to reassure the girls, telling them it was alright, while Dean swallowed painfully, his hands shaking a little.
Between hellhounds and demons, he hadn't had much time to think about anything but keeping everyone safe. But the sinking feeling was coming back to him, a painful reminder of what their situation was, and how they had nearly died already. And now Benny was injured, badly… Was that just the beginning of the end? Was this it?
Shit, Dean thought, feeling the tiniest stabs of panic in his chest. There had to be a way to get them all out of this. There had to be a way—
"Oh no," Sam whispered then.
Dean glanced at his brother, noticing Sam was looking over at the forest, and then lifting up to do the same. What he saw made his heart leap, and his stomach drop again. The clouds had parted enough that moonlight had started to stream through, lighting up the beach and revealing the demons that were emerging from the forest. They were spread out from each other, eight in total, but they all moved toward the same place: Their shelter.
Oh no, was right.
Son of a bitch, Dean thought again, feeling a stab of panic this time. The crevice gave them cover, but it also effectively trapped them, its only exit leading straight into the ocean. All the demons had to do was surround them; pin them down from every angle. If they did that, it didn't matter if Benny wanted to them to take the kids and go: None of them were leaving. It would be just like before too: The demons would try to flank them again, a few shooting at them to keep their heads down while the others advanced close enough to finish them off. And this time they had the numbers to make it work.
The sinking sensation was back, stronger this time, and Dean felt himself shaking again. But he fought it again, eyes darting around the field, looking for any possible exit. This couldn't be it, he thought again, frantic. This couldn't be—
Sam yelled his name, and Dean looked over in surprise. Bullets flew over their heads aimlessly, as Sam leaned in close and cried, "We need to punch through their line, Dean!"
Dean frowned, confused, while Sam quickly outlined his plan. "We kill at least two daemons in the line, and cover each other as we make our way through it. Then when we're clear, we make a break for the meadow!"
Dean's eyes flicked over to the field again, realizing Sam was right. The demons were spaced out far enough that if they did break open the line, they could get past before they could fill in the gaps. It would just be like before, going out one-by-one while the others gave covering fire. (Hopefully, with no hellhounds this time.) And they could even get Benny out, too, if they could provide enough covering fire for him as he made his way over...
It was a plan — not the best one they ever had, but they didn't exactly have a ton of options now. It didn't help the sinking sensation any either, but he nodded at his brother, and Sam's lips twitched again. He then looked back at the others, quickly relaying the plan to them. "Hang on!" he cried when he finished explaining, Benny, Sophia and Elpis looking up at them with wide eyes. "We are going to get out of this!"
They were, Dean reassured himself as he reloaded his rifle, slapping a new magazine in. (He decided to ignore how they only have one clip left in the bag, too.) Sam turned to him next. "Dean, get us an opening!"
Dean nodded again, sucking in a deep breath to steady his nerves. He was a good shot, a damn good shot, really the best person to get them an opening they needed. The assault rifle wasn't his preferred method for making said shots, but something like that had never stopped him before. He could do this, he told himself, bracing himself against the wall and waiting for his brother's cue to move. Sam started a countdown again, and Dean took another deep breath, readying himself. (He had to do this, he thought. He had to.) One… Two…
"Three!" Dean yelled this time, and both lifted up. Since the two demons were earlier were firing at them to keep their heads down, none of them probably expected the two brothers to come back guns blazing. As all the demons scattered for cover, Dean only had a heartbeat to level his gun, find their opening and aim for the demon who was blocking their way. And he did, firing a volley of bullets and catching the demon right before he dove behind a rock. Bullets tore into the demon's neck and head, mists of blood seen in the moonlight as he fell.
One down, Dean thought as he adjusted his aim to find the other demon he had targeted. She had made it to her cover, much to Dean's frustration — he was going to have to wait until she tried to shoot at them to get her too. Except they didn't have time to wait; he needed to kill her now, but how?
If he had some covering fire, Dean would have tried flanking her while she was distracted by whoever was shooting at her. Except his brother had enough on his plate: He was trying to hold back eight other demons, and that meant gunfire, and a lot of it. The air was filled with flying bullets, Sam alternating between one demon's cover to the next, firing at them to keep their heads down.
But he was only so fast, the demons too far spread out for Sam to keep them all down at once; those he wasn't firing at could shoot back, and they were. Both Dean and Sam had to duck back down as gunfire pinged off the rocks right in front of them, Dean feeling the bullets whizz up over his head. That wasn't good: Any closer, or if the bullet had hit at a different angle, and he knew he might have taken a bullet straight to the forehead.
Son of a bitch! Dean thought once more, while Sam reloaded again. They couldn't go back in though, bullets flying over their heads keeping them down. A quick glimpse over told Dean that the some of the demons were starting to advance toward them too, moving while the others gave them cover, and that had Dean cursing again. They were losing ground...
This can't be it, he thought again, frantically trying to think of a way out. But the only solution there seemed to be was more firepower, enough to keep all the demons back while Dean got them their opening. Where were they going to get that though…?
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he noticed Sophia scrambling over to him. She was ducked low, yelling at him, but he couldn't hear her over the gunfire. A quick glance told him the others were okay for now — Benny half-curled around the children, shielding them just in case; Cas still mumbling away from himself — but he turned back when Sophia pulled in closer, yelling louder.
"Let me help!" she cried.
If Dean hadn't seen her take on an angel or save him from a hellhound, he might have told her no. But he had, and they needed that firepower — maybe she was the answer. Heart pounding, he nodded to her to her obvious delight, and then he bobbed his head to a frowning Sam. "Get his pistol!" he yelled.
Sam gave him an unsure glance, but a quick look of reassure from Dean made him retrieve the pistol he had from his waistband, handing it over. Dean then had to give her the quickest shooting lesson he had ever given, Sophia listening intently. ("Focus on the front sight," he said, gesturing at the little metal nub on the gun. "It tells you where you're aiming. Focus on the front sight, not on your target. Then start firing!") She went to next to Sam's side, bracing herself against the wall while his brother started another countdown. "Sophia, shoot adjacent to me. Dean, you know what to do. One… Two…"
"Three!" they all yelled and came back up, firing again. And it worked — the pistol was no assault rifle, but bullets were bullets, and Sophia fired as fast as she could, fast enough to keep her set of demons' heads down. Sam fired back at the others, while Dean turned back to his demon, aiming his weapon where he knew she was. And it take long for her to twist around her cover to return fire — probably having seen the others getting fired on and coming in to help — and Dean was waiting for her. The second she was in his sights through his scope, he took the shot and hit her right between the eyes.
Yes, his entire being seemed to roar, Dean's heart soaring as he turned back to his brother. "Sammy!" he yelled, and his brother glanced at him. "We got our opening!"
Sam's hopeful grin was blinding, like the sun. And Dean would have soaked in it forever if they had the time, but it did shoot through his veins, focusing him on what they had to do. With their opening, it was time to put the next part of the plan into motion. "Go, Dean, go!" Sam yelled at him, waving him forward. "We'll cover—"
He never got to finish that sentence.
He couldn't, since that was right when Dean watched Sam get shot.
"You have to fight."
"How?" Sam had asked him, tears in his eyes. "How do I fight back? How do we fight and survive this, Dean?"
It seemed impossible. Maybe it was impossible. "I don't know," Dean murmured, knowing that wouldn't comfort Sam any. It had made his brother wince too. "Maybe we won't survive this, Sammy. Maybe we'll die here, and everything we fought for won't matter… But at least we fought."
At the time, it made perfect sense to think that, Dean thought. The monster had taken so much from them, and they had to fight back to stop him from taking anything else. And in a place where nothing else mattered, that mattered.
Watching Sam fall to the ground, Dean realized then what a load of bullshit that was. There was still so much more the monster could take, and he was going to take it all no matter how hard they fought.
We're all just meat, Dean, he heard Dick whisper in the back of his mind before Dean completely lost it.
"Sam!" he screamed, scrambling over to his brother. He completely forgot about the demons, about the danger they were in, about everything. All that mattered was Sam, Samuel, Sammy, his baby brother, and the spray of bloody he had seen when the bullet had hit his head. "Sammy, no, no, no, no!"
Sam was alive, but that was barely a relief for Dean. Not when his brother looked so disoriented when Dean grabbed him and heaved him up to sit against the wall, Sam blinking profusely. His hand wavered as he reached up to touch his bloody head, and then stared at his wet fingers, bewildered. "Dean?" he asked, confused.
"Let me look at you, let me look at you," Dean pleaded as he moved Sam's hand out of the way and examined his injury for himself. Blood was flowing down his face from the wound on the side of his head, hair already matted and sticky. Dean had to push it away to see the full extent of the damage, Sam's eye starting to swell shut, skin jagged and torn just above his eyebrow back to his ear. The bullet had grazed him, and looked worse than it probably was (head wounds always bled like nothing else), but that didn't stop Dean from feeling another wave of crippling panic. Mostly because of how Sam blinked at him again, eyes out of focus. "D-Dean, whaaaa… whaaaa happened? I'm not feeling so good."
"It's okay, it's okay, Sammy," Dean reassured, reaching for their supply bag where they had another shirt to use as a bandage. But as he pushed it to Sam's head, feeling the cloth soak up blood immediately, he had to admit to himself it was not okay. The bullet might have only grazed Sam, but it had still been a bullet — hitting his brother like a two-by-four going at over one thousand miles an hour. Sam clearly had a concussion, but how bad it was, Dean didn't know, only that those weren't usually good. (Such a nice term for traumatic brain injury, he thought with a inane giggle.) And it didn't stop him from thinking over the worst-case scenarios too: How just an inch to the right and that graze would have been a headshot, and Sam would have died, Sam would have—
They were all going to die.
Dean felt himself stiffen, stomach dropping like a rock. There was no avoiding it now. No trying to push it down. He had been fighting that thought for so long that the moment he let it get its claws in, it wasn't going to let go, made Dean stare it right in its bottomless maw. If he hadn't watched his brother get hit by the bullet, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but he couldn't deny it now or shove it down. It overwhelmed him, paralyzed him.
They were going to die.
Sam was disoriented, confused, movements slow and weak — he wouldn't be able to hold a gun, let alone fire. They had lost any advantage they had the moment he had gotten shot, and had left Sophia on her own, the young vampire still giving it her all though. But that didn't change the fact that they were pinned down in a hole with demons coming at them from all sides. Benny was badly injured too, Cas was out, Sophia was only one girl, Dean was paralyzed with fear. There were no exits, no ways out. They were trapped, and they were going to die.
Dean could feel himself shaking, heart hammering away in his chest. He couldn't breathe either, the sinking sensation in his stomach so akin to drowning. God, he thought, vision going blurry. Was this it? Was this it? This couldn't be—
Except it was: Dean heard a click-click-click, and saw Sophia look at her now-empty pistol, and then throw it away with a yell of frustration. He met Benny's eyes briefly, and watched a vampire break down in a heartbeat, his arm drawing the children closer to against him. Dean had to look away, but he couldn't look at his brother again, not unless he wanted to break. There was only one place to look, and that was at Cas.
Cas was looking back at him.
Dean's breath hitched in surprise, and then he went still when the angel reached up, fingers brushing Dean's cheek. The touch had Dean rooted to the ground for a whole other reason, unable to look away as Cas whispered, "I remember you. I remember everything."
What? Dean wondered.
It was near impossible to hear him over the sounds of bullets flying over them or the surf crashing into the shore. But at the same time, it was like all sounds slowly faded from existence, leaving only them, and them alone. Cas's fingers traced down his cheek, over his lips; his own lips twitched toward a smile, eyes growing warm.
"You were the boy in the forest," he murmured, and Dean felt stop breathing altogether. "Running from the daemons, chased by a hellhound, trying to protect your sibling. So scared, but so, so brave. Your soul cried out for help, and I had to answer it. I had to save you."
Dean couldn't breathe; couldn't even really understand what Cas was saying, still stuck on the first part. (He was talking about Colt's Gate. He was talking about Dean as a child.) Cas's brow creased then, and he cupped Dean's cheek with his hand. "And now you're here," he whispered again, and Dean saw the tears filling his eyes. "My soul cried out for help, and there you were. You saved me, Dean. You saved me."
I saved you? Dean wondered, confused, mind still moving so slowly. He didn't even have time to protest that, the words sinking into his skin, into his bones. I saved you.
Cas looked away then, past him and toward the ocean, and Dean's eyes followed instinctively. He could see the others turning as well: Sam squinting a little, eyes still out of focus; tears filling Sophia's eyes; Benny's mouth falling open. And when Dean saw why, his heart stopped completely.
Out on the ocean, its shape was revealed by the moonlight as it sailed toward them, a single beacon of light on its deck guiding it toward the island. It let out a blast from its horn, announcing itself to all those on the beach that it was coming for them.
Son of a bitch, Dean thought, feeling tears slip down his cheeks.
It was Bobby's boat.