Chapter 3
"Where ya going son?" Bobby asked as Dean came down with a bag in his hand. He could tell by his damp hair he had showered and changed clothes.
"I'm heading to the Roadhouse; going to talk to Ash and see if he can help. I was going to see if there were other hunters there that you hadn't talked to and talk to them too," Dean answered, pausing long enough to respond before heading for the door.
"Stay in touch and I'll do what I can from this end."
"Thanks Bobby."
"You take care son," he whispered watching his adopted son walk out the door.
Dean dropped his bag in the back seat and slid into the Impala to head for a bar that catered to hunters. The owner, Ellen Harvelle and her daughter Jo ran the place since Ellen's husband and Jo's father was killed on a hunt. Ash had wandered in one day and never left. To look at him no one would ever dream he went to MIT and was a computer genius. Dean hoped Ash could find something to point him in the right direction in finding his brother. He cranked his Baby and backed out to head out of town and pick up the interstate south west.
Traffic wasn't heavy and Dean was making good time. He was driving on autopilot, not paying any attention to the scenery around him. He had one goal set in his mind and shut everything else out. The day wore on and he only stopped for gas and junk food along the way. It took part of the day for him to get close to the Roadhouse.
The gravel parking lot was full when Dean pulled into the lot and moved through it to a couple of spots with reserved signs posted and parked. He got out and took a deep breath before heading for the door and hopefully the help he needed. He pushed open the door and stopped in the entryway to let his eyes adjust to the dimness of the light. Dean scanned the crowd seeing familiar faces among the patrons. He headed for the bar and a familiar face.
"Dean Winchester, it's been a long time," Ellen greeted him exuberantly. "Beer?"
"Hey Ellen, sounds good," Dean said. He took a seat at the bar and searched for the person he needed.
"What brings you to this part of the country and where's your brother?" she asked pulling a long neck from the cooler and sitting it in front of Dean.
"He's missing, that's why I need to talk to Ash."
"Awe honey, I'm sorry to hear about Sam," she said. "He's in the back in his room," she nodded as she went to help another patron.
Dean took his beer and headed for the back and down the hall to a room with a sign that said, 'Dr. Badass Is In'. He knocked on the door and called out, "Hey Ash can I talk to you?"
"What's happening?" Ash asked opening the door, naked.
"Wow dude!" Dean cried out adverting his eyes. "Think you can put some pants on so I can talk to you? I need your help."
"Give me...Fifteen minutes," he said snagging his beer from his hand and turned back into the room.
Dean started to say something rude until the door was shut in his face, but not before he heard female giggling in the background. Dean arched his eyebrows and chuckled to himself. He headed back to the bar to get another beer, and wait on Ash to finish his little tryst.
spn
Dean was sitting at the bar sipping on a beer when Ash finally strolled in giving it a quick look until he saw who he was looking for. He ambled over and took a seat.
"So what's going on?" he asked eyeing the beer for a moment.
"Jo," Dean waved to her.
Jo brought over a cold one and put it down in front of Ash.
"Thanks man," Ash smiled as he sipped on the beer.
"Sammy's missing and I need your help finding him," Dean stated pulling out a flash drive. "Here's some footage of where it happened."
"Step into my office," Ash said. He snapped his fingers to Jo who pulled his weird looking, handmade laptop from behind the bar and led Dean to the corner table. He accepted the flash drive and plugged it in. He began to type quickly moving from screen to screen.
Dean took a seat at the table and stayed quiet while Ash did his mojo. He sipped his beer and waited, trying to be patient. He spoke to another hunter who walked by and greeted him. Dean couldn't sit there any longer and got up to head over to a hunter's table. He talked quietly to them giving them the basics and to be on the lookout for the van and Sam. They all agreed to do that and spread the word to others. Dean thanked them and headed back to the table where Ash was working.
spn
Since Sam thought this was as good as he was going to get, Sam walked down the hall and banged on the other doors that weren't opened to see if there was anyone else around. He came back to the others after finding they were the only ones there.
"Guess we're it, whatever this is," Sam said walking to the barred door that led out of the place. He spotted something lying on the floor just out of his arm's reach and jerked his belt off to use to snag it. Once he got the envelope to the bars, he pulled it through and opened it allowing the others to check out what was inside. He pulled out a sheet of paper and two keys.
"What does that say?" Ice asked waiting for him to read it.
"Hello and congratulations,
You have been chosen to participate in a game like no other. Your first goal is to make it to the designated spot where there will be food and a weapon waiting. You have thirty minutes to make it or you forfeit the cache and that wouldn't be a good thing. Just to make it more fun there will be some surprises along the way. Good luck and don't disappoint me.
The Game Master"
Sam read out loud and looked up at the others. He looked at the other page and saw a layout of the place and knew they were in a prison like he thought. He studied the map for a moment seeing X's on it and determined their location.
"Well that sucks," Stone grumbled looking around.
"Is this for real?" Ice asked in disgust.
"From the looks of everything I think so," Sam said looking at his watch. "Before we go grab your pillow cases from your rooms. They may come in handy." He didn't want to tell them they would make good bandages since he was sure this was not going to be easy. After they got the pillow cases, he took the keys and tried one to unlock the door but it didn't work. He took the other and heard the click as the door opened. "Are you guys ready?"
"Lead the way," Ice said as Sam stepped through the door.
He glanced at the map once more before leading them down a hallway. It bothered him what the message said and was being extra careful. There had to be traps set along the way to this cache.
"Did you guys see the cameras?" Sam whispered quietly as he let the two come abreast of him.
"I did," Ice said.
"Didn't notice," Stone replied.
"There will probably be traps so you guys need to watch yourselves," Sam told them. "Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to set this up, so I'm pretty sure it's not going to be that simple."
As they rounded the corner, the lights dimmed ahead of them, casting the way ahead in shadows. Sam put up a hand for them to stop as he looked down into the darkness.
"Let me go first," Sam told them as he knelt down and carefully began to feel in front of him. He hadn't gone thirty feet when his hand brushed against a trip wire. "Hold up, both of you step back." Being careful, Sam found the wire again and readied himself to fall back as he jerked on it. An arrow flew through the bars and would have hit one of them if he hadn't found the wire.
"Holy crap," Stone mumbled as Sam stood up.
"Looks like you've done something like this before," Ice commented to Sam. "Did you serve?"
"No, but I'm a hunter," Sam answered, not explaining himself. He continued to move down the hall checking for more traps along the way. He made it to the end of the hall without finding anything else to hinder them. He knew there were two more halls they needed to go down and glanced at his watch. They were running out of time and he needed to speed things up. "Give me your shoes," Sam ordered as he pulled his off. He tossed them down the hallway at different levels, hoping to trigger any traps ahead of them. Once they saw what he was doing, Ice and Stone took turns tossing shoes and waiting for any traps to spring. "Okay, it looks good, c'mon, we need to get moving."
They headed down the hall that had been cleared and picked up shoes along the way. Sam paused at the next corner and looked to the end where the cache was supposed to be behind a locked door. He looked at his watch and saw their time was almost up.
"Okay we're going to get down and dirty," Sam said. He got down on the floor on his stomach and began to crawl toward the end of the hall at a fast pace, using his hand to check for any more trip wires. "Follow behind me and stay low. I don't think they'll have another trap set the same way."
"Guess we follow his lead," Ice shrugged and got down to combat crawl quickly behind Sam. This was something he had plenty of training in and knew the best moves. "Keep your head down."
Stone looked at the two and followed suit, deciding maybe they knew better than him. Yes, he had martial arts training, and had fought in matches and won, but this was a whole new level of weird for him. He was going to keep quiet, and do what he was told and hoped they all got out of this place alive.
It seemed to take forever, but Sam was finally at the end and stood up. He pulled the second key out of his pocket to open a door revealing supplies. He let the others go in first and checked the door being sure he could lock it from the inside and get it back opened. Once he had them secured in the room, he went to see what they had.
"There's even three beers here in this cooler on ice along with waters," Stone commented when he opened it.
"We got subs, potato salad, and fresh fruit," Ice said. "Guess we should eat."
Sam looked around and saw a table with three chairs had been set up on one side of the room. They took the coolers over to it and sat the food out to eat.
"Hey here's another envelope," Ice said holding it out to Sam.
"You sure? I'm not trying to take over as boss or anything," Sam told him.
"You got us this far, I think we can trust you."
"Guys, check this out, a gun," Stone said pulling a gun from the bowl that contained fruit. "This is a lot of good, there's no bullets," he complained when he popped the clip from the gun
"Check the rest of the stuff and see if they're hidden somewhere," Ice replied.
Sam opened the envelope and tilted it to allow one silver bullet to fall into his hand. He knew what silver bullets were used for and a cold chill ran down his spine. He looked at them with a frown, and pulled out the papers, one a letter and one a map. The color drained from his face as he skimmed the letter and looked up at the two guys who were staring at him not sure what just happened.
"We've got a big problem guys," Sam said in a voice filled with dread. "But first, we should eat to keep our strength up; we're going to need it. I'll explain it to you afterwards."
Neither of them said anything as Sam folded the letter and pushed it aside. They joined him at the table and divided the food and began to eat. Though no one had an appetite, they all knew they needed to keep their energy levels up to face whatever the next challenge was going to be.
A/N: Things are clicking for Sam and he knows they are in for the fight of their lives. Can Dean find out where they are before it's too late. Thank you for reading my story and I do like reviews, if you have a moment. NC
