Chapter title is from song by Chris Cornell.

25

Long Gone – Chris Cornell

"They're not there."

Dean set the weapons pack down on the bed with a light thud. The day was a bust. There was no trace of any zombies left at the old sawmill, never mind this mystical Mother they kept talking about. And there were too many people in the room.

Sam was nose deep in research. He'd been to the library. Correction: They had all been to the library. It would have been like a field trip, Zee and Sam towing the kid along for hours and hours of boring rummaging through the shelves. There were books scattered around the room mixed up with the remains of a peanut butter and jelly fest. Dean looked around, because there had to be…yep, there they were, the bananas. Gross. Figured that was what Sam defaulted to when he thought of food for children.

He turned his head to find Cas looking longingly at the jar of peanut butter. He didn't even want to know. Cas had gone with him back to Dolgeville, which was inconvenient, because it meant they had to take the Impala. And Cas drove like an old lady. He drove so slowly Dean took the wheel away from him on the way back, which shaved at least thirty minutes off the eighty-mile drive to Albany. At Zee's insistence, they had moved again for the night, washed the cars by hand in freezing winter water because he had drawn the line at mechanical car washes for Baby, but no one complained.

Sorting things out this morning had been a mess. Cas caught up with them for breakfast, which was a zoo. He and Cas sat there and picked at food that tasted like nothing, while the feral ninja was clearly wishing either herself or all the rest of them somewhere far, far away. They were like a bunch of lone wolves trapped in a pack by necessity, trying to protect the cubs in their midst.

It was damned uncomfortable.

And then they had to sort out who went where to do what. Someone had to stay with the girl and the kid, clearly. She may not have thought so, but left alone she would've done the first thing he would have done had he been in her shoes: bolt. Leave this circus behind and figure things out on her own. He could see it in her eyes.

Ideally, Sam would have come with him when he went back to the old sawmill to check things out. But that would have left Cas with Ninja Girl, which was like leaving the baby to baby sit, Warrior of the Lord or not. So Sam had stayed, and Cas had come with, and there were entirely too many cooks in the kitchen.

His expression tightened as the memory of the single cage they had found at the sawmill came back to him. How long had the zombies had the kid in captivity? It had to have been a while, judging by the collection of candy wrappers and other bits of litter they had found.

Zee closed the lid of her laptop with a snap and stood.

"Come on."

Toby put down the lock and pick he was working with and went to her side.

Dean blocked the door.

The look she leveled him was dead flat. "I'm not stupid. Our room's next door."

Sam gave him a small nod, confirming the fact.

"Don't go far."

As in, don't leave your room. Don't venture out without us. Don't be an idiot.

She was not amused by the litany of things he did not say. There was going to be a solid ring of salt around that room if her expression was anything to go by. He watched the door close behind them, not knowing exactly what he was thinking.

"I must go."

Cas made this announcement with some regret to the room at large.

"Wait, what? I thought you wanted to know what these things were."

"I do. They present a danger. Anything that can…"

Dean swore. Cas' fluffy friends were the epitome of rude, because they pulled him up, mid-sentence and mid-explanation, so Dean was left staring at the wall past where Cas had been standing. You'd think he'd have gotten used to that by now, but it was still irritating.

Then it was just him and Sammy in the room again, like it should be.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where do you think she went?"

Sam was referring to Mother.

Dean shrugged. "Got me. Utica? You find anything?"

Sam made a face and closed the book he was reading, frustrated. "There's no lore on zombie-on-vampire or zombie-on-monster action. Why would there be? Godzilla and Mothra start thrashing it out, the smart thing to do is to get out of Dodge."

"Anything there?" He threw a speaking look next door as he lowered his voice.

Sam looked patient. "They seem pretty normal, Dean. I mean, hunter normal, but normal."

"And you know she's not."

"Well, now she is." And how would Sam know this for sure? Sam gave him an innocent look. He knew that look. He frowned.

"Anyway, what we need to do is find this Mother thing, whatever she is, and gank her."

Sam looked curiously at the vehemence in his tone. A thing, zombie or not, that he couldn't sense, maybe, it wasn't straightforward. There were times on the drive back he had felt strangely…watched, but try as he might, he couldn't see anything, with any of his senses. It was all instinct, and it was frustrating to be left with just that when he was used to being able to feel his way through the dark underbelly of existence. Cas felt it too, turning around three or four times to check the Impala's back seat when it was clearly empty. Dean had said nothing. Whatever it was, sitting there on the edge of angel and demon senses but not visible to either of them, what could do that?

"What do you think she is? I mean, what kind of monster?"

"You heard Crowley last night. Something new."

"I thought only Eve could make new monsters." Sam was making himself another PB & J. It was his one weakness when it came to junk food. He looked up at Dean and got out two more slices of bread.

Dean sighed with resignation and sat down. He never liked PB give him a ham and cheese or tacos anytime, but Sam liked them, so he'd had a lot of them. They had to eat something, and Dad hadn't been made of money.

"Toby eat this stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah." Sam had to think about it for a second. He hadn't been paying attention. "I think so. At least one, anyway. Why?"

"Thought he might be off sweet stuff. Looks like that was all they fed him for however long they had him."

Sam shook his head. "Waffles this morning, remember?"

There was that. It was good to know some things hadn't been broken. Watching Zee with Toby was eerily like watching his own childhood, that memory of being in lockdown, the things he'd had to learn that none of the other kids knew. The things he learned not to talk about around grown-ups that were not hunters. It wasn't his place to tell her what to do, but she had to know that this was no childhood.

They needed to gank Mother so the kid would have a choice.