Author's note: I wasn't happy with Terror in the Heartland as it was, so I decided to do a rewrite of it. The first few chapters will be similar to the ones I've already posted, except this time they will only focus on the characters currently in Smallville. I also made some improvements to the dialogue and decided to turn this into a two-part story like the others were.

The main characters in Part 1 will of course be Sam, Clark, and Lex, but Dean will become important again in Part 2. Some other characters from Smallville and SPN will appearing then too, but I won't say who they are because it will be a (hopefully pleasant) surprise.


Part 1

Outbreak


Chapter 1

It's Time to Move On

A couple days after Dean met up with his father in Lawrence, his brother, Sam, was on the Lowel County transport bus, and it was taking him to a motel in Granville near the county line. While he sat there in his seat, with a backpack containing all of his personal belongings sitting beside him, he stared down at the rejection letter in his hands that he received from Stanford a few days earlier. After getting the bad news, he had hitch-hiked and rode buses all over the place, just to try and get back to Smallville. Though he had the Kents' number, since Clark gave it to him during the tour of the farm that winter, he was reluctant to call them. For one thing, he felt too ashamed to ask for help because he had worked his ass off to get into Stanford, but his score on the SAT hadn't quite been good enough to get in, and second, he didn't want to be a burden if he could help it.

Sam glanced out the window beside his head, when the bus passed the hotel where he had helped Dean and Clark save Victoria Hardwick from her sister's vengeful spirit. He almost wished he could have afforded to stay there, but he would have been hesitant to do so anyway. The possibility that he might end up having to rent the room where Harriet's ghost tried to kill Victoria with a hair dryer was a little unsettling, regardless of the fact that they had already burned the locket and sent her on her way.

When the bus finally dropped him off at the motel, he booked a room with the last of the cash he had, and then he took the key and let himself in. After going inside and shutting the door behind him, he dropped his backpack beside the bed and sat down on the mattress, where he let out a loud sigh and laid back so he could stare at the ceiling and think.

"Come on, Sam," he thought to himself. "Just call the Kents and ask for their help. They aren't a bunch of dicks like Dean and Dad…"

Then he sat up on the bed and reached down for his backpack, which he opened to retrieve his cellphone. He turned it on and discovered that the battery was nearly dead and that there was one missed call from Dean. Ignoring those things for the time being, he pulled a folded, wrinkled piece of paper out of his pocket that had the Kents' phone number on it, and then he went ahead and called them.

After five rings, Jonathan answered. "Hello? This is Jonathan Kent."

"Hey, Mister Kent," Sam said with a smile. "It's Sam Winchester. My brother and I helped Clark out with a ghost problem a while back."

"Sam!" Jonathan said with a chuckle. "It's been a while since we've heard from you. Did you make it into college?"

"That's kinda what I called about," Sam explained. "Stanford turned me down."

Jonathan sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that. Are you looking into other schools?"

"No, actually," was Sam's answer. "I'm just looking for jobs right now. Not hunting jobs, just regular ones."

"Where are you now?" Jonathan asked. "You can always come by the farm if you like."

"I'm at a motel in Granville."

"Granville, huh?" Jonathan asked, sounding surprised. "What are you doing all the way out there?"

Sam couldn't help but laugh at the situation. "There was a scheduling issue with the bus, and I don't have my own car, so… Here I am."

Jonathan chuckled after hearing Sam's tale. "Clark can come and get you when he's done driving posts outside. Tell me what motel you're at and I'll let him know."

"It's okay, he doesn't have to do that, Mister Kent. I can just spend a couple nights here and come over on the bus later."

"Are you sure that's what you want to do?" Jonathan asked. "Clark's almost done."

Sam paused as he started to reconsider Jonathan's offer. "Ya know, maybe that would be a good idea after all. This motel room isn't very nice…"

Jonathan chuckled. "Most of them aren't. By the way, I think Nell is hiring at the Talon. You could probably put in an application there."

"The Talon's back open?" Sam asked, feeling surprised. "I thought that place was closed."

"Not anymore. Lana's aunt and Lex helped her get it open again."

"That's cool. What if her aunt isn't hiring? Should I try the Beanery instead?"

"Nah, that place got shut down," Jonathan explained. "They won't be hiring anyone ever again, I'm afraid."

Sam furrowed his brow and switched his phone over to his other ear. "It got shut down? What happened?"

"Turns out they had an infestation of roaches and rats," Jonathan explained. "Dean almost lost his lunch when he heard about it."

Sam laughed. "I can imagine! You should've seen him shoveling those waffles into his mouth the last time we were there."

Jonathan chuckled again. "Oh, I've seen it, remember? He did the same thing at our house, just before you boys left town."

"Right," Sam said with a laugh. "Maybe I can call Lex and see if the plant's hiring. At least if I get a job working for the Luthors, it'll probably come with insurance benefits."

There was a moment of silence before Jonathan gave him the bad news. "I'm afraid that's not possible. Lionel Luthor shut the plant down yesterday, costing hundreds of people their jobs."

Sam was shocked. "Holy crap! Why did he do it?"

"I don't know," Jonathan answered. "I think Lex ran the place into the ground, but Clark believes something else is going on. Anyway, I'm gonna head outside and-"

Suddenly, a loud boom in the background shook the Kents' house and Sam heard a crackling sound over the phone when it happened. "Jonathan! What the hell was that?!"

"I have to go!" Jonathan cried. "I have to check on Clark! I'll call you back!"

Then Jonathan hung up and Sam stared at his phone in shock. "What the hell… Is going on over there?"

Sam set the phone on the bedside table nearby, kicked off his shoes, and laid back on the mattress while he waited for Jonathan to call him again. He didn't hear anything for a while, so he was startled when his phone finally started to ring.

He sat right up and grabbed the phone so fast he almost dropped it on the floor. After fumbling with it for a bit, he answered, "Mister Kent?!"

Then he heard Clark's voice. "Hey, Sam, it's just me."

Sam gasped. "What the hell happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Clark answered. "There was an accident involving the truck, so your ride's kinda shot."

Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "I heard that explosion, and I was afraid that…"

"Like I said, everything's fine," Clark said. "I can give Pete or Lex a call if you need a ride. I'm sure they wouldn't mind helping you out."

"No, that's okay," Sam said with a smile, after Clark's reassuring words calmed him down. "I made it this far on my own, so I can probably make it the rest of the way."

Clark chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Then Sam remembered what Jonathan had said about Dean earlier in their conversation, so he asked a question about his brother. "So, did you help Dean with another case? Your dad mentioned he's been around."

"Yeah," Clark said. "I'll tell you more about it when you get here. Call me if you change your mind about getting a ride, because I'm sure Pete or Lex would be okay with it."

"I will, thanks," Sam said. "And you're sure everything's okay over there?"

"Well, maybe not everything," Clark replied. "I'll fill you in later."

Then Sam's phone went dead, so he set it back on the bedside table and laid down on the mattress again. He stared up at the ceiling and sighed, as he wondered where his brother was and what Dean and Clark had been up to since the day they burned up Harriet Hardwick's ghost.


After calling Sam to let him know he was okay, Clark hung up the phone in the kitchen and turned to look at his parents, who were still quite worried.

The next thing to come out of Jonathan's mouth was, "I still can't believe the police haven't caught Nixon."

"I never would've thought he was brave enough to set foot in Smallville again," Clark said thoughtfully. "He must really be obsessed with me."

Martha, however, was far too worried about her son's well-being to care about Nixon's whereabouts. "Clark, are you sure you're okay?"

Clark smiled and nodded. "Yeah. The crazy part is, I didn't even feel the heat this time, and the debris didn't leave any bruises."

His parents exchanged glances with each other, and then Martha said, "As you've been getting older, your body must've gotten stronger."

Clark looked at his dad, who nodded and smiled at him, showing that he agreed with her. "You're a man now, son. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised."

"What do we do about Nixon?" Clark asked, still feeling worried. "I looked around for him after busting out of the cab, but I didn't see him anywhere. It was like he just… disappeared."

"We'll figure this out, son," Jonathan reminded him. "Just like we always do."

Realizing his father was right, Clark decided to focus on other things, so he let out a sigh. "How am I supposed to take Chloe to the dance now?"

Martha, it turned out, had already come up with a solution to that problem. "You could ask Chloe to take you instead. The guy doesn't always have to be the one doing the driving."

Clark raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I guess I didn't think about that. I'll ask her about it when I see her at school tomorrow."

"What did Sam say when you called him back?" Jonathan asked curiously. "Is he just gonna take the bus into town?"

Clark shrugged. "I don't know. He said he'll call me if he decides he wants help, but I think he wants to do this on his own."

Then Clark and his dad headed outside so they could take care of the charred heap of scrap metal that used to be their truck.


Over at the Luthor mansion, Lex was sitting on a couch by the fireplace, reading an email while he pinched his eyebrow with his thumb and forefinger. In the body of the message, the loyal employee that sent it described many of Alexander the Great's successes and suggested that Lex could be like him, if he seized the day, instead of running from his problems.

At the end, the author added a final paragraph of encouragement, "I sincerely hope you will seize this 'opportunity' to show your father and the business world-as well as those of us who serve you-an example of righteous and compassionate leadership. My family and I pray that you will."

As soon as Lex finished reading the message, he closed the email with a sigh and shut the laptop, just as his father came barging into the library, looking quite surprised. "Wha- You're not in a hurry to pack?"

"That's because I'm not leaving," Lex told him.

Still believing that he had already defeated his son, Lionel smirked at him. "Accept your fate, Lex. It's time to move on."

Lex glanced up at his father, just as he headed over to the bar to pour himself a drink. "I'm forcing a vote of the board of directors to accept an employee buy-out of the plant."

While Lionel was pouring his drink, he laughed at his son. "What are you going to do? Convince the employees to take out a second mortgage?"

Then he turned towards his son with a gasp, suddenly looking surprised. "Cash in their IRAs!"

"Something like that," was Lex's response.

"Even if you sell all your stock and drain your trust fund, you still come up short, son," Lionel told him. "What are you going to do about the rest of the money, hmm?"

Lex set the laptop aside as his father casually walked over to him with his drink in his hand. Then he got up from where he was sitting and stared directly into his father's eyes.

"I'll figure something out," Lex told him. "I always do."

Lionel paused when he noticed the look in his son's eyes. It wasn't fear that he saw in them; it was a stubborn refusal to surrender, so he knew Lex wouldn't give in easily.

With a chuckle, Lionel said, "Now that the Hardwicks are history, you have no one left to turn to for allies. It seems that, like Pyrrhus, your victories have cost you more than you realized."

Then he reached inside of his business jacket and retrieved a packet of papers, which he then handed to his son.

After Lex took them from his father and opened them up to take a look, he shook his head. "You've bought the Smallville Savings and Loan…"

"Go ahead, lead your buy-out," Lionel said. "But remember, I own your employees' mortgages. As soon as they begin missing payments, I won't hesitate to foreclose on each and every one of them."

Lex chuckled but said nothing as his father continued taunting him. "They'll be homeless, and it'll be your fault. Are you ready to accept that kind of responsibility?"

Still not saying anything, Lex continued to stare down at the deed in his hands, wishing there was something else he could do, but he was at a loss. If he was going to find a quick, easy solution, he knew it wouldn't come from the world of legitimate business. Though he was hesitant to take things to that extreme, the idea was becoming more and more tempting by the minute.

Lionel made a clicking sound in his mouth and said, "If you're gonna take me on, son, you're gonna have to bring your game up to a whole different level."

Lex smirked at his father in an attempt to hide how he was really feeling. This was the first crushing blow he'd received from his father since he was first exiled to the crap factory, but no matter what happened, he refused to go down without a fight.

Finally, he said, "You're right."

Since he wasn't the least bit fooled by his son's confident facade, Lionel smirked at him and took back the deed to the bank. "Just remember, in Chess, it's courteous to offer your opponent a resignation, when you know you're going to lose."

Lex remained silent as he watched his father turn away and leave the library, taking his glass of Scotch with him. Once he was alone, he headed over to the set of shelves by his desk and with an angry cry, grabbed a handful of books and threw them down to the floor. Then he let out a sigh and pinched his eyebrow again, before glancing down at the books that he had just thrown off the shelf.

Most of them were about ancient world history and warfare, but the one that caught his eye was different. Lex curiously reached down to it when he saw the picture of what appeared to be a pentagram on the front (but it was actually a devil's trap - though he just didn't know it yet). As he picked it up off the floor, he opened it and started flipping through the pages. To his surprise, he vaguely remembered seeing his mother reading it on occasion, during the last few years of her life. He knew that she was a very spiritual person towards the end, since she often talked about angels and God, and he was also aware that her religious activity reached its peak just after Julian's death.

There was a great deal of information in the book about various supernatural monsters and demons, but when he came to a passage about the crossroads demon, the title caught his attention. Even though he scoffed at the idea of such things existing, he was still curious, so he returned to the place where he had been sitting when Lionel first entered the library, and started reading everything the book had to say about them.