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The Spirit of Arrow Lake

Chapter four

The night passed by uneventful. The guides made them dinner and then they sat around the campfire talking till midnight. That is all except Rob and Mick who took their meals back to their tent and avoided all contact with the others.

The next morning

Dean and Sam were awakened by the smell of breakfast.

"Hey." Dean looked at Sam. "Do you want to switch rafts today?"

"Nah, that's okay."

"You sure? I don't mind, that family just about talks my ear off, you'd be doing me a favor."

"Nah, I'm okay, besides the kids likes you." Actually it's kind of nice just to take in the beauty of the area and not have to worry about carrying on a conversation."

"Okay if you're sure." Dean patted Sam on the back. "Let's go get some of that breakfast."

Later on the river

They packed their gear onto the rafts then pushed them out into the river and jumped in. Sam had just reached down to pick up one of the oars when two large spiders crawled out from under the seat and onto his leg. His eyes widened and he sucked in his breath as his heart started pounding. His dad had taught him how to fight back his fear but it didn't seem to work as the spiders began crawling up his leg toward his chest.

"Hey kid, pick up the oar and help out here!" Rob yelled over to Sam as they struggled to get the raft out into the open water.

Sam couldn't take his eyes off of the spiders as he relived the memory of the pit in his mind. Dean had heard Rob yell over to his brother and looked over, but he couldn't tell what was going on, only that something was definitely wrong with Sam.

"Hey Bro you okay?" Dean shouted over as he stood up on the other raft to get a better look.

"Dean…" Sam managed to get out softly as he pushed himself back in his seat and turned his head away from the spiders as they continued climbing toward his face. Dean then saw what was happening.

"Sam it's okay." He yelled over trying to reassure him. He then looked at Rob. "My brother has a phobia of spiders. Just knock them off of him and he'll be fine."

Rob looked over at Mick and gave a little laugh, then looked back at Sam.

"Scared of spiders kid?" He said mockingly as he reached over with his oar and left the spiders crawl onto it. Then instead of tossing them into the water he held the oar over Sam's head and shook them onto him. Sam started to panic and stood up as he tried to knock the spiders off of his hair. He lost his balance and fell into the river. Rob and Mick sat in the raft laughing as Dave reached over the raft and pulled Sam back in.

"Bastards." Dean said under his breath as he glared at the two men who were mocking his brother's fear.

"Sam you okay?" Dean yelled over to him.

"Yeah…yeah…." Sam was mad at himself for showing everyone his fear. He thought he had overcome his paralyzing fear of spiders a long time ago and was embarrassed that it had resurfaced in front of everyone, especially Rob and Mick.

"Sorry….I…. I always had a thing for spiders since I was a little kid…." He tried to explain his actions.

"Aren't you a little old to be squeamish about spiders?" Rob said still laughing.

Sam swallowed hard and looked away. He felt like a total jerk as he picked up his oar and helped them row out into the river.

Dean felt bad for his younger brother and anger toward Rob and Mick for mocking him. He too had thought Sam had conquered his fear but he understood it. Sam had only been around four when the incident had happened and he hadn't blamed him one bit for having the fear. There had to be hundreds of spiders crawling on him when they found him huddled in the dark that day.

The incident was soon forgotten as they neared the rapids which they rode through out the morning and into the afternoon. They had about an hour to go before they'd be stopping for the night when all of a sudden rocks began raining down on them from the cliffs above.

"What the hell!" Alex said looking up.

"What's going on?" Walt shouted as he covered his wife with his body.

"Row! Row! Row!" Dean yelled as he looked up and got a glimpse of the thing throwing the rocks.

They flew into the last set of rapids unprepared, the rafts bouncing off of each other and off of large hidden boulders in the water as the rocks continued to rain down on them from above.

"Push off those boulders!" Dave shouted to his raft mates as they headed into dangerous water and right toward a large hidden rock. But everyone was too busy trying to avoid the thrown rocks to listen to him. Their raft hit the large submerged boulder and overturned throwing the occupants high in the air and then into the rushing water.

"Sam!" Dean screamed seeing his brother disappear into the foaming water. "We got to help them!" He yelled over to Alex.

"We can't, we'll have to pick them up down river!" We got to get out of here!"

Sam tried to go through the rapids feet first but the water was violently throwing him around. He hit a rock hard and screamed in pain as he felt his leg twist under him.

Dean who was busy trying to keep his eyes on Sam didn't see the rock in front of him before it was too late. The raft hit it head on and he too was tossed into the river. Even though he was in danger of drowning himself, he still tried to keep his eyes on his brother. He watched as Sam's body was tossed violently around in the water and then saw his head smack hard into a rock snapping it back. Dean then watched in horror as Sam's head went under the water and stayed there.

"Sam!" Dean screamed trying to reach his brother. He cried out in pain as he too was thrown hard into a rock.

Finally in what seemed like hours, but was actually only a few minutes, they were out of the rapids and in smooth running water.

Alex managed to get the raft over to Dean who crawled in.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, but I got to find Sam." He looked around and finally spotted the other three men that were in Sam's raft crawling out of the water onto the river bank. "Did you see my brother!" He shouted over to them.

They shook their heads.

"Come on Sammy where are you?" Dean looked around desperately. Then he saw his brother's body face down in the water. He jumped off the raft and swam over to him. He quickly pulled his face out of the water and could see blood running down the side of it.

"Sammy!" Dean gently slapped his brother's face. "Come on Sammy, wake up!"

When Sam didn't move he pulled him over to the river bank and up onto the ground. He could tell he wasn't breathing so he tilted Sam's head back and gave him two quick breaths.

"Come on Sammy, don't do this to me Bro." He said between breaths. When Sam didn't respond he gave him two more breaths. Sam finally began to cough up water. "Thank God." Dean said as he patted Sam on the shoulder.

"Ohhhhh." Sam moaned then coughed up more water. His eyes suddenly flew open and he tried to get up but was held down by Dean.

"Take it easy buddy. Just catch your breath."

"Dean….did you see it?" Sam lay on his back gasping in air.

"Yeah, it looked like a Bigfoot to me, but …who knows." Dean slowly stood up and looked back up the river. Sam once more started to get up and Dean reached down to help him but as he started to pull him up he winced in pain and grabbed his ribs as he dropped Sam's hand.

"You okay." Sam looked at Dean worried as he slowly managed to get to his feet. He was a little wobbly and he put his hand up to his head and felt the bump above his left eyebrow. He wiped the blood that ran down his face with the back of his hand smearing it across his forehead.

"Yeah, just got knocked around a little by those rocks." Dean winced as he rubbed his bruised ribs. "How 'bout you?"

"Yeah, just a little headache." But as Sam started to walk his leg gave out and he just managed to stop himself from falling to the ground.

"Let me check that out." Dean helped Sam over to a rock so he could sit down then he gently ran his hands over his brother's leg. "It doesn't appear to be broken."

"I think I just twisted it a little."

Soon the rest of the group joined them.

Walt stood with his arm around his wife and son.

"What the hell was that all about?" He asked the guides.

"I don't know, but I've never seen anything like it before." Alex said then looked at the others. "Everyone okay?"

"We got to head back home." Walt said.

"We can't, it would take us a week or more to hike out of this canyon. If we follow the river on the rafts we can make it in two days." Dave said.

"Well who the hell was throwing rocks at us!" Rob asked.

Dean and Sam glanced at each other wondering if they should say anything or keep quiet. They decided the others had a right to know.

"We think it might be a Bigfoot." Dean finally said.

"A Bigfoot! What the hell are you talking about, that's just a legend." Rob said.

"No it's not." Sam spoke up. "Bigfoot is real, and we might be dealing with one here."

"Well what ever it is we need to call for help." Walt looked at Alex. "I need to get my family out of here."

"We have a two way radio at each of the campsites. We can call for a helicopter once we get there."

"How far is the next site?" Sam asked.

"About an hour."

"Well let's see if we can find the other raft and get out of here."

It took them a few minutes but they finally located the other raft down river. They jumped into the two rafts and continued down the river.

TBC