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Highway 97

Chapter two

"Noooo!" Sam screamed as he watched the station wagon sail off the side of the canyon. He hung out the window and instinctively reached toward it as if he'd be able to catch it before it fell.

"Sammy!" Dean grabbed Sam's legs before he fell out the window. Once Sam was safe inside the car Dean jammed on the brakes and skidded to the side of the road, he threw it in reverse and backed up to where the car went off the edge. They both got out of the car and glanced at the pickup as it sped off into the night, then they slid down the steep canyon wall toward the car which lay crumbled at the bottom of it.

It took a while before they could reach the car; and by the time they got there each of them was covered in scrapes and bruises from the sharp rocks. When they finally stood next to the car they glanced at each other, neither one wanting to see what might be inside, but knowing if the occupants were still alive they needed their help. They both got down on their stomachs and crawled into what was left of the car, Dean on the driver's side and Sam on the passenger's.

Dean could tell immediately the driver was dead and he looked over at his brother who was trying to comfort the woman in the passenger's seat who was badly injured.

"Hang on; we're going to get you out of here." Sam gently pushed the woman's hair off of her blood covered face.

The woman began coughing up blood spraying Sam's face with it. He didn't even bother wiping it off; his only concern was trying to free the woman from the wreckage. He kept tugging on the jagged medal, cutting his hands as he tried to pull it off of her.

Dean crawled out of his window and was about to go and help Sam when he noticed the trail of gasoline that was snaking its way toward the engine which was throwing sparks. He knew the entire car could be engulfed in flames at any moment.

"Sam! It's going to blow!" He whispered as he slid down next to his brother not wanting the woman to hear him.

"We got to get her out of here Dean!" Sam whispered back, a desperate look on his face.

Dean crawled in next to Sam trying to help but soon saw how helpless the situation was. The woman's body was completely twisted in the metal. There was no way they could get her out of the car, not without help. Dean looked over at Sam and shook his head, letting him know it was hopeless. Sam looked back at him, tears in his eyes. He couldn't just leave this woman here to die.

"I'll be right back." He said as he touched her face.

"No! Please don't leave me!" The woman's eyes were wild with fear and pain.

"I'll be back…I promise, I won't leave you." He said as both he and Dean crawled out of the car.

"Dean I can't just leave her there."

"Sammy this whole car is going to go up any minute. There's nothing we can do….I'm sorry." He said when he saw the look on Sam's face.

Just then the gasoline ignited and quickly spread to the inside of the car. They could hear the woman screaming in pain and terror inside. Sam started to head back into the burning car but Dean grabbed him holding him back.

"Let go of me, I got to help her!"

"There's nothing you can do Sammy!" Dean said as he tried to pull his struggling brother away from the car. "I'm sorry Sammy." He said as he held tightly onto him. Sam squeezed his eyes shut as he listened to the woman's screams slowly die as the entire car was consumed.

Dean then released Sam who stood looking at the car, tears running down his face.

"I told her I'd be back." He said sadly.

"There was nothing we could have done Sam. I'm sorry." Dean put his hand on Sam's shoulder and squeezed. He too had tears in his eyes as he walked away, heart broken that they hadn't been able to save the woman. Sam finally pulled himself away from the car and he and Dean began the long climb up to their car. Once there they climbed in the car and sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. Dean put his arm on the back of the seat and looked over at Sam who sat starring at the floor.

"You okay?"

Sam nodded.

"Sam there was nothing we could have done for her. She was trapped and there was no way to get her out."

"I promised her I wouldn't leave her." He said his voice choked with emotion.

"There was nothing you could have done Sam."

"I should have …done something."

"What….die with her?"

Sam shook his head sadly and looked out the side window. He knew Dean was right, the situation had been hopeless, but he knew he would never get the woman's pain filled screams out of his head. He finally looked over at his brother.

"What do we do now?"

"Well first we need to tell the cops about the accident. I'm thinking we better make an anonymous call… we don't want to have to answer a lot of questions. Then I say we look for this bastard and send him back to hell."

Later

They contacted the police from a phone booth back in town, and then watched from another canyon road as the police and rescue personnel arrived and removed the vehicle.

"How do you think he chooses who he's going to go after?" Sam asked as he watched them put the car on a flat bed truck.

"I don't know. That's one thing we could never figure out. Dad and I looked into the backgrounds of the different victims and couldn't find anything connecting them to each other. As far as we could tell he just randomly chooses them."

"Well we got to stop him. That couple down there….they could have had kids… and now they're orphans."

Dean looked over at his brother and could see the sadness in his eyes. He knew he was always better at dealing with tragedy then Sam was or at least he appeared that way to everyone. But the truth was he too mourned for the couple's death but he knew there was nothing they could have done and to dwell on it like Sam did would get them nowhere.

"Hey we're going to get this creep. There's no way he's getting away from the Winchester boys." Dean grinned over at Sam

"You know we're not going to be able to rid the world of every evil thing. We're just human."

"No we can't, but we can sure try."

The next night

They had been driving through the back canyon roads for over two hours with no luck.

"Maybe he moved on to another highway." Sam said as he looked out the side window.

"Or maybe not." Dean said as he looked in his rear mirror and watched as a black pickup pulled up behind them.

TBC