Chapter 3

The screaming came from everywhere and nowhere, and there was no reasonable explanation as to where it was, or what was making the sound.

"The Whooper." Came the breathy words from Tyler's general area. The man sounded nervous, but not terrified.

"The wind." Ron was quick to correct.

"There is no wind." Tyler pointed out. Sure enough, there wasn't any wind. The forest was eerily silent aside from the horrific screaming inhabiting the air.

Ten minutes passed with nobody daring to move and the screams ended suddenly leaving only the quiet to hang in the air. A sigh drifted gently over the land and Dean felt his heart hammering in his chest. His blood rushed in his ears as he searched desperately for a sign of anything. He got nothing.

"Maybe we should turn back to see if your brother went back to camp." Tyler suggested.

"No! Sammy's out here somewhere, I saw a flash of his shirt earlier." Dean replied, although he knew very well that what he saw might have been a tactic trick on the Whooper's behalf. Perhaps the spirit had been creating an illusion to lure them in. The stories told earlier that night around the fire had mentioned something such as that.

As Dean scanned the area, his flashlight promptly went dead, plunging him into darkness. He looked around for the lights of Ron and Tyler, but didn't see them.

"Dean, Tyler? You guys okay?" Ron's voice came from somewhere to Dean's back.

"Yeah, my light just went dead." Tyler spoke.

"Mine too." Dean replied.

"That's odd. Mine went out too."

There was a clicking in the night as all three men tried to coax their lights into coming back on. Nothing they did served to do them any good. The lights simply refused to work.

Something cold brushed past Dean and he immediately turned toward it. He saw nothing.

A gasp came from one of the others.

"What is it? What happened?" Tyler asked, his voice shaky.

"Something just went by me." Ron answered.

"Let's get back to camp." Tyler replied.

"But…" Dean's words trailed.

"Dean, our lights are dead and we don't know where the hell we are. Getting lost ourselves isn't going to do Sam any good." Tyler quipped.

"Fine, but if he's not at camp when we get there, we go to look for him." Dean said.

"Yes, first thing in the morning. It'll be easier on all of us if we can see in our search." Ron said.

Dean sighed in frustration. He didn't want to wait until morning; he wanted to find Sam before something else found him. However, at the moment, he really didn't have a lot of choice, he had been plunged into darkness and had no idea where he was or where to go. Tyler and Ron were his best hopes at the moment. They seemed to know their ways around fairly well; they did come here every year after all.

"Fine." He replied, but he wasn't about to give up that easily.

"Which way goes back?" Tyler questioned.

"Let's just turn around and walk back the way we came. Eventually we're bound to find the river and from there we can follow it back to camp." Ron answered.

There were words of agreement exchanged and then there was shuffling in the night as Ron turned and made his way back the way they had come in the first place.

What felt like an hour later, Dean felt cold air strike his face as he broke through the trees behind Tyler and Ron. The river cried along the riverbed as rocks and stones sliced through its surface. A faint firelight was flickering across the river in the area of the campsite and Dean stepped off the bank and made his way toward it, the water sobbing around his legs.

A shadow was moving next to the fire and the search party of three walked nearer to it. As they drew closer, the form looked up and a pale face shone in the swaying flames.

"Dean!" A voice called.

"Sammy?" The eldest Winchester asked, confusion wrinkling his brow.

"Where the hell have you been?" Sam replied as Dean stepped into the glittering flames.

"Looking for you, where were you?"

"I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I went for a walk." Sam said simply.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dean asked dumbly.

"You were asleep." Sam stated matter-of-factly. A small smile tugged at the edges of his mouth.

Dean glared. "Are you all right?" He questioned finally.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam's eyes drifted across the group of three men who were soaking wet to their waists.

"Are you?" Sam wondered, smiling a bit wider.

Dean only glared in silence, deciding not to answer Sam's words. Instead he let his eyes wander around the camping area.

"Where's Gray?" Dean asked finally.

Sam shrugged. "He wasn't here when I got back. I was just about to go looking for you."

"How long have you been back?" Tyler questioned.

"Only a few minutes. The fire was going when I got here." Sam answered uncertainly.

"Strange. He should be here." Ron answered.

Suddenly a man's scream pierced the air, but it wasn't the same scream as Dean had heard before.

"Gray!" Ron exclaimed.

Dean instantly turned to look across the river, which was where the noise was coming from and began to run toward it. Footfalls followed him and he glanced back over his shoulder to see the others running along behind him.

What seemed like an eternity of running later, Dean crashed through the forest and stumbled into a clearing where he saw a crumpled form sprawled near the centre. He jogged to it and dropped to his knees, reaching out to turn it over.

Gray's face stared up at him with wide, frightened eyes. Dean reached to the man's neck to feel for a pulse. A beat fluttered weakly under his fingers and died away. Not quite knowing what else to do, he began to perform CPR on the still man, immediately forgetting any bad blood between them.

"Sammy, call an ambulance." Dean replied urgently as the beat once again picked up to thump weakly beneath his touch.

Sam fumbled in his pocket for the phone and brought it out. He turned it on and moved around a bit, lifting the phone high and switching position.

"There's no signal, Dean." Sam replied anxiously.

"Damn!" Dean yelled as the beat once again died under his fingers.

"Tyler, go get the truck." Ron yelled, pointing in the dark across the river.

"Wait! Don't go alone. Take Sam with you." Dean replied casting a glance to Sam, who nodded and began to run after Tyler.

Dean continued compressions until he got another heartbeat and continued to breathe for the ailing man.

Some time later, Tyler and Sam returned without the truck.

"It won't start, Ron." Tyler replied.

"Stay here Sam, Ron come with me, I'll see if I can get my car started." Dean replied, wanting either Sam or himself to stay close to Gray and Tyler incase something unexpected came up.

Sam took up Dean's previous position and offered the medical attention to Gray while Dean and Ron ran to the car.

As they ran through the woods and across the river, the horrible screaming began to blast through the trees again. Dean felt his heart race. He hoped the thing wasn't after Sam and the others. The minute Dean could unlock the car; he lunged for it and slid quickly into the driver's seat.

He tried the key countless times, but the engine barely rolled over.

"Aw, C'mon baby, don't do this to me." Dean pleaded. The car didn't comply. The engine coughed sickly under the hood and died away.

Dean hit the steering wheel and got back out with a colourful curse.

"It's not going to work. Would there be any cars passing by here?" Dean asked.

"Maybe, but don't count on it. Most of the people I know choose to take the TC. It's faster." Ron said.

"But there's a chance?" Dean asked.

"Possibly." Ron said.

"That's all we need." He went around to the trunk and opened it to reveal his large collection of weaponry.

"Holy jeez, are you boys in the weapon smuggling business?" Ron asked.

"No. Just take this and go to the road. If you see anything move, shoot it." Dean replied and tossed Ron a shotgun.

"But…"

"Just do it!" Dean yelled and waved toward the road.

Ron nodded and ran down the trail, vanishing into the thick night. Overhead, the thing still screamed.

Dean grabbed a few weapons for himself, shut the trunk and ran back to check on Sam and the other two. He stumbled over a raise in the land, but didn't go down. He kept running and didn't look back; he ignored the screaming and pressed on, splashing through the water.

Breathless, and slick with perspiration, he hurried into the clearing where Sam waited. Without a word he handed Sam a couple of weapons and set the others aside.

"What're you going to do with those?" Tyler asked urgently.

"Relax, we're not gonna shoot you. They're for protection." Dean replied.

"Where's Ron?" Sam questioned.

"The car wouldn't start, I sent him to the road to flag down a passing vehicle."

"I doubt he'll find one. Everyone takes the TC now." Tyler said.

"Yeah, he told me, but he said there was a chance." Dean said.

"A remote one."

"That's all we need." Sam replied.

The screaming stopped abruptly and left the thick woods in silence once again.

"What the hell was that?" Sam asked.

"The Whooper." Tyler said quickly. His voice was anxious and fearful.

Dean and Sam cast a silent glance between them and in that one look, thousands of words were exchanged. They knew that something was up with these woods and it wasn't anything good.