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The Cavern of Death

Chapter four

They had driven for about an hour and a half when they felt the truck turn sharply and drive up into the mountains. Sam cradled Dean in his arms, unaware that his brother was fully conscious but unable to move. He clenched his teeth against the pain in his stomach as blood started to cover the front of his shirt from the now opened wound. He looked down at Dean and never felt more helpless as he pulled him closer. They were in the middle of nowhere with no weapons and he wasn't sure what was wrong with his brother. His eyes were open and he could blink but that was the extent of his movements. When the truck finally came to a stop Sam ignored his own pain and moved protectively in front of his brother. The three men came to the back of the truck holding shotguns.

"Get out!" One of the men ordered Sam.

"Not without my brother."

"Brother? How touching…Well these are my brothers." He grinned nodding toward the two other men. "Now get out!"

Sam grabbed Dean under his arms and pulled his body out with him.

"What did you do to him?"

"Oh he'll be fine in a few hours. I think you should be more concerned about yourself."

"Yeah, it looks like you're bleeding pretty bad there buddy." Another one of the brothers said mockingly.

"What are you going to do with us?" Sam asked as he knelt next to Dean who could tell that the feeling in his body was slowly returning but not fast enough for him to be of any help to Sam.

The three men looked at each other smiling.

"Well let's just say we're taking you to dinner." One said.

"And you're the main course." Another one said laughing. "Now get up, and take your brother with you." The man pointed the shotgun at Sam who slowly got up and then leaned down and picked Dean up throwing him over his shoulder. The pain in his stomach was excruciating but he'd rather carry Dean then let one of them do it. They forced him to carry Dean to the top of a high rock formation. He was exhausted and was glad when he could finally put him down. The men then removed a large heavy rock revealing a hole in the top of a gigantic boulder; a long rope lay next to it one end of it wrapped around another large rock. One of the men walked over and began tying the rope around Dean's chest. Sam tried to stop him but was hit in the chest with the back of a shotgun. He went down on one knee his face twisted with pain.

"What are you going to do with him?" Sam asked as he tried to think of something he could do to get Dean away from them, but there wasn't any.

"Don't worry; you'll be going with him."

They then began lowering Dean into the hole.

"What's down there!" Sam's heart pounded as he watched Dean disappear into the hole. Sam wondered what would happen when Dean reached the bottom but a short time later the men pulled the rope up empty. Who untied Dean's rope Sam wondered?

"You're next." The man said tossing Sam the rope. "Tie it around yourself."

Sam swallowed hard, he knew once he was down inside the hole there would be no hope of escape. He also knew he had no choice. If he didn't listen to them they would shoot him and probably toss him in anyway. And if he was dead, Dean would be alone. He tied the rope around himself then he too was lowered. Once at the bottom he looked around in disbelief. Five men stood staring at him as he untied the rope. What the hell is going on? He wondered. He went over to his brother who was now beginning to move a little. He then looked up and watched as the men pushed the rock back over the hole. He expected to be in total darkness and was surprised that the area they were in was bathed with a soft light which seemed to come out of the walls themselves.

"What the hell's going on here?" Sam asked.

"Those men up there kidnapped us." Jerry one of the men said as he stepped forward. "They have some kind of creature back there in that cave that has been eating us one by one." He pointed to a crevice in the wall which apparently led to another cave.

"What!" Sam looked at the man like he was crazy. "Eating you!"

"It comes out every few days and surrounds its victim then….absorbs them." Gary, another man, tried to explain.

"Absorbs them? What do you mean absorbs him?" Sam looked back and forth among the men; he still couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"It's this big jelly like thing. It reaches out and touches its victim then pulls them into itself. They are surrounded by it and can live for a couple of days inside of it before it dissolves their bodies and absorbs them. It usually crawls back into that cave over there and you don't see it again for days."

"Why? Why would those men do that to you? What do they get out of it?"

"The only thing we can figure is that they're using this creature to get rid of the bodies… They robbed all of us, then instead of leaving witnesses or bodies lying around they somehow discovered this creature and have been dumping their victims down here. This thing absorbs the entire body clothes and all and there's nothing left….no evidence and no witnesses linking them to the robberies."

Dean began to moan and Sam knelt down next to him.

"Come on Dean snap out of it." He gently patted Dean's face.

"Oh man…." Dean moaned as the feeling in his body slowly came back. "Well that wasn't fun." He said as he began stretching his arms and legs trying to get the tingling feeling out of them.

"You okay?"

"Yeah…I don't know what they gave me but it sucked. I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything but see and hear those bastards."

"Well I'm glad you're back because we're in big trouble."

With Sam's help Dean sat up on a rock and looked around. He immediately recognized some of the men standing around from the web site he had found about the missing people. He looked over at Sam and noticed his blood covered shirt.

"Damn it Sammy you're bleeding again." Dean reached out and touched Sam's shirt.

"Yeah, I think I popped a few stitches."

"Let me see."

Sam pulled up his shirt and Dean gently lifted the blood soaked bandage, his face was etched with worry when he saw blood dripping out of the now open gunshot wound.

"That's more then just a few stitches Sam, you're going to need that restitched."

"Well I think we got a bigger problem then a few popped stitches." Sam said as he pulled his shirt back down and looked at Dean. "I don't know how we're going to walk away from this one."

Dean looked at Jerry, the man who had first spoke to Sam.

"How long have you been here?"

"About ten days."

"Ten days? Well how do you keep going? What do you eat?"

"Those guys up there throw sandwiches down here every few days."

"Why would they do that?" Sam asked.

"Because that thing won't eat us if were dead."

"But no one is going to find you down here anyway so why does it matter if you're dead or not?"

"Because they're sadistic bastards who get off on all this. I think they actually bet each other on who they think that thing is going to kill next." Troy another one of the men spoke up.

"Where did you say it hangs out at?" Dean asked.

"This place is a big underground cave with a bunch of passage ways leading to other caves. That thing always crawls off into that passageway over there." The man pointed to a narrow crevice in the wall of the cave."

"Did anyone attempt to follow it?" Sam asked.

"What are you nuts! No one wants to go near it."

"How does it choose who it's going to kill next?" Dean asked.

"We have no way of knowing. It just crawls back in here and then shoots out this slimy arm like thing and pulls the person into it….then devours them." The man shook his head and looked away. "It's horrible. It just sits there and …." Tears came to the man's eyes. "It sits there for a day or so digesting the person. But the horrible thing is for the first day the person is still alive. They try to fight their way out but it holds onto them and eventually kills them then absorbs them."

Dean looked at Sam.

"Well what do you say we go see if we can find this thing and see what we're up against?"

TBC