BUGS PART 3
The trip to Sapulpa was decently long but did end up being the place they needed to go to get information. Alice noticed while driving that at least a good chunk of the population was of Native American descent, and after asking directions from one of them, they headed to a local diner. Her and the boys parked outside the joint and headed in. The place was crowded with people ready to start their morning with breakfast, but others were just sitting around and talking with the residents.
Alice looked around the area before her eyes landed on one man in particular. He was sitting alone at a table and was just silently playing cards by himself. He was Native American and had a face that was weathered with age. She tapped the boys on the shoulders before gesturing over to the lonesome man. "That must be our guy," she said in a small voice before they walked over to him.
"Joe White Tree?" Sam asked and the man glanced up at them, nodding his head. "We'd like to ask you a few questions if that's fine with you."
Dean agreed and shook his head. "We're students from the university-" He was suddenly cut off.
"No, you're not. You're lying." Joe said and stared dead at Dean with an unwavering expression, seeing right through his ploy like it was nothing. No hesitation at all.
Alice cocked a brow and just stood their, silence rolling by them as their minds processed what he had just said. He immediately pointed out his lie in a flash of a second, so it about gave her whiplash. "Well, you see-" Even Alice wasn't able to get a single word in before Joe cut her off as well.
"Lie. You're a liar too. Just like him," he said while pointing at Dean, making Alice promptly shut her mouth too, as tight as a clam and as confused as a bird flying into a glass window.
The two Hunters just stood there, very much baffled. Alice looked more so annoyed while Dean was conflicted and confused. Funny enough, neither of them could complain or defend themself since Joe wasn't lying. They were both somewhat of compulsive liars because of their job, and it became a bad habit since neither of them noticed that they did it until Joe pointed it out.
Alice sunk within her defeat, patting Sam on the back and slightly shoving him forwards too. "Sam, talk to him." She ordered him with a flat voice filled with irritation.
Sam hesitated at first before jumping right to the chase. "Have you heard of Oasis Plains? It's a housing development near the Atoka Valley," he asked.
Joe looked at Sam before shifting his gaze back to Alice and Dean. "I like him. He's not a liar." The two just gave each other an annoyed look. "I know the area."
"What can you tell us about the history there?"
"Why do you wanna know?" Joe cocked a brow and gave the three a skeptical look.
Alice had to put aside her compulsive lying habits and sit down across from the man. All she wanted right now was to get answers as quickly as possible. She feard, whatever it was, that they were running out of time. She didn't want Matt and his family getting caught in the crossfire. "Something bad is happening over there and we think it might have something to do with some old bones we found. They were Native American."
Joe appeared to ponder on her words for a minute before something popped in his head. "I'll tell you what my grandfather told me, what his grandfather told him. Two hundred years ago, a band of my ancestors lived in that valley. One day, the American cavalry came to relocate them. They were resistant, the cavalry impatient. As my grandfather put it, on the night the moon and the sun share the sky as equals, the cavalry first raided our village. They murdered, raped. The next day, the cavalry came again, and the next, and the next. And on the sixth night, the cavalry came one last time. And by the time the sun rose, every man, woman, and child still in the village was dead. They say on the sixth night, as the chief of the village lay dying, he whispered to the heavens that no white man would ever tarnish this land again. Nature would rise up and protect the valley. And it would bring as many days of misery and death to the white man as the cavalry had brought upon his people."
Taking a moment to soak everything up, Alice sat there, completely calm, fingers up to her lips and eyes narrowed with deep thought. "Insects?" she muttered and glanced at her boys.
Dean shrugged. "Sounds like nature to me. Six days."
Joe nodded. "And on the night of the sixth day, none would survive," he said ominously with an air of mystery shrouding his words.
Alice and the boys gave each other a silent look, knowing.
The three rushed out of the diner and headed over to their vehicles after getting the whole haunting truth from Joe.
"When did the gas company man die?" Sam asked while circling the Impala to the passenger's door.
Dean bit down on his lips to think about that for a second. "Uh, let's see, we got here Tuesday, so, Friday the twentieth."
Alice felt her blood run cold. "Ain't that on the spring equinox?" She hated to be right but it was confirmed when both the boys nodded. "Shit."
"Yeah. The night the sun and moon share the sky as equals," Dean says.
Alice walked over to her bike that was parked beside the Impala. She pulled her helmet off the handlebars and stopped before putting it on. Her lips curled up before she turned to look at the boys. "Larry built the neighborhood on cursed lands, the dumbass." She pulled the helmet over her head and plugged her keys into the ignition, bringing the motor to life in all its rumbling and roaring glory. "The sixth night...that's tonight."
"Then how the hell are we supposed to break a curse." Dean groaned with frustration. "Alice, have you had any experience with this?"
She nodded grimly. "Yeah, a long time ago when Aiden was still with us. You don't stop a curse, guys. You either get the hell out of its way or hunker down and brace yourself."
Sam frowned while opening the passenger's door. "Is there no other way?"
Alice's gaze was stern and serious. "We don't even have the time to think of anything else."
Dean quickly ushered Alice to get ready while he hopped into the diver's side and started up the car. "We'll think about it later. Come on, we've gotta get those people out now."
Dean broke the speed limit on the highway like he was trying to outrun the darkness that was sweeping across the roads, racing back to the neighborhood as fast as his car could take. Alice kept up a good pace ahead of them too but wasn't completely out of sight yet.
Dean quickly called Larry on the phone to see if he could lie and convince him and his family to leave before they got there. "Yes, Mr. Pike, there's a mainline gas leak in your neighborhood," he said and took a nervous and uneasy glance to Sam who listened in.
"God, really? And how big?" Larry answered back.
"Well, it's fairly extensive. I don't want to alarm you, but we need your family out of that vicinity for at least twelve hours or so, just to be safe."
"And who is this again?"
"Travis Weaver. I work for Oklahoma Gas and Power."
Larry paused for a moment. "Well, the problem is, I know Travis. He's worked with us for a year, so who is this?"
Dean's eyes grew wide. Panicking, he quickly hung up.
"Give me the phone," Sam ordered and snatched the phone from him, dialing a number at lightning speed.
"Hello?" Matt's slight panicked voice answered in almost two seconds flat.
"Matt, it's Sam."
"Sam, my backyard is crawling with cockroaches," Matt said, alarmed.
"Matt, just listen. You have to get your family out of that house right now, okay?" Sam urged him.
"Why, why?"
"Because something's coming."
"More bugs?"
"Yeah, a lot more."
Matt sounded reluctant. "My dad doesn't listen in the best of circumstances, what am I supposed to tell him?"
"You've gotta make him listen, okay?"
Dean Immediately grabbed the phone from Sam's hand. "Give me the phone, give me the phone. Matt, under no circumstances are you to tell the truth, they'll just think you're nuts. Tell him you have a sharp pain in your right side and you've gotta go to the hospital." he said
Matt studdered for a bit before replying. "Yeah. yeah, okay." He hung up.
Dean cast Sam an odd stare before shaking his head, speeding to catch up to Alice. "Make him listen? What are you thinking?"
An inky blackness swept over the neighborhood the time Alice and the boys made it back, but to their dismay, they saw that the car was still parked it the driveway. The Pikes were still here and they had little less than an hour before midnight. There was no telling what was going to happen or what it possibly could be. Would spiders come and web up the house? Could Termites invade and eat away at the foundation until everything collapsed? Knowing how big the list was and the endless array of possibilities made Alice all the more nervous. Her expression hardened every second they weren't trying to leave this area and her own body felt like it was being invaded with ants with how much her own skin was crawling.
Larry peered out his window and saw the three strangers parked right outside his house. He then promptly stormed out his front door and raised his voice at them, pointing angerly with his face bright red. "Get off my property before I call the cops!" he shouted with Matt running out of the house.
"Mr. Pike, listen." Sam tried to convince him, Matt cutting in to help.
"Dad, they're just trying to help." the young man said, but his father wasn't having it.
"Get in the house!" Larry's face kept growing red with every shout.
Dean took his gaze to Matt and was thoroughly confused. "We had a plan, Matt, what happened to the plan?"
"Dean." Alice's voice cut in, sharp like a knife. They turned to glance at her and saw her blue eyes upon the darkened sky, narrowing and expecting something to happen at any moment now. She looked back at them and made a motion with her hand, tapping her finger against her wrist to tell them that time was up. "It's already 12:00 AM."
Her words were haunting to Sam and made him shiver all the way to his bones. It only pushed him more. "They are coming any minute now. You need to get your family and go before it's too late."
Larry could only roll his eyes. "Yeah, you mean before the biblical swarm."'
Alice rolled her eyes even harder but chose to keep her mouth shut, knowing her brute honesty certainly wouldn't help.
"Larry, what do you think really happened to that realtor, huh?" Dean said. "And the gas company guy? You don't think somethin' weird's going on here?"
"Look, I don't know who you are, but you're crazy. You come near my boy or my family again, and we're gonna have a problem."
"Well, I hate to be a downer, but we've got a problem right now." Dean shrugged his shoulders and kept looking back at Alice to see if her expression changed any. If there was a look of horror crossing the cutting blue in her eyes. Nothing yet.
"Dad, they're right, okay? We're in danger." Matt urged him more.
"Matt, get inside! Now!" Larry shouted back.
Matt had finally had enough and snapped out his words. "No! Why won't you listen to me?!"
"Because this is crazy! It doesn't make any sense!"
Sam raised his voice but kept his distance, holding his hands up to show he wasn't hostile towards him. "Look, this land is cursed! people have died here. now, are you gonna take that risk with your family?"
Everyone's attention was soon brought away when they heard Alice snapping her fingers in a constant manner. "Guys, guys. Hey!" She snapped. Her face was morphed into confusion, moving her head back and forth after hearing this strange buzzing noise that was only getting louder and louder. "The hell is that?" she said while stepping back between Sam and Dean, getting more than just a little nervous.
Even Larry was starting to become a bit anxious. "What the hell?"
Alice and the boys heard a sharp buzzing noise to their left and saw that the fluorescent bug light on the porch began to overheat, constantly humming with insects being zapped to death by the electric current running through it.
Alice's eyes narrowed upon the glassy moon and saw what looked to be a black mist blanketing the sky. It struck her as weird though since the mist...was moving fast and buzzing very loudly. It was millions upon millions of bugs blocking out the moon and coming in hot.
Larry gasped in horror at what he believed, only a moment ago, to be fake. "Oh my God."
Alice immediately stepped back and grabbed the back of the boy's coats. "Guys, remember when I said that there were only two ways to survive a curse? Looks like we're gonna have to go with Plan B."
Dean nodded before him and Sam started to rush everyone to the house as quickly as they could. "Everybody in the house. Everybody in the house, go!" They ran to the front door and hopped inside. Dean stopped and looked back. "Alice, get your ass in here now!"
Alice lingered back and looked at the mass hoard of bugs hazing the sky like an ominous mist. She darted her head away and ran inside the house, slamming and locking it behind her.
The moment everyone was safely inside, Sam and Dean began to lock all the doors while Alice and Matt checked all the windows, fastening them down and tugging at them to make extra sure.
"Matt, go upstairs and check the windows there too," Alice ordered while moving from window to window.
Matt turned around to respond to her but jumped back in shock. "Alice!" he said gravely, the color just absolutely draining from the poor boy's face.
Alice turned back around to the window to see what spooked him and about jumped right out of her own skin as well. "Son of a..." she muttered and backed away. On the window was a large black mass attached to the glass, growing bigger and buzzing loudly. An unholy surge of insects. "Holy..."
Dean rushed back into the room after hearing Matt's cries, screeching to a halt when he saw the mass of insects hanging on the window. "Oh, crap," he said grimly. He reached over and gently pulled Alice by the arm to get her away from the glass. "Brace yourself and hunker down, you say?" he repeated.
"God, I hope this house holds up." She signaled to Matt before they both ran up the stairs the check out the rest of the house. "Make sure you seal all the doors!" she called back before disappearing to the second floor.
Just then, Joanie entered the room and saw Sam and Dean stuffing the cracks below the doors with towels. Her face grew with worry. "Honey, what's happening? What's that noise?"
"Call 911." Larry urged her but she didn't move. "Joanie!"
"Okay," she said and grabbed the phone to dial. She slammed her finger down on the buttons but the screen was black. Nothing was going through. "Phones are dead."
"They must have chewed through the phone lines." Dean stuffed a towel under the front door to make sure nothing could worm its way through. A second later all the lights in the house went dead, leaving them to face the crisis alone in the dark. "And the power lines. Alice!" he called out immediately.
"We're alright!" Alice's shrill voice called from upstairs. He could even hear her heels clicking against the floor above them.
Larry nervously peeped out the windows that had a thick mass of bugs covering them now. He could no longer see outside. "So what do we do now?"
"Alice thinks we can outlast it. Hopefully, the curse will end at sunrise," Sam said.
Larry looked doubtful. "Hopefully?"
Dean, in the meantime, took the short amount of time he had and practically ransacked the kitchen to see if he could find anything useful. Though he doubted that there would be anything that could wipe out a swarm of this size. Still, he searched through the cabinets and found something that might be able to hold them off if only a little. "Ha! Found it!" His salvation came in the form of a simple bottle of bug spray.
After checking all the windows, Alice finally came back downstairs and into the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway and stared at Dean, cocking an eyebrow in total confusion. "Do you really think that's going to work?"
Dean's jaw tightened. "What? You wouldn't happen to have a flamethrower in your back pocket, now would you?" he said sarcastically. "Cause I'm up for any kind of plan right now."
She scoffed at his attitude and shut him down with a witty remark of her own. "No. I left it in my other pants pocket." She reached into the inner lining of her leather jacket and pulled out a lighter and tossed it to Dean.
Dean glanced at it before looking back at Alice. "You sure we can outlast it?"
Alice didn't avoid his heavy stare. His green eyes burned into her almost cold blue ones, begging for answers. She could only shrug though. "I'm hoping." A smirk slipped to her lips soon after those words left her mouth. "Besides, I'm gonna be pissed if I die by a handful of bugs."
Dean blinked and stared at her before he looked down, smiling. "Yeah. You and me both."
They both share one last grin towards each other before heading back into the living room where everyone was waiting.
Just then there was a strange sound. A loud cracking and moaning noise of metal. The brothers looked around before their eyes landed on the fireplace when a mass hoard of bees suddenly dropped in and swarmed the room, flying around and buzzing in everyone's faces. The shouts of confusion and horrified screams were evident as they all tried to cover their heads and slap the bugs off their bodies.
Dean flicked open the lighter he was given and lit the can of bug spray, making everything flare up and burn away the surrounding bugs. "Alice, get them upstairs. Go, go, go!"
Alice pushed the family ahead of her towards the hallway where the bug haze cleared up a little. Dean continued to burn away the insects with the bug spray while Larry pulled down the ladder leading up into the attic. They all climbed up in a mad rush and slammed the door shut before the swarm could get in. Their situation hasn't gotten much better though, and in an instant, they were corner with nowhere to go anymore without being stung alive.
"Shit..." Alice cursed under her breath and felt her skin sting from the multiple red bumps all over her. She groaned in frustration and used the back of her cold hands to cool her face. "The bruises on my neck finally went away...and now this?"
Dean gave a half-hearted and lazy grin. "I guess people just love your face." The joke definitely wasn't up to Alice's approval with the death glare she threw at him. Dean even had to admit that it wasn't the best time for innocent flirting.
"Okay. You can go back downstairs and get stung to death now," Alice said bluntly.
It was a moment of peace that only lasted for a second before they heard something odd. Everyone looked up and saw sawdust falling from the ceiling, the sound of bees getting louder too.
"Oh, my God, what's that?" Joanie whimpered.
Alice, Sam, and Dean walked over to where they heard the racket and saw that the wood was slowly being gnawed through. The sawdust was falling from the small holes that were in the ceiling. Alice could easily hear the sound of very agitated bees too.
"Something's eating through the wood," Dean said grimly.
"Termites," Matt spoke up, huddled in a corner with his mom and dad.
The hole finally fell through and the small attic was overwhelmed with a mass of bees. The Pikes tried desperately to swat the bugs off them while Sam and Dean attempt to plug up the hole. It proved to not matter when three more holes opened up. The air was thick and heavy with bees, suffocating and burning them from the bee stings. Sam and Dean used their coats to cover Larry and Joanie while Alice hid Matt under the flap of her jacket. Her skin was on fire while she was pelted with bees dive-bombing her, some making their marks and others not.
Matt saw through Alice's jacket, a fraction of hope. He could see from the holes in the ceiling, morning light breaking through the cloudline and shinning into the attic. The bees then suddenly fleed and escape through the holes, leaving the Hunters and family alone. Alice felt her tense body finally relax before slumping down against the wall beside Matt. Sam and Dean walked over to the hole in the ceiling and could finally see it, the glorious sight of a pastel sky.
The night was over.
It was a splendid morning with not a single bug to be found when Alice and the boys rolled up to the Pike house, seeing Larry loading boxes up into a moving van.
"What, no goodbye?" Dean joked when he got out of the car.
Larry smiled at them. "Good timing. Another hour and we'd have been gone." He shook their hands firmly.
"For good?" Sam asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. The development's been put on hold while the government investigates those bones you found. But I'm gonna make damn sure no one lives here again."
That was comforting for Alice to hear, like a weight being lifted from her shoulders. "That's good. Ain't you upset though? This had to be a pretty big flop." Her words were brutally honest.
Larry shrugged and didn't deny it. "Well, this has been the biggest financial disaster of my career, but..." He glanced over to Matt who was walking out into the garage while carrying a box in his hands. "Somehow, I really don't care." his lips curled up into a smile.
They shared a smile before Sam and Alice walked over to Matt, noticing that he was throwing away all his insect stuff.
"What's this?" Sam exclaimed with a wide grin.
"Finally getting over the bug phase, I see." Alice laughed.
The kid smiled at them and looked away, observing all his stuff now in the garbage where they belonged. "I don't know. They kind of weird me out now." He'll admit.
Alice reached over and patted him on the back. Hard. "Matt. Take this as a sign to find a new hobby."
Soon after, Sam and Alice join Dean over by the Impala and silently leaned against it, watching Larry and Matt.
Needless to say, Alice was content. Whenever it was a family involved, it worried her to no end of how things were going to turn out. They all might be a bit sore from bee stings (Alice most of all) but she was sure that they were going to be alright. Not to mention, the overall atmosphere between Larry and Matt seemed to have changed for the better.
Sam took a worrying glance at Alice before turning back to Dean, seeing his brother eyeballing him with this knowing expression. He bit down on his lips and stayed quiet for a second before nudging her in the side. "Hey," he spoke gently.
Alice turned to him and slowly lifted a brow. "Yeah?"
Sam knew he still had to apologize to her but just didn't know how to go at it first. He didn't like arguing with his brother and especially didn't like doing it in front of Alice since she had nothing to do with it. So he knew he accidentally crossed the line about that comment he made. "Sorry. I said something...pretty messed up about this job, knowing that it was your family's life." Something clutched at his heart, guilt mainly, but only because he didn't want to disrespect Alice or her family, knowing that they been through a lot more crap than his.
Alice stared at him, her expression flat. She took in a deep breath before it escaped through her parted lips. "God...you have the strongest pair of puppy-dog eyes." Her lips turned up into a smile. "But you have a point. This is not a good job. It's messy and bloody...and people just have a habit of dying when they do it. But I guess I'm kinda proud about it since my mom and dad white-knuckled through it, taking in all the crap and was still able to have a family. In my opinion...that's the most badass thing there is for a Hunter to do." She reached up and patted him on the shoulder, ruffling his hair too until he smiled back. "Come on, boys. It's a new morning. Let's hit the road."
"Now you're speaking my language." Dean chimed with a wide grin. "You're following us though so don't drive ahead," he called out while she jogged over to her still-running bike.
"Yes, dear." Alice pulled her helmet over her face and revved up her bike.
The Impala drove out on the road with Alice, of course, speeding ahead with Dean laying down on the horn for her to slow down.