Chapter 17: Escape?

Amber awoke to someone gently tapping her cheek. At first she could not see anything and she thought perhaps she was wearing a blindfold, but then she realized she was in some sort of a cave or mine. At first she did not realize who had woken her up from her sleep, so she was about to scream when someone placed his or her hand over her mouth, muffling her scream.

"It's ok, you're okay! It's just me," Sam whispered, helping her down from where she was hanging.

Once she was down, he walked her over to where Hailey and Dean sat, sitting her down between Dean and Hailey. Dean gently placed a hand on her cheek, turning her face so she was looking at him,

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded,

"As okay as I can be in a situation like this," she replied, trying to be funny.

Dean smiled, pushing himself up off the ground after they had cut down Hailey and Ben's brother, Tommy, who happened to be alive. Dean dug in a bag, finding flare guns.

"Hey," Dean called to Sam, causing him to turn and face Dean, "these will work," he smirked, twirling the two guns on his fingers.

Sam smirked.

"Let's go," Dean put one gun in his belt and helped Amber up off the ground.

They climbed back up through the whole in which Sam and Ben had fallen. Standing up, they began their trek back to the entrance in the dark. Dean stopped Sam and faced the small group,

"Okay, you guys follow Sammy out of here," Dean said, pulling the second gun out of his pocket.

"What are you doing to do?" Hailey asked, eyeing the guns.

Dean responded by winking at her.

"Be careful," Amber said, causing him to smirk at her.

I'm always careful," Dean said before running off into of the tunnels.

"Hey, you guys hungry?" he shouted, holding the guns up, looking back at the group once, nodding for them to move, before shouting again, disappearing into the darkness, "You want suma-this! I taste good!" they could hear him shouting in the distance.

Sam, Amber, Hailey, Tommy, and Ben surreptitiously headed towards the entrance, but once they caught sight of the entrance, they booked it.

"Keep going!" Sam urged them on, pulling out a flare gun of his on and stopping beside a jagged wall, keeping a lookout for the wendigo.

Amber helped Hailey and Ben carry their brother, Tommy, towards the entrance. He was half conscious, half unconscious and in pain. After a few moments, they stopped and turned back towards where Sam had stopped,

"Sam?" Amber called out.

They saw the flare gun go off in the distance then heard footsteps running towards then.

"Go, go, go!" Sam shouted, pressing them on.

They ran, but came to a dead end. Amber screamed as something grabbed her from behind, tossing her backwards (A/N: The wendigo is supposed to be fast!). She hit the stone hard, but instantly sat up and crawled backwards, screaming as the wendigo slowly approached her, foot long claws ready to slice. It's blue skin seemed black in the cavern and its eyes glowed black. Fangs stuck out of the mouth. As it lifted its claws to strike, Sam yelled,

"Hey!" charging from behind.

Amber backed up until she hit something solid, screaming as she was grabbed and lifted by Dean,

"Over here!" he shouted.

The monster turned, roaring as Dean fired the flare gun, hitting it in the stomach. Dean wrapped his arms around her, shielding her as the monster was engulfed by flame, somewhat exploding into a puff of smoke. When the monster was gone, Dean pulled away from Amber slightly, looking her up and Dean,

"Are you okay?"

"That thing was real," she said, still staring where the creature once stood.

He nodded in response,

"Well, at least now you know Sam and I aren't crazy."

"How are you guys?" Dean asked, tearing his eyes away from Amber for a moment.

"Just get us the Hell outta here," Hailey responded for all of them.

It took them a few hours to get back to the ranger center. Hailey had called 911 to the ranger station ten minutes prior to arriving. They walked out of the woods, cut up and helping Hailey and Ben with Tommy. They were all very tired. No sooner they stepped out of the woods, paramedics rushed over to Hailey and Ben to take Tommy, laying him on a bed and lifting it into the ambulance. They then led Amber, Dean and Sam over to the ambulance to patch them up as well. Amber sat to the left of Dean while Sam sat to the right of him, on the edge of the ambulance.

"Where did this come from?" the paramedic asked Amber, turning her head slightly to view the gash on the left side of her forehead.

"I slipped on my bathroom floor, hit it on a tile," she said honestly, leaving the part out about the attack.

"That's going to need some stitches to help it heal," the paramedic said, reaching into the back of the ambulance and pulling out a kit.

Amber stiffened at the paramedic's words, backing up a little,

"I really don't think they're necessary," Amber laughed nervously.

"Have you ever had stitches?" Dean asked her.

Amber shook her head "no".

"They're not that bad," Dean told her, touching her hand gently.

She groaned as the paramedic approached her with the needle.

The procedure took about twenty minutes.