Thank you for reading and reviewing the last chapter! Just a heads up for this one, there will be death. No apologies;-)))

Hope you enjoy!

Dawn Of The Winchester

Chapter Four: Friends In Low Places

Whitefish, Montana — Rufus's Cabin — 18:54 PM.

"Well, well, well," A voice came from behind him, and he frowned. "Dean Winchester."

Dean turned, curious, because he knew he recognized that voice from somewhere, and his eyes went wide. "Garth?"

Honestly, he had been the last person he had expected to find there. But before Dean could get so much as another word out, before he could even think up a coherent sentence or question, Garth was there. His arms wrapped around his neck tightly, and the force of his hug was enough to knock Dean back a couple of steps.

"Oh." Admittedly a little taken aback, he chuckled, but he brought up his arms all the same. He patted him lightly on the back. "Okay." A smile came to his face. "I forgot you were a hugger." he remarked, and he pulled back to face him with a grin. He would have been lying had he said that he wasn't happy to see him. Another hunter, a familiar face, someone who might have some clue as to what the hell was happening to the world. "Dude, what the hell are you doing up here?" he pressed, puzzled. "What's going on?"

Garth took a step back from him and offered a half-hearted shrug. "I was looking for a safe place to set up base." he replied simply. "Bobby told me about this place once, said it was a good place if I ever needed to lay low. Up in the mountains, isolated, safe. Barely seen another person since I came." A grin crossed his face. "Until today."

Dean looked around slowly. "Huh." He wasn't sure what to say. It was clear that his siblings weren't there, and they probably never had been. That left him at a loss.

"So," Garth pressed, curious. "What are you doing up here?" There was a hesitance to his tone that Dean didn't miss, because they both knew that it wasn't like him to show up anywhere without his siblings, especially at a time like that. "Where's Danielle? And Sam?"

"I don't know." Dean answered honestly, and the comment seemed to take him by surprise. A frown came to his face, as though concerned, pushing silently for more information. "I woke up in the hospital a couple days ago, they were already long gone. I don't even know where to start looking for them." he admitted. "I mean, I thought maybe they'd come here, it wasn't too far away, but, they could be anywhere by now."

Garth smiled at him, optimistic. "I might be able to help you with that."

Dean looked up to him, and his eyes narrowed. "How?"

"Well, come on in, compadre." he encouraged as he bypassed him into the living room. "All cell phones are down, but I'm guessing you've figured that out?"

"Yeah," Dean frowned and he turned to him. "What happened with that?"

Garth shrugged. "They went down a couple weeks after it started. All TV stations, radios, everything. Most of the state lines are blocked. They tried to quarantine this thing, but it all just got out of hand. Most of the highways are just packed up with cars, people who tried to flee and never made it, it's impossible to drive them."

"Yeah, I noticed." Dean muttered. He didn't understand. "Garth, what the hell is happening out there? Do you know what this is?"

Garth shook his head, clueless. "It started off small, I thought it was just a normal hunt, you know, town gone mad. But it was happening everywhere, all over the country, people were panicking, it all happened too fast for anyone to control. Within a week it was like half the country had been turned into those things, and it's just spreading faster. I don't know what to call it. I don't know what started it. I don't think anyone does."

Dean dropped down to sit on the couch with a sigh. He wasn't sure he wanted to know anything more. Things were getting worse by the minute, and all he wanted to know was that his siblings were alive somewhere, that they were safe, but he was starting to doubt it. It was beginning to sound as though no one had survived what had happened out there.

But he refused to buy into those thoughts. Not until he was sure. "So," He looked up, expectant. "How do you think you can find them?" Garth smiled at him, and there was a smugness to it that he didn't miss. He reached into a bag beneath the coffee table and pulled out a laptop. It was huge, and it looked more complicated than anything he had ever seen before. "Where the hell did you get that?!"

The smirk on his face only widened. "I saved a guy at Google." he stated simply. "I went to help him with a case, monster in the screens kinda thing. You remember the ring, right? Well, he said it might come in handy in our line of work."

"You saved a guy at Google?" He nodded to himself. "Of course you did. Coming from the guy who killed the tooth fairy, why am I not even surprised? And, more to the point, dude, where are you getting all these good hunts?"

"Why?" Garth pressed. "What are you hunting these days?"

"The undead, apparently." he remarked. "So, what are we looking for, anyway? I mean, if cell phones don't work, how are you gonna track them?"

"Do they have credit cards?" he pressed. "We could see if they've been taking money out? Might give us a trail?"

"Why would they need money?" Dean asked, confused. "What are they gonna be buying? I'm guessing not many stores are still open these days?"

Garth gave a thoughtful frown. "Good point."

But then an idea came to mind. "What about a car?" he pressed, curious, hopeful. "The Impala has a tracking device in it."

His eyebrows raised, and he seemed nothing but surprised by the idea. "It does?"

"For emergencies." he stated. "I don't even know if they still have the car, but," He shrugged, defeated. "I don't know how else to find them." There was a clear note of despondence in Dean's tone, and Garth didn't miss it. He nodded slowly, as if to say that he understood, and pulled the laptop towards him. Dean pulled out his wallet and tossed a small card towards him, one with a bunch of codes and numbers scrawled across it in his brother's handwriting. "Don't even ask me to explain what any of that means," he muttered. "I'm hoping you know."

Garth narrowed his eyes at it for a moment, his attention flickering between the card and the screen. "Yeah." he nodded, and he began typing quickly. "I get it."

Dean gave an impressed nod. "Well, you're just full of surprises."

Garth snickered. "Might take a few minutes, it's not as fast as it was before the power went down."

"How does that even work? I mean, I'm guessing there's no internet anymore, right?" Garth opened his mouth to explain, but Dean held up a hand to silence him before he had the chance. "Actually, you know what, I don't even wanna know. I already have a headache. You got any beers in this place?" He didn't wait for an answer before he pushed himself up and headed towards the refrigerator. He pulled out two beers and handed one to Garth on his way back to the couch. "So, how long you been up here?"

"Uh, about three weeks." he told him. "Took me a couple to make it up here. Those things are everywhere."

"Yeah," Dean nodded. "The highway's crawling with them."

Garth nodded. "I know," he muttered. "They've been around there for a while, just standing there, pacing. It's like they don't know what to do, or where to go. I don't think they remember."

"Until they see us, you mean." Dean remarked.

Garth shook his head. "We'll stick to the back roads, it's safer. We can get most of the way without going near the highway." he encouraged. "All those on the highway came from the cars, I think. It's like that at all the state lines. Everyone panicked, everyone tried to escape, but the roads were blocked off. Some of the people in the cars turned, and within a couple of days the place was a graveyard." He glanced back to the laptop before him as something bleeped. "Huh." His eyebrow raised. "Your car is in Wyoming."

"Wyoming?" Dean frowned, because that news didn't fill him with confidence. Danielle's letter had given him the impression they were planning to stay on the move. "So, they went straight from Idaho to Wyoming. And in six weeks that's as far as they've gotten?"

"Maybe they found somewhere safe to stay?" Garth suggested.

Dean nodded. "Or maybe something happened." he countered.

Garth looked torn as to what to say to him, because he knew that it was a real possibility. But, he shrugged, nonchalant, as though there was nothing to be concerned about. "Well, we ain't gonna find out sitting here, are we?"

Dean frowned, puzzled. "Wait, you're coming with me?"

Garth shrugged again. "I can't hide up here forever." he stated. "This thing ain't stopping. I wanna help you find them."

For a moment, Dean seemed reluctant. But he nodded. "Okay then." He grabbed his jacket. "Let's get out of here."

Two Hours Later — Montana — Highway

Dean shifted the slightest bit in his seat, and he flexed his hands from the steering wheel for a moment. It had been a long drive, and there was nothing but empty highway ahead of them. He didn't know what to expect, and he could only hope that the rest of their journey would be as calm and quiet as it had seemed so far. Maybe that was a naive thought to have in mind. There was an old tape playing through the speakers, something that he would normally never have allowed to be played while he drove, but he found himself not wanting to argue. He glanced over towards the passenger seat where Garth was staring absently out of the window beside him, bopping his head slightly to the music as though he didn't have a care in the world. Dean had never understood that about him.

"You heard from any other hunters since this thing started?" he asked, the first one of them to break the silence in a while. "I mean, has anyone found a real way to beat this thing? Or, at least, found out what it is?"

Garth shook his head. "Nope. Haven't heard from anyone since it started." he said simply. "Once the cell phones went down that was it. We were all on our own. I don't even know if there are any hunters left out there to fight this."

Dean gave a thoughtful nod, because he knew that was a real possibility. He just hoped that wasn't the case. "Is this happening everywhere?"

"As far as I know." Garth nodded. "All states went into quarantine when it started, but eventually everyone gave up. The police, the military, they were all overpowered. Most of 'em were bitten trying to control it. After that it was like everyone for themselves."

Dean shook his head slowly. It didn't seem real. "How does this even happen?" he muttered, more to himself than to the man beside him.

"I don't know." Garth offered. "I don't think anyone knows. It's like something from a movie, right?"

"Yeah, tell me about it." he agreed. "And most of those movies don't end well, either."

"I don't know," Garth looked up, somewhat hopeful. "Zombieland was pretty optimistic."

Dean chuckled. "Can't say I saw that one." he remarked. "Not a lot of time for movies lately between me and Dan escaping purgatory, Cas and the friggin' angel tablets, Crowley being a douche, you know, the usual."

"Oh. Right, yeah." Garth looked away for a moment. "I'd forgotten about that."

It wasn't a conversation that he wanted to get into, and it was a topic he never wanted to think about again.

A frown crossed his face and he glanced down towards the radio in confusion. "Really, Garth?" he pressed, dubious.

"What?" he asked, defensive, as though to ask what the problem was. Dirrty by Christina Aguilera played, and he shook his head at him. "Man, how do you get pumped before you hunt?"

Dean laughed, but he made no move to change the track. "You're as bad as my sister. She lives for this song." He smiled at the thought, and something crossed his mind. "So," he pressed, curious. "Speaking of Danielle, is this really that you wanna help me find them? Or is this about you wanting to find them?" There was a smirk on his face, and Garth looked up to face him, as though confused. "Come on, I know about your little crush on my sister."

Garth looked away, chuckling slightly, but he didn't miss the heat that showed in his cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Dean laughed at him, genuinely laughed. "Dude, it's written all over your face." he remarked. "Maybe you should just tell her."

Garth scoffed. "Yeah, like that's gonna happen."

"Why not?" Dean pushed. "Dani loves you."

"Let me guess, your sister probably calls me cute and says aw when I do things." Dean smiled a little, but he didn't disagree, and Garth nodded to himself. "That's what I thought."

Dean chuckled, amused. "Hey, it's the end of the world, you never know." He threw him a smirk. "God knows she's made worse choices in the past."

"Yeah, well," Garth scoffed. "Tell you what, I'll tell Danielle, if we survive that."

"Survive what?" Dean looked back to the road, and the tires of the car screeched to a halt. "Oh." he stated. "That."

There were monsters everywhere he looked, hundreds of them, and his eyes went wide at the sight. They walked the road in all different directions, and it was so similar to the sight he had seen in Idaho. They surrounded the mass of abandoned cars just left in the road, and it confirmed his suspicions, they were the ones who had climbed out of them, the people who, at one time, had been trying to flee their homes. He had never seen anything like it before. What the hell were they supposed to do? There were so many of them, and there were only two of them. They were outnumbered. As if they had realized that there was something happening, they turned towards the car, and there was no question that they had spotted them. Every murderous set of eyes fixed upon them, and their movements seemed to speed up as they approached. No longer did they pace without direction, they looked determined, transfixed, and they weren't stopping.

Dean set the car into reverse and took off backwards down the highway, putting a respectable distance between them and the mass of them that continued to approach. They stepped out of the car and nodded between each other as they raised their guns. They shot and they shot, taking them down one by one as they approached, and it all seemed a little too easy at the start. They were slow, and they each had a near perfect aim. The bodies dropped one by one, but they were coming closer and closer as they tried in vein to take them all out before they reached them. By the time they came close enough there weren't too many of them left standing, and their odds seemed considerably better than they had done, but they weren't out of danger yet, far from it.

They continued to shoot, backing away as they did, and it seemed the safest way to survive it. Dean took the opportunity to punch one of them in the face, and he noted the coolness of it's skin at the brief touch. He shot it before it could even think of standing again. They were surrounding them, and there was only so much that the two of them could do at that point. They fought and they fought, doing everything they could to keep them at a distance, but it was no use. Two of them reached Dean before he could do anything to stop them, and they grabbed a hold of him tightly. Their teeth were on show, fully prepared to bite them, and he frowned in confusion. He didn't understand how any of it was real, even for them it seemed like a stretch. Without giving it much more thought, he shot one of them through the neck and pushed the other away from him. He turned and shot it, but something else caught his eye.

His eyes were wide and he opened his mouth to shout, but the words didn't come quick enough. In a split second, there was blood covering the side of Garth's neck, and he yelled in pain. Dean shot the monster that gripped his shoulders in the head and it fell to the ground, dead, by his side. Garth stood with wide eyes, looking more shocked than anything else. He opened and closed his mouth, as if to say something, but no words left him. He stumbled slightly, weak, and fell forwards to the floor.

The number of them only seemed to be increasing by the second, and Dean knew now that there was no chance they were going to be able to fight them all off. It had been a bad plan from the beginning, and it was only now that he had been in the middle of it that he realized just how bad things really were. He moved forwards and grabbed a hold of Garth. He threw one of his arms around his shoulders and all but dragged him back to the car. In a second he turned the car around and drove at full speed in the opposite direction down the highway, putting as much distance between them and the hoard behind them as possible.

"Dean." Garth murmured beside him, his voice was weak and he looked as though he was struggling to remain conscious. "Pull over."

Dean glanced between him and the road, and he opened his mouth to say something, but quickly stopped himself. In that instance, in the rush of everything and the panic, the only thought in his mind had been to get him to a hospital, but then he remembered, there weren't any. He had seen the state of the one where he had woken up, and he knew there was no help out there for them. Hesitant, and knowing it was more than likely sealing the fate of his friend, he pulled the car over at the side of the road.

Garth reached out and opened the door at his side, and he fell from the car to the road. Dean climbed out and ran around to him, but Garth held out a hand as if to warn him not to come any closer. He didn't understand.

Dean dropped to his knees beside him, his eyes wide. He pressed a hand to the bleeding wound at his neck, helpless. "Dean," His voice was weak, broken, strained, as though it was taking all his effort to use it. "You need to run."

But it was like he hadn't clicked onto what was about to happen. "Garth, come on, man." he urged, shaking his head at him.

Garth offered him a smile. "Pleasure workin' with ya, buddy." he murmured. And then his eyes closed.

"Garth?" Dean shook him, a frown on his face. "Dude? Can you hear me?" But he didn't respond. "Garth?!"

There was a long, silent moment where all Dean could do was sit there and stare at his lifeless body. Everything seemed to stop, and he realized that he was looking down at yet another person who had given his life to help their family. It hurt. But nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to witness.

Garth's body began to shake, as though he were having a seizure. Every muscle in his body shook violently. He screamed in pain, as though being tortured, and the sound went right through Dean, it sent a chill through his body and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The frown on his face was one of agony, and Dean didn't know what to do or how to help him.

But, after a moment it stopped, all movement and sound ceased to exist and Garth went still. Dean couldn't even breathe, couldn't think, couldn't react. Everything was silent.

But Garth's eyes opened again, and they were nothing like he had ever seen in the hunter before. No longer were they kind, playful, glimmering with mischief. They were white, cold, angry. Dead. Garth was dead, and yet he was staring him straight in the eyes. The shock of it was enough to knock Dean back, and he sat there on the road staring at him, frozen. Garth made a sound, something like a growl, and his hand reached out towards him.

Dean shook his head slowly. "I'm so sorry." he said softly. And he shot him. He fell to the ground at his feet, and he stopped. Dean sighed, looking over him slowly. It didn't seem real, it wasn't right, and it sure as hell wasn't fair. "What the hell is happening?" he murmured.

Something inside him snapped, and he knew that he had to finish it. He marched back to the car and threw himself behind the wheel, taking off at full speed down the highway, back towards the hoard ahead. They were still heading down the highway after them, but Dean was more than prepared to end that. He stopped the car and climbed out, gun in hand, and repeated his actions from before. He shot and shot at the monsters, taking them down one by one, backing away as he did, until there was nothing more than a pile of dead bodies on the road before him. He looked up towards the mass graveyard of cars before him, and he felt a determination like no other.

It was as he began to walk towards them that something caught his eye, something that he hadn't noticed before. And, despite everything, Dean couldn't help the smile that came to his face as his eyes fell to a black car in the distance. It was parked in front of hundreds of cars, and the smile quickly contorted to a frown. He had never seen anything like it before. He approached it slowly, cautious, not sure what he expected to find there. From where he stood he couldn't see anyone, anything, and he let himself believe that he had passed the worst of it. He could imagine it, his siblings had driven up the highway and realized that they could drive no further, and they had left the car. He just had to hope that they had not met the hoard that he had just experienced.

Almost hesitant, he pulled open the driver's door of the Impala and glanced inside, there on the seat was a piece of paper folded in half, and his name was written on the front of it. He picked it up and opened it, expectant.

Dean. I'm guessing if you've found your car it means that you're looking for us. There's no way we're getting through the road block, so we're going to have to leave your car, sorry. We're headed towards Colorado, I'm not sure where yet. We don't know where's safe, or where's been hit the worst, but we're going to try and find somewhere to stay. Follow the road, please don't give up. Be safe. — Danielle.

Dean gave a short sigh, because what was he supposed to make of that? He didn't know how old the note was, or if they were even there anymore. Maybe it meant that he was on the right track. He had somewhere to head to, he had a direction, he just hoped that his brother and sister would still be alive for him to find there.

At that point, it was the most he could hope for.