The two cars pulled into the construction site. The Winchesters exited first and went to their trunk; propping it open and pulling out a few shotguns. John and Zed were by their vehicle having a heated conversation.
The brothers walked over and held out a pair of guns for the others. Sam faltered seeing their conflicted expressions. "What's wrong?"
Zed irked an eyebrow and jerked get head sideways towards John. "He says I have to wait outside."
"You have no way of defending yourself against a troll luv jus' — don't argue." John cut a hand through the air signaling he was done talking about the matter.
But Dean had something to say. "Well give her a gun, if she can aim right she'll do just fine." Zed regarded the man with a nod then took the weapon in her hands.
John scoffed snubbing his cigarette beneath his foot. He stepped towards Dean, as he was close in proximity he looked up glaring into the man's eyes. "You need to–"
"John." Zed cut him off before he could finish. The man glanced at her, his eyes softening seeing the vexation on her face. He backed off, holding two hands up in a gesture that showed he meant no harm.
Dean rolled his eyes and held out the other gun in his direction. He joked as he did, "You won't shoot me will you?"
"Oh I won't need it. I have the dark arts on my side." Constantine received a strange look from Dean, but the man drew the gun back and went to go toss it in the Impala.
After some talk on how they would approach the situation, they decided the Winchesters would stick together as would John and Zed. They figured if it came down to a gruesome fight the only person they trusted with their back was someone who had already been given it.
They entered the cave at the same time. Continuing in silence until the path diverged. A flashlight was shone at Sam's face blinding him; instinctively he brought a hand up to shield his squinting eyes.
"We go left you go right eh?" John said.
Irritated that he hadn't moved the light from where it's beam rested on his face, Sam replied, "No we'll go left and you right." He turned sharply and walked to the beginning of the left tunnel, waiting for Dean who wasn't far behind. The brothers left first, disappearing into the darkness.
"Was that necessary?" Zed asked. The exchanges between the Winchesters wore her out; frankly she just wanted to get this over with and back to the mill house as soon as possible.
"What?" Came a defensive reply from John.
Zed raised her own light and made a whole show of aiming it in John's eyes. "Oh I like being an asshole so I'm going to blind this guy with my flashlight while I tell him where I'm going."
He rubbed his nose, lips curling downwards at her mockery. "Well you haven't been any better."
She laughed. "Better than you."
"We're almost done with them. Then hopefully we won't have to see them again."
Zed glanced at the man. She hadn't approved of his attitude across the past few days, but the Winchesters were the same so she hadn't bothered to bring it up.
The tunnel suddenly rumbled. Puffs of dirt filled the air, clouding it more with each tremor. Zed gripped John's arm and looked around frantically. "It won't collapse, right?" Her voice conveyed her feelings of panic.
John's face was one of stone as he observed the shaking walls. "No luv, we'll be fine. Can't say the same about the other two though."
A bullet ricocheted off the troll's thick skin. Dean swore and reloaded, peeking out from the wall he stood behind.
They had walked the tunnel for a few minutes before it panned out to reveal a cave. The troll found them first and got between the brothers. Sam was across the room, using some stalagmites for cover. They made eye contact; Sam pursed his lips and gave a stiff shake of the head. He knew it was a losing fight as well. Firing bullets which couldn't pierce the skin.
The troll growled sounding rather annoyed and stomped its feet. Like the first time it disturbed the earth, the cave rumbled and the brothers had to watch out for any falling stalactites. Dean looked wildly around; his eyes glancing over to Sam and he found with relief that he hadn't been impaled.
There was no way to contact John — no one had walkie-talkies. As much as he didn't want that guy's help it would be really great to have it. In the meantime…
Dean flipped around walking a few paces before he stopped and bowed his head. His eyes slowly closed and awkwardly he began, "Uh – this goes out to Cas. I know you said not to trust Constantine — and we probably should've listened — but Sam and I could really use your help so please–" He blinked and the angel was before him.
Castiel stared at him impassively. "Yes you should have listened. Where is the troll?" It took a second to process the words but he quickly gathered himself and led the angel over to where the troll was.
It was calm now. Dean could only guess that Sam had stopped trying to shoot it allowing the troll to sit. In a quiet voice he asked Cas, "What are you going to do?"
The angel's eyes flittered around momentarily. "I will put it back to rest." Castiel proceeded to walk out of their cover and stood behind the troll. "You may want to cover your eyes." His voice rang out.
Puzzled, Dean went to stick his head out but recoiled when a glaring light filled the room. Doing as told he covered his face and waited until it was over. The light drew away from where it covered his toes; what he guessed was the troll's body hitting the floor resounded in the cave with an echoing thump.
"Sam?!" He shouted.
A second of nothing, then, "Still alive." Dean cracked a smile and moved to see him.
Sam had already stood from his place behind the stalagmites and greeted his brother with a nod. Castiel was beside the head of the troll. It's head was slumped sideways on the rock allowing them to see it's face which held two burned sockets, smoke curling into the air from the burned flesh that smelled like rotten eggs.
"How'd you kill it so easily?" Sam questioned, flummoxed.
Castiel's eyes glanced over Sam. "It was merely a troll they're quite dumb. I showed it my true form and it couldn't comprehend what it saw."
The brothers looked at each other in bewilderment.
The tremors had stopped and John and Zed journeyed deeper into the mountain. They had fell into a comfortable silence a few minutes ago; their eyes were downcast looking at the beams which lighted their path.
"Maybe we should backtrack," Zed suggested. All they had found was a buttload of nothing. And she was wondering what that ruckus had been.
With a shrug that only was known to one of them John said, "I wouldn't mind that."
And so they faced the opposite direction and continued on.
It was abrupt when she fell. First her foot collided with something; Zed reeled forward skidding onto the ground. Her knees — which had taken the brunt of the fall — felt like they were on fire and she gingerly ran her fingertips over them feeling the ripped jeans and abraded skin.
"This is the second time you've fallen?" John teased from above. Zed sent a glare towards him, ignoring the hand he was offering and instead used the wall for support.
The wall didn't feel normal, but before Zed could ask John to shine a light on it her hand sunk in.
She yelped, yanking her hand out and drawing it close to her chest. "Holy shit...John that wall, it's squishy." He gave her an odd look but proceeded to touch where she had. When he pulled back his hand he found that she was right, but he might have already discovered the reason as to why.
John rubbed his fingers together creating friction and drying a brown substance that was on it. It flaked off and fell to the floor. He brought up the flashlight aiming it towards the ceiling.
Zed gasped. "What the hell…?" In the upper corners of the tunnel were faces sculpted in mud.
"I think we've found those missing children."
Sheriff Holmbrook was absolutely sure he hadn't drank any alcohol today, but yet he was still seeing something that would only make sense if he was drunk.
After a 911 call the dead bodies of the kidnapped kids had been discovered encased in mud, deep within the tunnels that were going to be destroyed for the new highway. They were found in the ceiling; it made no sense to him whatsoever. After forensics had done their thing, men who worked at the construction site volunteered to help pry the children out of their prisons.
A clamour arose and his eyes moved to where a group of people were carrying out one of the kids. The nearby families rushed in to get a better look, trying to see if it was their child — not believing their precious baby was dead until there was hard, undeniable proof in front of their eyes. A loud wail reached his ears and he fumbled with his smokes trying to get one out of the pack.
Glendive wouldn't get over this for a long time.
Reviews:
suteko1: It is fast paced since I planned this to be under ten chapters. But regarding the two teams and their impoliteness I guess they're a bit OOC that way?