Chapter 3
After an incredibly long journey to Lebanon we finally slowed down outside what appeared to be an old abandoned factory nestled seamlessly into a hill. The place was so large that I couldn't even see half the building from outside of the car window.
"Are we making a pit stop?" I looked over to Dean who put the car into park.
"No, we're here, home sweet home." Dean softly grinned. My eyes widened looking back out at the building as Dean exited the car. It took me a minute to take it all in, it's been a long day.
I heard a sharp knock on the window which pulled me out of my reverie.
"You coming or what?" I heard his muffled voice ask through the door. I quickly scuffled out of the car following after him as he walked down a small flight of stairs to the entrance door. He fished out an old cabinet type key from deep within his pocket swiftly unlocking the door.
"Prepare to be amazed." He smiled lightly before pushing the door open allowing me to go through first. I raised my eyebrows as I ducked through the door slowly making my way over to the balcony railing. And I thought outside was incredible.
"No way, I didn't think you literally meant a bunker. This place is massive, and you live here?" I asked turning to face him.
"For some time now yeah, when we're not on the road that is." He replied giving the place a once over.
"And to think we lived in seedy motel rooms for the past twelve years, all the while this was just sitting here. What cult did you say owned this place?"
"The Men of Letters, a sort of supernatural scholars, they're all gone now." He spoke nonchalantly as I slowly made my way down the staircase.
"Shame, Sammy would have probably drank the Kool-Aid to join." I smiled at the thought of my kid brother. That all changed though as I made it to the last step. Looking down I saw a patch of fresh blood two feet away followed by another, then another heading towards the next room.
"I'll find you some new clothes. You still like the Ramones right?" I heard Dean as he came up from behind having not seen what was below.
"Dean, whose blood is that?" I asked looking up at him as he stopped in his tracks beside me. His expression looked just as confused as I was. He swiftly pulled out a gun from his waistline walking forward slowly.
"Dean?" I asked again taking in my surroundings more carefully. He motioned for me to stay still and quiet as he moved further in.
"Sammy? Cass?" He called out, no reply. He made his way back over grabbing a revolver from under the desk on my left.
"Take this. Stay here."
"You said that this was the safest place in the world. That nothing could get in." I quietly hissed grabbing on to the gun readying it in my hand.
"Yeah well, something got in." He whispered annoyed with my comment before stalking off into some other part of the bunker.
Was he seriously leaving me here? Great, my second shot at life ends with me lying dead alone in the middle of a storm cellar with fantastic lighting. There is no way I am waiting around to die.
I started to move in the opposite direction to Dean, looking to my left I see some sort of sigil written in blood. Monster hunting keeps getting weirder and weirder.
This must be the library. Surrounding me were hundreds of books all of which looked rather old and outdated like something out of Scooby-Doo. Would it hurt to add a little something that was contemporary? Or now I thought about it, something from the mid-nineties. I picked up a book from off the shelf.
An Encyclopedia of How to Cure Deadly Bites. Handy, I mused to myself before hearing a door slam open ricocheting off the surrounding walls. I quickly put the book back in place before ducking behind one of the pillars. I held onto the gun tighter as I heard the mysterious intruder swiftly walk down the stairs. His footsteps came nearer and nearer. I prayed quietly that it was Sammy and not some mass murdering child killer.
I have to act now, I have to act now, I have to act now. A mantra read on repeat in my mind every time a foot hit the floor.
Taking a deep breath I came out from behind pointing the gun firmly at the strange figure. I could tell right away that it wasn't Sammy. His eyes were blue, his hair black. Though worn out he dressed too done up to be a Winchester.
"Who are you?" He spoke roughly.
"Put your hands up and I'll tell ya." He didn't, instead an odd silver knife then dropped into his right hand as he moved towards me. I took it as a sign of aggression and shot all six rounds into his chest. I thought for a moment that it would stop him, but he only seemed to stumble back slightly. Not like a man who had just been beat.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" I heard Dean exclaim coming up from the right side of the room.
"It's okay. It's okay. He's a friend, all right. Give me that before you hurt yourself Trigger Happy Henley." He sniped taking the gun carefully from me. Hurt myself? This guy should be dead.
"Cass? You alright man?"
"Dean!" The man 'Cass' looked shocked at the appearance of my brother.
"He wouldn't put his hands up." I reasoned more to myself than to Dean.
"So you shot him?" He raised his eyebrows putting the gun away.
"He had a knife." I argued
"And what if he knew where Sam was? You'd have just shot our only lead." He spoke like I had done something wrong.
"Shoot first ask questions later, that's what Dad taught us." I recited flippantly.
"Since, when has that ever worked?"
"All the time, hence why we are still alive."
"You just shot my friend."
"He's fine too, happy days am I right."
"Dean!" The strange trench coat wearing friend of Dean's interrupted launching himself into Dean's arms.
"Hey. Okay. All right." Dean embraces him tightly back, a little too tightly for just friends in my opinion.
"You're alive?" He sort of looked on the verge of tears.
"Yeah." Their hands dropped to their sides
"What about the bomb and the Darkness? What happened?"
"I'll tell you everything. Where is Sam?"
"He's not here." Cass looked as equally devastated over that fact.
"I'm sorry. Hi, me here. Are we just ignoring the fact that I shot this guy six times and he's still alive? What the hell are you?"
"I'm an angel."
"He's an angel." They both replied in sync.
"I'm going to need you to repeat that. I thought you said they were all murdering conceded douche bags with wings who like to blow up the world for a Sunday roast."
"This is Cass, he's one of the good guys."
"Yeah, just like some monsters are warm and fussy on the inside and just want to be loved right?"
"He's not like the rest of them, he's good and he's a friend."
"Yeah, you've mentioned that twice now. Friend huh! We still using that term these days." I said looking at the body language between the two. He rolled his eyes.
"No. Cass, meet Henley. Hens meet Castiel." He said introducing us briefly, it took Castiel a moment to catch on.
"Your sister."
"Yeah. So, wait, uh, where – where is Sam? He's not answering his phone, there's blood on the floor. What's going on?"
"I don't know. We came back here, there was a woman waiting for us. She blasted me away. I don't know who she was. I don't know what happened to Sam." I looked just as confused as the two of them seemed to be.
"Okay, well, the bunker's empty, so – so they've obviously left here. You said woman – not an angel, not a demon, a-a human."
"She was human." He confirmed.
"When did this go down?" Dean asked turning away before sitting down at the table.
"It was 2:12 a.m."
"Oddly specific…" I whispered as Dean pulled out another brick thing, except this one opened up.
"Is that like a computer or something?" I asked looking underneath the table for the console as Dean typed away.
"Yes. I don't trust them." I looked confused at Castiel, it did seem like an odd thing for a celestial being to say. The machine suddenly showed a picture of the CCTV recordings.
"Got something. An S.U.V. ran a red light a few blocks from here at 2:21 a.m. And there wasn't another car for 40 minutes."
"Did you just hack into the traffic cameras?" I asked peering over. That was so fast.
"You think it's them?" Castiel interjected.
"It's worth a shot." Dean replied.
"Alright, I'm going to quickly grab some food and get Henley some clothes and shoes." Dean got up heading back towards the main entrance.
"I want to be out of here in five minutes, Cass can you take her to the car?"
Castiel nodded gesturing for me to follow him. I did so cautiously grabbing a small ancient looking knife displayed on one of the shelfs. I tucked it into my waistband discreetly as I followed him into a walkway that branched off into a raised room. Castiel walked up the stairs before turning on the lights. I followed him up before stopping dead in my tracks. I couldn't believe it was still there.
"No way, that's my car." I peered over it, running my hand over the familiar arch. It gave off a comforting feeling of timelessness. It was like me in that respect, the rest of the world had grown old while I had remained the same.
"Dean's car." Castiel corrected. I turned my head towards him glaring.
"My car, I'm the eldest despite what Dean likes to think. Then again, he's always had an unnatural obsession with it. Used to call it his baby girl."
"Still do." Dean's gruff voice rang out from below the stairs. He walked up with one arm filled with travel food and the other with my mystery outfit. He then tossed the clothes at me and dumped the shoes near to my feet.
"I couldn't anything that would fit you properly. We'll have to stop by a store after finding Sam. This should do for now."
"These are girl's clothes." I stated confused.
"Yeah, and you're a girl."
"No, I mean where did you get them?"
"They were Charlie's."
"She your girlfriend?" I asked, of course Dean and Sam would be in relationships at this point in their lives, Dean just hadn't eluded to it before.
"No… she's gone now." He said sombrely, I nodded sensing he wanted to leave the subject. I motioned with my finger for them to turn around. Dean nodded turning before noticing Castiel looking confused. Dean roughly turned him away. I quickly changed into the pink flannel top and jeans. I then grabbed the pair of sneakers Dean dropped to the floor sliding them on quickly.
"Done." The two turned around Dean passed Cass the food before heading over to open the car.
"You got the keys?" I asked. He rolled his eyes as if to say of course I have the keys. Just as he got it out of his pocket I yanked them away.
"I'm driving," I stated opening up the car door just as Dean slammed it closed again.
"Like hell you are."
"Come on Dean, I'm sixteen, I have my licence."
"Which expired twenty years ago."
"So, like you've driven with a licence this entire time."
"Then what happens when we get pulled over. I'm sorry I was speeding Mr. Officer here's my ID that shows I'm thirteen going on thirty something."
"I won't get pulled over and if I do I'll just flash him a nice smile. I'm sure he'd prefer me over your ugly mug."
"You are not driving."
"You can't boss me Dean, you're not my father."
"Well I'm old enough to be. This is my car."
"You're wasting time right now, do you want to save Sammy or keep arguing with me. Because I'm leaving this garage at the wheel either way. Now get in the car." I said defiantly as Dean begrudgingly let go. I quickly sat down in the Driver's seat pulling up the chair and turning on the engine. Dean slid in beside me and Castiel silently got into the back.
"Bet you wish right now that I stayed dead." I grinned like the asshole I was. Dean grumbled muttering something under his breath as I turned on the ignition. Dean pulled out the mixtape box from under the seat. It looked like it had seen better days, I quickly snatched that too.
"Your reflexes are terrible, you must be getting old." I snorted trying to find my favourite album.
"No way am I spending the car ride listening to one of your grange rock, punk pop, emo loving mixtapes."
"Shut your cake hole Dean, just because you still live in the 1980's doesn't mean the rest of us have to."
"Says the girl from the better half of the nineties." Better half? What happened to the rest of it? At first glance it looked like all the original cassettes were there, but after looking through it a couple key ones were missing.
"Where's my Nirvana tapes?" I looked up at Dean accusingly.
"In a 1997 motel dumpster along with Green Day and Jawbreaker." I glowered at him biting back a comment. I had to focus on the job at hand. Help Dean get future-Sammy, then go back home away from this crazy nightmare.
I grabbed the next best album I could find and put in a little BTO, then put the car into drive.