Chapter 6

Within moments, the alley way filled with infected humans. Dean dropped the girl and ran for his life, closely followed by the infected.

Winded, Dean ran into a street, to find it blocked off by a wire fence.

"No!" Dean screamed, banging his fists on the fence.

Turning around to meet his fate, Dean's attention was drawn to the sound of heavy machinery. The street soon became a battle zone, with several soldiers firing into the infected humans, quickly dispatching them.

In the chaos, Dean ran to the safety of a nearby alley and spent the next several hours trying to run and hide as much as he could. He finally found an opportunity to break through a fence and by that time night had already fallen.

On the other side of the fence was a warning sign for the hot zone Dean was leaving. The date on the sign caught Dean's eye, "August first, 2014," he said aloud, bewildered.

Not wanting to stay near the red zone for long, Dean quickly made his way away from the fence, eventually coming across a working car.

"Convenient," he muttered to himself while hot wiring the car. Immediately after the car started, he tried the radio and found only static, "That's never a good sign."

"Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia," a voice said from the passenger side.

Dean jumped in his seat, startled to find Zachariah sitting beside him, reading a newspaper. He recovered quickly, "I thought I smelled your stink on this Back to the Future crap."

Zachariah continued to read aloud, ignoring Dean, "'President Palin defends bombing of Houston.' Certainly a buyer's market in real estate. Let's see what's happening in sports. That's right—no more sports. Congress revoked the right to group assembly, what's left of Congress, that is. Hardly a quorum, if you ask me."

"How did you find me?" Dean asked.

"Afraid we had to tap some unorthodox resources of late—human informants. We've been making inspirational visits to the fringier Christian groups. They've been given your image, told to keep an eye out."

Dean thought a moment before remembering a moment the night before, "the Bible freak outside the motel—he, what, dropped a dime on me?"

Zachariah grinned, "Onward, Christian soldiers."

"Okay, well, good, great. You have had your jollies. Now send me back, you son of a bitch."

"Oh, you'll get back—all in good time. We want you to marinate a bit."

"Marinate?"

"Three days, Dean. Three days to see where this course of action takes you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that your choices have consequences. This is what happens to the world if you continue to say "no" to Michael. Have a little look-see," he finished before vanishing.

Dean drove all night to get to Bobby's house, the only place he could think to go to that wasn't the Slayer Institute.

He made his way up to Bobby's porch, knocking on the door, "Bobby? Bobby, I'm coming in!"

Walking around the trashed, abandoned house, Dean quickly found Bobby's wheelchair, tipped over with dried blood and bullet holes all through it.

"Oh no," he whispered to himself

Moving into the study, Dean opened a hidden compartment and pulled out his father's journal. On top of the journal is a photo of Bobby, Castiel and three other men, in front of a sign displaying their location.

"Camp Chitaqua."

Approaching the sign from the photo, Dean notices three men patrolling the area. Staying out of sight, Dean creeps through the grounds before spotting the Impala, smashed up and rusted to hell.

"Oh, baby, no," Dean said to the car, as he approached it. "What did they do to you?"

Behind him, Dean hears a shuffled noise, before being knocked unconscious.

Dean slowly woke up with a throbbing in his head, and the sun glaring in his eyes. Remembering what happened before he was attacked, he quickly became aware of his surroundings.

His hands were handcuffed to a ladder, and directly across from him..was him. Other Dean was sitting calmly, cleaning his gun.

"What the hell?" Past Dean asked Future Dean.

"I should be asking that question, don't you think? In fact, why don't you give me one good reason why I shouldn't gank you right here and now?" Future Dean asked, looking up from his gun.

"Because you'd only be hurting yourself," Past Dean weakly joked.

"Very funny."

"Look man, I'm no shapeshifter or demon or anything, okay?"

"Yeah, I know. I did the drill while you were out. Silver, salt, holy water—nothing. But you know what was funny? You had every hidden lock pick, box cutter, and switchblade that I carry. Now, you want to explain that? Oh, and the, uh, resemblance, while you're at it?"

"Zachariah," younger Dean explained.

Older Dean stood up, and made his way to Younger Dean, "come again?"

"I'm you from the tail end of 2009. Zach plucked me from my bed and threw me five years into the future."

"Where is he? Where is he? I want to talk to him."

"I don't know," he replied with a shrug.

"Oh, you don't know," Future Dean replied unbelievingly.

"No, I don't know. Look, I just want to get back to my own friggin' year, okay?"

"Okay. If you're me, then tell me something only I would know."

Dean thought for a second, before smirking and replying, "Rhonda Hurley. We were, uh, nineteen. She made us try on her panties. They were pink. And satiny. And you know what? We kind of liked it."

"Touché. So, what, Zach zapped you up here to see how bad it gets?"

"I guess. Croatoan virus, right? That's their endgame?"

"It's efficient, it's incurable, and it's scary as hell. Turns people into monsters. Started hitting the major cities about two years ago. World really went in the crapper after that."

"What about Sam?" Younger Dean asked anxiously.

Older Dean stilled for a moment before replying, "Captured, about a month ago. He was out looking for supplies with a team and they were ambushed, killed most of the team but took Sam."

"Why would they just take him?" Past Dean asked in confusion.

"No clue, they got their vessel, no clue why they'd need Sam."

"Wait, what? Sam isn't a vessel that makes no sense."

Older Dean scoffed, "musta hit you a little too hard. Not long after capturing the first ring, Sammy had a little dream. Since we're fit for Michael's holiness, it only seemed right that Sammy take the spot of the little brother." Dean laughed bitterly.

"But if they didn't need Sam, that means that Dawn.." Younger Dean trailed off, not wanting to finish his train of thought.

"Yeah, they got Dawn, and because she wasn't really human, not originally, they didn't need her permission. With the right hoodoo, they got right in. Took em a while, but got took her in the end." Older Dean spoke without emotion, as if he was talking about the weather.

Fuck Younger Dean thought to himself. That woulda killed Buffy.

"Buffy!" Younger Dean exclaimed, "What happened to her? Is she alright?"

Older Dean laughed bitterly, "yeah, she's still kickin', as far as I know. As soon as Lucifer took Dawn, first thing he did was hit the Institutes. All of em, globally. Some of the girls survived, Buffy and Faith amongst them, but Slayers are pretty rare these days."

Younger Dean was shocked, "as far as you know? You haven't been with her?"

"Buffy? I haven't seen her in almost 5 years. We get wind of what she's been up to, but we parted ways a long time ago."

"And you didn't try and find her? Her sister is the devil himself and you didn't try to find her!" Younger Dean practically shouted the last part.

"You don't know what you're talking about. The world has ended! We needed to fix what we could, when we could. I didn't have the time to go off and find one girl."

One girl? Dean thought to himself, wondering what happened for his future self to be so offhanded.

"What about Sam?" Younger Dean asked, trying to move on from Buffy, to the problem at hand.

'I'm handling it," Older Dean replied, before turning to leave the room.

"Where you going?"

"I got to run an errand," Older Dean replied, shrugging on his military style jacket

"Whoa. You're just gonna leave me here?"

"Yes. I got a camp full of twitchy trauma survivors out there with an apocalypse hanging over their head. The last thing they need to see is a version of The Parent Trap. So, yeah, you stay locked down."

"Okay. All right. Fine. But you don't have to cuff me, man. Oh, come on. You don't trust yourself?"

"No. Absolutely not." The door slammed behind him.

"Dick." Dean muttered, as he pulls a nail from the floorboard to remove his handcuffs.

Dean walked out of the cabin, looking around the camp.

"Hey, Dean. You got a second?" A voice asked behind him.

Dean spun around to see Chuck standing behind him, "no, yes. Uh, I—I guess. Hi, Chuck."

"Hi. So, uh, listen, we're pretty good on canned goods for now, but we're down to next to nothing on perishables and—and hygiene supplies. People are not gonna be happy about this. So, what do you think we should do?"

"I—I don't know. Maybe, uh, share? You know, like at a kibbutz."

Chuck paused before speaking again, "Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be out on a mission right now?"

"Absolutely. And I will be," Dean replied with only a slight hesitation.

Chuck looked behind Dean, seeing something that made him frown, "uh-oh."

Dean spun around in time to stop a woman from punching him in the face.

"Whoa! Jeez! Easy, lady!"

Ducking out of the way, Dean hid behind Chuck, protecting himself from any further attacks.

"Risa," Chuck provided.

"Risa?"

"You spent the night in Jane's cabin last night, didn't you?" Risa asked, accusingly.

"Uh, what? I—I don't—did I?" Dean spluttered, looking in Chuck's direction for help, receiving a nod in response.

"I thought we had a 'connection'." Risa replied, using air-quotes.

"Well, I'm sure that we do."

"Yeah?" Risa angrily replied.

"Hi, Risa," Chuck(ed) offered in the tension.

"Screw you." Risa replied before storming off.

"Oh, jeez. I'm getting busted for stuff I haven't even done yet," Dean muttered to himself.

"What?"

"Uh, never mind. Hey, Chuck, is Cas still here?" Dean hoped the Angel could get him out of this mess.

"Yeah. I don't think Cas is going anywhere," Chuck replied, taking Dean into another cabin.

Dean found future Castiel sitting in a human circle on the floor of the cabin. The circle was composed entirely of women, and Castiel.

Castiel was rambling on to the women, before spotting Dean at the door.

"Oh. Excuse me, ladies. I think I need to confer with our fearless leader for a minute. Why not go get washed up for the orgy?"

The women left the room, with Castiel smiling happily, "You're all so beautiful."

Castiel stood up from the ground, stretching his back with a grunt.

"What are you, a hippie?" Young Dean asked.

"I thought you'd gotten over trying to label me." Castiel replied jokingly.

"Cas, we got to talk."

Castiel paused, startled, "Whoa. Strange."

"What?"

"You are not you. Not now you, anyway."

"No! Yeah. Yes, exactly, " Dean exclaimed, relieved that he didn't have to explain himself.

"What year are you from?"

"2009."

"Who did this to you? Is it Zachariah?"

"Yes," he grunted in reply.

"Interesting."

"Oh, yeah, it's friggin' fascinating," Dean replied, exasperated, "now. Why don't you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar?"

Castiel looked dejected as he replied, "I wish I could just, uh, strap on my wings, but I'm sorry, no dice."

"What, are you stoned?"

"Uh, generally, yeah."

"What happened to you?" Dean asked in shock.

"Life," he sorrowfully replied.

Dean sighed but continued on, "man, you gotta tell me what happened to Buffy. Future me is kind of a jerk, and didn't tell me shit."

Castiel laughed, "'Future me'. Yes, well, I don't think you've had much contact with Buffy since the night you summoned me for information regarding her sister. We've had plenty of contact with her organisation, but not Buffy herself."

"Organisation?"

"Yes, once the world started to crumble, the government decided to extend the military. Buffy runs a special supernatural sector."

"Of course she does," Dean muttered to himself, "so much for her retiring."

"That pretty much went out the window when they took her sister," Castiel replied seriously.

After their conversation, Castiel and Dean left Castiel's cabin, just as Future Dean and a group of soldiers arrive back into camp.

Future Dean jumped out of the jeep and tossed one of the beers in his hands to the other soldier, sharing a joke. The soldier opened his beer, as Future Dean pulled out a gun and aimed it at his head.

Younger Dean acted instinctively, running towards the soldiers, screaming "watch out!" as Future Dean put a bullet in his head.

The rest of the soldiers stopped what they were doing to look between the two Dean's, one in a blue shirt, and one in a military jacket.

"I'm not gonna lie to you. Me and him—It's a pretty messed-up situation we got going. But believe me, when you need to know something, you will know it. Until then, we all have work to do," Future Dean explained, before grabbing Past Dean and leading him into a nearby cabin.

"What the hell was that?" Yelled Future Dean.

"What the hell was that? You just shot a guy in cold blood!" Dean accused

"We were in an open quarantine zone. Got ambushed by some Croats on the way out."

Dean's confused expression made Future Dean sigh before explaining, "Croats. Croatoans. One of them infected Yeager."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause after a few years of this, I know. I started seeing symptoms about (a) half an hour ago. Wasn't gonna be long before he flipped. I didn't see the point in troubling a good man with bad news."

"'Troubling a good man'? You just blew him away in front of your own people. Don't you think that freaked them out a little bit?" Past Dean asked, shocked at the brutality of his future self's methods.

"It's 2014. Plugging some Croat, it's called commonplace. Trading words with my friggin' clone—that might have freaked them out a little."

"All right, look—"

"No, you look. This isn't your time. It's mine. You don't make the decisions. I do. So, when I say stay in, you stay in."

"All right, man. I'm sorry. Look, I—I'm not trying to mess you—me—us up here."

"I know," Future Dean replied, half heartedly. He went to a table and poured two drinks.

"It's just been a really wacky weekend."

"Tell me about it." Future Dean agreed, handing Past Dean his drink.

Past Dean drank deeply before asking, "what was the mission, anyway?"

Instead of replying, Future Dean pulled out a gun. The Colt.

"The Colt?"

"The Colt."

"Where was it?"

"Everywhere. They've been moving it around. Took me five years, but...I finally got it. And tomorrow night, I'm gonna kill the devil," Future Dean replied, with a bitter smile.

"The devil? You mean Dawn?" Dean asked, shocked.

Before Future Dean had a chance to reply, Chuck burst through the door, out of breath.

"Dean, ah Deans, there's a problem. They're here, they heard about the mission, NSD are here," he finished panicked.

"Shit," Future Dean swore, going to the door. "You gotta stay here, for real this time."

"What? Who are NSD?"

"Military. Stay here. They won't like seeing you, trust me."

"Okay, I'll stay,"

Future Dean walked out, with Chuck behind him. Before Chuck left the room, he nodded towards the window with a wink.

Past Dean chuckled as he snuck over to the window to get a glimpse at the action.

Out front of Future Dean's cabin were three military style vehicles with 'National Supernatural Division' painted on the side.

"Glad you could stop by, sorry we can't offer you any tea, we're fresh out," Future Dean said sarcastically.

"It's good to see some things don't change," a familiar voice replied from behind the nearest vehicle. "The world is ending but Dean Winchester is still a sarcastic asshole," Buffy finished, coming to stand in front of Future Dean

She stood defiantly with her hands on her hips, garbed in her military gear. Her hair was shorter, and her face was filled with little scars, but she was still beautiful.

Not far behind her was Spike, her vampire ex-lover. The sight of him made both Dean's clench their jaw in anger.

"What do you want?" Dean asked angrily.

"Yes, exactly the same, aren't you?" Buffy asked bitterly, "Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" Indicating the cabin behind Future Dean.

"No!" Future Dean practically yelled.

"Oohkay," Buffy started uneasily, before being interrupted by Spike.

"Buffy, there's two of them," he said quietly.

"What? Two of who?"

"Two of him," nodding towards Dean. "Got one in the cabin, I can smell him. I wager that's why he doesn't want you to go in there."

"You mind not smelling me?" Future Dean demanded angrily.

"Can't really help it mate, could smell you a mile away," Spike said with a smile.

Buffy moved forward towards the cabin, pushing Future Dean out of the way. Upon entering, her eyes immediately fell on Younger Dean.

"Well that explains the reports," she muttered to herself.

Future Dean, Castiel, Chuck and Spike joined them quickly.

"What's going on here?" Buffy demanded.

"Hold up there, Goldilocks, you can't just come into our camp and start demanding things!" Future Dean yelled.

"I think I can," She said while crossing her arms.

"Why? Because the government says so?"

"Exactly, and if you don't start talking, we'll have 20 more units surrounding your area, ready to take your whole operation in.

"Over my dead body," Future Dean replied through gritted teeth.

"I hope so," she replied back, just as angrily.

For a moment, they stood inches from each other, chests rising rapidly from anger.

Chuck cleared his throat, "why-why are you here?"

Buffy took a deep breath and stepped away from Dean, "we've had two reports of strange activity. One report mentioned the appearance of Dean Winchester being spotted in a red zone, and the second mentioned a mission for a certain gun."

Future Dean seemed shocked, "how could you possibly know that?"

Buffy smiled condescendingly, "we're the government, we know everything."

"Now my turn," she continued, "why are there two of you?"

"Angel time travel," Past Dean explained.

"Ah," Buffy replied, without needing any other further explanation. "Whatever, that's not what we're here for," she turned back to Future Dean, "what are you planning to use the colt for?"

Future Dean only paused for a second before replying, "to kill Lucifer."

"To kill my sister?" She asked through gritted teeth.

"She isn't your sister anymore and you know it!"

"So what's your plan here, Deano? Just rush in guns blazin'? Because that has worked for you so well before," Buffy remarked sarcastically and bitterly.

"Oh really, opposed to what you've been doing? What is that again? Oh yeah sweet fuck all."

"Fuck all?" Buffy practically screeched, "who do you think is keeping the demons back while you make your little plans? Do you think there'd? be anything left if we weren't doing something?"

"yeah well it didn't save your sister, did it?" Dean said cuttingly.

Buffy punched him, sending Dean flying across the room.

"Wouldn't mention Little Bit if I was you, mate," Spike said angrily.

"I'm not your fucking mate," Future Dean replied, wiping blood from his mouth, getting up from the ground.

Past Dean watched the exchange with horror and disgust. How could they talk to each other like this?

Buffy walked over and picked Dean off the ground, "I'm not your fucking enemy."

Dean shrugged her hands off, and pushed her away, "you're not an ally either, so hands off the goods."

Buffy sighed and moved away, towards Past Dean. She stopped in front of him and looked into his eyes and muttered, "it's weird. Looking into your eyes and not seeing the hate in them."

Without Buffy realising, Future Dean had walked up behind her to hear everything.

"Yeah well that was before you let Bobby die, before everyone died. Before you let Sam get captured."

Buffy turned in shock, "you can't possibly blame me for that."

"If you had killed your sister when you had the chance, none of this would have happened." He replied through gritted teeth, getting in her face.

"Hey, back off her, " Spike growled from behind Future Dean, swinging him away from Buffy, coming in between them.

Quick as lightening, Dean pulled a gun and aimed it at Spike's head. Spike scoffed, "what you think that's going to do, mate?"

"I bet it'll hurt."

"Not as much as it'll hurt you," Spike replied, shifting into his game face.

"Enough!" Buffy shouted from behind them, with a quick grab, she had hold of Past Dean, leading him to the door. "If you don't give us the Colt in two hours, we put a bullet through Marty McFly here. I know enough about time travel to know that'll fuck you up pretty bad," she said to Future Dean.

Without another word, she left the room with her commandos and Spike following her.