I
stood scowling just inside the entrance of a cave. It couldn't have
been even five in the morning, yet I was there with my disheveled
hair and clothes that had been haphazardly throw on,
"See
anything Kay?" Dean asked me as he walked towards me from where he
had been, deeper inside of the cave.
I shook my head, I hadn't
seen anything, but that also could have been because I didn't
really want to go all that far into the cave. I was trying not to let
my claustrophobia stop me from doing my job on this hunt. It hadn't
disabled me completely, but it was making it damn hard to get
anything done,
"Sorry, I haven't seen anything other than
leaves, dirt and my own breath. It's freezing!"
Dean didn't respond, he was deeply involved in looking for anything that would point us in the right direction, as was Sam. I took a deep breath and walked further into the cave, trying to tell myself that the walls would not collapse and kill me.
I began looking around for signs of a supernatural presence just like the two Winchesters, I had no idea if I would recognize a clue if I saw one, unless that clue ended up being Big Foot's footprint. No matter how helpful finding that footprint would be, it was beyond highly unlikely.
We spent a long time walking deeper into the cave as
it steadily grew narrower. The only thing that stood between us and
the velvety darkness that threatened to drown me was a flashlight Sam
had brought with him. I slid my fingers between Dean's as we
walked, I was so scared I could barely thing straight but I was doing
a pretty good job of hiding it,
"You're pretty freaked out,
eh?" Dean whispered to me
Okay, maybe I wasn't hiding it as
well as I thought I was.
It's pretty funny that I'm scared of so many things and my chosen profession is fighting the things that scare other people. Maybe in a way I'm trying to protect others from feeling the fear that had always had such a tight grip on my life. On the other hand maybe I was just hunting because it had kind of fell into my lap and I was pretty good at it.
We
stopped for a few moments, Sam scanning the cave's floors with the
yellow beam coming from the flashlight, slicing through the shadows.
I unlinked my fingers from Dean's and wandered to stand beside
Sam,
"You noticing the fact that we haven't found a single
thing that even gave us the smallest hint as to what is going on
here?"
Sam shrugged,
"I know. I know. But I feel like
there's something here and we'll find it, soon."
"Yea we
better," I mumbled, "'cause I'm so cold I can barely see
straight."
I turned to face Dean who was standing a couple feet
away from us, deeper into the cave. I had been giving Dean a warm
smile when I saw a rather large outline of a dark figure emerge from
behind him and lunge forward.
My legs were glued to the spot as I watched the events unfold, Sam jumped towards Dean as the creature came down on him. This was more than just a clue, this was the real deal and I had no idea what I could do to hurt it. Sam's body connected with Dean and sent the eldest Winchester flying into the cave wall with enough force to render him unconscious. Before I knew it, Sam was laying flat on his back with the creature's massive claws deep into the flesh of his chest. Out of the darkness I could see it's eyes turn a horrible green, and I launched myself in it's direction, hitting it hard enough to force it to stumble back, but it pulled it's self together quickly and attacked.
Its claws stabbed me hard in the left shoulder and I let out a scream of agony before I had the sense to grab my pistol from the waistband of the jeans I was wearing, and fire the entire clip into it. It let out a horrible scream unlike anything I had ever heard.
I ran to Sam and placed two fingers on his pulse point, not leaving his side until I felt his heart beating. It was beating at a ridiculous pace, but that wasn't shocking since the trauma his body had endured. There was blood coating the light brown sweater he was wearing. I crawled over to Dean's side as I felt a steady stream of blood trickle down from my shoulder and saw it pool on the ground in front of me, clearly the wound to my shoulder was considerably more serious that I had previously given it credit for.
My sight had
deteriorated to only tunnel vision as I was attempting to wake Dean;
there was a substantial about of blood seeping out of a gash across
his face from where his head had slammed into the unforgiving cold
rock of the cave's walls.
I pulled out my cell phone to call 911
when I realized that there was no service, we were in the middle of
the woods. I let out a string of vicious curses as I threw the phone
against the cave wall and watched it shatter into a million pieces.
Sam was bleeding out and I knew Dean had hit his head with some
serious force; my only option was to get them out of there myself.
I stood up on two shaky legs and slowly began half carrying and half dragging Sam towards the head of the trail that we had followed to get to this point in the woods. I was deeply thankful for the fact that it had only taken us fifteen minutes of a walk to get to the caves, it meant that it would be near forty-five minutes before I could get Sam to help. It worried me that I would be leaving Dean alone during that time, but I also knew that if Sam died, part of Dean would die too and there would be no way for him to forgive me for that.
I pulled Sam along with all my strength for as long as I could bear the pain of my shoulder. I collapsed back onto the pine needles that coated the forest floor, my teeth clenched against the agony shooting through my entire body.
I have no idea how
long I laid there before I heard footsteps, and then a
voice,
"Miss?"
I turned to see a man standing over me with
a hiking pack strapped to his back and hiking poles in his hands,
this guy was dedicated,
"Are you okay?" he asked
I knew how
it must have looked to someone who was just walking by, I was
bleeding from my shoulder, and Sam was lying unconscious beside me
and was bleeding from various wounds in his chest.
I was grateful
as hell to see this man,
"Thank God!" I exclaimed, "I need
you to help me. This man has been seriously injured and I need you to
get him back to the head of trails and call an ambulance. Tell them
that we have two unconscious men and we need immediate medical
attention. Understand?"
He nodded his head as he tried to take
everything in,
"But you're bleeding. Are you sure you should
go back alone?"
I shook my head impatiently; I didn't have
time to explain to this man what was truly going on,
"What's
your name?"
"Brian."
"Okay, Brian, there is something
big and bad going down and it's not safe for you. This man is going
to bleed to death if you don't get him to help. His brother, my
boyfriend, has had a serious blow to the head. If either of them
don't get medical attention, and mean now, they will die. I can
knock you out so you won't be in my way or you can lend a hand. Now
either go away or help me."
Without another word he lifted
Sam with an impressive lack of difficulty. He gave me a glance and
then began walking towards the head of trails.
I took off back
towards Dean at a speed that I had never been able to reach on any of
my runs over the years; adrenaline was the best kind of performance
enhancer.
When I returned back to the cave Dean was beginning
to come into consciousness. I rushed to him and kneeled at his side,
"Dean? Can you hear me?"
He groaned and his eyes fluttered
open,
"Kay," he said in a weak voice, "what the hell
happened?"
I shook my head has I helped him to his feet and
supported a lot of his weight as we started walking up the
trail,
"I'll explain it all later, I promise."
It took us on the outer edge of thirty minutes to make it back to the head of trails. As we were arriving, three ambulances were pulling into the parking lot and I could see paramedics were rushing to the hiker who was with Sam and another set ran to Dean and I.
They
helped Dean onto a stretcher and then another one started leading me
towards a stretcher of my own. Up until then I had been running on
pure adrenaline, but now that the panic was mostly over, my body was
recognizing how much blood it has lost and my legs were like Jell-O.
I had torn a chunk of my t-shirt and wrapped it tightly around my
shoulder. It had been better than just letting it bleed freely, but
since I had tied it on with one arm and in a hurry it was far from a
professional job. My tunnel vision had returned as I was being loaded
into one of the ambulances I looked up at a young, female paramedic
with dark brown hair and kind eyes,
"I don't care what
happens." I said in a stubborn voice, which was pretty weak
considering how close to passing out I was, "You treat them first.
Understand?"
She smiled at me in a way that I could tell that
she wasn't taking me seriously. She placed an oxygen mask over my
face, and before I knew it, the little energy I had left was slipping
away and everything faded into darkness.
