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Burial Ground

Chapter three

They both pulled out their guns and walked toward the rocks. Once there they separated and went around opposite sides of the rock. When they met at the back they found a man lying facedown in a pool of blood. Dean dropped to his knees next to him while Sam kept his gun trained on him in case it was some kind of trick. Dean gently rolled the man over then hissed in his breath when he saw the man's condition. The entire front of the man's body including his face had been ripped to shreds. One eye hung out of its socket, the other eye was missing. Dean looked up at Sam; they both knew it was a miracle the man was still alive but they also knew there was nothing they could do for him.

"Take it easy buddy." Dean said softly as he put his hand on the man's shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. Sam took off his backpack and took out a bottle of water and handed it to Dean. He cradled the man in his arm as he held the water up to his mouth. The man gratefully gulped down the water but then began coughing as the water hit his injured stomach.

"What happened? Is there anyone else out here?" Dean asked.

"Bear…. It killed Tim…..Andy, Mike, Rob and Andrea got away….At least I think they did…." The man managed to get out before he began moaning in pain. "Oh God it hurts…."

"I know buddy." Dean hated to question the man but he knew he had to find out if this man's friends were the ones that took the artifact. "I need to ask you something…..I need to know if your friends took anything from the burial ground."

The man's face turned toward Dean's voice.

"Is that why….is that why all these things are happening?"

"What's happening?"

"Wolves, bears, snakes…they kept attacking us. A wolf attacked Tim first …..then the bear attacked him and killed him then turned on me…..The others took off…..they might be dead too…."

"I need to find them….I need to replace whatever it is they took.….Do you have any idea which way they went?"

"We were….we were heading toward a cabin….up by Mirror Lake…I…I….." The man gasped in pain but continued. "I told them ….I told them not to take it….I told them it wasn't right….."

"What was it? What did they take?"

"It looked….it looked like part of a bow….it was wood….it had carvings on it…"

"Who took it?"

"Andy. Andy took it…"

"And he still has it?"

The man tried to speak but then began choking on his own blood.

"Take it easy buddy…take it easy." Dean tried to calm the man as he looked up at Sam. He knew even if they tried to get the man out of there and back to safety he wasn't going to make it, he had been too badly injured. But they didn't have to decide what to do, the decision was made for them. The man suddenly cried out in agony and his body went limp. They checked his vital signs but the man was gone and even if they did CPR and managed to bring him back to life there was no way he was going to live, not with all the damage that had been done to his body.

"Well at least we know who has the artifact." Dean said as he stood up.

"Yeah, and that he was heading towards Mirror Lake."

"But who's to say he still is, or if he is that he'll make it."

"Well it's the only thing we have to go on." Sam looked down at the body. "So what should we do with the body?"

"Guess we'll have to bury it….keep the animals from getting to it. We can't waste time carrying it back to the ranger's station. We'll mark the map with the location and when this is over we'll make sure the ranger's get it."

"Hopefully we'll be around to do that."

"Well if we're not, a lot more people are going to die."

TBC