Chapter 9
Dean pushed the small sedan to its full limit on the drive to the caves. Upon entering the parking lot, he came to a screeching halt. He exited the car and ran towards the gated entrance. He rattled the locked gate. "Damn it!"
Ginny appeared beside him, sporting a small torch. "Hold this." She said pushing the torch into Dean's hand. She reached into her pocket and produced what looked like a key of some sort. She held it up in front of the torchlight.
Dean frowned at her. "You've got a key?"
"Yeah, well, sort of. It's a type of skeleton key. I kinda lose my keys a lot." She pushed the key home in the lock and turned it. "Tell you all about it another time." An audible click was heard and Ginny pushed the gate open.
Without hesitation, Dean charged through the open gate with Ginny hot on his heels. They scoured all the passages but found no trace of Sam.
Back at the entrance to the cave, Dean shone the small flashlight around, trying to find a clue as to where his brother could be. "Where the hell is he?" He hissed under his breath.
Ginny looked around and then grabbed Dean's arm. "The other cave! This way!" She took off up the heavily overgrown path with Dean right behind her.
About half a mile later, they arrived at another cave entrance; this one also had a gate but was unlocked and wide open.
Dean took the torch from Ginny and began to slowly enter the cave – his ears alive to sounds around him. He turned back to Ginny and held a finger to his lips and mouthed the words, follow me.
Ginny nodded and fully intended to keep Dean no less than 6 inches away from her.
As they made their way deeper into the cave, the sound of muted voices reached their ears. Dean clicked off the torch putting them both into darkness. As their eyes adjusted, Dean could just make out a glow not far in front of them. Edging slowly forward, shapes began to take form.
Dean could make out two standing forms and began to edge forward again. A few more slow and deliberate steps and he could make out who the two forms were. The big one was definitely Sergeant Mercer; the smaller one, a woman – familiar but Dean couldn't just make out who she was.
He watched as she raised something above her head and brought it down with force. Dean sucked in a quick breath as his earlier vision came back to him – a baseball bat – Sam!
Without hesitation, Dean lunged forward and covered the distance between him and Marina in less than 5 seconds. He reached out, grabbed the baseball bat and ripped it from her grasp then threw it away. "Get away from him you bitch!" Dean yelled through clenched teeth.
It took Marina all of a few quick moments to realize that the baseball bat was no longer in her grasp as she heard Dean's words that were directed at her. She swung around to face him; shock registering in her eyes.
Dean grabbed her arm tightly, murder written across his face. "You'd better say your prayers lady."
"Let go of me!" She squealed at him.
Dean looked past her to where Sam lay on the ground – not moving. "I swear lady, if you've hurt my brother….."
Marina had a look of pure hatred on her face as her eyes turned to look at Mercer. "Kalunas chernar! Crantsakou frelos heelosim pratyun Sheksah!"
Before Dean could react, Mercer had grabbed Dean's shoulder and swung him around. Mercer placed his hands around Dean's throat, trying to squeeze the life out of him.
Dean grabbed at Mercer's huge meaty hands, trying in vain to make him release his hold. As Mercer intensified his grip, Dean began to see stars as his body was being starved of much needed oxygen. If something didn't happen soon, Dean was going to pass out.
Ginny stood awestruck at what she was witnessing. Not knowing how she could help, she took a few tentative steps forward, her mind ticking over with ways to do something "Oh crap!" She whispered and she ran forward and jumped straight onto Mercer's back. "Let him go!" She screamed as pulled on his hair and scratched at his face.
But Mercer did not stop, in fact, his grip tightened even more around Dean's throat. Ginny increased her efforts, her hands seeking out Mercer's eyes as she began to try and scratch his eyes out.
Marina grabbed at the back of Ginny's shirt, trying to dislodge her from Mercer's back. After several tries, she succeeded. Ginny came tumbling off Mercer, falling back on top of Marina.
Ginny scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping over the abandoned baseball bat. She stooped down and collected the bat, brandishing it like a true professional. Her head turned from side to side, trying to decide what to do. She opted for trying to get Mercer away from Dean.
Ginny took a deep breath and swung the bat at Mercer's back and then immediately turned her attention back to Marina who was on her feet and glaring menacingly at her.
"If I were you lady, I'd be getting outta my way before I start swinging!" Ginny snarled at her.
"You'll pay for this!" Marina screamed as she backed away into the shadows.
Ginny then turned back and once more began to pound Mercer with the baseball bat. After several blows, Mercer finally released his hold on Dean who immediately dropped to the floor of the cave, gasping.
Mercer turned towards Ginny who took a few tentative steps backwards as he stared vacantly at her. Then she did the first thing that came into her head, once more she swung the bat with all her might contacting with his ribs. An audible crunch was heard almost turning Ginny's stomach but again, she swung the bat and brought it down on the junction between his neck and shoulder.
The Sergeant fell to the ground immediately without another movement. Ginny stood over him, still paralysed with fear at the prospect she may have just killed the chief of police.
As his cloudy vision cleared and his breathing became steady, Dean looked around him in the frail light that was offered by the hurricane lanterns. His eyes settled on the crumpled form of his brother. Without any hesitation, he jumped to his feet and ran the short distance, kneeling down beside Sam. "Sammy!" Dean gently pushed the hair away from his face. "Wake up Sam….."
Sam groaned as his eyes fluttered open but no words came out. His body was aching from top to bottom and all he wanted was to close his eyes and again drift back off to sleep. Perhaps next time he woke up, things wouldn't hurt so much. Whoever was trying to wake him up was beginning to piss him off. His eyes began to focus and recognised the face in front of him was his brother, Dean. "D..De…" He tried to lift his hand but it wouldn't move.
"Hold on Sammy. You're gonna be okay." Dean said softly. He gently untied the ropes binding his brother's hands.
Ginny knelt down the other side of Sam and grimaced when she looked down at his battered face. "We need to get him to the hospital. I'll call for an ambulance." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.
"No time for that." Dean said. "keys." Dean held out his hand.
"No. You stay here with him. I'll get the car as close as I can." Without another word, Ginny hopped to her feet and took off to the entrance of the cave.
Sam began to lose consciousness again but Dean continued to talk to him, encouraging him to stay awake.
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Ginny's lungs were burning by the time she reached the car. She took a few seconds to gulp in some much needed oxygen for her aching lungs before getting into the car and roaring the engine into life. She pushed the car up over the curb and careered the vehicle along the narrow path towards the cave entrance.
She left the engine running as she ran back up the tunnel to where the brothers were. "Car's at the entrance."
Dean leaned close to Sam, "Sammy, we need to get you out to the car. It's gonna hurt like a bitch but we need to move you. Okay?"
Sam tried to train his eyes on his brother. His brain was trying to comprehend what had just been said to him. Through his foggy state he managed to realize what his brother was saying to him. What was to come would hurt. Sam slowly nodded his head.
"Dean, what about him" Ginny motioned towards the crumpled body of Sergeant Mercer.
"Later." Was all Dean said as he gently put his arm behind his brother's back and brought him up to a sitting position with only a few groans from Sam. Between Ginny and Dean, they managed to somehow get Sam up and with much effort half dragged half-carried him slowly out towards the waiting car.
As they maneuvered Sam's lanky body into the rear seat of the car, the pain overtook him. His eyes fluttered closed as head lolled backwards. Dean jumped into the back seat beside his brother and Ginny took her place in the driver's seat.
She took the drive to the hospital carefully hoping not to hurt Sam any more than he already was. All up, it took her 20 minutes. As she drove into the emergency parking bay, she turned back to Dean. "How's he doing?"
Dean's look was grave. "Not so good."
"I'll get some help." She ran into the hospital and up to the front desk. "Help! We need home help!"
The duty nurse looked up from her desk. "What's the problem?"
"Out in the car, he's been beaten up! We need to get a doctor quick!" Ginny said quickly.
The nurse picked up a phone and waited for the response. "We need a doctor stat! Emergency!" She hung up and turned back to Ginny. "Show me where."
They both ran out to the car followed closely by a doctor and 2 orderlies pushing a gurney. Dean was sitting with his brother cradled in his arms in the back seat.
Very carefully, they managed to extract Sam from the back seat of the car and onto the waiting gurney where he was whisked away in the triage room.
Dean made to follow them but was stopped by the duty nurse. "I'm sorry sir, you can't go through."
"Like hell! That's my brother!" Dean hissed at her.
She softly shook her head. "Yes, I know you're worried sir, but please, you need to wait out here. Someone will come out and talk with you as soon as they can."
Ginny gently took hold of Dean's arm. "Dean, let them do their job. Sam will be okay." Ginny looked at the nurse and smiled apologetically.
Dean's shoulders slumped as he resigned himself to the fact that he had to play the waiting game. Dean turned and slowly walked over to the waiting area and sat down in one of the rather sterile looking plastic chairs.
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