If anyone cares, I've got another whole 13 chapters planned out for this.
They drive.
And drive.
And drive.
Mile after mile of trees, followed by miles of coast overlooking Lake Superior through the shabby towns, through the fields. Mile after mile of wheat fields.
This, however, was nothing new. There is no worse driving than through the barren highways of Nebraska, Idaho or Montana. At least they were on the Lake, that is less common. They drive in silence for a way, and Dean notes the last time he saw a great lake was in Milwaukee, and Lake Michigan.
Oh yeah. Running from that agent.
Good times. Really good.
With a smirk as he remembered the outcome, he shifted his eyes to Sam, who was studiously switching between Aperture history pages and a map of the Upper Peninsula. He looks back to the road and shifts the Impala up a gear as they begin a steep incline.
When they reach the top of the hill, there is a rest area and Dean decides to pull up and park for a moment.
He gets out of the car to stretch his legs. He wanders over to the large tourist map on the board.
Not nearly as geographically inclined as his brother, he pays little mind to it, but does notice they are in fact running out of land to drive through. He casts his eyes to the horizon and down the hill. In the distance, he makes out miles of wheat fields that center to a small town, literally a speck from this vantage, and more wheat, then an even tinier blot of black nearly on the edge of the water.
"Sam, come check this out." Dean knocks once on his window as he goes to open the trunk. He pulls out a beer and goes to sit on the hood, overlooking once more.
Sam takes his time folding the map and tucking the book away, but eventually makes his way to see the overlook.
"You think that's it?" He places his hand over his eyes to shield the high sun.
"The far black? I don't know, you've got the map, but I mean, how many other things could it be? Those look like smoke stacks."
"But the book says a lot of Aperture's operations were underground." He reaches around to pull the book off the passenger seat. "Yeah, Dean. It says they were."
Downing the last gulp of cheap beer, he pitches it away and gets back into the car.
"We'll just have to see."
XXX
They drive more and more and more until they finally get to the town.
How can these people even farm all that wheat? Hell, how does it even grow this far north?
Nevertheless, they finally make it to this rundown excuse for a town the founders never even bothered to name.
They pass through, scoping out liquor stores, motels and diners before reopening the map and continuing to Aperture.
The farther along they went, the taller and more unruly the wheat seemed to get. Perhaps this was what happens when one can't reap what they sow? Dean chuckles at his attempt at a proverb.
Continuing on, the sun began to creep down, casting an eerie silhouette around the more visible, and obvious, smoke stacks.
"Well you can't put it all underground, eh Sammy?" Dean pokes an elbow at Sam, still deep in thought, barely minding his surroundings.
"Just shut up until we get there. This may be unlike anything we've ever done and I would like to be ready for anything."
"Lighten up. How bad can it get? And what are you going to use with old-what are these? Budget proposals?" Dean reached to his lap and began leafing through some loose papers.
"They asked for twelve billion dollars in 2005. That was when the factory was still supposedly empty."
"Maybe Cave Johnson employs oompa loompas?"
"Dean please. Thousands of people have died because of whatever has happened here. Why don't you try for once to be respectful?"
"Thousands? How can you be sure?" From what he heard, Dean couldn't tell if that was low or high.
"I can't. But I think it may be better to aim lower. This went on for, well, no one really knows certain dates. There are court cases, lawsuits, malpractice, wrongful deaths, things I haven't ever heard of."
Dean may be a joker, but he knew when to sober up.
They finished the ride in silence, watching the outline of buildings and a plant grow larger. Their eyes cast upwards to the first piece of signage on the largest building. An obvious manufacturing center with "Aperture Curtain" on the front of it.
If they were this far out, it must be massive.
"Shower curtains, Sam?"
"Only at first."
"What if that plant is their cover and everything is really underground? Could we be over it now?"
"Possibly. Actually, that may make a lot of sense."
The brothers may have gotten into a lot in the past, but this shows no sign of any obvious supernatural activity and yet it was getting…startling.
They continued onwards and after about another 20 miles came across a gate, incredibly overshadowed by the factory overlooking the lake.
Parking just in front of the booth, they get out, arm up and move to get a closer look.
The parking lot is empty, and massive, both equally impressive and worrisome. The logo on the plant they saw before was marvel-worthy this close up. From this low point, it would be difficult to accurately guess the distance, but the building was on a flat surface, and it seemed to go one for at least five miles, with various smoke stacks protruding. None of which were giving off smoke, or steam, or who knows what this place would be running off of.
Slowly making their way to the visitors center, rightly labeled, they found all the windows to either be boarded, smashed out or curtained. They crossed the lot to the doors, both of which were locked.
Dean went to check the service door on the left, and Sam the deliveries door on the right. Dean found his locked.
"Dean, come check these out." Sam was crouching in front of the door, looking at something on the ground.
Dean jogged over and drew his favorite gun, just to be safe, even though Sam was perfectly fine.
Sam was kneeling in front of a pile of scrap metal. But, there were things attached to it? And blood? Dean reached down to turn over the metal, noting the rounded part at the top and how it looked like there was once flesh attached to it.
Sam was scratching at the ground in front of the door.
"It's blood. Whatever-whoever-got out barely survived."
"I don't know about surviving, but it must've been rough. Here's a piece of skin, this must have been ripped out of something." Dean turned the metal over in his hand, running his fingers over the smooth metal, a bit surprised at how flexible it was. He took it in both hands and tried to break it in half, but failed.
"What are you doing! Dean, we might need that!" Sam reached for the piece.
"For what? Look at it, it came out of something. What are we going to do with it?" He tried as hard as he could, but the metal would not break. Is it even metal?
"Whatever, Dean. We still gotta get inside. There's a road there that looks like it goes behind the building, we need to try it." Grabbing the contraptions, they made their way back to the car. Sam lifted the gate so that they may drive through.
Following the road, they saw how a lot of windows were gone, and yet there was no glass to be seen. The intact windows showed a bit of green around the edges, but that was likely just mildew. One had what looked to be a bloodied remnant of a hand print.
They drove much slower than usual, desperate to take everything in. This truly was unlike any other place, building, case, anything, they have seen.
They came upon another parking lot, but much smaller. It was empty as well. They parked right next to the single door.
It was not a traditional entrance, per se, but an elevator shaft. It was under a banner stating "Test Entrance". Sam reached for the door and it opened. A sign was posted welcoming war heroes, Olympians and astronauts. Another above it forbade the touching of glass.
"Missing astronauts. This is it, Dean."
"We should go back. Let's deal with this tomorrow when we have more sun." It was that period not yet twilight, but still afternoon, and Sam agreed by turning back to the car. Anyone else couldn't see it, but Dean knew he was shaken.
A murder or death here and there was tragic, but this was genocide. If that really was blood and flesh on those things, then someone had to test them. And people before to make sure they could get it just right, regardless of their purpose.
Pulling out from the factory with a great sense of unease, they made their way to town.
In a blank stretch of land such as this, distance doesn't mean much, so somewhere in between leaving Aperture and the nameless town, the wheat rustled and a large, bulky item emerged. It was large enough that it caught Dean's attention in the rear view mirror.
It was a large box. And it just came from the chest high wheat.
"The fuck is that? Sam!" Sam's eyes move from the maps and bulge at the sight.
He slammed on the brake and swerved around. About 100 yards from the cube, a woman clad in orange jumps forth and puts her hands on her knees.
Where did she come from? Dean speeds up and kills the engine. Coming to, the woman freezes and Same and Dean jump out and rush towards here.
She melts into the field.