I'm still neither here nor there with regards to Castiel. I think right now, he will not be in the story, but I'm still planning a lil somthin' somthin' that should be cute.

So I hope you haven't noticed, but the time and distance it takes to get place to place is hardly accurate, but please bear with me on that. I'm just trying to focus on the major stuff, which is really hard when you have two set locations and only three people, especially since I shoot for 2,000 word chapters. Another thing is going through all the details. To people who really know the game, that may be really redundant, so finding that happy medium is difficult to say the least.

And lastly, I am so sorry for my break. I have been insanely busy but I hope to be updating more that the school year is winding down.

With a definite lead to work from, the brothers turned around on Main Street towards the long highway back to Aperture for the second time today. Retracing mile after mile through the barren landscape, Sam's mind was racing.

What just happened?

"I know that face, Sam. What's up?" Dean half-glanced towards to a blank-faced Sam watching the golden fields.

"I can't get her gun out of my head. What was that? Did you see a trigger? Was it even a gun?"

"I don't see it working any other way, but yeah, that thing was pretty freaky." Dean seemed too calm for the likes of Sam.

"Freaky? Dean, I don't know what to make of it." Dean smirked; an inappropriate response for this situation.

"Don't hurt yourself, Sammy. What did you think of the boots? Cause man, if she was as weak as she looked, they packed some serious punch. I could barely keep up to her as she ran."

"Well, I think our best bet is going in and taking a look around. Her jumpsuit was a sign she was actually one of the subjects mentioned in the books. If worst comes to worst and we don't find anything, we go back and find her." Dean was silent as he sped the Impala to a slick 120 mph, putting his baby on the verge of stress. He had no intention of being in an abandoned murder house after dark; which, Dean thought, was a bit hypocritical. They've been in similar situations before.

But this one might not be supernatural to begin with. If Dean has learned anything, it's that humans are more impractical and unpredictable than any other being.

With the sign quickly approaching, he slowed the car down to make sure nothing was missed. Sam started paging through a tattered library book that he stole from the Madison campus in Wisconsin. He never minded stealing, but books were different.

Driving through the security gate, Dean chose to venture farther left than before. After crossing the main parking lot, he saw a single lane that wrapped around the exposed building and around a corner. Taking the lane, he drove for another ten minutes before coming across another lot, and with it, another large building, but this one seemed more like a warehouse.

"Dean, I think that these are just fronts. All the testing and labs they were said to have done in the books would have needed a hell of a lot more space than these few buildings."

"You're right. There's too much space in between the main entrance and this to be effectively connective. And look," he pointed to the smokestacks, "The plant is too far away. It would just be a pain in the ass to put it farther away than it needed to be. I'll bet you anything your books are right, and this's all underground."

Sam was silent, his eyes drifting slowly to the few abandoned cars left in the lot. Dean circled around, and he saw yet another single lane. Pulling up to it from there, there was a fallen and moldy velvet rope, like the kind in movie theaters, next to a large and grandiose gold sign directing limos to the enrichment center.

"What the hell, eh Sammy?" With a stupid scared grin, Dean drove over the crusty ropes and down the next stretch. Sam just couldn't think of anything to say. His books, which he was beginning to believe were more propaganda than fact, had failed him. This was nothing to be expected.

At the end of the road, there was a small glass room, with an elevator inside. The Aperture logo and sign plastered above the building was dirty and weather worn. The glass was smudged and filthy, with overgrowing plants creeping around the concrete foundation and the panes. Dean parked in the only parking area, a spot large as a fire lane, obviously intended for limos.

"Astronauts, Olympians, and war heroes, huh?" Dean shut off the car, and got out. Sam smirked a yes as he did the same. Dean went to the trunk and opened it.

"Oh shit." Sam went back and saw the problem. The stupid box she was carrying was still in their trunk.

"How are we supposed to get our stuff when we can't lift the thing?" Sam was analyzing the cube one more, while Dean just left his hands on the lifted trunk, mouth agape. With a sudden, bitter slam, Dean closed the lid and removed his pistol from his jeans.

"Whatever, let's just see what we've got." Turning the safety off, Dean pushed to the door and shot three rounds into the glass, shattering it. He did not like this situation a bit, but the Winchesters never left an open case. They would get to the bottom of Aperture.

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's brashness, but did not say anything. Dean was stepping over the glass and into the three walled glass box. With a glance, he saw nothing but a small camera build into the elevator, but he thought nothing of it.

The elevator was a peculiar thing, a health hazard if there ever was one. It could be comparable to a dumbwaiter in that there was only a small rectangular box for the person, and a waist height industrial grate for the door. There were also no signs or instructions around the room, but a solitary stand that used to hold a piece of paper, but the ink had faded and the stand had fallen. The lack of light was also concerning, especially down the shaft. The sun was thinking about setting, and getting into the elevator at such a late hour in the afternoon would surely prove to be idiotic. Who knew how far down it went, or what would be found?

The girl. The girl would know.

The early testing days of testing required the best, and this was obviously where they arrived. Since testing would go on regardless of status, the girl would know what was below. With a nagging suspicion that this could case could not be cracked without the help of her, the boys made eye contact, surely thinking the same thing. With their silent understanding, Dean kicked a large piece of glass on their way out of the room and back into the car. He was frustrated. They've done nothing but drive, and their miracle of a lead had turned out to be useless, and without a definite lead, or at least without a shove in the right direction, this would just end up being a cold case.

Pressing down his frustration, Dead sped quickly back through the immense road system of Aperture, desperate to get out of there. He wouldn't admit to being scared, but he was creeped. Now just desperate to find the strange girl before she vanished, Dean urged the Impala faster down the stretch of wheat down the long highway, shutting down any attempts Sam made at talking to him.

Ruing the moment he let Sam talk him into this case, Dean turned up the radio and tried, if just for a moment, to forget all the death that must have occurred miles below this peaceful field.

Next chapter up tomorrow, but it might be pretty short. I thought this was a good place to stop, or else I would have easily gone to 3,000 words.

I feel like the doc uploader gets rid of some of my punctuation marks. Sorry if there are any noticeable run-on sentences because of this.

Thoughts? I know there was a lot of dialogue.