Echo on the wind chapter 7
Duck Tape day
Dean pov
"Are we lost?" Crowley asks from the end of the Chain Nathalia has him bound in. "Shut up." Sam grumbles for the umpteenth time in the last two weeks. "No, we've passed that stop sign before." Crowley replies, Nathalia sighs and yanks the chain that is linked to his neck, for the millionth time the demon does a face plant into the pavement. He get's right back to his feet grumbling about Nat being a bitch.
"News flash Crowley, we know she's a bitch!" Gwen shrieks at the demon. "All in favor of me killing the demon say I." Nat replies. "If he wasn't important I'd agree." Samuel says running his leathered hands over his face.
"Dean, darling, my love…is there any chance we could stop early, find another vehicle and get it running?" Nathalia begs of me stopping in her tracks. "Nathalia, we cannot just stop. We need to keep moving-
"Samuel I understand we have to keep moving but we'd get back much faster if we actually had a car. Think about, a day or two off the road could be made up for with a running car." Nathalia argues, which is what we've all been saying for the last few days but Samuel won't let us speak long enough to explain that.
"I agree with Nat, so we'll be in one place for a few but it's better than having no shelter, walking at night which is more dangerous might I remind you. Plus we'll gain the miles back in just a few hours." Gwen chimes in. "At this point, I'm making the final say. Nathalia will stay here and watch Crowley, the rest of us are splitting into two groups and going car hunting." I intercept the would be argument between everyone.
"Alright, fine." Samuel growls throwing his arms up, he leans against a fire hydrant refusing to move at all.
"Babe, I'm better at exploring. Why don't you guys stay here and baby sit the demon and I'll be back in an hour." Nathalia asks of me.
"The demon has a name you know." Crowley speaks. "Okay, be careful out there." I amend…
Nathalia pov
"Does no one out here drive trucks or vans?" I scoff as I get down closer to the Havasu Pier, all I can find are small ass trucks hauling these boats that in theory should be towable by such a small truck.
"Of course we could take a few different vehicles…no we need as much space as possible for scavenging, pillaging, and supply gathering." I say to myself as I leap down into the lake to splash some water on my face.
Just as I'm moving back to my feet a map of the area blows by flitting up and slapping right in my face. "pfft." The sound comes out as I'm wrenching the page away from my face.
Looking down at the map I have a clear view of Havasu lake, at the other end of the lake is a river, and if you follow it the right direction it leads down into the Azusa River which takes you down into Los Angeles.
Okay, who says we need a truck, I mean we can always get a truck or something in Los Angeles, god knows we passed quite a few on the way here.
Gwen pov
"Okay! Plan B!" Nathalia's loud voice startles all of us back to reality. "Oh, Dean I take it you've been naughty in the last twenty four hours." Crowley taunts hinting at the medication not a figure of speech referring to a change of plans.
Nathalia closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she speaks. "So I didn't find a single truck that would be useful to us all. However, I did find this." Nathalia says handing a map over to Dean, he takes a look at it then looks at her.
"You think it'd be quicker taking a boat out to Los Angeles?" He asks. "Yeah, if we can siphon enough gas out of some other vehicles we can get the boat in the water. Stock pile some food on board, I mean we can even bank it for a time to gun down some food along the way. It'll take us out at Azusa river, I know that whole area like the back of my hand. Once we get to the bottom of the fire road we can find a vehicle up there that'll get us back to the city." Nathalia explains mostly to Dean but the entire group is listening.
"Oh goody, a cruise!" Crowley exclaims. "Oh yeah, I stopped at a hardware store on the way back." Nathalia announces, she reaches down to her belt and pull off a huge strip of duck tape, she plasters it to Crowley mouth then reaches to her belt to pull the entire roll off. She tacks the end of the tape to Crowley mouth and wraps it around his head about four times.
"Silence is golden, Duck tape is silver." She sneers in Crowley's face, she slams her fist into his already broken ribs causing him to groan.
"Yes, the sweet sound of quiet." She sighs, with that she turns and takes lead with Crowley being dragged along behind her.
Dean pov
"Don't you think you might have gone overboard with the duck tape?" Gwen asks looking at Crowley who's bound in quite a bit of tape.
"Not really, the extra three lengths of tape are added for extended pain when we finally remove the tape." Nat replies as I flip open the engine compartment of the boat that has the most gasoline in it.
"Okay, this is an easy fix, more to do, but still easy." I announce. "Great, I've got some fishing poles and bait over here. Um….oh god, rotten fish." Gwen heaves as she opens up an ice chest that's been sitting in the sun for the last year and a few months.
The next sound any of us here is Gwen heaving up the beef jerky she's been munching on. "Ew." Nat grimaces.
Quack….and there goes Nathalia. "Babe-
BOOM! "Never mind." Is my follow up comment. "Caught a duck! Good news its pre plucked and it's missing it's head!" Nathalia calls walking back over with the desert eagle in one hand still smoking and the duck in the other missing most of its feathers and it's head.
"Nathalia make yourself useful and go up into that restaurant there, see what you can find…like some aspirin." Samuel says giving her a warning look. She in response tosses the dead bleeding duck into the boat next to me before strolling off towards the building.
"It's like traveling with children, between her and Crowley." Samuel comments as he climbs up into the boat to help me. "How do you figure we fix those two hoses?" He asks. "I'll get to that last I'm sure we can find something…urgh…so tell me Samuel. How'd you come back from the grave? Truth, not bullshit." I ask reaching down to pull a few plugs out of the many tanks. Everything looks good, oil is full, everything else is full.
Plugs are clean, just have to wrap a few exposed wires and maybe top off that, it's now low but still…
Nathalia pov
"Mkay, we've got all the food we can possibly bring along. The wires and those plugs are duck taped. So is the steering wheel and the shifty thingy. And Crowley, so are some of the plastic boxes…yeah we're good to go." I announce proudly as I toss aside the empty cardboard roll that the tape was on.
"You put a whole new meaning to fix it with duck tape." Sam mentions from where he's sitting on the front of the boat reading the last issue of some magazine that Gwen taped over the cover. I can only imagine what he's reading, all I know is if he's reading what I think he is and Anna finds out…love boy better run for the hills or in our case the valley.
Dean takes a seat at the steering wheel that was partially broke apart, I fixed it with some rebar and tap, so he's gonna try and start this thing up.
He tries a few times to get it to start but it finally does, so I take a seat on his lap. "This should be terrifying." Samuel mutters. "Sammy, you might wanna move." Dean warns as he wraps one arm around my waist bringing me much closer to his chest before pulling the boat out into the harbor and putting the thing into full gear forward motion!
Dean pov
"Dean how far you think we'll get on this amount of gas?" Gwen asks about eight hours into the trip. "I'd say about half way before we have to refuel." Sam replies, I take his word for it, even in the impala I just fill the tank and drive until we hit a quarter tank.
Nathalia leans in and kisses me for no reason; I look at her clearly confused by her sudden actions especially in front of the entire family.
"Guess what I found?" She smiles down at me, I give her a curious look and she holds up a thawed out apple pie. "How do you know about that?" I ask. "Sam mentioned it at some point during the trip. When we stop to refuel we're gonna cook as well, I'll get this heated up to." She promises as Mark leaps to his feet and runs to the other end of the boat where two fishing lines are notifying him that he's caught something.
"You want a beer?" Nat offers. "I thought you didn't ask stupid questions?" I tease her, she turns to walk off to an ice chest but I swat her ass, she freezes and looks back with wide eyes.
"Oops?" I say very teasingly, Crowley makes some grossed out noise. "Hey Dean, what's that up ahead?" Samuel asks squinting out to the river ahead of us.
Nat and Gwen follows where he is pointing and both girls shriek. "Military boat!" Nat screams. "Hit the deck!" She warns, she's the only one who doesn't.
"Sam I don't suppose you know how to work this thing?!" She asks pulling out the grenade launcher. "Yeah I do." Sam replies taking it off her hands. "We've got three shots, make it count." Nat says as I steer wide around the upcoming boat.
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire we have no intentions of attack!" We hear from the opposite boat. "Do we trust that?" Nat asks me. "We move in close, they'll see we have a Grenade launcher so they may think twice before shooting." My response pretty much clears up any doubt about moving in closer to see what these militants want.
"Where ya headed folks?" The leader of the platoon asks. "We've got a settlement nearby, we're just heading back." I respond to him. "What's with this guy?" Someone asks pointing to Crowley.
"All is fare in a world with no law." Gwen replies, the men put their hands up as if to apologize for asking. "We should let you know that just beyond that point you're leaving a safety zone. If you like we can give you some supplies." The leader offers. "Depends on what is to offer, we are doing fairly well." Samuel interrupts me before I can reject the offer.
"Medicine, food, clothing or material whatever you prefer. Medical treatment if anyone needs it?" The guy replies.
"We could use medication and Food…some material wouldn't hurt either." Nat whispers into my ear not once taking her eyes off the men aboard the other rig.
"We'll take you up on that offer." I inform. "Just dock up over there and we'll load some stuff up onto the boat for you." The officer explains pointing to a makeshift dock up ahead a little ways.
I nod to him before sending the boat in that direction. "Got a fish." Mark says sounding like a complete moron as he lands the fish.
Nathalia pov
"Miss, if you'd like there's some items over there to browse through." A young officer says pointing to a few tables lined with different items. But I could care less about the tables, I'm looking at a truck with an iron cage on the back, there's four people held captive in the back. One gal in her twenties is wearing a doctor's lab coat. She has a girl to her left with vibrant pink and black hair. "What's the deal with them?" I ask once I recognize the pink haired girl as a girl I once rescued from vampires, her name is Kellie.
"Prisoners to be executed." The kid says. "What would it take to get two of em out…and the kid?" I ask. "Their going to be executed for treason, the pink haired one is going down for attacking one of us." The kid says. "Where's your superior?" I ask stepping out onto the dock. "Nat, watch yourself." Dean warns then slides his eyes towards some Machine gunners aiming this way.
"Sergeant!" The kid calls off towards a white roofed tent; some guy with blonde hair looks this way only to be beckoned over.
"Problem?" The sergeant asks. "Nathalia Colt, the people in that truck I understand are in line for execution. I understand they must've broken some law while in your…district that deserves punishment but might I suggest something that helps you and us?" I ask him, this is the last try and a peaceful solution, after this. I send Dean and the others on their way and I will blow this place up.
"Depends on what your bargain is?" The middle aged man asks. "Exile. You don't want them here, our settlement desperately needs a doctor and I don't believe in killing kids." I explain. "Nat we can barely feed who we have-
"Shut up…Samuel." I warn him, he glares at me but doesn't speak any further. "Exile. I'll tell you what, I'll send the entire lot with you for those dog tags." The sergeant points to the tags around my neck from the officers I killed earlier on.
"They we're infected, I had no choice. I am truly sorry." I say handing the tags over to him. "Let those prisoners out, and bring them this way!" The sergeant shouts, the two guards at the truck reach up and let them out.
Kellie looks directly at me but I shake my head no just barely and give her a firm look, she blinks twice rapidly to tell me she understands.
"Where are you sending us?" The nurse asks, I notice the third and fourth prisoners are no older than seventeen as well.
"Someplace where you will live a lot longer. Sit down and shut up before I change my mind." I order the woman trying to act like the bitch that's just bought slaves. She glares at me partially; I only now realize she has a badly swollen eye that's being hidden by long strawberry blonde hair.
"Okay! We are all set here, medications, food, Material and clothing." The young kid calls up to Dean. "Thank you, give my condolences to their significant others." I say to the sergeant and beckon to the dog tags, but he's looking down at one set, I see a tear fall down his cheek. I momentarily feel bad, I must've taken the life of someone he deeply cared for.
"Where are you taking us?" The doctor begs. "Shut up." I snap back, Dean gives me a confused look, I continue keeping watch with Sam who's still holding the loaded grenade launcher looking a bit sad that he didn't get to use it.
Once we get around the bend in the river I turn to the nurse and kneel down her height. "Sorry, I couldn't let them think you we're going to be let free." I say kindly reaching to brush her hair back. "It's fine, it'll heal." She reassures as tears fall down her cheeks.
"You're the doctor." Dean makes his smart ass remark. "Kellie, are you hurt?" I ask looking her way, she shakes her head no. "Okay…Dean I'll drive can you get the shackles off them please?" I ask of him….