Echo on the wind chapter 8
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Kevin pov
"Hey Kev, you've been quiet almost the entire trip." Dean comments from a few feet ahead of me where he and Nathalia are resting peacefully on the front of the boat. She's wearing next to nothing, catching as much sunshine as she possibly can before we get to wherever we're going.
"I don't know what to say, Dean. We are the cause of all of this. My mother is dead….I don't, never mind." I reply, I don't even know how to explain what is going through my head right now. I've literally lost everything in just a matter of a year, or has it been longer I don't even know anymore.
"Kevin, it's not your fault. None of us could have prepared for something of this magnitude, besides that is exactly why you have to decode that tablet. Once you finish that we can use the spell to fix this." Sam tries to cheer me up, if he is saying that it must be true, last time I seen him he was a mental wreck, sick with self blame and grief.
"Guess I can start reading then." My reply lands me in one of the chairs with a note pad and pen. Kellie, the rather quiet depressed girl that was among the prisoners Nathalia rescued looks at me. My lord are her eyes gorgeous, like the same color as honey!
Nathalia pov
"Mmmm, it's so nice out here. This is why I love California." I sigh contentedly as Samuel steers down the river, I can tell by the thicker air that we're pretty close to los Angeles already. Even up in Azusa Canyon it's still pretty smoggy.
"Isn't it? Too bad it's not as nice to be breathing this air." Rachel the nurse says as she tending to the injuries on the two teen boys who we're in the same jail with her yesterday.
"Guys, look up ahead." Samuel informs, I lift my head off Dean's bare chest only to see that the water ahead is very, very low. We're still about two miles from where we should land, but it's still close enough to where we need to be that I can lead us out of this canyon.
"Did we go the wrong way?" Gwen asks. "No, we didn't. The dam must have been in the off position back at the fork in the river. The water is lower down here because of that, we're stuck walking on foot from here." My information is followed up by me leaping off the boat into the shoulder deep water. From here I swim to the bank and look down over the slight slope. The water down below is more than deep enough to continue by boat, but we would need something a lot smaller than what we have.
"We can continue down the river if we can find something a lot smaller." I inform everyone that's on the bank.
"We're in the middle of nowhere how do you propose we do that?" Kevin asks as Dean tosses a rope over to me and I heave the boat to the bank.
"We can't just leave these supplies behind." I reply to the kid. "Guess what kid, shit happens and you're the one who insisted on this plan." Samuel says with a very 'this is life kid, deal with it' attitude.
"Sorry Samuel, you trained me, okay? So we're going to have to either camp here or find a quick fix to get this shit back to home base. Now shut you're damn trap and let me think." I reply with the attitude of a teenager.
"She's right Samuel, those medical supplies and food storages are important now more than ever." Rachel interrupts once she's finished taping of Brad's arm that was badly cut open at some point before they came to us.
"Don't hurt yourself Barbie." Mark sneers at me, I give an eye roll trying my best to ignore him. "mmmnt I nk sggston." I hear the muffled sound of Crowley.
"Shut up Crowley, my next step is removing you're vocal cords." I call back, he growls at me. 'iiif rrrrt." He says, the noise still comes out muffled.
"Ya know I've called Dean persistent and irritating before. Even said he was the king of aggravation, but you dear crossroads demon are the king of it!" I shout at him, he rolls his eyes so I bounce a rock off his head.
"btch." He grumbles using his mostly bound feet to toss a bright orange square into the water.
Kevin reaches down to pick it up. "Life raft." He says pointing to the little loop that makes the thing inflate.
"Would everything fit on there?" Sam asks jumping from the engine compartment to the bank that's still a good four feet away. Kevin had to move to a fallen tree and then walk to shore, I figure Sam to do the same but he doesn't he leaps straight across.
"Crowley should call you a gazelle." I comment as Kevin starts down towards the pool below the short water fall. He pulls the tab on the raft and it inflated instantly.
"There's not enough room for everyone on there." Gwen states, she's right, but this bank goes a long way down the river. So we can float the supplies down like a fish on a leash, then we're back to square one a good five miles down the river.
"That river bank looks like it goes a long way down. So I say we just float everything down there and we can walk the bank and tie a rope to the raft." Kevin says pretty much exactly what I was just thinking.
"Like a fish on a leash?" Dean comes back with his snarky remark, the same thing I was just thinking.
"I was just thinking that, I thought it you said it." I laugh, Samuel huffs at the plan but takes the rope from me and heaves to the boat closer to the bank.
Nathalia pov 8 hours later
"Ya know, I think it might be easier to walk a fish." Sam groans as he heaves on the rope, the raft is trying desperately flow with the rapid water we're currently walking next to.
"No Sammy, it just needs to be leash trained." Dean comments and I just laugh. "Alright big Brother, by all means you leash train this thing." Sam growls back.
"Are we referring to our supplies as a living thing?" Rachel questions, no one really answers that question, not even Kellie who's busy kicking a small rock like she has been for the last five miles.
"Ease up boys, we're exactly where we need to be." My interruption has Sam tying the raft rope around a tall oak tree.
"Where is exactly is here?" Mark questions. On the other side of that mountain is a dam, we need to get to that dam. However, we are going to have to camp someplace for the night. We'll never make it across the dam at night, left side is a hundred foot vertical drop into a dust bowl. The other side is a thirty foot drop straight down into water." I explain to everyone.
"Okay, back to square one. How are we getting this stuff, over there. I'm not a mountain goat." Samuel snaps at me. "Samuel cool off before I cool you off. I'm sure Dean will have no issues teaching you how to swim." I warn, I'm really getting sick of the attitudes around here. The bitchass attitude is my thing, no one gets to be the asshole except for me….and Dean can join in when he feels up to it.
"guys." Kevin starts to say. "I'm sorry, who's the survivalist here?" Samuel interrupts. "Obviously not you, you think we should leave the food and everything here. What if Sam falls and breaks his wrist? What then? No medication, nothing to knock is ass out while one of us set's the bone." I bite right back at the senior amongst the group.
"Guys." Kevin tries again. "And what if Sam get's into poison oak?! He can man up and deal with it until we get more supplies!" Samuel shouts. "Hey guys." Kevin again. "Oh my god Samuel, that is you're grandson. Wouldn't you just feel like shit if something happened and he ended up dead because we listened to your senior moment?!" I shout back at him.
"Why are you using me as the village idiot?" Sam says sounding rather irritated and pathetic. "Shut up SAM!" Both Samuel and myself yells.
"You listen to me little lady-
"You listen to me Samuel, I'm the one who's gotten us this far! If you would stop being a grouchy old
BLAM! A very loud gunshot rings out right next to me, everything goes extremely quiet now. "GUYS!" Kevin shouts looking predominantly at me. Even Kellie jumps at the sound, she was sitting on a log with Brad who was sharpening a stick with his pocket knife.
"So that's how you shut her up." Dean mutters under his breath. "I heard that-
"Nathalia please…thank you. The raft is still useful to us on dry land." Kevin says then waits for me to be silence before continuing.
"Did Crowley drop you a few times…maybe an accidental concussion or something?" Mark says sounding rather cynical today. "Well aren't we just a fuckin ray of sunshine today." I hiss at the guy.
"Did you know that foul language is a sign of an under educated child." Rachel informs. "Did you know that none of us care?" Gwen informs being rude compared to her normal visage which is silent but definitely not someone to screw with.
"Oh and you're just a canister of fucking skittles and unicorn farts." Mark replies. "Oh for Christ sake! SHUT UP AND LET THE BOY SPEAK!" Kellie shouts over the bickering, you know it's bad when Kellie speaks, I traveled with her for months and she never said a word to me. "What Kevin, out with it." Sam urges.
"Look….you morons." Kevin says pointing behind all of us. "More off than on most days." Sam mutters. "I will bite you." I threaten, but Dean steps forward and forces me to look where Kevin is pointing.
Tucked back in some brush but wedged between some rocks is a small car frame, tires are still in good condition, the only thing screwed up is the front axle, it's busted, but with a really thick log and some chains we can fix that.
Dean pov
"Okay. So who's gonna be bold enough to test this out?" Gwen asks. "The only one here who would be dumb enough to run into a swarm of demons armed with a hand grenade." Sam comments when he sees me peeking up on side of the crates of supplies.
"She's either really stupid or really reckless." Gwen gives her thoughts. "Trust me Gwen, she's a little bit of both. Honestly most of the village thinks she needs to be medicated for her condition. Even that is questionable on working." Jerry says, Kevin lets out a bit of a laugh at hearing that comment.
"Alright, breaks…well kind of…Dean you'd save me if this didn't stop right?" Nat mutters to herself then asks me.
"Course babe, right after I took a picture with Sammy phone." I reply to her, she glares at me but it's a sarcastic glare so I don't worry too much.
With a deep breath she pulls the wood steak we used to kind of act as a park break, the cart begins to roll and everyone gives a relieved breath.
"Ya'll best climb on before I hit that hill." Nat comments, in a flash everyone is running for the cart…
Sam pov
"I honestly didn't think that would work as well as it did." Gwen laughs, the cracking of a beer is the sound following her words.
"Gotta hand it to you kids. I didn't think this would actually work either, figured you be running to granddad for help." Samuel replies after taking a swig of his own beer.
"Okay, let's see if this actually worked." Nathalia says reaching over into the camp fire with her angel swords to pull out the apple pie that we never got around to actually baking.
"Hells yeah it worked." Dean says excitedly, so the outer edge of the crust is a bit charcoal looking but my brother would probably eat that to.
"So, how long do you think it will take to get back to home base from here?" Gwen asks in passing as Nathalia smacks Dean's hand before he burns himself on the pie that she just pulled off the fire.
"Wench." Dean gripes at her. "I'd say it'll be a good month or so. We hoofed it to get to Kevin, and we also had a car on the way there. We're basically walking from here out, which in itself will take a few weeks. Once we get into the city we might find a truck or something that we can ride back home in. But even if we do, we're holding up in Truckee until Donner Summit thaws out enough to pass through." Nathalia explains to Gwen not even bothering to comment on Dean's insult.
Dean pov
Crackle, snap…crick, crackle. The sound of the camp fire is somewhat of a peaceful sound now; everyone's eaten enough fish to replenish most of lake Tahoe. We've bickered about who's keeping watch first, we've drank four cases of beer between all of us, we've laughed, we've joked and now everyone is sound asleep. Except me, and Nathalia wherever she wandered off to.
"Hey." Nathalia's quieted voice calls out as she steps out of the bushes covered in mud and holding a few catfish.
"Hey yourself mud monster." I chuckle quietly. "Yeah, word of advice, just because the log looks stable does not mean it is. On a good note the mud landed me into some nice sized cat fish." Nathalia replies as she grabs her leather bag.
"Where are you going?" I ask. "Over to the river to clean up. I think Samuel might shoot me thinking I'm a Wendigo if he sees me like this." Nat teases, Samuel opens his eyes and reaches for his gun until he realizes it's just Nathalia being a smart ass, then the old timer goes right back to sleep.
"What exactly is it you do when you wander away from camp?" I ask. "Follow me and you'll find out." Nathalia offers.
"Go ahead son, I'd rather not hear you two and cover your shift. Than be fully awake and have to listen to that all night." Samuel comments. "Samuel you…are very strange and perverse." Nat screws up her face as she says this, I mean more than it already is from being coated thick with mud.
"Hey that's not my business I just don't wanna hear it." Samuel comments. "Well then why'd you comment?" Gwen tosses out, seriously, was anyone actually asleep.
"Maybe that's why they argue. Dean can't get any." Mark says. "Okay was anyone here actually asleep?" Nathalia asks.
"I was." Kevin groans. "Shut and sleep Kevin, everyone pretty much knows the reason those two argue is cause Dean isn't getting any anywhere and she's locked down like fort Knox and Dean can't break that lock." Sam growls out clearly pissed that he can't sleep because of this discussion.
"OKAY! If anyone needs me I'm going to be at the river getting rid of this damn mud." Nathalia says deciding she doesn't like the direction this conversation went.
"I'm gonna watch." I reply with a teasing tone. "The only thing you'll be watching is the back of my hand if you try you're cheesy moves on me." Nathalia threatens.
"Why is it my jokes always end with you back handing, punching, kicking, stabbing or shooting someone? More importantly me?" I ask her, she looks over at me with a very irritated face. "You forgot burning and acid dipping. And because, though I love you, you're a huge pain in the ass." Nathalia replies, she stops for a second reaches back and pulls a twig out of her hair.
"You have no idea how much of a pain in the ass." I reply suggestively, in a flash her hand is across my face. "Don't say you weren't warned." She comments. "Seriously Dean, you had that one coming!" Sam calls after me. "SHUT UP SAM!" I shout back at him….