Echo on the wind chapter 11
Village home
Dean pov
"Sam! What do we do from here?!" Gwen shouts over the rain thundering down. "I have no idea!" Sam shouts back as Nathalia and I dare to step out of the big rig to take a look at the bridge.
"We should try and cross!" Nathalia decides. "What?! Hell no! That's a terrible idea!" Bobby shouts at us leaping down out from the back of the truck.
"It's our only option, if we wait any longer that water is going to push the bridge down!" Nathalia hollers back at Bobby.
"And if we try and cross we could get seriously stuck! And then what ya idjit!" Bobby shouts at the blonde, but I'm looking at one key point in this river where some tree's and other debris has washed down and formed a make shift dam.
"Nathalia! Give me a grenade!" I shout at her, she looks at me curiously but hands over one of the grenades strapped to her hip.
I pull the pin and throw it right into the dam, a moment passes and I wonder if it's actually going to detonate, just as I'm about to ask for another and try again the dam blows sending mud, dead fish, and other things air born.
But the water gathering at the bridge drops down just enough that it's passable, for a little while anyhow.
"We need to move fast! The rain is heavier further up river, so we gotta get across before the water makes it down here!" Sam shouts out turning back for the truck Samuel is still in with Kevin and the survivor rescues from that military base.
Nathalia pov
"Wow, I cannot believe we made it." Gwen sighs from the back seat of the big rig, I ring my hair out on the front carpet. "It's going to be a bitch getting up and over the summit." Dean replies trying to gain speed as we get to the base of the fire road.
"Let's just hope we can make it up." I reply as Gwen decides to make herself comfortable in the bed to catch some shut eye before we have to unload this shit in this rain storm.
"Nat, do you think the village presumes us dead like they did the group?" Dean asks me, I find this question random and very un Dean like.
"Are you kidding me, they know. You and Sam are Winchesters, it's gonna take a little more than the apocalypse and Croats to destroy you….permanently." I reply as I move from my seat to Dean's lap, his arm wraps around me for a brief moment. Time to shift gears again, of course the truck is protesting this the entire time but we're still gonna try and make this rig up the summit.
"Still, we've been gone nearly two months I believe." Dean says, I lean back to crane my neck placing a kiss on his neck. "It's alright; they'll be eager and happy to have us back. Especially when they see we have supplies and more people." My explanation to Dean seems to have him relax some; I run my hand over his cheek and laugh. "And you need to shave my love." I laugh; he cracks a smile hearing that.
"Do you ever panic in difficult situations?" He says now, I guess the question is fitting, we're trying to haul three, fully loaded big rigs up a seventy degree angle, in the mud, and pray to a god that isn't home that no ice chunks come tumbling down. Or no mud slides, fallen trees or anything else that would cause us to lose speed or stop altogether. If we stop, we're screwed, there's no way these trucks will get moving again on this grade if we stop. And then once we reach the top of summit pray that the summit has opened up enough to actually get through into the village. Yet I'm sitting here realizing that Dean needs to shave, not the least bit worried about the trouble outside.
"And do what with that panic, what's the use in panicking over something I cannot control…besides I trust you know what you're doing." My encouragement seems to give Dean a much unneeded ego boost, the truck protests even more as he puts the pedal to the metal and shifts gears again.
Sam pov
"I am really regretting climbing into this truck." I comment in general as a massive boulder comes screaming past the truck on my side.
"Why is that Son? You don't trust you granddad?" Samuel asks clearly amused with my panic.
"Not that, it's just I always imagined when I die, I'd be going out doing something incredibly risky with my brother." I reply as Dean and Bobby's trucks scream out, these vehicles are not happy about trying to make this grade and through such slick mud.
"We should be coming into a rock flat up here. Keep the trucks steady; once we get around this bend we're home free. Over." Bobby informs.
"Yeah what about the steeper point in the hill up ahead?" Samuel asks through the CV radio. "We go around that here in a minute, just keep tail gating." Bobby replies…
Anna pov
"Are you feeling alright?" Mary asks as she takes a seat on the front porch with me, I look out into the village with a frown.
"No, I miss Sam something fierce." I explain to Mary, my eyes scan the village, just about everyone is awake, it's four in the morning and we all have to come out and work on finishing the last twenty feet worth of wall. Gadriel is injured after a sneak attack from demons outside the walls of the village; four of six peacekeepers are dead from the flu. John has a head cold, Mary is gonna pop any day and bring a new baby into the world, and to top everything off, the food supply is beyond critical after one of the walls collapsed in the barn and destroyed half the food we had packed in snow blocks in there.
"Hey! Do you guys hear that?!" John shouts from the front porch across the way, I listen more carefully for anything other than the rain that is hammering down in buckets.
"That's the sound of a big rig." Mary informs. "There's more than one, the boys are back!" I shout eagerly launching my coffee cup off to the porch as I leap off the porch running for the back gates, which by all reason is actually the front gate. According to John the whole back gate thing was figured out by Dean Logic, so that really explains everything.
Just as I am reaching the center road of town the rain completely stops and the sun starts to come up over the mountain summit pretty much erasing all clouds in sight.
"Their back! Open the gates!" I scream out, everyone inside their cabins steps out. "Sam and Dean are back!" I shout over my shoulder.
"They've returned!" The call rings out through the village, but I don't care to stop and make sure everyone knows right now.
Just as I'm reaching the gates to the village, I see them parting to let in the three big rigs John heard coming up the grade.
Sam pov
I leap down out of the rig before anyone else does; the village looks absolutely amazing right about now. The rain and dark clouds have vanished, there's fresh growth of trees and grass as well as every other kind of plant you'd find in the forest. Birds are flying around from tree to tree; the villagers are stepping out of their cabins into the rain soaked ground to see what all the commotion is about.
Truly amazing, we've made it home-
"SAM!" I hear the familiar voice of Anna, looking to the main road through the village I see Anna, drenched from head to toe, soaked in mud, but eager as all hell to see me.
Within a second her tiny form crashes into mine her lips locking with mine, she's shaking, I'm not sure if it's from excitement, cold, or both. All I know is she's healthy, happy and still in love with me….
John pov 4 days later
I could tell by looking at everyone when they arrived that the journey has been a long one, but I can't imagine that it was a bad thing. As soon as Nathalia and Dean we're out of the truck they stood there kissing for the longest time. She seems to have calmed down considerably in her time away, as well as completely fallen in love with Dean, something I'm not entirely happy about but she's also acting much different than she did before she left.
Samuel brought three Campbell's and Winchester back home having followed Dean and Sam through this entire journey to rescue Kevin.
No casualties in the process, which is even better news to us.
Most of the village stayed in their cabins after receiving the news that we had the next five days off work so everyone could rest and figure out what needed to be done now that the damn blasted rain has finally stopped.
I swear on my life it rained here for three weeks straight!
But now, everyone that was traveling has rested up and recovered enough to decide what to do so we're all gathered in the typical meeting room where Nathalia stands next to Dean waiting for all of us to settle down.
"So, there is a lot to report from this trip." Nathalia starts as Dean goes into the bedroom to wake Kevin up.
"Outside of the limits Bobby has been traveling through, there are no survivors that we seen, there's not even any sign of intelligent life. Just Croatoan infected humans, I took down well over a thousand Croats while traveling there and back. Sam, that answers the question of what I really do when I take off at night." Nathalia says to Sam who looks confused at the number Nat just throughout.
"On another note, with well over sixty people having traveled back with Bobby Dean and I have decided that we're going to add more cabin and an entirely different section to the village. Where the wall isn't finished? We're going to extend out that way using the supplies Samuel and Dean hauled back. Obviously there we're no casualties, in fact we brought back more Campbell's and Winchesters…Casstiel help me there are more of that blood line still alive." Nathalia says sarcastically getting everyone laughing.
"I see that you managed to get the water thing dug out while we we're gone, so I'm gonna over with Rachel to take a look at Gadriel and see how long it will be before he's back on his feet and can help Cass open up the river. Um….and the best news of all out of this entire trip…not only did we rescue Kevin Tran and tablet…we've captured Crowley." Nat says Sam guides Crowley in who's bound in chains and shackles and Dean luring Kevin in with a cup of coffee and the tablet.
"Come on Kev, get the coffee and the tablet." Dean teases. "I'm not a dog you jackass." Kevin gripes as he takes the coffee and tablet off Dean.
"So mission successful." Dean concludes. "Should I give my report now?" Anna asks quietly leaning over to Mary. "Yes. Now is a good time." Mary replies kindly, so Anna stands up.
"Okay, so um. While you we're gone, we mostly finished the wall, we demon proofed everything and John finished that demon power washer thing you came up with. It was installed, we added more guard shacks between the walls but we didn't think to add a drain so it flooded, we added a drain and put the guard shacks a few feet higher off the ground. As you noticed the river is almost finished, the plan at this point is to send the peace keepers out to catch ducks, geese and things to put up at the pond to keep the bugs down to a minimum. Ehhhhummm, oh and heres the report on the food storage, I haven't flexed it from what you guys brought home. Either way hunting is a must at this point. We managed to get everything running…..