Chapter 4
The laughing died down fairly quick as Kain whimpered, crouching to the ground in an attempt to hide himself. Ellis pressed a single finger to his lips. A heavy tension fast replaced the light mood as everyone paused to listen.
"Hunter." A soft growling could be heard moving around beyond the safe room door. Harrold flinched violently, scurrying towards Dean and burying her face in his stomach. Placing a reassuring hand on her head, Dean looked around for an explanation. None came. Nick pulled Coach into the far corner of the safe room and began whispering. Coach's face betraying just how worried he really was. Castiel watched them discuss the situation quietly, eyes unblinking and position firm, as he stood awkwardly by the pile of furniture now blocking the door they had entered by. Sam moved closer and sat down beside where his brother and Harrold stood.
"Hey Harrold, wanna play a game?" She pulled her head away from Dean's stomach and glared impressively in the other Winchester's direction.
"Hey wuss, ya'll wanna shut yer mouth? Ya scream like a chick." Dean chuckled at his brother's indignant expression.
"Kid's got a point little Bro. Remember, Old man Murdoch did go after you." Sam stuck his tongue out and Harrold giggled at the exchange. The discussion in the far corner had moved away from whispers and was close to becoming a yelling match. Dean's attention was pulled away from the fighting pair as Ellis plopped down beside him.
"Dean, tell us a story." He grinned and slid to the ground, pulling the young girl into his lap.
"Okay okay. Let me think."
Sam smiled as he listened to his older brother recount a few of their hunting jobs to the two hicks. He would interject every so often, correcting facts or even just reminding Dean exactly how they found themselves in the middle of the entire mess in the first place. He noticed Castiel watching raptly, a small half smile in place, having long since turned his attentions away from the other two men. Looking around the room for Kain, he found the Great Dane whimpering in another corner of the room, his head trained towards the growling sound that could still be heard from outside. Tapping the floor beside his knee, Sam gained the animal's attention and patted his lap.
Before he even had the chance to blink, Sam found himself with a lap full of shivering Great Dane. About half way through the third or fourth story Harrold began nodding off and Ellis had already fallen asleep, his head now pressed against Dean's left shoulder, soft snores falling from his mouth. By now the others had ceased fighting and both men were listening intently to the stories being told. When the story ended Nick wandered over to rouse Ellis. His attempts at waking the male were futile and resulted in Nick cradling his now bruising jaw and the hick snuggling himself into Dean's side. Harrold gave the elder Winchester and quick hug and pushed herself out of his lap, petting Kain on the head and moving to fall asleep underneath the table on the opposite side of the room. The dog following almost immediately.
Not seeing any possibly way to move the hick sleeping against his side without copping another fist to the face, Dean settled back against the wall, getting ready to let sleep over take him. Sam stood and gathered his gun, moving closer to the back door, fully planning on keeping watch that night. Coach and Nick settled down for the night in their own respective spots and Coach quickly began his loud snoring. As everyone fell asleep, Sam watched Castiel expectantly, waiting for a clue as to what said Angel would do next.
"I must leave. There is business I must attend to at home." Sam nodded knowingly and turned to watch the street outside through the steel bars on the door.
The night passed by uneventfully, though the growling sound was earlier was constantly present, this zombie was persistent, Sam would give it that much. Occasionally the growls would turn into screams and Sam noticed Harrold flinching in her sleep, pressing herself closer to the wall behind her back, Kain shuffling each time she moved. At some point during the night, Ellis had moved from his position beside Dean, now sitting in his lap snuggling into his bodily warmth. Sam made a mental note to tease his brother about that the following day. Nick hardly moved and inch in his sleep. And Coach's snoring was another constant sound throughout the night. Just as day break was dawning, Castiel made his return. His first words back were orders for Sam to get some sleep.
Dean woke with a start as something in his lap wiggled. Instinct kicked in and before he knew what was happening, whatever had been wiggling was now being straddled on the ground with a loaded rifle pointed in its direction. Beneath him was a wide eyed Ellis, all traces of sleep now gone from his system. A small tug on his jacket caught his attention.
"Did you 'nd Ellis have a fight?" Harrold stared disapprovingly at the gun Dean held in his hands.
"You can't shoot him ya'know. He's a friend of mam's. She wouldn't be happy if ya'll hurt him." The gun was lowered and Dean backed off, holding out a hand to help the younger male up.
"Sorry about that dude. I'm kinda jumpy in the mornings." Ellis muttered a quick 's'all right man' before hurrying off to check over his weapons and restock his ammo. The team once again gathered at the red door, waiting for someone to spout some form of a plan on how to get past the Hunter. They all stood awkwardly for several minutes before Castiel stepped forward.
"Would you like me to draw it out where you may see it?" Before anyone could respond the Angel opened the door and took several steps out into the open. Harrold hid herself behind Dean and Kain began to growl loudly. All of a sudden they heard another loud scream and a blur of blue and brown collided with Castiel, knocking him to the ground. The zombie got a few good slashes of its claws in by the time Nick ran forward and shot it in the head with his shot gun.
The Hunter's now lifeless corpse was kicked away from Castiel as Nick pulled him to his feet.
"That must hurt somethin' fierce." Ellis winced at the sight of the others wounds, his hands moving to clutch at his own stomach. Castiel shrugged and slowly but surely, the wounds began to disappear. Soon enough the only way one could have known he had been attacked was by the state of his shirt. The Angel glanced down and sighed.
"I was beginning to like that shirt." Harrold ran to Castiel and hugged him around his waist tightly. He froze not knowing how to react. Sam let out a small bark of laughter as the rest of the group headed out onto the street.
The group moved almost silently through the streets, the only zombies crossing their paths were easily taken out at a distance. By the time they had reached the next safe room no one had been injured and they still had the majority of their ammo. It had only been a few hours since they had left the previous safe room, and according to the maps somewhere in the midst of Ellis's bag, they could make it to the next one before night fall. Shuffling through quickly, the group restocked on what ammo they needed and began their trek towards the next designated area.
Harrold once again sat atop of Kain, her back curved slightly and gun held tight in her hands, a chipped red crow bar hanging from one of the pockets of her dirty blue overalls. The saddle bags hanging from Kain's back were full to the brim with ammo and a few cans of food. The rest of the canned provisions had been divided equally throughout the group, so that each person was now carrying their own share of the rations. Castiel however carried no food, but held the bag with all the excess ammo that the others were unable to squeeze into their own bags. Aside from the occasional take down of a Tank of a Witch, all the Angel really had to was make sure that the ammo bag remained full.
They had been walking for awhile when Castiel noticed a funny feeling beginning to grow in his gut. Kain stopped abruptly, turned, and promptly began growling at Cas. Dean turned to see what all the fuss was about but could find Castiel nowhere in sight, the bag he had been carrying lay alone on the ground. All he saw was a wide eyed, unblinking Harrold and her dog. Neither was moving and Kain continued his growling.
"He disappeared again."
"He's done that before kiddo." Harrold pulled a face and moved her gaze to lock with Deans'.
"Not like this he hasn't. 'E looked confused. Like he didn't know what was goin' on." The elder Winchester shrugged.
"He'll be back." Even though it was never said, Harrold could tell, Dean didn't know.
Ellis dropped back and retrieved the ammo bag that had been dropped during Castiel's sudden disappearance, quickly resuming his spot beside Nick, opting the wield the fire axe that he had picked up earlier, rather than the gun he had been sporting all morning. It wasn't until they rounded the next corner that they were met with their first real problem for the day. Drunken laughing echoed through the street, bouncing off of the buildings and reverberating around in the newly acquired hollows littered throughout the area. Ellis practically froze on the spot. He could hear the Jockey. And he didn't like it. They were vile zombies. With their hunched backs and warped spines, the way they managed to evade every bullet shot at it as it jumped around, and the way they all but humped your head as they pulled you in whatever direction they chose. It was just plain wrong.
NaNoWriMo 2010 November 4