Chapter 6
Harrold slept fitfully, often finding herself being pawed awake by her drowsy looking Great Dane. She heard footsteps thudding through the room beside where she lay and the soft clicking of a door being shut told her that someone had gotten up to use the bathroom. Sliding from the bed, the young girl padded her way into the adjoining room and saw that it had been Sam who had gotten up. Crawling into his side of the bed, Harrold slid up close to the now softly snoring Dean, practically latching herself to his sleeping form. Vaguely, she heard Sam reentering the room only to pause and then turn to head into the one that she had began in that night.
Sleep quickly overtook the ten year old, this time with less interruptions. Kain remained on the other bed, choosing to drape himself over the younger Winchester when he flopped onto the bed, having jostled the dog awake. Castiel stood at the back door, as silent as ever, only shifting occasionally to straighten out the crinkled lapels of his tan trench coat. A clump of zombies began gathering aimlessly in the streets surrounding the safe house, in what seemed to be the makings of a possible horde. Several special infected waited somewhere in the midst of it all. Everyone slept somewhat peacefully, blissfully unaware of what dangers would befall them as the ventured outside the following day.
Ellis woke with a start. His body sweating and shaking, unable to draw a proper breath. All the movement woke the con man beside him. The other man noticing the other distress, his voice automatically settling into a more soothing tone and he attempted to calm Ellis.
"It's all right Overalls. It was just a dream. You're alright." The Southerner's shivering seemed to lessen considerably and Nick did the only think he could think to do. He sat up with his back pressed against the head board of the bed and pulled the other into his lap, rocking him as one would a small child.
"What happened Ellis?" The younger hiccuped and drew in a shuddery breath. He couldn't remember what the dream had been about, but he knew one thing. It scared him.
It didn't take long to calm the hick down, but Ellis remained in Nick's lap long afterwards, only moving away once they heard movement coming from the lower level of the safe house. Both men slid from the bed and wandered down the stairs. A still half asleep Dean sat slumped over in one of the chairs surrounding the table in the kitchen, while his more so awake little brother stood against the counter, a half eaten can of beans in his hand and a spoon in the other.
evacuation area. Though nobody said anything, it was still blatantly obvious that no-one really expected CEDA to still be in the area. They were all prepared to have to make countless more safe house stops before reaching the next evac station.
"Beans are evil." Ellis snickered at Dean's groggy outburst about his brother's breakfast. Turning his head slightly, the elder Winchester then addressed Ellis.
"Lets see if you're still laughing when you're standing down wind from him when those beans kick in.
Eventually everyone made their way into the kitchen and soon enough everyone held some kind of canned food in their hands, though only Sam was brave enough to eat the can of baked beans. After breakfast everyone gave their supplies another once over before deciding that it was time to move on to the next designated area. A quick look over of the maps let them know that they only needed to stop at a few more safe rooms before they made it to a Civil Emergency and Defence Agency evacuation area. Though nobody said anything, it was still blatantly obvious that no-one really expected CEDA to still be in the area. They were all prepared to have to make countless more safe house stops before reaching the next evac station.
They took down a considerable amount of infected before any of them deemed it safe to remove the door stop and leave the safety of the house. Those who wielded fire arms reloaded their guns and grabbed some more ammunition before following the remained of the group outside and onto the street. Coach had found a chainsaw left in one of the rooms, still containing a three quarters full tank of fuel. Once he managed to get the machine going, small groups of zombies began screeching and running towards the engines' noises. The chainsaw purred loudly as it cut through the decaying bodies surrounding it. Kain barked along happily with the loud noise, pouncing on stray zombies excitedly as the group moved down the street.
Several streets later the chainsaw finally sputtered pathetically in Coach's hands, the man discarded the now useless piece of machinery onto the side of the footpath. With the death of the chainsaw, Kain quietened down, making as much noise as any animal would when in his current position at the center of the zombie apocalypse. It seemed as thought the Special Infected were waiting for the chainsaw to give out, because at least half a minutes later, Ellis found himself being pulled backwards, a thick tongue constricting around his body. He struggled in vain to reach the knife in his pocket, no longer expecting another to help him as he heard the tell tale screech of a Hunter.
Somehow the male Southerner managed to free his right hand enough to reach into the pocket of his 'tied at the waist' overalls and retrieve his knife. A quick jab was all it took to make the zombie howl in pain and release its hold enough for Ellis to break free unaided. Quickly cocking his gun, he pivoted on the balls of his feet and fired three shots into the Smokers head. The Special Infected exploding into a cloud of dark green smoke. Looking around, Ellis saw Harrold laying on the ground immobile, the Hunter's corpse less than a foot away.
Panicking, he ran towards the girl, ignoring the others. Sam caught him before he reached her.
"Ellis, calm down. She's alright. We killed it before it got to her." Ellis fought against Sam's hold.
"Then why is she on the ground? Why ain't she movin'?"
"She passed out Overalls. And we're not going to find out why until she comes to. So calm down." Dean stepped forward and scooped Harrolds' limp body into his arms. Castiel gathered up the weapons that Dean had been forced to discard. Making sure that the machete clipped to his bag was ready, in case he needed to grab it in a hurry.
They hurried towards the next safe house, Castiel taking over Dean's position in their makeshift formation. Harrold still out cold. The male hick began fretting over everything and not a single zombie was left standing once he set his eyes on it. Ellis also managed to take out quite a few Boomer's and a Jockey with limited bullets. Sticking close to Dean and Harrold, the Southerner refused to let anything that wasn't human, aside from Kain and Cas, within shooting range of the pair. They moved in near total silence, the only sounds were their footsteps and the shots fired from Ellis' machine gun.
They made it to the safe room in what Coach called 'record timing'. As they were barricading the entrance through which they had passed, Harrold began to stir. The first sound erupting from her throat was an earsplitting scream. Ellis pulled her into a tight hug. Kain wandered over timidly and nuzzled at Harrold's leg. Not gaining a reaction, the dog moved to clamp it's teeth onto the sleeve of Sam's jacket, dragging him slightly to the side. Kain moved to the other side of the room, but as Sam moved to follow he felt his shoe press and sink into some form of slippery muck.
"That was dog crap wasn't it."
Harrold's head shot up and her usual laugh bubbled forth. The tension in the room faded and Ellis chose that time to speak up and get some questions answered.
"Why are you so afraid of Hunters?" The girl sucked in an audible breath and held it for a few second before releasing it faintly.
"I watched mah dad get eaten alive by one. At the beginnin' of the apocalypse. The hooded bastard jumped 'im 'nd torn 'im open like a kid tearin' into a gift wrapped box at Christmas." Sam ignored his dog poop covered shoe and pulled Harrold into an awkward side hug.
"Get offa me Samantha."
As the tension dissipated from within the room, Kain began jumping atop people and toppling to the ground with them. Once that became boring, the canine bounded from window to window giving each a sloppy lick as he reached them. As he lost interest in that, he moved on to licking basically anything else he could reach. Castiel disappeared once again without warning, having only made it about half way through his sentence about his confusion over Kain's erratic behavior. Sam merely shrugged it off as 'some kind of Angel thing', while Dean became increasingly annoyed at the other's inability to let them know what he was doing.
As night time fell the group found themselves sitting in a loose circle on the floor of the safe room. Swapping meaningless stories of past events. Coach spoke a lot about his days as a football player, while Ellis retold a few more Keith stories, Nick gave them all a brief insight into the life of a con man, thankfully omitting a few facts for Harrold's sake. The young girl spoke about her life in Savanna and about her father being a police officer. The Winchester's separately recounted the events that had lead them to hunting demons and other supernatural phenomenons. The all took turn voicing their opinions of what Castiel's story might be. Everyone obviously wondering what had dragged him away for the second time.
NaNoWriMo 2010 November 6