Sam and the transgenics reached the motel strip after about thirty minutes' drive. Most of the cars they found already had keys in them, which made it easy to caravan. They kept to side streets mostly, considering the possibility that main streets would be better lit and consequently would give their positions away to any Croats that might be wandering about.

When the caravan pulled into the lot at the Surf Motel, Sam noted that it seemed dark and deserted, and sat a very short walk from the beach, which itself was also deserted. It would be only an hour or so before sundown.

Sam had bummed a ride with Gwen and the twinned Mina and Mona – begrudgingly in Mina's case. Dean hadn't answered his cell when Sam called, but that wasn't out of the outside of the norm, especially when there was a female present, and especially when that female was attractive. He'd left a message for Dean telling him where they were all headed and had since hoped that Dean and Max would be on their way back soon.

Mina parked the jeep, climbed out, and with an annoyed look to Sam, took off toward the rooms. Mona, Gwen and Sam all hopped out of the jeep. The ladies rummaged through their belongings to pull out their packs. Sam hung back, remembering that his bag was still in the Impala.

"So you basically go from place to place, killing Croatoans and staying at motels?" Sam shoved his hands in his pockets, drawing parallels between this group of hardened soldiers and himself and Dean. It seemed like this had been his life for so long and that college was just a memory of something to which he would never get back.

"Yeah, I guess," Gwen said, lifting the small duffel out of the jeep. "We're just trying to stay alive and help others if we happen across any, and help squash the viral threat."

"Plus have some semblance of a life somewhere in between," Mona added with a bit of a knowingly naughty smile, a look Sam missed. His attention was focused on Gwen. "See you guys later," Mona added, taking off in the opposite direction as Mina.

"Let me ask you a question," Sam began, holding his hands out in a gesture to help carry her duffel. "I understand why they can't stand each other, even if they keep saying they're not siblings, but why does Mina hate me?"

A smile spread on Gwen's face as she handed Sam her bag. "She's like that with everyone, I don't know. Most of us think she lost her tact and sense of humanity when her girlfriend crossed."

"Crossed?"

"Yeah, she went Croatoan." Gwen made a strange, scrunched face, and coupled with the gesture of squiggly lines near her face, it confused him.

Sam looked out to the ocean a moment and thought about Jess. When he was with her, he was as far away from this hunter's life as he could be, and she knew nothing of any of it. She was happy, and she was in love with him. He hadn't told her, but he was planning on being with her for a long time. And then Dean had showed up again after he promised he wouldn't, and Sam had been sucked back into the hunter life. Jess paid the price just for loving him, for being with him. He considered the idea of what he would have done if Jess had been bitten. He definitely didn't like the conclusion he came to. "That sucks," he finally said.

Gwen nodded. "Come on," she said, tilting her head in the direction of the motel stairs. "If we don't go up now, we might not get a middle room."

"What's so special about a middle room? Why wouldn't you want rooms on the end? Especially near the beach?"

"Ah, yes. One of our many common… enhancements," she revealed, tapping her ear. "Enhanced hearing."

"Super hearing. Cool." Lame, Sam chided himself for sounding so dorky.

"Yeah, basically. Though I personally don't mind the ocean, some of the others can't always distinguish the crashing waves from someone breaking in or sneaking up behind them. It all gets jumbled together or hidden behind the surf. But it also drowns out all the other things I hear and I finally get to relax my brain."

"Ah. Well, Dean and I can take the end by the ocean," he offered. "You know, if no one wants it."

As they ascended the stairs, Gwen gave Sam her best sweet smile. It lit up her face and made her feel pretty. "The only person who could possibly want it is Max, and she's not here, so please, feel free."

Sam wondered why Max would want the end room. Wasn't she one of them?

At the landing, the pair stood at the end unit. "Where will you be?" he asked with some boyish charm.

"I think this one's open," she said, pointing to the room next to what would soon be Sam's.

Sam swung the bag forward and handed it to her. When he tried the knob at her door, it was locked. He fished the pocket knife from his pants and began to pick the lock, turning a few blades before one of them clicked and the door popped open.

"Impressive," Gwen complimented, taking her bag over the threshold and turning back to face him.

Zack approached them from another part of the upstairs walkway. "Hey, Winchester – can you give me a hand?"

Sam looked to Zack, back to Gwen, and returned to Zack. "Sure."

Zack headed for the stairs. "I need to grab some firewood. Some of us are doing a bonfire. You in?"

Sam glanced toward Gwen, who was smiling and nodding at him. "Absolutely," Sam said.

"Alright, come on."

"See you later," Sam called over his shoulder, following Zack out into the parking lot. Gwen watched his large frame descend the stairs before closing the door to the room.

Zack pulled some materials from the truck he and Krit had taken, and carried gasoline and matches out to the lobby/registration. "Need some wood to burn," he said, scanning the door. "Maybe some trash."

Sam found a stash of paper-wrapped logs meant for the in-room fireplaces and began loading his arms up. Zack also took as many as he could without dropping everything else.

"So you're a hunter, right? That's what you said?"

"Yep. Been hunting for a couple of years with my brother." Again, Sam flashed to the day their dad had told him he should stay gone if he was planning on leaving. If he knew that Dean was going to pull his little brother from the dream life he was working up to, would he have disappeared?

"I don't mean any disrespect, but you guys don't really look like stereotypical hunters."

Sam was taken aback. Though he was carrying two armfuls of logs, he defensively tried to look at his attire. "What does a stereotypical hunter look like?"

"That's not what I meant. I meant you don't exactly look equipped for hunting the Serengeti." This conversation was not going the way Zack had planned. He restrained a laugh and waited for Sam's response.

Sam walked alongside Zack, again, taken aback by Zack's apparent lack of information regarding what it meant to be a hunter.

"Where are your weapons and traps?"

Okay, he doesn't know what we hunt, Sam reasoned. "We hunt the supernaturally evil," he said plainly, as if it was common knowledge. "Some of them take traps, and some take weapons. Some arsenal we keep, some we borrow, and some get destroyed when we use 'em. But they all work against the evil shit that's out there."

"Like half-breeds?" Zack asked, thinking of the 'nomalies.

Having already received this third degree, and starting to feel like Zack was heading down the same path, Sam intercepted Zack's line of thought. "No, we wouldn't hunt you," he started. "More like vampires, ghosts, demons – things like that." He figured it would be easier to explain if he had his laptop, but that was also in the Impala with Dean.

Zack nodded and they began walking out toward the beach. On the way, Zack found a tipped-over trashcan. He dumped a few logs into it and continued onto the sand.

"So why are we making a bonfire?" Sam began, unsure if he should really question Zack. "Isn't the light of the fire and the smoke and everything going to draw them all here? The infected?"

"It might. But our prelim reports show less activity nearer the outskirts and away from the main cities. They're sort of nomadic."

Zack's answer inspired little confidence in Sam.

"And they hate water," he added. "Besides, we can hear 'em."

"I can't," he pointed out.

"Then just stick around."

After a few trips between the bonfire site and the motel registration, Sam and Zack were just about ready to light it up, but something was bugging Sam.

"Hey, isn't it getting late? Where are Max and Dean?"

Zack produced a knowing smile. "I kind of have a feeling they may not be back that soon."

"Why not?" Sam asked, adjusting a few logs to cross over each other.

"You don't know?"

Sam pressed his lips together in frustration. What is with these people? Did they always have to be so vague? "No, whatever it is you're about to say, I have no idea."

"Your brother bears a striking resemblance to someone Max used to know." Zack paused, seemingly for the sole purpose of letting time pass – either for dramatic effect or to let Sam catch up to the information.

"What, like an old boyfriend or something?"

"Sort of," he said. He seemed bothered by it.

He had a look on his face Sam couldn't decipher. He wasn't sure if it was jealousy or protectiveness. Walking back toward the motel, Sam pushed for more information. "Look, he's my brother, so if he's in any danger, I gotta know."

A hearty chuckle escaped Zack. He turned, stopping in place. "Max and Alec – they kind of had this love-hate vibe going on. Except they never got to the love part, because if it was going to happen, it got interrupted by the Croatoan apocalypse."

Sam figured the idea that someone else, other than a demon possession, could be walking around with Jessica's face and maybe body, well, it just seemed insane. Unless they were somehow related. "So you think she's substituting my brother for this 'Alex' guy?"

"That's what everyone is worried about," Zack said.

Finally, an honest and straightforward answer, thought Sam.

"But let me guess, Dean's not that kind of guy," Zack continued.

With a stifled and humorous hesitation, Sam said, "Yeah he is."