See disclaimer Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Down

Dean came to slowly with a bright light shining on his face impairing him from registering anything else.
"Dean, Dean, wake up!"
'Where am I? Hospital?' He thought dazedly. That might explain the bright light.
"Dean, you alright?"
"Sammy?" said Dean groggily and attempted to sit up. "AH." Not a good move.
Stars scatted across his vision. But at least the bright light moved away from his face and he slowly took in his surroundings. The light had been Sam's flashlight which was thankfully now pointing to the floor.

Now he remembered, Harpies, rotting building, brother falling on top of him, bitchin' sore knee.
"You got her right? You okay?" he asked his brother sitting up more slowly.
"Am I okay? You broke my fall remember?"
"Oh yeah. So you're good?"
"Yes Dean, I'm good. You however, are going to have a huge headache. It sounded like all the bones in you're skull broke. You are going to have a hell of a bump on the back of your head. It's already huge.'

Dean moved his hand up to the back of his head and there she was, one mother of a lump. But at least it was dry, unlike Sam's left forearm, which had 3 short bloody scratches on it. Dean groaned as he felt the lump getting bigger under his fingers.
"Dean, you were out for a good five minutes. You should rest for bit." Sam said, worried as he saw his brother slowly trying to get up.
"I'm fine, Sammy. Let's finish this and get out of here." Dean tried to stand but his right leg was again weak and only slightly less painful than his head now felt.
Sam put his hands under Dean's arms and helped him up, eyes looking worried when Dean reeled unsteadily. "Dean you should rest a minute." said Sam with concern.
"Na, I already rested for five minutes. Hey, she had to be the Queen right, she was huge." panted Dean, trying to distract Sam that he was having trouble standing.
"Let's hope so. "said Sam vaguely.

Knowing it was no good to put it off any longer, Dean took his shot gun back from Sam and used it as he had earlier on his poor suffering patella.
"AHHH," he yelled as it thankfully banged back into joint on the first hit.
He couldn't imagine doing it again, the pain was excruciating. Dean stood bent over dry heaving with his right hand on his knee trying to manage the pain. Sam covered his brother as he waited for Dean to breathe through the pain and gather himself. Dean finally stood up all the way and slowly slung his bag off the floor over his shoulder staggering slightly.
"That looked painful, "said Sam looking like he was going to throw up himself. "You sure you're okay?"
"It will have to do for now."
Dean had painfully started off in the direction they had been going.

Sam stared at the back of his brother's head in amazement with his mouth slightly open. That had to be as big an admission as his brother had ever admitted to, that he was in pain and injured on a hunt.
'Wow, that must have been some wack to the head.' Sam mused to himself. Dean seemed to always be able to hold it in or put it away until the work was done and they were back in the hotel and even then it was like pulling teeth. Sam closed his mouth and followed his brother carefully down the last flight of stairs and out the back doors of the building.

The moonlight outside was quite bright because of the cloudless sky and the boys threaded their through rubble to the brush they had seen from the third floor window. Dean slowed as he approached and loosened one strap of his duffle bag and pulled out a long machete before hoisting the strap back up. They spent several minutes making their way to the centre of the 6ft tall scrub. Dean slashed with the machete making a small path for Sam to follow. He was covering Dean ever alert should there be any more Harpies. They reached a clearing which appeared to be roughly in the middle of the scrub. It was clay coloured and fairly smooth, like persistent scraping had cleared the ground.

The clearing was about 30ft across and in the centre was a hole about just over 3ft across that dipped slightly into the ground.
"Yahtzee," said Dean, knowing at once a Harpies nest when he saw one.
They might be in different places but the general appearance was the same.
"Yeah, this is the nest alright," sighed Sam. "Okay, Salt and burn?"
Dean moved to the centre hole cautiously and peered in, shot gun at the ready. He could see fairly well into the hole considering it was night time and judged the nest to be a cave under the clearing of the same general width and about 22 ft deep. There appeared to be leaves and bark on the floor of the nest and, what looked a lot like bones to Dean.
"Doesn't look like any ones home," he muttered.

He looked around the clearing and noticed 6 smaller holes, about 1ft across, in a ring at the edge of clearing. He moved to a couple of the small holes and looked in. The holes looked down onto the floor of the nest toward the walls.
"What are these little holes for you think?" asked Sam also peering in.
"No idea, breather's maybe?" Dean was thinking along the same lines, as it was obvious the larger hole was the entrance to the nest.
He had seen that before in a typical nest but never the smaller ones.
"Maybe because there is so many of them in this nest. It's not exactly the biggest nest I've seen" said Dean, thinking out loud.

Sam grunted as he continued to inspect the holes.
"Alright, one can of gas in the centre hole the other two between the six others, "said Dean doing a quick count. "Same with the salt. Should do the trick. You want to cover me?"
Sam had reached the bags and was pulling gas cans and salt boxes out. "How about you cover me this time?"
"Okay."
Dean ensured both shotguns were loaded, guarding Sam as he worked.

Sam started pouring gas, starting with the middle hole upending the can of gas, using a box of salt to stop it falling in the hole. Dean slowly moved to the edge of the clearing , nearest to the building, leaving Sam's loaded shotgun on the bags. He took up position scanning the sky. Sam then opened the next two cans of gas and shared it between the holes. He started the same thing with the salt. He was opening the first box of salt when he was startled by Dean cocking the shot gun. It sounded extremely loud in what Sam realised was the eerie quiet since they had left the building.

Sam's head whipped up looking for any sign of being attacked. He frowned over at his brother who was moving very slowly with his gun raised up to his shoulder. The air was empty of danger but Sam knew Dean had a sixth sense for the supernatural, better than anyone he knew.
"Sammy, whatever happens keep working."
Dean's voice sent a chill up Sam's spine but he went back to work and had just finished the second box of salt when an ear bleeding screech filled the air.

Gun shots rang out in the night as Dean fired on what was by far the largest Harpy of the boys had ever seen. It had come out of the scrub to the right of where Dean was standing and it was coming fast. Dean laughed to himself as he fired; they had thought that one on the staircase might have been the queen! This one was huge compared to that one. Its massive wings looked as if they were made of metal. The moon was shining off them with dazzling effect; thank god these things don't like to feed during the day they would be blinding in the sunlight.

Sam felt himself staring at the thing. Its arms and torso crisscrossed in muscle but still looked oddly feminie and less witch like and more siren looking than the others they had seen that night. Its hair was a deep blonde/silver and looked like spun straw, even the gleaming claws looked more like graceful nails than huge dangerous claws …
"Sam! Keep working!"
Dean's yell interrupted Sam's floating thoughts and brought him back to reality with a thump. Suddenly with a rush to his stomach he was flooded with an ill feeling of foreboding. What? Dean was sounding panicked! Dean never sounded panicked. That got him moving again, tearing open the next box of salt with now dumb, fumbling fingers and trying to keep his eyes down to finish the job.

Dean kept firing on the Harpy but the bitch was quick. His shots seemed to bounce off its steely wings and he moved the shot gun to his left hand quickly drawing his 9mm out of his waist band and firing quickly. Sam heard the change in weapon fire and almost lost his resolve to keep working and bring his head up to stop and check on his brother. No! He had to keep working, get this done, Dean would look after himself. With two holes left to salt, Sam heard Dean scream in pain and looked up to see Dean being pulled off the ground swiftly by his left side and shoulder, the Harpies sharp claws digging in deep.
"Dean!" he yelled dropping the salt and running for his shotgun on top of the duffle bag.

In the few seconds it took Sam to grab the weapon and raise it up the Harpy had Dean well up in the air and was already over the brush and rising quickly up toward the buildings roof. Even more amazing was that Dean had his right arm up and was still firing on the Harpy! And he was still yelling at Sam to finish the job!
"Light the nest." Dean was screaming.
Then the 9mm stopped firing and Sam knew it was empty. Dean dropped the weapon and pulled shells from his jacket pocket an amazing feat in itself that had to be seen to be believed, since he was being yanked up into the air in extremely rough tugs as the Harpy struggled with Dean's weight and the fact he was fighting like a pit bull.

Dean managed to reach up and grab the shot gun that was now on the very tips of his left fingers, the hand and arm almost having no feeling left at all. The Harpies cruel claws tore at his shoulder as it gripped him tight. His left side screamed as he used his right hand to breach the shotgun. He put the barrel between his legs and fumbled two rounds into the chamber. He ignored the blood streaming across his chest and with a grunt he managed to close the weapon and used his legs and right arm to cock it ready for use. Sam had only a second to marvel at Dean's tenacity before firing his shotgun aiming for the Harpies head lest he hit Dean but the bullets seemed to spark off the Harpy and have no effect what so ever. Dean pointed his weapon up at the Harpy and from this angle he saw a flap of skin and muscle, open like a wound on the beast's torso near the heart. Instinct took over and with the last of his strength he pushed the barrel of the shotgun into the wound, pushed his arm out to improve the angle, and fired both barrels.

The harpy let out an ear bleeding screech jerked, jerked harder, then hovered for a moment before its claws gave Dean up and he was falling.
"NO! Dean don't shoot" Sam yelled as he watched the Harpy fly over the roof of the abandoned children's home.
He watched feeling sick as the Harpy jerked violently and then dropped his brother just as it had reached the highest point of the buildings roof.
"DEAN!" He screamed as his brother fell straight through one of the many holes in the roof.
The Harpy missed the hole in the roof and fell instead on the tiles of the roof and slid to the edge of the roof and then bonelessly to the ground.
"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God" rambled Sam.

He could feel his heartbeat in his ears as he upended the last of the salt, and ran to his bag. He grabbed the waiting Zippo off the top and yanked the bags over his shoulder in one smooth movement fumbling to get the lighter going with the other. It took three go's to get it lit and as he ran he threw it into the large hole in the centre of the nest. Without waiting to see if it took he bolted in the direction that they had entered seeing the path they had made earlier and flying along it as fast as he could.

Sam was rewarded with a "Woopmph" behind him as the nest lit up in a fiery ball of flame. Just as he came to the doorway of the building, Sam skidded to a stop and picked up an object he recognized even in shadow and covered in blood: Dean's 9mm. He shoved the gun in the duffle bag and pulled out a flashlight as he ran. He ran to the staircase and bolted up taking two and three stairs at a time using his long legs to vault over holes like a madman. He reached the top floor and ran to the hole in the roof where he thought Dean had gone through .

Under the hole in the roof was a hole in the floor and Sam saw Deans shot gun lying next to the hole in the floor. Sam scooped the gun up, it too was covered in blood. Sam looked down the hole to see that the hole went down through all levels of the building. Sam shone the flashlight down the hole but the bottom was to dark and to far away to see.
"Dean!" he yelled.
There was no reply so Sam ran for the staircase and bolted down. As he ran he reloaded both shot guns purely by instinct. He stopped quickly at every level and yelled for his brother. With no luck he raced for the basement, panting hard and starting to get a stitch. It was musty and damp down here but there was a large hole in the floor which was apparently draining most of the bad weather that came through the hole in the roof away.

As he neared the hole in the roof he could make out a dark shape on the ground, and as he ran forward his worsted fears were confirmed, it was Dean in a spreading pool of blood.
"Dean!" he screamed as he flung himself to his knees.

Dean was lying on his stomach and Dean was not breathing.

TBC