"What the hell kind of symbols did you say those were?" Roy asked for what must have been the fifth time in the last half hour.
"Anasazi," Spencer answered again.
"And they are going to magically stop that beast dead in its tracks?"
"If that's how you want to look at it, then yes."
Roy stood at the edge of the clearing, watching as Spencer and Dean finished their dirt etchings that were supposedly going to protect them and Sam building a fire. Hailey sat with her arm wrapped around Ben's shoulder.
"If you say so," he scoffed before perching himself at the other end of the fallen log Ben and Hailey were using as a seat.
It hadn't taken long for the darkness to settle in.
Sam got the fire to hot blaze then went to sit on a second log a few feet away from the others. And when he was done, Dean joined him.
"You want to tell me what's going on in that freaky little head of yours?"
"Dean-"
"You're not fine…"
Having finished now too, Spencer settled down next to Hailey.
"You know, there's a good chance your brother is still alive out there," he said. "I know it's hard not to lose hope, but you can't."
There was a long pause before she spoke. "I was fourteen when my parents died. Ben was only eleven and Tommy was eighteen. We were able to stay at home with him but it was hard. Half the time he was more like a father than a brother," she said quietly.
"I know what you mean. I was a few years old when my mom died and after that our dad was always for a job and Dean had to take care of me and Sam." He glanced at Dean then added. "I think big brothers are like that."
"How can you guys stay so calm?"
"You'd be surprised at the things we've seen."
From where he sat, he could just barely hear what Dean was saying. "I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things, the family business." How ironic.
"We've seen this at least once before and we've seen worse," he continued.
"What happened the last time?"
Spencer looked down. He couldn't make eye contact. "We found it, killed it, but not before it had fed off someone else." He looked back at her, eyes flashing to Ben and back. "I promise you this though, we will find this thing and we will bring Tommy back."
Almost as if on cue to challenge what he had just said, there came a scream. "Help me!" it yelled from deep in the wood like it had earlier. It was only a matter of milliseconds for the three brothers to be at their feet ready to take actions if necessary.
"Alright, stay calm. It's just trying to draw us out," Dean said trying to keep the others calm and safe.
Roy cocked his gun, ready to use it. There was another scream for help then a ferocious growl when it didn't seem to be working. He raised and aimed the gun, not sure where he should be pointing it.
There was another growl, this time closer, then the sound of tree branches being moved aside as it circled around the cite. Hailey let out a shriek when she could feel the movement of air. Roy almost blindly turned and shot into the trees.
A cry of pain then more rustling. "I hit it," Roy shouted then took off past the symbols to see if he could find where it no doubted lay wounded.
"Roy! No," Sam yelled taking after him followed by his brothers. When it seemed like Hailey and Ben were going to try taking after them, Spencer yelled, "Stay here!" at them and they stopped in their tracks.
"Roy!" they each took a turn yelling his name.
From off in the distance, they can hear him shouting back, "I found it. It's in the trees!"
They moved in the direction they had heard him but couldn't see much. Sam kept the flashlight angled downward sweeping it across the wood's floor only stopping when he saw a glint off the black metal of a gun. Roy's gun.
Shaking his head, Dean said, "We should head back, he's gone."
They were out a bit further than Spencer had thought but they made it back into the safe circle without incident.
"Where's Roy?" Hailey asked looking from one face to the next. Sam shook his head.
One thing was for sure, no one was going to get sleep tonight.
*CM*SN*SUPERMINDS*SN*CM*
Sam had dad's journal open, "This," he said. "Is a Wendigo."
"A Cree Indian word that means 'evil that devours'," Spencer said. "Hundreds of years old. They used to be human once- an Indian, frontiersman, miner, or hunter."
Behind them, Dean was setting up the only weapon that would be useful. "How does a man become one?"
"The same way. Someone gets cut off from supplies or help during a harsh winter and he turns all Hannibal Lecter on his group," Dean answered.
"Like the Donner Party?" Ben asked.
"Exactly," Spencer agreed.
"All over the world there are cultures that believe that consuming human flesh will give you special abilities. Strength, speed, immortality."
"And after a while, if you eat enough, you become less than human- always hungry." Spencer finished.
"Then how can Tommy still be out there?"
Sam answered, "Wendigos know how to survive long winters with little to no food. If he is still alive, he's being kept somewhere safe and hidden. We'll have to track it back there."
"How do we stop it?"
Dean answered this time, "We have to torch it." He held up a Molotov cocktail. "Only thing that will work."
The next few hours were spent wandering the woods in hopes that they might get a chance to gank the thing. From tree to tree, there were bloody claw marks on the bark. The further they went, the more they saw.
Eventually, Sam said, "I feel like this is too easy."
Dean turned to him and gave him a small shove, "You're just saying something now?"
About to say something about needing to focus now, Spencer was interrupted by Hailey. "Roy?" she asked clearly confused moving near the heap of flesh and clothes she had just noticed near the base of a tree just in the distance. As she moved within a foot of him, she raised her hand to her mouth whispering, "Oh, god," and taking a few steps back.
Sam rushed to her side to guide her away, he looked behind him to see Spencer and Dean looking over the corpse.
Rejoining the group, Spencer informed them, "His neck was broken. That means he wouldn't have felt it and it would have happened quickly."
In the distance, a branch snapped, sounding like it had been stepped on. They all snapped their heads in the direction of the noise. Then the growls started up again like last night only sounding louder, closer.
"Run!" Dean yelled, ushering the others forward. "GO!"
Even with the others having a few seconds head start, Dean easily out ran Ben and Sam so that he was behind Spence and Hailey.
From behind him, Sam heard the sound of Ben tripping over something and he turned back to help him up and forward. The others had kept on going so now there was some distance between them.
The two stopped in their tracks for just a fraction of a second when they heard a blood curdling scream. "Hailey!" Ben yelled. But there was no response. Picking up the pace tenfold, they stopped again when they say a broken beer bottle laying on the ground. "Dean!" Sam tried. "Spencer!"
He heard a moan of pain. About ten feet away from the glass, Spencer was folded beneath a tree.
"Spencer," he rushed over to his older brother. "What happened? Are you okay?"
With some help, Spencer managed to sit up. "It took Dean and Hailey."
"Spencer, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine, we need to go find them," he said trying to stand up, unable to without his brother there for support.
"You're bleeding," Ben pointed out. And he was, there were shallow cuts on his right side abdominals.
"I'm fine," he said with more force. "Let's go."
"Which way?" Sam asked.
"This way," he replied leading the way. They didn't make it far before he couldn't be sure which way it had taken them.
"M&M's?" Ben said questioningly.
Sam looked over and saw what he had picked up from the ground. Despite himself he smiled, knowing they had to have been Dean's because who else would have brought peanut M&M's into the woods like that. "Got to love a trail," he said.
The three followed the trail to one of the many mine entrances. Above it in the stone the words 'Keep out no admittance," was carved in big letters and closer to being eyelevel, there was a sign that read 'warning! Danger! Do not enter extremely toxic material.'
"This has got to be the place then," Sam said staring into the black depth and taking out the single flashlight they had. Behind him, Spencer was folded over, one hand on his knee, the other putting pressure on his wound. It was still bleeding and that worried him but he had higher priorities at the moment so he sucked it up and followed Ben into the mine.
They walked the tunnels looking for the now three missing persons. They could hear the echoes of the wendigo's growl throughout the passages. At one point, they had gotten louder and the creature was getting closer.
Sam shirked back into the wall, pulling Ben back with him and Spencer doing the same. From beside him, Spencer could feel Ben tensing up, panicking, about to scream. Fearing that he would, Spencer covered his mouth. He could feel Ben's heavy breathing against his hand.
There was a distinct musty scent produced as it walked by, not noticing the three men hiding in the shadows. When he was sure they were clear, he released Ben. Then they continued their search.
Moving through the tunnel had to have been one creepiest things that young Ben had done, he felt like ever shadow was jumping out at him and Sam shining the flashlight here and there didn't help.
It also didn't help when the floor boards started creaking. The next thing he knew, he was falling along with Sam and Spencer to the level below them. Surrounding them are piles of bones and a decaying arm. Ben Jumps to his feet completely freaking out now.
The other two stood up too.
"Hey, it's okay," Sam tried to calm him.
"Guys," Spencer said pointing to where Dean and Hailey were hanging by their wrists. They moved closer, the two hunters pulling out their pocket knives.
"Dean," Sam called trying to get him to come to while Ben and Spencer woke Hailey.
Finally, they were both conscious and being cut down. The two moaned and rubbed at their chafed wrists and fell in exhaustion to the ground.
"You okay?" Sam asked Dean.
"Yeah," he said pained.
"Hailey?"
"I'm fine."
"Where is it?" Dean asked.
"It was headed the other way," Spencer answered.
Ben helped his sister up and her eyes seemed to catch on something. "Tommy?"
He was still hanging from the ceiling, his head lulling on his chest. She moved closer, Ben's arm around her waist. Tears were streaming down her checks now. She stretched her arm out towards his face but before she touched it, his head jerked up, eyes dazed.
She turned to the brothers, "Cut him down." Spencer does and helps him so that he doesn't just drop. "We're going home now," she said to him.
From where Dean was on the ground, he was able to look through the backpacks that the Wendigo had taken and pulled out two flare guns.
"These should work," he said tossing one to Spencer whose smiling.
As they looked for the exit, Tommy was being supported by Sam and Ben, Hailey was just in front of them but constantly glancing at her older brother, Dean was leading the way, and Spence was bring up the rear.
They hadn't hear any growls in a while but they were starting up again.
"Guess who's hungry?" Dean joked.
"How are we supposed to get out of here?" Hailey asked.
"I can think of one thing," he responded glancing at Sam than Spencer, knowing he wouldn't like it but knowing it would be the most effective thing to do. He starts walking down one of the tunnels. "Come and get me!" he was shouting.
His face a hard line, Spencer took the lead saying, "This way." They continue on down a passage until they hear more growling and stop.
"Sam," Spencer says glancing backwards. "Go, get them out of here."
"I'm not leaving you too," he protest.
"Now!"
He didn't like it at all but he got the group moving again at a quicker pace. Spencer stayed behind and crept along quietly. He could feel the presence before he could see it. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up when he finally caught a glimpse of it.
He aims then fires. It easily dodged out of the flares way making Spencer breath out the word 'shit' before turning on his heel and bolting in the direction the others were headed.
Coming up behind them, he yells, "Hurry, Go, go go!" And they do, they move faster than before. They run right into a dead end.
Sam presses the three Collins siblings up against the wall, spreading his arms wide while Spencer does the same in front of him. They are each flinching their eyes closed, knowing what's about to happen as it stalks closer.
Then, before them, it blazes into nothing but fire howling in extreme pain before it turns into ashes on the mine floor. Standing behind where it had been, Dean is beaming at the bunch.
"See," he said. "I had a plan."
*CM*SN*SUPERMINDS*SN*CM
Dean was sitting on the hood of the Impala taking the nights events in. As soon as the Wendigo was gone, he and Sam had went back to find their own thing in the cavern they had been in. While Spencer helped the others to find the exit. They had called the authorities as soon as they were in a serviceable area.
And now here they were. Sam was over by Ben telling the police officers the fake story about a grizzly attack, Spencer was near the ambulance, having his scratches cleaned and wrapped. One of the paramedics had tried to get him to wear an insulated blanket in fear that he might go into shock. He had immediately took it off. Tommy was safe in the ambulance stilling breathing heavily with an oxygen mask on and strapped into the stretcher.
That left Hailey and himself. She was walking over to him. "I can't thank you and your brothers enough. Because of you, I still have both my brothers."
"Just don't go camping for a while," he said smiling.
"Are you riding with your brother?" a paramedic asked walking over.
"Yeah," she tells him then turns back to Dean and says, "I hope you find your father, Dean."
She turned to find Ben waiting near the ambulance. And as she walks by, she says he thanks to Sam then Spencer. Sam walks over to lean against the hood with Dean.
"You know we'll find dad, right?" Dean asks him.
"I know," he replies.
The ambulance starts to pull away with the sirens wailing and the lights flashing. Spencer comes over to join them too. "I always hated camping," he mumbled.
A/N: well, so much for daily updates…. I'm so sorry about that. Friday I had school then work and yesterday, I had to work all day and longer than I thought. I hope that this chapter being at least twice as long will make up for part of it.
And just as a belated warning, the weekend is going to be the days where it will be harder for me to update.
Anyways thanks everyone for the reviews, staying with this, liking it and alerting it.