CARRY ON WAYWARD ROAD

THE ROAD CONTINUES

CHAPTER 9

I was woken by the sound of my brother scrambling to get out of the car. He had thrown himself onto his hands and knees as he emptied his stomach contents on the ground. I followed him as quickly as I could and knelt beside him, placing my body against his to help support him as he rocked himself to a seated position.

"Dude, are you okay?" I was stunned, not sure exactly what had happened.

"Yeah, just sat up too quickly and my head started spinning, making me sick."

We sat there for a moment, while he allowed his head and stomach to settle, then he started laughing. Not a half laugh, not a chuckle, but a real full laugh.

"What?" I was confused on what was so funny.

He stretched his arm out, panning his hand across the sky in front of us. "Dude," he said with a chuckle, "This is awful romantic." He continued to chuckle to himself. I took note of what he was talking about and began laughing myself.

We were sitting beside a dirt path that led to the river. Before us was a clear body of water, the sun rising, making a glistering rainbow of colors covering the waters. The trees' leaves were starting to turn a golden color with the change of the season approaching us. And there we sat, I was half sitting, half leaning on the ground, my brother leaning against my chest.

"Dude," I chuckled, "all we need is a glass of wine and a picnic basket and this would be the perfect date." Dean laughed at my comment. We both sat there for a little longer. "When's the last time we watched a sunrise?" I asked. "I mean we are always up before the sun, or with it, but when's the last time either of us actually stopped to admire it? It's beautiful." I paused, to enjoy the moment and silence. The birds were waking, chirping in their trees.

"I don't know, Sammy." Dean replied. "Probably never." He added after a quick pause. We both sat there admiring the beauty in front of us. "Alright." Dean said with a pat to my leg, "Chick flick moment over, help me get off the ground."

I couldn't help but notice he had waited until the sun had finished rising before ending the moment. I got up and took my brother's hand to help him stand. It took him a moment to let his head settle before he could walk without wobbling. "Here, bitch, you drive" he said in a joking tone as he threw me the keys.

"Jerk." I replied as I caught the keys midair, I knew if he was handing over the keys he felt worse than he was letting on. I sat in the driver's seat, starting the roar of the engine. "Guess I gotta figure out where we're at since you decided to get us lost last night." He knew I was joking with him, but he really didn't know where we were. Not that it really mattered since we didn't have an exact destination anyhow. I drove till we came to a town.

"Wanna grab some grub?"

Dean, who had been sitting, quietly, his head leaned against the pillow he placed against the side window. He had been drifting between asleep and awake for several hours.

"Yeah sure." He half mumbled.

We pulled into a place called 'Granny's Cooking'. Figured nothing would be better, everyone has always talked about how good their grandma's cooking is. I noticed Dean stumble up the first step as we made our way inside, cursing himself for not picking up his foot high enough. We were the only ones there so it didn't really matter how much Dean stumbles. There was one older woman who told us where to sit and took our order, and there was a man standing behind the counter cooking. I ordered a grilled chicken salad and Dean ordered his normal cheeseburger. We were both looking around, noticing this place looked like a ghost town.

"Ma'am," Dean spoke when she returned to our table with our drinks, "my brother here got us lost last night and I was just wondering if you could tell us what town we are in?"

Yeah, sure Dean, tell her I got us lost and not you.

"Well, sweetie pie, the woman said, the locals like to call this here town, 'Hell'".

Oh, that was comforting. Dean, without hesitation continued.

"speaking of, where are the locals? This place looks like a ghost town."

The woman chuckled a little. "Why do you think they call it hell, son?" she said as she stepped away to check on our food.

Dean and I both looked at each other, confused and a bit nervous. We then heard the dinging of the bell that hung over the door, the one that alerts them someone new had entered. But the door never opened, no one came in.

"Be right there," the lady yelled from the back.

Dean and I were still a bit confused and could feel every hair stand on our arms. I went to take a sip of my drink but Dean put his hand between my mouth and the straw, covering my cup so I couldn't drink it. I looked up at him and he gave me a look that said not to drink it, that something just didn't feel right to him. His eyes shooting back and forth across the room, scanning all the booths that lined the walls. He was completely silent. Listening with every bit of attention he could give to the silence.

I knew my brother well enough to know not to question him when he got this way.

"What'll it be? Your normal?" the lady asked, looking away from us, as she carried us our food.

"ma'am" Dean spoke up again as she laid our plates in front of us. "Who are you talking to?" he asked.

"Oh, sweetie, it's just Henry, he's one of our local folks." She said with a smile.

"I don't see anyone." Dean replied.

"You will soon enough, sugar, now eat up, your food's getting cold." she said, again smiling as she walked away.

Dean and I both looked at each other again, curiosity hitting us like a ton of bricks. Dean looked around for any sign of where we were, there were none. No pamphlets, no "you are here" maps, nothing. Not even a name of a city or state on the diner advertisement signs.

"How can a town not have any indications of where it's at?" I whispered.

Instead of receiving a reply, Dean just stared, long and hard, at a booth behind me. He would glance away quickly, wait a minute, then look back up. Absent minded, paying attention to whatever he thought he was seeing or hearing, he reached down, and before I could stop him he had his cheeseburger in his hand and had taken a bite.

"Dean!" I said sternly but quietly.

I watched the expression change on his face as he realized what he had done, he decided to finish it, he had already chewed it so he might as well swallow it. Once he finished that bite he whispered to me.

"If anything happens to me, if I become invisible or something, you'll know why."

I rolled my eyes at him, at the thought of him becoming invisible but his tone was serious. He continued to whisper, I was guessing it was so all the invisible people that he thought had eaten the food couldn't hear him.

"I have a bad feeling about this place." He continued. I had to agree with him there. It didn't give me a good feeling either. "Let's get the outta here, Sammy."

I was more than happy to agree. He stepped to the counter to pay for our bill.

"Leaving so soon?" The old lady asked.

"Yes ma'am." Dean replied, my brother isn't feeling so well, guess we've spent too long in the car." he chuckled.

"But you only ate one bite." she sounded a little disappointed.

"yes ma'am, I gotta get my brother down the road, so he can rest, we're heading to our grandma's and she was expecting us a couple hours ago."

He was hoping she would understand that and believe his lie without stopping us any further. He paid the bill, as we walked past the booth he had been staring at he gave a quick nod, as to say, "see you later". I grabbed my phone out of my pocket as we walked outside, hoping I could figure out exactly where we were at.

"Great, no service." I said when I saw no bars on the screen of my phone.

The sun was bright, and hot that day. The same sun that we had sat in the coolness of the morning and watched rise. Dean stopped and stood in the space between the diner and the car, staring up at the sun.

"Dean?" I was becoming concerned about my brother's behavior.

"I don't feel so well."

"Let's get you out of this town then we'll worry about that." I said as I helped lead my brother to the passenger side of the car and pushed him into a seated position, closing the door and making my way to the driver seat.

I tried, then tried again, the damn car wouldn't start. Dean didn't seem to be concerned, this was his Baby, he would be furious if it didn't start for no reason at all. She had a half tank of gas. Hadn't had any problems out of her, but for some reason it wouldn't start.

"Let's just walk, okay Dean?" I was really wanting to get out of this town. "We'll call a tow truck once I get service." I got out, grabbed our duffle bags from the trunk, helped my absent-minded brother out of the car and started walking, half dragging him beside me. "Come on Dean, you gotta help here." I said as I struggled to hold the bags and his weight.

He didn't seem to know what was going on. Was there really something in the food? Had he been right? We were walking in the same direction we came from, I knew it would lead us out of town. I wasn't sure what was ahead so I figured it best to go back to where we were more familiar with.

"Dean!" I said irritated. "Could you please help carry your own weight?"

I was beyond frustrated as he felt heavier and heavier with every step we took. When we drove into this town we drove straight to the diner, there were no streets or business, or even houses, that we passed, it was like the diner was the town. I hadn't noticed it until now, as we walked we passed a library, bank, post office, all appearing to look empty. No towns people anywhere to be seen. Then, we came to a motel. There were people there. Only a few, but still, people, well actually, there were cars parked outside the rooms, but the only person was the young man at the counter.

As I drug my brother into the lobby, "excuse me sir" I said to the man, "Could you please tell me where we are? Our car won't start and I need to call for a tow truck."

"No phone gonna work out here. I can getcha one of them there mechanics, Billy Joe, he's a good un" the man said.

"My brother and I are trying to get to our grandma's, she's been expecting us," I said, repeating the story Dean had told, "so we really need to be going."

"Your brother there," he said pointing at Dean who was slumped in a chair, dazed, sweat starting to roll off his forehead. "doesn't look too good" the man finished.

"Um, yeah, that's why I need to get him to our grandma's" I had to agree, he wasn't looking so well and I was quickly becoming more and more concerned about his wellbeing.

"How's 'bout I put you two up in a room for the night and Billy Joe'll fix er car right up fer ya." the man had such a hillbilly accent.

I didn't want to stay. Dean was the one who originally said we should go. "It's early enough I'm sure we can walk." As I turned and looked out the windows I noticed it was now pitch black! It was just hot, and sunny, now it looked like the middle of the night.

"It's purdy late, I'd suggest ya stay, you never know what the night might bring."

"Okay, fine we'll take a room." I agreed, I wasn't sure what was going on but I knew I needed to figure it out, or at least let Dean rest. And, I couldn't let the man see my growing concerns. "By the way," I added "Can you tell me what town we're in?"

"you'sa in Hell" the man said with a smile as he handed me the key to our room.

Great, just great, the one town we happened to end up in was full of crazy people who called the place Hell. I helped Dean back to his feet and into our room, making sure the doors and windows were locked up tight, putting salt lines across every entry and around the beds. I wasn't sure what was going on but I was going to make sure we were safe. I drew devil traps and images to ward off evil things on the walls, door and floor. I knew it would be useless, but I pulled out my laptop, just to see if there was any service, of course not, no service anywhere.

"Dean?" I sat beside him on the bed I laid him on. "Dean, I need your help!" I really did need him right now.

"Huh?" he replied, still appearing half minded, but I would take what I could get.

"I'm not sure what the hell is going on here, man, there's no internet, no phone service, no way to figure out where we are or what we may have walked into." I had to shake him by his shoulders to bring him back to reality. "I need your help Dean. I need you right now, please help me." I said in a pathetic pleading way.

"Okay, okay." He opened his eyes wider, attempting to focus on what I was saying. "What's going on Sammy? I don't know what's going on." he said, confused. "Damn, they need to quiet down their party or I'm gonna call the front desk."

I listened for a moment… silence. "Who?" I said confused.

"The people in the room next door, and obviously they extended it outside their room."

"Dean, there's no one, I don't hear anyone"

"How the hell can't you hear them?" he said as he got off the bed, unlocked the door and opened it.

I followed behind him, no one was outside, no sign of life anywhere. He slammed the door shut, quickly locked it back. He was shaking. His hands were shaking. He was scared. I hadn't seen my brother this scared in a long time.

"Sam!" he said, his voice sounded scared too, panicked. "Sam, I swear, I swear I hear them!" he said, panic rising. "I can hear the music, and people laughing, clinging of glasses. Its muffled through the walls, like it normally would be. The voices from outside are louder and clearer. I swear to you Sammy, it sounds like they are right outside our door. It sounds like people, having a party." He turned and looked at me, desperation in his eyes, "Don't you hear them Sammy? You gotta hear them!"

"I don't, Dean, I don't hear anyone but you. Did you see anyone? When you opened the door did you see anyone?"

"No!" he replied with fear. "That's the thing, I can hear them like they are right there but I couldn't see anyone. What's going on Sammy?" he grabbed fists full of my shirt that covered my chest. He was legitimately scared. "What's wrong with me? I'm scared, Sammy, I'm scared. I don't know what's going on." He said, panic rising even more in his tone.

I tried to keep my tone calm and even. "It's okay Dean, it's going to be okay. We'll figure this out, okay?" Dean leaned forward so his face was pressed into my chest between his fists.

"Make it stop, Sammy. I need it to stop."