CARRY ON WAYWARD ROAD

THE ROAD CONTINUES

CHAPTER 10

I had never felt so alone in my life. I usually had at least one person I could call, if not I always had Dean. But, right now I felt like I had no one. Pull yourself together. I thought to myself. You gotta figure this out!

"Okay," I said audibly, thinking out loud. I sat Dean up to look at me. "Dean, I really need you to help me here, okay? You with me?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, good. So," I began "you can hear them and I can't, right?" Dean nodded his head as I continued. "The only thing different is exactly what we expected, something in the food. You wouldn't even let me drink the water, you had a feeling, and your feelings are usually right." Dean again nodded in agreement "Okay, you can hear them but not see them… ghosts?" Dean shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe."

I continued my verbal thoughts, "or maybe it's the head injury? Dean! Why did you get sick this morning?" I stopped, turned on my heels to look at him, waiting for his reply.

"I don't know."

"I need you to think man."

"Okay… I was startled by something, I think, maybe? And when I was, I jumped awake and I instantly felt sick to my stomach, my head felt like it was swimming. I guess I just assumed it was because I sat up so fast?"

I thought for a minute after he finished explaining. "Do you know what startled you?" I asked.

Dean shook his head no as he replied "Maybe a noise? Or… no, it… I felt like something… someone touched me. Like a prickle down my arm."

Okay, that just added to the mystery. "Okay, maybe whatever this is contacted you this morning?"

"But you're the one who drove here." he reminded me.

Damn it he was right, but… "But you're the one who drove us to this area. Dean, when you took over driving last night, why did you do that? You weren't up for driving, you weren't feeling well, then all the sudden you decided to drive. I figured it was because you were being hard headed and didn't wanna stop for the night. Honestly, I figured it was because you didn't want to be in a motel with me, not after, well, you know…" I paused then continued, "You even said so yourself, but what made you decide to drive instead of just having me continue on?"

Dean sat there, thinking long and hard, trying to remember the night, the reason why he drove. "I'm not sure Sammy. I just had this urge to drive, like everything was fine, my head felt like normal, I didn't feel sick or dizzy, I felt like myself…." His thoughts trailed off but he continued to talk. "Or maybe, I just felt like nothing at all? Not myself, but not anyone else either?" He was beginning to confuse himself. "I just wanted to drive. But, it was like I had a destination, a goal in mind, but it was also like we weren't going anywhere, just down the road, to escape the day." He looked at me, brows crinkled in confusion, his eyes begging me to make sense of his words, to help him not sound so crazy.

"Okay," I said as I sat beside him, placing a gentle, comforting hand on his leg. "Now, I need you to really think Dean. Do you remember anything while we were at the dinner last night? Anything at all? Anything out of the ordinary? A touch? A taste? A smell? Anything?" I stopped to allow him time to think. While he was thinking I had helped him remember events, "I know you didn't eat much, you only finished half your food, which isn't normal for you at all. You were quiet, you were extra quiet, even for you, through most of the ride, but even quieter at the diner. I assumed you were mad at me, or in pain or something… but… maybe not?" I questioned, thinking out loud again.

"I wasn't mad at you, that much I know." Dean quickly replied. "I was fine, honest I was, I had a slight headache the whole evening, and if I moved too fast it felt like my head would sway, giving me a sick feeling, that's why I let you drive for so long. I knew my reaction time would be slow because I didn't want to even think about moving my head too quickly."

He stopped to think a little longer then continued, "I was tired. The medicine they gave me made me tired so I figured I would just try to sleep the meds off. When we stopped, I was starting to feel dizzy and sick again. I figured food would help. But it didn't. I… I got angry. I don't know why. That's why I didn't want to talk. I… I remember not wanting to look at anyone, I felt like the anger would shoot out of my eyes and everyone would know, but I don't know what I was angry about. Maybe because as we were walking in, the man who was walking out bumped into me? I remember looking up at him and just seeing a hateful look on his face but I decided I was in no shape to fight so I let it go."

Okay, maybe he had just stumbled onto something? "Dean, this is important, okay? I need you to really think, when he bumped into you did you feel anything? Maybe something poking you, or burning, anything?" I didn't remember seeing anyone but I wasn't doubting my brother's words.

He shook his head no then said, "That's what made me angry, that's when I started to feel it. By the time I was ready to leave I was feeling good. Well, not good, good, more like the nothingness I told you about, but I wasn't hurting or feeling sick, that's when I drove. I remember feeling like I had to drive because I knew where we were going and you didn't… only I don't know where we are." He stopped talking as he looked around the room.

"Dean, this man who bumped into you, what did he look like?"

"He was younger, dirty blonde hair, straight hair. He was skinny, about average height. He had on a red plaid flannel, looked hillbilly as shit!"

As soon as Dean said that last part I was shocked. He just explained that hillbilly hick that checked us into the motel room. I wasn't any closer to figuring things out but I was starting to put things together. "Dean do you remember when we checked into this room?" I asked, hoping he would remember if that was the same man.

"No," he stated "as soon as we walked into the lobby everything went blurry. I didn't see anyone, you said you were going to talk to someone but I didn't see anyone. I just remember having a spacey feeling and then you pulling me out of it, here, in this room."

"Dean, I think you just described the man who checked us in, the one you didn't see. Something isn't right here. But, I can't figure it out. But, I do think whatever it is led you here, somehow, something, connected to you when he touched you, and it led you here."

"But, you drove us here." Dean repeated.

"yes, but you had us set up to where this was the only place we could go." I explained to him.

"Are you thinking ghost?"

"I don't know, when either of us asked anyone where we were at, the only thing they said was 'Hell'."

"This is not Hell!" Dean was quick to chime in, "I've been there, remember? This is not there."

Yeah, I remembered, how could I possibly forget? "If we're looking at ghosts" I continued, "then there must be a grave yard, somewhere. But the man who bumped into you, the one who checked us in, he obviously isn't a ghost, well, I guess we can't be completely sure about that. And what about the two people at the diner? They weren't ghosts either. I mean if they were then we wouldn't be able to see them, right? But, I do think they saw them, and talked to them." I stopped talking as Dean stood from the bed and made his way to our bags,

"Then let's go find it." he said.

"Dean, the man who checked us in said we needed to get a room because there's no telling what comes out at night."

"What? Like ghosts?" Dean mocked me "when has that ever stopped us?"

He had a point. It hadn't stopped us before, hell, that was our job, that's what we lived for. They didn't know who they were messing with when they messed with a Winchester. Armed with our weapons, we made our way quietly out of the room, once Dean said the voices sounded like they were all muffled and no one was outside. We didn't have a clue where to even begin to look, we snuck around buildings while Dean listened for voices. Then, he suddenly stopped, and pointed to the middle of town, to the middle of the road. I wasn't even sure where all these buildings came from but I knew I enjoyed the safety of them.

"Right there." he said as he pointed to a spot in the road. "That's where we dig".

I tried to explain why that was a stupid idea but he insisted that's where it was at, that's where we would find what we were looking for, whatever that was. Knowing Dean wasn't fully recovered yet, we agreed that I dig exactly where he said while he watched guard, listening for anything that he could hear but I couldn't. He heard things, he shot off a couple rounds of rock salt while yelling at someone, or something, to stay away. He couldn't see them, but he could hear where they were coming from.

"I found something Dean!" I yelled after about 15 minutes of digging. It wasn't buried very far down. It was a metal grate on hinges. "Help me open this thing" I strained out while trying to pull it open. Dean hopped in and together we managed to get it pulled open. It led to a set of stairs.

"Let's do this." Dean sounded determined as he grabbed the weapons bag and started his way down the steps.

"Dean, Dean," I whispered, "slow down man" but he didn't have any interest in slowing down. Once at the bottom of the steps he lit his lighter, trying to find something to use for light. Where were we? In a cave of some type?

"The voices are so loud." Dean said.

There on the wall beside the steps was a torch, like it was meant to be there, to light the way. Dean lit it and quickly the area began to come into focus. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It was an underground town, buried, hidden. It was identical to the one above ground, as we walked around, in and out of the buildings, there were bodies, long decayed. In the motel, the same motel we were staying in, behind the checkout counter was the remains of what looked to be a young man, with what was left of his red, plaid shirt hanging off his bones, a few locks of dirty blonde hair still attached to his scalp. Dean walked to the room beside the one we were staying in. when he pushed the door open the room was full of human remains. Old whiskey bottles and shot glasses laid around the room. It looked as if someone was in the middle of a party. The same party Dean heard perhaps? Parked outside the motel was the same row of cars that I saw above ground.

We walked past the bank and the post office, to the "Granny's cooking" when we walked into the diner it wasn't empty like I had remembered it. In the booth that Dean had nodded his head at, the one he kept staring at, was a family who appeared to be eating their dinner, a mom and dad with what looked to be two little boys, from what I could tell of their remains. In the booth behind them was another human remain with an old light blue, striped, service shirt on, the name tag read "Billy Joe". I couldn't believe it, I was in complete shock as I looked around the diner, the booths full of human remains. The one we had sat in was empty.

"What happened?" I asked, not expecting Dean to know the answer. "It looks like all these people were going about their normal day then WHAM they were dead."

"I don't know." Dean said as he walked behind the counter and saw, laying on the floor, the remains of the old woman who took our order, and by the cooking station was the man that had cooked our foods.

"STOP IT!" Dean yelled out as he sunk to a fetal position on the ground, throwing his hands up to cover his ears. "Too loud, Sammy. I can't hear them all at once. Make them stop, please, make them stop."

"It's okay Dean, it's going to be okay. I need your help to make it stop okay?" Dean nodded his head but no other movement came from him. "Okay, we have to salt and burn, Dean, we have to salt and burn the entire town. I need your help, there's too much for me to do alone. I need you to ignore everyone but me. Okay, do you think you can do that?"

Dean nodded his head yes again.

"Okay, good, it's okay if you hear them, okay? Just ignore them, Dean. What we need to do is find everybody we can find and salt them, then we will set the whole town on fire. Sound like a plan?" I had hoped he could hear me over the other voices.

"Yeah, gimme the salt so I can shut these sons of bitches up." He said as he grabbed the salt and started on his mission.

It was heartbreaking. I just couldn't understand it. Men, women, children, even babies, laid where they had lived, hidden from the world, nothing but their decayed remains left of them. I couldn't help but wonder if this town had always been hidden, or if something, like the plague took over and they locked it up, building something else on top of it. The hidden stairs led me to believe maybe these people were locked in this town, to live out their lives, hidden from the world.

Once we had salted all the remains, we double checked to make sure we got them all, and gathered all the gasoline and lighter fluid we could find, we poured it over the bodies, leaving a line that led to the steps. We both paused at the end of the line. Dean lit his lighter, both feeling a little heartbroken, he let his lighter fall to the ground, catching the fluid on fire. We made our way to the top of the steps, pausing to look back before climbing back into the world we knew.

The fire had ignited the buildings, all that could be seen was a big ball of fire as the entire town, its history, its remains, were burning to the ground. We climbed out of the gate, closing it behind us and covering it back with the dirt we removed. Once finished we both stood up and took notice, everything, the entire town we were just at, gone. Baby sat parked beside the road. There was no diner, no motel, nothing, no remains of a ghost town.

I could feel the relief fall over me, it was daylight again, well barely, the sun was starting to go down, bringing darkness with it. Dean opened the trunk to his car, throwing the bags into it and taking a couple warm beers out of the cooler that no longer held ice. He handed one to me and cracked his open, making his way to the front of his car, he laid on the hood,

"Come on, Sammy, lets watch the sunset."

I gave a smile and laid on the hood beside him. What a day we had! It started with us watching the sunrise, only seemed fitting that we end it with the sunset. Hopefully tomorrow would be better I thought to myself, giving myself a half smile, I knew it would be an adventure. That's the Winchester way. But, for now, I was going to enjoy the sunset with my brother, thankful we both made it through another day. Thankful that, no matter what, we would always have each other, even when things get dark, and fear strikes, we still have each other. My thoughts faded with the day's light, drifting into a calming darkness, closing yet another page in the book of life.