At the small clinic, the three hunters and the woman they had saved climbed out of the car. The building was quiet and a small number of people milled about the street. Sam led the woman towards the clinic entrance while Mae and Dean hung back, nerves still on edge from their recent encounter.
"Dean..." Mae's voice held a slight quiver.
"I don't need a lecture here, Mae. You weren't there. I did what had to be done, okay?" Dean's tone was firm and resolute as he unlocked the trunk and opened it.
Mae's shoulders sunk slightly in response. "I'm not...I have a bad feeling, okay? That's all. Maybe it doesn't matter given everything."
Dean studied her for a moment, trying to gauge if her instinctual warning was just a generic feeling or specific to the strange episode she experienced at the Tanner's house. Ultimately, it didn't matter, because everything about this situation felt wrong. He reached down to grab her hand and give it a quick squeeze. "Yeah. Me too."
He quickly looked around, taking note of the number of people walking by on the street and who might be watching them. He was grateful when Mae shifted slightly to block any curious eyes from seeing into the trunk as he pulled out the covered body inside.
Sam and Beverly walked inside the clinic, which was quiet, dim, and empty. "Hello?" Sam called out, "Hello? We need a doctor here!"
A concerned blonde woman rushed out of a backroom, taking in the young man and older woman. "Mrs. Tanner, what happened?"
Sam explained. "She's been attacked."
"Doctor Lee?" The blonde woman called over her shoulder.
Another woman, with darker blonde hair, wearing a lab coat came into the lobby. She looked at the Sam and Beverly as well. Upon seeing the woman, presumably Dr. Lee, Beverly started to cry. "Bring her in." Dr. Lee said to Sam.
"Okay."
Sam kept his hand on Beverly's shoulder as they walked past the front desk. Dr. Lee started to follow but stopped as the second pair of people came into the clinic. Dean carrying the canvas wrapped body over his shoulders. "Is that —"
"Mr. Tanner?" Dean finished for the doctor as he adjusted the body to stand more upright.
"Was he attacked too?" she asked, unsure what had just landed in her clinic.
"Uh..." Dean hesitated for a moment with exactly what to say, "no, actually, he did the attacking and then he got himself shot."
"Shot?"
"Yeah."
The doctor, skeptical now, tried to assess how these people might be involved. All three people were young and dressed casually. They were strangers, which wasn't completely uncommon but coming in like this only left more questions in her mind. "And who are you?"
"U.S. Marshals. I'd show you my badge, but uh..."
Beside him however, Mae pulled out her fake badge, for all the examination the doctor did, as her concern seemed to be resolved for the moment.
"Oh. Sorry. Bring him back here." Dr. Lee said as she walked back to the exam room to tend to Beverly.
Mae and Dean exchanged a quick glance.
"You okay Red?"
"No. I don't know." she tucked her badge inside her leather jacket. "I'm gonna go wash my face."
Dr. Lee quickly and efficiently cleaned, stitched, and bandaged the wound on Beverly's shoulder. All things considered, she hadn't suffered many injuries. The doctor asked her exactly how she'd been injured and still didn't understand the story the woman told her. "Wait, you said Jake helped him? Your son Jake?"
Beverly nodded tearfully. "They beat me. Tied me up."
"I don't believe it." Dr. Lee's assistant said.
"Pam." Dr. Lee chided the other woman lightly before focusing back on her patient. "Beverly... do you have any idea why they would act this way? Any history of chemical dependency?"
"No, of course not. I don't know why. One minute they were my husband and my son. And the next, they had the devil in them."
Dean, Mae, and Sam stood behind the doctor, near the door and at Beverly's description of the event, the trio shared a look. "We gotta talk." Dean said and they walked out of the exam room towards the lobby, "Those guys were whacked out of their gourds."
"What do you think? Multiple demons, mass possession?"
"If it is a possession there could be more. I mean, God knows how many, it could be like a friggin' Shriner convention."
"Do you think?" Mae asked, looking back towards Beverly. "We've never seen anything like this."
Sam shook his head. "Then what could it be?"
"I-maybe..." Mae tried to think of anything else it could possibly be. A curse, a haunting? Maybe but then there was Sam's vision. Nothing made more sense than demons. "I have no idea."
"Great." Sam said.
"Of course, that's one way to wipe out a town, you take it from the inside. "
"I don't know, man. Mae's right. This is different. We didn't see any of the demon smoke with Tanner, or any of the other usual signs."
"Well, whatever. Something turned him into a monster. And you know if you woulda taken out the other one there'd be one less to worry about."
Something about the way he said it reminded Sam of their father. "I'm sorry, all right? I hesitated, Dean, it was a kid! Mae didn't shoot either."
"Because she wasn't there." Dean argued back. "She didn't see what we saw. And it was an "it". Not the best time for a bleeding heart, Sam."
Mae touched Dean's forearm. "C'mon, we don't know for sure."
"Oh, we don't? You weren't there." Dean looked down at Mae, his eyes all business. "Even so, just some casual torture, that's cool with you?"
The clack of Dr. Lee's heels on the floor signaled that they weren't alone any longer and needed to table their personal arguments for now.
"How's the patient?" Sam asked.
"Terrible! What the hell happened out there?"
"We don't know." Dean said.
"Yeah? Well, you just killed my next-door neighbor."
Dean shook his head mildly. "We didn't have a choice."
"Maybe so, but we need the county Sheriff. I need the coroner..."
"Phones are down." Sam said.
"I know, I tried. Tell me you have a police radio in the car?"
"Yeah we do." Sam said. "But it crapped out just like everything else."
"I don't understand what is happening." Dr. Lee said.
"We're still trying to figure that out too. It doesn't seem like much makes sense." Mae said, striking a keen balance between reassuring and authoritative.
After a moment, Dean asked, "How far is it to the next town?"
"It's about forty miles down to Sidewinder."
"All right, we're gonna go down there, see if we can find some help." He said, inclining his head towards Mae for a moment, then clapping Sam on the shoulder, "My partner'll stick around, keep you guys safe."
"Safe from what?" Dr. Lee asked.
"We'll get back to you on that."
As they walked out to the Impala, Dean bumped Mae's hip with his. "Hey, maybe that's a good sign."
Mae stopped but at her frown, Dean pointed to the street sign they'd failed to notice before. It read MAVIS Ave. "I mean, with our luck? It's probably as good as a tombstone."
"That's not funny."
"Neither is a mass possession where we can't even tell if people are possessed or not. If that's what's happening here, how the hell do we fight it?
Since he didn't have an answer, Dean just sighed and they got in the car, headed towards Sidewinder.
As they drove down the two-lane road, they stopped behind a car with Oregon plates in the middle of the lane. There wasn't any other traffic on the road. He picked his gun up on the seat between him and Mae. She similarly took her piece out of the shoulder holster she had started to wear. Dean thought about telling her to stay back in the car but he knew she would only argue the point with him. And he knew having backup wasn't the worst thing.
"Keep your guard up, hot stuff. This could be a trap."
"Gee, thanks for that tip, dad." She said sarcastically.
"I'm serious."
"Yeah, yeah."
They got out of the Impala, the doors closing with a familiar squeak and thunk. As they approached the car, Mae scanned the surrounding area. There was nothing noticeably out of place, except the car. There was a baby seat, empty but bloody in the back seat. The driver's side window was smashed out. Dean peered inside, finding the seats covered in blood. He watched Mae assess the car from her side. "That's a lot of blood, Dean. You think either that Tanner kid did this or we really do have a bigger problem on our hands?"
Unsatisfied with any answer he could come up with, Dean pressed his lips together. He crouched down and when he stood back up, he held up a large bloody knife that had been on the ground by the driver's side door.
"What the hell?" Mae said when he showed it to her.
"I'd love for you to tell me this fits anything but a mess of demons."
"Is there something that would make you feel better?"
Dean sighed. "This beyond freaky."
Mae walked around the front of the car towards Dean. "It's not the weirdest thing we've ever seen but... hey maybe if this is what's in store for the people in this town, you putting one of them down isn't the worst fate." She tried to joke.
But Dean only frowned. "I'm not gonna waste an innocent person here, Red. But maybe this Duane guy did this. You know that, right?"
"It wasn't my vision."
"Yeah and... Mae, I just... need to know that you trust me."
"I trust you as much as I ever have. You know how I feel. Nothing has changed since the last time we had this discussion. If you want me to say something just to placate you, I can."
Dean's softened a bit, full of concern and tension. "So you genuinely think I'm...a murderer?"
"We kill all kinds of things, all the time."
"But you think I'm capable?"
"Yeah." she said without hesitation but her hand cupped his cheek. "Hell, we're more capable than most people, all things considered. Something is going on here, something is happening to these people, in these people. All I hope is that whatever does happen before we leave that you just... think before you do something you'll regret doing."
"I'm not-"
"Dean, we don't have time for this, especially out here. But I'll tell you, if you want me to think anything different than what I've already think, then you need to act differently. You want me to think you're not gonna kill an innocent man, then don't kill an innocent man."
Sam leaned against a counter in the lab, staring at the body of Mr. Tanner. Unable to look at him any longer, he started to pace while Dr. Lee examined something in her microscope. "Huh."
"What?"
"His lymphocyte percentage is pretty high. His body was fighting off a viral infection."
"Really? What kind of virus?"
"Can't say for sure."
"Do you think an infection could have made him act like that?"
Dr. Lee shook her head. "None that I've ever heard of. I mean, some can cause dementia, but not that kind of violence. And besides, I've never heard of one that did this to the blood."
"Did what?"
"There's this . . . weird residue. If I didn't know better I'd say it was sulfur."
Sam let that sink in as he looked back at the body behind him on the table. "Sulfur."
Dean wasn't certain if the source of his unease was this town or Mae. He wanted to say it was the town but he knew she occupied an outsized part of his mind and damn him if he didn't want her to see him in a better light than she seemed to right now. But he knew she was right. Maybe she sensed his thoughts or perhaps she also missed the simple, casual contact, she reached over to him. Her smaller hand covered the hand he rested on his thigh, soft and warm. He felt almost instantly more comfortable. His jaw relaxed a little and he gave her a quick, appreciative glance. It was a short-lived calm. Dean continued to drive towards a bridge but he came upon a roadblock. There were several cars impeding their progress, along with more townspeople. Armed locals. Among them was Jack Tanner, meaning any if not all those people were possessed. Dean stopped the car, assessing.
He looked over at Mae, watching her jaw twitch as she reached inside her jacket, taking hold of her weapon. He also saw the color drain from her face and he knew she was pushing down the sense of dizziness she'd been suffering from since coming here. Dean wanted to suggest that she was overreacting but he wasn't sure she was. He also knew he couldn't do anything for her, not if the car behind them was any indication. He was about to say something else when he noticed in the group of men was Jake Tanner. Then a bang on the roof of the car startled them both. A man leaned down, into the window.
Instinctively, Dean shifted his body, blocking as much of Mae as he could. "Oh-ho-ho. Hey."
"Sorry. Road's closed." The man told them.
"Yeah, I can see that. What's up?"
"Quarantine."
"Quarantine? What is it?"
"Don't know. Something going around out there." Was all the man told them.
"Uh-huh." Dean nodded. "Who told you that?"
"County Sheriff."
"Is he here?"
"No. He called. Say, why don't you get out of the car and we'll talk a little?" The stranger gave a distinctly unsettling smile. Even if they didn't already suspect that the men blocking their way out were all possessed, they wouldn't have gotten out for this guy.
Dean laughed nervously. "Well, you are a handsome devil, but I don't swing that way, sorry."
"I'd sure appreciate it if you got out of the car, just for a quick minute."
"Yeah, I'll bet you would."
Dean shifted the car into reverse and gunned it. The man reached into the car, grabbing at Dean's collar. He held on while Dean continued backwards. The men at the roadblock fired in their directions. Instinctively, Mae ducked, bracing one hand against the dashboard. Quickly, Dean cut the wheel, swinging the car around and managing to shake he man loose before shifting into drive and getting out of the area as quickly as possible.
Mae's voice was tense, laced with an undercurrent of fear and frustration when they had put enough distance between them and the men at the barricade. "Wasn't that the kid from the Tanner house?" Mae asked.
"Yeah."
"What the hell is going on here, Dean?"
"I have no clue," came his equally baffled response, his brow furrowed. "But these people are out for blood and there's no stopping them."
"But they're... not mindless monsters." Mae said. "That was a methodical trap to take people out."
"No shit, Red." Dean practically growled in agreement.
"Don't be snippy with me," she snapped, instantly regretting her sharp tone, chalking it up to the heavy pain settling into the base of her skull.
"Yeah, yeah, sorry. Sorry, Maes," he apologized with a heavy sigh.
"No, I'm sorry. I-I'm a liability to you here Dean. I can't even get near these things."
"Well..." He looked over at her, worry evident on his handsome face, "we'll figure it out, okay? We're not dying up here."
"Those people sure aren't going to make that easy. They're as well armed as we are and know the area. And what am I gonna do? Bleed and pass out at them? What kind of hunter can I be if I can't get close to a demon."
"That ever happen with a demon before?"
"No."
"Then it must be something else. Similar but different. I can't even begin to figure out what we might be dealing with here. I just...how could this not be connected to the yellow eyed demon? Sam's vision..." Dean shook his head, frustration evident in his demeanor. "Doesn't it feel like we just shouldn't have come here?"
"What job have we done lately where we shouldn't have gone the other way?" Mae pointed out drily.
"Fair point," Dean conceded with a sigh. "So... what we just ignore when Sammy sees something? Last time we did that, you ended up possessed. And you stabbed me."
Mae let out a humorless laugh. "No, I figure if we get outta here, anytime Sam has a vision we just go running headlong into it now." Her words held a hint of bitterness and resentment.
Dean's gaze shifted over to her, trying to read the emotions behind the statement. Was she worried about this job in general or was there some unspoken tension between her and Sam? He sighed again, feeling overwhelmed by their current situation. And for the few moments his eyes lingered on her, he took in every detail of her beautiful face. "Listen, however we got here, we're here. And we owe it to this town to figure out how to help them or at least keep them from hurting anyone else. We're not outta options yet and we're not gonna let this take us out without putting up one hell of a fight, right?" he said earnestly, hoping to reassure her.
"It really doesn't matter what I think, does it? If I said I didn't think we should rush off to the place in Sam's vision, would you have sided with me or would we just have ended up her anyway?," she asked bluntly.
His instinct was to point out that she didn't say anything but he suspected that wasn't her point at all, that whatever was setting her off in this moment wasn't about coming here. He took a breath. "Is this what we do now? We just argue and second guess each other?"
"Seems like it lately," Mae grumbled.
"Maybe we can go home," he suggested, a hint of longing in his voice. "Your home, you know? When this is all over. We're in the area and we could just...take some time to not...do this. Last time we were there?" a genuine smile graced his face for a moment. "Things were really good."
"Mmm, you might think that because we were having sex constantly," Mae said lightly.
"You weren't exactly complaining about it at the time. You didn't enjoy that part at all?" Dean asked, a hint of insecurity creeping into his voice.
"No, I-yes, it was great. It's always...amazing," Mae backtracked quickly. "But do we only get along during sex now?"
"No. Right? We get along better when we're having sex."
"Oh, you wanna pull over and bang it out here? Would that help you straighten things in your mind out?"
Mae's comment caught Dean off guard. While he considered it, pictured it for more than a second, he dismissed it as reckless, even for them. "Isn't that part of why we're doing this whole relationship thing?"
"Are you about to argue that you're whole 'shoot first, ask questions later' thing is because we haven't slept together in a week?"
"Okay, well...two weeks. But no-the sex is a huge perk, don't get me wrong-it's fine if you're not in the mood. I just don't get why you're not, because I am."
"Right now," she made a gesture towards the road ahead of them, "because we're trapped in a town where everyone is going berserk or getting killed."
Dean shook his head. "You know what I mean, Mavis." He waited for her to speak, even though he wasn't sure he wanted to hear her answer. "So, why do you not want to sleep with me?"
"Is this really the time for this conversation?"
"Unless you've suddenly got another line on what we're dealing with, we have the time before we're back at the clinic."
Mae pressed her lips together. "Something's wrong with us, Dean."
"What? Because I don't always do everything the exact way you want me to?"
"No. I don't want you to only do what I say. I wish you... weren't so committed to making things harder on yourself." She shook her head. "I don't know. The way you're acting makes me think you don't even care if you get hurt or if you hurt Sam. Or me."
"I never want to hurt you, Mae. I want to keep you safe." Dean signed and then added in a softer tone, " I wish I didn't feel this way, Mae."
"About me?"
"God, no. Is that what you think? That my feelings are because of you? That...it's the opposite. The only time I don't feel this...emptiness and...whatever... "
She shrugged. "I... wouldn't blame you if that was the case. We've put a lot of effort in getting through all the hurt and misunderstandings. We've never had a relationship like this before. But maybe even if we love each other and want to be together, we don't work together."
This was the second time she had suggested this trying to gauge if she breaking up with him right now. wanted to break up with him. "Are you seriously breaking up with me in the middle of this fucked up situation?"
"No. I just... I hate feeling like I have to fight whatever this demon is planning and fighting whatever you're going through too when...maybe you've already given up."
"I haven't and you shouldn't either."
Beverly shifted under Sam's intent gaze as she sat on the stool in the lab. "I don't understand. Are you saying my husband and Jake had a disease?"
Dr. Lee nodded slightly. "That's what we're trying to find out. Now, during the attack, do you remember...did you have any direct contact with their blood?"
"Oh my God." Beverly said to Dr. Lee, "You don't think I've got this virus, do you?
"Beverly, I don't know what to think. But with your permission, we'll take a blood sample."
Beverly nodded as she lay her hand gently on Dr. Lee's. Suddenly, she grabbed the doctor's wrist. Beverly yelled in rage as she backhanded the woman with her other hand. Sam tried to intercede but was thrown against a glass cabinet, showered with glass as it broke. Beverly grabbed a scalpel, advancing on Sam. At the same time, he grabbed an oxygen tank from a nearby cart. As the woman came at him, yelling, he struck her with the canister, knocking her out with a swift blow.
Mae and Dean were quiet as they drove back to the clinic. They would have stayed that way if they weren't stopped by a man in the road, brandishing a rifle. It was the same man they had spoken to before, who Sam had confirmed was at the clinic when Dean shot the young man in his vision. Dean slammed on the breaks, holding his hands up. A shift of his eyes to Mae confirmed she did the same thing.
"Hands where I can see 'em!"
"Son of a-"
"Get out of the car! Out of the car!" Mark yelled.
The pair exchanged a quick, subtle glance before Dean shifted the car to park and they opened their car doors. The both stood slowly "All right, easy there, big guy."
"We're not looking for trouble here, okay? We can both just turn around and go our separate ways here." Mae said, drawing Mark's attention towards her. It gave Dean enough time to pull out his gun and pointed it at Mark.
"Alright, put it down!" Dean yelled back
He turned back to Dean. "Lower it now!"
"Put it down!"
Their back and forth gave Mae the opening to pull her weapon on Mark too. They had the upper hand.
"Are you one of 'em?" Mark asked.
"No! Are you?"
"No!"
"You could be lying!"
"So could you!"
"I don't feel anything, if that means anything." Mae said quietly to Dean.
He considered her claim for a moment. Maybe what happened to her at the cabin was because of the demon too. Maybe it was something else. But they did have the advantage here and getting back to the clinic was the prerogative now. "All right! All right. We could do this all day, all right? Let's just uh, let's take it easy before we kill each other."
"What's your name?" Mae asked.
After some deliberation, he responded. "Mark."
"Okay, well Mark, with the other people you've seen with whatever this is, if they had means and opportunity to make you dead, would you still be standing here, or can we all just take the chance that we're not affected by this?"
Mark relaxed slightly. "What's going on with everybody?"
"I don't know."
"My neighbor . . . Mr. Rogers, he —"
Dean interrupted, almost amused. "You've got a neighbor named Mr. Rogers?"
"Not anymore. He came at me with a hatchet. I put him down. He's not the only one, I mean, it's happening to everyone."
Mae and Dean shared a look over the roof of the car. "We're heading over to the Doc's place, there's still some people left.
"No, no way. I'm getting the hell out."
"There's no way out," Dean said. "they got the bridge covered, now come on."
"I don't believe you."
"Fine, stay here, be my guest. Let's go," Dean said to Mae.
Mark hesitated but after a few moments, changed his mind. He kept his gun trained on Dean while Mae kept hers on Mark as he got in the backseat and Mae got in the passenger side. Dean had his weapon lowered but kept it in his hand as they got ready to head back into town. "Well, this ought to be a relaxing drive." He muttered.
Back in the clinic, Dr. Lee examined the blood samples she had taken through a microscope. Pam, her body wracked with worry, huddled against the far wall of the lab.
"What if we all have it? What if we all go crazy?" Pam asked.
"You've got to stay calm." Dr. Lee attempted to soothe the other woman. "All we can do is wait. The Marshals are bringing help."
Sam, seated on a stool by the door watched Pam, concerned about her nervous energy. They didn't need someone making impulsive decisions right now.
"I can't. I... I've got to go."
"Pam." Dr. Lee said.
"No, you don't understand. My boyfriend's out there, I gotta make sure he's okay."
Pam rushed out of the lab and Sam followed her to the lobby. "Hey, hey, wait, wait. Please. Look, I know you're upset, all right? But it's safer if you stay here for now. Help is coming." Outside, the sound of the Impala's engine confirmed Sam's assertion. "There they are."
"Sammy? Open up!" Dean called.
Sam unlocked and opened the door to let them in, to find his brother, Mae, and Mark, all three armed and edgy. "Did you guys, uh, get to a phone?"
"Road block." He turned to Mark, "I'm gonna have a word. Doc's inside."
Walking away from the three hunters, Mark headed inside the clinic.
Mae closed her eyes, feeling the wave of dizziness. "Shit." she muttered.
Dean placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"Same thing. Is it here Sam? In here?"
Sam nodded but didn't clarify. "Yeah. What's going on out there, Dean?"
"Man, I don't know, I feel like Chuck Heston in the Omega Man, I mean, Sarge is the only sane person I could find. What are we dealing with, do you know?"
"Yeah. Doc thinks it's a virus."
Out of immediate danger for the time being, Dean found himself with too much adrenaline, pacing a bit to burn it off. "Okay, great. What do you think?"
"I think she's right."
"Really?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. And I think the infected are trying to infect others with blood-to-blood contact. Oh, but it gets better. The uh, the virus? Leaves traces of sulfur in the blood."
Dean was a bit surprised. "A demonic virus?"
"Yeah, more like demonic germ warfare. At least it explains why I've been having visions. And maybe whatever's going on with Mae."
"It's like a Biblical plague." Dean said, slightly more concerned that once again Mae seemed to be reacting to the proximity of someone who was possessed. Or if the doctor was right, infected.
"Yeah."Sam looked through the glass doors at the front of the clinic towards the street. "You don't know how right you are, Dean. I've been poring through Dad's journal, found something about the Roanoke colony."
"And?"
"Dad always had a theory about Croatoan. He thought it was a demon's name. Sometimes known as Deva or sometimes Resheph. A demon of plague and pestilence."
"Well, that, that's terrific. Why here, why now?"
"I have no idea. But Dean, who knows how far this thing can spread? We gotta get out of here, we gotta warn people."
"Provided we could get outta here." Mae added, pressing three fingers to her temple, but keeping her eyes closed. "They don't want us outta here. And-" She stopped, wincing in pain.
"What?" Sam asked, sharing a concerned expression with his brother.
"Maybe it's not just here."
"What does that mean?" Dean asked.
"Just because we couldn't get out doesn't mean that others didn't leave, didn't head into the neighboring towns. No way the three of us could stop it if they've started to spread out."
"Well that's a cheery thought. You good though, Red? Because if what's going on out there really is going on, we're either going to have to fight them here or out there."
"I mean... it's not like a have a choice one way or another, do I? I'll keep you posted and stay outta your way if...if it gets worse."
"They've got one! In here!" Mark called from the other room.
They walked back into the exam area. "What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"The wife. She's infected." Sam replied.
"We've gotta take care of this." Mark said. "We can't just leave her in there. My neighbors, they were strong. The longer we wait, the stronger she'll get."
Dean barely hesitated before pulling out his gun and stalking into the exam room but did give Mae a quick glance, receiving a small nod from her in return.
"Are you sure?" Mae said quietly to Sam.
He nodded.
Inside the room, Pam tried to stop them. "You're gonna kill Beverly Tanner?"
"Doctor, could there be any treatment? Some kind of cure for this?" Sam asked.
The doctor shook her head.
Dean asked the question more directly than Sam had. "Can you cure it?"
"For God's sake," the doctor said, an air of panic overtaking her words. "I don't even know what "it" is!"
Mark was far more definitive in knowing what they needed to do, having seen what he saw over the past few hours in town. "I told you, it's just a matter of time before she breaks through."
"If she has this virus, or whatever it is, then...then she really isn't herself anymore. I mean...maybe we could try..." Mae paused a second, remembering that they were still here under the guise of U.S. Marshals, even if their actions thus far didn't quite stand up to any scrutiny. So she just let the thought drop. How could they exorcise a virus anyway? These people were infected, not possessed.
"Just leave her in there." Pam plead, "You can't shoot her like an animal!"
"Sam."
The three hunters walked up to the door of the utility room where Sam had locked Beverly. Mark joined them and both he and Dean readied their weapons as Sam carefully opened the door. Inside, Beverly was huddled on the floor, knees drawn up to her chest. She jumped at their approach but she surely didn't look like a woman under demonic control, viral or otherwise.
"Mark, what are you doing?" Beverly asked him, "Mark, it's, it's them! They locked me in here, they, they tried to kill me! They're infected, not me! Please, Mark! You've known me all your life! Please!"
Mark was tearful too. His earlier, aggressive rhetoric seemed to fall apart as a woman he knew asked him to spare her.
"You sure she's one of 'em?" Dean asked Sam.
Reluctantly, Sam nodded. Mark, near tears pulled back. He wasn't quite ready to take out yet another of his neighbors. Dean however, stepped forward and fired.