Winchester Sister 1.02
"What does learning about the order of the presidents of America have to do with anything?" I ask Dean from the backseat.
"History?" he suggests.
Sam is fast asleep in shotgun, which I think is rather rude considering this morning we had to play ten rounds of rock, paper, scissors because he was sure that I would 'waste the potential of a front seat'.
"Yeah but, who's going to ask in a crisis 'quick Jane who was the seventeenth president of the United States, the fate of the world is at stake'?"
"No one."
"Exactly!" I say and throw down the workbook next to me.
"But your memory is great, why are you worrying?"
"Because our education system is flawed. This unit is called 'History', not 'American History', not "United States History" not even 'North American History' and I swear every page so far has been about US History. What about England? The Vikings? The Aboriginal people of Canada, or Australia? Or what about the other side of the world Asia? India? Japan?"
"How about you just do the work?"
I put on a high pitched voice, "How about you just do the work?" I say, mocking him. But pick the book back up. A moment later, Sam jerks awake.
"You okay?" asks Dean.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"That's believable," I say.
"Another nightmare?" asks Dean.
Sam just clears his throat.
"You wanna drive for a while?" asks Dean and my jaw nearly hits the floor.
"Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that," says Sam.
"Just thought you might want to. Never mind."
"Look, man, you're worried about me. I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."
"Mm-hm."
"You're a terrible liar," I say.
Sam clears his throat and grabs the map. "All right, where are we?"
"We are just outside of Grand Junction," says Dean.
"You know what? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."
"Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica-"
"We gotta find Dad first."
"Dad disappearing-and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence. Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."
"It's weird, man. These coordinates he left us. This Blackwater Ridge."
"What about it?"
"There's nothing there. It's just woods. Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"
He has a point, but Dean and I say nothing.
We reach the ranger station. It's actually quite nice, for a ranger station.
"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote. It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place," says Sam.
"Are you an encyclopedia?" I ask.
"Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear," laughs Dean.
Sam and I go over the photo, the bear is quite huge.
"And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure," says Sam.
"Do bears actually eat people, Mr. Encyclopedia?" I ask Sam.
He shrugs. "Probably."
"You all aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" asks a Ranger.
"Oh, no, sir," says Sam, "we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Sam laughs a little.
Dean grins and raises a fist. "Recycle, man." The ranger looks at Dean, then down at me. "And my uh…"
I look up at him, expectantly.
"…sister," he says, giving up on some sort of lie. He nods. "I'm babysitting."
I want to punch him in the face.
"Your friends with that Haley girl, right?" asks the Ranger, eyeing me a little.
"Yes," says Dean. "Yes, we are, Ranger…Wilkinson."
"Well I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it? You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."
"We will. Well, that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?"
"That is putting it mildly," says the Ranger.
"Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know, so she could see her brother's return date."
The Ranger looks at Dean suspiciously but goes to make the copy.
"What do you mean she's a pistol?" I ask Dean.
"It uh…means, things," he says.
"Uh huh."
The ranger returns with the copy. Dean takes the paper, the ranger stares at all of us, and we leave.
"What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?" asks Sam.
"What do you mean?" asks Dean.
"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?"
"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?"
"What?"
"Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later, anyway?"
"Since now."
Sam gets in the car.
Dean and I look at each other.
"I thought college was supposed to make you smarter?" I ask Dean.
He shrugs. "But if you were already an idiot beforehand I don't think there's much you can do."
I smile and get in and kick Sam's seat once for good measure.
Sam directs us to the Collins' house, the address on the backcountry permit.
"All right, Munch, you chill here," says Dean.
"Why?"
"You'll blow our cover."
I raise my eyebrows. "Your cover?"
"Yeah."
"You look like you've been in a car for seventeen hours and are dressed like a high schooler," I say.
Dean frowns down at his shirt. "Well, yuh. But I don't look 10."
"I'm 12!" I shout, but he and Sam have already closed the car door.
I huff and lean back on the seat. I watch as they go to the door and a woman answers. She looks over the car, nods towards me, or the car. Dean and Sam both look back at me, then at the woman. Dean then waves his arm at me, to come in. Yes! No car.
I practically run up the path to Dean; Sam is already inside.
"Behave," Dean whispers to me as we go in.
We go into the house, to the kitchen. There's a boy at the table.
"You often bring your sister along to work?" asks Haley.
Dean shrugs. "Babysitting duty," he says.
I really want to punch him in the face now. "I'm 12," I explain. "I don't need babysitting."
But Haley smiles at Dean, like they're in on some secret joke. "I get it," she says to him.
"So, if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" asks Sam.
"He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos-we haven't heard anything in over three days now."
"Well, maybe he can't get cell reception."
"He's got a satellite phone, too."
"Is he a boy scout?" I ask.
Haley makes a face at me. "What?"
I shrug. "He's very prepared."
"We're close."
"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" asks Dean.
"He wouldn't do that," says the boy at the table.
Dean looks at him.
"Our parents are gone," says Haley. "It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other."
"Can I see the pictures he sent you?"
"Yeah," says Haley, she opens a laptop and pulls up pictures. "That's Tommy," she says, pointing.
A video plays, "Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow."
"Well," says Dean, "we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."
"Then maybe I'll see you there," says Haley. "Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."
"I think I know how you feel."
"Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?" asks Sam.
"Sure," says Haley.
"Uh Dean," says Sam as we pull up to the bar.
"Yeah?" asks Dean, turning the car off.
"This is a bar."
"Yeah."
"Janie's 12."
"Yeah."
"We can't bring her into a bar."
"What are you talking about?" asks Dean and we all get out of the car. "We do it all the time."
"How?" asks Sam.
Dean smiles, opens up his right arm, I go up him rest my head under his arm, Dean wraps the jacket over my head and we walk into the bar. I hear Sam scoff but Dean finds a table and frees me.
I smile at Sam.
"She stays put, no one's the wiser," smiles Dean. "Plus, designated driver."
He points to me. I grin.
"You're kidding," says Sam. "You let Janie drive?"
"Only when he's drunk," I say.
"Oh, I'm sure that's safe."
"Safer than me driving," says Dean and goes up to the bar.
Sam pulls out his laptop and Dad's journal and seems to ignore me as he starts doing nerdy research things. I watch him, and he must know I am but he's doing a damn good job at ignoring me watching him. I lean back in my chair and sigh. Dean comes back with the drinks.
"What's up with chuckles?" he asks me as he puts my Shirley Temple down in front of me.
"Tactical ignoring," I say.
"How fun," says Dean.
"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic," says Sam ignoring us both. Maybe things haven't changed that much. Dean and I share a glance, but Sam continues. "Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found." Sam reopens Dad's journal.
"Any before that?" asks Dean.
Sam pulls out newspaper articles and surprisingly spreads them in front of both Dean and me.
"Yeah," says Sam. "in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the Same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack. And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936.
Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork. Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out."
Sam shows us the laptop screen and the video of Tommy, he's slowed it down frame by frame. I think I see a shadow.
"What was that?" I ask.
"Do it again," says Dean.
Sam does. Yep. It's a shadow.
"That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."
"Jesus," I say.
Dean hits Sam. "Told you something weird was going on!"
"Yeah," says Sam. And closes the laptop.
"I got one more thing. Sam hands over another newspaper article. Sam: In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."
"Is there a name?"
"But I want to go!" I say.
"You can't come everywhere," says Sam barring the motel door.
"You know that seems to be true only since you've been back," I say sitting down on the bed.
"Cheer up, Munch," says Dean coming out of the bathroom. "I'll bring you back ice cream."
"I'll bring you back ice cream," I say mockingly at him.
"Just…stay," says Sam, his hands up at me.
"Dude," says Dean pushing past him. "She's not a dog."
I glare at the both of them.
They both hurry out the door. "Love you!" says Dean and shuts the door.
I groan, but get up and draw the security latch, before throwing myself back down on the bed.
I'm bored within ten minutes and decide to clean my gun. Well, Dad's gun. But, I guess, currently, my gun. On a hunch I pull out my phone and call Dad's number. Straight to voicemail. I throw the phone down next to me.
I must fall asleep because next thing I know I'm being manhandled under the covers.
"What are you doing?" I ask, barely opening my eyes.
"Beds are best with a head on the pillow," says Dean. "Besides, you don't want to smell Sammy's stinky feet all night." Dean tucks me under the blankets.
"Why do I have to bunk with Sammy?"
"Because you're half the size of him."
"I don't think that's fair."
Dean smiles a little at me. "Never said it was, Munch."
I'm too tired to argue and fall back asleep.
The next day we drive up to the mountains, looking for Haley and where they're all setting off from.
We find Haley and a man who really does look like a ranger, and we pull up.
"You guys got room for three more?" asks Dean.
"Wait, you want to come with us?" asks Haley.
"Who are these guys?" asks the ranger man. Oh god. He's wearing shorts.
"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue."
"You're rangers?" asks shorts man.
"That's right."
Shorts man eyes me. "And sister," I say. Shorts man still looks at me.
"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" asks Haley. Fair. I at least put on cargo pants and sneakers.
"Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts," says Dean.
"What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt."
"Believe me, I know how dangerous this could get. We just wanna help her find her brother, that's all."
The hike is slow. Sam makes me stay in his eye line. Yelling at me when I veer off or, god forbid, enjoy the view. Suddenly, Roy, that's shorts man, grabs Dean.
"Watchya doin' Roy?" asks Dean.
Roy grabs a stick and pokes something. A bear trap.
"You should watch where you're stepping. Ranger."
Roy looks like he could eat Dean. Sam pokes me in the shoulder to keep moving. I do, but Haley has stopped Dean now. "You're not rangers," she says. "Who the hell are you?"
Ben walks past them. He clearly doesn't care. Dean looks at Sam and I. Sam pushes me on again.
"But I wanna-" I start.
"No," Sam says and pushes me on again.
"You're no fun."
We keep walking. The never-ending walking. And then, mercifully, Roy stops.
"This is it. Blackwater Ridge."
Sam walks up to him. The first time in literal hours he hasn't had me in his eyeline. It's almost a relief to not have his eyes digging into my skull.
"What coordinates we at?" he asks Roy.
"Thirty-five and minus one-eleven."
It's beautiful up here in an eerie way. I can't put my finger on it. Dean walks past me up to Sam.
"You hear that?" asks Dean.
"Yeah," says Sam. "Not even crickets."
"I'm gonna go take a look around," says Roy.
"You shouldn't go off by yourself," warns Sam.
"That's sweet," says Roy. "Don't worry about me." He waves his gun at Sam and pushes past the boys.
"All right," says Dean as Ben and Haley come up. "Everybody stays together."
We walk onwards to the campsite. At least that's what the signs say.
"Haley!" calls Roy.
We all rush ahead. It's the campsite, all right. The tents are all torn and blood is everywhere. Supplies are scattered around.
"Looks like a grizzly," says Roy.
I don't know how he thinks that when there's so much blood from all the tents.
"Tommy?" calls Haley. She takes off her pack and begins to search the site. "Tommy!"
Sam runs after her, "Shh." He warns.
But Haley shouts again.
I notice that all the food from the supplies has been thrown, but not eaten. Not much of an animal if it doesn't eat all the food available.
"Shhh," Sam says again.
"Why?" asks Haley.
"Something might still be out there."
"Jane! Sam!" calls Dean.
We go over. "The bodies were dragged from the campsite. But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird. I'll tell you what, that's no skinwalker or black dog."
We go back to the campsite. Haley has found a phone. It's covered in blood. Dean crouches next to her. "Hey, he could still be alive."
"SOMEONE Help! Help!" a voice cries from the trees.
We all rush in the way of the voice.
"Help! Somebody!"
The voice dies off but there's no one.
"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" asks Haley.
We're all silent.
"Everybody back to camp," says Sam.
We get back, but everything is gone.
"Our packs!" says Haley.
"So much for my GPS and my satellite phone," says Roy.
"What the hell is going on?"
"It's smart," says Sam. "It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help."
"That's not creepy at all," I say to Dean under my breath. "Regular monsters aren't that smart, are they?" I ask.
"Not usually," says Dean.
"You mean someone," says Roy, "some nutjob out there just stole all our gear."
Sam comes over to us. "I need to speak with you. In private."
We go over where the others can't hear us. "Let me see Dad's journal."
I pull it out of my backpack. Sam opens it and flips through. "All right," he says, showing us the page, "check that out."
"Oh come on," says Dean. "wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west."
"Think about it, Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice."
"Great," Dean takes out his gun. "Well then this is useless."
Sam gives me back the journal. "We got to get these people to safety," he says with a particular look at me.
"All right, listen up, it's time to go," Sam says to the rest. "Things have gotten...more complicated."
"What?" asks Haley.
"Kid, don't worry," says Roy. "Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it."
"It's not me I'm worried about," says Sam. "If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now."
"One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."
"Relax," says Dean.
"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you," says Sam. I roll my eyes at that.
Roy steps right up to Sam. "You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."
"Yeah? It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here."
Roy laughs. "You know you're crazy, right?"
"Yeah? You ever hunt a wen-"
Dean pushes Sam to get him to shut up. I swear to god. Sam's back for a week and he's acting all cowboy like he never left. Idiot.
"Roy!" yells Haley.
"Chill out," says Dean.
"Stop. Stop it. Everybody just stop. Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him."
Nobody says anything for a while.
"It's getting late," says Dean. "This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."
"How?" asks Haley.
Ben's trying to the light campfire and failing. I go over and help. Proudly, I light it on my second swipe. I light a stick and hand it to Ben, he starts lighting the wood from the other side.
"Thanks," says Ben.
"It's harder when you're worried," I say.
Ben gives a small smile. "It's dusk and there's no…bugs…" he says slowly.
"It's a weird place out here."
"What the others were saying, your brothers…is that true?"
I nod. "Sorry, yeah."
"So your whole family is crazy?"
"I mean yeah, but it doesn't mean they're lying."
The fire is pretty well lit now, I get up and go sit on a log, poking at it. Ben does the same from the other side. Night has pretty much fallen by the time everyone is back by the fire. Dean is telling Haley about what he's doing and she's still not sure. Roy, for certain, thinks we're all nuts that even Sam has given up explaining and is sitting next to me. Haley shares a power bar with me which is greatly appreciated and she goes back to poking the fire. I'm reading up on wendigos in Dad's journal. They are…terrifying. The human voice thing especially. Gives me the chills.
"One more time," she says to Dean. "That's…"
"Anasazi symbols," says Dean. "It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them."
Roy laughs.
"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Dean comes over and sits next to Sam. "You wanna tell me what's going on in that freaky head of yours?"
"Dean-"
"No, you're not fine. You're like a powder keg, man, it's not like you. I'm supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?"
"Dad's not here," says Sam. "I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?"
I look over at Dean.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Dean admits. "Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek."
"Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road. Go find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?"
"This is why," says Dean. He comes around and takes Dad's journal out of my hands. He faces Sam and holds up the journal. "This book. This is Dad's single most valuable possession-everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business."
Sam shakes his head. "That makes no sense. Why doesn't he just-call us? Why doesn't he-tell us what he wants, tell us where he is? At the very least, he always calls Janie, and he hasn't."
I glower at Sam. It feels wrong that he knows that.
"I dunno," says Dean. "But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it."
"Dean...no. I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about."
"Okay, all right, Sam, we'll find them, I promise. Listen to me. You've gotta prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul. It's gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man."
Sam looks down, then up. "How do you do it? How does Dad do it?"
"Well for one, them," says Dean, looking over at Haley and Ben. "I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable. I'll tell you what else helps. Kill as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can."
Sam smiles.
A twig snaps.
A voice again, screams, "Help me! Please!"
Dean stands up and raises his gun. The voice keeps shouting. Sam shines his flashlight around.
"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay cool, stay put."
"Inside the magic circle?" asks Roy sarcastically.
"Yes," I answer flatly. "Unless you want to be broken into pieces."
Roy rolls his eyes at me.
"Help me!" the wendigo screams.
Roy aims his gun at the noise. "Okay, that's no grizzly." He says.
"No duh," I say.
"It's okay," Haley says to Ben. "You'll be all right, I promise."
Something rushes past us. Haley screams.
"It's here," says Sam.
Roy shoots where the movement came from. Another shot. "I hit it!" he says. Roy goes to where he shot.
"Roy! No!" yells Dean. "Roy!" he turns to us, "Don't move." He pokes me in the shoulder and I nod.
Dean and Sam then rush off after Roy.
"Roy!" I hear Dean shout.
There's some more noises, nothing good.
"I've got to…" says Haley.
I grab her arm and pull her back. "Don't," I say. "They've got it."
Haley frowns but doesn't move.
Eventually Sam and Dean come back. But no Roy.
"Roy?" asks Haley.
Dean shakes his head. "We all good here."
Haley nods.
"Right as rain," I say.
We all try to get comfortable on the ground to get some sleep.
The morning comes and no one looks very pleased to face another day. Many reasons for me, but mainly the bathroom facilities. Or lack thereof. When I emerge Sam's sulking with Dad's journal and Dean's talking with Haley and Ben.
"How do you know about this stuff?" Haley asks.
"Kind of runs in the family," Dean says, smiling at me. But it's a sad smile.
"Hey," Sam says, he's come over. "So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch."
"Well, hell, you know I'm in," says Dean.
Sam shows the wendigo page of Dad's journal to Haley and Ben. "'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'." Says Sam.
"They're hundreds of years old," says Dean. "Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter."
"How's a man turn into one of those things?"
"Well, it's always the same. During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp."
"Like the Donner Party," says Ben.
"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities, speed, strength, immortality," says Sam.
"But you have to eat enough of, a lot of it," I say.
"And, over years, you become this less than human thing. You're always hungry."
"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" asks Haley.
"You're not gonna like it."
Dean glances at Sam, then back to Haley.
"Tell me," says Haley.
"More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps its victim alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there."
"And then how do we stop it?"
"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically-" Dean holds up the can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and a cloth he'd picked up. "We gotta torch the sucker."
Dean leads the way through the woods, Molotov cocktail in hand. We pass trees with blood and claw marks. It's obvious where it's been. Sam takes over after a while.
"Dean," he says after a bit.
Dean catches up. "You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow."
There's a growl. Then Haley jumps out of the way of something. She looks up, I follow her sight. Something falls. It's Roy.
"You okay?" Sam asks Haley. "You got it?"
"His neck's broke," says Dean.
Sam helps Haley up. There's more growling.
"Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!" yells Dean.
I run but Ben trips in front of me. Sam rushes back to us.
"Come on," says Sam as he helps Ben up. "I gotcha, I gotcha."
We run after the others.
We hear a scream.
"Haley?" calls Ben.
Sam picks up Dean's Molotov cocktail. The bottle's broken.
"If it keeps its victim alive, why would it kill Roy?" asks Ben.
"Honestly?" says Sam. "I think because Roy shot at it, pissed it off."
"They went this way," says Ben.
I look at him. He's picking up an M&M. Sam comes over to us. Ben hands him the M&M. Sam laughs and we follow the trail. We come to a sign that says:
WARNING! DANGER! DO NOT ENTER EXTREMELY TOXIC MATERIAL.
We go inside. Sam pulls out his flashlight. There's growling. Sam turns off the light. He grabs Ben against the wall, I press myself against it too. I hear and partly see the Wendigo. Ben nearly screams but Sam covers his mouth. I just close my eyes. The Wendigo passes on. We keep going. Floorboards creak…we fall. And land on something hard but brittle. I look around. It's bones. Ben leaps out of the way.
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay," Sam says to Ben. He looks at me. "You alright?"
"Fine," I answer, shaking off a bone that got stuck in my shoelace.
We look up, Dean and Haley are hanging by their wrists. Sam and I run up to Dean, Ben to Haley. "Dean!" yells Sam.
"Haley, wake up!" yells Ben.
"Dean!" I yell.
Dean opens his eyes.
"Hey, you okay?" asks Sam.
Dean winces. "Yeah."
"Haley, Haley, wake up, wake up!" Ben says.
Sam cuts Dean down and Ben cuts down Haley. Sam and Ben set Dean and Haley down on a non-bone covered part of the floor. Dean's making old man noises.
"You sure you're alright?" asks Sam.
Dean grimaces. "Yeah. Yep. Where is he?"
"He's gone for now."
Haley stands up and walks away, "Tommy..."
There's another body. She touches him, his head jerks up. Haley jumps back and scream. "Cut him down!" she says to Sam.
Sam does what he's told.
"We gonna get you home," says Haley.
Dean picks up a gun? "Check it out."
"Flare gun," says Sam. "Those'll work."
Dean hands us all one. Haley and Ben have to support Tommy, he's limping. We hear the growling.
"Looks like someone's home for supper," says Dean.
"We'll never outrun it."
Dean looks back at the us. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, I think so," says Sam.
"Uh, what?" I ask.
"All right, listen to me," Dean says. "You're all going to stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here."
"What are you gonna do?" asks Haley.
Dean winks and starts walking and yelling out, "Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I'm feeling good."
We wait until Dean has disappeared and we can't hear him anymore.
"All right, come on! Hurry!" says Sam.
We all follow him down the tunnel. There's more growling. I slow and turn back.
"Keep going!" he orders me. Sam turns back and aims the gun. The others have stopped too.
"Get him outta here!" Sam yells.
"Sam, no!" says Haley.
"Go! Go!"
"Come on Haley!" yells Ben.
Haley goes back to Tom with Ben and run.
Sam's still pointing the gun down the tunnel. "I swear to god, Janie, just go!"
I roll my eyes but run. I hear a shot. I catch up to the others, they're quite slow with Tommy. Sam catches up quick. The Wendigo is coming. "Get behind me," says Sam.
He shoots, but misses.
"Hey!" yells Dean. Another shot. The Wendigo goes up in flames.
"Not bad, huh?" asks Dean.
Haley calls an ambulance for Tommy and police show up not too long after asking all sorts of questions. Our story is a grizzly. A big one. I suggest big foot but Dean says it's best not to tempt fate with that. I tell the officer about the giant bear. So does everyone else. Sam and Ben are the last, I wait with Dean. Hoping the police don't want to ask more questions.
"I don't know how to thank you," Haley says.
Dean makes a face and Haley smiles. "Must you cheapen the moment?"
"Yeah," he says as Haley goes to her brother.
"What?" I ask.
"Never mind," says Dean.
A paramedic comes up, "You riding with your brother?" he asks.
"Yeah." Haley says and turns to Ben. "Let's go." Haley kisses Dean on the cheek. "I hope you find your father."
I sit up on the hood of the car all the way so I'm almost at eye level with Dean leaning on it. "So how did you cheapen the moment?"
Dean shakes his head.
"And what was the moment?"
"You don't need to know."
Sam sits on the other side of me on the hood as the paramedics leave.
"Man, I hate camping," says Dean.
"Me too," says Sam.
"Sam, you know we're gonna find Dad, right?"
"Yeah, I know. But in the meantime? I'm driving."
Dean tosses Sam the keys.
"Shotgun!" I call and jump off the hood.
"In your dreams, Munch," says Dean. He leaps up and picks me up by my waist as I get to the passenger door, opens the back door and shoves me into the car.
"Rude," I say.
Dean slams the door shut.