If Yesterday Was Never There and Tomorrow Never Comes Epilogue
“Your solution to my displeasure of guns is a broom?” Cas asks Dean with a raised eyebrow. “I am not sure that I understand how this would kill something that is already dead. Is this a special broom? Does it contain some sort of magic?”
Sam and Dean share a bemused look before they break out into fits of laughter.
“A simple no would have sufficed,” Cas continues. “Can we please move on?”
“No, we can’t move on and besides that wouldn’t have been as much fun,” Sam points out. “And we kind of need that right now.”
“I am not sure how I feel about the both of you making fun of me,” Cas replies.
“Well look at it this way,” Dean laughs. “Now you know that we’re making fun of you; before you would just stare at us blankly and that was never fun for anyone.”
Cas walks over to the table and places the broom down. “It is not fun now.”
Dean moves up beside him and pats Cas on the back. “Also this lets you know that you’re one of us now.”
“I have been one of you for some time now,” Cas says. “I love you, Dean.”
Dean stares back at him with wide eyes and tries to ignore Sam’s laughter.
Cas turns his attention to Sam and folds his arms across his chest. “I love you too, Sam.”
“Yeah, okay, this is getting weird. Can we get back to the point?” Dean says.
“Which would be what exactly?” Sam replies, still trying not to laugh.
Dean looks down to the table; there are at least ten guns and they have more ammo now than they’ve seen in quite some time.
“If we want those supplies and that car that we found the other day, we’re going to have to take out the Walkers at the mall.”
“Huh,” Sam says. “Is it just me, or does that sound really weird?”
“It’s just you,” Dean replies. “And then it sounds really weird.”
“That’s your plan?”
They all turn around to see Bobby standing in the doorway.
“What are you doing up?” Dean questions him. “You shouldn’t be up.”
“Well, when I revert to the age of twelve and you become my mother, I’ll do what you tell me,” Bobby shoots back.
“Bobby, you were injured two days ago,” Dean points out.
“Thanks for reminding me because I forgot about that,” he snaps at Dean. “What’s your big plan? And I swear to God if it involves more explosives, I will kill you myself.”
“Well actually…” Dean replies. “We don’t have any other choice, Bobby; the only way we’re gonna make any difference there is if we blow the place.”
“You do realize that if you blow it, you risk losing it all,” Bobby points out.
“Yeah, I know that but this is the only place in a hundred miles that has any decent supplies left. We’ve looked everywhere.”
“I’m aware of that, you idjit,” Bobby replies. “I’ve been with you the whole time.”
Dean glances over to Sam who is doing that weird narrow eyed look that he sometimes gets, the one that really pisses Dean off.
“This is the only plan we have and it’s the only one that’s going to work and you know it,” Dean says.
“Why exactly do you need those particular weapons?” Bobby asks.
“Uh, because they are the only ones that we’ve found,” Dean replies. “You were the one who told us that if we want to make a real dent here, we’re gonna need the big guns; literally.”
Bobby rolls his eyes and turns to look at Sam. “You think this is a good idea?”
Sam shrugs his shoulders and looks from Bobby to Dean and back again. “I don’t know, maybe it really is the only option. Whatever we’re going to do, we need to decide on it now.”
“I can’t believe I let them talk me into this,” Bobby mutters to himself as he reverses into the parking space.
Looking out of the window, he can see Cas and Sam standing near the front doors to the mall. It had been a little more difficult getting in there than they thought it would be; whoever had been there last had set up a series of very complicated barriers.
They could hear the Walkers who had been trapped inside one section of the Mall and they knew that by using explosives, they risked blowing up the wall that separated them from the Walkers.
If that happened, then they might not be able to get their hands on any of those weapons and supplies. They had enough back at the house to last a few weeks but the mall was the best thing they had stumbled upon in months, probably even years. Every other building they had found like this, they either couldn’t get to, or everything of use had already been taken.
A few minutes later, Dean comes running out and joins Sam and Cas near the doors. They discuss something for a moment before they all start running towards the car.
Bobby pushes open the door and Dean leans down beside him.
“It’s all set to go,” Dean explains. “You think this is far enough away that we won’t… you know, be killed?”
Bobby narrows his eyes at him. “How much did you use?”
Dean shrugs his shoulders. “Not that much. It’s fine.”
“Yeah, well forgive me for not believing that… at all,” Bobby replies.
Dean shakes his head to himself and then stands up, moving to where Sam is standing. He takes the detonator from his brother and before anyone can say another word, he presses the button.
When Dean opens his eyes, all he can see is Bobby standing over him. He can’t really recall what happened because his memory is a little foggy and when he tries to sit up, a shooting pain courses up his back and his head starts to spin.
“What the hell happened?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Bobby snaps at him. “How much did you use ’cos you just about blew up the whole damn block.”
”Where’s Sam?” Dean asks as Bobby helps him to stand up.
“He’s with Cas; they’re trying to clear some of the crap that’s now blocking the doors.”
“Yeah, I guess that didn’t really go as I planned,” Dean replies.
They make their way over to Sam and Cas. Dean instantly feels guilty because he can see the cuts and bruises already and Sam’s shirt is stained with blood.
“I just hope that you haven’t blown up all the stuff we need,” Sam says as he glances over his shoulder towards Dean. “You alright? Dean shrugs his shoulders and then nods back at his brother. “I’ll be fine. What about you?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Sam replies. “I probably won’t be saying that tomorrow though.”
“I too am fine,” Cas tells them.
“Knew you would be,” Dean replies, patting him on the back.
They make good progress clearing the debris from the front doors and half an hour later Sam manages to pull one side open and Cas immediately steps inside.
“Next time you suggest blowing shit up you’re on your own with it,” Sam tells Dean as they both make their way inside.
They couldn’t see any Walkers so they hadn’t blown up the wall that was blocking them from taking over the entire Mall.
“I don’t want to be here any longer than we have to be,” Sam says. “So we need to make this quick.”
“Yes sir,” Dean says, mock saluting him. “We should split up, cover more ground.”
Sam and Cas nod back at him and they each take a store.
When Bobby makes his way inside he can see that the others have started piling up supplies near the front door.
“You really want me to carry all this crap out to the car?” Bobby asks when Dean reappears. “Any of those stores have a trolley or a wheelbarrow?”
Dean shrugs his shoulders. “I didn’t look.”
Bobby draws in a deep breath and shakes his head. “Guess I’ll have to get it myself.”
Bobby walks off leaving Dean standing there staring after him.
Sam sucks in a deep breath and looks over at Dean; they’ve just returned back to the house after gathering up the most supplies they’ve seen since before this whole damn Zombie Apocalypse started.
“Okay, so now what?” Sam says after several minutes of silence. “We’ve got all this stuff now, what’s the next move?”
Dean looks from Bobby to Sam and back again. “Well, if she’s still out there, she’s got to be in Lawrence right.”
“She could be anywhere, Dean,” Bobby tells him. “We’ve seen it before; large groups of them and they could be moving between towns.”
“Yeah, but that’s what we’ve been doing as well,” Dean points out. “No one has noticed her, even if they never said anything. Maybe they just thought it looked like Mom.”
Sam shakes his head. “I know that I haven’t. Mind you, I don’t really remember what she looks like all that well.”
“You’ve seen pictures of her though,” Dean replies.
“It’s not the same thing,” Sam says.
“How much ammo do you reckon we actually have here?” Bobby asks. “If we’re going to find her, maybe we should look at taking out every damn son of a bitch that we see.”
“I don’t think there’s enough ammo for that,” Dean says. “And that’s going to be the most dangerous thing that we could do.”
Bobby shrugs his shoulders. “It’s worth a try isn’t it? Maybe we should have been doing that all along.”
“What we’ve been doing all along is trying to survive,” Dean points out. “If we’ve been able to take them out, then we have, but look what happened with Jo and Dad. We couldn’t do a damn thing to stop what happened to them.”
“So this time we’ll be more careful,” Sam says. “We need to split up.”
Bobby shakes his head. “No way, no one splits up.”
“I just mean that two should take the streets, two take the rooftops.”
“That’s splitting up,” Dean replies. “But yeah, that does make sense. If we’re going to do this, we need to go all out.”
Three days later:
Dean was already exhausted. They’d been up since 4am and he had barely slept as it was and they hadn’t even started the search and sweep yet.
He had been thinking about it a lot lately actually; that they should have been doing this years ago, checking every property, looking for survivors.
They knew that it had all started with their mother in their home, so that’s where they were. The four of them stood on the sidewalk staring at what used to be their house. It was nothing more than a pile of rubble now; it was just a memory.
“Two to a side,” Sam says. “Have you got the cans?”
Dean nods back at him and adjusts the strap of the backpack on his shoulder.
“Don’t forget,” Sam tells them. “The wall by the front door is best. Paint a zero and today’s date, because if anyone else ever comes along here they’ll know that these places have been checked.”
“You know that this is going to take too long. You know how big this town is and if she’s not here then it’s going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack and I don’t like our odds.”
Sam turns to look at his brother. “I know but we have to at least try; we have to.”
“Shall we start then?” Cas says.
“Let’s go.”
Dean kicks open the door to the basement. He can’t help it but every time he goes into another house and has to check the basement, he thinks about finding Sam down there and how he could have lost his brother forever.
“Dean, it would appear that the upstairs is no longer there.”
Dean looks over his shoulder to where Cas is standing in the doorway to the kitchen. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Well the stairs have been damaged and I’m a little concerned that I might injure myself,” Cas explains.
Dean shakes his head and returns his attention back to the basement. “You think that there’s anyone - or make that anything - down here?”
Cas moves up beside him. “I don’t understand; are you afraid to go down there?”
Dean elbows Cas in the side and then starts making his way down the stairs.
It’s mostly dark down there; the only light is from the small window on the far side of the room.
“There’s nothing here,” Dean calls out.
“Good then we can leave.”
Cas waits for Dean to return but when he hears Dean scream he knows that there is something wrong. He makes it down to the basement in record time and he can see Dean pushed up against the wall and a Walker is trying to rip his throat out.
“I thought you said that there was nothing down here.”
Dean mumbles something incoherent and Cas rushes forward. He grabs the arm of the Walker and throws him backwards. Dean raises his hand to his throat and is desperately checking for any wounds.
“Damn it, why didn’t you come down sooner?”
“I was not aware that you were in any danger,” Cas replies. “I know that now.”
Dean rolls his eyes and takes his gun from his waistband and shoots the Walker in the head.
“Now we can leave.”
Sam sighs heavily and collapses down onto the grass. “How long are we really going to have to do this? I’m not really sure that it’s working.”
Dean sits down beside him and passes him the bottle of water. “We’ve only been doing this for three weeks, Sammy.”
“We’ve found no survivors,” Sam replies. “Doesn’t that kinda make you want to give up?”
“No,” Dean retorts. “The whole point of this is to find Mom and I’m not going to give up on that.”
“It’s a hell of a long shot, boy,” Bobby chimes in. “We’ve barely covered half the town.”
“But we’ve also killed about Two hundred Walkers,” Dean points out. “To me that’s a win.”
“Okay, maybe we need to adjust this plan of ours,” Cas says.
They all look at Cas wondering what it is that he has in mind.
“These Zombies, they act like animals, yes?” Cas tells them.
“Yes,” Dean says. “What’s your point?”
“We should herd them like animals.”
Dean closes his eyes and falls back on the grass. “You couldn’t have suggested this three weeks ago?”
“You couldn’t have thought of it yourself?” Sam replies with a laugh.
Cas narrows his eyes; he isn’t really sure what they’re getting at. “The Zombies react to sound. We know that with the gunshots so what if we created enough noise to draw them to one specific location? We could kill them all then.”
“I hate you,” Dean mutters under his breath.
“I know what we can do,” Sam says.
Dean lets out a deep breath and folds his arms across his chest. He’s been waiting impatiently now for almost an hour while watching his brother put together some weird contraption.
“Do you really think that this is going to work?” Bobby asks.
“It will work,” Sam replies. “We’ve been carrying that damn portable generator around for months now. I’ve wired an alarm to it and with this loud speaker it should hopefully make the sound carry a lot further. It might take a couple of days for the majority of Walkers to get here, but yeah, this will work.”
“We could have saved ourselves a ton of wasted time if we had just done this to begin with,” Dean says.
“Well, we’ll know for next time,” Sam replies. “Okay, it’s all set to go but there’s just one thing; there’s a possibility that we might lose this stuff and I just hope that that fence holds up.”
Dean glances around. They had decided that the local high school was the best place to set this up and the basketball courts with their ten foot high fences seemed like a good idea. He just really hoped that it would be.
“So turn it on and let’s get the hell out of here.”
As soon as the alarm is turned on Dean hates it. The sound echoes all around them and he knows that the ringing in his ears will last for a few hours.
“Dean’s right; we need to go. There were a couple of Walkers near the front gates,” Bobby tells them.
The four of them make their way out of the school towards the car which Bobby had parked across the street.
“So a few days, you reckon?” Dean asks. “What do we do in the meantime?”
“This really wasn’t what I had in mind,” Dean says. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“There is nothing wrong with me,” Cas replies. “I have always been fascinated by this.”
“Where did you even find it?” Sam wants to know.
“At the mall. I feel extremely guilty about it but I just took it.”
Both Dean and Sam roll their eyes.
“Well, whatever,” Dean tells him. “You’ll have to play on your own.”
“I have a question,” Cas asks. “Why is it called Twister?”
Bobby drops his glass down onto the table and rubs at his eyes. He’s been listening to them carrying on for the past half an hour and they’re driving him insane. They should have been using these two days to get some sleep.
Bobby really hopes that they finally have a run of good luck. He knows that it’s a long shot for them to find Mary but for the boys’ sake, he needs them to find something. It’s been eating at him for twenty nine years now and he knows that it will do the same thing to them if they don’t get some closure.
“I will only let this go if you play too,” Cas says.
“Oh my God!” Dean cries out. “Would you shut the hell up about that stupid game?”
“I need all of you to shut up,” Bobby snaps as he moves to the doorway. “I can’t stand much more of this.”
He angrily shakes his head and walks over to the front door and pulls it open. Dean watches him as he steps out onto the porch.
For several minutes he just stands there and Dean thinks that maybe he should go out there. He doesn’t know what he might say; he shouldn’t say anything really because he knows that Bobby is exhausted and just wants a little peace and quiet. Hell, they all want that.
“I’ll be god damned,” Bobby cries out. “I don’t believe it.”
Dean and Sam are at his side in an instant and whatever Bobby was feeling in that moment they too are feeling it when they see what he sees.
“Hello Bobby; boys. It’s been a long time.”
“Ellen?”
There have been plenty of times in his life when he’s felt speechless, confused and ecstatic all at the same time. He’s witnessed hell on earth and been injured more times than he can count but right now, he’s not sure that he has ever felt exactly like this.
“What are you doing here?” Bobby asks. “I mean hell, it’s good to see you but what…”
Ellen walks up the front steps and hugs Bobby. He had been praying for some good news but he never, ever expected her to show up, not after all this time.
“You have no idea how good it is to see you. I’ve been looking for you for a long time,” she tells them.
Bobby shows her inside. They walk past Cas who is intently studying the Twister map and she wants to ask what he’s doing, but she doesn’t bother. Instead, when they’re sitting at the table, she focuses on Bobby and the boys.
“So where have you been all this time?” Dean asks. “We thought that you were dead.”
“Right to the point,” Ellen replies. “After what happened with Jo, I just needed to be anywhere but here. I tried to move on, to get over losing her but even to this day, I can’t make it stop.”
Dean remembers that night so clearly. It had happened more than three years ago now but it was still so vivid and he still felt the guilt from Jo’s death; he should have protected her and he had failed.
“You managed to survive alright then?” Sam asks.
Ellen nods back at him. “I got by. The first several months were the hardest. I almost gave up but then I found something.”
“What did you find?” Dean wants to know.
“Before I get to that, why are you herding all the Walkers to the school?”
“We kinda came up with this plan to kill them all,” Sam tells her. “It was Cas’ idea actually.”
Ellen shrugs her shoulders. “Sounds decent enough to me. Anyway, I’ve spent the past couple of years trying to track you down. Every time I thought I was getting close you would move on and then there’s that whole Walker problem. Also thanks a lot for cleaning out all the supplies; it made things a lot more difficult.”
“Sorry about that, but doesn’t matter now, right? You’re here and you’re okay,” Sam points out.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Look, there’s a reason why I needed to find you,” Ellen tells them.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Bobby wants to know.
Ellen isn’t really sure where to start because she still hasn’t managed to convince herself that it’s true.
She stays silent for several minutes and that silence drives them crazy.
“Ellen, what’s wrong? Can you please just tell us?” Sam asks.
“This is going to sound crazy, but I assure you it’s true; well at least I think it is.”
“Damn it, Ellen, what is it?”
“I found Mary.”
Dean paces back and forth; he’s anxiously waiting for Sam to turn the alarm off. It had been two days now and even they were surprised at how many Walkers had been drawn to the noise.
They were a little worried that the fence wouldn’t hold up and as Sam was taking the alarm down, Walkers were trying to grab at him.
“We need to get out of here,” Dean tells him.
“Are the explosives set?” Sam asks. “What happens if it blows a hole in the fence?”
Dean shrugs his shoulders. “Dunno and I don’t really care. We’ll just kill as many as we can. I want to get back to the house.”
“Dean, I know that you want to go as soon as possible but we have to remember what Ellen said.”
“I know that, Sammy, but come on; this is what we’ve been wanting. We have to check it out.”
Sammy nods back at him. “Yeah, I know.”
Sam finally manages to get the alarm free and turns it off. He stumbles backwards and almost knocks into Dean when a Walker tries to grab at him again.
“Uh yeah, we can go now.”
They make their way around the courts and Dean reaches into his pocket and pulls out his lighter. “This should only take a minute.”
They quickly make their way back to the car and Sam prepares for the explosion. Dean, however, just stands there.
Sam knows that Dean has been rattled by Ellen’s news; he has been too but it’s affecting Dean more. Sam is about to ask him something but the explosion causes the ground to shake and before they say anything else they jump into the car.
“So now do you think that that was such a good idea?” Sam asks. “And are we positive that Ellen has seen what she thinks she’s seen?”
Dean looks over at Sam and narrows his eyes. “You think that she’s lying about it and that Mom was amongst those Walkers?”
“I don’t know, Dean. This whole thing is so messed up I don’t even know where to start.”
Sam stares out of the window and watches the basketball courts as the dust finally starts to settle. It makes him a little sick to his stomach when he sees the mess that they’ve made and the few Walkers that managed to make it out of there.
“Uh Dean, we should get out of here, like now.”
Ten minutes later Dean pulls the car into the driveway. Ellen and Bobby are out there and they’re busy loading the other car up. They had all agreed that they would leave later that day and Dean had been more anxious than the others because he didn’t want to do what he knew they would have to do.
Finally, after nearly Thirty years, they were going to get the one answer they needed the most; their mother had started all of this and they were going to end it.
They soon join Bobby and Ellen by the car.
“How did it go?” Bobby asks.
“We got most of them. There were a few stragglers, but yeah,” Dean says. “Can we get on with this please? I really want to get out of here.”
“How far away did you say it was again?” Sam asks Ellen.
“It’s not quite two hours,” she tells them. “You know it’s crazy that after all these years, she’s been closer than you ever thought.”
Dean sucks in a deep breath and looks over at Sam; they’re both nervous and they both just want this to be over with. Dean is pretty sure that once that happens, he’s going to sleep for about a week.
“Uh, I don’t want to really think about this, let alone do it, but what happens when we find her?” Sam says. “I won’t be able to do it. I mean I know that I don’t remember her that well but it’s Mom. I can’t be the one to put her down.”
“I’ll do it,” Dean tells him. “It’s okay Sammy; you shouldn’t have to be the one to do this.”
“What are you talking about?” Ellen asks. “Why would either one of you want to shoot her?”
“Ellen, we’ve wanted answers for months now. Hell, we’ve needed them for years but we just didn’t know it. We can finally end this part of our lives,” Dean explains. “Our mother is dead; she has been our whole lives and now she needs to be put to rest.”
“I’m sorry, Dean, but I think that maybe the other day you misunderstood me,” Ellen tells him.
Sam and Dean share a confused look. Dean knew that he was probably getting his hopes up over what Ellen had told them and he knew that he shouldn’t have put too much thought into it.
“When I said that I’d found Mary, I didn’t mean that I found her wandering around in need of being put down.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dean replies. “You’re not making any sense.”
“Dean, your Mom isn’t dead. She’s a little crazy sure, but she’s very much alive and yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.”
Dean looks over at Sam and he feels exactly the same as his little brother; too stunned to say anything, too wary to really believe it.
He couldn’t think right now, he could barely breathe but what if it were true? This could change everything.
“Dean,” Sam says. “Mom’s alive? Epilogue Part 2 ”