SPN/j2 Big Bang 2019 For The Heirs To Come, Be Brave Chapter 2

[ameraleigh]

For the Heirs to Come, Be Brave
Chapter Two
I Will Be Your Sword and Shield

The sun had just broken the horizon when Jensen finally stopped walking and turned toward Jared.

"I have no idea for sure, but I think we've been walking for about six hours," Jensen said. "I can't take another fucking step."

Jared tilted his head to the sky and let out a deep sigh. "Thank god, because my feet are killing me."

In the six hours since leaving the camp, they had made it as far as Willowpark.

The roads were a complete mess, there was so much debris and destruction from the storm that making it even that far had been a miracle.

Just off the highway, they found an elementary school.

As they got closer, they saw that the buildings were still in fairly good condition and with no one else around, they figured it would be a good place to stay for a couple of days.

They approached what turned out to be the admin building, the doors were locked and it took both of them kicking it in to break the lock.

Once they got inside, they found that while it was dirty and smelled musty, it was in good condition.

"We need to stock up on water," Jensen said. "I'm really hoping that the cafeteria has something."

After checking out the building, they made their way down the corridor and easily found the cafeteria, most of the tables and chairs had been pushed to one side but there wasn't a lot of damage, no reason they could think of as to why someone would have done that.

They located the kitchen and were beyond thrilled to find a few boxes of granola bars, several loose jello cups and about a dozen bags of pretzels and Doritos.

They didn't find any water but Jared almost screamed out loud when he found a vending machine that clearly still had cans of soda inside.

Once they figured out how to pry the door open, they produced two dozen cans of soda. It added a lot of weight to their packs but they didn't care, it was totally worth it.

On the other side of the building, they found some offices, the teacher's lounge, and the nurses office.

Jensen began going through the drawers and cupboards and found a ton of first aid supplies and basic medications.

"This will be a good place to stay for a night or two. It has beds, is small and easily defendable."

"I'm not going to argue with you."

Jensen walked across the room and pulled open one of the doors.

"And it has a bathroom.'

"Yeah," Jared said with a nod. "It will be good to get some proper sleep. Without having to worry about being rained on, or swept up in a tornado."

Jensen narrowed his eyes.

Jared gave a small laugh and put his pack down onto the bed and pulled two cans of coke out.

He held one out to Jensen who took it instantly and cracked it open.

For a while they just sat there while they had something to eat and drink to give themselves a rest.

Jared had also found a small plastic bowl and filled it with water for Jax. The dog downed the liquid and then curled up under the desk.

"I had a thought," Jared said. "We should see if we could find a couple of bikes, maybe even something like a trailer that we can load up with supplies."

Jensen rolled onto his side and stared back at him. "Bikes?"

"Yeah," Jared replied. "It would be better than walking, we could cover a hell of a lot more distance. Look how long it took us just to walk to Willowpark."

"Yeah, I get your point."

****

A few hours later, they decided to walk around a little. Jared had found a set of keys in the filing cabinet that locked the Nurse's Office.

They had decided to leave Jax there, he was still asleep and Jared didn't want to disturb him.

The building had a slightly eerie feeling to it, it hadn't been very long since the place would have been filled with people.

Noises, laughter and talking filling the halls.

Now it was completely empty.

As they walked past the classrooms, they reached the end of the building, a set of double doors opened to the quad and through the glass windows, they could see the gymnasium.

"Just a wild guess but maybe the parking lots are on the other side of the gym."

Jensen tested the handle and found that it opened easily.

They stepped out into the blazing hot sun and quickly walked around to the other side of the building.

They could see the parking lot, there were several cars parked there and after walking a little further, they saw the bus drop off and pick up and not too far down from that, was a row of bike stands.

It took several minutes to find bikes that were suitable for their given heights.

Once they were happy with their choice, they took the bikes back to the Nurse's Office.

Leaning the bikes against the wall just outside the room, Jared unlocked the door and Jax happily greeted them.

"What's your idea for some sort of trailer?" Jensen asked him.

"Not sure yet but surely this town has a camping store or a hardware store."

"Yeah maybe," Jensen said. "But I'm still damn exhausted, maybe we can check it out later."

Jared nodded back at him as they settled back onto the bed.

After a few more hours of sleep, they could sort out a trailer and load up supplies.

****

When Jared opened his eyes, he was stunned to find that the room was completely dark.

He calmed down a little when he heard Jax moving around a little.

Sitting up, he dropped his feet to the floor and leaned over and patted Jensen on the arm.

"Wake up, Jen."

Jensen mumbled something but didn't move, didn't wake up.

"Jensen!"

"What?"

"I think we overslept," Jared told him. "It's dark out."

Jensen sat bolt upright and it looked so ridiculous that Jared couldn't help but laugh.

Jensen ran his hand through this hair as he cursed under his breath.

They had very definitely overslept but he wasn't sure what they could do now that the sun had set. It was difficult enough as it was to travel during the day.

"What do you want to do?" Jared asked. "Do we wait until the morning or..."

"I don't know. I'm not sure about you but I don't think that I can just sit here for the next... we can't do much no goddamn power."

"Yeah, I kind of don't want to just sit here either," Jared replied. "So maybe we could go out there and find some sort of bike trailer."

Jensen nodded back at him. "Yeah, sounds good."

He got to his feet and grabbed his jacket from the desk.

****

The only light they were granted was from the full moon.

At least the storm had passed and the sky was clear. It felt like there was a possibility of rain at some point but so far they were in the clear.

After finding the main street, they came across a hardware store. The windows had been blown out but they could see stock still sitting on the shelves.

"What did you have in mind?" Jensen asked as they stepped through the door.

Jared gave his shoulders a shrug. "Something along the lines of a wagon."

"A wagon?" Jensen replied with a laugh. "Awesome."

Jared ignored that comment and began searching the shelves.

After a few minutes of searching, Jared found something that could work. It was basically a metal tray on wheels and sitting on top of the tray was what looked like 3 large-sized metal boxes.

"Jensen, come and check this out."

Jensen appeared at the end of the shelves.

"It looks pretty sturdy," Jared told him. "But there is only one."

"Better than nothing."

"Yeah," Jared replied. "It is. But I want something for Jax as well. He's too old to be keeping up with us on bikes."

"Fair point," Jensen replied. "I'm sure that we can find something."

"We might be able to build something," Jared said. "But we won't have power tools so I don't know how strong it would be."

They kept looking but all they could find were some plastic crates and a couple of wheelbarrows.

"Wait," Jensen called out. "I remember seeing a sign back there, on the other side of the highway, an animal hospital."

Jared popped up from behind one of the shelves. "Let's go."

They had to drag the trailer along behind them but once they got onto the highway, it was a little easier and they eventually found the animal hospital.

They found several cat carriers and cages for smaller animals but nothing that would accommodate a dog.

In a back storage room, Jensen found some more cages and then cried out in excitement when he found a dog trailer. It was a little small, it would be barely big enough to hold Jax but it was on wheels and it would be better than the poor old boy running along beside them.

Jared was more excited about it than he had been, even if it was going to be a tight fit, what concerned him more was how they were going to attach the trailers.

****

It took almost a whole day to figure out how to attach the trailer to the bikes so that they would be strong enough. If they encountered rough terrain, they didn't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way of fixing it.

They packed as much food, first aid supplies, and water into them as they could before they got onto the highway to head north toward Lubbock.

It took them half a day to reach Haskell. They had stopped for five minutes every hour so that they could cover as much distance as possible.

But what they found, was gut-wrenching.

The only buildings that were left standing were an old church and a radio station on the western edge of town.

It was getting late so they decided to stop for a few hours of sleep, the church was an old tin structure that seemed surprisingly sturdy, it was a safe place to get some rest.

It even had a small kitchenette and Jensen was surprised to find that it still had running water, he wasn't sure that it was safe to drink but at least they would be able to clean themselves up a little.

After searching through the building, Jared found pillows and blankets as well as a few boxes of clothes. The jackets were what interested him the most.

Jensen came out from the kitchen carrying a couple of lanterns and plopped them down in front of Jared.

When he glanced up at him he had a big cheesy grin on his face.

"This place is pretty handy," he said. "There's a bunch of candles in there too. We should take some when we leave."

Jared nodded back at him. "Definitely. Jensen, how far do you think it is to Lubbock?"

"A day maybe depends on what the roads are like I guess."

As they settled in to get some sleep, Jared couldn't help but wonder about the town and where all the people might have gone.

Surely, they wouldn't have been evacuated to the Fort Worth Camp but why would they be taken anywhere else? They were closer to Fort Worth than he had been... none of it made any sense to him.

Jensen could sense Jared's uneasiness and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

Jared didn't respond right away which just concerned him even more.

"I'm just stressed out," he finally said. "I know that we've only been through a few towns so far, but look at what we've seen. I just can't help but worry that Lubbock, Albuquerque, they're all going to be the same."

Jensen sighed heavily as he ran his hand through his hair. "I'm trying not to think about that. I have to believe that my family is out there somewhere, that Misha is out there and that they're okay."

"I can't remember if I asked you before," Jared said. "But did you get to talk to Misha before the EMP?"

Jensen glanced over at him, a sadness in his eyes that Jared instantly felt guilty for.

"No," he replied. "There was just a message saying that he would be back from Seattle... the day the EMP hit."

"Shit," Jared muttered. "You don't think that..."

Jensen vigorously shook his head. "I'm trying not to think about that at all."

"Well," Jared replied. "Given that all hell broke loose a week before that, maybe there were no flights leaving from anywhere."

"Yeah, maybe."

Jensen lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. As much as he tried to, he just couldn't get to sleep.

****

As they approached the eastern edge of Lubbock, they saw the destruction that had befallen the city.

It didn't just look like a storm or an earthquake had hit, it looked like a war zone.

"What the hell happened here?" Jared wondered. "This place is..."

"Fucked up," Jensen said, finishing Jared's thought. "Who would have thought that we would end up being the lucky ones."

Jared stopped suddenly, the brakes on his bike squealing.

"What the hell?" Jensen cried out.

Jared pointed toward a car sitting in a driveway just across from them.

They could both clearly see two people sitting in the car and the longer they stood there and watched, the more obvious it became that the occupants were dead.

Jared put the stand down on his bike and began walking over to the car.

"What are you doing?" Jensen questioned him. "There's nothing that we can do for those people."

"I know," Jared answered. "But I have to know. I need to see how they died."

Jensen cocked an eyebrow at him as he glanced back toward the trailer and saw Jax sitting there, an almost smile on his face.

Jared was hesitant about opening the door but he was the one who wanted to do this, so he just needed to get it over with.

He pulled the door open and was incredibly surprised when water came rushing out and he threw himself backwards.

"What the fuck was that?" Jensen asked.

Jared backed away from the car and made his way over to Jensen. As he glanced around, he couldn't really tell if a flood had come through Lubbock.

"Does it look like the city was hit by a flood?" Jared asked.

Jensen glanced around and then shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it's possible, I mean there is so much damage it's a little hard to tell exactly what happened here."

"Yeah well," Jared replied. "I'm fairly certain that the people in that car, drowned."

Jensen lifted his hand to his face and scratched his chin. "I don't know what the hell went on here, but I don't really feel comfortable just hanging out in the open like this."

Jared nodded back at him and they continued to head toward the center of the city.

If it were at all possible, the destruction seemed even worse the closer they got. Buildings had crumbled, cars lined the streets, there was debris everywhere and parts of the road and sidewalk were cracked like something had tried to push its way through.

They kept going, they needed to find somewhere that was at least partially livable, for a few days at least.

They eventually approached a large shopping center, it appeared to be separated into several different buildings on both sides of the street and Jensen randomly choose one building for them to check out.

The parking lot seemed to be littered with shell casings which sent a shiver down Jensen's spine.

"I don't want to be out here too long."

They stopped in front of the main doors.

The glass had been blown out so they literally rode their bikes right into the building.

They parked up, leaving the bikes tucked behind a wall that lead to the bathrooms and after Jared got Jax down from the trailer, they made their way out into the main area of the mall.

Large chunks of concrete were scattered amongst the broken glass, racks and shelves had been knocked over and laying in places they wouldn't normally be.

"I want to look out for some clothing stores." Jensen told him.

There was a large fountain in the middle of the walkway and Jared was a little confused when Jax began barking furiously.

Then they both heard it, the sound of a gun being cocked and they froze in their tracks.

Jared tried to get the dog to stop but he was determined to keep the gun owner away from them.

"Fuck," Jensen uttered. "If you're going to shoot, can you please just get it over with."

"Jensen?"

The gun owner stepped out from behind the fountain and when Jensen saw who it was, he just about passed out from shock.

"No way," he said. "It can't be."

The guy stepped closer to them as he lowered his weapon and Jensen waited a moment before he threw himself forward and wrapped his arms around him.

"Misha, my god. How the hell are you here right now?"

Misha returned the embrace and after a moment, he took a step back and lifted his hand to Jensen's face and lightly patted him on the cheek.

"That's a long story, which we can talk about later."

Misha hugged him again and then slipped his hand to the back of Jensen's neck and kissed him.

He only stepped away when Jax started barking again.

Misha leaned down and scratched the dog's ears. "I'm happy to see you too buddy."

After giving Jax some attention, Misha turned to Jared and gave him a quick hug.

"I can't even..." Misha said. "The fact that you're here right now, I can't even process it."

"You and me both," Jensen replied. "I'm fairly certain that at some point, I'm going to wake up, lying in the middle of the road with the bike on top of me."

Misha cocked an eyebrow at him. "Come again?"

Jensen gave his head a shake. "We found a couple of mountain bikes and trailers to haul our stuff."

"Nice," Misha said with a chuckle. "As amusing as it is in my head, you on a bike is funny, but stretch here, that's something I'd like to see."

"Yeah, great," Jared replied. "Can we possibly worry about the impending apocalypse instead of how much taller I am than you."

"Sure," Misha replied. "We've set up a camp on the second level."

Jensen stopped walking and grabbed his arm. "Wait, who is we?"

Misha turned toward him smiled softly. "Myself, Rachel and Chris."

Jensen was once again left stunned. Not only had he randomly found the only person he had ever been in love with, but two of his closest friends were also there.

"They're okay?" He asked.

Misha nodded back at him. "They are, a little bruised, exhausted but they're okay. We all are."

They made their way up the escalator and when they approached the food court, Jensen and Jared saw three tents set up with a picnic table sitting in the center.

When they sat down at the table, Jensen noticed a large black stain on the floor.

"What is that?"

"Our heat and light source," Misha told him. "We set up barrel fires on both floors."

"Right, of course."

"How have you guys been doing food wise?" Misha asked.

"Actually not too bad," Jensen replied. "We've been lucky and found some good stuff."

"Glad to hear," Misha said. "And it will stay that way. There is more than enough here."

"How did you end up here, of all places?"

"Didn't even make it to Seattle," Misha replied. "The day that everything went to hell, we were forced to make an emergency landing."

"Shit, good thing Lubbock has an airport then."

"Well, I guess," Misha said. "But we were more airport adjacent."

"What does that mean?" Jensen wanted to know.

"We had to land in a field, the runways weren't clear, but it was a good landing, no one was hurt."

Jensen glanced around, wondering why it was just the three of them who were here.

"What happened to everyone else?"

"Well, some people stayed for a few days, most of them wanted to go home, find their families."

"So," Jensen said. "You were already here when the EMP hit then."

"You agree that it was, in fact, an EMP?"

Jensen nodded back at him. "Yeah, it took trying to start several cars, testing out flashlights, etc to confirm it."

"One minute we were bathed in the beautiful fluorescent light and the next it was pitch black," Misha explained. "That's when we started using the barrels."

"Can I backtrack for a second," Jared asked. "Do you know what happened here? Why it looks like a war zone?"

Misha nodded slightly. "From what we saw for ourselves and what we heard, it sounds like the city was hit really badly by the flooding. Supposedly FEMA came through when the water cleared but people were... it was chaos."

"Understandable," Jensen added. "But that doesn't really explain the war zone aspect, the number of shell casings we saw."

"Over the past few weeks, we've heard a few gunshots here and there but whatever that was, I honestly couldn't say."

"So you've just stuck to the mall then?"

Misha nodded back. "Yeah, we go out occasionally to collect firewood from around the lake but we try to stay as close to here as possible."

"And what about what's going on out there, did you hear any reports?"

Misha exhaled sharply. "We've heard all sorts of theories but I wouldn't even know where to begin."

Their conversation came to an abrupt end when the building began to shake violently.

While it freaked Jensen and Jared out, Misha didn't seem to be too distressed by it and Jensen didn't know if he should be annoyed by the lack of caring or if it was simply a case of he knew something that they didn't.

"Yeah," Misha said. "That happens a few times a day. It feels quite violent but so far nothing has really come of it, the building is still standing."

Jensen shook his head in disbelief. "And you're okay with that, what happens when the building doesn't stay standing."

"We have packs with supplies down by the front doors in case we need to leave in a hurry." Misha told them.

Jared sighed heavily and reached into his pack for a bottle of water.

"You manage to get hold of your families before the EMP?" Misha asked.

Jensen gave his head a shake and stared sadly at him. "No, but I have renewed hope that we'll find them. We found each other again."

Misha leaned across the table and placed his hand over Jensen's. "Damn right we did."

The conversation again came to a halt when they heard footsteps on the tile floor and when Jensen glanced up, he saw Rachel and Chris approaching.

"Fuck me," Chris called out. "Should have known your stubborn ass would magically appear."

Jensen got to his feet and embraced his friend. "It's good to see you, Chris."

After a round of relieved hugs, they sat down at the table while Misha went to get some food.

He came back a few minutes later, his arms were laden with packages of cookies, candy bars, and popcorn.

"Popcorn." Jensen said as he ripped open one of the bags."

"Chilli and Lime flavor too," Misha added. "If you can fucking imagine that."

Another shake rocked the building, sending Jared's nerves through the roof and he tried to remain calm until the shaking stopped.

"Did Misha tell you that we recommend that you sleep in your clothes, shoes on," Chris said. "It took a few days for us to get used to it, the number of times we were woken up in the middle of the night, half-dressed and not at all prepared to leave."

"Speaking of clothes," Misha said. "I should take you down to the gym, they have bathrooms and the water is still running."

"Showers?" Jensen asked, not wanting to get his hopes up.

Misha nodded back. "Yeah, I can't guarantee that it's hot but these days, a shower is a shower."

"Not gonna argue with you on that," Jensen replied. "Point the way."

After Misha had taken them to a clothing store on the first level, he showed them where the gym was.

It was a smallish space but each bathroom had two showers and two toilets and the water was in fact still running.

The water was lukewarm at best but he could deal with that, the simple act of showering was bliss.

Jensen stayed under the water longer than he probably should have while Jared had already showered and changed into his new clothes.

When Jared made his way out into the main area, Misha was sitting on one of the bench press seats, waiting for them.

"Everything alright?"

Jared nodded back at him as he shoved his old clothes into a tattered plastic bag.

"You're not keeping those, are you?"

Jared glanced down at the bag and then looked back up at him. "Uh, no. I was gonna toss them."

"Okay good."

"Well, I'm going to head back up." Jared said.

Misha nodded back at him. "Yeah, I'll wait for Jensen."

Jared headed back up to the second floor and a few minutes after that, Jensen appeared in the doorway.

He was wearing the new clothes, his old ones were bundled up in his arms.

His hair was still damp and drops of water fell onto the collar of his shirt.

Misha exhaled sharply as he got to his feet and stepped up to him. He reached out and pressed his palm to Jensen's cheek.

He still couldn't believe that he had just appeared like that.

Lubbock was a big city and there were a lot of places that Jensen and Jared could have gone into so the fact that they had shown up at that particular mall...

He was going to make damn sure that they weren't separated ever again.

After dumping his clothes into a trash bin outside of the gym, they headed upstairs.

****

A little before sunset, Misha and Jensen dragged a couple of folding chairs up to the roof, while earlier it had looked like a storm might be rolling in, it had cleared up and it was going to make for a beautiful sunset.

If only the circumstances were different, it felt almost wrong to be admiring a sunset.

Jensen had found a case of beer and he opened the box, handing one to Misha.

For the longest time, they just sat there drinking their beer, they didn't feel the need to say a whole lot, it was just nice being there together.

As the sun slowly disappeared, Jared appeared in the doorway.

"Chris wanted me to say that we might need more firewood."

Misha nodded back at him and got to his feet. "Yeah, we probably do. You going down there?"

"I thought I would, you two wanna come?"

Jensen finishes off his beer and placed the empty bottle back into the box before joining them.

They made their way down to ground level and Misha led the way to the park where they had been collecting their firewood.

With the sun setting, the temperature began to drop and being near the lake just made it worse.

A harsh wind-swept across the water and Jensen had to zip up his jacket.

They wanted to move as quickly as possible but when the sun finally disappears and darkness surrounded them, they froze on the spot when they heard what sounded like gunfire.

"What the hell is that?" Jared asked as he moved closer to Jensen.

Misha adjusted the stack of firewood in his arms. "I have no idea, we've heard all sorts of noises since we got here, if it is gunfire, it's never made its way to the mall."

The popping sound continued for a few minutes and Jensen stared at Jared when he dropped the wood onto the ground and pointed at the sky.

"What the fuck is that?"

They all turned in the direction that Jared had pointed in and they saw a strange red light in the distance.

It was soon followed by a series of green and blue lights and as they continued to watch, the ground began to roll under their feet.

They quickly gathered up the dropped firewood before making their way back to the mall.

The sound of breaking glass caught their attention as they approached the doors and they saw the building across the parking lot shake violently the still remaining windows shattering.

And then almost as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

It became so eerily silent that Jensen felt a chill run down his spine and he tried desperately to shake it off.

Fortunately, the rest of the night remained earthquake free but their nerves were so shot that sleep wasn't going to come easy to any of them.

****

Chapter Three Shadow Creeping Over Me