SPN/j2 Big Bang 2019 For The Heirs To Come, Be Brave Chapter 4
For the Heirs to Come, Be Brave
Chapter Four
Thrown into the Flames
It took almost a week to reach Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
They hadn't encountered a single person on the trek there but when they arrived in the town itself, they were stunned to find the National Guard had set up a post there.
There were a few other civilians, but not many of them.
From the moment they had arrived, it had been made clear that they wouldn't be allowed past but no one would give them any answers as to why.
All they had been told was that if they wanted to stay in Santa Rosa, they had to set up camp in the designated area.
They had been traveling for so long that they figured they would stay there for at least a few nights, catch up on some sleep and then make decisions about how they could get into Albuquerque.
Jared, Jensen, and Misha had set up the tent and they already had a fire going.
There was another group of people set up next to them, three adults and a teenager who looked more bored than anything else.
As the hour grew late and they began to settle in, Jensen struck up a conversation with their neighbor, Richard.
He was hoping that they would have some information to share.
"Where have you guys come from?" Richard asked him.
"Dallas," Jensen told him. "And it's been a hell of a fucking journey to get here."
"Yeah I bet," he replied. "Where are you hoping to go?"
Jensen sucked in a deep breath as he glanced over at Jared. "Albuquerque, our families are there."
Richard lifted his hand and ran it through his hair. "Do you know anything about what's going on?"
Jensen narrowed his eyes at him. "Rumors and stories mostly."
"Specific to Albuquerque."
Jensen swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat and then he shook his head. "No."
He feared the answer, and had every reason to do so.
"The National Guard, they're not going to let you through, all the major roads in and out of the city are blocked."
Jensen swallowed hard again and squeezed his eyes shut.
"I'm sorry to tell you man, but the city is gone," Richard explained. "As in the entire area is nothing but a giant hole, supposedly Santa Fe got hit pretty hard too."
"And the uh... the people?" Jensen asked as he fought back the urge to scream.
"I heard there were evacuations but couldn't tell you for sure where they were taken, most people seem to agree it was north up through Colorado and into Nebraska or Wyoming."
Jensen wasn't entirely sure what to think, should he remain hopeful that his family was still alive or should begin to mourn.
"What caused it do you know?" Jensen asked him.
"Apparently it was a faultline that no one knew about, if the rumors are true, it winds through Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico."
"Have you heard anything about California?" Misha asked as he joined their conversation.
Richard gave his shoulders a shrug. "Not really, but I can only imagine, the San Andreas fault and all that, I guess it's probably not there anymore."
"How long have you been here?" Misha asked.
"A couple of weeks," Richard said. "We're waiting for the next evac, they say it will leave in about four days."
"To where?"
"We're hoping Nebraska or Wyoming," he said. "Wherever they sent the others."
Jensen lifted his hand to his face and stared at Misha.
"Well if it's true and Albuquerque is a no go, then maybe we need to head north too," Misha said. "Your families could be there."
"Wait," Jensen said. "How are they evacuating people?"
"They have two diesel engine buses, they're from like the 50's or something ridiculous," Richard explained. "And from what the National Guard has told us, they've already made four trips."
"If you've been here for two weeks, how come they haven't told you more?"
"My guess, they don't know that much more than we do," Richard replied. "A couple of the guys told me that even though they don't really know anything, it's their job to protect us, so they'll keep doing that until someone tells them to stop, or until something stops them."
"Jesus," Jensen muttered under his breath. "This is fucking insane."
Richard nodded back at him. "That it is. Whatever is happening, I think we can all agree that it's the end of the world right?"
****
Three days later, the buses arrived back in Santa Rosa.
It had taken that long to convince Jared that Albuquerque was a lost cause and that their best bet was to head north.
Jeff had told them that if the camps proved to be fruitless, he had a friend who lived in South Dakota and that if anyone were to survive the fucking apocalypse, it would be him.
Before the world ended, the trip would have taken about 12 hours but in their new environment, it took them almost three days to reach Grand Island, Nebraska.
The trip had been long and uncomfortable despite being on a bus and not walking, it felt strange to leave behind their bikes.
They were able to bring all of their supplies, but the bike had been deemed an unnecessary burden, they would have had to have been fastened to the rear of the bus and some of the roads were rather perilous.
The two buses were carrying a total of 68 people, 20 less than the previous trip and Jensen knew exactly why that was.
Every day there were fewer survivors as the terrain became more unstable and uninhabitable.
"Jensen."
He gave his head a shake as he stared out of the window and when he heard his name called, he turned in the seat.
Misha was staring in the aisle, staring down at him. "Jensen, are you coming?"
"What?"
Misha cocked an eyebrow at him. "We're here, are you getting off the bus?"
Jensen exhaled sharply and nodded back at him. "Yeah, sorry."
He followed Misha off the bus. The others were waiting for their things to be unloaded.
It was already getting dark, so they couldn't really see much of their surroundings.
Jensen had never been here before so he had no idea where they were going. He didn't know of any landmarks and that scared him a little bit, if they needed to leave or if anything happened, he wouldn't know what to do.
After the buses were unloaded, they were escorted into the camp and what they saw surprised and confused them.
They had been expecting to find a large settlement of survivors, all of the people who had been evacuated from the major cities but what they saw was the opposite of that.
"What the hell?" Jensen said as he glanced over at Misha. "I thought this was a major evac site."
Misha narrowed his eyes as he looked around. From what they could see, there were at most about 200 people.
"What the fuck is happening?" Jeff asked no one in particular.
"I have no idea," Chris replied. "We should find a site first though, I don't want to be hauling this crap around."
They found a campsite and while the others settled in, Jeff and Jensen went off in search of someone who was in charge of this place.
It was no easy feat though, there were plenty of people but the majority of them seemed to be civilians and most likely wouldn't know any more than they did.
Frustrated and exhausted, Jeff stopped at a tent where a man about his age was sitting with a small white dog.
"Do you have any idea what's going on here, who's in charge?" Jeff asked him.
"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure," the man told him. "It's a FEMA camp but there's Sergeant Major from the National Guard who has been here for a couple of weeks now, your best bet would be to talk to him."
Jeff nodded back at him. "Okay thanks, now would you know where to find him?"
"I can't say for sure," he replied. "But there aren't that many people here and he kind of stands out."
"Okay, thanks."
They kept walking and it soon became clear that this wasn't the FEMA camp they were hoping for, there were hardly any people and the resources seemed to be at a bare minimum.
Jeff stopped walking and raised his hands to his face and wiped at his eyes.
"This is fucking pointless," he said. "This place is a disaster."
"Yeah," Jensen added. "And obviously we haven't checked all the sites but I haven't seen anyone I recognize."
"If we can't find this National Guard guy, then we should wait until tomorrow, check out the rest of the camp and if we don't find any of your families, then we should keep heading north."
Jensen stared at the ground for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I don't think it would be a good idea to stick around here."
****
Jensen couldn't get comfortable no matter what he tried, he couldn't stop shifting and rearranging his pillow and sleeping bag.
He felt Misha move beside him several times but he never looked at him or said anything and Jensen felt a twinge of jealousy over his ease at falling asleep.
Exhaling sharply, he sat up and kicked off his sleeping bag. Misha stirred again and this time he rolled over and with sleepy eyes, he glanced up at him.
"Jen," he said. "You can't keep doing this. You have to get some sleep."
Jensen sighed again. "I know I do but I can't help it. I can't shut my mind off."
Misha reached out and rested his hand on Jensen's knee. "I get that, I really do but if you keep stressing yourself out to the point of exhaustion, you're not going to help anyone."
"Easier said than done," Jensen replied. "I know that at this point, our families could be absolutely anywhere but... every time we find nothing, my heart breaks a little more."
"Well, tomorrow we'll find this National Guard guy, see if they have some sort of records of evacuees," Misha told him.
Jensen inhaled deeply and smiled sadly at him. "Yeah, maybe we'll find something."
****
They woke early the next morning and were finally able to track down the Sergeant Major.
But just like with everyone else that should have had answers, he didn't really know that much more than they did.
He told them that there were three FEMA camps in the north, the one in Grand Island, another one in Spokane, Washington and the third was located in Lexington, Kentucky.
He couldn't tell them though, if those camps were still operational or how of how many people were there.
There were some records of evacuations but they weren't detailed and they couldn't find any information on their families.
"Okay, this is pointless," Chris said. "We need to make some decisions here."
"Your friend, Jim," Misha asked. "He's in Hot Springs? And he'd be willing to help us?"
Jeff nodded back at him. "He is and he will. He's a good guy. He has a ranch in Hot Springs, his own water supply and food sources."
"Okay," Jensen said. "Now, how do we get there? Because on a good day, it would take like five days to walk that far."
"What if we could find a vehicle?" Jared asked.
They all turned to look at him.
"Sure, we'll just go to the nearest car dealership and pick out a fleet of fancy gold plated cars," Chris replied.
Jared glared back at him. "Don't be an ass. My point is that the National Guard found some working vehicles, why can't we?"
"Maybe," Jeff replied. "Something from the '80s or earlier, diesel engines might still be work if we're lucky."
"What about the airport," Rachel said. "Would they have any diesel vehicles?"
"Possibly," Jeff replied. "We can definitely check it out, we might at the very least be able to find something to move our supplies."
****
The camp was only a few miles south of the airport, it was a little awkward moving the supply trailer but they eventually arrived at the main entrance.
The south parking lot was full of cars but they already knew that none of them would be helpful, they needed something older.
"What about the maintenance vehicles, trolly carts, things like that?"
"Maybe," Chris said. "The maintenance vehicles are probably more likely to be diesel than any of the cars out here."
After 30 minutes of searching the entire airport, they found a warehouse type building that housed about 10 different vehicles, most of them were useless for their needs but they did find a 1988 Ford Utility truck.
The cab only seated three but the bed of the truck would more than accommodate the rest of them and their supplies.
But their hopes were dashed when Chris couldn't get the engine to start.
They did know that it would be a long shot but they had been optimistic that they would be able to find something.
Jared and Jeff checked out a couple of the other trucks but they came up empty.
Chris refused to give up though, he was determined to keep trying the truck because was convinced that he could get it to go.
After checking and rechecking the engine and the fuel, he couldn't figure out a reason as to why it wouldn't go.
"Maybe we need to move on," Rachel said. "This clearly isn't working."
As if on cue, the engine roared to life and Chris cried out triumphantly.
"I fucking knew it," he said. "There was no reason for it not to start."
He didn't turn the engine off, he was too afraid too in case it wouldn't start again.
"Any luck with more fuel because according to the fuel gauge, there's about three-quarters of a tank but I can't say for sure that it works properly." He explained.
"We haven't found anything," Jeff told him. "But that's a good start at least."
They loaded up the supplies and Chris took the wheel with Jeff and Felicia joining him in the cab while Misha, Jensen, Jared, and Rachel sat in the back with Jax and the supplies.
"Is it wrong that I'm expecting it to break down at any second?" Jared quietly asked Jensen.
Jensen stared back at him and then shook his head. "No, you're not wrong for thinking that, it's exactly what I'm expecting. But if we can cut the trip down to a few days instead of five, I'll be fucking thrilled."
****
They made it to Alliance, Nebraska.
Chris ad pushed the old truck as far as it would go, it wasn't a case of not having enough fuel, they had passed plenty of still usable gas stations but the engine was old and it started overheating and smoking about an hour south of Alliance before it became so bad that they couldn't keep going.
Along the way, they had made a stop in Dunning for the specific purpose of finding a new way to transport their supplies once the truck stopped being useful.
The small town had a high school and they were able to find a couple of bikes, they weren't as sturdy as their previous ones but they would get the job done.
With the trip having been cut much shorter, they didn't see the need to stop for the night, they wanted to get to Hot Springs as soon as possible.
It was still going to take them a couple of days to reach the city.
They stuck to the main highway and while they didn't venture into any of the towns along the way, they could tell that there was substantial damage everywhere.
As the sun slowly disappeared and the temperatures dropped, they decided to rest for a few hours in a town called Chadron.
It was one of the least damaged towns they had come across but it was still clear that there weren't likely to be survivors, if there were, they didn't make their presence known.
They settled on spending those few hours in the Walmart Supercenter, despite Jared's protests about it being across the street from a cemetery.
After a quick search of the building, they were a little disappointed to find that there was no running water.
They did manage to restock a few supplies, some bottles of water, boxes of pop-tarts and a couple of tins of beans.
"I only want to stay here for a couple of hours, so if you want to get some sleep..." Jeff told them.
"Yeah, no chance of that," Jensen replied. "Do we really need to even stay that long?"
Jeff stared back at him and then cocked an eyebrow. "What, I thought that you wanted to rest for a while."
Jensen shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah well, what can I say?"
Jeff glanced at the others but none of them objected to the idea. "Okay, let's go then."
****
Jensen sighed with relief when Jeff informed them that they had finally arrived at Jim's ranch.
It was almost dark when they finally got there, they saw that the place well protected.
A large fence ran around the entire property, they couldn't see the actual house; it was set far back from the road.
Jeff knew Jim fairly well, and knew he would have alarms in place.
With no phones though, he wasn't entirely sure how to let Jim know that they were there.
"Well, maybe we could just head on up but stay out of range in case he starts firing." Chris suggested.
"Maybe or maybe I could just start firing now."
They all spun around and were surprised to see Jim standing there. He had a backpack slung over his shoulder and a shotgun in his hands.
Jeff took a step forward and held out his hand which Jim happily shook.
"I was wondering if you might show up at some point," Jim told him. "It's good to see you."
He led the way up to the house and they saw that Jeff hadn't been wrong about him.
Everything was very well set up.
"Have you had any issues?" Jeff asked. "People showing up and that sort of thing?"
"A few here and there," Jim said. "Some more ballsy than others but I'm still here."
They approached the house and Jim pulled a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door.
Once inside, they gathered in the living room.
"What's it like out there?" Jim asked.
"It's pretty rough," Jeff replied. "There is so much damage, entire towns have been wiped off the map. Most of the cities, you can't even get into."
"And for some reason, there are very few survivors," Jared added. "Or bodies for that matter."
Chris groaned loudly and Jensen glared at him.
"What's that about?"
"He's not wrong," Jeff said. "There are so few survivors and with all this bullshit that's still happening, the bodies just aren't... there are no bodies."
Jim narrowed his eyes as he studied each of them.
"Are we really going to discuss this again?" Chris asked. "At this point, does it even matter?"
"Yes, it matters," Jared replied. "And aren't you even just the slightest bit curious as to why?"
"Honestly," he said. "I'm not because we can't do shit about it so why waste our energy on something that we can't change."
"Okay, well I have no idea what's going on," Jim replied. "But how about we just make sure that it doesn't happen to us."
Jim had three extra bedrooms, so Jensen and Misha took one room, Jared and Chris took another and Rachel and Felicia took the third, leaving Jeff to take the pullout couch, he seemed to be fine with that because at least it wasn't a sleeping bag on the cold hard ground.
Jim also had running water, hot running water at that and after each one had taken a brief shower, they gathered in the kitchen, Jim had cooked a hot meal for them.
"How do you have hot water and power?" Jeff asked him.
"Furnace," Jim replied. "I connected it to the water system a few years ago as a money-saving endeavor, who would have ever guessed it would come in handy during the fucking apocalypse."
"So you really haven't been out there?" Rachel asked him as she sat at the table next to Jeff.
Jim gave his head a shake. "Not really no. I did go out a couple of times in the first few weeks after that first day but I don't really have a need to go out searching for supplies. When people started losing their shit, it wasn't worth it."
"You said earlier that people have tried coming out here." Jared said.
Jim nodded. "They have, only a couple of them were in need of actual help, the rest, well they wanted what I have and I put a stop to that."
"What about the earthquakes and storms, how bad have they been up here?"
Jim carried his plate to the table and took a seat. "A few good shakes, opened up the ground about half a mile from here and blocked an access route but nothing closer than that. The storms have been the real issue so far, well except for the fire about a month ago."
Jensen cocked an eyebrow at him. "Fire."
"Yeah, north of here," Jim said. "Thought at one point that I would have to leave. It destroyed the northern part of the city. Honestly, that was probably the last time I saw anyone."
"So, you have no idea if there are any FEMA camps around here?" Jeff wanted to know.
Jim thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. "Sorry. Before the EMP, there were a bunch of helicopters, couldn't tell you where they were based. That's about as close as any sort of authority that I've seen."
They were still no closer to discovering where these damn camps were and Jensen started to wonder if they actually existed, it was looking less and less likely.
****
He had no idea what the actual time was but figured it was well after midnight before he climbed into bed.
Laying back against the pillow, he relished in its comfort and he tilted his head to the side and watched Misha for a brief moment.
He had been asleep for a while now but this time he wasn't feeling any sort of jealousy over his ability to sleep because right now, he felt comfortable, clean and for the first time in weeks, he wasn't feeling that same level of anxiety that had been plaguing him.
He wasn't entirely sure why though, they were no closer to finding their families but there had been some sort of shift.
He wondered if it was because they were at Jim's and he had such an incredible set up that it reassured him that they could one day have that too.
"Jensen."
"Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to wake you up."
"Mmmhhm," Misha replied. "No."
"What?" Jensen asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.
"It wasn't you."
"Uh, okay sure."
"Is the window open?" Misha asked.
Jensen scrunched up his nose at him and then glanced over at the window. "Yeah, why?"
"I keep smelling smoke."
Jensen sniffed the air but he couldn't smell anything. "What are you talking about?"
"Mmm, a few days now," Misha said. "I've been smelling smoke."
"You sure it's not from the crack you've been smoking."
Misha opened one eye and stared over at him. "Hilarious. I'm serious. I've been smelling it on and off for days, Chris thought the same thing."
Jensen couldn't say that he had smelt anything but his mind went back to the day they had arrived at Jim's almost two weeks ago, he had mentioned that the north of the city had been destroyed by fire and he wondered if maybe the smell of smoke was still lingering.
But then he remembered that it would have been about six weeks ago and figured the smell wouldn't hang around that long, surely.
And now he couldn't stop thinking about it.
He sat up and stared toward the window.
"What are you doing?" Misha asked him.
Jensen leaned over and gave him a quick kiss before he climbed out of bed. "Don't worry about it, I'll be back in a few minutes."
He made his way downstairs and pulled on his boots.
Opening the door, he was a little startled when he glanced down and saw Jax who looked particularly eager to get outside.
The dog tore off across the yard, in desperate need of relieving himself and with a shake of his head, Jensen pulled the door closed behind him.
He wouldn't go too far, he just wanted to take a quick walk, see if he could smell this mystery smoke or possibly seen anything.
The back of the property slopped uphill slightly and when he reached the top, he glanced around but couldn't make out much.
He wasn't even entirely sure what he was looking for but when his eyes caught it, his blood ran cold.
A sharp unnerving shiver ran down his spine and he wanted to run, to tell the others what was happening but he couldn't move.
It was too dark to judge the distance but he knew that if he could see it, it was far too close.
A fire.
Jax's barks disrupted his fear long enough for him to spin on his heel and he began running back toward the house.
When he stepped inside, he was a little surprised to see Jim standing in the living room.
"Where were you?" He asked him.
"I uh... there's a fucking fire." Jensen replied.
Jim closed his eyes and cursed under his breath.
"Yeah I figured as much," he said. "I knew that I could smell smoke."
"What the fuck do we do?" Jensen asked.
****
Jensen dropped an armload of firewood onto the ground, apparently, it was too close to Chris because he narrowed his eyes and glared up at him.
"You're fine princess." Jensen said with a smirk.
As he leaned down and picked up one of the pieces of wood and dropped it onto the fire, sparks flew into the air and danced and swirled around.
When he was satisfied that the fire would last a few more hours, he walked around and sat next to Misha.
The ones who weren’t sleeping, were simply sitting there, enjoying the warmth from the fire but moments later, the silence was broken by a low rumble in the distance and out of the corner of his eye, Jensen saw a streak of light and his memory took him back to the night he discovered the fire.
After alerting everyone to the new development, they had stayed up monitoring it.
When the sun rose the next morning, they discovered that it was even closer than he had realized and after a full day of discussing it to death, they had agreed to leave.
Jim had needed a lot of convincing, after all, it was the property he had lived most of his life on, he didn't want to leave it all behind and start over but the fire was too large and too close.
There was nothing that they could do to stop it.
Now they were camping out in the middle of another fucking field in god only knew where and the threat of a storm lingered over them, literally.
He couldn't tell how far away it was but as always, if he could see anything, it was too close.
Moments later, an enormous boom echoed around them and Jensen and Misha were both on their feet in an instant.
It was too dark to see more than a few feet in front of them and that terrified him, they couldn't protect themselves from something they couldn't see.
Jensen could feel Misha’s hand on his arm, his grip tightening as the sky became illuminated by a very large, very bright bolt of lightning.
Jensen exhaled sharply as Misha's fingers dug into his skin.
"What the hell was that?" Jared asked as he joined them, staring off into the darkness.
Jensen swallowed around the lump that had formed in his throat as the others were now awake, wondering what it was that he had seen.
He didn't know what it was but he had his suspicions and if he was correct, they needed to find shelter, now.
There wasn't exactly a lot of cover, a few scatterings of trees but not much else.
The rumbling grew louder as they stood by the fire.
He turned toward Jeff who was fumbling in the dark with his pack. “We saw the remains of that old house.”
“Yeah,” Jim said. “What about it, there was nothing left of it.”
“But it’s possible that there might be a root cellar, storm shelter, something, anything to protect us from this.”
“He’s right,” Felicia added. “It really feels like a storm is coming in, given the past, we shouldn’t be outside when it hits.”
"Grab your things, we need to go."
The quickly gathered up their things and when another boom echoed above them, they took off running across the field.
Sucking in a deep breath, Jared made quick work of packing up their things while Jensen made sure the fire was out and when another boom echoed above them, they took off running across the field.
As they approached the old remains, Jensen felt a tremor under his feet and as he glanced over his shoulder toward Jared, who was right behind him, he knew that they didn't have much time.
Pushing through the debris, they searched for the possible remains of a shelter.
It wasn't until Bobby and Felicia noticed a patch of grass near the garage that didn't seem quite right and as the others made their way over, they saw a rusty hinge covered in dirt.
John stepped forward and kicked at the damn thing until it popped off and fell into the grass.
It was a root cellar and it didn’t smell particularly fresh but it was the best they had, once all of them were inside, there wasn’t exactly a ton of room but it would be comfortable enough to wait out the storm.
The cellar was about eight feet wide and he figured about ten feet in length, on one side was a set of empty shelves but it still gave them enough room.
Having a fire was going to be an issue, there was poor ventilation, not to mention a ceiling, so that option was out.
They would make do though, they had been in tougher spots and having to wait out here for a few hours, or a few days, wasn't going to be that big of a deal.
As they sat down on the dirt floor, they could hear the rumbling as it appeared to grow closer and closer.
Jared squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his knees up to his chest.
Jensen wished that there was something that he could say to make him feel better but there were no words to make peace with what they were going through.
So, they just sat there listening to the world crumble around them.
****
When Jensen opened his eyes and found himself staring up at a dirty, cobweb-covered ceiling.
It took a moment for his faculties to return and when they did, he closed his eyes and exhaled sharply.
Rolling onto his side, he almost elbowed Misha in the face and despite the horrid situation, he smiled. Misha’s eyes popped open and he groaned heavily.
“Morning sunshine,” Jensen said as he patted him on the arm.
Misha slowly sat up and as he did so, Jensen realized he was staring intently at the cellar door. “What the hell is that?”
Jensen glanced over and his heart raced as he saw the water, it was pouring in through the gaps around the door and a large pool of water had collected on the floor not too far from them.
“Damn it.” He cried out.
The commotion had woken the others from their fitful sleep and it was John who first approached the door.
The others watched as if it were happening in slow motion, as John reached for the handle and as he pushed the door open and disappeared from view, he was stunned at what he saw.
The ground was flooded up to his ankles and there was debris scattered everywhere but what surprised him the most, was the large gaping crevice where the house had once stood.
“You guys need to see this.”
One by one they joined John in staring in shock at the giant pit before them.
“Jesus.” Bobby said as he leaned forward to get a better look. “Now what the hell do we do?”
“Are you kidding me?” Chris cried out. “We’re lucky the damn thing didn’t split the cellar in half and swallow us whole.”
Jared shuddered at the thought of going out that way and he had to back up, he grabbed Jax’s leash and pulled him away from the crevice.
Trudging through the murky water and debris went back into the cellar to get their things before they headed out.
The further they walked away from the old root cellar, the less the flooding became, it had however turned the dirt under their feet into an unpleasant smelling sludge that was a little tricky to trudge through but they were slowly making their way toward dry ground.
After several hours, Jensen couldn't take anymore of it and he desperately wanted to rest.
He desperately wanted to catch a break. They had suffered so much these past few months and he was exhausted.
The further they walked, the further away he felt from his family but he woke up every day, determined not to give up but that resolve was beginning to fade.
He wasn't sure how much more he could take and it was becoming obvious to Misha as well.
He felt his hand on his arm and when he looked up, Misha was standing in front of him. He didn't say anything, he simply wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into an embrace and Jensen collapsed against him.
He just needed to rest, just for a little while.
****
Chapter Five A Generation Unafraid