SPN/j2 Big Bang 2019 For The Heirs To Come, Be Brave Chapter 5
For the Heirs to Come, Be Brave
Chapter Five
A Generation Unafraid
When Jensen opened his eyes, the sun was just beginning to break over the horizon and despite the early hour, it was unusually warm.
As he glanced around, he accounted for everyone, except Jared and he was on his feet pretty quickly.
"I'm guessing that none of you know where Jared is?"
"Took Jax for a walk," Chris told him. "So, calm down."
It only made him feel marginally better but he still wanted to find him so he headed off across the field.
There were clusters of trees scattered around and he saw the remains of an old dry creek bed and as he approached, he let out a deep sigh of relief upon seeing Jared standing there.
"Damn it Jare," he cried out. "You scared the hell out of me."
Jared didn't move, didn't even so much as turn to look at him.
When Jensen saw what it was that had him so... distraught, he brought his hand to his mouth and gave his head a shake.
Laying in the long dry grass at the base of one of the trees, where the remains of a woman, in her arms was a small child.
He couldn't really guess how long ago they had died but being out in the open like that, it could have been a few weeks.
Jensen reached out and placed his hand on Jared's shoulder. "We can't do anything for them."
Jared turned to look at him, the sadness was written all over his face and Jensen knew what Jared was thinking, but they really didn't have time for it.
"I get it," he said. "But we can't do anything."
"I know," Jared replied. "It just sucks that no matter what we do, it's not enough. Even if we had have been able to help them, this still probably would have happened."
Jensen patted him on the back and then pulled him into a quick hug before they headed back to the camp.
Jared called out to Jax and he appeared from a group of trees and bounded toward them.
The others were still gathered around the fire and they had prepared a small breakfast.
They ate in silence and when they had finished, they packed up their things and prepared to leave.
Misha let the others go ahead and held Jensen back with him.
"Jen," he said. "I've been wanting to ask you for a long time now but I kept putting it off, I can't anymore because I need to know, what happened to you that day."
Jensen squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled sharply as he recalled the memories of that day.
He didn't really want to talk about it but he knew that at some point, he was going to have to explain it to Misha, today was apparently that day.
He looked over at Misha, who looked sad for him and he hadn't even said anything yet.
"I can't make you talk about it," Misha told him. "But I think it would be good for you, to not keep it bottled up like that."
Jensen sighed again and then nodded back at him.
****
The pen he held in his hand wobbled slightly as his grip around it loosened.
He was slunk as far down in his seat as his height would allow and knees were pressed firmly against the chair in front of him.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he leaned his head on the back of the chair and tried to block out the incessant buzzing noise that was emanating from somewhere within the plane.
They had been sitting on the tarmac for almost 15 minutes now and he still had no idea why they weren’t being allowed to deplane.
As he glanced around, he noticed that everyone else was beginning to lose their patience, one passenger grabbed the arm of a flight attendant as they walked past and tried to get some answers, but he was in too much of a hurry.
Sitting upright in his seat, he looked around as he felt a slight tremble, the plane wasn't moving so he couldn't figure out what was causing it.
After what felt like an eternity, an announcement was made that they could finally deplane.
He grabbed his bag from the overhead bin and waited impatiently for the passengers in front of him to exit the plane.
Once they were on the tarmac, they were quickly escorted into the terminal as the ground shook violently beneath them.
The passengers cried out as shards of glass pelted them as the windows of the building shattered.
As they made their way further inside, he could see that it was quickly turning chaotic, people didn't know what to do, the ground shook so violently and their panic levels rose as the building swayed around them.
As he was making his way toward the baggage terminal, he stopped mid step when he thought he heard the sound of rushing water and before he couldn't determine the cause of it, a huge wall of water smashed into the building.
It crept in through every nook and crevice and filled the terminal so quickly that before he knew it, it was already knee high.
He grabbed onto the nearby railing and held on as hard as he could as the water swirled around him.
It was so powerful that he feared if he loosened his grip on the railing, even a little, it would sweep him away.
Other people weren't so lucky, they were caught off guard and were swept up in the raging water, desperate to find something, anything to grab a hold of.
The cries and screams that echoed around him, made his blood run cold but there was nothing that he could do to help them.
Another huge rush of water came through and he was forced to let go of the railing as it hit him, pain coursed through his body as a piece of debris hit his side and he was 100% sure that it had cut him.
As he was pushed across the room, he somehow managed to grab hold of something, possibly a row of seats and he held on until the water seemed to calm down enough that he was able to stand upright.
The water had to have been at least five feet deep and as he tried to regain his sense, he heard a loud explosion and he watched in horror as the end of the building collapsed in on itself.
He needed to get out of there, find somewhere safe to hold up until he could figure out a plan.
It took him almost 15 minutes to swim his way out of the building and when he was outside, the chaos and destruction stunned him to his core.
As he cautiously swam around the building, he heard people calling out for help and when he glanced upward, he saw that there were people who had taken refuge on the rooftop of the next building.
He couldn't figure out how they had gotten up there. He couldn't see any stairs and he wondered if they had been inside and had used the roof access.
Someone started calling out to him, but there was a ringing in his ears and he couldn't make out the words so he kept swimming around the side of the building.
Finally, he saw the roof a taxi stand and he was able to pull himself up and out of the water.
It took a little maneuvering but he was able to climb onto the roof and once he was up there, he sat on the edge, his legs hanging over the side.
He glanced down at his stomach and saw that his shirt was stained with blood.
He grabbed at the hem and lifted his shirt to reveal a cut across his abdomen. It didn't look too deep so he wasn't overly concerned about right now.
After a while, he got to his feet and joined the others on the other side of the roof, he wasn't entirely sure why they had picked that particular spot.
Jensen saw two men standing near the edge, one of them was holding their cell phone, a huge brick of a thing and he was angrily punching at the numbers.
"It's been five hours," one of the men said. "The phones aren't working and no one is coming for us."
"We don't know that," Jensen replied. "Look around you, it's fucking chaos, it's going to take a while for help to arrive."
"Sure," the man said. "How long exactly are we supposed to wait?"
"As long as it takes," Jensen retorted. "We don't really have a choice."
Help still hadn't arrived the following morning. More survivors had gathered on the rooftop but even more people were still in the water, Jensen couldn't see any survivors though.
But they couldn't stay there too much longer, it had already been too long since they had water and Jensen was desperate to get down off that roof and get to Jared.
It wasn't until later in the day when the water finally began to recede enough that he felt comfortable to get down.
As he reached the round, the water still came up to his thigh, it wasn't ideal but he had to get out of there.
He figured it would take a good few hours or so to make it home, he knew that his family wasn't there but he did know for a fact that Jared was, the Padalecki family lived about 10 minutes north of the Ackles.
As he moved through the water, he kept thinking about Jared, wondering if he was okay, wondering if he was safe.
He tried not to think about it as he waded through the water, careful to avoid as much of the debris as he could.
When he finally reached the Padalecki house, it had been almost a whole day since the flooding had hit.
It had taken far longer to make it to the house than he had hoped it would.
As he pushed open the door and stepped into the kitchen, he saw the damage that had occurred and his heart sank.
He couldn't find any sign of Jared or Jax and as he slumped against the wall, he tried to figure out his next move.
He needed to find other survivors and he assumed the best place to do that, would be the town.
City Hall had a storm shelter and he figured some people would have made it inside in time.
Grabbing a pack from the laundry room, he packed up a few supplies and headed back out into the water.
He didn't come across a single person until he reached the town. He did see a few soldiers waiting on the steps of the building and they told him that an evacuation had already taken place, survivors had been taken to a FEMA Camp in Dallas.
They also told him that another evac wouldn't be leaving for at least another 12 hours.
They assured him that he would be safe inside and they would alert him when the convoy arrived, so he took the opportunity to get some rest and to bandage his wound.
It looked a little worse now than it did earlier but he still knew that he was incredibly lucky, it could have been so much worse.
He did the best he could to cover the wound and after finding a bathroom to clean himself up a little, he joined a group of others in the small cafeteria.
He wasn't sure how long they had been there when a soldier came in to inform them that the convoy would be arriving soon.
A few hours later, the group which consisted of almost 70 people were loaded onto buses.
All the information that they were given was that the camp was in Dallas.
What would have normally been a five-hour trip, took almost two days.
The roads were so badly damaged that they had to take a lot of detours.
When they finally arrived at the camp, it took longer than he wanted to get processed but he did find out that they were keeping good records and Jared's name was listed among them.
But it took about three hours of searching through the rows and rows of tents to find him.
Just when he was about to give up and head back to the main gate for more information, he heard a dog barking.
Of course, it could have been absolutely any dog but when it appeared from between two tents and he saw the golden fur, he squeezed his eyes shut as he felt a tear prick the corner of his eye.
A moment later, he could feel the dog at his feet and when he opened his eyes again and looked down, he saw Jax and he dropped to his knees and hugged the dog.
"Jensen."
Jensen inhaled deeply and got to his feet, Jared stood before him. Neither one said anything, they just embraced and stood that way for the longest time.
"I knew that you would find me." Jared finally said as they continued to stand there.
"Damn straight," Jensen replied. "The world might be going to hell, but you can always guarantee that I'll find you."
****
"Oh my god," Misha whispered. He took a step closer to him and pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry Jen. I should have stayed with you, I never should have left."
Jensen gave his head a shake. "It's okay. Who in their right mind would have ever predicted that this would happen? All that matters is that we found each other again."
Misha leaned back and lifted one hand and pressed his palm to Jensen's cheek.
"We always will."
They shared a quick kiss before they caught up with the others.
****
The next town they came across looked like a war zone, there were still buildings smoldering and the main road through town was a cracked, impassable mess.
They stopped to check out a few of the buildings and Jensen found a set of stairs that looked rather perilous.
He went into the room that overlooked the street. Broken glass crunched under his feet as he made his way across the room. Charred overturned furniture that lay haphazardly against the walls.
The smell was almost too much to bear and he raised his hand to his mouth to stop himself from gagging.
There were two sets of windows in the room but the glass was missing and despite the light breeze outside, none of it was affecting the inside.
Stepping away from the window, he scanned the rest of the room, in the east corner, the flood had burned away leaving a gaping hole that gave him a view of the room below and he was given a little fright when he saw Chris walk past.
"You scared the hell out of me," Jensen called out.
He could hear Chris' laughing and he gave his head a shake.
He was careful not to get too close though, he knew that with the weakened structure, the floor could give out at any moment.
He tried not to inhale too deeply as he ventured through the building and as he pushed open the warped door to what he thought had been an office, a cloud of ash filled the air and he coughed several times to clear it from his lungs.
After thoroughly inspecting the place, he concluded that there was nothing here, he figured it would be the same for most of the buildings.
He took the stairs two at a time, his heart pounding in his chest and ears and he was fighting to get enough air into his lungs.
He stepped through the doorway and doubled over in pain as he tried to catch his breath.
He heard voices and when he looked up, he saw the others gathered around, they had about as much luck as he had.
A loud popping noise echoed around them and it took far too long to realize what was going on.
They weren't alone, there was someone else there and that someone had a powerful gun.
Bullets ricocheted around them and as they took cover, Jensen heard Felicia cry out.
No one was able to get to her though, both Jared and Chris tried but there was too much of a gap between them and they could do nothing but watch her lie there, screaming out in pain.
"Is everyone else okay?" Jeff called out.
He got several responses but not quite enough.
"Bobby, answer me," Jeff said. "Are you okay?"
There was still no answer and Jensen felt his heart sink.
"Bobby!"
Whoever was shooting at them, clearly had enough bullets to keep this up for a while.
"We need to do something about this." Jeff said.
"Yeah well, if I could get out from behind this fucking fence, I might be able to get a shot in," Chris replied. "You got a weapon Jensen?"
He glanced over to where Jensen and Misha were crouched down behind the fence and nodded. "Yeah, I have a gun."
"Going to need some cover," Chris called out. "Now."
There wasn't a whole lot that they could do but there was a piece of debris near Jeff, he reached over and picked it up and after glancing at Chris, he lifted it into the air and a volley of shots hurtled towards him.
Chris had never moved so fast in his life, he darted across the street and took cover under an awning.
As he bolted down the street, he had seen where the shots were coming from, the building directly opposite where they were taking cover.
He would need to get inside and sneak up on the shooter, of course, he had no idea if it was just one person but he would deal with that as it came.
He made his way up to the second floor and after checking a couple of rooms, he found the shooter, he had a rifle set up at the window.
He had to be careful about this, he couldn't give himself away so after calming himself down, he took a small step to the side and raised his gun.
Pulling the trigger, the bullet sailed towards the man and hit him in the back, he dropped his rifle and half spun, half fell toward the floor and Chris fired another shot.
It wasn't something that he thought he would ever have to do but this new world changed things.
After checking to make sure the guy was dead, he walked over to the window and called out to the others.
But when he got back to them, his heart sank.
Lying on the ground in a pool of blood, was Felicia and next to her, was Bobby.
They both had been hit multiple times and even if they had managed to get to them sooner, they wouldn't have been able to save them.
It was going to be a rough night, that night.
****
After burying their friends, they set themselves up on the edge of town.
No one really said much, there wasn't much that they could say, not after the day they had had.
Jensen couldn't help but watch Jeff, Bobby had been his friend for a really long time and losing him like this, it was such a pointless death.
The mood over the group remained low as they camped out for the next few days. No one had any motivation to do anything other than sleep and mourn.
Finally, on the third day of being camped out in that field, Jeff announced that he was ready to keep moving.
That they couldn't stay there and that Jim wouldn't have wanted them to mope around.
****
As they approached the next town's border, Jeff instructed them to check their weapons, to make sure that they could reach them in a matter of seconds.
They were running low on ammo so they would have to be careful but he didn't want a repeat of the previous week.
They passed a sign for the town, it had been toppled sideways and as they kept moving, they realized that the ground was covered in a layer of ash and the further they walked, the deeper it seemed to get.
The smell of charred wood and burning rubber filled their nostrils and Jared gagged a little at the stench.
"What do you think happened here?" Chris asked no one in particular. "Anyone says a fire, I will shoot you."
"Well if it helps at all, a normal fire doesn't destroy brick," Misha said as he pointed to the decimated remains of a house across the street and the one next to that.
Jared was walking along normally when all of a sudden he stopped and cried out in pain.
Jensen walked over to him and motioned towards Jared's leg. "It's still hurting?"
Jared nodded back at him. "Yeah, a little but it will be fine."
"What are you talking about?" Jeff wanted to know.
"He twisted his ankle a few days ago," Jensen said. "You need to take some more pills."
Jensen grabbed the bag that Misha was carrying and rifling through it, he pulled out a slightly crushed box of painkillers and handed two of them to Jared.
Once he had taken the pills, they kept moving. They didn't plan on staying in this place for long, they were literally going to pass through and when they reached the edge of town, they saw yet another open field.
The tall grass scratched at their skin as they walked and it was slightly muddy under their feet but it wasn't enough to slow them down.
They had no idea what they were walking toward, for all they knew they could have been heading toward a cliff.
"We need to get the hell out of this field and find somewhere to stop." Jensen said after they had been walking for several more hours.
"Yes please," Jared added. "My ankle is killing me, I need to rest it."
Jeff glanced over at them. "Yeah okay, sounds good."
"I'm going to keep going, I want to see just how far this field goes." Jensen said.
Jeff nodded again Jensen disappeared into the long grass.
He was able to move fairly quickly, he used his arms to push the grass out of the way while he tried to keep his gaze on the ground in front of him.
Slowing down just a little, he glanced up and thought that the grass was starting to thin out a little and the patches of dirt were growing larger.
He wanted to keep running but as the grass became less and less, he slowed to a walk and eventually the grass came to an end and he stepped into a small clearing.
Beyond that clearing were clusters of trees and he thought he could hear the sound of trickling water.
He took a few tentative steps forward and he quickly realized that on the other side of the trees, there was a very small almost dry creek, barely a foot deep.
As he crossed over the creek and kept moving, he eventually came to a road but it wasn’t just a simple road, it was a freeway. With renewed hope, he ran back to the camp to tell the others.
He had run so fast that it took him a few minutes to catch his breath before he explained it to the others and as excited as they were, they agreed that they would wait until the morning.
****
Chapter Six For Years to Come, Be Brave