SPN Fanfic: Ghosts, Spies and Campfire Lies 3/5
Title: Ghosts, Spies and Campfire Lies 3/5
Disclaimer: I own neither Supernatural, nor the TV series Chuck.
Word Count: Total - 20770, Part 3 - 4490
Previously: Part 1 - Part 2
Summary: Abandoned campgrounds are never a good idea.
PART 3
Casey rolled out of his bedroll into a crouch, flashlight and gun at the ready, ears ringing. Movement in the shadows to his right told him Walker was awake and on high alert.
Across the campsite, Chuck spilled out of the Bartowski tent with his fingers in his ears, shouting. "Ah! What the hell was that!?"
That was an FNDD grenade. A flash-bang. No permanent damage at that range, just distraction. But distraction from what?
Sarah gestured she was going to check on Chuck and Ellie, leaving Casey to watch the rest of the camp.
Over the ringing and squealing noises in his ears, Casey could hear some impressive profanity from the direction of the Impala. He gritted his teeth. Winchesters. He turned off his flashlight and moved in.
-
Scurry, scurry, panic, regroup. Yes, I can touch you inside your fortifications. I can sap your battlements. I have secrets of my own.
-
Dean's world stayed bright and loud and strangely dizzy. That was not good in a huge way. He could feel his mouth and throat working, cursing as he fumbled out the door of the Impala, nauseous as the ground seemed to tilt underneath him. We're under attack! What the hell? Where's Sam?
Someone grabbed Dean's shoulders. Dean swung his arms around to break the grip, maybe get a hit in. Blind me, deafen me, make me wanna puke, I'm still gonna kick your ass you sonofa-
A moist breeze wafted into Dean's face as whoever had him by the shoulders yelled point-blank. Warm, corn-on-the-cob-scented breeze with a hint of bubblegum toothpaste.
Dean stopped struggling and hung on to the arms holding on to him. "Sam? Sam!"
"...here De...,"
Sam's voice faded in and out of the buzzing and squealing in Dean's ears, like an out of tune radio station. Dean blinked hard, but his vision stayed bright, with the faint after-image of the chunk of campsite he'd been looking at when the whatever-the-hell went off floating in his vision no matter which way he turned his head which was a huge mistake. Turning his head felt like riding a roller-coaster after a plate of congealed chili-fries and a twenty-sixer of rotgut scotch. He clung to Sam's arm, fighting to stay upright. "Can't see!"
"...shouting... Casey..."
"He do this? If that bastard cracked my windshield-" Dean staggered, slipped out of Sam's grip and sat heavily on the ground.
Sam's hands were on his shoulders again.
"...hear me, Dean?" Sam's voice, not louder, closer.
"Yeah. Sort of." Dean stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around.
"Whatever that was, it set off the EMF big time."
The faint differentiation between the ringing in Dean's ears and the squealing outside his ears became clearer. The EMF was going nuts inside the car. Dean's head swam. "That was Casper?"
"It's Casper, or it's a small nuclear explosion."
"Casper's got a nuke? That is so not fair, dude. Ghosts should not be allowed to have heavy ordnance."
The renewed huff of bubblegum/corn-scented air was more than enough to let Dean know Sam was sighing in exasperation.
-
Casey sat in the darkness with his flashlight off and gun at the ready, watching Dean trying to shake off the effects of the grenade, waiting for his own ears to fully clear. Sam knelt on the ground in front of Dean, hands on his brother's shoulders.
If it was them, why did Dean set off the grenade and mostly nail himself? Unless he screwed up and set it off by accident. Didn't go off inside the car or all the windows would have blown out and he'd be in a lot worse shape. Angle's wrong too. Casey looked to the north west. Range is too far. If he set it off, he launched it...
Or set it up right under my nose with a remote trigger while he was screwing around with that stupid 'anti-slug salt line'.
Casey growled.
Still didn't explain why Dean had nailed himself with it. Probably an attempt to gain trust.
Take more than one little flash-bang to get me to trust these guys. A lot more.
-
Dean's eyes were clearing slowly. The after-image was still everywhere he looked, but he could see Sam's concerned face behind that. He could also see at least two of the not-so-happy campers running around with flashlights.
"Hey," shouted Chuck behind one of the lights, bouncing over to where Dean and Sam sat on the ground beside the Impala. "Hey, you guys all right?"
"We're fine," Dean shouted, trying to modulate his voice and failing.
"Why are you on the ground?" Also shouting. At least my ears aren't the only ones that got screwed up.
"The flash messed up Dean's eyes, and he's a bit dizzy."
"Shut up, Sam." Dean blinked hard.
Ellie shook her head and tugged at her ears. "Is anybody hurt?"
"Dean can't see, and he's dizzy," said Chuck.
"'M fine!" Dean said, still too loudly, pulling away. "I can see fine."
"Hold still, I'm a doctor." Ellie peered into Dean's face, flicking her flashlight into his eyes and away, gauging the reaction. "You'll be okay. Your eyes are shocked by the sudden flash. Dizziness is likely from concussion to the vestibular system. Nothing permanent, it'll wear off in a bit, tell me if it doesn't though."
"See, like I said. I'm fine."
"What was that, anyway?" Ellie asked.
"It was, uh, sheet lightning or something," said Dean, glancing in Sam's direction. "I must have been looking square at it."
Ellie looked up at the clear, starry sky between the tree branches, reflexively pointing her flashlight upward.
"Yeah," said Casey, turning on his flashlight and stepping out of the nearby shadows. "Sheet lightning. Nothing to be scared of."
-
"That was no sheet lightning," Casey muttered to Sarah while Ellie put away the first aid kit. "That was a FNDD grenade. Between that and the interference with the earpieces, something's going on here, and I don't like it."
Sarah nodded. "You want to do re-con, find out exactly where that came from?"
"One of us needs to stay with Chuck and grill those two-"
"Well," Ellie said, flashlight bouncing as she re-crossed the campsite. "since everyone's okay and we're all up and around, I need to visit the little girl's shrubbery. Sarah, buddy system?"
"Um, sure...?"
Casey nodded. "Okay. You do the re-con. I'll grill."
"Be nice, Casey."
Casey grinned.
"Don't go outside the salt line," Dean called out, getting back to his feet.
Four flashlights swung towards Dean, blinding him for the second time that night.
He shielded his eyes with his hand. "Just... trust me."
"I'm not that worried about slugs," said Ellie, "but thank you for your concern, Dean."
-
The dark-haired woman. She's clear compared to the others. Little dishonesties, little lies. Broken piggy banks and stifled annoyances. No real secrets. Not like the others. They all have secrets, but she's the only one they all have secrets from.
She's perfect. They will come for her.
-
As soon as Sarah and Ellie's lights had disappeared into the bush to the north-west, Casey turned on the Winchesters. "Alright, spill. What are you jokers up to?"
"What?" Dean wiggled a finger in his ear, and stretched his face into a yawn, trying to chase away the last of the ringing.
"That had something to do with you two."
"It didn't. It's not us." Dean and Sam exchanged a complex glance before Dean continued. "But it is dangerous around here. You and your friends need to get out as soon as possible."
"Oh yeah, Why's that?"
The light from Dean's flashlight made an arc that took in the majority of the campsite. "Obviously. Things are exploding. That's a sign you people need to leave."
"So, you set off the grenade to scare us away from here?"
Chuck, who'd been staying out of the discussion interjected. "Grenade? What?"
Casey held a hand up. "A flash-bang. Harmless."
Dean snorted. "Harmless?"
Casey swung the light from his flashlight into Dean's face. "You can see now can't you?"
Dean blocked the light with a hand and a scowl. "Exactly. Why would me and my brother set off a grenade, which we don't have, just to incapacitate me."
Casey bared his teeth. "To try to gain our trust."
Dean snorted. "We don't need your trust that bad. We just need you to pack up and go home."
"Why?"
"You wouldn't believe us," Sam said.
Casey flicked his eyes toward Sam then back to Dean. "You're right. I wouldn't. Why are you here, really?"
Dean half-lowered his eyelids in a blandly innocent expression. "Camping. Just like you are."
"Right. Camping with your brother's old Stanford pal who you had no idea was camping here?"
"Absolutely."
"In a '67 Impala?"
Dean stepped closer to Casey. "Best damn car on the road."
"And in the campground?"
"It's roomy." Dean said with finality. "What about you? I mean seriously, a Crown Victoria?"
Casey snarled and stepped towards Dean. Sam quietly moved into the space behind Dean, arms crossed, chin down.
"Whoa, okay, time out." Chuck moved between Casey and the Winchesters, light flashing as he formed a t-shape with the flashlight pointing towards the sky and his free hand tapping the top. "Let' all just back off on each other's vehicle preferences for a sec and, ooo, I dunno, maybe talk about this grenade? If you didn't set it off and Casey didn't set it off, someone else did, right?"
Dean glared at Casey. Casey glowered.
-
"So, Sarah. Can ask a question?"
"Sure, Ellie." Sarah was out in front, flashlight scanning the trail for signs of a grenade exploding. Her own shadow from Ellie's flashlight was making close examination difficult, but a flash grenade going off would leave an unmistakable mark.
"Why'd you come here?"
"What?"
"Why'd you come out, to where me and Chuck were camping?"
Sarah shrugged and scanned the foliage. "It sounded like fun."
"There's hundreds of campgrounds, though. Why this one?" Ellie's flashlight flicked to the side before training on Sarah again. "It seems a little... clingy. Like you don't want Chuck to do anything without you."
"I'm sorry, Ellie. I know this was supposed to be family time for you and Chuck, but..." The closer to the truth a cover story is, the more solid it will be. "An old friend of mine passed away recently and I- I guess I couldn't handle not being near Chuck."
"Oh god, I'm so sorry! Chuck should have said something."
"I asked him not to, I didn't want to be treated like a grieving person. Like I was fragile."
The light from Ellie's flashlight bobbed. "I can understand that. Are you gonna be okay?"
"I'm fine, really. Chuck has this way of being so supportive without doing anything."
Ellie laughed. "Yeah, he does, in a way."
"I'm sorry I ruined your family camping weekend."
"No! No, god. I'm sorry. I should have known something was up." Ellie laughed. "Between you and Sam, I'm developing a real taste for my own feet on this trip."
"Speaking of Sam, can I ask you a question?"
"It's only fair," Ellie said equitably.
"How well does Chuck know this Sam guy? Has he ever mentioned him to you?"
"No, but there's a lot about Stanford he doesn't talk-" Ellie screamed suddenly, her flashlight beam swinging up to the sky before disappearing.
Sarah drew her gun and dropped into a crouch, flashlight aiming where the gun pointed. The forest area was clear of any visible threats.
Ellie was gone.
-
The scream from the woods was twinned by the EMF squealing in the Impala, car interior flickering red from the lights.
Sam and Dean looked at each other.
"Crap."
"Too late." Dean gritted, and took off running towards the scream, followed closely by Sam.
"Not so fast!" Casey stepped in front of them, aiming his flashlight at them. The slight slithery metal sound of a gun being loosened in a holster stopped Dean and Sam. "You two are staying right here where I can see you."
-
"Ellie?!" Sarah called out, gun still ready.
"Ow. I'm here," came Ellie's muffled voice. "I fell. I didn't see it, there was a hole."
A hole?
Sarah found the hole immediately and shone her light in. "Ellie? Are you okay?" she said, tucking her gun away.
"I'm okay, just bruises, maybe a mild sprain." Ellie's voice drifted from below. Deep in the hole her flashlight flickered around, revealing a small cave, then pointed up toward Sarah. "I don't think I can climb back up though. The walls curve...."
Light played around the underground chamber again, and through the hole Sarah could see there was no slope to climb out easily.
"It's like a cathedral roof, arching," Ellie said. "Don't get too close to the hole, Sarah. The ground must really be thin around there."
"I'll go get a rope."
"But if the ground's unstable, it could be dangerous. There's a cave entrance, Chuck should remember where it is. This is probably connected to those. There's a crevice in the wall down here."
"Okay, just stay right there. Don't move!"
"Not planning on it." Ellie's light flickered back down at the walls again.
Sarah shone her flashlight around the area and snapped several nearby branches so they were pointing down towards the hole. She was certain there hadn't been a hole there before Ellie went through. Sarah had walked right over the spot herself, she was sure of it; Ellie had been walking behind her. She searched her memory, but couldn't recall the forest floor there being any different than the surrounding ground. If it had been a trap, it had been a very well hidden one to escape her notice.
Maybe there wasn't a hole. Could just be that the ground is really thin there. Not everything is a trap.
Sarah ran back towards the campsite.
-
I have her. She's my secret now. Only a matter of time and the rest will follow.
-
Ellie shook her flashlight but it kept flickering. Must have been damaged in the fall. She found a wall of the cave and sat with her back to it, then turned the flashlight off. No sense in wasting the batteries; she'd turn it back on when Sarah came back with some rope or whatever. Not like there was anything to see in here anyway. Rock. Walls. Dirt. Roots. Bugs.
Good thing I'm not claustrophobic. Or myctophobic. Darkness doesn't bother me at all. I'm not afraid.
Something scurried over the toe of her sneaker in the darkness.
"Gahh!" She flicked the flashlight on in time to see something skitter into the crevice in the wall.
Startled, yes. Not phobic.
Her flashlight flickered and died again. She sighed and turned it off.
Camping. Such fun. No idea why we don't do it more often. Ellie rotated her ankle. Yeah, that's a mild sprain. Stay off it, ice packs...
"It's cool in this cave though, that should help keep any swelling down."
Talking to herself. She laughed. There was no echo, like the walls were eating her voice. Oh come on! That's nonsense. It's just dark.
-
"Your friends are in trouble out there!" Sam said, raising his hands a little, watching Chuck fidgeting behind Casey and aiming his flashlight out into the dark woods. Casey hadn't showed a gun yet, but some sounds were unmistakable.
"Walker can handle anything," Casey growled.
"Walker, hunh?" Dean jerked his chin up. "She go by her last name too?"
"What about Ellie?" Sam asked, still watching Chuck. "Someone screamed, you heard it."
Chuck made an indecipherable noise and took off into the woods, light swinging crazily over bushes. "Ellie! Sarah!"
"Bartowski! Dammit!" Casey's light spun out of the Winchesters' faces as he turned and ran after Chuck.
They didn't get far before they saw one light returning. Chuck skidded on the trail as he nearly ran past.
"Sarah! What happened!"
"Ellie fell down a hole!"
"What?" squawked Chuck.
"What?" Dean said flatly, glancing at Sam.
Sam frowned and looked back towards the campsite and the EMF in the Impala. It went off. Something more happened than someone falling in a hole.
"I swear, I didn't see it, but there was this hole-"
"Is she okay?" asked Chuck, frantic.
"Did you go outside the salt line?" Dean asked, expression intense.
"Honestly, Dean! I guarantee you this has nothing to do with slugs!"
"Sarah," Chuck said, getting between Sarah and Dean. "Is Ellie okay?!"
"She said she's fine. She's in an underground cave. We'll need rope to get her out."
"There's rope in my car," Dean and Casey said simultaneously. They exchanged a mutual glare.
"There's a possibility the ground isn't stable enough to hold. Ellie said that there's a cave entrance nearby and that it might connect up."
"Oh! I know where that is! Ellie and me found it when we were kids. Never went in because our parents were-" Chuck flapped his hands and shook his head with a frown. "Never mind. I know where it is! Come on!" He turned to run back to the campsite.
Casey grabbed Chuck's shoulder as he ran past. "Hold up, Chuck."
"Tell you what," Dean said, "you guys discuss things out here in the bush, me and Sam'll go back to the campsite, get a rope and come back."
"No." Casey's light nailed them like a spotlight at a maximum security prison. "You two are staying where we can see you."
"They didn't push Ellie into the hole Casey," Chuck said, shrugging out from under Casey's hand. "They're trying to help."
"Thank you," said Dean, rolling his eyes.
Casey and Sarah exchanged a glance.
Sam spoke up. "How about we all go back to camp, gear up, and figure out what we're doing to rescue Ellie?"
Nobody argued with that.
-
The discussion back at the camp only took as long as locating rope. Sarah knew where the hole was, Chuck knew where the cave entrance was.
"I'm with Chuck, and you two are going one way or the other. Figure it out yourselves," Casey said before calling Sarah into a conference out of the Winchester's earshot.
"Rock, paper, scissors?" Dean suggested, pulling a bundle of thick rope from the depths of the Impala's trunk.
Sam shook his head. "I'll go to the cave."
"Fine by me. You do some geek-boy bonding with Chuck and his pet Terminator there," Dean hoisted the rope onto his shoulder. "I'll go with the hot chick to see if we can rescue the other hot chick."
"Dean..."
"What? I'm just appreciating the view while I still have the chance."
Sam's jaw clenched. "Take the EMF meter with you."
-
Water dripped. It sounded too far away to be in the little underground pocket with her. A cool, fungusy breeze came from somewhere.
Ellie knew were caves around here, even though she'd never been in them. She remembered the cave entrance she and Chuck had found on one of the last times they'd come here. It might have been the last time, now that she thought about it. That wasn't important.
She hoped this cave-pocket connected to that cave. The ground above was really thin for her to have broken through, it would be safer for them to try to get to her through the cave system.
Ellie stared up towards the roof, and the hole she'd fallen through, but couldn't see any differentiation in the light. No sky, no stars.
"It's under the trees. They must be blocking the light from the moon. Still, you'd think it wouldn't be that dark out."
Talking to yourself again? She sighed and thought back to the optic sections of her medical training. Night vision, night vision... Rhodopsin in the eye regenerates within five or ten minutes. Half an hour for full recovery, but I should be able to see something other than pitch black by now...
Something glimmered in the corner of her eye and Ellie looked down from the ceiling toward the crevice she'd seen before. Light glowed faintly, and sounds that might have been distant voices.
There wasn't a light there before. Funny. Maybe they've already found the way in, coming through the tunnels to find me? This cave must be really close to that entrance.
"I'm here!" she shouted. Her voice still didn't echo.
-
Dean trailed after Sarah through the woods, flashlight tracing the line of white crystals paralleling the trail. We're still inside the salt line. So was that EMF burst when the grenade went off. What the hell?
"Through here." Sarah called.
"Right behind you." It was more than possible the salt-line had been broken. Animals, damp patches... Dean had been hoping it would hold for the night and give him and Sam a chance to clear out these people in the morning. Yeah. When have we ever been that lucky?
"Here! I marked it. It's right..." Sarah crouched down and felt at the smooth ground underneath three broken branches. "It's gone."
Dean shone his flashlight on the area and the surrounding ground. "Maybe you got turned around in the dark. It hap-"
"No." Sarah snapped. "I know what I'm doing. The hole was right here, now it's not. Some kind of trap door or something." Sarah pulled a knife out of her boot and started cutting at the loamy turf.
Dean squatted next to Sarah, pulling out the EMF meter and holding it over the patch of ground. All five lights lit up and the meter pinned at maximum.
Dean grimaced. "Yeah. Or something."
Casper's underground. Line of salt on the surface won't do jack all, unbroken or not. Perfect.
"What's that?" asked Sarah, her voice a mix of studied innocence and wary knowing.
"It's-" Dean sighed. "It's an EMF meter. Detects electromagnetic frequencies."
"Why?" Sarah's light aimed into Dean's face. He was getting tired of that.
Dean mentally shrugged. "Well, see, me and my brother, we hunt ghosts. Among other things."
"You think what's going on out here is being caused by a ghost?" Sarah's voice was flat and unamused.
"Yep." Dean nodded.
There was silence behind Sarah's flashlight, followed by an incredulous snort, her light flicking away to examine another section of ground.
That went well.
-
Sam spotted the cave entrance before Chuck or Casey did. The deep, shifting shadows of the rock formation weren't what made Sam run ahead, spotlighted by a light he assumed was Casey's. A sigil stood out against the rock wall. Sam squatted for a closer look. Paint. Not blood. That's a novelty.
"There it is!" came Chuck's voice as he thrashed through the bush and into the small clearing near the cave entrance.
"Shouldn't run ahead like that, Winchester," growled Casey, looming over Sam. "It's enough to make a guy paranoid. Twitchy."
Sam rolled his eyes and stood up, negating Casey's loom-factor by making their heights equal. "How about you let me know if there's anything me and Dean do that doesn't make you twitchy?"
Casey snorted something that might have been a laugh.
Chuck was looking over the cave entrance. "I remember because there was a thing painted on the wall that looked kind of like the Transformers logo."
Sam tilted his head and pointed. "That thing looks like a Transformers logo?"
"Yeah! Well, it did when I was a kid, now it... kind of..." Chuck's voice trailed off.
Sam looked over at Chuck to see his eyelids half-closed and fluttering rapidly. What the hell?
-
This one. This one is so full of secrets.... the world should bend around him from the weight of them. But he doesn't truly know what he knows. He's an ammo case. The shell of the warhead.
Him. I need him. I need his secrets. With his secrets I can make them all pay.
-
Chuck's eyes re-focused. "Toucan Keep," he gasped, or at least that's what it sounded like to Sam.
"What?" Sam stared at Chuck, shining the flashlight in his face. "Are you all right?" he asked with a kind of slow dawning dread. That looked kind of like a vision...
"He's fine," said Casey.
Chuck shielded his eyes from the light and looked significantly in Casey's direction. "I, uh. Yeah. Fine. I'm fine. Headache."
"Headache." Sam said the word like it was a piece of a puzzle he didn't want to solve.
"I'm sure Chuck's fine, he's just worried about his sister. We should head back to camp."
"Naw, you two go back. I can stay here, take a look around..." Get a better look at that symbol.
"Why don't we all go back to the camp so Chuck can get some aspirin." Casey stepped up into the light next to Chuck.
"Yeah, um. I, I, painkillers! Right! Yeah. It's uh, it's uh...." Chuck turned, careened off Casey and ran back the way they'd come, hollering, "I gotta go find Sarah!"
Casey emitted a displeased grunt and turned to follow but glared back at Sam.
Sam shrugged blandly. "Just gotta check out a few things, I'll be right there."
Teeth gritted, Casey tore off after Chuck's bouncing flashlight for the second time that night.
What was going on here? Sam shifted his flashlight downward, aiming toward the cave again and the symbol on the wall.
Aramaic? Babylonian? Didn't look demonic, but it was hard to tell. Darkness and weathering of the symbol were not helping.
If whatever's doing this is a ghost, that's one thing. If it's a demon, that's something else entirely. We need more info; for starters, what this symbol is.
Sam fished out his phone, and took a picture. The detail would show up better in the morning, but the little camera-phone didn't do a bad job. Now, if there was wi-fi, I could look this up on the laptop. Or if there was a cell signal out here, I could send this to Bobby so he could look it up. Whenever he checked his email.
Sam sighed. No more cases without wi-fi. This is nuts.
I hate camping.
Sam stuck the phone back into his pocket, pulled out his salt flask and poured a precautionary line across the cave entrance before following Chuck and Casey back to camp.
-
All the rules of being lost said stay put, let your searchers come get you. That was ridiculous when she could hear them and even see their lights. Besides, between the cool rock she was sitting on and the dripping sounds it was getting to the point where if she didn't get up and move, she was going to have to pee again.
She got to her feet, testing her ankle and finding it twinged, but hurt less than she'd thought it might. Picking her way carefully along the uneven cave floor, she stopped when she got to the crevice. The faint light waxed and waned, like moving flashlights, and she thought she could almost make out a word here and there. She looked back at the black cave roof.
What if they're coming with a rope too? They'll come here and I'll have disappeared.
Suddenly thinking of Sam's earnest face over the campfire, talking about people going missing, she shivered.
"Don't be ridiculous," she chided herself. "It's just campfire stories."
Ellie stooped and felt around on the floor, gathering loose rocks and making an arrow-shape, pointing towards the lit crevice.
When she was done, she stood back and looked at the arrow, standing out against the cave floor, the slight shifting light from the tunnel making the small stones grow shadows.
Ellie nodded. "There. Just in case." She squeezed through the crevice, heading towards the light and voices.
"I'm here! I'm coming!"
-
Even hidden, she hides nothing. She leaves a mark so she can be found. Astounding. She acquires a secret and gives it away.
The cave floor shuddered, shivering like the back of a stretching cat, or like a small explosion had gone off miles away. The stones danced out of their carefully piled arrow-shape and scattered across the floor.
She has no secrets. But I do.
- - -
(continued in Part 4)
Disclaimer: I own neither Supernatural, nor the TV series Chuck.
Word Count: Total - 20770, Part 3 - 4490
Previously: Part 1 - Part 2
Summary: Abandoned campgrounds are never a good idea.
PART 3
Casey rolled out of his bedroll into a crouch, flashlight and gun at the ready, ears ringing. Movement in the shadows to his right told him Walker was awake and on high alert.
Across the campsite, Chuck spilled out of the Bartowski tent with his fingers in his ears, shouting. "Ah! What the hell was that!?"
That was an FNDD grenade. A flash-bang. No permanent damage at that range, just distraction. But distraction from what?
Sarah gestured she was going to check on Chuck and Ellie, leaving Casey to watch the rest of the camp.
Over the ringing and squealing noises in his ears, Casey could hear some impressive profanity from the direction of the Impala. He gritted his teeth. Winchesters. He turned off his flashlight and moved in.
-
Scurry, scurry, panic, regroup. Yes, I can touch you inside your fortifications. I can sap your battlements. I have secrets of my own.
-
Dean's world stayed bright and loud and strangely dizzy. That was not good in a huge way. He could feel his mouth and throat working, cursing as he fumbled out the door of the Impala, nauseous as the ground seemed to tilt underneath him. We're under attack! What the hell? Where's Sam?
Someone grabbed Dean's shoulders. Dean swung his arms around to break the grip, maybe get a hit in. Blind me, deafen me, make me wanna puke, I'm still gonna kick your ass you sonofa-
A moist breeze wafted into Dean's face as whoever had him by the shoulders yelled point-blank. Warm, corn-on-the-cob-scented breeze with a hint of bubblegum toothpaste.
Dean stopped struggling and hung on to the arms holding on to him. "Sam? Sam!"
"...here De...,"
Sam's voice faded in and out of the buzzing and squealing in Dean's ears, like an out of tune radio station. Dean blinked hard, but his vision stayed bright, with the faint after-image of the chunk of campsite he'd been looking at when the whatever-the-hell went off floating in his vision no matter which way he turned his head which was a huge mistake. Turning his head felt like riding a roller-coaster after a plate of congealed chili-fries and a twenty-sixer of rotgut scotch. He clung to Sam's arm, fighting to stay upright. "Can't see!"
"...shouting... Casey..."
"He do this? If that bastard cracked my windshield-" Dean staggered, slipped out of Sam's grip and sat heavily on the ground.
Sam's hands were on his shoulders again.
"...hear me, Dean?" Sam's voice, not louder, closer.
"Yeah. Sort of." Dean stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around.
"Whatever that was, it set off the EMF big time."
The faint differentiation between the ringing in Dean's ears and the squealing outside his ears became clearer. The EMF was going nuts inside the car. Dean's head swam. "That was Casper?"
"It's Casper, or it's a small nuclear explosion."
"Casper's got a nuke? That is so not fair, dude. Ghosts should not be allowed to have heavy ordnance."
The renewed huff of bubblegum/corn-scented air was more than enough to let Dean know Sam was sighing in exasperation.
-
Casey sat in the darkness with his flashlight off and gun at the ready, watching Dean trying to shake off the effects of the grenade, waiting for his own ears to fully clear. Sam knelt on the ground in front of Dean, hands on his brother's shoulders.
If it was them, why did Dean set off the grenade and mostly nail himself? Unless he screwed up and set it off by accident. Didn't go off inside the car or all the windows would have blown out and he'd be in a lot worse shape. Angle's wrong too. Casey looked to the north west. Range is too far. If he set it off, he launched it...
Or set it up right under my nose with a remote trigger while he was screwing around with that stupid 'anti-slug salt line'.
Casey growled.
Still didn't explain why Dean had nailed himself with it. Probably an attempt to gain trust.
Take more than one little flash-bang to get me to trust these guys. A lot more.
-
Dean's eyes were clearing slowly. The after-image was still everywhere he looked, but he could see Sam's concerned face behind that. He could also see at least two of the not-so-happy campers running around with flashlights.
"Hey," shouted Chuck behind one of the lights, bouncing over to where Dean and Sam sat on the ground beside the Impala. "Hey, you guys all right?"
"We're fine," Dean shouted, trying to modulate his voice and failing.
"Why are you on the ground?" Also shouting. At least my ears aren't the only ones that got screwed up.
"The flash messed up Dean's eyes, and he's a bit dizzy."
"Shut up, Sam." Dean blinked hard.
Ellie shook her head and tugged at her ears. "Is anybody hurt?"
"Dean can't see, and he's dizzy," said Chuck.
"'M fine!" Dean said, still too loudly, pulling away. "I can see fine."
"Hold still, I'm a doctor." Ellie peered into Dean's face, flicking her flashlight into his eyes and away, gauging the reaction. "You'll be okay. Your eyes are shocked by the sudden flash. Dizziness is likely from concussion to the vestibular system. Nothing permanent, it'll wear off in a bit, tell me if it doesn't though."
"See, like I said. I'm fine."
"What was that, anyway?" Ellie asked.
"It was, uh, sheet lightning or something," said Dean, glancing in Sam's direction. "I must have been looking square at it."
Ellie looked up at the clear, starry sky between the tree branches, reflexively pointing her flashlight upward.
"Yeah," said Casey, turning on his flashlight and stepping out of the nearby shadows. "Sheet lightning. Nothing to be scared of."
-
"That was no sheet lightning," Casey muttered to Sarah while Ellie put away the first aid kit. "That was a FNDD grenade. Between that and the interference with the earpieces, something's going on here, and I don't like it."
Sarah nodded. "You want to do re-con, find out exactly where that came from?"
"One of us needs to stay with Chuck and grill those two-"
"Well," Ellie said, flashlight bouncing as she re-crossed the campsite. "since everyone's okay and we're all up and around, I need to visit the little girl's shrubbery. Sarah, buddy system?"
"Um, sure...?"
Casey nodded. "Okay. You do the re-con. I'll grill."
"Be nice, Casey."
Casey grinned.
"Don't go outside the salt line," Dean called out, getting back to his feet.
Four flashlights swung towards Dean, blinding him for the second time that night.
He shielded his eyes with his hand. "Just... trust me."
"I'm not that worried about slugs," said Ellie, "but thank you for your concern, Dean."
-
The dark-haired woman. She's clear compared to the others. Little dishonesties, little lies. Broken piggy banks and stifled annoyances. No real secrets. Not like the others. They all have secrets, but she's the only one they all have secrets from.
She's perfect. They will come for her.
-
As soon as Sarah and Ellie's lights had disappeared into the bush to the north-west, Casey turned on the Winchesters. "Alright, spill. What are you jokers up to?"
"What?" Dean wiggled a finger in his ear, and stretched his face into a yawn, trying to chase away the last of the ringing.
"That had something to do with you two."
"It didn't. It's not us." Dean and Sam exchanged a complex glance before Dean continued. "But it is dangerous around here. You and your friends need to get out as soon as possible."
"Oh yeah, Why's that?"
The light from Dean's flashlight made an arc that took in the majority of the campsite. "Obviously. Things are exploding. That's a sign you people need to leave."
"So, you set off the grenade to scare us away from here?"
Chuck, who'd been staying out of the discussion interjected. "Grenade? What?"
Casey held a hand up. "A flash-bang. Harmless."
Dean snorted. "Harmless?"
Casey swung the light from his flashlight into Dean's face. "You can see now can't you?"
Dean blocked the light with a hand and a scowl. "Exactly. Why would me and my brother set off a grenade, which we don't have, just to incapacitate me."
Casey bared his teeth. "To try to gain our trust."
Dean snorted. "We don't need your trust that bad. We just need you to pack up and go home."
"Why?"
"You wouldn't believe us," Sam said.
Casey flicked his eyes toward Sam then back to Dean. "You're right. I wouldn't. Why are you here, really?"
Dean half-lowered his eyelids in a blandly innocent expression. "Camping. Just like you are."
"Right. Camping with your brother's old Stanford pal who you had no idea was camping here?"
"Absolutely."
"In a '67 Impala?"
Dean stepped closer to Casey. "Best damn car on the road."
"And in the campground?"
"It's roomy." Dean said with finality. "What about you? I mean seriously, a Crown Victoria?"
Casey snarled and stepped towards Dean. Sam quietly moved into the space behind Dean, arms crossed, chin down.
"Whoa, okay, time out." Chuck moved between Casey and the Winchesters, light flashing as he formed a t-shape with the flashlight pointing towards the sky and his free hand tapping the top. "Let' all just back off on each other's vehicle preferences for a sec and, ooo, I dunno, maybe talk about this grenade? If you didn't set it off and Casey didn't set it off, someone else did, right?"
Dean glared at Casey. Casey glowered.
-
"So, Sarah. Can ask a question?"
"Sure, Ellie." Sarah was out in front, flashlight scanning the trail for signs of a grenade exploding. Her own shadow from Ellie's flashlight was making close examination difficult, but a flash grenade going off would leave an unmistakable mark.
"Why'd you come here?"
"What?"
"Why'd you come out, to where me and Chuck were camping?"
Sarah shrugged and scanned the foliage. "It sounded like fun."
"There's hundreds of campgrounds, though. Why this one?" Ellie's flashlight flicked to the side before training on Sarah again. "It seems a little... clingy. Like you don't want Chuck to do anything without you."
"I'm sorry, Ellie. I know this was supposed to be family time for you and Chuck, but..." The closer to the truth a cover story is, the more solid it will be. "An old friend of mine passed away recently and I- I guess I couldn't handle not being near Chuck."
"Oh god, I'm so sorry! Chuck should have said something."
"I asked him not to, I didn't want to be treated like a grieving person. Like I was fragile."
The light from Ellie's flashlight bobbed. "I can understand that. Are you gonna be okay?"
"I'm fine, really. Chuck has this way of being so supportive without doing anything."
Ellie laughed. "Yeah, he does, in a way."
"I'm sorry I ruined your family camping weekend."
"No! No, god. I'm sorry. I should have known something was up." Ellie laughed. "Between you and Sam, I'm developing a real taste for my own feet on this trip."
"Speaking of Sam, can I ask you a question?"
"It's only fair," Ellie said equitably.
"How well does Chuck know this Sam guy? Has he ever mentioned him to you?"
"No, but there's a lot about Stanford he doesn't talk-" Ellie screamed suddenly, her flashlight beam swinging up to the sky before disappearing.
Sarah drew her gun and dropped into a crouch, flashlight aiming where the gun pointed. The forest area was clear of any visible threats.
Ellie was gone.
-
The scream from the woods was twinned by the EMF squealing in the Impala, car interior flickering red from the lights.
Sam and Dean looked at each other.
"Crap."
"Too late." Dean gritted, and took off running towards the scream, followed closely by Sam.
"Not so fast!" Casey stepped in front of them, aiming his flashlight at them. The slight slithery metal sound of a gun being loosened in a holster stopped Dean and Sam. "You two are staying right here where I can see you."
-
"Ellie?!" Sarah called out, gun still ready.
"Ow. I'm here," came Ellie's muffled voice. "I fell. I didn't see it, there was a hole."
A hole?
Sarah found the hole immediately and shone her light in. "Ellie? Are you okay?" she said, tucking her gun away.
"I'm okay, just bruises, maybe a mild sprain." Ellie's voice drifted from below. Deep in the hole her flashlight flickered around, revealing a small cave, then pointed up toward Sarah. "I don't think I can climb back up though. The walls curve...."
Light played around the underground chamber again, and through the hole Sarah could see there was no slope to climb out easily.
"It's like a cathedral roof, arching," Ellie said. "Don't get too close to the hole, Sarah. The ground must really be thin around there."
"I'll go get a rope."
"But if the ground's unstable, it could be dangerous. There's a cave entrance, Chuck should remember where it is. This is probably connected to those. There's a crevice in the wall down here."
"Okay, just stay right there. Don't move!"
"Not planning on it." Ellie's light flickered back down at the walls again.
Sarah shone her flashlight around the area and snapped several nearby branches so they were pointing down towards the hole. She was certain there hadn't been a hole there before Ellie went through. Sarah had walked right over the spot herself, she was sure of it; Ellie had been walking behind her. She searched her memory, but couldn't recall the forest floor there being any different than the surrounding ground. If it had been a trap, it had been a very well hidden one to escape her notice.
Maybe there wasn't a hole. Could just be that the ground is really thin there. Not everything is a trap.
Sarah ran back towards the campsite.
-
I have her. She's my secret now. Only a matter of time and the rest will follow.
-
Ellie shook her flashlight but it kept flickering. Must have been damaged in the fall. She found a wall of the cave and sat with her back to it, then turned the flashlight off. No sense in wasting the batteries; she'd turn it back on when Sarah came back with some rope or whatever. Not like there was anything to see in here anyway. Rock. Walls. Dirt. Roots. Bugs.
Good thing I'm not claustrophobic. Or myctophobic. Darkness doesn't bother me at all. I'm not afraid.
Something scurried over the toe of her sneaker in the darkness.
"Gahh!" She flicked the flashlight on in time to see something skitter into the crevice in the wall.
Startled, yes. Not phobic.
Her flashlight flickered and died again. She sighed and turned it off.
Camping. Such fun. No idea why we don't do it more often. Ellie rotated her ankle. Yeah, that's a mild sprain. Stay off it, ice packs...
"It's cool in this cave though, that should help keep any swelling down."
Talking to herself. She laughed. There was no echo, like the walls were eating her voice. Oh come on! That's nonsense. It's just dark.
-
"Your friends are in trouble out there!" Sam said, raising his hands a little, watching Chuck fidgeting behind Casey and aiming his flashlight out into the dark woods. Casey hadn't showed a gun yet, but some sounds were unmistakable.
"Walker can handle anything," Casey growled.
"Walker, hunh?" Dean jerked his chin up. "She go by her last name too?"
"What about Ellie?" Sam asked, still watching Chuck. "Someone screamed, you heard it."
Chuck made an indecipherable noise and took off into the woods, light swinging crazily over bushes. "Ellie! Sarah!"
"Bartowski! Dammit!" Casey's light spun out of the Winchesters' faces as he turned and ran after Chuck.
They didn't get far before they saw one light returning. Chuck skidded on the trail as he nearly ran past.
"Sarah! What happened!"
"Ellie fell down a hole!"
"What?" squawked Chuck.
"What?" Dean said flatly, glancing at Sam.
Sam frowned and looked back towards the campsite and the EMF in the Impala. It went off. Something more happened than someone falling in a hole.
"I swear, I didn't see it, but there was this hole-"
"Is she okay?" asked Chuck, frantic.
"Did you go outside the salt line?" Dean asked, expression intense.
"Honestly, Dean! I guarantee you this has nothing to do with slugs!"
"Sarah," Chuck said, getting between Sarah and Dean. "Is Ellie okay?!"
"She said she's fine. She's in an underground cave. We'll need rope to get her out."
"There's rope in my car," Dean and Casey said simultaneously. They exchanged a mutual glare.
"There's a possibility the ground isn't stable enough to hold. Ellie said that there's a cave entrance nearby and that it might connect up."
"Oh! I know where that is! Ellie and me found it when we were kids. Never went in because our parents were-" Chuck flapped his hands and shook his head with a frown. "Never mind. I know where it is! Come on!" He turned to run back to the campsite.
Casey grabbed Chuck's shoulder as he ran past. "Hold up, Chuck."
"Tell you what," Dean said, "you guys discuss things out here in the bush, me and Sam'll go back to the campsite, get a rope and come back."
"No." Casey's light nailed them like a spotlight at a maximum security prison. "You two are staying where we can see you."
"They didn't push Ellie into the hole Casey," Chuck said, shrugging out from under Casey's hand. "They're trying to help."
"Thank you," said Dean, rolling his eyes.
Casey and Sarah exchanged a glance.
Sam spoke up. "How about we all go back to camp, gear up, and figure out what we're doing to rescue Ellie?"
Nobody argued with that.
-
The discussion back at the camp only took as long as locating rope. Sarah knew where the hole was, Chuck knew where the cave entrance was.
"I'm with Chuck, and you two are going one way or the other. Figure it out yourselves," Casey said before calling Sarah into a conference out of the Winchester's earshot.
"Rock, paper, scissors?" Dean suggested, pulling a bundle of thick rope from the depths of the Impala's trunk.
Sam shook his head. "I'll go to the cave."
"Fine by me. You do some geek-boy bonding with Chuck and his pet Terminator there," Dean hoisted the rope onto his shoulder. "I'll go with the hot chick to see if we can rescue the other hot chick."
"Dean..."
"What? I'm just appreciating the view while I still have the chance."
Sam's jaw clenched. "Take the EMF meter with you."
-
Water dripped. It sounded too far away to be in the little underground pocket with her. A cool, fungusy breeze came from somewhere.
Ellie knew were caves around here, even though she'd never been in them. She remembered the cave entrance she and Chuck had found on one of the last times they'd come here. It might have been the last time, now that she thought about it. That wasn't important.
She hoped this cave-pocket connected to that cave. The ground above was really thin for her to have broken through, it would be safer for them to try to get to her through the cave system.
Ellie stared up towards the roof, and the hole she'd fallen through, but couldn't see any differentiation in the light. No sky, no stars.
"It's under the trees. They must be blocking the light from the moon. Still, you'd think it wouldn't be that dark out."
Talking to yourself again? She sighed and thought back to the optic sections of her medical training. Night vision, night vision... Rhodopsin in the eye regenerates within five or ten minutes. Half an hour for full recovery, but I should be able to see something other than pitch black by now...
Something glimmered in the corner of her eye and Ellie looked down from the ceiling toward the crevice she'd seen before. Light glowed faintly, and sounds that might have been distant voices.
There wasn't a light there before. Funny. Maybe they've already found the way in, coming through the tunnels to find me? This cave must be really close to that entrance.
"I'm here!" she shouted. Her voice still didn't echo.
-
Dean trailed after Sarah through the woods, flashlight tracing the line of white crystals paralleling the trail. We're still inside the salt line. So was that EMF burst when the grenade went off. What the hell?
"Through here." Sarah called.
"Right behind you." It was more than possible the salt-line had been broken. Animals, damp patches... Dean had been hoping it would hold for the night and give him and Sam a chance to clear out these people in the morning. Yeah. When have we ever been that lucky?
"Here! I marked it. It's right..." Sarah crouched down and felt at the smooth ground underneath three broken branches. "It's gone."
Dean shone his flashlight on the area and the surrounding ground. "Maybe you got turned around in the dark. It hap-"
"No." Sarah snapped. "I know what I'm doing. The hole was right here, now it's not. Some kind of trap door or something." Sarah pulled a knife out of her boot and started cutting at the loamy turf.
Dean squatted next to Sarah, pulling out the EMF meter and holding it over the patch of ground. All five lights lit up and the meter pinned at maximum.
Dean grimaced. "Yeah. Or something."
Casper's underground. Line of salt on the surface won't do jack all, unbroken or not. Perfect.
"What's that?" asked Sarah, her voice a mix of studied innocence and wary knowing.
"It's-" Dean sighed. "It's an EMF meter. Detects electromagnetic frequencies."
"Why?" Sarah's light aimed into Dean's face. He was getting tired of that.
Dean mentally shrugged. "Well, see, me and my brother, we hunt ghosts. Among other things."
"You think what's going on out here is being caused by a ghost?" Sarah's voice was flat and unamused.
"Yep." Dean nodded.
There was silence behind Sarah's flashlight, followed by an incredulous snort, her light flicking away to examine another section of ground.
That went well.
-
Sam spotted the cave entrance before Chuck or Casey did. The deep, shifting shadows of the rock formation weren't what made Sam run ahead, spotlighted by a light he assumed was Casey's. A sigil stood out against the rock wall. Sam squatted for a closer look. Paint. Not blood. That's a novelty.
"There it is!" came Chuck's voice as he thrashed through the bush and into the small clearing near the cave entrance.
"Shouldn't run ahead like that, Winchester," growled Casey, looming over Sam. "It's enough to make a guy paranoid. Twitchy."
Sam rolled his eyes and stood up, negating Casey's loom-factor by making their heights equal. "How about you let me know if there's anything me and Dean do that doesn't make you twitchy?"
Casey snorted something that might have been a laugh.
Chuck was looking over the cave entrance. "I remember because there was a thing painted on the wall that looked kind of like the Transformers logo."
Sam tilted his head and pointed. "That thing looks like a Transformers logo?"
"Yeah! Well, it did when I was a kid, now it... kind of..." Chuck's voice trailed off.
Sam looked over at Chuck to see his eyelids half-closed and fluttering rapidly. What the hell?
-
This one. This one is so full of secrets.... the world should bend around him from the weight of them. But he doesn't truly know what he knows. He's an ammo case. The shell of the warhead.
Him. I need him. I need his secrets. With his secrets I can make them all pay.
-
Chuck's eyes re-focused. "Toucan Keep," he gasped, or at least that's what it sounded like to Sam.
"What?" Sam stared at Chuck, shining the flashlight in his face. "Are you all right?" he asked with a kind of slow dawning dread. That looked kind of like a vision...
"He's fine," said Casey.
Chuck shielded his eyes from the light and looked significantly in Casey's direction. "I, uh. Yeah. Fine. I'm fine. Headache."
"Headache." Sam said the word like it was a piece of a puzzle he didn't want to solve.
"I'm sure Chuck's fine, he's just worried about his sister. We should head back to camp."
"Naw, you two go back. I can stay here, take a look around..." Get a better look at that symbol.
"Why don't we all go back to the camp so Chuck can get some aspirin." Casey stepped up into the light next to Chuck.
"Yeah, um. I, I, painkillers! Right! Yeah. It's uh, it's uh...." Chuck turned, careened off Casey and ran back the way they'd come, hollering, "I gotta go find Sarah!"
Casey emitted a displeased grunt and turned to follow but glared back at Sam.
Sam shrugged blandly. "Just gotta check out a few things, I'll be right there."
Teeth gritted, Casey tore off after Chuck's bouncing flashlight for the second time that night.
What was going on here? Sam shifted his flashlight downward, aiming toward the cave again and the symbol on the wall.
Aramaic? Babylonian? Didn't look demonic, but it was hard to tell. Darkness and weathering of the symbol were not helping.
If whatever's doing this is a ghost, that's one thing. If it's a demon, that's something else entirely. We need more info; for starters, what this symbol is.
Sam fished out his phone, and took a picture. The detail would show up better in the morning, but the little camera-phone didn't do a bad job. Now, if there was wi-fi, I could look this up on the laptop. Or if there was a cell signal out here, I could send this to Bobby so he could look it up. Whenever he checked his email.
Sam sighed. No more cases without wi-fi. This is nuts.
I hate camping.
Sam stuck the phone back into his pocket, pulled out his salt flask and poured a precautionary line across the cave entrance before following Chuck and Casey back to camp.
-
All the rules of being lost said stay put, let your searchers come get you. That was ridiculous when she could hear them and even see their lights. Besides, between the cool rock she was sitting on and the dripping sounds it was getting to the point where if she didn't get up and move, she was going to have to pee again.
She got to her feet, testing her ankle and finding it twinged, but hurt less than she'd thought it might. Picking her way carefully along the uneven cave floor, she stopped when she got to the crevice. The faint light waxed and waned, like moving flashlights, and she thought she could almost make out a word here and there. She looked back at the black cave roof.
What if they're coming with a rope too? They'll come here and I'll have disappeared.
Suddenly thinking of Sam's earnest face over the campfire, talking about people going missing, she shivered.
"Don't be ridiculous," she chided herself. "It's just campfire stories."
Ellie stooped and felt around on the floor, gathering loose rocks and making an arrow-shape, pointing towards the lit crevice.
When she was done, she stood back and looked at the arrow, standing out against the cave floor, the slight shifting light from the tunnel making the small stones grow shadows.
Ellie nodded. "There. Just in case." She squeezed through the crevice, heading towards the light and voices.
"I'm here! I'm coming!"
-
Even hidden, she hides nothing. She leaves a mark so she can be found. Astounding. She acquires a secret and gives it away.
The cave floor shuddered, shivering like the back of a stretching cat, or like a small explosion had gone off miles away. The stones danced out of their carefully piled arrow-shape and scattered across the floor.
She has no secrets. But I do.
- - -
(continued in Part 4)