The Dead Who Groan Within Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
Sam stumbled to his feet and scooped up the shotgun as he ran for the tunnel entrance. The path in front of it was sprayed with the late Sheriff's blood. He saw Dean's shotgun and grabbed that too, tucking it into his belt and pulled out his flashlight.
"Dean!" Sam yelled as he entered the darkness, heedless of spirits. "Dean, answer me!" He ran and slid to a stop against the rough, stone wall as the tunnel angled sharply down in front of him and the ceiling became too short for him to stand. "Dammit." Sam dropped to his knees, shining his light and saw the clear scuff marks of the snake's passage. Swallowing a lump in his throat and the fear of being crushed, Sam crawled into the tunnel. It felt like hours, though he knew it was only minutes until it opened up and he came out in a larger tunnel, the ceiling a meter above his head. He shined the flashlight and stared in surprise. He'd stumbled into an ancient catacomb. The walls were a patchwork of carved niches and in each niche as Sam passed were the bones of some poor soul. A fine cloud of dust still hung in the air from the serpent's passing and Sam coughed and sneezed, trying to clear it from his nose and mouth as his eyes watered.
"Dean!" Sam called again in a voice rough with dust. He took another step and flinched back as a ghost appeared in front of him. It was a formless and indistinct ghost, a vaguely man shaped mist and Sam backed up a step, raising the shotgun when he felt a cold hand on his back and was pushed forward into the ghost. Shapeless arms took Sam's shoulders and spun him, slamming him into a wall of crypts with a grunt. "Crap." Sam gasped as he was grabbed again and thrown further into the catacomb, shotgun forgotten in his hand for the moment.
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Dean fought for each breath as the Dobhar-Chu's coils tightened around him. In a distant way he knew the only thing keeping his ribs from being crushed was his arm trapped against his chest. He gasped as the serpent dragged him through utter blackness, feeling his legs bump and slide along the uneven stone floor. He nearly went out altogether when his head was cracked roughly against the roof of a tunnel. His only driving thought was to get back to Sam. The last thing he had seen was his brother thrown violently away by the things tail. He thought maybe he had heard Sam's voice but he wasn't sure.
He fought to stay conscious as he was pulled and spun through the pitch black, the sensation and blindness together making him want to throw up. Dean struggled to pull his left arm across his body and the length of snake trapping him. He needed to reach his Skein. It was so close, his fingers brushing the wrapped leather of the hilt. He twisted and pushed with his right arm, trying to give himself just another inch of room, still fighting to take a deep breath and finally wrapped his hand around the hilt. He pulled the Bronze blade free and stabbed it into the snake's belly in front of him.
The Dobhar-Chu screamed. Dean would have screamed if he'd had the breath but the coil around him tightened, cutting off what meager air he'd had. He pulled the blade free, raising his arm for another strike when the world suddenly dropped beneath him. The serpent loosened its grip and Dean gasped in a much needed breath. He fell and tumbled and his confused mind tried to make sense of the faint blue light that spotted his vision and then he struck water. It was freezing and he sank with the coils of the serpent thrashing around him. As suddenly as it had released him, it was gone into the inky water.
He fought the need to gasp in more air, tasting the cold water already in his mouth. Dean kicked and aimed for the minute sparkle of light above him, or what he hoped was above him. He swam in desperation, feeling his lungs burn with the need to breathe and broke the surface a second before his willpower gave out. He heaved in great lungful's of air, the sound echoing in the cave and looked in surprise. The snake had dropped him in an underground lake. Directly above was a hole and presumably where they had fallen through. Surrounding it was some sort of phosphorescent algae. It gave off a gentle blue glow that barely lit the cave. Dean turned, raising the Skein he had somehow managed to keep hold of as something splashed in the water on the other side of the lake. He saw a darkly gleaming coil break the surface and then disappear.
"Great." He searched the walls for another way out and spotted a ledge off to his right. It was a foot or so above the water and he swam quickly for it. The water was sapping the feeling from his arms and legs, leeching his warmth out of him as he reached it and put numb hands onto cold stone and pulled himself out. Dean rolled onto the rock, his whole body shivering and wrapped himself into a ball to try and conserve his body heat. He jerked his up toward the hole when the distinct report of a shotgun echoed down to him.
"Sam!" Dean called up to the black hole above and listened to the silence.
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Sam rolled shakily to his knees, swallowing a cry as he tried to raise his left arm and it refused to move. His shoulder had been knocked out of joint during his rough impact with the floor. He fell onto his back as one of the two formless spirits reached for him, right hand scrabbling through the dust and he felt the comforting weight of his shotgun. He closed his fingers around the stock and swung it up, firing. The scatter of rock salt took both ghosts and dissipated them. Sam let his head fall back with a thump.
"Sam!"
He heard his brother's voice call his name. It was close and echoed hollowly. Sam cradled his left arm against his chest and got to his knees then his feet, using the niches in the catacomb wall to pull himself up. He had to spend a precious minute just breathing to not pass out as the pain in his shoulder stabbed up into his head. Sam saw his flashlight, still lit, at his feet and bent carefully to pick it up before following toward where he thought he'd heard Dean's voice. He kept one hand on the rough wall to keep his balance and picked up his pace.
"Dean!" Sam called and couldn't understand where Dean's voice had come from. The tunnel ahead of him stretched far into the distance, straight and unending as far as his light could show. The burning in his shoulder was now competing with the tightness of what he was sure were bruised ribs as he moved. He had to hunch over to get a decent breath and as he did, his light caught something odd in the floor. He angled the light down and saw a wide opening in the floor. "Dean?" Sam called again and was rewarded when his brothers' voice filtered up to him through it. "Dean!" Sam lowered himself carefully to his knees and looked over the edge. He was surprised to find phosphorescent algae giving off a gentle glow. He turned off the flashlight and tucked it into his pocket.
"Sam!" Dean shouted and Sam leaned further out and down until he could see his brother about thirty feet below on a ledge beside an underground lake.
"Dean! You alright?" Sam called and frowned. Even from there he could see his brother was sopping wet and shivering.
"I'm peachy." Dean yelled, heavy with sarcasm. "Snake got a little pissed when I stabbed him." Dean grinned and waved his blade before putting it back in its sheath at his side.
Sam smirked. "Don't suppose you got the heart?"
"Sorry. I was just trying to not end up lunch." Dean waved toward the far side of the little lake. "It went under over there somewhere. Gotta be another way out of here."
"Ok just…just stay put." Sam eased himself down until he was lying flat so he could lean over further. It was hell on his chest and bruised ribs but it gave him a better view of the cave walls below. There were several shadows that could be openings. "I'm gonna go have a look, see if I can find…another way down."
Dean frowned, hearing the breaks in his brother's speech. "Sammy? You okay?" His radar for a hurt Sam had never yet failed him and he was sure there was something wrong but Sam told him different.
"I'm fine." Sam smiled, though he wasn't sure Dean could see it from down there. "Just got banged around a little by…by the natives." He tried for humor and fought to keep his breathing even. He didn't want the sound of his wheezing to carry down to Dean.
Dean watched the dim figure of his brother. He could tell he was moving stiffly from something. "Sammy?" He wanted the truth and then lurched to his feet as Sam gave a short cry and was pulled from his sight. "SAM!" He vibrated with the need to be up there, to find a way. He could hear the sound of a fight; hear his brother's grunts, a curse. He jumped when Sam's shotgun went off and watched in horror as his little brother reappeared, tumbling boneless through the air to splash into the dark waters. "Sam!" Dean paced along his ledge, waiting for Sam to surface. Precious seconds went by and still there was no sign of him.
"Son of a bitch." Dean kicked off his shoes, dropped his sodden jacket on the stone and dove back into the frigid waters. There was no light to see by beneath the water and he trusted his instinct for where he'd seen Sam go under, kicking strongly; arms stretched out in front of him. His fingers grazed something that felt like Sam's jacket and Dean clasped frantically for it, rewarded when he got a fistful of the material. He pulled and a moment later had his brother's body in his arms. Dean kicked for the surface, silently pleading with whatever might be listening to let him be ok. His head broke the surface and then Sam's and he tipped him back onto his shoulder as he stroked for the ledge. "Sammy?" Dean gasped. "Come on, Sam." There was no response.
Dean pushed and shoved, using every ounce of energy he had left to get his brother up onto the ledge and then pull himself up after. Sam was cold, turning blue and gave no sign of life. "Dammit, Sam. No!" Dean pulled him up so he was sitting, maneuvering Sam's back in against his chest. He put both fists high on his brothers' stomach and pressed in and up. On the third try, water came gushing from Sam's nose and mouth and by the fourth he was coughing hard enough to double him over. "That's it, Sammy. Breathe. Just breathe." Dean kept a firm grip on him, not letting him slide to the ground. He braced Sam's forehead with a hand when the coughing finally stopped and eased his head back to his shoulder. He felt something hard shoving into his chest and reached between them, surprised when he came out with his own shotgun. Sam had tucked it into the back of his belt. Dean set it aside with a grateful smile and put his arm around his brother again. "Sam?"
"Dean." Sam coughed and then gasped. The pain in his chest was at a new level of misery, his bruised ribs screaming at him and his shoulder was threating to make him pass out. He rolled his head and saw his left arm bent awkwardly beside him. "Dean…arm."
"Huh?" Dean looked, confused. He ran a hand over Sam's right arm and felt nothing out of place. When he switched hands and touched his left shoulder, Sam cried out involuntarily. Dean groaned in sympathy. He could feel, as he pressed gentle fingers around the joint that it was out of socket. "Ok, Sammy. Ok. I've got you." He carefully pulled Sam's left arm free and set it in front of him. "Anywhere else? Don't lie to me."
Sam nodded weakly. "Ribs. Bruised." He chuckled and ended in a coughing fit, his brother's arms the only things keeping him upright. "Ghosts…used me…for batting practice." He realized then how cold he was, how cold the water had been as his body started to shiver, trying to generate warmth.
"Ok. We gotta get out of here." Dean said fiercely. Him suffering hypothermia was one thing, he didn't have a problem with that but Sam needed to be warm and soon. He felt Sam reach his right arm in front of him and a second later he came up with his Maglite. "Nice, Sammy." Dean smiled and took the light, flicking it on. He shined it around the cave. It was more of a bubble really. He was sure if Sam wasn't so busy shaking and trying to swallow the pain he was in, he could have told Dean exactly how it was formed. He smirked at the thought and then frowned. The beam was strong enough to reach the opposite wall and no matter where he looked, the only way he could see into or out of the cave was the one he and Sam had come through. "Not good."
"The Do…Dobhar-Chu." Sam stuttered, his teeth chattering. "Where did it go?"
Dean shrugged and turned the light off to conserve the batteries. "I don't know. Into the water."
Sam nodded. "It's not still h…here then." He let his head drop back to Dean's shoulder, closing his eyes wearily. "Be dead…if it were. S'another way out. Under water."
"Oh hell no." Dean shook his head. "No way are we swimming for it." He looked back up to the hole in the roof, trying to think of some way to get them up there.
"Can't. Too high." Sam said what he knew his brother had to already be thinking. "No help coming, Dean. Only one who knew…where we are is dead."
"Dammit." Dean dropped his head into Sam's hair for a second and nodded. "This sucks. Ok." The decision made he leaned back and moved out from behind Sam, settling him carefully against the wall behind them. "I'm gonna go have a look. Stay put." Sam nodded.
Dean flicked the torch back on and drew his Skein, holding it firmly in his right hand. He took a deep breath and dove back into the lake, resisting the urge to gasp in a breath as the cold water shocked his system again. He swam strongly for the other side of the cave to where he'd last seen the creature surface. Dean's hands touched the stone a second before he realized he was there and he backed up, shining the light along the rock wall. Ten feet down from the surface a large, round opening gaped in the wall. He let himself drift slowly down until he hung in front of it, knife at the ready but the Dobhar-Chu was long gone. Dean frowned, feeling a gentle push of water against his body. He kicked hard for the surface, bursting up and taking a grateful gasp of air.
"Found it, Sam." He called and saw his brother give him a thumbs up. Dean went to the ledge and pulled himself up, taking a moment to gather his energy; what little he still had and then he stood.
"Dean? What's wrong?" Sam asked. He could see a serious frown on his brother's face and watched as Dean played the light up along the wall, stopping ten feet above their heads.
"Shit." Dean dropped the light, flicking it off and looked down at Sam. "Good news is that tunnel probably goes out to the lake." He sighed and knelt beside Sam, trying to decide how much Sam had left in him. "Bad news is the tide's coming in. Our ledge is gonna be underwater soon."
"S-so we g-go now or not at all." Sam said and nodded, accepting.
Dean wanted to say no, that they'd stay, warm up, dry off, find another way out. Sam was in no condition for a swim or to hold his breath with bruised ribs for who knew how long. Instead he nodded and smiled. "Yep. Shouldn't be too far." He stood and picked up his sodden jacket, shrugging back into it and snorted a laugh when Sam raised his brows at him. "Dude, what? I love this jacket. I'm not leavin' it."
Sam shook his head and smirked. "Wasn't gonna say anything but Dean." He pointed to his left shoulder. "Gotta fix this first. C-can't swim…like this."
"I know." Dean knelt beside him and smiled. "You ready?" Sam nodded and took a deep breath to steel himself. Dean was as gentle as he could be moving his arm, straightening it and he grimaced as he braced one hand on the front of Sam's shoulder and his other behind. Sam nodded again and Dean gave a sharp push. He felt the joint pop back in its socket as Sam gave a strangle cry and lurched forward.
"Whoa, whoa." Dean grabbed hold of him and pulled him back, propping him up against the wall. "No passing out, Sam." Dean ordered and smiled proudly when his little brother blinked blearily up at him. "That's my boy."
Sam fought the urge to simply close his eyes and go to sleep. He wanted nothing so much as to blissfully pass out and escape the pain but the look in Dean's eyes made him stay awake and made him reach his right arm up to stand. He was sure Dean didn't even know Sam could read the concern there so easily. His big brother was scared down to his toes that Sam wasn't going to make it out the other side and as determined as he was scared that Sam would because that's what Dean did. He took care of Sam.
"Let's go." Sam said and worked to make his voice sound less shaky.
Dean pulled him up, steadied him when he would have gone back down and said a silent prayer that something somewhere would look out for them and help him get his brother out of this alive. The water was now lapping at their feet as they stood on the side of the ledge. It had risen nearly a foot. He was trying to decide how to get Sam back in the water when his brother gave a weak shrug and let himself drop back in.
"Nice." He chuckled when Sam's head bobbed into view. Dean bent and grabbed up his shotgun, tucking it into the back of his belt as Sam had done, sheathed his Skein and flicked the flashlight back on before he jumped in beside his brother. "Ok, you're gonna swim in front." Dean told him. He wasn't fond of the idea of Sam running into the serpent first but that thought didn't scare him half so much as being underwater, looking back and finding Sam had simply drifted away never to be found. He pushed the flashlight into Sam's good hand.
"Ok." Sam let Dean lead the way to where his brother knew the opening was.
"Swim hard, Sam." Dean told him. "We don't know how long the tunnel is or where the damn snake is so no screwing around."
Sam rolled his eyes. "I have l-longer legs, shorty." He smirked at Dean. "You have t-to keep up."
Dean gave a halfhearted splash at him and clenched his jaw as his own teeth started to chatter along with Sam's. "Time to go." Sam nodded and together they dove.
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