End of the World as We Know it Part 3
Been spending my whole long life
Flying from flower to flower
Wasn't till I tasted your nectar, baby
that this boy found his honeycomb
From what Sam was able to gather at the ranger station, Blackwater Ridge is exactly what the map promised. The middle of nowhere, cut off by canyons, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place. He explained this all to Dean, who was busy scoping the wooden cabin out.
A possible reason why Dad wasn’t answering his phone, Sam thought. No reception.
“Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear.”
Sam turned to his brother in disbelief before going to check it out himself. “And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It‘s no nature hike that‘s for sure.” There was a low twist in Sam’s gut, felt like worry. Wondered what the hell was out there that was so important his dad left the coordinates.
“You boys aren’t planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?”
They both turned in surprise, caught off guard by the appearance of the ranger. Sam found himself supplying the lie easily, how they were just environmental studies majors from UC Boulder working on a paper.
Dean raised a fist. “Recycle man.”
The Ranger didn’t blink. “Bull.” Sam swallowed, cast a glance at Dean, wondered how the Ranger had seen through his lie. “You’re friends with that Hailey girl right?”
Dean picked up the thread without missing a beat. “Yes. Yes, we are Ranger…” Dean got a look at the name tag as he followed him to the front desk. “Wilkinson.”
Ranger Wilkinson told them exactly what he’d told Hailey, her brother had filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn’t back until the 24th, and since it wasn’t the 24th he wasn’t exactly a missing person. Dean nodded along, was able to bullshit his way into getting a copy of the permit for himself.
Sam followed Dean out the door after they were done, trying to do his best to bite his tongue as they headed for the car. “So, uh, we’re not actually going to go see this girl are we?”
Dean stopped at his door, eyed Sam over the roof of the car. “Why not?”
“The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge. What are we waiting for? Let’s go find, Dad.”
“I dunno maybe we should know what we’re walking into before we actually walk into it,” Dean said as if it were obvious.
Sam just wanted to get it over with, find Dad and get back to Jess. Dean gazed at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. Sam sighed, and glanced away. “Fine. Let’s just make this quick.”
Hailey Collins wasn’t as much of a dead end as Sam had originally thought. He let Dean do most of the talking, flash of the hastily made fake ID claiming they were park rangers. Hailey let them in, explained how she knew something was wrong because her brother Tommy always checked in, e-mailed photos, videos, brushed off Sam’s suggestion that maybe Tommy didn’t get cell reception with the fact that Tommy had a satellite phone too.
Dean proposed that maybe Tommy was having a little too much fun and forgot to check in, but this made their younger brother Ben, who’d been quiet so far as Hailey explained everything, chip in that Tommy wouldn’t do that.
“Our parents are gone. It’s just my two brothers and me,” Hailey said looking at Ben sadly, and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “We all make sure to keep pretty close tabs on each other.”
Sam frowned. Asked to see the pictures Tommy sent. Hailey didn’t have a problem with it, took them over to the computer and played the last video they’d received. That’s when things got interesting.
Hailey said, she’d hired a guide, planned to go out the next day to find Tommy herself. She couldn’t wait anymore.
Dean said he could understand that.
Sam watched the computer screen, thought about what he saw. He turned to Hailey. “Hey, you mind forwarding these to me?”
Dean looked at him expectantly once they were back in the car. “What was that about?”
“We’re gonna need supplies if we’re going to head out there.” He pulled out his phone to check for messages. Nothing. Glanced at Dean, “Think you’ll be able to handle that on your own?”
“Why what are you going to be doing?”
Sam reached into the backseat for the laptop, wanted to check his e-mail to make sure he’d received the files. He needed an internet connection and a library. “Research.”
It is surprisingly easy to fall back into the habit of preparing for a hunt. Sam didn’t bother lying to himself as he watched the video of Tommy again. This was a hunt. Noted the quick flicker of the shadow behind Tommy in the video. Three frames. A fraction of a second. Whatever it was moved fast.
The librarian was helpful, bought the environmental major from UC Boulder story without any problem. Sam went through microfilm and books, felt his eyes grow gritty and stopped for coffee. He took the time to check for messages none from Jess, but this time there was one from Seth. From what he could gather Seth was apparently dying from a hangover and planned to spend his last day at the zoo with the meerkats after stumbling upon Animal Planet at three am that morning.
Sam laughed, erased the message, called Jess. Left a message, when she didn’t pick up, apologized that it was taking longer than expected. Ended with a quick I love you. He headed back to the library, and his research.
Since 1936, every twenty-three years, like clock-work, people had been going missing in Blackridge. Authorities were claiming grizzly attacks. Sam knew better. There had been one known survivor of an attack back in ‘59. Sam found a name.
He called Dean to pick him up. He had everything he needed.
Marvin Shaw doesn’t give them much. He was a boy during the attacks, never got a good look at what had grabbed his parents. But whatever it was had opened the door to the cabin and let itself in, he hadn’t even known what was happening until he’d heard his parents screaming. He showed them the claw marks the thing had left on him.
“Spirits and demons don’t have to unlock doors. If they want inside they just go through the walls,” Dean said after they left Mr. Shaw’s voicing exactly what Sam was thinking.
“So it’s probably something else, something corporeal.”
“Corporeal,” Dean mocked, “excuse me, professor.”
“Shut up.” Sam shot him a look. “So what do you think?”
“Could be a Skinwalker, maybe a black dog,” Dean suggested, “the claws, the speed that it moves.”
“Whatever it is we can’t let that Hailey girl go out there.”
“I don’t think we’re gonna be able to stop her,“ Dean said honestly. “We could go with her. Protect her from our fuzzy friend. We’re talking about a creature and it’s corporeal. Which means we can kill it.”
“With what?” Sam asked in disbelief unable to help himself as they stopped at the car. “Skinwalker, black dog, that means silver bullets. We don‘t even have any guns.”
“Yeah,” Dean chuckled uneasily, scratched the side of his head, “about that…” Dean popped open the trunk, lifted the false bottom, propped it open with a shotgun. “We do.”
Sam stared down at the trunk, felt about nine-years-old again when he first discovered what his Dad really kept in there. The crossbow, the sawed off, knives, the salt, the rosaries, lighter fluid, and various other weapons he recognized for vanquishing the supernatural. Everything he thought he was done with in full Technicolor glory.
“You did say to stop for supplies.”
Sam glanced up, stared at his brother, feeling strangely hollow for a moment. There was no way Dean had gathered all of this in one afternoon. “You never stopped. God, all this time and you’re still hunting.” Sam turned away from the car and started walking.
“Sam.” Dean slammed the trunk closed. “Sammy! Wait! Where are you going?”
Sam ignored him, kept on walking. So mad, he kept his hands clenched in his pockets. Dean jogged after him, pulled him to a stop. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Sam asked with incredulous disbelief. “You lied to me, Dean. You’ve been lying to me! I left this behind and I’m not going to get sucked back in.”
“Sucked back in?! Dad’s missing Sam! People are dying here, and what you just want to walk away?”
“Don’t do that. Don’t you try to make me feel guilty for making the choice any other sane person would. I came here to help you find Dad. That’s all, and I’d like to make it back to Jess in one piece, okay? I like my life. I like that I don’t have to worry about the crap that goes bump in the night!”
“Yeah, well Sammy just because you don’t want to worry about it doesn’t mean it’s not out there.”
“I don’t care.”
“That’s not who you are.”
“Yes, it is! That’s exactly who I am, Dean. That’s exactly who I want to be.”
Dean clenched his jaw. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it.”
“It is.”
Dean was quiet for a moment. “Just help me with this one, Sam. I can’t do it alone.”
“Yes, you can. Seems like you’ve just been fine without me.”
“Well, I don’t want to.”
Sam frowned, forced himself to look away, knew he had no choice. “Fine.”
He tried Jess again that night. Left another message, it was going to be another day at least.
~BB~
“I hate camping,” Sam muttered to himself as he drew protective sigils into the dirt around their makeshift campsite.
The whole thing was quickly turning into a disaster. He and Dean had managed to con their way into playing tagalong with Hailey and her brother, letting the guide she’d hired lead the way. Sam had kept his eyes peeled for any sign of their Dad or their furry friend, but he hadn’t noticed anything until they reached the coordinates their Dad had left.
It’d been too quiet.
Eerily quiet.
Sam hadn’t heard a bird, any rustling or even a damn insect. It led one to believe that whatever was out here had probably scared everything off or that any living being with a sense of self-preservation, had got going when the going was good. The smart thing to do, but here he and Dean were actually heading toward whatever was out there. He wanted to point out to Dean that a mosquito had more self-preservation instincts then Dean did, but before he could do that they’d found Hailey’s brother campsite not too far from there.
It did not look good.
It really did look like some wild animal had been through there, but at least they hadn’t found any bodies. He was glad Hailey and her brother hadn’t found something like that, but Sam knew the fact that they hadn’t found any bodies didn’t mean anything. Some things took their food with them. He’d set the bags down in the middle of the clearing, wanting to get a good look around. He’d made sure Hailey and her brother were busy cataloguing the remains of their brother’s campsite, and checked for the reassuring weight of the gun at his back. Sam didn’t think he’d have to worry about running into the thing while the sun was still out. Most creatures preferred to work under the cover of darkness, so yeah, the sooner they got Hailey and her brother out of here the better. They still didn’t know what they were dealing with exactly, and that made Sam uneasy.
Not everything followed the same rules. What worked for a black dog, wouldn’t work for a skin walker, but Dean had packed enough ammo to cover a range of things. But just because Sam was grateful for it now, didn’t mean he was going to let go of the fact that Dean had been lying to him all this time. Sam maintained his right to be pissed at a later date.
He’d been about to take a closer look at the claw marks on a nearby tree, when he heard Dean call out to him. He found him about ten feet from the campsite, kneeling down to inspect something. “Whatever it was dragged the bodies through here.”
Sam frowned, when he noticed where the track marks stopped. “Then what started carrying them because they got too heavy?” He stared out past the track marks, the ground was undisturbed as far as he could see. He turned back to Dean. “We have to tell them to head back.”
Before Dean could respond they heard the cry for help and took off running.
Hailey stopped, tried to catch her breath as she, her brother Ben and Roy came up behind them. “Isn’t this where…” Her voice trailed off as she glanced around. There wasn’t anything to see, just more trees and forest. It didn’t even seem like anyone had been through there.
Sam glanced around, suddenly uneasy. “Everyone back to camp.” When they returned to the campsite, they discovered all their stuff was gone. Clothes, food, phone, ammo, they were effectively cut off and pretty much defenseless.
Sam swallowed, and felt his stomach drop, because now he had a pretty good idea of what was out there.
Which is how Sam found himself stuck at Blackridge for another night, carving protective sigils into the trees next to their makeshift campsite, because apparently what they were up against wasn’t a black dog or a skinwalker, it was a freaking wendigo. So the guns they had left were just about as useful as a doorstop at the moment. Hailey huddled closer to the fire they started, along with her brother and glanced around nervously. “So what exactly is this thing?”
Sam finished up his drawing as Dean explained the lore behind a wendigo. They’re hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man. During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp.
Roy, the guide Hailey had hired, scoffed in disbelief. They ignored him.
“Like the Donner Party,” Ben mused.
“Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality,” Sam added.
“If you eat enough of it, over the years, you become this less than human thing. You’re always hungry,” Dean said.
Hailey glanced between the two of them. “So if that’s true, how can Tommy still be alive?”
Dean shifted uncomfortably. “You’re not gonna like it.”
“Tell me.”
“More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it’s awake it keeps it’s victims alive. It stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother’s alive it’s keeping him somewhere dark, hidden and safe. We gotta track it back there.”
Hailey frowned, glanced over at Sam and drawings he’d done in the dirt. “And those…”
“Should keep it out,” Sam said wiping his hands on his jeans.
~BB~
Sam stared at his phone. No reception out here of course, so he had no way to get in contact with Jess. She was going to kill him. Sam sighed, flicked through the few texts he had saved. GOOD LUCK flashed across the screen and Sam deleted it, wasn’t going to do him any good now.
“Should probably turn that off,” Dean said, settling across from him. “Conserve the battery.”
“Not like it matters,” Sam muttered, but he switched the phone off anyway and stuck it in his pocket. He focused his irritation on Dean, the reason he was out there in the first place. “Dad’s not here. He would‘ve left us a message or a sign or something, right?”
“Yeah,” Dean shrugged, and glanced around. “Honestly, I don’t think Dad’s ever been to Lost Creek.”
“Great. Just great.” Sam glanced over at Hailey and her brother. “We should just drag them back to civilization tomorrow and get out of here.”
Dean frowned. “And leave that thing out there?”
“This simple overnight trip to find, Dad has taken three days. Jess is going to kill me.”
“And what about Hailey’s brother? You just gonna leave him out there.”
It was Sam’s turn to frown, and he glanced back to make sure Hailey and her brother were not in hearing distance. “We don’t even know if there’s anything left to find.”
“Don’t know that for sure.”
Sam kicked at the dirt, beneath his sneakers. “We should still get them out of here.”
“Don’t think that’s an option now.”
Sam sighed. “Yeah, of course.”
“Check this out.” Dean pulled out their Dad’s journal from inside his coat pocket. “I think Dad left this for us. This is dad’s single most valuable possession everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he’s passed it on to us, I think he wants us to pick up where he left off, you know saving people, hunting things. The family business.”
“I can’t.” Sam shook his head. “I am not getting sucked back into this. I’m sorry, Dean but after this I’m done.”
“Oh, come on,” Dean scoffed. “What are you going to do? Stick with the stupid band? Stay in that crappy apartment of yours? Some part time job at Walmart? Come on, Sam. You can‘t be serious.”
Sam glared. “I happen to like my life and my crappy apartment.”
Dean rolled his eyes.
“Look, if this is what you want to do with your life, that’s fine Dean. You don’t have to stick around because of me, and I don’t need you to hang around to look after me. I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Dean muttered, stuffing the journal back into his pocket.
“We both know you hate this band thing,” Sam said, his voice softening. “You only stuck around because of me. I appreciate it, I do, but I’m not fifteen anymore. I don‘t need my big brother looking out for me.”
Dean didn’t get a chance to reply, before they heard another cry for help. “Just stay in the magic circle,” Dean warned.
There was another cry for help.
Roy glanced around uneasily, raising his gun. “That’s no grizzly.”
The leaves rustled as something brushed past them quickly. Sam swallowed. “It’s here.”
Roy had taken fire, managed to score a hit, and then took off after it despite their warnings. Sam and Dean took off after him, but lost him somewhere out there in the dark. Hailey and Ben glanced at them expectantly when they returned. “Where’s Roy?”
Sam didn’t say anything, just headed over to his makeshift bed to lay down. He closed his eyes, forced himself to get some sleep, while he heard Dean quietly reassure Ben and Hailey.
~BB~
“So like how do you guys know these things?” Hailey asked the next morning as they traipsed through the woods, following the trail that’d been left behind.
“Sort of the family business,” Dean said.
“Seriously?” Hailey asked interestedly. “So you like do this for a living?”
Sam smirked as he eyed the claw marks up on the trees above them. “Actually he’s in a band. Buzz Boyz.”
Dean turned to glare at him.
Hailey’s brow furrowed. “Okay…”
Ben laughed. “Seriously? I think I saw that video on VH1. The bees right?”
Hailey still looked confused.
Sam was still glancing up at the trees, noting the claw marks, so he missed his brother’s glare. “I was thinking these things are too perfect, Dean. Look how clear they are.” He frowned. “Too easy to follow.”
They heard a growl, and they all paused, glancing around. Hailey backed up into a tree, glanced up when she felt something drip on her and moved away just in time as Roy’s body came crashing down. She screamed.
Sam moved to check on her as Dean leaned down to inspect the body. He glanced up at Sam. “His neck’s broken.” He scanned the area. “Alright, let’s go. Run.”
They all took off running. Sam noticed, Ben trip behind him and ran back to help him. “Come on.”
Sam started running again, made sure to keep an eye out for Ben beside him, when they heard Hailey’s scream. They both stopped running.
“Hailey!” Ben yelled.
Sam frowned, knelt down and picked up the scarf Hailey had been wearing. He glanced around, looking for her or any sign of his brother. “Dean!”
~BB~
Alright, Sam told himself. He was not going to panic. Wendigo’s usually kept their victims alive until it was time to eat. Just hopefully, Dean wouldn’t be the first thing on the menu. It was only a matter of finding out where the wendigo stored its victims. Sam glanced around the huge expanse of forest around him. It wasn’t going to be easy.
All that mattered was that he found Dean, and then killed him later for dragging him into this.
“They went this way,” Ben said, and Sam looked at the M&M Ben was holding up. Definitely Dean’s.
Sam grinned. “Better than breadcrumbs.”
They were able to follow the M&M trail to an abandoned mine shaft, and after narrowly avoiding discovery by the wendigo, they literally manage to stumble upon Hailey and Dean, when they crash through a boarded shaft.
Sam had never been so relieved to see his brother. He helped Dean down from where the wendigo had him hanging from his wrists, like meat in cellar, Sam thought as Ben did the same for Hailey.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sam asked with concern.
Dean grimaced, shrugged it off. “Fine. Where is it?”
“Gone for now.”
They found Tommy, tied up the same way, but thankfully still alive. Sam helped get him down.
“Check it out,” Dean said, and held up a pair of flare guns he’d found in a bag of belonging’s that the wendigo had thrown down there.
Sam smiled tiredly. “Those will work.”
They have to split up. Sam took one flare gun. Dean took the other. Sam hurried to get Hailey and her brothers out of there while Dean kept the wendigo distracted. It didn’t exactly work out that way though, because Sam and everyone else ended up getting cornered, the wendigo had been too fast for Sam and his flare gun. He motioned Hailey and her brothers behind him, stayed in front as the wendigo came toward them.
“Hey!” The wendigo turned at Dean’s shout. Dean fired and didn’t miss.
It went up in flames.
Dean smirked. “Not bad, huh?”
~BB~
Sam couldn’t wait to get home and get back to Jess. Hopefully, she wouldn’t kill him and he‘d be able to make it up to her. The paramedics they’d called after they made it back to civilization, had managed to clean up the scrapes, and bruises, but what Sam could really use was a shower. A long, hot shower, and his bed.
Sam slid onto the hood of the car beside Dean after Hailey had said her thanks and goodbyes, and got into the ambulance with her brother. Sam glanced at Dean, feeling a little guilty about what an ass he’d been the night before. “Look, last night, what I said-”
“Man, I hate camping,” Dean said cutting him off.
Sam frowned, subject dropped. “Me too.”
Dean gave Sam a sideways glance. “Dude, you smell like ass.”
~BB~
Sam smiled as he dried his hair with a motel towel. Now that they’d stop for the night and Sam’d had a shower, he was starting to feel human again, and part of him was still riding the high of a successful hunt. He figured it was probably some sort of ingrained response.
He remembered his phone in his pocket, hoped it hadn’t gotten damaged in the fall. He pulled it out and switched it on, smiled in relief when he saw he had good reception. He dialed Jess, bypassing his waiting voicemail. He waited patiently for her to pick up as the phone rang. She answered on the fifth ring. “Hey, Jess. I’m so sorry. You probably want to kill me, right?”
“Sam? Sam, where are you? I’ve tried calling you all weekend. We’ve all tried.”
Sam frowned. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just the thing with my dad…it’s complicated,” he finished weakly, knowing how lame that sounded.
Jess sniffled on the other end of the line, and Sam thought, great, he’d probably had her crying over what an ass he was all weekend. “Look, I’ll make it up to you. Tons of groveling? Gifts? Back massages?”
“It’s Dawson, Sam,” Jess said sadly, “he’s dead.”
Sam was sure he’d heard her wrong. “What? What are you talking about?”
“He’s dead,” Jess repeated. “Dawson’s dead.”
part four