Chapter Text
The St. Stanford students hear thunder.
Birds fly over an emerald and crimson flag waving in a summer’s breeze. The flag sits atop a wall, and the birds continue past it, soaring over a running river to a blue open sky.
A giant wing peeks over the wall. With the sound of another clap of thunder, it flaps against the ground, held down by a chain. Sam Winchester shakes his head in disbelief as he watches from the railing of an observation tower. The sound echoes, forcibly pushing Sam backwards. He holds himself against the railing as it lurches sideways. The salt wall that is supposed to repel any monsters has failed.
Sam peers over the side and down a gaping chasm to see that there is more of the beast, more than he could have imagined. The sound of the chain rattles through Sam, causing his muscles to tense as his lifts himself to his feet. He turns to alert everyone of the nearby danger, but his words are caught in his chest and his heart stops. There is a metallic snap.
The chain is broken.
The beast is free.
Sam sprints forward, taking in as much air as possible and cupping his hands to his mouth. “Lucifer!”
Flames and a great shadow fall over the city. The spectators on the observation decks are consumed instantly. The birds overhead are incinerated.
The holy oil has been lit as a last ditch effort, Sam realizes, and looks in the opposite direction. Beasts and demons have entered the inner gates.
He runs, but he slips and slides against the marble ground. When he lifts himself he is hot and sticky, but it is not sweat.
There is blood everywhere. Bodies are shredded, unrecognizable.
This shouldn’t have happened: The salt walls, the “ocean” of salted holy water, the consecrated grounds of salted soil. Why were they not working? How could they have been breached?
“They have been tainted.” Sam spins backward as he hears a voice in his ear.
But there is no one.
He spots someone in the distance, but is blinded by a flash of light, and demons fall to the ground.
“Angels?” Sam asks. “What took the holy military so long?” He stumbles as he walks, trying to wave the angels to him. “Hey, soldier! Over here!”
But Sam stops, something burns him and he is consumed with madness for a moment. When his body withdraws, he sees that he has stepped in holy water. He follows the stream and realizes the walls are flooding on the inside. The water truly is contaminated.
He looks over to see other people in pain, trying to climb the walls, trying to swim the waters, but it isn’t possible. They have been cursed.
Humanity is trapped.
They are all stuck inside the cage they built to keep evil out.
“Hey! User, you there, Sam Winchester.” The angel is calling back to him. “We have called God, but there has been no answer. The humans must evacuate. This place is no longer safe--”
The angel explodes.
There is blood everywhere.
“This will be your prison now.” Sam hears the voice again. “This vessel, these walls, the cage you locked me in, they are open to me now. I will hunt humanity, and destroy every last one of you.”
Sam puts it together, “Lucifer.” He can’t breathe. He can’t move. He looks around, but there is no one. There is nothing but destruction and blood. Where are you? He asks.
“Inside.”
//
“I wish people would stop judging one another,” Dean says.
“Well God judges people for disobeying his laws, if people would just follow the rules, then they wouldn’t be judged or persecuted,” Mary says. She messes Dean’s hair playfully.
“You know a religion only applies to the ones who believe in it. You shouldn’t judge people just because they think differently than you. If your religion says you can’t do something, it doesn’t mean people with other beliefs can’t either,” Dean says.
Mary kisses Dean on the forehead, and places a tooth below his pillow. “If only everyone thought that way.” She chuckles. “You’re my smart little guy. Now go to sleep, or the tooth fairy won’t come.”
Dean hugs her, and she turns out the lights as she leaves.
There has been a terrible storm all day, and the rain on the window forces a yawn out of him. It doesn’t take much for his body to rest in the comfortable cool of his blankets. He rolls over and in minutes is asleep.
//
“Dean! Wake up!”
“What? It’s not morning. Did Mom forget to switch my tooth?” Dean checks under his pillow, and to his surprise there are two quarters.
“Dean, get out of bed and get dressed!” John Winchester calls. “This is serious, so don’t argue.”
“What’s wrong? Is Sam all right?” Dean asks. Dean has never seen his dad so sober and the fear in his eyes makes Dean think the worst. But then he remembers his brother is at St. Stanford academy on the outside of the Primum Mobile Wallscape, the safest place in all of the world. “Did something happen near the wall?”
He had been meaning to call Sam and tell him about his lost tooth. It put Dean in the lead with four to Sam’s three.
But his mind is cleared suddenly. The shock of a thunder clap lifts him from his bed. He throws on a leather jacket, still in his jeans and t-shirt from the previous day. Outside the window, the storm has turned violent, and the wind howls like a pack of wild dogs.
“We don’t have time to pack anything, Mary! Tell Dean to come to the kitchen. Hurry!”
Dean grabs a necklace, one Sam had given him, and steps out in the hall, nearly bumping into his mother.
“Come on. There are reports on the TV. Your dad wants us to drive to the bunker and wait it out.”
“Are people getting sick?” Dean asks.
“No. It’s supernatural. Monsters,” Mary says as she and Dean join John in the kitchen.
Immediately Dean is handed a hunting knife with symbols carved into it.
“Take this. It’s the type of blade users and hackers wield,” John says.
“John, stop, he’s not a killer. He’s not a soldier. He can’t fight. Let’s just get to the bunker.”
“No!” John shouts. “Mary, the boy is a legacy. Sooner or later, he needs to learn. Sam is two years younger, just beginning at the academy, and already he has mastered a ruby blade.”
John coughs, and for a moment Dean thinks there is a flicker of black in his father’s eyes.
“I’ll just wear salt armor,” Dean says. “Sam sent me some last week. I’ve wanted to try it out.” He sprints back to his room, against both parents’ protests. He feels guilty and weak, having declined the academy so that they could afford to send Sam in his place. But it had always been Sam’s dream, and he had proven to be a genius.
Dean slips on the salt armor, placing the dagger his father gave him in the sheath at its hip.
“Dean, we must go now.” John commands.
“Do we have to go to that bunker? What if I went and stayed with Sam? Isn’t it safer?”
“The Men of Blades and Men of Letters are the ones who issued the reports. They are evacuating St. Stanford, but Sam knows to meet up at the bunker.”
Dean’s chokes on dry hot air.
“O-Okay, let’s go,” Dean says, following his father back to the kitchen.
Mary coughs as she hands them each a flashlight. She and John are wielding guns all the way to the car.
The drive is nothing out of the ordinary. The sun hasn’t even risen, no one else is on the road, and the roar of the Impala is the only sound anyone can hear.
When they pass an armed soldier two miles later, it is the first time Dean feels concerned.
“Has anyone called Sam?” Dean asked.
“We couldn’t reach him. The lines or towers must be down,” Mary says, as she switches on the radio. There is a loud buzz of static, a piercing tone, and then a brief message.
“All residents of the PMW are to seek shelter underground immediately. This is an emergency weather and creature abnormality warning. Several cities have reported violent storms and dangerous beasts in their vicinity. The following areas that should seek immediate shelter are: Alopex Bastion, The Great Salt Lakes…
The list continues and Dean is relieved to hear that none of the affected areas are near them. His heart sinks when St. Stanford is mentioned, and he shoots Sam a text. When he looks up, there are more soldiers.
“Looks like they are preparing a roadblock.” John says. “We ain’t stopping.” He presses his foot down, and Mary argues. Dean fastens his seatbelt and stares back at his phone.
There is a gunshot.
Out of the back window is a fight scene. Black smoke rains over a soldier, and he is shot down before he can lift his gun. A salt circle is drawn, and one soldier speaks into a device.
John is speeding. Mary turns up the radio for peace of mind, but another warning is broadcasted.
The wall has fallen.
Mary is immediately taken by a coughing fit and John curses at her to calm down.
In all of the chaos, there are more gunshots, the squeal of tires, and whiplash. Dean collects himself, “Dad, what’s --”
He stops, unable to speak. Strangers are lined up for miles.
“We’re on foot from here,” John says.
There is a terrible roar and people scream. The neat order of their mass is compromised in seconds, becoming mass panic.
“Stay close to your Dad,” Mary says.
Both of his parents are out of the car before he can unfasten his seatbelt. He hurries to their sides, and John is pressing something into Dean’s chest.
“Take this. It’s called a Dial.” John looks him in the eyes and squeezes his shoulder. “Do not lose it. No matter what happens, we have to get that to the bunker.”
“Are we ready?” Mary asks. “I hope Sam is okay. I bet he is already waiting for us.”
John coughs, and he spits out black blood.
“Goddammit.” He wipes his mouth and lifts his gun. “Follow me. Do not get separated.”
“There is serum at the bunker,” Mary says. “The news reports said that an angel is being distributed to each town to deal with the Demon Virus.
“It must have failed or been tainted with. It shouldn’t affect us humans. And look at what good it’s doing to the beasts here.” He shoots a hellhound as it appears and leaps through the crowd. “We’ll be surrounded. Come on, we have to get to the middle of town. Corpus Christi Station.”
They make it faster than Dean imagined. The train station has been abandoned by everyone except workers, soldiers, and armed civilians. Most people were not hunters, users, or hackers. And Dean recognizes most of the faces in line for the trains as John’s hunting buddies.
They wait as each shuttle takes more and more people to the bunker. Mary and Dean have just stepped inside when there is a panic behind them. Dean turns to yell for his Dad, who has been talking to his friends, but John has already been tackled to the ground by a hellhound. The beast tears into his shoulder, but Mary makes a clean kill.
“Take Dean to the bunker. We’ll hold them off here and catch up. I’ll be on the next train,” John says.
Nothing more is said, as people on the train are screaming. There is a howl, a growl, and a deep snarl. The doors close, but the hellhound has made it inside.
The beast is invisible, and it’s as if the passengers are being ripped apart from the inside. Mary acts quickly, but the beast manages to snag her arm before she gets off a clean shot.
If there hadn’t been so many passengers, she would have been fine, Dean thinks to himself. He immediately strips his shirt from under the salt armor and wraps her wound.
There is silence for the rest of the ride. Everyone alive is in shock or too afraid and tired to speak. But then, a voice falls over them from a loudspeaker and they are told the serum will cost.
This gets people talking, and cursing, and coughing.
It isn’t long before a man starts pacing the car.
“What am I gonna do? They’ve killed us? They’ve killed my family!” The mans says.
“The bunker will be safe. Monsters cannot get inside.” Mary smiles at him with encouragement.
He turns on her faster than she or Dean can prepare for. He swipes Mary’s gun and points it at her.
“I left my wallet at home. I can’t afford the serum. I have a son waiting at the bunker who needs...So, give me your purse.” The man keeps the gun pointed at Mary but looks around the shuttle car. The passengers are too afraid to move. A small girl in the back begins to cry into her mother’s jacket.
“Please, I’ll gladly pay for yours and anyone else’s treatment. I have a son, too. I understand where you are coming from. So, please, just put the gun down,” Mary says.
The man blinks, thinking it over. The little girl in the back grows louder. The man turns to her, but Mary leaps from her seat like lightning. Her hands move in a blur, and the gun is back under her possession. She points it at the man, “I’ll still pay for the treatments. Now, sit down, you sorry son of a bitch. Keep quiet and wait your turn like the rest of us.”
“Is it true that the angels are being destroyed?” The man pressed his luck. “I heard the north, passed Alopex Bastion, around the university, everything was frozen solid. My son said the God Corps had already given up on the north.” He coughs and his eyes flash black.
Dean squeezes Mary’s hand, losing faith that Sam will be waiting for them. He looks around, first to the mother in the back who has calmed down her child, and then to each face. There are probably close to forty-five crammed into the tiny box. Each of them, besides him, coughing and eyes flashing.
“I heard the Demon Virus backfired?” A woman with wild hair and thick glasses preaches. “The monsters are still getting through our defenses. Maybe these things aren’t demons. What if they are aliens!”
As her last word rings through the shuttle, everyone ignores her.
“It’s not aliens,” Dean says. “We saw demon smoke when we left town.”
The ride is silent again. The rest of the trip, Dean spends his time clinging to Mary. The eyes of the passengers slowly turn black, and by the end a pool of dark blood has formed beneath their feet.
Mary and Dean get off the train as quickly as humanly possible when the doors open. Immediately a cloud of smoke forms and they are nearly trampled by passengers looking to escape.
Mary is quick with each shot, and Dean manages to take a small hound out with the knife John gave him.
“Mom, we can take them out,” Dean says.
“No, focus on the ones that target you. We have to get to the bunker.”
They make it down the ramp and outside.
“Stay back!” A voice yells from above. A soldier with bright yellow eyes and two large black wings lands as he cuts through a beast. A dark haze circles them, moving and crawling across the ground toward them. “Shut your eyes! Shut your eyes!” The angel yells.
There is a flash of light and a density is lifted from the area.
“Thank you,” Mary says. “We are trying to get to the bunker. Are you the angel dispersing the serum?” Dean watches as she lowers her gun for the first time since the train ride. She catches a breath and waits for the angel to answer.
“Stay back!” The angel calls. “The road ahead is blocked. People are being possessed.” As he speaks, it’s as he if he summons a horde of feral beasts. The three of them are surrounded, but the angel pulls a blade from his sleeve and kills them all. “They are attracted to you. You are infected with the virus.”
“Please, don’t,” Mary begs, but the angel thrusts his blade toward her. She screams.
Dean has parried it.
“She is infected, boy. Keep away from her! I have no need to harm you.”
“We all are. Please, they told us there would be a serum,” Mary says.
“There is no such serum. This is not the Demon Virus. The government did not create this disease. It is a plague, and it targets humans. There is no cure, only containment.”
“No. Please,” Mary says. “We must get to the bunker. There must be a cure there.”
The angel knocks Dean aside. There is a flash of light, and Mary screams. Dean rushes to her, but the flames that have consumed her are too hot to extinguish.
“This area must be purged,” the angel says. “I cannot let a single one esca--”
Dean plunges the ruby dagger into his back, but the angel is unaffected. Her pulls the blade back and turns to meet Dean.
“You must be saved. Your name is Dean Winchester.”
Dean slashes at a hand as it reaches out for his eyes.
“You are a user, but that blade is not yet activated. It cannot harm me. I will send you, now, to the Sky City. You will be safe there.”
The angel’s fingers make contact with Dean. He glares into the yellow eyes of the angel. He will never forget this face. He is no angel. He will never forgive this monster, this demon.