Chapter 21 : Hello Sam

by

     Every muscle in my body screamed, but for once, my head was calm in the musty old cellar I was in. Even as I stared across the dimly lit room at the two limp bodies in cages, my mind didn't want to process the danger I was in. I had been abducted, I knew that for sure, but I wasn't convinced by who or what. I just prayed one of those two limp bodies was Sam.

    I had to get out of here.

     I may have been dead either way, but I wasn't about to give up. Not when I was this far from him. I leaned forward and scooped up a handful of stone from gravel floor and winced as I sat back.

     One by one, I chucked them across the room at larger lump of flesh. It took more energy than I expected, my arms burning at my sides, but I didn't have much time until the dull aching in my head caught up to me. I gripped the handful of pebbles tightly and whipped them all, sighing in relief as I heard the rain of rocks ping against his cell.

     A slew of groans echoed through the room, and I smiled as I watched him stir. He had only been here a couple hours longer than I had, but in the dim light, as he shakily pulled himself up from the ground, I could see the panic on his face and realized he must have been out the whole time.           "What the hell?" He groaned, not yet realizing I was there.

     My cell was positioned across from him, in the shadows of the dark corner of the basement with no light other than the reflection of the wetness on the ground around me.

     "Who's there?" My body stiffened at the strained tone in the familiar voice.

      I leaned forward, cringing through the pain in my back, and gripped the bars of the grated box, trying to get a better look.

     "Sam, it's me."

     "Andi?"

     "It's nice to see you're still breathing."

     "What are you doing here?" He shuffled around the cage he was in. Groaning as he smacked his against the top bars.

     "I'd say saving your ass, but it's not exactly my finest rescue." I chuckled, wincing through the sharp pain. "Your brother called Bobby, and well, here I am to save the day."

     My head fell back as I heard him chuckle, but it quickly faded as he sighed heavily.

     I didn't know what else to say to him.

     I couldn't tell him it was going to be okay, and I couldn't tell him that we would make it out because I had no idea what had even grabbed me or where we were.

     The only thing I remembered was the sweet smell of chloroform.

    We sat in silence for a while as I tried to sift through my thoughts. Sam tried his best to keep calm, but I couldn't stop him as he ripped at the bars like a caged animal. Kicking and hitting, rattling the bars until the man next to him roused and started yelling at him. Apparently, Mr.Jenkins was the man Sam had been looking for, and he wasn't very appreciative of our piss poor excuse of a rescue, but it didn't stop him wreaking havoc in his cage as well. 

     "Will you two stop it?" I shouted at the  as quietly as I could, but it only earned me a raging glare from the stranger as he continued to thrash about. "I swear to God if they come down here because of you two -."

     "I've been down here a lot longer than you," he snapped at me. "The only time they come down here is dinner time, and you're a couple hours late."

    "They feed you dinner? How many of them are there?" Sam asked as I scooted to the back of my cell and watched as the two of them went back and forth. "That's the only time you see them?"

    "So far, but I'm waiting."

    "Waiting for what?"

    "Ned Beatty time, man."

    "I think that's the least of your worries right now," Sam said as he caught something up above him. He gave me a curious look before he began to tug on it.

     "Oh yeah?"

     "Yeah."

     "What do you think they want then?"

     "Depends on who they are."

     "They're a bunch of psycho hillbilly rednecks, if you ask me, looking for love in all the wrong places."

     I couldn't help but chuckle at the conviction in his voice, but as I watched Sam ripping at a metal cable, I wondered if they were psycho enough to kill him in his cage instead of whatever plan they had for us.

      I could hear the boards above him bending, and I knew he could feel it giving way as he grunted loudly. He pulled on it with everything he had, and despite my own doubt, something snapped, and Sam fell backward into the wall of his cell.

     "What is it?" I asked him, watching him turn it back and forth.

     "A bracket"

     "Oh, thank God!" Jenkins mocked. "A bracket. Now we got 'em, huh?"

     I rolled my eyes and leaned back, wondering if I would wake up if had happened to drift off.

      My train of thought was shaken as a loud buzzing echoed around us. The three of us looked around, trying to find the source, but just as I started to think it was nothing, my cell popped, and the door swung open.

      "What the hell just happened?"

     I didn't dare move from the corner of my cell as my eyes locked with Sam, a rush of confusion and panic flooding his face.

     "Must have a been short," Jenkins said as he crawled forward, grabbing hold of his open door. "Maybe he knocked something loose."

     "I think you should get back in there, Jenkins," Sam warned as he rushed to the edge of the cage and tried to look around. "Andrea, stay in your cage. This isn't right."

      I had a strong feeling it was a trap as well, but Jenkins wasn't having it, and despite every part of my body telling me to sit down and mind my own business, I crawled out and tried to convince him to get back in.

     "Don't you want to get out of here?"

     "Yeah," I said, holding on to his sweaty bicep. "But that was too easy, get back in your cell. You have no idea what's out there or where we even are."

     I couldn't believe I was actually telling him to cower instead of fight. Any other day I would have darted through the doors myself and slaughtered as many as I could, but I was clearly in no way capable of fighting.

      He turned towards me and gripped my shoulders tightly, my shakiness finally stopping. "We have to get out of here. I know you're scared, but we can't stay here."

      "I'm not telling you to get back in your cell because I'm scared, you idiot. I'm telling you to because I don't want you dead. Locks like this don't just malfunction."

      "I'm getting out of here, and you can come with me or stay. I don't care." He walked towards the door, and I glanced back at Sam for a moment as he shook his head, pleading with me not to leave. "I'm gonna send help."

      "Jenkins, wait!" I shouted one last time, gripping hold of his hand. He turned and shoved me backward as hard as he could before disappearing through the door as I hit the hard ground behind me.

     I rolled over on my stomach and choked back the dirt that clouded my lungs. I felt like I was locked in the dirt cellar with Dean all over again, but this time I was free to go whichever way I wanted.

      "You can't go after him," Sam cautioned as I pulled myself to my feet.

     "I wasn't planning on it."

     I brushed my muddy hands against my pants and gave him a weak smile as I walked around his cell.

     "Then what are you doing?" He looked up at me as I searched around for anything I could use to help him get out and found a metal pipe that I quickly shoved into the grate of his door. "Andrea, stop. Get back in your cell."

     "I may make stupid decisions sometimes, Sam," I said, "but I'm not stupid. If this is a trap, then he's not coming back, and we're gonna die either way."

    "They're just people."

    "People kill people all the time, Sam. Jenkins said there's at least three of them that he has seen, and you may be a giant, but that's not gonna stop you from getting shot." I groaned loudly, giving the door one last pull, but collapsed down in front of him. "This isn't going to work. We gotta think of -"

    "Sh. Sh. Be quiet." Sam waved his hand at me frantically, and my stomach clenched as I listened to the distant hooting and hollering. "They're hunting him."

     "You still want me to get back in my cage?"

     "Yeah, I do, actually. You can't get me out, and you don't look like your in any shape to fight anything," he said, gripping my hand through the grate. "We need more time to think this through, and Dean is going to come for us."

     I nodded. He was right. I could barely hang on to a disoriented dead man, there was no way I could fight off even one of these guys, but as I turned to get back in, my cell swing shut and locked.

     "Fuck."

     I had no choice but to run as I heard the footsteps slowly walking above us. It was only a matter of minutes before they came down to see if I was still put, and I clenched to the small that if I went in the opposite direction of the commotion, I should be okay.

     The rain felt like a thousand needles falling on my bare shoulders. I could hear Jenkins screaming from a distance, but with the heavy rain on the treetops above me, I had absolutely no idea which way it was coming from.

     I wasn't sure how far I had gone or if I was even going in the right direction, but Jenkins' screams had faded altogether and I wasn't sure if it was because of the distance I had put between us or if he was actually dead.

     I crouched behind a large trunk and tried to catch my breath. My throat was burning, and my legs were weak, but even the drops of rain I caught on my tongue were not enough to keep me moving. Twigs and branches began to snap around me, and I froze. I didn't know if it would have been better to run until I dropped or turn and faced them, but either way I knew I was going to die. So I turned around slowly, only to meet a set of familiar eyes that set my soul on fire.

     "Hello, Andrea."