HDA - Living in Darkness Trilogy - Pt 2 - The Search

Frank shook his head and followed behind them, walking just a little bit slower and wondering at his naiveté mere hours earlier, when he thought his biggest problem in the world was being covered in cow poop. “Someone—” he muttered, shivering and pulling his soaked coat more tightly around his body and crinkling his nose at the pungent smell of manure. “Shoot me now…”

Chapter 8

“Ya know, kid, anytime you wanted to wake up and walk would be fine with me,” Dean huffed as he carefully picked his way along the bottom of the ravine, his brother’s unconscious still body still slung over his back. Sam’s gun had been neatly tucked into the back of Dean’s pants while his own had been hastily shoved into his own jacket pocket, along with his brother’s flashlight; his own joined Joe’s in trying to pick out a safe path along the dark and wet ground. God, Dean hated the rain. It just made everything…wet.

“It’s just wrong to be walking in wet underwear,” he grumbled to Joe. The blond teen chuckled and glanced across at him.

“Personally I have a thing about wet socks,” Joe admitted as he shivered dramatically. “Yuck. The way they hug your toes like furry slugs—”

“And damp toe jam – nassssty!” Dean agreed enthusiastically as he scanned his flashlight over the ravine walls, looking for a half-decent way up. So far, the slopes were still too steep.

“Do you guys mind?” Frank asked from behind them as he brought up the rear. “Do we really need to talk about this?”

“No,” Dean admitted and then winked at Joe. “We can talk about your girlfriend, if you’d prefer…I hear she’s hot.”

Joe almost choked as he inhaled sharply and laughed at the same time – he could almost feel the glare burning a hole in their backs. Dean patted him on the back with the hand holding the flashlight.

“You know what?” Frank’s voice was chilly. “Why don’t you just tell us what you and Sam were doing out here to begin with, huh? Or better yet – what were you shooting at?”

Dean tensed. “Nothing, I already told you. Just letting the kids know we were here.”

“Bull,” Frank retorted. “Which brings us back to the original question: what are you guys doing here?”

The older Winchester stopped and slowly turned to face Frank. “Are you saying I’m lying?”

“Do you ever tell the truth?” the dark-haired Hardy challenged as he stood his ground; Joe tensed in anticipation of trouble.

Dean continued to glare at Frank for a moment and then he just pursed his lips and gave an approving nod as he cocked an eyebrow and spoke to Joe. “Give that man a set of balls – ‘cause I’ve shot people for less…”

A slight groan and shifting from Sam distracted the confrontation as Dean gently lowered his brother to the wet ground and helped him sit up. “You with us again, Sammy?” He felt the Hardys press close, almost as eager as he to see the younger hunter awake.

Sam slowly nodded his head and then winced, one hand gingerly creeping up to his forehead. “Uh…y-y-eah.” He shivered and blinked his eyes before he glanced up at his brother.

Dean shot him a cocky smile, relieved to see his brother’s somewhat lucid-looking eyes. “You’ve always had such a way with words...”

For a moment the younger boy looked confused and then he scowled. “B-b-bite m-m-me!”

“I would if I thought you had any meat on them bones,” the older hunter quipped and then became more serious. “We need to get out of here – can you walk?”

Sam nodded and struggled to push himself up. Dean caught one arm and slung it over his neck – he looked at Joe but the blond teen was already there, moving to support Sam on the other side.

Dean used his free hand to play the flashlight beam across the sides of the gully. He bit his lip for a moment and then made a decision. “Let’s try here.” He used the arm of his coat to wipe his wet face. “We can’t stay down here any longer.”

“We might have stayed too long,” Frank started to say as he shone his light behind him. The small creek that ran through the bottom of the ravine was quickly swelling over its banks. “MOVE!” he shouted, shoving at Joe to get them started.

With Sam between them, Joe and Dean carefully picked their way up the slick slope, cursing and sliding as the mud made good footing difficult. Behind them, Frank reached out to put a hand on the injured boy’s back to try and help but Sam cried out and jerked away, almost bringing them all down.

“Damnit, Sammy,” Dean hissed as he tightened his hold and continued up, gasping in relief when they finally reached the top and pulled Sam over the edge.

Joe turned around to give his brother a hand just as a wall of water surged through the gully. “FRANK!” he yelled, tugging frantically to get Frank away from the water, as startled, the dark-haired teen lost his footing.

Another set of arms moved past Joe’s, latching onto the older Hardy as well, and both Joe and Dean yanked him over the edge and dropped him next to Sam.

Frank gasped hard and then gave a shiver. “Thanks,” he said, realizing what a close call he had just had.

Dean exhaled loudly. “Kids,” he grumbled, and then leaned over to get Sam back up. “You girls about ready to leave now?”

“Lead the way,” Joe grinned, extending a hand to his own weary brother and hauling Frank to his feet. “I know I’d just about kill for a hot cup of steaming hot chocolate.”

“Coffee,” Frank added.

“Beer,” Dean put in and then grinned as Frank scowled.

They then looked at Sam. He blushed and mumbled something.

“What was that, little brother?” Dean teased, “We didn’t quite get it.”

“W-w-warm m-m-milk, okay,” Sam managed, through chattering teeth. “I s-s-said ‘w-w-w-arm m-m-milk’.”

Even Frank was chuckling at that as the four drenched, cold, dirty, exhausted, smelly (in Frank’s case) and injured young men dragged their carcasses back through the wet woods and towards their vehicles.

It had been an incredibly long night.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.