2021.05.28 - Two Brothers, A Werewolf, And A Dumpster Fire
This log follows the story from: 2021.05.23 - Council of Three
Thanks again for coming along, Nic!" Dean gives a nod to the younger man walking alongside himself and Sam, down the street of the Den. It's not a place the two come all that often. It's nice, but there's been a feeling that it's very much for its specific type of people more than anyone else.
Sam checks his phone and points down the street. "Should be just around that corner," he rumbles, in his sweet yet slightly rough voice.
"Great, maybe we can finally get to the next step of this ordeal." Dean snorts, charging ahead as usual.
But Nicholas will pick up on the air, with his greater senses, that something isn't right. It smells of decay, though it's been skillfully covered and dampened. There's a nasty surprise waiting for Dean, and then everyone else once they catch up. But he still has time, if he acts fast.
"It's about time we left the stuffy books and came out into the real world to do something," he says and nods to Dean. "Not that Sam doesn't enjoy a good bit of studying when the time is right."
The sight of their destination brings a smile to his face and he starts to go forward with Dean. Then the scent hits him and he comes to a stop for a moment, "Dean, wait, man!" he calls out "Something's not right." Just in case Dean doesn't slow or stop, Nic rushes off after him trying his best to catch up so the impulsive Winchester isn't rushing into a trap alone.
Of course Dean doesn't stop, but he does slow up a little so Nic can catch up. The turn to the side alley leads only to a recessed area that just seems to be the trash receptacles for some storefronts on the street. Though trash can only cover up so much, and Nic will surely be able to tell that whatever he's got a whiff of, it's either here or somewhere close by.
"What?" Dean glances over to Nicholas, though he doesn't go any farther without accompaniment. "You pick up somethin' on wolf radio?"
Sam jogs to catch up, huffing a sigh in protest. He slides his phone into his jacket pocket, stepping up to the other two. "Dean, you gotta admit...even if he didn't, it looks like a trap." And he's right.
"Wolf radio? That's what we're calling it now?" He shrugs "At least you didn't call it Wolfie Sense or something. That'd be way too cutesy for me."
When he makes it up to where Dean has slowed, he looks around "Yeah it's death, decay. It's pretty rancid too." He nods to Sam and looks around, "Yeah the only thing missing is a big sign pointing there saying "Free Candy." The werewolf takes point for now and starts looking around trying to find signs of what might be here. While he doesn't go sniffing everything, he does move in the direction around the alley to begin catching more details on the scent.
Dean grins, trying not to laugh openly. "Wolfie sense, I'm gonna have to remember that one." He does reach for his sawed-off shotgun that always seems to be taken along in his coat, and Sam does the same.
But when Nic moves into the open area with the dumpster and trashcans, a pair of the undead burst from the shadows. It's as if they were made of darkness itself, and then just stepped out of it, emerged like they were made by it and hidden in it until the right moment. They're zombies, very clearly and obviously the walking dead, groaning and going for the attack.
And they're tough. Strong, powerful, and they'd be more than enough to take out a regular human if unchallenged. The golem struggled against the one Dean and Sam helped Skitch to take down. These are no different.
"Nic!" Dean calls out, aiming his weapon. "We gotta take these apart and burn 'em to ash. They're gonna keep coming, long as there's any part of 'em still able to!"
The emergencies of the zombies doesn't so much as frighten Nic as it does startle him a bit. He smelled them for sure but their sudden emergent from the darkness causes a growl to rise up in his throat.
He turns to Dean and nods at his words, "So it's game time!" Then the werewolf emerges, and while it's not as a stark transformation as a traditional howl at the moon type, it is still unsettling for some.
The hair on his hair grows out shaggy while his sideburns grow thick and cover part of his cheeks. Long teeth slide down into place and he snarls with a wide spreading of his lips. Hair covers his hairs and arms more than before and soon sharp claws have taken over where his fingernails were.
Without thinking too much about it, he charges at the closet one, lowering head and spreading his arms out towards the foul creature.
When his claws connect he does his best to slam the creature back into one of the dumpsters with a resounding thud.
The zombie crashes into the dumpster, but instead of seeming to damage the creature, it puts a dent in the dumpster. These things are incredibly tough. Of course, the other one just moves to attack Nic with a tackle. They're a bit more spry than the usual assumption of a zombie, with strength to measure up to even a werewolf.
Dean and Sam both move into the space, Dean training his shotgun on them but not opening fire in the quick succession of events. He doesn't want to hit Nic, after all, so he decides to hurry over to the one that got bounced off the dumpster, firing a couple of shots. Though it's rock salt, it'll do more than regular shells would to distract and irritate the creature.
"Nic, if you can help get these things immobile..." Sam hurries to join his brother. "We just need them to be immobilized so when we set 'em on fire, they won't set the city on fire." There is a lot of trash around, but there's also pavement, which helps stop open flame from spreading if there's nothing to burn on it.
"You make it all sound so easy!" he growls from where he was slammed into the ground but he tackling zombie, "They fucking stink too!" he calls out just in case it wasn't clear to the two with human senses just how bad these things smell when they get up close.
Then Nic's heaving upwards and throwing the zombie up and off of him, and he quick gets to his feet and rushes the one he tossed. Leaning down he barrels into it with his shoulder and then hoists it up over his shoulder like one might a bad child, if the child were a kicking, clawing, salivating monster. "Get the dumpster open!" he hollers as he struggles to keep the creature from tearing at him or biting him too badly.
"Yeah, tell me somethin' I don't know!" Dean takes aim and starts to tighten his finger on the trigger, but he stops when Nic just throws himself back against it. "Sammy!"
Sam doesn't even have to be told. He rushes for the dumpster and throws up one of the covers. Though he's careful, because he's not sure if there might be hidden zombies in there. Fortunately, there's nothing but a sad couple of trash bags and some loose papers, probably from newspaper and magazines tossed in there long ago, which have now become part of its environment. Sam scrambles back from the dumpster, watching as things continue.
But the second zombie, still dealing with its pain from Dean's rock salt shot, staggers at Sam. It only manages to get itself kicked back by Sam's powerful legs.
Nic growls lowly and deeply as he struggles to get the zombie into the dumpster. At first, he slams it against the side and tries to push upwards, but the thing only manages to dig his claws into Nic's shoulders. His head lifts and that werewolf-like face growls in pain, "Fuck.." he spits out, "Their claws are like knives!" Several more slams and the zombie's not struggling as much. It's far from taken out but Nc's able to get some leverage with his arm and push it up and over.
As the thing tries to clamor out, Nic's muscles heave and he leaps up against its head and knocks it back into the dumpster. Landing on the closed side, he looks over to where Dean is keeping the other one busy.
"Dean, keep this one from getting out," he growls, yellow glowing eyes flashing in the night towards the staggered one. Leaping off the dumpster, he practically lopes over and body slams the other one, knocking it away from Dean but also tumbling end over end with it into a pile of refuse.
How the hell am I supposed to do that, Dean's expression says. But he just grunts, nods, and moves to do exactly that. He's pretty good at improv, as long as it involves violence, and applied to monsters and gross things like this disgusting zombie. Maybe he'll have to clean off the butt of his shotgun, but it's a shotgun and relatively easy to clean. He slams it against the thing's head, reaching up to smack the lid of the dumpster off it a few times.
Sam stumbles back as Nic tackles the one near him, and he reaches into his own coat, producing a pretty heavy duty truncheon, hurrying over to whack the creature mostly on its head and shoulders, to keep it from hurting Nic any further.
Seeing Dean keeping the one in the dumpster and Sam coming over to help, Nic snarls and crouches, his yellow glowing eyes focusing on Sam for a moment before he turns to face the zombie that was just beaten. Before it recovers, Nic grabs his arm one hand and pulls it behind the creature's back, and then he keeps tugging. As his body begins to swell with strength, there's popping sounds from the creature's shoulder as its arm is pulled at an impossible angle for any mortal.
The sickening sound is followed by another low growl as Nic twists his body down to hoist the creature onto his back. "Keep hitting him Sam!" the guttural growl comes out as he tries to force the abomination towards the dumpster with the first.
Sam keeps it going with all his strength, which isn't bad for a guy who's human and has no real physical enhancement powers. He could try to do something with telekinesis, but that's always a huge deal and pretty random as to whether or not it even works at any given time. Better save that for a time when everything else has failed and they need a surprise.
Dean, however, seems pretty capable at keeping the first one in the dumpster. He glances over at Nic manhandling the second towards him. "We gonna start a dumpster fire or something?" That's not a bad idea, he reflects. Pretty easy to control, all things considered.
There's a growl and thrashing as the zombie Nic carries digs its claws into his chest. "Yeah well....you said fire and contained...will it work?" he asks as he starts heaving the new zombie against the second lid. "Sam!" he grunts and kicks the dumpster while the zombie is held securing in one arm and over his back.
When the undead creature tries to bite him, Nic twists his head out of the way "No fucking way!" he snarls and his eyes flash, the werewolf dropping down to one kneed and doing his best to slam the thing's head against the pavement.
When Nic calls out for him, Sam's there beating the thing's head, so that it doesn't try to make its wounds worse. "Fortunately, these zombies don't spread the problem with their bite..." he mutters, "but unfortunately, it's still a bite from something dead, so it's really dangerous!"
Dean nods to the question, looking down to watch Nic work so well. "You're an expert. Love to watch you work." He cracks a grin.
"One of you open the other lid..." he says and looks between the two brothers. "How did I...get stuck doing the disgusting work?!" There's a a sickening crunch as the zombie's arm seems to be putting itself back together and forcing Nic to adjust his grip. "Not sure...how much longer I can hold him," he says, deep voice guttural in sound as he works the creature back to the side of the dumpster and starts to push him upwards along the metal side. "Hope you brought gasoline," the werewolf says as he struggles to keep the undead from breaking completely free of his grasp.
"Ain't like any of this work isn't disgusting." Dean throws the other lid up, at the same time as he sends the one nearest him crashing down onto the zombie's skull. It doesn't do enough, but it stuns the creature for a short enough time.
Sam hurries over to help Nic in with the one he's trying to get in. He may not be a super-strong shifter, but he does have a remarkable strength to him. Dean has called him the Hulk before, and for good reason. Those muscles aren't just for show.
Once that's done and both of them are in, Dean gives a glance and a nod to Nic, once he catches his eyes. "We both got lighter fluid and lighters," he calls out. "You ready to keep 'em down for a little bit? It's gonna get pretty hot, pretty fast."
Nic leans his back against the dumpster when the last one is inside and he looks over, "Thanks Sam!" Even admits the carnage, filth and undead bits, it's not lost on Nic just how nice Sam's muscles look when they are flexing and doing heavy lifting.
He doesn't let it distract him too much though as Dean is talking about lighting up the dumpsters. "Yeah, Not gonna get close to that." The mention of the fire causes Nic's eyes to flare and he moves quickly away from the area of the dumpsters. He's not cowering, werewolves don't do that, but he's completely on the other side of the alley when the brother's start to work.
Even with several layers on, it's easy to see the bulge of Sam's musculature when he uses it to do feats like this. He dusts his hands and takes out the can of lighter fluid, dousing the zombie nearest him. Dean does the same, and it's Dean who lights the fire, glancing over to the retreating Nic.
"The hell you doin' over there? You gotta help us keep these things in here so they actually burn!" Dean has to take another whack at the one in front of him, trying to stand up again. "It ain't gonna take all that long, but it's gonna get hot. And we ain't nearly as tough as you are."
Nic's eyes widen when the lighters are used and the whole dumpster starts to burn. He is not moving anywhere closer to that and the way he stares at it is almost mesmerizing...."You guys....you got this..." he says, his gravelly voice coming out in rough spurts. The werewolf watches the lids bumping up as the zombies inside try to bust out.
At one point, Nic starts to approach closer but then a gout of flame shoots out of the gap in the dumpster and lid and he freezes, stopping any forward movement as he crouches lower to the ground.
"Whew!" Dean dodges the finger of flame, but he doesn't think much more about the werewolf afraid of fire as he moves to try and keep the things in there.
It's all the brothers can do, but gradually, after minutes and minutes, the protests and the fighting slows from within the dumpster. After a while, it stops, and the fire keeps burning. The dumpster is obviously very hot, having been turned into a sort of makeshift crematorium, but Sam reaches out with a long stick, pushing one of the lids open without touching it. The flames don't leap, at that point, as they've started to consume all they can of what they have available to them.
"Think you can go grab us some sand, Nic?" Sam calls over to the werewolf. If he's wanting to avoid the fire, he can pitch in another way.
It takes a second for it to register that Sam's talking to him and when he does, he shakes his head as if throwing off a dream or trance. "Yeah...I got it." Then he's making his way down the alley, and with the immediate threat done, he looks over his shoulder at the brothers and allows himself to shift back. He's beaten, bruised and has a couple of nasty claw marks across his chest and arms but otherwise he's intact. He knows there's a hardware store nearby so he heads there, hoping they are open late and not in a talkative mood.
He manages to get four bags of sand, carrying two on each shoulder, arms up and wrapped around them as he makes his way back to the alley. "Is this enough?" he asks, his voice back to normal though he looks a bit worse for wear.
"You bet. Thanks, man." Dean gives Nic a pat on the side, then pauses for a second to make sure there isn't any open injury there, giving a sympathetic wince. He reaches out to take one of the bags of sand and, after ripping it open with a quick flick of a knife, he scatters it inside the dumpster.
Sam gives Nic a smile, half in apology, taking two bags over to the dumpster and starting to do the same as his brother. It's not long before the fire seems more under control, in danger of going out by itself...and there isn't much evidence left of the zombies at all. Someone will certainly think that something weird happened here, but they won't be able to find much about it. There's only trash left in the dumpster, albeit scorched trash that once was a pair of terrifying weapons.
But there will unquestionably be more. This was only a promise. An opening salvo, after the overtures of the original's attack.
Once the sand is used to douse the fires and they are no longer burning, Nic's seems more at ease, even taking a moment to appreciate the way both brothers handle themselves, then he shakes it off. With a muttered curse, Nic leans against the alley wall and just slams his fist against it hard...add one more self-inflicted wound to the others that have at least started to heal a bit.
The bite as left a gross looking tooth print on his shoulder and he the young man seems exhausted.
He can already see the looks the brothers have given him, that look of sorrow and pity and he can t help it, he snaps back "Stop looking at me that way," he says, though it's meant to be harsh he's not got it in him to fight.
Dean gives a look in return. "What, like we're glad to have you here? You ain't gotta prove nothin' to me or Sam. Only one you gotta impress is yourself." He turns back to his task, opening the last of the bags and dumping it in there. If nothing else, it'll make it smell a little better, for a limited time.
"We need to get you back to the hotel and get you patched up," Sam states, seemingly not at all caring that much about any shortness or snapping. "I've got plenty of medical supplies there, but I don't think it's gonna need stitches or anything. You heal fast, right?" His smile is thin but true.
There's a couple of deep breaths that has his chest rising and falling as he casts a final look at the dumpster when the last bag of sand is dumped in. Pushing off the wall, the teen makes his way back over, grabbing up a couple of other bags of trash that weren't in a dumpster and tosses them in, it should hide some of the other evidence for a while.
"Sure, yeah...it'll heal by tomorrow. It's not instant or anything but I won't be laid up for long over any of it." There's still an undertone of defiance to his voice but it's toned down mostly by this point. "Thought I was getting over that shit..." he mutters before flicking a piece of zombie flesh from his ripped shirt.
"Let's get going." Dean walks past Nic and slaps him on the shoulder, though it's not the one that got dug into, so that says something. He doesn't belabor the point he was trying to make.
Sam lingers a little longer, a bit more concern on his face, though it's pushed down so much more subtly now. "That's still a zombie, and it's still dangerous. Why don't we go back to the hotel, order some pizza maybe, and get those wounds cleaned out. Or maybe the witches'll have some good leftovers we can polish off from school lunch." He grins, looking to Nic's face, hoping for a smile back.
The look from Sam and the mention of getting some pizza does in fact get a smile from Nic. It's not as easy going as it was and there's still some thoughts behind those eyes, though they've turned back to his normal hazel color. "Sure, Sam, sounds good." The clap on the shoulder from Dean gets a stare that also softens a bit into a good natured lay grin, "Seeing you shotgun whipping that zombie was pretty good, man." He rolls his eyes a bit at the rather rag tag look they have at this point in time.
As they get further from the source of his panic attack, Nic starts to feel more like him self even joining in on a joke or two that the brothers share on the way back to the hotel.