waywardfreckled // dean winchester:
To be fair, Dean hadn’t asked to be the leader of anything or anyone. It was just a role he found himself in more often than not — takin’ care of other people rather than takin’ care of himself — usually when he didn’t want any part of it.
John had died barking orders, and Dean had inherited the role to a group of misfits that weren’t even his family until some sadistic dude named Gordon had come and ripped that away too, makin’ it clear there was no room for two leaders in his pack. That’s how Dean ended up across state lines lookin’ for something lost.
His family was scattered in all directions. Sam at the heart of it in California. A good brother woulda gone after him a long time ago. Dad still bein’ pissed wasn’t a good enough excuse. But it was a hell of a long road to Stanford on a slim chance and what John had called ‘a fool’s mission’, but it was one he’d undertake, as soon as he had enough supplies and fuel for the car. If the dead didn’t kill him, desert days and their bitter equivalent of nights could kill him just as easy.
Without Sam, there was no use trackin’ down Bobby and Ellen in Sioux Falls, holed up with the rest of the family, or so he’d heard before the phones went off grid completely. It would be playin’ it safe to go home. Dean didn’t want safe. He wanted to know why Benny hadn’t showed up at the meeting point a year ago. He wanted to know what was so much better than stickin’ together. Havin’ someone, when everyone else came with their judgement.
The place smelled like rot. Rotting corpses, old food and grease. Was just the state of the whole goddamned world now. There were no answers here.
His hand was on the back door now, and fear went through him like a dull blade, aching in all the wrong places. Rationally, he knew Benny wouldn’t be here. He hadn’t been a year ago, and he wouldn’t be now. Hopefully he’d had enough sense to get out of New Orleans entirely, and this little podunk town just outside the city of sin as well.
Still, Benny’s was one of the faces that haunted him when he sleeps, gaunt and dead, moving with no reason left to move. Other than to eat. Kill and eat, kill and eat. Funny thing was that the monsters and the humans weren’t so different now when it came to that cycle.
He lingered too long before deciding not to go in. Whatever meager supplies hadn’t been raided by now wouldn’t be worth the amount of bullets, the noise.
The chance that Benny was a corpse inside.
He turned around, feet sliding on the loose gravel to walk away and be done with it. To be on his own ‘s long as it took to get to Sam. One of the dead shambled toward him, confused. Dean cleared it up for it by putting a silenced bullet in its head that isn’t silent enough.
living in this world was quite a lot like prison life had been, safety within bars during the night was a myth, sleeping with one eye open at all times had been normalcy for benny for a decade - living this life now was like coming home. only home was nowhere, run over by the dead & there was nothing - or nobody left to return home to.
he’d been grasping at straws, honestly & dean was one of those last few remaining straws benny could think of. in fact, dean was one of the first people he thought about after the outbreak. but finding him in this mess was nearly impossible. at least that’s what he’d made himself believe. up until he decided fuck reality, hello hope. was he desperate? maybe. but if he didn’t try, then he would regret & wonder for the rest of his life.
close to dozing off once again, the sound outside had him alert. backpack slung over his shoulder, bat in hand & a knife tucked in between belt & hip, he slid outside through the backdoor - the bell fastened to both doors had surprised him when he arrived, so he’d taken them down instantly. nobody needed noise dragging in more of the dead.
outside though, he found the footsteps had clearly not been a walker, but a human instead - a living one anyway. first thing he saw was the dead collapsing, second was the gun at the ready while his own was tucked away against his thigh. “didn’t wanna come in? best burger in town.” he could have supplies, or ammo. or knowledge. “turn around slowly, i got no beef with you - just wanna know if you’ve seen a friend of mine around these parts.”