Darkness Unleashed

[Sam Winchester]

Sam steadied his brother onto his feet, his brows furrowed as he gave him the once over. He seemed perfectly fine: still slightly out of it, but not injured. That crossed off him being pulled out of the car and thrown a mile away, but that had never really been a possible explanation. Nothing seemed to be making any sense. Dean's initial disappearance, the return of the voice inside his mind. There was no way in hell he would tell Dean about it. He couldn't put the focus or concern on himself. He couldn't yet admit to himself that it was happening again. Now, finding Dean a mile away from the Impala where he had last been. Just when they had could have a moment break from their troubles, the worst was hitting them head on.

"What the hell happened to you?" He asked, taking his hand away from Dean's shoulder.

[Harley Eve]

The darkness was something older than time, a force that only God knew much about. He hadn't been helpful for thousands and thousands of years and so why would he suddenly want to start now. The world was supposed to end over five years ago before those Winchester's stopped it. Maybe this was a way of things saying to stop fighting back. Harley watched the black veins as they reached up to the man's face, like cracked lines of a porcelain doll. His heart was still beating, and so what was going to come of him? She doubted it was anything pleasant. But she still watched, intrigued.

In an empty and desolate town, she could sense someone coming behind her before there was even a voice. She barely glanced over her shoulder at the woman jogging over, injured in her arm. If she was in the eye of the storm, why wasn't she out cold like the few others littering the street? Nothing about this darkness was making much sense, it was entirely too unpredictable. "I wouldn't-.." Harley began to warn, but it was too late as the girl was already touching it. Him. There was no way to be certain that this wasn't some contagious infection: but she supposed now this girl was a test subject. She stood back up to her feet, looking over at a woman laying only a few feet away. She also had the black veins on her. Her brows furrowed as the body began to move, the woman slowly climbing to her feet with a deep sounding grunt. That couldn't have been good.

She grabbed her knife from her coat pocket, acting fast to pull the reanimated man back and stake the knife up through the back of his neck and into his skull. Blood spurted from his mouth as he slumped over, but just as the fog and veins, it was black. But so far that meant that at least these things could be killed. "I think this is your cue to get out of here," she told the girl. She saw the gun she had been reaching for and figured her to be some sort of cop. And one thing about cops were, they always wanted to help but never knew what they were actually fighting against. Behind them, multiple more of the infected civilians began to rise.

[Ellis Morgan]

As Harley stabbed the man, Ellis looked on in horror and apprehension and jumped back, the hand that held her black Smith & Wesson shaking. She was in way over her head now. However, as scared as she was, she knew they couldn't stick around for long. More of the infected were beginning to rise up, with what seemed like one thought and one thought only on their minds: kill. As the woman that had been lying near them stood and began to charge, black veins protruding from her face and neck, Ellis whirled around and shot three rounds square between her eyes to stop her.

"Yeah, okay. I think we can make it to the city limits before we're too overrun. Any other survivors will probably do the same if they're smart." Ellis holstered her gun at her hip, motioning for Harley to follow. Glancing over her shoulder, she added, "Are you hurt at all?"

[Harley Eve]

Harley had been around long enough to know to take notice in Ellis' instinct and reactions. Any ordinary cop would have been losing their minds in this instance whereas this young woman was already in the mindset of survival. She could smell the human on her and so that possibly meant that this was a hunter. So she'd have to keep playing pretend, not wanting to risk a hunter figuring out what she really was. All she had to do was leave this town with a snap of her fingers, but she wanted to see what would happen to this girl who had touched one of the infected. Just how did this darkness spread? Her eyes were emotionless as three bullets to the head took out the woman charging at them. The infected heart's had never stopped beating: underneath the black veins and instinct to kill, they were still human. Maybe they could be saved, but she wasn't willing to risk letting them live until they knew the answer.

"No. Guess that means I'm lucky," Harley replied with a casual glance to Ellis' injured arm. She didn't bother to mention she meant Ellis should leave the town. Somewhere nearby, she heard a woman's screams. Within a moment it was too late to save her as the screams grew silent, which only meant one thing. "We should get to the hospital in the next town. Get that looked at," she added.

[Ellis Morgan]

"No rush, I've gotten my ass kicked way worse than this. Some painkillers and a splint would be nice though," Ellis agreed, walking down the street, her senses on high alert. As she made quick pace southbound, the closest route out of town, she kept a close eye on the infected, most of which were already up and walking around in search of prey. Ellis had to stop herself from reaching for her gun again; she didn't have enough ammunition to throw away while clearing a path. Instead, she unclipped the four inch pocket knife from her jeans and flipped the blade open, wielding it in front of her like a dagger. It wasn't much but in an emergency it sufficed as a secondary weapon.

As they came closer to the outskirts, Ellis noticed the population of infected beginning to increase, and adjusted her pace accordingly. She had no idea what these things were capable of, and pretending otherwise was a difficult task, but she needed Harley to trust her instead of turning on her and stabbing her in the chest. At this point, making more enemies was a death sentence. "What's your name?" she asked the girl after a mile or so of walking.

[Harley Eve]

She knew that anything she had to say would make Ellis somewhat suspicious of her. So she instead kept quiet, which may have been the best thing to do anyhow. If the infected heard them talking, undoubtedly they would be surrounded. Suddenly zombie jokes weren't as funny anymore as it felt like they were in a Walking Dead episode. The smell around them was foul, and her guess was that it was the infected. She kept her knife in hand, the black blood drying on the tip. So far, stab wounds and bullet holes were the only ways that they knew how to kill these things. But the less that they had to kill, the better. Not until they knew that killing them was the right answer. Hell, why did she have to feel so annoyingly human?

"Harley," she answered. They had gotten close enough to the outskirts that there should have been some normal people in sight. Instead, they were all infected. The two were able to stay out of their sights as they were already headset on something else. They were walking, just like any normal person would be. Her guess was searching for something or someone to kill. "What about you? Have you ever seen anything like this?" Of course she wouldn't have. But if she mentioned something paranormal or evil, that would make her suspicion about Ellis being a hunter true.

[Ellis Morgan]

"Hell no I haven't," Ellis told her, casting a glance in the girl's direction. "I've been through the wringer once or twice in my time, but this is a first for me... Name's Ellis, by the way."  Finally they began to reach the point where the landscape of the town turned to fields and two-lane roads instead of rubble and rotting, undead corpses.   She breathed a sigh of relief, mentally comprising what little she knew about these things in an attempt to keep some sense of control over the situation.   Whatever was making those people this way was in their blood, coursing through their veins and turning them a disgusting black color before spreading to the brain.   Unfortunately, her experiences lacked crucially when it came to medicine, so finding a cure would be a shot in the dark at best, but it was the only shot they had.

[Lucifer]

Yeah I wouldn't go telling Dean-O about this just yet. Let's keep it private for a little longer okay? It's more fun that way. Lucifer purred. He chuckled softly. The Darkness found another toy to play with. Dean had the Mark. He gave into her, and now they're linked. Whoops.

[Harley Eve]

"You and me both," Harley agreed. Right now, her only way to get answers was by herself. If it was an infection, maybe there was a cure. But not anything that they would find in any hospital. Perhaps a spell? Only the Book of the Damned would have remotely anything close to the information they needed. From rumors and whispers, the last place the book had been seen was in a witch's grasp. Slaughtering her and stealing the book seemed simple enough, but it could prove to only be a waste of time. "I've seen a lot of crazy shit, but nothing like this." She paused for a second, beckoning Ellis to stop walking. She nodded her head towards the side of the road there was a car. Two people were inside, seemingly still unconscious. The darkness hadn't taken affect on them just yet. But taking the car and getting the hell off this long road and to the next town seemed like a better idea than aimlessly walking.

[Ellis Morgan]

Ellis glanced from Harley to the car, and then nodded in affirmation, getting the gist of what she was thinking. A car was almost a godsend at this time, considering her own little Honda had been crushed hopelessly and she did not in fact feel like walking the distance to the next town with a broken arm while trying to fight off the infected. "I'll cover you," she volunteered, keeping her voice down and drawing her gun. "Pull them from the car and look for some keys."

[Harley Eve]

Harley didn't hesitate. She was more than willing as she walked over to the car, taking another glance inside through the window. Both the male driving and his female passenger had the dark protruding veins, which likely meant they'd be waking up at any moment. His head was against the steering wheel and a small trickle of blood ran down his forehead, but there was no key in the ignition. They must have been getting in their car to escape the darkness, but it hit too soon. Not caring much about whatever situation had happened here, she pulled on the door to find that they were locked. Huffing to herself at the small setback, she then used her elbow to break the window. It may or may not have been a horrible idea, as the car's alarm went off in response. It alerted the two inside, waking them up from their state of unconsciousness. Yet, neither lunged for her. Instead, their dazed eyes looked at her in confusion, the male that was closer to her on the driver's side sniffing her scent. The smell of her blood, she imagined. She ripped him from the car and onto the ground, before taking her knife to the side of his throat. Meanwhile the woman was exiting the car, her eyes set on the closest smell of human, Ellis.

[Ellis Morgan]

"Oh, shit!" Ellis exclaimed as the alarm sounded, the high frequency ringing painfully in her eardrums.  She raised her gun as the woman got out of the car, fully ready to cover Harley's six.  The infected woman walked right past, completely unaware that Harley stood nearby, much to Ellis' chagrin.  As soon as their eyes locked, Ellis fired, and with two shots, the woman dropped to the ground as blackened blood began pooling from the bullet wounds in her forehead.  She sidestepped the body, catching her breath once again, and pulled herself into the passenger seat of the car.

For a moment, Ellis simply sat in the leather seat, collecting her thoughts.  She wasn't sure what had just happened, or what Harley was doing to keep the infected at bay.  It's like she was invisible to them.  It was there, resting her forehead in the palm of her hand, that her eyes caught a glimpse of a silver key ring on the mat.   Reaching down, she picked them up to show them to Harley and declared, "Jackpot."  However, Ellis was hesitant to hand them over.

"Hey, why the hell didn't she go after you?" she asked after a moment, eyeing her skeptically.  "You were right there in front of her but she didn't even care."

[Harley Eve]

As the sound of the two bullet shots registered, Harley patted down the deceased body in hopes of finding the keys. All he had was a cellphone and wallet, useless items in which she dropped. He didn't try to kill her. Neither of them did, and it all had to do with her scent. Either they were only hungry for human blood, or they had no reason to turn a monster like her into one of them. When she yanked the knife from his neck, the two dark pools of blood ran together. She stood back to her feet, stepping over the blackness to get inside the driver's seat of the car. She closed the door and sighed relief as she saw the keys in Ellis' hand. She went to grab them, when the woman showed hesitancy to hand them over.

Harley furrowed her brows, looking between her and the keys. She had to expect that she would have taken notice to the way she was completely invisible to the two infected. That didn't change that they still needed to keep moving forward. "I don't know. Maybe I put her off by stabbing her boyfriend in the neck," she answered semi-sarcastically. It wasn't as simple as saying she wasn't human.

[Ellis Morgan]

Ellis gave her a tight-lipped smile and a curt nod in return.  "Sure ya did," she replied, counteracting Harley's sarcasm with bitter condescension.  A distrustful glare spread itself across her face as she leaned a little closer, making it known that now was not a time she would put up with bullshit.  "Listen to me.  You know just as well as I do that's not the correct answer, and whatever it is you have going on that's keeping them back, and at this point I don't care what it is, you'd better share with the class because I am really not in the mood to get my ass killed and come back with black blood.  That's not going to help this situation.  So either you start talking, or all that blood?"  She motioned out the window and back toward the town.  "All that blood is on your hands too."  Her teeth gritted and her muscles were tense as she stared daggers at her, waiting for an answer.

[Harley Eve]

Harley didn't move away from the challenge as Ellis leaned in closer with a hostile glare. She smirked slightly, her eyes taking in a better look at the other woman's features. She had seen, and outlived, many little hunters in her time. Males, females, young, old. But they always had the same thing in common: determination. A sense of fearlessness and wit. She could see it in her now, as there was an underlining threat in her little speech. She wanted to toy with her, to ask what if she didn't give an answer? Right now, she was the only person Ellis had on her side for miles. Slowly, she moved in closer, clearing her throat as she leaned her elbow against the middle storage console between their seats. "I tell you, and the first thing you're going to do is either try to kill me, or run out of this car and get yourself killed. Right now, I'm the only thing that you've got. You hand over the keys, we take you to the hospital, and then I can finally figure out what the fuck is going on." Her lips slowly slid back into a smile as she reached over and snagged the keys from her hand.