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Dean Winchester finds his way back to the Tiki Inn to try and pick up Sam, whom he hopes had the sense to stay where he left him. Suddenly, there's a surprise.
May 28, 2022
Tiki Inn, California
Dean's good. Just how good depends on who you ask, but he's pleased with himself at the moment. Before he was swept away to the future, along with his car, he had recently filled the tank. A brief detour into Beacon Hills didn't take much gas -- especially parking in a safe spot and walking -- and he found the information he was after.
Or, more accurately, a pointer to San Francisco, where that specific information awaited the investigation.
So, on his way there, he intended to make the rest of the trip back to the Tiki Inn, his original destination, to pick up his brother. Hopefully, Sam had the good sense to stay where he was. Things had changed significantly by this future time, but Dean has a trained eye. He can tell what things are, and what they were, and even if it's overgrown here or there, even if there are crazed zombie-things on the way, he can get from one place to another. Besides, he is not leaving Baby here.
The Impala pulls into what was once the Tiki Inn's parking lot, but which now is a mass of cracked asphalt and overgrown greenery around a long-neglected structure. It seems mostly intact, but long neglected, as if people didn't think trying to secure the motel was worth it. Shutting the engine off, Dean steps out of the car and shuts the door behind him. He goes just a couple of steps before pulling out his pistol and checking it, keeping it in his hand. "Sammy?" He calls out, ready for any crazy monster stuff.
"Dean?" comes Sam's voice from within the motel room. The door cracks open, and first to appear is the barrel of Sam's handgun. When he sees Dean, the gun lowers to a safer angle, and Sam emerges. He's looking none the worse for wear for a couple of days in the bleak future, if maybe a little on edge. "Where the hell have you been?" he demands, but his tone is only half-serious. Bitching at Dean is something normal, even friendly in its way. Grounding.
A look around the place will show that Sam has been busy. He did his best to fortify the motel room, from boarding up the windows to reinforcing the walls here and there with debris from where the inn had fallen to ruin. Once he's greeted Dean, Sam ducks back inside for a moment, only to re-emerge with his backpack slung over one shoulder and a duffel bag in hand. "I'm so ready to get out of here," he declares, moving to stow the bags in the back of the Impala. "I'm not sure what happened, but this place officially sucks now."
The roar of the engine stands out all about the surrounding area, and is almost as effective as driving down the streets and honking the horn, in the quiet that has become the world. Anybody else would probably continue to stay hidden deep in the bowels of the abandoned office building near the Tiki Inn... but Kenzi isn't known for being cautious, after all. She knows the sound of that engine. Nobody purrs like Baby.
"Hail Mary Tyler Moore!" Rushing out the door, katana sheathed at her side, Kenzi looks, well... relieved.
She's wearing a sturdy denim jacket that she may well have stolen from Sam on their last case, judging from the size of it, her usual spiked heels, and a corset that honestly is probably armored, knowing the little klepto. She's moving at full speed, heels be damned, and dodging debris as she does, clearly afraid the brothers are going to abandon her before she can get down the road. She clears a block in record time, leaping over a downed light pole on the sidewalk without even pausing. "WAIT FOR ME I HAVE LITTLE LEGS!!!"
"I have had an adventure," Dean answers his brother, waiting as if he hadn't even been fussed at and looking like it's just your usual everyday banter. For them, it sort of is. It's a familiar quality of life, a comfort like a favorite shirt or meal or a certain car that is really far too spoiled, inasmuch as cars can be.
Once Sam has started to load in, Dean looks around again and pulls open the door. Then he freezes, frowning softly before turning to see...
"Kenzi?! The hell you doin' here?!" Dean is sure she wasn't at the Tiki Inn when he left Sam, but then temporally speaking, that was five years ago. And Kenzi doesn't look older, but he's also not sure she doesn't have some kind of magic on her side, or something. Maybe she's some kind of secret demon or something.
Sam turns around, spotting Kenzi, and blinks a bit. "Kenzi!" He looks back over to Dean, raising his eyebrows. He gets out of the car, moving to help her get into the back seat, if a bit warily. After all, this world is pretty rough on one's sense of trust. He glances at Dean, then reaches into a pocket and produces a flask, raising his eyebrows slightly as if to suggest, just maybe, that they should be considering testing people... just to be safe.
"Wait." There's a moment of fumbling in her coat, and Kenzi suddenly pulls out a half empty bottle, flinging some of the contents on Dean... then whipping them at Sam. Water. Of course. Hopefully holy, otherwise she just wasted good drinking water to clean Dean's shirt or something. Once they seemingly pass her test, Kenzi flings herself at Sam and hugs him way too tight, before doing the same to Dean, a little less tight. His girlfriend scares her, after all.
"I don't even know. One minute I was supposed to meet Bo at a house about a mile down the road and then it went all 28 Days Later and dude, I've gotta tell you. The plucky sidekick should never, ever be left to fend for herself." She brings her hands up to emphasize her point, sloshing a little water as she does. "I've been living on expired gas station tortilla chips. Surprisingly, still fresh. Should I be concerned about the preservatives? Also, the roaming hordes of ravenous demonic... hordes? Why are those a thing?"
Dean seems a little cautious at first, but that goes away within seconds. After all, he's seen more of this future, as in people he actually knows, but five years different. It's kinda weird and freaky. He sputters a little when Kenzi...asperges him. That was unexpected, visibly, but then he's being hugged and has to sigh and return the hug. Because whatever else, he's happy to see a familiar face here, and unharmed.
"You two deserve each other." Dean jerks his chin at Sam and Kenzi, finding a grin in himself after a few seconds. "Yeah, uh, they're apparently infected by some crazy demon virus. We were gonna head to San Francisco and see if we can find what caused it five years ago, because we're five years in the future, and try to get home and stop it from happening or something."
It is, ideally, not something most people expect to have to ever explain to anyone else, but Dean feels like he has done a passable job of being as concise with it as possible.
Sam gives a little laugh at the water splashing, and he returns the hug quite sincerely. "I hear you. I've been eating candy and stuff out of a vending machine I found locked in the motel office." He lightly smacks Dean on the arm, laughing in spite of it all, and nods along with the explanation. Climbing back into the Impala's front passenger seat, he says, "Right, let's hit the road. The sooner we can figure out what the hell's going on and how to deal with it, the better things will be."
"Uh... you should probably do me, now." Kenzi says to Sam, quite seriously. A second later, she just... gestures at the flask, looking irritated at her own slip up. Too much time around a certain Succubus.
Turning her attention to Dean, she nods. "So I've been eating eight year old tortillas. Cool. Remind me to get my stomach pumped later." After waiting for Sam's proof of non-demonness, Kenzi unties the katana sheath from her corset and scrunches into the back, mindful of her heels on Baby's interior. "So, where do we go from here? Also... how are the roads even driveable?"
That was exactly Dean's point. But he doesn't say it, because it wasn't really a point he seriously was trying to make, and it's funnier to let Kenzi do what he usually does: flub things verbally. He looks pleased at Sam's smack, which he pays back with a boot-nudge to the leg, about as gently. Once everyone's in the car, he takes another brief look around, then climbs in.
"The place where you been staying have any gas? Or...anything else to eat?" Dean did fill his stomach pretty well when he was investigating, but he's thinking of the time between now and when they get to San Francisco. Maybe they can touch base with Angel, if he's still around. And Dean's pretty sure he will be. That guy's not the type to let an apocalypse stop him.
"Oh, uh, Baby's decent to go offroad." Dean pats the dash and starts up the engine. "The roads ride like crap now. Maybe they're better in the city." It's likely a vain hope, but he has to try.
Sam smirks a bit at Dean's playfulness, but he takes Kenzi's suggestion seriously enough. Tugging out the flask, he lightly flicks a bit of the holy water onto her hand, or some other place where it shouldn't be too offensive. When she doesn't react in pain, he nods and puts away the flask. "I've got a bunch of candy and chips in my backpack," Sam answers Dean. "No gas, though." The mention of Angel draws another nod. "That sounds like a good plan, yeah. Friends would be good to have right now." This is accompanied by a little grin to Kenzi, and then he pauses, grimacing, to reach up and rub at one temple a bit. "Speaking of supplies, I'd kill for some aspirin. I've had a headache ever since we got here."
"... Yeah, you know me. I just go around trying to siphon gasoline out of gas stations all the time, when I don't have a freakin' car..." She does shrug, though. "I mean... this seemed to happen really quick. The dude behind the counter was, uh. Still there. Well." She gulps and adds, more quietly. "... some of him."
"I mean... they're out of the nacho chips, but there was some jerky and some other food that hadn't been ruined. I just grabbed what I could carry and took off. 'Cause. Hordes. They had drugs there, too. Like. The over the counter kind, not the Breaking Bad kind."
Dean opens his mouth to say something, then immediately shuts it when Sam starts talking. He's thoughtful at first, and then it continues into Sam talking about his headache. After that, Dean leans closer to his brother and slaps a hand onto his forehead, narrowing his eyes and then doing some...finger-rubbing...feeling...thing all over Sam's scalp.
It'll probably get him another smack, out of indignation alone, but Dean's careful when it comes to Sam and his mind. "Is it like...a buncha visions or impressions or something?" Because he remembers the whole weird-ass vision that happened before all of this. "We're gonna hit Kenzi's gas station, and I will check to see if there's gas left." Half-mumbling to himself as he sits back square in his seat, he shifts the car into reverse and backs up, then shifts again to head back out onto what remains of the street. It's more to recognize landmarks and follow a certain direction, something like following the river or the moss on tree trunks.
"Okay Kenzi, it's up to you to get us where you were. We'll load the car up best we can and then, we're headin' to San Francisco and the Hyperion Hotel." Dean announces, pulling along the fragments of the road.