Evangeline Millie Winchester (Evie, to everyone who doesn't want to get shot) is the third Winchester sibling. She's the middle child, the one who keeps the brothers together. Or, she was. Until Sam bailed and left her and Dean to pick up the pieces...
A/N: First off, GUYS! I have passed my National Boards exam, and am officially a Registered Nurse!! OMG GUYS.
Second, my Coronavirus test was negative so thank you to those of you who were checking in on me, I love you all so much!
Third, I am super sorry for the wait, but hopefully you all like the chapter!
Also, I am super convinced that there is a person living in my attic (I checked but I didn't see anyone but the lights were all on upstairs and the toilet was draining even though no one had been up there in hours), so I am currently writing this chapter in bed with my taser next to me, my dog laying at my feet, and my cat in my lap and all the lights on. No joke. Little freaked out. Also might have something to do with me watching scary movies all day, but still.
Anyway, on to what you're all here for:
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I watched with bated breath from the back of the line as Dean and Sam moved down the ladder into the pit. Rick, T-Dog, Glenn, Merle, and Daryl were right behind them, with me in the back, and everyone else, including Cas, was staying up at the top just in case there was a herd of walkers down there.
Rick and T-Dog were down the ladder quicker than I wanted them to be, and Glenn was following close behind, but a little bit more reluctantly than the others. Merle climbed down with a quick wink in my direction, then Daryl, then it was my turn. I stared down at the ladder that descended who knows how far into darkness, and I just couldn't force myself to take that step. Daryl must have noticed because he paused, and turned his face up to look at me.
"You comin'?" Was all he said, but he looked concerned. I could see in his face that he knew I didn't like this but he didn't know how to help. But I nodded.
"Yeah." I couldn't let the weaker ones, Carl, Sophia, Lori, and Carol, see how scared I was, because then they would be too. I turned my back to face the darkness, and edged myself back and over the ledge, and down into the pit, my boots hitting the metal rungs with a clang with each step I took, until I was fully in and I could no longer see the others' feet.
"I'll wait until you all get down before I close the hatch. You know how to reach me if you need me." Cas said, a hint of concern growing like a seed in his eyes. I nodded, and finally started the climb down in earnest, wanting to just get this over with. It took about five minutes of climbing at a fairly steady, fast pace, before I reached the ground, and when I looked back up at the entrance it was a small pinpoint of light that didn't shed anything down this low. We had to be at least a quarter mile down beneath the surface, if not more.
"We're down!" I yelled up, and a moment later, the hatch slammed shut, and I couldn't see anything anymore.
"Dean?" I called, my voice shaking just a little bit, and I could hear shuffling before Dean cursed.
"Shit sorry I can't find the button." There was the sound of a clang, more cursing and shuffling, and I was elbowed in the stomach at one point, before Dean's flashlight finally clicked on, and I looked around.
We were at the end of a long, dark tunnel, and from what I could see, there were no doors. Nothing, except for this ladder leading back up to the surface. I turned to look at the others, and they were all shuffling uncomfortably, except for Dean who had been in here before. He jerked his chin forward, and waved his flashlight a little bit.
"I went down that way for about five minutes and didn't find anything, but it kept going, and if I'm right it was sloping down. And the air never got thin and I was feeling a bit of a breeze, but I decided I needed some backup before going any further, so... this way."
And so we went, following him down the, he was correct, slightly sloping path towards whatever was at the end of this tunnel. Hopefully it would be safe, with food, water, maybe even somewhere we could stay for Lori to give birth. Just... something to give us a break from being on the road.
I could tell it was changing everyone. Especially the ones who didn't know what was out there before: Daryl, T-Dog, Rick, Glenn, the Greene's... they were becoming hard, stoic, willing to do anything to save their families which was fantastic, it's what we wanted when we started training them, but sometimes I think we went to far.
When I see Carl tell his Dad that he's scared, and all Rick says is that 'we all are'. When Maggie needs to cry about her sister, and have someone there to comfort her but all Glenn can do is give her a hug, and I don't even see empathy there. It's just... time for a break.
This is the time, that if my brothers and I were still on the job, that we would take a vacation, go to Vegas, or Atlantic City and just drink, and gamble, and spend the night with some drunk-ass low-lifes. And relax.
We need to breathe, all of us.
Dean was right. There wasn't anything except steel walls and floors for about ten minutes of walking, but he was also right in that there was some kind of ventilation because I could feel a breeze coming from somewhere.
Turns out, that breeze wasn't coming from outside, it was coming from an underground cave system.
We had walked over a mile before we reached it, but when we did... it was beautiful.
It was huge, like the size of one of those huge enclosed football stadiums, and the air was lighter, colder, fresher, and there wasn't any light, but we could see the cave had more man-made tunnels leading away from the center in almost all directions and I couldn't help but wonder if it had other cave-like rooms that the tunnels led to. And when Dean pointed up at the ceiling, I understood where the air was coming from. Tiny, little pinprick holes that were probably much larger dotted the ceiling, and I knew somehow that the air was coming through there, and that they must not be straight shots otherwise there would be light in here.
And then, as we moved further into the cave, we saw it. It was a building, small, probably only one or two rooms at the base, but it was several stories tall and almost reached the ceiling, and surrounding it were tall lights, almost like stadium lights but shorter and with less bulbs.
"Dean." I whispered, pointing towards the lights, and he nodded, taking a short jog away from the rest of us, and towards the lights. I watched the light bob as we stood in the darkness for several long moments as he moved around, before the cave was finally flooded with light.
It felt like a miracle for a moment.
And then the moans started, and the dead started to pour out of the tunnels.
