Ketch Me if You Can

Chapter 18

"She should get the ward." Sam said as we watched Ketch searching around on the ground for something, "We can't take the risk of her getting possessed again."

"We need to give her time." I sighed, looking back at my car where Elly was seated in the back seat, huddled in a jacket. "I don't want to push her right now."

We'd stopped in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, a field of some sort in a tiny town no map knew the name of. It had been almost half an hour since we'd stopped, but I wasn't sure what to look for so I'd stood off to the side with Sam. We hadn't said much until he'd mentioned the ward. He was right. I knew that, but right now just wasn't...

"Ah, here we go," Ketch said, reaching toward the ground and pulling up hard on a hatch.

The thing creaked open and revealed a long ladder reaching into darkness as Sam and I stepped over for a look. Small iridescent lights started to light up from the top and lit the path downward.

"Right." I took a deep breath before turning around to go back to the car and get Elly.

Sam nodded and headed for Baby to get Dean and Cael. There hadn't been any sign of Cas, Lucifer, and Gabe yet. But I was taking that as a good sign. They were hopefully just staying out of sight for now until we could get inside.

"Hey kid," I said, smiling when she turned her head and smiled at me. "We found the way in. Ready to go?"

Elly nodded, tired. I pulled her gently from the car and snaked my arm around her waist to help her to the hatch.

Ketch had already climbed down to the bottom, his silhouette glowing in the lights at the bottom as we reached the hole. I let go of Elly and started down the first few rungs, looking back up at her before continuing down. I reached halfway before looking back up and making sure she was following before I made the rest of the way to the bottom.

The space at the bottom was small, clearly only meant for one or two people to stand in at once. Ketch was still messing with the door as I watched Elly slowly climb down. I was about to turn to him and tease him about how long it was taking when the door popped open and he pushed inside. I waited for Elly to reach the bottom, helping her off the last rungs and waiting for Dean to appear at the top before helping her through the door.

I paused once we stepped through, taking in the massive underground room. We were on a metal platform near the top, metal rails guarding the sides, but looking overlooked down to a massive server room. A long glass desk surrounded by several leather chairs in the middle of the room. And a large mainframe of screens covered one wall. Some showed different maps with small blinking lights, some were cameras of various rooms I assumed were in the rest of the bunker, one showed the view of the above-ground field, Sam watching Cael go carefully down the ladder before following him and closing the hatch. Elly tugging at my shirt broke me from my stare and I took in the long series of stairs that lead to another landing and then the ground floor.

"Here," Ketch said, coming to take Elly from me and leading her to one of the chairs.

I looked through the rest of the room, walking along the walls and taking in what I could see without going any further in. The other three walls were lined with shelves containing thousands of books or weapons of some sort. Guns, swords, supernatural items I'd never seen before.

Four halls ran from the room, one leading to a series of doors, all closed but numbered similar to how our bunkers rooms were. Another seemed to lead to a small kitchen and pantry. Down another, I couldn't quite see anything, but the smell of motor oil and gas told me it was most likely a garage. The last hall was short and seemed to lead to a single door, it wasn't marked with a number like the others, and it was metal, old, and rusted at the hinges.