A Burdened Family

Chapter 11

"This is your lead?" Dean taunted me as he and Sam arrived at the field. "A pile of dirt and a shovel?"

"Yup"

"This better be worth something, Lucy." Dean pointed a serious finger at me. "Because Ellen knows and she'll have my ass if we don't get Jo."

"We'll get her back. I know what I'm doing." I lied through my teeth. I had no idea what the hell we were gonna find, but if there was one person who I thought might know, it was Marcus. He was always a few steps ahead of the rest of the world, so much so that he almost didn't seem human.

"So, what am I looking at." Dean asked impatiently.

"We're supposed to dig." I deadpanned. "That's why I told you to bring shovels over the phone."

"What did you find, Luce?" Sam asked, handing one of the shovels on his shoulder to Dean. "And how did you find it."

"Just dig." I brushed off the question, unsure of how to explain Marcus and Alec to my brothers. "I'll tell you later. Jo needs help now."

That's all it took to convince Dean to dig.

With the three of us all digging, my brothers more than me, we made progress quickly. We dug until Sam's shovel hit metal, then we switched to use our hands. We pulled up what looked to be a metal trap door and found a ladder descending into a dark tube. 

"Age before beauty," I gestured down the hole. Dean scoffed, but led the way down the hatch. Sam and I grabbed our guns and followed after Dean.

We reached the bottom of the hatch and were faced with a small tube. Well, it wasn't small, but it would be a tight squeeze for us. The three of us army-crawled our way through the rough pipe.

"Lucy if you keep kicking me I'm gonna shoot you in the foot."

"Shut up, Sam. I'm the one who threatens to shoot you. Not the other way around."

"You came up with the plan today. Our roles are reversed."

"You are such children." Dean grumbled, and despite the fact that I couldn't see his face, I could tell he was grinding his teeth.

"Are we there yet?" I mocked Dean in a childish whine. 

"I will shoot you." Sam threatened from behind me.

"I won't stop him." Dean added. I huffed and continued along in silence. We kept crawling for a few yards, before Sam stopped us.

"Wait, wait. There's a pipe going up here." He called. Neither of us could see what he was pointing at because we couldn't turn around. "We should check it out."

"How the hell are we supposed to get there?" I asked. "I can barely see behind me."

"Crawl backwards." Sam deadpanned.

"Do what he say, Luce." Dean ordered, backing his shoes up dangerously close to my nose. "There's a dead end up ahead."

"Fine, but get your feet out of my face." I smacked my brother's boots and he inched away. 

We continued to navigate our way through the pipes until Dean called out and shot a bullet in front of him. I yelped as the sound echoed and amplified around me, but quickly pulled myself together and followed after Dean. 

The tube widened up ahead so we were able to get on our hands and knees to force our way through what looked like a sewer grate. Through the grate was an open space that felt like a prison.

"Jo!" Dean yelled, once in the open.

"I'm here!" She called back. She sounded breathless and frantic. The boys and I split up to peer inside small cement boxes. Each one had a tiny crack that allowed a little bit of light inside.