Roads of Reckoning

Bugs

March 23rd, 2006
I sit across from Sam, I take a sip from my beer. We are in a dusty bar in god knows where. Dean comes over to us, waving a wad of cash in the air. Sam looks up, unimpressed.
"You know, we could get day jobs once in a while."
"Hunting's our day job and the pay is crap." Dean says.
"Yeah but hustling pool? Credit card scams? It's not the most honest thing in the world Dean."
"Sam, it's all we've got." I say. He looks back to me and down to his newspaper.
"We got a new gig or what?"
"Maybe. Oasis Plains, Oklahoma ~ not far from here. A gas company employee, Dustin Burwash, supposedly died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob." Sam says. Dean looks confused.
"What's that?"
"Human mad cow disease." I say.
"Mad cow? Isn't that on Oprah?"
I cock my head.
"You watch Oprah?" I ask.
Dean changes the subject.
"So this guy eats a bad burger. Why is it our kind of thing?"
"Mad cow disease causes massive brain degeneration." Sam says. "It takes months, even years for the damage to appear. But this guy, Dustin? Sounds like his brain disintegrated in about an hour. Maybe less."
"Okay, that's weird."
"Yeah, now it could be a disease, or it could be something much nastier."
"Alright, Oklahoma."
We step into the Impala and drive off.
•———————————————————————•
After travelling overnight we arrive in Oklahoma, parked outside of a gas and power company. We get out of the car and approach a man working outside.
"Travis Weaver?"
Sam asks.
"Yeah that's right."
"Are you the Travis that worked with Uncle Dusty?"
Dean asks.
"Dustin never mentioned nephews." He looks at me. "Or nieces." I smile politely.
"Really? Well he sure mentioned you." I say. "He said you were the greatest."
Sam and Dean nod.
"Oh, he did huh?"
"Listen, we wanted to ask you...what happened out there?" Asks Dean.
"I'm not sure. He fell in a sinkhole, I went to the truck to get some rope, and, uh...by the time I got back..."
"What did you see?"
"Nothing. Just Dustin."
"No wounds or anything."
"Well he was bleeding...from his eyes and his ears, his nose. But that's it."
"So you don't think it could be this mad cow thing?"
Travis shrugs.
"I don't know. That's what the doctors are saying."
"But if it was, he would've acted strange beforehand, like dementia, loss of motor control. You ever notice anything like that?"
"No, no way. But then again, if it wasn't some disease, what the hell was it?"
"That's a good question."
I step in.
"You know, can you tell us where this happened?"
•———————————————————————•
I stand over the sinkhole, surrounded by police tape.
"Huh, what do you think?" Dean asks.
"I don't know. But if that guy, Travis was right, it happened pretty damn fast." Sam says.

We duck under the police tape and shine our lights into the hole.
"So what? Some sort of creature chewed on his brain?"
I shake my head.
"No, there'd be an entry wound. Sounds like this thing worked from the I inside." I say.
Dean leans over the hole. He looks to Sam.
"Looks like there is only room for one. You wanna flip a coin?"
Sam stares at him.
"Dean, we have no idea what's down there."
Dean picks up a nearby coil of rope.
"All right, I'll go if you're scared. You scared?"
I roll my eyes. So childish.
"Flip the damn coin."
Dean chuckles and takes a coin out of his pocket.
"All right, call it in the air...chicken."
Dean throws up the coin and Sam snatches it out of the air.
"I'm going." Sam says.
"I said I'd go."
"I'm going."
"All right."
Sam ties the rope around his waist.
"Don't drop me."
•———————————————————————•
Back in the Impala, Sam examines a dead beetle in his hand.
Dean looks over.
"So you found some beetles. In hole, in the ground. That's shocking Sam."
I hold back a laugh.
"There were no tunnels, no tracks. No evidence of any other kind of creature down there. You know, some beetles do eat meat. Now, it's usually dead meat but~"
"How many did you find down there?"
"Ten."
"It'd take a whole lot more than that to eat out some dude's brain."
"Well, maybe there were more." I suggest.
"I don't know, it sounds like a stretch to me."
"Well maybe we need more information on the area, the neighbourhood. Whether something like this has ever happened before." Sam says.