Prequel: Carry On My Wayward Son.

Ch 8: Was that so hard?

We drove for a long while, but the scenery was all the same. Endless road, open fields with cows, and trees. So many trees. I popped my head over the front seat, "Can I drive?"

"No way."

"But Deannnnnn," I whined, resting my chin on his shoulder. "Please?"

"Absolutely not."

"You're an ass," I stated, throwing myself back into the seat.

"Don't take it personally, he didn't let me drive for weeks after he picked me up and I'm his brother," Sam chuckled, checking his phone. "I just got a text from a private number."

"What does it say?" I asked curiously.

"Coordinates."

Dean gulped, "It's dad."

"How do you know?" I replied, "It's a private."

"He always gave us coordinates," Sam nodded, writing them down on a corner of our map.

"So what do we do?" I shrugged.

Dean adjusted his rear view mirror and sped up a bit. "We follow them."

The coordinates led us to a small town in Wisconsin, but Sam googled it on the way there, and couldn't find the slightest sign of anything weird. When we got there, we stopped at a cafe for coffee and Sam did some more research, but was still coming up with nothing.

I looked out the window, seeing a playground across the street. I asked, "What time is it?"

"Just after four, why?" Dean replied skeptically.

I nodded towards the playground, only one child and his mom where there. "What's wrong with this picture?"

"Let's go check it out," Sam said, and he and Dean stood up.

"No offense guys, but you should stay here," I said, getting up. "Two grown men without a kid going over to a playground isn't gonna go over well with that mother."

They shrugged in agreement and sat back down. I walked across the street and sat next to the woman on the bench. "I'm thinking about moving here with my little girl," I told her. "Are there a lot of kids in there area? I thought there would be more here, so I could talk to parents, you know, get a feel for the area.."

"I wouldn't move here now," She said,shaking her head sadly. "Kids are getting sick around here.. Practically every kid in the neighborhood is in critical condition."

I nodded, "Oh, wow.. Thanks, um, have a good day."

The boys had gone back to the car, and I met them there. "We're going to the hospital." I explained on the way.

When we got there, we used fake IDs, posing as Disease Control. I smiled charmingly to a male nurse, "Can you direct us to the pediatric ward, please?" He did.

We passed a room with an old lady in it. She was sitting in a chair, staring at a will. There was an inverted cross hanging over her bed. I nudged Dean, and he tool notice of it, then we moved on. We found Dr. Hance, the main childrens doctor. We got straight to business. Dean asked, "How many cases so far?"

"13 kids in five weeks," Dr. Hance replied, flipping through some pages on his clipboard. "The kids aren't responding to antibiotics. Their white cell counts keep going down. Their immune systems just aren't doing their job. It's like their bodies are.. wearing out."

"You ever see anything like this before?" I asked.

"Never this severe," He said, shaking his head, "And the way it spreads is crazy.."