Hayden & Dean (The Sequel) - A Tethered Love

Chapter 21: A Dark Place

When we land, there's a car waiting for me at the airport to drive me to Superior. It takes more time than I wish, but once we reach the city limits I can tell things are bad. There are cars littered all over the road, bodies scattered on the ground. The driver stops, only a few feet in and turns "I'm gonna have to drop you off here."

I roll my eyes, getting out refusing to argue with him and waste time. I understand, he doesn't know the bad in this world like I do now. "Wait here" I direct going over to the open passenger window. He nods at me, and I start my walk forward to find the hospital Dean told me to go to. Luckily. Superior isn't all that big, and there's only one major hospital here. I do my best to ignore the bodies on the ground, getting a glimpse of this black vein like tattoo on a few of them. I didn't have any guns on me at my dad's, but I did have an angel blade handy. Dean insisted I always carry one on me. When I get to the hospital, I stay back, spotting a few people outside of it, infected with whatever diseases hit this town. I try to stay quiet and find another way in, but I kick something in the road, causing the three bodies to turn and spot me. "Shit' I mutter, pulling out the blade to fight. Two of them run at me while another stays at its location. I dart forward, hoping to holler out to Dean for support. "Dean!" I call out as I run closer to the hospital. "DEAN!" I scream as loud as I can, getting inches from the door. Just as I go to reach to open it, they swing open at me and I jump back startled.

Dean's eager face meets mine and he yells "hurry up!" He takes a shot at the monster thing behind me and quickly shuts the doors directly behind me entering.

I keel over a bit to catch my breath and pant out "what the hell is that?"

"We don't know." He says back to me "Here, come here." He comes over, puts a hand on my elbow and goes to guide me out of the hallway. I walk into another room where Paul is resting quietly in a baby bed from this hospital.

I run over to him "oh, thank God!" I pick him up and hold him close to me, caressing his back and kissing his head. I start to rock him and as I do, I notice another baby in the room. I freeze where I am and ask Dean "where's her parents?"

I can tell she's a girl by the pink blanket she is wrapped in. Dean looks over to where my eyes are laying still "the uhh, the mother died in child birth. The father got infected."

"Oh my God, that's horrible." I mutter, slowly walking over to the little baby. She's merely a few hours old but resting quietly in a bin. "What are you going to do with her?" I ask him, looking to him for an answer I want to hear, one I don't know myself.

He shakes his head "right now, just keep her safe, there's an officer here helping us, she knew the family. We have to get them both out of here though!" He brings back up the more important matter at hand.

I nod, coming back to the dark reality "right, where's Sam?" I ask, looking around now for his younger but taller brother.

"He's uhh, he's elsewhere in the hospital." Dean responds.

"Why?" I question him.

He looks down, but answers "he's got whatever infection this is. He's trying to figure out a way to stop it from taking over, or he's trying to give us time to get away with the babies."

"What!" I spit, not wanting to believe what he is saying.

Just then a women runs into the room where in and says lowly "it's clear out the front, Sam got them all after him." She looks at me, holding my baby and quickly introduces herself "Hi, I'm Jenna."

"Hayden." You say back quickly, knowing there is not time to talk. Jenna walks over to pick up the baby girl and the three of us huddle together "I hope you have a plan Dean." I whisper, rocking Paul as he starts to fuss a bit.

"We're gonna run like hell out of here." He tells me his plan. I do what I can to not roll my eyes, wanting to argue with him about that terrible plan but know there probably isn't any other way to get out of here.

As we make our way to the front of the hospital, Dean is hit by a man in front of us and thrown to the ground. Jenna pulls out her weapon and I quickly take the baby from her, holding the two of them close to me. "The baby" the man mumbles, the side of his face completely covered with black veins.

"No!" Jenna yells to him, keeping her stand sturdy.

"The baby" he says again. Dean stands up, pointing his shotgun at him.

Dean calls to the man "we're not going to hurt you Mike, as long as you leave the baby alone."

"Her name" he mutters out, now showing us how hard he is trying to fight the urge to kill us "her name is Amara."

"What?" I ask, along with Jenna.

"Her name is Amara." He repeats again, his teeth clenching together. We move around him towards the door and he lets us, using everything he has in him to let us go. As we get to the door, he falls to the ground and dies.

Dean puts his arm around me and we hustle our asses out of there. We get into the Impala and Dean rushes his way out of the town without looking back. I sit in the back seat with Jenna, as we cradle the quietest of babies. Once we get to the next town over, Dean stops and we all get out of the car. Jenna and Amara stand there, and Dean asks "You good?

"Yeah. Baby. Poop. What could go wrong?" Jenna answers back, a fake smile her face.

"Godspeed." Dean hums out.

"Dean." I growl at him, clearly seeing how anxious this women is.

Jenna confesses to us "I have no idea what I'm doing."

Dean tries his best to help her "right. Listen, I know things might seem dark right now , hell, call it pitch-black. And you may not be able to see it, but your way back is right there." He points to the baby girl in her arms "You and her. You're gonna help each other." He looks to me and Paul, smiling "just like they helped me."

She smiles at us, then down at the baby and says "joy comes in the morning." Dean looks at her with wide eyes, not following, so she elaborates "my grandma leads a Bible study."

"Ah. Well, let's go with that." He raises his eyes with a quick fake grin.

"Let's go inside and get some supplies you'll need, okay?" I ask her "I need to change Paul anyway."

"Sure." She nods in agreement. We leave Dean so he can call Sam before getting back on the road to take Jenna to her grandmothers.