Splatter

29. The End 3757

Dean had never ridden a motorcycle that moved so fast in his entire life. He could feel the rumble in Castiel's chest as he breathed deeply to counter the adrenaline of the breakneck speed. Dean latched his arms even tighter around Castiel, what a loose canon Cas was, so human. Dean laughed at himself inside his bike helmet at the thought. He wasn't sure what he was anymore himself, but finding out about Castiel's human side totally made sense. Castiel's impulsive, fickle nature and his grand schemes were all so fundamentally human. Cas was scrappy, he was a fighter and Dean liked that, a lot. Now Castiel was fighting against time and the rising wind which made the bike sway a little too hard around sharp turns. Dean could see as they made for the apartment building the part of the seawall that had been blown away by Anna. The tide looked surprisingly low, exposing miles and miles of sand. The bones of old ship parts and dumped white goods glittered under the full bright moon. The sea looked parched. The wind howled through the gap, bringing with it a tangy salty smell with a sulfurous note.

Thankfully Sam was standing dutifully in front of the building. His face a little paler than usual.

"I got Donna's message to meet you at MAPS but they have the whole suburb blocked off. No one in or out without the right paperwork," Sam said urgently. "What on earth is going on Dean?"

Dean grabbed Sam into a bearhug, Castiel was still on the motorbike, the engine running.

"You got your ride here?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded, gesturing at the bicycle leaning against a street tree.

"Really, Sammy?" Dean slapped his hand over his eyes. "End of the world and you decide to eco-warrior your way around on a pedal bike?"

"It has 16 gears," Sam said defensively. "The four wheel drive is with Eileen. Wait, did you say end of the world?"

Castiel raised a gloved finger and took out his cell and tapped on the screen. Sam jumped when his phone started ringing in his pocket. Dean could hear a cacophony of ringtones rising over the sound of the motorcycle's engine. It was deafening. After a minute or so the noise died down. Sam was staring at his phone.

"You got 26 notifications?" Dean whistled.

"I have a notification for every app I use," Sam blinked at his screen. He opened his text message and a video popped up.

"Hello, I am Castiel, Jimmy Novak, Doctor Emmanual Milton, insert your preferred alias. Some time ago you provided your contact details for the Mer mating trials. Or you are within the radius of our emergency broadcast network. We would like to notify you of a natural wave surge that is on its way to your current location. Do not fret, help is on the way. There will be an assigned aquatically capable individual making their way to your GPS location right now. Please cooperate with your survival extraction volunteer. This link will provide you with your assigned contact's current position as well as a map of the anticipated strike zones for the waves."

Dean could see the windows of the sleeping city light up like stars. People were getting on their balconies and looking out towards the sea. There were people coming out of buildings, walking calmly across the roads. One of Dean's neighbours, a friendly lady who Dean knew was called Lisa was making her way down the lobby. Inias their building security guard waved at her, she looked up from the phone she held in her hands. He smiled, all dimples and shyly showed her his gills under his collar. She took his hand and they started walking towards the harbour.

"My link shows that my assigned contact is Ruby," Sam frowned. "But I just spoke to her, she's with Eileen right now, miles away."

"Yeah, about that, we have to get you to the exclusion zone, there's people that can help us there," Dean started to say but Castiel was revving the engine on the motorbike. Looked like they were running out time. "Uh, how fast can your bicycle go?"