The Life of a Hunter

Chapter 5

They stayed at Stanford for a week, the four doing some digging, trying to find out what killed Jess. Caleb had taken his car to Bobby's deciding it would be easier if they all rode in the same vehicle, then got a bus ticket back to California.

Now, the group of hunters are traveling down some random highway on the way to Colorado. Dean, of course, was driving, Sam was asleep in the passenger seat, and Caleb and Nakota were in the backseat. Nakota leans back against Caleb's side, his arm wrapping around her chest as she quietly sings along to Foreigner's Hot Blooded that was playing over the speakers.

Sam suddenly jerks awake, blinking rapidly and rubbing his eyes. Nakota sits up and leans forward, resting her arms on the top of the front seat. She rests her head in her arms as she turns it to look at her little brother. 

"You okay?" She asks gently. Sam glances at her before looking straight ahead. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." He says. Nakota sighs quietly, looking to her left and sharing a look with Dean, the two having one of their silent conversations.

"Another nightmare?" Dean asks after a moment. Sam clears his throat before looking out his window. "You wanna drive for a while?" Sam scoffs, looking over at his older brother. 

"Dean, your whole life, you never once asked me that." He says. Nakota smiles slightly, glad that he's at least talking to them, as she leans back and returns to her spot against Caleb's side.

"Just thought you might want to. Never mind." Dean says.

"I'll drive." Caleb says, making Nakota laugh slightly. 

"Not a chance, Aussie." Dean tells him. 

"Worth a shot." Caleb mutters. 

"Look, guys, you're worried about me." Sam says, looking between the older three. "I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."

"Mm-hm." Dean hums, none of them convinced by Sam's words. Sam ignores him and grabs a map. 

"Alright, where are we?" He asks, looking at the paper. 

"We are just outside of Grand Junction." Nakota tells him, looking in front of her and out her window. 

"You know what?" Sam says after a minute. "Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon." Nakota sighs and leans against the seat again.

"Sam, we dug around there for a week." She tells him. "We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica-"

"We gotta find Dad first." He interjects. 

"Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence." 

"Dad will have answers." Dean adds. "He'll know what to do."

"It's weird, guys." Sam says, looking back at the map. "These coordinates he left us. This Blackwater Ridge." 

"What about it?" Caleb asks, leaning forward in his seat.

"There's nothing there. It's just woods." Sam says, putting the map back down. "Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?" 

They pull into town not long after that and go to the Ranger Station, walking in and looking around at the maps and photos of the area so they can get a look at the terrain before going out into the woods. 

"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote." Sam says as he looks at a topographical map of Lost Creek National Forest, paying close attention to the spot labeled "Blackwater Ridge" while the other three look at the photos hanging on the wall. "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place."