Hiking in the Forest

The forest looked about as inviting as the library had been. It looked just like a regular forest, with nothing supernatural floating around about it. Sam got out the car once it came to a standstill on the edge of the forest and shut the door.

This was supposedly where the wolves had been sighted, and where a lot of people had gone in, and never came out.

Dean put the handbrake on, grabbing a bag of m&ms and a bottle of water, shoving them into a duffel bag before he got out of the car. The forest seemed okay, leafy green trees with a floor covered in fallen leaves. The rain seemed to ruin any charm it may have had, pouring down heavily and soaking him to the bone.

"I hope your in the mood for hiking," he commented, glancing over at Sam.

The rain soaked Sam's hair in a matter of minutes soon as they entered the forest. He watched the ground, wondering if they would find anything interesting - a paw print would be good. He had looked at the map and seen a river flowing through there, separating Forks from the reservation. There might be something near there.

Dean eyes scanned the map over Sam's shoulder. The forest seemed pretty big, the river running through it the only distinguishing feature that would keep them on track.

"We should follow the river," Dean mused, seeing as there was no real footpath for them to follow, and he really didn't want to get lost, "We might find something along there."

"Alright." muttered Sam, heading towards the edge of the river. It was a little high up and there were a lot of rocks lining the side of it. He glanced down at the rushing current at the bottom. There was a small way leading down to the edge right next to it, and there would probably be paw prints down there if the wolves drank from the river.

"I'm heading down there." said Sam, before going down to the river's edge.

Dean glanced down over the edge. The water looked ferocious, the rocks covered in a green moss, shiny and wet. He watched Sam go down. Rather him then Dean.

"Okay, I'll be up here," he responded, looking from up above. The huge leaves from the treetops were stopping most of the rain from going down where he was, but the river was as shielded.

The grass and rocks moulded into one on the river's side, and the rain was making it wetter and wetter as it came down. It wasn't that heavy, but it had been going for long enough that it had soaked the earth and rocks.

Sam came down right to the edge and saw something sparkle in the river. He stopped, looking down closely. "Dean, I think I got something!" he yelled, stepping a little closer. If he just got far enough he would be able to see what it was properly. He stepped forward one more step and then let out a yelp as he lost his blance and slipped off the rock into the river.

Dean swore under his breath as he saw Sam disappear out of view as he fell off the rock and into the river. Trust Sam...

Scrambling down the bank, almost losing his footing a few times but managing to stay upright, he got to the edge were the rocks were, looking over the sharp decline where the rocks stopped. "Sam?" he called, leaning over the edge, waiting for Sam to surface. The river must have been freezing, if the temperature of the rain was anything to go by. He hoped that Sam wouldn't catch hypothermia.

Sam had slipped right under beneath the surface. He held his breath, and held onto the rocks, finally able to break the surface, gasping for air at the icy temperature. He grabbed onto something, trying to see clearly. Shaking the hair out of his face he saw what he was holding onto.

"Ah!" he let go of it immediately, sliding back onto another rock and attempting to pull himself back up onto the river's edge.

Dean ran towards where he saw Sam surface, being careful not to slip on the wet rocks. He saw Sam let go of whatever it was, only to grab onto another rock. Dean leaned over the edge on his knees, trying to grab hold of him.

"Sam!" he called down to his brother, straining to get a good grip on the material of his jacket. It was soaking wet, and absolutely freezing, and Dean tightened his grip on the shoulder of the material. It was all he could reach.

Shivering violently, Sam grabbed onto Deans arm and pulled himself up onto the ground again, dripping wet. "Dean!" he cried. "There's a body! Down there!" he pointed towards it as it lapped up and down against the rocks.

Dean's first thought, as he helped haul Sam onto the ground, was to get him back in the Impala, in the warm. He looked freezing, and was shivering badly. At the mention of the body however Dean looked over in the direction of where Sam was pointing.

Sure enough, there was a body, pale and lifeless skin, with sunken in eyes, open wide and staring upwards. It seemed like they had found one of their missing persons. The cause of death was not obvious from where he was, however he could see no obvious wounds, as with the animal attacks, and he was guessing that if he looked close enough there would be puncture marks on the neck.

He looked back at Sam, who looked like a drowned rat, his clothes soaked and sticking to his skin, still shivering and cold. They should probably check the body out later. Get Sam in some dry clothes and in the warm, before he made himself ill.

"We should go back to the Impala," Dean commented, grabbing hold of Sam's arm, and dragging him towards where the way up was. Hopefully they would be alright getting back up the bank.

"Wait, Dean - we should check it out." said Sam, not seeing exactly why Dean was dragging him back up the slope when they had work to be done then and there. It had been a long time - years - since he had had any brotherly concern, so he wasn't used to Dean being there.

"Woah!" he slipped again, backwards on the slope, pulling Dean with him.

"We can check it out later," Dean grounded out, before yelling in surprise as he felt himself falling backwards as Sam lost his footing. They landed hard on the rocks below the slope, narrowly avoiding falling back into the river.

"Well, that worked out well," he commented from where he was, giving Sam a vaguely irritated look.

Sam frowned. "Yes, Dean. I decided to fall in the river on purpose." He stood up, flicking water everywhere and all over Dean, who was now as wet as ever.

"You remember the way back, right?"

Dean glowered at Sam, as he got up as well. His jeans were now soaked through, and his leather jacket was just about keeping his top half dry. Still, at least he wasn't as bad off as Sam. He really wanted to get back into the warmth of his car.

"Sort of," he answered, a little unsurely, "It's up there, and then we just follow the river out, or something," he frowned, "Why? Have you still got the map?"

He gave Dean a disbelieving look. "Yeah, I still have it perfectly dry, because I made sure I saved it when I fell in the river." he grumbled, still trying to shake off all the water droplets.

It was freezing now, and he was pretty sure he was going to turn blue.

"Damn it," Dean looked away, rubbing at the back of his neck. This was really not good. They were in the forest, the killing ground of some group of vampires, it was freezing cold, and Sam looked like he was hypothermic.

Dean looked back over at Sam, his expression softening, "Okay, we just need to figure out how to get back to the car, then we'll deal with all the other stuff." Sam really didn't look good, his skin was pale, and starting to take on a blueish tinge, and he had not stopped shivering.

"Then let's hurry up." Sam folded his arms, still shivering against the freezing cold. He regretted coming more and more now, and was definitely going to keep all of the stories from Jess when he spoke to her again. He'd already been gone three days, and the being cold thing had better not get any worse.

He started walking, pulling off a few stray leaves stuck on his jeans.

Dean walked up the steep embankment behind Sam. His wet jeans were extremely unpleasant, sticking to his skin, making his legs stiff with cold. Sam was a few feet ahead of him, was faring worse.

When they got to the top, Dean looked around. Everywhere looked the same. "Where do we go now?" Dean asked, as he walked forward to stand next to Sam, who was looking thoroughly miserable.

"I don't know." hissed Sam, trying to stop shivering. The coldness was making him frustrated. He wasn't used to it - he couldn't stand it. Dean had made him come all the way out here, and done numerous things to him, and now he'd falling in a damn river.

"Damn it." he muttered, trying not to lash out on Dean.

Sam was obviously pissed off, and by the looks of things the fact that he was freezing cold wasn't making things any better.

"We could try heading that way," Dean suggested, gesturing in the opposite direction that the river was flowing in. He wearily reached out, touching the back of Sam's hand with a finger, "Jesus... you're freezing," he said, frowning at the too cold temperature of Sam's skin, withdrawing his hand quickly.

"We'll find the Impala soon," he promised, even if it was an empty one. He had a feeling that the way he was thinking was the right direction, however his sense of direction was questionable, and it was a 50/50 chance on whether he was right or not.

Sam looked down at the ground, trying to work out if he'd seen any of it before when he had been walking towards the river. None of it looked remotely familiar to him. He glanced up at Dean, who didn't seem to know where he was going either. They could get totally lost in the freezing cold.

"Any of this look familiar to you?" he asked, facing upwards at the trees above - rain still splashing down on him.

He started shivering again, feeling a little nervous. He turned around, looking in the bushes and trees all around. What if there were vampires lurking there? Without realising, he edged closer towards Dean.

None of it looked familiar to Dean. He was starting to think they had gone the wrong way, which they probably had. Sam's questioning confirmed his uncertainty, they really were lost, and he couldn't lie to Sam about it. He noticed Sam edge closer to him, which was a bit weird. Usually Sam was all up for keeping the distance between them up, not that it really bothered him either way, but it seemed a little odd.

"No," he admitted, shaking his head, "Let's try the other way," he said, and then noticed that Sam was shivering again. "You okay?" he asked, concerned for Sam. He didn't look very well, and he was starting to look nervous on top of that.

Sam snapped around to see Dean, blinking as water ran down his face. He pulled a hand through his hair, getting it out of his way. "Yeah." he said. "Yeah I'm fine."

He started to walk some more, looking around trying to work out where the road was. They'd hardly walked that far - half an hour maybe when they'd first come in. "Didn't we have a map?" he asked.