Paper Bandages

Chapter 1: Burning Bodies

A young man shifts uneasily in his sleep, visions of bodies and blood dancing behind his eyelids. Next to him, a large black wolf huffs in annoyance and noses at the man until he settles down.

Later in the night, the wolf will wake the man before settling down to sleep himself. The man will keep watch and silently soothe nightmares just as the wolf has done.

Come morning, the two will silently pack up and start walking. They will defend themselves and others, and then move on.

The next night, they will repeat the same routine over again.

And they will keep moving forwards, and never stop.

Dean stopped and looked back.

"Sammy, c'mon. We've got to get a move on." The other man grumbled at him, but sped up the process of lighting the pile of bodies on fire. When he was done, the two hopped into their car and drove off towards the rising sun.

"I'm telling you, Dean, we should really see about making an alliance with someone. We could the help, if not the company." Sam implored. It was a topic discussed often between the two, but for all of Sam's pleads, Dean was as stubborn as ever.

"Dude, when have we ever needed help? Don't answer that," he added quickly as Sam raised his eyebrows in disbelief,, "I'm just saying, I don't think it's a good idea to get anyone else involved-"

"Get anyone else involved?!" Sam broke in, "Dean, in case you haven't noticed, the entire world's been in a freakin' zombie apocalypse for the past year! Everyone's pretty much either dead or already involved!"

"Yeah, and look at how many of those from the 'dead' selection happened to be our allies!" Dean barked, "Mom, Dad, Bobby, Jo, Ellen, Ash, Kevin, Charlie-"

"Stop!" Sam roared, "Just… stop. I get it. I do. Sorry."

Dean ran a weary hand over his face and through his hair and sighed heavily.

"Bitch." he offered.

"Jerk." came the automatic response, and they were okay again.

If nothing else, the two men knew they would always have each other.