CYPHER

Food before certain impending death

They had all been quiet as they all cradled this bomb that Dean had dropped in their arms .

Dean had been watching May clench and unclench her fist for several minutes now .

It had come as a shock to Dean too but he had not been too shocked .

If the game was truly about giving the winner whatever he decided , Dean had suspect that all stops would be pulled .

He had just not assumed death to be a part .

But once he had confirmed that the deaths were real and not VFX or CGI , it had been easy to just see the worst of the whole situation .

He had no idea how to tell the others that there was a great possibility that they were being watched .

Besides , the itch he had was still there .

He still did not see the reason Alec had given him this book .

It did not make enough sense that he had given him the book for him to find out that the steels were puppets whose strings were being pulled .

That Information only fueled him to kill as many as he could , it did not help him win the game .

There was something else he was not seeing.

" What do you guys think happens when a steel goes down ? "

They all turned to Jade but Dean's head was already spinning .

" s**t !!! "

Jade nodded with a smile , acknowledging Dean's exclamation.

" Since the Steels are Patrons , killing their steels would mean game over and the partner in the game would not have to die ".

Blade jumped on his feet , startling the rest of them , he was sweaty and looked anguished .

May stood up too and grabbed Blade's arm .

" What's wrong ? "

Blade only gritted his teeth harder and eventually ran out , his footfalls loud as he climbed the stairs .

Dean wondered if there was a toilet up there .

There was one down here , beneath the stairs that he had found last night .

" That's what he gets when he eats everything he can lay his hands on ".

May hissed out but Jade still looked quite confused so Dean held out two fingers for him to see , Jade grinned when he saw it and understood the message .

May stepped forward , between them and held out her fist that was clenched tightly .

" What can I do to help the flammables research ? If I continue to sit here, letting my anger fester , I'll end up erupting , I need to do something to chanel this anger somewhere else ".

Dean sighed and grabbed her hands , he began to stretch out her fingers individually while she struggled to clench them back .

" No matter how angry we are , we have to still be level headed , that's the only way to stay alive around here ".

He released May's hand and she covered her face , her shoulders began to shake softly .

" I thought my life could not get any worse because I was already between the devil and the deep blue sea but it of course got worse , someone just deliberately pushed me into the sea even after reading my sign!! ".

" What sign ? "

She removed her hands from her face , her eyes were dry , she had not been crying .

" My sign that reads in bold text that I can't swim . How do they expect me to survive the sea when I don't even know how to swim ? I'm not even wearing a suitably expensive swim suit that I've always dreamed of ".

Dean was certain now that she only spoke with this words that only she could put together when she was emotionally high .

Dean looked at Jade .

" Jade , can you swim ? "

Jade shook his head .

" No , I never learnt ".

Dean smiled .

" It's okay then , I'll save you and May if we are ever drowning , I'm a pretty good swimmer ".

May jumped towards him , her past sentiments forgotten ,she had the attention span of a two years old .

" How did you learn how to swim ? Another part time job ? "

" No , when my family travelled around , we used to camp for days near any body of water we saw . So , I learnt to swim , dive and surf ".

Jade and May looked like he had just said that he had dinner with Madonna three times .

They turned to each other , their friction abandoned as they sighed dreamily before turning to Dean .

They all stopped what they were doing when Blade walked in , he had a smile on his face .

He walked to the bed and dropped straight on to it ,Jade and May stylishly moved away .

" What were you guys discussing ? "

No one answered him , he did not seem to mind though .

" Aren't you guys hungry ? "

" Hungry? How can you think of food the moment you step out of the toilet , you're just horrid ".

May was seething now but Blade was being rational , they needed food .

" Blade's right , we do need food . We need to be at our best and being hungry will only slow us down ".

" But , where are we going to get food from ?"

That was the question , where could they get food from ?

Dean had been thinking of the houses , they probably had food in them but the steels were more concentrated at the areas with houses.

" We could hunt ".

They all turned to Blade , Dean made sure to give him a look that suggested he needed his head checked .

They were already in such a dilemma , would they add to it by hunting animals that could attract people and the steels ?

Besides , he had not noticed a single animal .

" Uhm , there is something I did not tell you guys . While we were at Trevor's place , I saw a sack that was filled with something , but we were in the middle of putting the steel down so I didn't pay any attention to it ".

" Why are you telling us now then ?"

" Have you ever broken a snack vending machine ? "

They all shook their heads at May's bizarre question .

" I used to do that a lot , I would take a large sack and use a drill to make a hole on the hard glass so it would be easier to break , then I would fill the sack with the snacks and go sell it off somewhere else ".

" That sack was just as lumpy as my sacks used to be ".

Blade laughed loudly , slapping his thigh as he did .

" So , you want us to go back there because you saw a lumpy bag that reminded you of your thieving days ?"

May jumped on Blade and they began to wrestle again .

Going into the forest was safer than walking on the streets .

" We will go with May , it's safer . We can leave off going into the houses till it's night and it's harder for us to be seen .What do you guys think ? "

" I don't have a problem with it ".

Only Jade responded ,Dean stood up and kicked Blade's foot .

" Come on , get off her . We are going back there and we are going back fully prepared , we are gutting any steels we come across ".

The smile on May's face could have broken her face into two .

She pushed Blade off her and ran out of the room , Blade ran after her .

He didn't need to tell them that he needed the body of the steels to understand the core .

Dean also began to prepare , covering up with the kevlar vests and slinging on the satch of arrows .

He turned to Jade .

" Do you know how to use a gun ? "

Jade shook his head , Dean had suspected so .

He pulled out the gun he had snagged off Trevor and put it in one of the pockets of the kevlar vest .

Finally , he picked up the bow and threw it at Jade .

" Carry that for me and stick very close ".

Jade grabbed the bow and nodded ,his eyes fixed on the bow .

He left the room followed closely by Jade who was still in awe of the bow .

May was by the church's door already .

She had put her black , long hair in a sleek ponytail and her gun holsters had come back on her right arm and left leg , she could have easily been casted as Lara Croft for Tomb raider.

She pointed at the gun peeking out of Dean's kevlar .

" That's new ".

Dean smirked .

Blade trudged down the stairs , his combat fatigue complete and every visible part of his vest , filled with grenades .

They put their hands together and pushed the door open .

When they were out , May brought out a bunch of tiny red flags , she handed half of it to Jade .

" We need to fix them as we go so we don't lose our way ".

Blade stopped walking .

" Do you guys hear that ? "

May took her gun out of it's holster and Dean grabbed the bow from Jade .

Blade turned around .

" It's coming from over there ".

They didn't hesitate as they all ran towards Blade's directions .

They would go on a Patron killing spree .