Supernatural: Bugs

A/N: I'm back! Sorry for not updating sooner, but my beta reader, Yami Faerie, was being stubborn about this story, and there was also that small problem with her laptop, too; but that's all in the past now. Anyway, this involves killer insects.

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.

CHAPTER ONE: ATTACK OF THE KILLER BEETLES!

OASIS PLAINS, OKLAHOMA…

"Man, these are some phat houses, huh?" said Travis Weaver with an impressed expression on his weathered face as he dug up dirt in the yard of a nearly completed house in a new luxury development. "I'd like to live here." He paused to look around and adjusted the vest he wore that proclaimed him an employee of Oklahoma Gas and Power.

His coworker, Dustin Burwash, was spraying red paint in certain spots. He looked over at Travis and smirked. "Yeah, too bad you can't afford it," he stated.

"Yeah, you're right," Travis sighed longingly. "This neighborhood'll be damn expensive when it's done."

Dustin stopped working when he drew close to a dead tree in the corner of the yard and paused when he heard a rumbling sound. Ever a curious fellow, he went over to a patch of ground and put his hand on it, almost as if he could feel it moving.

"No, this place is perfect," Travis stated and then smacked a bug on the side of his neck. "Except for the mosquitoes," he muttered and started when he heard a collapsing sound, and Dustin screamed for help. Turning to the corner of the yard, he saw that Dustin had fallen into a hole in the ground that hadn't been there just seconds ago. "Dustin?" he called as he rushed over to the hole.

`"Help me, I'm trapped!"` Dustin shouted from the bottom of the hole. `"I broke my ankle!"`

"All right, I'll get a rope!" Travis called down and then ran off to their vehicle.

Inside the hole, Dustin was clutching his bloody ankle, and breathing heavily; hearing a starching noise, he looked around nervously and saw that there were thousands of beetles inside the walls of the hole. Several of them had landed on his hand, and he frantically brushes them off.

"Oh, God," he moaned, scared.

Travis reached the company truck, opened it, and began searching for a rope. Back inside the hole, tons of beetles were beginning to cover Dustin's body, gathering in groups on his clothing and skin.

`"Travis, help!"` he yelled, scared.

"Hang on!" Travis called back, finally getting a rope from the truck.

Dustin was now almost entirely covered in beetles, and was completely scared out of his wits. "Travis, help!" he continued to scream as beetles crawled inside his ears and nose.

Meanwhile, Travis was pulling the bundle of rope over his arm. "It's okay, Dustin! It's okay!" Grabbing a flashlight, he ran back to the hole, dropping to his knees. "Dustin? Dustin, I'm here!" He looked into the hole with a flashlight, and was horrified by what he found. "Oh, God."

Inside the hole, and bleeding heavily from the ears, nose, and eyes was Dustin. He was dead.

Sam was comfortably sprawled on the hood of the Impala, reading a newspaper article about Dustin by streetlight. A minute later, both Dean and Liz came outside, Dean laughing and waving a wad of cash in the air and Liz wearing an expression of satisfaction.

"You know, we could get day jobs once in a while," Sam remarked, peering over the newspaper at the twins.

"Hunting's our day job," Dean retorted. "And the pay is crap."

"Yeah, but hustling pool? Credit card scams?" Sam asked, skeptical. "It's not the most honest thing in the world, Dean, Liz."

"Well, let's see honest," Dean said, holding out one hand. "Fun and easy." And he held out the other, and gestured that "fun and easy" outweighed "honest". "It's no contest. Besides, we're good at it. It's what we were raised to do."

Sam scoffed as he sat up. "Yeah, well, how we were raised was jacked."

"Yeah, says you," Dean said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Anything in the paper?" Liz asked after a moment, relieved that a potential fight hadn't occurred.

"Maybe," Sam answered, getting off the hood and spread the paper out on it. "Oasis Plains, Oklahoma, not far from here. A gas company employee, Dustin Burwash, supposedly died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob," he informed them.

Both Dean and Liz gave him a blank look. "Huh?"

"Human mad cow disease," Sam answered.

"Mad cow. Wasn't that on Oprah?" Dean wondered, eying the article.

"You watch Oprah?" Sam asked, surprised.

Dean was instantly embarrassed, and couldn't think of anything to say, while Liz chuckled.

"You'd be surprised what I've caught Dean watching," she remarked, enjoying the moment to tease her twin.

"So this guy eats a bad burger," Dean said quickly, changing the topic with a scowl in Liz's direction. "Why is it our kind of thing?" he asked.

"Mad cow disease causes massive brain degeneration," Sam explained. "It takes months, even years, for the damage to appear. But this guy, Dustin? Sounds like his brain disintegrated in about an hour. Maybe less."

"Okay, that's weird," Dean admitted, exchanging a look with Liz.

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "Now, it could be a disease. Or it could be somethin' much nastier."

Dean nodded, getting the point. "All right. Oklahoma," he confirmed and they got in the car. "Man. Work, work, work. No time to spend my money," he joked as they drove off.

The next day, Dean, Liz, and Sam got out of the car and approached Travis, who was organizing some stuff in his van.

"Travis Weaver?" Sam asked.

Travis nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

"Are you the Travis who worked with Uncle Dusty?" Dean asked.

Travis was surprised by the 'uncle' reference. "Dustin never mentioned nephews or a niece," he remarked.

"Really?" Dean asked, fringing surprise. "Well, he sure mentioned you. He said you were the greatest."

Sam and Liz both nodded. "Yeah."

Travis smiled. "Oh, he did? Huh."

"Listen, we wanted to ask you… what exactly happened out there?" Dean inquired.

"I'm not sure," Travis admitted. "He fell in a sinkhole, I went to the truck to get some rope, and, uh…by the time I got back…" he trailed off, shuddering.

"What did you see?" asked Liz.

"Nothin'," Travis answered. "Just Dustin."

"No wounds or anything?" Sam inquired.

"Well, he was bleeding… from his eyes and his ears, his nose," Travis answered, shrugging. "But that's it."

"So, d'you think he really had mad cow disease?" Liz asked.

"I don't know," Travis admitted. "That's what the doctors are sayin'."

"But if it was, he would've acted strange beforehand, like dementia, loss of motor control," Sam explained. "You ever notice anything like that?"

"No. No way," Travis answered, shrugging. "But then again, if it wasn't some disease, what the hell was it?"

Dean nodded thoughtfully. "That's a good question," he agreed.

"You know, can you tell us where this happened?" Sam asked.

Travis nodded. "Yeah."

A while later, Dean, Liz, and Sam arrived at the scene of Dustin's death, the sinkhole noticeably surrounded by police tape.

"Huh. What do you guys think?" Dean asked as they left the car and headed across the street.

"I don't know," Sam admitted. "But if that guy, Travis, was right, it happened pretty damn fast."

"Just a matter of seconds," Liz agreed.

They ducked under the police tape and looked into the hole with a flashlight.

"So, what? Some sort of creature chewed on his brain?" Dean wondered.

"No, there'd be an entry wound," Sam stated, frowning. "Sounds like this thing worked from the inside."

"Huh." Dean examined the hole, guessing at the size. "Looks like there's only room for one. You wanna flip a coin or ro-sham-bo it?" he asked, glancing at both Liz and Sam.

Neither Sam or Liz were excited about the prospect of going down into the hole. "You know, we really have no idea what's down there," Liz finally pointed out.

Dean turned the flashlight off, walked toward the house, and picked up a nearby coil of rope. "All right, I'll go if you both are scared," Dean said slyly. "You scared?"

Sam sighed and faced him. "Flip a coin, then," he said, sounding exasperated.

Dean chuckled and took a coin out of his pocket. "All right, call it in the air… chicken," he teased, flipping the coin, and Sam caught it in midair.

"I'm going," Sam stated, handing the coin to Liz.

Dean frowned. "I said I'd go."

Sam glared at him. "I'm going."

Dean shrugged. "All right."

Sam tied the rope around his waist. "Don't drop me," he ordered as Liz and Dean uncoiled the rest of the rope.

Dean slowly drove through the developing neighborhood while Sam examined a dead beetle he'd found in the sinkhole.

"So you found some beetles," Dean finally said. "In a hole, in the ground. That's shocking, Sam."

"There were no tunnels, no tracks," Sam informed him, brow furrowed as he continued to examine the beetle. "No evidence of any other kind of creature down there. You know, some beetles do eat meat. Now, it's usually dead meat, but…" he trailed off.

"Tell that to the killer bugs in the remake of The Mummy," Liz remarked, leaning forward to get a look at the beetle.

Dean snorted. "Fair enough. How many did you find down there?"

"Ten," Sam answered.

"It'd take a whole lot more than that to eat out some dude's brain," Dean remarked.

Sam shrugged. "Well, maybe there were more."

Dean sighed, still uncertain. "I don't know, it sounds like a stretch to me."

"Well, we need more information on the area, the neighborhood," Sam suggested. "Whether something like this has ever happened before."

As they drove through the neighborhood, they passed a sign for an open house, decorated with red balloons, and this caught Dean's attention instantly.

"What?" Sam asked.

"I know a good place to start," Dean commented as they drove past another sign, "Models Open. New Buyers' BBQ Today!".

"Dean…" Liz sighed.

"Hey, I'm kinda hungry for a little barbeque, aren't you?" Dean asked, and Sam gave him a knowing look. "What, we can't talk to the locals?"

"And the free food's got nothin' to do with it?" Sam asked, skeptical.

"Of course not," Dean protested. "I'm a professional."

Sam and Liz exchanged a skeptical look. "Right."

They pulled over and got out of the car, walking down the street to the open house.

Dean looked around at the neat-looking front yards and the stylized houses. "Growin' up in a place like this would freak me out," he stated.

This statement surprised Sam. "Why?"

"Well, manicured lawns," Dean pointed out. "How was your day, honey?" I'd blow my brains out," he complained while Liz chuckled.

"There's nothing wrong with "normal"," Sam protested.

"I'd take our family over normal any day," Dean declared as they approached the house and knocked on the door. The homeowner, Larry Pike, answered.

"Welcome," Larry said, greeting them.

"This the barbeque?" Dean asked.

Larry nodded and smiled. "Yeah, not the best weather, but…I'm Larry Pike, the developer here. And you are…?" he inquired.

"Dean," Dean said doing the introductions. "This is my sister Liz, and this is Sam." And they shook hands.

"Sam, Dean, Liz, good to meet you," Larry said. "So, you three are interested in Oasis Plains?"

Dean nodded. "Yes, sir."

Larry was excited about this. "Let me just say…we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color, or…sexual orientation," he said politely.

Sam and Dean realized what he was trying to say, and Liz was doing her best not to burst out laughing at her brothers' expressions.

"We're all siblings, sir," Dean said quickly, elbowing Liz in order to keep her quiet, and Larry was slightly embarrassed.

"Our father is getting on in years, and we're just lookin' for a place for him," Sam added, trying to relieve some of the awkwardness.

"Great, great," Larry said, still feeling foolish over his mistake. "Well, seniors are welcome, too. Come on in." and he led them outside to the backyard, where there were lots of people walking around, chatting and eating.

"You said you were the developer?" Sam asked, glancing around and watching Liz take deep, calming breaths so she could focus on the job.

"Eighteen months ago, I was walking this valley with my survey team," Larry explained. "There was nothing here but scrub brush and squirrels. And you know what, we built such a nice place to live that I actually bought into it myself. This is our house. We're the first family in Oasis Plains," he added as they walked over to his wife. "This is my wife, Joanie."

"Hi there," Joanie said smiling.

"Hi," Dean said and they shook hands.

"Hi, nice to meet you," she told him.

"Sam, Liz, and Dean," Larry said.

Sam shook her hand. "Sam."

"Liz," Liz added.

Joanie smiled at them. "Pleasure."

"Tell them how much you love the place, honey," Larry suggested. "And lie if you have to because I need to sell some houses," he added with a touch of pleading.

"Right," Joanie agreed and they all laughed.

"Boys, Liz, will you excuse me?" Larry said, leaving to talk with some other people.

"Don't let his salesman routine scare you," Joanie said reassuringly. "This really is a great place to live."

Just then, a very energetic woman in a dark green dress suit approached the Winchesters, her black hair pulled back in a tight bun. "Hi, I'm Lynda Bloome, head of sales," she said with a big fake smile.

"And Lynda was second to move in," Joanie explained, warm smile still firmly in place. "She's a very noisy neighbor, though," she added, leaving.

Lynda laughed. "She's kidding, of course," she said confidently. "I take it you three are interested in becoming homeowners."

"Well…" Dean and Liz both began.

"Y-yeah, well…" Sam stammered.

"They are," Liz quickly said with a smirk. "I'm just along for the free food and sightseeing."

Lynda laughed lightly. "Well," she said to Sam and Dean, "let me just say that we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color, or…sexual orientation."

Liz pressed her lips together and slunk away while Sam tried to keep from groaning. Then Dean gave a small chuckle.

"Right. Um…I'm gonna go talk to Larry," he said, carefully edging away with half an eye on his twin. "Okay, honey?" he added to Sam, smacking his brother on the rear and leaving him to share an awkward silence with Lynda.

Dean was still chuckling when he caught up with Liz. "I can't believe you just did that," he said to her as they continued on their way.

"You do realize they assume you and Sam are in gay love because of how butch you are, right?" Liz responded breezily.

"Hey," Dean protested, "it's not my fault people are assuming that Sam and I are like that." Liz just laughed, knowing that everyone thinking that her brothers were gay was insane, but entertaining. "And I'm not butch," Dean added. "Just… manly."

"Whatever you say, brother dearest," Liz replied with a grin. "Whatever you say."

A/N: The first time I watched this episode and realized what both Larry and Lynda were hinting at, I burst out laughing, and so did my mom once I explained it to her.

R&R everyone!