Joe Schreiber - Supernatural: The Unholy Cause

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Based on the hit CW series SUPERNATURAL created by Eric Kripke

TITAN BOOKS

Supernatural: The Unholy Cause

ISBN: 9781848569249

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark St

London

SE1 0UP

First edition April 2010

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

SUPERNATURAL & 2010 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Cover imagery: Front cover image courtesy of Warner Bros.; grunge flag Shutterstock.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound in the United States.

For my brother Dan

ON FAMES ETERNAL CAMPING GROUND THEIR SILENT TENTS ARE SPREAD AND GLORY GUARDS WITH SOLEMN ROUND THE BIVOUACS OF THE DEAD.

- Plaque at Gettysburg

Beauchamp was ready to die.

He stood at the top of the hill, staring down the wide green slope to the creek, silent in the midday heat. The birds had fallen quiet in the live oaks, and even the breeze had gone still, creating a deep, expectant hush that enveloped the entire field below. The world seemed to be holding its breath.

Then he saw themsoldiers in blue lining up along the rocky rampart on the other side of the creek. Even from this distance Beauchamp could see their muskets and the buttons on their uniforms glinting in the sun.

A moment later, they attacked.

Beauchamp didnt think. He charged full-tilt down the hill toward the high grass along the creek. His vision jostled, jerking up and down and side-to-side with the force of his own velocity. He could see the muddy creek water now, glinting through the reeds like broken glass. Grasshoppers and tiny insects flew out of the path of his boots. His legs felt as if they had detached from him, pinioning forward hard and fast, gobbling up swathes of the uneven field in long, hungry strides.

Behind him, there was a roar as his men launched themselves over the hilltop and followed him in his headlong charge.

Down below, Union riflemen rose up and fired from the other side of the embankment, the cracks of their guns sounding like heavy books being dropped on a library floor.

Then he was in the middle of it.

Beauchamps own soldiers began firing back, running while they were shooting, stopping only to reload or when minie balls found them and pitched them permanently to the ground with unuttered cries of pain still lodged in their throats. Men were screaming now, letting out the Rebel yell or shrieks of agony.

Often it was hard to tell one from the other.

He sprinted the final few feet to the bottom of the hill. Breathing hard, staggering a little, he slowed his step until he was trotting, and then came to a complete halt in the middle of the clearing. All around him, his men were skirmishing hard and close, engaging the enemy on either side, filling his peripheral vision with the blurring, grunting work of hand-to-hand combat. A soldier flew past him and hit the ground, clutching his chest.

Beauchamp flicked the sweat from his eyes, focusing all his attention on one of the Union sharpshooters who stood behind the ridge, not twenty yards away.

He felt himself going absolutely still. Time seemed to freeze in its traces. He could smell the dust and gunpowder now, the cypress trees and the slow muddy odor of the creek, the smoke, sweat, and horses and coppery fresh blood, everything heightened to an almost agonizing degree. Everything elsethe orders hed been given, the town below that they were sworn to defend, the lives of the men around himdisappeared.

Even the sounds of battle dropped away until all he could hear was the pounding of his own heart.

The sharpshooter was a farm kid not much older than Beauchamp himself. He could see the Yankees musket, a .58 caliber Springfield like his own, pointing right at him. He saw the rifleman relax a little, confidence easing into the kids face as he drew a bead on his target. From this distance it would be almost impossible to miss.

Crack !

That was the Yankees musket, accompanied by the muzzle flash bright in the midday heat. Beauchamp saw the little puff of smoke drifting upward.

Smiling, he waited for it...

And felt nothing.

The Union soldier blinked, waiting for him to fall. Still smiling, Beauchamp reached down to pull out his bayonet. It was sharp enough that he could see the honed bevel, and he admired the way it caught the light.

Do it. Do it now .

Working carefully, he drew the tip across his own wrist, cutting through the skin so that the blood dripped directly onto his musket, running down its barrel. Then he pointed it at the Union soldier, drew in a breath, letting it out and squeezing the trigger at the same time.

The musket kicked hard against his shoulder, and the bluecoats head disappeared in a cloud of blood and skull fragments, his entire body blown backward by the force of the shot.

Beauchamp breathed.

Time broke and began to flow forward again. The sounds of the day returned. All around him, men were screaminghis men, the enemys men, all the men in this insane, blood-choked world. It made Beauchamp feel dizzy and ecstatic and drunk at the same time, as the 32nd surged past him to overwhelm the Yankee rampart.

Beauchamp raised one hand and visored his eyes against the glaring sun. Up ahead, in the direction of Missions Ridge, the Confederate flag was still flying high. Glimpsing it there, unfurled across the wide blue sky, he felt the walls of his throat tighten with emotion. He raised his musket again, but didnt reload.

Instead, he aimed the barrel outward. Somewhere to his left, one of his fellow soldiers, a private named Gamble, was staring at him, mouth half-open.

What Gamble was struggling to breathe, what happened?

Beauchamp just grinned at him. He could feel the air around his face vibrating a little, almost as if it was coming alive against his skin. The enigmatic majesty of the day was booming through him, like a shot of adrenaline straight to his neural plexus.

I shot him.

You killed him?

Beauchamps grin didnt falter.

Thats right, he answered.

But how?

Easy as pie, Beauchamp said, and he turned the bloody musket around so that the bayonet was pointed straight at the privates disbelieving face. With a thrust, he shoved the blade straight into Gambles right eye.

The private screamed, but it didnt sound like a Rebel yell anymoreit was a yodeling squeal of pain and terror.

Like the noise a suckling pig makes beneath the butchers cleaver , Beauchamp mused.