For the next two days, Benny led them through Purgatory without pause.
He was very familiar with the terrain in this area—if these bizarre places could even be called terrain.
He also knew which tumor-like structures had relatively safe caves beneath them, which bone towers could be climbed for a better view, and which tributaries of the "rivers" were slightly less toxic.
Benny also taught Sam and Dean how to identify the weaknesses and habits of Purgatory's monsters.
"Those six-legged ones are called Crawlers. Their eyesight is terrible, and they sense vibrations, so move quietly," Benny said as they walked. "The humanoid ones are called Biters. They're fast, but their cervical vertebrae are fragile, so they're easy to take down from behind. There's also a flying kind called Shriekers. Hide when you encounter them—their cries can shatter a soul outright."
Tonight, they camped beneath a natural arch formed from enormous bones.
Benny built a fire using dried chunks of some monster's mucus as fuel. It burned with pale blue flames and gave off no smoke, but the smell was awful.
With the medicine Benny had given him, Sam's leg injury had improved considerably, and he could walk normally again.
The wound on Dean's left arm had scabbed over as well.
The three sat around the fire, eating the "food" Benny had brought—a tuber dug out of a tumor-like growth that, once roasted, had the texture of rubber.
"You're still looking for the others, right?" Benny suddenly asked.
Dean nodded. "A lot of hunters were sucked in with us. As the heads of the guild, we have an obligation to find them."
"It'll be difficult." Benny speared a tuber with his dagger and turned it over the fire. "Purgatory is vast—larger than you can imagine—and the space here is unstable. This