The news exploded through the crowd like a bomb. All seventy-four Demon Hunters gathered around, hope blazing in their eyes.
Dean had Benny repeat the information about the passage.
Then he asked everyone, "Do you want to leave?"
No one answered immediately.
Hope was too precious—so precious that no one dared reach for it lightly.
"The passage only allows humans through," Benny added.
"Supernatural beings can't pass. Neither can souls or angels. So..." He looked at Castiel. "You can't go through. And you." He looked at another Demon Hunter who possessed psychic powers and had been reduced to a soul after an attack. "You can't either. Everyone else... theoretically, can."
Castiel was silent for several seconds before saying, "I'll stay, but you should leave."
"No." Dean shook his head. "We'll send the other Demon Hunters back first to deliver the news. The three of us either leave together or stay together and find another way."
"There is no other way." Benny sighed. "I've been here for three years. I tried every possibility. This is the only way out."
The argument went on for a long time.
In the end, they decided to continue searching for the other missing people, gather more survivors, and then let everyone choose for themselves.
The next day, they encountered Liz's team at the edge of the Scream Abyss.
Including those they had rescued earlier, their numbers reached one hundred and six—nearly every Demon Hunter who had been sucked in. Aside from the seventeen confirmed dead, they had found all the rest.
That night, a group meeting was held inside the hollow interior of a massive skeleton in a relatively safe area.
Dean stood on high ground, looking down at the exhausted but resolute faces below.
Among them were comrades he had known for years, recruits