glutamate - stranger things [ON HOLD]

ii. phone calls & new walls

NINE SPENT THE NEXT DAY ROAMING THE FORESTS.

She ended up staying there longer than she had planned. Nine had seen the scientists from the lab looking for her and Eleven, and decided it would be best if she waited for a while until going back into civilisation in case she was spotted and taken back there.

It was mid-day and Nine had decided that now was the best time to start walking. She managed to create a map, but she didn't know which direction she was facing. So then she created a compass, but it had been so long that she didn't know how to read it anymore, so her attempts to navigate the many trees were unsuccessful.

She looked rather normal in her opinion - thanks to her change of clothes and un-shaved hair. She looked like a child who was walking around the woods, wanting to escape reality for a while and get herself lost in nature.

Nine has faint memories of walking around these woods as a kid. Normally, she could she was with two other people - one of them she knew to be Mike, who was in most of her memories, but she couldn't make out who the other person was.

Nine had decided that it was a girl. She had blonde hair like Nine's and wore a similar necklace around her neck. She was older than the two children - if Nine had to guess she would say around two years older.

She seemed fun, and Nine wished she knew her so that she could meet her -that was if she was even real at all. Nine had decided to call her 'dream girl' which was a very fitting name considering she only ever appeared in her dreams.

Abruptly being removed from her thoughts, Nine walked right into someone, knocking both of them over. She got up quickly, repeating the words "I'm so sorry." in rapid succession.

When she didn't get a reply, Nine looked down at the girl who was still laying on the floor, the same girl she had split from at the lab - Eleven.

"Eleven! You're okay!" She shouted, before looking around to check if anyone else was around, luckily there was not.

"Nine?" Eleven whispered, taking her outstretched hand and climbing to her feet.

"I thought the bad men got you? And, what happened to your clothes?" Nine asked, looking for injuries on the girl.

"I thought they got you." Eleven replied, still holding on to Nine's hand.

Both girls exchanged stories of the past day, while Nine led the way back to her makeshift home in the hopes of having some shelter from the rain that had just started falling. They talked for a while and soon it became dark outside, leaving the small fire that Nine made as to the only light source.

That was, until they saw three beams of light in the distance, scanning the area for something. Both girls decided to investigate the newest arrivals, so they left the warmth of the fire, instantly getting soaked by the heavy rainfall.

The closer they got the clearer they could hear the voices of the intruders. They could hear two boys talking, or more like shouting, at each other.

"I think we should turn back."

"No! If you wanna be a baby then go!"

"I'm just being realistic, Lucas!"

"No, you're being a huge sissy!"

"Did you ever think Will went missing because he ran into something bad? And we're going to the exact same spot that he was last seen..." Trying to see the sources of the voices, Eleven walked away from the tree the two girls were hiding behind, stepping on a twig and making a quiet noise.

"Dustin, shut up!" A new voice said, having heard the sound. Nine froze in her spot, the voice was extremely familiar - it matched the one in her memories. Mike Wheeler, the one person she was looking for standing right in front of her. "Did you hear that?"