The Overcomer, Stranger Things

The surprise that nobody wanted

"I can't find her," El ripped her blindfold off angrily from where the group sat in Nancy's car, in front of the gas station.

"Gosh," Johnathan ran a stressed hand through his hair. "This is really bad. I mean how many places can a 9-year-old go?"

"Do you think she's with Dustin?" Will questioned out of the blue, causing everyone to turn to him.

"Why would you think that?" Mike asked.

"Well she obviously misses him, and they've both been MIA the last few hours," he shrugged. "It's worth a shot."

"I'll radio him," Lucas pulled out his super com, before sliding the antenna out. "Dustin, this is Lucas. We have a code red. Do you copy?"

"Code red?" Dustin's voice immediately came through the speaker, making everyone sigh in relief. The curly-haired boy turned to Steve, who was sitting next to him. He didn't know that Lucas and everyone else in the car could still hear him. "Gosh, I go to one movie, and the world falls apart," he rolled his eyes.

"You've been at the movies this whole time?!" Mike screeched, exchanging an incredulous glace with Lucas.

"Boys," Nancy started. "Let's try to calm down--"

"I can't believe this! There's a monster on the loose and you're at the movies!!" Lucas threw his hands up.

"MONSTER--!" Dustin screeched before Max cut them both off by grabbing the super com.

"Look, Dustin, we don't know where Gwen is," the redhead started worriedly, before asking. "is she with you?"

Dustin started to answer, only for the super com to start producing static. He turned to Steve. "I ran out of battery."

"What did I tell you about the low battery, Dustin?!"

"We lost him," Max sighed as she gave the super com back to Lucas, "and he never gave us an answer on where Gwen is."

"Well," Johnathan started as he looked at the kids, "we do have one answer. Dustin's at the mall, so we'll go there to check for her. If she's not there, at least we'll have two more people to help us look."

"Alrighty then," Nancy turned on her car, the engine sputtering to life, "next stop, Starcourt Mall."

~:~

"We need to cause a distraction," Dustin told Steve as they walked out of the theatre. "If there's a monster coming, everyone here needs to leave."

"Good point," Steve turned around slowly before his eyes fell on something on the wall. "What about the fire alarm?"

"You're a genius, Steve," Dustin said before going over to the wall and pulling it down, causing the alarms to go off and everyone to evacuate the building.

"Dustin," Hopper started, coming out of nowhere, with Joyce trailing behind him. "Why did you just pull the fire alarm?"

"You're an idiot, Steve," Dustin slapped the older boy's shoulder, causing them to get into an argument before Joyce cut them off.

"Okay!" she held her hands up, not noticing that Johnathan, Nancy, and the kids had just arrived at the mall. "Can someone please explain to me what's going on?"

"Dustin," Johnathan jogged over to the curly-headed boy, not even noticing his mom was there. "Is Gwen with you?"

"No," Dustin shook his head. "I haven't seen her for like three whole days. It's the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other."

"Has she been with you guys?" Nancy turned to Joyce and Hopper who suddenly looked very alarmed.

"N-no," Joyce stuttered as Hopper wrapped a comforting arm around her. "I haven't seen her since yesterday." She put a hand over her mouth, "Oh my gosh. What if something happened to her? What if--"