mercy ; peter ballard

10. ruler of everything

march 26, 1986

the group hid quietly under skull rock. bats swarmed the sky before moving away.

"oh...okay," robin began to get up. "that was close."

"yeah," eddie exhaled. "too close."

beatrice pulled herself to her feet.

steve began to feel weak, falling into a rock. "oh, sh...shit."

"steve?" nancy questioned, turning towards him. "jesus!"

"i'm fine. i'm fine."

he was rapidly losing blood. nancy runs to help keep him from losing more.

"no, no, no. you're not. you're losing blood. come on, sit. alright?"

he sat against the cold stone, holding his sides where the bats bit him.

"alright," he gave in.

the wound looked pretty bad. steve groaned as he uncovered it. nancy acted quickly, ripping her clothes to make a makeshift tourniquet.

"so, the good news is i'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies. but if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive like you wanna punch me, let me know," robin rambles, expressing her fear of rabies.

"robin," steve interrupts.

"yeah?"

"i kinda wanna punch you."

robin laughs, nervously. "sense of humour's still intact. that's a good sign."

"yeah."

he lifts his arms to let nancy get a better angle. she takes the piece of cloth and begins to fasten it around his wound.

bea cringed at the sight of the wound, turning away. "jeez, tell me when it's over."

she heard the wounds being squished by the cloth and steve groaning and grunting in pain.

"too tight?" nancy asked, about to tie it.

"no, that's good," steve replied, lowering his arms.

"okay," she answered, finished dressing his wound.

"thanks."

"yeah," nancy exhaled out.

eddie climbed up the rock, peering at the swarm. "so, um, this place is like hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?"

"pretty much," nancy replies, lifting steve. eddie goes to come down, but nancy halts him. "wait, watch out for the vines. it's all a hive mind."

"it's all a what?"

"all the creepy crawlies around here, dude. they're, like, one or something. you step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on vecna," steve explained, remembering his previous experience with creatures from this world.