Love is the Craziest Thing Yet

Chapter 7 // The Bathtub

Mike was in the bathroom with Eleven cleaning her up, Dustin was fooling around with the Walkie-Talkie, and Robin was holding an ice pack on my face.

"Does it feel any better yet?" Robin asked me.

"I mean, it still hurts like hell, but it's not as bad as it was. I'll be okay."

"If you say so." She looked down at her shoes for a moment. "I... I want to talk to you about something. Something important." She looked back up to look me in the eyes.

"Oka-"

A familiar voice on the Walkie-Talkie then began to cut in and out. Lucas. He was shouting indistinctly through the speaker and sounded like something was wrong. Robin put the ice pack down, and the both of us got up and ran over to listen closely.

"Dustin, go get Mike," I advised him.

"Guys! It's Lucas. I think he's in trouble." I heard him say before the three quickly rushed over to the Walkie-Talkie with us. I could tell he was coming closer in range because a few words started to sound more clear.

"What's he saying?"

"I don't know he's way out of range."

"...son of a bitch!" Was the only thing we heard him say.

"Lucas, if you can hear us, slow down. We can't understand you." Mike called into the speaker. He said something else but we still couldn't properly hear him.

"Mad hen?" Dustin proposed the idea to us. I turned around and saw Robin's face light up.

"Bad men."

"Bad men!" I repeated. "The bad men are coming!" Mike and Dustin exchanged a nervous glance before telling Eleven, Robin, and I to stay there, then turning around and running up the stairs.

The little girl looked me in the eyes. "Bad men.. coming?" I couldn't help but feel sorry for her, I didn't know what to do besides panic, but I didn't want her to see that.

"No- well, yes. Don't worry sweetie. We're gonna get you out of here, you're gonna stay with us, and your gonna be safe alright? I promise friends don't lie, remember?" I said, putting a hand on her cheek as she slowly nodded her head, my other hand tightly holding onto Robin's free hand. I heard Mike and Dustin yelling from upstairs, but before I could try to make out what they were saying, they had already burst through the door.

"GO, GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!" Mike shouted to us, quickly running out the back door. I grabbed my jacket and quickly threw it back on, rushing out the back door. The boys and Eleven were already rushing through the backyard and onto the road, but Robin stayed behind and waited for me, giving me a nervous yet reassuring smile. God, I was in love with this girl.

"HURRY UP, COME ON!" We both grabbed onto our bike handles, hopped on, and peddled as fast as we could, quickly catching up with the two boys. And Eleven. We all stopped when we reached the front yard to see at least nine Hawkins Power and Light vans with what seemed to be government or people from the lab. They stepped out of the van and stared back at us for a moment.

"Guys, we need to go. Now!" I yelled to the four of them, but these people didn't hesitate to follow. All of us took our bikes and went back around the house, leading us onto the back road, taking a new route to wherever the hell we were going.