𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙎 𝙒𝙀 𝙎𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙀 ᵉᵈᵈⁱᵉ ᵐᵘⁿˢᵒⁿ

☼ 18

; W O U N D S
no children by THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

„There!", Nancy panted while running, trying not to step on any of the roots on the way. Matilda didn't know why, but she'd done the same.
"What is it?", Steve yelled, his tone speaking of worry and pain at the same time.
"I think it's Skull Rock. We can hide there!" They all followed Nancy's suggestion without question and pressed against each other under one of the tilted rocks.

Matilda tried suppressing a groan as she crouched down, but Eddie saw her expression change to pained for a second.
The high pitched screeches and snarls lost intensity and then quietened down drastically. Robin leaned forward and checked the sky, confirming that the swarm had lost them.
"Oh... Okay", she mumbled. "That was close."

"Yeah, too close", Eddie replied, his voice slightly shaking. Matilda shot him a concerned look only to realize that he was already looking at her. The hand holding her waist, more specifically. She tried to smile reassuringly, but a sharp wave of pain made her grimace instead.
The others started coming out from under the rock, only Matilda stayed behind. Suddenly, Steve grunted too.

"Oh, shit", he whispered before his knees gave out and he dropped to the ground. Nancy was the first one to turn back around, trying to make sure Steve was okay.
"I'm fine, I'm fine", he tried to convince her, but his inability to stand up said otherwise.
"No! No, no, no, no, you're losing blood. Come on, sit, sit. All right?" She helped him get back to the ground and find a comfortable position. Steve took his hand of his own waist and revealed a bite and a missing chunk of skin.

"Ha ha, we're matching", Matilda mumbled from the other side and held her hand up. Steve chuckled with a pained grin and high fived her from the distance. He was all right, she declared in her head.
Eddie got back down – he hadn't moved away more than two inches anyway – and forcibly removed Matilda's hand from her side. His brows furrowed as he looked at the wound. Matilda tried to laugh it off.

"Looks like shit, huh?"
"Pretty much." He forced a smile on his lips, but still looked terrified.
"So, uh, the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness isn't a symptom of rabies", Robin rambled, slightly hyperventilating, "But, uh, if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or— or you start feeling really aggressive, like you want to punch me or something, then you should totally let me know."

"Robin?", Steve interrupted her, speaking clearly triggering his wound.
"Yeah?"
"I kinda wanna punch you." Robin chuckled relieved and nodded.
"Sense of humor's still intact. That's a good sign."
Interfering into the conversation Nancy started ripping a part of her shirt off and turned around to Eddie.

"Put this around her wound", she ordered as she ripped the piece of fabric in half, "I'll do the same with Steve." She threw one half in Eddie's direction and he nodded hectically.

"Alright, let's do this", he mumbled, holding it up awkwardly. Matilda smiled and hesitantly pulled up the drenched Hell fire shirt, grunting as she ripped it from the partly dried blood on the wound. It wasn't as big as Steve's, but somehow still seemed to cause severe blood loss. "Jesus, you ran with this?", Eddie hissed scolding, Matilda just shrugged in response.

His hands were shaking a little as he reached around her torso and he took awfully long until he finally started to make a knot.

He'd tried not to make eye contact the entire time, but now he looked up, meeting Matilda's slightly terrified gaze.
"This might sting a little", he warned before he tightened the knot fast, causing Matilda to make a grimace before leaning on the ground for support.

A look in Steve's direction showed her that Nancy had gotten done with their procedure at the same time, at least judging from Steve's pained look. Matilda grinned slightly, holding her thumb up as he looked in her direction. He chuckled and did the same.
Eddie helped her get up and checked if she was able to walk, which, surprisingly, she was. At least slowly. He handed her arm over to Robin before climbing on one of the rocks a little further away and looked into the void.

"So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?", he asked, turning around.

"Pretty much", Nancy answered, helping Steve on his feet too. As Eddie was about to jump down, she stepped forward with a raised hand. "Wait, watch out for the vines! It's all a hive mind."

"It's all a what?"
"All the creepy crawling 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, not trying to hide how annoyed he was by his own facts. Eddie shot them a resigned look and now carefully climbed down the rock.
"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?", Robin asked. Matilda did nothing but look back and forth between the people talking, barely understanding anything. She was still dizzy, but felt a little better now that her body wasn't constantly leaking blood.

"As far as I understand it, yeah", Nancy mumbled. Robin looked intrigued.
"So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate", she suggested, looking very pleased by the thought of weapons.
"Yeah, I highly doubt that the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But, uhm, guns, yeah, sure", Steve sighed.

"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns", Nancy said, looking like she was sharing a secret, "I have guns. In my bedroom." Eddie finally jumped down from the rock and glanced in Matilda's direction. She looked just as doubtful.
"You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns – plural – in your bedroom?" Robin smiled widely, looking a little crazy.
"Full of surprises, isn't she?"

"A russian Makarov and a revolver", Nancy stated like it wasn't a big deal. Steve stepped forward, not seeming very impressed.
"Yeah, you almost shot me with that one." Nancy turned to him, smiling a little.
"You almost deserved it." Meanwhile, Eddie had taken off his jean jacket and threw it at Steve without regard for him having just collapsed because of a bat-attack.

"For your modesty, dude", he mumbled. Matilda wanted to chuckle, but suddenly it felt like the earth was starting to shatter. She wanted to ask if anyone else was feeling it and not just her, but seeing the others falling down and struggling to not lose their balance confirmed they did.

Steve pulled Nancy and Robin back under the rocks, while Eddie sprinted to Matilda and threw himself in front of her, saving her from a couple stones that had gotten lose and were now falling down aimlessly. This time, he only shot her a look to confirm she was fine. He could tell by her expression.

A loud roaring chimed in the distance and multiple layers of more snarling and growling followed. Eddie shot a resigned look around, noticing everyone looking just as terrified as him.

"So, guns seem like a pretty good idea to me", he stated, earning immediate agreement from Robin.
He pulled Matilda out of her weird crouching-laying-sitting position and put her arm around his shoulder to support her. The others followed him with their eyes and Robin even raised her brows.
"What are we waiting for?", he asked when he realized. They broke off immediately and started walking in an unknown direction, following Nancy who hopefully knew the way to her house.

"Sorry for, uh, burdening you", Matilda mumbled after trying three times to walk by herself, always ending up either painfully slow or on the ground. Eddie just scoffed and shook his head.
"As you said, if we go down we'll at least do it together. Also, I do quite appreciate your presence, so I'll keep you around as long as I can."

"That was literally the cheesiest thing anyone ever said." Eddie chuckled and shrugged.
"Sometimes even the toughest of the toughest has got to be cheesy. Just don't tell anyone about it."
"My lips are sealed, Eddie the Banished."
"Thank you for your reliability, Matilda the Faithful."