suıʞʍɐɥ oʇ ǝɯoɔlǝʍ sƃuıɥʇ ɹǝƃuɐɹʇs

Chapter Fourteen: Continued

pǝnuıʇuoɔ
uǝǝʇɹnoɟ ɹǝʇdɐɥɔ

November 4, 1984

We finally made it to the junkyard and stopped. Steve took off his glasses and looked around, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, this will do. This will do just fine. Good call, dude," Steve told Dustin. Dustin smiled and we followed Steve. They dumped the rest of the meat in the middle of the yard about fifteen or twenty feet from the old bus. "I said medium-well!" We looked up to see Lucas and... Max? "Who's that?" Steve asked. Dustin didn't look to happy and he didn't answer Steve. "That's Max. The girl he has been talking about," I whispered to Steve.

Lucas and Dustin went and crouched behind an old red car while Steve, Max, and I started grabbing sheets of metal and fortifying the bus. "Does Billy know where you are?" I asked Max. She looked over at me, "no. I snuck out. Lucas came to my house. I had to tell Billy it was Mormons at the door. I snuck out my bedroom window. He won't even notice I'm gone," she said. "Okay. But when your mom and Neil come home they're going to notice. And Neil — well I could see he wasn't a great guy. Is he hard on Billy?" I asked. She stopped what she was doing and looked down for a second before looking back up at me. "Yeah. When Neil gets on Billy it pisses him off and he gets mad at me."

I heard a bang and turned around to see Steve hitting the car, "Hey! Dickheads! How come the only one helping me out is this random girl and YN? We lose light in 40 minutes. Let's go," he said. They did move right away. "Let's go, I said!" He yelled. Dustin and Lucas stood up and followed after him, "All right, asshole! God!" Dustin said at the same time Lucas said, "Okay! Stupid."

After we finished we all headed into the bus. Steve was the last one in and closed the door. Now we just had to wait. It got darker and darker as we did. Lucas was on the roof with binoculars keeping an eye out for Dart. I sat beside Steve on the floor of the bus, our backs leaned against the wall. Max sat in a seat beside us. Steve was playing with his lighter. And Dustin was pacing back and forth. I had my bat sitting beside me, my hands shoved in the pockets of my jacket, my head was leaned back, eyes closed.

"So you really fought one of these things before?" Max asked. I opened my eyes to see she was looking at me and Steve. We both nodded our heads at her question. "And you're, like, totally, 100% sure it wasn't a bear?" She asked. "Shit. Don't be an idiot. Okay? It wasn't a bear. Why are you even here if you don't believe us? Just go home." I was immediately on my feet after hearing Dustin talk that way to Max. She stood up,  Geesh. Someone's cranky. Past your bedtime?" She asked and climbed up the ladder to the roof.

"That's good. Just show her you don't care," Steve said. I looked down at him in disbelief. "I don't," Sustin said. "Why are you winking, Steve? Stop," I said. I turned to my brother, "what the fuck is wrong with you? There was no reason for you to be rude to her like that," I said. He just rolled his eyes at me, his arms crossed over his chest. "Look I get it. You're jealous that she showed up with Lucas—" Dustin cut me off, "I am not jealous!"

"Ha! Okay. Seriously, Dustin. Look at me," I said, grabbing his arm and making him turn around. "I get you like her. She's pretty and pretty cool. Your best friend likes her and she seems to like him. Trust me I know how that feels," I said. I could feel Steve's eyes on me. "I know what it feels like to like someone and have them like someone else. But Lucas is one of your best friends and if it ends up that he and Max become a thing, even though I think you're all too young, you need to be happy for him."

"Were you happy for your friend?" He asked. I took a deep breath, "yeah. I was happy for her. It was hard but I got over it. There is someone out there for you. Someone who will be on your level. Someone that's just for you. Just don't listen to fucking Harrington's advice. There's a difference between acting like you don't care even if you do and being a total fucking dick. And just now you were a fucking dick to Max."

We heard a growling screech and went to the windows. It was foggy out and we couldn't see anything. "You see him?" Dustin asked. "No," Steve and I said in unison. "Lucas, what's going on?" Dustin called up to him. "Hold on!" He called back down. "
I've got eyes! Ten o'clock! Ten o'clock!" He yelled. Steve nudged me, "There," he said, pointing. Dustin came up beside me, "What's he doing?" He asked. "I don't know," I mumbled. We stayed there and watched out the window waiting for him to take the bait.

"He's not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?" Steve asked. "Maybe he's not hungry?" Dustin said. "Maybe he's sick of cow," Steve said and headed for the door. "Steve? Steve, what are you doing?" I asked. "Steve?" Dustin said. Steve turned and looked at us, "Just get ready," he said, and threw his lighter to Dustin. He turned and walked off the bus. "Fuck. Fuck!" I said. I grabbed my bat and went after him. "Wait, YN! What are you doing?" Dustin asked, coming after me. I looked at him, "Shut the door and stay in here."

I walked off the bus and up to Steve. He looked at me and shook his head, "No. no. Get back on the bus," he told me. "No way, Harrington. You're not doing this alone," I said. "YN, please. Get back on the bus," he said. I started to whistle, "Come on, buddy!" I called out. I smiled at Steve. "You're fucking crazy, Henderson." He whistled this time, "Come on, buddy. Come on, buddy. Come on. Dinner time. Human tastes better than cat, I promise!" He called.

I twirled my bat in my hand, readjusting my grip on it. We both stopped when we saw Dart in front of us. "Steve, YN, watch out!" Lucas yelled. "A little busy here!" Steve called back. We kept our focus on Dart. He was a lot bigger now than he was yesterday. "Three o'clock! Three o'clock!" Lucas yelled. I looked back to see more coming at us. "Fuck. Steve, we have a problem," I said. "Steve! YN! Abort! Abort" Dustin screamed out the door.

Steve and I put our backs together as they came at us. I twittered my bat around my hand, stepping forward, gripping the bat with two hands, and swung as one of the demogorgons came at me. Steve did the same to the other one after rolling across the hood of the car. The kids were yelling at us to run. I swung hard hitting the fucking creature again before Steve grabbed my jacket and we ran back to the bus. He pushed me up the steps and jumped in after me just in time to shut the door on the demogorgon. "Shit!" Dustin said.

"Are they rabid or something?" Max asked. Steve took a piece over sheet metal and put it in front of the door. "They can't get in! They can't!" Lucas said. Steve had his feet pressed against the door as they tried to get inside. "Fuck!" I yelled as the bus shook. We all screamed as one broke through the door. Steve grabbed his bat and started beating on it until it was dead. I pushed the kids back further. Dustin got on this walkie and started trying to get a hold of someone.

We heard banging on the roof and looked up to see the dents as the thing walked across the roof. Max screamed. "Out of the way! Out of the way! You want some? Come get this!" I yelled as one looked down at me from the ladder. I was fully perpared to take this ducking thing on as its mouth started to open and it started to screech. But then it's head turned its head, screeched and then jumped down. They all started to leave. I grabbed a hold of Dustin and brought him to my side. I felt Steve lay his hand on the small of my back. As we listened and waited.

Once it was quiet we slowly walked to the door, Steve being in the lead, I was behind him, and  the kids behind me. Steve and I stepped off the bus. It was completely quiet now. No demogorgon in sight. "What happened?" Lucas asked. "I don't know," Max said. Steve and YN scared 'em off?" Dustin suggested. "No.No way. They're going somewhere," Steve said. He looked at them and then looked at me. Something bigger was happening somewhere not far from where we were.