The Strangest is Yet to Come

12.

warnings; violence, violence against kids, swearing, blood, mention of death, character death. again, inaccurate description of injuries. anything i've missed, please let me know!

this isn't very good.

~~|~~

They couldn't tell you how long they'd been running aroud trying to get out but the coolness of the night air was a welcome relief when the four of them finally escape from the mall, spilling out into one of the deserted loading bays.

So far, the three youngsters had been following her blindly through corridors and unmarked doors but now that they were outside, guessing wasn't going to work. They needed a plan and they were looking at Samantha to provide.

They needed to get away from here, preferably as far away as possible and when she voices her suggestion to the rest of them, they're quick to agree.

"Where?"

"I don't know."

"How? We can't walk with El's leg." Mike points out.

"I know," she bites. She doesn't mean to be snappy with him but in case it wasn't obvious, she was a little bit stressed. They all were. She looks around, seeing a sign that leads in the direction of the loading bay exit, "Come on, this way."

"What about the others?" Mike asks again, "Nancy? Will?"

"They got out," Max says firmly and the blonde nods in agreement. Hopefully they'd be far away.

"We could go to your house?" the redhead then suggests, "Billy doesn't know where you live and it would give El a chance to rest."

Samantha's reluctant. No, her step-brother didn't know where her house was but what if, somehow, he managed to find them? That would lead him straight to her mom and dad, to Mike's family, putting them in danger.

But they didn't have much of a choice. Being at her house would be better than being out in the open and so she nods again, "Yeah. We'll go there. Even if it's just to get a car and then we can go to Illinois."

"Illinois?" Mike repeats, "We're still going there?"

"That's probably where Nancy and the others are heading." she theorises, "We should meet up with them there."

They head for the loading bay exit, waiting impatiently for the iron gate to rattle open and Samantha's face lights up when she sees a few cars littered across the parking lot - though hoping that there's a set of keys in one of them is like hoping for a miracle, which she personally thinks they deserve right now.

Maybe they wouldn't have to go to her house.

And so with a pep in her step, she leads in them in the direction of the closest one but as they step out of the gate, into the lot, her eyes are drawn to the left, where there's a very familiar crashed Camaro; flames licking from the hood towards the back and she raises a hand to stop Max and the others coming any further when she sees Billy standing by the totalled car.

He looks awful; drenched in sweat and with black veins running up and down the length of his arms, etching over his face. And he had been leaving. They would have been alright if that stupid gate wasn't so loud in opening because now, now he knew that they were still there and was looking right at them.

"Back," Samantha instructs, "Back, back in the mall!"

"Shit!"

Samantha makes sure to smash the button to close the gate as they pass before running infront of the others so she can grab hold of Eleven's legs.