run [max]

9. Swimming or Running?

⚢✌︎︎「✦」
      .*ೃ༄    
☼𝙧𝙪𝙣 ☹︎
｡･:*:･ﾟఌ
࿐ ˚‧

3rd person
☾.*ೃ༄

"BOOM! Bada-bada boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north." Dustin exclaimed, his voice echoing around them.

"Seriously? You're serious?" Steve asked, groaning at Dustin's prolonged fixation on his compass.

"Mm-hmm."

"This is Skull Rock. Okay?" Steve shouted, gesturing to the abnormal monument. "You're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. Right now."

"Yes. And no." Dustin shrugged.

"Oh my God." Steve sighed, turning away while covering his eyes.

"This worked correctly when we left the Wheelers." Dustin started, holding up his encased compass. "It was correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was."

"So you're using faulty equipment. You're still wrong." Steve stated, emphasizing with his hands.

"Except it isn't faulty. Guys, remember what can affect a compass?" Dustin questioned, pointing at both Y/N and Lucas.

"An electromagnetic field." Lucas replied first, cueing Dustin to nod at his answer.

"Sorry. I must've skipped that class." Robin piped up, alluding to an explanation.

"In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power. So either there's some super big magnet around here, or-"

"There's a gate." Y/N finished for Dustin.

"But we're nowhere near the lab." Nancy stated, furrowing her eyebrows.

"But what if, somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It'd have to be smaller. Way less powerful." Dustin stated, explaining an almost terrifying theory.

"Snack-size gate." Robin guessed.

"How? Why?"

"No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max from this curse." Dustin declared, before turning and walking away.

"Where are you going? Hey, Eddie's still a wanted man. We can't just go hike in the woods." Steve announced as they watched Dustin pause and spin around.

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie." Dustin expressed as he held up his compass again, "What say you, Eddie the Banished?" The group rushed to look at Eddie, waiting for his answer.

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea." Eddie responded, earning a few nods of agreement. "But, uh, the Shire is burning. So Mordor it is." Eddie stood up, causing Dustin to bounce up and down in excitement. Dustin nodded to the forest, before heading off. The group reluctantly followed as Steve stood in defeat.

"What is Mordor?" Steve questioned, watching Eddie rush back to grab his remaining food, "Get your stuff, dude. Let's go."

☾.*ೃ༄