Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten: This is Me Trying

Everyone stumbled through the trees and down the side of the hill. Max and Annie stayed behind the others since the boys had flashlights. Annie was just relieved the argument from earlier stayed down because she was tired of all the yelling.

"Hello?" Annie looked up at the others in confusion. It was none of them who just said that, so who? The group kept going, but a bit more cautiously. "Who's there?" the mystery person yelled again.

The group came out of the tree line and saw Nancy and Johnathan standing there. Everyone stopped in surprise. Nancy and Johnathan looked very shocked. "Steve?" They were even in synch.

"Nancy?" Steve asked. Annie could feel the confusion at her being with Johnathan right now- it was weird.

"Johnathan." Dustin started walking forward first, and the others followed.

Nancy and Johnathan met the group in the middle, and that's when Annie had a hard time following along.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

"We're looking for Mike and Will."

"They're not in there, are they?"

"We're not sure?"

"Why?"

A loud screech echoed through the lab and everyone went silent. Emergency lights flicked inside, making the whole situation more eery than it already was. Annie and Max found themselves weirdly gravitating toward each other, but neither said anything. They just went with it.

Everyone started arguing a second later and Annie drowned them out. This wasn't the time to be arguing, it was time to figure out what was going on and how to figure it out. She wanted to sit on the ground, but also didn't want to cause any kind of worry in anyone. So, she stayed upright and ignored everyone.

"The power's back." Annie's head snapped up and her eyes found Nancy had moved in front of the group and was staring at a now lit up Hawkins Lab.

Without another thought, everyone followed Johnathan as he started to run towards the lab- well, to the little guard's station outside the closed gate. Johnathan ran inside first and everyone stood in front of the gate, waiting for it to open. It never did.

Dustin went into the little booth, saying something about how he wants to try next. The two fought a bit in the booth while Annie looked away and back at the lab. Her shoulder sagged slightly. The power was back on, why wasn't the gate working? They should be able to get inside and get Will and whoever else was with him.

Annie moved her fingers to her mouth and chewed on her nails, a habit she had kicked years ago, but this was a scary and stressful situation. There wasn't anything they could do other than sit and wait for the gate to open.

After another second, there was a beep and the gate opened. Annie sighed in relief and brought her hand back down to her side, wiping it on her jeans. "Do we go in?" she asked, looking over at Steve for the answer.

He shook his head. "No, we stay here." Nancy and Johnathan got into the car they drove here (she figured it was Johnathan's) and went inside. The others stood around and waited. What they were waiting for, Annie was scared to find out.

Annie started pacing but stopped when Max stood in front of her. "It's gonna be okay," Max said quietly. Annie could only nod. "We're gonna be fine."

She looked away from the redhead- her gaze was too strong- and let out a shaky sigh. "It's just... I'm gonna sound like a child but it's so scary. Dart isn't the only one. Who's to say the ones at the junkyard were the only ones. How many are there?" Annie finally moved to look back and Max.