"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter One-Hundred-And-Twenty-Eight: Army Store Showdown
(Papa. Pt. 4)
***
The army store appropriately named the War Zone was definitely as the ad proclaimed it was and how Rowan imagined it.
There were trucks and cars milling in front of it, and people—mostly men—coming in and out, the people who came out holding bags filled with what Rowan assumed were weapons. And the store didn't disappoint, it's sign having the same guns, grenades and rocket launchers that its logo had in the ad, so Rowan assumed she would find that inside.
As Steve parked the RV, Rowan began to take off her sword—no way was she bringing it in there, not when she'd already be courting enough judging looks with her battle jacket and ripped Metallica shirt hem. The minute the RV was parked and stopped, the people coming in to get the weapons got up and headed to the now-unlocked door—Steve, Nancy, Robin, Valerie, Leo, Erica, Cami, Max and Rowan. Basically, anyone who wasn't Eddie or officially part of the Hellfire Club.
Rowan carefully laid her sword on the booth table and again told Eddie, Dustin, Lucas and Alistair, "Stay out of sight, especially you, Eddie. And keep Hugin hidden, squirt. We'll be back."
"Got it," Alistair said dryly as he saluted her, Hugin cawing, Eddie also saluting her as he said, "Yes, ma'am."
Rowan shot them all a look before she finally headed out of the RV, closing it behind her.
"You okay?" Steve asked, his hand brushing her arm.
"Fine," Rowan said, brushing some hair back as she looked at him. No matter her inner turmoil over that dream of Steve's, she wasn't going to let it weigh down on their relationship right now—and especially when in this fight, she could lose Steve. She jerked her head to the army store. "Come on, let's go."
Steve didn't need to be told twice, as the nine of them marched toward the War Zone.
Before they entered, Rowan thought she'd be prepared for what she'd see, that it would just be a bigger version of the hunting store she and her aunt shopped in to restock their bullets and Aunt Aco's crossbow bolts, where she, Nancy and Jonathan had gotten their monster-killing supplies years ago, when the Demogrgon and getting Will from the Upside Down was their biggest problem.
However, the minute she entered, Rowan realised she wasn't prepared for the fucking insanity that was the War Zone.
It was huge, just like Eddie said, and looked like a redneck's or hunter's dream—guns, axes, knives, other weapons, military and hunting gear, supplies for camping, cartons of gasoline, the list seemed endless. And it was full of said rednecks and hunters—the former who would definitely lynch Eddie if they learned he was in a crappy RV outside. And Rowan didn't want to think if they would lynch Alistair, Dustin and Lucas, too.
