The Chief's Daughter

Chapter 14- Hopper's cabin

Blinking your eyes open, you found yourself staring at the familiar dash of the Camaro as it sped down some backroad in Hawkins.

Your head hurt something awful, but you didn't dare move to touch it and give away that you were awake. You could see Billy sitting in the driver's seat in your peripheral vision, his hands clenching and unclenching around the wheel as he stared at the road ahead.

If it was under different circumstance, you would have commented about this being the first drive in the Camaro without any music, but now was definitely not the time for that.

You bit your tongue to stop yourself from hissing in pain when he went over a pothole in the road. The jarring movement of the vehicle making your head thump viciously.

Your mind was racing a million miles a minute trying to figure out how to get out of this and how to free Billy from the Mind Flayer. But, all you could come up with was turning the heater on in the car, but you knew the second you did that, you were dead.

There was no way the car heater would reach the temperature needed for this and The Mind Flayer definitely wouldn't allow Billy to sit in the car and let it happen anyway.

You stared out the front windscreen trying to come up with any other ideas, but only came up with another terrible one.

It was a bad idea. Horrible idea even, but it was all you had.

Fuck it.

Without thinking twice, you suddenly reached out and yanked the steering wheel down hard causing Billy to shout before the Camaro spun out and slammed into one of the trees on the side of the road.

The world around you faded away for a few seconds before you were blinking your eyes open again. Your ears now ringing, and you realised that you must have blacked out.

You learnt very quickly that Billy hadn't put either of your seatbelts on and you both ended up sprawled over the dash of the car, your entire body burning in pain. If he had been driving any faster, you would have gone straight through the front windshield. Slowly, you pushed yourself back down into the passenger seat, breathing heavily through gritted teeth.

Billy was draped over the steering wheel, his eyes closed and blood trickling down the side of his face from the impact against the wheel. Your heart stopped at the sight before you quickly reached over and stuck your fingers against his neck and sighed with relief when you felt a pulse.

He was alive. Billy was alive, just unconscious.

You leant your head back against the seat and closed your eyes, allowing a moment to compose yourself, but knowing you needed to move quickly while he was unconscious.

The Camaro was still idling, your door dented in from the impact to the tree, but other than that the vehicle seemed to be okay and you thanked any God that was listening for the small miracle.

You went to lift your arm to open the door, but found that you couldn't. You couldn't lift your left arm.

What the fuck?

You looked down and tried to lift it, but you couldn't and that's when the white-hot pain seared through your shoulder causing you to hiss and squeeze your eyes shut.

Your bad shoulder. It was dislocated again. God damnit.

Using your other arm, you reached across for the door handle and opened it before you stumbled out the vehicle and rushed around to the driver's side and yanking it open.

Billy was still unconscious as you shoved him over into the passenger seat which was harder than you thought with one good arm before you climbed into the driver's seat and tapped the Camaro into gear and sped off down the road.