Salt To The Wound (A Stranger Things Story)

Season 3-Chapter 7: 336 Hours Missing(Maxs POV

Max felt guilty over El's dissapearance, as if she's one of the reasons she's missing. She always thought that maybe if she didn't think about going on that trip with Lucas then she could be here now. As if she was a cause, this would haunt her until they found her.

Max, Lucas, and Dustin went down to the base. They hoped they could find something to lead them to El, or at least find something out of the ordinary. They searched for what seemed like days until Max found something.

"Guys look," she said and the two walked up to her. It was a walkie talkie, "it still has working batteries," Max said picking it up. "Someone must've been here and dropped it," Dustin said and Max handed it to him. "They're looking for me," someone said over the walkie-talkie and the three looked at each other. "The group would want to see this," Lucas said and the other two nodded. "Let's keep looking though, if this is here then maybe other stuff is too," Max said and they nodded.

It seemed as if they scored a jackpot, they found a map with an X on it. "We need to get everyone and go there as soon as possible. She might know we're coming," Max said and The other two nodded. She called Will and then they met back up. And now they were going to possibly find a murderer.

"Wait guys we can't just go unarmed. And we need backup," Troy said and they agreed. "I don't know, I don't feel as if we can trust the others," Will said and Max looked at him. "Well what about Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, and Robin?" She asked and Will smiled. "Your right, we can trust them." Will said and Mike turned to look at them. "Nancy went to a boot camp and she said before she knew how to shoot." Mike said and Dustin looked at him. "Me and Steve were just practicing our skills too." He said and they looked confused. "Oh sorry I forgot you are all to caught up with your partners. Steve is experienced with a bow and arrow and he's damn good with it. And I know how to swing an ax too," he said and Max was surprised. "Okay Dustin, I see you," she said and he smiled. "Jonathan's a good fighter, he could handle my dad back when-just he's a good fighter," Will said and Mike put his hand on his shoulder.

They got the four and Robin was also good at shooting, apparently she went to camp with Nancy at some point.

"Long time no see," Nancy said to Steve and he smiled. "Well you know, you went off to college for six years," he said and she smiled at him. "We need to catch up at some point," she said and Steve nodded. "Ugh straight people am I right," Robin said and Jonathan nodded. "Okay this isn't some type of reunion, we need to find her." Max said and the four nodded.

Jonathan kicked down the door and walked inside as Nancy aimed her gun. "Whisper," Dustin said and they nodded. They looked around and didn't find her but found something. "It's a phone," Max said turning to look at them. "We need to get this back and charge it, I can hack into it," Jonathan said and everyone looked at him. "What? I'm majoring in tech," he said and Steve smiled at him. "What are you not good at?" He asked and Jonathan shrugged, "I'm literally good at everything," he said smiling at Steve and he smiled back. "Ugh gay people, am I right?" Robin said turning to look at Nancy. "Yeah I'm surrounded by them," she said looking at Mike and Will then at Steve. "Targeted," Mike said and she chuckled. "Let's go back this place is unsettling," Nancy said and they agreed.

"Okayyyy so, we are in," Jonathan said as the phone unlocked. "Okay that's hot," Steve said picking up the phone to go through it. "Okay so there's messages on here, one says T-11," Steve said and Max took the phone. "Guys there's an address here, we should find it," she said and the group nodded. And so they were back to searching.

"Okay so there's ten of us and 5 seats in the car," Steve said and Max looked at him. "Well im sure me and Will could squeeze into one seat," Max said examining Wills body. "Well that makes six seats so you kids can ride in the car and we can just buy a taxi or something," Nancy said and the six looked at each other. "About that-," Max said and and Nancy gave a cold stare. "You kids are 16 and 17 and can't drive?" She asked and Dustin stepped closer. 'Well actually I just got my license a week ago," Dusitn said and everyone looked at him except for Robin and Steve. "I swear you people don't pay attentiin," Dustin said and Steve threw him the keys.

The group got there amd waited from the rest. "How much things did you end up doing in the past few weeks?" Max asked and Dustin turned. "I learned how to use an ax about two months ago. I started working at the mall about five weeks ago. I also started talking to some girls,"he said and then he turned back around. "How come we are just now finding out about this?" Lucas asked and Dustin shrugged. "It's because we don't even talk anymore you know. The only things we talk about is El and don't get me wrong we should be talking about her. But like we don't just meet up to just meet up like we used to, it's like we aren't even friends anymore." Dustin said and the other five looked at each other. "We didn't know you felt that way," Mike said and Dustin looked at him. "Of course you didn't, you didn't even notice that I got my braces out," he said and the five looked at his teeth and they really didn't. Max thought to herself, it's true, they were just distant now and maybe part of it was because of El but the other part was because they were just driving apart. The group turned and the taxi drove up.