³𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 ✔

015-pit-stop at the convenience store

NANCY SWERVED INTO A NEARBY CONVENIENCE STORE.

As they drove further into Hawkins—further away from the Mind Flayer—Carla had asked her sister to stop at the local convenience store, Bradley's, for the sake of El.   The poor girl had been whimpering in pain the entire drive, and was clearly in need of some-sort of assistance when it came to the wound on her leg.

Now, Carla was no expert on injuries—she'd been treated by a professional when she'd been scarred by the Demogorgan—but she'd been watching over the boys long enough to know something.   

Mike had once broken his arm on her watch, to which she had to hold and wrap until professional help came.  Lucas had sprained his ankle, to which she'd compressed it.  Will had gotten a bad bloody nose, and of course, any other injury in between.  

Of course, El had an injury much worse than a bloody nose or a sprained ankle—she'd gotten flesh taken by an Upside Down monster—but she still needed help.   Her wound was bleeding through her pants, and was clearly causing her pain, and Carla knew enough to know that it needed bandaged, or at least cleaned out.

Luckily, Nancy had agreed and the group was now exiting their car, about to find some sort of cleaning supplies for El's leg.  Since it was late at night, as well as a holiday, the store was closed, which led them only one way to enter—breaking and entering.

Now, Carla had never expected to find herself breaking and entering a store, but she hadn't exactly expected herself to to be fighting inter-dimensional monsters every year either, so was it really that wild? 

Tossing a rock through the glass paneling, the group entered the store as if they hadn't just broken in, stepping over the shards of glass that now sat on the ground.   Nancy was the one to spot the medical aisle, which would hopefully hold some mixture of items that would be useful to them.

Once they'd entered the aisle, Nancy was quick to start grabbing supplies whilst her sister took charge when it came to situating Eleven.  Sparing one look at Mike and Max who still held the girl in their arms, Carla instructed, "Okay, set her down. Gently."

The two teens didn't hesitate—both of them slightly tired themselves from the additional weight they'd been walking around with—before setting the Hopper on to the linoleum floor, El immediately slumping upon the shelf behind her for support.

  Now at Eleven's level, Carla tried to meet the girls eyes, only to see they were shut with exhaustion and pain.

  Stopping at the store had definitely been the right choice, because the Wheeler was sure just by looking at the girl's appearance that she was going to pass out or worse if they didn't do something about her leg now.

A small frown appeared on the girl's face as she looked at El, but noticing her weak appearance only made Carla more sure that whatever help she could offer was good enough for the time being.

Kneeling down on the floor to meet Eleven's level, Carla said, "I'm gonna take a look at your leg, it might hurt, alright?"

Eleven gave a mere nod—which was all the confirmation the Wheeler needed to start examining the damage done—and with that, she rolled up the girl's blood-soaked pant leg to reveal a large gash with blood oozing from the center.

It was absolutely disgusting, but Carla couldn't comment.  She made a tight-lipped expression to keep from cringing, or making a sound of disgust.  Showing disgust would make Eleven feel even worse, and that was the last thing on the Wheeler's mind.