Another side

Chapter 23

When I get to the other side, I'm greeted by the sight of my best friend and boyfriend being eaten alive by these weird bat things. We use the oars we have to beat the bats off them. Nancy gets attacked by one when her back's turned. My eyes widen in horror but I keep focusing on Billy cause I know Robin's got her. I finally manage to get Billy sorted and we go to help Steve but he seems to have it covered. He bites the bat's tail so it will unwrap itself from his neck before thrusting it into the ground over and over. He steps on it tearing it's head off. We all pant as we look around at the dead creatures. 

I look at Billy and inspect all his wounds. Nancy goes to Steve. "Jesus Christ. Jesus H. Christ!" I nod at Eddie's words. He throws his oar on the ground. Nancy looks at Steve. "Are you okay?" "Well, they took about a pound of flesh." Billy chuckles. "Haha. Same." I look at him. "This is not funny." "Sorry, I cope with humour sometimes." "Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?" Steve looks at Robin confused. "What?" "It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get you both to a doctor soon because once symptons set in, it's too late. You're already dead." 

Suddenly we hear creatures chittering. Robin and Eddie move towards the rest of us. The creatures don't attack though. They just gather around the gate. There's maybe six or seven of them. That's not too many. Steve voices my thoughts. "All right. There's not that many. We can take 'em. Right?" There's more chittering and we look up to see a swarm of them coming. "You were saying?" "The woods. Come on." We follow after Nancy into the woods. I hate this so much. We hide under Skull Rock and watch as the bats fly over us. Everyone is shivering and scared. Finally when they're all gone, we stand up and move. Steve almost topples back down and Billy grabs him. "Woah. Are you okay?" He nods. 

"I'm fine. I'm fine." Steve got it worse than Billy. Billy is seemingly fine. We help Steve sit down as Nancy starts tearing apart her shirt to make a bandage. Robin bends down beside us.  "Okay. So the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies. But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive like you wanna punch me, let me know." "Robin." "Yeah?" "I kinda wanna punch you." She chuckles. "Sense of humor's still intact. That's a good sign." Nancy looks at him. "You ready?" He lifts his arms up. "No, but just do it."

She wraps the cloth around his waist and he winces. She ties it and he nods. I look at Billy. "Your turn." He shakes his head. "I don't want that." I roll my eyes. "I don't care." I tear cloth from my clothing and gesture for him to lift his hands up. I put the cloth around his waist tying it as hard as I can without suffocating him. He groans. "Ow, JJ." I kiss his head. "Sorry." I help him up. "So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" Nancy nods. "Pretty much." Eddie is about to walk down and Nancy moves forward. "Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind." 

"It's all a what?" Steve looks at him. "All the creepy crawlies here. They're, like, one or something. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna." "Shit." Eddie carefully gets down the rock. "But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?" I look at Robin. "As far as I understand, yeah." "So, theoratically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate." Billy looks at her. "I highly doubt Hawkins PD has grenades but guns is a great idea." "Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom." 

Eddie looks at Nancy. "You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?" I look at him. "Full of surprises, isn't she?" "A Russian Makarov and a revolver." Steve looks at her. "Yeah, you almost shot me with that one." "You almost deserved it."  They look at each other for a bit before suddenly Eddie throws a jacket at Steve. They both look at him confused. "For your modesty." Billy looks at him. "Do you have something for my modesty?" Eddie shrugs off his leather jacket handing it to him. Suddenly the ground rumbles and I fall into Billy who puts his arm around my waist as we fall to the ground.