Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence (Steddie, Stranger Things)

Chapter 28: Backs Against the Wall

Steve looked around the room and hoped someone had an idea, because he was all out. Making sure the house was safe was about as far as he could get. When it came to the more complex plans, he was happy to help, even add a suggestion or two, but he was pretty sure they had many better strategists than him. 

"We stay together," Joyce said before anyone else could speak up.

Hopper looked distinctly torn about that.

"Until we know what's going on, I want to know where you all are," Joyce added. "Do we have any way to contact Jon and Argyle? They need to be warned."

"We don't have any way of contacting anyone at the moment," Mike said. "The phones are down, and a jammer is blocking the walkies."

"Then that should be our first priority," Hopper said. "We need to..."

A very loud bang interrupted the conversation.

"What the hell was that?" Steve heard his mom ask.

Hopper and Wayne exchanged a look.

"That sounded like a large calibre weapon," Hopper said, and Wayne nodded.

Steve had no idea what military experience Wayne had, but it seemed as if he knew what he was hearing.

"Nobody move," Hopper said and headed into the room to the right of the front door.

It was the only downstairs room that had a good view down the drive. Steve put aside the small amount of mac and cheese he had left, sitting forward as his appetite deserted him. When Hopper came back, the man's expression was grim.

"There's a heavy armoured car on the driveway," Hopper said. "I think they just put a warning shot over the house."

"Holy shit," Eddie said.

This was part of the shit-show the Upside Down brought that Eddie had never had to deal with; the stupidity of their own government. Steve couldn't say he was shocked, nor that he blamed Eddie for his reaction.

"They're trying to intimidate us," Erica said, as always, wiser than her years.

"It's working," was Gareth's comment on the matter.

"They must have followed us from our house," El said, sounding guilty.

"They were probably already watching this one," Steve said, hoping to nip that in the bud. "If they were following Nancy, they were probably following all of us."

"At least with most of us in one place they can't pick us off one by one," Dustin agreed.

There was a momentary, high pitched whistling sound.

"Surrender the girl and this will be over," came the distorted instruction from outside the house. You have twenty minutes to comply."

Another crackle and there was silence once again. Everyone in the room shared a look.

"That was him," El said, confirming what they had suspected.

The day was not looking up. Steve was not privy to all the details of what had happened with project Nina, but he knew enough. This colonel was very bad news.

"Do you have any guns in the house?" Nancy asked, looking at Steve.

He in turn looked to his mom, since he didn't know of any. His dad was more into golf than hunting or anything like that.

"There's a rifle in the lock box in the front garage," his mom said, "but I don't know how much ammunition there is. David is a terrible shot, so it's only ever been for show on the odd business hunting trip."