𝐒𝐎 𝐕𝐀𝐈𝐍 || 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐎𝐍

055. a war on hawkins

055. A WAR ON HAWKINS

"what can make me feel this way? my girl, my girl, my girl"
-my girl, the temptations

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ It was just an earthquake.

As far as the residents of Hawkins were concerned, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the town on Thursday, March 27th, 1986.

Homes were destroyed, people died, people went missing, others evacuated to safety.

So it wasn't a question as to why Max Mayfield was in the hospital, a cast on each arm and leg. It wasn't a question why nobody, not even the police, found Eddie Munson.

It was two days after the quake that Kat, Dustin, Nancy, Steve, and Robin were at the Wheeler house, packing up boxes of donations.

Hundreds of volunteers gathered together and gave a place for the injured and displaced. Food, clothes, a bed, anything.

They were packing up the trunk of Steve's car with old toys, blankets, and clothes when Mrs. Wheeler asked, "Did someone order a pizza?"

Kat couldn't have been more surprised to see Jonathan, Mike, El, and Will step out of a pizza delivery van.

Nancy ran to them first, wrapping Jonathan into a hug. Everyone greeted each other with hugs, all slightly unsure if they were allowed to be happy at such a time.

It wasn't long before Mike, Will, and El left to the hospital, once they learned about Max, they couldn't have left faster.

Nancy and Jonathan went back to Hopper's old cabin, they'd need a place to hide her for the time being.

The ones that were left; Kat, Steve, Robin, and Dustin, went to Hawkins High to drop off their donations.

Even after two days, downtown was still a mess.

There were lines of cars waiting to leave the town, which were mostly in the way of the dozens of firetrucks crowding around the library, which got the worst of the disaster.

The whole roof was caved in, and what was left was still burning from the initial explosion.

The parking lot of the school was swarming with people, which wasn't any different from the gymnasium.

Just last week, there was a championship basketball game in the gym, and now it was a relief center, filled with cots, missing posters, and mourning families.

It was an eerie feeling inside. No one knows how to act after such a tragedy.

There was a donation table in the back of the gym where the kids set down the stuffed boxes.

"Hi," Robin said to the woman at the table. "Uh, so these are blankets and sheets." She gestured to Kat, Steve, and Dustin's boxes. "And some...some clothes and—and some kids' toys."

The woman smiled appreciatively. "It's already so organized. Would you like a tax receipt for it?"

Robin looked to Kat, who shook her head no.

"No, I don't think that we need one. Thank you, though," Robin said. She looked back to the hundreds of people. "But is there anything else that we can do to help?"

—

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ A woman led Kat and Steve to large folding tables filled with folded clothes.

"These are infants, girls, boys, men, women," the woman said, pointing to each pile on the two adjacent tables. "If anything's in too bad shape, we really don't want that."

Kat nodded, sticking a name tag to her chest as the woman talked to the two.

Kat grabbed a few shirts out of a bin and neatly folded it, smiling as she watched Robin and Vickie talk and laugh while making sandwiches as if they'd been friends for years. Steve looked to her with that same proud smile.

"At least one of us found someone," Steve said. Although he said it as if he were happy, the look on his face showed he wasn't.

Kat and Steve hadn't properly spoken since the Upside Down, and things had been considerably awkward since then.

Kat wanted to say so many things, tell Steve she liked him too, that she finally realized it after so long.

In a split second, she made the decision.

Kat felt her stomach flip. It was like she wasn't in her own body. She turned to Steve, throwing clothes to the side mid-fold. "Why can't we both find someone?" she asked, resting her hands on his shoulders.

Steve raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

Kat took a step closer, their bodies almost touching as if they were in a slow dance. "Why can't we both find someone?" she repeated. It felt like she was on a rollercoaster. It was either because she was so nervous, or because she was so excited.

Kat reached up and cradled his face in her hands, pulling him to her until their lips met.

When she pulled back, she could help but laugh at Steve's face, completely shocked. A small smile grew on his face just before he wrapped Kat in a hug, almost picking her up off the ground.

Now they were inches apart, leaning in again.
Kat's gaze fell to the window, her face dropping once she saw it.

The once blue sky instantly grew overcast, dark clouds pushing their way into the sky. It looked almost snow-like, the things falling out of the sky. But it wasn't snow. It was spores.

The spores from the Upside Down were falling from the sky.

It seemed everyone else noticed too, for they all started to gather at the window, staring furrowed-brow up at the sky.

No words needed to be said. Kat and Steve looked to each other, and then back out the window. They knew what was happening.

The two's hands had found each other, their fingers interlocked.

So many questions arose, but there was one thing that was for sure.

A war was coming to Hawkins.

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

holy butts i can't believe i finished this. (fifty five i'm gonna cry)

well not completely finished bc i am 100 percent writing season 5 bc kat and steve are endgame

but anywaysssss

i really hope you guys enjoyed reading!!! it's been around eight months since i started writing this, and i have loved every second of it. exploring kat as a character, her likes and dislikes, flaws and strengths, her backstory, her emotions, her relationship with all of these characters, everything.

that's all i have to say, so i guess that's goodbye for now 😿

2/9/25