𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻.

thirty one.

THE MASSACRE AT HAWKINS LAB

edited.
2382 words.

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Swimming was never her strong suit, in fact water scared her for the majority of her life. But as of right now she might as well be an olympic gold medalist.

Seeing the red shine of the gate, Charlie swam faster, pushing herself to the bottom. She dove through the gate, ending up on dry land with Steve several feet away from her. He was on the ground, a bat's tail wrapped around his neck as others bit into his torso.

Charlie quickly raised a hand, sending the two bats digging into him away. Suddenly someone ran past her, over to Steve. Apparently the others had chosen not to follow her instructions and to come along anyway.

Sighing Charlie sent away another bat flying her way. Another bat latched itself to Nancy, Robin rushing to pull it off. Charlie looked over to where Steve was still being strangled, tilting her head and in the process snapping the bat's tail in half.

"Goddamn it! Shit!" Eddie swung his oar at a bat, Steve grabbing the bat that had been choking him and slamming it to the ground. He spat out blood, Charlie quickly rushing over to him.

"Jesus Christ. Jesus H. Christ!" Eddie slammed his oar down.

Nancy joined Charlie's side. "Are you okay?"

Charlie examined the boy's wounds, scrunching her nose slightly.

"They only took about a pound of flesh." He joked, "Other than that, yeah never better."

"You guys think these bats have rabies?"

The group turned to Robin, the girl shining her flashlight onto a dead bat. "It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear..." She looked up, noticing Steve's injuries. "And I think we should probably get you to a doctor, like, really soon, once the symptoms set in it's too late you're already dead."

Charlie sighed, pulling her hat out of her pocket and placing it back over her now drenched hair. She ditched her jacket, now weighed down from the water and turned to face the gate.

She looked up to the sky, screeching filling the air. Six more bats landed around the gate, guarding it.

"Alright, there's not that many." Steve assessed. "We can take em."

More screeches, the group looking up to see hundreds of bats flying towards them. "You were saying?"

"The woods, come on!"

***

"Oh...Okay."

Robin slowly crawled from under the rock where they were hiding, the screeches of the bats fading. "That was close."

Eddie followed her out, "Too close."

Charlie stood to follow, Steve stumbling next to her.

Nancy turned to the boy, leaning him against the wall.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He lied, sliding to his knees.

"No you're not, you're losing blood." Nancy ripped her shirt, Charlie kneeling beside her. She grabbed Steve's hand, the older boy smiling slightly.

"Okay so the good news here is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies." Robin smiled, kneeling next to the three. "But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive like you wanna punch me, let me know."