brutal ━ mike wheeler

seventeen. the clock kept ticking

SEVENTEEN━━━━
THE CLOCK KEPT TICKING

stranger things;
season 4 ep 9

ADRIAN SAT NEXT TO Nancy, Max on the other side of her, as he held a shotgun steady for her as she sawed off the end. Highly illegal, but when has that ever stopped any of them before?

They had found some sort of open field that literally no one knew about, ensuring that no one would run into them.

Nancy leaned over it with intense concentration, the metal rasp of the hacksaw cutting through the quiet afternoon air. Each back-and-forth scrape echoed faintly across the empty field, sharp and rhythmic. Max stared on Nancy's other side, watching the process like it was the most interesting thing she'd seen all week.

"Is this legal?" Max asked suddenly. Adrian glanced down the barrel, squinting slightly. "I'm actually pretty sure this is, like. . . extremely illegal." Adrian told her and Nancy nodded her head in his direction. "Pretty sure it's a felony." Nancy added on and Adrian nodded slowly.

Nancy didn't even look up. "Adrian." Her voice sounded like she was getting frustrated. "Yeah?" He questioned, wondering what it was that he had done to make her mad. "Hold it still."

He looked at her like she was insane, sending a grimace her way. "I am holding it still." Nancy shook her head and looked at him, narrowing her eyes. "You just moved." Max looked between the two with an amused look on her face. They fought like siblings. "I breathed."

"Well stop breathing for a second." Adrian sighed dramatically but tightened his grip, locking his elbows as Nancy continued sawing. Metal shavings fell into the grass below them. Nancy pushed the saw harder. The blade caught slightly before biting deeper into the barrel.

Nancy pushed harder with the saw. The metal gave one final screeching grind before the end of the barrel dropped cleanly into the grass.

Nancy exhaled and pulled the saw away. Adrian lifted the shotgun slightly, examining it. The shortened barrel made the whole weapon look meaner somehow. If he were anyone else, Nancy probably would've snatched the gun

"Wow," he said quietly. Nancy wiped metal dust off her hands onto her jeans. Adrian turned the gun slightly in his hands and handed it over to her gently, careful not to touch anything.

Nancy took it with a nod and inspected it, running her fingers along the sawed off barrel. "Oh yeah. This'll do." Adrian grinned and watched as she stood up, holding the shotgun up like she was going to shoot it.

She took her aim and squinted one of her eyes, and Adrian moved back just in case she decided that she was actually going to take the shot.

She didn't, she just lowered the gun with a nod. "Good."

Adrian turned a little from where he was sitting, watching Mike standing near Eddie and Dustin as the two of them messed around. He had been tasked with explaining Adrian's idea to them, since Adrian wasn't sure if he would be able to explain it again.

The sun had already started to set by then, meaning that their 'doomsday' was getting closer. Adrian didn't want to let Max out of his sight, not at all.

They had all already made a plan on who was going to be going to the Upside Down and who was going into the Creel house. Ultimately, they had decided that the only ones who should go inside were Max and Adrian, since the two out of three of them had way too much experience with Vecna, and also Lucas. He was really only going to be there because he refused any other way.