Together Again

Chapter 5 - Hunt or be Hunted (part 2)

  The five of them drove towards the junkyard. Nancy sat in the back with Mike. She was the smallest of the older kids, so it would make it less squishy, and also she knew Mike and El the best, so she volunteered. Jonathan sat in the passenger side while Steve drove.

  The rocks crunched as they drove on the gravel rode, occasionally the sound of a rock hitting the bottom of the car startled El.

  They arrived at the junkyard fairly quickly and got out of the car. The teens clipped on their tool belts again, and then Steve gave Mike some strict instructions. "You have no protection, so you have to stay near someone the entire time. Within arms reach. Probably your girlfriend cause then you guys can hold hands, so you won't get lost." Mike and El both blushed when he said that.

  Mike nodded. The five of them tiptoed as quietly as they could, with the tool belts and all. A noise startled them from behind a car, the same car that Max was by when the cloud first struck.

  The older teenagers all put one hand on the part that you use to make the fire extinguisher spray, and the other on the nozzle. El lowered her chin and slowly raised one hand. She was ready to fight the cloud, but only if she was needed. With the other hand she linked her fingers through Mike's, she had to make sure she knew where he was at all times. They squeezed each other's hands harder than they ever had before. Nancy, Mike and El made their way more to the right of the car, while Jonathan and Steve made their way to the left, but they still stayed on the other side of the car from the cloud. Steve held up a hand with three fingers up. Slowly he lowered one of them. Everybody's heart raced.

  Another finger lowered. They were either about to save Hawkins, again, or die.

  The last finger dropped. The five of them jumped out from the car. Before they jumped, El had decided that she wouldn't use her powers at first. She would rather they kill this thing then have her scare it away again. Immediately after they jumped, the three older kids began spraying the fire extinguishers, there was a huge cloud of smoke, taller than they were. From inside they heard voices.

  "S***!"

  "Son of a b****!"

  There were several curses as they stopped spraying, out of the smoke came three figures, trying to wipe the carbon dioxide from their faces. They continued to curse.

  "Will?" Mike asked, recognizing the voices. "Lucas? Max?"

  "Yeah it's us you a******s" Came Max's voice from one of the figures.

  Steve took off towards the car, about 50 yards back, at a jog. He commanded them to wait there. He came back with a towel. His mother made him keep one in his car, in case of an emergency. He handed it to one of them and they each took turns wiping off their faces and hands.

  "What the hell guys!?" Lucas shouted after his face was clean. Mike and El were chuckling. "You think this is funny?"

  "No, no, okay well, a little." Mike said. He went on to tell them what happened.

  "Why are you out here anyway?" Jonathan asked Will.

  "We came to...umm..." Will stuttered.

  "Work on the bus!" Max jumped in.

  "You guys are terrible liars." Jonathan accused, staring at Will for the truth.

  "Okay, the truth is....we came to catch a piece of the cloud." Will looked at his feet. He had a ziplock container in his hand. Lucas held an airtight thermos. They had planned to try and grab a little bit of the cloud, then run into the bus and hide. They wanted to examine the cloud under the high tech microscopes that were at the high school. How could a gas possibly be living. They had so many questions that they hoped would be answered by examining the cloud. And besides, last time one of them ended up keeping something from the upside down, it ended up saving their lives.

  Steve stepped foreword. "With nothing to protect yourself but a thermos and a ziplock container?! You Idiots!" He yelled. For as smart as the three of them were, how could they have planned so poorly? These were 3 of the top students at Hawkins middle, probably at Hawkins high school too, but they had only one day so they didn't really know for sure yet. How could they be so ignorant? Steve wondered.

  Nancy cut in and told everyone to calm down. Steve was getting angry, and he had every right to be, but what they all needed right now was for everyone to keep their heads. Realizing that Mike's group of friends was smaller than usual, Nancy went on to ask a question. "Where's Dustin?"

  Mike gasped from behind her. "Oh s***! I completely forgot why We we're out in the woods in the first place, with the cloud and all." He continued to tell them about Hop and the flower, and Dustin. How could he have forgotten? What if his forgetfulness just put Dustin's life in more jeopardy than it was already in?

  "Oh s***!" Lucas gasped. "Dustin threw up at my house earlier!"

  Steve's face changed from his strict, deputy face, to a little bit softer of a face, more of one that a father figure would make. "Well what are we waiting for?" He exclaimed. "We need to go find Dustin!"