Lost ❄️ Reddie

21

Richie slid out of the car, Mike following right behind him. They had stopped in Aloville when they saw Hopper's truck. It was cold, untouched, and obviously hadn't been driven for a while. The group walked around the vehicle cautiously until they heard a gruff voice.

"You shouldn't have come."

They all turned to see Hopper, a deep cut near his eye. He looked disappointed and angry, which they all knew was a terrible combination for the chief of police.

"What happened?" Richie asked. "Where's Eddie?"

"We showed up to help Kali. She's another one of the experiments and Eddie said that in his mind he saw she needed help, but Brenner was waiting when we got here. I didn't have the chance to save them," Hopper explained, walking inside the convenience store that Richie had been in just days before.

The group followed him inside, not sure what they were supposed to do.

Richie was in shock, and he could tell Mike felt the same way. Both Eddie and El were taken and they hadn't had a chance to save them. It was almost as if the world was against Richie having his best friend back.

Hopper was in the back of the store when they found him, opening a can of beer and drinking it all in one go. He continued with another can while Robin and Steve watched with concern and Mike and Richie sat down, trying to figure out what to do.

"Uh, should you be drinking right now?" Steve asked as Hopper opened his third can and downed it.

"Shut up Harrington, I've had a rough day," Hopper answered, glaring at Steve who lifted his hands in surrender.

"How are we supposed to save them?"

Everyone looked at Richie after he asked the question, and he didn't like the looks on their faces. They all looked surprised that he'd ask something like that, along with pity.

"Are you guys not going after them?" Richie asked in shock, feeling both shocked and betrayed.

"It's not safe to go after them," Hopper said, walking down an aisle and returning with a bag of chips and handing them to Steve. "We'd all be killed."

"You saved Eddie before! El too!"

"It's not that simple kid." Hopped walked over to the register and grabbed a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. He lit it and inhaled the smoke before looking back at Richie. "They weren't expecting us, but they will be now."

"Don't you have backup? From the Hawkins lab?" Robin asked, sitting next to Steve and glaring at Hopper.

"They're not going to send people in unless they get to have a say about what happens to the experiments. I don't want that, and I doubt you want it either."

Richie glared at Hopper. He was right; Richie would die before letting a different group take Eddie away from him. At least with just the doctor's group involved there was only one enemy.

"Do you know where they went?" Mike asked after a period of tense silence.

"No. They could've gone back to the lab we found Eddie at, they could've gone back to Hawkins, or they could be literally anywhere else. I have no way to track them down."

Richie groaned irritably and flopped back onto the floor of the store. He didn't care that it hurt a little, hitting his head on the cold surface. All he cared about was trying to find a way to get Eddie back, but he had no clue how.

"Is there nothing we can do?" Robin asked, sitting down next to Richie. "I mean, there's gotta be something."

"There isn't. Nothing they left behind, no signs, no contact. Nothing!" Hopper's voice was steadily raising, making everyone realize they better stop questioning or else he'd lose it.