George and Nicole Harper had never had an easy life. From one set of divorced parents to another, these half siblings have had it tough.
Ever since their mother, Naomi, split from George's father and forced them to move from England back to her hom...
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George was still sitting alone at the back of the bus when the sound of a car engine approaching sounded from outside. The others, who had occasionally looked sympathetically back at him, now all looked to each other. It could be Hopper, which was definitely good news, but there was a very real opportunity that the bad men had tracked them down at last. This was worse news for George as it would undoubtedly mean they had done something to Nick and found their location.
George shuffled forward along the bus, keeping low as he went so no one would see him through the windows, and joined the others as they sat in a silent huddle as they waited to either be rescued or kidnapped.
"I don't feel good about this," Dustin was whispering to himself over and over while he pressed his hands over his ears.
"When do you feel good about anything?" Lucas hissed back and Dustin pulled a face at him. In truth, they were all scared.
"Shit," Mike whispered, as he poked his head up to peer out of the window and immediately ducked back down, "There two cars. Three guys are out there!" he whispered, panicked, "And they have guns."
As they crouched down, trying not to be seen through any of the windows, they heard footsteps approach the bus. There was at least one guy down by the bus. He crouched down.
"Hey," he said, probably calling the other two guys over, "There are bikes under here."
George was sure Lucas would have cursed them all for not doing a better job at hiding their bikes if they weren't about to get discovered but thankfully Lucas kept his mouth shut.
They heard the guy grunt as he stood up and walked around the bus. They could make out the top of his head as he walked down the length of the bus, heading to the door. George had a good view of the bus door from where he was crouching next to Dustin. Dustin was fully concealed behind a seat but George was half in the aisle. He watched, his breathed trapped in his throat, as a hand prised the door open.
The guy's head appeared in the doorway and immediately caught sight of George. But before George had time to scramble away, and before the guy had time to alert anyone else, a second hand came into view and slammed down on top of the guy's head, sending him falling limply down to the ground.
George froze. Surely that was a good guy, right? The enemy of our enemy is our friend or something, right?
And then Hopper came into view. George relaxed and started breathing again.
"Alright," he said, nodding to each of them in turn, "It's okay, they're...not going anywhere any time soon. Let's go."
*
The boys and El all crammed into Hopper's car and were driven back to the Byers' house where Joyce and Jonathan were waiting for them. To their surprise, especially Mike's, Nancy was there too.
