♪♪♪

They arrived at the old junkyard and stopped to examine the location.

"Oh yeah, this will do. This'll do just fine." Steve said, walking off. "Good call, dude."

Dustin grinned and the corner of Mia's lips turned upwards at how happy her brother looked. Despite how unusual it was, Mia was glad Dustin had started forming a bond with Steve.

They joined Steve and emptied their buckets of meat into one pig pile.

"I said medium-well!"

The three of them looked up and saw Lucas arriving with a red headed girl.

"Who's that?"

Dustin didn't answer, he just watched Lucas and the girl with a defeated, hurt expression. Mia knew instantly who she was. Steve glanced at Mia who sighed, but didn't offer him any information either, and instead pat her brother on the shoulder as comfortingly as she could and walked over to the girl.

"Hi, I'm Mia," she held her hand out and the red headed girl shook it awkwardly. "Dustin's sister."

"Max," she said.

"I've heard lots about you, Max."

"You have?"

Mia nodded, then looked around for Dustin but both he and Lucas had disappeared. She rolled her eyes and just got on with helping Steve get set up.

"Hey! Dickheads!" Mia heard Steve yell a while later.
She turned around and saw the three boys talking by a car. "How come the only ones helping me and your sister out is some random girl? We lose light in like forty minutes, let's go." Steve ordered. The boys didn't move straight away, so Steve yelled, "I said, let's go!"

"Alright, asshole!" Dustin said.

"Okay! Stupid!" Lucas added.

Mia smirked as Steve approached her. "Look at you giving orders now."

"Well someone's gotta get their asses into gear." Steve replied. Mia chuckled softly. 

The five of them spent the remainder of the afternoon setting up their battleground, gathering all kinds of old and rusted metal doors, gates, tyres and barrel's, and using the large caravan as their base. Steve poured the tin of gasoline all over the ground, while Mia decided there wasn't much left for her to do so she took a seat inside the caravan and relaxed.

Well, tried to. It was hard to relax when there was a monster on the loose.

The others joined her not long after, the five of them sitting in silence as they waited–the only sound coming from Steve flicking his lighter.

"So have you really fought one of these things before?" Max asked. Steve nodded. "And you're like, totally, a hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"

"Shit. Don't be an idiot, okay? It wasn't a bear."

"Dustin." Mia scolded.

"Why are you even here if you don't believe us?" He went on, ignoring her. "Just go home."

"Jeez, someone's cranky. Past your bedtime?" Max retorted, climbing up the ladder.

"That's good. Just show her you don't care." Steve said when she'd disappeared from view.

Mia punched him in the arm. "Shut up."

"Ow," he muttered, rubbing the sore spot like a big baby.

"Dustin, that was rude."

"I don't care."

Steve winked at Dustin and both Henderson siblings stared at him in confusion.

"Why are you winking, Steve? Stop." Dustin said.

Mia released an exasperated sigh. "You're an idiot."

Suddenly a loud roar in the distance ceased all conversations and the three of them got on their feet, looking out the windows for any sign of Dart.

"You see him?" Dustin asked.

"No."

"Lucas, what's going on?"

"Hold on!" There was a pause before Lucas spoke again. "I've got eyes! Ten o'clock! Ten o'clock!"

They looked in that direction and Mia's eyes widened when she spotted Dart creeping towards them. "There," she pointed out.

"What's he doing?"

"I don't know," Steve said. "He's not taking the bait, why is he not taking the bait?"

"Maybe he's not hungry?" Mia said.

"Maybe he's sick of cow."

Steve backed away from the window, glancing between Mia and Dustin before walking over to the caravan door.

"Steve?" Dustin panicked. "Steve, what are you doing?"

Mia's body stiffened as she watched him grab his bat and turn back to face them. "Steve, don't be stupid."

He threw Dustin the lighter and said, "just be ready," then pushed the door open and wandered outside.

"Steve, wait!"

"Mia!"

Mia ran after Steve with no weapon and no actual idea what she was doing or why, but she was doing it anyway.

"What are you doing? Get back inside, Mia."

"No. If you're going to be stupid, then you're not doing it alone."

"Mia..."

"Are we going to stand here and argue or are we going to kick this thing's ass?"

Steve looked as if he wanted to argue, but Mia raised her eyebrows impatiently and he sighed, shaking his head. "Just stay behind me," he said, then looked at her firmly. "No matter what."

He started walking forwards, slowly, whistling and swinging his bat around, trying to encourage Dart to come out of hiding.

"Come on, buddy." Steve said, stopping in front of the pile of meat chunks they left.

Mia heard Dart growl from somewhere in the thick fog surrounding them, and her heart pounded in her chest.

"Come on, buddy. Dinner time. Human tastes better than cat, I promise."

Dart growled lowly, coming through the fog into view. Mia stepped backwards and swallowed nervously.

"Steve, Mia, watch out!" Lucas yelled suddenly.

"A little busy here!" Steve yelled back.

Mia turned in Lucas's direction and saw him pointing to the left of her aggressively. She turned her head and yelped when another demo-dog jumped up onto a car and growled at them.

"Steve, we've got company." She said urgently.

"Shit. Mia, stay close to me, okay?" He moved closer to her and the two of them stood back to back, turning their heads in every direction.

"Guys! Abort! Abort! Abort!" Dustin screamed from the caravan.

Suddenly Dart roared and Mia screamed as he came running at her, but Steve yanked her out of the way just in time and sent them both flying over the front of a car. Mia stumbled to the ground, but Steve grabbed her hand and pulled her with him as they bolted back to the caravan.

The three kids yelled at them to hurry, and Mia practically leaped inside. She landed on the rough surface hard, wincing as she felt a twinge of pain in her right hand, but didn't have time to figure out what happened because the caravan started shaking aggressively.

"Oh shit!"

"Are they rabid or something?"

"They can't get in! They can't!"

The monsters howled and the six of them screamed. Mia panted, backing away from the door and moving to where Dustin, Max and Lucas were hiding, leaving Steve to fight off the creatures with his bat.

Mia felt utterly useless now that her entire arm was in pain, but she was scared shitless and didn't know what to do.

"Is anyone there? Mike? Will? God, anyone!" Dustin asked on his radio. No answer.

"We're at the old junkyard, and we are going to die!"

Mia braced herself for the worst, but the caravan suddenly stopped shaking. She stood slowly, flinching when something that sounded a lot like heavy footsteps started walking along the roof above them. Mia walked, quietly following the sound all the way to where Max was standing by the ladder.

Mia glanced at the red headed girl, who's expression had fear written all over it, before both of them looked up and screamed when the demo-dog growled at them.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!" Steve yelled, shoving the kids and Mia behind him. "You want some? Come get this!" The creature screeched and Steve tried to shove his spiked bat into its face.

Then suddenly it just stopped.

The creature retreated and the group of five slowly but cautiously wandered outside the van, the only sounds now being their heavy breathing.

"What happened?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know." Max answered.

"Steve scared them off." Dustin said.

"No," Steve shook his head. "They're going somewhere."

♪♪♪