chapter xix .
kerosene bottles

THE WAR ZONE HELPED MASON REMEMBER why he hated being in the rural part of Hawkins. The store was full of a bunch of hicks, going crazy over the super sale the War Zone was hosting. Everywhere he looked, there was a plethora of ammo, a holstered gun, a hand grenade—pretty much any type of weapon ever created was hanging on the shelves of the War Zone. Mason wondered how big the explosion would be if the place was set on fire.

"So much for avoiding angry hicks," Robin said.

"Okay, uh.." Nancy drew in a short breath. "Let's make this quick."

"Uh, yes please," Erica agreed, side-eyeing an old man with a beard that reached his knees.

They all branched off to different areas of the store to gather everything they needed for Dustin's plan. Mason and Erica wandered off towards the more hands-on weapon section—i.e. the grenades, baseball bats, and.. machetes. Mason found a pretty badass steel bat that had a nice swing to it, and dumped it into the cart Erica was pushing. She already had a few different types of knives inside. Mason glanced at them, then looked to Erica with a cocked eyebrow.

"What?" she said. "They're easy to use handheld and even better when they're attached to a spear. Way deadlier than that stupid bat you picked up."

"Hey," he said, hands on his hips, offended. "I know how to use a baseball bat. Played for years when I was younger. I could take someone out with it if I really wanted to."

Erica scoffed. "Yeah, sure."

They turned down the next isle to shop for some lighters, but Erica stopped dead in her tracks. Mason ran into her back. He started to ask her what the hell she was doing, but when he lifted his gaze to the end of the isle, he saw what had startled her: Andy and Chance down the way, checking out a sharp-looking dagger.

"Shit," Mason whispered. He turned away immediately and tugged on Erica's shoulder for her to do the same. They rolled off back to where they'd left the rest of their group.

"Aren't you friends with them?" Erica whispered, as they passed more boys in basketball letterman jackets.

"Used to be," Mason replied, ducking his head as Chance turned around. "Not too close anymore, seeing as they're buying knives, probably intended for gutting V. So.. no, I'm not a big fan."

     Then a familiar drawl stopped him dead in his tracks: "Could I see this real pretty .357 please?"

Mason turned over his shoulder to see his former best friend stood at the check-out counter, inspecting a handgun closely. He lifted it up and pretended to shoot something—or somebody. Mason was suddenly overcome with an intense feeling of burning rage, and he barely even heard Erica urgently calling his name as he made his way over to Jason.

"Fancy seeing you here," he said bitterly, leaning onto the counter next to him. "Gonna go out hunting soon, or what?"

"Well, well," Jason said, looking Mason up and down. A smile made its way onto his lips. Mason was furious he couldn't tell what Jason was thinking. "The prodigal son returns. Long time, no see, huh, pal?"

Mason nodded to the weapon in his hand. "What's the gun for, J?"

     "I think you know, Mason."

     "I'd better not," he said, his voice low. He leaned in, not breaking eye contact with Jason the whole time as he said threateningly, "Go anywhere near Val or Eddie with this thing, and you're dead."

     "I always knew you were like them," Jason muttered, his jaw tight. "A freak. Ever since I found out you live with the bitch, I knew there had to be something wrong with you."

     Suddenly Mason balled his fists up in Jason's shirt, pulling him closer with a hard scowl on his face. "If I find out you've hurt them—either of them—I swear to God I won't hesitate to run you into the ground."

     Jason shoved himself away roughly, glaring. "You're turnin' into Sinclair, Mason. I wouldn't let that slide."

     "I'd consider it a compliment to be compared to Lucas," Mason retorted. "At least he isn't a fucking asshole. And, you know what, he's actually half-decent at basketball. You're 0 for 2."

     "Listen, Anderson." Jason leaned in again, putting a firm hand on Mason's shoulder. His grip was tight. Mason set his jaw, trying not to show how much it hurt. "I know you're hanging around with them. With the freaks. Sinclair. What they did to Chrissy.... they're going to pay for it. And now, old friend, so are you."

     "Yeah, you know, speaking of Chrissy," Mason began conversationally, shoving Jason's hand off his shoulder. He started to head off, but kept facing Jason long enough to say, "She and I... we knew each other pretty well. She didn't go to you for help, but she sure did come for mine."

     As he reached the door, he added, "You know.. in more ways than one."

                             AS VAL HELPED STEVE AND ROBIN POUR KEROSENE INTO TEQUILA BOTTLES, she wondered where in life she had gone wrong to end up like she had. But as much as she thought it was stupid, she carried on, her nose scrunching at the icky smell.

She'd already tried helping Eddie and Dustin hammer nails into trash can lids, but when she flipped her own shield over, half the nails were crooked and the other half fell out the moment she lifted it up—so she decided to make herself useful somewhere else. Though she was long gone, Dustin and Eddie kept glancing back at her, and she guessed they were trashing on how bad she was at making nail-shields, but she didn't care too much.

     "..in the stakes of the world ending," Robin was saying, as Val brought her focus back to the conversation at hand, "my love life is catastrophically small. I kinda needed this pull of the rug right now."

     "Speaking of the world ending," Val said, nodding to Steve as she tied a piece of cloth to a bottle of freshly-filled kerosene. "What are the odds we win this? In your professional opinions."

     Steve drew in a breath, shaking his head and gazing at the ground in thought. "Vecna's not like anything we've ever fought before. The closest experience we have to fighting him is... like, the evil Russians from last year, because they're both actual people."

     "Evil Russians," Val repeated, nodding. "Right, because that makes sense."

     "Nah, I'm serious. Robin and I were trapped in their bunker for.. I dunno, a day? Two?"

     "So let me get all this straight." Val spread out her hands and sat up straighter. "You guys... have fought off three supernatural monsters from the Upside Down, took down an evil Russian lair, prevented some sort of shadowy monster-thing from taking over Hawkins, can communicate inter-dimensionally through lights, and have a friend with actual superpowers."

Robin looked to Steve, then nodded, turning back to Val. "Think you covered all the bases."

"Jesus. And nobody found out? How did the cops not know about any of this?"

"Well, the old sheriff, Hopper, he was kinda... with us."

"Of course he was," Val muttered, shaking her head. "But back to my original question. You guys think we can take this creep down?" She held up one of the kerosene bottles they'd already filled and inspected it. "Like, we're positive this is a good idea?"

     "Honestly, who knows?" Robin replied, focusing on pouring the kerosene into the funnel Steve was holding over the empty bottle. "I mean, I just... I dunno. I have this terrible feeling that maybe.. it might not work out for us this time."

     Steve glanced at Val, then back to Robin. "You think we shouldn't be doing this?"

     "I think we're mad fools, the lot of us," Robin said, "but... if we don't stop him, who will?"

     The three of them turned their heads to look out at the rest of their group. Dustin and Eddie were pretending to fight with their nail-shields, messing around in the open field. Max watched as Nancy took aim with her gun. Erica was teaching Mason and Lucas the best way to hold their spears so they could get as much harm in one hit as possible. 

Val found her gaze landing on Eddie once more, and for much longer than necessary. She watched as he bent over and let Dustin launch himself leap-frog style over Eddie's back. A smile made its way to her lips, and she shook her head to herself. It was then she realized how much danger she was really in; because if Eddie could capture her attention so well just by playing pretend with Dustin, God only knew what he would be able to do to her when they were actually messing around with each other.

     "We have to try, right?" Robin said, looking back to Val and Steve.

     "It's worth a shot," Val agreed. "And if Dustin thinks this plan is gonna work, I'm not going to be the one to question him."

     Steve nodded. He lifted his bottle of kerosene and held it out. "To killing Vecna."

     Robin managed a faint smile and held out a second bottle. "—slash Henry."

     Val added her own bottle, glancing between Steve and Robin amusedly. "—slash 001. Let's kill this motherfucker."

insert final scene of ep 8
when they're all riding in the trailer
and dressed for battle
and worlds apart is playing in the bg
bc that's the vibe here rn