Chapter Twenty-Eight: Emergency Store Robbery

(The Bite, Pt. 3)

***

"There, there! Right there, Nance!"

Nancy swerved into the parking lot of the general store Jonathan had pointed out. the minute she parked, the ten of them poured out, Alistair helping Mike and Max with El, his exhaustion fading as Hugin rested in his curls. El's face was twisted in pain, blood steadily pouring from her leg.

"Hold on a little longer, Jean Grey. We'll fix up your leg," Alistair assured softly.

El only grunted in response.

Snatching up a rock, Nancy threw it through the glass door, shattering it. She and Jonathan stepped through first, Mike, Max, El and Alistair right behind her, while Will, Lucas, and Cami walked in last.

They made a beeline for the medical supplies aisle, and when they found it, Nancy grabbed some rubbing alcohol and medical gauze and ordered, "Okay, get her down."

Mike, Max and Alistair did so, setting El down as gently as possible on the floor. Still, she grunted in pain, her face screwed up. Alistair held her hand, giving it a squeeze, hoping it provided her comfort.

The squeeze back told him it did.

"Okay. Lemme see," Nancy commanded.

At once, the trio moved away a bit as Nancy rolled up El's jean leg as gently as possible, revealing the wound. 

Cami clapped a hand to her mouth, and Alistair swallowed, his normally strong stomach roiling at seeing El's wound—an angry red thing, pulsing blood, dark veins in the maroon area around the wound, spreading out.

"Oh, shit," Max cursed, summing up everyone's reactions as they stared at the wound, the damage the Mind Flayer had delivered.

Nancy immediately opened the rubbing alcohol to clean it, to which Max noticed and she demanded, "Oh whoa, hey. What are you doing?"

"I'm cleaning the wound," Nancy explained, making to do that, but Max stopped her.

"No, first, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage," Max said firmly.

As everyone looked at her, she shrugged and explained, "I skateboard. Trust me."

"I would," Alistair said, mind flashing with the past couple of times Max had tried to teach him to skateboard, and it would dismally fail, sometimes with injury that Max deftly took care of.

Max flashed him a smile before her face grew serious again and she handed a wad of gauze to Mike, saying, "Mike, hold this."

When he did, she directed him to hold it over the wound, instructing, "Keep the pressure on it, nice and firm, okay?"

Mike nodded, and Max said, "We're gonna need water, soap."

"Yeah, okay," Nancy said, turning to Jonathan as he muttered, "Alright."

They stood up and left as Max turned back to the wound as Alistair now stood up, joining Cami.

A clattering noise came and Alistair, Cami and Max turned to see Lucas upending the contents of his bag onto the floor, revealing nothing that could really help.

"Does any of this help?" Lucas asked.

"No. Go get me a washcloth and a bowl," Max told him and Will.

"A bowl?" Lucas repeated incredulously.

"Lucas," Max said exasperatedly.

"Okay," Lucas muttered, as he and Will left to search. 

"Cami and I will go and help," Alistair offered. Max only nodded, focused on the wound, a steady calmness to her face that Alistair didn't except from Max in this situation.

Forget Zoomer—she's definitely the Healer of the Party, Alistair thought to himself as he and Cami looked for a bowl and washcloth.

Their searching ended up with them crossing paths with Nancy and Jonathan, as he heard Nancy say, "Like, Tom and Bruce, they merged to become one, right? And... And Driscoll kept saying how she needed to go back to the source—"

"Wait, you think Driscoll's in there?" Jonathan asked, a note of fear in his voice.

"Maybe. And... and... and maybe Heather and Janet too, and God knows who else," Nancy replied. "I don't know how we're gonna kill this thing. But if we do—"

"We kill all the Flayed," Jonathan finished.

 "And.. we end this. Maybe."

"There will be a few ghosts and rats in that monster, too, by the way, so we're killing them too when we kill it," Alistair said, joining in. Nancy and Jonathan jumped, turning to Alistair as he elaborated, "And I kinda had a feeling that was what happened to the Flayed."

"How?" Jonathan asked, frowning.

"Remember my freakout earlier and my eyes going creepy? That's me sensing a lot of brutal death happening at once. Happened last year, when the Demodogs killed nearly everyone in Hawkins Lab," Alistair explained, Cami nodding—she'd been there. "So, that was me feeling the Flayed being melted alive. Over and over again. Just like how I felt Tom and Bruce being melted alive, but dialled up to a hundred. Not great. Zero out of five stars. Would not recommend."

Nancy's and Jonathan's faces blanched and Cami gave him a sympathetic look, Hugin croaking and rubbing his head against Alistair's cheek, sending comfort through the bond as Alistair saluted and farewelled, "Anyway, have to go find a bowl and washcloth for Max. Bye."

He retreated into the aisles, Cami right behind him. As they did, she asked, "You okay?"

"My battery's a bit low, but it should recover," Alistair replied, shrugging. "Definitely in time if we have to fight the Mind Flayer again."

Cami bit her lip, before she smiled and complimented, "That was pretty badass that you made it literally freeze. Even though you looked kinda scary."

Alistair's lip quirked up even as a part of him shrank at the scary part. "Good scary or bad scary?"

"Definitely good scary," Cami replied, still smiling, before she glared at him. "Even though you were being reckless again, you idiota."

She reached up and flicked his forehead and Alistair yelped.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I just thought it would buy time," Alistair reasoned, rubbing the afflicted spot on his forehead as Hugin croaked, She's right. Listen to her.

Shut up, Alistair retorted at the raven. Hugin glared at him.

"Whatever Hugin said, I agree, so don't pull more stupid self-sacrificial shit tonight, or I'll make good on my threat," Cami told him, also glaring at him.

"I won't. Promise," Alistair assured, knocking her shoulder with his. She knocked his back.

They returned back to searching, only to come up empty. As they left to scour another aisle, Cami asked, "You think your aunt's feeling a sense of pride that we're technically robbing a store?"

"Oh most definitely," Alistair answered in a flat tone, before he and Cami grinned. 

As they entered the next aisle, that was when they crossed paths with Lucas and Will. They'd already found a washcloth.

"Hey guys," Will said, noticing them first. "You find anything?"

"Nope," Cami replied, shaking her head, curls following the movement. "Wanna search together? There has to be a bowl around here somewhere."

Lucas and Will nodded their answer as now the five of them searched for a bowl. It lead them to the cereal aisle as Lucas mumbled, "Bowl... bowl... bowl."

At seeing the lack of a bowl, he sighed and complained out loud, "Why wouldn't it be with the cereal?"

Alistair and Cami shrugged as Will raised his hands and lowered them back down and said, "I don't know."

"What else do you use a bowl for?" Lucas asked out loud, shaking his head.

"Baking. Cooking. Mixing things together," Cami suggested as Will again said, "I... I don't know."

When they came to the end of the aisle, Lucas said, "Oh shit."

In front of them was a display selling fireworks, some ranging from the more kid-friendly fireworks to the serious deal. A memory of him, Rowan and Eddie on the roof of the Graveswood trailer, firing the probably illegal fireworks off into the sky as Aunt Aco and Wayne supervised one 4th of July flashed in Alistair's mind, and he smiled fondly at the memory.

A grin stretched on Lucas' face as he noticed the biggest one, walking up to it as the rest of them followed, Lucas holding it up as he said almost reverently, "Satan's Baby."

He looked at them and asked, "You ever shot one of these suckers?"

"No, but my aunt has wanted to," Alistair replied as Cami stared at it and said, "Lucas, my parents would actually kill me if I fired that off."

"No. Is it sweet?" Will responded.

"That's an understatement," Lucas said, that grin still on his face.

"That doesn't look like a bowl," Max observed, making them all look at the redhead.

"Nah, it's way better," Lucas responded.

At seeing the quizzical looks on all their faces, Lucas explained, "There is a reason this warning label says 'eighteen or older'. This sucker is filled with one-hundred and fifty grains of black powder. AKA gunpowder."

He tossed the box to Max as Cami's eyes widened and she asked, "Holy shit. How are those things legal?"

"Strap two of these together, and it's bigger than an M-80," Lucas went on, ignoring Cami's question. "Five of them? We got ourselves a stick of dynamite."

Cami's eyes widened as she asked, "Again, how are they legal?"

"You wanna kill that thing with fireworks?" Max inquired skeptically.

"Do you have a better idea?" Lucas shot back.

"Uh, yeah. Eleven. Al. And Rowan if we can find her," Max returned, tossing the box back to Lucas.

"Against that thing? They're gonna need some backup," Lucas argued.

"Lucas' right. Me and El will need all the help we can get," Alistair agreed.

Max, however, only rolled her eyes and muttered, "Oh my God," turning and leaving to either find a bowl or go back to El and Mike. Both options seemed likely.

Despite her skepticism, Lucas grabbed as much fireworks as he could, saying, "Hold this," and handing more to Alistair, Will and Cami.

When they'd gotten as much as they could carry, they made a beeline for the shopping carts at the front of the store, dumping the fireworks boxes into it. Cami held it as they returned to the display, taking all of the fireworks and putting it into the shopping cart.

This might do some damage, Alistair noted as their pile grew and the display's one lessened. When Lucas was satisfied with the amount of fireworks they had, they made their way back to where Mike, El and presumably Max, Nancy and Jonathan were.

When they arrived however, they saw that Mike, El, Nancy, Jonathan and Max's faces were grim. In Mike's hand was the walkie.

"What's going on?" Cami asked.

Mike looked at them and answered, "Dustin. He finally got in contact, along with Rowan."

He paused, and El picked up where he left off.

"We think they're in trouble."

***

Alistair worried his lip as he stared at El, sitting in front of the fridges—all of them open to provide white noise—with an American flag tied around her eyes to provide a blindfold. Her injured leg was stretched out in front of her, the wound cleaned and disinfected and bandaged. All of them were standing in a semi-circle around her, waiting for her to find Dustin and Rowan, after they'd gotten in contact with Mike—and were apparently in trouble, due to Dustin's fragmented message. About the gate.

It all made worry burn through Alistair, especially if Dustin was being serious about a gate being open. Alistair wouldn't stop being worried until he was with his sister and best friend.

A noise shattered the quiet.

Alistair whipped around from where he was sitting between Mike and Will, seeing Lucas open a can of the horrible remake of Coke.

"Quiet," Max hissed, eyeing El—she needed quiet to do her mind-walking.

"Oh, sorry," Lucas apologised, taking a sip.

Alistair's nose wrinkled in disgust as Mike asked with a disgusted look, "How do you even drink that?"

"Because it's delicious," Lucas answered.

"What?" they all asked in unison, confusion evident on all of them.

"It's like Carpenter's The Thing," Lucas explained. "The original is a classic. No question about it. But the remake..."

Lucas took a long sip, letting out a satisfied sound as he grinned.

"Sweeter, bolder... better," he finished.

"You're insane," Mike remarked with a roll of his eyes.

"Like, clinically insane," Alistair agreed, also rolling his eyes.

"So, you prefer the original Thing?" Lucas questioned.

"What? No, we're not talking about The Thing, Al and I are talking about New Coke," Mike explained.

"It's the same concept, dude," Lucas argued.

"Uh, actually, it's not the same concept," Mike shot back.

"It is the same concept."

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is!"

"Hey," El snapped, pulling the blindfold down and giving Mike and Lucas a glare.

That quelled the argument, as Mike and Lucas apologised, "Sorry."

A couple seconds ticked by before Mike asked, "Did you... find them?"

El nodded. "Yes."

"Where?" Alistair asked before Mike could, desperate to know where his sister was, to get to her and make sure she was safe.

"They're at the movies," El revealed.

Alistair blinked, stunned.

Apparently, he wasn't alone, for as they headed back to the car, Lucas questioned incredulously, "The movies? Dustin and Rowan are so freaked out about the gate, they decide to go watch a movie? Yeah, makes total sense."

"You're positive Dustin said 'gate' and not 'great'?" Max asked, offering reasonable skepticism.

"Yeah, like, 'This movie I'm watching is great'," Will concurred.

"That could have been it. We might not have anything else to worry about at all," Cami said, trying to be positive.

"Sounded like 'gate'," El rebutted from where she was next to Mike, as he kept an protective arm around her.

"Which would explain how the Mind Flayer's still alive," Mike said.

"Mike has a fair point there," Alistair concurred, Hugin croaking in agreement.

"Yeah, we just have to shut it again," Nancy said determinedly.

"Then the monster dies," Will pitched in.

"Brain dies, body dies," Cami added.

"But if not, we always have Lucas' fireworks," Max snarked as she helped Lucas carry the shopping cart full of said fireworks out, while Nancy and Cami carried a couple more boxes out.

"Keep mocking my plan, Max. Keep mocking it," Lucas responded back.  "I wanna hear you say it again, because you keep doubting me. You keep doubting me!"

"Ridiculous," Max muttered with a roll of her eyes.

Lucas turned to Alistair, Will and Cami. "Will? Al? Cami? We're gonna prove 'em wrong, right?"

The trio looked at each other, before turning back as Alistair shrugged, Will said, "Uh, sure," and Cami said in an attempt at her usual positivity, "I mean, it might work?"

Lucas glared at them for having little faith in his plan. Yet, they still put the fireworks on top before climbing inside, Alistair helping Mike with getting El inside.

Then, they were off. To Starcourt.

***

Hehehheh...

This was very fun to write! 

Honestly, Aco would be VERY proud of these kids robbing a store (even if it's for an emergency) She probably felt it while in that festival

I also love the scene where Max treated El's wound—I don't think I could have been that calm 

With the fireworks, I actually had faith in Lucas (especially when it worked out pretty well) And I loved writing that bit with Cami and Alistair

And now the Party knows about the gate somewhat thanks to Dustin and Rowan, and know where they are! A reunion is in store...

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!