Bat-like creatures were attacking Steve and Ryan. There was one currently choking Steve out while two others were gnawing at his exposed flesh. He was definitely in more pain then Ryan as only one was attacking her by eating away on her collarbone.

"Motherfucking bitch!" Ryan yelled out trying to get the bat off of her collarbone to help Steve. Ryan could feel the pressure on her collarbone lessen as the bat got knocked off. Ryan turned around seeing Eddie holding an oar. Ryan gave him a side hug as her collarbone was bleeding and aching.

The sentimental moment got cut off as another bat came down from the sky. Eddie hits the bat with the oar like a baseball bat. "Nancy, look out!" Ryan yelled out seeing a bat come up behind her. Nancy didn't react fast enough and the bat got attached to her back. Everything was going to shit. Eddie had hit a bat and it caused the oar to break, Robin was trying to get the bat off of Nancy and Steve was fighting for his life on the ground.

Ryan grabbed the oar that Nancy had dropped and started to deflect the bats by hitting them. Steve bit the bats weird tail making it let go of his neck. He gripped the bats tail before slamming it on the ground multiple times. Robin got the bat off Nancy's back and Ryan threw the oar at her and she chopped its head off.

Eddie stabbed one of the bats with the broken end of the oar and drove it to the floor to kill it. Steve ripped the bat in half before throwing the other part of the body aimlessly away. While spitting out blood from his mouth. "Steve!" Nancy said walking towards him while Eddie was freaking out. "Jesus H. Christ!" He throws the oar down in frustration as Nancy was checking up on Steve.

"Well they took about a pound of flesh. But other than that, yeah never better." Nancy examined Steve's lower body where it was gnawed at the most. "Can you break your collarbone? Because I'm pretty sure mine is broken." Ryan said as her hand was covered in red blood from her collarbone. Robin was shining light from the flashlight on one of the dead bats. "Uh, do you guys think these bags have, like, rabies?" Steve looked at her confused, "what?"

"It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get Ryan and Steve to a doctor, like, really soon because once the symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already dead." Everyone looked at Robin in silence as she waited for a response. However the only response she got was screeching from more bats heading their way, again. The bats land on the ground guarding the way out. "All right. There's not that many. We can take 'em. Right?" Steve said unsurely of himself. They all look up at the sky seeing a big swarm of them coming. "You were saying?"

Nancy looked off to the side at the eerie forest. "The woods. Come on." Nancy urged as she started to run towards them. Steve and Eddie followed as Robin and Ryan didn't want to run. "I hate running." Ryan spoke before lightly jogging after them with Robin behind her.

Pretty soon the running came to a stop as Nancy went under a big rock hiding under it. Ryan noticed that it was Skull Rock but pushed her thoughts aside. The rest follow hearing the screeching of the bats. "That was close." Ryan said as they slowly leave the safety under the rock. "Too close." Eddie added.

Ryan started to get lightheaded. So did Steve. They had lost a lot of blood and they were going to bleed out soon. Ryan started sliding down the rock in exhaustion as Steve was as well.

"So the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies. But if you guys start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch someone, let me know." Robin ranted as Nancy was ripping her clothes to tie around Steve's wounds. "Robin, I kinda really wanna punch you right now." Ryan breathed out holding her bleeding collarbone. "Sense of humor's still intact. That's a good sign."

Nancy hands part of the cloth to Robin to wrap around Ryan's shoulder. Ryan clenched her teeth as Robin started to wrap the cloth around her shoulder. "Fuck," Ryan muttered out as Robin tied it. Ryan threw her head against the rock groaning out. Eddie started to climb the rock that was covered in veins. "So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?"

"Pretty much." Nancy bluntly stated helping Steve get up. "Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind." Nancy added as Eddie was starting to climb down. "It's all a what?" Eddie questioned confused. "All the creepy crawlies around here. They're, like, one or something. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna." Steve explained for him. "Shit."

"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people? Obviously." Robin asked Nancy. "As far as I understand it, yeah."

"So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate." Robin explained before Steve had to be a buzzkill. "I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah, sure."

"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom." Nancy declared making Eddie scoff. "You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?"

"Full of surprises, isn't she?" Robin exclaimed. "A Russian Makarov and a revolver." She explained the two guns she had stashed in her bedroom. "Yeah, you almost shot me with that one."

"You almost deserved it." Nancy sassed back at Steve from recalling the memory. Eddie threw his cut off denim jacket to the shirtless Steve. "For your modesty, dude." Eddie said before taking his leather jacket off and handing it to Ryan who gladly accepted and put it on.

The ground started shaking like an earthquake and Ryan fell into Eddie's arms and Steve grabbed Nancy as they fell to the floor. "So guns seem like a pretty good idea to me." Eddie insisted making everyone agree with him. Ryan slowly inched her body off of Eddie's onto the floor. He stood up holding his hand out to Ryan. Ryan smiled before putting her hand in his and getting help standing up. They start venturing through the forest following Nancy to her house.

-

"Couldn't we have tried a road, or something just slightly less creepy?" Robin wondered as they were walking through the creepily eerie woods. "I think we're getting close. We're almost out of here. Don't worry." Nancy answered her as Steve called for Eddie.

Ryan wondered what they were talking about but she let her mind wander off elsewhere while following Robin and Nancy. Then the ground shook again. "What the fuck!" Ryan yelled out as her legs gave out and she fell down to the ground. "Second on my list of least favorite things, earthquakes. Seriously, I'm unsteady enough as it is." Robin admitted.

"Why are there so many earthquakes here and not in the real world?" Ryan regained her posture as the earthquake started to settle. Nancy started to run towards the clearing in the forest. "Nance!" Ryan and Robin yelled out in unison. They run after her and see where she was going. They had found her house.

Nancy opened the door to the vacant house that was covered in vines. "Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler." Robin joked out seeing the messy house. "Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to." Nancy started to walk up the stairs. Ryan didn't follow. She walked towards the kitchen seeing how a once perfect picture house could change so drastically. "Ry, let's go." Eddie said from behind her and they went upstairs.

Nancy went into her closet and grabbed a shoebox from the top shelf. Ryan gets flashbacks from earlier that week and how she could be just snorting cocaine in the comfort of her bedroom but instead was in another fucking dimension. She opened the box and moving the tissue out of the way to reveal shoes. "Those aren't guns." Eddie pointed out the obvious. "These heels are pointy, but I was hoping for a deadly projectile." Robin added to Eddie's words.

"Maybe you left them somewhere else." Eddie suggested to Nancy. "There's a six-year-old in the house. I know where I keep my guns. And also, I threw these away years ago." Nancy says before looking at the desk and grabs flashcards from the desk. "Nance, I know you are, like, a valedictorian and shit like that, but do you really think that it's a good time to study right now?" Ryan asked as Nancy shuffled through the flashcards.

"These are from sophomore chemistry. And this... this wallpaper, this is old wallpaper. And this mirror, this went to a yard sale. And you... you're not supposed to be here. No, I gave you to Cousin Joanna two years ago." Nancy was going around the room seeing things that she didn't have anymore before picking up a diary that was set on the bedside table.

"Nancy, what is it?" Ryan asked as she was looking through the diary. "I think the reason that my guns aren't here is because they don't exist yet." Ryan and Robin both looked at each other confused at Nancy's words. "They don't... exist?"

Nancy turns around with the diary in her hands. "This diary should be full of entries. It's not. The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened. We're in the past." Nancy explained before Steve could be heard yelling from downstairs. "Dustin! Dustin! Dustin! Can you me? Dustin! Du— Hello? Hel... Hello?" There Steve was shouting for Dustin. "Maybe he really does have rabies."

"Then I would have rabies too." Ryan pointed out to Robin. "Steve, what are you doing?" Steve flashed the light in their eyes making them squint. "He's here. Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's like... he's in the walls of something. Just listen." He said going silent before continuing to scream for Dustin.

They thought that Steve was going crazy from the blood loss and the maybe rabies. Until they could hear Dustin's annoying, but cute, little voice. "Holy shit!" Ryan whisper-yelled before going around in the kitchen trying to hear Dustin's voice again. "That brings us to the question you first raised." Ryan heard him say from the walls.

Eddie quickly looks behind the curtains as if Dustin was hiding behind them. "Dumbass." Ryan said slapping his arm. "All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag." Steve said after they had all stopped screaming for Dustin. "Will found a way." Nancy said. "What?"

"Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights." Nancy continued walking towards one of the lamps. She tried turning it on and it was busted. Ryan looked up at the main light fixture in the middle of the room seeing it glisten. "Guys?" Ryan got the attention of everyone and made them look up at the glistening light.

Nancy reached up to the light and swirled around the glitter that had been surrounding the light. "What does it feel like?" Ryan asked Nancy seeing her moving it around. "It feels like mist." Ryan reached up and Nancy was right. It felt nice almost like an August morning. They all decided to reach up and swirl around the glitters. Nancy slowly dropped her hand before asking, "does anyone know Morse code?"

"Wait, does SOS count?" Eddie asked before continuing, "is that... is that good?" Ryan rolled her eyes at him before speaking, "SOS is Morse code." Eddie smiled sheepishly at Ryan. Eddie started to move around the glitter in the way of SOS in hopes that Dustin will get that it's Morse code.

-

"Okay, you guys seeing this?" They heard Dustin's voice as they were all around Nancy's bed. Nancy reached her hand out and the glitter appeared around her fingertips. "Woah," Ryan murmured seeing Nancy move the glitter around. "We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it. Stand by." The visible glitters disappeared before they heard Dustin's voice again. "Okay, try it now."

Nancy reached out in front of her before spelling 'hi.' Roars of cheer were heard on both sides. Nancy started to spell once more, stuck. "Uh, you can't get Bach through Watergate?" Dustin yelled out. "What the hell's Watergate?"

"Because it's in water and it's a gate." Robin explained to Steve. "That's cute." Eddie added before Nancy started to spell again. 'Guarded.'

"We think we have a theory that can help with that." Everyone sighed out hearing Dustin having a plan. "Genius child." Robin said before Dustin continued. "We think Watergate isn't the only gate. That there's a gate at every murder site."

"Does anyone know what he is talking about?" Nancy asked and everyone said no. She drew a question mark in front of her. "How many times do I have to be right on the money before you trust me?" He yelled back out. "Jesus Christ. This kids gotta get his ego in check." Steve spoke while rolling his eyes. "It's his tone. Right?" Eddie piped into Steve's comment. "So... so how far is your trailer?" Nancy questioned. "Seven miles."

"Nancy? Uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?" They all quickly run down the stairs into the garage before finding the bikes that they needed. They all grab one before quickly biking in the street. They were all closely following Eddie to his trailer. Steve and Nancy start to slow down seeing Henry Creel's house. Ryan looked back at the two confused as they were more worried than usual. Ryan shook the thought and kept pedaling on the bike.

"Right here." Eddie comes to a stop on the bike as he was pulling up to the trailer. "That's gotta be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled inter-dimensionally." Robin breathed out as she basically drops the bike to the floor while panting. They all walk into the trailer seeing a red hole in the top of the trailer.

"This is where Chrissy died. Like, right where she died." Eddie explained as they look at the hole. "I'm pretty sure there's something in there." Ryan pointed out seeing it move around.

The hole bursts open making them all cower back. Ryan slowly walks up to the hole and looks up seeing Dustin laughing while Max, Lucas, and Erica. Ryan waved at him and he waved back. "Holy shit, this is trippy."

Lucas and Max hauled in a mattress for safety while Dustin was making a make-shift rope to climb up. He drops the rope down the hole. "All right, pull on it! See if it holds!" Dustin yelled through the hole. Robin grabs it yanks on it hard to see if it was stable. Robin is the first one to climb the make-shift rope.

"All right, guess I'll go." Eddie said as no one else was rushing to get out next. Nancy goes next and surprisingly she was fast at climbing the rope. "See you on the other side." Steve said as Ryan grabbed ahold of the rope before starting to climb the rope.

As she climbed closer to the other side when she fell down, she was still in the other dimension. "Ryan...." Vecna whispers out.

"Ryan!" Steve was yelling her name trying to get her to wake up. "Wake up!"

~

wc: 2695

last chapter till july :(
hope you enjoy the last chapter for now!!