408. Back Up White Boy

408 / back up white boy...

"Nancy!? Nancy, stay with me!" Steve's voice was muffled, reverberating from one side of the gate through to the other. Lucy stared up through it at Nancy's unmoving figure, the whiteness of her eyes visible even from so far away. Steve clutched her shoulders and shook her, but nothing changed. He lifted his eyes to the gate and screamed, "Whatever you guys are doing up there, HURRY!"

Lucy nodded, her feet moving before she could register them, carrying her back to Eddie's room where the others had disappeared to—racking through it for music.

"Steve says to hurry!" she exclaimed, breathless, as she tore through the door.

Inside she found wreckage. Eddie's bed frame, empty of a mattress as it was acting as a landing pad, was a mess of cassette tapes and even vinyl cases. Robin sat on it, filing through them, muttering to herself. Further than that, Eddie's room was a mess, anyway; Eddie, Leo, Dustin, Lucas, Erica, and Max scoured through the dirty clothes and dishes in search of music.

"Yeah, no shit!" screamed Dustin. "We aren't exactly trying to take our time!"

"We can't find anything," said Max hurriedly, pawing through a pile of clothes until she could reach Eddie's floor.

"Seriously," groaned Robin, "what is all this shit!?"

"I could help if you'd tell me what specifically you're looking for," said Eddie, frustrated, as he dumped his laundry hamper onto the pile of clothes Max was filing through.

"Madonna!?" cried Robin. "Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!"

"THIS IS MUSIC!" cried Eddie, clutching an Iron Maiden tape.

Robin groaned back and continued racking through the tapes, but something else had caught Lucy's attention; Steve's voice, less panicked now, calling out for her. She returned to the living room and lifted her head toward the gate to see Nancy on her knees, racked with sobs, as Steve held her shoulders and told her she was fine.

"False alarm," he said to Lucy when he saw she had returned. "Everything's... fine."

Safely in Max's trailer now, with adequate showers being had and clothes changed out of jeans stained with Upside Down goop—only then was Nancy able to explain just what she had been shown.

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet." She spoke softly, her face illuminated by the morning sun. "The most... awful things. I saw a dark cloud over Hawkins, downtown on fire, dead soldiers. And this giant... creature. With a gaping mouth—and this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters; an army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then he showed me my mom. Holly. Mike. And they... they were all..."

Her voice gave way and she lowered her head, swallowing. Silence fell over the trailer for a moment.

"But he's just trying to scare you," said Steve after a while, looking uncertain of his own words. "Right? I mean, it's not real."

"Not yet," Nancy agreed. "But there was something else. He showed me gates. Five gates spreading across Hawkins. And all of these gates, they looked like the one in Eddie's trailer, but they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins—this was our Hawkins. Our home."

"Five gates," muttered Max, and her eyes traveled across the trailer's living room until they met Lucy's. "Five gates, five—"

"—chimes," finished Lucy, nodding gravely. She looked around at the others. "Vecna's clock always chimes five times. Five exactly."

Nancy nodded. "I heard them too."

"He's been telling us his plan this entire time," said Max, running a hand down her face.

"Five kills," agreed Lucas. "Five gates. End of the world."

"If that's true," said Dustin, "then he's only two kills away."

There was a pregnant pause in which everyone pointedly avoided looking at either Max or Lucy, but Lucy rolled her eyes.

"He's two away," she said, crossing her arms. "Me and Max. He hasn't gotten either of us, has he?"

"And he won't," agreed Steve. "Not if we can help it."

Nancy looked to Max, then nodded to the phone. "Try 'em again."

Max moved to the telephone hanging from the wall and picked it up to dial again, which they had already tried plenty of times before; she put the receiver to her ear, foot tapping impatiently, and waited for someone to pick up. Then she sighed and slammed it onto the base.

"Anything?" said Leo hopefully.

"No," said Max. "Rang a few times, then went to busy signal."

"Maybe you punched it in wrong," suggested Steve. "Try it again."

"I didn't punch it in wrong."

"Well, I don't know."

"Dude, she knows how to work a phone," said Leo unhelpfully.

"I'm just saying," said Steve firmly, "she could've punched it in wrong."

Max sighed and picked the phone back up, dialing once more; then, after a moment, she slammed it back onto the base again. "Same shit."

Lucas spread his hands. "How is that possible?"

"Joyce has this telemarketer job," said Dustin. "She's always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it."

"Yeah," said Leo, "but this line has been busy for three days now. That's not Joyce. Something has to be wrong."

"He's right," said Nancy. "It can't just be a coincidence. It can't be. Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them if he's dead."

She turned to face the others after having gotten lost staring out the window in thought. Now she had a set expression of determination on her face, looking around to meet all of their eyes.

"We have to go back there," she said. "Back to the Upside Down."

"No," said Eddie immediately. "No. Nope."

"Woah," said Steve, "no, no, no—let's think this through—"

"What is there to think through?" insisted Nancy.

"We barely made it out of there in one piece!"

"We weren't prepared," Lucy pointed out.

"Exactly!" Nancy pointed to her. "We weren't prepared! But this time we will be. We'll get weapons—and protection! We'll go through the gate, find his lair, and kill him."

"Or he'll kill us," said Steve, unconvinced. "The only reason you survived, Nancy, is because he wanted you to."

"But Lucy and Max," she replied excitedly, "they made it out!"

"By the skin of their teeth," exclaimed Steve. "He's not just some guy we can go in and stab to death. He's not scared of us."

"And for good reason," said Robin nervously. "We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"One," said Dustin matter-of-factly.

"Vecna," said Erica.

"One, obviously," said Lucas.

"I like Henry," said Leo.

"Right," continued Robin after a short pause. "We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He's a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with very bad teeth. But my point is, he's super powerful. Could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight!"

"Then why fight fair?" said Dustin, shrugging his shoulders like the idea was perfect. "You're right. He's like Eleven. But that gives us the upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths—and weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?" said Erica.

"You mean, like, Eggos?" said Leo, as unconvinced as Erica.

Dustin rolled his eyes. "No. When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna."

"That would explain what he was doing in that attic," said Lucas, nodding.

"Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I guarantee you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless."

"Defenseless?" repeated Steve, raising his eyebrows. "What about the army of bats?"

"Right," said Dustin, eyeing the scar on Steve's neck from when he had damn near been strangled to death by one. "Yeah. True. We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them... somehow."

"And, uh—" Eddie raised his hand "—how do we do that, exactly?"

"No idea," said Dustin. "But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying a sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

"That's a great in theory, and all," said Robin, "but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings— at least, none that I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next. Don't even know who he's going to attack."

"Yeah, we do," said Max suddenly. She shrugged. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me—"

"Max, you can't," said Lucas immediately, sounding as though he were pleading. "He'll kill you!"

"I survived before," she replied as though the idea were as casual as going to the grocery store. "I can survive again. I just need to keep him busy long enough that you guys can get into the attic; then you can chop his head off, stab him in the heart, blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly don't care how you put the asshole in his grave. Just.. whatever you do, try not to miss."

There fell a heavy silence over the trailer, everyone pointedly looking to everyone. Lucy sat with Max's words for only a moment, mulling them over; each second she spent thinking about the plan, she developed more of a bitter taste in her mouth, until all she could do was spit out her denial.

"It's not happening," she said, letting the words fly out of her lips before she could stop them. "It's not. He'll kill you! You're talking about turning yourself into human bait for a monster who wants to melt your mind, Max—"

"You can save the lecture," she replied. "I know what I'm volunteering for. It's fine."

"I'm not lecturing," argued Lucy, "I'm just telling you: No! Absolutely not. We're not doing this. There's gotta be another way!"

Max shifted on her feet, looking slightly guilty now. She shrugged. "You got a better idea?"

"I would argue that any idea is better than letting you die horribly," Leo said, lifting his hands.

"Lucy's right," Lucas added, speaking fast, desperate. "Max, we can find another way—"

"There isn't another way!" Max exploded, and the room went still. "If he's coming for me anyway, why not use it?"

"He's coming for me, too," Lucy pointed out, fired up now. "I'm just as cursed as you are. I'll act as the bait, and—"

"No," said Steve immediately. "That's not happening."

Lucy shot him a glare. "Oh, but it's fine if Max does it?"

"It's not fine if anyone does it!" Steve snapped, running a hand through his hair. "But you? You just came out of a Vecna attack like—like, three seconds ago! You're barely standing, Luce!"

"I've already told you I'm okay," she spat. "I'm standing just fine."

"Lucy," muttered Leo, which, were she in a better headspace, Lucy would have taken as a warning, but instead she ignored it.

"I've already been through it," Max argued. "I know what he wants from me. I know what to expect. You barely—"

"You can't act like you're an expert on spiritual torture now," Lucy snapped. "None of us even know what he wants from you, Max!"

"Neither do you!" Max fired back, voice cracking slightly.

Again, the room fell silent, and Lucy and Max watched each other closely, chests rising and falling with emotion and tension.

Dustin finally spoke, slow, careful. "Okay, hey—maybe we don't all yell over each other while forming a plan to murder the mind-melting demon?"

"No," Lucy said again, quieter this time but still as angry. "We're not sacrificing Max. We're not sacrificing anybody."

"Nobody's talking about sacrifice," Max muttered.

"That's exactly what you're talking about," Lucas said, voice raw. "You think I'm okay with this? You think any of us are?"

Max turned away, jaw clenching.

"Look," Dustin said, stepping into the center like he was defusing a bomb, "we're thinking about this wrong. Max doesn't have to die. She doesn't have to be alone up there. Because when Vecna attacks, his real body goes into that trance. Like Eleven. Which means—"

"Which means he's defenseless," Lucas finished, nodding.

"Defenseless-ish," Dustin corrected. "Minus the bats. But theoretically, if we distract them and get into the attic—"

"We can kill him while he's busy hunting Max," Robin said slowly. "We've already covered this, no?"

"Exactly," Dustin said.

"Then I'll do it," Max said. "He wants me? Fine. Use me."

Lucy went to argue, but Eddie cut in before she could. "Uh, no, the plan's still missing a step. The part where Max doesn't die. That part seems kinda important."

Dustin held up a finger. "Right. Yes. That's where the tether comes in."

"The what?" Erica asked.

"The tether," Dustin repeated, like it was obvious. "The thing that pulls you back to reality. Max had music before. But the reason it worked—the reason she snapped out of the curse—wasn't just Kate Bush."

Max blinked, startled. "What?"

"It was Lucas," Dustin said, pointing at him. "And Steve. And me. We were all helping Max escape Vecna—she said it herself, she could still see us. It helped her escape. Us three and Kate, we were her anchors. Like—like Eleven needing someone to pull her out of the Void."

"Or an astronaut at NASA having to be tied to something so he doesn't float away," said Robin, as though the idea were a scientific breakthrough.

"So you're saying Lucy stays with Max," Steve said slowly, "while the rest of us go to the Upside Down."

"Yes," Dustin said. "Lucy keeps Max tethered. She's been through the curse too—they're connected. Vecna won't be able to completely pull Max away if her friends are there grounding her, and especially if Lucy's there to stabilize her."

Eddie raised his hand. "And if Vecna starts pulling Lucy in, too?"

"Then Leo stays with her too," Nancy said, gesturing at him. "A backup anchor."

Leo nodded once, firmly. "I'm not going anywhere. Lucas and I will be there to make sure nothing goes bazoinko."

Lucy looked between Max and Leo and Steve and everyone staring back at her. Slowly, she exhaled, the knot in her stomach not quite unfurling completely but loosening very slightly.

"So... Max draws him in," she said carefully. "I keep her tethered. Leo keeps me tethered, and Lucas watches all of our backs. And while Vecna's body in the Upside Down is distracted, you guys kill him."

Robin shrugged. "As plans go, it's better than everything else we've come up with."

Max finally met Lucy's eyes, working her bottom lip with her teeth. She drew in a sharp breath. "Are you sure about this?"

"No," Lucy admitted. "But I'm damn sure about not letting you die."

Max's mouth twitched into something almost like a smile.

"Okay," she said. "Then let's do it. What do we need?"

As it turned out, Eddie had the perfect supply chain for them to ransack in order to prepare for an interdimension demon take-down; he grabbed the Mayfields' telephone book and slammed it down on the breakfast table, fingering through it until he found the businesses listed under THE.

"Check this out," he told the others, pointing to one specifically now. "The War Zone. I've been there once. It's huge. They've got everything you need for killing things, basically."

"Jesus," said Robin, eyeing the advertisement with caution. "Do you think fake Rambo has enough guns there? Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?"

"Lucky for us, it is," said Eddie brightly. "This place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and angry hicks."

"If we're trying to avoid angry hicks," muttered Erica, "maybe we shouldn't go to some store called the War Zone."

"Normally, I'd agree," said Nancy, "but we need the weapons. I think it's worth the risk."

Lucas nodded. "Me too."

"But is it worth the time?" said Dustin thoughtfully. "I mean, it'll take all day to bike there and back."

Eddie grinned. "Who said anything about biking?"

Steve narrowed his eyes. "You got some secret car we don't know about?"

"It's not exactly a car, Steve. And it's not exactly mine. But... it'll do. Hey, Red," he said, turning back to Max. "You got a ski mask or a bandana or something like that?"

Max thought for a moment, then frowned, nodding in surprise—and ten minutes later, Eddie was leading them around the trailer park in a conspicuous (and cheap) Michael Myers Halloween mask. He wound them on a path through the trees and trailers, giving them signals with his hands for when to follow him and when to pause, before finally slowing to a stop behind one particular mobile home. Wasting no time, Eddie peeled open one of the back windows and, with a grunt, tossed himself through it. The others followed, Lucy right behind him; she stuck out her tongue in disgust after landing on Eddie's discarded, sweaty mask.

"That was suffocating," he muttered, wiping his face. Lucy followed him to the front of the mobile home. 

"What are you doing?" she asked as he took a seat behind the steering wheel, already maneuvering with the wires beneath it as though he had done it a million times before. Lucy raised her eyebrows, affronted. "Eddie, are you hot-wiring this car!?"

Steve raised his eyebrows, too, but with more of an impressed expression on his face than Lucy's. "Where'd you learn how to do this, man?"

He screwed up his face as he began to twist the snipped wires together. "While the other dads were teaching their kids how to fish or play ball, my old man was teaching me how to hot wire. Now, I swore to myself I wouldn't wind up like he did, but now I'm wanted for murder, and soon, grand theft auto. So, uh, yeah—I'm really living up to that Munson name."

"Uh, Eddie," said Robin, and she and Steve appeared just behind Lucy in the front of the trailer. "I'm not sure I love the idea of you driving."

"Oh, I'm just starting this sucker," said Eddie, like it was obvious. Then he grinned at Steve. "Harrington's got her. Don't ya, big boy?"

Before Steve—or Lucy—could argue with that, Eddie gave the wires one last twist, and the stereo of the mobile home roared to life. Up Around The Bend blasted in Lucy's ears and she slammed her palms over them, wincing, but she could still hear the uproar that had arisen outside the mobile home: The owners of the trailer were not happy to find that their house was about to be stolen from right under their noses.

"What the hell is goin' on!? They locked the door!" Lucy heard the woman scream, while the man's face appeared, furious, in the window. She, Steve, Robin, and Eddie whipped their heads toward it, made eye contact, and then stumbled to action with a couple curses for emphasis.

"It's just a car," Steve muttered to himself, taking his place behind wheel. "Everybody, HANG ON!"

"Oh my god, oh my god!" exclaimed Lucas, grabbing onto the couch; Max fell back onto the other side of the futon and braced herself against the wall; Leo and Nancy buckled up in the seats at the front of the mobile home. Lucy remained by Steve on the bench seat beside the driver, gripping the sides of it for her life.

"STEVE!" cried Dustin. "DRIIIIIIIVE!"

"They look pissed!" called Leo, staring out the back window at the couple chasing after them.

"Well, it's not every day you lose your house and your car in one fell swoop," said Robin reasonably.

"HOLD ON!" Steve screamed again, and Lucy barely had time to brace herself before he spun control of the steering wheel and the entire mobile home teetered to the right in a disastrous turn onto the main road.

"Okay," said Lucy, as they lost the couple in the wind; everyone was breathless and holding onto something with white knuckles and faces, and Lucy looked around at each of them, nodding slowly. "Okay. Hard part's over."

"Speak for yourself," muttered Steve over the tinny radio, shooting her a glance. "I'm the one who actually has to drive this mansion on wheels."

The drive to War Zone was not obnoxiously long, though it certainly felt like hours—it weighed heavy on Lucy's conscious that they had stolen this vehicle and robbed that couple of everything they owned, and she imagined that the cops would be on their tail in a moment or so; but a good long while passed with no sign of sirens and finally Lucy was able to unclench her hands from the edges of her seat.

The trailer had grown peaceful and quiet, as Nancy and Robin had taken control of the stereo, swapping out poppy, upbeat tapes for more mellow albums like James Taylor—now Lucy, head resting against the window of the trailer, gazed out at the passing treeline to the loose tune of Fire and Rain.

In the stillness, Steve spared a glance off the road and looked over to Lucy, his lips tightening into a small smile; he debated whether or not to intrude on her thoughts but then decided he wanted to hear them anyway.

"Hey," he said, his voice quiet enough that the others in the back of the home wouldn't hear. "What're you thinking about?"

Lucy blinked and sat up again, suddenly realizing that she had damn near gone into a trance all on her own. She looked over to Steve and managed a smile for him.

The truth was she could not stop thinking about their plan and how likely it was to go wrong. So many variables, so many things that relied on pure fate or luck. And, she thought, since when was luck ever on their side? Since when did fate care whether they won or lost? Their chances were grim and Lucy knew it, so all she could focus on was the pit of anxiety in her stomach, but she did not want to voice her fears.

"Nothing," she said after a short pause, smiling wider now. "Just tired. Hey, how's it holding up?" she added as a subject change, nodding to the pot-sized steering wheel Steve was handling.

"Not as bad as I thought," he admitted, looking down and then back out onto the road. "Considering it's a... house."

Lucy laughed and Steve smiled and they lapsed back into silence for a moment, only James Taylor's melody sounding out through the front of the trailer, but then Steve drew in a deep breath.

"It's silly," he began, and he sounded slightly nervous to be admitting this aloud, like he was unsure how Lucy would reply; he shook his head as though the thought was coming tumbling out of it as he thought it. "But, um, I always had this dream that I'd have this really... this really big family. I'm talking, like, a full brood of Harringtons. Like five... six kids."

"Six," repeated Lucy in a quiet voice, amused. "Go on."

"Yeah," said Steve, like the idea was ordinary. "Three girls, three boys. And every summer, I figured all us Harringtons, we would pack into something like this and... just see the country. You know, the Rockies, Grand Canyon, maybe Yellowstone. End up in some beachside town in California. Spend a week parked in the sand. Learn how to surf, or something."

Lucy watched him as he spoke; he kept his eyes out the windshield, his voice even, but she could tell from his refusal to look at her that he was cautious to be sharing something so vulnerable with her. She nodded though he did not see it, and could not help the smile spreading across her face.

"That's sweet," she whispered. "It sounds nice, Steve."

"Yeah?" He looked to her now, eyes glinting with something akin to love.

"Yeah," she agreed, nodding again. He smiled back, and they lapsed back into their comfortable silence, both of their eyes stuck on the path laid out before them.

"So much for avoiding hicks," muttered Robin as the crew stalked through the entrance of War Zone, gazing around at the slew of hicks and rednecks shopping the sale; she scowled slightly.

"Let's be fast," suggested Nancy.

"Yep," agreed Lucy.

"Definitely," said Erica.

They spread out across the store and began piling tools, supplies, and weapons into their carts; Lucy headed toward the arsonist's dream section and began dumping gallons of red jugs of kerosene into their cart.

"How many of these do you think we need?" Robin said over her shoulder.

Lucy shrugged and grabbed two at once. Steve came up behind her, donned in a shirt now and a patchy jacket, as he had lost his shirt at Watergate; he began helping them dump the bottles into the cart.

"Five or six," he said like it was obvious, though they had collected more than ten already. Still he dumped more in.

But Robin was no longer paying any attention to them, the bottle of kerosene sitting in her hands and eyes glued to something across the store; Lucy and Steve paused too, curious, and followed her gaze.

Vickie, who Lucy only recognized from the yearbook photo Robin had pasted into Lucy and Steve's minds by then, was across the aisles, comparing two versions of gun shells; Robin watched her like she was hanging the stars in the sky.

"What are you gonna do?" Steve muttered, draping an arm around Lucy's shoulders. "Just stand here and gawk at her?"

"Shut up," said Robin immediately. She stood still for only one more moment, then closed her mouth and took a step forward—

And Lucy watched as a boy came up behind Vickie and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug, startling her. Vickie gasped and swung around, then, realizing who it was, melted into a smile; she laughed and said something to him, and he laughed too, and they looked very much in love, in Lucy's opinion, though she would not say it aloud.

She turned her eyes back to Robin, who had all but melted on the spot; she watched Vickie and the blond boy's faces inch closer together until they had collided in a kiss. Her eyes were glossy when they pulled away from each other.

Then the boyfriend started kissing Vickie on the cheek, forcing her face toward the other side of the store, and Vickie locked eyes with Robin; immediately, Robin turned heel and left. Steve and Lucy rushed after her, calling her name, but she did not seem to hear them and instead hurried around the store and dumped whatever the hell she could grab into the cart, avoiding looking at them.

Begrudgingly giving up on asking Robin about Vickie, Lucy and Steve piled their supplies onto the conveyor belt altogether, dumping armload after armload of kerosene bottles, knives, grenades, and shotgun shells in front of the bored clerk behind the counter.

"Shells?" She smacked her gum and looked to Robin, Steve, and Lucy, a bored expression on her face. "But no gun?"

"No gun?" repeated Lucy, and she looked back over their haul, brow furrowed. "Um, that's not... Has anyone seen Nancy or Erica?"

Steve and Robin gave matching shrugs of denial, then skimmed their eyes across the store, searching for the other two that had come inside with them, and Lucy glanced by the door to make sure they had not checked out prematurely.

"Ah, shit," said Steve suddenly, and Robin and Lucy followed his gaze to see Nancy clutching the barrel of a shotgun—standing nose-to-nose with Jason Carver, the captain of the basketball team. Nancy was holding her own pretty well, but Lucy could tell she was nervous.

"Shit," she muttered. She turned back to Robin and Steve. "You guys get this taken care of. I'll go deal with that."

They nodded and returned to helping the clerk scan their things, and Lucy headed off toward the gun counter, walking quickly; she glanced to her right and saw Erica giving her a grim look.

"Nance, are you almost ready?" said Lucy spritely, walking up beside her and slinking an arm around her shoulders. She looked to Jason as though she hadn't noticed him before. "Oh, Jason. Hey."

Jason's eyes moved from Nancy to Lucy in the same ways a snake would, and there was a self-satisfied smirk on his face; he raised his eyebrows. "Andrews. Long time, no see. I was just telling Wheeler here that shotguns... they only work for birds, you see. You get close-range with an attacker, they can snatch up the barrel just like this, and redirect it..."

"Yeah, well." Lucy tightened her lips in a falsified smile. "Thanks for the heads-up, but I think we've got it under control, Jason. See you."

She turned to go with Nancy, but Jason had not yet let his iron grip loosen up on the shotgun. In fact, he tightened it, smiling wider at Lucy.

"How's that brother of yours, Andrews?"

"Leo's fine," said Lucy immediately. "I haven't seen him in a while, if that's what you're asking. I assumed he was with you and your team."

"No, no," said Jason, taking a step in, his eyes scanning her face. "No, see, we haven't seen Andrews or Sinclair in a while. They wouldn't happen to... be here with you, by any chance?"

"Would you let go," Nancy tried again, and she was not asking.

Jason smiled at Lucy and ignored Nancy's words. Lucy narrowed her eyes, unable to plaster a smile on her face any longer; she shook her head only slightly and kept her chin high.

"Let go, Jason," she demanded.

The moment his hands broke contact from the barrel of the gun, Nancy and Lucy headed off to check out; Steve, Erica, and Robin were already waiting by the doors with a cart full of plastic bags ready. Nancy paid for the gun and then they altogether attempted to look natural as they stalked out of the store, knowing the basketball team was likely watching their every move.

"We gotta go," Steve exclaimed as they piled back into the mobile car, parked in the furthest spot away from the entrance to the store as possible. "Everyone buckle up!"

"What happened?" said Lucas, sitting up. "Is everything okay?"

"Your old friends are here," Erica said, eyeing Lucas and Leo as she dumped one of the plastic bags onto the floorboards.

"Shit," muttered Leo.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go," said Dustin, suddenly eager to get out of the parking lot.

"I'm going!" Steve yelled back. "Sit down!"

With a sort of tension in the air of the mobile home, they took off from the War Zone parking lot, not once looking back; once they were on the road again, Lucy let out a deep breath, almost certain that the basketball team was not following them now or else they would have heard. She settled into her seat next to Steve and leaned her head against the window, allowing herself the grace now to fall asleep, at least for a few minutes.

Luckily, she was so exhausted that there was no room for dreams—no room for Vecna to insert nightmares and force Lucy to awaken in a cold sweat, panicked. Instead she blinked herself awake as the mobile home teetered to a stop.

Steve had driven them to a nice, open field—the one just beneath Weathertop. Everyone assigned themselves to a weapon to craft, and split off to work in pairs; Steve and Robin formed Molotov Cocktails together, sitting on the ground next to the mobile home; Nancy and Max worked together to saw the barrel of the shotgun off so no more "redirection" could afflict it, as Jason had warned; Erica and Lucas tied knives to the ends of wooden staffs to craft spears; Eddie and Dustin poked nails through trash can lids to form shields.

Further away in the field from anyone else, Leo and Lucy sat cross-legged in the dry grass with a small, careful set-up between them—a metal bowl full of kerosene, a box of shotgun shells, strips of torn cloth, twine, and a single lighter a couple feet away so neither of them could accidentally flick a flame to life.

Lucy dipped one of the cloth strips into the kerosene, her hand steady despite the sharp sting the fumes left in her nose. She wrung it out gently and smoothed it flat on her knee. A gust of wind brushed her hair into her face, and she pushed it back with the wrist of her free hand.

Leo watched her, elbow resting on his knee, a shell turning between his fingers. "You look kinda badass right now."

She huffed something between a laugh and a scoff, glancing to him. "Thanks. You look like you're waiting for something to explode."

"I mean," he said, gesturing at their setup, "one wrong move and we absolutely could."

"Don't remind me." She passed him the kerosene-soaked cloth.

Leo wrapped it around the shotgun shell with a gentleness that didn't match his usual bouncing-off-the-walls. He tied the twine tight, forming a messy but functional incendiary round. He set it into the small pile of finished shells beside them—only six so far. They needed at least a dozen.

Lucy reached for another cloth strip as he worked. "Do you think this will work? Like, really work?"

Leo shrugged one shoulder, but there was no fear in the gesture—just truth. "I think... it's better than doing nothing. Walking in there with two knives and a bottle of vodka."

Lucy dipped the next strip into the kerosene. A drop rolled down her wrist, cold in the dusk air, and she wiped it on her denim vest.

"Max's plan..." she said, scowling down at her work, shaking her head in disbelief. "It still feels like suicide."

"Yeah." Leo tore another piece of twine with his teeth. "But that's why we're helping build the fire part, right? If they set Vecna on fire from every direction, maybe it gives us a shot."

Lucy tied off a knot. "I hate that she wants to use herself as bait."

"Me too," Leo said. "But I'm glad you're not letting her do it alone."

Lucy nearly dropped one of the strips and kept her eyes down, suddenly finding it hard to swallow. "I'm not doing it alone, either. You'll be with me."

There was a moment of silence between them, and they met each other's eyes, slight smiles crossing their faces at the same time.

"Always," Leo said like it was obvious.

They both looked down quickly, pretending to be focused on the shells.

Leo nudged Lucy's knee. "Hey, pass me another?"

She handed him a shell wordlessly. He swallowed hard and got back to work, wrapping and tying, while Lucy dunked cloth in gas. Leo kept his head down for the rest of the time, then finally let out a victorious sound as he focused on sealing the final shell.

He held it up between them. "There. Twelve tiny fireballs of doom."

Lucy smiled at it, feeling oddly proud, though she could not name why. She looked to Leo, still unable to hide her pride. "Vecna won't know what hit him."

Via Chatter

I'm going. to cry

The concept of Harringdrews as parents 😭😭😭😭my children having their own children 😭😭😭

And Leo no longer being a dick 😭😭😭😭😭 everyone is growing up 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭