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Tommy, Carol, and Steve found each other in secod grade of elementary school, yes, they had meet in the first grade, but they found each other the second grade of school as they waited in the school playground for parents they knew wouldn’t come, since that day on, they became inseparable.
“We can’t go to my house either, my dad brought a girl” Carol said, not looking at her friends, instead building a poorly done sandcastle.
“If we wait for an hour my mom would leave for work and we can go to my house” Tommy offered.
“How are we supposed to know when the hour has passed?” Carol buffed annoyed, giving him an unimpressed look, Tommy didn’t take it personal, Carol would always be mean when she was hungry.
“We can count the minutes” Steve offered but he wasn’t really paying attention, unlike Carol, he would disconnect when he was hungry.
“Do you have a better idea?” Tommy ignored Steve.
“We can wait outside your house until your mom leaves.”
“You know how it went last time” Tommy replied, and Carol flinched, she could still feel the long nails of Tommy’s mom in her arm, looking at Steve’s reaction he could too.
“Okay, we wait until the sun goes to that point” Carol pointed at the swings with her finger “Teacher Lauren said that people used to measure time using the sun, I said that when the sun reaches that point an hour would have passed.”
“I agree” Tommy nodded with a smile “Do you Steve?” Both turned to look their friend who remained laying on the floor but gave them a thumb up.
A few weeks after that, they understood how the people measured time with the sun and Carol learned how to do it, followed shortly after by Steve and Tommy.
“Oh, your parents are back” Tommy said looking at Steve’s limp. As soon as Steve reached third grade his parents decided he was old enough to take care of himself and left for long periods of time that could last from weeks to months, Steve wouldn’t complain, he was better alone than he had ever been when his parents were around, plus, it gave Tommy and Carol a place to hide, and more importantly, eat.
However, sooner or later they would come back, and Steve would pay for any discomfort his parents were feeling.
“I have half a granola bar” Carol offered, it was already bitten by the girl, but the fact that she shared her part melted his heart.
“Thanks” Steve reached the bar and slowly sat.
“I’m sleeping by the park this week. Do you wanna join?” Tommy offered. His mom had started to date different men, some of them were good enough to give Tommy some candy or pretend to care about him more than his mom did (which wasn’t difficult), but some of them were skunk, just like this guy, who didn’t want Tommy around.
“It would only made things worse” Steve shrugged but the yearning was clear in his eyes “It’s going to be only a week; mom wants to rush”.
“Maybe we could tell a teacher” Carol’s face sparkled at the image of her own idea “The teacher said the other day that if somebody hit you, you should speak up.”
“I haven’t tried that before” Steve whispered, tints of hope sneaking in his eyes.
“It’s a great idea, and Steve just got new bruises, we can use that for they to believe us!” Tommy smiled showing his missing tooth on the upper line of his mouth.
“I even got a bleeding one!” Steve added excited.
“Your parents are going to be so grounded” Carol added with a sufficient smile.
“Maybe they are going to be kicked out of the house, like me, but forever” Tommy let his imagination went wild.
“And we can live together in your house!” Carol added “We could buy lots of food and sleep tucked in warm sheets, just like in the movies.”
“I can’t wait, you need to tell the teacher now” Tommy exclaimed, and him and Carol basically dragged Steve all the way to the classroom.
The meeting with the teacher didn’t go as planned, not even close. Steven ended up standing alone in the classroom with the teacher giving him an unbothered look.
“Look Steven” She said after listening to him, he wanted to correct her, he was Steve, not Steven. Steven meant he had done something wrong, Steven meant his mother saying how much he ruined his life and his dad being disappointment on him again, however he remained silence “Sometimes children misbehave, and it is normal for parents to reprehend them, that’s how children learn” Steve wasn’t misbehaving, in fact he was already in bed when his parents arrived, he tried to say something but the harsh look on the teacher shut him “If you want to get your parents in trouble because your feelings got hurt and you want revenge it is not going to happen” She stared at Steve for long enough to make at his will shrunk “I’m going to let it slide, just this once because you’re young and you probably don’t understand the consequences of your actions, but if this is brought to my attention again I’m speaking to your parents and they are going to give you a reason to feel abused. Got it?” Her tone didn’t let chance for discussion, not that Steve would say anything after her threatening to tell his parents.
“Yes miss” He finally said, trying to keep himself together, his hands squishing the fabric of his shirt, he kept his tears away until he reached Carol and tommy who were waiting for him outside the classroom.
After that day the three children learned to never talk about their family.
“I’m serious, this guy is amazing!” Tommy exclaimed on their way back from school.
“You said that about the last one and he ended up kicking you out of the house at the third week” Steve replied annoyed, he wasn’t that harsh on Tommy usually, but he had his lunch stolen by a kid in 5th grade earlier.
“But she has like a month with him and not only he hasn’t kicked me out, but he gives me money to get ut of the house, volantary” He says, slowly to make emphasis on how good that man was “So stop being so sad about your lunch, I can get you another one!” Steve and Carol smiled, good things didn’t last, and that would be one of the temporally Tommy’s mom boyfriends, but they had learnt to enjoy everything as much as they can while it lasted.
“Can you buy us Reese’s too?” Carol had a big smile on her face and her whole body was trembling with emotion.
“Of course, I can!” Tommy shouted taking his money out his pocket shoving it to his friends.
Tommy’s mom boyfriend lasted 4 months.
“Carol, we have to go back to class” Steve insisted standing outside the girl’s restroom, next to him Tommy had slide to the floor banging randomly the door “You’re not helping!” He shouted to Tommy after he knocked the door again.
“She’s not answering!” Tommy shouted-whispered back, the hall was empty, and the noise Tommy made while banging the door had been risky enough.
“I know, and you banging the door is not helping!” Steve replied, inside the sobbing was muffled by the door.
“If you don’t come out, we’re going in” Tommy sentenced standing up.
“Go away!” Carol finally said, her voice was cracked but the subtones of anger were still there.
“We warned you!” Tommy shouted after a whole minute of silence. Taking Steve’s hand, he dragged his friend inside the bathroom.
“I told you to get lost!” Carol shouted from one of the cubicles.
“Carol, please” Steve approached Carol’s cubicle “What Susan said-”
“What Susan said was true!” Carol shouted again, opening the door, the two boys faced the broken expression of her friend, her little face marked with a path of tears, red as a tomato, with inflamed eyes and nose. “My mom left because she couldn’t stand seeing my ugly face!” She yelled, her voice cracking at the last words and her eyes wetting with tears again.
“Don’t say that Carol, you’re pretty-” Whatever Tommy was going to say got interrupted by the kid.
“I have my father’s face” She babbled, covering her eyes with her fists. Both boys turned to look at each other, that was a delicate thing for Carol, her mom made sure to remind her that whenever she got mad at her father.
“We also have our parents faces, and we’re not pieces of shit” Tommy tried to comfort, and Carol’s crying stopped as both children gasped at their friend. “What?”
“You said-” Steve pointed at him with his eyes wide open, in the future Tommy would remind him of his face and laugh at him, but right now he just looked at both children unbothered.
“I know what I said, it’s not a big deal” He replied.
“But the teacher said-” Carol replied with her noose voice.
“I don’t care about what he said, teachers don’t know shit!” Both children gasped again but Tommy ignored them “They say they know better and what’s good for us, but when Steve told miss Jhonson about his parents she didn’t do shit” This time the children hold their gasp “I’m done with listening to adults.”
“Me too” Carol joined almost immediately “I’m done with adults too.”
“We’re still listening to Ben, right? He gives us free burgers sometimes” Steve mumbled, too scared of the rejection of his friends.
“I like him, he’s fine” Carol said.
“We can like Ben and hate Susan” Tommy offered.
“She’s not an adult” Steve pointed out.
“No, but she’s a- she’s a- skank” Carol said, and everyone shared an accomplice laugh.
“Please I’ll pay everything, but I still need to buy groceries” Steve begged Donald Melvan, the owner of the store.
“Your mom should had thought about that before making a scene at my store” Melvad responded annoyed.
A few days ago, when his mom arrived, she had gotten an overdose of some sort of medication which led to a bad episode of hallucinations at Melvan’s where she destroyed a lot of his supplies, she had paid with all the money she had on her at that moment, but it hadn't been enough, and she had already left leaving Steve with the debt.
“Please, it won’t happen again.”
“Oh, it better not” Melvan was already turning to welcome new costumers.
“You’re the only grocery store in town!” Steve insisted.
“I’m sorry kid, there’s nothing I can do for you” Melvan shrugged.
“You’re the owner!” Steve shouted, but not loud enough to get other’s costumers attention.
“Don’t blame me kid, blame your mother” He finished, leaving to attend other costumers.
Steve went outside the store furious, he hadn’t done anything to be vetoed, if he had to prohibit someone form buying form his was his mom, not him, now he would starve to death because of him.
Steve wasn’t allowed to buy nothing there and Carol and Tommy bought his groceries until they were old enough to go to the nearby town to buy those.
After the upside down happen Joyce would sell him things, but Steve mostly refused to buy from Melvan’s.
“Guys!” Tommy shouted catching Steve’s and Carol’s attention; they had been walking around the forest near Steve’s house. “Do you have place for one more?”
“Tommy? What are you doing here?” Carol asked walking to reach him.
“What? Can’t I hang out with my best friends?” Tommy said playful with one eyebrow lifted.
“You said you got a job cutting Dwyer’s lawn” Steve said, as confused as Carol to see Tommy there.
“That’s a past thing, I’m not working for that asshole anymore” Tommy shrugged but both noted the tension on his shoulders.
“What happened? You were excited to have extra money” Steve made Tommy sat on the ground, tiny stones pricking their skin.
“It’s just- just” Tommy tried to speak but as he remembered, the anger grew and didn’t let him form a sentence.
“It’s okay Tommy, just breathe” Carol leaned a hand on his arm, carefully sliding her thumb up and down.
“He cancelled me, he said that it was because he already did it, but I just passed by his house this morning, it was a lie” He stumbled with his words, but Steve and Carol understood him “And my brother told me it was because mom was dating a thief, I lost my job at the first day because Mr. Dwyer thinks I’m a thief too.”
“But you’re not!” Steve exclaimed, anger infecting him too. “If Mr. Dwyer thinks that, he can go fuck himself.”
“Yeah, you can’t work with that asshole anyone, I forbid you to” Carol added, at this point, both Tommy’s friends were basically laying on him in the mimic of an incomplete hug.
“I still need the money” Tommy said in a lower voice “Mr. Dwyer is not wrong about Paul, he’s been stealing not only from other people but from mom too and I have to hide my money, but if he finds it, I’m done, I need extra money.”
“You can leave your money at my place” Steve said “My parents aren’t coming anytime soon, and they mostly ignore my bedroom exist.”
“And if you need extra money, you can ask me!” Carol added “Dad told me to grab all the money I want!”
“I’m so jealous, he got rich in a night and my mom can’t even get a decent man.” Tommy crossed his arms on his chest.
“It’s not like she’s going to marry him, and if he keeps taking things away from her it would be over sooner that you think” Carol consoled, and surprisingly it worked.
She was right, almost two weeks later she ended up kicking Paul, things went up after that and by the start of Tommy’s middle school she got herself a wealthy man who didn’t look twice at Tommy’s direction.
“They kicked me out!” Carol shouted entering Steve’s house where she knew her friends were.
“The girls?” Tommy paused the movie they were watching. They knew Carol was supposed to be a at some girl’s club.
“No! Their moms!” Carol was two seconds away to explode, she was already stumping, and her face was red.
“What happened?” Steve asked, leading her to the couch.
“I don’t know, we were together as usual when the Heather’s mom showed up” Her voice stuck in her throat made her trip with her own words but she continued “And she said that I wasn’t supposed to be there, she told me my parents were garbage and so was I” Her eyes got wet but her frowned face indicate she wanted to cry out of frustration. “And all the girls laughed at me. Even Sophia’s mom got by her side! I’m not allowed anymore!”
“I’m sorry they got against you; we’re going to make them pay” Steve said holding her hand on a tight grip.
“Oh, of course we are” A maniac smile displayed on her face “I know exactly why she kicked me out. She hooked up with my dad and of course she doesn’t want anyone to know, so she couldn’t afford risking me telling the girls, but she’s an idiot, I wasn’t going to. That bitch has dug her own graveyard.”
“We’re going to sink her” Tommy exclaimed excited as she saw Carol’s taking a wallet from her bag.
“Wouldn’t be great if I went with Heather and give her back the wallet her mom forgot at my dad’s house” The innocent face she was making contrasted with the fury on her eyes.
Carol never got back to the club, and neither did Heather, for Carol it didn’t matter, it got dissolved one month after she was kicked out. For Heather it meant the divorce of her parents.
“What are you wearing?” Tommy first said to Carol as soon as he saw her, Steve elbowed him.
“Don’t you like it?” Carol looked nervous, more than ever, she was wearing a long pink skirt with a long-sleeved blouse that was trendy.
“You look nice, but it is weird. Why?” Tommy insisted.
“Look around you, we’re starting middle school, I had to look different” She replied as it was obvious, Stev couldn’t say anything, he had spent and hour and a half deciding what to wear today.
“I think is stupid” Tommy shrugged but still looked around.
“Well, it is a good think I didn’t ask for your opinion” Carol replied defensive.
“You literally just did” Tommy said playful, but Carol’s frustration and nervousness were taking her to the limit, she was on the edge of a crisis.
“Shut up Tommy” Steve elbowed his friend again “You look amazing Carol.”
“Thanks Steve” She let a smile decorate her face “I was thinking we co-” She said but was pushed by a group of people walking down the hallway, she ended up crashing against her friends, upset that the others didn’t even apologize.
The three friends looked at the group of older teenagers who walked like they owned the school, they were focused on their own conversation, ignoring everyone around them, greeting some other people at the hallway, laughing. They looked so cool, so above everyone.
“I want that” Carol whispered, and she didn’t saw her friends nodding, too focused on the other group.
They would reach their goal once they entered high school, after spending all middle school analyzing the group and developing themselves.
“Steve, right? It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, my Lauren can’t stop talking about you” Mr. Smith welcomed Steve into his house by palming his back.
“Dad! Stop” Lauren said, clearly embarrassed, her dad just laughed stridently.
“It is a pleasure to meet you too sir” Steve said, walking inside the house, the plan was to pick up Lauren and go, but he supposed a little chat with her father was inevitable.
“You’re a Harrington, right?” The tone implied more than just a confirmation, and Steve didn’t like it.
“I am” He said trying to not shrug due to the itchiness it provoked him.
“I knew it, you look like one” He smiled at Steve, ignoring the twist of the stomach the sentence made the boy feel “You look so formal and like a good boy, it is not weird that my Lauren accepted you.”
“Dad, we have to leave if we want to arrive at time” Lauren intervened again.
“It’s okay, you two leave, but don’t bring her late okay Harrington?” The man hadn’t lost his smile.
“I won’t” He said and basically dragged Lauren out of her house.
“I’m sorry, he had never done anything like this with my other dates” Lauren expressed once they were in his car.
The time Steve dated Lauren, her dad would always try to have a conversation with him, talk about his father and his business, there is to say, he didn’t date Lauren for long. The same interaction repeated with multiple parents of his girlfriends.
“I want you out of my house!” Steve’s dad yelled at him, he was making a scene over something Steve couldn’t bother to remember, all the broken glass and his yelling was probably heard by the neighbors, but he didn’t worry, they wouldn’t call the police or attempt to show up and deescalate the situation. “Now Steven!”
He didn’t bother to respond, he walked out of the room with a bag of the first clothes his hands reached and left. He already had a bag with all the things he actually needed at Tommy’s house.
“Hey man. You up?” Steve saluted entering Tommy’s bedroom window. Tommy who had been laying on the bed reading a magazine flinched at his direction, but a quick look at his friend calmed him.
“The old man kicked you again?” Tommy asked returning his attention to his magazine but sliding to leave Steve a space to lay down. “What happened this time?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care” Steve said jumping to the bed. “Want me to call Carol?”
“Already here” Carol said from the same window Steve had climbed a minute ago.
“How?” Steve asked after squinching.
“I heard your dad from my house, you could have stopped by, so we walked together” Carol replied closing the window “I left a bunch of snacks outside” Tommy sighed and getting out of bed he left the room making his way outside.
“I didn’t know you could hear” Steve shrugged.
“The entire neighborhood can hear, your father isn’t subtle at all” She replied still in the bed, next to Steve.
“He’s not trying to; he can use his money to get away from anything” Steve pulled Carol’s sleeve to make her lay down next to him. “I don’t wanna talk about him, let’s watch tv.”
“Everything is boring at this hour” Carol replied while Tommy entered the room with Carol’s supplies.
“We can make it funnier” Steve said shoving his hand inside the bag he took from is house, taking out his mom’s pills.
“I knew you would bring those” Carol replied with a smile, taking a bottle of vodka out of her bag.
“You two are a bad influence for me” Tommy said, the other two teenagers to laughed and threw his pillows at him.
“Shut up, this was your idea” Carol defended while grabbing the three cups that were always in his bedroom.
The nights like this were one of Steve’s favorites, they wouldn’t be introducing anything they could to their bodies until they passed out each time, but he would feel safe and understood whenever his parents kicked him out of the house.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last long, his parents kept showing less and less to his house, and whenever they did, they decided Steve wasn’t worth their time, they wouldn’t blame him over their problems, or pointed at all Steve’s defects, not even when Steve got arrested, they looked at his direction.
Steve didn’t know what hurt more, if knowing he was hated by his parents or that he didn’t even exist to them.
“Please Mr. Smith if you don’t let me take the exam I’m not passing” Tommy begged to the teacher after class, Steve and Carol were waiting outside.
“I can´t give you special treatment just because you decided to not show up” The teacher replied giving him a bored look.
“My mom was sick! I was at the hospital taking care of her” Tommy replied frustrated.
“The doctors can take better care of her than you, that was no excuse” The teacher insisted, leaving his desk.
“Please, you don’t even have to give me the same test, I can take a different one” Tommy followed him.
“Are you trying to give me more work? Forget it Hagan. You’re not taking the test, you’re failing, and I expect a better attitude next year” He said, leaving no room for arguments leaving the classroom without looking at the other two teenagers standing outside.
“Did he accept?” Steve asked.
“No, he didn’t” Tommy spit out angry, crossing his arms on his chest “That piece of shit told me it was my fault, he didn’t even listen when I told him about my mom!” He yelled kicking a locker.
“Seriously? Does he think his stupid class is way more important than your mom’s life?” Carol said infected by his anger.
“It’s not your fault he doesn’t have someone that cares the minimum about him” Steve added “But we´re not letting you fail the year.”
“I already talked to him” Tommy said opening his hands at the direction Mr. Smith had gone.
“We still have the principal” Steve proposed and seeing the arguments his friends were about to throw at him, he continued “I know, I know, he won’t listen to us, but he would listen to money.”
Money had become less of a problem as they grow up, with their parents raising socially and economically and not caring about their children, they had access to it. Soon they had found it could buy the way to many things (they mostly learnt that after a cop worried enough about Steve after seeing his injuries and started a trial, it didn’t last long after his dad’s money intervention and he even got the cop transferred to another city).
“We’re not only buying my exam, but an apology” Tommy agreed, the rage on his eyes shining brighter than ever.
As they guessed, it wasn’t difficult to get Tommy a good grade and an apology from the teacher who lost his bored look for a despiteful one.
“Aren’t we going to try to capture more children?” The cop asked his partner after he got Steve Harrington cuffed on his car.
“Nah, he’s the one organizing the party, it is enough to teach the others a lesson, and it is less work for all of us” His partner responded.
“I’m not sure it would teach them anything” The first cop said starting the car “But at least this one would learn something after spending the night on a cell” His partner laughed at him.
“Do you know who we have in the back?” He asked with a wheeze, his partner shook his head. “It’s Harrington’s child” He said as it explained everything.
“Oh, that’s why he looked familiar.”
“You know, the kid is garbage, just like his dad.” Steve who was listening spent the whole night at the cell flipping the bird at the cop. A couple days later the windows of his house had been smashed by rocks.
After the big fight with Tommy and Carol things changed for Steve, it was easily noticeable for everyone that they weren’t looking for his back anymore, and Steve wasn’t excuse of the bad reputation of his family, the people that studied with them had heard shit about Steve from their parents as they grew up, but in high school no one did anything to him because he organized the best parties and got along with the most popular guy at school, when he got rejected by them the school took some sharp tints it hadn’t had since the beginning of middle school.
However Steve barely notice, too shocked by the notice of the upside down and the government experiments, the harsh words and occasionally bumps and fist from the people faded away; or at least it was what he told himself, because it was true that he was feeling numb enough to not care about the changes on his surroundings, but it wasn’t because of the recent evets, the truth is that he missed his friends, his existence seemed lonely and meaningless without them, losing them meant losing a part of himself.
He convinced himself he had done the right decision at cutting all relation with Tommy and Carol, that they were mean people, bad influence, assholes that acted like they superior to anyone and that he didn’t want to be like that anymore, but even with Nancy on his side the void never quite disappeared.
It was until a year later, after the upside down hit again and he had the worst night of his life that ended up with him going back home after being hit by Billy and guiding the children through the tunnels that he spoke with his friends again, not because he had reach them, but because they had entered his house with a tiny medical kit, ready to heal him.
“What are you doing here?” Steve asked when he saw them from his couch where he had collapsed exhausted.
“Billy told everyone how he won a fight against you, we were worried” Carol said not looking at him in the eyes, instead focusing on cleaning his wounds.
“What did you do to make him this upset?” Tommy asked while putting an unguent around his eye.
“He’s just a psychopath” Steve mumbled, he felt like floating, he spent all the last year missing this, missing his friends, now that they were with him he could finally feel the warm on his heart again, the love he couldn’t feel somewhere else, and he regretted his decision, he had done to them exactly what everyone else outside did, judge them because of a superficial look, he had trusted the words from outsiders instead of the experience he had from being his whole life with them “I’m sorry” He forced his words though his damage throat, Carol and Tommy stopped working on him for a second and shared a look, then continued as nothing had happened.
“We know” Carol whispered.
Steve looked at the ruins of Hawkins, whenever he had nightmares of the city being destroyed it was usually provoked by the upside down, sometimes by the government, but he had never imagined Russians in the equation.
When Robin and he had escaped the Russian base and Hopper had arrived with an army he thought everything was going to get better, especially after Jane closed the door.
He couldn’t say when the Russians surrounded Hawkins, all he remembered was being taken out of Starcourt by soldiers who he thought were American, it was until they started to talk, he realized they were being held by the enemy.
Outside the mall he saw Hopper hopeless face, and he knew something was terribly wrong when they let all the gang stay together and even talk.
“Okay guys, the plan failed. What do we do next?” Dustin asked looking at the adults.
“It’s over” Joyce’s voice broke all the hopes of the younger ones who looked at her horrified, Steve had never seen that woman give up, not against the government, or monsters, another dimension, and fake clues, not against anything, she had done beyond the possible to maintain her family safe, and she was giving up, like it was nothing.
“There must be something we can do” Steve sentenced, his words came out of desperation before he could even think, the sad look Hopper gave him only increased the void on his chest.
“Kid-” Hopper whispered, not sure what to say. How to tell them it was the end? How to betray all their hope?
“We can get you out of here” Nancy jumped, not used to stay still “You go and contact the government and tell them there are more Russians than you originally thought, ask for support” She spoke manically, tears holding on to her eyes.
“It is not-”
“It is not what!?” Nancy asked filling the panic taking over her.
“I already did that” Hopper finally said, if they were to die at least they had to know they had tried all their options “I communicated with the government earlier, the Russians had Hawkins surrounded, ready to eliminate the city, they tried to use it to negotiate it for the investigations of the gate. The government decided the best option was losing a small town.”
“They’re not coming” Steve whispered, eyes wide open, he couldn’t say he was shocked by the actions taken but it was still a confirmation of his death sentence.
“They are” Hopper said “After the city is eliminated, to take down the Russians” If the other sentence was devastating this one made the younger teenagers cry.
“We still can fight” Mike said, but he wasn’t believing what he said. No one needed to say it wasn’t going to work. “El?” He turned to the girl who was folded with her arms wrapping her legs pressed on her chest.
“I can’t” She whispered. She couldn’t even move at that point.
“I know, I’m sorry” Mike replied, he didn’t want to make El feel guilty about their last moments.
Steve thought of the people he cared about, besides the group that was here, he only loved Carol and Tommy, which were out of town, looking for universities, he didn’t have anyone else to worry about, and at least they would be safe.
Looking at the group he decided that it wasn’t such a bad way to die, of course, he wouldn’t say that to them, but he still slid down on the floor, looking at the stars waiting for the moment the Russians decided to shoot, or blew a bomb or whatever they were going to do to kill everyone.
A few hours flew by, the group had discussed different plans to save Hawkins, hugged, cried, said their last goodbyes, remember the good things that happened to them, complained about the simple things, and basically gone through a rollercoaster of emotions that came with the announcement of an unavoidable death.
They were silent when the guard’s started moving, the group looked at them, not sure of what to do, but they weren’t given a second look and soon the parking lot of Starcourt was empty.
“It’s going to be remote” Jonathan realized, and everyone’s head turned at him “They can’t risk losing all their army before fighting with the Americans so they’re exploding the town or something, but it has to be remote.”
“If we can find the mechanism, we can stop them” Lucas complemented.
“We have no time” Hopper stood up “But it’s that or die without doing anything, let’s do it.” And just like that the team Steve knew, the unstoppable ones were back again, the youngers and Murray used a map to mark all the possible locations, all of them were out of town, but they agreed to divide to get to all of them.
Steve’s team was formed by Max and Murray, they had to go through town, and they saw multiple corpses that he could only assume were from people who resisted or tried to leave town before the Russians left, just in case the three of them sneaked around the town.
Seeing how well protected the little installation was, Steve had a feeling they had reached the right one.
Entering the base had taken them almost an hour, Max had learned how to use a gun after her first encounter with the upside down, but she was still a little girl unable to defend herself in combat, and Murray was more a weight than helpful at that area, however, he knew the design of the abandoned fabric.
Walking behind Steve were Murray and Max, trying to reach the control room Steve heard a mild groan from the kid, when he turned, she saw her falling unconscious, a guard had tried to suffocate and adult, but Max was still short and he had hit her on her head, not wasting a second Murray shot him.
“go, go!” Steve shouted carrying Max’s unconscious body to the control room, shouting it behind them. When he turned back to see Murray, he was already reading all the controls, the peak he got let him know it was Russian “Turn it off now!”
“I’m trying! It’s not that easy to decipher this thing! Murray exclaimed, Steve had let Max on the floor, focused on blocking the door with the objects around him and his own body.
“Hurry up!” Steve groaned feeling the pressure the soldiers were applying to open the door.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you know Russian? No right? Then shut up and let me do my job!” Murray complained again and Steve groaned louder. A few seconds passed with none of them talking “Is this one” Murray exclaimed trying to pull a rusty lever. “Hey! Athlete boy!” Murray caught his attention “I might need some help pulling this lever.”
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Steve groaned with his teeth grounding because of the effort of maintaining the door close “If I leave here, They will enter before we can do something.”
“Let’s switch places!” Murray exclaimed leaning all his weight against the door.
“Murray-” Steve tried to argue.
“Now boy! That thing has less than a minute to activate” He rushed Steve and he finally let the side to grab Max and put her next to the controls.
“This one?”
“Yes, just pull it!” Murray hurried again. Steve saw the chronometer next to the lever, only twenty seconds left. He pulled it feeling the resistance the oxidation gave it, but he kept pulling, he could see how, slowly it kept going down.
Infront of him there was a tiny window that let him see Hawkins at the distance, as he pulled the lever he thought about the city, his only nice memories were with Carol and Tommy, and if he think it through most of them were the children comforting each other, the city had gave them nothing and had took their sparkle many times, the town hated him and he had confirmed it many times whenever adults and people his age took advantage of him whenever he could, using the excuse they were his boss, or teacher, or superiors, elders, anything they could use, and Steve had stupidly fought to protect it, he had risk his life many times to keep the upside down away.
He doubted, he stopped pulling the lever for a second, Murray who was watching him notice that and widened his eyes, the surprise made him lost his hold on the door and the next second it was opening, Steve didn’t waste a second and grabbing Max he ran down the emergency leader, he heard a shot and as he reached the down level Murray body clogged the leader, Murray’s dead face decorated with a hole on his forehead still looked surprised, he didn’t even had enough time to feel betrayed.
The kid took Max out of there and when she gained consciousness she looked into Steve’s eyes, silently asking for the result, he lied to her, not with words, but by showing sadness he wasn’t feeling on his eyes.
A few days later Steve was meeting Carol and Tommy in Michigan, the rest of the group had decided to stay together in a city nearby and the news of the destruction of Hawkins were already circulating, but as he saw his friends waiting for him at the airport, he could only count the seconds it would take him to reach them and hold them in a hug. Answer: 20 seconds.