Chapter Text
July 22, 1988
The sun sets on a lonely town. Only one streetlight in the middle of the street flickers to life, highlighting the fog that rests on the bitumen. The only noise to be heard is the light wind blowing pebbles onto the road. There are no cars, no people, nothing. A fire rages on in the distance, leaving the smell of smoke in the air.
Sounds of footsteps and dripping fill the streets as a strange man emits from the shadows. Feet drag along the pavement, kicking more pebbles onto the road. The man is hunched over, clutching as his stomach and holding onto the parts of the buildings beside him that can hold him up. As he gets closer to the streetlight, it hums to a brighter glow. Every step he takes with his right foot, he drags his left. Every step he takes, the streetlight gets brighter. Brighter. Brighter.
The footsteps slow down in the middle of the street, the light gets to a blinding high before the bulb cracks, making it as dark as the past. The man tries to take another step but falls to the ground. He picks himself up by his hands, resting his back against a store. His arm lifts off his stomach, releasing some blood as he breathes in.
He lets out a pained noise, his breath becoming faster and more ragged. He composes himself by humming a tune, an eerie feeling is left in the atmosphere. After his breathing slows down, he lifts his head to look at his surroundings. There's nothing useful here, no place where he can attend to his wounds.
A noise can be heard from the distance, at first it sounds like a scream, human, but then it evolves into a deep growl that sends vibrations through the ground. The man leaps up onto his feet, letting out a strangled noise from the pain. He moves to get inside the building he was leaning on, but the door was locked. He looked around in a panic before turning to the side and slamming his body into the door repeatedly until it crashed open.
He rushed inside, slamming the door behind him. He takes a deep breath before looking around, only now does he realise that it's the radio shack. A wave of relief passes over him as he spots the phones. He runs waddles over and opens up a box with as much force as he can muster. He carries the phone over to an outlet and slides down the wall until he's sitting comfortably on the ground.
He plugs the phone in and starts to dial a number, having to restart mid-way due to a mistake. Finally, he enters the last number and holds it up to his ear as it rings. He closes his eyes tight and softly prays that someone will pick up.
"Hello?" a voice connects on the line, "who is this?"
"Robin! Thank God- I'm really hurt, I'm in the radio shack in town- please help!"
"Hello?" Robins voice crackly calls out from the other end.
"Robin! Can you hear me? Robin!"... a deep ringing emits from the phone. She hung up. The man places down the phone as his eyes well up with tears. This is it. He's going to die... alone... in a radio shack. He did not come this far, fight this hard to die selfishly.
"Will! Will, where are you! Will!"
July 15
"Will! Wake up, will!" Lucas' voice breaks through Will's head, cutting his dream short.
"Ow, what the hell, Lucas?"
"Oh, good. We have that meeting, remember?"
He did not remember but nodded his head anyway. Will closes his eyes again, trying to clear the headache forming above his eyebrows, he can hear footsteps heading up the basement stairs and whispering from the kitchen. Will sits up on the couch and plants his feet on the ground. He takes a deep breath, catching the smells of burnt toast and egg. He opens his eyes wearily before adjusting to the light and looking at his surroundings. He's in Mike's basement; they all had a sleepover last night and he must've fell asleep on the couch. There are scattered pillows on the ground, the VCR is still humming as the screen is paused on the credits- 'Director... Ivan Reitman'.
Dustin, Lucas and Mike are talking in the kitchen with hushed voices, there's a loud sigh before someone starts heading down the basement stairs. Will stands up, gaining his balance by holding onto the couch's arm rest. Dustin stomps on every step until he reaches the ground, muttering under his breath and playing with his walkie.
"Hey Dustin, what's up?"
"Oh hey- my stupid walkie is playing up- son of a bitch!" He sighs cartoonishly before dramatically throwing his walkie on the couch which elicits a small chuckle from Will,
"What's wrong with it?"
"Well, it's usual reach is basically half of Hawkins but now it's from here to the garage"
"Wow..." they've had their technology play up before (because of the upside down and all that) but never something like this, "are you gonna get another one or... try to fix this one"
Dustin replies through his teeth, "Well, I've been trying for the past hour and still no progress so probably-" he shrugs and throws his hands in the air, clearly annoyed.
"Huh- oh, what did Lucas mean by 'the meeting'"
"You don't remember?"
"No, Is it important?"
"Eh- not really, but Nancy is really gettin' on everyone's back about coming, so..."
In all the other meetings, Will was the focus. Whether he had a presentation on the tunnels or everyone was worried that he was a target for the mind flayer still, Will was always the focus. He's glad that other people have been taking the leadership role, he wasn't made to be leader, the stress it caused wasn't worth it.
Dustin turns off the television, picks up his walkie and walks back up the stairs. Will can see through the doorway Dustin placing his walkie back in his backpack and zipping it up. Will heads into the basement bathroom to brush his teeth and fix his bed head. The bathroom light buzzes and leaves a hospital feel in the room, it's uncomfortable but bearable.
Upstairs, Lucas and Dustin are eating breakfast while Mike paces in front of the fridge nervously. Will ascends up the stairs, still wiping sleep from his eye. Dustin keeps his eye on his food, scooping eggs into his mouth, Lucas looks up for a second but returns to his toast. Mike stops pacing and looks toward Will.
"Hey will-" Mike says softly as he steps toward him, "did you sleep alright?"
"Yeah" a bit of a lie but not fully... so it doesn't count, right?
"No nightmares?"
"No nightmares" Will repeats back to him. Lucas looks back up from his plate. ‘Nightmares’, that word sends a shiver down his spine. Everyone knew that Vecna already got his four chimes, so it isn't because of that but it still scares people. Lucas stops thinking about Vecna and… Max and starts paying attention to Mike and Will who've been acting... weird.
Mike and Will have always been closer than the other boys, because they've been friends for longer, right? That's the reason, definitely. Lately, Lucas has been noticing Mike being more panicked around Will, but not in the way everyone else has been. Will has been really stressed lately, and he's been snapping at people so a lot of them are a bit panicky talking to him.
Dustin slams his fork down on the plate and exclaims "shit, we're going to be so late!"
Everyone looks down at their watches and starts rushing to collect all their stuff and head to the radio station. Summer used to be hot in Hawkins, everyone would wear shorts and shirts and cool off at the pool but now it's cold. Everyone puts on their jackets and gets on their bikes. Before they head off to the station, Dustin proposes something.
"Hey, what if we have a race?"
"What?" everyone says in unison.
"Y'know how we used to race and stuff, we should do that again!" he looks happy, he hasn't really looked like that since Eddie.
"That's too dangerous" Mike says, everyone knows that he means well but his tone is still edgy.
"C'mon, it'll be fun!" Dustin starts to beg like a child. The other three look at each other with indifference before Mike turns back to Dustin.
"...Fine" he mutters. Dustin almost falls over in his celebration. He starts peddling faster than he ever has before to get a head start... 'cheater' they all think.
It’s a long ride to the radio station. Half-way through, Dustin’s fast start catches up to him and his leg starts to cramp, letting Lucas get ahead. Mike isn’t actually trying to win so he’s in the back, While Will is catching up to Lucas.
They near the radio station and all drop their bikes at the entrance in this order: Lucas, Will, Mike then Dustin.
“How did I lose!” Dustin whines.
“Cuz I’m the best?” Lucas jokingly replies.
Dustin rolls his eyes and opens the door, chivalrously letting everyone else in before him then walking inside. Everyone is waiting inside, they all turn when the door opens… wow, guess they were really late.
Nancy steps forward to face them all, “Where have you been?”.
“Nancy, I’m so sorry we were late”
“Sorry, we got caught up in something”
“Home?”
Dustin, Lucas and Mike say respectively in unison, Will stays silent. Nancy scoffs and moves back to the ‘lounge room’ where everyone except Hopper and El sit, they’re hiding somewhere from the military. Will walks over to Robin and sits next to her on the floor, they both share a small smile on their faces. The other three boys sit down on the couch.
“Okay, now that we’re all here-“ Nancy starts, shooting a glare at the three boys on the couch, “we can begin”.
The meeting goes on for what feels like years until Nancy sighs deeply and claps her hands together.
“So… is everyone cool with the plan?”
Everyone nods their heads, Robin does it with way too much enthusiasm and almost snaps her neck off, which makes Will laugh a bit.
“Okay, good. Plan commences tomorrow!”
Tomorrow…