We arrived not too long ago at the Junkyard. I took a step down for a moment to rest which the two boys allowed. I looked out to the hill for a bit, noticing the old cars and the big bus. Steve wants us to help and move things around so if Lucas comes around, I'll probably start being a bigger help when he shows up.

"I said medium-well!"

A voice shouts from the top of the hill. I look over and see Lucas! Max too. My eyes widen and I grin, Max waves happily.

"Who's that?" Steve asks.

Dustin hesitates as the two walk in our direction. He doesn't answer and Steve gets me and Max to help out. Dustin gets Lucas behind a red car.

"At least I know someone here..." She sighs.

"You know Dustin and Lucas." I shrug.

"Let me rephrase that. At least I'm not the only girl here."

I chuckle at her statement and she smiles as she yeets a box down.

Max grunts and I help her move the yellow thing she carries. "What do you think they're talking about?" She groans.

"Probably shouldn't ask. You never know. They could be listening to us." I shrug.

We both end up flipping our heads back. Dustin and Lucas quickly duck down behind the car again. Max rolls her eyes. "How convenient."

Steve suddenly bangs a chair against the back of the car and I shift my eyes to look. Max does the same.

"Hey, Dickheads! How come the only one helping me out is Y/N and this random girl? We lose light in fourty minutes. Let's go!"

Lucas and Dustin look over toward us silently, as if not hearing Steve properly.

"Let's go I said!"

"All right! Asshole! God!"

"Okay, stupid!"

Me and Max both giggle to ourselves. "Boys."

We laugh again before continuing with work. Me, Steve, Max, Lucas & Dustin put scrap parts off to the side and clean the place up a bit more. It's tiring, but we got no other choices. We also put things inside the bus and push barrels of gasoline.

Steve pours gasoline on the meat pile and leads it off where he has the distance to light a match. Once we're done, we all step into the bus one by one. I step in last, looking behind me.

"Come on, Y/N."

I face my head forward again and Steve lends his hand to me. I politely take it and he helps me in the bus. The doors shut and now...we have our shield base.

* * *

"See anything Lucas?" I whisper asks.

He gets up through the top and sits on the tires, using his binoculars to look around. "Nothing yet, but a lot of fog."

I sigh and sit down by Steve. He clicks his lighter boredly, before looking down at me. Lovingly. His eyes want to tell me something. But we've got the other kids here. I bite my lip and look away.

Dammit...I should've listened to what he wanted to say before.

"So you really fought one of these things before?" Max asks Steve with her arms crossed.

He nods silently, before going down to look at me again.

Does he...love me?

"And you're, like, totally, one hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"

"Shit. Don't be an idiot. Okay? It wasn't a bear." Dustin remarks rudely. My eyes widen and Steve looks up at him. Dustin turns to her. "Why are you even here if you don't believe us?"

"Y/N's here!" Max pouts.

"Yeah, because she actually knows about it before you did or believed it!"

A silence falls upon the room. "Just go home."

"Geesh, someone's cranky. Past your bedtime?" Max gets up from her seat, arms still crossed. She goes up the ladder to join Lucas, leaving me, Steve and Dustin alone.

"That's good. Just show her you don't care."

I glare at Steve before moving away from him. He gives me a look of shock before leaning his head back again.

"I don't."

"Even if you don't Dustin. That was still a little rude." I sigh. His eyes soften for a moment, before he goes back to pacing.

Steve winks and I raise my eyebrows.

"Why are you winking, Steve? Stop."

Steve goes back to flicking his lights and I sit back on the sofa. Dustin turns to me.

"Mike didn't tell us the whole story about how you know about the Upside Down. But is five a person you used to know because Mike said that five didn't make it."

"He didn't live."

Steve stops flicking the light and turns to me. "He?"

"It was year in the past okay? I was much younger, and it was before Eleven!"

I sigh, lowering my head into my hands. "With every flashback I have, it gets even closer to the traumatizing moments of those horrible memories. There's Five who used to be a boy named Finley."

Dustin sits silently, listening. "And then there was a young woman."

I lift my head up, staring at Steve. Then Dustin.

"She was 001."

* * *

Max's POV

"It's kinda awesome."

"Huh?" Lucas turns to me.

Lucas is sweet. He's a bit rough and brave too, but he's sweet. I can tell he's listening and being nice at that. Like now.

"The fog, I mean."

He hesitates, and looks out to the fog, lowering his binoculars. "Looks like the ocean."

"You miss it?" He turns to me.

"What?" I ask confused.

"The ocean. The waves? California?"

Oh.

I shrug and look away.

"Hawkins seems pretty lame, I bet." He chuckles.

"No, no, no, it's not that. It's just..." I trail off and he frowns. I take in a sharp breath.

"My dad's still there. They were okay with having Billy, but Y/N wasn't wanted by my dad in the beginning of the family and was spent to live with my mother's grandparents for a while."

"Why?" He asks softly.

"It's this legal term called divorce. That's why he's there."

Lucas nods shutting his eyes.

"See, when two married people don't love each other anymore-"

"Yeah." He looks out into the fog.

"My mom and my stepdad...they brought Y/N back to California once they heard she got traumatized by something down here in Hawkins. Many years went by and I got to know her... But the two of them still wanted a fresh start away from my dad. As if...As if he was the problem, which is total bull. Y/N believed it was bull as well and stood by me for it, but it still didn't convince them."

Lucas stays silent as he sits up, silently listening. "And things...are just worse now. My stepbrother's always been a dick, but now he's just angry...all the time and..."

I take in a sharp breath and look away. "Well, he can't take it out on my mom so..."

"So he takes it out on you?" Lucas asks softly.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you this. Both of us. Me and her. Especially when Y/N was still recently in California, she had a rough time dealing with Billy. And she said she made two friends in Hawkins so she met this guy by a dock and he would drive across the sea from California to Indiana every weekend. It was risky for him to do that for her, maybe even illegal but she always came back horrible and emotional so we could calm her down during the week. She would never, tell me what's wrong. She keeps a lot to herself, and the three of us...Me, Billy, her...We can all be angry and emotional even if we don't mean it."

Lucas' eyes soften as he focuses on my story. "It's just...I know that I can be a jerk like Billy sometimes, and I do not want to be like him. Neither does Y/N. Ever."

Lucas seems speechless. He wants to say something. But can't.

"I guess I'm angry too, and...I'm sorry."

Lucas stays silent and I feel my cheeks burning up. It's getting too warm out here, maybe...I don't know. I feel my heart pound, my mind wild. I sigh and look around.

"Jesus, what's wrong with me?" I ask aloud.

"Hey." Lucas suddenly sits up and gets a bit close to me. "You're nothing like your brother, okay?"

I give him a confused look. "You're cool and different. And you're super smart." He tells me. It's weird to hear that, but it's nice. So it puts a smile on my face.

"And you're, like, totally tubular."

I chuckle happily and Lucas grins.

"Nobody actually says that, you know." I tell him.

"Well, I do now."

"And it makes you seem really cool." I nod.

He tilts his head slightly, and he smiles. "I like talking with you, Mad Max."

I hesitate with the name he gave me. It warms my heart. Lucas is cool.

"And I like talking with you, stalker."

He opens his mouth to say something but there's suddenly growling in the distance which makes my head turn. I hear rustling downstairs so I guess Y/N, Dustin and Steve heard it too.

Oh boy.

Y/N's POV

All three of us look out the window, Steve told me to stay back but I didn't listen. I needed to see this too! Unfortunately, there's nothing but fog.

"You see him?"

"No."

"Lucas, what's going on?" I call up.

"Hold on!" He shouts.

"I've got eyes!" He suddenly shouts again.

"Ten o'clock! Ten o'clock!" He stutters.

"There." Steve points, tapping the glass slightly.

"What's he doing?" I ask hesitantly.

"I don't know." Dustin shivers.

"He's not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?" Steve asks in a hushed tone.

"Maybe he's not hungry?" I suggest.

Steve stares silently for a moment, his eyes dead serious. A tense feeling washes over the bus. "Maybe he's sick of cow."

Steve backs up from the window and I give him a weird look. "What are you doing Steve?"

He doesn't answer, silently looking between me and Dustin. There's a new look in his eyes.

A look to protect.

Not to protect me.

No, but everyone.

"Steve, Steve what are you doing? Steve?" Dustin asks but Steve doesn't answer. I watch as he grabs the bat with the nails and turns to the both of us.

He breathes heavily and says three words. "Just get ready." He holds something in his hand but I don't recognize it. He tosses it to Dustin and I quickly realize from the click sound when he catches it that it's the lighter.

My jaw drops and I cover it with my hand as he opens the door and steps out of the bus. Dustin notices my sudden look of mass fear and his eyes soften.

"Hey, hey. Steve's gonna be okay! Don't be scared, he'll be fine. He'll be okay."

I gulp harshly and nod my head. "He better fucking be okay." The words croak out dryly and Dustin's eyes widen.

"Wait a minute. Do...you like Steve?"

I look away silently. "When he's broken up with Nancy?"

"It's hard to explain. Don't ask, please Dustin." I beg. He nods silently and we both go to the window to watch Steve cautiously. I need to do something. Something I've never had the guts to do since I left the Upside Down but Steve! He can't die!

I don't want him to die!

Steve whistle's in the outside as I look around for something I can use. "Y/N, what are you doing?" He asks me.

"I don't know. Don't ask questions." I whisper.

I don't have powers like Finley. But I do have the mentality to do something else.

Steve sways the bat from left to right, taking steps closer toward wherever he's going.

"What's he doing?" Max asks climbing down the ladder.

"Expanding the menu." Dustin answers looking out the window. Max looks at me as I fumble around with some metal sheets we brought into the bus.

"What are you doing?" Max asks me.

"He's insane."

"He's awesome."

Max and Dustin drift their focus from me and to the window to watch Steve.

Use your brain, don't be dumb. Do something smart.

A click comes from what used to be a metal sheet which is now shaped and bent into a weird looking ax. Max and Dustin stare down at me as I lower it to the ground. I shut my eyes.

My memory darts around the Upside Down and I flinch.

"Y/N?"

I don't have powers like Finley...but I got one inhumane skill.

The two of them watch in shock as the metal smoothens out and changes color. The blade of what would be the ax turns red and the thinned out handle goes brown. When I look back up, the two are in pure shock. Max's eyes are wide with pure shock and seemingly betrayal.

I wipe my nose and my wrist reveals a number.