November 4th, 1984

The Old Junkyard

"All right, losers. On to the bus." Steve stated as the five of us stood in front of the old broken down bus that now looked like it was from the apocalypse.

Max and Lucas made their way onto the bus first, followed Steve and me.

Once on the bus, I turned around to close the doors only to find Dustin still standing in the entrance, looking around the junkyard. "Dustin, what's wrong?" I asked, lightly tugging on his shoulder.

"Nothing, I just wish it didn't have to be like this." He mumbled and finally stepped onto the bus completely. "But, it's better that we find Dart than anyone else." He finished and sat in one of the rows of seats.

Nodding, I flipped the lever to close the door, submerging the bus into darkness, the only light now coming through the opened fire escape.

"So, what now?" Lucas asked awkwardly as he took a seat next to a bored-looking Max. "We wait." Steve stated, pulling out his lighter.

"For what, exactly?" Max asked with a roll of her eyes. "For a sign. I don't know." Steve groaned and shrugged his shoulders before flicking the lighter on.

"So, this thing that we're waiting for is Dustin's pet?" She asked looking between Dustin, Lucas, and I.

"He isn't a pet, he's a monster." Lucas stated, making his way towards the ladder, causing Dustin to jump up slightly in his seat. "But we don't know that completely."

"Dustin, he ate a cat and is from the Upside Down. I think we can classify him as a monster." I stated while Steve closed his lighter, cutting off the flame before flicking it open again.

"So you really fought one of these things before?" Max asked Steve.

Nodding, he lit the lighter again before snapping it shut. "And you're like, totally, 100% sure it wasn't a bear." She continued causing Steve to look up at her annoyed.

"Shit. Don't be an idiot. Okay? It wasn't a bear." Dustin groaned, standing up from his seat to pace around the walkway.

"Dustin." I groaned as Max glared at him. "No. Why are you even here if you don't believe us?" He continued, now glaring down at Max. "Just go home." He finished, shrugging her off and standing next to Steve.

"Geesh. Someone's cranky. Past your bedtime?" Max snarked back at him. Getting up from her spot and making her way up the ladder to join Lucas on the roof.

"That's good. Just show her you don't care." Steve smirked over at Dustin, who continued his pacing once Max was out of sight. "Steve, I don't think that's how it works."

"I don't." Dustin mumbled, stopping in front of the two of us. Smirking, Steve threw him a wink and flicked his lighter back on. "No, Steve. Don't do that. Stop winking." Dustin groaned and went back to pacing, this time further away from us.

Grinning over at me, Steve closed his lighter again. "Are you planning on doing that the entire time?" I asked, looking over at the lighter in his hand as he flicked it back open.

"Got a problem?" He grinned down at me, sparking the lighter again. "No. But, we might if you use up all the lighting fluid." I state, closing the lighter for him.

"If this thing shows up, that is." Steve stated, flicking the cap back off. "Promise me that if it shows up, you won't do anything stupid." I asked, the fear slowly setting in that Dart would show up and our plan could completely fail.

"Stupid? Never. Though, reckless. Perhaps." He tried to joke though I continued to stare up at him seriously. "Hey, it's gonna be fine. Okay?"

"Just, promise me. Please." I whispered slightly, holding up my pinkie. "Promise." He whispered back, pulling my pinkie into his.

"Gross." Dustin rolled his eyes at us before the sound of a screeching growl broke through the air outside. Jumping from our seats. Dustin, Steve, and I pulled a piece of metal to the side to look for any signs of Dart.

"Do you see him?" I whispered, finding that Dart could easily hide in the thick fog that covered the floor and surrounded the forest.

"No." Steve whispered back. "Lucas, what's going on?" Dustin yelled up to Lucas and Max on the roof.

"Hold on!" Lucas responded, pausing to look for Dart in the clearing.

"I've got eyes! Ten o'clock!" Lucas yelled. Running to the other side of the bus, I pulled another piece of metal out of the way to find Dart standing at the edge of the forest. "Ten o'clock!" Lucas yelled again.

"Guys, over here." I yelled as the boys made their way over. "What's he doing?" Steve asked, looking down at Dustin.

"I don't know?" Dart stayed standing at the edge of the clearing, looking down at the path of meat that we had left behind. "He's not taking the bait? Why is he not taking the bait?" I asked the both of them confused.

"Maybe he's not hungry?" Dustin thought aloud though by Steve slowly backing away, we could tell he understood what was wrong.

"Maybe he's sick of cow." He stated and continued to back away from us before bending down to pick up his bat. "Steve?" I called but he continued walking.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Dustin followed after him. "Steve, please don't do what I think you're going to." I pleaded only for him to grab my hand, placing his lighter in my palm.

"Trust me. Get ready." He stated before walking to the front and pulling the lever to open the doors.

Once Steve had made it outside, I slowly pulled the lever to seal the door back up. "What's he doing?" Max asked as she made her way down the ladder to join Dustin and me as we watched Steve call out to Dart.

"Expanding the menu." Dustin stated causing me to roll my eyes. "He's insane." Max whispered more to herself than us but Dustin disagreed, "He's awesome."

"Come here, buddy. I promise human tastes better than cat." Steve called out to Dart as the creature slowly started to inch its way towards him.

The swing of Steve's bat slowly came to a stop, his hands clenched the handle tighter as he slowly raised it. "Steve, watch out!" Lucas yelled from the top, pulling my attention away from Dart.

"Three o'clock! Three o'clock!" Lucas yelled again causing me to rush to the other side of the bus to see what he was talking about.

Pulling aside the metal scraps, coming out of the fog was two more creatures resembling Dart. "Shit! Lucas get down here!" I screamed, running away from the window and towards the front of the bus.

"Steve, run!" I yelled, pulling open the lever while Dustin ran towards the door as well. "Abort! Abort!"

Now facing three of the creatures Steve turned to run only for them to follow his lead.

Swing his bat, Steve knocked down two creatures and ducked behind an abandoned car to avoid another one's claws.

"Steve! Hurry!" "Run! Steve!" Max and Lucas joined in on calling Steve, jumping from his spot, Steve ran towards us with another creature following close behind.

"Out of the way!" I yelled once Steve was close enough to jump through the door, landing on his back as I slammed the lever down to block out the creature.

Though that didn't stop it from banging against the doors, a claw scratching straight through the metal.

Pulling a scrap off one of the walls, Steve pushed it against the door to stop it from pulling the metal off more.

"Are they rapid or something?" Max yelled over the growls, asking as if the monster was some sort of dog. "They can't get in! They can't!" Lucas yelled back.

Grabbing a metal rod from off the wall, the bus tilted onto its side as the creatures pulled off one of the bus's tires, followed by the sound of metal tearing as the creature at the door stuck its claw through the piece of metal that Steve was still holding in front of the door.

"Get to the back!" I yelled while Steve jumped away from the bus doors and instead swung his bat down onto the monster's arm.

Pushing the kids to the back of the bus, Max and Lucas ducked behind a seat while Dustin grabbed the Walkie out of his bag. "Is anyone there? Mike? Will? God! Anyone!" Dustin screamed into the mic just as a claw pierced through the metal behind Max and Lucas.

Slamming the metal rod at the wall, the monster pulled its claw away from the bus. "We're at the old junkyard, and we are going to die!" Dustin continued, while I pulled Lucas and Max towards me.

Turning to look at Steve, I found that he was successfully keeping the creature at the door away, though the sound of something climbing on the side of the bus grabbed our attention.

"Shit." I mumbled, raising the metal in my hand as slowly the monster came into view in the fire escape.

The high-pitched screech of the monster was barely cut off as I tried to pierce it with the metal, only for the creature to rip the weapon out of my hands.

"Out of the way! Out of the way! You want some? Come get this!" Steve yelled as he pushed me out of the way of the fire escape, swinging the bat wildly up at the creature.

The sound of the monster screeching met our ears again, only this time it seemed to be looking off at something in the distance.

With another screech, the creature jumped off of the roof, followed by the sound of the other monsters fleeing the junkyard as well.

"What happened?" Lucas whispered as the five of us slowly made our way towards the front of the bus. "Are they gone?" Max asked as I slowly opened the bus door to find that the junkyard was clear.

"Steve scared them off?" Dustin thought aloud, only for Steve to shake his head in disagreement. "No. No way. They're going somewhere." He stated, placing his bat over his shoulder.

"Well, what do we do now?" Lucas asked as we all exited the bus, pulling out our flashlights from our bags to look for any remaining monsters in the forest.

"We follow it." Steve stated calmly and started making his way towards the tree lining that one of the creatures had gone through. "No, no way." I stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"We have no weapons and no protection. If those things decide to lose interest in whatever it is that they followed, we'll be screwed." I tried but he shook his head. "We'll be fine. They're probably too far ahead to even notice us."

"Can we just go back to my place to make an actual plan?" I finally got him to take a second to think about what he was doing.

Looking over at the kids, he slowly nodded. "Fine." He rolled his eyes but made his way back to the group. "We take the tracks back to my car, and we'll get them later."