Chapter Text
Eddie opened his eyes, startled awake by loud rumbling of thunder. Red lightning flashed across the sky above him, dark clouds twirling. He used his right arm to push himself up, getting his feet under him with some difficulty. He was aching all over.
He looked down at himself. His clothes were ripped and torn, completely covered in dried blood. One of his pant legs had been completely torn off below the knee. He took off the vest he had on and lifted his shirt up, looking at his stomach. There wasn’t even a scratch on him. He lowered the fabric, or what was left of it, back down and looked around, confused. He was in the upside down, standing right where he remembered himself dying, cradled in Dustin’s arms. The memory of Dustin’s crying face made him clench his jaw. He turned around and saw the gigantic gate that had torn right through his uncle’s trailer and continued on and on into the forest.
He walked over to the rift, carefully stepping over the squirming vines and tried to peek through it, but it was covered in glowing a flesh-like material. He looked around again, trying to think of what to do next. He saw the make-shift spear Erica had made for him lying on the ground and went to grab it. He tentatively approached the gate again and poked at it with the spear. The flesh gave way as he sliced at it, clearing an opening. He couldn’t see much else than the sky from here, but it didn’t look any different to the one he was standing under. A red flash illuminated the sky beyond the gate at the same time as he heard the rumbling of thunder above him.
He crouched down and pushed the spear though the opening, laying it down on the ground on the other side. Next he poked his head through, the shift in gravity making him dizzy for a moment, but he got both his arms through and pulled himself up, kicking his feet. He almost stood up but a scream in the distance made him stop. Someone was yelling for help.
He felt himself starting to freeze up with fear, but pushed it down. He didn’t want to be a coward anymore.
Determined, he took off running toward the voice, spear in hand, down the road toward town. He could feel his ripped clothing flowing around him. He glanced around and saw that most of the trailers were destroyed, roofs collapsed and overtaken by vines. Once he got closer to where he thought the scream had come from, he slowed to a jog. He passed by a few cars that had been abandoned by the road, doors wide open. He saw movement in the forest and hid behind one of the cars. He peeked over the hood and saw a humanoid monster standing just beyond the tree line. It was facing the other way, walking deeper into the forest. Eddie’s heart was pounding, eyes wide. What the fuck was that thing?
He waited until he couldn’t see it anymore, and then a while longer just to be sure before he stood up and quietly walked around the car and toward the tree line. He shuffled down into the ditch as he whispered: ’’Anybody there?’’ But there was no answer. He walked a bit further before he saw it. Bodies lying on the ground. Three of them right in front of him. A man almost at his feet, a woman a bit further on and a young girl with her dress torn and covered in blood. They were all missing their heads.
Eddie stumbled back, losing his balance, but he managed to scramble up to the road without dropping his spear.
Another scream rang out from the direction the monster had gone in. Eddie chose not to follow it. Instead he started following the road. He hoped he’d meet someone alive if he got to the town center. There must be people there, right?
To his horror he saw a familiar car crashed into telephone pole. It had been headed toward the trailer park. The car was crushed, the front wrapped around the pole. The driver’s side door was cracked open and the inside of the windshield and windows in the front were completely covered in blood that was slowly dripping onto the asphalt from the open door. Eddie walked past it, jaw clenched and hands gripping the spear, a tear flowing down his face. It was Wayne’s car, and he didn’t have to look any closer to know that he was dead. He didn’t want to see Wayne’s dead body, probably missing his head like those other people, so he just continued on walking. This must be hell, he thought.
He finally got to the town center after walking through empty neighborhoods and past more headless corpses. He’d had to sneak around, hiding behind houses from monsters and carefully stepping over the endless vines. He’d seen several of those big humanoid monsters, but also saw some that looked like large dogs. The big ones were always alone but the dogs travelled in pairs or in bigger packs. This was valuable information he’d need if he wanted to survive. That much he had learned from playing D&D.
There had seemingly been an earthquake or something. Several buildings were crumbling down and there were pieces of concrete and stone on the sidewalks. Most windows were either cracked or completely shattered. The stores looked like they had been looted. There was no one alive here, either. Everyone had probably ran or been evacuated. Or were one of the headless corpses lying around.
Eddie was passing by a grocery store when he heard gunshots coming from inside. He crouched down and looked around to see if any monsters were headed his way. He saw nothing, so he creeped up to the door and opened it. It jingled as it opened and he cursed in his head. There was a commotion in the back of the store and he could hear yelling and things falling, crashing. He threaded through the aisles of the large store until he could make out the voices.
’’Shoot it!’’ Dustin screamed.
’’I might hit Steve!’’ Nancy yelled back.
Eddie started running as he recognized the voices.
He got to the end of an aisle and saw Steve lying on his back about ten feet from him, one of those dog monsters was on top of him, trying to get at his face. It’s mouth was wide open, revealing sharp, bloodstained teeth. At the other end of the aisle stood Nancy, Robin and Dustin. They were too focused on the monster to notice him,. Nancy had her shotgun pointed at the thing, her face twisted in frustration. Beside her Dustin had a bottle with a rag stuffed into the neck of it and a lighter. Robin had a pistol she was aiming at the monster with, her hands shaking. None of their weapons could be used with Steve in the line of fire.
Eddie adjusted his grip on the handle of the spear and took a steadying breath. He sprinted toward the monster. He managed to catch it by surprise and put all his strength into stabbing the knife into its open mouth. The strength of the blow threw the monster off of Steve, but Eddie didn’t let up. He continued the motion until the thing was pinned to the floor, spear going through it’s skull, dead. Eddie staggered back, letting go of the spear, and tripped over his own legs, falling down on his ass on the floor next to Steve, who had managed to sit up and was now staring at Eddie in shock. Eddie took a few breaths as he scanned all their faces, equally shocked, Dustin maybe more so. He grinned widely.
’’Hi.’’
’’What the fuck?’’ Steve blurted out.
’’How-… But I thought…’’ Dustin was shaking his head slowly.
Nancy and Robin just stared with wide eyes.
Eddie licked at his cracked lips. ’’You guys okay?’’
Steve stood up, looking himself over. ’’Uh, yeah we’re okay... How are you alive?’’
Eddie pushed himself up. ’’I honestly have no fucking clue. I just… woke up, like maybe two hours ago.’’ He shrugged.
’’You must be hurt. Let me see.’’ Nancy handed the shotgun to Robin, who looked horrified to be holding two guns, and stood before Eddie expectantly. ’’Lift your shirt.’’ she said when he just stood there, doing nothing.
’’Right, yeah. Uhm, about that…’’ He lifted his shirt and turned slightly so all four of them could see. ’’I’m completely fine. Somehow.’’
’’What the hell?’’ Dustin came closer to inspect him. ’’But you were… torn to pieces. You had no pulse. You were dead!’’
Eddie dropped the hem of his shirt down and sighed. ’’You know as much as me, Henderson. And that’s fuck all. I’m just… alive.’’
Dustin looked him in the eyes. Eddie could see the pain and relief in them. Dustin pulled him into a tight hug, burying his face in his neck. ’’I thought we lost you.’’ he whispered.
Eddie huffed out a laugh and squeezed Dustin tight. ’’Can’t get rid of me that easily, apparently.’’ When they pulled apart Dustin wiped at his eyes and smiled. Eddie saw Steve and Nancy looking at each other, obviously a bit suspicious. Robin just stared at him.
’’I promise I’m not possessed or anything.’’ Eddie held up his hands in surrender for a few seconds before dropping them. ’’Anyway. What the hell happened to Hawkins?’’
Nancy grabbed her backpack off of the floor and put it on, with some difficulty. It seemed full and heavy. ’’That can wait until we get to the house.’’
Eddie extended his hand forward. ’’Want me to carry that? Looks heavy.’’
Nancy shook her head as she took the shotgun back from Robin. ’’I’ll manage. Let’s go.’’
Dustin, Robin and Steve got their own backpacks on and the group left the store. They were quiet the whole way back. The city center was full of bodies, and they had to step over several of them to avoid being seen by the monsters. Once they made it out of the immediate center, the others grabbed their bikes from where they’d left them leaning against trees just off the road.
’’Didn’t bring a bike for me, did you?’’ Eddie joked.
The others looked at each other and then at the bikes they had mounted. Steve’s was the only one that had a rack on it. Steve looked at it and then at Eddie.
’’Guess you’re riding with me. Here.’’ Steve took off his backpack and handed it to Eddie. ’’Hop on.’’
Eddie put the straps over his shoulders and got on, straddling the bike. The backpack was very heavy, so he held on to the front of the rack so he wouldn’t get pulled off by the weight of it. The ride was a bit wobbly at first but soon enough Eddie and Steve found their balance and off they went.
As they rode along abandoned roads, riding past vines, the four others recounted the events which had led to the circumstances they were dealing with now. They had successfully attacked Vecna, but he most likely wasn’t dead, only hurt, since they hadn’t seen the body. The gates had opened and caused an earthquake. The four of them had gotten out of the upside down after a bit of a struggle, only to emerge into full blown chaos: Demogorgons and Demodogs attacking people left and right, complete pandemonium. A lot of people had left in their cars, leaving their belongings behind. Steve, Nancy, Robin and Dustin had spent the first day trying to help people, but they couldn’t manage to save anyone. There was a silence after that statement. The Demo-monsters were everywhere that first day, but they seemed to spread out after a while.
’’There wasn’t anyone left to kill anymore…’’ Dustin said, jaw clenching. ’’I don’t know what happened to my mom… When I finally got home she was gone.’’
’’All our families are gone. Hopefully they made it out.’’ Nancy said.
Eddie thought about his uncle and the car he had seen. He breathed deeply, staring at Steve’s back.
The Wheelers’ house hadn’t been affected by the upside down much. It had a few vines creeping over it, but the neighborhood was pretty far from the gate and so its full power hadn’t reached there yet. Eddie could see the red lightning and hear the thunder, but above them were only dark clouds. Steve took the bag back from Eddie the moment they got off the bike. Eddie was impressed that Steve didn’t seem phased at all by the weight of it. Nancy unlocked the door and they went inside. The furniture was wonky, the TV laying on its face on the floor. The house was dark, the only light coming through the windows.
’’How long has it been?’’ Eddie asked. He sat at the dinner table and the others set their backpacks down in a pile next to it. Steve reached over to the camping lantern in the middle of the table and turned it on. The sudden brightness made Eddie flinch.
’’Three days.’’ Dustin answered. ’’You were gone for three days.’’ He sat down next to Eddie.
Eddie nodded, eyes unfocused, staring at the table in front of him. ’’Right.’’
’’I swear I thought you died. I never would have left you otherwise.’’ Dustin’s voice trembled.
Eddie looked up at him. ’’Hey, it’s okay. I thought I died too.’’ he chuckled.
Steve sat on his other side, can of spaghetti-o’s and a spoon in hand. Nancy gave him a look from where she was sat opposite him. She was stacking the cans from their haul on the table, counting them.
’’What?’’ he spoke said as he opened the can. ’’I’m hungry.’’ He dug in, shoving a large spoonful into his mouth.
Nancy rolled her eyes but went back to work, scribbling numbers onto a sheet of paper. ’’We have another mouth to feed now, so we have to ration. Understand?’’
Steve swallowed before he spoke to Eddie: ’’You want some?’’
Eddie grimaced. ’’No thanks. I’m actually not hungry at all.’’ He said it out loud at the same time as he realized it. ’’You’re just gonna eat it cold like that?’’
Steve shrugged. ’’There’s no electricity. There was this weird pulse of energy a couple days ago. Now nothing works.’’
’’Yeah, everything is fried. My walkie talkie doesn’t even work. Or the clocks.’’ Dustin complained, gesturing at the clock on the wall.
’’All batteries are drained. Including car batteries.’’ Steve explained.
’’That why you haven’t left?’’ Eddie asked.
’’Partly. We’ve tried but can’t get very far. It’s like the Demogorgon's have the town surrounded or something.’’ Dustin sighed.
’’If we could find a car that works, we’d be out of here in no time. But that pulse was big, we’d have to get far away from the gate first and just hope to find an abandoned car.’’ Steve spoke with food in his mouth.
’’Or people.’’ Nancy added.
Eddie sighed. At least he wasn’t alone here.