CHAPTER TWENTY
THE BAD MEN

To be completely honest, Kimmy was terrified. She was back on Aaron's bike, clutching onto him tightly with one arm while she used Aaron's walkie in her spare hand.

Aaron had ripped both the compass as well as the radio from his handlebars, shoving his compass back in his backpack and handing Kimmy the walkie.

However with each passing moment, Kimmy found herself growing more and more irritated and agitated with the walkie in her tight grip.

"Jesus, what the hell is wrong with this thing?" She snapped to no one in particular as Aaron and Lucas biked faster than ever before. She groaned, hitting the walkie repetitively against her thigh before trying again. "Mike? Mike, if you're there answer!"

She received no response, the girl felt as if she could had ripped her hair out and threw the walkie to the ground in annoyance.

"Aaron, this things is seriously broken-"

Kimmy stopped herself, snapping her gaze back to the walkie in her hand as the sound of static and muffled voices.

"Mike, Mike!" Kimmy exclaimed, sounding ecstatic to hear the boy on the other end of the radio despite the circumstances. "Can you hear me?"

"Kimmy?" Came Mike's scratchy voice, although Kimmy could make out that it was definitely him.

"Yes, it's me!" Kimmy yelled into the walkie, her head tilting back in relief that she had finally gotten a hold of him. "Listen-"

"Slow down." Mike cut her off with a curious voice, sounding stressed now at what the girl was doing talking to him. "I can't hear you, you're cutting out. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I copy!" She replied instantly, yelling louder in fear the connection would crash again. "You have to hide Eleven, okay? Get out of there, the bad men know about Eleven-"

"What?" Mike yelled, obviously still unable to hear her. "I can't-"

"The bad men are coming for you!" She snapped, practically screeching into Aaron's ear now due to frustration. "They are coming for Eleven. You have to hide her!"

Kimmy took a shaky breath, listening for a moment in case the boy replied. When he didn't, she began to panic.

"Mike, the bad men are coming! All of them!" She yelled again, pausing as Aaron took the corner too sharply. "Mike can you hear me? The bad men are coming!"

Kimmy could just barely make out the way Mike repeated her words to presumably Dustin before she heard his end cut off. She didn't know what to say, but kept the walkie tight in her grasp in fear his voice would blare again.

"What happens if he doesn't get what I meant?" Kimmy asked the two boys she was with, her voice panicked slightly. "Do you think we'll get to Eleven in time?"

Lucas didn't reply, only offering her a wary look briefly before facing all his attention back ahead of him, pushing his bike faster.

Aaron didn't reply to her either, but she assumed that was because he was absolutely terrified of the situation at hand. She could feel the way he had tensed under her arm after the words had slipped past her lips.

Maybe ten minutes had passed before there was a voice scratching through the radio in her hand once more, causing her to flinch. Only it wasn't the Wheeler boy that time.

"Oh, my god," Dustin's voice could be heard much clearer than Mike's voice, Kimmy jumping at the chance to talk to him while they could both actually hear each other. 

"Dustin!" Kimmy yelled accidentally louder than she had meant. "Dustin, do you copy?"

"Yeah, Kimmy, they're on us!" He yelled back, the panic in his voice could have been heard a mile away.

Kimmy felt the panic wash over her but forced herself to push it down. "Dustin, where are you? We're on our way to-"

"Cornwallis." He replied, cutting her off in the process.

"Okay, uh-" she paused, looking to Lucas for what to say next.

"Elm and Cherry." Lucas called at her, though not loud enough for Dustin to hear. "Tell him to meet us at Elm and Cherry-"

"Meet us at Elm and Cherry!" Kimmy yelled into the walkie once more, her hands starting to sweat from fear.

"Copy." Dustin replied before continuing, but Kimmy couldn't tell if he was talking to her or Mike. "Meet at Elm and Cherry-"

She could tell he had cut her off, but she couldn't find it in her to care. She was beginning to agree with Aaron that perhaps looking for the gate was a bad idea.

"What are we supposed to do with Eleven?" Aaron asked the two, and now that Kimmy wasn't distracted by the radio in her hand, she allowed herself to truly panic over the way Aaron drove his bike. Zooming around corners at alarming speeds which had Kimmy wondering if he even remembered she was there. "I mean, if the bad guys are after her, what are we supposed to do when we get to her? We can't hide her forever, right?"

Kimmy didn't know what to say in response. He was right, there was no way the group of twelve year olds would manage to actually make a child disappear from thin air.

"I don't know." Lucas spoke up, hesitance evident in his voice. "I'm sure Mike has a plan- Mike!"

Kimmy snapped her gaze from the boy speaking and adverted her attention ahead, catching a glimpse of the Wheeler boy screeching his bike to a halt as he waited for Dustin to catch up, the small girl on the back of his bike.

"Where are they?" Lucas asked breathlessly, exhausted from the amount of biking he and Aaron had done.

"I don't know," Mike answered instantly. "I think we lost them."

It were as if the universe was against Mike, seeing as the second the words fell past his lips, the screeches of engines could be heard and the group of vans were behind the group again.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Dustin panicked, fumbling his feet onto his pedals to get his bike moving again.

Kimmy looked behind her, her eyes growing wide as she realised the vans were quite literally feet behind them all. They were never going to outrun them.

And, just to top it all off, a van came speeding out of a side road and was headed straight towards them, completely trapping the group.

Kimmy grew scared upon realising the van wasn't stopping, neither were the boys on bikes.

"The vans aren't stopping." Kimmy yelled over the loud revs of the van engines. However she was ignored as each of the boys only sped up. "Aaron, stop-"

Kimmy cut herself off in shock as the van speeding towards the group was suddenly thrown into the air, flipping over as it flew straight over the twelve year olds heads. Smashing into the ground behind them and cutting off all the white vans which had been close on their tails.

Kimmy felt her jaw drop, glancing behind her to catch a glance of the girl clutching onto Mike, now looking much more tired and frail than before, blood running down her nose.

"Holy fuck!" Aaron laughed, shifting his head to catch a glimpse at Lucas as the pair laughed in a mix of shock and amusement.

Kimmy smiled to herself as she caught sight of the stack up of stopped vans, now much too far behind the group to catch up.

It didn't take long for the group to arrive at the old junkyard, immediately dropping their bikes to the floor. Kimmy was glad to finally get off Aaron's bike.

She handed him his walkie that he had almost forgotten about, a teasing grin pulling on her lips at his frazzled expression.

"Oh- thanks." He mumbled, taking it from her grasp and putting it back in his bag.

"Well I'd like to think so." Kimmy teased, doing her best to pull her face into a serious expression. "If I'd have held that thing for one more minute my hand would have fallen off, you're not exactly the safest driver."

She watched as Aaron rolled his eyes, but it seemed he couldn't hide the amused grin pulling on his lips. "Shut up."

"Holy shit!" Dustin exclaimed the second he got close enough, dropping his bike and placing his hands on his head dramatically. "Did you see what she did to that van?"

"No, Dustin," Mike mused, helping Eleven sit down as she was very clearly rundown from using so much energy at once. "We missed it."

"I mean-" Dustin continued, ignoring the remark. "That was-"

"Awesome." Lucas finished for him sincerely, causing Eleven to glance up at him surprised. "It was awesome."

Kimmy nudged Aaron, pushing him in the tired girls direction as he looked to her confused. He soon caught on, moving to sit down next to Eleven and pat her on the shoulder.

"Sorry about... earlier." Aaron muttered to her, a smile playing on his lips as she looked to him confused. "You know? How we called you weirdo and stuff-" Aaron was cut off when Kimmy cleared her throat from where she was stood beside him, sending him a look of warning. "Shouldn't have done it and I'm sorry. You're awesome. We cool? Friends?"

Kimmy rolled her eyes at his apology but made not comment as she girl slowly returned his smile.

"Friends." Eleven replied in a soft whisper.

Aaron's smile widened and he went to say something else but a hand was placed on his shoulder and pulling him up, Lucas quickly taking his seat from moments before.

"And, everything I said about you being a traitor and stuff..." Lucas trailed off awkwardly just like Aaron had done before. "I was wrong, and I'm sorry."

Eleven looked to him with furrowed brows before finally speaking up quietly. "Friends... friends don't lie. I'm sorry too."

Kimmy felt herself smile as she watched the relief wash over Lucas, a soft smile pulling on his own lips at her words.

"Me, too." Mike cut in, sticking his hand out to Aaron and Lucas who looked to him in surprise.

The two friends shared a look before nodding at one another and walking over to the boy with his outstretched hand. Lucas gripping ahold of it and shaking before moving over and allowing Aaron to do the same.

...

The group were sat in a circle on the floor, each surrounding a diagram made out of sticks as Lucas, Kimmy and Aaron did their best to explain what exactly they saw.

"This is Randolph Road." Lucas explained, dragging a smaller stick alongside his diagram to emphasise his point. "The fence starts here and goes all the way around."

"Yeah, and right here in the middle is the building." Kimmy nodded, taking an empty soda can and placing it down. "So the gate must be around there somewhere."

"Well, who owns Hawkins Lab?" Dustin asked her looking confused.

"We don't really know." She mumbled, her brows furrowed in thought as she did her best to explain. "The sign says 'Department of Energy.'"

"Department of Energy?" Dustin was quick to show that this only furthered his confusion. "What do you think that means?"

"It means government." Aaron was quick to answer, evidently doing his best to push down his nerves over the matter. "Military and stuff."

Dustin tilted his head, "then why does it say 'Energy'?"

"Just trust him, alright?" Mike shot down his friends question. "It's military. My dad told me before."

"Yeah," Lucas added on with a thoughtful nod. "There's soldiers out front."

"Do they make, like, lightbulbs or something?" Dustin asked, only growing more and more confused as each person continued to speak.

"No, weapons." Mike dismissed once more. "To fight the Russians, and... commies and stuff."

"Weapons?" Lucas repeated sounding startled, looking right at Eleven.

Kimmy felt her eyes widen at what Lucas was insinuating, but she couldn't help but believe him. Eleven was one of their weapons, that's why they were after her.

"Jesus, this is bad." Dustin gasped, wearing a matching look to Kimmy.

"Really bad." Aaron muttered, sounding like he wanted to curl up and die at the thought of what trouble the group would be in.

"The place is like a fortress." Lucas went on to say, his frightened expression never faltering.

"Well, what do we do?" Dustin worried.

Kimmy, Lucas and Aaron all shrugged at him, looking equally as scared.

"I don't know." Mike murmured, biting on his lip in thought. "But we can't go home. We're fugitives now."

Any reply which could have been given to the boy was cut short. The sound of helicopters approaching from a distance pulling the attention of the party.

"Guys?" Dustin stammered, tilting his head up to the sky to try catch a glimpse of any helicopters passing. "Do you hear that?"

No one replied, but Kimmy knew they all had the same answer.

No one moved, it was only when the helicopter came into view that the panic really set in and the group began to panic. Rushing over to the rundown bus sat behind them and shoving their bikes under the bus before scrambling up the stairs leading to the seats.

Each of them instantly ran for the back, ducking down as they each continued to heave out stressed breaths.

"Mental." Dustin muttered, almost sounding amused despite the current circumstances as he sat down next to Kimmy.

"No," Aaron dismissed quickly, shaking his head as his eyes widened. "This isn't mental, this is outrageous! They are completely out of line doing this! They probably kidnapped Eleven from god knows where and probably want to kidnap us next! This is such an invasion of privacy! Do you think they'll track down our parents- Jesus, do you think they'll take-"

"Aaron, calm down." Mike murmured, rolling his eyes as he sat down next to Eleven. "We all just need to calm down-"

"We need to calm down?" Aaron repeated loudly, sounding greatly distressed. "You just said we were fugitives, don't tell me to calm down!"

"Guys, what are we supposed to do?" Kimmy blurted to the group, ignoring Aaron's panicked questions.

"What do you mean?" Dustin asked from beside her, his face pulled into a perplexed expression.

"I mean- we can't stay in this abandoned bus forever." She elaborated with a blunt voice. "Realistically, what are we supposed to do next? There are dangerous people after us."

Was met with silence, no one knew the answer to any of her questions. It was clear the group were in way over their heads, and it was only beginning to set in to the group.

After a short silence, Mike looked like he wanted to say something, but the static of his radio stopped him from doing so.

"Mike, are you there?" A girls voice called through the radio faintly, catching the attention of the small group. "Mike?"

"Did you guys hear that?" Dustin asked his friends carefully, looking as if he wasn't sure he'd really heard a seventh voice or not.

His suspicions were answered when the voice from the radio called again, the voice sounding slightly panicked.

"Mike?" The voice had Mike rushing over to his backpack frantically to get the walkie from the depths of it. "It's me, Nancy. Are you there?"

He held the radio up to his ear, the remaining five circling around him to hear.

"Mike, we need you to answer." The girl tried again, sounding desperate.

"Is that your sister?" Lucas asked, sounding more than a little confused.

"This is an emergency, Mike." The voice spoke again before Mike had the chance to answer. "Do you copy? Mike, do you copy?"

"Okay, this is really weird." Dustin blurted bluntly.

Lucas tried to grab the walkie from Mike's hand, but Mike pulled it away before he could.

"Don't answer." Mike murmured.

"She said it was an emergency." Lucas emphasised, looking as if Mike was crazy to leave her without answering.

"What if it's a trick?" Mike asked anxiously, his question instantly shut down by Lucas.

"It's your sister!"

"What if the bad people kidnapped her?" Mike retaliated, sounding more stressed than Kimmy had ever heard. "What if they're forcing her to say this?"

"Do you think they would do that?" Aaron asked fearfully, most likely in concern for his older brother. "Do you think they have my brother?"

Kimmy didn't get a chance to reply to him because Mike's sister was talking again before she was given a chance to.

"I need you to answer." She pleaded again. And Kimmy was beginning to fear something was wrong with the girl and she really did need her brothers help.

"It's like Lando Calrissian."  Dustin murmured to himself in a sort of realisation. "Don't answer-"

"No, Mike, answer. What if she's really in trouble?" Aaron disagreed while shaking his head, moving forward to try get ahold of the walkie which Mike dismissed. "What if she's with Steve? You have to answer it Mike. Why would she lie?"

"We need to know that you're there, Mike." Nancy's scratchy voice came through the radio once again.

"Listen, kid, this is the chief." A deep voice spoke, sounding anything but pleased. "If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl."

"Why is she with the chief?" Lucas asked sounding confused.

Dustin looked more scared than confused now. "How the hell does he know about-"

"Mike answer the walkie!" Aaron snapped sounding distressed. "You're going to get us in so much trouble with the police, somethings obviously wrong!"

"We can protect you, we can help you but you gotta pick up." The man spoke again. Kimmy could tell he was trying and failing to sound calm. "Are you there? Do you copy? Over."

Mike hesitated, not moving.

"Mike, answer the stupid call!" Aaron stressed. "I swear to god, if you not answering this call gets us in trouble with the chief of police? I will-"

"Yeah," Mike replied into the walkie, ignoring Aaron's rambles. "I copy. It's Mike. We're here."

...

The group were sat rather impatiently waiting for the chief to arrive. The only one who looked to be somewhat calm was Eleven, and Kimmy was willing to bet it was because she didn't fully understand what was going on.

Lucas was sat with his head to the roof of the bus, lost in his thoughts. Dustin was pacing back and forth down the small isle while Mike watched him with his head resting in his palm. Aaron was sat with his knee bouncing repetitively, his head in his hands. Kimmy would have asked Aaron if he was alright, but she knew he wasn't. He looked as if he were about to die of stress.

"Will you stop pacing?" Mike asked Dustin in a bored voice.

"It's been way too long." Dustin retorted instantly, sounding panicked. "Maybe you were right, maybe this is all a trap. And the bad men are coming to get us right now!"

"It's not a trap." Lucas dismissed calmly. "Why would the chief set us up? Nancy, maybe, but the chief?"

"Lando Calrissain." Dustin reminded Lucas with a pointed finger.

Kimmy assumed this was something only the two knew about, perhaps Mike and Aaron too, but Kimmy had absolutely no idea who Lando Calrissain was and she knew Eleven didn't either. The two girls sat next to each other wearing matching looks of confusion.

"Would you shut up about Lando?" Lucas asked half bored, half annoyed.

"I don't feel good about this." Dustin whispered before leaning into Lucas' face and yelling. "I do not feel good about this!"

Lucas yelled back at him. "When do you feel good about anything?"

"I'm going to be sick." Aaron murmured from next to Mike. "Guys we're so screwed-"

The sound of vehicles approaching cut him off, the group instantly standing and making their way to the front of the bus to get a look.

Only, it wasn't the chief, at least it didn't look like it. Two identical cars that were most definitely not cop cars.

"Oh, my god, fuck!" Aaron panicked, instantly pushing through Mike and Eleven to get back to the back and hide, Dustin close behind him.

The group all crouched down, and that was really when the panic began to hit Kimmy.

"Lando." Dustin whispered, looking as if he could cry.

"Do you think they saw us?" Lucas asked, also sounding panicked now.

"Both of you, shut up." Mike whispered roughly in response.

Aaron put his head in his hands, and Kimmy put a hand over her mouth when they heard footsteps approaching.

The door of the bus could be heard opening and Kimmy swore she had never felt so scared in her life. She could see the man in a suit about to climb onto the bus, as well as the gun in his hand.

Suddenly, something hit his head and he fell to the floor. The sound of both bullets and punches blaring through the air for the small group to hear. Kimmy was absolutely terrified.

The chief then climbed the steps, causing the group to stand, Kimmy letting out a sigh of relief.

"Alright," the man sighed heavily. "Let's go."

Not one of the children moved, all too scared to move a muscle.

"Let's go!" The man abruptly yelled, causing Kimmy to flinch violently before instantly following his orders, rushing down the isle of the bus with the group quickly following.

...

I think this might have been the most boring chapter to wright yet. But I'm excited for the next one!!!!

Have a good day/night and I hope you're liking the story so far!!

- AJ :)