Chapter Eight: Out of the Woods

The trio got up the very next morning to get ready for their mission: catching and possibly killing Dart. Not knowing what that would be like, Annie got dressed in some jeans, a t-shirt with a jacket, and some sneakers. It was a bit different than her usual wardrobe, but they were going to be in the woods- no time for her usual wardrobe.

Steve had picked up a bunch of raw meat (she dared not ask where and how) before coming back home to pick Annie up and then Dustin. He directed Steve to a particular spot to start their journey.

When they got there and parked, a sudden static came over Dustin's radio. "Dustin!"

They were busy unloading everything, so only Dustin really paid attention. All Annie knew was that it was Lucas on the other end. She was also busy grabbing the buckets of meat and putting gloves on.

When one of the buckets got to close to her face, she gagged and had to step away. "You okay there Annie?" Steve asked, setting his bucket down to make sure she was good. Unable to answer verbally, she just gave a thumbs up and took some deep breaths to chill out.

"God this is disgusting," Annie muttered.

"All right, let's go," Steve called, closing the trunk of his car. Annie felt bad, knowing that smell would stick around for quite a while in the trunk. Dustin finished talking to Lucas and then got his own supplies up and followed the Harrington siblings.

Annie was curious since she didn't hear a lot of the conversation. "That was Lucas, right?" she asked. Dustin nodded. "Are we getting some back up out here?" she asked next, to which Dustin nodded again.

As they walked, Annie had the awful realization that today was Sunday, and she was supposed to hang out with Max at the movies. "Shit!"

Steve glared at her. "Hey," he chided and nudged her arm with his elbow.

"Sorry, I just forgot today's Sunday," she said and frowned at herself. Steve got it instantly and felt bad for his lovestruck sister.

Dustin was super confused however. "What about Sunday? Is something happening?"

Steve opened his mouth to explain, but Annie was quicker. "Nothing, it's nothing," she answered, slightly saddened. God she really hoped Max wouldn't be pissed off at her. Maybe they could even finish this up early enough that she could still meet with Max, just later.

Annie decided to stick to her own thoughts and ignored the boys' conversation beside her. The only things on her mind were dropping meat every once in a while and how she was going to explain this to Max.

It was weird how quick Annie trusted the boys, and she knew Max would not trust them as easily. She was so lost in her thoughts that she barely even paid attention to the conversation Steve and Dustin were having, coincidentally about the same girl, though none of them knew that.

"All right, so let me get this straight. You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl you just met?" Steve asked, completely confused with his line of logic- especially when it involves a Demogorgan.

Dustin scoffed. "All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things," he defended.

"I mean why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Steve pestered. He seriously couldn't wrap his head around such logic. His sister would never like such a thing, what girl would?

And Dustin couldn't understand how Steve didn't get it. "An inter dimensional slug? Uh, because it's awesome," he answered.

"Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I just... I don't know, man, I just feel like you're trying way too hard," Steve concluded.

Dustin was annoyed at this. The Steve Harrington over here thinking it's supposed to be easy getting girls? Maybe for him, but not for people like Dustin. "Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, alright?"

"It's not about the hair, man," Steve said, stopping Dustin's thought. "The key with girls is just acting like you don't care."

This caused Dustin to pause and he looked at Steve. "Even if you do?" This was very new knowledge.

"Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts," Steve explained.

"Then what?" Dustin asked, slightly eager. He was thrilled to be getting advice from the Steve Harrington. This could be a game changer for him and Max, Dustin decided.

"You just wait until, uh... until you feel it," Steve said, giving Dustin's arm a little nudge. There was a part of Steve that was very glad to be giving advice to Dustin because it was a sort of practice for the nights Annie might need girl advice. He wanted to steer his sister in the right direction.

Speaking of, Annie was still completely tuned out and far ahead of the boys. They continued to chat while Annie sat and thought about what could've happened at the movie. The jump scares getting her to grab onto a laughing Max- she seemed like the kind of girl to laugh at scary movies.

She seriously considered Steve's offer of 'girl talk' and that could've been on the docket yesterday before Dustin hijacked their weekend (Annie still wasn't sure if she's okay with the new plans or not). But at some point, she was going to talk to Steve and get his advice.

"So that's when you kiss her?" Dustin asked Steve, trying to clarify. He wanted to be ready and have every exact step down in his head.

Steve was shocked at his forwardness. "No, whoa, whoa, slow down Romeo. Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a... I don't know, like a lion," Steve explained further. "But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a... like a ninja."

Taking all this in, Dustin decided to ask, "What type is Nancy?" Maybe if Steve and Max were the same, he'd no how to approach the situation better.

Steve hesitated, knowing Nancy didn't fit in either category. "Nancy's different. She's different than the other girls."

The younger boy agreed. "Yeah, she seems pretty special, I guess." Steve agreed. "But this girl's special too, you know. It's just, like, there's something about her."

"Woah, woah, woah, hey," Steve said as he stopped the very confused boy. "You're not falling in love with this girl, are you?"

It was quiet for a second, but then Dustin's face changed and he shook his head. "No, no," he confirmed.

Steve nodded and they started walking again. "Okay, good. Don't. She's only gonna break your heart, and you're way too young for that shit," Steve told him.

They were all silent for a moment, and Annie finally realized how far ahead of them she was to the point where she couldn't even hear them speak. She could see Steve telling Dustin something else, and he was a bit adamant about something as they stopped and talked.

"You guys okay?" Annie called back to them, stopping herself. The two looked over at her and Steve tossed the meat in his hand to the ground then gave her a thumbs up. They started walking again, but she stayed still and waiting for them to catch back up to her.

When they did, the group moved to be three across again and alternated tossing the bait on the ground. "What were you guys talking about? Anything interesting?" Annie asked, just curious if she really zoned out that hard.

Dustin shook his head. "Not really, just some super random shit and girl talk," he said. His face went slightly pink when he mentioned the last part and he hoped she didn't pick up on the fact that it was Max. Or that she teased him relentlessly.

"Cute," Annie replied, but didn't say anything else on that subject. "I assume we've got a plan for when we get to the junkyard?"

Steve nodded this time. "Yeah, the bones of one. Once we get there and see what we're working with we'll be able to work out the details."

Annie took it all in. This was such a weird situation, she figured, because right now it wasn't that scary. They were just walking around and dropping chunks of raw meat. But when they get there, the location of the capture or killing, that would be terrifying.

It felt like another hour before the group came to a stop at the top of a sort of hill, and looked out to see the junkyard. There was rusting metal everywhere including old cars, trucks, and a school bus.

Annie looked up and saw her brother nodding as he looked around. "Oh yeah, this will do. This will do just fine. Good call, dude," Steve told Dustin as he started walking further in. Annie nudged Dustin as he smiled.

The kids followed after Steve and completed their bait trail to a big pile in the middle of a clearing. "I said medium-well!" Annie looked up with the others and saw two familiar faces: Lucas and Max.

Annie couldn't stop the pure joy from spreading across her face when she and Max made eye contact. "Who's that?" Steve asked, looking at the kids for answers. Steve saw a look of sadness spread across Dustin's face, and then he saw the joy across Annie's.

They were talking about the same girl, and it seems Lucas may have beat them to it.

"Hey," Annie greeted the two, mainly looking at Max. "I'm actually so glad you're here- I didn't know what I was going to do about the movie."

Max nodded. "Yeah, when Lucas wanted me to come I didn't want to but then he said he heard you over the radio so it's not like I was standing you up or whatever," she explained.

There was a stutter in Annie's heartbeat when Max said 'standing you up' and she couldn't help the connection to 'date' that went through her head. But she moved on. "Y-yeah, um, I kinda got roped into this sort of and I am really sorry we can't go see the movie," Annie managed to get out. Inwardly, she cringed at her awkwardness.

But Max laughed, finding it cute. "Well that's cool, there's always next weekend and after school and stuff," she mentioned. Annie's face hurt from how much she was smiling and Max was starting to get there, too.

"Well, we should probably start helping," Annie said.

The girls started to help out Steve, mainly fortifying the the school bus, calling it there base. It involved a lot of careful heavy lifting. Steve warned them several times not to cut themselves on the rusted metal because that wouldn't be a very fun hospital visit.

Annie smacked Max's shoulder and got her to turn and watch the scene unfold in front of them. Steve had a metal folding chair in his hand and walked over to the car Lucas and Dustin were hiding behind. He smacked the chair on the hood and both boys jumped.

"Hey! Dickheads! How come the only ones helping me out are some random girl and my sister?" Steve yelled. "We lose light in 40 minutes, let's go." A moment. "Let's go!"

Lucas and Dustin protested a bit, but they got up and started helping out anyway. Max and Annie were laughing as they started working again. They rolled rusted barrels, piled up sheets of metal, and Max even got a ladder to put in the bus to go out the top.

"A look out, nice," Annie commented as the ladder went in. "I bet if we get some tires up there, we could make a barrier to keep us safe." Max nodded, and that was the girls' next mission.

They gathered up as many tires as they could find, then got Steve's help to throw them up to the top where Annie laid them out out and made a little barrier with three walls. It was a couple tires high, just enough that no one would fall off but could still see over.

That was the last thing they needed to do, and so Annie decided to stay up in the lookout. Lucas handed her his binoculars and everything so she could be fully prepared. The others stayed down below, waiting for the action.

Steve was on lighter duty, and so the second Dart got to the pile of meat, he'd light up the trail of fluid and Dart would be a goner. Annie wasn't looking forward to that part. Until then, she'd be okay. Light was going out in a few, though, so she'd have to be okay with that. No way was she going to chicken out when Max was there to witness. Never.

So she laid on the top of the bus, peering over the tire wall, looking for something gross and creepy.

A/n: next chapter's the start of the action, so you guys better come back to see it! You should also let me know what you're thinking in the comments and leave a vote or two...?