—

I took off my shoes and socks. I touched my headphones and walkman, i need them... screw it.

"Wait! Wait! Byers! Lets talk about this!" I tossed the walkman to Eddie and dived back into the water. Eddie and Robin screamed out for me, trying to get me back. I swam to the red gate and didn't stop. I saw Steve getting attacked by these bats and I hit one with an oar. Shortly after, the rest comes in behind me.

"Hey there."I stabbed the bat that wrapped its tail around his neck. We looked up to see more coming.

"Wendy behind you!" Eddie yells. Before I could turn, those bats came at me, biting me at the neck and shoulder.

"Get them off of me!" I screamed. Steve looks at me and I cried for help. The terror he had in his eyes. He bit the tail off of the bat and I managed to get the one on my neck, slamming it against the ground. "Go to hell you piece of shit!" Steve comes up, grabs the one on my shoulder, and starts hitting it on the ground, over and over again, and tore it apart. "Steve!" I ran to him, hugging him. We both grunted.

"Wendy." He looks at my neck, bloody and bitten.

"Im okay."

"Jesus H Christ!" Eddie swore, tossing the oar on the ground.

"Are you okay? Please tell me you are." I saw the bite marks.

"Well, they took about a pound of flesh." I checked for more. "Other than that-" i kissed him in mid-sentence.

"Don't ever do that again. Please." I whispered to him as I took a breather.

"Uh, do you guys think these bats have like, rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear."  Robin comes in, and squats to talk to Steve. "And I think we should get you to a doctor soon because once symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already dead." Great, thank you, Buckley. The bats started to swarm in, a few landed and I know for damn sure we had to fight them again. Ugly sons of bitches.

"All right. There's not that many. We can take 'em. Right?" Eddie said as takes an oar, backing up to us. More bats were seen from afar. Lovely. There's a lot more.

"You were saying?" Steve turns to Eddie. We cant them all, we would die if we fought 10 more.

"The woods. Come on." Nancy said and I put Steve's arm over my shoulders and we followed her.

"Great. More running." As we ran, something wrap around my ankle and pulls me. A vine started to drag me away from the gang. I screamed for the rest of them to help me. My back scrapped the ground, my hands slipping on whatever I tried to get a hold of something to make it stop.

"Wendy!" Steve yells out. Eddie runs out for me. I managed to grab onto a branch and here he comes. Eddie stomps on the vines and they quickly let go of me.

"Lets go!" He helps me up we went inside the wood to lose the bats off our trail.

—

We managed to hide under Skull Rock, watching the bats fly over us. We were safe, for now.

"That was close." We came out of hiding, dusting ourselves.

"Too close." Eddie sighs, and looks up at the dark sky. I've never been here, the stories I've heard about this place from Will, it's a creepy place. How did he manage to survive by himself? I feel like I'm in the movie, Friday the 13th. "Your back.." I can feel the blood dripping down but I didn't care at the moment.

"I'm fine Eddie. Just scrapes." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steve lose his balance and I quickly caught him."Oh, sh... shit. Steve?" I looked down, his bites got worst. The running. "Jesus." I swore under my breath.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." he brushes off.

"No, no, no. You're not. You're losing blood. Come on, sit." I helped him sit on the ground. I had to think about what I could use for him. he didn't have a shirt I can wrap him up with. My fingers lightly brushed through his bites and he grunts in pain, closing his eyes.

"Okay." Robin comes up to us. "So the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies. But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know." I shook my head, nit trying to laugh during this situation.

"Robin." Steve hums out.

"Yeah?"

"I kinda wanna punch you." Robin laughs.

"Sense of humor's still intact. That's a good sign. Yeah. Okay." I looked at my button-down, it has rips from when I was pulled by the vines earlier. So I ripped it, my shirt was now cropped and you can see some of my bra but I didn't care, anything to stop the bleeding for now.

"Okay. You ready?" I looked up at Steve.

"Yeah. Just do it." I wrapped the ripped fabric around his torso and pulled hard to make it stay and not slip. He winces, gripping my arm.

"Sorry." I whispered as he lets go and pulls his hair back.

"It's okay." I tied the fabric and it'll work for now.

"Too tight?" Steve runs his hand over it.

"No, that's good." We both looked at each other. I can't lose him here. He needs to stay alive. "Marry me." He blurted out, catching me off guard.

"What?"

"Marry me, Wendy Byers." That's not funny. This has to be a joke or something. But why would he joke about this? He did talk about getting married.

"You're being delusional Steve." I shook my head, shaking the thoughts out of my head. "You've lost a lot of blood." Could be him not thinking straight and just saying this.

"No." He holds my hand, making me look up at him. "I'm serious. That's why I've been a dick this whole time. I called Joyce to give me your hand, that's why I called to talk to her and not you, and I came on your birthday to show her the ring to be approved. I never meant to hurt you, I wanted everything to be perfect. Take you to the spot where I asked you to prom, listen to a mixtape I made you, and then propose. I need you, Wendy. I don't know what to do without you. So, Wendy Ringo Byers, Marry me." Tears started to form from the happiness.

"Yes. Yes, I will." I nodded, sniffing away, kissing him passionately. I placed my hands on his face, making him look at me. "Ask me again when we get out of here and we stay alive. So please, don't die." I made a promise.

"Don't die either." We both chuckled.

"So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" Eddie said as he climbs up the rock. I helped Steve from under it.

"Pretty much."He nods and decided to come down slowly.

"Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind." Steve warned him as Eddie was about to step on one.

"It's all a what?"

"All the creepy crawlies around here. They're, like, one or something. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna."

"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except for people?"

"As far as I understand it, yeah." I shrugged. It's literally a ghost town.

"So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate." Robin talks again.

"I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah, sure." 

"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom." Nancy brings up. Right, totally forgot she did. Eddie freezes and turns to her.

"You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?"

"Full of surprises, isn't she?"

"A Russian Makarov and a revolver." She lists.

"Yeah, you almost shot me with that one." Steve comes up from behind.

"You almost deserved it." we walked around to see what direction we needed to go.

"For your modesty, dude." Eddie takes off his denim vest and tosses it to Steve.

"Let's head to Wheelers' place yeah?" We all followed Nancy out of the woods and head to her house. Eddie stood besides me and we stopped when we heard a growl. Eddie quickly latches onto me. "Eddie." I told him.

"Wendy?" He looks around.

"You have two seconds to get your hands off me or you won't have hands."

"Okay yeah sure will do." He stops and backs up to give me space. "Sorry, jumpy."

"You dont say. I never thought you were jumpy." I said as I walked past him and walked with the girls.

"Sarcasm! Ha ha! Funny one Wendy."

"Nice tattoo." Robin said as she had a glimpse of my ribcage.

"Thought it would be cute, my friend Argyle took me." The girls hummed.

"What else did you tattoo?" Nancy took a glance.

"Kinda hurt that you didn't get one done in my honor." Robin huffs.

"Sorry, are you jealous Robs? Maybe i can get one on my ass and itll say belongs to Buckley." We laughed. "You love that huh?" We got quiet. "He asked me to marry him." The girls giggled. We looked back at the boys who smiled back.

"Please tell me you said yes!" I nodded my head. "Finally! I don't need to hold it in! He bought the week you left to California, i helped. He then called Joyce and bought you the tickets and-"

"Woah! All that you kept?"

"Yes!"

"Congratulations Wendy." Nancy smiles.

"Im hoping to get out of here alive so I can get marry to my handsome himbo."

—

Steve's POV

Eddie and I stayed behind the three girls as we walked through the woods. Wendys back was all banged up and scratched from earlier, it looked bad.

"Couldn't we have tried a road, or something just slightly less creepy?" Robin complains again.

"I think we're getting close. We're almost out of here. Don't worry." Nancy said and kept walking.

"Eddie. Eddie. Hey, man." I caught up with him, pulling him away from the girls to talk to him. "Uh... Listen, I just, uh... I just want to say thanks. For saving my ass back there."

"Shit. You saved your own ass, man. I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there." Who?

"Ozzy?" I frowned.

"When you took a bite out of that bat. Ozzy Osbourne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat's head off on stage." I had no idea what he was talking about.

"I don't..."

"You know? Wendy had to make you listen to at least one of them, she's a metal fan too." She probably did, but they all sound the same to me. Wendy and I have different tastes in music. Besides Billy Idol. "Doesn't matter. No. It's very metal, what you did. That's all I'm saying."

"Thanks." We continued to walk.

"Henderson told me you were a badass. Insisted on the matter, in fact." He brought up.

"Henderson said that?" That kid...

"Oh yeah. shit. Kid worships you, dude. Like, you have no idea. It's kinda annoying, to be honest. I don't even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, but, uh, guess I got a little jealous, Steve. I guess I couldn't accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually a good dude. Rich parents, popular, chicks love him." He elbows my arm.

"Not a douche?"

"No way, man. No way. That, like, flies in the face of all the laws in the universe and my own personal Munson doctrine. Still super jealous as hell, by the way. I used to have a crush on Wendy before the whole Billy and Wendy thing happened. She was quiet, loves drawing, and listens to rock kind of girl. I used to see her walk around school, headphones blasting some Metallica down the hallways, laughing with her cousin Jonathan." He put his hands up. It did made me have a fire pit starting in my stomach. "I don't have a crush on her anymore, no need to be jealous. She used to buy weed from me when she moved here, that's how we know each other, pretty funny girl actually." He went on about talking about her. He noticed that he blabbered on, and clears his throat to move on. "Sorry, I didn't mean to talk about her like that..." we stayed quiet for a moment. "Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass. Not under any, uh... normal circumstances." A branch we stepped on snapped and made him jump.  "Nope. Outside of D&D, I am no hero. I see danger and I just turn heel and run. Or at least that's what I've learned about myself this week."

"Give yourself a break, man."

"The only reason I came in here was 'cause those ladies came in straight after you. Now, I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind. But Byers right there." He pointed at her. "She didn't waste a second. Not one second. She just tossed her walkman at me and dived right in. Now, I don't know what you are planning to do in your life when she leaves again, but if I were you, I would put a ring on it and call her mine and not let her go out of my sight before it's too late. 'Cause, that was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen."

"I literally just told her that I wanted to marry her."

"Well Stevie, you better stay alive because if you don't, she is going to die, she can't live without you." 

"Can you do me a favor?" He nods. "If anything happens to me, take care of her will you?"

"Come on man, dont say that. You are going to get out of here all fine and then when this is all over you get to marry her." I smiled, yeah. When this is all over, marry her and then she graduates, i move to California and we start out life. The ground started to shake. I quickly got to Wendy and covered her. "Goddamn it! Here we go again."

"Second on my list of least favorite things, earthquakes. Seriously, I'm unsteady enough as it is." How many things is Robin scared of? As the rumble was over, nancy booked it.

"Nancy! Where are you going? Nancy!" Wendy runs after her. we all groan and followed the two.

"Come on."

AN: next part is finished and cant wait to share with you all! Cant wait for friday! I swear to god if steve, eddie or robin die, i might lose it!

NEW AN: debating if i should go back and add eddie in the earlier chapters so he and wendy can be best friends