NANCY SWERVED INTO A NEARBY CONVENIENCE STORE.

As they drove further into Hawkins—further away from the Mind Flayer—Carla had asked her sister to stop at the local convenience store, Bradley's, for the sake of El.   The poor girl had been whimpering in pain the entire drive, and was clearly in need of some-sort of assistance when it came to the wound on her leg.

Now, Carla was no expert on injuries—she'd been treated by a professional when she'd been scarred by the Demogorgan—but she'd been watching over the boys long enough to know something.   

Mike had once broken his arm on her watch, to which she had to hold and wrap until professional help came.  Lucas had sprained his ankle, to which she'd compressed it.  Will had gotten a bad bloody nose, and of course, any other injury in between.  

Of course, El had an injury much worse than a bloody nose or a sprained ankle—she'd gotten flesh taken by an Upside Down monster—but she still needed help.   Her wound was bleeding through her pants, and was clearly causing her pain, and Carla knew enough to know that it needed bandaged, or at least cleaned out.

Luckily, Nancy had agreed and the group was now exiting their car, about to find some sort of cleaning supplies for El's leg.  Since it was late at night, as well as a holiday, the store was closed, which led them only one way to enter—breaking and entering.

Now, Carla had never expected to find herself breaking and entering a store, but she hadn't exactly expected herself to to be fighting inter-dimensional monsters every year either, so was it really that wild? 

Tossing a rock through the glass paneling, the group entered the store as if they hadn't just broken in, stepping over the shards of glass that now sat on the ground.   Nancy was the one to spot the medical aisle, which would hopefully hold some mixture of items that would be useful to them.

Once they'd entered the aisle, Nancy was quick to start grabbing supplies whilst her sister took charge when it came to situating Eleven.  Sparing one look at Mike and Max who still held the girl in their arms, Carla instructed, "Okay, set her down. Gently."

The two teens didn't hesitate—both of them slightly tired themselves from the additional weight they'd been walking around with—before setting the Hopper on to the linoleum floor, El immediately slumping upon the shelf behind her for support.

  Now at Eleven's level, Carla tried to meet the girls eyes, only to see they were shut with exhaustion and pain.

  Stopping at the store had definitely been the right choice, because the Wheeler was sure just by looking at the girl's appearance that she was going to pass out or worse if they didn't do something about her leg now.

A small frown appeared on the girl's face as she looked at El, but noticing her weak appearance only made Carla more sure that whatever help she could offer was good enough for the time being.

Kneeling down on the floor to meet Eleven's level, Carla said, "I'm gonna take a look at your leg, it might hurt, alright?"

Eleven gave a mere nod—which was all the confirmation the Wheeler needed to start examining the damage done—and with that, she rolled up the girl's blood-soaked pant leg to reveal a large gash with blood oozing from the center.

It was absolutely disgusting, but Carla couldn't comment.  She made a tight-lipped expression to keep from cringing, or making a sound of disgust.  Showing disgust would make Eleven feel even worse, and that was the last thing on the Wheeler's mind.

Max, however, wasn't afraid of hurting Eleven's feelings. "Oh, shit."

Nancy, who'd grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a box of gauze to help the injury out, grabbed a pack of gauze from the box and was about to open it when she was stopped by the confused voice of her sister.

"Nance, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to help you clean the wound."

Carla shook her head, "No, first we need to stop it bleeding or it can get infected, and believe me when I tell you that's the last thing we need right now." 

Max was quick to agree with the girl kneeling in front of El, "Carla's right.  First we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage."

Maybe it was the wrong moment, but Carla couldn't help but smile at the girl's knowledge on wound-care.  Turning her head towards the Mayfield, she asked, "You certainly know a lot about this."

Max shrugged, "I skateboard."

Coming back to the task at hand, the Wheeler girl became serious once more, and took the gauze pad out of Nancy's hand—who didn't fight, knowing her sister knew more than she did when it came to wounds.  Placing the gauze on to El's leg, Carla then nodded at her brother, who was still next to his ex, "Mike, hold this."

 As El groaned in discomfort, Max instructed, "Keep the pressure on it, nice and firm."

"The more pressure, the faster it'll stop the bleeding." Carla added, nodding at what the red-head was saying.  It was nice to have someone else that knew what they were doing—if she was doing something wrong, Max could correct her. 

Turning to Jonathan and Nancy, Maxine asked the couple, "We're gonna need water, soap."

The couple left in search of the two items, leaving only Will and Lucas left without a task.  Feeling rather useless when it came to helping his friend, the Sinclair boy began to take off his backpack, Carla and Max both looking at him with knitted brows as he began to dump its content out, items flying across the floor.

 "Does any of this help?" Lucas questioned, looking between the two girls.

Searching through the items—a walkie, a sling-shot, a shit-ton a coins and a bunch of other items which she deemed to be useless—the Wheeler shook her head, Max answered with a flat out, "No."

"Appreciate the effort, though." Carla gave an apologetic smile, before suggesting a way the two boys could really help, "But, I could use a washcloth and a bowl, if you could please get that."

"A bowl?"

"Did she stutter?" Max gave her boyfriend a glare.  When he still stayed still, she snapped, "Lucas."

Noticing her seriousness, Will slapped Lucas' chest, urging the two of them to leave and get the supplies that were asked of them.  

"O—Okay." Lucas stammered before following the Byers' boy out of the aisle to look for the items. 

As the two walked out, Carla yelled a small, "Thank you!"

Her words were ended as a tense breath left Eleven, the pressure being applied to her wound causing pain.  Carla couldn't help but think yet again of how strong the Hopper was.  She'd exerted so much energy, had gone through so much pain throughout the past few days, and was still trying to stay strong.

"You're gonna be okay, El." the Wheeler wasn't sure if her comment really affected how Eleven was feeling, but she felt as if she had to say something instead of just sitting in silence, watching the blood soak through the gauze, "Your a strong girl.  If anyone can survive a wound from an inter-dimensional monster, it's you."

"And you." El said weakly, speaking on the scars upon the Wheeler's wrist, scars she'd earned from an inter-dimensional monster herself. 

"Barely." Carla sighed.  Without Steve, Nancy or Jonathan—mostly her now boyfriend, who'd held pressure—she probably wouldn't have survived her injuries. 

Everyone fell silent, and Carla took that as her cue to switch out the gauze in Mike's hand, discarding the bloody one upon the floor beside her.   This rotation continued for a few minutes—silence over-coming the aisle—before, eventually, she realized the absence of everyone else.

Nancy and Jonathan hadn't returned with water or soap, and neither had the boys with a bowl and a wash-cloth.  One of the two she didn't trust at all.

"Okay, it's taken too long to find a bowl." the Wheeler sighed.  She trusted that her sister and friend were just getting lost in a conversation, or trying to find the right kind of soap, but she was not too trustworthy over the boys, whom could have easily gotten distracted over something in the store—it was Fourth of July after-all, there were celebratory supplies all over the place.

Standing up, she stated, "I'm gonna go look for them, Max—" she nodded for the redheaded teen, "—come with me." She then eyed her brother, "Keep that gauze on her leg and don't take her anywhere."

Mike nodded firmly, and with the confirmation that he was going to take care of El, Carla exited the aisle with Maxine at her side, eyes scanning around for Will and Lucas.   

However, it wasn't too difficult to spot them, because soon enough, Carla heard their familiar exclaims, and walked over to see them—unsurprisingly—standing in front of a fire-work display—not heading back to her with a bowl and towel.

So, with an unimpressed look, Carla questioned, "I'm sorry, did I say firework instead of bowl?"

Ignoring her unimpressed look, Lucas stated, "It's not a bowl, but it's way better.  There's a reason this warning label says '18 or older'."  Max crossed her arms and Carla raised her brows, the boy continuing to explain, "This sucker is filled with 150 grains of black powder.  Aka gunpowder."  He tossed the box over to Carla, who examined it with, Max looking over to the girls shoulder to see too, "Strap two of these together and it's bigger than a M-80.  Five of them, we've got ourselves a stick of dynamite."

As Lucas smiled, Max asked, "You wanna kill that thing with fireworks?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Uh, yeah. Eleven."

Lucas was quick to counter, "Against that thing? She's gonna need some back-up."

"Oh my God." Max sighed, clearly done with the conversation.  She was a firm believer that  Eleven could fight off the Mind Flayer, and that the boys grabbing fireworks was a waste of time.  She sent a look towards Carla, "I'll go find a bowl."

"Thank you." the Wheeler exclaimed before eyeing the two boys she'd known for years.  While Eleven was their best hope at defeating the monster......it couldn't hurt to have some back-up in-case of a mishap.  Giving a small nod towards the display, she stated, "Start stocking up."

Lucas was surprised at his friends words, having expected something along the lines of, 'put those away', "Wait, really?"

 "While I'm sorta upset that you stopped to look at fireworks instead of getting the materials for El.....this—" she nodded towards the box in her hands, "—isn't a terrible idea, especially with El so drained out." Carla shrugged, explaining herself.  "So, yeah.  We're already breaking and entering this store, might as well shop-lift too."

Lucas held up his hand for Will to high five, to which the Byers' boy slapped, clearly pleased that they got the yes on the fireworks.   As the Sinclair boy started grabbing the boxes, Will glanced back at Carla, "Thank you."

"Just don't light them here." Carla gave a weak smile, before turning around, about to head back to her brother and El, when suddenly, her name was called by said boy.

"Carla!" Mike's voice echoed through the store, causing both boys beside her to turn with confusion.  While he didn't sound panicked, his yell wasn't completely calm either.  Something was wrong.

Carla was quick on her feet, tossing Lucas the firework she was still holding in her grasp, "I'm going to go check on them."

Normally, a yell for her wouldn't mean anything serious, but with the Mind Flayer on the loose and El injured, something could be really wrong.  So, the moment she came to a halt in front of Eleven and Mike, who still sat across from each other in the aisle, a hot flash of relief came through her.

El was okay, they were okay.

Still, she asked, "What happened? Are you two okay? El, are you in pain—"

"We're fine.  I promise, you don't have to go into Mom mode." Mike reassured his sister before stating, "It's Dustin."

Dustin.  Carla hadn't seen the boy since leaving Scoops Ahoy a day or so ago, which had led her to the ultimate conclusion that he too was stuck with the Russians with Steve and Robin.   And if he was gone.....then what did Mike mean?

"Dustin?"

"Dustin." Mike nodded in confirmation, "I just heard from him."

Carla raised a brow in confusion.  If there was any sort of way to contact someone inside the Russian base—or wherever the hell they may be—Steve would have used it to get to her, or to someone.  He would have told them that he was stuck.

"Heard from him?" she asked, "Heard from him how?"

Mike replied, "Through the walkie....except it was hard to hear what he was saying exactly—something about a gate."

Carla's heart sunk in her chest at the mention of a gate.  There was only one possible thing the Henderson boy could be speaking on when he said gate.....and even with the Mind Flayer back, the girl didn't want to believe the Gate was too.

"I'm guessing when he says gate......" the Wheeler girl trailed off, to which Mike nodded, understanding where his sister was going.  After everything that had happened last year—involving a stranger into the Upside Down mess, Bob's death—it turns out that the Gate was still looming upon them.  They hadn't ended it.

And with their already terrible luck, they were going to have to try and end it all over again.

"That's great....." Carla huffed, crossing her arms across her chest.  Suddenly, a question came to mind and she looked at her brother to ask, "Did he at least say where he was?"

Mike gave a shrug, "I don't know.  He kept breaking up."

His sister tried to hide her frown and instead nodded.  Across from the Wheeler boy, the Hopper looked at her sister figure with a determined look.   She knew that Carla was worried for Steve and Dustin, and was willing to help....even if she was drained.

"I can find him."  El announced, causing both Wheeler's to give her a small look.

Carla gave a light shake of her head, "Oh, you don't have to do that, El.  You've already done so much, and your leg—"

"I can do it." Eleven stated firmly, sure that she wouldn't be pushing herself too far. "I can find him."

Carla looked at the younger girl before giving in, "Okay...."

 She was curious on whether or not they were stuck in the base, or where they were now if Dustin was able to communicate.  Noticing that Mike had stopped holding the gauze on her wound, signaling it had stopped bleeding, she asked, "Can I at least wrap your leg first?"

Eleven nodded and the girl quickly got to work, calling everyone to come back to the aisle.  First was Max, who returned to the aisle with a bowl in hand, then Nancy and Jonathan with soap and water. The boys came afterwards, Will handing over the wash-cloth he'd thrown over his shoulder, having done one of the tasks asked by him and Lucas.

With all the materials she needed, Carla took a few moments to clean the wound with the soap and water, as well as to disinfect it before finally wrapping the wound with a bandage, apologizing every time she noticed Eleven wince in pain. 

"Is that tight enough?" when met with a nod from the girl in front of her, Carla declared her work finished, "Okay, I'm done then."

Mike then helped his ex-girlfriend off up the ground, and with the help of everyone else, they helped set up for the use of El's powers.  As Mike and Max helped Eleven on to the floor,  the Byers' boys went in search of something to cover her eyes, the rest of them opening the freezers to provide a static-like noise—Since they were bare of a radio as well as a television, they resorted to the freezers.

After setting everything up, they let Eleven do her job, sitting around her as the girl's nose bled, showing she'd started searching for Dustin Henderson.

The room was completely silent—as El required—for the girl to search, so when the sound of a can being opened echoed through the store, Carla quickly snapped her head to see Lucas, can of Coca-Cola in his hands.

Max was quick to scold him, "Quiet."

"Oh, sorry." Lucas apologized in a whisper, proceeding to sip his drink, slightly slurping the liquid.  At the sound, Carla sent him a small look but didn't say anything, not wanting to interrupt El any more than she had been.

Mike on the other hand, started talking in a tone of slight disgust, "How do you even drink that?"

"Because it's delicious." the Sinclair replied.

At that answer, both Max and Mike chorused, "What?"

Lucas continued, "It's like Carpenter's The Thing. The original is a classic, no question about it.  But the remake...." the boy took a long sip of his drink, slurping it even louder than before, letting out a sigh of content and smacking his lips at the taste once he'd finished. "Sweeter, bolder, better." 

"We can never argue over anything actually important or relative, can we?" Carla sighed quietly, slightly drowning out the unimportant conversation, looking over at the blind-folded girl instead.   She hoped El was successful in her attempt to find Dustin, despite the noise surrounding her.

Mike continued the conversation, "You're insane."

"So, you prefer the original Thing?" Lucas countered.

"What? No, I'm not talking about The Thing, I'm talking about New Coke."

The Sinclair stated, "It's the same concept, dude." 

"Uh, actually, it's not the same concept." the Wheeler fought.

"It is the same concept."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is—"

"Hey!" Eleven ripped the bandanna from her face.

Mike was quick to apologize, "Sorry."

"Sorry." Lucas added.

Changing the topic back to where it should be, Carla looked at the Hopper girl, "Did you find him at all? Or did these boys interrupt you?" She spared a small side eye towards the two who'd been arguing before looking back at the girl. 

Eleven nodded, before revealing what she'd been able to see, "The movies."

"The movies?" Carla repeated with confusion.  Had she been so worried about her friends only for them to be M.I.A at the movies? Now that didn't make sense.  Not at all. 

"He's at the mall watching a movie." El repeated what she'd seen, confirming it.

Even with the confusion in the room, everyone got up and gathered their supplies to head to the mall.   Lucas had filled a shopping cart full of fireworks, and the group was now following him out of the store, listening as he spoke on Dustin's whereabouts. "The movies? Dustin's so freaked out about the Gate, he decides to go watch a movie? Yeah, makes total sense."

Max asked, "You're positive he said 'gate' and not 'great'?"

"Yeah, like 'this movie i'm watching is great'." Will suggested.

"Sounded like gate." El voiced from Mike's side, the boy helping her out the door—though she was definitely more stable than previously. 

"Which would explain how the Mind Flayer's still alive." Mike stated, believing that his friend had said gate, as in the Gate.

Nancy agreed, "Yeah, we just have to shut it again."

"Then the monster dies." Will stated.

"Without the brain, there's no body." Carla added.

Helping haul the shopping cart out of the broken-into door,  Max sarcastically commented, "But, if not, we always have Lucas' fireworks." 

"Keep mocking my plan, Max." the Sinclair boy replied to his girlfriend, "Keep mocking it.  I wanna hear you say it again, because you keep doubting me.  You keep doubting me!"

"Ridiculous."

"Will, Carla? We're gonna prove 'em wrong, right?" 

 "Hell, yeah, Baby Boy." Carla wrapped an arm around the boy, a light smile on her face"We're gonna beat all the odds."

"One more time with that nickname and I swear—"

Carla allowed the boys words to fall behind her as she continued walking back to the car, praying for nothing but for her friends to be at the mall.  For her friends to be okay.  For her boyfriend to be okay.

mara's misc!

guess who's making a come back next chapter......

anyway, this chapter was so fun to write.  it was very chill compared to the past few chapters,  and was filled with a lot of dialogue but that's what made it so fun.  

but you know what's not fun? the fact that i'm almost finished with this book.....i'm on episode seven which means only an episode and a half left to write for 😭😭  i'm not ready for season four, let me stay in my summer of '85 haze please.

anyway, imma soak up these chapters even if they're kinda sad (the battle of starcourt will be a shit show) 

currently in florida rn.  it's hot as balls and it's supposed to be 106-107 degrees tomorrow and friday for me......watch me get sunburnt.   i've spent the past three days wave hopping with my cousins and soaking in the chaotic-ness that is a family vaca in my house.

anyways, hope you enjoyed<3 see you back with chapter 16 :)