Fallout || Stranger Things [2]

thirty-one || envelopes and evergreens

"Hey! Government dweebs! Somebody tell us what's going on!"

    Dustin, illuminated by the porch light of the Virginia safe house, stood half out the open door with the early evening wind bristling through his curls. He waved a sharp hand, forcing one of the two security officers' attention.

     "Go back inside," the taller of the guards gruffed.

     "You say that every time, Terry," Dustin whined.

     The bald man's lips pursed together. "You know my name's not Terry."

     "It's not like you're going to tell me, so I might as well make one up!" he retorted before swinging the door shut between them. He mumbled to himself as he stalked back into the living room.

     Nancy lowered a well loved book from her face, leisurely sprawled out on the couch with her legs over Jonathan's lap. "Any luck?"

     "Are you shitting me?" Dustin replied flatly. "You'd have to get the stick out of his ass and beat him with it to have any luck."

     Jonathan's brows raised despite his eyes never leaving his own book. "Nice and colorful, Dustin."

     "Thank you, that's what I'm here for," he replied in a mocking tone on his way to the kitchen.

     "Oh, there you are, honey," Joyce said from the stove as she juggled several pots and pans, only able to cast a short glance over her shoulder. "Could you grab everyone from the backyard? Dinner's nearly ready to go."

     Two days. Two days since the kids ran screaming through the safe house in the middle of the night, "She's alive! Tatum's alive!"

     Two days of no new information. Two days without confirmation.

     Dustin stepped just out of the kitchen to crane open the door to the porch. "Dinner time, ladies and gents!" he called, barely able to spot the cluster laid out on blankets under the stars in the backyard.

     "Does anyone want a coffee?" Elena asked as she rounded into the kitchen from the living room. The bags under her eyes seemed to get worse everyday but there was always a smile present for the kids. She ruffled Dustin's hair as she passed. "Or a tea?"

     "One for me," Ben requested as he ducked through the back door with Nina in tow. "One for Nina, I'm trying to culture her."

     "Meaning he forces me to drink tea at least once a day," the tiny brunette added as she plopped down at the dinner table. "And I've been telling you I don't like it for at least three months."

     Elena laughed softly as she poured boiling water between three mugs, little tags poking over the rim of the assorted colors. "Give it a year."

     Nina whined, resting her chin in her palm as she tracked the flow of new occupants.

     Max plucked a leaf from her hair, regarding it distastefully before throwing it back out the door and sealing it behind her. Last to enter the kitchen, she squeezed in next to Lucas at the table. "Isn't tea just leaf juice?" she asked.

     "And coffee is bean juice," added Lucas.

     Elena set two mugs down in front of Ben and Nina with a grin. "And what's in cola is much worse."

     Lucas let out a sound of disbelief as he waved his hand. New Coke would always be his baby.

     Joyce's eyes narrowed as she did a head count of the room, an absent finger bouncing between them all. "We're still missing some."