There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

SEVENTY ONE

The Nina Project

"Hey, Dustin, this is Eddie the Banished. You there?" Eddie's voice called through the walkie-talkie.

Cat groaned at the noise, squeezing her eyes shut as she buried her face in Steve's chest. She willed for the radio to turn itself off, or for Eddie to just simply stop talking. It wasn't that Cat disliked the guy, but she wasn't in the mood to be woken up so early by his voice crackling through the radio. She had barely had any sleep, her mind being plagued by nightmares and old memories on repeat. Steve had stayed up with her for the most part to try and comfort her, but even he had eventually fallen asleep on the chair they had curled up in together.

"Dustin, can you hear me?" Eddie's voice sounded again. "Dustin? Earth to Dustin."

Cat let out a sigh, gently climbing over Steve and off the chair. She tiptoed over Nancy, the girl only just waking up herself. Cat picked up the walkie-talkie and pushed up the antenna. "Morning, Munson." Cat greeted, pushing back a yawn.

"Ah, Henderson! Hey." Eddie replied. "Morning to you, too."

Cat rubbed a hand over her eyes, trying to keep them open so she could find out what Eddie's emergency was. "Is something wrong?" She asked, slightly worried that something had happened. "Like, has something bad happened?"

Eddie shook his head as he paced the room in Rick's house. "No, nothing's happened Henderson."

"Then what do you want?" Cat sighed, sharing a slightly irritated look with Nancy. It was far too early for them to be dealing with this.

"Uh, well, I'm gonna need a food delivery, like, really soon." Eddie told her. "Unless you want me going out into the world."

"No. No, no, no." Cat shook her head as she spoke. "That would be a really stupid thing to do, Munson. Don't." She paused, closing her eyes for a second while she collected her thoughts. "Just, stay where you are. We'll be over as soon as we can."

"Couldn't you like, I dunno, teleport here or something?" Eddie shrugged. "Don't you have like, weird powers or some shit?"

Cat let out a deep sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, I have powers. But I can't just teleport to your hide-out. That's not how it works. Besides, I don't even think I can teleport."

"Fine, fine. Was just a question, Henderson." Cat moved to switch off her brother's radio, but paused when Eddie spoke again. "Look, could you, um... can you maybe pick me up a six-pack? Please?" He asked. "I know, it's stupid as shit, drinking right now, but uh... But a cold beer would really calm my jangled nerves."

Nancy looked around the basement, her face falling when she spotted the couch was empty. She tapped Cat's arm, worried that Max had gone missing while they were all asleep. Nancy took the walkie-talkie from Cat's hand, speaking into it quickly. "Hey, we're gonna have to call you back." She pushed the antenna back down and switched off the radio.