Stranger Things - What If?

Too Late

Will turns away from mike for a bit and a tear falls from his eye. He tries hard not to sob. Johnathan can see will's pain from the back mirror in the truck. "The building should be on your right." Mike says looking from the map. "There's nothing out here." Johnathan says in frustration. "What if Nina is a tiny women?" Argyle says completely high. They come to an abrupt stop to look around and to make sure the map is correct. After 30 minutes of endless searching they found no clues and no signs of life. Mike gets upset. "If you guys can't find El, I will!" He storms off into the dessert. "Mike!" Will goes after Mike. "There's nothing out here, you're not gonna get anywhere wandering around." Mike looks down. "I can't just give up we need to find her!" "We will. But let's go find somewhere to stay so we can rest and try again, okay?" Mike agrees and they both go back to the truck. Johnathan drives all three of them to the nearest motel. They walk inside their dingy and dull motel room. It reeks of must, the paint on the walls are chipping off, the bathroom door can't close all the way, and the dresser is very worn down. "Look at this dudes. I haven't been in a fancy place like this in a while." Argyle says while plopping himself on the bed. "I don't know if I'd call it fancy but it's something" Jonathan sits next to argyle on the bed. "Wait, there's only two beds." Will says concerned. "Yeah, me and Argyle are sharing a bed and I assumed you could share with Mike." Jonathan explains knowing exactly what he's doing. "That's fine with me." Mike says trying to get the tv to work. "We have money, we could of just bought two rooms." Will exclaims. "Okay, but we didn't. It's not that big of a deal, is it?" "No, it's fine" Will looks down, then back up at Mike still trying to fix the tv. "Mike, I don't think the tv is gonna work." Will says trying not to laugh. "Hey, don't laugh at me, I can still try." They both start laughing and Jonathan starts to smile as he watches them get along again. It starts to get dark and everyone is exhausted. Jonathan is passed out on the bed, argyle is trying to stay up watching the tv that Mike fixed, and Mike and Will are chatting on the bed together. "Do you ever think about the past and now? Like how different we were?" Will asks Mike. Mike thinks about it. "I don't think about it normally, but yeah we've changed. I mean, not just our looks, but our relationship." "Yeah I guess our relationship hasn't really..." Will pauses and Mike looks confused, then he catches on. "Look, I know I haven't been the greatest friend. I guess I've been too focused on El, but that's not fair to you." Mike places his hands on wills hands, "I haven't been a good friend to you or anyone else. I haven't been talking to Lucas, and I stopped hanging out with Dustin out of school and clubs. I don't know why I isolated myself but it's not fair and I want to make it up to you, to everyone." Mike goes on. Will looks into mikes eyes as he talks, then he looks away knowing Mike could never love him like he loves Mike. "It's okay Mike, I understand but, I'm really tired we should get some sleep." Mike agrees and they both lay down under the covers and fall asleep together. The next morning they get up at 9am to go outside and go searching in the same place together. Jonathan drives them to the location they get outside and start to look and while they look around they see tire marks from military. Argyle tells them that they need to follow the tracks so they do. The tracks lead to a devastating scene. Blood is everywhere, around five soldiers are dead on the ground and two other people are on the ground, dead. Mike jumps out of the truck and runs to the two on the ground. Everyone else follows Mike. Mike drops to the ground and starts to sob. El and Dr. Brenner are dead. Will runs to Mike and cries along with him on his knees. Jonathan and Argyle try to comfort them both as they cry at the crime scene. A while later when will and Mike calm down they all drive back to the motel. On their way back Mike says, "we were too late...we should of got up earlier, we should of looked harder yesterday. We were too late..." no one says anything they just look down in disbelief. They get to the motel and they sit inside for the rest of the day. No one has anything to say. It was quiet the whole day besides, "can you pass that?" And "can you change the channel?" Time slowly moved to 12am and it seemed like no one moved all day. Will lays down and tries to go to bed. Mike turns his back towards Will and tries his best to fall asleep. Jonathan and Argyle fall asleep watching tv. The next morning everyone woke up late and decided to drive home. Everyone packs up and checks out of the motel. They start their journey home.

916 words not including this sorry it's so long makes up for the next chapter