chapter xviii .
petty theft
"THE HELL'S A WAR ZONE?" Val muttered, gazing warily at the newspaper clipping Eddie had thrown onto the table. The rest of them circled around it and stared down at the ad, curious. Val gave Eddie a dubious glance. "You've been here?"
"Long story," he replied. "But it's huge. They got everything you need for, uh..."
"...taking down an evil demon from another dimension," Mason supplied.
"Yeah, basically."
"Do you think fake Rambo has enough guns there?" Robin scoffed, gesturing to the man in the center of the ad, who was swinging around a bunch of different kinds of guns. "Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?"
"Well, lucky for us, it is," Eddie said mock-cheerfully. "This place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh... angry hicks."
"If we're trying to avoid angry hicks," Erica interrupted, "maybe we shouldn't go to some store called The War Zone."
Val nodded. "I'm with the kid on this one."
"Normally, I'd agree," Nancy shrugged, "but we need the weapons. I think it's worth the risk."
"Yeah, but is it worth the time?" Dustin wondered. He sucked his teeth. "It'll take all day to bike there and back."
Eddie smiled. "Who said anything about bikes?"
Steve raised his eyebrows curiously. "What, you got some car we don't know about?"
"Well.." Eddie stood, shrugging innocently. "It's not exactly a car, Steve. And it's not exactly mine, but, uh... it'll do."
"Oh, great," Val said, rolling her eyes and walking to stand towards the back with Max. "More petty crimes."
"Yeah, this one's not exactly petty." Eddie smiled. "Hey, Red, you got a ski mask or a bandanna, something like that?"
"NOT EXACTLY A SKI MASK," Val hummed, "but it'll do. C'mere."
Eddie held his head still in front of her as she lifted the Michael Myers mask above him, then placed it over his face like a christening. She scowled.
"I hate horror movies," she muttered.
"How good do I look?" he asked, his voice reverberating around inside the mask. "Scale of one to ten."
"I'm not answering that."
"C'mon. You know I look good."
"You look stupid."
"But hot-stupid."
She simpered. "No comment."
"Come on," he said, dragging out the last syllable. "Admit it: You think this is hot."
She bit back a smile, rolling her eyes at him. "I'm not admitting shit. Now let's go; we have things to do. Guns to buy. Demons to kill. ...The usual."
"The usual," Eddie agreed, his eyes crinkling beneath the mask.
The pair of them headed back towards the rest of the group. Max had a self-satisfied smile on her face. Robin looked like she was trying not to laugh—and failing. Mason gave Val an open-mouthed stare, like he couldn't believe she was friends with this guy.
