ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʟᴀꜱᴛꜱ ꜰᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ ☆ ꜱᴛᴇᴠᴇ ʜᴀʀʀɪɴɢᴛᴏɴ

035.

[1984]
035. his army

Steve wrapped his arm around Annie's waist, hand resting on her hip, careful not hurt her. Annabelle leant into him, arm round his shoulder as he helped her to the kitchen. Annie was still slightly weak, dizzy from the little of sleep, food and blood loss.

"Oh, shit!" Dustin voiced, surprised. The group of kids rushed over to the pair, eyes wide. "Hey, give her room." Steve advised as Annie rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm fine." Her voice horse. She waved the worried kids off with a smile before Steve helped her sit on a seat beside Max . "I'll, uh, get you water. Please be careful." Steve walked to the kitchen sink while Dustin sat beside her and Mike stood on her other side.

"What happened?" Dustin quickly voiced.

The kids all looked at her panicked, "When we rolled over the car, either something hurt me or the demo-dog after." She shrugged.

"Shit." Dustin scoffed. Annie put a hand on her arm and smiled to him. "I'm fine. I'm very much capable of being Gwen Stacy." She laughed.

"Gwen Stacy? You read comics?" Max sat up, bright eyes as she looked the Annabelle. "Yeah. The party came up with the name." The red haired girl's smile dropped slightly and the older teen saw the look in Mike's eye. "Mike?"

The boy scoffed and absentmindedly moved closer to Annie. "We already have a marge. We don't need another." He mumbled and Annie chuckled, moving her hand to rub his shoulder comfortingly.

"No one will ever replace El, but someone else might not do any harm." Annie whispered closer to Mike. "You had El, Dust and Lucas and Will never really was as close. Maybe Max might like one of them. And It'll be good for El, when she comes back." She reassured him. Yes, Annie knew that the possibility of Eleven alive was slim, but Mike needed that positive and Annie would rather him have hope right now, then not.

"Yeah..." Mike had a small smile on his lips and wrapped his arms around Annie, being careful of her injury. "I'm glad your safe." Mike mumbled to her just as Steve came over. "Careful." The older boy warned. Mike rolled his eyes and walked away, his eyes on something in the distance.

"It's okay, Steve." Annie smiled to him, taking the glass of water. Steve leant on the wall behind her, his gaze between the blonde and the kids and then sometimes Nancy.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Mike voiced

Lucas looked to the boy who was off on his own, "Really?"

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fun-raiser for equipment." Mike spoke, "Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah." Dustin, Lucas and Annie all said as Mike placed a blue box to the table. "We can't let him die in vain." Mike protested. Annie and Steve were quick to share a look. They're just kids. They're too young for this.

"What do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin shot back, "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."

"Demo-dogs?" Max questioned.

Dustin looked to her puzzled, "Demogorgon Dogs. Demo-dogs." He gestured to combining the two. "It's like a compound. It's like a play on words-"

"Okay." Max cut him off. Annie patted Dustin's shoulder, sending him a small smile to know she understood it. "I mean, when it was just dart, maybe..."

"But now there's an army. Me and Steve barely got through them. Four of us nearly died with just one Demogorgon." Annie added, tapping her fingers against the table.