The New Girl || Steve Harrington

Chapter 23 - The Upside Down

Steve's POV
Eddie climbed up onto Skull Rock to see everything that was surrounding us and looked back at us.

"So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and other nasty stuff?" Eddie asked. Quinn nodded.

"Pretty much," she replied as she helped me up. Just as Eddie was about to move, Quinn stopped him. "Wait! Don't step on the vines! It's all a hive mind!"

"It's all a what?!" Eddie shouted.

"All the creepy crawlies around here. They're, like, one or something. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna." I explained as I played around with the bandage around my waist. Eddie nodded.

"But everything from our world is still here, right? Besides people," Robin asked. Quinn nodded.

"As far as we know, yeah."

"So, theoretically, we could go to the police station, and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate." Robin explained.

"I highly doubt that Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But, guns. Yeah, yeah." I muttered.

"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown to get guns," Quinn said. I frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Nancy has guns in her bedroom. She told me about them," Quinn replied with a shrug.

"Nancy Wheeler has guns, plural, in her bedroom," Eddie asked. Quinn nodded.

"Yeah. She has them for emergencies,"

"Nancy's full of surprises, isn't she?" Robin added.

"A Russian Makarov and a revolver," Quinn listed. I nodded.

"Yeah, she almost shot me with that one."

"You probably deserved it," Quinn said casually. I looked into Quinn's eyes and smiled as I looked at her.

Suddenly, Eddie chucked something at me. On closer inspection, I saw that it was his vest.

"For your modesty, dude." he muttered, nodding towards the vest to tell me to put it on.

Just then, the ground began to shake and we all fell to the ground. I wrapped my arm around Quinn's waist and pulled her underneath Skull Rock. A loud roar could be heard as the ground shook.

"Yeah so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me," Eddie said. Robin nodded.

"Yeah. Me too,"

"So what are we waiting for?" Eddie asked.

I flicked on my flashlight and began to walk forward, starting our trek to the Wheeler's house.

*

"Couldn't we have taken a road or something? Something slightly less creepy," Robin said as we walked through the forest.

"I think we're getting close. We're almost out of here," Quinn assured Robin.

I walked up to Eddie and tried to get his attention.

"Eddie! Eddie! Hey man, uh, listen I just wanna say thanks. For saving me back there,"

"Nah. You saved yourself, man. I mean, that was a real Ozzie move you pulled back there." Eddie replied. I frowned.

"Ozzie?"

"When you took a bite out of that bat, Ozzie Osborne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat's head off on stage." Eddie tried to explain but I still didn't know what he was talking about. "No? Doesn't matter. It was very heavy metal what you did back there, that's all I'm saying."