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Ronnie ran out to the woods first, Steve, Robin and Nancy running after her, calling out her name. She didn't care about the vines, she just bee lined back to the trailer park, thinking of every worse case scenario that could have happened to Dustin. Her little cousin that annoyed her, bothered her, barged in her room, made her laugh, made her smile, stuck up for her. Gone. All she could think was that he was gone.
"Ronnie!" Steve called after her.
They kept running until they were at the edge of the trailer park, seeing someone on the ground holding someone. The four of them bolted towards the two people they saw, stopping abruptly as they saw Dustin on his knees holding up Eddie's lifeless and bloodied body.
"Dustin." Ronnie said, her voice almost too small to hear.
Dustin looked up with tears in his eyes still holding onto Eddie. She knew Eddie was gone, his eyes open, tears almost dried up on his face. She bent down, gently closing Eddie's eyes, and looking back up at Steve with tears in her own.
"Dustin, we gotta go." Steve initiates.
"No." Dustin refused. "I'm not leaving him."
"We have to go. Eddie's gone, and he'd want us to go." Robin added.
"What do you know what he wanted?" Dustin spit back out, holding onto Eddie tighter.
"Dustin, please." Ronnie begged her little cousin.
He looked up at her, and slowly released Eddie back onto the ground, gently taking his necklace off of his neck. Steve walked a few feet away, grabbing a blanket off of the porch from another trailer, bringing it back to cover his body.
Ronnie pulled Dustin up with her, holding onto him as he cried the entire way back to Eddie's trailer. Steve bending down on his knees with Robin, the both of them giving Dustin a boost up through the gate. Once they were all through, they left Eddie's without a word, going back to town.
"Do you want me to come back?" Steve asked Ronnie through the car window, as they were in her driveway.
Dustin already slid out the car, heading to the front door without a word.
"It's okay, I'm gonna keep an eye on him." She answered, looking back at Dustin.
He nodded at her, Robin and Nancy doing the same before he backed out of the driveway to take them home.
It was a restless night after cleaning themselves up, Ronnie forced Dustin to stay in her room with her. Making a bed out of blankets on the floor for him, making sure he knew she was there for him.
The next morning, they gathered what they could donate to the people who got hurt or lost their homes from the earthquake. Meeting at Nancy's house, they piled everything into Steve's car.
"How is he?" Steve asked quietly, pulling Ronnie closer to him, crossing his arms as he looked at Dustin.
"As expected." She exhales, he could see the worry on her face.
