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Anxious silence buzzed through the atmosphere beside the crickets and cicadas, they chirped quietly, unknown to the horrors that laid less than a mile away in the Hawkins Lab. Shrieks and roars could be heard from the imposing building, even so far, they echoed through the forest and from the train tracks, the group followed despite the world giving them every reason not to.
Gen tried to ignore the children in front of her, she really did, head down and focused solely on the gravel that crunched beneath their feet; but everytime she looked up she was reminded that they were terrified. Similar to the grave look on Steve's face as he stared straight ahead, brows furrowed in a stoney expression that no one dared comment on. The damp, now-crimson jacket Gen had shrugged off previously was pulled back over her arms and left unzipped, just in case she needed to yank it off in a pinch. Anxiety was an unfamiliar feeling for her and she hated it.
Her brain racked the urge to find the heart to say that it was okay. Because it wasn't. It wasn't okay and they weren't stupid enough to think that it was, so any bullshit attempt at comforting words would come out stiff. Ingenuine. Something that plagued Gen often whenever she tried to offer a false sense of warmth and empathy to anyone, so she kept glancing from her Demo-gut covered shoes to Steve and back downwards, waiting for him to make a witty comment.
He didn't say anything.
Perturbed, she averted her gaze for the hundredth time, words of an oncoming pep talk caught in her throat, a dull—we can do this, team!—hung heavy on the tip of her tongue. Gen pressed her lips together in thought; whenever she got up in her own head she would workout, or punch something, or... make music. With the band. She glanced at Lucas, then Max, then Dustin and Steve, promptly clearing her throat in preparation for quite possibly the stupidest thing she had ever done. (She did a lot of stupid things.).
A few of them turned their heads, unsure if it was the type of throat-clearing that wanted to garner attention, or simply because she had an uncomfortable glob stuck and it was bothering her. Gen glanced up at them and rubbed her neck, "So, uh."
