Hell on Earth

Chapter Eighty One - The Upside Down

"STEVE!" Cynthia screeched. She couldn't tear her eyes off the spot where Steve just was. She looked over just in time to watch Nancy dive in. Cynthia stood up and took a few deep breaths. She looked down at the water. She felt someone grab her arm. Cynthia looked back and saw Eddie holding onto her.

"Let me go, Eddie," Cynthia tried to tear her arm out of Eddie's grasp.

"You can't be serious in going down there?" Eddie asked with a look of disbelief.

"I'm not leaving Steve down there," Cynthia ripped her arm out of Eddie's grasp. "And I'm not going to leave my friends in danger."

Cynthia took a deep breath before diving into the water. She swam down after Nancy. After a few moments, she saw Robin and even Eddie in the water next to her. They all swam down to the gate. Cynthia really hoped that she had enough air. Her eyes widened when she saw the gate at the bottom of the lake. It looked exactly like she had imagined, but it was still unsettling. They swam through the gate. Cynthia took a deep breath as she crawled into the Upside Down. She was soaked and it was cold, but she was alive. She looked to her left and right and saw that Robin, Nancy, and Eddie were having similar feelings. Cynthia heard screams and grunts of pain. Her head whipped towards the sound. Steve was being held down and eaten alive by bats without a face.

They took off and grabbed the oars from the abandoned boat. They started to try and tear the bats off of Steve. Cynthia took the oar and smashed it over the one holding its tail around Steve's neck. It let go but came right at her.

"Shit," Cynthia cursed. She did her best to beat the creature away. Eddie came to her side and swatted the bat away from her. The bats were swarming them, but there were only a few. Cynthia looked over when she heard Nancy scream. She wanted to rush over and get the bat off of Nancy's head, but Robin seemed to have a handle on that. Steve took the last bat and literally beat it against the ground. Cynthia dropped the oar and hugged Steve.

"JESUS H. CHRIST!" Eddie threw down his oar.

"Oh my god," Cynthia let go of Steve when she heard him wince. "I thought we lost you."

"Are you okay?" Nancy asked.

"Well, they took about a pound of flesh," Steve said. Cynthia's eyes were drawn to the wounds on Steve's sides. They looked rough. "But other than that, yeah, never better."

"Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?" Robin asked.

"What?" Nancy asked.

"It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear," Robin started to ramble. "And I think we should get you to a doctor soon because once symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already dead."

"Robin, you do realize that we're stuck in an alternate dimension where the bats have no faces," Cynthia raised an eyebrow. "How are we suppose to get him to a doctor?"

Before anyone could say anything, a sound came from behind them. They all turned and saw some more of the bat creatures flying towards them.

"All right. There's not that many. We can take them," Steve said. "Right?"

A shit ton more bats appeared on the horizon.

"You were saying?" Nancy said.

"The woods," Steve said. "Come on."

They all started to run to the dead woods. Cynthia couldn't believe that she was actually in the Upside Down. This was the stuff of her literal nightmares.

"Great," Eddie grumbled. "More running."

They got into the woods and were able to slow down running. Cynthia grabbed at the necklaces around her neck and started to mess with them. Her eyes kept darting to the space between the trees. She had had too many encounters with the creatures that lived here in her world: Cynthia didn't want to know what they were like with a home-field advantage. She was broken out of her looking to the horizon by the sound of Steve.