Alex watched as Max and everyone else walked away from him, except for Mike. Mike pressed the cloth on his wound, and he flinched, but it didn't hurt as bad. He grabbed a paper towel and licked it, putting up to Alex's nose and wiping away the blood. Alex smiled, taking his hand in his as they waited for everyone to come back.
"I know this is going to sound crazy, but," he paused, sighing to look at his hand. "I'm so happy I moved here. I'm sure Justin is too, no matter how insane all of this is." He laughed, wiping a tear away.
"I'm happy that you moved here too," Mike said, switching out the cloth for a clean one. "I know this is all so strange, but-"
"Weirdly, it's not. It's really not. And, something else. Even though it's crazy, it feels right when I'm fighting him. It just feels like it's something that I'm supposed to do." He said. Mike smiled at him, lifting his chin to kiss him. There was a soft static noise coming from the walkie, but Mike ignored it, twirling his fingers around the hair on Alex's neck. The walkie continued to make static noises, until a voice could be heard. Neither of them knew who it was or understood what they were saying until the voice became more clear.
"Mike, do you copy, this is a code red, do you copy?" Came the static voice of Dustin. Alex moved Mike's hand and pressed down on the wound, watching as he scooted quickly over to the walkie and grabbing it. He pulled up the wire, pressing the mic and saying,
"Dustin?" He said frantically.
"Mike?" Dustin said in the same tone of voice as Mike.
"Dustin!"
"Mike!" He said happily. Then he started talking really quickly and it started to become much more static.
"Dustin, you're talking too fast I can't understand you," Mike said, but apparently Dustin didn't hear him as he continued his rushed talking. "Dustin, slow down!" He said, but again, Dustin didn't hear him. "Dustin, you're cutting out." He said, putting the walkie to his ear as Alex moved closer to him.
"Mike?" Dustin said, almost inaudible.
"Dustin, you there?" He said. There were some static noises as he shouted. "Dustin!"
"What is it?" Nancy asked, running up to them with Jonathan. Alex finished cleaning his wound before bandaging it and standing up. "Woah, hold on Alex." Nancy said. Alex ignored her, grabbing an American flag bandana and going to open all of the freezers, shivering as he did so. He watched as everyone crowded around him, trying to get him to slow down.
"Shut up, I know what I'm doing, I'm not delicate," he said. Everyone sat down, along with Alex who put on the bandana and thought of Dustin. It wasn't long before he found him, moving slowly towards the figure. He was sitting in a chair in what looked to be the movie theater at the mall. He tried to focus on what he was saying, but all he could hear was Mike and Lucas arguing about coke. "Hey." He said loudly, ripping off the bandana.
"Sorry," Mike said,
"Sorry." Lucas said, quickly taking another sip of the New Coke.
"Did you...find him?" Mike asked hopefully.
"Well, I couldn't fully understand what they were saying, I wonder why," he said, standing up slowly with Nancy's help. Jonathan and Justin laughed, the older covering it up as a cough. "But yes, they're at the movies at StarCourt." He said as Lucas grabbed a cart to put the fireworks in.
"The movies? Dustin is so worried about the gate that he decides to go watch a movie?" He asked incredulously, wheeling the cart towards the glass that they broke to get into the store. "Yeah, makes total sense." He said sarcastically.
"And you're positive he said gate and not great? Like, this moving I'm watching is great?" Justin asked, walking up next to Lucas.
"It sounded like gate," he said, wrapping his arm around Mike's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around his waist, holding him up.
"Which would explain how the Mind Flayer is still alive." Mike said, realization hitting them.
"Yeah, we just have to shut it again," Nancy said.
"Then the monster dies," Justin said.
"But, if not, we always have Lucas's fireworks," Max said sarcastically, helping Lucas get the cart out of the broken door.
"Keep mocking my plan, Max. Keep mocking it. I wanna hear you say it again, because you keep doubting me," he said, rolling the cart towards the car. "You keep doubting me!"
"Ridiculous," Max muttered.
"Justin," Lucas said, looking at the blonde haired boy. "We're gonna prove him wrong, right?"
"Sure we will," Justin said, helping get the fireworks in the car before getting in himself.
