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Dustin wasn’t quite sure how he got here, but it was cold and dark and bright sparks of pain burst behind his eyelids.
He couldn’t feel his right leg, but he could wiggle his toes on both feet, so it can’t have been too bad. The worst things happen when you can’t wiggle your toes. There was a weight pressing down on his chest, restricting his breathing, but he could still breathe, which in itself was a small blessing. He wasn’t the tallest kid, so he was able to fit in the tight space with a fair amount of wiggle room, but if he shifted the wrong way, his head would knock against something and the rumble of tumbling rocks would fall by his ear.
There was the sizzling of a fried circuit board and static from somewhere to his left, and he dimly remembered that he had his radio in his back pocket. Straining his eyes, he caught sight of it, broken and busted beyond repair, faint sparks jumping from frayed wire to frayed wire.
His bike would be around here somewhere, underneath the rubble, crushed and destroyed under hundreds of pounds of rocks, if that’s how many rocks he was actually under. He wasn’t all that sure. He couldn’t think straight, otherwise, he would be occupying his time by doing the math.
It was cold. Really cold. He was on his way to Mike’s when it happened- whatever that was- and all he remembered was hoping that he didn’t get caught in the rain as the dark storm clouds began to stretch across the bright, afternoon sky.
He hurt. He really, really hurt, his bones felt splintered and his body was crushed and every time he moved he felt like screaming at the pain that rocked through his body like a lightning bolt.
Somewhere deep beneath the pain was pure, intangible panic that Dustin could feel bubbling up in his throat. Nobody knew where he was. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone for. His mother probably wouldn’t be home from work; Mike hadn’t known that he was coming over, nobody had any reason to believe that he wasn’t still at home, craving some alone time. He was stuck down here, with no help from anyone else and nothing but his own wits to try and survive.
Maybe he could lift it and pull his limbs free from his crushing pile of rocks? His leg was starting to go numb, anyway, and surely he couldn’t be buried too deeply if there were still air and a decent amount of space in his little cavern. He tried to shift his leg and hope that the rock would tumble off of it and he would be able to push his way to safety. Instead, a pain so intense that Dustin couldn’t breathe rocked through his whole body and for a good minute, he felt like he was drowning in it.
Sleep sounded good. Sleep sounded really good.
Dustin had no idea how long he had been down there for, but when he woke up, he was lightheaded and sticky and his trapped leg was getting number but while he could still move his toes, it was getting harder to do so, and also- was that light?
He heard his name, panicked and hopeful, and he didn’t even have the energy left to call out. Hands broke through rocks, pulling them away and burrowing deeper towards where Dustin had no choice but to lay prone, and then a blindingly bright light was shone into his eyes and he had to look away. When he blinked the spots out of his eyes, he recognised a familiar head of hair, a familiar face with a worried look, familiar hands grabbing for him and lifting his limp body out of the hole.
Steve held the torch between his teeth, his fingers bleeding and dirt caked under his nails, and for a moment he looked Dustin over as if checking to make sure that his eyes were still in his head. “Hey, Dustin, are you alright? Can you hear me?”
“You…” Dustin’s voice hurt. He could hardly make sense of what he was seeing. “You found me?”
“Yeah man, yeah, I did. I mean, really, El did, but I’m here now and- Dustin? Dustin?”
His hold was so gentle and his fingers so soft against Dustin’s skin that he had no choice but to fall asleep again wrapped up in the comforting embrace of Steve’s arms.
When Dustin opened his eyes again, he was staring at a ceiling, and he was wrapped in soft fluffy blankets he hadn’t expected. He was on a bed, that was certain, and he was under so many comforters and doonas that he could hardly breathe. But this was a good crushing weight- nothing like the suffocating of rocks on his chest, and one he wouldn’t trade for the world.
He almost fell asleep again, wrapped up in the warmth, but he heard arguing from downstairs, loud and angry, and he tried to decipher whose voices he was hearing. Mike’s maybe, and Lucas’s high-pitched screaming. Was that Joyce? And Nancy? Wait, where was Steve?
There was water running to his left and Dustin groaned as he moved his head to glance at the connected bathroom, the door wide open and too-bright light spilling out into the darkened room. Dustin then realized that he basically looked like a mummy straight out of some horror movie- most of his body was wrapped head to toe in scratchy white bandages, some of them stained red with blood, most of them wrapped in places they weren’t needed but he appreciated the sentiment.
The tap was turned off with a rusted squeak and Dustin heard muttered swearing as water sloshed out of the sink and onto the floor. He waited for whoever it was to exit the bathroom, and was pleasantly surprised to see Steve, juggling a wet towel in his hands and trying not to let it drip onto the carpet at the same time, too pre-occupied to notice Dustin staring right at him. He waited for Steve to sit down before he spoke. “Hey,”
It was a good thing that Dustin had waited for him to sit because Steve jumped so high that his head might as well have hit the ceiling, the towel flopping around in his lap and he scrambled to grab it. “Ah- Dustin. Hi. How- how are you feeling?”
“Like I got hit by a bus,” Dustin said weakly. His voice was pretty raw and it hurt to speak and every word he spoke was pure exhaustion. “I think even my bruises have bruises.”
“Yeah?” Steve sounded sympathetic, not at all what Dustin was expecting. “Well, you were under a whole heap of rocks, so I wouldn’t expect anything less. I’m surprised you’re still in one piece. I was worried that I would have to cut you out of there.”
Dustin looked at him for the first time, really looked at him with decent lighting and everything, and realized just how tired the older man was. His face was pinched, his eyes sunken, and he looked like he was trying to put on a brave face. “It was really bad, wasn’t it?”
Gulping, Steve looked down, away from Dustin’s face. “Uh- yeah. It wasn’t looking good.”
“But you came for me. I didn’t think that anyone would come for me.”
“Dude- are you fucking with me?” Steve looked like he was about to fall off the side of the bed. “Of course we were searching for you! Why wouldn’t I come? You think I like my friend torn into itty-bitty pieces by a demo-dog?”
“No, it’s just that, I didn’t tell anyone where I was. Nobody knew I was coming over,” Dustin said. “I didn’t think that anyone would even know I was missing let alone know where I was and what happened. Which, I actually still don’t know what happened, so you can’t blame me for not expecting other people to know.”
Steve placed his hand gingerly on Dustin’s shoulder just in case he was hurt in more places than Steve was aware of, but Dustin didn’t react other than to lean into the touch. “Well, when we realized that nobody had seen you and that we couldn’t call you on your walkie-talkie thing, El went looking for you. You know, in that freaky spy shit that she does. She saw the demo-dog run you into the cavern and then crash the rocks on top of you, so she sent us out in different directions from the place she saw. I don’t really understand it. Anyway, the important thing is that I found you before something much worse did.” He squeezed Dustin’s shoulder gently. “We would never just… let you disappear off the face of the earth. You know that, right?”
Squinting, Dustin looked away from Steve’s too-open face and glanced around the room. “Uh… who’s house am I in?”
“Mine,” Steve said, apparently happy to change the subject. “My room too, actually, now that you mention it. My parents are away and we thought that my house was the biggest, so it could fit the most amount of people. We were all really worried about you- everyone’s here.”
Dustin felt like an iron rod had been driven down his spine “Fuck- my mum! I have to call my mum, she doesn’t know that I even left the house, she’s going to freak out-”
“Hold up there, cowboy,” Steve pushed Dustin back down against the pillows with a gentle yet firm hand. “It’s alright, she knows. Hopper’s on the phone with her downstairs as we speak. She’s already said that you can spend the night here and knows what happened. We didn’t mention anything about the demo-dog, though. She knows.”
Reassured, Dustin leant back against the pillows and closed his eyes. He was so, so tired. “Oh,” he said. “Sorry about getting blood on your sheets.”
Steve snorted. “It’s fine. With our line of work, I’ve had to learn how to wash blood out of fabric and let me tell you, it involves lots of bleach.” He looked at Dustin considerably for a moment. “It’s a good thing you’re missing most of your bones. I don’t know how anyone else would have survived being squished into such a tiny space like that.” He said in the nicest way possible.
“I guess it does have its perks,” Dustin laughed and oh, it even hurt to laugh. “like not being worried if the rocks took out any of my teeth.”
Remembering that he had a sodden towel in his lap, Steve started to use it wipe away some of the dried blood off of Dustin’s skin and clothes that Dustin hadn’t even realized was there. “You know that I was going to come for you no matter what, right?” He said suddenly and Dustin looked at him strangely. “I don’t care if I was bleeding out and missing most of my limbs, I would have found you. I mean, what would I do without my favourite demon-hunting buddy, huh?”
Dustin didn’t have a chance to reply because there suddenly were voices arguing outside the bedroom door that was immediately hushed by someone, and then it became whisper-shouting at each other as someone turned the doorknob and walked in. Dustin felt a rush of joy at seeing all his friends, and realizing that he was no longer asleep, they all dropped their façade of being quiet. “Oh thank god,” Mike exclaimed as he rushed forward, the others hot on his heels. “Are you alright?”
“I’m alive,” Dustin laughed although he didn’t really feel like it. He slapped Lucas lightly on the chest. Jokily, he said. “No thanks to you. Why didn’t you tell me that there was a demo-dog population in that area?”
“Because we didn’t know about any demo-anything in that area. Why in the world would a bunch of demon creatures take refuge in the woods?” Lucas said, but he seemed more relieved that Dustin was alright than anything else. “What about you? Why didn’t you tell us you were coming over?”
Max kicked him in the shin. “Lower your voice.” She murmured. “He just woke up.”
It was Will who interrupted, holding his elbows and basically trying to disappear. He looked at Dustin like he was afraid that he would never see him again. “I’m really glad that you’re alright,” he said quietly. “We all are. We were really worried that… we would lose you.”
The room turned sombre, even Steve put his head down, and Dustin did the only thing he could think of to lighten the mood. He laughed so hard that he had to clutch at himself to make the pain bearable, but it was worth it because everyone else began to laugh with him, even El, who looked like she had no idea why they were laughing. “Are you kidding? It takes more than a couple of rocks and a demo-dog to get rid of me. You guys are stuck with me for a long time!”
El leapt onto the bed and wrapped her arms around Dustin’s shoulders, making him wince and hold back a squeak of pain. She burrowed her head into his shoulder and he rubbed her on the back. “Was worried,” she said. Her voice was muffled so she looked up and rested her chin on his chest. “You’re… ok?”
“Yeah El,” Dustin laughed. “I’m all good. I’ve still got my good looks, so I say that’s a win.”
“And your winning personality,” Mike snorted as Max moved forward and gingerly began to pry El away from Dustin, who let her go with both reluctance and gratitude. The contact was nice but damn, it hurt. Max smiled sheepishly at him as El clung to her instead. “We’re really glad you’re alright, man. We wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Dustin rolled his eyes. “Of course you wouldn’t. You assholes need me.”
“Man, we need you like we need a Demogorgon as a nanny,” Lucas joked and behind him, Will snickered. “But yeah- we would have missed your ugly mug like crazy.”
“You’d all be lost without me, what are you talking about?” Dustin said and felt a pure sense of pride at the way he made all his friends laugh. It was almost as if he wasn’t buried under a pile of rubble a few hours ago. “Who’s downstairs?”
“All the adults,” Max said. “Hopper, Joyce, Nancy, Johnathan. Everyone came to make sure you were alright. They’ve been here for almost as long as we have. Hopper and Joyce actually left work early to come down here.”
Yawning, Dustin leant back against the pillow’s and felt himself sinking deeper into the warm embrace of sleep. He ached so much, and he was so tired, it took everything he had to keep his eyes open. “Well, everyone loves me. I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
Steve seemed to notice how tired Dustin was and immediately changed, sitting up straighter and turning his expression stern. “Alright, that’s enough. Get your asses out of here and let him get some rest. No- don’t argue, you can come back and see him later.”
Dustin watched all his friends leave one by one before turning to Steve, who had now stood up and held the wet, bloodied towel in his hands. “Thanks, Steve.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Steve reached over and ruffled Dustin’s hair affectionately. “Get some rest. We’ll be downstairs if you need us.”
And then Dustin was left alone to sleep and sleep very soundly he did.