Chapter Text
Eddie Munson could still hear Dustin Henderson's desperate screams as he ran out of the trailer, directly into the swarm of bats. He wasn't going to run anymore, he was going to fight and protect his friends. He picked a bicycle off of the ground, getting on and pedaling away as fast as he could. He pedaled for as long as he could, what felt like hours, dodging bats as they dove towards him. A bat dove into his shield, finally knocking Eddie to the ground. Eddie didn't give up, he kept running. He couldn't give up, he had to be the distraction so the rest of the group could kill Vecna. Eddie tripped on a vine, sending him directly into the ground. He picked himself back up, but he wasn't quick enough. The bats were surrounding him, flying in a circle with Eddie in the middle. They dove at him one by one, and Eddie fought them off with his makeshift spear. They kept diving at him, and Eddie fought off as many as he could before one of the bats wrapped its tail around Eddie's neck, pulling him to the ground. He still tried to fight them off, waving his spear desperately in front of him, but the bats quickly immobilized all of his limbs and dug their teeth into his stomach. He screamed in pain, desperately trying to fight out of their grasp, his strength depleting. The bats were on his entire body, feeding on him. He was going to die.
He gasped for breath, surprised when it came. The bat that had it's tail around Eddie's neck was gone, somehow. His eyesight was blurry with tears, but he saw a figure swinging something at the bats. The figure swung the weapon towards Eddie. He shut his eyes out of habit, hearing a series of wet cracking noises too close to his body for his comfort. Next thing he knew, someone was grabbing onto his hand and pulling him to his feet, pressing the discarded spear back into his hand.
"Don't die on me, Munson. Henderson will never forgive me if you die on my watch." Eddie recognized the voice talking to him, but it couldn't possibly be true. He blinked tears out of his eyes, looking at his rescuer.
"Harrington?" Steve Harrington was here, saving Eddie from a swarm of bats that were now diving down towards them again.
"Yeah, it's me, now help me fight these things off or we're both going to die here." Steve didn't have to tell him again. Eddie swung his spear at the nearest bat, picking his shield off of the ground and using it to hit another bat. The two soon ended up back-to-back, fighting the bats off to the best of their ability. The bats dove in again, not giving up. Eddie felt a tail wrap around his foot, not having enough time to react before it dragged him to the ground, quickly joined by even more bats wrapping onto Eddie's limbs. He heard Steve yelling, Eddie looked over just in time to see him being dragged to the ground by the bats as well. The two of them writhed on the ground, trying to fight off the bats that were using them as dinner. Both of them screamed in pain, writhing desperately, before everything stopped.
Eddie and Steve lay on the floor of the upside down, feet away from each other. They caught their breath, looking around frantically. The bats were dropping from the sky, dead. Eddie pushed himself up, gasping for breath, and crawled over to Steve.
"Hey, Harrington, you alive?" Steve coughed up blood in response, groaning.
"Not for long if we don't get out of here. There should be a gate where Fred Benson died, it's about half a mile down the road. We need to get there, now." Steve coughed again, blood staining his bottom lip and dripping down from a gash near his eye. Eddie pushed what was left of Steve's shirt out of the way, revealing a bloody mess of flesh.
"Fuck, you look shittier than I do, Harrington." Eddie slowly got to his feet, holding his hand out for Steve. "But you're right, we have to go." Steve took Eddie's hand, letting himself be pulled to his feet. They wrapped their arms around each other, steady enough so neither of them fell over.
"How did you know to save me? Why are you even here?" Eddie asked as they started walking.
"Henderson radioed me, you made that kid cry. Kid literally begged me to help you, said he saw you running down the road towards the Creel house. You're lucky the Creel house isn't that far from the trailer park."
"I guess I'll have to apologize to Henderson then."
"I think staying alive will be enough of an apology for him, he's a good kid. He looks up to you, Munson. Wouldn't stop talking about you every time he was in my car." Eddie turned his head towards Steve in disbelief.
"No chance. Henderson has interrupted my campaigns to talk about how cool you are. He literally begged me to give his character a bat with nails in it because of you. Had no idea why you had a bat with nails in it until now, but I let him have it." Steve chuckled, looking back at Eddie. They continued sharing stories about Henderson until they reached the gate, just big enough for a person to fit through. Steve knelt down, pushing a hand holding a radio through the gate. The radio crackled as Steve pressed the button.
"Henderson, it's me. We're coming out of Fred Benson's gate in the street. Over." Steve would've radioed the kid much earlier, but Dustin had to stand on a chair in order to put his hand through the gate so the walkie would reach Steve. The walkie talkies were usually very reliable, unless you were trying to contact someone from one dimension to another. They only worked if both radios were in the upside down, or both in the real world.
"Steve! Thank god. Is Eddie with you? Over." Dustin's voice was muffled by the portal, but still understandable.
"Yeah, he's here. See you soon, kid. Over." Steve pulled his hand back into the upside down, shoving the radio into his vest pocket.
"I'll go first then I'll help pull you through." Eddie told Steve, already putting his hands through the gate before Steve could argue. He went through head first, grabbing onto the street on the other side and pulling himself through. The street was blocked off by the government, so he didn't need to worry about cars. As soon as he was through, Steve's hand reached through the gate. Eddie grabbed hold, pulling Steve through until the two of them laid side-by-side on the street, bloody and panting. They looked over at each other, a weak smile flashing across both of their faces before the world turned dark.