Chapter Text
'Dustin!' Steve shrieked. He literally shrieked. And Dustin couldn't remember if he'd ever heard Steve call him by his first name before. It must be real bad, was the only thought manifesting in his brain, vaguely, through the thick haze of numbness that had fallen over him since Eddie had choked out his last breath in Dustin's lap.
'Dustin, what happened?!'
He looked up, blinking away the tears in his eyes. Steve was running toward where Dustin was sitting, with the others following a few steps behind him, and dropped himself down on his knees when he reached him.
'I couldn't – ' I couldn't save him, Steve. He couldn't say those words out loud.
'Come on, we gotta get him to the hospital.'
'Steve...'
Dustin saw how Steve refused to look into Eddie's empty, staring eyes.
'We'll fix him, Henderson. Come on, let's go, no time to waste.' And without another word, Steve lifted Eddie's body from his lap, grunting, and positioned it – him – over his shoulders. Slightly staggering, he started walking back to the gate.
Someone's hands pulled Dustin up from the murky ground. It was Nancy, he saw when he looked up, deadly pale and her eyes opened wide in shock.
A sudden scream made them jump up in a fright, but there wasn't any new danger around; the scream had been Steve's, while he dropped Eddie's body onto the ground like it was burning him.
Nancy grabbed Dustin's shoulders again, pulling him back a few steps, as they watched how Eddie's body started trembling and twitching uncontrollably, like someone was giving him electric shocks.
'What is happening...?' Robin's voice mumbled behind Dustin.