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Steve walked another lap of the radio tower and bunker, rifle in hand. Dawn was finally breaking, the first signs of weak sunlight starting to appear on the horizon.
He sighed in relief at the sight of it. He’d been on watch since midnight, and it had been a cold, thankfully uneventful, but long night. Soon, he’d be relieved of his post, and could hopefully grab a few hours of undisturbed rest if nothing untoward happened.
Such as a band of roaming demodogs, or god fucking forbid a rampaging demogorgan.
The main gate into the Upside Down was heavily guarded by the military, but occasionally something slipped through, new tunnels made by demodogs popping up faster than they could be detected.
All of them were seeking El, able to somehow hone in on her like a beacon.
The bunker was a good place for them to hole up – easily defended, on a hill so they could see anything coming, and far enough away from town that any danger was drawn away from the dwindling population of Hawkins.
The Byers family, Murray, Steve and Eddie spent most of their time there now. As much as they’d tried to clear Eddie’s name nearly a year ago, he was still hated and hunted by some people in Hawkins. The Byers needed somewhere safer than Hopper’s cabin to stay, and Murray spent his days tinkering with the radio, in conversation with Dr Owens and the military about creating a signal strong enough to easily penetrate into the Upside Down.
As for Steve, well – he had nothing but a big empty house to go home to.
He’d rather be here, with those he considered family, helping to protect them.
With Eddie.
The other kids came and went, stopping by frequently to visit El and Will. They still had school to attend – their classes taking place in what remained of the school, guarded by soldiers as they tried to focus on algebra and Shakespeare while the world crumbled around them. While a large amount of the population had quickly fled after the gate had opened, a quarantine zone had soon been put in place around the outskirts of the town – no one in, and no one out.
Max was still in the hospital. Steve went to visit sometimes, and to sit with Lucas at her bedside. Her bones had healed, but she hadn’t woken up. Steve would hold her hand sometimes, catch her up on what had been happening in her absence, but he couldn’t escape the sinking feeling that she wasn’t really there anymore, that she hadn’t been for a long time. He’d glance at the letter she wrote him sometimes, tucked away in a shelf by his bed in the bunker under the radio tower.
But he wouldn’t read it yet. He wouldn’t. That was for if Max was dead, and she wasn’t.
Not yet.
Robin stopped by when she could to visit Steve, and Nancy to see Jonathan. The two of them had become fast friends, and still worked long hours together at the relief center by the school.
Steve tugged the bandana down from his mouth. The air wasn’t too bad out here, the spores and rot from the Upside Down not as thick as it was closer to the gate, and sometimes it was nice to just take a breath of unfiltered air.
“All quiet up here, Stevie?” Eddie emerged behind him, talking quietly so as not to startle him, and wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist.
“Yeah,” Steve breathed, twisting to kiss him briefly. “Why’re you up?”
Eddie buried his face into Steve’s neck. “Can’t sleep without you, you know that.”
Steve smiled, but it was sad. “I’m sorry, Eds.”
“Not your fault,” Eddie murmured. “I blame Hop for giving us opposite watches.”
“Well, there only needs to be one of us on at a time when it’s quiet…”
Eddie’s nose crinkled up in protest. “We used to be on at the same time.”
“Yeah, well, you know why Hop ended that,” Steve mumbled, cheeks reddening a little.
Eddie chuckled into his neck, his breath warming Steve’s skin. “He told me he’d rather see a demogorgan than my ‘bare-ass thighs’ again.”
Steve laughed briefly, the sound feeling strange in the heavy atmosphere.
“You coming back to bed?” Eddie asked eventually.
Steve nodded. “Yeah, just waiting for Jonathan to check in, he’s got the morning watch.”
“Gotcha.”
For a few long moments, the two of them stood and watched the sun slowly rise. Despite day breaking, the sky remained a sickly hue of greys and reds, worsening right above the town. It may have just been his imagination, his lack of sleep perhaps, but Steve could have sworn the sky looked an even bloodier-red than usual.
In the distance, several sharp cracks sounded - a brief rattle of gunfire. It wasn’t particularly unusual, but it had Steve wondering what fresh hell was crawling out of the gate now, hoped it was something the military could deal with easily.
If not, they’d be radioing Hopper and demanding he get El down there.
The walkie at Steve’s hip crackled.
“Steve, it’s Jonathan, I’ll be up there in five. Over.”
Steve brought the walkie up to his mouth and pressed the transmit button. “Copy that. Pretty quiet up here, over.”
It was Dustin that had hammered correct radio protocols into Steve. The kid had pestered him incessantly, refusing to answer his transmissions until Steve said ‘over’, much to Steve’s annoyance. A few times, he’d left it out just to wind the guy up, but eventually he’d given in and just done what he was told.
After all, the time for playing around was finished.
They were living in a warzone, and people were dying nearly every damn day.
So Steve kept his radio close, and he said his ‘overs’, and he hoped like hell that every one of his friends stayed safe another day.
He sunk back into Eddie’s grip, allowing the warmth from his arms to seep through his many layers. The average temperature had dropped steadily in the last year, cold pouring forth from the gate like an open fridge door. Vecna making the environment suitable for himself and his cold-blooded creatures, everyone speculated.
Steve missed summer. He missed sunbathing, he missed swimming at Lover’s Lake, he missed warm nights spent with Robin by his pool, talking and laughing into the early hours.
“Morning, guys.” A bleary-eyed Jonathan stepped out the back door, a steaming cup of coffee in hand.
“Hey, Byers,” Eddie greeted him.
Steve handed over the binoculars strapped to his hip and the rifle.
The morning shift was short, only three hours or so and everyone would be up and about anyway.
“Not much radio chatter during the night, I was scanning all stations,” Jonathan told them. “Although there was a bunch of static while I was making coffee, maybe one of the towers is down again.”
“No sleep then, I take it?” Steve guessed.
Jonathan looked to the ground, shook his head. “Will, he’s having nightmares again, I sit up with him, keep him company, you know?”
Steve nodded. “Military not saying much?”
“No. Quiet night all round, it seems.”
“We heard some gunfire a few minutes ago,” Eddie told him, although that wasn’t all that unusual.
“Well, I’ll keep a look out. Why don’t you two go and get some sleep while you can?”
Gladly, Steve retired to the indoors, Eddie close behind him as they made their way down the rusting stairs. He opened the door to the bunker as quietly as he could, the hinges inevitably squeaking anyway, before securing it behind them and heading for his and Eddie’s room.
The bunker thankfully had enough rooms for everyone currently living in it. Hopper and Joyce had their own little room, next to the bunkroom El, Will, and Jonathan shared. Murray had dragged a mattress next to the main radio and slept there on the rare occasion he did sleep, and Steve and Eddie thankfully had a room to themselves for the moment.
There was still an empty bunkroom for when anyone else stayed over, and space to lay down more mattresses if needed. The small rooms weren’t exactly an issue, anyway – with the exception of Murray, none of them particularly minded being squashed together like sardines.
They felt safer that way.
Just as Eddie couldn’t sleep without Steve, the opposite was also true. When Eddie was on watch, Steve would toss and turn, missing the warmth of him, missing the feeling of Eddie’s heart beating next to his, the sound of his breath, the knowledge that Eddie was here and alive and in Steve’s arms.
Now, he stripped off his clothes, tossed them aside, and quickly changed into fresh pants and a t shirt. Eddie pulled him down to the mattress, immediately wrapping himself around Steve and clinging to him like a limpet.
Steve fell asleep quickly, exhaustion always snapping at his heels these days.
But it wasn’t long before he was awoken by a commotion in the hallway, Eddie already moving next to him as Steve rolled out of bed, grabbing his nail bat propped up by the door on instinct.
When he threw the door open, bat raised, he found Joyce and Hopper huddled around a sheet-white Will, El holding his hand.
“What is it, what’s going on?” Steve asked frantically.
Will turned to Steve, his eyes wide and unblinking.
“He’s coming.”