Chapter Text
The odour of burnt flesh, gun-smoke and death filled the air, the MAC-Z was a scene of utter destruction, in the centre of it all: Will Byers.
His vision was hazy, his body weak, though he could not bring himself to care. He had failed. The children had all been taken, the demogorgons had gripped their claws into their young bodies, and dragged them helplessly across the filthy ground. Will had been paralyzed, forced to watch in horror; now that horror had doubled, now he knew. He could have stopped them.
Wrapped up in his own mind, he barely noticed as his mother came stumbling up beside him, she bundled him into her arms.
“Oh, baby.” Joyce whispered as she gripped her son’s face in her hands, forcing his gaze into hers and away from the disaster around them.
“Mom?” He choked out, not recognising his own voice for a moment, the sound from his own mouth was distant, a buzz in his head.
“Oh, baby. I don’t understand. How did you..?” Joyce begged, her eyes full of confusion. Before she could say more, they were both interrupted.
“He’s a sorcerer! A real-life, honest to god, sorcerer!” Mike came sprinting up beside them, grasping Will in a hug. For just a moment, Will felt peace, his mind cleared with the faint homely scent of Mike’s jumper.
But just as soon as the peace had arrived, it dissipated, Mike pulled out of the hug, and reality hit Will like a humvee.
“You did it! You really did it!” Mike exclaimed, but his excitement didn’t match the growing fear in Will’s eyes.
Vecna had them all, he had won. Twelve more children were going to suffer because Will hadn’t acted soon enough, he had failed.
The impending arrival of military back-up gave them little time to dwindle on the topic, soon they were making a scrambled escape through the tunnels. Will tried his best to support his mom as she limped, but his own body was weak, his energy spent and a bone-tired exhaustion beginning to overcome him. By the time they’d stumbled across Lucas, with slash marks across his chest, Will was leaning heavily on the tunnel wall.
Lucas was confused, but Mike quickly caught him up to speed, trying to take his friend’s mind off the painful first-aid process.
“So, Demos floating, limbs snapping, dying. That was… That was all you?” Lucas looked up at Will, only then noticing that he wasn’t in a great state either. Mike, who had been preoccupied with Lucas, followed his friend’s gaze to Will.
Will tried to reply, but his body finally gave in, he collapsed to the ground. His eyes fluttered closed like he was holding onto consciousness with everything he had.
“Will!” Joyce, Mike and Lucas yelled out in tandem. Lucas groaned trying to stand up, but Mike gestured for him to stay, he nodded in defeat.
“Baby? Will, shit, Will!” Joyce winced as she dropped to her knees, trying to shake her son awake, but he didn’t stir, his head lolling with each shake of his body.
“Will, come on, please! Please wake up, we can’t lose you!” Mike was by Joyce’s side in an instant, his hands coming up to support Will’s head. “Shit! Lucas, do you think you can reach your walkie?”
Lucas reached forward into his utility belt, suppressing a groan from pulling his wounds, he pulled up the antenna and spoke into the receiver.
“Is anyone in range? Does anyone copy?” He called with urgency, his heart beginning to race. Before him, Joyce and Mike were helping to lay Will down onto Mike’s jacket, checking him over for injuries. “Please, we have a code red, please someone respond!”
No noise came from the Supercom. Joyce turned to Lucas, her eyes filled with worry, only to find the same anxious expression from him. Mike was solely focussed on Will, checking everywhere to see if he was hurt without them knowing. He spotted something red under Will’s cuff, and just as he was about to push it up, a crackling voice filled the tunnel.
“It’s- Ro-bin- I cop-y.” The static broke up Robin’s transmission, but they heard enough to know that help was out there. “Wha-ts goin-g on, ov-er.”
“ROBIN! Oh thank god, we need help- right now! In the tunnels between the squawk and radio-shack. Hurry!” Lucas shouted into the radio, praying that the signal had been clear enough for her to understand.
“Betwe-en Squawk a-and R- a-dio Sha-ck. Got-it. Ov-er and ou-t.” Robin’s voice fell to silence, with just the hiss of the static filling the void. Joyce held her hands together in mock-prayer, despite the fact she was not religious, she needed hope right now.
-
Whilst they waited, Joyce made sure that Lucas’ bandages were properly secured, she needed something to do with her hands to try and stop them from shaking. She knew that Will had Mike, and logically her fretting would do nothing to help right now. Still, she made fleeting glances at the two boys, just in case her son had miraculously woken up.
Will hadn’t woken up, but, after checking for maybe the twentieth time, Mike knew he was breathing. The older boy held onto Will protectively, it was hard to imagine that just half an hour before, the boy in his arms had single handedly saved his and Lucas’ lives. With time to wait, Mike continued to investigate the red patch he had noticed before, he imagined it was likely a scrape from being dropped to the ground by Vecna; but he had to be sure it wasn’t something that required attention.
Gently lifting Will’s damp sleeve, Mike quietly gasped, his heart clenching. Will’s pale wrist wasn’t scraped, no, this was much worse, numerous horizontal lines, varying in depth and length, trailed down his wrist. It seemed like some were much older than others, but the freshest of them was lazily oozing blood into the hem of Will’s shirt.
Mike didn’t know how to react, and for a moment, he didn’t. His eyes were fixed on the marred skin of his best friend, willing what he had seen to simply vanish, but of course, it didn’t. Before he could stare any longer, Mike carefully tugged the sleeve back down, it was clear that Will had been keeping this to himself for a reason; he wasn’t supposed to see it. What right did he have to kick up a fuss about it when Will wasn’t even conscious to explain.
“Mike, you okay?” Joyce asked, having noticed the movement from the teen. She frowned when she saw the look of terror on Mike’s face. “What happened? Is it Will?”
“No, no.” Mike tried to pull himself together, “It’s okay, Mrs Byers, I’m just worried, he’s been out cold for a little while now…” He wasn’t lying, but regardless he felt bad for keeping this discovery from Will’s mom. Mike wasn’t just going to forget what he had seen, but he really wanted to talk to Will about it first.
Joyce nodded, solemnly, “I know honey, I’m worried too, but Robin will be with us soon, she can help us out of the tunnels. We can get Will somewhere safer and try and wake him up, okay?” Her motherly instinct was strong for Mike, Lucas and Dustin, she had watched them all grow up. Sometimes she thought of them as her own children, and she certainly tended to treat them as such.
Mike just nodded, looking back down at Will’s face, it was expressionless, just as before, though in the shadows of the torch-lit tunnel, he could’ve sworn he saw a hint of pain in his friend’s expression.
In the far distance, they heard shuffling, instinctively they braced themselves for attack, Mike holding Will tight to his chest, Joyce ducking in front of Lucas to cover him. They shared looks of fear as the sounds grew closer, that was until they heard a voice.
“Ow!” A female voice, Robin, shouted, “Look where you’re walking Murray for god’s sake!”
They all sighed in relief, the high-stakes situation had them all too tense for their own good.
“Robin? Murray?” Joyce called out into the darkness of the tunnel. “We’re down here!” She shone her torch in the direction of their voices, hoping to help guide them closer. A moment later, another light illuminated the space. Robin and Murray rushing forwards.
“Holy shit!” Robin yelled as soon as she was close enough to take in the scene before her, “What the hell happened here? Where are the kids?”
Joyce gulped a little, and then looked down to her son, “We’ve got some catching up to do, but first, we need to get out of here. Lucas is hurt, he needs proper first-aid, I can barely walk and Will…” She trails off.
“Oh god.” Robin finally takes in the sight of Will, practically in Mike’s lap. “Is he- is he alive?”
“He’s alive, just unconscious,” Mike reassured her, though that fact didn’t bring much comfort, Robin had seen far too many friends in a trance. Hopefully this was different. “Robin, can you help me carry him?”
She didn’t even have to reply, within seconds she was by Mike’s side, helping him lift up Will. They each held him up with a shoulder under his arms, with their combined strength they were able to transport him without any trouble, Will wasn’t exactly heavy by any means.
Murray supported Joyce and Lucas as they all slowly shuffled their way out of the tunnels, it was a slow and painful process, especially when it came to climbing out via the ladder. Once only Robin, Mike and Will remained in the tunnels, the conscious pair took a moment to catch their breath before hoisting Will up.
-
“You guys carry on without us, we’ll meet you back at The Squawk.” Robin called up out of the hole in the ground. Once she’d heard a response, Robin helped Mike set Will down for a second. Robin took a water bottle out of her backpack and offered it to him. “Sit a rest for a sec, Mike.”
He murmured out thanks, taking a long drink of the water. Mike didn’t know Robin all that well, but he did notice that she had been getting a lot closer with Will recently. He wondered if she knew what had been going on with him, if she knew about the wounds up his arm. Once the cap of the bottle had been secured back on, he passed it back to her, questions burning on his tongue. He was surprised that second before he could ask a single thing, Robin beat him to the punch.
“You know, he cares about you so damn much, Mike.” Robin broke the silence. Her eyes gazing down to the slumped form of Will, his head rested against his chest. “You should talk to him more, I know the world is ending and all that, but he needs you. I’ve only known Will for a few days, but I can tell that he’s been hiding a lot…”
Mike was taken aback, “What- what do you mean?” He was feigning some ignorance, but mostly was surprised, Will needed him?
“Look, it’s really not my place to say, but trust me, if anyone is going to help Will, it’s going to be you.” Robin replied earnestly, she hesitated for a moment before continuing, “He’s going to be mad at me for telling you this, I’m sure, but given where we are-” She gestured at his unconscious body, “I think it’s fairly important that I’m honest. I’ve been… worried, before I’d even properly spoken to him, it’s obvious that he’s been through a lot of shit at the hands of Vecna- and maybe I’m just over observant or paranoid or-”
“Robin, please.” Mike stopped her from rambling, “Just tell me.”
She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment, “Will comes to The Squawk pretty often when he’s not with you guys or at school, most of the time he’s just fiddling with the AV kit or listening to the show, but more than a few times he’s been off. It’s like one minute he’s there, and the next he’s just in some kind of a trance? Not like a full on Vecna-trance, it’s more like he’s just lost in his head. It doesn’t always last long, but without fail as soon as he’s back to present, he leaves- urgently.”
Mike swallows, taking the information in. He had learned entirely too much concerning information about Will that day, and truly it made him wonder how he had been so god damn oblivious to it all.
“Mike?” Robin asked, anxiously, “You’re not checking out on me too are you?”
He shook his head, swallowing again, “No, sorry. It’s just a lot to process, especially as you don’t know what happened earlier…”
“What? What happened earlier?” Robin was, if possible, even more anxious now. She flitted her gaze between Mike and Will.
“Let’s just, just help me get him out of this damn tunnel. We can talk more later.” Mike sighed, he felt like a headache was coming on with all the information jumbling around in his head. He just couldn’t make sense of it, what the hell was going on with Will?