Chapter Text
In one story this is the end.
It begins in that horrible, terrifying moment, the one that none of them, no matter how hard they try, will ever be able to scrub from their memory. It’s that moment where they’re screaming in agony, in protest, and the only thing stopping them from running and changing fate is the soldiers holding them back.
El watches from just inside the gate, a look on her face that is filled with deep sadness, but is also content. The looks she receives back from her friends, her family, are anything but content. She wishes this wasn’t her last memory of them, but there’s no time to change anything. Will watches on in horror, as his sister closes her eyes, taking one final breath. He tries to reach forward, yearning to reach for her, all unsaid thoughts, all of the things she’ll never experience, all of those what ifs race through his head. She deserved a life outside of all this, one where she could simply be a sixteen year old girl. But he’s helpless to only reach forward once more, screaming out her name, as if she can hear over the roaring wind. And suddenly there’s a bright flash of light, and it’s over.
In one story this is the end. But this one is different.
When Will comes back to himself, he stumbles to his feet, racing over to where he last saw El. But all that stands in front of him is what’s left of the Hawkins library, no gate in sight. He crumbles to the ground in grief, sobbing, all of the grief hitting him like a tidal wave. He’s been there for at least five minutes when he begins to hear loud voices from behind him, but ignores it, assuming it’s the soldiers deciding their fate. But there’s no stern, gruff unfamiliar voices. Yes, what he can hear is angry shouting, but the sound is all familiar, and as he turns to look behind, he sees his friends shouting over each other. He catches Dustin’s eye, and the boy whose eyes are still red from crying, sprints over and helps Will to his feet. It’s only then that Will takes in his surroundings properly. He does a mental headcount, noting that all the adults are in check, and all of the teens are present. Well, except for one. But the more interesting observation he makes is the lack of soldiers. He looks at everyone around him, their faces matching the confusion he feels.
“Uh, where did all the soldiers go?”
“We’re not sure. It’s like… everyone else just disappeared.”
Steve manages to detangle himself from the tight grip Robin has on him, and join in. “We’re not sure if it’s only the MAC-Z that’s been affected. None of us have left here yet, but it could be that everyone else in Hawkins is also… gone? This whole thing is really confusing.”
"And the kids! Where..." Will looks around, as if they were playing an innocent game of hide and seek."
Jonathan pats his brother on the shoulder. "They're not here, either."
Peeking out from behind her sister, Holly waves.
Will sighs in relief and Nancy grabs her sister's hand. "Well, everyone's, uh, gone, except Holly."
Holly's voice trembles as she speaks, terror obvious in her face. “Is Mom okay?”
Mike and Nancy meet each other’s gaze, a scared look in their eyes. They hesitate, but Dustin speaks up. “Okay, let’s assess the situation. We are all here, I mean, except…”
His voice breaks, unable to get the words out. Steve wraps his arm around him. “Except El.”
Dustin clears his throat, and continues. “Right. So, I think we should split up around Hawkins to find out the, uh, whole situation.”
Joyce chimes in. "We can't all go running off. We don't know what's out there!"
Dustin pauses, a plan forming in his mind. “Okay. Me and Lucas will take North. Nancy, you and Jonathan go West. Steve and Robin, you guys go south, and Will and Mike will take the East of the town. Check every public building for people. We don’t wanna be home invaders, but check if people are in their houses. At least, subtly.”
They all nod, and Dustin continues. “Joyce, you, Hopper, and Max will stay with Holly in the church, and no matter what, stay there. We’ll report back there in three hours. “
Max scoffs, although it’s hard to take her anger seriously when there are still tear tracks on her cheeks, but she nods when met with an unusually hard stare from Dustin.
“Three hours. At the church. Whether you have finished your jobs or not, agreed?”
Dustin was going for a bit of a pep talk, but clearly no-one is in the mood, so they split off silently.
Mike and Will walk in an uncomfortable silence. They are both clearly going through unexplainable grief especially when it’s so raw, so they don’t even try to start a conversation. It would kill his younger self, Will thinks, to see him older and maybe not wiser, but drifted apart from his best friend. Sure, he hadn’t run away when he had told everyone he was gay, and really, Will hadn't expected Mike to bring half of Hawkins, but it was still like something had shifted, and not in a great way. Will shook his head, now wasn’t the time to wallow in those types of feelings anyway.
They made it to the hospital and looked around. It was quite eerie, the leftover damage from the demogorgon attack still very obvious, but there were no signs of any people. Wordlessly, Mike set off up the stairs and to a higher floor. Will followed, but didn’t realise where they were until Mike opened a door to find only an empty bed behind it. He noticed a placard on the wall inscribed with the name Karen Wheeler and everything clicked. He turned and locked eyes with Mike, who suddenly burst into tears and collapsed into Will’s arms. Will had no idea what to say. There was nothing he could say to soothe him. ‘It’ll be okay’ would be a lie - he had no idea if they were okay. Where was everyone? So he just burrowed his head into Mike’s shoulder and held him tighter.
When Mike’s sobs had started to slow down, Will lifted his head up. Mike extracted himself from the embrace, and found Will staring out the window blankly. He finally broke their silence. “Uh, Will, you okay?”
Will didn’t answer, he only turned around and left the room, briskly walking down the corridor and heading down the stairs. Mike followed, but not before having one last glance around his Mom’s room. He hoped she was okay, wherever the hell she was. He ran after Will, the whole situation eerily similar to the day they returned home from California, when Hawkins had split apart. When they finally got outside he nearly ran right into Will, who was staring into the distance, a scared look on his face.
Will walked further into the distance, before finally turning to Mike. “Give me your hat.”
“What?”
Will turned and yanked it off his head, throwing it into the horizon. Mike stared at him in complete disbelief. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Will grabbed his shoulders, turning him to face the horizon. “Just watch.”
He ran off to pick up the hat, before chucking it towards the distance again. But as Mike watched it this time, halfway through the air it hit a wall and fell to the ground.
Only this wall wasn’t made of brick, or even the weird fleshy stuff the one in Upside Down was. No, this wall was completely invisible.
“What the fuck was that.”
Mike walked forward a few steps, and reached out with one hand, his hand meeting resistance, some kind of force stopping him from going any further.
Will started to explain. “We need to test out some more things, but I think, um, we're trapped. In Hawkins. And this wall is stopping us from leaving.”
“What the actual fuck.”
In one story, it ends when the Upside Down is destroyed. In this one, it’s only the beginning.