Chapter Text
The crackle of the fire was the only thing that seemed to keep Mike from falling into a trance. The tensions around camp had been high lately. There were rumors of raiders, waves of infected that they weren’t equipped to deal with, lab monkeys trying to bite scientists. Mike had laughed when he’d first heard the story from his friend, but when he’d seen the serious face and the downturned head and plans of having to leave to find a real doctor out near the other Firefly post in Salt Lake City, he understood that it was definitely not a joke.
So, needless to say, the crowds were running a bit thin here at the college they were using as a base, and operation Get Will Byers to the Other Firefly Base was just waiting to spring into action.
Mike Wheeler and Will Byers had been friends for what had felt like a lifetime. Born into an apocalypse that Mike frankly thought that their parents shouldn’t have been doing anything together in, but that was beside the point. But now, here they were, attempting to survive and attempting to keep the proverbial golden child alive because his best friend was immune.
Capital I Immune.
He’d seen it first hand that first day they’d been trying to just have a fun night away from base camp. A few infected had jumped them, the both of them had defended themselves and killed them all, and Mike had seen the oh too obvious bite on his forearm. It felt like he could have passed out then and there, Will’s words feeling like they weren’t even reaching his ears. It felt like there was a deafening ringing, a blur to his vision that he couldn’t explain
In the end, all he’d done was sit down next to Will in a lump of dejected limbs and waited.
Waited for his best friend to turn.
“Hey, well, if we're both going crazy, then we'll go crazy together, right?”
“Mike?”
His eyes still focused on the fire, unwilling to part. Maybe the fire was actually the thing putting him into a trance. Maybe he’d finally succumbed to falling insane and he actually was just -
“Mike.”
Will’s voice.
Mike jumped slightly at the sound, looking over at him. “Yeah?”
“Where are you?” The question was clearly not literal. Mike was smart enough to know that. Him and Will knew each other on a level that probably was a little weird to most people, but he figured that was what happened when they were basically the only couple of kids to be raised at camp together until Lucas and Dustin had come in a few years later with some group that the Fireflies had let in.
“I’m pretending that I’m roasting marshmallows,” Mike answered easily, attempting to mask whatever was going on in his head. He was best at keeping things in, pushing them down until they became so small that he didn’t have to talk about them. He had other things to worry about, not whatever stupid emotions threatened to pull at him.
“You’ve never even had marshmallows.” Will looked amused as he spoke, something that Mike was grateful for. If he could keep Will that way, he’d be happy. Will had been through too much, he didn’t deserve to be worrying about stuff that Mike could worry about.
“Yeah, well, Mr. Clarke described them really well. I mean, I could definitely imagine a cross between a pillow and a cloud in food form.” He leaned back a bit, humming like he’d just eaten something amazing. “I love the taste of pillow filling in the morning.”
That earned an eye roll from Will who nudged him in the arm, smiling over at Mike. “Oh, shut up.”
Mike held his hands up in defense, a teasing grin on his lips. “Don’t hate on the marshmallow imagery. I think it sounds pretty good.”
Will didn’t look overly impressed.
“I’d rather not dream of eating my pillow, thanks though.”
As much as it was meant to be a joke, it kind of didn’t entirely feel like one. Having a pillow at all, even as lumpy and gross as it was, was a bit of a luxury that he didn’t know if he had the capability to actually express correctly. He could be on the road using his backpack as a pillow, so he’d take the lump of compressed fluff he had and call it a day.
Mike looked over to the other side of the fire when he felt a piece of food thrown at him, a frown rising easily on his face.
“Eat your non-marshmallow, non-fluffy piece of meat and call it a day.” Lucas. The ever realist and someone to bring them back down to earth from whatever tangents they went on. Dustin was seated next to him, who was currently finishing up the last bit of food on his plate.
“We have patrols tomorrow, we have to get up early, and I’m not gonna be the one who gets in trouble for being late again,” Dustin said, everyone around the fire looking to Mike.
“Hey! Sorry for being sleepy. It’s not like we actually have alarm clocks anymore. They stole my batteries for all their science stuff. So now I have to rely on my really shitty internal clock. Which, spoiler, really works like shit.”
The dramatics earned a laugh from Dustin and Lucas, Mike shaking his head as he leaned down to eat the last few pieces of food from his plate. He was still hungry, really. It wasn’t like they were getting an abundance of food lately. With all of the threats of raids and all of the worries related to the waves of infected, the amount of hunts had been scaled down, and so they were settling for whatever stores of food they had. Which, if Mike was being honest, he was getting tired of eating dried meat.
Really tired of it, actually.
But he had plenty of bags of it saved in a backpack that he had saved to be ready to go as soon as something were to go wrong. The only thing was really just the issue of weapons. Because, yes, while he had access to guns when he went on patrols, it wasn’t like he could just keep them afterwards. He had to give them back.
What he wouldn’t admit was to countless hours with Lucas scoping out how to be able to steal some if things ever went bad. They’d lost plenty of hours of sleep, watching the rounds of people stationed at it, just in case one day, they needed to get access. Mike wasn’t above bribing people, if he really needed to.
It wasn’t like Mike was all that popular at base. The only reason that Mike even was somewhat known was because he was best friends with Will.
Will, the boy who mysteriously disappeared for a few hours every week to go sit with scientists. Will, the boy who was poked and prodded to try to understand the complexity of the fact that he was… different. Aside from the scientists a few officials on base and Dustin and Lucas, no one really knew about Will being immune. Mike wasn’t even sure that other Fireflies in other bases even really knew about it, at least not yet.
Mike was intent on keeping it that way.
It had only been a few years since they’d even found out. The scientists were doing tons of tests to see if things changed, but they knew they didn’t have the technology here to really understand. There had been threats plenty of times that Will would come to him, telling him stories about how he’d need to be taken somewhere else, taken to a different base with better doctors. But it never came.
If it did, Mike would have been prepared to drop everything in his life to follow, even if people told him no. He’d been following Will his entire life. Been at Will’s side his entire life. Mike wouldn’t let that go, just because some random people insisted on taking him away.
But, bringing Will somewhere else was always some plan in Mike’s back pocket. If things went bad here, if things started looking bad for Will, then Mike would take him wherever those scientists wanted to take him.
Scientists was a strong word, really. It wasn’t like they were real, human doctors. Some of them were past biology professors at the college here. Some of them were chemists. None of them really knew exactly what they were doing when it came to Will, but apparently, there were real doctors wherever this other base was in Salt Lake City. And maybe, just maybe, if he got Will there, they’d be able to give them answers.
Lucas had been talking to him in the past about why they were doing all these tests on Will when they’d been scoping out weapons. Mike had always just assumed it was to make sure Will wasn’t actually turning into an infected, but then Lucas had brought up the fact that, maybe, they were trying to find some sort of cure to make sure that other people could also be immune to the dangers of getting bit.
At the time, Mike thought that was a stupid idea – how the hell were they even supposed to get a vaccine or anything created to even help other people? How could they be sure it would even work long term?
But now that the thought was in his head, Mike couldn’t get it out of his head.
He still was convinced it was bullshit, but still. A cure? In a world like this? People would kill for that.
Will would be some test subject, more than he already was, to save other people.
Which meant Will was a target.
Which meant Mike was even more serious about keeping him safe.
Hence, the packed bags filled with food and supplies in case they needed to leave. He’d even made Lucas pack a bag in the hopes that they’d all be able to go together.
Lucas laughing at something brought him back into the current moment, all four of them still sitting around the fire. It was late - Mike really knew they needed to get back to their rooms and sleep, but he was enjoying this a little too much.
“You guys coming? We’re heading up,” Dustin started, hands slapping down onto his thighs before he stood up and looked at Mike and Will.
“Uh, I’ll be up in a few,” Will replied. A small smile was on his lips, a telltale sign of insisting he was fine, even if Mike knew he wasn’t always fine.
“I’ll stay with Will.” The response from Mike was instinctual, something that everyone already expected anyway if their nods of agreement were any sort of acknowledgement of that fact.
“You don’t have to stay with me, you know.” Will's voice filled the air after Dustin and Lucas walked away, his gaze on the fire.
Mike watched him then, focusing on the way the breeze picked up and made his hair rustle slightly in the wind, the way his cheeks were flushed slightly from the heat of the fire.
“I know.” A breath. “I want to, though.”
The words were answered by a small glance over at him, a gentle hint of a smile on Will’s lips.
“Okay.” The singular word was whispered from Will’s lips, and Mike found himself staring again, watching as the fire crested along his skin.
They were silent for a few moments, and Mike just allowed himself to look, even just for a few more moments. But when he thought that the stare went from friendly to dude, you’re being a fucking creep, he looked away and looked back towards the fire.
“If you do want alone time by the way, you can just tell me to fuck off,” Mike said with a hint of a smile on his lips, eyes focusing on Will.
“No, it’s not that.”
Of course Will would insist it wasn’t Mike’s fault for sticking around, even though Mike was probably about one hundred percent sure that Will got annoyed with how much he was around.
“It’s just been weird around here recently. Just trying to enjoy feeling calm for a little bit before everything goes to hell, y’know?”
Mike knew that feeling well. And, because he did, all he did was offer Will a small nod, not wanting to interrupt that feeling of calm that was over the two of them.
“It’s kind of crazy how different everything’s been. People are always out, there’s been rumors of a group stationed a few miles out… I don’t know. It feels like people overestimated how safe a college was to stay at for this long. We barely have power.”
Mike huffed a breath. “Yeah. At least the dorms were nice to stay in.”
“Mm,” Will hummed, nodding. “At least there’s luxury bunk beds. I love the lumps in the mattress.”
There was silence before the two of them both broke out into soft laughter. It died down after a few moments, the sound of Will rubbing his hands together filling the silence that the crackling of the fire left.
“Maybe we should actually go back,” Will offered, Mike furrowing his brow.
“But you just said–”
“I know what I said.” Will moved to stand up, wiping his hands on the side of his jeans. “But you have patrol early, and I have to get to the lab tomorrow morning.”
Mike shot up at that. Will usually had a pretty regular schedule of when he went to the lab. He wasn’t supposed to be going yet exactly, but with the way things were with people running around on the daily, people going on patrols and not coming back, he wasn’t surprised that the schedule was changing up a little bit. It didn’t mean he was happy about it. Plus, half of the time, he liked getting to be able to walk him there or walk him back, and with Mike out on patrols all day, Will would be going alone.
Which was fine. Mike definitely wasn’t worried about the change in the schedule. Not at all.
“I’ll only be there a few hours. Maybe we can get something from the mess hall when you get back?” Will’s offer hung in the air.
Maybe Mike was worried.
“Yeah. I’ll probably be back around dinner though. I have the creek trails tomorrow.” Mike spoke as he threw his backpack over his shoulder, starting to take a few steps away from the fire. The creek trails weren’t all that bad. Pretty low maintenance, if he was being honest. Him and Lucas were usually paired up, which at least made things entertaining. It was always quiet, mostly just an excuse for him and Lucas to chat and catch up.
At most in the last few weeks, there were a few stray infected that they’d had to take out, but they’d done it long range with a rifle, and it barely took any real effort. And with the trails being so quiet, he was at least able to get back home before dinner and not get caught up in anything too crazy.
“You want me to walk you to the lab before I leave?” Mike asked, looking over at Will as they continued to walk, Will immediately waving him off.
“No, I’m good. Just wanted to let you know I’d be there. I don’t have to be at the lab until you’d already be gone. It’s not supposed to be that long, just some poking and prodding like there always is.”
Will never went into that much detail about everything he went through, and Mike wasn’t exactly allowed to be in the room when everything did happen. And while he was curious, he also didn’t bother asking for the fear of overstepping. It was Will’s life, and as much as Mike was constantly thinking about how much he needed Will to be safe, he was supposed to be able to trust the people taking care of Will, wasn’t he?
He’d never had a reason to not trust them.
“Cool,” Mike replied.
The walk back to their room was relatively silent, the two of them going through the motions of getting changed and slipping into bed. The rustling of clothing, of sheets, filled the silence, and Mike found himself staring up at the ceiling once he was settled in bed. His hands rested on his stomach, a heavy sigh escaping him.
It was late, he knew that he needed to get to sleep, but decent sleep was hard to come by. But with the way that everyone lived, he knew he wasn’t alone. He figured it was just the nature of how he’d grown up, born into a situation where he always had to be on alert. Plus, he was responsible for himself now. He didn’t have parents living in the same house anymore. They couldn’t be some invisible source of protection, like he’d imagined as a kid.
Now, he was pretty sure that his dad couldn’t even defend himself, if he had to.
He hadn’t seen his parents for a long while now that he was old enough to be staying at the Firefly barracks at the dorms on the college campus that they were all based at, but it was nice feeling like an adult. And, it was nice having his friends to lean on instead.
“Mike?”
Will’s voice broke through the silence, and Mike didn’t look away from the ceiling when he responded with a, “Yeah?”
“Be safe tomorrow.”
Mike felt a bit of an ache in his chest. “Yeah, I will. You be safe, too.”
Mike could almost hear the amusement in Will’s voice before the other boy rustled in the sheets, clearly turning to go to sleep. “Don’t worry, I won’t let any lab monkeys bite me like the one doctor did.”
There was a huff of a laugh then from Mike, turning to face the wall and trying to find some sleep himself.
⚬──────────✧──────────⚬
When Mike awoke, he was immediately assaulted by the smell of something burning. It was nothing like the campfire smell from last night, nothing close to the gentle, crackling flames against dried wood. There was the smell of burning wood now, yes. But the scale of it had Mike stumbling out of bed, his hearing finally catching up to his other senses. There was yelling, endless screams echoing outside as he opened his window slightly to try and scope out the situation.
As he attempted to get the window open, he slammed his elbow into a bookshelf, cursing under his breath.
“Mike?” Will asked, groggily sitting up. “What’s going on?”
Mike didn’t answer, not at first. His eyes were focused on the sight out of their window, a fire breaking out across the campus. Molotovs were being thrown by raiders, the same group that had been here before. They’d never been this bold before. The raiders had taken some of their supplies in one of the far buildings and they’d attacked some of their lookout posts during patrols, but… they’d never gone this far. They’d never directly attacked. They’d killed on patrols, but Mike could now see bodies on the ground. Instantly, he felt himself slip into the plan him and Lucas had talked about.
It was a simple plan: Escape the college after an attack, travel five miles to the mountain trail lookout, and they’d all regroup in twelve hours. If they didn’t make it in twelve hours, they continued on. That was the rule. Sticking around was dangerous, especially that close to the college. Even waiting twenty four hours was teetering on the edge of danger.
“We have to go.” Mike said immediately, grabbing his pack and stuffing some extra clothes into it. “Grab extra supplies.”
“What?” It was clear that Will wasn’t even fully awake, but as he stood up and took one glance out the window, it was like something clicked within him as he grabbed his backpack and started packing things away.
It was still pitch black outside. The alarm clock in his room, sans batteries, was of no help at all to give him the time, but as he looked to his watch and saw the time clicking away.
2:25 AM.
The tiredness in Mike’s bones was all too apparent, but adrenaline was the one thing carrying him through. After grabbing what he could, Mike grabbed a bat he had in his room and has he looked over to Will, he could see him grabbing a small switchblade from his drawer.
It was something, at least.
If they were able to get there, the mountain trail lookout had a couple of pistols that were there in case of emergency situations, but any good actual weapon was stuck in the armory across the campus. Conveniently just a few buildings down from where all of the commotion was.
“Will,” Mike tried, looking at him as the shorter boy put a dark jean jacket on.
“Yeah?”
“Stay close.” Please.
There was a nod of agreement as they started rushing through the building to get down to ground level, seeing a few other people running around. Mike didn’t bother going slow right now, not while they were still in the confines of the dorm building. Him and Will rushed down the steps and down near the back exit of the building, a few people rushing out of the door before them, makeshift melee weapons in their hands.
Will was about to go out the door, his arm shooting out to stop Mike from going any further at the sight in front of them. A raider, dressed in a black t-shirt and a combat vest held a pistol up at the group that ran out before them. The gunshot rang out in the air, blood splattering the few people at the back of the group. The few people in the back tried to take down the raider, but more gunshots rang out, and instantly, Will was turning around to run back up the steps, grabbing Mike’s hand to pull him along.
“Side window.” Will panted, starting to run down the hall in the opposite direction of everyone else and pushing through people running to get to the steps.
The room they entered at the end of the hall was something they all used for studying. School days were long over, but there were plenty of times now where they had to study trail directions, strategies, or anything that would help keep them sharp. There were a few long tables, books lining the walls, and two windows on the right side.
Mike locked the door behind them before putting a chair beneath the handle and Will just... looked at him.
“What are you doing?” Will asked instantly, Mike furrowing his brow.
“...Locking the door?” Mike didn’t understand the issue, clearly, as he stood a bit dumbfounded.
“What about everyone else?”
Oh.
“They’ll be able to break it down. There’s five million other windows on this floor. Come on,” Mike started, immediately moving to open up one of the windows.
While it was the second floor, there was a small entrance to the side of the building directly below this window, so there was a small awning below them that they could at least use to drop one floor, then grab onto the side of the awning to make the two story drop really only feel like, at most, three feet or so. Mike went first, going down to get his feet onto the small overhang, to which Will followed. The two of them moved to sit on the awning to be able to twist their bodies to grab onto the edge of it, dropping pretty clumsily to the ground. “Come on,” Mike breathed, scrambling next to Will’s side to offer his hand again. "Come on."
“Mike–”
“I know.” Whatever Will needed comfort or reassurance for, he'd give it. He’d provide it all of it and more if he needed it later. They just needed to move.
Mike started running with Will and even when his lungs burned, he didn’t stop. His muscles ached, his lungs ached from the smoke, and yet he kept moving. The only time he stopped was when they got towards the far end of campus, finding the stables that were relatively already decently ransacked. But, he caught sight of Cedar, clearly agitated in one of the stables.
Cedar was one of the horses he often took out on patrol. Mike had bonded with her pretty early on. She was an incredibly tall horse, and when he was younger, he was determined to show that he could do it. That he was old enough to prove himself, to handle an animal of this scale. That he wasn’t too short or too weak to handle her. And, well, he had proved that. And while Cedar wasn’t exactly his horse, for all intents and purposes, she was now. He'd take her out of here if no one else was bold enough to.
“Hey, girl.” Mike said as he approached her, bringing a hand to the side of her nose to calm her down. A huff escaped the horse’s nose, clearly agitated from the commotion and the yelling in the distant horizon. “We’re going to get you out of here, yeah?” He said, watching as Will came over with a saddle.
“This is the one for her, right?” Will breathed, clearly visibly finding it incredibly heavy as he carried it over.
“Yeah. Just–” Mike took it from him awkwardly, throwing it up onto Cedar’s back. She moved around slightly in annoyance, Mike patting the side of her face again. “I’ll be quick. We’ve gotta run after this. We can’t stop until we get to the lookout.”
Will nodded, clearly just going along with whatever imaginary plan that was going on in Mike’s head.
Mike was just grateful that he wasn’t putting up a fight.
Once he tightened the saddle on – not perfectly at all, he needed to clarify – Mike moved to get up onto it. His foot got into the stirrup and he hoisted himself up, holding out a hand for Will once he got up.
“Just get your foot in there and I’ll help you up,” Mike said, feeling Will put his hand into his. It was warm, a bit clammy from the running they'd done, but Will still felt solid beneath his touch.
Once Will got settled behind him, Mike felt the boy’s hand moved to grab onto his side slightly as he started to guide Cedar out of the stable and back onto the road.
“Hold on, okay?” Mike didn’t give Will much of a warning before he started urging Cedar faster. The horse moved at a decently fast pace – not quite a trot and yet not quite a gallop. Something in between that at least got them to a point where they could put distance between them and the sight behind them.
Mike turned around at one point as they moved down the trail, seeing the large plume of black smoke only getting larger.
“Shit,” He breathed, turning around once more and focusing on what was in front of them.
Losing the base was hard. But, more than that, he just hoped that Lucas and Dustin were able to make it out, too.
After a mile, he finally let Cedar move to a brisk walk and him and Will were still panting as if they were the ones that were doing the running. Adrenaline was a funny thing. Mike could feel Will loosen his grip slightly and completely let go, and Mike let himself adjust his grip on the reins of the horse, trying to also loosen his grip so his knuckles weren't so white. He stretched his hands out, trying to get rid of the ache that was building within them.
“Mike,” Will said after a long while of silence, the sound of their breathing finally calmer between the two of them.
“Yeah?”
Mike didn’t have any answers for anything. His mind was still trying to catch up with what they’d just seen, and he honestly didn’t even know the path forward from here. If Lucas showed up, if Dustin did, maybe they’d have a chance of actually staying alive. Of course, he knew he could make it with just him and Will. They'd always been close. They'd always talked about what-if scenarios. But the idea had always been the four of them sticking together, attempting to stay alive.
“Please tell me you have a plan.”
With an inhale, Mike nodded as he turned Cedar to walk down a different path that held a bit of an incline, walking the familiar pathway up to the mountain trail lookout.
“Yeah, I do. Like, half of a plan.” There was a long beat of silence. “First, we wait for Lucas and Dustin.”
Another beat of silence. Mike could practically hear the gears turning in Will’s head.
“Then we keep going.”
More silence. Mike wasn’t sure if he was saying the right things or the wrong things at this point.
“And then what?” Will’s question cut through him, and he took in a breath in response.
“I don't know." A beat. "We survive, I guess.”