Chapter Text
November, 6, 1983
will was taken into the upside down, but the problem was how nobody could find him anywhere no matter how long or far they searched down there.
It came down to him being presented as dead.
Mike, however refused to accept his best-friend, his first ever friend, even after about 5 years he refused to believe he was dead.
Joyce though, she hasn’t been the same- sure she’s always had a sad look in her eye, but now? she’s a different person more reckless maybe because she’s lost hope after losing her son.
November, 3rd, 1987
the found family, team, group whatever you would call them- they would go on re-cons that they named “crawls”, sneaking past military coms and bases, hauling themselves in the back of an empty supply van, to venture the upside down in hopes to find henry/vecna, a sly attempt to pin his hiding spot down, but for mike- it was never about finding henry, he still believes will is alive and still down there they just haven’t looked enough.
“mike?” Nancy calls out, still no response.
“mike!” she yells louder this time, knocking mike out of whatever space he was lost in
his breath catches before he responds
“yeah? what?” he says with a slight rasp as if he hasn’t spoken all day.
“were you even listening?, you’ve been staring at that wall for the past hour” she states with an accusing tone
“uh yeah..”, he says with a confronted tone. “something about another crawl?..”, he was still out of it, he was staring at a poster of “the cure” which sent him into thinking about will.
she scoffs, “oh my god, you are insufferable.”, she walks off back in-front of the projector.
they have been planning on another crawl at the squawk for the past hour or two, the plan is similar to old ones but with a twist, they’re going more in the outer parts, rather than sticking to the central city they can only do this because the supply is on for over 2 hours, giving them enough time to go even further, it’s their best shot to find henry.
that’s all mike actually heard before he spaced out, sitting on a fold out chair in between dustin, who had el sprawled on-top of him on the sofa to mike’s right and steve on his other side to his left, he never really grew fond of El, it’s nothing against her it’s just that he struggled to realky connect with anyone after will d- went missing.
“okay, any questions?,” Nancy asks- she sounds tired what a joke, i mean who wouldn’t be?
“uh yeah, i’ve got one.”, hopper asks, emerging from the steps whwre he was leaning close to Joyce.
“how exactly do we plan on getting from G1 to around the outskirts?”, hopper asks this with some kind of demanding tone
Nancy hums, “right yes, i was thinking we could all split up into groups or alone, we have enough walkies to keep contact, whoever goes alone has to make sure they have a walkie, no question”. Nancy finishes.
“hm, sounds like a plan, we have approximately 3 hours until the supply drop, who’s in what groups?” hopper walks towards to the planning table where everyone’s already seating themselves.
mike takes the furthest away seat near the end, sitting next to Lucas.
“i’m thinking that dustin, el and Joyce stay here for communication and telemetry tags, me, Jonathan and steve can stay the first section, Lucas, and robin can go second section, and.. mike,” this knocks mike out of staring at his fingernails and snaps his head up,
“huh? what?” he says quickly shrinking in his seat when Nancy gives him a look.
“you’re going to be on your own for this one, you’ve been begging for this, i’m trusting you, keep your walkie on and don’t get hurt or killed. stay in your section.” Nancy gives him a stern look, softening when she sees mike nod.
he returns staring at his fingers when he hears hopper telling everyone to get sorted.
it’s been about 2 hours now, everyone’s packing their stationary, gettibg ready to go through the mystery tunnels then sneak through military then into an unpredictable landscape that humans shouldve never discovered.
‘how much longer do we have to wait?’, he whispers to Nancy, who then. walkies Joyce, he hears a faint “27 seconds” before he nods.
after a little bit theres a countdown and when mike hears 1 he quickly goes out to the van on his left, he has to go first since he’s on his own for this re-con. he sends a static signal on his walkie as a way to signal he’s on. he hears a few static disturbances until he starts moving.
he sends a static through when he gets off the van.
he hears himself grunt as he rolls off the slowly moving vehicle.
“okay easy peasy” he looks disgusted at the slimy landscape, and the hideous smell.
he’s walking for a while now, he probably shouldn’t be breathing in the spores, but he’s a tad more focussed on not disturbing demogorgons or bats, who knows maybe henry himself so he’s playing hopscotch to avoid the vines that are literally everyone, that’s up until he reached a familiar oak tree, seems like he scored the way near hops cabin, he’s feeling more confident now that he’s finally recognised where he is, he walks up to lean against the oak tree facing towards the forest filled land ahead the trail to hops cabin.
he reaches into his bag for his walkie,
“hey guys i figured out exactly where i am, i’m super close to h-“ his blood runs cold when he spots a familiar looking person peering from a tree, he leans forward before he lets a shaky breath out,
“will?..” he drops the walkie, breaking the signal scope.
he can hear muffled voices, most likely Nancy? maybe Joyce, calling out to him but all he can focus on is the boy lifting a rifle towards him.
“mike?! are you there? mike?”