Chapter 30

Steve accidentally pushes Sofia underwater, but immediately let go of Sofia’s hand. She tries to swim back up, but something grabs onto her feet and keeps pushing her down. She tries to scream, but ends up chocking.

“SOF!” Robin helplessly screams. She couldn’t bear the thought of Sofia not being safe. It’s too much for her. After all, she couldn’t lose the one thing that keeps her going. And she couldn’t lose Steve too.

“What the hell man! What was that?” Eddie screams.

“Nancy, really, what happened?” Robin screams, desperate. Why aren’t they back? Where the hell is Sofia.

Sofia is almost out of breath when she gets out of water, falling abruptly to the ground, which makes her back hurt, only to find herself in what she thought was the upside down. She gets pulled to one side and sees Steve getting pulled to the other side. 

Her back hits a rock and that’s when she stops being pulled. She feels a sharp pain run up her spine.

She tries to catch her breath as quickly as she could. She tried getting up but was too weak in the legs. She keeps coughing water while trying her best to get up. 

She starts looking around and sees bats flying in their direction. Her fight or flight is telling her to fight.

Her heart starts beating faster again and this wave of fear and anxiety washes over her. We’re screwed, we’re screwed, we’re screwed.

Meanwhile, Robin is freaking out. She’s desperate, she’s hysterical, where the hell is Sofia. She feels she’s not safe, she’s in danger. It’s a gut feeling. “I’m going in” Robin says, getting up.

“What?” Eddie yells.

Robin doesn’t waste any more seconds and jumps right in. 

“Wait, wait, wait, you’re not going in, are you?” Eddie asks Nancy.

“Just wait here” Nancy says and jumps too.

“Sofy!” Steve screams. Sofia suddenly feels adrenaline coursing through her veins as she sees the bats flying to Steve. What the hell is going on. Is she going to die. 

She quickly gets up and starts running to Steve. Cher died too. Max might die. But now she’s first in the line, along with Steve.

Sofia didn’t realize how soaked her vans were. She trips, but luckily stops the fall with her hands before hitting the strange ground with her face.

All of a sudden, a bat attacked her back, and she let out a painful scream. This can’t be real. Where’s Steve. Why is this happening to her.

She tries taking it out, but her hand can’t reach it. As she feels the bat biting her, she looks around, trying to find an escape. Seeing a rock, she grabs it and painfully stretches her arm as far as it can go in hopes of grabbing the bat. 

She finally grabs it by its tail, letting out a loud groan as she feels the bat ripping her jacket.

She quickly hits the bat with the rock as many times as she could. It squirts a bit of blood to her face, and she takes it as dead.

Panting, she doesn’t waste time catching her breath and continues running to Steve, feeling a piercing pain in her back.

When she gets close enough, she sees him getting strangled by a bat. “Steve!” she screams and walks over to him.

She tries to get the bat out of his neck but more bats start coming in their direction. They attack Steve on his stomach. 

She cries in despair as she tries to get them out. Soon enough, they start attacking her too.

The first one hits her on her back again, making her fall next to Steve. She grabs it by the tail and rips it out like before, feeling her skin burn.

She gets up in hopes of finding something to help defend herself. 

The bat escapes from her hand and ties her legs, making her fall farther away from Steve. More bats start flying in her direction, making her enter a state of pure panic. What about Dustin, what about Robin. She doesn’t want to die anymore. 

She started screaming as the bats tried to bite her neck. She put her arms around her neck, hoping not to get bitten.

A bat got stuck on her hair while the other two were trying to, basically, kill her. She felt her scalp burning as the bat pulled her hair.

Why is this happening, why to her. Why didn’t she just leave town in the summer. She couldn’t convinced her mother to take them. But now she’s here, about to die.

She started to lose energy to fight. She looked at the sky, the grey-ish blue sky with red thunder. The bats persisting, she’s crying in despair, she’s yelling, she’s in pain, she can’t help Steve. They’re both going to die.

Suddenly, someone hits one of the bats with an oar. She looks to her side and sees Robin.

Robin.

She takes down the two bats but quickly has to take a bat from Nancy’s back. Eddie rushes to Sofia and sticks the oar into the bat on Sofia’s hair, killing it.

Sofia sits up, feeling woozy, and the bat naturally slides from her hair. Gross. She grabs the oar Robin put on the ground and uses it to kill the bat tying her legs.

She’s panting but gets up. Fight or flight. She wants to flight. 

Robin runs up to her and gives her the biggest hug. Sofia sighs in relief, more than happy to see her girlfriend again. Even though she was miserably in pain, all she felt was Robin’s grip, Robin’s hands, and how glad she was that she was still alive.

Her warmth, she needed to memorise her warmth.

Robin lets a tear of relief roll down her cheek. “Thanks” Sofia says with a muffled voice, as she has her head buried on Robin’s neck.

Robin lets go of Sofia. “Your hair is a disaster” she jokes, wanting the terrified look to leave her eyes.

“Gee thanks” Sofia says, fixing her hair. 

“Are you okay?” Robin asks her, full of worry.

“They only took like, a gallon of blood but other than that… I’m great” Sofia responds, joking but not really.

“Your face…” Robin says, brushing her finger through Sofia’s face to clean the squirted blood.

“Well, you should see my back then” Sofia jokes. But not really. Robin looks at Sofia’s back and sees that her teal jacket now has dark red spots. 

“Holy shit… We’re never going to a lake ever again” Robin says, making Sofia chuckle.

“Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?” she asks, now louder so everyone hears.

“What?” Steve asks.

“It’s just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get you to a doctor soon because once symptoms set in, it’s too late” Robin explains, not thinking before talking.

Before Sofia even has time to think about how she’s feeling physically, they hear creatures chittering from afar. In a matter of seconds, six bats start flying in their direction. 

Sofia holds Robin’s hand, and they rush next to Steve and Nancy. She doesn’t believe she’s safe yet.

“All right. There’s not that many. We can take ’em. Right?” Steve says, overly calm.

“You were saying?” Robin asks, as more bats fly to them.

“The woods. Come on” Nancy says, and her, Steve and Eddie start running.

“Great. More running” Robin says, and then she and Sofia start running too.

Soon, they hide from the bats under Skull Rock. Sofia started to feel more and more dizzy as they ran. They were all scared to death.

“That was close” Robin says, getting up.

“Yeah. Too close” Eddie says.

“Oh, sh… shit” Steve quietly groans, losing balance.

“Steve? Jesus” Nancy says, rushing to help Steve.

“I’m fine. I’m fine” he says.

“No, no, no. You’re not. You’re losing blood. Come on, sit. All right?” Nancy orders and rips out a part of her shirt to stop the bleeding. Sofia starts walking around.

“So the good news is I’m pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies” Robin says, almost in tears. “But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know”

“Robin” Steve says.

“Yeah?”

“I kinda wanna punch you”

“Sense of humor’s still intact. That’s a good sign” Robin says, smiling.

Robin got up and when she turned around, she saw the back of Sofia’s jacket way more red than before.

“Sof…” Robin says, quietly but more worried than before. “You’re losing too much blood”

“Yup… I can feel that” Sofia says, sarcastically. Her skin was burning, her clothes felt wet.

“Take your shirt off” Robin says, after thinking for a while.

“Robin you kinky bastard” Sofia jokes.

“Do it” Robin says.

“Why though?” Sofia asks.

“Just trust me” Robin says. Sofia looked at Eddie, who seemed to be hearing their conversation, and he turned around.

Sofia took her jacket off, handing it to Robin, and then her shirt. “Okay, put on the jacket” Robin orders.

“What now?” Sofia asks, after finishing fasten the last button. 

“Arms up” Robin says.

Sofia puts her arms up and Robin puts the shirt around Sofia’s back and just below her armpits, and knots the front, using the sleeves. 

“Oooh, smart” Sofia says.

“So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?” Eddie asks, on top of a rock.

“Pretty much” Steve responds.

“Wait, watch out for the vines. It’s all a hive mind” Nancy says.

“It’s all a what?” Eddie asks.

“All the creepy crawlies around here. They’re, like, one or something. Step on a vine, you’re stepping on a bat, you’re stepping on Vecna” Steve explains.

“Shit” Eddie curses, climbing down the rock.

“But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?” Robin asks.

“As far as I understand it, yeah” Nancy says.

“So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate” Robin suggests.

“I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah, sure” Steve says.

“Well, we don’t have to go all the way downtown for guns” Nancy says. “I have guns in my bedroom”

“You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?” Eddie asks in disbelief.

“Full of surprises, isn’t she?” Robin says.

“A Russian Makarov and a revolver” Nancy says. Sofia has no idea what she’s talking about because she hates guns but if it’s going to help her keep being alive then she’s in.

“Yeah, you almost shot me with that one” Steve says.

“You almost deserved it” Nancy says.

“For your modesty, dude” Eddie says after throwing his denim jacket to Steve.

Suddenly the ground starts moving. Sofia falls on top of Robin but quickly rolls to the ground, not wanting to hurt her. She feels Robin’s arm on her waist and holding her close.

“So guns seem like a pretty good idea to me” Eddie says.

“Yeah, me too” Sofia says, getting up.

Robin keeps an eye on Sofia, scared she might faint any minute now. But she’s tough, very tough. 

They start walking to the Wheelers.

A/N: pretty boring chapter I’m so sorry, I just wanted to post something since I haven’t in a while!!! also I’m really bad at describing scenes so I hope yall understood the “fight” scene w the bats

It’ll take me a bit more time to upload now since school already started #killmepls

by the way, CAN WE TALK ABOUT DO REVENGE? it came out 2 days ago and it’s all I can think about. the chokehold Eleanor has on me is unreal omg… the soundtrack is also amazing and the plot twist??? chefs kiss

please please vote so more people get to read this!! love ya <3