the first thing she heard was steve's screaming. when she saw his body, he was on the ground yards away from her, writhing in pain as two creatures ate at his sides, an additional one wound around his neck.

nancy, who had stopped for a second to think before joining her, had been smart enough to grab an oar that she tossed to meadow. using the oar, she swatted one of the bats away. "hey." she breathed to steve, whacking the other bat off of his side.

robin moved over to her, holding the bat that was around steve's neck down as she hit at it.

"kill it!" eddie shouted, but got distracted quickly when more of the bats appeared in the sky.

meadow was still hitting at the bat when another landed on her back, distracting her. "shit shit shit robin get it off of me!" she screamed, hunched over as it attacked her back. robin grabbed it by the tail, pulling it.

"meadow!" eddie yelled as he grabbed an oar and shoved the animal off of her, leaving nancy to fend off the incoming ones, and steve to whack his against the ground, eventually stomping his foot on it and tearing half of its body off.

"that'll do it." meadow panted, looking up at him. "are you okay, oh my gosh." she then immediately moved to him, her hands on his upper arms as his moved to her waist, allowing her to examine the bites in his sides. "jesus."

"they took about a pound of flesh.." steve told her, looking at his wounds. "but other than that, yeah, never better."

she sighed, her forehead resting on his. "please do not do that.. ever.. again."

"it wasn't by choice!" he defended.

"no, seriously. never do that. again. that is the worst thing.. i have ever experienced, what the actual fuck." she said, trying to avoid wrapping her arms around him too tight.

steve then nodded. "okay, i promise to.. not get pulled underwater by a demon vine thing and then get attacked by demon bats."

she smiled. "okay. good."

robin examined one of the creatures. "uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?" she asked. "it's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear, and i think we should probably get you to a doctor like really soon because once the symptoms set in, it's too late, you're already dead."

meadow nodded. "thank you, robin, that is quite comforting."

the conversation was cut off when more bats flew in from the sky, and robin immediately moved to hide behind steve and meadow. the creatures all flew towards the gate, sitting down around it. with them surrounding it, there was no way they could go back through the same way they'd gone in.

"alright, there's not that many." steve reasoned. "we can take em. right?"

he seemed to have spoken too soon, because another flock of bats sounded in the distance. "you were saying?" robin asked.

"the woods." nancy said. "come on, let's go!"

everyone followed nancy as she sprinted towards the woods, where they'd hopefully find cover. "great. more running." robin groaned.

the group took shelter under skull rock, which seemed to be the closest cover to them. meadow and steve, as they often were when scared, were pressed tightly together, listening to the sounds of the bats above them. she knew what will had told her, about the upside down being cold. he hadn't been kidding.

after waiting a couple minutes, robin lead the way out from under the rock so they could attempt to get to safer territory. meadow stopped when steve did, clutching his side and wincing. "steve?"

"i'm fine. i'm fine." he insisted.

she shook her head. "no, no, you're losing blood. sit down." she ordered, helping him get to a more knelt down stance. from here, she could examine the wound, which looked eerily similar to eleven's from the summer prior. "okay, uh, okay, you're okay. um.. we need something to stop it, do any of you have a.." she looked over at robin. "give me your shirt."

"what?"

"your short sleeve."

"what, no it's cold?"

"do you want steve to give you rabies?" she asked, though she severely doubted he had rabies. the suggestion made robin's eyes go wide, and she shook her head before handing meadow her hawaiian shirt.

"i do really like that shirt, though, meadow, and you owe me a new one."

she nodded. "yeah, yeah, i'll buy you any shirt you want, just.." she trailed off, wrapping it around steve's waist and tying it in the front.

"so the good news," robin said, "is i'm pretty sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies. but, um, if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling really aggressive, like you wanna punch me, or something, then you should totally let me know."

"robin.." he groaned. "i kinda wanna punch you."

she laughed. "sense of humor's still intact. that's a good sign!"

"not helping." meadow said as she tied the shirt around his stomach. "is that.. is that too tight, is it good?"

steve nodded. "yeah, yeah, it's good. thank you."

eddie, who was least informed about the upside down, looked up at the sky. "so, uh, this place is like hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" he asked.

"pretty much." meadow replied, helping steve back to his feet.

"wait, watch out for the vines." nancy warned eddie when he started walking. "it's all a hive mind."

the boy didn't follow. "it's all a what?"

"hive mind." meadow repeated. "everything is connected."

"all the creepy crawlies around here, man." steve told him. "it's all.. one. or something. step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on vecna."

"shit." eddie replied.

robin looked over at the three that knew the most about it all. "but everything from our world is still here, right? except people?"

meadow shrugged. "i guess, yeah."

"so, theoretically," robin said, "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."

steve shook his head. "yeah, i highly doubt that the hawkins pd has grenades, robin. but, guns, yeah, sure."

"well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns." nancy piqued. "i have guns in my bedroom."

eddie hopped down from the rock he was on. "you. nancy wheeler. have guns, plural, in your bedroom?"

"a russian makarov and a revolver." she confirmed.

eddie then handed steve his denim sleeveless jacket, which he wore on top of a leather one. "for your modesty, dude." he explained, and steve nodded. before he could put it on, though, an earthquake shook the ground, sending meadow and steve falling onto each other.

steve stood by one of the large rocks, one of his arms wrapped tightly around her waist to keep her close to him as they regained their balance.

they all panted for a moment before more creatures started to roar in the distance. "okay, so guns sound like a pretty good idea to me." eddie said.