The squad finally arrived at the junkyard not long before sundown.
Steve surveyed the area and muttered his approval, "oh, yeah. Yeah, this will do. This will do just fine. Good call, dude." Dustin looked thoroughly pleased with himself.
They were throwing out the last of the raw meat pieces when Lucas decided to make his appearance.
"I said medium-well!" He yelled while biking up, but he wasn't solo. The red hair trailing behind his companion warned Ana that they were bound to have an issue on their hands in the not too distant future.
"Who's that?" Steve questioned, though, from the look on Dustin's face, he should have been able to guess the answer.
Steve, Max, and Ana started prepping the battlefield, while Dustin and Lucas ducked behind one of the beat-up old cars to no doubt have a tiff over the new girl.
Meanwhile, said new girl was utterly confused by their teacher's presence. "Ms. Thompson, you know about all this?" Max questioned her elder.
Ana let out a chuckle at the question. "You didn't know? I'm totally hip and with it, Max. Bet you're gonna pay more attention in my class now, huh?" The girl appraised Ana strangely but didn't question her any further. Probably wasn't the answer the younger girl was looking for, but they didn't have the time for long, drawn-out explanations.
The measuring contest behind the car was taking too long for Steve's liking, so he went over and whacked a chair against the boys' hiding spot, making Dustin and Lucas jump at the racket. "Hey! Dickheads! How come the only ones helping me out here are Ms. Thompson and this random girl? We lose light in 40 minutes. Let's go. Let's go, I said."
Steve Harrington had the makings of a great public school teacher if only he could curb his desire to call the children dickheads.
"All right, asshole! God!" Dustin whined. "Okay! Stupid." Lucas spat. Yep, this is precisely what it was like being a public school teacher.
The fivesome busied themselves fortifying the school bus using spare pieces of metal, strategically pouring out the gasoline to ignite later, and soon their trap was laid. Everyone filed onto the bus to begin their waiting.
It was quiet, eerily so, and the only sound that punctuated the stillness was the lighter Steve kept flicking. Ana was two seconds away from taking it off of him if he didn't cut it out.
"So you really fought one of these things before?" Max's question was unwarranted, they had all seen it, so it was easy for them to believe. Not so easy for an outsider.
Steve nodded his head in answer, but Max continued to question him anyway. "And you're, like, totally, 100% sure it wasn't a bear?"
Dustin cut in angrily at this inquiry, "shit. Don't be an idiot. Okay? It wasn't a bear. Why would Ms. Thompson lie? Why are you even here if you don't believe us?"
Ana scolded him for his harsh words towards the girl, but he wasn't deterred. He was mad at the situation with Lucas and taking it out on Max. "Just go home."
Max was notably offended at being snapped at, and headed up the ladder, away from the angry boy. "Geesh. Someone's cranky. Past your bedtime."
Once Max was out of earshot, Steve smiled and said: "That's good. Just show her you don't care."
"I don't," Dustin assured flatly, which earned a wink from Steve. "Why are you winking, Steve? Stop." Ana kicked Steve's shoe and instructed him to knock it off.
Ana was checking over her revolver, good thing she always kept it at the ready in her glove compartment, when the screeching started outside. Everyone kept their eyes peeled, scanning the perimeter for any signs of Dart. Lucas and his binoculars spotted him first. "I've got eyes! Ten o'clock! Ten o'clock!"
The company waited on bated breath for the monsters next move. When he didn't make one, everyone became anxious.
"He's not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?" Steve commented on what they were all witnessing.
"Maybe he's not hungry?" Dustin surmised, but the answer couldn't be that simple.
"Maybe he's sick of cow," Steve concluded. Goddammit, Ana knew exactly where this was heading.
Steve walked off to grab his bat, and Ana stood up, readying her gun.
"Steve? Ms. Thompson? What are you doing?" Neither answered Dustin's query; it was apparent what they were doing.
Ana went to the door and prepared to open it, while Steve turned back to Dustin. "Just be ready," he warned before throwing his lighter to the younger boy.
The two elders of the group warily stepped out into the crisp night air; fog slithered around their feet like snakes. "No matter what, we stay back to back, and we cover each other. Clear?" Steve nodded in conformation to the teacher's directive. The bus door creaked closed behind them.
Steve whistled and called out in an effort to draw the creature towards them. This had to be one of the dumbest ideas Ana had on record. She briefly wondered if she would be fired should a student be eaten to death on her watch? Yeah, probably.
Dart was waiting, just waiting in front of the pair, and there's nothing more unsettling than being stared down by a mini Demogorgon. At least, they thought there was nothing more unsettling, Lucas was about to shatter that belief for the two humans acting as bait on the ground.
"Guys, watch out!" Lucas' scream pierced the night air.
"A little busy here!" Steve returned without so much as blinking, but Lucas continued to yell. "Three o'clock! Three o'clock!"
Whatever was at three o'clock would have to be Ana's problem because Steve was keeping his sights locked on Dart ahead.
Seeing what was at three o'clock only confirmed that they were positively fucked. Apparently, Dart was part of a brood.
In the distance, Dustin was yelling at the pair to abort, but it was far too late for that. They were surrounded, and now their only hope was being both quick and smart.
The first beast lunged at Steve, but he dodged it by rolling onto the hood of a nearby car. Ana did her best to follow, shooting at another as it came at them from behind. Thankfully, her shot landed, and the animal fell to the ground, unmoving. Well, at least these miniature versions were stopped by bullets whereas the Demogorgon hadn't been affected at all.
The duo made a break for the safety of the bus, where the children were screaming at them to run faster. Steve swung his bat to stave off the spawn as they made their exit, and Ana shot those that dared approach.
After what felt like an eternity of running, Ana and Steve both fell into the security of their makeshift sanctuary, but the danger wasn't past yet.
Steve held the door closed with his feet as the devils rammed their bodies against it to break in. He pulled a piece of steel siding and placed it in front of the entrance to stave them off further, but it was too flimsy to last.
Everyone was screaming. The bus was rocking from the impact of bodies hitting against it. This was the end of them all if they couldn't conjure up a miracle.
One of the beats broke through the door, and Ana pushed the three kids to the back of the bus while Steve attacked it with his bat. The screeching was deafening.
Dustin tried calling for help on his radio, but there was no one to help them now. No salvation in sight from their dreadful circumstances.
Pounding sounded on the roof, and it made everyone pause, the emergency exit was still agape. As one of the creatures approached the opening, Max finally saw up close and personal what it was that had the group under attack.
She let out a blood-curdling scream. Bet she believed their story now.
Ana pushed the girl aside, intending to shoot the damned thing as it roared in her face, but suddenly, all movement stopped.
The monster looked off into the distance, before jumping off the bus and leaving them alone entirely. All its minions followed suit as well.
Hesitantly, the crew stepped outside to see if their adversaries had really gone, and it wasn't just a trick.
They found that they were once again alone in the junkyard.
"What happened?" Lucas asked baffled.
"I don't know," Max admitted.
"Steve and Ms. Thompson scared 'em off?" Dustin suggested, but that was less than believable.
"I highly doubt it," Ana whispered.
"No way. They're going somewhere," Steve surmised.