Another day had passed since their departure from Hawkins and with it came another new environment.
This car was dressed as though it were in a perpetual state of midnight. The stars in the sky shed little light through the windows, while most of the car was illuminated by train shaped wall lamps. There was a lamp above every aisle, and every aisle was filled with thousands of VHS movies.
This was a video rental store. Not too unlike Family Video back in Hawkins, but this one was called, "Trackbuster".
The ambiance was certain to make the pair of passengers homesick. How it could make them miss a dingy minimum wage job, only they could tell. Maybe it was the hope that something ordinary would happen — that life could be constant and the same for a little while. But this was the train. And it had likely given them more problems than they had boarded with.
"Star Trains: A New Train?" Steve read aloud from the movie case he held in his hand.
"Why not Train Wars?" Robin appeared behind him.
"Reall— At this point, Robin, I don't think we should expect anything to make sense here." Steve set the VHS back on the shelf.
"You started it, dingus." Robin moved over to the Modern Day Classics aisle. She held up two movies to him. "The Breakfast Train and Trainloose." Robin grinned.
Steve stood beside her. He picked up another movie from the shelf that had the initials E.T. on it. "Don't tell me it stands for Extra Train-strial." Steve rolled his eyes.
All of the VHS cases contained different images of trains. Sometimes there were even multiple to a cover. Engines, cabooses… You name it, they had it.
"This one's more creative." Robin pointed to another on the shelf.
It had three trains on the cover placed in a row.
"It's called Sixteen Whistles." She said.
BEEP.
Steve's eyes lingered over to the sound's origin.
There was another passenger in the car. They stood at a check out counter near the door.
The cashier was an old looking turtle with glasses and a small tuft of hair on the top of his head. He stood tall on two feet and operated a scanner and a computer.
The passenger reached into their pocket and handed a few bills to the cashier, who promptly pressed some buttons on his keyboard.
The train car's door flashed and clicked. It had been unlocked for the passenger.
After witnessing the exit, Steve realized he didn't have his wallet in his bag. He had forgotten it in his car the morning of their abduction. It could have given them a leg up, but knowing the train, they likely would have their own currency, anyway. Probably called 'Denizen Dollars' or something like that, he wondered.
Robin briefly glanced at Steve and the passenger, then went back to looking at the shelf. Another movie with the picture of a rusty train caught her eye.
The Nightmare on Train Street.
The movie's content reminded her of the day before. She rubbed at her arm.
They hadn't even broached the subject yet. Technically, they hadn't been talking about all this point blank. And if they weren't talking, they were wasting time.
"Steve—." She got his attention but the words failed to escape her.
"Yeah." He had been thinking the same thing. "Neither of us want to talk about yesterday."
"Correct." Robin nodded.
"But we have to so we can get off the train?" He continued.
"Also correct." She sighed. Robin knew they had just been going around in circles. Starting conversations but in the end they had only talked about talking. Little progress had been made in the past few days.
"Let's face it. We aren't finding another way off the train and no one is coming to save us. We can't just continue to do nothing." She closed her eyes, getting small flashes of the nightmares at the alien hands of those dream sprites.
"So nightmares…" Steve trailed off. Of course, he didn't want to share first and he knew she wouldn't want to either. Though he was curious what she had seen, he worried it would be normal in comparison to his. For all he knew, maybe her's was giant spiders while his was everyone he cared about dying. It could be apples to oranges and he wasn't sure if he could face the potential humiliation.
"I almost drowned." Robin interrupted. "I think it was a hurricane. I got left behind on this beach while everyone else sailed far away. They didn't even look back." Robin knew that could be saying more about her than she would have wanted, but at this point in time, she didn't care. Not that much, anyway.
Steve's mind came back to reality. Her dream definitely wasn't all that normal, but it seemed a lot more abstract than his.
"Brutal." He finally said to her. "What do you think it means?"
"Probably means I'm afraid to be left behind." Robin said.
Left Behind? Steve thought. He scratched his head.
"But really, who isn't?" She tried to stay upbeat. Robin had omitted the part with the blood. She loved literature. Of course, she had read Macbeth. She knew all the literary devices and movie tropes, the motifs and cliches. Everything. There was no denying it was guilt. Put that together with the rest and it would be obvious. If anyone was hopping on a boat and sailing away, it was and will be her fault. Guilt was a big problem, in fact, she was feeling guilty now for holding back. But she just couldn't help herself. Robin hoped knowing would be enough and that there was still a chance to sort that one little part out on her own.
"Probably helps to compare notes, you know." Robin prodded, eager to get off the hot seat.
"Right. Um—." Steve paused. "I saw Hawkins and I thought it was real at first but I saw everyone… you know… kick the bucket because I wasn't there."
Robin raised her eyebrows.
"Look, I know how it sounds." Steve waved his hands in front of him.
Many times over the years Steve had wondered what his role was in the group. He wasn't a superhero. He wasn't a gunslinger. He wasn't a genius or an insider. The only role that ever came to mind was 'the muscle'. But with all the lost fights, Steve thought of himself more like the punching bag. He could take the hits to spare the others. Steve didn't know quite how to say it out loud, so he settled.
"I'm not an ego maniac." He finally said to Robin.
"I wasn't thinking that." Robin replied quickly. It had actually seemed as though their struggles weren't too different. She was about to come clean with the rest of her story but Steve beat her to the punch.
"I think I've had worse." Steve nodded.
Robin gave him a funny look.
"Really." He said. "I had a dream where uh— my friend pantsed me in front of our entire middle school talent show. Freaked me out so bad I skipped out on all the real ones."
"That was your worst nightmare?" She crossed her arms. Though the past several days had been extremely emotionally taxing, she could still smell his bullshit from a mile away. It was some sort of ploy yet she had taken the bait anyway.
"Yeah, I mean it's totally irrational but imagine what that would have done to my reputation at the time?" Steve continued.
"Okay, but that actually did happen to me." She snorted.
"No way." Steve protested.
"It did! I'm serious." Robin's eyes looked to the sky, trying to remember the incident. "In the second grade Shelly Jameson did that to me during our school concert. I got made fun of for like a month."
"Only a month? I think you got let off easy." Said Steve. "Kids can be assholes."
"I'm sure it would have lasted longer. Probably- I mean, after a few weeks I just had enough and let her have it in the cafeteria. I told her, 'You only did that because I got the solo and you didn't'." Robin said. "I also used some colourful language and uh- she totally freaked out."
"She seemed like a real jerk." Said Steve.
"Still is." Robin laughed.
Steve pondered for a moment. There was something he didn't understand. Robin never shied away from making her opinions known. She had apparently been doing it since the second grade. What happened?
"Why do you let Amanda walk all over you?" He asked.
A wave of anxiety shot through Robin's body. She turned her face, trying to calm herself. "It's complicated." She finally said, not looking him in the eye.
"Do you owe her money?" He asked.
"No." She replied.
"Is she blackmailing you or something?" Steve accused with intensity in his voice. "Or is it because she's popular because I was—."
Steve continued to rant but Robin tuned him out. Sinking down to the floor, her mind wandered. She had been holding it together for a long time, even before the train. This whole situation was a huge, juicy, can of worms that she feared would come spilling out the top if she even nudged the lid. She had kept her mouth shut before, but this time it was unavoidable.
"She's my cousin." Robin blurted out.
"Amanda's your… cousin?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I need to be on my best behaviour with my family because I'm already on thin ice with them. I swear if I make any more enemies, the fallout will be incalculable." The floodgates had been opened. Robin had jumped straight from explanation to catastrophizing.
"If I don't have any more problems then maybe it won't be so bad when I tell them— IF I tell them. Or when they inevitably find out I'm not who they think I am in the next 20 years." She trailed off. "The point is things have to stay perfect."
"Oh." Steve nodded, unsure of what to say. All this had been new territory to him. He'd never had a friend like Robin, hell, he wasn't sure he ever had a real friend before her.
"I'm just preventing a future disaster." Robin lowered her head. There was so much to say but so few ways to properly verbalize it.
Steve sat beside her on the floor and let out a big puff of air. There was something he had been avoiding, too. Now was a good of time as any, if he ever wanted to get off this train. He wasn't going to be stuck here for who knows how many years like Alfie. He had problems whether he wanted to acknowledge them or not.
"Shit." He rubbed his face with his hands.
Robin looked over to him.
"I wasn't going to my parents' cottage." Steve said.
Robin sat there for a moment. "What?" She asked.
"I was going to a job interview in Moorstone." He said.
That was 5 hours away, she thought.
"I didn't want to tell you because I felt… guilty." Steve mumbled. "I can't work at a video store forever. That and my parents have been getting on my case about not getting into any colleges." Steve sat, cracking each one of his knuckles.
Robin was ready to speak but Steve noticed and cut her off.
"I don't know if I want it. But with everything that's happened the past few years, I can't think about leaving." He said.
"So THAT'S why you didn't see anything in the mirrors!" Robin pointed.
"Probably." He nodded. "The last two years I've been stalling... If I leave and another bad thing happens—." Steve exhaled. "Who's going to look out for you idiots when I'm gone?" He smiled halfheartedly for a brief moment.
"You don't have to take the job, but you could let yourself think about it." Robin looked at him. "Even though it makes me a little sad."
Steve gave a small smirk. He was a little relieved someone would miss him, but it made the possibility of leaving even more difficult. Though it was a pretty terrible place most of the time, he loved his home town and the people in it. But still, there was something about Hawkins that kept dragging him down. Maybe he was cursed — not in a Vecna way, but in a bad luck prone way. Many of his peers had outgrown him like he had outgrown his old friends. Nancy and Jonathon had career aspirations with prospects and Robin would eventually go off to college to bigger and better things. A fresh start could do a world of good, at least, it would help him from feeling left behind. Still, he couldn't let it be an option. There were people who still needed him.
"Thieves!" A familiar voice shouted at them.
In a moment of panic, they sprang up from the floor and looked in the direction of the voice.
There was Alfie. He was still alive and breathing, though it was laboured. He was hunched over by the entrance of the car.
Alfie slammed his severed robot arm into a wall socket.
The car flooded with a wave of purple hue. It froze every denizen in the car.
"Look man, we didn't mean to take your stuff but we thought—." Steve reasoned.
"—We thought you were dead." Robin finished the sentence.
"Here. You can have it back." Steve pulled a stack of maps out of his bag and held them out. He hid the glitching baseball bat behind him.
"Where is it?!" Alfie squeezed his teeth together and held his head. He stumbled forward. His eyes turned yellow and looked like they would pop out of his skull.
Steve gripped the bat tightly. He looked over to Robin who instinctively nodded at him.
Robin ran in the direction of the checkout counter.
The sudden movement agitated Alfie. He lunged at her with his claws.
CRACK! Steve swung the bat colliding into his stomach.
Alfie hit the ground.
Steve ran toward the robot arm in the wall panel.
Alfie grabbed his legs, causing them to both fall forward.
Steve turned and stomped Alfie's hands with the bottom of the bat.
Alfie lost his grip on Steve who took off.
On the other side of the room, Robin was frantically running from one frozen denizen to the next. She looked in each pocket trying to find enough cash to pay for a movie.
She stopped in front of one that had a wallet in his hand.
He stood there frozen.
Robin waved her arm slowly in front of the denizen.
He didn't acknowledge her or even blink.
She tugged on the wallet and loosened his hand on it. Let's hope the train doesn't penalize you for petty theft. Robin thought.
With a fistful of cash, she ran to the counter, swiping a movie from a shelf on her way by. She slid over the counter and jumped for the scanner. Her finger tried to click down on the button but it wouldn't budge. There was no beep or flash of light. She tapped it on the counter a few times but it still wouldn't work. The scanner was frozen like everything else.
"I'm gonna need you to hurry up!" Robin shouted to Steve.
"I'm… working on it!" Steve struggled. He was reaching toward the robot arm from the floor, but it was just out of grasp. He moved his head to the other side to see the bat was also too far.
Alfie was on top of him. His mouth started to twist and dislocate until he started to siphon in a heavy force of wind.
Steve started to shrivel up like before. His fingers were just grazing against the end of the robotic arm. Finally, he clutched and pulled on it with all his might.
The robot arm ripped out of the wall and Steve pushed it onto Alfie. Its claws clamped onto his face.
Alfie stumbled backward. He scratched at it, desperate to free himself.
The car had unfrozen and Robin's finger finally triggered the button. The scanner beeped and the movie's information had appeared on the computer. Robin shoved the money into the cash register and confirmed the order with the spacebar.
The car door clicked and unlocked.
"I got it!" She called out.
Steve had already been on his way. He ran and opened the door with Robin not far behind, as she leaped from the counter.
He ran through. "How many close calls has that been?" He prepared to hear an earful of ranting from his friend.
When there was nothing but silence, his heart sank. He turned around.
The door had been shut with Robin nowhere to be seen.
On the other side, Robin pulled on the door handle. It had turned purple like the car had before, except it was the only thing that was glitching within the room.
"Uhh… Steve?" She banged on the door.
"We need to get you out of there!" He yanked on the handle but it wouldn't budge.
"No shit!" Robin shouted. She looked at her number. It was only at a 15.
"LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME!" A voice screamed at her.
Robin turned around to see that Alfie had gotten up and was close by. He held the robot claw in his hand with his finger pressed on a button.
"Umm. Uhh. Okay! Could there possibly be anymore secrets the train wants you to— I don't know— reveal?" Steve asked in a panic.
Robin sighed and shut her eyes tight.
"Robin?" He asked. He heard nothing but radio silence. "Are you mad at me?"
"Maybe." Robin winced.
While slowly backing away from the door, Robin spotted the baseball bat where Steve had left it. Without a second more to think, she made a break for it.
Alfie dropped the robot claw and started to run on all fours.
Her hand gripped the bat and she got ready to swing at the half-man part-dog-roach-monster rapidly approaching.
"Why?!" Steve yelled.
"I didn't want to fight you!" Robin swung the bat at Alfie with all her might.
"I'm a pacifist! I'm a pacifist!" The bat yelled, waking up. The hits with its body sent Alfie back a little.
"We fight all the time." Steve said through the door.
"Yeah. Over mind-numbingly stupid things. This is different." Robin said, hitting Alfie again.
She swung again, but Alfie caught it in his hands. She tried to tug it from him but he was inhumanly strong.
"Hey! Easy!" Yelled the bat.
Robin let go of the bat. It went flying to the side causing Alfie to fall.
"AHHHH!" The bat yelled.
"Okay! You've been kind of an asshole lately!" She panicked. Robin ran to the tallest shelf she could find and began climbing.
Steve paced on the other side of the door.
"You didn't listen when I told you to stop talking to Amanda. You keep trying to solve my problems for me— even the small ones, when I asked you not to." Robin kicked down on Alfie's head as he tried to follow. "I'm completely aware my life's a mess but it's my mess. You just need to trust that I need to be the one to handle it 95% of the time." Her foot slammed on his head one final time.
Alfie let go. He was knocked out cold.
She had pulled herself to the top of the shelf and caught her breath. It seemed to be safe for the moment.
"Steve?" She asked, looking down in the direction of the shut door.
"Sorry." He broke his silence. "I just wanted to help."
"You said that before." Robin sighed.
"What do you want me to do?" He asked.
"Just listen!" She exclaimed. Robin surveyed the area, looking for the robot hand that could set her free.
Steve paused. "…Okay." He agreed.
"Okay? That's it?" She asked in disbelief.
"Robin, you've called me an asshole a million times." Steve said.
It really wasn't a big deal and he knew she must be really shaken up for her to think it was. If there was one thing Robin loved to do, it was to voice her opinions - especially to him about him.
"You know you're allowed to be mad at people, right? Steve asked.
Robin let out a long breath.
"And if your parents don't get it… there's a million people who are going to have your back." He shut his eyes tight. "Even if they aren't in Hawkins anymore." Steve's watched his number move down hoping that it might hit zero. It stopped at 12.
"But tell me next time." He added.
"Deal." She said.
BA-BOOM. A large noise rumbled through the sky.
Steve looked up.
A giant tunnel of light came shooting out of the sky, illuminating everything in yellow. It hit the train car, causing it to shake.
"Robin!" He banged his fists on the door. "What's happening in there?!"
A doorway had opened up beside Robin. She glanced at the "0" on her hand, then looked back to the door.
It was bright and windy.
As she approached the opening, Robin was careful to keep balance as she hopped from one shelf to the next.
"I see… Hawkins?" Robin looked closer.
It was a view of Family Video.
"You see a door to Hawkins?!" Steve yelled through the door.
"Yeah!" Robin smiled and nodded.
"Go!" He yelled. Steve held an ear to the door waiting to hear if she had jumped through the portal.
"I'm not leaving until you get a door." Robin said.
Steve paced for a second and put a hand to his head. "Seriously— Please go through the door."
"You first." Robin replied.
"I'm not screwing around!" Steve exhaled loudly.
There was something in the sky flying towards him. He looked over.
It was a familiar dog-like bug with a leash around its neck. Frank.
Not again, he thought.
"You can't put your life on hold for us, dingus." Robin said.
"Alright! Alright!" He agreed. Steve took a deep sigh and dragged his fist down the door. He smacked his forehead against it. "I don't think I can—."
Robin intently listened from the other side of the door.
"I mean, if I get the job I leave, right? …But if I don't?" Steve continued.
"Then you'll figure it out." Robin carefully climbed down the shelf and headed for the robot hand.
"It could be worse." Steve said. He watched Frank closely, making sure he didn't make any sudden movements to alert him.
"That's the spirit!" Robin exclaimed as she picked up the robot hand from the floor.
On the hand were hundreds of tiny buttons, which Robin examined. Searching carefully for just the right one to trigger the door lock, she turned the hand every which way.
"No, I mean it could be worse in the long run. I get the job or I don't." Steve nodded to himself. "It means I leave Hawkins first or Hawkins leaves me later."
Steve paused waiting for a response but Robin was busy concentrating with the robot hand.
"It means both options are bad." Steve said loudly through the door.
"I know what it means!" Robin hollered back.
Frank landed on the train car's bridge, snarling at Steve. It scraped its claws on the ground.
Hearing the weird sounds outside the car, Robin hurried. Twisting the robot hand around, she looked at all the buttons. The sheer amount of options was overwhelming and she wasn't sure which one to press.
Screw it, Robin thought. She pushed every button she could find on the hand.
Things went haywire in the car. Wires popped out of the ceiling. More panels opened up on the floor with green orbs. Even a laser zapped out of the robot's palm and struck the store counter.
Outside, Frank flew through the air, barrelling toward Steve. In a second, they had collided, hitting the train car platform. Steve struggled to push him off, yet again.
Suddenly, the door swung open and they both toppled into the car.
Robin hit Frank off him with the bat.
It tumbled off the edge of the train and flew away whimpering.
"Told you I had that." She offered him a hand and helped him to his feet.
"So you're scared shitless of the future. Big deal. So am I. But you're allowed to think, plan, dream, whatever. It can be five minutes or hours away — it can be a million miles away." She continued. "Humanity has invented phones, cars, planes and buses, you know."
Steve rubbed his head.
"I say, as a fellow monster hunter, I think you can handle a little change." Robin crossed her arms. "And there's no rule against roommates either. There's some good colleges up in Moorstone."
"I don't know if I can afford an apartment that'll fit eight couch surfers." Steve joked.
"Don't worry about it. Dustin will probably invent something that will make him rich by 18." Robin shrugged.
"Or Erica." Steve added.
Robin nodded.
Alfie emerged from between the shelves and crawled toward them.
Steve raised his fist, scared of what he might do, but Alfie cowered at the sight.
He lowered his fist.
They watched as Alfie grabbed Steve's bag. He pulled out the pile of maps.
He ripped into the papers, damaging most of them, until he found an old ratty comic buried in the middle. Alfie smelled it and held it close to his head. The familiar smell of the ink and the bright, albeit sun-faded, letters reminded him of memories of home.
It was his Captain Kidd comic.
Alfie's skin moulted and glitched. The shadow had now fully engulfed his flesh, but it looked as though it was rejecting this disease that plagued him. Alfie's body began to disintegrate. From flesh to bone to ash, Alfie was gone, having left behind nothing but his belongings.
Robin took a deep breath and Steve put his hand on her shoulder, offering his support. Looking back at him, she eased up.
"Here's fine." The baseball started swinging all over in Robin's hand.
She carefully set it down on the ground and it rolled away.
Both of them looked at each other and shrugged.
BA-BOOM. A new door opened up in front of Steve.
He stepped forward, a bit nervous about having his atoms scrambled back into their own dimension. But more pressingly, he was nervous about the new decisions he had to face off the train.
With a quick look to each other and a small exchange of nods, they approached the exits. Their long journey was over, only for a new one to begin. Together, they jumped through their respective doors. Dissolving from this world back to their own, the bright lights guided them.
They landed abruptly on the pavement outside Family Video.
There was Hawkins, their beloved, messy, yet familiar small town. The pavement overrun with potholes, the faded parking spot lines, the dried up milkshake on the sidewalk, and the grumpy townsfolk were a welcome sight for once. It wasn't vibrant nor technologically advanced, but it was home.
Steve let out a sigh. "Finally." He said.
He looked all around at the number of people walking and driving by.
"If we tell anyone about this, they're going to think we were drugged again." Steve said.
"Maybe we'll just leave out the part about the talking ketchup bottles." Robin replied. "And the giant board game. AND the baseball bat. And-."
"Any chance we dodged a missing person's report?" Steve pulled out the keys to the store and unlocked the door.
"Guess we'll find out." Robin shrugged. She started to walk away.
"Where are you going?!" He shouted after her.
"To get my book back!" She broke into a sprint.
Steve entered the store and picked up the phone. He dialed and waited for an answer on the other end while watching Robin run until she was out of sight. It made him grin and shake his head.
"Yeah? Hello?" Steve answered the call.
Like the train, there was a whole world of possibilities in this dimension. It was petrifying— yet somehow still exciting.
Maybe he would never leave Hawkins or maybe he would. There was time. And maybe that was okay.
