The Golden Rule

Well, that's Max Mayfield," Mike pointed to Max, "that's...El…"

"Hopper," El finished for him.

Mike nodded, "and I'm Mike Wheeler. We've all come from Hawkins"

"Ok that's a coincidence, my family was going to move there after my dad got out of the army. It kept getting put off. And then this happened. I'm making my way there now."

"It's cold in the winter time, it's one of the reasons Max and I left." Mike said.

"You two are...together?" Lucas said raising his eyebrows.

"No, only good friends."

"Oh, you and...El then?"

"Uh, um, no. El, uh, joined us after we had started off." He could see that El was looking down avoiding everyone's eyes.

Shit, Mike thought. He could tell Lucas was fishing, trying to figure where everybody fit in to the group. And Mike was beginning to question himself...and Max. "Where are you camped?"

"About half a mile up the highway," Lucas gestured toward the direction they had been travelling.

"I was actually coming back here to tell you that you can't travel in that direction anymore."

"And why not?"

"Why don't you guys walk up that far and help me bring my stuff back. You'll see. A picture is worth a thousand words and all that."

It took a few minutes for Max, Mike and El, to pack up their duffel bags, "we're ready."

"It's only half a mile, you didn't need to pack anything." Lucas looked at the three of them.

"It's called being prepared. At least we have clothes and some supplies if we never make it back. These days anybody could point a gun at you." Mike smirked at Lucas.

"I'm never gonna live that down am I?"

They walked in pairs up the road to where Lucas said he was camped. Lucas and El took the lead and Max and Mike a few dozen feet behind.

When they had about as much privacy as they were going to get for a serious conversation, Mike asked, "what's going on Max...you are acting different."

"When I first met you Mike, I was...broken. Not a good home life, I had nothing to look forward to, not school, not friends. Nothing….And then I met you. my whole life changed, I had a friend, you didn't judge me, you didn't want any kind of relationship, you just wanted a friend...and what did I do? I treated you like shit pretty much every minute we were together….I'm sorry Mike."

Max started to sniff, and Mike pulled her into a hug, "I love you Mike."

MIke was nonplussed, "Max, what did we talk about? This isn't supposed to happen."

"Not like that Mike, it's still not going to happen… as a friend, just really really good friend,"

"But…" Max wiped her eyes, "I wasn't broken like El is broken. Nobody should have to go through what she did. So even if nothing ever happens between you two, just be kind to her, that's the very least she deserves. And you won't hear another word from me if you let her into your sleeping bag with you. I would offer mine if I thought it would help. You gave her more peace that one night than she's had in years."

"For the record, Max. You've never been shitty to me. Are you quirky? Sure, that's why I like you, one of the reasons we are friends. We were there for each other. The world ended and you're here, still my friend," Mike cleared his throat. "That's not going to change anytime soon."


"They are hugging." Lucas said to El as he took a quick glance back to see how far behind Max and Mike were.

"She's crying. It looks like, he just broke up with her. I thought Mike said they were only good friends?"

El looked back a little wide eyed. "They are. Max told me she wasn't with him."

"Are you sure?" Lucas said.

"No." El said looking down. Lucas could see she was crushed. She had the look of someone who had not only found out some bad news about a friend, but that she had found it out from the betrayal of another friend.

Lucas didn't even know her and he thought it was a shitty thing for them to do.


"Jeezus, Lucas what's that smell?" Max said scrunching up her face.

"That's the smell of a dying city that's burning to the ground." They could see multiple columns of smoke rising in the distance.

"It's getting worse, it didn't smell this bad when I set up camp a few days ago. I've been a lot closer, you can't see through the smoke, and the smell is unbearable. I'll bet it's not good for you to be breathing it in either."

"Ok, let's get Lucas packed up and head back up. Maybe we should move our camp farther back tomorrow morning." Mike said.


"I'll stay with Max tonight," El said, "you have the spare tent?"

"Ok, El...if you have a nightmare?" Mike pulled out the tent bag from the cart for El.

"I'll be with Max, I'll be ok." El was looking down being very business like when setting up the tent not giving Mike a further look. She moved her sleeping bag from Mike's tent to the newly set up one for her and Max.

Max raised her eyebrows at Mike and shrugged when El wasn't looking.

Shit, thought Mike. What did he do wrong? Did he take too long showing any interest. Did he even have any interest? The thought of not being able to look into El's eyes again wrenched painfully at his heart. Yeah, he decided, he did. He had a lot of interest. Ok, it was more than interest...it was more than like. It was way more than like. He felt lost and amazed, thinking of the different ways she smiled at him. The way she looked at him with those eyes. And now it looked like he was too late. He'd taken too long, busy with the whole end of the world thing. He was sure El had liked him and he thought he could wait until he was really sure. He wanted to avoid making a fool of himself. He thought… if he waited a little bit longer... But who knows, maybe it was just a nightmare comfort thing? It's not like girls at school had ever been tripping over themselves trying to get first in line to be Mike Wheeler's girlfriend. Some things never change. Maybe they could be friends when she no longer gave him the cold shoulder. That wasn't going to be today though. Probably not tomorrow either. Mike sighed, it was just like being in school again.

Lucas looked back and forth between everybody, he didn't know what was going on, but he had a good idea. It looked super complicated and he didn't want to get in the middle of it. Especially if Mike and Max were a thing. That would really suck, but he wasn't surprised. At least he had people to talk to now, he hadn't talked to another living person in almost a year.

He managed to catch Max's eye and she gave him a 'I don't know what's going on' look.


El went to their tent first. She hadn't said a word since declaring the new sleeping arrangements. Lucas, Max and Mike sat around the campfire.

"El saw you two hugging," Lucas said, matter of factly in a low voice. Mike could barely hear him above the crackling of the fire. Lucas was poking a stick around the edge of a large piece of firewood.

"We hug all the time," Mike said defensively.

"Yeah, but has she seen you hugging... 'all the time' … just sayin' "

"Shit." Mike and Max said at the same time.


They left the fire going again that night. Everyone crawled into their respective tents.

Max could see El's tear stained cheeks when she had gotten in her sleeping bag and looked over at her.

"El," Max began.

"You lied to me," El said heartbroken.

"I didn't lie, El. Mike and I…," she could see fresh tears spilling out of El's eyes, "we have an important rule we follow. Friends Don't Lie."

"Mike is my friend, but you are too El. I would never lie to Mike or to you. Never. Friends Don't Lie. It's as simple as that."

"But you hugged Mike?"

"We hug all the time. Sometimes good friends do that. And I've been in the same sleeping bag with him too, for warmth, just like we did the other night. We're just friends, El. If everyone had a friend like Mike, believe me the world would have been a much better place. Mike has been a better friend to me than I have to him. But he never complained, because he didn't think that way. He's always been there for me. Somehow I knew he would be after walking for months back to Hawkins. And I was right, he was there for me." Max wiped her eyes sniffing.

"El," Max looked at her, "I'm not with him." She was quiet for a moment.

"I'll tell you a secret though…" Max said looking towards the sound of the campfire and said in a hushed conspiratorial voice. "I think I like Lucas."

Max gave El a low giggle, just saying it out loud made her feel happy and giddy at the same time.

El got very wide eyed and gave Max a smile that would have overpowered the morning sun.


El was up early. Max heard El wake up from another nightmare. She was crying but she didn't go to Mike's tent. She was probably feeling guilty that she'd ignored him last night.

It sounded like El was trying to get the fire going. In a few minutes Max could hear the fire crackling. Max was about to drift off again when she heard a loud "Mike?!"

A few seconds later, El was scrambling into their tent. "Mike is sick...I think Lucas is too."

Max's heart raced. "Oh no!" Mike was supposed to be immune, like she was…

Max felt bad for El, she knew El really liked Mike, and couldn't lose him not without having at least a chance to be together to start with. It wasn't fair.

"No, no, no, no,no." Max couldn't lose Mike either, not after all they had been through together.