8

9th December, 1985

The five teenagers walked through the night. Holly woke up around six, when Mike was so tired he could barely hold his eyes open.

`Mike? Where are we?'

`Uh… somewhere near Elwood Junior School. We aren't staying with dad anymore.'

`Yippee!' Holly bounced up and down, clapping. `Put down.'

More than happy to relieve himself of her weight, Mike unclipped the harness and deposited Holly on the ground. She pointed at an iHop down the road. `Breakfast!'

`Shit!' Cursed Lucas suddenly. Everyone looked at him, including Holly, who muttered the word experimentally under her breath. `Sorry- I just realised, we don't have any money.'

`Shit!' Repeated Dustin, clapping his hand to his forehead and accidentally knocked his cap off. `Too bad, Holly.'

Her face crumpled, and she thumped down on her haunches. Instead, they made a breakfast out of apples and shared a biscuit Dustin brought. That satisfied their hunger, but the fact remained Holly was the only one barely functioning. And they'd all need to be on the same sleep schedule.

That meant either Holly slept through the day… or everyone else kept walking.

Mike glanced over to Holly. She was skipping cheerfully on the spot with biscuit crumbs smeared around her mouth.

Mike took a swig of Coke for luck and pulled his rucksack on again.

0

By the time they reached a town called Lima, Lucas had his eyes shut and was being led forward by Max, Will and Dustin were almost carrying each other, Mike was yawning every other second and even Holly's spirit had waned through the long hours of walking.

The alarm would have gone up by then. Hopper would be searching for them, and Joyce would be going beyond frantic. But by now, they'd be far away enough to make it difficult to trace them.

Mike looked about, just about keeping his eyes open.

`Okay,' he said wearily. `We can sleep in that clump of bushes and trees there.'

Groans and sighs of relief exploded from the group. Mike took off his coat and collapsed down onto it, feeling like he was floating the minute he shut his eyes.

`No, wait,' Dustin mumbled. `Gotta- gotta keep warm. Everyone, put your coats on the ground, and sleep close. Conserve body heat.'

If he'd been even vaguely alert, Mike would have felt extremely embarrased at sleeping in close proximity to a girl. However, he registered nothing apart from how completely exhausted he was.

`Bedtime story,' Holly insisted, even though she must have been as tired as everyone else.

`Go to sleep,' groaned Mike, covering his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie.

`Where?'

`Hey, Holly, you can sleep here, if you want,' called Dustin. `Just poke me if I trumpet in the night.'

Holly started giggling. She settled after two minutes or so.

Mike slid into a dream; he was in the final episode of M*A*S*H, but instead of it being Hawkeye Pierce it was Lucas. And Mews the cat was there. And there was a turtle, floating in the air, seeming almost dissaproving…

0

Mike woke up with a jolt, the dream already slipping away from him.

He guessed it was three in the morning. Nine hours of sleep.

`Guys, get up. Hey!' He clapped sharply. Max blocked her ears.

`Go away,' she groaned, curling into a ball.

`We need to put as much distance between us and Hawkins, and that means we go now.' Mike realised that he sounded exactly like Hermione. `Move it!'

The bottle of coke was drained after everyone had had a drink from it to get awake. Will shook his head to try and get himself alert.

Holly was dead to the world. Mike's back ached from lugging her around so much.

`Can someone else have a turn?'

`Dude, she's your sister,' Max replied, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hands.

`Thanks.'

Mike couldn't stick her legs into the harness. Holly seemed to have turned into a jellyfish overnight out of sheer cussedness.

`You wanna be difficult? Fine,' Mike whispered to her under his breath. He knew full well it was irrational but God help the person to point that out to him. That was how he ended up carrying Holly for four hours until she woke up.

`Mike?'

`Yeah?'

`I'm cold.'

Mike took his rucksack off his back, and then pulled out her puffy winter coat. The sleeves were a little short. Holly obediently put her arms out, let Mike get the coat on, insisted on buttoning it up herself and then strode on ahead in her pink shoes.

`Your sister's actually kind of cute, isn't she?' Will said as Holly sang a nursery rhyme.

`She is if you don't have to live with her constantly.'

By then the sun had just about risen, and it was around seven. Cars had started to zoom down the motorway. A boy without a shirt hung out of the roof of a scarlet Ferrari.

`Woo hoo!' He yelled, his mullet blowing back as he punched the air.

`How fast is he going?' Asked Dustin incredulously.

`Now that's a zoomer,' Max nodded, looking at the car enviously. Holly had moved onto Ring Around the Roses. Grey smoke rose from the back tires of the Ferrari, and a small seed of anxiety started growing in Mike's chest.

`Hey, Holly,' he called, trying to keep a smile on his face. `Why don't you get back here, away from the road?' The boy hanging from the sunroof got back into the car as it started to make weird noises and swerving.

`Why?' She asked, turning around to look at him. The sun caught her blonde hair.

And then the car suddenly jerked to the side, mounting the curb.

`HOLLY!'

There was a thump; the red Ferrari screeched to a halt.

A pair of pink toddler's shoes stuck out from underneath it.