Hello. This is another one-shot. It takes place in the mall at the end of Episode 7, but El does not get her leg almost chewed off by the Flayed Monster, so no pitstop at Bradley's Big Buys.
Also I have zero expertise on bullet wounds and how to treat them. But can't say I didn't do my research. So I hope this is applicable enough
"We've found the children. Keep all entrances locked down. I repeat, keep all entrances locked down"
The 4 Russian soldiers crept quietly around the mall, scoping out every possible angle, looking for the prisoners who bypassed their security and escaped, with the help of two kids. The soldiers had cornered them, and locked them inside. Now all they had to do was find them.
The soldier's commanding officer, Kershov, was pacing around the food court, before he noticed a noise behind the food counter. He looked to see some morphed reflections in the steel fridge.
"I found them" he whispered into his radio.
Unfortunately, he was not wrong. Erica, Robin, Dustin and Steve were all sitting behind the counter. The Russians closed in around them, like wild predators closing in on a wounded animal. They crept closer, their guns aimed at the group.
Suddenly, a loud blaring noise filled the mall. The display car's alarm, next to the Food Court, was going off all by itself. It was even shuffling to it's side, like someone was picking it up and scooching it along.
"What the hell?" exclaimed Kershov. They all looked up to the floor above, to see a girl, intensely staring while holding her hand out at them.
Before Kershov or any of his men could do anything, El pushed her hand out again, sending the car literally flying at the Russians. Kershov and one other soldier were crushed by the tumbling automobile, while two more flew to the side. One landed head first on the floor, dying instantly, while another was thrown into the tables. The car kept on rolling until finally stopping and settling, on it's side, on the counter of the pizza hut.
All 4 of the Scoops Troop members poked their heads out slowly from between the drinks dispensers to witness what just happened. All they saw was dead bodies, and the automobile leaning across the counter.
One by one, they looked up to see El on the top floor, surrounded by her friends. Dustin beamed at the sight of his saviours.
They all reunited outside the sports store next to JCPenny's, but unbeknownst to them, one of the Russian soldiers, Iosif, was not actually dead. His leg was injured from the car, but he was very much still alive. And after looking out at his dead comrades, and hearing the joyful talks of 'the American filth' across the way from him, all that was driving him now was hate. He picked himself up, and managed to crawl his way over to his AKMSU, out of sight of the conversing Americans.
"Didn't you hear our code red?"
"Yeah, but I couldn't hear what you were saying"
"Godamm low battery"
"How many times I gotta tell you with the low battery?!"
"Well everything worked out great, didn't it Steve"
As they argued, the surviving Russian crawled his way across the broken tables and glass, carbide slung over his shoulder, to the scene where the group had all met. He slowly cocked it, the noise of which grabbed Jonathan's attention. He looked over, to see a very angry Russian standing up, holding a machine gun, pointed at them.
"Get down!" Jonathan yelled, as they all ducked down to the floor. Isoif screamed a Russian slur as he flailed around, unloading his magazine at the Party's direction. Bullets flew everywhere, as the teenagers and kids all hugged the floor, and each other, a plant display being their only shield. The glass window behind them instantly fell apart, covering Will, Dustin, Max and Lucas.
When his AKMSU finally ran out of bullets, Isoif chuckled to himself. "You fucking American dogs. You tried to kill me, with a flying car. Like some Dick Van Dyke shit" The irony he found hilarious. As he fumbled with an extra magazine, El noticed one of the Russians' handguns not too far away. With one last bout of strength, El pulled the handgun towards them, and quickly threw it at one of the responsible teenagers.
"The next time you try to kill someone" screamed Isoif as he loaded his machine gun with another magazine, having not seen what happened 10 feet away from him, "Make sure they are dead"
Three louder shots rang out, as Isoif screamed and dropped to the floor, dead. Steve, Nancy and Jonathan, who crouched up together behind a pillar, looked up to see the smoking nozzle of the gun, turning more to see Robin holding it, focused and trying not to think clearly about what she just did.
She was just frozen in her pose, breathing steadily and not looking away from Isoif's body.
"Hey, hey" whispered Steve as he reached up and managed to pry it from her hands. Robin took a deep breath in, and managed to relax. "In, and out, in and out" said Steve. Robin just lightly punched him and smiled.
"You know what? You were right. This job really, really sucks". Steve just smiled back at her.
"You okay?" Jonathan asked Nancy, who just nodded.
"Everyone else okay?" yelled Steve "Will? El? Guys?" shouted Jonathan and Nancy at the group of kids.
A murmuring of Yeps and Yeahs replied back as they all stood up.
They started to walk away when El and Erica turned around to see Mike, still lying down, by the ceramic plant display, clutching his side, breathing heavily.
"Mike?" She walked over to see what happened, and raised him to stand up, but as she did, his face creased up, like he was hurting. She then noticed her fingers were covered in blood. She then noticed Mike's hand start bleeding. She pulled his hand away, to reveal a red stain on his green shirt, and blood covering his hand and waist. Her face dropped in horror.
"Holy shit!" exclaimed Erica.
Mike then went white as a sheet, and dropped to the floor. The others ran over to see what was going on, to their horror. "Mike? Mike!" El screamed, her eyes welling up, as she looked at the sight of her boyfriend, now on the floor in agony. Nancy covered her face with her hands in shock as her little brother winced in pain. Everything in his body hurt. The kids and teenagers could only look on, as El screamed "MIKE!"
"First aid kit, get a first aid kit" said Robin tapping Steve on the stomach.
"Where am I going to find a first aid kit?"
"Anywhere dumbass! We're surrounded by stores!"
"Come on!" said Jonathan, and him and Steve ran off to find one. Yes, there were a variety of stores to choose from, but they didn't have time to go perusing around every single one. The rest of the group all crowded around Mike.
"Anyone know anything about gunshot wounds?" asked Robin.
"Er, keep pressure on it" said Lucas.
"Great idea" said Mike. He was scared and in too much pain to care about being nice. El put her hand firmly on Mike's, keeping pressure over the wound.
Dustin and Will just stayed silent, terrified and struggling to comprehend the fact their best friend has a bullet in his side.
Nancy thought for a moment, and kneeled down beside her brother, next to El, who was clutching onto Mike's shirt as well "Okay Mike, I need to take a quick look at your back, okay?"
Mike's cheeks were strewn with tears, confused by his sister's statement. "What? Why?"
"We need to see if the bullet went all the way through"
"Jesus" whispered Lucas from the window, putting his arms above his head.
Even though every inch of him was in agony, Mike had to listen to her, even if the pain of moving stung his whole body. So with the last of his strength, Mike managed to slowly turn himself over, El still keeping her hand firmly on Mike's hip. There was no sign of an exit point. The bullet had not gone all the way through, which meant it was still inside Mike's hip.
"Nothing" said Nancy.
"Terrific" winced Mike, and he moved back slowly.
"What-what does that mean?" said El.
"It means the bullet's still inside him" explained Nancy to El, whose face dropped.
"Yeah, feels like it" said Mike. El turned to her boyfriend, who went silent over the sight of fear and worry in her face.
"Okay but how are we going to get it out of him?" asked Lucas. All of them looked around, the big question hovering in the air.
Mike tapped El on the arm, with the clean side of his blood-stained hand "You can do it".
El turned to Mike in confusion. "What?"
Mike looked up at his terrified girlfriend, all the hope he had glinting in his eyes "I trust you. You can do it".
El was taken aback by this, but she was still confused.
"You're seriously asking her to pull the bullet out with her powers? That's crazy" asked a questioning Max.
"You've changed your tune" Mike smirked, but his side hurt too much. "Besides we can't use anything else".
Jonathan and Steve suddenly jumped out of nowhere, over the plant display, with a first aid kit. Nancy ripped it open, and used some gauze to clean up the wound. The bleeding had stopped, and when they pulled up his shirt, there was bruising around the hole. Nancy turned it over and applied more pressure to the wound
"How's he holding up?" asked Jonathan
"El's gonna try and pull the bullet out" said Dustin
"Okay. Wait, no sorry, what was that?" asked Steve
When most of the blood was wiped away, El prepared herself for the operation. "Okay El, just concentrate on the hole okay? When you find the bullet, pull it out very slowly and carefully". El was still unsure, but Mike was very hurt, and while normally she would do anything to help, in anyway she can, this was definitely not what she had in mind
"Anyone got a flashlight?" said Nancy
"Yeah" said Erica, who handed over one of her flashlights from her helmet earlier. Nancy shone the bright light over Mike's bullet wound, as Mike released his grip and pulled his hand away. El felt all her strength going down her muscles into her hand, as she focused on the tiny hole in her boyfriend's body. Everyone held their breath. The only noise heard was distant fireworks. Mike felt a small tingle under by his pelvis, slowly going down into his body, and although it didn't hurt as much, it wasn't pleasant, but he didn't want to say anything in case-
"There" Mike cried out, making everyone jump. But thankfully not El, who was too focused, and worried. With her powers as concentrated as this, she was more scared than anyone, to react to anything. What if she lost grip? What if she got startled somehow, and split Mike's body apart? Even the beads of blood dripping from her nose didn't faze her
"Okay, El, very carefully pull it out" said Nancy. El slowly raised her hand
"Ow, ow ow ow" said Mike
"What is it?" asked Max
"A little to the right, shit" he exclaimed through clenched teeth. El turned her hand ever so slightly to the left
"There, now keep going. Slowly"
El slowly raised her hand again, her head starting to hurt now, but she kept going
The group, especially Erica and Robin, couldn't believe what was happening. And none of them dared breathe, for even the slightest noise could put El off
At last, a metallic dark-bronze circle appeared in the hole. But it wouldn't come out. El narrowed her eyes, concentrating her powers harder eventually wriggling the red-stained bullet out. Driplets of blood spewed out from under the bullet, but Nancy was ready with the gauze. Everyone held their breath. Mike clenched every muscle in his body, trying his hardest not to scream in pain, not when they were this close.
At last, the bullet slided out of Mike, and dropped to the floor with a tiny *clink*. As soon as it did, Nancy shoved a ball of gauze across the injury.
"Ssssssh!" he grimaced "Ffff-son of a bitch".
"Language, Michael" ordered Nancy, as she handed one bandage to Max, who wrapped it under Mike's back and back to her. Everyone breathed in relief
El sat down next to Mike to also relax. That was probably the most tense moment of her life, and now she was exhausted. Mike inched his fingers closer to her hand, like a magnet pulling them together. El saw, and linked the two hands together. Even though everything about them hurt like hell, the two of them holding hands, and a look of gratitude from Mike, was enough to quell the pain for each other.
Three more figures emerged from the darkness of the mall; these were not more Russians, even though one did have a gun.
"Mom?" Will gasped, and him and Jonathan started sprinting towards the trio of adults. Joyce grabbed both her sons and pulled them in tightly, almost falling over herself from the weight of two grown boys leaping into her. El also got up and ran into Hopper's arms, tears streaming down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around her massive bear of a father. The two parents poked their heads out from behind their children, witnessing the unforgettable sight of that pain-in-the-ass Mike Wheeler, on the floor, him and El covered in blood, broken glass everywhere, surrounded by his friends and broken glass everywhere.
"What the hell happened?" Murray took the words right out of their mouths.
"You wouldn't believe us" said Steve.
Hopper looked at both Joyce, then Murray, then at El, and replied back "Try us"