Day Three

Mike

Nancy was gazing indecisively at a row of juice bottles, bouncing the plastic shopping basket against her leg. "What does Holly like, grape or apple?" she asked.

"I don't know," Mike shook his head. "Apple, I guess. But what about Hawkins?" he asked.

Nancy dropped the bottle of juice in her basket and turned to her brother. "What?" she said absentmindedly.

Mike huffed angrily. "I was asking you about Hawkins. Weren't you listening?"

A few rows over he could hear Will talking to Jonathan, trying to get the same answers from his brother. "What did Hopper say, exactly?" Mike continued. "Was it the Department of Energy that was there? Were they just blocking the highway ramp? Did Hopper try to go a different way?"

Nancy was watching him, looking nonplussed as his questions tumbled out. "Mike, what is going on?" Then she stopped in the middle of the aisle and her face dropped. "It's Dad, isn't it?" she asked. "You're wondering if they found him."

"No, it's not—" Mike stopped himself. Maybe it was better if she thought he was talking about their dad. He turned as Will and Jonathan looped into their aisle. In their basket Mike saw pretzels, tomato soup, oatmeal, matches and a couple loaves of bread.

"Do you think anyone's still there?" Will was asking.

"I don't know, buddy," Jonathan responded.

He and Nancy stared at each other awkwardly from opposite ends of the aisle until Mike broke the silence. "Are we done?" he asked.

The Ford's trunk already had a couple paper bags full of lamp oil, candles, bug spray, cigarettes, batteries, two flashlights and a newspaper. They tucked the groceries in next to the other supplies and squeezed back into the car. Inside, there was an uncomfortable silence that seemed to carry from the awkward moment in the grocery store. Mike glanced from Steve to Jonathan to Nancy. All three were staring resolutely forward, acknowledging neither each other nor the younger three boys. Mike tried to remember if the ride to the store was this tense, but he'd been so concerned about getting information from Nancy about Hawkins, he hadn't been paying attention.

"Um, what are we doing?" Dustin's voice brought Mike back to the present. He didn't realize that they'd been idling at the parking lot's exit for a couple minutes. Now that he looked around, he realized that Jonathan had pulled up to the road and stopped despite the complete lack of traffic. After another moment's hesitation, Jonathan turned left, heading east.

"Byers, the highway is back that way," Steve said, jabbing his thumb in the opposite direction.

"I know," Jonathan replied. Next to Mike, Nancy straightened up in her seat.

Steve gave Jonathan a wide-eyed stare. "So where are we going?" he asked.

Jonathan glanced at his brother in the rearview mirror and replied, calmly, "Hawkins."