Georgie pulled onto the dead grass, tearing some of it up with her tires. When she put the car in park, the kids were already climbing out. She popped the trunk of the car. Georgie got out, limping around to the other side to get the duffle bag out of the back seat of the car. She set it on the front of the car. She had to redress her wounds quickly. All of the kids were catching their breath.
"Dustin!" Georgie shouted, "backpack."
Without hesitation he threw it over to her and she caught it, filling it with whatever she thought might be useful from the dufflebag. Gauze, pain reliever. That kind of thing. Whatever random stuff she had in the bottom of her soccer bag.
"Holy shit! Did you see what she did to that van?" Dustin stammered, looking around at the junk. He sounded excited, but scared. Amazed, even. Georgie froze, taking in what it was that she was doing. Packing survival gear. Getting ready for something bad, she closed her eyes, trying to claim a gasp on reality.
"No, Dustin. We missed it," Mike said sarcastically.
Georgie walked to the trunk and threw some of the water bottles from in there in the backpack. She was quietly listening to the conversation.
"I mean that was..." Dustin said, but paused, looking for the words.
"Awesome," Lucas said. "It was awesome."
Lucas walked over to Eleven, and crouched in front of her. "Everything I said about you being a traitor and stuff... I was wrong. I'm sorry." He put his hand on her back, his sign of apology and retreat, Georgie sighed. She was thankful the party wasn't splitting up, they all needed to pull together right now. She let them play this out, but kept a keen ear on the conversation in case it veered back inot unproductive arguing. It was important for them to handle it themselves.
"Friends," El said. "Friends don't lie. I'm sorry too."
"Me too," Mike said, slowly raising his hand towards Lucas.
It was a huge relief to Georgie when Lucas accepted the apology. It was time for them to work together, and it was very important that everyone was on the same page. These kids were smart, and resourceful, and she was so so happy that out of anyone she's on their team in a crisis. But these were still kids. Hell, she was just a kid. But her only responsibility right now was to keep Dustin safe, and the rest of the kids. She couldn't bare the thought of something happening to any of them.
Guess that kind of made her one of the party now, too.
She closed the car, and slipped the backpack onto her shoulder. Then walked around to the front of the car and put the duffle bag back in the backseat. Her leg was on fire, so she took three of the pain relievers. Hoping that it would help at least a little bit.
"We need a plan," she said, walking towards the boys' talking about the bad men. Dustin was very visibly upset, and Georgie wrapped her arm around him. He put his arm around her as well and leaned into her side.
"Where do we go from here?" Mike asked, putting his hands on his hips.
"We should debrief first. What do we all know?" Dustin said.
"Me and Georgie may have figured out the source," Lucas said, kneeling on the ground and using a couple of sticks to make a square. Everyone filed around him and sat in the dirt. Georgie sat beside her brother, and put her bad leg in front of her. She wasn't bleeding through the bandages yet, which is a good sign. She noticed Dustin eyeing the bandages, but he didn't say anything.
"What's this?" Mike asked.
"A map," Lucas said.
"Of what?" Dustin asked, looking closer. Georgie laughed, because it wasn't like he could see anything more clear, it's just sticks and dirt. He glared at her.
"This is Randolph Road, right here," Lucas said, drawing a line in the dirt with a small twig. "The fence starts here and goes all the way around." He put an empty soda can in the middle of the pile. "And this is the lab right here. The gate's gotta be in there somewhere. It's gotta be."
"Well, who owns Hawkins lab?" Dustin asked. Lucas shrugged.
"The sign says Department of Energy," Georgie said, remembering noticing them every few yards on the fence line.
"Department of Energy? What do you think that means?" Dustin asked.
"It means government. Military," Mike said, throwing an arm up and letting it slap back onto his lap. He was getting frustrated.
"Then why does it say energy?" Dustin asked.
"Just trust me all right? It's military. My dad's told me before."
"Mike's right. There's soldier's out front." Lucas said. Georgie didn't know what the hell these kids were planning. Breaking into the lab? No way they wouldn't get caught. No way.
"Do they make, like, light bulbs or something?" Dustin had a lot of questions.
"No, weapons," Mike answered. "To fight the Russians and commies and stuff."
"Weapons," Lucas said. As if all at once they realized the danger. They couldn't just sneak through a military base with their hopes and good intentions.
"Oh. Jesus, this is bad." Dustin said.
"Really bad. The place is like a fortress," Lucas said.
"Well, what do we do?" Dustin asked.
"I don't know, but we can't go home. We're fugitives now." Mike said.
And he was right.
Georgie probably would've panicked more, but the sound of Dustin getting their attention and the distant sound of a helicopter approaching took away most of her focus. It seemed so small in the sky, but she knew it had to be looking for them. And she couldn't let them get caught. Her car was still in the middle of the yard. Did they know she was with them? Would they be looking for it?
One thing she had learned, is that she was kind of okay in really high pressure situations. But only when Dustin was in danger. Her protective instincts were great.
"Shit! Into the bus, all of you! I can't hide the car, there's not enough time," she shouted, directing them into the bus. "Stay down, don't get out of the bus unless you have to."
"Where are you going? What are you doing?" Dustin asked, standing at the bottom of the bus stairs. "You can't leave!"
"I need to get them away," she said. "I'll go back to where you ditched your bikes and get Dustin's. Then I'll ditch the car there and get away."
"Your leg! You won't make it, they'll get you." The look of terror in her eyes was making her stomach turn. She didn't want to leave. But they were going to see her car.
"I'll be okay, Dusty. But I have to go now, Lucas I need to borrow your walkie for a bit." Georgie caught the walkie he threw towards her.
Georgie slipped Dustin's backpack off of her shoulder and gave it to him. "Get down, and stay safe. I love you," she said, kissing the top of his hat. They really had no time left. Any closer and they would see her leaving from the bus. Couldn't risk it.
"I love you too!" he shouted after her as she hobbled towards the car.
The car started up, and she waited until the helicopter got a little closer until she sped off. She made sure not to go too far ahead of the helicopter, because she felt it would be safer if she knew where it was. She held onto the walkie, and spoke into it quick.
"Boys?"
"Yeah, Georgie? We hear you," Mike said.
"Eleven is in charge, don't get caught, okay? Whatever you have to do. Don't get caught," she said, throwing the walkie onto the passenger seat and gripping the wheel with both hands. Might as well use the proper hand placements for reckless driving. Once she was back onto main roads, she drove as safe and fast as possible, while trying to hide. Which was hard to do when the thing that is following you is in the sky.
All she really cared about was her brother, and she would sacrifice her own safety over and over, every time with no hesitation.
She turned onto the street where the boys had ditched their bicycles, and parked her car on the road. On top of everything happening today, she was probably going to get a ticket. She grabbed the walkie off of the seat, and her keys, and got out of the car, rushing onto the lawn and grabbing the one she knew as Dustin's. She was trying to get the bike off the lawn and onto the road before the owners of the house came out, she didn't want to get yelled at. Because realistically, it's pretty rude of them to just leave the bikes there. But it was an emergency. The house owners will just never know that.
Swinging her leg over the bike hurt, and she knew the leg would be bleeding. She knew she was probably destroying her chances at a soccer scholarship, if she couldn't recover from this soon.
Once the bike was on the road, she was peddling as fast as she could.
It was like fire.
The pain she felt.
With each circle of her leg, the pain grew worse and began to pulse in her thigh, forcing her to choose between surrender or agony. Of course, she would never choose surrender. So she settled on the burning, and chose to put her mind elsewhere. Chemistry might help. So she did what she did best, and thought of school, and work, and science to help her pull through.
Hydrogen.
Helium.
Lithium.
Beryllium.
And that's what she did to try to distract herself. She just listed off the table of elements in atomic order. It wasn't really studying, and she never really needed to memorize it. But she did. And it did help slightly. It still hurt, but as long as she wasn't thinking of it, it was somewhat tolerable.
"Georgie? Come in, Georgie!" Dustin's voice completely changed her train of thought. He was still fine. Dustin was okay.
She stopped on the sidewalk, and set her good leg down to balance herself. "Yeah, I'm here. I'm here. You okay?"
"Yeah, we're waiting on the chief to come get us," he said, "he radio's us. You must've bumped the channel on the top of the walkie. We were worried we wouldn't be able to get a hold of you. I thought they got you."
"Sorry," she said, looking at the dial at the top of it. "Didn't mean to scare you. I'm okay."
"We gotta meet up, make a plan."
"Yeah, okay. I think I'm in the clear. I don't see anyone but I want to keep moving. Get back to you," she said.
"Okay," he said, "I'll radio you when we have a final spot. Go into a public place. Middle of town where no one can snatch you unnoticed."
Georgie looked around. She was on Walnut Street. Another five minutes on the bike and she'd be safely in town. Well, safe was relative.
"Yeah, all right," she said. "I'll try to find someone I know and make conversation."
"Good. Talk soon."
She took a deep breath. Pushing off of the ground, she rode off. Once again listing off the table of elements.
Soon, she was in town. Walking beside the bike with her hands on the handlebars. She hadn't walked around with a bike on her hip in years. Not since she could drive. Not since her dad left. She limped as she walked. The pain in her leg turned down to a dull roar, and she couldn't tell if she was numb or if she was just getting used to it. Georgie just kept walking down the path until the was in front of the movie theatre.
That's when Steve Harrington on a ladder caught her eye. One of the employees was holding the ladder steady, while Steve cleaned something off the sign. He was pretty close to done, but she could still see 'slut Wheeler' written in red. She had a lot of things to say. Georgie got closer, leaning the bike on the side of the alley.
"You're like a really bad guy, huh?" Georgie said, crossing her arms. She put all of her weight on her good leg. "I've got it." The employee looked at her, and let go of the ladder, letting her take it. He left.
"It was stupid," he said, wiping it off. He avoided looking at her.
"What did it say?"
"Doesn't matter now."
She tapped her fingers on the ladder. "Why are you like this, Steve?"
"Like what?" He stopped wiping and looked down at her. He noticed her messy hair, dirty clothes and the blood covered rag on her leg. "What happened to you?"
"An asshole." Georgie ignored his second question.
"I'm not an asshole," he said, continuing. When he got the rest of it off, he climbed down. Taking the ladder out of her grip and closing it, leaning it against the building.
"I used to think you were the coolest shit, Steve. I really did." Georgie shook her head. "But you refuse to be kind. And that, that just kills it."
With one final look at disappointment m Georgie turned on her heel and walked back over to her bike. "What does that even mean?" he asked, following after her.
She got on the bike. "Means I'm getting over you, Steve."
Once and for all, she thought. And she could only hope she wasn't lying to herself.