An animalistic scream ripped through her shroud of pain. "Nancy!"
"Nancy!" another cry. Wetter, higher. Someone else.
Then hands were on her, rolling her onto her back.
"Oh my god, oh my god," someone said from above.
A groan of pain cut through panicked ramblings. For a moment, Nancy thought it was her. But when her mud-caked eyes opened, she realized it was Steve. Steve, standing over her protectively, axing the demon bats with everything he had, even as one of them bit into his shoulder.
Frantic shaking pulled her focus back down to the hazy face hovering over her. "Hey, we gotta go! Come on," Robin said quickly. Her rough hands slipped under Nancy, lifting her to her feet.
Now, Nancy let out a low moan of pain. She felt her heartbeat in her side. Felt it sluggishly throb blood out of her. She didn't chance a look down.
"Go!" Steve shouted, shoving the two of them forward. His shoulder was pulsing blood too, now. But the bat was gone. That was good.
Robin grasped her left hand. Steve took her right. Together they tugged, pulling her into a run. Every step sent another throb of blood down to the wound. But she kept going. Kept pushing. Shrieking and the flapping of hundreds of wings just behind them reminded her why she couldn't stop.
Steve let go to swing his axe at a bat coming from in front of them.
Robin let go with a panicked shriek to punch at the demon bat Nancy just felt touch down on her hair.
And Nancy… tripped, tumbling to a halt face down in the dirt.
"Nancy-" Robin cried, further away now than before.
Steve cut her off before she could continue. "Hey!" he shouted. "Hey, bloodsuckers! Over here! Yeah, yeah! You want us? Huh? You want fresh meat? Come and get it!"
Shrieking, flapping, oppressive hordes that were inches from touching down on her back paused. In unison, they shrieked once more. A gust of wind hit Nancy, and she instinctively curled in on herself to protect against the teeth and the claws and the-
Nothing.
The horde left. They took the bait. Chasing after Steve. And Robin. Both still yelling as they crashed through the woods and diverted the demons away.
She closed her eyes.
She woke to silence.
Slowly, she rolled herself onto her back and opened her eyes. This time, there was no Robin cradling her head. No Steve standing over her fighting off hordes of demon bats.
No.
Only the tops of the trees far above her, and a murky gray sky.
She winced as her wound throbbed a reminder of how she ended up here. Now, she chanced a look down.
Blood. Everywhere.
Her fingers curled under the hem of her shirt. With a shaking breath, she tugged feebly, lifting the blood-soaked fabric up, revealing the devastation beneath. A whimper pushed past her lips unbidden, the jolt of her diaphragm causing another slow ooze of blood to seep from the missing chunk in her side, about the width of her hand.
"Oh fuck…" she breathed.
Quickly, she grabbed the scarf from around her next and wrapped it around her torso instead. Her teeth gritted as she pulled it taught over the wound and tied it into place. She rolled her shirt back down. And now, she took stock of her situation.
Wood surrounded her on all sides. And after the fall… she had no idea which direction Robin and Steve had headed toward. Nor the way to Vecna's lair. But she did have her shotgun, pressing firmly into her back, along with her belt of ammunition and her flashlights.
She debated pulling one out now, but shook the thought away. Alone, hurt, and exhausted, she couldn't risk a demon seeing the light and coming for her. She left them on her bandoleer.
Nancy shifted just enough to grasp the barrel of her shotgun and pull it off. Breathe in. Breathe out. She placed the butt of the shotgun on the ground and pushed. With a cry of pain, desperately muffled by biting her cheek, Nancy rose to her feet, leaning heavily on the shotgun for support.
She looked around once. Nothing jumped out at her. So she chose. And she walked.
And walked.
And walked.
Until she abruptly found herself stumbling out of the treeline and into an achingly familiar scene. An empty pool. Covered in vines. Steve's pool.
Barb.
Her breath came in sharp and pierced her lungs as pain pierced her side. Blindly, she stumbled toward the last spot she saw her friend. On the edge of the pool… Waiting for her.
She limped closer to the spot. It had been so long since she grieved her friend. So long since she had the time to even come here and think about her. So long since-
The air shimmered faintly as she approached. Not everywhere. Just… one skinny sliver of air. Like… Like a tear. And above it… orange spots floated around a porch light. She reached out a hand, hesitantly pushing into the shimmer.
Again, she fell, tumbling to the earth, cheek slamming against cold, wet concrete. Her stomach twisted as if she had spun upside down, despite the rather straightforward fall. And her wound stung as the concrete pushed against her makeshift bandage.
"Who- Who are you!" a voice shrieked. A familiar shriek. Barb's shriek.
Nancy looked up just in time to see the Demogorgon leering over Barb from behind. "Behind you!"
Barb turned in what seemed like slow motion. Nancy couldn't do anything more. And then Barb was slamming into her and both tumbled back into an empty pool, landing on squishy vines. Nancy wheezed. Barb screamed and thrashed just enough for Nancy to writhe her way out from under her body.
The Demogorgon stood there, mouth closed around Barb's leg. Ripping. Pulling. Nancy scrambled for the shotgun on her back and shakily swung it to her front. She braced it against her knees and pulled the pump without a second thought.
It reared back in pain, flower-like jaws releasing its hold on Barb's leg, blood dripping from its teeth. Nancy reached out to Barb, hand wrapping around Barb's arm and she scrambled to her feet and pulled the other girl with her. "Barb! Come on! Run!"
Barb struggled to her feet with Nancy's help, crying out in pain as she put pressure on her leg. "I- I can't!"
"Yes, you can! Go!" Nancy cried, pushing her forward until the girl stumbled into a lopsided run. Nancy turned on her heel, careful to move her entire body and not just twist with her torso. She fired another shot into the Demogorgon's leg to slow it down. Not wasting time to see if it hit, she turned again to follow behind Barb.
They reached the edge of the pool in an instant. Barb gripped the ladder with a hiss of pain from the cut on her hand, but desperately tried to haul herself up. Nancy slipped under her, placing one hand on her back and one under Barb's butt, pushing upwards. With her help, Barb scrambled up the ledge.
Nancy followed behind her, gritting her teeth as the felt hot blood pulse through her bandages, protesting against the strain of hauling herself up. But Barb was there, her shaking hands wrapping around Nancy's arms and helping to haul her up.
Once up, Nancy pushed Barb into a run again while she chanced a glance behind them. Her shot had hit true, the Demogorgon limping painfully after them on an obliterated knee, screeching with each step. It reached the ladder.
Nancy turned forward again and ran once more. The two girls panicked breathing turning into a horrible symphony of pain and exhaustion. But they couldn't stop. Even Barb, who knew nothing of the true danger they were in, knew to keep running. But she was slowing. With every step, she cried out a bit more. Losing steam. Losing precious seconds. Losing the space between them and the loud crashing hot on their tail.
"Just a bit more, Barb! Come on! We're almost there!" A lie. A horrible lie. Nancy didn't even have a direction in mind. Her sole focus on running. On keeping Barb alive. But she was tiring too, lagging just as much as Barb. They couldn't keep this up much longer.
And then Barb fell. And Nancy's heart sank in her chest. She stopped in place. Turned. Faced the creature barreling down on them, scrambling on all fours like a demodog to avoid placing more weight on its injured leg.
She waited. She would not let Barb die this time. So she stood her ground, a wall before Barb, blocking her from the Demogorgon. And when it came close enough for her to feel its hot breath on her face, she fired.
Then fired again. And again. And again and again and again. Until she registered the lack of kickback, of a bang, of a screech. Only empty clicks. With a deep breath, she let her shotgun clatter to her side, beside the now-still body of the Demogorgon. With… one extra bullet wound than she had rounds… An old one by the looks of it.
"Oh my god, oh my god," Barb said weakly, her ragged breaths piercing through Nancy's fog.
Slowly, she lowered herself over to Barb's side, taking her chin gently and forcing her to meet her gaze. "Hey, hey, hey. It's okay," she said, "breathe with me, okay?"
"It hurts," Barb cried.
"I know. See?" Nancy shifted a bit, letting Barb see the blood soaking through the makeshift bandage on her side.
Just as she hoped, Barb latched onto her injury over her own. "What- Are you okay? That's… that's a lot of blood."
Nancy let her keep looking as she shifted her own attention down to Barb's leg. Silently, she agreed with Barb's assessment. That was a lot of blood. "Yeah. I'm fine. And if I'm fine, that means you're gonna be okay too, alright? Just keep looking at me." She felt more than saw Barb's nod and quickly got to work.
She took Barb's coat off, which she, fortunately, didn't argue against, and pressed the inside of it against the nasty bite on her leg. She used the arms to tie it taught against the skin. Wincing a bit as she heard Barb's soft whine of pain. "Sorry…"
Nancy sat back to catch her breath, gritting her teeth as she fought through her own painful wound. Then her gaze met Barb's, and her gaze that was fogged with pain only moments before seemed to clear.
"Nance?" she asked, almost scared of the answer.
And what could she say? No? Barb would know it's a lie. But if she said yes… oh god if she said yes, what then? How could she explain everything that happened? How could she explain how she let Barb down all those years before?
So she said nodded. And said nothing at all.
Barb stared at her for a moment. Then the questions started. "What happened? Where are we? What's going on?"
She'd never been so grateful for Barb's insatiable need to know everything. Logic. Questions. That she could do. "We're in the upside down. It's… hard to explain but it's sort of like an alternate dimension. Demogorgons," she nudged the dead creature with her foot, "can travel to our world from this one. We weren't sure exactly how but… I might've accidentally figured that one out. Go me…"
For the first time, Barb's gaze found the monster beside her. A scream ripped from her throat, her legs flailing to kick herself away from its body only for a louder cry to escape, one of pain instead of fear.
"It's dead," Nancy said quickly. "But there are more of them. We need to keep moving. And find a way to get you home…" she trailed off, already thinking of how exactly she'd manage that. She could take her to the rendezvous, assuming Robin and Steve had made it. No. They had to have made it.
But even then, both she and Barb were injured. Worse still, Barb didn't know what was going on. They'd only be extra baggage. Keeping them safe while carrying out the rest of the plan… it'd be too much.
They could go out the way Nancy came in, but that too posed a problem. Barb was dead in her Hawkins. Who knows what would happen if she tried to take her through the gate. Would she die on the other side? Would she come out okay? And if she came out okay, then what? She'd be trapped in a future unfamiliar to her. Her parents moved away. Hawkins thought she was dead. The government knew she was dead.
Another idea struck her. A crazy one. One that was even more stupid than taking Barb back through the gate. The Demogorgon punched its way through the upside down and into Hawkins by brute force. The other demo-things couldn't do that. And somehow… the rips they left when forcing themselves into Hawkins stayed present in the upside down. Large enough for Nancy to get through. Enough for her to save Barb.
They were too far from Steve's house now and made too much noise there anyway. Creel was sure to take notice of something happening there and send something to deal with it. But she knew of one more Demogorgon attack, and exactly where the tear would be.
She pushed herself to her feet. And, oh. Spots swam in her vision, and for a moment the world seemed to spin. That… was not a good sign. She closed her eyes, fighting back a wave of nausea that threatened to bubble up.
"Nance?" Barb asked, closer now.
She opened her eyes to find Barb on her feet as well, looking as pale as she felt herself. "Sorry. Yeah. I just… never mind. We have to hurry."
Barb nodded. Nancy nodded in response, more to herself than anything. With a steadying breath, she started in the direction of Jonathon's house.
Eventually, Barb broke the silence. Her voice shook, but Nancy could sense the underlying steel there. "You look different."
"Yeah… I guess I do."
Barb cut her a look, and Nancy almost folded then and there. It was so achingly familiar. So… So Barb.
"Nance," she said, tone colored with warning.
Nancy couldn't look at her. "Look, it's… a lot to explain and I doubt you'll believe me yet anyway."
"Try me."
That got Nancy to glance in Barb's direction. When Barb made up her mind as to how something happened nothing could convince her she was wrong. But Barb's gaze was earnest.
"What?" Barb asked.
"You don't think I'm crazy? I mean… I just told you we are in an alternate dimension being hunted by a Demogorgon."
Barb scoffed, gesturing with her good hand. "Kind of hard to argue with the evidence. That was a pretty convincing alien monster thing." She paused, then added, "also you're totally deflecting."
Damn. Nancy thought for a moment, trying to figure out the least crazy way to explain everything. She looked at her feet, pretending to take extra care over this section of vine-covered forest.
"Nance," Barb prompted again.
Finally, she spoke. "It's… complicated. I'm not your Nancy."
"Yes, I got that."
Now it was Nancy's turn to cut her a look. "I'm from 1986." Barb pursed her lips, so Nancy hurried to continue. "The Upside Down, this place, was created in 1983. And for some reason, it stayed there while our world kept moving forward. But there are these things we call gates that go between the Upside Down and our world. We can go in and out, but so can monsters."
"Like the one that came after me."
"Right. Like that."
"So that was… a gate? That you went through? Why don't we just go back there?" Barb asked.
"One, we made a lot of noise back there. The bats are probably all over it by now. Two, that wasn't a gate. It was… something else. I don't know. Mike and his friends are the ones who come up with all the names for these things. But I think I followed a Demogorgon through the rift they create when they go into our world. They don't need a gate… I think."
"Okay… Okay," Barb murmured. Nancy could practically see her working this over like a math problem in her head. "Can we go back to the why part?"
Nancy paused in her step, tilting her head. "Why what?"
Barb paused as well, turning to face her, seemingly confused as well. "Why are you here? If you got dragged here too… that means this is still happening in three years? Why hasn't anyone done anything about it? And… if I was dragged here… but you weren't… what happened to me when you are from?"
A sharp breath cut into Nancy's lungs. That was the one question she prayed to god Barb wouldn't ask. She turned quickly and kept walking forward, crashing footsteps behind her indicating Barb was hurrying to catch up.
"You… disappeared the first time. We didn't know what happened."
"Bullshit."
"It's not bullshit!"
"Bull. Shit." Barb tugged Nancy's arm until she spun around to face her. "I died, Nance. Didn't I?"
Nancy didn't answer. She didn't need to. She could only rip her arm from Barb's and continue to march on. Her jaw set. Barb didn't push her after that.
When they reached the shed outside the Byers' house, Nancy slowed down. "It should look like some sort of weird heatwave," she explained.
Catching Barb's nod from the corner of her eye, Nancy pushed inside the shed, shotgun raised. No shrieking creature greeted her. She let her guard lower a bit and gestured for Barb to follow her in. Above them, the single light hanging down from the ceiling spawned a misty orange glow. Nancy reached up to brush it.
"Here," Barb said.
Nancy pulled her hand away and turned. Barb stood not far behind her, head tilted as she examined the tear.
"What now?" she asked.
"Now," Nancy said while pulling an extra magazine from her bandoleer, "we get you home." She slid the new mag into the magazine tube until it clicked. "Stay behind me." And with one last look at Barb, Nancy pushed her way through the tear once more.
This time she didn't tumble. Her feet planted heavily into the wooden floor, a grunt escaping her lips. She looked up.
"N- Nancy?" Will asked, lowering his own gun.
"Down. Now," she commanded.
Will didn't question it, thank god. She felt Barb tumble out of the tear behind her and heard the telltale shriek of the Demogorgon as it dropped from where it had wedged itself above Will in the roof of the shed. She fired a shot as it fell, just grazing its side, but even that force was enough to send it tumbling away from Will.
It scrambled to its feet. Nancy shifted, aiming down its open maw as it shrieked again. She fired. It skittered out of the way of the blast and rammed itself into the door, easily busting through it, disappearing into the night.
Nancy stayed frozen until the sounds of it crashing through the grass ceased.
Then, "Nancy…?" a scared voice asked.