a/n: Welcome one and all to the latest hyperfixation of mine. It's been going on for a few months and I'm hoping to at least stick it out long enough to finish the fic. I plan to upload a new chapter every other Saturday (starting on 06 January 2024), but thought if one is ready then why not start early and give you all early access to my work of fiction.

The end goal here is Steve x Eddie x Billy, so if that doesn't suit your fancy, turn back now. You will be disappointed by the content.

I'd also like to end this little note by thanking Aina Aizen for her efforts as a beta reader! I hope I can do you proud.

CHAPTER ONE

D.O.A.

Billy had seen it. He'd had no idea what was happening, though. As thousands of those rotten bats had dropped out of the sky nearly as quickly as they had taken off. He had holed up in the washed out shell of Big Buy. Not much of a hiding place if he was being honest. The shelves were nearly bare of the perishable goods. Billy had cleared them out into a pit in the back. They could rot back there. He had nearly missed the bats when he was browsing for something edible. He'd heard the sound of thousands of wings and had turned to see an entire, what would it even be called, flock, of these things go by. He had immediately hurled himself below the windows where they wouldn't be able to see him.

"What the fuck…." He stood as they all collapsed at once. Thunder rumbled across the town. Billy watched. He had no idea what it meant. It sounded like an earthquake starting. He didn't think a backwater town like Hawkins even got earthquakes. He figured it may have had something to do with the fucking dog things he'd seen earlier. Billy had no idea what those were or what they wanted.

He left Big Buy, wondering if there was something else in one of the houses he hadn't checked. Billy made his way down toward where Forest Hills was. He'd left the trailer park out of his initial sweeps. There couldn't be much there that was valuable. They were trailers for fuck's sake. What was he going to find that he didn't already have access to? He had been trapped in this hell hole for a long time. He'd lost count of the days after a while. Calendars meant nothing in the face of the constant twilight especially since every one of them was stuck in 1983. Billy figured he must have been coming up on a year, maybe a little less.

He turned down the road, boots crunching on the broken up asphalt and glass. What he wouldn't give to have his car back in working order. He didn't have the tools to fix the problem. He'd been forced to abandon it in the old steel works. The teen had wandered along the street until he'd found himself back in Hawkins. It had taken him a few days to start gathering his supplies. Billy had gone to collect as much as he could from his own place. It didn't look right, though. There was nothing of the Hargrove family in the house. There was nothing of any family. The place looked abandoned.

He growled low as he stalked toward Forest Hills.

The blond glanced toward the weird playground area. He'd always thought it was strange they'd put one in when the full park was just down the street. It wasn't like any kids were going to be playing here anyway. It was shitty and dirty. He'd be surprised if kids didn't get tetanus or something just looking at the slide.

A dark mass caught his attention. Something about it looked really out of place in the area. Billy took a few steps toward whatever it was, noticing what looked like a spear on the ground not that far away. What was using a spear? There was also a trash can lid covered in nails. That looked like something a person would have made. He'd gone through here multiple times. Billy should have noticed any weapons or shields. Even garbage ones like these. These were new. He picked up the spear, intent on using it on whatever was lying on the ground before him.

He didn't need it. As he approached, he realized it was a person. Someone familiar, but he couldn't place them at first. He knew them. Who was it? Memories cycled through his mind at a rapid pace, trying to remember who he was looking at. Then it clicked. Halloween 1984. The party at the bitch's house. This curly-haired fucker was in the backyard doling out what he called 'party favors' to anyone willing to buy.

"Munson!" Billy finally spit the name out. It felt like pulling teeth. He couldn't come up with a first name. He was pretty sure he didn't know it. He'd only ever heard people call the guy Munson or Freak. Lifeguard training took over as he leaned in to press two fingers against the side of his neck. Billy waited. One second. Two. There. Faint. Almost imperceptible. Heartbeat. It was very very weak. He leaned over, ear to Munson's mouth and eyes to his chest. He was breathing. Sort of.

Billy knew it was a risk, but he stood, glancing around. There had to be something close by where he could pull the body. Any kind of shelter where he wouldn't be killed by those stupid fucking bat things. There! A shed, or at least what used to be one, no more than fifty feet away. It looked like that's where…EDDIE. That was his name. He'd heard it in the halls. He lifted the unconscious bastard under his armpits and dragged him backwards toward the dilapidated shed. Their only close source of shelter. He kicked open the door and pulled them both in, slamming it quickly. Billy had no idea if any of the bats or dogs or them tall flower-faced things were still around. He lay Eddie out on the far side, looking for anything he could use to barricade the door. There were some old drums and shovels. It would have to do. There wasn't much of anything else in here except some cardboard boxes filled with old blankets.

He turned his attention back to Eddie. There was no way he was going to leave the only other mostly living human like that. He yanked the box of bedding down and looked through it until he found the cleanest pieces. Billy ripped it apart, long strips he could use to wrap the wounds and then smaller pieces to clean and pack. It looked like it was both of Eddie's sides that had been bitten. He hadn't lost a lot of blood from what Billy could tell. The pool where the body was had been small and the bite marks on him shallow enough. He looked around for any kind of water jugs. The standing water had gone rancid, but anything that was sealed completely was still usable.

Tucked down into a corner where it would be nearly invisible was a jug. He yanked it out and checked it in the light from the small window. Water. Thank god. Billy poured a little out onto a rag and took a deep breath.

"This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me…." He pressed the wet rag into the wound. There was no indication of whether Eddie felt it or not. He didn't so much as twitch when Billy applied the pressure to get the dried blood off. He cleared away as much as he could before packing new damp rags against the wound. "I don't have any like….cream or anything. You'll have to make due with the wet rag. Until I can find something better..."

He propped Eddie's head up on the slightly dirtier set of rags. There was no head injury he could see. He checked all over the place. He didn't know if Eddie had hit his head or not, so he wanted to be sure it wasn't bleeding. Billy bundled a blanket around his head to protect it.

"Now we wait…" He curled up, digging one of the granola bars he'd scrounged up from his pocket. He would have to work harder now to find anything edible.

The next week passed slowly. Billy would check on Eddie as much as he could, between bouts of foraging in the various trailers that had not been ripped apart by the vines. He'd built a moderate stash of canned and bagged goods that should still be somewhat edible. Nothing that would get them sick. He'd taken to dumping anything moldy in the furthest trailer down the path. There was still the very low supply of water, but more than he was used to since a fair number of the trailers had water tanks. He had tapped one and gotten as close to a shower as he had in months and it had felt amazing.

Billy checked the area before opening the shed and stepping in. He was making his second round of the day to check on Munson before he went off in search of food.

"Nnn…too bright…"

"Sorry.." He shut the door. Billy stood up straight. He turned back to see Eddie with his hand over his eyes. "You're awake!"

"Yeah? What about it?" He blinked the sparkles away, focusing on who was talking to him. "Hargrove? Ain't you supposed to be dead?"

Billy scoffed, "I could say the same thing about you. Found you all ate up over in the playground. What the fuck are you doing here? How are you fucking here?"

"I honestly have no clue how I got in Mrs. Abernathy's shed. I was in the park. Then I was here." Eddie tried to sit up, but everything pulled and hurt in ways he didn't know was physically possible for people. He tugged back the blanket to look at his waist, and barely held back the shout of shock. Mrs. Abernathy's old floral sheets were wrapped around his sides. The sheets he remembered helping the older woman pack away. "Wait. Are we still in the Upside Down?"

"The what?" Billy didn't know what that was.

"The calendars, what year is on them?"

"I don't know. I didn't really look. I saw one that had '83 on it, but then stopped caring." Billy helped Eddie to sit up. He didn't know what to do now, but he was certain that now Eddie was awake he should be sitting up. He dug out one of the water bottles he'd found out and made sure the seal was okay. "I've been more worried about food than what the day was. Why?"

"Fuck."

"What?"

"I came down here in '86."

"No. That can't be right. What? No…"

"What do you…oh. That's right. It was early summer for you, wasn't it? 1985." Eddie remembered hearing the news report that William Hargrove had died a hero in the Starcourt Mall fire. But if Billy had died, then…"How the fuck are you here? I was at the mall the day you died! Kind of fuckin' hard to forget. With the fireworks going off for the Fourth and all."

"Huh?"

"You died, Bill. On July 4th, 1985. They had a funeral. I've seen your grave and all. That was last summer. Jesus fucking CHRIST." He ran his hand through his hair. "I'm dead. I have to be. I know you're dead, so that must mean that I'm long gone. Am I in Hell? Is this my punishment for selling ketamine on school grounds? I didn't think it was that big of an offense in all honesty…"

"Munson. Shut up." Billy clenched his fists at his sides, resisting the urge to slap the guy. He was in just as much shock. He didn't know what Eddie was talking about. Billy had gotten in a wreck outside the cannery and had been stuck in this hellhole ever since. "I don't know about being at any mall on the Fourth of July. I got in a wreck at the end of June. Never made it back."

Eddie's mouth snapped shut. Billy hadn't been in Hawkins? That was impossible. Henderson had been there, describing everything that had happened. There was no way the kid was lying. He wasn't sure the brat was capable of it. Every time he tried his voice would start cracking like he was going through puberty again.

"You're telling me…that you were not at Starcourt? At all?"

"I have only ever been to that mall once. In May with the Shitbird because Neil made me take her. That's it." He collapsed onto the floor. "I died?"

"Yeah. Last summer." Eddie twisted the ends of the blanket. "Well, something that looked like you did at any rate. A shapeshifter I guess?"

Billy snapped his fingers, "That actually sounds familiar. The night I wrecked I saw something fucking creepy. You won't believe it."

"What did you see?"

"Myself. And this, just, huge group of people. I think Heather Holloway was one, which would be fucking impossible since I've only ever spoken to her at work." He shook his head. Heather had been one of the fellow lifeguards at the public pool with him. The longest exchange they'd ever had was the shift report when she told him about particularly rowdy kids or if he was telling her.

"They called you guys the Flayed. Since you were being hijacked by the Mindflayer."

"The fuckin' DnD monster?" Billy had heard of it. "Those drugs have you fucked up more than I thought they did, Munson. There is no such thing as a Mindflayer. We both know it was invented by that crackpot in the seventies."

"I know it's not real, it's just what we've been calling it since we didn't exactly have any other names for shit. We went with the best we had." He jabbed a finger at Billy. "You haven't even seen the worst one yet! Vecna is on the loose here somewhere. That's why I came. I was with Harrington, Wheeler, and Buckley. Trying to stop that rotten fuck from taking over Hawkins."

"Run that by me again. I'm sure I heard you wrong. Who were you with?"

"Harrington, Wheeler, and Buckley." Eddie rolled his eyes. "The rest of the Party were on the other side, running recon and shit. Did you know Pretty Princess Nancy Wheeler has guns, plural, in her house? That are hers? That she stole from Russians?"

"Now I know you've lost your fucking mind. Nancy Wheeler does not own guns."

"You wanna bet? I saw her rip a rifle out of Jason Carver's hands with my own eyes. Fuckin' hot. She just held the barrel and growled at him."

Billy stood up, "When. When did you go missing?"

"Uh…" Eddie blinked. "March 27th? My fuckin birthday. Twenty-one and not even able to legally drink…"

He ran his fingers through his hair. March 27th, 1986. So Billy was 19 now. His own birthday would have just passed three days earlier. Now he knew just how long he'd been wandering around in this fucking rotten place. Nine months. Nearly an entire year. He'd managed to survive here alone for so long. He stared at Eddie.

"How do we get back?"

"The gates."

"What gates?"

"There's these gates. They kind of pop up randomly all over town where Vecna was killing people. Patrick McKinney was offed in the middle of Lover's Lake and one opened there. That's the one we came through the first time. We were following a compass. Chrissy Cunningham was killed on the ceiling of my trailer, and one opened there. That's where we ended up leaving. Henderson and the other nerds realized the spot on my ceiling was a gate and poked it open with a stick. Some Fred kid was killed in the middle of Deredrum Road. He must have gotten someone else, but I don't know who, I was here when the gates all started opening. We know who he was targeting, but…"

"Who was it?"

"Max." Eddie looked down. "He was going after Max. She blamed herself for your death. Wrote you a letter and everything. I was here when the fourth gate was opened. I don't know if he got her or not. He may have changed targets. I only saw Dustin and Steve."

Billy was pissed. No one messed with Shitbird but him. He was going to find this Vecna asshole and rip him apart. There was no question now.

"We're getting out of here. We need to head back to Hawkins. I want to see for myself if that bastard got her." Billy was fuming.

"I can't."

"What?"

"I want to, and I plan to. Right now, I can't. If I move too much I'm going to rip these scabs open. I need to wait until they heal up some before I can go anywhere. There's no choice but to wait." Eddie gingerly touched the faded floral fabric that was keeping his blood inside where it belonged. They would have a long wait until he could get up and go.

Eddie stretched his arms over his head. The muscle pulled only a little. He'd had a scare a few weeks earlier when he'd woken to a painful itching in his left side. The skin around the wound had been slightly swollen and an angry red. He didn't know exactly when it had happened, but it looked like an infection was trying to form. Billy had gone straight down to the shell of Melvald's General Store to see if he could scrounge up any antibiotics from behind the pharmacy counter.

Eddie picked up the trashed puff vest and contemplated putting it on. It was something that he'd been wearing to keep warm, but now, he wasn't sure about it. It had definitely outlived its usefulness.

"Billy? You find any usable jackets?" He tossed the vest onto the ground. Eddie stepped over what he thought might have once been a Tonka truck. It was too rusted now to tell. "My vest is trashed. I need something else."

"Fucking find something yourself." Billy nudged a can, not sure what he'd find. He had yet to come across any wild animals. He was starting to think there weren't any here. At all. No mice, lizards, snakes, birds. It took him a while to come to this decision. "I'm a little busy looking for food for us."

"You asshole. I was asking if you'd found any already." He poked his head out from what was once his neighbor's trailer. Matt? Mark? Something like that. He had never really talked to the guy. Just knew they were roughly the same height. He threw a middle finger in Billy's direction. Sometimes Eddie thought he'd have a better time rubbing sandpaper on his balls, but then times like this where they were just in sync made the rough patches almost worth it. Key word, almost.

He returned to digging through Matt or Mark's closet, looking for anything that may have fit him. Tucked into the back, nearly hidden behind an obscene number of tee-shirts, was a Hawkins Tigers varsity jacket. Eddie pulled it out and weighed his options. Wear the jacket, knowing Billy was going to rip into him for it, or be cold and miserable for however much longer they had in here. The ruthless bullying had better be worth it.

He shrugged the jacket on and headed out to help him find something light and portable. They were heading out that day. Hopefully to find an open portal somewhere in the godforsaken town. All Eddie wanted was to get back to warmth and light and cooked food. He didn't even care if all he ate for the rest of his life were Campbell's Spaghetti-o's. It was better than nothing but canned vegetables and granola bars. He was so very tired of granola.

"The fuck are you wearing? You switching sides now?"

"It was this or a fucking tee-shirt." Eddie shuffled away. "I don't have the muscle mass you do to keep me warm."

"Whatever."

Eddie shoved past him, emptying cabinets of their wares. He rooted through what was dumped out before him. Stale boxes of crackers, something that vaguely resembled a loaf of fruit cake you could get at Big Buy, and two miraculously unopened cans of Chef Boyardee. Those he would take. He packed them into the bag and moved on to the next. Eddie didn't bother with the fridge. Anything in there would have long since spoiled without the electricity. This place was stopped in 1983, but time did still go on. There was no telling what was growing in there.

"Alright. I've got about what we will find here. Let's move on to the next one." He stepped out, looking at Billy.

"I think we're about ready to just start moving. We have enough supplies now to last us a couple months if we ration them right. Plus the jugs of water in the wagon. I don't know what we'll face, but I don't wanna stick around here any longer."

"I know the gate in my place is out, it's been sealed up somehow on the other side. We could try the lake or Deredrum Road. I don't know where the final gate even is."

They started toward Lover's Lake. It was the closer of the two destinations to where they were standing. Billy led the way, a recovered machete held out before him to cut down anything that got in their way.