She was desperate, I was not right
Hanging on a cord and a flashlight
I got in the car
She drove all night, oh to be
By the Salton Sea
Josh Rouse
"Okay, he's dead."
Eddie was about to pull out his hair.
"Robin, no offense, but you are the fifth person to say that. I think we are all in agreement by this point," Eddie said, biting out his words through his teeth. He was anxious. He was on edge. He was far better than Chrissy, which was understandable, who was just staring at Jason. It's like this had broken her too.
"I would think that this would be the sort of thing we'd wanna be extra, super-duper sure about, Eddie!" Robin argued, "This is a scenario when we want other opinions."
"But we're in agreement now. Jason is for sure dead, right?" Steve asked.
"Yes!" Both Eddie and Nancy answered, mirroring tones of frustration.
Lucas poked Jason with a stick and nodded. Great six in agreement that Jason was dead.
"Look, I get it. I'm not like…" Eddie motioned around him, "The smartest tool in the shed. But am I crazy for just maybe thinking that all of us gathering in the woods and not moving is a really, really bad idea?"
"No, no, he's right," Nany was pacing, "We need to leave. Now. Figure out their next moves."
"The body?" Dustin said, rolling Jason's corpse with his foot, "Do we leave it? Burry it? Dissolve it in acid?"
Eddie paused, halfway horrified and halfway curious, "Do you…know…how to do that Henderson?"
"No, but I'm just saying. Are we electing to leave a very dead body here?"
"What are the chances someone finds it?" Nancy muttered, staring around the trees with a careful calculating tone.
"Do we want someone to?" Robin asked, "Or are we hoping he's lost to time?"
"No, no," Chrissy spoke for the first time since the Party's arrival, "It's not…fair. He may not be…he's…well, I guess he's…" She struggled, "We can't just leave him, though."
"Chrissy…you hit him. And he died." Steve said in what Eddie had dubbed Steve's 'dad' voice, and not in a sexy way. It was the sort of lecturing tone that Eddie's own father had never quite mastered.
"I know, I know, but," Chrissy wiped her makeup from her cheeks with the back of her sweater, "No one deserves this sort of burial."
"Hmm," Dustin made a disagreeing noise, "Hitler. Jack the Ripper. Ted Bundy."
Steve turned, putting a hand on Dustin's shoulder, "Dude, with all respect, what the hell are you doing?"
Dustin guffawed, "Listing people who absolutely deserve this kind of grave site, duh."
"Not helpful."
"Okay, but Chrissy's right. This is just a high school kid. He doesn't deserve this. I remember…I used to share my carrots with him every day in second grade. He was just…" Robin frowned, "Consumed."
Chrissy gave a jerky nod.
"Okay, okay. We ditch the bat. We drag Jason closer to the road with the hopes someone finds him." Nancy said, moving into 'Plan-Nancy', which Eddie had come to appreciate in the short time he knew her.
"What about me? Uhm, us?" Eddie nodded to Chrissy.
Nancy swallowed, "I don't think you're going to like what I have to say."
"Say it," Chrissy demanded, her voice firmer than Eddie knew she had the ability to be, "Just say it."
"Right. Eddie…the town already despises you. They're just looking for a reason to lock you up for good."
"Yeah, yeah, old news," Eddie muttered, She wasn't wrong, but he also knew this. He'd come to peace with being the town pariah. He used to think he was, due to his love of rock and roll. But he had no clue what it really meant to be an outlaw, huh?
"And Chrissy…the town loves Jason. It's always a significant other that's the first suspect. Plus, all it would take is one townsperson to have seen you two come into the woods together and…" She shook her head, her expression grave, "And you did it. It was you." She wasn't accusing, or cruel, just matter-of-fact, "Can you hold up in court? Could you hold your own? Lie on the Bible?"
Chrissy sniffled and winced hard. Her silence spoke volumes.
"Leave," Steve said abruptly.
"What?" Eddie turned, shaking his head, "What are you saying, man?"
"Leave, tonight," Steve said with a hoarse, worried whisper, "Get away from here Eddie. It'll be your head next. They'll cry for the death penalty and I'm worried you'll get it. Both of you."
"You want us to run?" Chrissy came to the conclusion faster, "Wouldn't that make us…seem, erm, guilty?"
"Would you rather be tried and dead?" Steve asked.
"This is a crazy plan," Robin said, shaking her head slowly.
"Yeah, but, fuck!" Steve threw up his hands, "What else can they do? Give me a better option, Robin!"
"I could leave-," Eddie broke in, staring up at the moon, obscured by dark clouds, "I mean, shit, I could. There's not much keeping me here." His heart pulled to think of his Uncle Wayne, all alone, but hell…his uncle would be better off without him. Eddie just stressed him out and gave him someone else to worry about that he shouldn't have to. He didn't have to take Eddie in after his parents died, but he did, and Eddie always knew the financial strain he placed upon a dude that never signed up to be a father.
"Chrissy, look, don't listen to Steve. We'll figure out a plan for you too," Nancy said, going over to rub Chirssy's still shaking shoulders, "That's like…the most extreme solution. There has to be-,"
"I could go too."
Chrissy's quiet voice managed to shut everyone up.
"I mean to say…I could run away as well. There's not much keeping me here either."
"Your cheer team, your grades, your family-," Robin began to list, stuttering out the whole thing.
"Robin, shut up!" Steve said, "Are you trying to give her a reason to stay, basically signing her own death warrant? None of that is worth the risk."
"It's true, that's all true," Chrissy said, swallowing hard. Her eyes flickered to Jason and then back up. She seemed a bit green still, "But…I'm a terrible liar. And I did kill him, even if I didn't mean to. But I don't know if they'll agree that it was an accident. I'd rather be alive. I figured that out recently, you know?"
"Oh, damn, okay, so, run," Steve said, as though he hadn't expected anyone to go for this plan, despite being the one who suggested it. It was clear it was half-baked at best, but it was the only thing being offered right now.
Eddie would say their luck had just run out, but let's be honest; his luck had run out before he was even born.
"They should stick together," Dustin said, rubbing his chin and looking at them, "Safety."
"I agree," Nancy said, "It would be dangerous to be caught together, but it would be more foolish to expect them to fend for themselves with no support system. At least this way, they can commiserate as a team. Look, uh, we'll try to clear it up. Figure out something else. Find a way for you both to come home."
Eddie gave a wry laugh, "Not sure that there's much to come back to, but thanks."
"I have…" Robin fished in her pocket, "Twenty bucks." At the stares at her, she motioned vigorously, "C'mon, are we really going to send them out with nothing? Empty your pockets people!"
And that seemed to be that.
As soon as a wad of cash was shoved into Eddie's hands, it seemed…real.
They were going to make a break for it and hope to escape certain death.
He looked at Chrissy, who was still semi-out of it.
He knew what he was leaving behind, but did she?
God, he hoped that neither of them would live to regret this.
XX
As the landscapes were thrown past Eddie, the sky just beginning to rise in the distance in front of him, Eddie took a moment to reflect on how he got here; taking a stolen car out of Hawkins with his only prized possession (his guitar) in the back seat and Chrissy Cunningham dozing off in the passenger seat beside him.
It was wild.
If someone had told him that two weeks ago, when Chrissy slipped him a note to meet and buy drugs from him in the forest behind the school, that this moment would change the trajectory of his entire life, he would have thought you were on something. And not the good stuff. He sold the good stuff, so that would have meant you would have visited Shady Dan, who by his name, sold the shady shit.
But he digressed.
A meeting in the forest led to a meeting at his house.
And Chrissy almost died there.
He still wasn't 100% sure of the specifics of it (He liked his D&D very much in the fictional realm) but he knew that it was not fully for him to comprehend it. It was a problem for Mike and his super rad super-hero girlfriend to deal with.
After a short stint of hiding out because everyone thought Chrissy was dead, surprise surprise, she actually woke up.
And then they didn't really have anything to be mad at Eddie for, but oh, they wanted to be.
He still felt the evil stares as he went to do mundane shit, like get groceries or go to school. He thought it would blow off.
Ha.
It hadn't.
Even with Chrissy insistent that Eddie hadn't done anything to her, Jason in particular was convinced he tried to take advantage of his girlfriend or he was planning to sacrifice her for some satanic ritual.
The fucking funny thing was that he hadn't seen Chrissy at all in the two weeks, not since he thought she had died when she passed out on his living room floor, and like a coward, he'd ran.
Pretty similar to what he was doing right now, admittedly, but look, this time it hadn't been his idea.
No, he knew better than to talk to Chrissy. That would seem like a death sentence. Ironic; due to what they were literally facing now. Plus, he figured she probably didn't want to talk to him anyway.
Until whatever was going on with her got bad enough again that she went seeking him out for drugs.
Again.
He should have sent her in the direction of someone else. He should have turned her down. He knew that Jason probably was scribbling a thousand ways to kill Eddie in his notebooks, but something about her face just made it impossible for Eddie to say 'no' to her.
That pretty much led them to the events of last night. Chrissy, meeting him far out of the way to go unseen. Eddie, bringing weed enough to satisfy her for a while, hopefully, to avoid having to meet back up soon. And then Jason, crazed and actually not totally wrong about what was happening (they were meeting up, just no, not like that) followed them.
Seeing them in the vicinity snapped something in his brain. Eddie would never fully decide what.
But he did know this; as shitty as Jason was to him, Eddie wasn't a monster. And the image of Jason's brains spilled over the rocks in the forest would haunt him forever.
All things considered, he didn't even know Chrissy that well. She was a literal stranger to him. Sure, they'd crossed paths in middle school, but he'd crossed paths with hundreds.
He knew three things about her:
She liked cheerleading She started dating Jason two years and they had seemed like the gold standard of high school sweethearts She'd killed someone for himHe couldn't shake the feeling he was wholly undeserving of that last one.
That equated to nothing substantial, and here they were, making a run for it.
And he had the passing thought; how the fuck were they going to make this work?
The Party had been…well, about as helpful as a group of teens could be in aiding two criminals escape the law.
With Robin's instruction, the group had coughed up just shy of $200 in spare change. And then Steve had handed off another $200 to match. Enough to get them settled in, fed, and all that, he said.
Eddie had asked for one thing from his trailer; his guitar. Oh, and the cash he'd been saving for a new amp, bringing their total to a non-impressive $531. Everything else could be left. He was going bare bones.
When Max had asked if Chrissy wanted anything, she'd thought for a long moment and slowly shook her head.
"Just…watch over my brother, okay?" She whispered painfully, "He's a good kid."
It was the least they could do for her, Max agreed.
They'd brought them some nonperishable food to stock up on, but of course, it was the rejects from the backs of their pantries, things they were sure their parents wouldn't miss. Eddie was sure excited to eat…uhm, cream of asparagus soup for three weeks straight.
And then, they were sent off.
In Eddie's van, they squealed out of Hawkins around 3 A.M. Eddie couldn't speak for Chrissy, but his heart was thrumming so hard he thought it would burst and his hands were so sweaty he almost couldn't get a grasp of the steering wheel.
Chrissy had tried to stay awake, but he'd watched her eyes blink rapidly and the bags grow under her eyes.
"If you can sleep, you should," He said. Though she shook her head, it wasn't long until she was using her cardigan as a pillow and had drifted off. Eddie was glad she was catching some shut-eye. He wasn't sure he could have done the same, had she been driving.
When Eddie had asked where they were supposed to go, everyone had given a helpless shrug.
It's not like any of them had ever done this before. Eddie had the most experience with hiding from mobs, but he never thought it would take him out of Hawkins.
It was an easy choice, however. The great unknown or death?
He had a feeling it was easy for Chrissy too.
Robin had given the least helpful answer, "Dunno, just drive until there's no more road to drive on."
"So, California," Max had said, "Or…Florida."
"Texas?" Dustin piped up.
"New York City!" Lucas had said, "Obviously."
"Are we just naming any state on the coastline now?" Steve had rolled his eyes, "Good to know no one's failing geography."
"Anywhere," Nancy had said, always the most pragmatic of the group, "Anywhere but here."
And wasn't that the truth of it? Just get away from Hawkins, from Illinois, hell, from the midwest. Go until you both feel safe and then…
The 'then' was a big fat blank.
A nothing.
Yet, juxtaposed, that nothing was everything.
They didn't have high school diplomas. They had less than $600 between them. They were two kids that probably looked like kids running away. They had killed somebody.
None of that mattered out there, though. How many times had Eddie dreamed of just getting up and leaving and seeing what he could do, now that he wasn't tied to the history of the Munson name in Hawkins?
All the time.
The answer was he'd thought about it all the time.
They had all of tomorrow and the rest of the time to figure out what would happen next.
In some ways, it was a blessing. Their next steps were clear.
Drive all day today.
Find a place to stop tonight.
Rinse, repeat, until they both agreed to see where fate would take them.
Easy, right?
Eddie smiled to himself, a relief and weight being lifted off him for the first time in basically, well, forever.
Right.
Eddie could so do this.
He just hoped Chrissy would be able to as well.