METANOIA | Eddie Munson

The Dive, Part 4

3rd Person's POV

"But we're nowhere near the lab." Nancy furrowed her eyebrows.

"But what if, somehow, there's another gate?" Dustin clasped his hands together, "A gate that we don't know about."

"It would have to be smaller, not as powerful." Valerie said.

"Snack-sized gate." Robin said.

"How? Why?" Steve asked.

"No idea. But something is causing the compass to go haywire, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate." Dustin said, "And I hope it is, because then we'd have a way to Vecna and a shot at freeing Max and Val from this curse."

Then he just took off.

"Where are you going? Hey, hey, hey, Eddie's still a wanted man. We can't just go hike in the woods." Steve put his hands on his hips.

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving Max, Eddie and Val." Dustin held up the compass, "What say you, Eddie the Banished?"

All eyes were on him, waiting for an answer.

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea."

Steve looked relieved for the two seconds Eddie had paused for.

"But, uh, the Shire is burning." Eddie rested his face in his hand, gazing up into the sky.

Valerie rolled her eyes at his antics.

Dustin started jumping up and down, Eddie smiled and got up, "So Mordor it is."

Eddie and Dustin started walking away making everyone else follow suit.

"What is Mordor?" Steve threw his arms up and pleadingly looked at Valerie.

Valerie sighed, "Nobody is going to Mordor."

Everyone stopped in their tracks, with Dustin being the first one to whip around, "But there's a gate-"

"I'm aware."

"Then what's the problem?" Eddie said.

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life in jail with you. Like Steve said, we can't just be out, hiking in the woods."

Dustin pouted, "But-"

"No buts."

Eddie mirrored him.

"No."

They both groaned at the same time.

"How come no one listened to me when I said the same thing?" Steve scoffed.

Valerie smirked at him before continuing, "We'll go after dark."

"It's only afternoon right now." Robin took a look at her watch.

"We should head home, if there really is a gate, some resources might come in handy." Nancy said.

"Any of you got a spare compass?" Valerie asked.

Lucas fished one out of his bag and tossed it to Valerie.

"Great, we'll meet at wherever this leads to at midnight, okay?" Valerie asked and everybody nodded.

Dustin gave Valerie a big, long hug before he left.

"Don't die on us again!" Robin screamed on her way out.

"I'll try." Valerie replied before her and Eddie, once again, sat down to rest against skull rock.

Valerie let out a yawn.