chapter seven . . . code red
THE THREE TEENS WERE NOW STUCK IN THE POLICE STATION, waiting for Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers to arrive, which seemed like any second now. Unfortunately, they were told they wouldn't be leaving anytime soon so now they were putting full hope into Hopper that he would be more understanding enough to let them go.
The Henderson girl sat with her leg bouncing up and down while she huffed her cheeks out. She couldn't help but wonder if the Party was safe. It made her anxious that she had received total silence and had no choice but to wait patiently for her walkie-talkie to start crackling in hopes of them attempting to reach out.
"Is your hand okay?" Nancy looked at Josie with concern on her face, eyeing her purple adorned knuckles with an ice pack over them, that was slightly swollen after punching Tommy. H in the nose.
"It's been better..." Josie could hardly move her hand but the punch into the boy's face was long awaited. "Totally worth it though." She joked, receiving a small smile from Nancy.
"Hey." The teenager's perked up at the sound of Joyce's alerted voice, "Jonathan? Jesus, what...what happened? Why is he wearing handcuffs?"
Callahan got up from his desk chair, "Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why."
"Take them off." She demanded.
"I am afraid I cannot do that."
"Take them off!" Joyce was having none of it, repeating her words to the officer.
"You heard her. Take 'em off." Hopper demanded the two officers.
"Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to know." Officer Powell stood up, cocking his head over to the window. Just in the small parking lot sat Jonathan's car, packed to the brim with weapons in his trunk.
Josie's eyes widened when Hopper had entered with his hands holding the box of their supplies for their monster hunt. He plopped it onto the table in front of the three teens, waiting for an explanation to the multiple weapons they had managed to collect.
"What is this?" Joyce peeked into the box, bewildered.
"Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car." Hopper plainly said, sternly look at the teens.
Jonathan sat forward, angrily. "Why are you going through my car?"
Hopper placed his hands onto the table, standing tall. "Is that really a question you should be asking right now? I wanna see you in my office."
"You won't believe me." The Byers boy insisted quickly.
"Why don't you give me a try? My office. Now."
The three teens reluctantly stood from their seats, nervously glancing at one another as they followed Hopper into his office. Josie was unsure with what they were about to share — if it was anyone else they'd surely laugh in their face or claim that they were crazy but the teenage girl was certain Joyce would believe them.
"You say blood draws this thing?" Hopper raised a brow, inspecting the picture Jonathan had given him.
"We don't know."
"It's just a theory." Nancy muttered softly.
"There's this opening in a tree in the woods." Josie blurted without thought, gaining questioning looks from the two adults. "I know how it sounds but...it was another dimension that's where its from and has been this whole time. It was feasting on a deer." Her eyes panned down onto her lap, pushing aside the memory of being pinned down by the creature.
After a moment of silence with Joyce and Hopper looking at one another, silently communicating, the woman spoke up. "Could I speak to you, Jonathan?" She had tears swelling into her eyes as the boy followed his mother outside.
Both girls got up from their spots, murmuring about getting a glass of water but Hopper quickly stopped Josie from moving any further, leaving the two alone in his office. "How'd you get those bruises, kid?"
Josie looked down at her bruised up knuckle, "Punched a guy who was being an asshole."
"Harrington?"
She snorted, "Not this time. Jonathan kind of did that already."
"Well, I guess if he was being an asshole then he deserved it."
"Just please don't tell my mom." Josie gave him a pleaded look. "I just don't want her worrying."
Hopper nodded at the girl, seeing the slight guilt and worry in her eyes. "No worries, kid. You just need to be more careful, Henderson, it's worse going to a parent to say their kid has just died or has gone missing."
Their conversation was quickly interrupted by the commotion happening just outside the room. From what Josie could gather, it was Callahan trying and failing to calm down a very fustrated woman. "Stay here." Hopper instructed, exiting the office.
But, being the nosy girl Josie was, she immediately got up peaking her head around the corner to hear the gossip. "What the hell is going on?" Hopper exclaimed, approaching the two officers.
"These men are humiliating my son." The woman stated, distressed.
"No, no, no, that's not true." Callahan denied.
"There was some kind of fight, Cheif-"
Powell was interrupted, "A psychotic child broke his arm!"
They continued to bicker back and forth, no doubt irritating Hopper, until the woman's son spoke up. "She had no hair and she was bleeding from her nose. Like a freak."
Josie's eyes practically bulged out of her eye sockets as she listened to the description being given. El. If El was seen, that meant Mike, Dustin and Lucas was there as well. It seemed to shock Hopper too as he froze at the words, "What'd you just say?"
The young boy repeated his words. "I said she's a freak!"
"No, her hair. What'd you say about her hair?"
"Her head's shaved. She doesn't even look like a girl. And..." The boy paused.
"And what?"
"She can...do things. Like make you fly. And piss yourself."
"Was she alone?"
The boy shook his head, "She always hangs out with those losers."
"'Losers'? What losers?"
The boy met Josie's eyes. "That's one of the freaks' sister." Everyone's eyes flickered over to the girl, who gave them a sheepish smile for eavesdropping.
Hopper gave her a scolding look, silently turning on his heels away from the boy and his mother. "So you're not going to do anything about these officers disrespecting me and my son?!" Her complaint caused Callahan to start bickering against her again.
"We need to find your brother and his friends now. Let's go, Henderson."
The five of them drove to the Wheeler's house, going way over the speed limit, in search for the boys and Eleven. As the house came into eyesight, so did half of Hawkin's lab parked outside the abode for an investigation as they were filling their trunks with boxes of possessions, leaving them with no sight of the group anywhere.
After Hopper had consoled a panicking Nancy, who was adamant to go home to see if her parents and younger brother were okay, the man turned to the three hunched up in the back of the car urgently. "Look, we need to find them before they do. Do you have any idea where they might have gone?"
"No, I don't."
Hopper moved his gaze over to Josie, immediately catching onto the hesitation on her face, almost like she was desperate to say something. "Spit it out, kid. If you know something it'd be a really good time to say it. We're all in this together."
The Henderson girl sighed, "They're probably at the junkyard...they normally go there if they're hiding."
Jonathan perked up, "Is there a way we can talk to them and ask?"
Without a word, Josie dug into her backpack that sat in between her legs on the floor, revealing her walkie-talkie. "This is probably the only way we can communicate without them freaking out." Everyone's face showed relief.
The girl didn't hesitate to pass it to Nancy first, to ease her panic about Mike. "Mike, are you there? Mike? Mike, it's me, Nancy. Mike are you there? Answer. Mike, we need you to answer. This is an emergency, Mike. Do you copy? Mike, do you copy?" Slowly, Josie's patience was running thin.
"Could I try?" Nancy nodded, passing the device over to the girl. "Guys, we're in some serious shit right now. We know you're at the junkyard and we know about the bad people. This town is crawling with helicopter's looking for you, please just answer- this is a code red! Do you copy?"
"Yeah, I copy. It's Mike. I'm here. We're here."
Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy and Josie were now left in the Byers household in anticipation, waiting for Hopper to arrive with the kids. While waiting for the Chief, the sun had set and had decorated an inky black sky over Hawkins.
The sound of a car pulling up outside had Josie jumping up from her spot on the couch, throwing the door open and running out on the yard, seeing the four pile out of Hopper's car. "Holy shit!" Josie threw her arms over Lucas and Dustin, while Nancy brought Mike into a hug. "You have no idea how worried I was."
"Can't...breathe." She heard Lucas mutter in her deathly grip, which caused her to let go ushering a small 'sorry'. Her face softened when seeing Eleven standing in front of her and didn't think twice before hugging the girl. "Hey, El." She murmured, giving her a soft kiss on the crown of her head comfortingly.
After all the chaos and the bad men chasing them all day, Eleven still managed to have a small smile on her face and felt safe in the presence of the older girl.
She pulled away from the hug, turning to the two boys. "So, what did I miss?"
Dustin immediately started to ramble, "El flipped a van with her mind! It was awesome! And she broke Troy's arm and made Mike fly in the air!" He gushed to his older sister as they all walked inside of the Byers home.
authors note!
live laugh love joe keery and joseph quinn 🤭
also i'm so stressed about vol ii because the amount of theories that have been made and THERES A BODY COUNT FOR DEATHS. i'm SCARED.