MADMAX
October 1984
Hawkins, Indiana
"Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch!" Catherine heard her younger brother, Dustin yell as he searched under couch cushions for any loose change. He ran into the living room where their mom, Claudia, was sat watching television with their cat Mews. "Another stupid penny!" Dustin cried, as he threw it across the room.
"Dusty, watch it!" Claudia cried, holding the ginger cat. "You almost hit Mews."
"Can I please check under your cushions?" He asked, walking across the room towards her.
"Dusty."
"Mom, please? It's an emergency!"
Claudia sighed and gave in, standing up so her son could look for change under the chair's cushions. Dustin grinned as he held up two coins. "Love you, Mom." He said as he ran back to his room.
Cat sighed as she looked into her full-length mirror, holding her t-shirt in her hands. She frowned as she looked at all the scars that littered her body. The one that went across her face hadn't fully healed and was very visible, as were the ones down her chest and her side. The one on her arm had faded slightly and was very white in comparison to her skin. She hated them. They were horrible and ugly.
Catherine jumped as there was a knock on her door. "Kit!" Her brother called out from the other side of her bedroom door.
"Just a moment!" She called back, throwing on her shirt and pulling it down as far as it would go. She made sure it had long sleeves, not only because it was autumn and was starting to get chilly, but also because she wanted to cover as many of her scars as possible. She walked across her room to the door, pulling it open to reveal her brother. Dustin said nothing as he pushed past her and began searching for any spare change she had lying around. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"I need money. We're going to the arcade, remember?"
"Okay, well, you could have just asked me for some." She said, walking towards her sock drawer where she kept her purse. She held it up to show him. "You can use some of this money. It's the money I save for special trips to the arcade, like today."
Dustin grinned at her like it was Christmas. "You're the best!" He exclaimed, giving her a huge hug.
Cat smiled. "Yeah. I am, aren't I? But I'm holding onto my purse."
"Why, 'cause it's the one Steve gave you?"
Cat shook her head, shoving him out of her room. "Just go. I'll meet you downstairs in a few minutes. But you better wait for me."
Dustin ran into his room, grabbing his walkie-talkie and sitting on the floor by his bed. "Lucas, you copy? I've got four quarters. Kit's coming as well and she has loads more for us to use. What's your haul?"
"Take your puny haul and multiply it by five." Lucas answered. "How much does Cat have?"
"Not sure, but I think a lot. How have you got that much?"
"While you were scrounging around like a homeless bum, I mowed Old Man Humphrey's lawn."
"Old Man Humphrey's got that kinda cash?"
"Just call Mike already."
"You call Mike."
"I have to go take a shower from doing real work, like a man. Over and out."
Dustin sighed. "Mike, do you copy? Mike, do you copy?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I copy."
"What the hell are you doing on this channel?" Dustin asked his other friend.
"Nothing."
"Lucas and I have six bucks total. Well, more if you add Kit's haul but I don't know the exact amount she has. What's your haul?"
"Shit! I don't know yet."
"What do you mean you don't know yet?"
"Hold on. Call Will."
Dustin sighed, looking up to see Catherine standing in his doorway. "Come on, Loser. We've got to go."
***
The group cycled up to the arcade, parking their bikes in the bike racks. A horn beeped and they all turned around to see Joyce's car pull up with Will sitting in the passenger seat. The young boy waved at them and the others waved back.
"Hey!" They called out to him, waiting for their friend to get out of the car.
Cat saw that Joyce was talking to her son and walked up to the car as Will opened the door and climbed out, running over to the boys. "Hey, Mrs. Byers."
"Catherine. I told you, call me Joyce."
Cat smiled. The only person in the universe that she allowed to call her Catherine -other than her own mother- was Joyce. "Okay, Joyce..." She emphasised the woman's name. "Don't worry about a thing. I'll make sure he's safe. I promise."
Joyce smiled at her. "Thank you. I'm so glad you're in our lives. I'll pick him up in two hours, at nine."
Cat nodded. "I'll wait with him 'till you arrive."
"Thank you, dear. Have fun."
"We will." Catherine waved as Joyce drove away before turning to the boys and giving Will a hug. "Alright. Who wants to play some video games and spend all my hard earned money?"
Lucas scoffed. "It's not hard earned money. You get paid to look after us."
"And that's easy, is it?" Cat opened the door to the arcade. "It's actually quite difficult looking after you little shits-" she turned to the small Byers boy, "Not you though Will, you're lovely."
The other three boys groaned as Will smiled at the older girl, who let out a chuckle.
"You're choosing him as you're favourite, over me?! Your own brother?!" Dustin sounded highly offended.
"You forget, Dusty, I have to live with you." She ruffled his hair. "But you know I love you all, right? How could I not? You're my favourite people to defend Hawkins with."
***
The group was crowded around one of the video game machines, watching Dustin play 'Dragon's Lair'. Cat was leaning on the side of the machine, an arm draped around Will's shoulder. "Oh, Jesus! I'm in unchartered territory here, guys." Dustin told them.
"I'm sure you can do it. I mean, you guys did fight against a Demogorgon last year."
"Sshh!" The boys begged her to be quiet, knowing that they weren't allowed to talk about the previous year's events in public, before yelling instructions at Dustin to help him win the game. "Down! Down! Down!" The boys yelled at Dustin who moved the game's controller in order to move his character (a knight) away from the giant dragon.
"I'm going! I'm going!" Dustin yelled back, his eyes flicking from the controller to the screen.
The boys crowded further round the game, watching in excitement as Dustin was close to winning. They all started yelling at each other and Cat rolled her eyes, standing on her tip toes to see the screen over their heads.
"Okay. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!" Dustin yelled at his friends, repeatedly hitting the button labelled 'Sword'. They all watched as the knight was burned alive by the Dragon. "No. No. No!" Dustin cried, hitting the games console with his hands.
"Better luck next time, Dusty." Cat sighed, allowing the heels of her feet to touch the floor again.
"No! No! No! I hate this overpriced bullshit!" He hit the machine with his fists and Cat watched from next to Will, an amused look on her face. "Son of a bitch!" He kicked the machine. "Piece of shit!"
"You're just not nimble enough." Lucas told him, standing on Dustin's left. "But you'll get there one day. But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine."
"Whatever. I'm still tops on 'Centipede' and 'Dig Dug'. Dustin shrugged.
"You sure about that?" Keith, the manager of the arcade asked, stuffing his face with a bag of 'Cheetos'. The group of five turned around to face him.
"Sure about what?" Dustin asked, looking slightly scared. Keith didn't say anything and only watched as Dustin pushed past his friends and sister to run to the machine that held the game 'Dig Dug'. "You're kidding me. No, no, no." He pushed past other kids as he raced to the machine, Will, Mike, Lucas, Catherine and Keith behind him. "Move! Move! No, no, no, no, no. Hey, no! No! No!"
They all crowded around the game machine, looking at the score screen.
1st- 751300- MADMAX'
"Wow." Catherine muttered, impressed with the score.
"751, 300 points!" Will exclaimed.
"That's impossible." Mike said.
"Yeah, well, apparently not anymore." Cat pointed out.
"Who is Mad Max?" Dustin asked Keith.
"Better than you." Cat rolled her eyes at the very tall employee. Dustin raised his middle finger at him.
"Is it you?" Will asked.
Keith scoffed. "You know I despise 'Dig Dug'."
"Then who is it?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah, spill it, Keith." Dustin demanded.
"You want information, then I need something in return." Keith told them through a mouthful of crisps, looking at Mike. The other three's heads all turned to the boy who was wide-eyed.
"No, no, no. No way. You're not getting a date with her."
"Mike, come on. Just get him the date." Lucas said to him.
"I'm not prostituting my sister!" Cat raised her eyebrows, unsurprised that it was Nancy who Keith wanted to go out with and not her- not that she'd ever go out with Keith anyway.
"But it's for a good cause." Lucas tried to convince him.
"No, don't get him the date." Dustin said, stepping between the two. "Know what? He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family."
"Acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid."
Cat snorted, trying to stifle a laugh. Dustin sent her a glare and she raised her hands in surrender, trying to wipe the smile from her face. "Oh, I'm a wastoid? She wouldn't go on a date with you. You make, like, what? $2.50 an hour? Even Kit wouldn't go out with you." Cat laughed, but nodded all the same. Her brother was right, she wouldn't ever go out with Keith.
"Nice perm." Keith said to him.
"Gonna make fun of my hair?"
Cat tuned the conversation out as she noticed Will wandering away from the group. She followed after him. "Hey. Hey, guys, do you see the.." He tailed off, turning around to where his friends were only to see no one there, except Catherine.
"You okay?" She asked, reaching a hand out to his shoulder. Suddenly the world flickered and the two were in the Upside Down. "What the..." Cat trailed off, looking around her confused. Both Will and Catherine jumped as the door to the arcade swung open.
The two wandered outside and Catherine noticed the sign to the arcade flicker on and off. She put an arm around him as they stood just outside the building. "You can see it too?" Will asked the older girl.
"Yeah..." They looked into the distance to see what looked like a storm forming as thunder crashed and the electricity began crackling.
Will gasped as the two were suddenly brought back to the normal world, being pulled out by Mike talking to them. "Will! Cat! Are you okay?"
The boy in question looked back to where the storm had previously been. "Yeah. I just..."
"He just needed some air so I thought I'd bring him outside." Cat lied to Mike, giving Will a reassuring side hug. "And I'm fine too, thank you for asking."
Mike nodded. "Come on. You're up on 'Dig Dug'." The three turned back to the arcade, Mike throwing an arm around Will's shoulder as Cat squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Let's take that top score back, huh?"
***
Edited: 12/4/2020
Edit 2: 9/9/2021