{Dig Dug, Part II/The Spy, Part I}

"Pick up, pick up!" Alice muttered at the phone. She and Dustin had been calling the Wheeler's house for the past forty-five minutes, but the line was still busy. There was no answer on the walkie-talkies either, not from Mike, Lucas, or Will. In fact, the only response they got was from Erica Sinclair, who was peeved about all the noise—and told them to promptly, "Shut your mouth."

"This is no use," Alice said, slamming down the landline. "Mrs. Wheeler isn't going to stop anytime soon if she's chatting with her book club buddies. We need to just go over there and ask to see Nancy and Mike."

Dustin sighed.

"Fine. Let's go."

After double-checking the locks on the cellar, the siblings hopped onto their bikes and rode as fast as they could to Maple Street.

When they arrived at the Wheeler's house, they threw their bikes onto the lawn and rushed to the front door.

"Let me do the talking," Dustin said suavely.

Alice raised an eyebrow.

"Geez, okay. You have a plan?"

"Nope."

After banging on the door a few times, it swung open. The unimpressed face of Ted Wheeler appeared. Before he could speak, Dustin cut in.

"Your line has been busy for over two hours, Mr. Wheeler. Do you realize this?"

Ted sighed.

"Oh, I do realize," he said tiredly.

"Is Mike home?" Dustin asked, exasperated.

"No."

"No?" Dustin asked with a scowl. "Where the hell is he?!"

Without warning, Ted shouted over his shoulder, startling Alice.

"KAREN, WHERE IS OUR SON?"

Muffled from inside the house, Karen shouted, "Will's!"

Ted turned back to the Hendersons.

"Will's," he said.

"No one's picking up there," Alice explained. "What about Nancy?"

Again, Ted shouted: "KAREN, NANCY!"

"Ally's!"

"Ally's," Ted said with a grimace. He smirked and added, "Our children don't live here anymore. You didn't know that?"

"Seriously?" Dustin huffed.

"Am I done here?" Ted deadpanned, eyeing Alice and Dustin as if they were stains on his carpet.

"Son of a bitch," Dustin muttered. "You're really no help at all, you know that?!"

"Language," Ted growled, before slamming the door in their face.

"Thanks for nothing," Alice said loudly through the door, glaring.

The siblings, feeling dejected, turned and headed back down the path. They figured they'd have to go it alone...until an unlikely hero parked his car by the curb and headed toward them.

"Look!" Dustin said, elbowing Alice. "It's Steve!"

She looked up and saw Mr. Good Hair holding a bouquet of roses and muttering to himself. He ran a hand through his hair but looked startled when he noticed Alice and Dustin.

"Al!" Steve said, fiddling with the roses. "What are you doing here?"

"Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?" Dustin interrupted.

"What?" Steve scowled. "No!"

"Good!" Dustin snatched the flowers from Steve's hands.

"Hey!" Steve glared as Dustin pushed past him and opened the passenger door of his car. "What the hell?"

"Nancy isn't home," Alice explained. "And we need your help."

Steve's expression softened.

"What?" Steve asked. "Is something wrong?"

"You could say that," Alice said, scratching the back of her neck. "Something happened to Mews. Or, more precisely, something happened to Dustin's new pet and the new pet did something to Mews..."

Steve furrowed his brow.

"Mews?" he asked. "New pet? What?"

Alice nodded grimly.

"It's a long story," she said. "No offense, but we have bigger problems than your love life. You'll have to apologize to Nancy later."

"Oh, um, yeah, okay," Steve said. "What do you guys need?"

"Do you still have that bat?" Dustin asked.

Images of the beast from the Byer's house last fall popped into Steve's head. His heart dropped as he remembered the feeling of swinging the nail bat and getting thrown back by the Demogorgon.

"What bat?" he said, feigning stupidity.

"The one with the nails!" Dustin said. "I'll explain on the way."

"Now?" Steve asked, gesturing to his car.

"Now!" Dustin said, sliding into the passenger seat. "Al, get in the back."

"What about our bikes?" she asked.

"We'll come back. Let's go! We don't have time to waste!"

Steve and Alice shared a look, but climbed into the car after Dustin anyway.

🌹🌹🌹

"So, how big?"

Dustin, Steve, and Alice were on the way back to their house, and Dustin was prepping Steve to face Dart.

"He started out like this," Dustin explained, holding his hands about five inches apart. "Now, he's like this."

He moved his hands so they were two feet apart.

"No, he's a little shorter," Alice said. "He's like three-quarters of that."

"No, Al, he isn't!"

"Actually he is."

"I swear, he isn't—"

"Guys!" Steve said. "Save the sibling bickering for later."

"Well, I'll stop bickering, if Dustin admits he's wrong..."

Steve shook his head, starting to wonder if Alice and her brother were on something.

"I swear to God," he said, "it's just some little lizard, okay?"

"It's not a lizard!" Alice said, mad that Steve was brushing off the existence of the creature she saw with her own eyes.

"How do you know?"

"How do we know?"

"Yeah, how do you know it's not just a lizard?"

"Because his face opened up and he ate our cat!" Alice shouted.

Silence. Steve cleared his throat.

"Oh. You didn't mention that part."

"Well, he did," Dustin said. "And now he's trapped in our cellar. We were looking for Mike, Lucas, and Will to help us deal with him but they're all too preoccupied with whoever knows what else and can't help us."

"And Nancy is MIA," Alice added. "And so is Jonathan."

"So what you're saying is," Steve said, "I'm your last choice."

Alice inwardly groaned. Way to kick a man while he's down, she thought.

"We didn't say that!" Alice said. "We would've gone to you next if we hadn't run into you."

That was a lie. Alice didn't want Steve to get dragged into her brother's mess—he'd been through enough. But he was their best bet if no one else could help them fight Dart.

When they made it to their backyard, Steve listened to through the cellar doors and sighed.

"I don't hear shit."

"He's in there," Dustin said.

Steve glowered.

"I swear," he said, "if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you're dead."

"It's not a prank!" Dustin said.

"We wouldn't lie about this, Steve," Alice said. She held up three fingers. "Scout's honor. We promise—Dart's in there."

Steve gripped his bat and nodded.

"You got a key for this thing?" he asked.

Alice handed him the key to the locks. He unlocked the doors and pulled them open, shining a flashlight down the steps. There was no trace of Dart.

"He must be further down there," Dustin explained. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to escape."

"So brave," Alice deadpanned. "I'll go with you, Steve."

"No, stay here," Steve said, puffing out his chest. "I'll call if I need help."

Without another word, Steve climbed down the steps.

After a few minutes, Alice got antsy.

"What's taking him so freaking long," she muttered.

"Well, his probably not getting mauled," Dustin pointed out. "It wouldn't be so quiet if he was."

The siblings jumped when the light of the flashlight hit them in the eyes.

"Get down here," Steve said, lips in a thin line.

They followed him into the cellar, peering around.

"Look," Steve said. He used his bat to hold up strange green slime for Dustin and Alice. There was a big hole in the wall, leading into a mystery tunnel that hadn't been there before. 

"Shit," Alice said. "How did Dart bust through the cinderblocks?!"

"He could be anywhere," Dustin said with a frown. "Anywhere in town."

"He could be eating the cats all over the neighborhood!" Alice said, putting her head in her hands. "We're so screwed."

"No, we're not," Steve said. "We'll find this...thing. We can lure it out with something."

Dustin snapped his fingers.

"Raw meat!" Dustin said.

"How are we going to get raw meat at a time like this?!" Alice said with a groan.

"We'll start bright and early tomorrow," Dustin said. "We'll meet at the store at 9, and buy as much raw meat as we can without it being suspicious."

"And then what do we do?" Alice asked, throwing her arms in the air. "Wander town dropping raw meat everywhere to get Dart to find us?"

"Exactly," Dustin said.

The teens climbed out of the cellar with their plans set for tomorrow, hoping Dart wasn't causing too much trouble around Hawkins that night.

{Posted Nov. 6th, 2019}

{Edited July 11, 2020; Republished January 1, 2025}

A/N [from 2019] OOF I AM SORRY THIS IS SO RUSHED I HAD LESS TIME TO WRITE THAN I THOUGHT TONIGHT. Friday's chapter is going to be wild.

QOTD: Of the bloopers that were posted today, which was the funniest in your opinion? I liked when Jonathan couldn't get the axe!

A/N [from 2025] Happy New Year! 🎆