Downside Up [W.Byers]

052

Eleven continues to scream and sob in pain as the thing continues to move around in her leg. "What is that?" Erica asks in disgust. "There's something in there." Mike states.

Out of fear, Ruby grabs Will's hand without even taking notice. "Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Johnathan instructs before running off.

Will looks down at her palm, noticing that both of her hands are wrapped in blood stained medical tapes. Johnathan runs back with a knife, looking to Ruby.

"Can you burn it?" He asks. Ruby looks down at her hands, only now noticing her hand placed in Will's. She looks up at him, before quickly looking away. "I, Uh. I can try. I just can't do it with my hands." She sighs.

Johnathan holds it in front of her as she uses up her energy to focus on the knife. The heat causes the tip to begin changing color. "Okay, it's done." She sighs in exhaustion.

"Alright. El, this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Johnathan warns. "Okay." She sobs. "I need you to stay real still." Johnathan says as the puts on gloves. "Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" He hands her a wooden spoon, placing it in her mouth.

He hesitantly lowers the knife. "Do it." Mike says. Johnathan begins cutting into it, causing eleven to scream. He reaches his hand inside, causing everyone to groan in disgust.

Ruby sobs, turning to look away. Will notices this and sighs. "Stop it!" Eleven pleads. Johnathan pulls out his hand. "I can do it." She cries. "I can do it." She weakly sits up.

She reaches her hand forward, slowly pulling out. She wails and screams, causing the glass from the clothing store beside them shatter. Ruby screams, backing off into Will.

El finally manages to pull out the small slug like creature, then throws it off. It tries to escape, but is quickly stepped on by Hopper.

They curiously look up, finding him along with Murray and Joyce.

"The Mind Flayer. It built this monster in Hawkins to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike explains. "And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Nancy adds. "How big is this thing?" Hopper asks. "It's big." Johnathan murmurs.

"Thirty feet, at least."

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas sighs. "Sorry." He whispers. "Okay, So, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic weapon?" Steve speaks up.

"Yes." Nancy nods. "But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people." Steve adds. "Yes exactly." Nancy nods again. "Yeah, okay. I— yeah, I'm just making sure." He shrugs.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asks. "El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Max nods. "But if we close the gate again—" Will begins.

"We cut the brain off from the body." Max finishes. "And kill it." Lucas adds. "Theoretically."

Ruby sighs, taking a seat beside Joyce. "Yoo-HOO!" Murray calls, breaking the silence. "Yoo-HOO!"

He enters the room, waving two papers in the air. Everyone gets up, following him over to the side where he sets down what seems to be a small map onto a table.

"Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." Murray states. "Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asks. "Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." Murray estimates.

"More like 500." Erica speaks up. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" She sasses. "I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asks.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

Dustin and Ruby share an amused look. "Murray...Bauman." He responds. "Listen, Mr. Buttman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." She says confidently.

"I'm sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?" Murray questions. "Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

"Erica!" Lucas shouts. "Just the facts!" She argues. "She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to." Dustin speaks up.

"Sorry, May I?" he says, walking forward. "Please." Murray nods. Dustin takes a seat by the map. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility." He circles it.

"There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system." Ruby adds. "That will lead you to the base of the weapon."

"It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me, Erica, And Ruby, we can show you the way." Dustin says. "You can show us the way?" Hopper repeats.

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your...navigators."

"No." Hopper shakes his head. Dustin pouts his lip.

"Nope."