teenage tragedy (Max Mayfield)

3. fourteen

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world," Mike explained to the Scoops Troops gang and Hopper's group.

They'd all gathered around the benches where Cammie, Eleven and Max were still sat. Cammie was awake, but she had her eyes closed and Max was still tracing her fingers over her skin to keep her calm.

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it," Nancy said.

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked.

"It's big. Thirty feet, at least," Johnathon said.

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin," Lucas looked guilty at Hopper. He scoffed, too busy worrying about Cammie and Eleven to really care about his cabin. "Sorry," Lucas mumbled.

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?" Steve said.

"Yes," Nancy nodded.

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people," Steve frowned.

"Yes, exactly," Nancy said.

"Yeah, okay. I- Yeah, I'm just making sure," Steve nodded.

Cammie rubbed her temples tiredly.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked.

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive," Max said.

"But if we close the gate again-" Wil said.

"We cut the brain off from the body," Max finished.

"And kill it. Theoretically," Lucas said.

"Yoo-hoo!" a man shouted, dancing over with papers in his hands.

He had a balding head and was wearing a pair of shorts and a white vest.

He put the papers on the table and everyone gathered around.

"Okay, this is what Alexei called the hub. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room," he said.

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked.

"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." the man pointed at something on the map.

"More like 500," Erica scoffed.

Cammie smirked slightly, leaning against Max. Max giggled into her hair, looking at the balding man with raised eyebrows.

"What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" Erica said.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" the man asked.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" she said.

"Murray... Bauman," the man hesitated.

"Listen, Mr. Bunman, 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. Look what happened to Cammie and she's got hella powers," Erica said.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray scoffed.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" Erica shouted.

Cammie laughed, clutching her throat when she realised it hurt too much for her to do that. Max rolled her eyes fondly, rubbing Cammie's sides with her thumbs.

"Erica!" Lucas shouted.

"Just the facts!" Erica huffed.

"She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may I?" Dustin said.