ASPEN | Stranger Things

Chapter Twenty | The Plan

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"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave the way into our world." Mike begins to explain to the adults. 

We were all standing now after Joyce had reunited with her boys we began to explain to them what's been happening. We all standing in a circle by the water fountain. 

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

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked. I've never seen it, but apparently, Mike, Max, El, nancy, Jonathan, Lucas, and Will all have. 

"It's big," Jonathan answered. "Thirty feet, at least." 

"Yeah." Lucas agreed. "It sorta destroyed your cabin." He then whispers. "Sorry."

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

I looked over at El who was in Hopper's arms, resting as she lied/sat down on the bench with Joyce beside them. 

"Yes," Nancy confirmed. 

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

"Yes, exactly," Nancy confirmed once again. 

"Yeah, okay," Steve murmured. "I... yeah, just making sure." 

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

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's alive," Max speaks from the other side of me. 

"But if we close the gate again..." Will trailed off. 

"We cut the brain off from the body," I caught on, nodding, finishing his sentences. We made eye contact and he nodded. 

"And kill it," Lucas added. "Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo!" Murray, the bald guy yells out and we all look over at his direction. He walked towards us, waving papers in the air. "Yoo-hoo!" Once he came over to us he placed down the sheet of the paper which looked like a map in the Russian base. "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'. Now the hub takes us to the vault room." 

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked as we all surrounded the table. 

"Right here." Murray points to the location on the map. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so."

"More like 500." Erica stepped forward. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

Murray looked over at the child. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" Erica sassed back.

"Murray... Bauman." Murray answered with less sass. 

"Listen Mr. Bauman," Erica started. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And if all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

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

"Um, I'm ten, bald bastard!" Erica spat out. 

"Erica!" Lucas stuttered. 

"Just the facts!" Erica defended. 

"Sure it may be the facts, but we don't say it out loud," I advise and Murray's mouth dropped some more. Will chuckles beside me. "But she's right. You're all gonna die." 

"But you don't have to." Dustin jumps in. "Excuse me," Murray looked down at him. "Sorry, may I?" He gestured towards the map. 

"Please." Murray nodded. 

Dustin takes a seat down at the table. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me, Erica, and Aspen we can show you the way." 

"You can show us the way?" Hopper slowly draws out. 

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your..." I looked over at Dustin and Erica. "Navigators." 

Hopper shakes his head. "No." My smile dropped. "Nope."

We all then split apart and Erica and I walked towards Will and the others. "Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die." Erica nodded. 

"Yup," Dustin agrees. "Most likely." 

"You guys survived." Lucas pointed out. 

We turned to them. "Barely," I recall. "We could've really used you guys down there." 

"Could've used you guys up here, too." Mike added. 

"Yeah, man. We missed you, dude." Lucas nodded and looked over at me. "And you too, Aspen." 

"Yeah. Big-time." Will added. And even though they weren't talking to me, I smiled. Cue them hugging. The boys pulled into a group hug. 

"I missed you guys, too." Dustin smiled. "Big-time." 

"Cute," I muttered. 

"Please don't cry, nerds." Erica buts in. 

"Erica." Lucas groaned. 

"Keep saying my name, see what happens." Erica threatened. 

"Hey, heads up," Hopper calls over to us. "You can navigate, just from a someplace safe." Hopper hands Dustin the walkie talkie and he brings out his own. 

"It's not that simple," Dustin tells Hopper. 

"The single won't reach," I added. 

"Not with this." Dustin continued. "You need something with a high-frequency band to relay with the Russian's radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That's me."

"If you want us to navigate, you got us," I added on. "But we need a head start. And a car." 

We were doing all our goodbyes/see you later, I hugged Max tightly. "Please don't go. I just got you back." Max says softly, wrapping her arms tightly around me. 

"I'll be fine, Max," I reassured her, rubbing her back. "I'll be back in no time."

"You better." Max jokes. "I love you, okay?" 

"Yeah, I love you too." I let go of her and turned around, only to be faced by Will. "Hi." 

"Are you really going?" Will questioned. I nodded. "Well, don't die, please. Okay?"

"I promise to not die if you don't die," I smiled sadly. 

"I promise," Will agreed. He then wrapped his arms around me for a hug. I hugged him back, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms. 

"Okay, lovers," I heard Murray call on us. "If you're gonna kiss, do it now." 

I blushed deeply, pulling out of his arms and I felt everyone's eyes on us. Well shit, now I'm under peer pressures. I lean in and gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning around and keeping my eyes on the ground. 

I followed to over where Dustin, Erica, Steve, and Robin were. 

Robin smiled at me and wrapped an arm around me. "A kiss on the cheek? Really, Aspen?"

I shoved her away from me. "I was nervous! Y'all were starring at us." Robin just simply laughs and we all walked off, ready to go get Hopper's car. 

A/N 

Hi, super late update and super-short chapter and I'm sorryy. 

I hoped you enjoyed this chapter somewhat, the next one will be longer I promise. 

Also sorry for not making them actually kiss. I feel like Aspen wouldn't do that in front of everyone. So the cheek is all you're getting, for now. 

Be ready for tomorrow's chapter! And, thanks so much for 10K wtf

 Anyways, like, share, comment :)