CHAPTER EIGHT
THE BENCH
After teary-eyed reunions, the group reforms in the kitchen. Abby sits in the nearest chair in between Max and Jonathan with a knee propped up as she stares attentively at Hopper. None of the younger teens have spoken a word to Hopper since he had returned with a red-eyed Mike. It seemed that they an understanding that they were supposed to be angry with Hopper, Abby doubts that this will last long; after all, they need all the brainpower and ideas they can get if they want to survive the night. The chief doesn't notice, nor does he particularly care as he launches into an explanation of what he had seen at the gate back in the lab before the Demogorgons had attacked. Before they had failed.
Abby's eyes stray to Eleven who stands attentively beside Mike. Besides the basics—she had been a test subject at Hawkins Lab and possessed abilities and that she had also opened the gate to the Upside Down the previous year before her escape—she knows next to nothing about the girl that had singlehandedly defeated the Demogorgons that had threatened to attack them.
"It's not like it was before, it's grown," Hopper explains. "A lot. And I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."
"Demodogs," Dustin corrects.
Hopper releases a sigh and turns to face Dustin. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Dustin ..." Abby says warningly.
Dustin either doesn't hear or doesn't listen as he tells Hopper, "I said, uh, Demodogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass—"
"How is this important right now?"
Dustin swallows and looks away sheepishly from Hopper's harsh glare. His face is tinged pink as he mumbles, "It's not, I'm sorry."
Eleven looks up with a glint of determination in her eyes. "I can do it."
"You're not hearing me," Hopper argues.
"I'm hearing you," Eleven nods. "I can do it."
"Even if El can, there's still another problem," Mike speaks up. "If the brain dies, the body dies."
Max shakes her head as her eyebrows crease. "I thought that was the whole point."
Mike nods. "It is. But if we're really right about this ... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army ..."
"Will's a part of that army," Lucas concludes grimly.
Abby nods. "Right, and because if one thing feels pain, they all do then ..."
"Closing the gate will kill him," Mike confirms with a nod.
As the kitchen falls into a grave silence, Abby finds herself glancing down the hallway toward the room where Will is peacefully sleeping. She hopes that he's free of the torment in his mind while he sleeps, oblivious to the discussion of his death. Abby swallows thickly, there's already been so much death. How many more lives would the Mind Flayer take before it was satisfied? How many more lives would it take while they waited for a way around the giant obstacle they now faced.
They wouldn't be waiting for long, it turns out. Joyce who has remained silent for most of the night suddenly stands, wide-eyed with a dawning realization upon her face. She walks out of the room, closely followed by Hopper and the teens. She pushes open the door to her bedroom where Will lays, still in his hospital gown. His chest continues to rise and fall steadily and his arms and legs are outstretched. Abby shivers slightly as a gust of wind tickles her exposed skin. She glances over at the open window, with the striped curtain flapping in the gust of wind.
"He likes it cold," Joyce murmurs as she stares at the open window.
"What?" Hopper voices.
"It's what Will kept saying to me," Joyce explains as she draws a rattling breath. "He likes it cold." She crosses the room and pulls the window closed with a loud sigh. She turns back to face the group. "We keep giving it what it wants."
Nancy, from her place just over Jonathan's shoulder, gazing down at Will speaks up. "If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then ..."
"The we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan finishes as he gazes down at his younger brother.
"So if he likes it cold ..." Nancy starts.
"Then we need to burn it out of him," Joyce finishes with determination clearly etched into her face. She's done with the torment that the Mind Flayer has put her and her son through. It's time for the Mind Flayer to leave.
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike reminds them.
"Yeah," Dustin agrees. "Somewhere far away."
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Abby and Steve are once again left in charge of the six teenagers in the Byers' house. Hopper and El have departed to go close the gate once and for all, while Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy have taken Will to Hopper's cabin to get the Mind Flayer out of him. The final showdown has arrived. It's now or never. Do or die. They only have one clear shot at this and Abby only hopes that they're right about everything. That Will was right.
She wanders into the kitchen where the contents of the fridge have been discarded on the floor. A can rolls across the room and stops at her feet. She crouches down to pick it up before she registers the scene that plays out before her. Dustin and Alex stand before the now-empty freezer with a pile of jams, ketchup, milk cartons, mustard, and an assortment of other condiments and miscellanies sits at their feet. Steve holds the dead body of the Demogorgon, wrapped snugly in a blanket in his arms as he stares at the boy and his sister in exasperation.
"Uh, what's going on in here?" Abby asks.
"Preserving the body for scientific purposes," Dustin answers.
"We figured the fridge was the best possible place for that," Alex explains.
"Is this really necessary?" Steve questions with a shake of his head.
"Yes, it is, okay? This is a ground-breaking scientific discovery!" Dustin exclaims. "We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog."
Alex nods. "I still think one of those Viking burials where they set the boat on fire would be cool."
"Alex, how many times do I have to say? We are not going to burn the carcass of a new species!" Dustin exclaims. "This is the only one we have and we need to study it!"
"Alright, alright, alright," Steve groans before the squabble can escalate as he steps forward with the corpse, his shoes squeaking against the tiles. "You're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, all right?" He unceremoniously attempts to shove the Demogorgon into the fridge.
"Poor Mrs. Byers," Abby sighs, turning back out of the kitchen.
The living room is silent as Lucas and Max work in tandem to sweep up the shards of glass scattered across the room. A cold gust of wind blows through the hole in the wall where the broken window had once been, causing goose bumps to erupt across Abby's skin. She leans in the threshold with her arms crossed over her chest as she watches Mike pace back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
"Mike, would you just stop already?" Lucas finally snaps.
"You weren't in there, okay, Lucas?" Mike stops his pacing and turns to the boy. "The lab is swarming with those dogs."
"Demodogs!" Dustin calls from the kitchen.
"Nobody cares!" Comes Alex's response.
"The chief will take care of her," Lucas reminds him.
"Like she even needs protection," Max mutters.
"Yeah, and he's been there too, he knows what he's doing," Abby assures Mike.
"Listen, dude," says Steve as he enters the living room flanked by Dustin and Alex. He holds a dirty blue dish towel in his hand and twists it around in his hands. "A coach calls a play in a game. The bottom line is, you execute it. All right?"
Mike lets out a sigh. "Okay, first of all, this isn't a stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game, we're on the bench."
Steve nods. "Right—so my point is ..." he trails off, searching for the right metaphor as the younger teens all watch him expectantly. He nods decisively. "Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so uh, there's nothing we can do ..." He throws the dish towel over his shoulder to look helplessly at Abby.
Abby lets out a sigh and shakes her head before she steps forward. She hates feeling helpless like the rest of the teens, but she knows that there isn't much that they can do without risking their lives again. "What he means to say is, we've already been in the game, we did our part, and it didn't end well. We've been benched, and until the coach says so, we have to stay on the bench because we can't do anything."
"That's not entirely true," Dustin argues. His words are slow, thought out, and he's furiously formulating theories. "I mean, these Demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus they were called away."
Lucas nods. "So if we can get their attention ..."
"And make it big enough for all of them to notice," Alex muses.
"Maybe we can draw them away from the lab," Max finishes, looking up at Lucas.
"And clear a path to the gate," Mike concludes.
"Yeah," says Steve, "and then we all die!"
"Well that's one point of view," Dustin mutters.
"No, that's not a point of view man, it's a fact."
Mike lets out a gasp and pushes through the formation that Steve, Alex, and Dustin have formed. "I got it!" He jogs into a nearby room and crouches before one of Will's drawings while the remainder of the group follows behind. "This is where the chief dug his hole. This is how we get into the tunnel." He scurries over back into the living room and stands in the center where it seems that all the black and blue lines converge into one big circle. "Here. Right here, this is like a hub. So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we could set this on fire ..."
"Oh, yeah," says Steve. "That's a no."
"The Mind Flayer would call away his army," Dustin nods.
"They'd all come to stop us," Lucas says.
"You kids might be onto something," Abby admits, ignoring Steve's outburst. "If we have a good exit plan, then I don't see why this won't work."
"Hey!" Steve calls, only to be ignored.
Alex nods and points down to where the tunnels converge. "We've got plenty of exits."
"Yeah and we can use those to circle back to the exit," says Mike, looking up from the hub. "By the time they realize we're gone—"
"El would be at the gate," Max finishes.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Steve shouts, clapping his hands to grab their attention. He places his hands on his hips and fixes the teens with an authoritative stare. "This is not happening. No, no, no, no. No buts. I promised to keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing. And you—" he points at Abby, "—you're supposed to be on my side, here."
"Hey, I never said that I wasn't on your side, Harrington," Abby defends, raising her arms in mock surrender. "But we're not breaking any promises if we make sure that nobody gets hurt. And besides, they'd find a way to get in the tunnels regardless of what we say."
"No," Steve argues. "We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?"
"What I understand is that you won't can it with the stupid sports metaphors," Alex grumbles.
"Yeah!" Mike agrees. "And this isn't a stupid sports game!"
Steve pulls the towel off of his shoulder and points it at the teens. "I said does everybody understand that." Several eyes are rolled, and heads are thrown back in exasperation, but nobody answers. "I need a yes."
Steve never gets a yes from any of the teens because instead, their conversation is interrupted by the revving of a car engine just outside. Max turns and runs to the window followed by Lucas and a curious Alex. They climb onto the couch and peer out into the night.
"It's my brother," she says quietly, but the panic and fear are clear in her voice. "He-he can't know I'm here. He'll kill me. He'll kill us."
author's note: billy's coming next chapter!!! joy!!! i just love myself a hot psychopath!!! /sarc