Nancy, Jonathan, and I sit at the police station waiting for Hopper to get here. The door opens and Joyce rushes in followed by Hopper.
"Hey," Joyce greets. She notices the ice on Jonathan's hand. "Jonathan? Jesus, what... what happened?"
"Ma'am..." an officer starts.
"I'm fine," Jonathan tells his mom.
"Why is he wearing handcuffs?" Joyce asks.
"Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why," the officer explains.
"Take them off," Joyce demands.
"I am afraid I cannot do that," the officer insists.
"Take them off!" Joyce repeats.
"You heard her. Take 'em off," Hopper instructs.
"Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see," another officer says.
Hopper brings our box of monster hunting supplies into the station and drips them onto the desk in front of us.
"What is this?" Joyce asks.
"Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car," Hopper informs her.
"What?" Joyce asks in disbelief.
"Why are you going through my car?" Jonathan questions.
"Is that really the question you should be asking right now?" Hopper argues. "I wanna see you in my office."
"You won't believe me," Jonathan insists.
"Why don't you give me a try?" Hopper offers.
We all sit in Hopper's office. We try to explain to Joyce and Hopper what we know about the monster.
"You say blood draws this thing?" Hopper asks.
"We don't know," Jonathan tells him.
"Maybe," I offer.
"It's just a theory," Nancy adds.
Jonathan, Nancy, Joyce, Hopper, and I get in the car. We're on our way to drop Nancy off at home. We stop when we notice agents of some kind taking things from the Wheeler's home.
"I have to go home," Nancy insists.
"No, you can't," Hopper tells her.
"My mom... my dad are there," Nancy argues.
"They're gonna be okay," Hopper insists. Nancy tries to rush past him, but Hopper stops her. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey."
"Let go," Nancy tells him. "Let go!"
"Hey! Listen to me. Listen to me," Hopper says. "The last thing in the world we need is them knowing you're mixed up in all this."
"Mike is over there..." Nancy starts.
"They haven't found him," Hopper tells her. He points to a helicopter. "Not yet at least."
"For Mike?" Nancy asks in disbelief.
"Come on, get in the car," Hopper tells her. The two of them get back into the car. "Look, we need to find them before they do. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?"
Nancy shakes her head. "No, I don't."
"I need you to think," Hopper demands.
"I don't know. We haven't talked a lot. I mean, lately..." Nancy sighs.
"Look, is there any place that your... your parents don't know about that he might go?" Joyce asks.
"I don't know," Nancy insists.
"I might," Jonathan states.
"What?" Hopper asks.
"I don't know where he is, but I think I know how to ask him," Jonathan explains.
We head to the Byers house. Joyce finds the radio that Will uses to talk to his friends. It may be our only hope to get in contact with them.
"Mike, are you there? Mike?" Nancy asks. "Mike, it's me, Nancy. Mike, are you there? Answer. Mike, we need you to answer. This is an emergency, Mike. Do you copy? Mike, do you copy? I need you to answer. We need to know that you're there, Mike."
Hopper grabs the radio from Nancy. "Listen, kid, this is the chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl. We can protect you; we can help you, but you gotta pick up. Are you there? Do you copy? Over." Hopper sighs as he puts the radio down. "Anybody got any other ideas?"
"Yeah, I copy," Mike says. "It's Mike. I'm here. We're here."
Hopper goes to get Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and a girl with a shaved head.
Nancy rushes towards her brother as he steps out of the truck. "Mike. Oh, my God. Mike!" She wraps her arms around her. "I was so worried about you."
"Yeah, uh... me, too," Mike tells her.
Nancy looks at the girl. "Is that my dress?"
Mike and his friends try to explain to us about the Upside Down. The place that Nancy and I were when we went through the hole in the tree.
"Okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat. Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space," Mike explains.
"A gate," Dustin states.
"That we tracked to Hawkins Lab," Lucas adds.
"With our compasses," Dustin explains. "Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle."
"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asks.
"Yes," the girl, Eleven, answers.
"Near a large water tank?" Hopper asks.
"Yes," Eleven tells him.
"How do you know all that?" Dustin asks.
"He's seen it," Mike reasons.
"Is there any way that you could... that you could reach Will?" Joyce asks Eleven. "That you could talk to him in this..."
"The Upside Down," Eleven says.
"Upside Down," Joyce whispers. "Yeah."
Eleven nods her head.
"And my friend Barbara? Can you find her, too?" Nancy asks.
Eleven sits in a chair next to the radio and the picture of Barbra from the night she went missing. The radio starts to produce static as the lights flicker.
Eleven looks upset as she opens her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"What?" Joyce asks. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Eleven starts to cry. "I can't find them."
Eleven goes into the bathroom clearly upset.
"Whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak," Mike explains.
"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets," Dustin tells us.
"Like, she flipped the van earlier," Lucas informs us.
"It was awesome," Dustin states.
"But she's drained," Mike says.
"Like a bad battery," Dustin adds.
"Well... How do we make her better?" Joyce asks.
"We don't. We just have to wait and try again," Mike explains.
"How long is that going to take?" I ask.
"I don't know," Mike confesses.
"The bath," Eleven says as she walks back into the room.
"What?" Joyce asks.
"I can find them," Eleven tells us. "In the bath."
Dustin picks up the phone to call his science teacher Mr. Clarke. They all insist that Mr Clarke will know how to make a sensory deprivation tank. It's what we need for Eleven to find Will and Barb.
"Mr. Clarke? It's Dustin. Yeah, yeah. I just, I... I have a science question," Dustin tells him. "Do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks? Specifically, how to build one? Fun. You always say we should never stop being curious. To always open any curiosity door, we find. Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?"
Dustin grabs a notepad to write down what Mr. Clarke says. "Uh-huh. Uh-huh. How much? Uh-huh. Yep, all right. Yeah, we'll be careful. Definitely. All right, Mr. Clarke. Yeah, I'll see you on Monday. I'll see you on Monday, Mr. Clarke. Bye."
"Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" Dustin asks Joyce.
"I think so. Yeah," Joyce tells him.
Jonathan nods. "Yeah."
"Good. Then we just need salt. Lots of it," Dustin tells us.
"How much is "lots"?" Hopper asks.
"1,500 pounds," Dustin tells him.
"Well, where are we gonna get that much salt?" Nancy asks.
I go with Jonathan and Hopper to get salt from the middle school's salt shed.
"Hey, wait. It's not gonna snow next week, is it?" Jonathan asks.
Hopper sighs. "Worst case, no school."
"Even if we find Will in there... what are we gonna do about that thing?" I ask.
"We're not gonna do anything," Hoper tells me. "I don't want you anywhere near this, all right? Either of you. Your mom's been through enough already."
"He's my brother," Jonathan argues.
"Listen to me. I'm gonna find him. All right?" Hopper assures. "You gotta trust me on this. I am going to find him."
We take the salt into the gymnasium. Dustin and Lucas have set up the kiddie pool. Nancy and Mike are filling it up. We pour the salt in.
Eleven puts on a pair of taped up science goggles before getting into the pool. She lies on her back with her arms spread out. The lighting starts to flicker before going out totally.
"Barbra?" Eleven asks.
The electricity surges again.
"What's going on?" Nancy asks.
"I don't know," Mike tells her.
"Is Barb okay? Is she okay?" Nancy asks.
"Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone. Gone," Eleven mumbles. "Gone."
"It's okay. It's okay. It's okay," Joyce tells her.
"Gone. Gone!" Eleven keeps saying.
"It's okay. It's okay," Joyce says.
"Gone!" Eleven screams.
"Hey. It's okay." Joyce grabs Eleven's arm. "It's okay, we're right here. We're right here, honey. It's okay. I got you. Don't be afraid. I'm right here with you. I'm right here with you. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay, you're safe. You're okay, honey."
"Castle Byers," Eleven says. "Castle Byers."
Joyce looks at Jonathan.
"Will," Eleven says. "Will?"
Joyce gasps. "You... you tell him... tell him I'm coming. Mom is coming."
"Your mom... she's coming for you," Eleven says.
"Hurry. Hurry," Will's voice says over the radio.
"Okay. Listen, you tell him to... to stay where he is," Joyce says. "We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey."
"Just... just hold on a little longer," Eleven says. "Will. Will." She starts to panic again. "Will? Will!"
Eleven sits up straight and pulls the goggles off of her head. Joyce wraps her arm around her.
"Oh, okay, okay. I've got you," Joyce assures. "It's okay. I got you. I got you. I got you, honey. You did so good. Are you okay?"
"So, this fort. Where is it?" Hopper asks.
"Uh, it's in the woods behind our house," Joyce tells him.
"Yeah, he used to go there to hide," Jonathan explains.
Jonathan and Joyce follow Hopper out of the gym. Only Jonathan comes back in. He walks over to me.
"We have to go back to the station," I tell him.
"What?" Jonathan asks.
"Your mom and Hopper are just walking in there like bait," I reason. "That thing is still in there. And we can't just sit here and let it get them, too. We can't."
Jonathan sighs. "You still wanna try it out?"
"I wanna finish what we started. I want to kill it," I tell him.