Y/n's POV:
Everybody was still panicking and surrounding El as Jonathan jumped behind one of the food counters to get a knife and tissues. Whilst back there he also got a wooden spoon for El to bite on.
"Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake," Mike repeated to her, "Let's get her on this side, on this side." He attempted to move her with the help of me, Nancy, Steve, and Dustin.
"Easy, easy, easy, easy," Steve told us as we moved her.
"It's uh...You know, it's not actually that bad. There was a...The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane-" Robin blabbered.
"Robin," I called her name, "Not helping."
"I'm sorry," She apologized, still panicking. Jonathan had run back with everything he grabbed and kneeled next to El.
"Okay, all right El," He set everything down, "This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"
El, whilst sobbing, replied, "Okay."
"I need you to stay real still," Jonathan tried coaching her, "Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" He handed her the wooden spoon. As Jonathan was prepping for what he had to do, I was trying to help El by having her take deep breaths and to have her keep her eyes focused on me and not her leg.
"Just look at me and breathe," She nodded, "It's going to be okay; you're going to be okay." Jonathan had inched the knife closer to the infected area on her leg, but hesitated.
"Do it," Mike told him. After that, Jonathan nodded and proceeded to cut into El's leg. She had begun to scream, and she squeezed both mine and Mike's hands for comfort. I could tell the pain was becoming unbearable for her when I started to lose the feeling in my hand. Her screams got louder and she started to sob when Jonathan stuck his hand in the open cut to get the thing out of it.
"Jonathan!" Nancy yelled at him.
"Stop talking!" He yelled back, "Goddamn it!"
"Stop! You're hurting her!" I shouted at him.
"No! Stop it!" El screamed at him, "Stop, stop!" She put her hand out and focused on the thing in her leg. She started screaming at such force that the glass window from behind us all shattered to pieces and littered the ground. She finally got the thing out of her leg and threw it across the floor, it screeching and attempting to crawl away. As we all stared at the creature attempting to make an escape, a boot stomped on it. That boot belonged to Jim Hopper who was accompanied by Joyce Byers and some guy. They had walked over to us, Hopper heling El stand and we all walked over to the water fountain where Mike was explaining who and what this Mind Flayer thing was.
"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world," Mike told us.
Nancy added, "And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it."
"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked.
"It's big," Jonathan replied, thinking of the actual size of the thing, "Thirty feet, at least."
"Yeah," Lucas nodded in agreement then turned to Hopper, "It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry."
"Okay, so, just to be clear, this..." Steve paused, "this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic...weapon?"
"Yes," Nancy answered.
"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon...with melted people," I furrowed my eyesbrows.
"Yes, exactly," Nancy nodded.
"Yeah, okay, we're just making sure," Steve told her. Joyce interjected.
"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 responded.
"But if we close the gate again--" I cut Will off. (Soz Will)
"We cut the brain off from the body," I nodded, "Like last time."
"And kill it," Lucas added, "Theoretically." We sat in silence for a moment until it was interrupted by that guy who walked in with papers.
"Yoo-hoo!" He shook the papers over his head and placed them down on a table, "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub.' Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." Alexei? Who even is this guy?
"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked.
"Right here," The guy answered pointing to a place on his 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." Only 50 feet?
"More like 500," Erica corrected him, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"
The guy was shocked, "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Erica Sinclair," She quirked her eyebrow at him, "Who are you?"
"Murray...Bauman," He responded.
"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," She says directing it at everyone, "you're all gonna die."
"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" He questioned.
"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" I laughed at her snide remark.
"Erica!" Lucas was baffled by his sister's choice of language.
"Just the facts!" She turned to him.
"She's right, though," I agreed with the small girl.
"You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me," Dustin walked past everyone to the maps, "Sorry, may I?"
"Please," Murray said sarcastically.
"Okay, see this room here?" Dustin pointed to a room, "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 and Erica, we can show you the way." Erica nodded in agreement to his as Hopper looked unsure.
"You can show us?" He was not convinced.
"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your..." Dustin paused dramatically, "navigators."
Hopper smiled and shook his head slightly, "No. Nope."
.
Everybody was getting ready for their own parts of this 'mission.' I took this time to have a conversation with Max about everything I missed/everything she missed.
"So something is wrong with Billy," Max started, "And if we do this all right, we can get him back."
"Wait, wait, wait," I blinked a few times, "What do you mean, 'get him back?' what happened to him? what's wrong?"
"So you know how there's that big monster, the Mind Flayer?" I nodded at her, "Well, he was the first one to be 'flayed' by him. Basically, he's the host for the Mind Flayer and does all of his dirty work."
"So, it's kind of like when Will was the spy for this Mind Flayer?" I asked, still unsure of the state of my brother's wellbeing.
"Sort of," She nodded, "We aren't sure how to get it out of him, but closing the gate might work and he might get back to normal." I nodded back at her and sighed. Why was this our life? Why did we have to go through these things? I gave her a hug and we stayed like that for a minute until she asked, "What's wrong?"
"Just in case," I shrugged, "You never know what could happen." Erica looked over at Hopper who was loading a gun and then turned back to us.
"Well, that settles it. He's gonna die," She shook her head, "They're gonna die."
"Yep, most likely," Dustin agreed.
"You guys survived," Lucas said,
"Barely," I looked over at Steve, who was sitting on one of the counters talking to Robin. Max nudged my shoulder and handed me something. It was one of Billy's rings, it was silver, heavy, and shaped like a skull.
"Why-why did you give me this?" I asked her, the ring sitting in the palm of my hand.
"El and I found it," She told me, "And since I'm not completely sure if everything's going to be okay or even if Billy is going to be okay when all of this is over, so I wanted to give you this just in case if anything happens." I gave her another hug and smiled at her.
"Thank you for this," I said while sliding it onto my thumb, "Where did you find it anyway?" She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything Hopper came over.
"Hey, heads up," He threw a walkie over to Dustin, "You can navigate, just from someplace safe."
"It's not that simple," Dustin shook his head.
"The signal won't reach," Erica agreed.
"Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russian's radio towers," He rambled, "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," He paused, "Oh wait. That's me. If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start. And a car."
.
The group of five, now known as Scoops Troop, had all been heading outside, towards a car that Hopper had given Steve the keys to. I gaped at the car in front of us, it was a beauty.
"Oh, man, now this..." Steve admired the car, "this is what I'm talkin' about!"
"Toddfather?" Robin questioned the custom nameplate.
"Oh, screw Todd! Steve's her daddy now," Steve boasted as he got into the driver's seat. Hot.
"Did you just talk about yourself in the third person?" I asked him, getting into the passenger's seat.
"Don't act like you didn't like it," He winked at me as I buckled my seat and I rolled my eyes playfully at his behavior.
"Did he just call himself daddy?" Erica asked Robin and Dustin, who were in the back with her.
"All right, where are we going?" Steev asked Dustin.
"Weathertop," He replied.
"Weather-what?" Steve asked again.
"Just drive," Dustin demanded.
"Okay. Jesus!" Steve pulled out of the parking lot. As he drove fast past the trees, I let my arm hang out the side of the car and let the air breeze through my hair, the night drive making me feel more peace than I had in the past 48 hours. I looked over at Steve and smiled at him, to which he returned, as Dustin began talking about Suzie in the backseat.
I leaned over to Steve and whispered, "He really likes her."
Which made Steve turn around for a second, looking at how Dustin's face lit up whenever he would mention something Suzie did, then turning back to me, "I don't know. I'd say he loves her. But not nearly as much as I love you." I blushed at his words and held the hand he wasn't using to steer.
The drive went on for another 10 minutes before Steve groaned, "Jesus, how far is this place, man?"
"Relax, we're almost there," Dustin informed him.
"Suzie must be pretty special, huh?" I asked him from my seat, "I mean, if you built this thing and lugged it all the way to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her?"
"I mean, nobody's scientifically perfect, but Suzie's about as close to being perfect as any human could possibly be," Dustin smiled.
"She sound made-up to me," Dustin looked at Erica incredulously, "She sound made-up to you?" Directing that question to all but Dustin.
"I think she's real," I looked over at Dustin, "Anybody who talks about anybody with such love couldn't possibly be made up."
"Thank you Y/n," Dustin then turned to Steve, "Steve, why are you hesitating?"
"I'm--I'm--I'm not! I'm not! I think she sounds real. Absolutely, totally real," He put his eyes back on the road. It was silent until Dustin gave Steve more directions.
"Left, turn left," Dustin pointed. But turning left is going to make us go up a grassy hi--oooooh. Nevermind.
"There's not a road here," Steve said.
"Turn left now!" Dustin yelled. Steve suddenly jerked the car to the left.
"Jesus! Hang on!" He drove up the hill and I held onto my seatbelt, "Whoa! Henderson, where are we going?!"
"Up!" Dustin shouted.
"We're not gonna make it!" Robin yelled from the back.
"Yes, we are. Come on, baby. Come on, baby," He shouted as we all screamed. The car came to a halt as the engine simply revved.
"Guess Toddfather has its limits," I smirked at Steve. We all climbed out of the car and made our way up the last bit of the hill to Dustin's super radio. Steve was leading us all, and I felt another wave of nausea and yet another cramp. It must have been noticeable since Robin immediately came to my side and held onto my waist to help me walk up the hill. I nodded a thanks to her as we continued our journey.
We finally got to Dustin's radio when we received a message from Murray, or Bald Eagle, "Scoops Troop, this is...Hm. Bald Eagle. I've reached another junction."
"This is what?" Dustin asked Erica, since she had been the one in the vents.
"The fourth junction," Erica replied.
"All right, so if my memory serves, this is right after the My Little Pony thesis," Dustin remembered.
"We went left, so he has to go right," Erica told Dustin.
"Right," Dustin relayed the message to Murray, "Fly right, Bald Eagle."
"Roger that, flying right," Murray responded, "Little shit."
"What's the My Little Pony thesis?" Robin asked.
"Don't get him started," Erica shook her head.
"Get him started? Just tell us--" I was cut off by Steve.
"Hey, guys?" We all got up and rushed over to Steve's side, looking at the chaos that was ensuing at Starcourt.
We all rushed back over to the radio where Dustin tried to connect to Griswold Family, "Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Do you copy? Over!"
He tried again once we got silence, "Griswold Family, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop. Do you--" Dustin was cut off by a shrieking noise. He tried again to contact them but was greeted by the roaring of a monster instead of Mike. Dustin kept trying but to no prevail, they were not picking up.
"Dustin," I caught his attention, "I don't think they are safe, and I think we need to get over there yesterday."
"We can't," He sighed, "Bald Eagle still needs us."
"But Max-" He cut me off.
"You will probably never see Max again if we don't stay here and help Bald Eagle!" He was stern in his decision, and I stayed quiet, maybe he was right.
"Dustin, how about you stay here with Erica and Robin, and Y/n and I can go help them," As soon as he said that I made my run for the car.
I didn't waste any time buckling my seatbelt and yelling for Steve to hurry up.
"Relax, I'm hurrying," He said as he began to drive down the hill. We sat in silence for some time and then I decided to speak.
"No matter what happens, promise we will always be together, and we won't ever leave," I looked at him.
"Of course, I promise," He gave me a weird look, "Why are you talking like that? Did something happen?"
"I just-" I paused, "I have a bad feeling about today and what's going to happen at the mall." He hummed and squeezed my hand for reassurance. We then sped off towards the mall, and my stomach began to sink.
.
As we pulled up to the parking lot, I saw Nancy shooting at a car that looked familiar. Billy's car. Billy then sped up and nearly crushed into Nancy and her car when Steve slammed the gas pedal and ran into Billy's car instead, swerving him off and to the side. Both Steve and I were panting from the adrenaline and impact of the crash.
"Are you okay?" He asked me.
"Just peachy," I responded, "You?" Before he could say anything, we heard the snarl of a creature and looked up at the mall. The Mindflayer. "Holy shit," was the only thing that left my mouth. Nancy pulled up with her car and told us to get in, which Steve and I did very quickly, and Nancy drove off very quickly. With the Mindflayer following us. Great.
The beginning of the end.