CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
we're on the road to ruin
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SOMETHING WAS OFF. ELEVEN, NOR EVERYONE ELSE STANDING BESIDE HER HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE RUSSIANS. SO, WHY WERE THEY ALL TOGETHER? THIS COULDN'T HAVE BEEN A GOOD SIGN, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THAT THE GATE RE-OPENING WAS NOW A HUGE POSSIBILITY.
The seven of them each ran down the escalator steps, reuniting with one another. "You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin shouted, running towards Eleven and wrapping his arms around her. "Lucas?" Erica called out, in total disbelief at the sight of her brother. "What are you doing here?!" Lucas questioned, his eyes widening as his little sister walked towards him. "Ask them. It's their fault." Erica shrugged, pointing a finger at Selina, Robin, Valerie, and Steve. "True, yeah. Totally true. It's absolutely our faults." Steve confirmed, nodding his head. "I don't understand what happened to that car. ." Robin pointed to the car behind them all. "El has superpowers." Dustin answered. "I'm sorry?" Robin knitted her eyebrows together. "Superpowers. She threw it with her mind. C'mon.. catch up." Steve rolled his eyes. "Yeah, cause superpowers are something that everyone has these days." Valerie scoffed. "That's El?" Erica pointed to Eleven. "Who's El?" Robin questioned. "I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy asked, pointing to Robin. "I'm Robin. I work with Steve." Robin introduced herself. "Robin cracked the top secret code." Valerie added. "Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place." Steve clarified. "Russians? Wait, what Russians?" Jonathan questioned. "The Russians..!" Steve pointed to the Russians unconscious behind them. "Those were Russians?" Max asked. "Some of them." Erica nodded. "What are you talking about?!" Lucas questioned. "Didn't you hear our code red?" Dustin asked, looking over to Mike. "Yeah, and I couldn't understand half of what you were saying." Mike replied. "Goddamn low battery." Dustin sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?" Steve shook his head. "Okay, well, everything worked out, didn't it, Steve?" Dustin sighed. "Worked out? We almost died!" Erica argued. "Yeah, but we didn't, did we?" Dustin raised his eyebrows at Erica. "It was pretty damn close." Steve replied, Valerie, Selina, and Robin nodding in agreement with Steve. "Okay, Russians? As in, they're working for the Russian government?" Lucas questioned, shifting the topic back to the Russians. "What is it that you're not comprehending? Am I not speaking English? We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation." Dustin said. "So it has nothing to do with the gate?" Max asked. "It has a shit-load to do with the gate, actually." Valerie sighed, remembering how they had each witnessed the gate in the process of being re-opened. Before Valerie could specify about what she was talking about, a loud thump interrupted her. Valerie turned around to see Eleven, who had fallen down onto the ground behind them. "El! El! El!" Mike called out to Eleven, rushing over to the girl. "What's wrong with her?" Erica asked. "What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong?" Mike asked repeatedly, his hands placed onto El's arm. "My leg. My leg." El muttered. "Her leg, her leg. Okay. ." Jonathan cuffed her jeans just enough to reveal the crimson-red bandage over El's shin. "Get that off." Jonathan said to Nancy. "Okay." Nancy lifted the bandage that immediately broke into two pieces because of how damp it was due to the blood that El had lost. They each groaned and gagged in disgust at the red, swollen lump on El's shin. The blood she had lost leaked from her bandage and stained her white socks to a deep, maroon shade. Just as the wound on her leg couldn't seem any more discomforting, something that had managed to get inside of her leg began moving towards different directions. "Oh, hell no!" Selina exclaimed, her entire face scrunched in disgust as she put a hand over her eyes. "Oh, my God." Valerie shuddered. Eleven continued to groan and wail in pain, tears trickling down her face. "El! El!" Mike called out. "El! El, are you okay?" Mike asked, but the only response he got was the continuous groans of discomfort and pain. "El! El! El!" Mike slightly shook El with his arms. But now, her groans had turned into one, gut-wrenching scream.
They each watched in horror as whatever was trapped inside of her leg bulged out of her skin, squirming in multiple directions. "What is that?!" Erica questioned. "There's something in there." Mike answered. "Jesus Christ." Dustin sighed. "Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan ordered, running off to God knows where. "Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake. Let's get her on this side, get her on this side." Mike suggested, carefully grabbing her by the arms and turning her body around. "Easy, easy, easy, easy." Steve sighed as he helped turn El's body to the side. "It's uh. . You know, it's actually not that bad. There was a. . The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and like.. the whole bone came out of her knee—six inches or something. It was insane." Robin rambled in a failed attempt to comfort Eleven. "Robin." Steve looked up at Robin. "Yeah?" Robin asked. "You're not helping." Steve shrugged. "I'm sorry." Robin apologized, Valerie patting her on the shoulder for her effort. Jonathan came running back towards them, a wooden spatula in one hand and a sharp kitchen knife in the other. "Okay. Alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathan warned the girl. "Okay." Eleven managed to blurt out. "I need you to stay real still." Jonathan demanded, putting on clear, disposable gloves. "Here, you're gonna wanna bite down on this, okay?" Jonathan handed the wooden spatula to Mike, who placed it between El's top and bottom teeth. "Jesus Christ." Dustin shook his head at the scene talking place. Jonathan placed the heated knife barely over the lump, looking up at everyone else for their approval. "Holy shit. Holy shit." Dustin cursed. "Do it." Mike nodded. "Okay." Jonathan sighed. At this point, Valerie didn't care about the conversation that had taken place earlier in the bathroom stalls. Valerie turned her head away from the scene, grabbing onto Steve's arm, which he immediately noticed but shifted his focus back to El. Jonathan slowly placed the knife against the wound, slicing straight down the lump, causing Eleven to immediately scream in discomfort. More blood immediately oozed out of her wound, dripping down onto the floor. "Oh, shit." Dustin cursed. Jonathan placed the knife on the floor beside him, closing his eyes shut while he braced himself for the next step. Jonathan placed two fingers inside of her wound, reaching for whatever was trapped inside of her leg. "Jonathan!" Nancy exclaimed. "Hey, stop talking!" Jonathan yelled. Jonathan immediately opened the wound even more as his fingers slid down and into the lump. "Goddammit!" Jonathan exclaimed, failing to reach for the unknown creature moving inside of her leg. "No! Stop it!" Eleven shook her head, the spatula falling out of her mouth as she yelled at Jonathan. "Stop!" Nancy put a hand on Jonathan's shoulder as El continued to yell for him to stop. "I can do it." Eleven sobbed. "I can do it." Eleven repeated, slowly sitting up. El's hand hovered over the lump on her leg, the creature resurfacing to the top of the lump. El screamed as her blood began to bubble around her wound, and the creature juddered inside of her leg. "God!" Eleven screamed. The glass from the shop behind them shattered into thousands of pieces due to Eleven's screams, startling each and every one of them. As all of them returned their gaze back to El, the creature was levitating above her leg and inches away from her hand. The chittering from the creature stopped as El threw the creature all the way across the mall. The sound of a heavy foot stomp made every one of them whip their heads. To everybody's surprise, there stood Hopper, Joyce, and some man that most of them hadn't recognized.
"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike explained. "And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Max added. "How big is this thing?" Hopper asked. "It's big. Thirty-feet at least." Jonathan answered. "Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin. ." Lucas spoke, Hopper sighing in response. "Sorry." Lucas apologized to Hopper. "Okay, so, just to be clear, this thing.. this big—fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic.. weapon?" Steve asked. "Yes." Nancy answered. "But, instead of, like.. screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon with.. melted people?" Steve questioned. "Yes, exactly." Nancy nodded. "Yeah, okay. I—yeah, I'm just making sure." Steve nodded in understanding. "Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce questioned. "El beat the shit out of it, but.. yeah, it's still alive." Max nodded. "But if we close the gate again. ." Will began. "We cut the brain off from the body. ." Max completed Will's sentence. "And kill it. Theoretically." Lucas added to Max's sentence. They each shared a look, contemplating on what exact move to make next. "Yoo-hoo!" Murray paced towards them, waving sheets of paper around. "Yoo-hoo." Murray repeated, trying to capture everyone's attention. Everyone huddled together as Murray placed the sheets of paper on one of the many tables. "Okay, this is what Alexei called, "the hub". Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." Murray began. "Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked dryly. "Right here." Murray pointed to a specific location on the map. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty-feet or so." Murray announced. "More like five-hundred." Erica spoke. "What? You're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" Erica snickered. "I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked. "Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" Erica knitted her eyebrows together. "Murray.. Bauman." Murray answered. "Listen Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for twenty-four hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you.. you're all gonna die." Erica pointed around to everyone in the room. "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray questioned. "Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" Erica sassed, making Selina very proud for winning yet another argument. "Erica!" Lucas shook his head with wide eyes at his sister. "Just the facts!" Erica shrugged. "She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may I?" Dustin asked, asking for permission to mark with pencil on the blueprints. "Please." Murray gave him a sarcastic grin. "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 and Erica, we can show you the way." Dustin announced. "You can show us the way?" Hopper questioned, raising his eyebrows. "Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your.. navigators." Dustin and Erica nodded. "No." Hopper shook his head, his lips pressed together. "Nope." Hopper shrugged. "Fine. What about me? I can be your navigator since I'm.. older." Selina suggested with a dramatic sigh. "Do you even remember where to go?" Dustin asked, raising his eyebrows at Selina. "Pretty sure." Selina shrugged while nodding her head. "Pretty sure?" Dustin argued. "That's not assuring enough. We'll figure it out." Hopper sighed, walking away from all of them.
Valerie was sitting on the counter of one of the food shops, picking at her jeans as she thought about everything that had happened in the past couple of days, until Selina walked over to her, pushing herself up and onto the counter next to Valerie. "Hi." Valerie spoke softly. "Hey." Selina replied, not making eye contact with Valerie. An unpleasant silence filled the air for a moment, until Valerie spoke up. "Are we.. okay?" Valerie asked, her gaze still on Selina, who just stared at the ground, looking as if she was contemplating on saying something. "Do you like him?" Selina asked, finally looking over to Valerie. "Do I like who..?" Valerie questioned. "Don't bullshit me, Val. You know who I'm talking about." Selina gave Valerie a knowing look. "What?! No. Hell no. Why would you think that?" Valerie asked. "Oh, I don't know, I guess friends hold hands and run their fingers through each other's hair nowadays." Selina scoffed, gritting her teeth together in vexation. "Okay, first off, when I held his hand, it was an accident, okay? I was scared. And second, I was drugged, Selina. How was I supposed to control what I did?" Valerie argued. Selina moved her gaze back onto the ground as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? But, I genuinely don't understand how this affects you so much. I mean, I don't even like him. ." Valerie scoffed. "Was there something else that I did?" Valerie asked, waiting for a reply from Selina. "No." Selina answered flatly. "So, then.. what's the big deal?" Valerie questioned, scooting her body closer to Selina's. "Look, I can't tell you. I'm sorry." Selina apologized, turning her head slightly away from Valerie's direction in attempt to hide the tears welling in her eyes. "Does this have to do with that thing with my mom?" Valerie questioned. "No—no. It has nothing to do with her." Selina shook her head. "I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you, it's just. ." Selina began, trying to find the right words. "I don't know how to tell you." Selina sighed. "What—what do you mean?" Valerie asked. "Selina, you can talk to me about anything." Valerie put a hand on Selina's arm. "Valerie, Selina! Come on." Dustin called out with a grin, dangling car keys in the air. "Hey, no! Give me those." Steve snatched the keys from Dustin's hand. "Yeah, okay, give us a sec!" Valerie held a finger up at them. Selina hopped off of the counter, already trying to escape out of the situation between her and Valerie. "Selina." Valerie rushed in front of the blonde, stopping her from moving any further. "Look, I don't know what's going on, or what it is that you won't tell me, but I promise you, you can tell me anything and it won't change the perspective I have on you." Valerie reassured Selina. Selina's eyebrows slightly furrowed at the impact Valerie's words had left on her. She looked into Valerie's eyes, trying to find any sign of insincerity, but Selina could sense the genuineness radiating from Valerie. At the end of the day, Selina knew that Valerie would support her, one hundred percent. But, it's not just that. How do you tell your best friend that your love for them was more than just a platonic kind of love? "I love you, Selina, and you know that." Valerie continued reassuring Selina. Well.. that's ironic. Reminding your best friend about your platonic love for them, when the other friend actually loves you in a romantic way. "Yeah, I love you too, Val." Selina replied, giving her a small smile, which Valerie returned. "Hello?! Is playtime over? We have shit to do. Jobs to get done." Dustin interrupted the two, shaking his head. "Fuck off! We're going." Valerie sighed, dragging Selina by her hand and walking towards Robin, Steve, Dustin, and Erica, who were all waiting for the two.