Gabby now sat on Mike's couch waiting for Mike and El to come out of the bathroom. Gabby had already cleaned her face. Dustin was pacing around while Gabby was still thinking about the truck that they saw outside of Mike's house.
"Somethings wrong," Gabby says causing Dustin to stop pacing.
Suddenly, they hear Lucas's voice coming from the walkie talkie. Gabby ran over to the walkie talkie to see what it was saying.
"Bad...." Lucas's voice says to them. Gabby gave Dustin a look and they rushed to the bathroom. Dustin throws open the door and yells, "Guys!"
"It's Lucas. I think he's in big trouble," Gabby says to Mike and El.
They all ran out of the bathroom and over to where the walkie talkie was sitting on the table.
"Do you remember how he said he was looking for the gate?" Dustin asked Mike and El when we stood over the walkie talkie.
"Yeah," Mike responded.
"I think he found it," Gabby says to them.
More shouting came from the walkie talkie as Mike ripped the walkie out of Dustin's hand. El sat down at the table giving them confused looks.
The shouting continued when Mike says, "What's he saying?"
"I don't know?" Gabby says to him.
"He's way out of range," Dustin explained to Mike.
"Son of a bitch!" Was all they hear Lucas say.
"Lucas, if you can hear us, slow down, we can't understand you," Mike says into the walkie talkie.
"Mad hen? Does that mean anything to you?" Dustin asked them, "Like a code name or something?"
"The bad men are coming!" Lucas yells.
"Bad men!" Mike says, his voice growing with fear, "Bad men!" The radio made a static sound. Gabby's eyes go wide when Mike says this. Gabby looked over at Dustin and Mike.
"Stay here," Mike says before he and Dustin run upstairs.
"It's going to be okay El, we'll be back," Gabby says before rushing up the steps.
Once Gabby got up the stairs she ran over to their big window. As she looked out the window she see one of the 'Hawkins Power And Light' trucks sitting right in front of the house. Mike and Dustin stood right beside her.
"What's that guy doing?" Mike asks.
"You don't think..." Dustin trails off.
"Shit," Gabby says
Mike runs off and Dustin and Gabby look at each other in fear. They look back out the window wordlessly. More vans start coming down the street, pulling into the driveway. Dustin and Gabby quickly shut the curtains and run to the kitchen. Mike was arguing with his mom.
"Mike!" They yell.
"One second!" he yells back.
"Mike!" They yell even louder making him stop.
"We need to leave," Dustin pants, "right now."
"Mike, we gotta go," Gabby pants. Dustin runs off and Gabby quickly follows after.
"Michael!" Gabby hears Mrs. Wheeler yell.
Mike stops. "If anyone asks where I am, I've left the country."
"What?!"
Gabby runs to the basement and grabs El frantically before saying, "We gotta go, we gotta go, come on, hurry!"
Mike, Dustin, El, and Gabby rushed out the basement door, El close behind.
The boys wheel them out to the road, still running. Gabby and El clamber onto the back of the boy's bikes, and the four of them look back. A bunch of men in suits was walking toward them. Gabby's grip on Dustin's waist tightens when she sees one in particular.
"Papa," Gabby says looking at the man.
"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Dustin yells as they pedal as fast as they can away from the bad men.
As they're biking Dustin says loudly, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God."
Gabby hears Dustin say into his headset, "Yeah, Lucas, they're on us."
"Cornwallis!" Dustin replies.
"Copy, Elm and Cherry," Dustin says. Mike looks quickly back at Dustin.
"Okay," Mike says and starts pedaling even faster. Suddenly, the vans appear on the street, closing in on them.
"Shit!" Dustin yells.
"Shit, shit! Oh, my God!" Gabby yells
"This way, come on!" Mike shouts as they bike through a part of the woods through some girls playing.
"Out of the way, out of the way!" Dustin yells at them. They bike out of the woods onto Elm and Cherry. Lucas pulls up from behind them.
"Lucas!" Gabby cries out.
"Where are they?" Lucas asks.
"I don't know," Mike stammers.
"They're close," Gabby says panicky.
"I think we lost them," Dustin says hopefully as if on cue, the vans turn onto the street.
"Go, go, go, go, go!" Mike yells.
The boys are yelling and swearing as the vans pick up speed. Two van turns down the street driving straight toward them Gabby looks towards El giving her a nod.
El and Gabby glare hard at the vans driving towards them. Both of them flip over in the air, flying over their heads and crashing in front of the vans behind them, forcing them to stop.
Blood dribbles from their noses and the boys look back in shock. Gabby smiles back weakly.
They continue biking. Finally, the boys, El and Gabby end up at the junkyard Gabby stumbled off of Dustin's bike, holding onto Dustin, she looks over to El who was swaying as well.
Mike places El onto a rock. Lucas helps Gabby he gently places her on the rock next to El.
"Holy, holy shit!" Dustin exclaims as Gabby murmurs a "Thank you" to Lucas.
"Did you, did you see what they did to those vans?"
"No, Dustin, we missed it," Mike says sarcastically. Gabby laughs weakly as she watches them.
"I mean that was--"
"Awesome," Lucas interrupts, panting. Gabby blinked in surprise.
"It was awesome." He approaches El and kneels in front of her.
"Everything I said about you being a traitor and stuff.. I was wrong. I'm sorry." Lucas places a hand on El's back.
"Friends," El begins, "friends don't lie. I'm sorry, too.
"Me, too," Mike pipes up. He holds out his hand for Lucas to shake. Lucas stands up and shakes Mike's hand firmly.
"And I'm sorry Gabby that I was rude anybody would be happy to be your friend," Lucas says with his hand out for her to shake.
She stands up shakily and pulls him into a hug.
"I forgive you and I'm sorry too," Gabby says into the hug before sitting back down next to El.
......
"This is Randolph Road, right here," Lucas says, drawing a line with a stick in the dirt. The five of them kneel on the ground, surrounding Lucas' map.
"The fence starts here, and goes all the way around," Lucas continues, "and this is the lab right here." He places a soda can inside the stick fence.
"The gates gotta be in there somewhere," Lucas concludes. "It's gotta be."
"Well, who owns Hawkins Lab?" Dustin asks.
"The sign says 'The Department of Energy'"
Lucas says.
'Department of Energy?' Dustin repeats. "What do you think that means?"
"It means government," Mike answers.
"Military."
"Then why does it say 'energy'?" Dustin counters.
"Just trust me, alright?" Mike says. "It's military. My dad's told me before."
"Mike's right," Lucas replies. "There's soldiers out front."
"Do they make. like, lightbulbs or something?" Dustin asks.
"No, weapons, to fight like the Russians and commies and stuff." Mike corrects.
"Guys I hear something coming," Gabby says getting up and looking up to the sky.
"Weapons," Lucas breathes looking at Gabby and El.
"Oh, Jesus, this is bad," Dustin says.
"Really bad," Lucas adds. "The place is like a fortress."
"Well, what do we do?" Dustin asks.
"I don't know, but we can't home," Mike says.
"We're fugitives now."
"G-guys," Dustin says. "Do you hear that?" Gabby rolls her eyes she just said that she heard a helicopter's blades whirring in the distance.
"Go, go, go, go!" Mike yells.
"Come on, come on!" Dustin yells.
"Hide the bikes!" Gabby yells as the boys shove their bikes under the abandoned rusty bus.
"It's stuck!" Dustin complains about his bike.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Lucas shouts.
"Hurry up, hurry, come on!" Mike yells as he, Gabby, and El were already inside the bus.
"Let's go!" Lucas shouts.
"Go, go, go, go, go, go!" Dustin yells. They run into the bus and they run to the back of it together.
"Get down!" Lucas shouts.
They all throw themselves onto the floor of the bus breathing heavily.
"Mental," Dustin comments.
Gabby closes her eyes as the helicopter recedes.
"Mike, are you there? Mike?"
"You guys hear that?" Dustin asks.
"Nancy?" Gabby says confused.
"Mike, it's me, Nancy." Mike jumps up and grabs his backpack, digging through it to find his radio. The rest of them jump up as well.
"Mike, are you there? Answer."
They all kneel around Mike he finally finds his radio and pulls it out.
"Mike, we need you to answer," comes Nancy's voice.
"Is that your sister?" Lucas asks.
"This is an emergency, Mike," Nancy goes on.
"Do you copy? Mike, do you copy?"
"Okay, this is really weird," Dustin says Lucas grabs the radio but Mike jerks it back.
"Don't answer," Mike snaps.
"She said it was an emergency," Lucas protests.
"Lucas is right, answer it," Gabby says.
"What if it's a trick?" Mike counters.
"It's your sister!" Lucas says, frustrated.
"What if the bad people kidnapped her?" Mike demands. "What if they're forcing her to say this?"
"I need you to answer," Nancy says.
"It's like Lando Calrissian," Dustin says with wide eyes. "Don't answer."
"We need to know that you're there, Mike."
"Listen, kid, this is the chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble, and we know about the girls."
"Why is she with the chief?" Lucas asks.
"It doesn't matter," Gabby snaps. "Mike, answer it."
"How the hell does he know about...?" Dustin trails off and looks at El, then at Gabby.
"We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up," Gabby heard David say.
"Are you there? Do you copy? Over."
Mike says into the radio, "Yeah, I copy. It's Mike. I'm here. We're here."
.......
Lucas and Gabby sit next to each other hand in hand, while Dustin is pacing breathing heavily.
"Will you stop pacing?" Mike snaps.
"It's been way too long," Dustin says. "Do you know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe this is all a trap, and the bad men are coming to get us right
now!"
"It's not a trap," Lucas retorts. "Why would the chief and captain set us up? Nancy, maybe, but them?"
"They wouldn't put us in danger," Gabby adds.
"Lando Calrissian," Dustin says pointing at Lucas.
"Would you shut up about Lando?" Lucas snaps.
"I don't feel good about this," Dustin says. "I don't feel good about this!"
"When do you feel good about anything?!" Lucas shouts.
"Be quiet I hear three cars coming," Gabby tells them.
Soon the boys hear a car approaching, and they all run to the front of the bus to see if it's Hopper. It's not.
"Shit!" Dustin swears.
"Go, go, go, go!" Lucas says pulling Gabby with him they all hide again.
"Lando," Dustin repeats firmly.
"You think they saw us?" Lucas asks.
"Both of you, shut up," Mike snaps.
Gabby holds onto Lucas's hand nervously they clutch each other's hands tightly.
They hear the bus door open and then a man grunt in pain. More painful grunts and yells come from outside, and the five of them peek out from our hiding places.
They all stand up as Hopper and David come through the bus door. Gabby and Lucas drop each other's hands before Gabby races to her father.
"Daddy!" Gabby yells as she runs up to David and throws her arms around him. He holds her in a comforting hug.
"Hey, my little darling," he whispers soothingly, kissing her head. He looks up at the other four. "Alright, let's go."
They don't move.
"Let's go!" Hopper repeats more forcefully. The other four run out of the bus after Hopper, David, and Gabby. Gabby let out a sigh of relief.
They were safe. For now.
.....
It's night by the time they reach the Byers' house. It was silent the entire car ride.
When they finally pulled up into the driveway of the Byers' house. The kids, Hopper and David got out of the car seeing Mrs. Byers, Nancy, and Jonathan run out onto the porch.
"Mike," Nancy says, running to him. "Oh, my
God, Mike!" She throws her arms around him.
"I was so worried about you," Nancy says, pulling away and holding him by the shoulders.
"Yeah, uh, me too," Mike stammers, clearly confused about his sister's affection towards him.
Nancy moves her gaze away from Mike and looks hard at El. El squeezes Gabby's hand tightly.
"Is that my dress?" Nancy finally asks.
Gabby smiled nervously. "Uh, yeah. It looks good on her,"
Once they were inside the house the kids were explaining everything about the Demogorgon. Telling them about El and Gabby's powers and Mr. Clarke's flea and acrobat analogy.
Mike draws another flea and acrobat picture for David, Hopper, Mrs. Byers, Nancy, and Jonathan.
"Okay, so in this example, we're the acrobat,"
Mike says, pointing to his drawing with a marker.
"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."
"A gate," Dustin interjects.
"That we tracked to Hawkins Lab," Lucas finishes.
"With our compasses," Dustin says. Mrs. Byers looks at Dustin, confused.
"Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle," Gabby explains.
"Is this gate underground?" David asks.
"Yes," Eleven whispers.
"Near a large water tank?" Hopper asked.
"Yes," Gabby says this time.
"H-how do you know all that?" Dustin asks
Hopper.
"He's seen it," Mike breathes.
"Is there any way that you could, that you could reach Will?" Mrs. Byers asks El. "That you two could talk to him in this-?"
"The Upside Down," El and Gabby finish.
"Down," Mrs. Byers whispers. "Yeah." Eleven nods.
"And my friend Barbara?" Nancy pipes up.
"Can you find her, too?" Gabby nods this time.
"It's pretty awesome what she can do," Dustin says helpfully.
David narrows his eyes at Dustin before looking to at Gabby he lets out a long sigh.
Radios was scatted across a table. El sits at the head of the table. Gabby sits next to her right. The other eight stare at Gabby and El. With their eyes closed, they both try to find Will and Barbara.
It's no use. The two open their eyes and Gabby whisper, "I'm sorry."
"What?" Mrs. Byers stammers. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"We can't find them," El says, her voice breaking. Gabby throws her arms around her and she gave a light sob. Everyone sat in silence.
After a couple of minutes, Gabby stood up and walked El to the bathroom. She had tears running down her face. Gabby was worried about her, she knew she was really upset about not being able to find them.
When they got in the bathroom Gabby gave El a small hug before saying, "You're okay El, We're just a little tired,"
"Are they mad?" El whispered to Gabby.
"No, El never," Gabby whisper back to her. El looked at herself in the mirror and she put cold water onto her face before turning the water off.
"El," Gabby says looking at the tub. El looked to the tub before looking at Gabby.
"The Bath." They both say together.
They both walked down the hall hand in hand to the table where everyone was at.
"Well, how long?" Nancy asked Mike.
"I don't know," Mike responded as Gabby and El walked near them.
"The Bath," El whispers.
"What?" Joyce asked.
"We can find them," She says, "in the bath."
......
They sit at the table as Dustin held a phone up to his ear. Gabby sat at the table beside El with Lucas behind her.
Suddenly Dustin said, "Mr. Clarke. It's Dustin."
"Dustin is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. I just, I... I have a science question," Dustin says into the phone.
"It's ten o'clock on Saturday. Why don't we pick this up-"
"Do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks?" Dustin blurted out, "Specifically how to build one?"
"Sensory deprivation? What is this for?"
"Fun," Dustin said flatly, Gabby laughs when he said that.
"Okay. Well... Why don't we talk about it Monday? After school, okay?"
"You always say we should never stop being curious," Dustin says into the phone, "To always open any curiosity door we find."
"Dustin--"
"Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?" Dustin asked the phone. Gabby could hear Mr. Clarke give a sigh causing her to smile she knew that Dustin got him. Dustin brings the phone over to the table so he could sit down.
"Uh-huh. How much?" Dustin said as he started to write things down on the piece of paper.
"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." Dustin looked up at all of them as he put the phone down.
He looked over at Joyce and pointed at her with his pencil. "Do you still have that pool we bobbed for apples in?"
"I think so. Yeah," Joyce responded.
"Good. Then we just need salt. Lots of it," Dustin explained to us.
"How much is 'lots'" Hopper asked Dustin.
"How are we gonna get that much salt?" Nancy asked.
"1,500 pounds," Gabby says not even looking at the paper.
"I know where," Hopper says as he got up and started to the door.
......
They took three cars to Hawkins Middle School. They split up into four groups.
Jonathan, David and Hopper are going to work on the salt.
Dustin and Lucas working on getting the pool set up for El and Gabby.
Mike and Nancy were getting the hoses for the water.
Gabby sits next to El in the lab with Mrs. Byers, who grabs two pairs of goggles for El and Gabby, covering the plastic with duct tape.
"Okay, this will keep it dark for you," she says to El. "Just like in your bathtub." El nods and Mrs. Byers sighs.
"You're a very brave girl," she tells El. Then, she looks at Gabby. "Both of you. You know that don't you? Everything you two are doing for my boy, for Will, for my family, thank you."
"Anything for Will," Gabby says to Mrs. Byers who gives her a watery smile.
"Listen," She says taking one of Gabby's hands and one of El's.
"I am gonna be there with you two the whole time. And if it ever gets too scary in that place, you just let me know, okay?"
"Yes," El whispers.
"Okay," Gabby whispered.
"Ready?" Mrs. Byers asks looking at both of them. El and Gabby look at each other and then at her.
"Ready," they say together.
El takes off her socks and Mike's watch, giving it back to him. As he puts it back on, El puts on her goggles. Gabby takes off her sock and shoe then hands them to her father before putting her goggles on.
El and Gabby step into the pool with the help of Mrs. Byers and David. They float on their backs. The lights start to flicker and then shut off both of them were now in the void.
Suddenly cold feeling washes over Gabby. She opens her eyes. El and Gabby still hand-in-hand they are are in a dark place.
Looking down at the ground and see that the ground was covered in water. El pulls on her hand gently, and they start walking. They see a pile of something slimy. Gabby could see that it was someone is underneath all the slim.
"Barb-Barbara?" Gabby says out loud breathing heavily, A sick feeling washes over her as she hears the squelching sounds.
El and Gabby recoil at the sight of a dead Barbara as a slug comes out of her mouth causing Gabby to scream. The lights flicker some more.
"What's going on?" Nancy asked.
"I don't know," Mike replied.
"Is Barb okay?" Nancy asks. "Is she okay?"
"No, she's gone," Gabby says panicking.
"Gone, gone," El says in a broken voice.
"Gone, gone, gone!"
Gabby was crying, she could hear Mrs. Byers whisper comfortingly, "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay." They gasp fearfully as Mrs. Byers continues to whisper words of comfort.
Her words echo throughout the dark void. El and Gabby keep walking until they see Castle Byers and walk to it.
"Castle Byers," Gabby says.
"Castle Byers," El repeats.
When they enter the fort and Gabby could see a pale and shivering Will laying down in the fort. Gabby kneels down and holds Will's cold hand.
"Will." Gabby breathes.
"Will," El says. "Will?"
"You tell him, tell him I'm coming," Gabby hears Mrs. Byers say. "Mom is coming."
"Your mom," El says. "She's coming for you."
"Just hold on, Will please," Gabby says, tears running down her cheeks.
"Hurry," Will whispers.
"Okay," Mrs. Byers says frantically. "Listen, you tell him to stay where he is. We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey."
"Something's not right," Gabby says breathlessly El gasps.
"Will," Gabby says frantically as the fort and Will started to disappear.
"Will!"
"Will!"
El and Gabby gasp loudly. They both sit up in the pool, pulling off their goggles. David quickly pulls the crying girl into a hug He kisses her on the head while Mrs. Byers holds a crying Eleven the others look at them sadly.
"You did good my little darling," David says holding her in his arms.
Hopper, David, and Mrs. Byers start to leave for Castle Byers. David kisses Gabby on her forehead before leaving.
Once El is out of the bathtub, the boys, El, and I sit on the bleachers.
El rests her head on Mike's shoulder with a towel wrapped around her as Lucas, sitting one row above them, wraps a towel around Gabby and rubs her arms soothingly as she rests her head on El's shoulder.
Lucas slides down and wraps his arm around her comfortingly. Dustin reaches out and pats Gabby's knee soothingly.