Marley, Steve, Max, Lucas and Dustin all followed the old trains tracks as they made there way through the forest.
"Your positive that was dart?" Asked Lucas
"Yes. he had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."
"He was tiny two days ago." Said Max
"Well, he's molted three times already." Dustin argued back
"Malted?" Asked Steve
"Molted." Corrected Dustin "sheds his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."
"When's he gonna moly again?" Asked Max
"It's gotta be soon." Said Dustin "when he does he'll be fully grown, or close to it, and so will his friends."
"Yeah, and then he's gonna eat a lot more than cats." Steve answered
"Wait a cat?" Asked Lucas stoping in front of Dustin "dart ate a cat?"
"No, what? no." Said Dustin sounding confused
"What are you taking about? He ate mews." Said Steve
"Mews? Who's mews?" Asked Max
"It's Dustin's cat." Said Steve
"Steve!" Exclaimed Dustin sounding annoyed
"I knew it! You kept him!" Yelled Lucas
"No!" Argued Dustin
"No!" Questioned Lucas
"No, I... no, I... he missed me. He wanted to come home."
"Bullshit!" Yelled Lucas
"I didn't know he was a demogorgon, ok?" Argued Dustin
"Oh so now you admit it?" Demanded Lucas
"Guys who cares, we have to go!" Said Max, but they both ignored her.
"I care! you put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas yelled
"So did you!" Argued Dustin raising his voice
"What?" Asked Lucas confused
"You told a stranger the truth!" Yelled Dustin shining his torch in Max's face.
"A stranger?" Max scoffed squinting at the light shining in her eyes
"You wanted to tell her, too!" Lucas yelled
"But I didn't, Lucas, ok!" Yelled Dustin, as Marley and Steve glanced at each other, both hearing screeching in the distance. "I didn't tell her! We both broke the rule of law, ok? So we're even. We're even!"
"No, no! We're not even. Don't even try that." Snapped Lucas, Marley and Steve both edged closer to the forest. "Your stupid pet could have ate us for dinner!"
"That was not my fault!" Yelled Dustin
"Guys!" Called Marlow, Dustin and Lucas ignored her and kept arguing. "Guys!" She yelled again louder, the screeching got louder, Marlow and Steve turned back to the forest. The boys and Max glanced over, as Steve and Marley began walking towards the sound, Dustin and Lucas followed.
"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Yelled Max, they all ignored her "hello?" She called again "hello?"
It didn't take long for Mac to catch up to them as they came to the edge of the forest.
"I don't see him." Said Dustin coming to a stop followed by everyone else. Lucas held the binoculars up to his face and looked around.
"It's the lab." He suddenly said "there going back home." They began making there way to the lab, they were almost there when Marley heard a voice.
"Hello, who's there?" Marley looked over at Steve to see if he had heard it to, based on his face, Marlow could tell he hadn't.
"Who's there?" The voice came again. This time Steve had heard it, and so had Max, they began walking faster, soon the forest edge was in sight.
"Steve?" Nancy and Jonathan both asked
"Nancy?" Exclaimed Steve
"Jonathan?" Added Dustin equally confused, they all walked over to Nancy and Jonathan.
"What are you doing here?" Asked Steve
"Where looking for mike and will." Explained Nancy
"There not in there are they?" Asked Dustin sounding worried
"We're not sure." Said Nancy mirroring Dustin worried look
"Why?" Added Jonathan looking equally as worried as everyone else, suddenly a loud another screech came from the lab, this time it didn't stop it kept going, it was louder than it had been in the forest Marley could tell they were all in there based of the noise, she put her hands over her ears in an attempt to block out the sound, Max did the same. The screeching finally stoped and they all gathers in a circle.
"We haven't seen will." Said Lucas
"I haven't seen him since- Nancy cut off Jonathan before he could finish.
"The powers back." Jonathan sprinted back down to the entrance and started pushing the open button.
"Let me try." Dustin said after it wasn't working
"Hang on." Exclaimed Jonathan as Dustin pushed him out the way.
"Let me try, Jonathan." Dustin began pushing the button "son of a bitch, you know what..."
Dustin gave it a final push finally it opened.
""Hey I got it, I got it!" Dustin exclaimed, walking over to everyone else, Nancy and Jonathan climbed in to Jonathan's car and headed up to the lab, while everyone else stayed back waiting.
"Guys!" Max yelled after a while, as Jonathan's car came down the road followed by hoppers police car. Jonathan honked the horn and they all jumped out the way. Jonathan sped past but hopper stoped.
"Hop in." He demanded, one by one they all piled in to the police car, Steve pulled the door shut as he climbed in behind Lucas. It didn't take long for them to arrive at the Byers house, where they all sat around the table while hopper talked on the phone.
"Sam Owens. Dr Sam Owens." Hopper very loudly said in to the phone. "I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive... I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper... yes the number that I gave you, yes... ok yes I got it, 6767... I will be here."
"They didn't believe you did they?" Questioned Dustin as hopper hung up the phone.
"We'll see." Said Hopper
"We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike argued
"We stay here, and we wait for help." Said Hopper, turning around and heading down the hall.
Everyone sat in silence around the kitchen table waiting for the phone to ring, when suddenly mike stood up and made his way over to a little table by the lounge room entrance, he picked up the games Bob had bought over the other day.
"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Asked Mike
"Really?" Asked Dustin while no one else said anything.
"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund raiser for equipment" Mike continued "mr Clarke learned everything from him, pretty awesome right?" Mike added making his way back to the table.
"Yeah." Agreed Dustin and Lucas
"We can't him die in vain." Said Mike placing the game on the table.
"What do you want to do, mike?" Questions Dustin "the chief right on this, we can't stop those demo-dogs on our own."
"Demo-dogs?" Asked max confused
"Demogorgon. dogs, demo-dog." Said Dustin holding up two hands to represent the two. "it's like a compound, it's like a play on words."
"Ok?" Max snapped interrupting him
"I mean when it was just dart, maybe..." said Dustin turning his attention back to Mike
"but there's an army now." Lucas finished
"Precisely." Agreed Dustin
"His army." Said Mike quietly
"What do you mean asked Steve confused
"His army!" Mike repeated louder "maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too." Mike rushed over to the table and grabbed wills drawing of the shadow monster
"It got Will that day in the field. The Doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." Dustin started.
"And So this virus is connecting him to the tunnels?" Max questioned.
"To the tunnels the monsters the Upside Down everything." Mike added.
"Whoa slow down slow down." Steve said, Marley mirrored his confusion.
"Ok so the Shadow Monster's inside everything." Mike explained.
"And if the vines feel something like pain then so does Will." You added.
"And so does Dart." Lucas said catching on.
"Yeah it's like what Mr. Clarke taught us." Mike agreed. "The hive mind."
"Hive mind?" Steve questioned.
"A collective consciousness. Its a super-organism." Dustin explained.
"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Marley added taking the Shadow Monster drawing.
"Like the mind flayer." Dustin said meaning a monster from the game D&D. Lucas clicked in agreement.
"What?" Steve And Max said together. Dustin called everyone into the kitchen and put a manual to D&D on the table and moved to the page titled 'The Mind Flayer'.
"The Mind Flayer." Dustin read.
"What the hell is that?" Hopper said unimpressed.
"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home." Dustin explained. "Ok it's enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."
"Oh my god non of this is real. This is a kids game." Hopper said rolling his eyes.
"No it's a manual. And it's not for kids." Dustin stuttered. "And unless you know something that we don't this is the best metaphor-"
"Analogy." Lucas corrected.
"Analogy? That's what your worried about?! Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is." Dustin exclaimed.
"Okay So this mind flamer thing-" Nancy started before getting interrupted by Dustin.
"Flayer, Mind Flayer." Dustin interrupted.
Nancy sighed. "What does it want?"
"To conquer us basically." Dustin explained. "It believes it's the master race."
"Like the Germans?" Steve asked.
"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin corrected.
"Yeah the Nazis." Steve sighed.
"If the Nazis were from another dimension totally." Dustin said. "It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."
"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike added.
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas said dramatically.
"Well that's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve exclaimed.
"Okay So If this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything then if we kill it." Nancy started.
"We kill everything it's controlling." Marlow finished.
"We win." Mike added.
"Theoretically." Lucas finished.
"Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper said sarcastically.
"No no, no fireballs." Dustin chuckled. "You summon an undead army, because... because zombies, you know, they don't have brains... and the Mind Flayer it likes brains... It's just a game." Dustin responded.
"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper slamming the book on the table.
"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin mocked.
"We are!" Hopper exclaimed.
"Even if they come how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns!" Mike exclaimed.
"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper exclaimed.
"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." Mike answered.
"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas added.
"And soon they'll turn into a demogorgon." Marley added.
"And we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin added.
"They're right." Joyce said coming out of the shadows. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."
"Me too, me too. Joyce Okay." Hopper said going to comfort her. "But how do we do that? We don't know exactly what we're dealing with here."
"No but he does." Said Mike walking into the living room. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing its Will. He's connected to him. He'll know his weakness."
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now." Max said.
"He can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Marley replied.