The boys are talking about Dart, but I'm not listening.
"I think Eleven is mad at me," I tell Billy as we walk slightly behind the group.
"Why do you say that?" Billy asks, throwing a casual arm around my shoulder.
"It's just... she's been so distant. I haven't seen her door open in awhile. I-I don't want her to be mad at me," tears sting my eyes, but I blink them back.
"Wait a cat? Dart ate a cat?" Lucas yells, stopping the group.
"No. What? No," Dustin stammers.
"What are you talking about he ate Mews," Steve says as if it were obvious.
"Yeah. He ate your moms cat yesterday," Billy chimes in.
"See! I knew it you kept him!" Lucas yells again.
"No!" Dustin yells back. "No. No. No. I-... well he missed me."
"Bullshit!" Lucas screams in Dustin's face.
"I didn't know he was a demogorgan," Dustin reasons.
"You're lying. I told you," my voice rises too.
"Well sometimes you don't know what you're talking about," Dustin screams.
"You little brat! I have been dropping everything for you the second you want me too," my tone is accusing and mean. Billy drops his arm.
"You put the party in jeopardy," Lucas accuses. "You broke the rule of law."
"Yes you did," I chime in, crossing my arms.
"So did you two!" Dustin screams at us. "You told two strangers the truth!"
"Hey," Billy starts, but I grab his hand and send him a look.
"Strangers?" Max's voice is hurt and angry.
The boys start to argue about Max but I'm so mad my ears are ringing.
"Hey," Billy says softly returning his arm to my shoulder. "Breathe."
I take a deep breath like he said to.
"Hey guys," Steve starts, wandering slowly away from us. "Guys!"
Everyone stops talking and whips their heads in his direction.
There's a strange noise. Billy drops his arm, and I step forward towards Steve, listening. Everyone starts to jog in that direction.
"Guys. Hey, why are you running towards the sound?" Max asks. I ignore her, breaking into a run to keep up.
We come into a field, slowing to a walk.
Lucas lifts his binoculars. "It's the lab."
My heart drops. I grab onto Billy's arm. I don't know why but I do.
"They were going back home," Lucas says as he lowers his binoculars.
We take off down the hill towards the lab. When we get close, I hear people talking.
"Hello?" A male voice yells. "Whose there?"
"Steve?" Nancy and Jonathan ask in disbelief. I step out of the tree line. Standing by Steve.
"Cassie?" Jonathon asks. Billy stands beside me. "Billy?" Nancy's voice has more disbelief then before.
"Nancy?" Steve asks, stepping forward.
"Jonathan?" Dustin asks.
What are you doing here?" Nancy questions as we all go closer to them.
"What are you two doing here?" I reply.
"We're looking for Mike and Will," Nancy tells us.
"Don't tell me they're in there," my heart drops.
"We're not sure," Nancy replies.
"Why?" Jonathan asks. Just then monstrous screeches pierce the air.
I grab Billy's arm, looking towards the lab.
Everyone starts to argue about the two missing boys, but I don't look away from the lab. Suddenly, all the lights come on.
"Guys. The power," I start.
"It's back on," Billy finishes.
We all sprint to the guard station to open the gate.
Jonathan presses the button but nothing happens. Dustin and Jonathan start to fight over the button, pressing it rapidly.
Suddenly, the gate slides open.
I don't wait on the group and take off sprinting.
"Cassidy!" Billy calls after me.
"I have to go now!" I scream back, never stopping. My legs ache from being overused, but I try not to slow down. My arms are pumping through the air. It's getting harder to breathe in the autumn air. My lungs burn, but I push through.
It takes a few minutes but I get there. I see Hopper and Joyce with the boys.
"Dad!" I yell. The word is so foreign. His head lifts and he looks at me.
"Cassie!" He looks at me. I grab onto him, holding him tight.
"Oh my gosh," I let go of him and rush to Mike.
"Are you all okay?" I ask out of breath. Will is thrown over Hopper's shoulder.
"Is Will okay?" I ask, looking at the unconscious boy.
"We had to knock him out so whatever's inside him wouldn't give our location away to the demogorgans," Mike says. I'm confused, but I don't ask.
"Bob!" Joyce yells, walking inside the dark lab.
Bob slams a door closed and doubles over, breathing hard. I can hear a demo-dog pounding at the door.
Another one jumps out of no where, attacking Bob.
"No!" Joyce screams from the inside.
"Joyce!" I screech. I move forward. Hopper puts Will down and rushes forward.
The monster stands over Bob as he screams. I can't tell if it's pain or fear. I can't move anymore.
It bites into his throat, and Hopper shoots at it. Tears push there way out of my eyes. The door Bob closed opens. More come out.
I push my arms forward the demo dogs fly into the wall. Hopper continues to shoot.
"Let's go!" He yells, pulling Joyce as she tries to run to her boyfriend.
I start to sob but I run. I burst through the door with Hopper and Joyce. She's crying harder than I am and screaming.
"What happened?" Mike asks.
Jonathan honks pulling up beside us. We all get in, it's just him in the car. I assume everyone else is at the gate. Hopper shoves me into his own vehicle, Joyce and Mike too as he loads Will up.
We race back to the gate, slamming on our breaks.
"Get in!" Hopper yells at the ones who stayed back. Everyone gets in his big car.
Billy sits beside me. "Cass. Cassidy, are you okay?" He asks, touching my face gently. I nod still crying. He holds onto me as I cry.
...
We all stand inside the Byers' house. Hopper is on the phone with the police, telling them about the lab.
Billy and I lean against the counter. Steve and the kids are standing and sitting at the table. Jonathan and Nancy are standing over Will, whose still out cold.
Hopper hangs the phone up aggressively, looking towards us.
"They didn't believe you did they?" Dustin asks.
"We'll see," Hopper says.
"We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose," Mike says loudly.
"We stay here and we wait for help," Hopper says sternly.
I lean my head into Billy's shoulder. He wraps me up into his arms, moving me in front of him. He props his chin onto my head, arms still around my body. I feel so safe considering our situation.
"And you two. Separate," he says pointing at us before walking away. I scoff as Billy drops his arms and straightens.
Mike stands from the table and wanders to a side table, grabbing something on it.
"Did you know Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" He states.
My breath catching in my throat. Suddenly I'm back in the lab watching him get his throat ripped out.
"He petitioned the school to start it and everything," Mike says, turning around to face us. "Then he had a fund raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"
Everyone nods with words of agreement as Mike walks back to the table.
"We can't let him die in vain," Mike tells us.
"What do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin asks defensively. "Hopper is right. We can't stop the demo-dogs on our own. I mean when it was just Dart maybe but there's an army now."
"It's his army," I chime in, stopping abruptly.
"What do you mean?" Steve asks, arms crossed over his chest.
"Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too," I slam my hands on the table in realization.
I rush to a table, grabbing a picture of the shadow monster. I hold it up. "It got Will the day in the field."
"The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him," Mike says, standing up.
"It's connecting him. To the tunnels, to the demo dogs, to the Upside Down. Everything," I say quickly.
"Woah. Woah. Slow down," Steve holds his hands up.
"Okay. So the shadow monster is inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Mike tells everyone. I nod in agreement.
"And so does Dart," Billy says, pushing himself off the counter, standing at my side.
"It's like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The Hive Mind," Mike spouts.
"Hive Mind?" Steve asks. Completely lost with our quick trains of thought.
"A collective consciousness. It's a super organism.
"This controls everything. It's like the brain," Mike adds, taking the paper from me.
"Like the Mind Flayer," Dustin gasps.
"The what?" Steve and Max and Billy say at the same time.
"Dungeons and Dragons," I roll my eyes as the boys pull out a book, displaying the character.
"The Mind Flayer," Dustin says pointing to the illustration.
"What the hell is that?" Hopper asks. He stands beside me.
"It's a monster from an unknown dimension," Dustin tells him. "So ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. It enslaves races if other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."
"Oh my god, none of this is real," Hopper says.
"It's just a kids' game," Billy adds. I look up at him on my other side.
"No, it's a manual," Dustin says defensively. "And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't this is the best metaphor-"
"Analogy," I interrupt.
"Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" Dustin asks me. He looks at me like I'm stupid. "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."
"Okay," Nancy interrupts. Everyone is around the table now. "This Mind Flamer thing-"
"Flayer. Mind Flayer," Dustin and I correct.
"What does it want?" Nancy asks a little annoyed.
"To conquer us, basically," Dustin says. "It believes it's the master race."
"Like the- like the Germans?" Steve stammers. I roll my eyes.
"The Nazis," Billy corrects, looking at Steve.
Steve has a look of permanent confusion on his face. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis."
"If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally," I chime in.
"It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself," Dustin adds.
"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Mike says.
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas adds in.
Steve starts to freak out a little. "That's great."
"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it-" Nancy starts.
"We kill everything it controls," Mike finishes.
All this information makes my head hurt.
"Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Hopper asks, moving to look at the book.
Dustin laughs a little. "No. No fireballs. You summon an undead army, because zombies, you know, they don't have brains."
"How the hell is that going to help, Dustin?" I ask, a little on edge.
"It's just a game," Dustin concludes, dropping his head.
Hopper throws the book onto the table. "What the hell are we doing here?"
"I thought we were waiting for your military backup," Dustin states.
"We are!" Hopper yells.
"Well even if they come, how are they going to stop this?" I ask, hands crossed over my chest. "You can't just shoot this with guns."
"You don't know that, Cassie. We don't know anything!" He yells at me.
"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab," I state, throwing my hands in the air.
"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again," Lucas adds.
"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town," Dustin adds too.
"They're right," Joyce croaks from the hallway. I whip my head around, staring at her tear stained face.
"We have to kill it," she says sadly. "I want to kill it."
"Me too. Me too, Joyce, but how do we do that?" Hopper moves to her. "We don't exactly know what we're dealing with."
"No. But he does," Mike says, walking to the sleeping boy on the couch. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness."
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore," Max states. "That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now."
"He can't spy if he doesn't know where he is," Billy says abruptly. I smile at him.
...
Hopper starts to throw things out of the Byers' shed. Nancy and Steve help make it look more unfamiliar. Billy and I are still in the living room. Mike and Max are in the kitchen talking about my sister.
"Why are you here?" I ask, looking into his ocean blue eyes.
"What do you mean?" He asks with a small smile.
"You don't have to be here, risking your life," I say, crossing my arms.
"I want to be here for you, Cassie," he tells me.
"But why? We aren't dating. You don't owe me your time. You don't have to-" he cuts me off by placing his hands on my shoulder.
"I really like you, Cass. I want to spend my time with you even if that means fighting monsters," his voice is soft. It's comforting. I pull him into a hug. His arms wrap around my waist.
"El sounded like she was awesome," I hear Max say.
"She was. Until that thing took her. Just like Bob," Mike replies, standing up and stomping away.
Billy pulls away with a confused look.
"They don't know she's alive," I whisper. "It needs to stay that way a little longer."
Billy nods still confused but understanding.
"We should go outside," I tell him as Jonathan picks up Will.
In the shed, everything is covered it cardboard, tin foil, paper, duck tape and more. It's completely unrecognizable. Even the two chairs that are there are covered.
Will is tied to one of the chairs. He's still in his hospital gown. There are two bright light across from him to keep him slightly disoriented just in case.
Before they wake him up, all of us kids except Jonathan and Mike go inside.
Billy and I sit on the couch. All the lights in the house start to flicker. The Mind Flyer is definitely awake and freaking out.
After a few minutes, Hopper and the shed group burst through the door, grabbing paper and a pen and rushing to the kitchen table. I jump up, Billy at my heels and run into the kitchen.
"What happened?" I ask, standing next to Hopper.
"I think he's talking, just not with words," Hopper states.
He puts a series of dots and dashes onto a paper.
"What is that?" Steve asks.
"Morse code," everyone replies.
"H E R E," I translate the dots and dashes to everyone.
"Here," they all say at once.
"Will's still in there. He's talking to us," Hopper states.
Jonathan jumps away from the table, he grabs some CD and a radio before he takes off the the shed.
The shed group goes back outside and we stay gathered around the table to sort out Will's Morse code. Hopper tells us the dots and dashes then Lucas writes them out.
"Dash, dot, dash, dot," Lucas mutters while he writes it down.
They look at a Morse code cheat sheet before yelling out the letter C.
"L!"
"O!"
"S!"
"E!"
"G!"
"A!"
"T!"
"E!"
Nancy wrote all the letters down in crayon on a pierce of paper.
"Close gate," I whisper to myself.
They all read it aloud. The phone starts to ring. "Shit!" Dustin leaps up and takes the phone off before slamming it back. It rings again.
"Dammit!" I yell, throwing my hand out. The whole thing flies across the room.
"Do you think he heard that?" Billy asks, standing beside me.
"It's just a phone. They can be anywhere," Steve states.
I wipe my bloody nose, looking at the group.
I hear monsters screech in the distance. My head drops into my hands.
"That's not good," Dustin states.
I hear the kitchen door open and shut. Hopper comes into the living room.
"Hey! Get away from the windows!" He yells, two guns in his hands.
The kids all jump back. I stand in the center of the room, Billy at my side.
"Do you know how to use this?" Hopper asks Jonathan. Jonathan shakes his head no. He turns to Billy. "Can you use this?"
"Yes Sir," Billy says, catching the rifle that's tossed to him.
Our line of defense gets in front of the kids. I step up beside Billy, mind ready to use as a weapon.
"Where are they?" Max asks as we eye the window.
Billy has his gun up, ready. I know this isn't the right time but he looks super hot. His curls are messy on his face, there's dirt on his maroon zip up jacket, but he does look good.
Loud thudding comes from the door. Everyone turns. The two guns are pointed at the door, along with Lucas's stupid slingshot.
"What are they doing?" Nancy asks, looking wearily at the window.
I can hear them growling and snarling outside the windows. Another animalistic noice happens the the group faces a new window.
Suddenly the screeching stops abruptly.
It's too quiet
The window smashes as a small demo-dog flies through it. It doesn't move. Hopper and Billy step forward with their guns.
I keep my eyes mostly on the now broken window just in case. My eyes flicker to them to make sure they're okay.
"Holy shit," Dustin whispers.
"Is it dead?" Max asks, stepping forward slightly with the group.
Hopper moves it with his foot. It doesn't move.
The door starts to creak. I can feel a strange sensation as I stare at the door. Almost like a connection with what's behind it.
The lock clicks up without anyone touching it. The sliding lock slides all by itself, chain falling. That's when I know.
"El," I whisper.