Carnage, Hopper deduced. Whatever Five — Quinn — could do, laying waste to an army seemed to be one of those things judging by the trail of carcasses leading from Castle Byers to the main house.
Hopper hadn't expected the exchange at the Lab to take so long, but it resulted in the desired outcome. The deal he had proposed was simple: they go in, find Joyce's son, get out, and "forget" this whole thing ever happened. He insinuated that they were also looking for a teenaged girl that was missing too. He purposefully left out that they planned on extracting one of their Numbers. Dr. Brenner saw to it that he and Joyce were outfitted in hazmat suits and they were allowed through the Gate — as the kids called it — with one rifle and an extra flashlight.
Joyce had told the two kids through Eleven to stay where they were, at Castle Byers. When they found it, all that was left was a pile of rubble and half a dozen dead monsters like Joyce and Nancy had described. While Joyce frantically called out for Will, Hopper crouched down to inspect one of the creatures on the ground. It had some kind of burn marks up its chest and a clean cut across its throat, the killing blow. This atmosphere is too damp for fire, Hopper thought to himself. Standing back up, Hopper realised that there were more bodies sporting a mix of burn marks and deep slashes up ahead, littering the ground like a macabre trail of breadcrumbs.
— • —
The exchange with Eleven had left Quinn on edge. She had heard the younger girl crying out "Five! Will!?" as their connection faded, evidence that it wasn't Eleven that had severed their link. She tried not to dwell on it too much for the time being.
"If I go there will be trouble. And if I stay it will be double," Will sang between shuddering from the cold. Quinn continued to run her free hand up and down his back, allowing little sparks to pop out of her fingers from time to time. The jacket was so wet at this point, the chance of it catching on fire was pretty slim.
"So, come on and let me know," Will continued. Quinn turned her head towards the entryway, the sound of a step in the ground getting her attention. She retracted her hand from Will's back, pulling her right arm out of the sling and giving her shoulder a gentle twist. It was still sore but deep down, she knew she would need the use of both of her arms if they hoped to be found alive by the "good people" Eleven said were coming for them.
"Should I stay or should I go now?," he finished, startled into a seated position at the sound of a load roar right outside of Castle Byers. He looked over at Quinn who had shifted into a defensive crouch, left hand around the axe, right hand free. He held his breath as they both listened to the sound of footsteps outside accompanied by a low growl.
With a roar, the creature outside burst through the wooden slats. Quinn deflected with a burst of electricity, sending it back along with the falling parts of the little shack. She quickly glanced back to check that she didn't injure Will in the process. Seeing that he was fine — other than terrified — she lunged out of the rubble to see that it wasn't just one of the creatures. She sent the one closest to her flying back with a well-placed bolt from her right hand, swinging the axe at the one running towards her.
"We have to go," she called to Will, roughly pulling the axe out of the neck of the third monster dead on the ground. She could see three more coming from between the trees. Unsure of what to do or how to help, Will leaned against a tree to stay out of the way as he watched the way Quinn fought in horrified fascination. Instead of just sending quick bolts to push them away, she had started holding them longer, electrocuting a creature while slicing through a second one.
She had him move from one tree to the next, while she fought off the creatures that just kept coming. They continued on in this way until they were in the clearing behind the main house.
"Should I go inside?" Will called to her, crouched against the side of the house as she cut a leg clean off the latest creature that was mid lunge at her. She swung the axe over her head and down straight into its throat, killing it instantly. Pulling the axe out of the body, she did a little spin, quickly glancing at the area around them for any more threats. If she wasn't covered in blood and in this Hellish scape, Will would have found the move quite whimsical.
"We go in together," she replied, panting lightly as she joined him against the side of the house. Aside from the injury on her shoulder and neck, Quinn was evidently in excellent physical health. He'd counted six dead around Castle Byers with an additional twelve on the way to the house, including the four in the backyard.
"Stay at my back," she ordered, having caught her breath and ready to continue on. Very slowly, they made their way up the steps and through the backdoor into the kitchen. From around the corner, Quinn spotted three blurry figures arguing in the living room. She tried to ignore the voices, instead focusing on the scratching sound that was coming from the opposite side of the living room.
Will heard it too. It sounded familiar... Like the scratching on the wall when one of the creatures had gone through to the other side while they were communicating with his Mom using the alphabet! Wordlessly, Quinn arrived to the same conclusion. She turned to face the living room from their crouched position by the fridge, hand lifting in the air. Even from across the house, she controlled the string of lights, making them go haywire to warn the three what was coming to them.
She kept the three figures in her peripheral as she led Will along the wall to the other side of the dining room. They ran down the hall, the creature seemingly chasing after them, slamming the door of Will's room behind them. The house grew eerily quiet. Silently, she motioned for Will to stay put as she slowly stood to look around the side of the wall.
She was not expecting to come face to face with a creature around the corner. How did it get back to this side?! She thought, flabbergasted, as she narrowly dodged its clawed hand swiping at her. Standing at full height on its hinds, she realised that this was the same one she had encountered with Nancy. It was larger than the others she was used to dealing with, and standing on two legs instead of on all fours, it had a much longer reach.
Trying to lead it out of the dining room, she took a swing at it with the axe, lightly grazing it across the chest, but it returned the gesture in kind, claws slicing across her right shoulder, reopening the barely healed scratches. While she hadn't felt the original injury, these ones made sure to remind her of it, searing pain shooting through the whole area. Thoroughly enraged, she pushed the creature back into the living room with a blast of electricity.
"Quinn!" Will cried out, watching the altercation from behind one of the dining room chairs. The monster picked itself up much quicker than she would have liked, petaled head opening to reveal nothing but teeth. With a roar, it crossed the living room with a few steps but this time she was ready, landing a well-timed swing of the axe across its stomach and then shooting an aggressive bolt of lightening at it, sending it flying back again.
She expected to hear the sound of its body crashing against the furniture and the wall on the opposite side of the living room, but nothing happened. She took a few steps forward, wondering if her eyes deceived her, but it was nowhere in sight. With a glance upwards, she made the Christmas lights go crazy so as to warn the other blurry occupants of the living room.
Will observed her as she turned to look at him, tiny bolts of electricity erratically climbing up her injured arm, her eyes glowing brightly. The lights continued to flash around them as the three blurs managed to push the creature back into the hall, into a trap they had laid out, and set it on fire.
"We should keep moving," she told him over the screech of the monster.
"But your arm," he tried to dissuade her, hands over his ears to drown out the sound.
"It doesn't matter now. The blood will only attract more of them, we're better off out in the open than trapped in a confined space like this," she said, firmly pulling him by the shoulder towards the front door. Outside, she surveyed the area looking for any movement between the trees, before they took off in a light jog.
— • —
In the distance, Joyce heard the screech of an animal of some kind.
"Did you hear that?" She asked Hopper before taking off towards the sound. They came up to the back of a house, Joyce realising that it was hers. Hopper led the way up the back stairs, gun at the ready. As they crossed through the kitchen, Joyce stopped to look around at the vines that had invaded from the outside. In a corner on the floor was a discarded bottle of liquor — empty by the looks of it — and a wad of fabric, splotched with blood if she had to guess.
Hopper continued through the house, turning into the hallway that led to the bedrooms. On the floor was a dark stain, still fresh by the looks of it.
"It was hurt," he said, turning back to follow the lines of dark blood that led into the living room towards the front door.
"So was one of the kids," he added, spotting splatter on the wall a shade too light to be from whatever bled on the floor. Joyce swallowed a sob, trying to not let panic overtake her like it had earlier when they'd emerged in this wretched place.
"Don't worry, we're going to find them," he tried to reassure Joyce, placing a hand on her shoulder and gently guiding her towards the door.
— • —
Will didn't understand where Quinn found the energy to continue forward, newly injured on top of that. They had made it up his driveway without any issue, but leading into the town center, creatures seemed to multiply. Quinn took them down with a new level of aggression, he realised, watching her dismember a monster's leg with her bare hands for the second time. This time she went a step further, swinging the leg around to cut through a different monster with the claws.
She had instructed him to stay close to her, but she moved so quickly against the creatures, he thought it best to just tuck himself by cars and against buildings, warning her of any oncoming adversaries if needed. Trying to keep an eye on both Quinn and on the surroundings, Will didn't notice the vine moving by his feet until it was wrapped around his ankle and yanked him to the side, bringing him to the ground.
"Quinn!!" He screamed, getting dragged across the ground. She shot a bolt of lightening out of her hand towards the last creature that was lunging at her and turned to look for him. She ran after him, axe in her hand. Before he could get pulled around the corner, she ran ahead of Will and raised the axe over her head to cut through the vine, not realising that a different vine had shot up from the ground behind her. Mid swing down, the vine shot around her arm and yanked her backwards to the ground. She managed to lodge the axe blade into the ground, only a few inches away from Will and held onto the axe firmly, feeling the vine trying to pull her into the opposite direction. Using the axe as a sort of anchor, she held her free hand out to him.
"Will, take my hand!" She said, reaching for him as he clawed into the ground. She managed to wrap her hand around his arm, both of his hands wrapping around her forearm. Both vines continued pulling them in opposite directions, the two holding each other for dear life. Quinn turned to her vine, trying to concentrate energy to that arm in the hopes of blowing it away.
"Quinn, I don't think I can hold for much longer," Will cried, fingers desperately trying to hold onto her but starting to slip. She tightened her hold on his arm. With a grunt, she pulled against the vine to dislodge the axe from the ground and turned the handle towards him.
"Take the axe, when the vine slows down, cut through it and run. I will find you," she ordered through gritted teeth. Will clumsily took ahold of the axe, other hand desperately trying to hold onto her. Both vines yanked hard in their separate directions, pulling the two apart.
"Quinn!" Will cried out as the vine around his ankle pulled him around the corner. She struggled against her vine, trying her best to minimise the damage being pulled by the arm was inflicting to her head and upper body. She realised that she was being dragged in the opposite direction as the one Will was being pulled in. This wasn't the way they'd come from, so creatures popped out from around different corners, trailing behind as the vine continued pulling her along.
Quinn closed her eyes and took a deep breath, in through her nose, holding it for a few seconds, and released it out through her mouth. She repeated the process twice, feeling the power she kept in her core swell up. She opened her eyes, lightning cutting through the darkness of the sky with a loud clap of thunder.
"Whatever you are, you have made a mistake," she seethed to nothing in particular. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky to the ground in front of her, disintegrating the vine that was pulling her along. She yanked the slackened vine off of her arm and quickly stood up, turning to look at the amount of creatures this little tour of the town had drawn out. She counted a dozen, slowly circling an invisible perimeter a few yards away from her. She kind of missed the feel of the axe in her left hand, but its absence meant she could concentrate electricity equally between both of her hands.
Her strategy up until this point had been to wait for the creatures to make a move. Now, standing in the center of more adversaries than she'd ever had to deal with in a single time, she held her hands out, each one encased in erratic orbs of pure power. She sent a bolt out to her left, striking one of the monsters directly in the head and sending it up back. The others closest to her looked at it where it lay unmoving on the road and turning back to look at her, each one opening their bulbed heads to roar before taking off into a run. She screamed back at them, shooting a bolt at the one coming to her the fastest, electrocuting it to death quickly and then doing the same to the following two. Whatever restraint she had adhered to was completely out the window as the bodies fell to the ground with a splat, as thunder rumbled loudly overhead.
When too many came at a time, she pushed them all back with a burst of power and made lightning strike down from the sky to space them out further if it wasn't a direct hit.
Joyce and Hopper had cautiously approached the sound of fighting in the event that it was Will and the mysterious Five a.k.a. Quinn. They turned the corner to find a teenaged girl shooting lighting out of her hands at one of the creatures that was mid-lunge at her. It was the last in what had been more than a dozen, now all laying dead around her, surrounding her like a macabre wreath.
Before Hopper could stop her, Joyce called out the name Quinn. The girl turned her head towards them, a piercing gaze like the Wheeler girl had described landing on them. She turned to face them fully, erratic lightning still fizzing out of her hands. The look on her face was murderous as she looked them up and down.
"Wait, wait, wait. We're not with the Lab," Hopper said quickly, holding his hands up. Joyce awkwardly mimicking him like she had at gunpoint outside the Lab in question.
"But you certainly came through it," she replied coldly, recognising the hazmat suits. Remembering that she had not been provided one when she was sent here however long ago.
"Yes, we did come through there because you're right. It's the only gate stable enough to get in and out of here," Hopper said, hoping to appease her. Her gaze went back and forth between him and Joyce, trying to recognise these people. She recalled the exchange with Eleven who had said that good people were coming to get Will and her out of there. She had indeed mentioned that the portal at the Lab seemed to be the only reliable entry and exit point.
"Are you Quinn?" Joyce cut in gently. The older woman tried not to noticeably gulp as that piercing gaze locked onto hers. After a beat, the girl nodded, eyes never leaving Joyce's. "I'm Will's Mom, I'm Joyce, and-and this is Hopper," she said putting a hand on his arm, the girl's eyes following the movement. Recognition slowly replaced the look of fury on her face and the lightning she had been holding? harnessing? wielding? (Hopper didn't know where to begin with that) seemingly disappeared into thin air.
"There's something sentient about this place," she warned. "The vines, they separated us, Will and I," she explained as she stepped over the cadavers towards them.
"Do you know where he went?" Joyce asked worriedly.
"I know where we were separated. I can find him from there," Quinn stated curtly. With one more glance at the two, she turned in the direction she remembered being pulled from and started walking. She led them back to the intersection with the General Store at the corner.
Hopper noticed pools of blood on the ground like the ones they'd been following since the house. When he looked up, he caught Quinn's quick glance at the blood before she turned back to looking around the area. On the sidewalk closest to Joyce, she spotted a vine segmented into several pieces suggesting Will's struggle to get out of the vine's clutch.
"This way," she said, leading them down the street with more scattered debris on the sidewalk. They continued quietly until something shiny caught her eye up ahead. Without a word to the adults, she ran over to it.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Hopper exclaimed, startled by the girl's sudden movement. In the hazmat suits, he and Joyce awkwardly jogged to where she was crouched down. She looked up at them, left hand wrapping around the handle of an axe. She slowly stood up, a pensive expression on her face while absentmindedly twirling the axe in her hand like it was a tennis racket, Hopper noticed. The twirling abruptly halted and with the blade of the axe, she silently directed their attention to the building on their left, the Public Library, where a strange glow emitted from the basement windows.
"In here," she whispered, facing the adults. Joyce looked up at Hopper before nodding and stepping forward. Quinn took the lead again and they started up walkway, sidestepping the vines that criss-crossed over it.