Steve reached up from the ground below a five-foot-high ledge for Max's hand. She grabbed onto his hand. His hand slipped under her armpit to help her down. Steve did the same with the rest of the kids. Lauren stayed behind, making she all of them get down safely before she got down. Once all the kids were down, Lauren sat with her legs hanging off the ledge. Steve extended his hand for her. She took it in hers while his hand moved to her wasit. Lauren slid off when she did, so Steve hand slipped to her back. Making her want to scream like, but she couldn't. She didn't. "Thank you." She said quietly.
"Yeah." They continued with their walk to the lab through the dark woods. Lauren was feeling far from okay. She was bleeding rather heavily despite the tight jacket. She thought it might be tight enough and have enough pressure to stop it.
Unlike most of the trek prior, Lauren walked in the front with Steve. When she had stayed in the back behind the kids before. The teens stayed silent. However, the kids behind them shared quiet words. The bugs and animals are still the loudest things in the woods.
They could see the light through the dense forest, only making them pick up their pace. The group finally reached the forest line, seeing Nancy and Jonathan looking into the woods when they walked out. Both sides had no clue why the other was her. There was a dark shadow on her face, but you could see Nancy's facial expression change dramatically. "Steve?" Nancy said.
"Nancy?" Both Steve and Lauren said together.
"What? What are you doing here?" Nancy asked, run-walking up to them.
"What are you doing here?" They started walking up to her and Jonathan, who were doing the same thing.
"We're looking for Mike and Will." Dustin's body language dropped with worry. Looking from the lab to Nancy.
"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin said anyone would have been able to hear the anxiety and worry in his voice.
"We're not sure." Jonathan seemed to have the same worries creeping into his raspy voice as well.
"Why?" There was a screech from the lab, causing them all to turn their heads. All over their hearts sank at the squel.
"That's why," Dustin replied. The worst ran through Lauren's head she couldn't think otherwise. Even if it wasn't good to do so. The boys were in trouble if they were anywhere by themselves. She swallowed down the bad thoughts, thinking back to the conversation.
She looked back to everyone else and immediately looked to Nancy. Nancy was staring down at Lauren's hand. A hand that was interlocked with Steves's. Lauren noticed Nancy's gaze and followed it directly to her and Steve's intertwined fingers. She tried to pull away, but his grip was rather tight. So she wiggled her fingers out of his grasp. This made Steve look down at her, but Nancy's attention was brought back to the conversation. Lauren's hand moved to the back of her neck. She hadn't even noticed, but they must not have let go after he helped her down.
"What happened to you?" Jonathan looked at the girl with the blood-covered clothes. Lauren looked down at her blood-coved pants hand and shirt.
"I sneezed." No one laughed, but Nancy did have a smile flash across her face. Lauren shrugged off the not funny joke she had made. It didn't really matter if anyone else thought it was funny. It gave her something to think about other than the feeling of her everywhere it hadn't before, like her fingertips and even places like her ear.
"Huh?" Jonathan looked confused.
"Nothing, it was a joke." Again, she shrugged it off. "Why would Will and Mike be in there?" Again, Nancy didn't seem to be in the conversation. Her light green eyes were enlightened by the lab light flickering on one by one. However, she seemed to be the only one to notice.
"Just a hunch. When was the last time you all saw Will?" Jonathan asked them all while Nancy pushed past them. Lauren did notice this she watched her friend walk away from the larger group before replaying.
"Two days ago," Lauren said, her eyes flickering back to Jonathan.
"We haven't seen Will -"
"Since umm..." Dustin interrupted Lucas to finish his unfinished sentence.
"The powers back." The final light that brought light to the main area they were in brought it to their attention. Jonathan and Nancy ran to the gate guard's building, pressing the open button. Everyone else ran behind them. Jonathan pressed the button repeatedly with no luck. Dustin pushed in, yelling at him to let him try. He was just as unsuccessful.
Lauren stared up at the high gate. Thinking it could be too hard, she looked at Nancy and Steve and said, "Why don't we just climb it?" Nancy shoulder dropped from her stupid words. She looked at her like she was dumb. Something that annoyed the ever living shit out of her.
"Do you not see the barbed wire?" Nancy lazily through her hand up in the direction of the barbed wire. Lauren threw her hands up, looking down at her body.
"Look at me. I'm already bleeding everywhere else." This time, even Steve was looking at her like she was stupid.
"No, Lauren." Both Steve and Nancy said at the same time.
"Oh yes, the happy couple back together again." She rolled her eyes as when they were together, they would gang up on her unintentionally. At least on Nancy's part, it was unintentional. They gave each other a look, not one Lauren recognized. Dustin kept pushing it this time it opened.
"Hey, I got it," Dustin said pridefully with a smile Lauren loved seeing. His smile just made her so happy. Jonathan ran out of the shelter and got in the car. Nancy ran over to it too and swung open the passenger side door.
"Stay here." She said before she slid in the car.
"Nance." She sat down in the seat. Steve looked like he just got shot in the foot.
"Steve, stay here."
"Be careful." Nancy slammed the car door closed and rode off into the parking lot. The teens and the kids watched them drive into the long driveway road thing. The kids leaned against the guard shelter again, sharing quiet words. Lauren sighed and leaned her shoulder on the gate, staring into the lab parking lot. "Hey, you good?" Steve asked in a quiet tone as he kicked a small acorn by her.
"Are you going to ask me every five minutes?" She said with a soft sigh.
"Yeah, because you're losing more blood every five minutes." Lauren looked at him as he leaned his shoulder against the gate across from her. She actually smiled at him. It was faint, but he'd take it. The only time she ever smiled at him was the first three months they'd known each other and when she was high.
"How bout this..." he hummed a hum in response. "I tell you when I'm not feeling it. Saves each of us the back and forth." He sighed and nodded.
"Sound good." He leaned his full-back on the fence sliding down. Lauren sat down beside him, staring up at the sky. The two sat in silence, only hearing the murmurs of the kids and the sound of crickets. The same thing they heard the entire walk. Lauren was focusing on her breathing, making she the blood she had left and was still getting enough oxygen to the rest of her body.
Breathing. It was something she focused on when she was feeling stressed. It may not make anything better, but it kept it from getting worse. This was something she had focused on a lot recently. Panic attacks had always been a problem ever since her sister diagnosis. The first time it happened, she went to the hospital within minutes. It's scared the same thing happened to Sara. Although it wasn't the still thought of her how to breathe. Every single time she tried to remember it, her mind couldn't think about anything other than the fact that she couldn't breathe.
Lauren knew one was coming on, seeing as she couldn't catch her breath. She was trying to breathe she was trying to remember, but she couldn't. She continued to try and take deep breaths, but it wasn't working. Steve looked over at her. He could hear her sharp breaths. "Hop?"
"I told you I'd tell you. I'm fine." He nodded, looking back at the stars. Lauren wouldn't tell him unless she was really worried about something. With the five or six panic attacks that she's had from stress and guilt recently, she wasn't that worried. She tried to go back to her focus, breathing, but she seemed unable to catch her breath. It was one sharp breath after another.
She turned away from Steve when tears filled her eyes. This was from panic, fear, and pain. She tried to hold back the tears, taking away from the focus of her breathing. Everything started going downhill from here. The tears fell anyway. And when the tears fell, her breathing went out the window. She wasn't able to breathe in. Tears streamed down her face.
Steve turned back to her after hearing the sharp inhale. "Hop?" She didn't turn her head. His hand reached around, putting his hand on her check. Steve pulled her to him, and he could see the tears pouring from her eyes. This was different from the day before. "Hop what is wrong." Those words. Those words are the worst fucking words to her when you are upset. If you aren't already crying it starts the water works. If you're already crying it makes it uncomfortable. In Lauren's case it make her scared. Scared she couldn't breath, scared she'd end up the same way her sister is.
She squeezed the wrist of the had that was on her cheek. "I... can't..." She wezzed bearly getting the words out. His other hand moved to he cheek.
"Don't talk Hop." She kept breathing in but felt like no air was coming in. "Hop breath with me." Lauren looked in his eyes. "In." He took a breath in. Lauren tried to do the same. It was hard. Her lungs burned with the little in incoming hand. "Out," the out was easier. "In," he held the word. However Lauren couldn't follow it. "No, no, in, Hop." She took a deep breath in. Again her lungs burned. "Good, Hop, out." She listened to him pushing the air out like she was blowing out birthday candles. He nodded along with her.
He continued to breathe along with her. The kids sat in ignorant bliss talking amongst themselves. He wipped the tears from her face when she came up from the low. Her breathing was still heavy but it was going to be fine. "Are you..."
"Don't say it." He nodded.
"What was -"
"Panic attack. I'm fine, I'll be fine." He nodded again, wipping another tear from her face. His hand disconnected from face sit next to her. Lauren leaned forward with her hand in her hands. Steve's hand rubbed her back, sending her forward. "Steve."
"Shit, I'm sorry, I was trying... I'm sorry." He looked at his hand that was now socked with blood. When he went to put a resurrecting hand, he didn't take into account the seeped through blood.
"It's fine." She noticed him staring at his hand. She extended her arm. He looked up at her with an unknowing look. "Whip your hand. You don't need my blood on you." His hand whipped on her arm. After this, they sat in silence, still waiting for Nancy and Jonathan to come back.
The cars came bearing down the road, breaking their attention away from the stairs. They all stood up and huddled together. Jonathan's car kept on while Jim's police SUV slammed to a stop. Steve pushed the seat while everyone else piled in the back. "Hurry, hurry." Steve and Lauren played the you go on you go silently. "Get in the damn car." The my both slid into the front seat. They slammed the door behind them. Jim speed off behind Jonathan.
Everyone's eyes were looking at them. "Okay, you can move now." The girl on Steve's lap said.
"Why would I move? I'm the..." Lauren titled her head at him.
"You're the what? Are you going to finish the sentence, please." He shook his head even Jim and the boys in the back shook their heads.
"Yeah, I'll move." He started to move and pushed her back against the door.
"Ough, please stop." She tried to move. "God Steve! Stop!" She screamed. Steve stopped moving, looking at her with big eyes. Sorry for screaming. You were just pushing my back -" She trailed off.
"So, do you want me to stay?"
"Yeah, just sit still, please." Lauren moved forward with her head in her hands. While she was screaming body murder everyone's eyes were on her. Jim says the crimson color stains her gray sweatpants and gray jacket.
"Lauren, why the fuck are you covered in blood?" Lauren threw back her head with a grunt. Not wanting to explain it. Or honestly worry him.
"No reason. I just like the look." He glared back at her. "I got scratched to all hell I'm fine."
"I think she'll need stitches," Dustin said. Max swung her arm back hitting him in the chest. Lauren smiled at her that was something she would do.
"I do not." She lied she'd probably need some but she wasn't going to tell him that. Worrying him wouldn't do anything good.
"What the fuck happened?"
"I'll tell you later." Steve turned to look at her.
"I see where you get your vocabulary from." Lauren and Jim glared at him.
"Fuck off." Both Jim and Lauren said to him, as he turned around. He let out a little laugh.
Lauren sitting there seemed to be on the side of weird. At least for Steve. It hadn't seemed like Lauren put anything to it, she was worried about herself. That was something he could tell. She might of said she was fine but she wasn't. Steve didn't think panic attacks are just normal everyday things, and she seemed to pass it off like a regular Sunday. He was worried because she was bleeding a lot. A lot. He didn't care but he too was covered in her blood.
It was awkward because she was siting on top of him. It wasn't the first time, though she never sat in his lap, and he hoped it wasn't the last. In the sense that she wouldn't die tonight. Not nessacary sitting on him. But her possibly dying was something he was actually worried she was bleeding a lot.
It was awkward because she was sitting in his lap in front of her dad. Although it literally meant absolutely and totally nothing Jim kept glaring at him. It was a very disgruntled stare.
Even though the blood, he could still smell the lavender in her hair. Normal, she smells like cherry with faint vanilla, and it did the opposite of repelling him her attitude was what did that. But the lavender was. It wasn't a pleasant scent.
☆
Jim's car pulled in the driveway of the Byres' house behind Jonathan's car. Jim filed out quickly letting the kids out. Steve helped Lauren out slowly his whole front side was covered in Lauren's blood. Lauren started walking to the front door. "Hop," Steve said running up beside her. "Did you umm."
"I did."
"It's just-"
"It's alright. Steve. You can't help it and I didn't say anything because I think my dad would kill you."
"Okay, but you it's just the way you moved it felt well goo...d-" Lauren shook her head.
"Nope. Nope, Steve stop talking and just help me inside please." Steve grabbed her hand and helped her inside. Where Joyce was in her room and Jim was I. The living room not knowing what to do. When his say his daughter that's what he drew his attention to. "I'm fine worry about them." Lauren said immediately after seeing he Dad look at her.
"Lauren Are you sure?"
"I feel fine." Lauren was pulling up the performance of her life at the moment. She shouldn't be what anyone was working about. All while squeezing Steve's hand in her side. "Make sure everyone is okay. Steve's got me right now. Right?"
"Yep I got her. Nothing's happening." Steve said quite nervous by her Dad. Steve wasn't exactly small but Jim was quite large.
"I'm just going to jet out of your hair while you figure out what to do. I'm sure you'll get it real fast." Lauren walked with Steve by her side into the kitchen with Nancy in it she looked at Lauren and Steve. Lauren's front was cover from the blood pouring from her hand. Steve front seemed to have new blood on it.
"Did you sit on him Lauren?"
"Yeah but only because we were in a hurry.".
"Oh my god, I was kidding."
"Are you mad?"
"No. I was just wondering."
Lauren stood at the dining room table with the boys while her dad was calling for backup. She was staring at the boy on the couch, feeling nothing but sorrow for him. She looked down at the "bandages" on her hand that were covered in blood. Same as the rest of her, but right now, she could clean this one up.
She walked to the sink, unwrapping her hand and discarding the blood-soaked cloth in the trash can. Lauren grabbed the bandages that were in the same place as last year and then ran her hand under the water, washing off any more blood. "Dr. Sam Owens." She heard her dad say to the woman on the other end. She turned off the water, shaking her hand to get off the access water. "I don't know how many people are there. I don't know how many people are left alive." She attempted to wrap her hand but wasn't doing it well. "I am the police. Chief Jim Hopper." Steve grabbed it out of her hand and began helping her.
"You suck at that."
"Thank you."
"Yes, six seven six seven." He hung up the phone and walked into the kitchen. Steve continued to wrap her hand, looking over at Jim.
"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin said, standing up.
"We'll see," Jim replied.
"We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose." Mike looked over at Lauren. "You see what they can do," he pointed at her.
"We stay here, and we wait for help." She walked out of the kitchen and into the back room. Steve ripped the wrap with his teeth.
"Hold this." Lauren held the wrap down when he got some medical tape. He taped it down making sure it wouldn't come undone.
"Thank you," she whispered, he nodded putting both the wrap and tape back in the first aid kit. Lauren put it back in the cabinet leaning up against the counter next to Steve sitting in silence. Mike got up and walked to the living room.
"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" She turned back to them holding up brain puzzles. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome right?"
"Yeah," Dustin and Lucas replied. Mike set the puzzle down on the table.
"We can't let him die in vain."
"What do you want to do, Mike? Hopper is right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."
"Demo-dogs?"
"Demogorgon dogs," Dustin explained to the girl. "Demo-dogs, It's like a compound. It's a play on words–" He kept trying to explain himself.
"Okay," she answered to get him to stop. Dustin's body language dropped.
"I mean when it was just Dart, maybe... but there's an army now."
"His army."
Steve looked at Lauren to see if she was getting what they were saying. Her eyes were set on the boys, looking like she understood. So he said, "What do you mean?"
"His army. Maybe if we can stop him, we can stop his army, too."
"What," Steve whispered to Lauren.
"I have no clue." Mike and the rest of the kids walked to the living room. Lauren and Steve followed behind. Mike was holding a drawing and showing it to all of them.
"The shadow monster."
"It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."
"And this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?"
"Slow down, what?'' Steve cut in still confused.
"Okay so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain then so does Will." Mike explained to the teens that had little to no clue what he was talking about.
"And so does Dart."
"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us."
"I was in his class and I don't remember anything like that," Lauren said partially joking partially serious.
"Yeah I'm with her I don't remember taking a class that has anything to do with this damn supernatural shit."
"That's because you don't pay attention in class."
"You two stop. That's because he doesn't teach that in class." Mike took his eyes off the older two and back to the whole group. "The hive mind."
"Hive mind?" Steve and Lauren asked still extremely confused.
"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism."
"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain. Like the mind flayer."
"The what?" This time Max added to Steve and Lauren's confusion. Mike ran to the boys' room and back to the kitchen with a Dungeons & Dragons rule book. Jim was following behind him after Mike told him they had an idea. He dropped the book on the table. Dustin flipped open the book.
"The mind flayer."
"What the hell is that?"
"It's a monster from an unknown dimension." Steve felt something fall on his shoe. He looked down at the pool of blood on both his shoe and the floor. He looked back up at Lauren's back, the waterproof jacket had blood soaked through it and was collecting at the hem till it grew too heavy and fell. "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home."
"Hop you dripping on my white shoes." She looked down and back up at him.
"And you ruined my white pants last night get over it."
"Okay, it enslaved races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."
"Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game." Jim said annoyed that they even thought it was a mentionable idea.
"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor–"
"Analogy," Lucas correct him.
"Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" He yelled at the other boy.
"You do it to me all the time Henderson." He ignored her.
"Fine. An Analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."
"Okay, so this mind-flamer thing–" Nancy asked looking down at the manual.
"Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin corrected her, causing Lauren to throw her arms up.
"See he did it again," she said quietly, Steve hit her shoulder.
"Hop, no one cares." She pushed his hand off.
"Blow me," both of them drew back into the conversation.
"What does it want?"
"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race,"
"Like the, like the Germans?" Steve shuddered, this time Lauren hits his shoulder.
"The Nazis?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah the Nazis," he corrected himself.
"There you go Stevie," she whispered pulling her arm back down.
"If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. It views other races, like us as inferior to itself."
"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Mike added to Dustin's point.
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas said, finishing the point entirely.
"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve started pacing back and forth.
"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it–"
"We kill everything it controls."
"We win."
"Theoretically." Jim walked over grabbing the book from Nancy.
"Great so how do we kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Jim asked skimming over the page.
"No. No, no fire– No fireballs. You summarize an undead army, uh, because... because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... it... it likes brains. It's just... it's just a game. It's a game."
"What the hell are we doing here?" Jim said angrily walking away.
"I thought we were waiting for your military backup?" Dustin yelled back.
"We are!"
"How are they going to stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike started yelling at him.
"You don't know that! You don't know anything!" He yelled at the child yet again.
"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab. We know it almost killed your daughter–"
"We know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas interrupted and added to Mike's argument.
"We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin finished the whole argument, something they had seemed to do a lot recently.
"They're right," Joyce's faint voice said coming from the hallway drawing everybody's attention. "We have to kill it," Jim walked over to her. "I want to kill it."
"Me too."
'I–"
"Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Mike walked out of the kitchen and over to the two.
"No. But he does." Mike said, Jim turned around to see him. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing. It's Will." Mike took a deep breath. "He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness."
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore?" Max asked walking behind Mike just as everyone else had. "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now."
"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." The all looked a Mike. "If he doesn't know where he is he can't spy right?" He repeated himself as to think of places they could used.
"We could use the shed."
"He knows what the shed looks like." Jonathan tilted his head.
"Not exactly. If we hide the general dead giveaways and cover the walls in blankets or tapes there is no saying if where in our shed or some shed in Antarctica." Jonathan said grabbing blanket from the closet. Without question people followed his lead.
Everyone spilt of there own doing their part. Lauren and Jonathan were getting more sheets of the clothes line. You think this is going to work. "So do you think this is going to work?"
"It had to, Lauren." They continued to unclip sheets.
"So you and Nancy seem different." He glanced up at her wanting her to continue but not saying it, "did something happen?"
"No nothing I can think of." Lauren nodded even though he knew he was lying. "You and Steve seem different. Did something happen?"
"No just difficult times we can't fight. Not right now."
"Seems like more than that."
"I could say the same about you two. It's obvious something happened."
"So what if something did? She's still with Steve." He sighed and cut down the rest of the clothesline before he walked away.
"Okay then," she said quietly before she walked into the cabin with a few more sheets.
☆
They all sat around the Byers' house when Jim and the others walked in the house marching to the table. "What happened?"
"I think he's talking, just not with words." He stated righting down dots and dashes.
"What is that?"
"Morse Code," mostly everyone answered.
"H-E-R-E."
"Here," this time everyone said it.
"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." He took a deep breath. "We need to keep him talking." Jim stood back up grabbing the radios. Tossing it to Lauren she set it on the table as Dustin grabbed a notebook and pen. He walked out with the other not taking the time to explain it knowing at least Lauren would know what to do.
The first letter came through the radio, before the boys translated it Lauren said, "c."
"She's right." Nancy wrote it down. Another thing came back on, Dustin wrote it down, and again Lauren said it before the boys translated. This continued till they got the word. "Close Gate," they all said at the same time. Their heads quickly moved to the ringing phone. Dustin quickly picked it up and slammed it back down only for it to ring again. Nancy grabbed it and pulled it out of the wall before he threw it on the ground.
"Do you think he heard that?"
"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere. Right?" Just when he said this they heard the same dreadful squawking they heard hours prior. They slowly walked to the front room weary of the sound.
"That's not good." Jim walked threw the back door.
"Hey get away from the windows," he yelled at the kids. He threw a gun to Lauren, and extended another, "Can you use this?" He asked Jonathan, he didn't respond so Jim repeated himself.
"I can," Nancy chimed in, Jim didn't say any questions tossing the other gun to her. The sounds continued, everyone braced themselves to fight the incoming creatures. There was a loud thud making them all turn following the sound. "What are they doing?" There was another thud making them turn back.
The sounds continued at an even greater level. The moster came threw the window. It's limp body layed in the corner of the room. "Holy shit." Jim moved closer to it hitting it with his foot. Questions came and went unanswered, till there was another sound dragging their attention back. Everyone was back and alert as the chain lock on the door slid off.
The door opened revealing Eleven. Everyone lowered their weapons saying nothing. Mike looked at her with a smile on his face receiving on back. They walked towards each other wrapping one another in a hug. "I never gave up on you, I call you every night. Every night for –"
"Three hundred and fifty-three days." She finished his sentence. "I heard."
"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"
"Because I wouldn't let her." Jim said walking over to her. "The hell is this? Where you been?"
"Where have you been?" She rebutted, he pulled her into a hug.
"You've been hiding her?" He took a pause, "You've been hiding her this whole time!" He said pushing him.
"Hey," he yelled back. He hit him in the chest. "Let's talk, alone." He pushed him softly back to Will's room. Eleven walked over to Lauren as she set the gun down she wrapped her in a hug.
"Hey Kid, you look pretty hot."
"Bitchin'," she corrected her.
"Bitchin'," she agreed letting go so that she could hug the boys. They wrapped her in a hug.
"We missed you."
"I missed you, too."
"We talked about you pretty much everyday." She pulled away looking at Dustin. Her hand moved to his face.
"Teeth." He looked confused, "you have teeth." He laughed looking over at Dustin who was also laughing.
"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin said making a weird sound, causing mostly everyone to make a face of heavy confusion. Max walked up to the girl to introduce herself just to get shot down when she went to hug.
"Can I see him?" Joyce walked her to his room. Nancy looked over at Lauren.
"What happened how do you guys have her? How is she alive?" Other questions were tossed at her most she didn't even know the answer to.
"I don't even know the full story. I know what I need to." Eleven and Joyce came out of the room shortly after. They were at the table sharing words none of them could hear.
Some time passed and eventually, Jim and Mike came out of the room and Eleven had shared her plan with everyone. "It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. This place is crawling with those dogs." Lauren leaned against a wall for support, starting to feel really light headed.
"Demo-dogs," Dustin corrected him even though he got mad when he was corrected.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass–" He justified his thoughts for the second time that night.
"How is this important right now?"
"It's not I'm sorry."
"I can do it," Eleven added.
"You're not hearing me."
"I'm hearing you. I can do it," she protected.
"Even if you can there's still another problem. If the brain dies the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point?" Max asked.
"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..."
"Will's apart of his army."
"Closing the gate will kill him." Joyce got up walking away. Everybody followed behind her walking to his room.
When they got to his room Joyce looked at the boy and then around his room. "He likes it cold," she muttered.
"What?"
"It's what Will kept saying it to me. He like it cold." She closed the window quickly. "We keep giving it what it wants."
"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..."
"We need to make the host uninhabitable."
"So if he likes it cold..."
"We need to burn it out of him."
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time."
"Yeah somewhere far away," Dustin added.
"I know a place," Jim said making them all look at him. Jim grabbed Will taking him out the door. Jonathan and Joyce followed him outside. They all went outside Steve and Nancy branched off to the junk pile. Lauren stayed with the rest of the kids not knowing what to do.
Lauren watched Mike and Eleven talk for a while just as they were about to kiss Jim called her away. She got in the car at the same time as the others go in the Byres car. Lauren made sure the kids all got in the house. Steve seemed to be doing the same thing. "Where's Nancy?"
"I told her to go." He extended his arm as to go into the house.