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"RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!" Sam was yelling at Lucas as they desperately tried to exit the woods. It was difficult to both run and lug their bikes down the terrain, but they needed to leave the forest pronto.
The "Bad Men" knew about the kids. They knew about Eleven. They knew where Eleven was. They were going after her right now.
As Lucas stumbled running, he tried screaming into his Walkie Talkie, "Mike! Dustin! Are you there?! Eleven?! The Bad Men are coming!"
"Are they going to be able to hear us?!" stressed Sam, ignoring her low stamina and pushing through with the running.
"I don't think we're in range," Lucas stressed back, "but we have to try!"
They finally left the woods and reached the road. Neither kid wasted any time in swinging one leg around their bike seats and began peddling like their lives depended on it. Sam didn't even have time to get her own Walkie out of the bag on her back.
Right now, Lucas was the only one who could desperately yell, "Guys, can you hear me?! The Bad Men are coming! I repeat: The Bad Men are coming!"
"Where do you think they are?! Do you think they found Eleven?!" Sam wondered in a panic as they biked desperately.
"I sure fucking hope so!" responded Lucas. Then, back into the Walkie, "The Bad Men are coming! They know about us!"
Sam groaned in frustration. "We're not in range!"
"Useless son of a bitch!" he yelled, referring to his Super-comm.
Sam had never ridden on her bike so fast. Lucas wasn't even sitting on his bike seat with the way he peddled. They had finally made it back to the suburban part of town, hoping to god, by some miracle, at least one Party member could hear them.
"Lucas, if you can hear us, slow down," came the voice of Mike into his Walkie. Both Sam and Lucas gasped in hope, making grateful eye contact with one another. "We can't understand you."
Lucas responded, "Yes, I copy! Do you?!"
"Mike, they know about Eleven!" shouted Sam, hoping her voice was loud enough for Lucas's Walkie to catch it. "Get out of there! They know about Eleven!"
"THE BAD MEN ARE COMING!" Lucas stressed. "ALL OF THEM!"
Sam continued, "DO YOU HEAR US?! THE BAD MEN ARE COMING!"
"WE REPEAT — THE BAD MEN ARE COMING!"
Sam and Lucas truly had no clue what Mike and the others were hearing. The only time Mike responded, he was telling them that he couldn't understand. If they didn't know, and were taken by the Bad Men, Sam and Lucas would never forgive themselves.
"Where do we go?!" panicked Lucas. "We can't go home, anymore, it isn't safe!"
Sam looked utterly distressed, mind working faster than it ever has to try and figure out a plan to save them. Like a switch was turned on, Sam formulated an acceptable plan. Grade B at best, which was sort of outstanding with what they had to work with.
"The half-way point between where we are and Mike's house — assuming he's there — is Elm and Cherry," Sam rambled breathlessly. The information started spewing out of her, saying, "From there, we can make it to that junkyard if we ride through Mulberry and cut through Oak. There was a bus out there. We can store our bikes under it, then hide inside."
"Jesus," muttered Lucas under his breath, not really feeling like this was real. They're only twelve, but Sam was creating a plan so they can hide like fugitives. "Okay. Okay, that works." Back into his Walkie, Lucas desperately called, "Mike! Mike, are you at your house?! MIKE?!"
There was no response. Sam and Lucas's heads turned to each other, making fearful eye contact.
"MIKE, DO YOU COPY?!" Sam attempted, desperate for some semblance of an answer.
Nothing.
Lucas shook his head anxiously as they biked. "He's not answering! What if the Bad Men got him?!"
"No," pressed Sam, not even allowing herself to think of the possibility. "When he responded to us, he said, 'we can't understand you,' so try Dustin. He always has his Walkie on and connected to that headset."
Trying his best not to crash, Lucas kept one hand gripping the bar of his bike and unlatched the other one to fumble with his Walkie. He switched the channel to the one Dustin's Walkie was default set on.
"Dustin!" Lucas tried. "Dustin! Dustin?!"
Sam begged, "Dustin, please! Do you copy?!"
"Dustin, do you copy?!" asked Lucas, sounding just as tired with Sam with the amount of physical effort they'd been exuding.
And as if a prayer was answered—
"Yeah! Lucas, Sam, they're on us!" came Dustin's warbled voice through the Walkie.
Sam and Lucas looked to each other gratefully. Although it wasn't good the Bad Men were following their friends, Dustin had answered, so they weren't dead.
Not yet, at least.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"CORNWALLIS!"
Under any other circumstance, Sam would have smiled. She was right about them being at Mike's house, so they could follow through with her impromptu plan.
"Alright, Dustin, listen to me!" shouted Sam, legs burning as she biked impossibly faster. "MEET US AT ELM AND CHERRY!"
"Copy! Elm and Cherry!"
Sam and Lucas continued as swift as their legs could bike them. The Party knew the town by heart, so they didn't even need to look at street signs to get to their chosen destination. The kids even knew the shortcuts, so Sam turned sharply, leading Lucas off of an actual road and cutting through in front of Brimborn Steel Works.
They continued riding desperately, wanting to reunite with their friends more than anything. The duo ended back onto the streets, thankfully reaching Cherry Oak quickly.
Through the trees, Sam could make out the biking figures of Mike, Eleven, and Dustin. She and Lucas wasted no time in peddling further, finally meeting up with their friends.
For some reason, though, Mike skirted to a stop with Eleven at the back of his bike. Dustin was pulled up to the left of him.
Sam and Lucas came up from behind, both of them abruptly stopping at Mike's right side.
"Lucas!"
"Sam!"
While Sam and Lucas were happy their friends seemed so relieved to see them, they didn't have time to dwell on that right now.
Lucas sounded more exhausted and breathless than ever when he wasted no time with, "Where are they?"
"I-I don't know!" Mike responded anxiously, sounding taken aback with how disheveled Sam and Lucas were.
In their defense, they'd just biked from one side of town all the way to another. The fact they're still upright should be honored.
"I think we lost them!" said Dustin, but he spoke too soon.
Sam looked around, and right behind her, she immediately saw a multitude of the white and blue vans on Gloucester and reaching Cherry.
She whipped her head back towards Dustin, sarcastically snapping, "You think?"
"GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!" Mike yelled.
He was the first to start peddling in desperate attempts to get away from the Bad Man. Sam, Lucas, and Dustin were right on his trail, biking in fear. The vans were coming onto them so fast that their wheels squeaked loudly when they turned onto Cherry.
"Faster, faster!"
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"
"If we die, I want you guys to know I love you!"
The Party members biked forward, knowing there were three vans literally right behind them. They wanted nothing more than to evade getting stopped.
But the odds were not in their favor.
Right in front of their eyes, another large van turned from Cherry Oak onto Cherry at top speed.
It was heading right towards them.
They couldn't stop biking, because of the vans behind them, but they couldn't ride forward, because of the van in front of them. The kids were effectively being caged in.
The front van came hurtling towards them, and Sam tried assuring herself that it would have to stop — that they wouldn't purposely run over a bunch of innocent kids. And then, she remembered, that this was the Bad Men, and that they had done far worse to far younger.
And that's when the panic set in.
"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
"TELL MY UNCLE I HATE HIM!"
But they didn't die, not actually.
The second Sam looked to Eleven, Sam knew they weren't going to. At least, not by bike-on-van collision.
Eleven looked nothing short of determined, and if Sam had learned anything about her in the near-week Sam had been in her presence — it was that she got shit done when she wanted to.
Which is precisely what happened when her gaze locked in on their pursuer, those doe, brown eyes becoming empty, pitch black holes in a heartbeat. Eleven jerked her head upwards, sending the thousand-pound commercial van soaring over their heads before finally coming to a rough landing behind them. The loud CRASH resonated through the barren streets.
"Holy shit!" Lucas cackled, turning to look at Eleven with wide eyes as she wiped the blood from her nose.
It was awesome as fuck, of course, but they didn't have time to dwell on it. They couldn't bet on not being followed again, so the Party continued biking like their lives depended on it — their lives did depend on it.
"What's the plan — where can we go?" Dustin called out, pushing aside his own we to focus on the fact they were being tailed by the Bad Men.
"The junkyard!" Sam blurted, reiterating her plan from earlier. She barely skimmed a battered mailbox as she darted into a stranger's backyard so that they could enter the woods through the gap in the trees behind their house. "Through the woods to Mulberry and cut through Oak!"
"What the hell did we get ourselves into?!"
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They somehow made it to the junkyard without being found again. Luckily, Sam's plan worked for them perfectly because they were hidden and unharmed. She instructed the boys (and Eleven) as they rode their bikes all the way in front of the bus Sam was referring to earlier.
Mike hopped off his bike first, trying to help Eleven off the back because she seemed more drained and weaker than ever.
Dustin pulled up last, shouting, "Holy — Holy shit! Did... Did you see what she did to that van?!"
Sam was scrambling off her bike, running up to Mike and Eleven, and helping Mike sit Eleven down. Sam was right, she was really weak. She wasn't really sure that Eleven wasn't about to pass out in the next breath.
"No, Dustin, we missed it," quipped Mike sarcastically.
Dustin shook his head in disbelief. "I mean, that was — that was..."
He couldn't find the right words to describe it, but someone else could do it for him.
"Awesome," Lucas finished breathlessly in Dustin's aid. Everyone turned to him in surprise as Lucas panted tiredly. He seemed one hundred percent serious as he nodded at Eleven, "It was awesome."
For a quick, anxious second, Lucas made eye contact with Sam. She smiled at him encouragingly, happy that their discussion made him put all bad blood aside.
Lucas walked up to Eleven, crouching down before her crisscrossed figure. He breathed, eyeing Eleven seriously. "Everything I said about you being a traitor and stuff... I was wrong. I'm sorry."
He even put a kind, remorseful hand on Eleven's shoulder to drive his point into the ground.
"Friends..." Eleven started feebly, blood running down her nose. "Friends don't lie. I'm sorry... too."
Lucas and Eleven smiled gently at each other, and Sam watched the whole ordeal like a proud mom. Discreetly, Sam and Dustin fist-bumped their knuckles together. It took a couple near-death experiences, but their friends finally quit acting like idiots.
"I'm sorry, too," came the voice of Mike.
Lucas turned his head away from Eleven in surprise, watching Mike outstretch his hand again. He got off the ground, eyeing Mike's hand like he had done before.
Only this time, Lucas brought out his own hand and grasped Mike's. They shook hands, and peace was made.
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"This is Randolph Road, right here. The fence starts here," Lucas pointed to the stick he was using as a substitute for the face while he relayed he and Sam's findings to their friends, "and goes all the way around. And this is the Lab right here."
"The Gate's gotta be in there somewhere," Sam added. She looked up from Lucas's stick-like recreation to nod at her friends surely. "It's gotta be."
Dustin's eyebrows furrowed. He asked, "Well, who owns Hawkins Lab?"
"The sign says, 'Department of Energy,'" Lucas sighed, rocking back and forth on his knees anxiously.
"'Department of Energy' — what do you think that means?"
"It means government," Mike answered for him. "Military."
"Then why does it say 'Energy'—"
"Just trust me, all right? It's military, my dad told me before," Mike insisted.
Sam nodded in agreement, her shoulders sagging in exhaustion. "Mike's right. There's soldiers out front."
"Do they make, like, lightbulbs or something?" Dustin asked innocently, his puzzlement only increasing when Sam let out a small laugh at his words.
"No, they make weapons — to fight the Russians and Commies and stuff," Mike divulged, all eyes immediately falling on Eleven.
Sam muttered, "Weapons," looking right at Eleven. They were all struck with the realization.
"Oh, Jesus, this is bad," Dustin breathed, running a hand over his face and glancing around for any reassurance, his worries only increasing when his friends failed to disagree with him.
"Really bad," Lucas stressed, needing his friends to understand how bad. "The place is like a fortress."
Stressed out as fuck, Dustin asked, "Well, what do we do?"
"I say we hide," said Sam. She inhaled through her nose, knowing it wasn't ideal, but it was their most viable option. "Wait it out for as long as we need to."
Lucas nodded at Sam proudly, telling the other Party members, "Sam came up with a whole strategy in, like, seconds. It was kind of awesome."
"And she's right, too," Mike confessed, and Sam was sure he'd never said those words to her before. "We're fugitives now."
The words finally said aloud made the group go silent. They were fugitives. They were twelve years old, harboring a girl with super-powers, and they were fugitives. Just six days ago they were nerding out about the X-Men and playing D&D.
"Guys..." Dustin started tentatively in fear, head slowly turning up towards the sky. "Do you hear that?"
The group of five faltered simultaneously, perking their ears to listen out for whatever disturbance in their uncanny silence Dustin was talking about. There was a military helicopter scraping over the trees at that moment.
"Shit!" exclaimed Dustin, who was immediately hit by Mike by being loud.
"This bus!" started Lucas, and somehow, he and Sam jumped into action at the same time. "Shove your bikes under it and we'll hide inside! Sam planned it all out!"
Mike, Dustin, and Eleven jumped into action with Sam and Lucas, dragging the remaining bikes over to the bus and ramming them under the hefty piece of rusted machinery. Mike and Lucas ushered Eleven inside and Sam staying behind, making sure all her friends got inside the bus before she did. She urged them all to hurry, glancing up at the approaching aircraft every few seconds.
Sam threw herself in the bus and slammed the doors when everyone else was in. She yelled, "Get down!" and they all took hiding spots behind or in between whatever seats were left of the bus.
They all panted heavily, the toll that hiding from the literal government took on them was growing to be huge.
Dustin was leaning on the side of one seat. He threw his head back, shaking it in disbelief and breathing, "Mental."
Mike was looking at Sam, who had her back against the wall of the bus, sitting on the floor. Lucas was doing the same thing across from her, Mike was next to Sam but positioned differently, and Eleven was behind Mike.
"You're a genius sometimes, Hughes," commented Mike, as if he'd never realized it before.
Sam's head swiveled to the side to meet Mike's awed gaze. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Oh, only sometimes?"
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The sound of the military helicopters loomed over them. Sam kept screwing her eyes shut and reopening them, checking to see if it was all a dream.
But it was real.
They were actually fugitives who had been hiding in a bus at a junkyard for about an hour.
"You know," Sam muttered, breaking the terse silence, "I wonder how long it'll take my family to realize I'm missing."
Mike huffed in agreement. "It would take my dad at least 7-9 business days to even get up off the La-Z-Boy."
Dustin sighed, "I wonder how long we'll be missing."
"We can be, like, the Doom Patrol in a way," Lucas commented.
"In what way?" asked Sam, face screwed up judgmentally.
Lucas shrugged. "You know... like, a team of freaks and misfits alienated from society."
"Just subtract the fact they all have super-abilities and are heroes who fight for the greater good," Mike quipped mindlessly.
Just as Lucas opened his mouth to blurt out an annoyed reply, a faint mumbling from Mike's backpack on the other side of the bus caught their attention. The five of them crowded around the device confusedly, wondering who could possibly be comming them when everyone who had ownership of a Super-comm (excluding the one who was stuck in an alternate dimension, of course) was in this very bus.
Mike's backpack quickly unzipped and pulled out his Walkie for everyone to hear:
"Mike? Are you there? It's Nancy. Mike, we need you to answer!"
"Is that your sister?" Lucas pulled a face, staring at the radio warily.
Sam had to commune with his bafflement; there was no reason for Nancy Wheeler to be contacting them on Will's Walkie — or contact them at all, for that matter.
"It's an emergency, Mike! Do you copy? Mike, do you copy?!"
"Okay, this is really weird," Dustin commented, voicing what they were all thinking.
Sam shook her head, eyebrows furrowed. "There's no way she could know what's going on. Right?"
When Mike refused to reply, Lucas snatched the Walkie from his hands. Lucas tried answering, but Mike tore it from Lucas's grasp before he could even speak. Mike ordered, "Don't answer it!"
"She said it was an emergency!"
"What if it's a trick?!" Mike rambled, paranoid.
"It's your sister!"
"What if the Bad Men kidnapped her?" Mike argued. "What if they're forcing her to say this?"
Nancy's voice continued, "I need you to answer."
"It's like Lando Calrissian," gawked Dustin, eyes widening in alarm. "Don't answer it."
"We need to know that you're there, Mike," said Nancy.
Sam debated, "But how would they have gotten a hold of Will's Super-comm? In that amount of time? I mean, they were chasing us — like — an hour and a half ago! And they're after Eleven, so why would they waste time in their search to go to Will's house?"
"Mike, please. Please answer. This is an emergency!"
"They made El open the Gate to the Upside Down! Which is exactly where Will is!" rebutted Mike. "It's not so wrong to be cautious!"
From the Walkie they heard fiddling and rustling, as if it was being snatched from Nancy's hands. Next thing they knew, there was a new voice coming to them.
"Listen, kid, this is the chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl."
The Party shared bewildered faces with each other, because this situation was getting more absurd by the second.
"Why is she with the chief?" Lucas wondered in bewilderment.
Eyeing Eleven, Dustin muttered, "How the hell does he know about—?"
"We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up. Are you there? Do you copy? Over."
The five friends looked at each other for a moment, and Sam had a feeling they were all on the same page. Their options were very limited right now, and they needed to answer. Mike held the Walkie before his mouth, and everyone gave a nod.
"Yeah, I copy. It's Mike. I'm here," said Mike as he glanced at his friends. "We're here."
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Only thirty minutes had passed since the Party communicated with Nancy and Chief Hopper, yet no one had come to their rescue. Some of them were handling the tense, patient waiting just fine (Sam, Lucas, Mike, and Eleven), while others were — in a word — not (Dustin).
Dustin had been pacing back in forth since they put the Walkie down, not stopping once. Sam was worried he would tread holes in the metal floor.
"Will you stop pacing?" Mike asked in annoyance when Dustin's anxious finally got to him.
Dustin shook his head, still pacing. "It's been way too long. 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!"
"Well, maybe you should yell a little louder, Dustin," commented Sam sarcastically. "That way the Bad Men can get us faster."
"This isn't funny, Sam!" whined Dustin. "We've totally been set up!"
"Why would the chief set us up?" Lucas asked logically, also frustrated with Dustin's paranoia. "Nancy, maybe" — Mike threw up his hands with a wildly offended face — "but the chief?"
Dustin pointed at him, saying, "Lando Calrissian."
"Would you shut up about Lando?!" barked Lucas, adjusting the army bandana on his head so he had something to do with his hands that didn't involve throwing Dustin out of the grimy bus window.
"I don't feel good about this," mumbled Dustin, leaning right into Lucas's face as his voice continued to grow in both volume and distress. "I DON'T FEEL GOOD ABOUT THIS!"
"WHEN DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT ANYTHING?!"
Sam and Mike's heads looked to each other with matching, deadpan expressions.
In the end, the thing that eventually shut Dustin up, was the sound of a vehicle approaching from outside. Sam jolted up at the sound, which was like music to her ears, because, finally, Chief Hopper had arrived. All the Party members shot out of their seats eagerly, running to front of the bus and peering out the windshield.
There was a car driving into the junkyard, but Sam was quick to take not it was not the chief's signature brown, police car. Not only that, but she heard the sound of a different engine. Sam looked to her right, and there was a second car pulling up.
"Shit!" exclaimed Dustin.
The kids frantically started into motion. Mike repeated, "Go, go, go, go," as they all scrambled away from the window and towards the back of the bus again. Sam dived behind one of the deteriorating bus seats, knowing her friends were doing the same.
"Lando," Dustin sneered.
Lucas rolled his eyes, not even bothering with a reply to his friend's petty remark, but focusing on the important matter instead.
"Do you think they saw us?" asked Lucas.
"We were pretty visible," Sam panicked.
"The three of you — shut up," Mike ordered, darting his eyes between them for a moment.
Sighing, Sam held back a retort and pressed her lips together, silently hoping the Bad Men would just leave; that they'd only scope outside and infer the kids weren't there. Sam closed her eyes, trying her hardest not to panic outwardly. She tried focusing on the silence, but all she could hear was three of the car doors slamming shut.
The Bad Men were right outside.
Sam tried regulating her breathing, but it came out shakier than ever. She just kept her eyes screwed shut, squeezing her hands into fists and causing her nails to dig into her palms.
There were footsteps trekking around in the grass, and one pair sounded way too fucking close. To make everything a million times worse, Sam's eyes snapped right open when she heard the bus door squeak open slowly.
Just as Sam risked a quick glance towards the entrance of the bus to assess their chances of survival, the suited man's head was being slammed into the dirtied glass of the bus door. He was knocked out instantaneously, falling limp onto the aging grass beneath him.
Sam faltered, brows pinching in confusion as she listened intently to the sounds of the struggle occurring just a few feet away from her. She glanced at Lucas who was so close that their shoulders touched, a curious look passing between them.
Then, a pained yelp rang through the junkyard. There was some more scuffling an unholy number of muttered obscenities, and then the abandoned vehicle the Party had hidden themselves in was jostling under the weight of their apparent savior.
And who else would it be, but Chief Jim Hopper in all his beer-bellied, unshaven glory?
"All right, let's go," he panted.
They blinked back at him, awed beyond compare. For a few seconds, the Party and Hopper were staring at each other stupidly.
"Let's go!"
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By the time Sam, Lucas, Mike, Eleven, Dustin, and Hopper made it all the way from the junkyard to the Byers' household, the sun had fallen and it was now dark at night. Hopper's car could only fit so many, so Mike was seated in the passenger seat, while Sam, Lucas, Eleven, and Dustin were all of four people squished in the three seats available. Sam was thoroughly uncomfortable the whole ride, and grateful than ever when Hopper finally pulled into Will's driveway.
Sam basically threw herself out of the car, and could've kissed the ground out of relief. As everyone else filed out the car, the Byers' front door flew open. The first person Sam saw rushing out was Joyce and Jonathan Byers, followed by Nancy, who was being followed by...
"Corey?"
"Mike. Oh, my god. Mike!" Nancy exclaimed in relief, before running forward and pulling her brother into a hug. It was a huge difference compared to fucking Corey Alan Gray and Sam, who were just staring at each other, the latter in bewilderment.
She blinked her eyes, making sure this wasn't a dream.
When Sam found her words, the first thing she spewed out was, "What the hell are you doing involved in all of this?"
Corey's blank face immediately morphed into his usual annoyed and guarded once. He crossed his arms over his chest, shifting his weight onto one leg while the other propped out like the sassy little bitch he was.
"First of all," began Corey, "hypocritical question. Second of all: I may or may not have been paid to vandalize the movie's front sign, got caught and arrested by the police, eavesdropped on a conversation between Hopper, Mrs. Byers, Jonathan, and Nancy, then forced them to let me come along because I fucking knew something was up. Obviously."
Sam pulled a face at him. Childishly, she repeated, "Oh, yeah, 'obviously.'"
"Shut up," Corey snapped. "And let me get this straight. This whole time— when I thought you were mourning the loss of your dead friend — you've been harboring a lab experiment in Wheeler's basement because you think Will Byers is alive?"
"He is alive," Sam snapped right back, because her extended family brought out the worst in her.
"Okay, this is..." Dustin trailed off, eyeing Corey up and down like he was an oddity, "really weird, I know, but can we remember we're hiding from the government? Can we explain all of this inside?"
So that's what they did. All of Sam, Lucas, Mike, Dustin, Eleven, Corey, Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce, and Hopper sat down in the Byers' living room and recounted all of the events that had gone down in the past few days.
Starting with Nancy and Jonathan, apparently Nancy's best friend Barbara also got taken to the Upside Down, and, somehow, Jonathan got a picture of her alone that included a literal Demogorgon in it. Since then, they'd been trying to kill one, except one of those attempts involved Nancy getting stuck in the Upside Down for a minute and almost being eaten alive.
Joyce, the amazing mother she was, never believed Will was gone for a second. Sam knew it had something to do with the Christmas lights strung around the entire house, with an alphabet painted on the wall in black paint. Hopper was the one telling Joyce she was delusional until he had a run-in with everything for himself. He was the one that discovered Will's body was a fake, and he was the one who found out what the Lab was really doing.
Then, of course, the Party went into detail with all the crazy events that have happened to them. A lot of things began to click once everyone knew of everyone's sides of the story. The Gate, the Upside Down, Eleven, and the Lab all started to make more sense now that they'd joined forces.
Sam was still confused about Corey being here, but everyone was getting pissed off at the fact they kept snapping at one another.
"Okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat," Mike explained to the older ones, using Mr. Clarke's drawing replicated on a sheet of looseleaf in his favor. "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 nodded.
Lucas looked to Sam, back at the others, and said, "That we tracked to Hawkins Lab."
"With our compasses," added Sam.
But she was met with very confused looks from Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy and Corey, who didn't understand the correlation at all.
Dustin opened his mouth to explain the science behind it, "Basically—"
"No, not you," Mike immediately cut him off. "You make it sound more confusing than it already is."
Dustin gaped in offense, but ultimately knew Mike was right. He groaned, then nodded to Sam, signifying for her to explain instead.
"Okay, so the Gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle," said Sam, in much simpler terms than Dustin would have used.
Corey huffed, "You're such a nerd."
Sam's eyes narrowed at him, glare hardening. "Can you kill yourse—?"
"Guys!" Lucas interjected for the millionth time, sounding thoroughly tired.
Sam and Corey deflated in unison, crossing their arms like little kids.
"Is this Gate underground?" Hopper asked from the vintage armchair he sat in.
"Yes."
It was Eleven who answered him, and all eyes went to her. Not only was she an oddity, but this was the first time she'd spoken since being at the Byers' house.
Hopper's head turned to her with an unreadable gaze. He asked, "Near a large water tank?"
"Yes," Eleven nodded.
The Party's gazes moved from Eleven to Hopper to each other. Eleven and Hopper knew something they didn't.
"H-How do you know all that?" questioned Dustin, disturbed.
But Hopper only stared back at Dustin, and the silence gave Mike the time to think thoroughly about it.
"He's seen it," Mike worked together.
From the couch with Jonathan, Nancy, and Corey, Joyce asked Eleven, "Is there any way that... that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this—"
"The Upside Down," Eleven finished for Joyce, ignoring the way Hopper's gaze was trained on her.
"Down. Yeah," Joyce confirmed in a whisper.
Eleven nodded back at her wordlessly, answering Joyce's question about reaching Will.
"And my friend Barbara?" Nancy wondered to Eleven, sitting next to Corey on the couch. "Can you find her, too?"
And Eleven gave a determined nod.
With that, the group disbanded to the Byers' kitchen table. On the table, Nancy put down the photo of Barbara that Jonathan had taken, and Joyce put Will's missing poster picture. In between them, Mike had set his Walkie there.
Eleven sat down before the objects, put her hands down on either side of the table, and shut her eyes. Everyone stood around the table, watching the girl tentatively.
"So..." Corey started, sounding troubled, "this girl really has... superpowers?"
"Yes, Corey, keep up," Sam whispered right back. She was unfortunately standing right beside him, but used it to her benefit to nudge him sharply. "And keep quiet so she can focus."
Corey sarcastically held his hands up in defense, sending Sam another wide-eyed judging look. "Holy shit, fine. God forbid I question this crazy shit—"
"Shhh," Sam, Lucas, Mike, and Dustin all cut Corey off, tired of him always having to voice an opinion. Maybe their annoyance was biased because of a prior dislike of the rude cousin, but it was also warranted. Mike even muttered an, "Asshole," to drive their point.
Finally, Corey shut the hell up.
The static from Walkie could be heard and even began to increase a bit. As it rose, the light hanging from the ceiling fixture began to flicker.
When it stopped flickering, the Walkie went silent and Eleven opened her eyes.
"I'm sorry," Eleven muttered in a heart-shattering whisper.
"Wha — Why? What's wrong? Wha — What happened?" Joyce stammered, her hand that was clutching Jonathan's squeezing her son tight.
"I can't find them," Eleven admitted weakly, her shoulders sagging in defeat.
All Sam wanted was to find Will alive, but it was starting to seem like a faint dream. Eleven excused herself to use the bathroom, which Joyce directed her to. While she was gone, the group huddled around the kitchen table. The Party began to describe to the confused eyes how Eleven's abilities worked.
"Whenever she used her powers, she gets weak," Mike explained.
Sam nodded in agreement, saying, "The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets."
"Like, she flipped the van earlier," Lucas used as an example.
The corners of Dustin's lips quirked up despite the circumstances. He said, "It was awesome—"
"But she's drained," said Mike.
"Like a used battery," Sam illustrated.
Joyce didn't seem pleased by this explanation. She didn't want to know about drained powers, she just wanted to find Will.
"Well," Joyce frowned at them, desperate for more answers, "how do we make her better?"
Mike shrugged apologetically, "We don't. We just have to wait and try again."
"Well, how long?" Nancy asked in a scoff, because they did not have time to just wait.
"...I don't know."
The group went quiet, because that wasn't the best news. Will and Barbara were still lost, stuck out in the Upside Down, and they had no way to contact them. They all began thinking of other, possible things they could try, and it was Joyce who spoke up again.
"He – He said something about you," started Joyce, and her eyes were trained right on Sam.
All heads turned to Sam, and she looked really caught off guard, uncomfortable by all the attention.
"Um... what?" Sam whispered, eyes darting around anxiously as she began playing with her fingers.
"I talked to him once," Joyce explained, and her words got firmer the more she went on. "I – I heard him. And he was talking to me, but then he said... then he said—"
"'Sam'," the boys finished for her, once they caught on to what Joyce was saying.
She was referring to the day the Party had snuck into the AV room in an attempt to contact Will. Throughout the whole conversation, Will kept speaking to his mom. Except for...
'Will? Will, please, come on!'
'...Sam?'
"That was..." Sam racked her brain, desperately searching for a way to defend herself. "That was a mistake. We don't know how that happened." The boys were staring at everyone else, expressions telling a different, disbelieving story. Frustrated, Sam continued, "I don't know how that happened. I'm sorry, Ms. Byers. I really don't think there's another way to contact Will."
But then—
"The bath."
Everyone's heads turned to the hallway, where the voice came from. Eleven was standing there, no longer in the bathroom. They silently wondered what she meant.
"I can find them," said Eleven. "In the bath."
"The bath, what's — what's the bath?" Joyce frowned, glancing at Eleven with a wrinkled brown.
"Like... like ocean. Big ocean — but has windows. And door — it closes, you can't leave," Eleven stressed, desperate for them to understand. When they blinked back cluelessly, she urgently continued, "Not supposed to feel."
"The isolation tanks. The ones that Becky told us about," Hopper turned to Joyce, trying to provoke a recollection from the woman. "They put the people in there and lose all feeling, all sense — remember? That must have been what I saw in the room where the Gate is."
"Sensory deprivation," Corey said suddenly, eyes widening in recognition. "Like in Altered States."
"Come again?" Hopper coughed, glancing around the table to see if anybody else was as confused as he was.
Jonathan wasn't confused, just bewildered. He asked, "You've seen Altered States?"
"Yes," Corey answered, a little bite in his tone. "With Steph one night when my dad wasn't home. Sam was too scared to join in."
They stared at Sam, waiting for her to snap at him like she'd been doing.
But Sam only shrugged, and said, "It's true. I was."
"Steph always says you can shitty horror movies can teach us a thing or two about the real world," Corey recalled, almost smiling at one of his few, happy memories.
"Okay, well, Chayefsky definitely never mentioned anything about alternate dimensions."
"We'll just have to figure that part out for ourselves," Corey decided.
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They elected Sam be the one who called Mr. Clarke and ask him for more information about sensory deprivation tanks. They needed information on the whole ordeal that extended past horror movies, and the Party felt that Sam would be the best candidate since she could always use the "dead parents and now, recently dead best friend" card.
"You guys owe me for this," Sam frowned at her friends.
"Just tell him your parents are dead," advised Mike, whisper shouting the last word.
Sam sighed tiredly and shook her head before ringing Mr. Clarke's home number that they found in the phone book.
It took a long bit of seconds, but eventually Sam was greeted with a response.
"Hello?"
Sam sighed, looking at the group eyeing Sam expectantly. She turned back away, holding the phone to her ear.
"Mr. Clarke?" she said into the speaker. "It's Sam."
"Sam? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Sam quickly waved off, internally panicking on how she would get this information out of her teacher. "I just... I... I have a... a science question...?"
She even sounded unsure as she said it. Sam cringed to herself, and the group watching Sam seemed annoyed although she couldn't see it.
"It's ten o'clock on Saturday," said Mr. Clarke, concerned. "Why don't we pick this up—?"
"Do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks?" Sam cut him off, getting straight to the point. She tilted her head contemplatively before choosing to add, "Specifically how to build one?"
"Sensory deprivation? What is this for?"
Sam gaped dumbly at no one in particular.
"...Fun."
She winced at how bad at lying she was.
"Okay. Well... Why don't we talk about it Monday? After school, okay?"
And somehow, for being such a bad liar, Sam started herself on a tangent she couldn't stop, too desperate to find Will, "You always say we should never stop being curious. To always open any curiosity door we find. Now, my mom, my dad, and one of my best friends are dead, Mr. Clarke. Science is the only thing I have left."
"Sam—"
"Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked? Why do you want to stunt me from enjoying the only thing that brings me happiness in this life, anymore, Mr. Clarke? Is it because I'm a girl?" Sam ranted, internally surprised that she'd ended up using the "dead parents and now, recently dead best friend" card, after all.
She could hear Mr. Clarke sigh from the other line.
Then, he finally caved.
Sam had moved back to the kitchen table where everyone else was waiting for her. She grabbed a notepad and pencil, writing down everything Mr. Clarke was telling her and not leaving out a single detail. They were going to make a sensory deprivation tank, and they were going to make it right.
She nodded along as Mr. Clarke rambled, even though he couldn't see her do it. The page was quickly filling up with information as Mr. Clarke finished with his explanation.
The second he did, Sam was abruptly saying, "All right, Mr. Clarke. Yeah, I'll see you on Monday. I'll see you on Monday, Mr. Clarke."
Sam hung up before he could get a word in.
"Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" Sam asked Joyce, pointing at the mother with her pencil.
Joyce seemed confused for a moment, before sobering up. "I think so. Yeah," she responded.
"Good. Then we just need salt," said Sam. "Lots of it."
From the other side of Sam, Hopper asked, "How much is 'lots'?"
Sam glanced down at the notepad. Mr. Clarke hadn't given her an amount that was good enough for a kiddie pool full of water, so Sam had to internally do the math in her head and adjust the ratios.
In a scarily quick amount of time, Sam came up with the answer, "1,500 pounds."
"Where the hell are we gonna get that much salt?" Corey asked incredulously.
Fortunately for the group, Hopper had the answer — Hawkins Middle School.
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They all stood in the parking lot of the middle school, wondering how the hell they were going to go about this. Eyes were either on Sam, who was just told the instructions on how to build a sensory deprivation tank, or Hopper, who directed them here.
"All right," started Sam, really shocked with the confident tone she took up. She read the page of the notepad in her hands through her glasses before peering around the group and thinking of a plan. Then, "Ms. Byers and Eleven, you guys can look through the empty science classrooms and find a pair of goggles then block out everything on them. El, you can't be able to see anything, all right? It has to be completely dark."
Joyce and Eleven nodded back at her, the first listed seeming very shocked at Sam creating a plan like this so easily.
"Hopper," Sam turned to the chief, swiveling on her feet, "you know where the salt is. Jonathan will go with you and you two have to get 1,500 pounds. Don't forget that."
Sam took a moment to breath, talking with her hands as she continued.
"Mike and Nancy, go into the supply shed and get a wheelbarrow full of hoses. The more you can get, the better. We want to fill up this pool fast," said Sam, before addressing Lucas and Dustin. "Speaking of, you two need to set up Ms. Byers' kiddie pool in the school gym. That's where all of us will meet back up to finally build the tank."
Corey crossed his arms, furrowing his eyebrows. "And us?" he asked, because Sam had yet to give them a role.
"We're gonna find where the hoses hook up, and we need to find multiple because we need as many hoses going at once as we can," Sam explained. She addressed the whole group, "Got it?"
"Got it," everyone chimed in unison, nodding back at her, and Sam felt like something had shifted in her; something that would be important in the future.
Sam nodded back, trying to hide how shocked she was at her spurt of authority. "All right. Then let's all get going."
And so they did.
Sam and Corey walked fast to where it would make most sense to find a hose faucet. Well, Sam was walking fast, and Corey was more-so following her dumbly.
Corey had been staring at Sam in awe since the parking lot, behaving weirdly. It was as if he was seeing Sam in a new light for the first time ever. And as weird as that realization was to Sam, she was more focused on getting Will back than anything. It was finally a possibility she could get him back soon. Sam wasn't going to waste it away reconciling with the cousin she'd had beef with for two years.
"Okay, so there's two over here," Sam pointed out obviously, not really paying attention to how Corey was not paying attention to her. "I can hook up two hoses right here, and if Mike and Nancy get more — which I hope they do — you can plug them in to the other two spigots we found. Sound good?"
But Corey didn't respond, and it made Sam realized he hadn't said anything since, 'And us?'
She turned around to face her cousin, noticing the far-off look on his face. Corey was looking at Sam oddly, and it made her uncomfortable.
"What?" she asked.
"Why didn't you tell any of us you were being bullied?"
It was a very abrupt question that Corey sprung upon Sam, and she physically paused with how shocked she was.
"Wh-What?" she questioned, sort of dumbly. Sam wanted Corey off her back. "I never said anything about being bullied."
"Yeah, I know," Corey said. He nodded to the corner of Sam's face, pointing out her new eyebrow slit and semi-shattered glasses. "But you are."
Sam was really taken aback with the direction this conversation was turning. Corey had never really pointed out anything about Sam or her life since Sam moved in, unless you count Corey calling Sam and all her friends nerds. The only time he'd paid her any attention before was to insult her, and now he was acting completely different, and it was pissing her off.
"I've been bullied my whole life, Corey. It's not my fault you never cared enough to notice," she snapped.
Sam brushed past him, colliding with his shoulder but ignoring it. She walked away from Corey, heading to the gym and ignoring the lump in her throat.
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Apparently, the way to tell when a sensory deprivation tank was made, is to place an egg in it. There was more to it than that, of course. It's actually to test if you have the correct amount of salt, and the egg floats because the salt makes the water's density greater than the egg. But, the whole gist of it, was: egg floating = ready for next phase of plan.
Mike set his Walkie on a janitor's rack, while Joyce and Eleven joined the group last. As everyone sat around the kiddie pool, Sam took the open spot between Lucas and Dustin. Sam watched Eleven, who now wearing duct-taped goggles, step into the kiddie pool with Joyce and Hopper helping her in. Once Eleven was in, she got on her knees and laid on her back before she finally floated.
The lights on the room flickered and silence filled the room, with only the statics of the radio and the small splashes of water to be heard in the area.
Lucas watched Sam bit her fingernails down — a habit she never seemed to notice and Lucas never bothered to point out.
After a few, short moments, Eleven spoke, uttering a name. "Barbara?" she started, breathing heavily and the lights acted up again until they switched off.
"What's going on?" Nancy asked.
Mike shook his head, saying, "I don't know."
Nancy quickly looked at Eleven with worried eyes. "Is Barb okay? Is she okay?!"
"Gone," Eleven whimpered, a small sob slipping past her lips. "Gone. Gone, gone! Gone!"
Eleven began panicking as her whimpers heightened. Joyce quickly grabbed ahold of her hand and squeezed it in an attempt to calm her.
"It's okay. We're right here. We're right here, honey," Joyce soothed her. "It's okay. I got you. Don't be afraid. I'm right here with you."
Eventually, her breathed evened out and Eleven loosened her grip, though only slightly. Her voice was wavering and coarse as she said into the near-silent gym hall, "Castle Byers. Castle Byers."
Sam noticed Joyce and Jonathan sharing a distressed look, and found herself caught up in her own distress.
'One day, I'll give you all the yellow roses in the world, Byers.'
Please don't be gone. Please don't be gone. Please don't be—
"Will," Eleven announced. "Will okay."
Sam could have cried. She could have fucking cried. Will was alive. Will was alive, he was alive, he was alive — all that worrying, all that overthinking, and it didn't mean shit anymore because Will Byers was alive and the world could keep turning now.
Joyce gasped, and Sam knew she was near-tears, as well. She said, "You tell him... tell him that I'm coming. Mom is coming."
"H – H – Hurry. Hurry," Will's voice spoke from the Walkie propped up on the janitor rack and the relief that swallowed the room was almost unbearable.
"You — You tell him to stay where is. We're coming, honey, we're coming—"
Sudden whimpers were heard from the radio that sounded a lot like Eleven's. Before Sam could process that, Eleven shot up quickly, causing everyone to jump in shock. Eleven ripped off the goggles, her panting increasing as she leaned against the side of the kiddie pool. Joyce pulled Eleven into a comforting hug.
"I've got you. It's okay. I've got you. I've got you. I've got you, honey. You did so good."
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this is making me miss season 1 sam sm she was so innocent and happy and everything was so simple:(
anywho sam and dustin's duo name (u can see it as romantic or plantonic tbh i could 100% see both) is absolutely curlyspecks
onto the last chapter of season 1! let's get this bread!
what'd you think?