Chapter 11: Compass
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Mike had left before Tee had woke up to go to Will's 'funeral.' They were back five hours later, Mike sitting Tee and El down to explain the Theory of the flea and the acrobat.
"Picture an acrobat standing on a tightrope..." She listened to him, staring into his eyes as she leaned forward slightly in an effort to concentrate, "Now, the tightrope is our dimension..."
She's already zoned out. It was nothing to do with the situation. She just zoned out and stared at the boy - he was very cute, with plump lips and dark brown eyes richer than chocolate itself. She zoned back in when he spoke louder slightly.
"The flea can also travel this way along the side of the rope. He can even go underneath the rope. The Upside Down. To get there you have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating. Like a gate."
"A g-gate?" Tee asks, eyebrows furrowed. Mike nods softly at her.
"Yeah, and it would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But that's got to be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?" Mike says with a small smile, thinking his explanation was perfect - but both girls were rather lost.
"Right," they both spoke quietly and unsure.
"What we want to know is, do you know where the gate is?" Lucas asks the two girls. He was sitting a little further away on a different couch.
Tee stopped to think deeply, while El was quick to shake her head - lying to try and keep them safe. Tee couldn't think of any gate.
"Then how do you know about the Upside Down?" Lucas asked, getting visibly frustrated. El looked down as Tee sighed.
"Any ideas, Tee?" Lucas asks the girl - she seemed to talk more than El, and seemed more trustworthy.
"N-no." She speaks softly to the boy, "b-buh-but, if it has a-a la-large amount of e-energy, there h-has to buh-be a way of tracking I-it." She says and he nods, agreeing.
"We just need to figure out how," Mike nods with Lucas. The three of them turn their attention to Dustin show as pacing up and down, staring at something.
"Dustin, what are you doing?" Mike asks the boy who was staring at something as he paced, He didn't reply. "Dustin? Dustin!"
"Dustin!" Lucas finally shouted. Dustins head snapped towards the four.
"I need to see your compasses." Dustin ordered, his voice sounding snappy and rushed.
"What?" Mike asked confused.
"Your compasses! All of your compasses, right now!" He shouted, Lucas and Mike shared a look before rushing up and looking around for compasses.
"W-why do you nuh-need compasses?" Tee asked the boy as Lucas and Mike continued to grab them from around the room.
"Just wait, have some patience," He says to her simply before shouting at the boys to hurry up.
"Hypocrite!" Lucas said with a little laugh. They all placed down their compasses.
"What's exciting about this?" Mike asks confused as Tee moves to stand next to him, picking up one of the compasses to look at closely - she'd never seen one before.
"Well, they're all facing north, right?" Dustin says as Tee turns a full 360, watching the needle move before standing straight and seeing the needle face north.
"N?" She asks, only seeing a letter.
"Yes, N for North," Dustin says exasperatedly.
"Y-yes," She responds, answering his first question about the needles facing north.
"Well, that's not true north." He says to them, earning a scrunched yo face from Lucas.
"What do you mean?" Mike asked as Tee pointed the compass at him and said, "E!"
"E for east," Mike said quietly and the girl nodded.
"I mean exactly what I just said," Dustin carries on, ignoring Tee, "That's not true north."
Both other boys stay silent as Dustin raises an eyebrow.
"Are you both seriously this dense?" Dustin asks the two, not understanding why the two suddenly became brainless.
"The sun rises in the east-" he starts
"E!" Tee chips in as he says it, earning a small glare from him that she doesn't see.
"-and it sets in the west."
"W!" She says again.
"We get it," Lucas says to the girl as Mike takes the compass out of her hand and puts it on the desk.
"Which means that's true north," Dustin says pointing behind Mike and Tee.
"So what you're saying is the compasses are broken," Mike says simply as Tee checks behind her to see if El's okay, only to see her asleep on the couch.
"Do you even understand how a compass works?" Dustin asks them, "Do you see a battery pack on this?"
"No," Mike says as Lucas shakes his head.
"No, you don't. Because it doesn't need one," Dustin explains to them as he picks one up, Tee watching his movements intensely, "The needle's naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole."
"So wuh-what's wrong w-with them?" Tee asks him with her eyebrows furrowed, genuinely interested. It was as if day by day she was becoming her old self - the girl she was before she was taken away.
"Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered," Dustin began to explain, "You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's the presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power. And then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said."The gate would have so much power-"
"It could disrupt the electromagnetic field." Mike finished, finally catching on.
"Exactly," Dustin nods.
"Meaning, if we follow the compasses' north..." Lucas began to slowly understand what he was on about.
"They should lead us to the gate," Dustin finished.
"Sick," Tee smiled.