~*~
The group of five began to walk back to where Mary parked Steve's car, trying to think about where all of the demo-dogs could've gone. Mary had a firm grip of Steve's hand as she needed to be a bit reassured that they made it out of that one alive.
"You're positive that was Dart?" Lucas asked.
"Yes," Dustin answered him harshly. "He had the exact same yellow pattern on his butt."
"He was tiny two days ago," Max inquired.
"Well, he's molted three times already," Dustin said effortlessly.
"Malted?" Steve questioned.
"Molted. Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms," Dustin informed him.
"When's he gonna molt again?" Mary asked, shining her flashlight ahead.
"It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it," Dustin continued on. "And so will his friends."
"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats," Steve added.
"Wait, a cat?" Lucas asked, stopping Dustin in his tracks. "Dart ate a cat?"
"No, what? No," Dustin said quickly.
"What are you talking about? He ate Mews," Mary stated.
"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asked confused.
"It's our cat," Mary shrugged.
"Mary!" Dustin shouted.
"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas shouted, shoving Dustin lightly.
"No!" Dustin protested. "No. No, I-No, I- He missed me. He wanted to come home."
"Bullshit," Lucas snapped.
"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"
"Oh, so now you admit it?" Lucas asked angrily.
"Guys, who cares? We have to go," Max interrupted them.
"I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas yelled at Dustin.
"So did you!" Dustin yelled back. Steve rolled his eyes, Mary letting her head drop in frustration.
"What?" Lucas asked confused.
"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin said, pointing his flashlight at Max.
"A stranger?" Max asked with a scoff.
"You wanted to tell her, too!" Lucas yelled.
"But I didn't, Lucas, okay? I didn't tell her! We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even. We're even," Dustin argued in anger.
"No, no! We're not even," Lucas protested. "Don't even try that. Your stupid pet could have ate us for dinner!" Mary watched as Steve took small steps forward, light flashing into the darkness.
"That was not my fault!" Dustin argued.
"Hey, guys?" Steve asked.
"He wasn't gonna eat us," Dustin continued.
"Oh, so he was just trying to some say hello?" Lucas asked.
"Guys!" Steve yelled at them. They all looked to him, Steve turning his head to the sound. Mary began to follow him, the kids following close behind.
"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Max called after them. "Hello? Hello?" She began to follow them, the five now coming up over a hill as they were nearing the roaring noise. They stood over the town now, not knowing where Dart was.
"I don't see him," Dustin stated. Lucas brought up his binoculars, looking around and landing on something.
"It's the lab," he said, lowering the binoculars. "They were going back home." They began to trek through the woods again and towards the lab, approaching the outskirts as they saw the gate. They started going through tree's as they heard talking, Steve taking the lead for the group. His flashlight shined on two figures, and soon they were made out to be Nancy and Jonathan.
"Steve?" they asked at the same time.
"Nancy?" Steve questioned.
"Jonathan," Dustin stated.
"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked harshly as the groups met in the middle of each other.
"What are you doing here?" Mary asked in response.
"We're looking for Mike and Will," Nancy answered her.
"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked, referencing the lab.
"We're not sure," Nancy said uneasily.
"Why?" Jonathan asked. One of the monsters suddenly screeched, everyone's heads turning to the lab as the screeching didn't stop. Once it did, everyone began arguing about who they'd seen in the last twenty-four hours, when, where, and what happened to them. As they were all talking over each other, Nancy stepped through the group to look at the lab.
"The power's back on," she said. Jonathan sprinted to the security box, pressing the button for the gate a bunch of times.
"Let me try," Dustin said stepping in.
"No, no, I got it-"
"Jonathan, let me try it!" Dustin yelled at him. He began to hit the button a million times, but it obviously didn't work. "Son of a bitch!"
"You're doing great, Dustin!" Mary called to him.
"Shut up, Mary!" Dustin yelled. He continued hitting the button, and the gate began to open slowly. "Ha! I got it! I got it!" Everyone stood in front of the gate now as they watched the metal move out of their way. Nancy and Jonathan got in the car, going to the front of the building. The other five waited for them to get back, pacing around in anticipation.
"Guys?" Max questioned. They all looked to see Nancy and Jonathan driving towards them, getting out of the way quickly. Hopper slammed the breaks next to them, Steve opening the door first. The kids climbed in first, then Mary, then Steve jumped in and slammed the door. Hopper hit the gas, speeding away from the lab as fast as he could.
~*~
Mary sat on the kitchen counter of the Byers house, her leg thumping up and down as she was unsettled from the recent events that had unfolded that night. Hopper was on the phone, be she was barely listening to him as she was too scared of anything happening to Dustin, or Steve, or anyone else that night.
"They didn't believe you, did they?" Mike asked after Hopper hung up.
"We'll see," he said. Mary tuned him out after that, ignoring the fit that Mike was throwing over Hopper's words. The group subdued again, Mary jumping down from the counter as she walked to Steve. She leaned her head on his shoulder, tired from the whole day. It'd been maybe nearly a day since she last slept, and too much had already happened. The kids began talking again, Mary ignoring them again.
"But there's an army now," Lucas said in agreement to something Dustin had said.
"Precisely," Dustin nodded.
"His army," Mike said like he'd figured something out.
"What do you mean?" Steve asked.
"His army," Mike said again. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike walked to Will's room, everyone following him. He grabbed the picture of what Will drew, showing it to everyone. "The shadow monster. It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."
"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked confused.
"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything," Mike continued on.
"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down," Steve interrupted him.
"Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything," Mike began to explain to him. "And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."
"And so does Dart," Lucas added.
"Yeah. It's like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind," Mike said.
"Hive mind?" Steve asked confused.
"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism. God, do you pay attention?" Mary asked looking at Steve.
"And this is the thing that controls everything," Mike said pointing to the picture. "It's the brain."
"Like the mind flayer," Dustin said with wide eyes.
"The what?" Max, Mary, and Steve all asked at the same time. Dustin grabbed one of Will's D&D books, everyone moving out to the kitchen now, Hopper joining them.
"The mind flayer," Dustin said, pointing to the picture.
"What the hell is that?" Mary asked confused.
"It's a monster from an unknown dimension," Dustin began to explain. "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. Okay, it enslaves 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," Hopper complained.
"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 interrupted.
"Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" Dustin asked. "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."
"Okay, so this mind flamer thing-"
"Flayer," Dustin corrected Nancy. "Mind flayer."
"What does it want?" Nancy asked.
"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race," Dustin informed them.
"Like the Germans?" Steve asked.
"Uh, the Nazis?" Mary asked, raising an eyebrow at Steve.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis," Steve nodded.
"Uh, if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally," Dustin grumbled. Hopper rubbed the bridge of his nose as he was sick of hearing the conversation. "Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself. It wands to spread, take over other dimensions."
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas added on to Dustin's already horrifying point.
"That's great. That's great. That's really, great. Jesus," Steve seethed, running his fingers through his hair.
"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." Nancy trailed off.
"We kill everything it controls," Mike finished for her.
"We win," Dustin nodded.
"Theoretically," Lucas added.
"Lucas, you keep saying worse things," Mary snapped at him. She let her head fall into her hands as she was sick of this whole thing. She listened to Mike argue with Hopper again, over hearing the kid argue with him. Joyce walked into the room, saying she wanted to kill the mind flayer, too. So, they came up with their plan.
Mike figured Will would know what the mind flayer's plans were, so they decided to take Will to a place where he wouldn't know where he was. And thus they commenced their plan.
-----
yeeyee
we're so so sooo
close to billy being back
not much happens these
next two chapters, they're
kind of fillers
but we're very close to some drama