Chapter Twenty | The Plan
Eleven continues to scream and sob as everyone basically hovers her, trying to calm her down. I looked down at her leg again. Something was definitely squirming inside.
"What is that?" Erica asked in disgust.
"There's something in there." Mike pointed out the obvious.
Thanks, Captian Obvious.
"No!" El whimpered, letting out an uncomfortable scream.
"Jesus Christ." Dustin comments beside me.
"Keep her talking," Jonathan instructs. "Keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan then sprinted off somewhere.
Obviously, hopefully, he was going to get something for El's pain. Maybe. I looked around awkwardly at everyone. "So, how's your day been?"
No one replied. Yeah, no, I get it; it's a stressful time.
"Hey, hey, hey," Mike then tells El. "Stay awake, stay awake. Let's get her on his side, on this side."
Steve, Nancy, and Mike put her on the side. "You know, it's uh... it's not actually that bad." Robin tried her best talking to El. "There was a... the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg and the bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane."
"Robin." Steve cuts her off.
"Yeah?" Robin looked over at Steve.
"You're not helping." He replied.
"Yeah and thanks for that image," I replied sarcastically and she gave all of us a sheepish smile.
"I'm sorry," Robin apolisged.
Jonathan then comes back to our sides. "Okay. All right, El?" Jonathan asked. El was leaning on Mike, lying down. "This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"
El lets out a sob. "Okay,"
"Need you to stay real still," Jonathan instructs us. "Here, you're wanna gonna bite down this on this, okay?"
"Jesus Christ."
Mike was given a spoon and he puts it to El's mouth and she bites down on it, letting out a few more sobs. I watched Jonathan pull out a knife.
He hovers the knife over the wound and where the moving thing was in her leg. "Do it." Mike said, noticing Jonathan's hesitation.
"Okay," Jonathan murmured before cutting into her leg slowly, making me cringe. I looked away because I couldn't handle it.
I buried my head into Will's shoulder, closing my eyes. I could hear everyone's discomfort and El's screams.
El lets out another painful scream and it sent chills throughout my body. I couldn't watch. I felt Will cringe beside me.
"No!" El cries out and I looked over at her, Jonathan's hand was in her leg where he had cut. I felt like throwing up.
"I think I'm going to be sick." I murmur to Will.
"Stop it! Stop!" El screamed out.
"No," Mike commanded Jonathan who stopped doing it.
"I can do it." El whimpered, sobbing some more. "I can do it." She slowly sits up. She then uses her powers to lift out whatever thing she had in her leg. As she was doing this; she lets out painful screams.
That's when the glass behinds us smash into pieces, making all off us jump in fright. I clutched onto Will's hand, moving closer to him, my heart pounding.
Since we were closest to the glass; Will covers me as much as possible, we were so incredibly close to each other.
I then saw what was coming out El's leg as she had pulled it out, continuing to scream. She then throws thing towards the other end of the Starcourt Mall.
I watch it crawl away, but it was soon stomped on by someone. And the someone was Hopper, Joyce, and a random old bald guy standing next to them.
-
"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave the way into our world." Mike begins to explain to the adults.
We were all standing now after Joyce had reunited with her boys we began to explain to them what's been happening. We all standing in a circle by the water fountain.
"And it almost did." Nancy continued. "That was just one tiny piece of it."
"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked. I've never seen it, but apparently, Mike, Max, El, nancy, Jonathan, Lucas, and Will all have.
"It's big," Jonathan answered. "Thirty feet, at least."
"Yeah." Lucas agreed. "It sorta destroyed your cabin." He then whispers. "Sorry."
"Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?" Steve asked beside me.
I looked over at El who was in Hopper's arms, resting as she lied/sat down on the bench with Joyce beside them.
"Yes," Nancy confirmed.
"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people?" Steve continued.
"Yes, exactly," Nancy confirmed once again.
"Yeah, okay," Steve murmured. "I... yeah, just making sure."
"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked from the bench.
"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's alive," Max speaks from the other side of me.
"But if we close the gate again..." Will trailed off.
"We cut the brain off from the body," I caught on, nodding, finishing his sentences. We made eye contact and he nodded.
"And kill it," Lucas added. "Theoretically."
"Yoo-hoo!" Murray, the bald guy yells out and we all look over at his direction. He walked towards us, waving papers in the air. "Yoo-hoo!" Once he came over to us he placed down the sheet of the paper which looked like a map in the Russian base. "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'. Now the hub takes us to the vault room."
"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked as we all surrounded the table.
"Right here." Murray points to the location on the map. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so."
"More like 500." Erica stepped forward. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"
Murray looked over at the child. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" Erica sassed back.
"Murray... Bauman." Murray answered with less sass.
"Listen Mr. Bauman," Erica started. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And if all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."
"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray asked.
"Um, I'm ten, bald bastard!" Erica spat out.
"Erica!" Lucas stuttered.
"Just the facts!" Erica defended.
"Sure it may be the facts, but we don't say it out loud," I advise and Murray's mouth dropped some more. Will chuckles beside me. "But she's right. You're all gonna die."
"But you don't have to." Dustin jumps in. "Excuse me," Murray looked down at him. "Sorry, may I?" He gestured towards the map.
"Please." Murray nodded.
Dustin takes a seat down at the table. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me, Erica, and Aspen we can show you the way."
"You can show us the way?" Hopper slowly draws out.
"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your..." I looked over at Dustin and Erica. "Navigators."
Hopper shakes his head. "No." My smile dropped. "Nope."
We all then split apart and Erica and I walked towards Will and the others. "Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die." Erica nodded.
"Yup," Dustin agrees. "Most likely."
"You guys survived." Lucas pointed out.
We turned to them. "Barely," I recall. "We could've really used you guys down there."
"Could've used you guys up here, too." Mike added.
"Yeah, man. We missed you, dude." Lucas nodded and looked over at me. "And you too, Aspen."
"Yeah. Big-time." Will added. And even though they weren't talking to me, I smiled. Cue them hugging. The boys pulled into a group hug.
"I missed you guys, too." Dustin smiled. "Big-time."
"Cute," I muttered.
"Please don't cry, nerds." Erica buts in.
"Erica." Lucas groaned.
"Keep saying my name, see what happens." Erica threatened.
"Hey, heads up," Hopper calls over to us. "You can navigate, just from a someplace safe." Hopper hands Dustin the walkie talkie and he brings out his own.
"It's not that simple," Dustin tells Hopper.
"The single won't reach," I added.
"Not with this." Dustin continued. "You need something with a high-frequency band to relay with the Russian's radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That's me."
"If you want us to navigate, you got us," I added on. "But we need a head start. And a car."
We were doing all our goodbyes/see you later, I hugged Max tightly. "Please don't go. I just got you back." Max says softly, wrapping her arms tightly around me.
"I'll be fine, Max," I reassured her, rubbing her back. "I'll be back in no time."
"You better." Max jokes. "I love you, okay?"
"Yeah, I love you too." I let go of her and turned around, only to be faced by Will. "Hi."
"Are you really going?" Will questioned. I nodded. "Well, don't die, please. Okay?"
"I promise to not die if you don't die," I smiled sadly.
"I promise," Will agreed. He then wrapped his arms around me for a hug. I hugged him back, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms.
"Okay, lovers," I heard Murray call on us. "If you're gonna kiss, do it now."
I blushed deeply, pulling out of his arms and I felt everyone's eyes on us. Well shit, now I'm under peer pressures. I lean in and gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning around and keeping my eyes on the ground.
I followed to over where Dustin, Erica, Steve, and Robin were.
Robin smiled at me and wrapped an arm around me. "A kiss on the cheek? Really, Aspen?"
I shoved her away from me. "I was nervous! Y'all were starring at us." Robin just simply laughs and we all walked off, ready to go get Hopper's car.
A/N
Hi, super late update and super-short chapter and I'm sorryy.
I hoped you enjoyed this chapter somewhat, the next one will be longer I promise.
Also sorry for not making them actually kiss. I feel like Aspen wouldn't do that in front of everyone. So the cheek is all you're getting, for now.
Be ready for tomorrow's chapter! And, thanks so much for 10K wtf
Anyways, like, share, comment :)