We were now in the center of the mall, while everyone was explaining to each other what to do and what they had seen.
"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins," Mike began. "To stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."
"And it almost did," Nancy said. "That was just one tiny piece of it."
"How big is this thing?" Hop asked.
"It's big." Jonathan said.
"Like, 1000 times bigger than that one little claw you saw," I said.
I was still a little shaken up about what had just happened. I was sitting on the edge of the fountain, next to Will's feet, fidgeting with my thumbs inside the hoodie sleeves.
It was also getting hot as hell, and I literally have nothing to change into. And I couldn't just take my hoodie off, because I have nothing but a bra under it. Very convenient.
But anyways. Back to the point.
"Thirty feet at least." Jonathan added.
"Yeah." Lucas said. "It sorta destroyed you cabin..." Hop sighed, annoyed, and trying not to show his anger. "Sorry." Lucas mumbled at last.
"Okay, so, just to be clear," Steve began, "This... this big, fleshy, spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?"
"Yes." Nancy said.
"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people...?" He said, trying to comprehend.
"Yes, exactly." Nancy said.
"Yeah, okay. I-- Yeah, I'm just making sure."
"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Mrs. Byers asked.
"El beat the shit out of it, but yeah, it's still alive." Max said.
"But if we close the gate again--" Will began.
"We cut the brain off from the body." Max finished.
"And kill it." Lucas added. "Theoretically."
"YOO-HOO!" Our attentions shifted to the guy with the scruffy beard and the tank top, who was across the mall, waving papers in the air. I learned his name was Murray. "YOO-HOO!!"
We went to a table in the food court, as Murray slammed some papers onto the table, papers with blueprints.
"Okay, this is what Alexei called the Hub. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."
"Okay, where's the gate?" Hop asked him.
"Right here. Now, I don't know this scale on this, btu I think it's fairly close to the vault room, may about 50 feet or so."
"More like 500." Erica said, coming into the scene, hands on her hips, getting her sass up. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"
I lowkey snickered.
Wow, Erica is REALLY sassy.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked.
"Erica Sinclair, who are YOU?"
"Murray... Bauman..."
"Listen, Mr. BUNMAN, I'm not tryna tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours." Lucas gave her a glance. "And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."
"I'm sorry, why is this 4-year-old speaking to me?"
Wow, insult.
"UM, I'M 10, YOU BALD BASTARD!"
"ERICA!" Lucas scolded.
"JUST THE FACTS!" She retorted.
"She's right." Dustin interrupted. "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me." He said, putting his hand on the papers. "Sorry, may I?"
"Please," Murray said.
"Okay, see this room here?" He pointed to the paper. "This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feed 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 and Erica, we can show you the way."
"You can show us the way?" Hop asked, incredulously.
"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators."
"No." Hop said, shaking his head. "Nope."
Then Hop went to grab his guns and shit.
Me and some of the others were by the fountain, discussing other matters.
"Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die." Erica said.
"Yep, most likely." Dustin said.
"You guys survived." Lucas said.
"Yeah, barely." Dustin said. "Could've really used you down there."
"Could've used you guys up here too." Mike said.
"Yeah, man. We missed you, dude." Lucas said.
"Yeah, big time." Will said.
Then they all embraced each other into a large group hug, but I backed out from it before I got caught into it.
"I missed you guys, too." Dustin said. "Big time." Then he looked at me, who had purposely backed out. "Kylie, get over here," He said.
"No, I doubt you'd want me there," I said, truthfully, recalling the painful memories of the whole pyrokinesis drama.
"What?" He asked confused.
"Please don't cry, nerds." Erica said from the background.
"Erica..." Lucas muttered, about to murder his little sister.
"Keep saying my name, see what happens." She sassed.
Dustin grinned, but turned his attention back to me. "Wait, what'd you do?"
"Mike LOVES telling this story, so I'ma let him take the lead." I said, with a sarcastic smile.
Mike scoffed. "Yeah, well I wasn't the one who decided to lie to us for a whole year about having freaking pyrokinesis!"
"Wait, WHAT?" Dustin asked.
"Oh, here we go again." I said, flinging my arms up into the air. "Look, I said I was sorry, okay? How long do we have to continue this beef?" I said, trying to make sense.
"Forgiving a big, fat, lie about something so big is kinda hard, don't you think?"
"Lucas, Max and Will have already have," I said.
"Well, they're different, okay?! How many times am I gonna have to tell you that I don't think I can forgive you?! Just get lost, already!!"
I paused.
I couldn't tell if he had the face he had on now because he regretted what he said, which I highly doubt, or because he finally got out what he wanted to say.
I felt tears making their way up to my eyes.
Shit.
"I'll be right back," I mumbled, before jogging off to the bathroom, tears staining my eyes already.
-Mike's POV-
I honestly thought being able to say what I wanted to say would make me feel better about the whole pyrokinesis shit, but...
I actually ended up feeling a bit of remorse for saying that.
It's like, the majority of me was telling my to go back and apologize, but the other majority of me was telling me that I'm insane and should feel good that I said what I wanted to say.
"What the hell, dude?!" Lucas whispered, smacking the back of his hand onto my stomach.
I paused, and didn't say anything, and just left my jaw hanging open.
"How much longer are you gonna keep up with your beef, really?" Will said, getting angrier at me by the second.
That's when you know when Will's mad. Because he rarely is.
Dustin was still left there, speechless.
"What the hell just happened?" Dustin muttered to himself, looking at us all.
"Unbelievable, Mike." Will scoffed, before running after Kylie.
I still felt remorse, just didn't know what to say.
"Hey, heads up!" Hop yelled, throwing a walkie talkie back to Dustin. "You can navigate, just from someplace safe."
"It's not that simple," Dustin said.
"The signal won't reach." Erica said.
"Not with this." Dustin continued. "You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower. But for tat 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. But we need a head start. And a car."
-
So now Dustin, and the Scoops Troop (Our name for them) are gonna go to Cerebro, and get all that shit worked out.
But right now that guilt kept taking over me.