"don't you know i'm still standing better than i ever did."
★・・・・・・★
Eleven came through the door as Mike came in front of everyone else. Everyone was shocked that she was alive. They all thought she was dead. They walked towards each other as Mike said,
"Eleven?"
"Mike," she breathed out.
They finally hugged. They've waited for that hug for so long and they finally got it.
"Is that..." Max started asking as Amber and Lucas nodded.
"I never gave up on you," Mike sniffed. "I called you every night. Every night for-"
"353 days. I heard."
"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" he asked. "That you were okay?"
"Because I wouldn't let her," Hopper said as he stepped forward. "The hell is this? Where you been?"
"Where have you been?" El said as she and Hopper hugged.
"You've been hiding her," Amber realized.
"You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike yelled as he pushed Hopper.
"Hey!" Hopper said as he grabbed Mike's collar of his shirt. "Let's talk. Alone." Then they went into a room.
"El?" Amber said as she stepped forward.
El saw Amber approach her as they hugged. El was Amber's best friend last year. She missed her so much and she's back.
"Is that makeup you're wearing? And the clothes! I love it!" Amber said. She didn't know where El got the style from, but she liked it.
"Bitchin'" El said.
"Yeah, bitchin'"
El walked over to Dustin and Lucas as Amber just stood there, happy that Eleven was back. El saw the two boys.
"We missed you," Lucas said.
"I missed you too."
"We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin admitted.
Eleven looked at Dustin's face. She looked confused.
"Teeth," El said as she touched Dustin's teeth.
"What?"
"You have teeth."
"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin said as he did that purring thing again. It confused El.
Max came over to try to introduce herself to El. Amber sort of knew how it was going to go. El doesn't trust a lot of people.
"Eleven? Hey. Um, I'm Max," Max said as she held out her hand for Eleven to shake. "I've heard a lot about you."
Eleven ignored Max's introduction and walked over to Joyce. Max walked over to Amber, slightly confused as to why El ignored her.
"Why'd she ignore me?" Max asked.
"She doesn't trust many people. But don't worry, you're a babe. She'll come around."
Max blushed a little at what Amber called her, but she didn't want to pay any mind to it at the moment. She probably said it to be nice.
Eleven and Joyce walked into Will's room to look at the Mind Flayer drawing Will made. Amber heard their conversation because she was close enough.
"You opened this gate before, right?" Joyce asked as they left Will's room.
"Yes."
"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?"
"Yes."
-
"It's not like it was before. It's grown," Hopper said. "A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."
"Demo-dogs," Dustin corrected him.
"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper said, annoyed.
"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"
"How is this important right now?" Hopper asked.
"It's not. I'm sorry."
"I can do it," El said.
"You're not hearing me," he protested.
"I'm hearing you. I can do it.
"Even if El can, there's still another problem," Mike injected. "If the brain dies, the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point," Max said.
"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..."
"Will and Amber are a part of that army," Lucas realized.
"Closing the gate will kill them."
Everyone looked at Amber. She didn't have much of the mind flayer in her as much as Will did. She was scared. Scared that they would kill the mind flayer's army and Will and her would die. But she'd die anytime for her friends. For Max.
They all walked over to where Will was laying. The window was open as Joyce realized, "He likes it cold."
"What?" Amber asked.
"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold," Joyce said as she went over and closed the window. "We keep giving it what it wants."
"If this is a virus, and Will's the host.."
"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable."
"So if he likes it cold..."
"We need to burn it out of him," Joyce realized.
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time."
"Yeah, somewhere far away."
Hopper thought hard, then he realized where they could take him. He grabbed Will as Nancy, Jonathan, and Joyce went outside and into Mrs. Byers's car. Amber couldn't hear what Hopper was saying. Everyone was staying at the house except for the four, El, and Hopper. El was going to close the gate.
Everyone was standing on the porch as Mike and El were talking. Hopper then called El to come on and ruined their moment. Mike came back to the group and looked like he was crying. He didn't want El to be hurt. He didn't want her to leave again. And neither did Amber.
-
Dustin had the brilliant idea to put the Demo-dog that busted through the window into the freezer. They threw everything out and onto the floor.
"All right," Dustin said. "It should fit now."
"Is this really necessary?" Steve asked.
"Yes, it is, okay? This is a round-breaking scientific discovery. We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog."
"All right, all right, all right. But you're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, all right?"
Steve struggled to put the dead Demo-dog in the freezer as he asked Dustin for help.
"Help?"
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Get the door, man."
"All right, I got the door."
"Ew. Jesus-"
"God-"
They slammed the freezer door shut as they were grossed out. Amber unfortunately watched as that happened. She was grossed out too.
Lucas and Max were sweeping the glass from the floor as Mike was pacing. Amber came over to the boy and girl, annoyed at how much Mike was pacing. Lucas stopped sweeping as he, Amber, and Max looked over at Mike.
"Mike, would you just stop already?" Lucas finally said.
"You weren't in there, okay, Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."
"Demo-dogs!" Dustin shouted from the kitchen as Mike looked over at him and gave him the stink-eye.
"The chief will take care of her," Lucas replied.
"Like she needs protection," Max said.
That kind of annoyed Amber. El was her best friend. But she didn't say anything.
"Listen, dude," Steve started, "a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line is, you execute it. All right?"
"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game," Mike said. "And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."
"Right, so my point is... right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do."
"That's not entirely true," Dustin pointed out. "I mean, these Demo-dogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."
"So if we get their attention," Lucas started.
"Maybe we can draw them away from the lab," Max figured out.
"Clear a path to the gate."
"Yeah, and then we all die," Steve said.
"That's one point of view," Amber said
"No, that's not a point of view, Amber. That's a fact."
"I got it! This is where the chief dug his hole. This is our way into the tunnel. So... Here, right here. This is like a hub," Mike explained as he kept walking over to the places on the map. "So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire..."
"Oh, yeah? That's a no," Steve said.
"The mind flayer would call away his army," Amber caught on.
"They'd all come to stop us."
"Hey!" Steve said to try and get the kid's attention.
"Then we circle back to the exit," Mike continued.
"Guys."
"By the time they realize we're gone-" Lucas said.
"El would be at the gate," Max spoke.
"Hey. Hey! Hey! This is not happening," Steve said as he clapped his hands to get the kids attention.
"But-"
"No, no, no, no, no. No buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing. We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand?"
"This isn't a stupid sports game," Mike said again.
"I said does everybody understand that?" Steve said as he took the towel off his shoulder and pointed it at Mike. "I need a yes."
"You sound like a mom," Amber pointed out.
Just then, a car engine revved.
Billy's car.
Max and Amber walked over to the window to look and see whose car it was.
"It's my brother," Max said as she looked at Amber. "He can't know I'm here. He'll kill me. He'll kill us."
Everybody went to the couch as Steve went outside to talk to Billy. They all watched from the couch as Billy turned his head to the window.
"Shit! Did he see us?" Dustin asked to no one in particular as they all hid from the window.
They all got up as Billy walked through the door, seeing Max and Amber holding hands.
"Well, well, well," Billy said as he slammed the door. "Amber Wilson. What a surprise."
Billy stepped closer to Amber as Max. He smelled of cigarettes and beer.
"I thought I told you to stay away from her, Max."
"Billy, go away," Max tried.
"You disobeyed me," he seemed. "And you know what happens when you disobey me."
"Billy-"
"I break things," Billy said as he grabbed Amber by her shirt and slammed her against the shelf behind them. Something poked Amber in the side and the piece of her shirt that was covering her arm came undone, it falling to the floor. She was scared. No, not even scared. She was terrified.
They all yelled at Billy to let Amber go. There was a "Stop!" or a "Billy!" that Amber heard.
"Get off of me, you-" Amber started, but to only get cut off by Billy.
"Since Maxine won't listen to me, maybe you will. Stay away from her. Stay away from her! You hear me?"
"I said get off of me!" Amber yelled as she kicked him where it hurts most.
It made Billy let her go, but he wanted a fight. He didn't care if Amber was a girl. Not one bit.
"You are so dead, Wilson!" he shouted. "You're dead."
"No. You are," Steve said as he punched Billy. Amber went over to the rest of them as they hugged her, glad that she was okay.
Billy started laughing as he said, "Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh? I've been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody's been telling me so much about."
Steve looked at Billy as he said, "Get out."
Everyone was yelling at Steve to kick Billy ass, but then, Billy got the upper hand on him. He grabbed him and yelled, "No one tells me what to do!"
He pushed him to the ground and kept punching him. Everyone was yelling at Billy to stop, but too scared to see what Billy would do to them.
Max looked over at a sleeping shot, the same ones that they had for Will. She grabbed it, moved everyone else out of the way, and injected it right into her stepbrothers neck. He got up off of Steve, the shot still in his neck, and took it out.
"The hell is this? You little shit, what did you do?" He asked as he fell down. Max grabbed the baseball bat filled with nails and approached him.
"From here on out, you leave me and my friends alone. Do you understand?"
"Screw you," Billy said. Max slammed the bat so close to where Amber kicked him.
"Say you understand! Say it! Say it!"
"I understand."
"What?"
"I understand," Billy said just before he passed out.
Everyone was confused, but mostly shocked at what just happened. Max finally got the better of him. Max dropped the bat and took Billy's car keys out of his pocket. She held them up in the air and said, "Let's get out of here."
-
Before they left, they had practically raided the house to find proper bandages for Amber. So now, they were sitting in the car, just finishing wrapping the bandage around Amber's upper arm.
Max was driving, going to the place where Hopper dug his hole. Everyone else was in the back except Lucas. They still somehow managed to get Steve in the car.
"Nancy?" Steve said grogily. He was really looking at Mike, but he didn't know that.
"No, don't touch it," Dustin said to Steve as he was going to touch his head.
"Hey, buddy... shhh."
"It's okay. You put up a good fight," Amber said. "He kicked your ass, but you put up a good fight. You defended me. You're okay."
"Okay, you're gonna keep straight for half a mile, then make a left on Mount Sinai," Lucas directed.
"What's going on?" Steve asked. He saw Max was driving and started panicking. "Oh, my God!
"Just relax," Dustin tried. She's driven before."
"Yeah, in a parking lot," Mike argued.
"That counts."
"Oh, my God."
"They were gonna leave you behind."
"Oh, my God."
"I promised that you'd be cool, okay?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on?" Steve said as Max started driving faster. "Oh, my God! No! Whoa! Stop the car. Slow down."
"I told you he'd freak out!" Mike said to Amber.
"Stop the car!"
"Everybody shut up! I'm trying to focus!" Max yelled.
"Oh, wait, that's Mount Sinai. Make a left!" Lucas started yelling.
"What?" Max asked.
"Make a left!" Lucas shouted.
Max turned a sharp left and drove into a mailbox, then almost a tree. Everybody was yelling. It gave Amber a bad headache. Max then kept her driving steady. She kept driving, then she eventually ended up on the grass. She ended up running over the already ran-over sign of Merills Farm. She stopped right before the car went into the big ditch.
"Hello!" Steve yelled.
"Whoa."
"Incredible."
"I told you," Max said as she took the keys. "Zoomer."
Max turned off the car and everyone got out. They got all geared up to go down the hole.
"Oh, no. Guys. Hey, where do you think you're going?" Steve said as he leaned up against the car. "What are you, deaf? Hello? We are not going down there right now. I made myself clear. Hey, there is no chance we're going down that hole, all right? This ends, right now!" Steve yelled as he tried taking away Dustin's gear.
"Steve, you're upset, I get it," Dustin started. "But the bottom line is, a party member requires assistance, and it is our duty to provide that assistance. Now, I know you promised Nance that you would keep us safe. So, keep us safe," Dustin finished as he handed Steve his backpack with the bat.
They went down the hole, looking around. Amber was disgusted and grossed out.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's this way," Mike said.
"You're pretty sure, or you're certain?" Dustin responded to him.
"I'm 100% sure. Just follow me and you'll know."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I don't think so," Steve spoke.
"What?" he questioned.
"Any of you little shits die down here, I'm getting the blame. Got it, dipshit?" Steve said to Mike as he took his "map". "From here on out, I'm leading the way. Come on, let's go. Come on. Hey, a little hustle," Steve said as they went deeper into the tunnel.
"God," Amber said.
"What is this place?" Max asked.
"Guys, come on. Keep moving."
They didn't notice that Dustin was behind the rest of the group until he started yelling.
"Shit! Help! Help! Help!"
"Dustin!" Amber yelled.
"Shit!" He yelled again as he fell.
"Dustin!" Max shouted.
"What happened? What happened?" Steve said.
"It's in my mouth! Some got in my mouth! Shit!" Dustin yelled as he started coughing. "I'm okay."
"You serious?"
"Very funny, man. Nice. Very nice."
"Jesus, what an idiot."
"Hang on. Wait, wait."
-
They continued walking as they got to the hub
"All right, Wheeler," Steve said as he stopped talking. "I think we found your hub."
They stood in the middle of it, as Mike said,
"Let's drench it."
They drenched it with gasoline, ready to set it on fire. They finished getting it ready and moved back towards the same tunnel they came from.
"You ready?" Steve asked.
They all responded the same thing. Ready.
"Light her up."
Steve grabbed his lighter from his pocket, lit it, and sighed, "I am in such deep shit."
And threw it.
They all moved back and started going back through the same tunnel they came from.
"Go, go, go!" Steve said.
They kept running and running, going back. Amber fell, directly on her bad arm, might I add, and she kept yelling for help. It was trying to take her. They all ran back to get her, Max helping her up after Steve hit the vines with his bat. Max held her hand to make sure nothing else happened between them. The Demo-dogs were coming that way, but it was only Dart. Dustin stepped in front of everyone else to talk with Dart.
"Dart," Dustin said as he kept walking forward.
They all kept telling him to come back, and that it was a bad idea. He paid no mind to it.
"Shh! Stop."
"Dustin, get back," Max spoke.
"Trust me, please."
"Hey. It's me, it's me. It's just your friend, it's Dustin. It's Dustin, all right? You remember me? Will you let us pass?" Dustin started as Dart snarled at him. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the storm cellar. That was a pretty douchey thing to do. You hungry? Yeah?" Dustin said as he started to get 3 Musketeers out.
"He's insane," Lucas said.
"Don't."
"I've got our favorite. See? Nougat," Dustin started unwrapping the candy bar for Dart. "Look at that. Yummy. Here, all right? Eat up buddy. Come on. Come on," Dustin, still talking to Dart, motioned for the rest of them to move and start walking.
"There's plenty. I've got more," Dustin said as he put the rest of the candy bar down and got up.
"Goodbye, buddy," Dustin spoke as he and the rest of the kids walked away.
"Come on. Let's go, let's go," Steve said. Then the Upside Down started moving. Like an earthquake.
"What was that?" Max asked, still holding Amber's hand.
They all heard more Demo-dogs roaring in the distance.
"They're coming," Mike announced.
"Run! Run!"
"Let's go! Let's go!"
"Come on, Mike! Move, Mike!"
They got to the rope and Lucas yelled, "There, there!"
"Come on! Let's go!"
"Go, go, go! Let's go! Come on! Come on!"
Max let go of Amber's hand and went up first. Then Amber, Lucas, Mike, then-
Dustin and Steve just stood there. They were waiting to be attacked.
"Dustin! Come on!" They all yelled.
The Demo-dogs ran past them.
Going to the gate.
"Eleven."
Dustin and Steve got out of the tunnels, safe and sound. They got on the safe ground as the lights got brighter and brighter. Then they got back to the normal brightness.
And they knew then.
She did it. She closed the gate.