Chapter Six
Nancy and Jonathan pulled up to the Byers home around 5:30. It was starting to get dark, but not so dark that the multiple tire marks went unnoticed.
"Something's not right," said Jonathan. He ran into the house with Nancy following close behind. "Mom? Will?"
"Mike?" Nancy called. Mike was supposed to be there with Will as well as Julie and Randy.
Jonathan checked his mother's room. When he looked into Will's room, Chester was on the bed whimpering. He saw Will's bookbag hastily thrown on the floor. Thos cloths that Will had worn to school that day were crumpled up on the end of the bed.
"Something happened, something really bad," said Jonathan.
"Jonathan!" Nancy called from the living room. Jonathan ran down the hall to see Nancy kneeling near a small puddle of some sort of blackish substance. There appeared to be things moving.
"Don't touch it!" said Jonathan. "Will and Eleven both said that they thought something bad was coming again. What if this is it?" Jonathan rushed to the kitchen cabinet and found one of his mother's lighters. He help it to the substance on the floor. The substance reacted violently. Nancy got up and grabbed the fire extinguisher. Jonathan nodded at her and lit the floor on fire. They it it burn for about a minute before Nancy put it out.
"Hospital," said Nancy. "That must be where they are. People have been getting sick all week and it's been really cold. What if this is the cause?"
"Let's go," said Jonathan.
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Steve Harrington pulled into the Hawkins General parking lot. He had gotten a phone call from his father earlier that afternoon that his mother was coughing up some strange substance. When he got to the waiting room, he saw several familiar faces that included three out of four of the kids who had stayed at his house the night of the storm. They were sitting with Dustin's mother.
"Is Dustin sick with this mysterious cough too?" Steve asked Lucas.
"Yeah," Lucas answered. "He got sick this afternoon. So did Mike and Hopper apparently. They all have some sort of fungus growing on them."
"Jesus!" said Steve. "I got a call from my dad a few hours ago. My mom's sick too."
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Eleven and Joyce sat together in Hopper's room while he slept. Joyce wasn't sure whether she was more worried about Hopper, Mike and Dustin being sick or Will being stuck with Lonnie. She hadn't heard from Jonathan all afternoon either. What if Will and Jonathan both got sick with whatever that cough was. Joyce certainly didn't trust Lonnie to take care of Will if he was sick. She started to sob. Eleven took her hand and she pulled the teenager into a tight embrace.
"I can't believe even Lonnie would stoop so low, I just c-can't," said Joyce.
"He's a bad man," said Eleven. "Will only says bad things about people who are really bad. He doesn't like his father. I can tell."
"No, Lonnie doesn't deserve Will or Jonathan. He never hit either one of them, but he made them cry a lot...Will used to run to Mike or Lucas' house when he was upset by something his father had said or done. I was always so grateful for his friends... Lonnie made me cry plenty of times too... Will used to try to cheer me up with some new drawing. He's always been so talented and thoughtful."
Eleven thought for a moment. She hadn't been about to contact Will since she'd gotten to the hospital. Maybe it was harder because she was so upset about her dad and Mike and Dustin being sick. She had to know. "I can try to contact him."
"I want to know that Will is ok," said Joyce. "But I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"I'll be ok," said Eleven. "I'll just be a few minutes." She got up and left the room before Joyce could stop her.
Nancy and Jonathan burst through the door less than a minute after Eleven left. Joyce jumped up and embraced her older son. "Oh, thank God you're alright, Jonathan!"
Jonathan hugged her back. "Where's Will?" he asked.
"And Mike?" asked Nancy.
"Mike's a couple rooms down," said Joyce. "Your mother's with him. He got really sick after.." Joyce couldn't finish her sentence. She burst into tears and fell to her knees with her face in her hands. Jonathan knelt beside her.
"What happened?"
"Y-your father came with police. They threatened to arrest me if Will didn't go with Lonnie. He got some court order forcing Will to go home with him. I shouldn't have let him take Will. I should have done something-anything. Lonnie's up to something, I know it."
"Don't worry. I'll drive to Indianapolis tonight to get Will. We all just have to take care of something first."
"What is it?" asked Joyce.
"That substance everyone is coughing up, and whatever is growing on them," Nancy pointed at the fungus on Hopper's face. "It's from the Upside Down. We should be able to get rid of the infections with heat. We can burn it out of the victims like we did with Will last year."
"We brought some space heaters from home," Jonathan explained. He was trying to remain calm, but he was furious at Lonnie and worried about Will. "We can try it on Hopper and Mike first. Dustin too. We need to find a good room in this hospital that'll be private and has plenty of outlets."
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When Will came to, he was in a plain room. He was wearing a hospital gown and laying on a small bed. Two men stood next to him. One was a heavy set bald man and the other was an older white-haired man. Will recognized him from pictures in the paper two years earlier.
"What do you want with me?" Will demanded.
"We want your help, Mr. Byers," said Dr. Brenner calmly.
"My help?" asked Will incredulously. "Why would I want to help you with anything? You faked my death. You killed people! You were going to let me die in the Upside Down!"
"It wasn't our intention to let you die, Mr. Byers. We simply-"
"You simply wanted everyone to think I was dead," said Will angrily. "You wanted me to be your prisoner-Just like Eleven and at least ten other kids, I imagine. Why?"
"That should be obvious, Mr. Byers. And we didn't want you to be our prisoner. We simply wanted you to use your gifts to help us."
"Gifts? What gifts?" asked Will, doing his best to play dumb.
"You were able to contact your mother when you were trapped in that other dimension. Do you think that just anyone could have done that. When the -demogorgan is what I believe your friends called it- came into our dimension, it sought you out. It found you."
"I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn't seek me out!"
"The people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time ended up dead," said Dr. Brenner. "And it left you alive. It sensed something in your very DNA. I created it almost 30 years ago. There was an energy surge conducted through the metal in Hawkins Lab. Your mother happened to be touching the fence at that moment. She didn't get any abilities herself, and neither did her first child, though they both have potential. Her second pregnancy was something different as we saw from her blood samples. The creature we created the day your mother had her incident had so much potential. It opened portals to other places and even other dimensions. Unfortunately, the gate could not remain open, and the creature was trapped in the other dimension. We had no contact for over two decades. When Eleven made contact and the gate was reopen, it was nothing short of a miracle."
"When my mother was unconscious before she gave birth to me...Dad's always tried to convince her she's crazy, but she isn't...You did something do her! What did you do?"
Dr. Brenner stood up and smoothed the wrinkles in his shirt. "We did her no harm."
"The hell you didn't!" Will exclaimed.
"You have gifts, Mr. Byers!"
"I don't have any gifts," Will protested.
"-And we will learn what those gifts are-one way or another starting tomorrow. We need your help fighting the communists. Just think of it as serving your country."
"You want to fight communism with fascism? Great plan, dipshit!" said Will. "Literally the entire second World War was about fighting fascism and you want to bring that stuff here?"
"Mr. Carroll, would you be so kind as to teach young Mr. Byers about obedience?"
"Dr. Brenner, he's just a kid, I don't-" said Ray Carroll.
"You used this method on younger children. This should be no problem. You don't want anything to happen to your daughters, do you?"
Ray gave Will an apologetic look. He pulled out some sort of metal stick. Will felt a very high voltage of electricity jolt his entire body. His had and ribs from where Troy had hit and kicked him a week earlier began to throb mercilessly. Will curled into a fetal position as he clutched his head with one hand and his side with the other.
"Get some rest, Mr. Byers," said Dr. Brenner. "We have a big day tomorrow." Dr. Brenner and Ray left the room, locking the door behind the.
"WILL!" a familiar voice rang in Will's head. He took a pillow and covered his face.
"El, don't try to contact me, it's too dangerous!"
"I'm going to get you out of there, Will. Hang on. I'm going to get help.!"
"No, El! He'll try to trap you."
"It's my fault Will. I knew Papa could still be alive, I should have told everyone. And you're my friend. Friends help each other!"
Eleven pulled the bandana off of her face and wiped the blood from under her nose. She had to find Kali. She took a deep breath, tuned the radio and closed her eyes again.
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Nancy distracted the Wheelers, Cathy, and Mrs. Henderson by talking them into going to the cafeteria and getting something to eat. Jonathan and Max helped Mike into Hopper's room while Steve and Lucas helped Dustin.
"Do we have a place to do this?" asked Steve. "I'm pretty sure people will hear noises coming from this room."
"I found a place," said Eleven as she entered the room. She glanced at the space heaters and figured out their plan in less than ten seconds. Her eyes met Mike's and they both gave overjoyed smiles despite Mike looking very worn down. Eleven ran to him and embraced him. She hadn't been able to visit him at the hospital as it was too risky with his parents there.
"Where?" asked Joyce. "And did you find Will?" Mike, Jonathan and Lucas took particular interest in the second question.
"I found Will," said Eleven. "I can happen. I'll explain when we make you three better," she indicated Hopper, Mike and Dustin.
Joyce grabbed a wheelchair and helped Hopper into it. He was in the worst condition of the three. Eleven grabbed a space heater. When she was sure that no one was looking, she grabbed some cash and Hopper's emergency only credit card from his wallet. She then led them to the supplies closet where they'd contacted Will. Fortunately, it wasn't filled with flammable chemicals.
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The fungal substance growing on Mike, Dustin and dried up and fell off within minutes of being in a small room with high heat. They all bent over buckets and vomited up more black fungus that seemed to convulse and dry up in the buckets.
"That was much less violent than when we got that shadow monster out of Will," said Jonathan. "But we should probably burn this stuff just to be safe."
"Agreed," said Hopper in a hoarse voice.
"I still feel like shit," said Dustin. "But considerably less shitty."
"We need to tell the doctors how to get this out of the others," said Mike.
"Where's Will?" asked Hopper as he looked around the room and noticed he wasn't there. He'd heard Eleven talking about finding him a few minutes earlier, but his head had been too hazy to comprehend.
"Yes, El, you said you found him?" asked Joyce.
Eleven nodded solemnly. Tears formed in her eyes. "It's my fault. I should have told you."
"Told us what?" asked Jonathan.
"P-Papa-he's still alive. I found out he might be last year in Chicago. I-I didn't want to believe it- was too scared, so I didn't try to find him. He has Will."
"Where?" asked Joyce.
"He's hiding in Indianapolis. I know people who can help save Will," said Eleven.
"OK, great," said Mike. "Let's get Will away from that psycho."
"It's not safe," said Eleven. "It's my fault, I have to get Will. You all have to stay here."
"Since when have we cared about anything not being safe!" said Lucas. "We're going with y-"
Suddenly no one -aside from Eleven- could move. "I'm sorry," said Eleven tearfully. "I have to go alone." She backed out of the room and then locked the door. Everyone in the room could move again they ran to the door and desperately banged on it, calling for Eleven to let them out. Eleven snuck out of the hospital and headed to the bus station. She got there just in time as a quarantine was issued for the city of Hawkins and for the hospital itself.
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Scott Clarke was trying to relax on a Friday night. It had been a long week and given the strange disease outbreak and the quarantine he say on the news, he opted to stay home and catch up on grading papers. Around 8pm, someone began to excessively ring his door bell. Mr. Clarke sighed and got up to answer it. When he did, there stood a man he recognized as Maxine Mayfield's step brother, Billy Hargrove. He had been missing and wanted by the police for about a week. His face and hands were covered in some sort of scaly fungus. The whites of his eyes were mostly gray. His teeth dripped with a black slimy substance when he smiled menacingly.
Mr. Clarke went to slam the door, but Billy was too fast and too strong. He stopped the door from closing, and threw Mr. Clarke into the wall, and the latter collapsed onto the floor.
"You're that nerdy science teacher from the Middle School," said Billy as he grabbed Mr. Clarke by the collar. "You're going to help me."
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Will sat on his bed trying to brainstorm an escape plan. He thought about using his invisibility to sneak out when Dr. Brenner and his people entered again in the morning, but there were cameras in his room recording his every movement. He didn't want them to know what he could do. The lights suddenly began to flicker and the power went out. There was some moonlight streaming in through the tiny window in his room, but otherwise, it was completely dark.
Will tried to think of a way to use the power outage to help himself escape. The door opened and the bald man from earlier entered carrying a bag. "C'mon, kid, follow me."
"This is some sort of trick," said Will skeptically.
"Look, kid, I don't blame you for thinking that; but I am trying to help you. I owe a debt to a girl that saved me life."
Will hesitated, but decided he didn't really have a choice. He got up and followed the man-Mr. Carroll as Dr. Brenner had called him earlier. Mr Carroll led Will through a maze of halls and down a flight of stair. Suddenly, the lights came back on. Mr. Carroll pulled Will into a maintenance closet. He handed Will the bag. "The clothes you were wearing earlier."
"Thanks," said Will.
"I'll try to create another power outage in a couple of hours. You may need to find a window to crawl out of. The front door is too heavily guarded. Whatever you do, don't let the cameras see you."
Will notice a vent on the ceiling. "I think I can get around here without being seen. "Thank you,,, Mr. Carroll?"
"Ray Carroll," he said as he shook Will's hand.
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Mike, Joyce, Jonathan, Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Hopper were stuck in the maintenance room for nearly an hour before being discovered by the hospital custodian.
"What were you doing in there?" the custodian asked.
"Burning this virus out of ourselves," Hopper answered. "Expose the patients to high heat and they'll get better." He turned to the others. "We need to get out of here."
"That won't be possible, the hospital's on lockdown for the night," said the custodian.
"Lockdown?" asked Hopper.
"CDC's orders."
The group headed back to Hopper's room. He picked up his wallet and saw that come cash and his main credit card were missing.
"Maybe she's still in the hospital," said Mike hopefully. He was personally torn between not wanting Eleven to put herself in danger, and wanting her to get Will out of danger. He knew for certain that he didn't want to be trapped in the hospital unable to help them.
Hopper picked up the phone and called his bank. He pressed a few numbers as listening before hanging up. "She bought a bus ticket, she got out."
"I'm sorry Hopper, this is all my fault. I should never have let Lonnie take Will," said Joyce.
"Don't blame yourself. That psychotic son of a bitch Brenner pulled every dirty trick against you to take your son. El might actually be safer out there than in her with all the feds.
"Michael!" called Karen from the hall, Nancy was with her. So were Cathy and Mrs. Henderson.
"Dusty!" cried Mrs Henderson as she ran to her son and embraced him.
"Where have you been?" Karen demanded as she hugged Mike.
"We used heaters to burn the infection out of us," said Mike. "We feel much better now."
"Some man named Dr. Owens is here," said Karen. "He's looking for you, Hopper."
"Great!" said Hopper. "He'll probably listen to us on how to get rid of this thing!"
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Eleven walked through the old alleys of downtown Indianapolis. It was nowhere near the size of Chicago, but still much larger than Hawkins. She found the old building where she's seen Kali in her vision and entered. A man in a long coat grabbed her by the arm and was holding a knife.
"What do you think you're doing he- Well if it isn't Shirley Temple!" the man let her go and lowered his knife. "Kali said you'd come. Your hair's a lot longer."
"You hair is less crazy, Axel," said Eleven.
"We need to be more subtle, we're causing quite a bit of trouble for some very bad people," said Kali as she walked up behind Axle. "Good to see you again, Eleven. We've been expecting you." She walked up to Eleven and gave her a hug.
"You're no longer calling me Jane?" asked Eleven.
"Well, that isn't your real name," said Kali.
"What do you mean?" asked Eleven.
"Follow me, I have something to show you" Eleven followed Kali deeper into the abandoned building. "You police officer found some files on a woman whose child was taken by Dr. Brenner and he assumed she was your mother."
"T-Terry Ives isn't my mother?"
"No, I wondered why you didn't remember me or even look familiar when you found me last year... Well, Ten is the same age as you, so it's understandable that there would be a mix up.
"Ten?"
"Nice to meet you, Eleven," said a girl with light brown hair and brown eyes who stepped up to Eleven as she and Kali entered a large room with maps and pictures taped to the walls. There were also tables with boxes of files from Hawkins Lab. The girl held out her hand to shake Eleven's. The number 10 was tattooed to her wrist. "I hear you thought you were me," said the girl.
"You're the real Jane Ives?" asked Eleven.
"Yes," said the girl. "I didn't know who I was until my mother showed you her dream circle last year. I got visions that I didn't understand, but apparently people with gifts have natural psychic links to their relatives with the same gifts. I saw Kali in those visions, remembered her and tracked her down."
"She has the same gifts as you," said Kali. "She was able to track down Brenner and we stole his files. When we read them, we saw that she is the real Jane Ives. While her mother was exposed to the MKUltra experiments voluntarily, your mother was exposed by accident when she was about your age. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"You know who my mother is? Is she still alive?"
"Yes, we know who she is, and yes, she's still alive," said Kali. She held up a folder with the words "Test Subject Eleven" written on it. Eleven felt a rush of excitement then a wave of fear. Did her mother know where she was or even want her? Eleven felt afraid to ask, but there was another question on her mind.
"Why have you been expecting me, Kali?" asked Eleven. Kali exchanged a look with Ten.
"We found out that Dr. Brenner was planning to kidnap your brother. We didn't know when or how, but we figured you'd come to us for help when that happened."
"And your psychic link to him can help us get him out of there," Ten added. It took Eleven a few moments to process what her fellow test subjects were saying. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as the realization dawned on her. Will was her brother. That was why she could talk to him with telepathy. Mrs. Byers was her mother, she always had an easy bond with Mrs. Byers. Jonathan was her brother too. She had a family and Papa had taken her away from them. He was trying to take Will away now.
"What did Papa do to my mother?" Eleven asked. Kali handed Eleven her file.
"You might want to sit down," said Kali. Eleven sat, so did Kali and Ten. "It's all there for you to read. You can show your brother too as soon as we get him out. Apparently, you were due in early May, but your mother went into labor early, it's common with twins apparently. They had to act quickly and change their plans. But they heavily sedated your mother with pain killers while she was giving birth to you. It caused a blackout where she didn't remember what had happened. They planned to take your brother too, but the pain killers slowed down your mother's labor so much, that they couldn't take him without attracting attention. In the end, they figured it would avoid trouble to leave one baby with your mother. Apparently, she always knew that something had happened. Your father convinced her and everyone else that it was a nervous breakdown. Brenner paid him for you when you were born and paid him again to deliver your brother this afternoon."
"I wish Papa hadn't taken me, but I'm glad he didn't get Will too when we were born," said Eleven. "We have to save Will-Now. What does Papa want with him?"
Ten reached over and turned to a specific page in Eleven's file. It had Will's picture from Jonathan's missing poster at the top. Ten pointed to a circled phrase that read "can create portals." Eleven remembers the day she was at Hawkins Middle in the A.V. room channeling Will in the Upside Down. She had seen him actually starting to make a portal to talk to his-their-mother.
"He can do that," said Eleven. "He can make portals, I'm seen him do it. He didn't know he was doing it and neither did I."
"And that's why the man who calls himself our father wants him," said Kali. "He's trying to open a gate to that shadowy dimension so he can use the creatures there as weapons."
"How do we get Will back?" asked Eleven as she stood up. "How do we stop Papa?"
"We have a plan to stop Brenner," said Ten. "It's dangerous."
"I've done dangerous things," said Eleven. Kali grinned.
"We know you have. I assume you can contact your brother?" Eleven nodded.
"When you contact him, tell him to find a wall, touch it with his hands, then focus really hard on you," said Ten. "Remind him of the time you saw him make a portal."
"Your brother hasn't been using his gifts very long," said Kali. When the portal forms, you and Ten can use your telekinesis to finish opening the portal."
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Will crawled through the air ducts trying not to make any noise. He looked for places where they lead down to the lower levels. He realized that he had no idea how many levels he was up so he started looking for floor numbers when he heard Eleven's voice in his head.
"Will, can you hear me?"
"Yes, I'm trying to find a way out of here. A man helped me escape from my room, but I'm not entirely sure it wasn't a trap."
"I can help you get out."
"How?"
"You can make a portal liked you did when you were in the upside down and you talked mom-your mom."
"What? I didn't make that portal!"
Yes you did, I saw you. And you can do it again. Think about your happy memories like you did when you went invisible. Then find a wall and put your hands on it and focus on me and getting to me. This will work, I promise."
"Ok, I'll try it."
Will took a deep breath. He tried to think of happy memories. He remembered waking up in the hospital after being trapped in the Upside Down and the joy he felt when he saw his mother, brother and friends. He remembered the times he met and befriended Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. He remembered the fact that they had all never given up on saving him and thought he'd do the same for them. Getting to Eleven might help him save them all as they were likely in danger from whatever Brenner had planned for them. Will started crawling again, looking for a vent to get out of the air ducts. He thought of other memories as he went. His life was actually going pretty well, all things considered. He'd talked Jonathan into sending in his NYU application. He'd gotten the courage to ask Julie to a dance. He had become good friends with Jennifer, Tim and Randy. He wanted to see everyone again.
Suddenly, alarms went off. Brenner and the others must have known that he was missing from his room-or prison cell. A heavy smoke began to drift through the tunnels. Will crawled faster and quickly found a vent. He opened it and jumped out without checking the room first. The area appeared to be empty for the moment. There was a video camera, but Will took no notice.
"I'm at a wall, El. I'm going to try."
"Ok, Will, focus on me and getting to me."
Will put his hands on the Wall and focused all of his energy on finding Eleven and getting to her. He felt a strange energy pulsing through his body. Was it working. He remembered the feeling from when he was trying to contact his mother while he was in the Upside Down. It must have been working. Will felt a new confidence and focused harder. The plaster on the was replaced by a membrane like substance. Will saw Eleven standing on the other side with two other girls. Eleven and a girl with light brown hair held out their arms and began to use their powers. The membrane grew thinner. Will focused harder and began to break through. His hands touched the air on the other side when he heard footsteps and Brenner shouting.
"There he is, grab him!"
"They're coming!" Will shouted to the girls. They all ran up to the wall, grabbed Will's arms and started to pull him through. He was almost through when he felt two pairs of hands grabbing his legs and pulling him back. He also felt a shock similar to the one that Dr. Brenner had made Ray Carroll inflict on his a few hours earlier. Will let out a cry of pain. Eleven let out a scream of anger and waved her arm. Whoever had been holding Will's legs let them go and Will heard them crash into the wall. The two girls managed to pull him the rest of the way through.
"Close the portal, quickly!" the older girl ordered.
Eleven and Ten eased Will onto the floor and stood up. They both locked eyes with the man who had tortured them for most of their childhoods. They were able to quickly close the portal. Eleven immediately kneeled next to Will-the boy she had come to think of as a brother who turned out to be her actual brother. He was panting and his nose had excessive amounts of blood leaking from it. Eleven sat down and took Will's head into her hands and caressed his forehead.
"You're going to be ok, Will. You just need to rest," she told him. Will gave a weak smile.
"It worked, El," he said hoarsely. "You were right, it worked. "Those men, though, they're evil. They want to hurt people. We have to stop them." Will passed out.
