[A/N: Hey y'all! It's Stranger Things Day! (It's November 6th XD) So why not post an update? Forgive me if there are any typos, I'm just so hyped to get this posted lol Let me know what you think!

Also thank you to everyone who has been reviewing and favoriting and following. I get so excited when I get a notification and I'm so glad you guys are digging this fic! :) ALSO also, thank you for all the congratulations messages - you guys are so sweet!

To answer some questions, I might do a sequel! It depends on how the inspiration hits. I definitely have had some smaller ideas floating around so we'll see what happens when I finish this story! This has definitely been a huge project for me lol but I don't think I'm done writing for ST. ;)]

Chapter 48: I Won't Back Down (by Tom Petty)

"Well, I won't back down. No, I won't back down. You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down..."

. . . . . . . .

The White Elk Motel was a shabby collection of cabin-like rooms spaced out around a lot with overgrown weeds and grass as tall as their knees. There was an elk on the sign by the road with the words "TV" and "Movie" in red below it. The gnarled old man who had checked them in barely looked up from his tiny TV set long enough to accept their payment and hand them the keys to a few rooms.

Getting the girls' families to leave with them hadn't been as difficult as they'd expected. Gabby's dad was still locked up at the local precinct and her mom had been surprisingly receptive to several strangers showing up at her door to tell her they were all in danger and needed to leave their home right away. Gabby had still been staying at Emma's house anyway so her mom had been eager to come along and make sure her daughter would be alright. After everything that had happened with her husband, she was more galvanized in ensuring Gabby's safety than she'd ever been before. Trish's dad wasn't home and her mom was halfway through a bottle of wine when they picked her up so while she argued and asked questions, she still went along with Jonathan and Nancy's urging to get in the car right away. The girls were all staying with Emma's parents so that had been their last stop. Emma's parents had been a bit more thoughtful and hesitant but when they heard about El's abusive and psychotic "dad" who had ungodly reach into the government, access to weapons, and was on his way to hurt everyone connected to his "daughter", they were on board. They'd had enough of their daughter's friends being terrorized by their families.

It almost seemed like a normal winter night. There was a chill to the air that suggested the grass would be frosted in the morning as Jonathan looked up at the sky. Stratus clouds stretched as far as he could see, beautifully illuminated by the moon's light behind them and the silhouettes of barren tree branches in front of them.

"We can't stay here," Nancy said in a whisper as the two walked side by side, trailing behind the rest of the group as they looked for their assigned cabins.

"What? Why?" Jonathan looked over at her. Her gaze was fixed ahead and he recognized that look in her eye. "What's wrong?"

She glanced over at him, as if it was obvious. "We have to go back and help," She said in a hushed voice. "No one's gonna look for anyone here but our brothers, your mom - they're heading straight into what could be a trap,"

Truth be told, he'd been thinking the same thing on the way up here. "What do we tell them?" He asked, slowing his pace as Trish tested a key in the lock to one of the cabins.

The pair stopped walking in a dirt clearing, around which a cluster of cabins were situated. Emma's parents' car was parked in front of one of them and Jonathan looked through the windows of the cabins at their little group as Nancy weighed the options. They could lie and tell everyone they were going to pick up another of El's friends. They could also tell everyone the truth and risk the barrage of questions, worry, and discouragement they were liable to encounter. Or maybe they didn't have to choose either of those options.

"I'll take care of it," Nancy slipped out of her backpack and pushed it into Jonathan's hands. "I'll meet you at the car," She said, quickly jogging over to the cabin her parents were in as Jonathan watched, intrigued.

As she trotted up the weathered wooden steps, Nancy could see through the window that her parents were talking. "Jonathan and I are going to make sure everyone else is okay," She blurted out as she abruptly opened their cabin door, startling Karen and Ted. "Keep these closed," She quickly pulled down the window blinds and scurried back over to the door, talking fast so that her mom didn't have the chance to get a word in, let alone recover from her sudden entrance. "Make sure you check on the others and don't open the door unless you know who it is. We'll be back soon and keep this locked," She gestured to the door knob as she started to close the door behind her. "Okay, love you, bye!" She said quickly and pulled the door shut firmly, then ran across the lot to meet Jonathan at his car.

"Let's go," Nancy said as she whipped past him, making a beeline for the car. Jonathan paused for a moment before gathering his senses and hopping into the driver's seat.

. . . . . . . .

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Lucas asked, crossing his arms.

Mike looked over at Will. "You said they're all headed for the gate?"

Will nodded. "That's what it looked like,"

"Okay," Mike said, his mind whirring as he tried to come up with a new plan. "So… so what if we got you closer to the lab?"

"What good would that do?" Lucas asked, skeptical.

Mike shot Lucas an annoyed glare. "Maybe if Will's closer to the lab when he goes into the Upside Down, he can get past the Demogorgons, go in, and find El," He looked at Will again. "Were they already at the gate?"

Will struggled to remember as much detail as he could. "I-I'm not sure," He paused. "But I think they were really close,"

"If they're that close, it's not gonna work," Dustin said. "By the time Will got into the Upside Down, they'd be right there. Besides, we can't even get past this gate," He gestured to the metal fencing that surrounded the lab. "There's no way he could get close enough in our world for it to make a difference in the Upside Down,"

"But what if -" Mike continued but Lucas cut him off.

"It's not gonna work, man!" He exclaimed, exasperated. "We need a completely different plan if we're gonna get to El,"

"Before the Demopocalypse," Dustin added with a nod.

"Demo- what?" Lucas turned to Dustin.

"Demopocalypse," Dustin repeated, looking around at his friends who were only staring at him with raised eyebrows and incredulous expressions. "You know, 'Demogorgon'... 'apocalypse'... 'Demopoc…'" He paused, then looked down. "...Nevermind. Lucas, you were saying?"

"I'm saying -"

"What the hell were you boys thinking?!" Joyce exclaimed from behind them and the boys whirled around, startled.

"Jesus!" Dustin exclaimed as he caught his breath.

"I told you boys to stay where you were!" Joyce continued and the boys fell silent. Her eyes were wide but her brow was fixed as she walked toward them, closing the distance between them. It wasn't often that they saw her so angry.

"Mom, I'm sor-" Will began but Joyce wasn't hearing it.

"Do you have any idea -" Before she could continue to scold them, sirens began to go off in the lab, ringing out across the landscape as red emergency lights flashed in and outside of the building.

"What's going on?" Joyce asked as the five of them stared in bewilderment at the once silent and inconspicuous building.

"Demopocalypse…" Dustin breathed.

. . . . . . . .

As Hopper's body slowly quieted, Dr. Brenner stood up, carefully pushing his own chair in with cat-like grace. Drool dribbled from Hopper's chin as his eyes lolled about and he panted, resting his forehead against the cool metal table.

"Haven't you had enough of this since your last unpleasant experience here?" Dr. Brenner said, walking a fine line between insincere empathy and thinly-veiled disdain. Hopper tilted his head to the side, still catching his breath as he recovered from the tazing. He needed to find a way out of this. He let his eyes focus on a clipboard with various documents that was resting on the edge of the table. "I seem to recall a night quite similar to this only a few months ago," Dr. Brenner continued but before he could say anything else, red lights began to flash and an emergency siren began to go off throughout the building, catching everyone's attention.

"Go," Dr. Brenner directed the guards behind Hopper and they immediately hurried out of the room to investigate the cause of the alarm. "Not you," He said to the last guard before he could leave. "Stay with him," He gestured, then said to Hopper, "We'll continue our chat another time,"

Hopper eyed his surroundings as Dr. Brenner left and the remaining guard aimlessly walked around the room. He was obviously unsure of what was going on and the sound of the alarm was blaringly harsh as it bounced around the little room.
Hopper flexed his hands against the cuffs, giving the bars of the back of his chair an experimental squeeze as he shifted in his seat. "Shouldn't you be figuring out why that alarm is going off?" He asked in a snide tone, more as a distraction than anything else.

"Shut the hell up," The guard barked back at him, kicking Hopper's chair and almost setting it off-balance were it not for Hopper's generous weight. He gave Hopper a final warning glance before turning to look out into the hallway through the small window in the door. Hopper watched the guard's face change to a more concerned expression and knew now was his opportunity.

Within seconds, Hopper was standing with his hands cuffed behind his back and the metal chair sticking out behind him.

"Sit back down!" The guard yelled, far too late, as Hopper had already closed the distance between them. He twisted his body, using the chair as a weapon, and slammed it against the guard with a loud thunk several times. Doubled-over in pain, the guard reached for the gun at his belt clip but Hopper pinned him against the door and banged his head against the guard's as hard as he could. The impact was enough to knock the guard out temporarily and he fell to the floor in a heap.

Hopper quickly walked back to the table, turning his back to the edge so he could grab the stack of papers on the end. He pulled a paperclip off of one set of documents and began manipulating the metal into a straight piece of wire, then bent it to a 90 degree angle to create a makeshift key. He fumbled several times but was able to get the end into the keyhole of the handcuffs and free himself.

The chair and handcuffs fell to the floor as he shook the stiffness from his hands, grabbed the guard's gun from his belt and slipped out into the hall.

. . . . . . . .

"This is not good…" Dustin said, anxiety building in his voice. "This is NOT GOOD!" He all but screamed in Lucas' ear.

"I KNOW!" Lucas yelled, shoving him away.

"We've gotta get in there!" Mike exclaimed, waving his arms wildly as his voice cracked. Seeing the flashing red lights and hearing the ominous echo of the lab's security alarm going off was more than he could handle. His adrenaline felt like it was higher than it'd ever been and all he could think about was what could possibly be happening to El in that building. "El's still in there!"

Joyce watched the boys freak out as she clutched Will close to her side. More torn now than ever, she wasn't sure what to do and she wished Hopper was there. Despite his flaws, she knew she could rely on him and at this point, she didn't even know if he was safe. She wanted desperately to get inside and rescue El - she'd fostered a bond with the young girl in a short amount of time and her heart felt like it was falling apart as she thought about what could be happening to her. On the other hand, there was no clear way for them to get into the lab safely and she had to think about her son as well as his friends whom she was essentially watching over. So they stood paralyzed outside the tall barbed wire fencing as red lights reflected on the barren trees and the sound of the alarm echoed in their ears.

. . . . . . . .

El panted as she ran barefoot through the lab. She was exhausted but fear and her mother's words powered her to keep going. Lights flickered and the floor was splashed with blood and the bodies of guards at what felt like every doorway. El tried not to think about the danger she was in as she narrowly avoided slipping on her way down the hall. She wasn't sure where to go exactly but she wanted to find Terry and she needed to find a way out without running into any monsters or guards.

A loud, otherworldly shriek echoed down the hall behind her and El nearly jumped out of her skin as she looked back to make sure nothing was behind her as she continued to run. Not looking where she was going, she tripped over the leg of a researcher who had been mauled, his body an unrecognizable mass of exposed flesh, blood, and torn remnants of his lab coat. El screamed as she hit the floor hard, sliding through a huge puddle of blood that soaked through her hospital gown. She whimpered desperately as she scrambled to get back up but her feet slid in the sticky red puddle several times before she regained traction and kept running.

As she rounded the end of the corridor, she stopped short at the sight of several monsters a short distance down the hall. They looked like the Demogorgon but they were smaller and hunched forward as though they couldn't support their full body weight on just two legs yet. Now everything made sense. She remembered the pods she'd seen in the Upside Down and the baby monsters; the little slugs that would eventually grow to become full-grown Demogorgons. Her eyes wide in terror, El took a step backwards but the monsters had already heard her. As they began to run toward her, their mouths dripping with the blood of the men who had imprisoned her, El dropped her head, narrowing her gaze at the creatures as they picked up their pace, then stopped abruptly. El maintained her penetrating gaze, holding a half dozen monsters still before throwing them all back into the wall at the far end of the hallway. She let out the breath she'd been holding as they slammed into the concrete wall and fell motionless to the floor but within seconds they were back on their feet and running toward her again. El screamed as blood trickled from both nostrils and she gripped them tightly with her mind, her hands reaching out toward them. Fueled only by a primal, desperate desire to survive, El mentally ripped them apart and their gangly, leathery limbs went flying in all directions as dark blood splattered across the white concrete walls. As the dismembered pieces of the Demogorgons exsanguinated in the middle of the hall, El cursed herself for killing them this way. She knew blood would draw even more of them here but what else could she do? There were so many of them and she was already so tired that she wasn't sure she could handle this. How could she ever escape?

El exhaled sharply, bracing herself against the wall and resting her head in the crook of her elbow as she tried not to cry. She still needed to get out. She still needed to find her mama. She couldn't stop. But just as she was about to keep going, she heard more shrieks and roars from the other end of the hall, this time much louder. Combined with the sounds of men yelling and distant gunfire, she was instantly transported back to the night in the middle school with the boys. She pushed the memory away before she could get too wrapped up and turned to run in the other direction.

"Hey!" A guard suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway in front of her, gun drawn and pointed at her. "Stop -" Before El could react, three more monsters appeared and tackled the guard, tearing flesh from bone even before his body hit the ground.

El slapped her hand over her mouth, muffling her cries as she turned to run back in the direction she'd come when one of the doors in the hall opened and she nearly slipped and fell again.

"Hey kid, get in here!" A man said and when El regained her balance and looked up, it was Freddie leaning against the wall inside the room. "Now!"

El quickly hurried into the room and Freddie slammed the door, locking it and ushering her over to the corner. He limped heavily and El looked down to see his foot was wrapped in thick bandages as he used the wall to support himself.

Freddie noticed her staring. "I'm fine," He answered her silent question. "How did you get out of that room?"

El inhaled deeply, glancing at the door and Freddie nodded. With all the mayhem happening in the lab and her apparent mental powers, he shouldn't have been surprised that she managed to escape. Now, however, they had a much bigger problem running around the halls of the lab and she'd obviously been through more hell than just the electric shocks. There was dried blood all over her face, arms, and hands and her gown was covered in blood. Her eyes were wide with dark circles and he could see the veins in her face and neck just under the surface of her skin. Judging by her apparent lack of injury, Freddie surmised that the blood was not her own but he couldn't be sure if that meant she'd killed someone or had been around someone who'd been killed.

"Damn, you look like hell," He said with a sigh and El looked down at herself uncertainly as Freddie hobbled over to the door to look out the window.

"Your name is Eleven, right?" He turned to her and El reluctantly nodded before correcting him.

"El,"

"El?" Freddie parroted. "Okay, El. We're in a lot of trouble here but I'm guessing you already know that. Did you see a way out around those things?"

El shook her head despondently. "Where is Mama?"

"Mama?" Freddie looked at her quizzically. "Who is 'Mama'?"

"Terry," El clarified and Freddie paused, thinking.

"Oh wow," He breathed once he realized who she was referring to - the same woman he and Jake had been charged with guarding when she'd first been brought to the lab. He felt sick to his stomach at the thought of how much pain and misery had been inflicted on this poor girl - and how much of it he'd been involved with in some way. "I-I'm not sure where she is now. The last time I saw her, she was in one of the patient rooms on the other side of the building but that was a while ago,"

El sighed, doleful, and Freddie felt like his guilt was eating him alive.

"Hey listen," He said, hobbling back over to where she stood, arms wrapped around herself. "We'll find her, okay? I can think of a few places they might have taken her if she's not still in the same room,"

El looked up at him, eyes glistening as she nodded. "Okay,"

"First we've gotta figure out how to get around these things, though," He looked back at the door as the sounds of yelling and shrieking reverberated down the hall. As he peeked through the window on the door, he caught sight of one of the monsters stalking past. "Holy shit," He jumped, losing his balance and catching himself on the wall. The noise, however, caught the monster's attention and it stopped walking to sniff the door. Freddie put his finger to his lips, gesturing for El to be quiet as they waited with bated breath in the hope the creature would pass by the room. Everything was silent for several excruciating moments and they assumed the monster had kept going until Freddie exhaled sharply. The monster rammed itself against the door with a loud bang, its claws scraping against the metal as it shrieked and croaked. El jumped with every impact it made, screwing her eyes shut tightly and trying to figure out what she could possibly do to get out of this as the banging got louder and more cacophonous. When the door suddenly came off its hinges and three monsters came barreling in, Freddie didn't have a chance at escape. He tried to scramble away but the room was too tight, there were too many of them, and his shattered foot didn't let him get far.

"Nooo!" El screamed in horror.

"Run, El!" Freddie yelled as the first monster tackled him to the ground and the others groaned and shrieked with excitement. "Run, now!"

El hesitated, frozen as the little Demogorgons tore into Freddie's torso and the life quickly drained from his eyes. As they continued to ravage his body, El regained her senses and raced out of the room as tears streamed down her cheeks. She pushed herself to run faster than she had run before, leaping over puddles of blood like a gazelle trying to escape the jaws of a lion on the Savannah. The halls were mostly empty at this point from what she could tell. Every lab employee she saw was dead or dying on the floor and her mind was in a frenzy trying to figure out what to do or where to go. Nothing felt safe.

She desperately wanted to find Terry and even as she ran, she tried to establish a mental connection, though it was no use. She was too distracted, too frantic, so she paused briefly to look through the window of every room she passed but still couldn't find her mother.

She stopped suddenly at the sound of the elevator chiming and watched as the doors opened. Her heart sank when she recognized the face of her Papa with two armed guards. He looked just as surprised to see her out of her room but he quickly recovered.

"Stop her!" He shouted and the guards bolted out of the elevator in her direction.

El turned on her heel and tore through the maze of the lab, slipping through every obscure hallway she could think of but they were hot on her trail and she was losing stamina. Her heart was pounding and her chest felt like it was on fire.

That was it.

El remembered Jonathan and Nancy talking about how they'd tried to kill the Demogorgon themselves back at the Byers house on the night they found Will. They'd somehow gotten on the subject of that surreal week in November and El could picture Jonathan and Nancy standing in the living room recounting the memory to the boys who had yet to hear about their combined effort against the Demogorgon.

"Nothing seemed to have an effect on it," Jonathan had said.

"Except the fire," Nancy had added.

That's what she needed to do. She needed fire. There were so many of these Demogorgons, though. It had to be a big fire. With a renewed sense of purpose, El pushed herself to keep running as she could hear the slight panting in the guard's breath as he tailed her. How could she get access to fire and take out the Demogorgons when he was chasing her? On the one hand, the monsters were taking out many of the guards and lab personnel, making it easier for her to escape without being caught by one of Papa's sadistic employees. On the other hand, however, the monsters didn't discriminate and they would just as quickly kill her in an instant if she made a misstep.

El continued to evade her pursuer and despite his shouts and threats, she knew he wouldn't shoot at her. Papa would kill anyone that risked killing her. In some sick way, she could feel protected knowing that he didn't want anyone seriously injuring her, even if it was so that he could run "tests" on her. She suddenly found herself in a large research lab with more test tubes, beakers, and other equipment than she could fathom. She didn't know what half of it was but there were several workbenches and cabinets full of supplies as well as a row of gas tanks. Just as she realized she'd come to a dead end, the guard who had been chasing her appeared in the doorway, blocking her only exit. He grinned fiendishly as he caught his breath.

"Nowhere else to run," He said, in an almost sing song voice but as he approached her, they heard a snarl from the back corner of the room.

The mutilated body of one of the scientists was sprawled across the floor and both El and the guard froze at the sight of one of the monsters slinking toward them. As it prepared to lunge, El jumped out of the way, missing the creature's claws by a hair. It latched onto the guard instead and El scrambled backwards. The guard screamed and thrashed about wildly until the Demogorgon took a bite out of the man's throat, abruptly silencing him as he fell limp to the floor.

. . . . . . . .

By a stroke of luck, the guard at the gate surrounding the lab had left his post to investigate the cause of the emergency sirens. He was a young guy, inexperienced and overly eager, so he'd left his station with the gate locked to run up and check on what was happening. Everything had been so quiet and now it seemed like all hell had been let loose - perhaps he could help.

When Jonathan and Nancy drove up to the lab's entrance gate, they immediately noticed the alarms and lights. Neither of them needed to say a word; they exchanged wary glances at one another as Nancy plucked her backpack from the floor between her feet. As they got closer, they could see that the guard's post was empty.

"Now's our chance," Nancy said and Jonathan quickly parked along the side of the road across from the gate.

"Do you think my mom and Hopper made it inside?" Jonathan asked as he hopped out of the car and went around to the trunk to pull out their supplies.

Nancy looked back at the building, a worried expression on her face as she scanned the area. She wasn't sure what to tell Jonathan because she was concerned something had happened to them but when she saw movement in the woods, she paused to get a better look.

"I don't know about the chief but I think your mom is in the woods with our brothers and their friends,"

"What?" Jonathan replied, looking up from the trunk as he slung a duffel bag over his shoulder and stuffed a lighter into his jacket pocket.

"Over there," Nancy pointed and in the distance, Jonathan could just barely make out his mom and the four boys.

He looked over at Nancy who met his gaze. "She'll try to stop us,"

Matching his determination, Nancy nodded, "We've gotta be quick,"

The two teens jogged across the asphalt under the cloak of darkness until they approached the gate. Jonathan ducked into the guard's booth and quickly found the button to open the gate as Nancy watched Joyce, her brother, and the other boys shout and pace far off in the woods on the other side of the metal fencing.

"Alright, let's go," Jonathan said and the two of them ran toward the building.

. . . . . . . .

Her mind was going a mile a minute but more than anything, she knew she needed to do something. The monster was blocking her only exit and once it finished with the guard, she knew it would turn around and come after her. After everything she'd been through, she knew she still didn't have the energy to fight it with her powers and even still, she knew there would be more little Demogorgons on their way. With every kill, more of these monsters were being attracted to this place.

El looked around, trying to think, and her eyes settled on a drawer labeled "supplies". El ran over and quickly rummaged through its contents until she found a spark lighter used to light the Bunsen burners on the lab benches. She remembered those burners and had seen them in use quite often during her upbringing in the lab. She could vividly picture Papa escorting her through the halls, explaining her upcoming tests and "projects" as she curiously peeked into each room they passed. She didn't know what the scientists used the burners for but she remembered that they held a device up to it and created a flame.

El grabbed one of the spark lighters and almost slammed it on the bench closest to her. Darting her gaze back and forth between the Demogorgon and the burner, El frantically clicked the spark lighter open and closed over the Bunsen burner again and again, just as she remembered the scientists doing in her memories. Frustrated and close to panicking, El dropped the lighter and went back to the drawers, hoping to find something else. She used her powers to open all of the drawers and cabinets at once so she could find something quicker and spotted a large jug of ethanol alcohol used for disinfecting equipment.

The Demogorgon was slowing down, signalling that it would soon abandon the guard and come after her next. El ran back over to the lab bench and clicked the spark lighter as fast as she could until her hand cramped and she thought for sure that it wouldn't work. When the burner finally ignited, she exhaled sharply before grabbing the jug of alcohol from the other counter. She made sure to keep the jug as far from the open flame as she could as she tentatively approached the monster from behind. Her hand trembled as she unscrewed the lid of the jug and, turning her face away, she splashed the monster with as much as she could before its head spun around and she became its target.

El gasped as it snarled and she scrambled backwards to get away. In her haste, she dropped the jug, spilling alcohol across the floor. The monster, unfazed, approached her as she ran around the lab benches to put some distance between herself and the creature. After having almost made a circle around the benches, she was so close to the open door but the Demogorgon was also much too close for comfort. One jump and it would be on her before she stepped foot into the hallway. El's heart raced as the monster croaked and snarled and just as she saw it crouch, ready to pounce, she bolted for the door. The Demogorgon leapt across the table in an attempt to catch her but came too close to the open flame of the Bunsen burner. El stood in the doorway as the monster instantly ignited, sending a fireball across the room as the spilled alcohol ignited and within seconds the entire room was ablaze. The Demogorgon shrieked and moaned in pain as its thick skin melted under the intense heat and El watched, catching her breath as it stumbled around the room, tripping over its legs and running into table legs and shelves. El didn't realize her mistake until the monster got close to the gas tanks in the back of the room. Only a few seconds later, they exploded one by one, knocking El off her feet and sending her back into the wall where she fell unconscious to the floor.

. . . . . . . .

"Well I know what's right, I got just one life. In a world that keeps on pushin' me around, but I'll stand my ground. And I won't back down..."