Whatever had been injected into his arm aside, if Rowen knew one thing, she knew Will was knocked out cold. All the stomping, racing, and tossing of random objects which made noises loud enough to wake even the deepest sleepers, and he didn't stir. Never woke and asked what was going on. Not a peep... not even a murmur or shift. The only reason they knew he was still alive was because of the way Jonathan kept to his side, making sure he was breathing.
Their plan was set into motion when Jonathan checked one last time.
The second Mike mentioned the shed behind the house, Hopper began to clear it out. From an old lawnmower to rusty tools, old chairs and appliances not even used... other things she did not want to ask about, he threw it all onto the mix of brown and green grass that could no longer withstand the cold. It piled up until things began to tumble, and Rowen wasn't sure if she would be able to find anything useful from it- almost like finding a needle in a haystack. But she looked anyway, helped the boys dig through until Nancy found two tarps.
For an unknown reason, she asked Rowen to help her, but Rowen never said anything against it. She left the boys and walked into the shed.
Frankly, Rowen found it better than trying to search through piles despite not knowing what it was she was searching for. She struggled with the heavy material folding in on them for several minutes until it finally gave, but hanging it from the wood with duck-tape was simple. Easy. They had to cover every inch, make the space look like it could be anywhere.
"Hey," Nancy called her attention, bringing her gaze away from the tarp. "I'm sorry you had to deal with me on Halloween. I was... I don't know, I drank way too much. I wasn't myself."
Rowen shook her head before going back to the tape. "Don't worry about it," she said, shrugging. "I get it. I was doing the same thing." But Nancy quirked a brow, and she faltered when she saw it, smiling cheekily. "Trying, anyway."
Nancy smiled back, tearing off a piece of ducktape as Rowen placed another across an edge of the tarp.
"Still, I feel kind of bad for it. The punch and everything..."
"You shouldn't. It wasn't a big deal."
"Are you sure?"
"Nancy," Rowen said firmly, pausing it what she was doing. "It's fine, really. You were drunk off your ass. I didn't want you to fall down the stairs."
Nancy pressed her lips in a tight line, nodding, dropping the subject. She handed Rowen another strip, Rowen pressed it against another edge.
"And the punch-spilling wasn't you, by the way. That was Steve."
"It was?"
Rowen gave her a look, but Nancy only looked at her curiously. "Jesus, you were really out of it weren't you?" she laughed.
Nancy laughed a little herself, bashful. "Guess I was."
Rowen reached for the staple gun at her feet.
"Can I ask you something?" Nancy caught her attention again. "How did you guys end up on a bus in the first place?"
Rowen huffed before stapling a folded corner against the wood. It took no time to think of that answer. "Dustin."
Nancy's brows pinched, and she gave her a look as if waiting for her to expound.
"It was just me and him at first. After I found one of those things in his room, he ended up trapping it in his cellar. We didn't know what to do with it, so we tried calling his friends, Hopper... but no one was answering, so we started going to houses. We stopped by yours, and then Steve showed up two seconds later."
"And he just went with you guys?" Nancy squinted.
"The minute Dustin said the words 'Demogorgon' and 'she knows what really happened', he started running to his car." Rowen smiled, finding it easier to be amused now that it was behind her.
Nancy smirked. "That's all it took?"
"Yeah. But, by the time we got back, the thing actually dug its way out of the cellar. We thought trying to trap it again was a great idea, so Dustin suggested the junkyard... and the bus."
Nancy smiled to herself. "So Dustin's the reason, huh?"
Rowen nodded. "He's a nice kid, but he is scary good at dragging people into things." Rowen began busying herself with the last edge of the tarp, stapling it until she was sure it would stay. They continued to work away until another thought came to her mind. "By the way... I'm pretty sure your dad thinks we're friends."
Nancy paused. "What?"
"Yeah, um, it was last night. I left my bike on your front lawn so Steve offered to help me get it. Your dad saw his headlights and came out to help us, and... somehow that whole thing ended with us being invited to dinner."
Nancy looked over to Rowen in slight disbelief. "You're kidding..."
"No," Rowen laughed, shaking her head. "He said, and I quote, 'See you then! Make sure you get Nancy's friend home safe!'" Rowen waved her hands around slightly before letting them plop to her side. "And Steve just went along with it."
"Oh my God," Nancy laughed. "I'm so sorry."
Rowen smiled. "It's okay."
"I'll try and get you out of it when we're done with all of this."
"Are you sure?" Rowen asked, smirking. "Your dad seemed pretty happy about it."
"You do not want to have dinner with my dad," Nancy implored. "Trust me. That's two hours you'll never get back."
Rowen finished hanging the first tarp with one last staple, moving aside to grab the other. It took both she and Nancy to unfold it, and by then, Rowen began to wonder why no one else came inside to help them when what they were using to cover the shed was bigger than the two of them combined, but she pushed it up and continued to press tape and staple anyway.
"Can I ask you something?" Rowen echoed Nancy's earlier question.
"Sure."
"Last year, when Will got stuck in the Upside Down... was the Mind Flayer in him then?"
Nancy bit her lip, stopping before she could rip off more tape. "No," she said after a moment, shaking her head. "If it was, I think we would've known. I think things would've ended differently."
"What do you mean by 'different'?"
"I mean... last year, we had no idea what was going on. We didn't know what the Demogorgon was. We just thought it was this animal that escaped the lab and took Will. Now... now we know, but there's not just one of them anymore. And we don't have backup. We don't have Eleven... It's just us."
"We have a plan, don't we?"
"A plan my brother came up with." Nancy almost laughed as if she couldn't believe it. "But I guess that's not such a bad thing. He's an idiot, but he can be pretty smart, sometimes."
Rowen nodded in understanding. "I get it... They can surprise you yet make you want to rip your hair out at the same time."
"Yeah... they can be a pain."
"More than a pain."
Nancy threw her a curious look. "Is it that bad?"
Rowen met her gaze. "I have Billy for a brother, remember?"
Nancy took a moment to remember. She looked down to the floor, nearly pristine after Hopper's thorough cleaning. She nodded.
Rowen's mouth fell open, and she shrugged. "He's an asshole... and he can be an idiot most of the time. I'm the last person that needs to be told that, but... it's like you said with Mike. He's still my brother." Rowen took in a deep breath. "Which is why I'm gonna have a hell of a time explaining why Max and I came home so late if we get out of this alive."
"We will," Nancy assured her. Her voice was quiet. She kept her attention on the tape and honestly, Rowen found it hard to believe her words. But then their gazes met again, and she recognized the look in Nancy's eye. It was the same as Hopper's and, while Rowen wasn't exactly convinced by his words either, she knew Nancy meant what she said.
They were determined and... jeez, Rowen was determined too. Putting aside the nerves and anxiety and the doubts that swarmed in her mind, she was ready to help get that thing out of Will at whatever expense, shoot those demodogs until they went limp. Because Will was just a kid and she would have been just as determined as Jonathan was if it was Max that the Mind Flayer was inside.
Nancy and Rowen continued to staple and tape in silence until the kids barged in with more things; spotlights, rope, scraps of objects she couldn't identify and more. They were building an interrogation room, she came to realize. One that hid any sense of familiarity and hid any clue as to where they might be.
She left the shed when Mike brought in the lights, when Mrs. Byers brought a small bottle filled with liquid and a needle that made her squirm.
Rowen stood in the house filled with colored paper while her stepsister made herself busy, while Jonathan lifted his brother from the couch and carried him out the back door, Hopper following not too far behind.
The chief never told her to stay put and never told her to wait, but that was what she made herself do. She leaned against the wall and mirrored Nancy's crossed arms, sticking close to the shotgun that hadn't moved from where it was placed.
Time was a nightmare when it came to waiting for the worst to come, waiting for something to happen despite having no idea what it was. She had no idea what would happen to Will, no idea what would happen to them. She stood in place and looked at her wrist even though her watch was in her bag, watched Steve from the corner of her eye as he swung his bat as if he was preparing for battle... which she guessed they kind of were. Against her better judgment, she listened as Lucas spoke of their situation and of the dangers and of the way things could turn apocalyptic if they failed, if this Mind Flayer won.
This was reality now. This was real life... It made her shudder.
And then the lights flickered. They flickered in an eerie fashion with an intensity that made her want to shrink in on herself yet propelled her forward towards the kitchen window. Rowen's stomach lurched at the sight of the shed, how light flickered through the gaps.
"What's going on?"
"They're trying to reach him," Dustin told her.
It felt as if they waited for an eternity until the lights flickered, and it felt like another eternity until Hopper came barreling through the back door with Mrs. Byers. Mike and Jonathan were right behind them.
"What happened?"
"I think he's talking," said Hopper. "Just not with words."
She watched as the chief scribbled down lines and dots on the back of a stray envelope, brows pinched, wondering what exactly it was that he was doing. But then he began right letters underneath, and she suddenly remembered what her sickly high school English teacher taught her.
"Morse code." Four boys spoke in unison.
The letters spelled 'HERE'.
"Will's still in there," Hopper concluded. "He's talking to us."
"I've got an idea," said Dustin. All the attention now on him, he raced away from the table and down the hall to Will's room. He came out with a supercom, racing over to the living room, digging through the bag that he had left in a corner. Radio in hand, he returned with a notepad in the other, placing the former in front of Hopper, onto the table.
"Use this to tell us what he says," he instructed the chief. "I'll switch mine to Will's channel and we can write it down as he goes. That way you won't have to go back and forth and the Mind Flayer won't suspect anything."
It was evident that Hopper was staring at him open-mouthed. And Rowen, albeit just as caught off guard, couldn't deny the little bit of pride swelled up in her chest. The boys nodded in agreement and Hopper cleared his throat.
"Yeah, uh... yeah. Sounds good. That'll work."
Rowen smirked. "Think you've got some competition, chief."
Hopper glared in her direction. "Zip it," he snapped, standing from his seat.
They hurried through doors and shuffled through things as they did before the inside of the shed was tossed outside. Those who came in went out again and the house swelled with the quiet that once inhabited it. Only now that quiet was broken, disturbed by the static of Dustin's supercom. As minutes passed, the chief sent beeps and short shrieks, which she soon learned acted as morse code for walkie-talkies. Lucas scanned through the sheet which translated it and the letters were written down as they went.
"C... L... O... S... E..."
"G... A... T... E."
"Close gate..." They read aloud.
Then the phone rang.
It rang just as the two words left their mouths, and Rowen swore everyone jumped at least three feet. Dustin immediately moved towards it with her at his heels, plucking the phone from its place and slamming it back. The ringing stopped... but then it rang again.
Fed up with it, Rowen kept Dustin from trying his earlier tactic and pulled the handpiece along with its winding cord from the body, throwing it to the ground. It cracked. She breathed out deeply.
Rowen prepared to apologize to Mrs. Byers later.
"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.
"It's just a phone," Steve tried. "Could be anywhere... right?"
Now she was sure that this thing just enjoyed messing with them. Every time someone said something, whether grim or reassuring, anything close to implying that they would come out unscathed, they heard those goddamn roars. And now they heard them again. The inhuman noise pushed the entire group to their feet, into the living room where they bored their eyes at partially covered windows.
"That's not good."
"No shit," Rowen breathed.
She immediately began to look for the shotgun and her movements caused a chain of other movements. Steve gripped his bat, Lucas grabbed a slingshot, Mike came rushing in through the back door and those who didn't have weapons scurried over to the window with him, peeking, waiting.
Mrs. Byers came up next to Rowen with her hands wrapped around her eldest's arm. She looked down at the gun and Rowen caught it, sparing her a wary glance, but only gripping the piece tighter.
Mrs. Byers didn't approve of kids with guns. It was reasonable.
"Hey! Get away from the windows!" She heard Hopper snap at them before he stomped into the room.
The kids listened, stepped behind him, behind her and Steve- Lucas too, because somehow he looked very determined with his slingshot.
Hopper gripped a rifle in one hand and held out a second, tossing it to Nancy to use once they found out Jonathan could not. Her movements with the weapon looked well-rehearsed.
The daggers Hopper glared towards the gun in Rowen's hand were too. "Where the hell did you get that?"
Rowen and a gun. A gun in Rowen's possession. It wasn't a picture he expected to see ever, even if they had only known each other for a little over a week.
She glanced between him and the weapon. "At the lab. Some idiot left it in the tollbooth."
"Do you know how to use it?"
"Would I be holding it if I didn't?" She found herself snapping at him.
Hopper glared, gave her a silent 'watch it', but her words seemed to be good enough.
"Since when did you know how to use a gun?" Dustin asked from behind her.
"Since we lived across the street from a cop in California."
Rowen cocked it, its harsh clicks filling the one-story house.
She remembered their neighbors very well. The Armstrongs; a nice family, a close family. A family that got along and loved each other despite the lack of money in their pockets. Chris Armstrong was a well-known cop in San Diego; respected and admired for what he did and how he did it. Her dad was a security guard at the time and frankly, they had very little in common, but the man still hit it off with him and to that day, Rowen still had no idea as to why.
But she never complained. He had a daughter her age and welcomed her into their house any time, any day. His wife offered her cookies and let her do her homework at their dining room table. It was nice... having that. Having a friend that would invite you over for dinner and have parents that would do things for you and ask generic questions as if they really cared- because they did care.
Chris taught her how to shoot. He taught her because she showed such interest in it. He brought her out to a shooting range and gave her safety glasses that were way too big for her head. He taught her how to hold a revolver and told her the way her hands ached was normal because guns had a lot of kickback and for a thirteen-year-old with a weak grip, that kind of thing hurt.
It was fun. They shot the guns twice, and it was better than most things to her.
Until her dad stepped in. She went to the range a total of three times before he found out. Things were thrown, discussions were had. It was the first and only time she had seen Mr. Armstrong mad- properly mad... rightfully mad. Sometimes Rowen wondered if he knew more about her home life than he let on, but she never had the chance to confront him.
The next time a peep was heard from the Armstrong house was when Mary, the daughter, showed up at their front door in tears. Rowen took her back to her own home, her mother took her away, and Rowen sat at the kitchen table until she was told what made her friend so hysterical.
"Chris Armstrong dies in the line of duty."
That was what the newspapers said- what his partner at the police station tried to say. Her dad called him "a noble guy" and she felt like punching him, Mary cried and she felt like hugging her. Rowen acted on neither. She was invited to the funeral, Mr. Armstrong was buried, and somewhere along the way, she discovered she was no longer welcome in that house.
She never got closure for it.
Rowen didn't learn much, therefore she didn't know much... but she knew how to hold a gun, knew how to shoot. She knew how to use a handheld and a shotgun turned out to be not so different. She knew what counted, which was pumping metal into these things.
The roars turned to growls and the growls began to move- move around the house and left them yanking their guns one way, the other.
"What are they doing?"
No one ever answered Nancy, but they all had a feeling as to what. Rowen could see the bushes rub against the dining room window, screech against the windows and tell them that the demodogs were there... hiding.
A roar came again and she struggled to keep herself from jumping out of her skin, to not accidentally pull the trigger her finger was wrapped around. They pointed their weapons to the front once more. The dogs growled. The bushes moved again, shook and left her heart beating at a mile a minute-...
The window broke. They yelled.
All of them backstepped in sync and when they stopped, Rowen found the same monster that screeched in their faces lying at their feet, unmoving. Was it dead?
Hopper took the first step- the first two, three steps. Then the rest followed. Rowen moved, Steve and Nancy moved.
"Is it dead?" Max asked behind them. No one answered her either.
Hopper nudged the thing with his foot and that was the silent nod of approval that yes, it was dead. But what had killed it? What bodyslammed that thing through the window?
Then another noise came- quiet, like metal moving against metal. They turned towards the door and Rowen saw the chain lock twitch. The deadbolt flew open and everyone raised their weapons again.
Rowen had a terrible feeling. She had a terrible feeling that what was on the other side of the door was bigger than all of them and it showed with her unsteady hands and uneven breath... but she wasn't about to run. Not now.
The chain was pushed out of its place and she gripped her gun tighter. Hopper stood tall, not completely in front but standing in front as much as he could as if he was a barrier between it and them.
The door began to open, but it didn't open immediately the same way the window broke immediately. It creaked slowly and Rowen swore she was about to let all hell break loose... but when a pair of converse opposite to hers stepped over the threshold, she found the gun in her hands wasn't needed. Suddenly everyone was lowering their weapons.
A girl stood before them. A girl... who had blood trailing from her nose and opened the door from the inside-...
Eleven.
A moment of shock passed and Mike rushed over to her before anyone could blink, wrapping her in a bone-crushing hug. He said he waited and she said she heard and Rowen almost wanted to ask, but she bit her lip and keep her mouth shut instead, watching along with everyone else.
"Why didn't you tell me that you were there?" Mike asked. "That you were okay?"
"Because I wouldn't let her," said Hopper.
Something suddenly clicked in the back of Rowen's mind as he moved towards the two.
"The hell is this? Where have you been?"
"Where have you been?" the girl shot back. But it was hollow. Hopper wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug- one that she easily gave into.
Rowen saw how Mike's eyes widened. "You've been hiding her... You've been hiding her all this time!" He shoved at the chief's arm and Hopper barely flinched, but he grabbed Mike by the shirt and gave him a look that she only saw once.
"Hey- Hey! Let's talk... alone."
He pushed Mike into the hall without a word. Rowen heard a door slam, and her attention went back to Eleven.
"Is that?..." Max asked the boys. They nodded, but that was all the answer they gave before rushing over to their friend, engulfing her into a three-person hug.
"We talked about you pretty much every day."
They pulled away from each other, and Eleven suddenly reached out towards Dustin's mouth, talking about his teeth. It made Rowen smile just a little. Observations were made, Dustin purred for a reason that she didn't even want to ask about. Max's introduction went ignored but she figured now wasn't the time to ask.
Then Mrs. Byers gave Eleven a hug... and it was down to Rowen.
"I don't know why I didn't put the pieces together until now, but... now it makes sense." Rowen smiled slightly, and Eleven looked away from her, at the drawings all over the house. "Did you get home safe?"
Eleven nodded. "Yes. Did you... pinky promise?"
"Oh, yeah." She nodded immediately, looking between Eleven and the shut door, nodding herself. "Yeah. I didn't tell him."
Eleven gave her a sheepish smile, a silent 'thank you'. She turned to Mrs. Byers once more. "Can I see him?"
Mrs. Byers gave her a watery smile. "Yeah. Yeah, of course."
A soft hand placed on her back, she led Eleven down the hall into a different room. Rowen hadn't considered following them, but when three smaller people rushed towards her, she began to wish she had.
"How do you know El?"
"You guys met before?"
"What did you mean by 'now it makes sense'? What didn't you tell?"
"Woah, woah, woah. Guys, slow down,"
Rowen interrupted, holding her hands up defensively.
"How do you know El?" Dustin repeated.
Rowen took in a breath. "Okay, so... you remember that day we found Will on the field?" She received three nods. "Before I went into the middle school, I ran into Eleven. Almost knocked her over, actually..."
"Why didn't you tell us?!" Dustin demanded.
"Because I didn't know it was Eleven I was talking to?"
"What was she doing at the school?" Lucas asked.
Rowen shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "But she was really quiet. She looked like she didn't want to be seen."
"Wait... then what was it that you didn't tell? Did she talk to you?"
"Yeah. I mean, I thought she was going to run away at first, but then she saw Hopper's car and it made her relax, I guess. She told me not to tell him I saw her."
"That was it?" Dustin asked.
"Yeah?" She forgoed mentioning how she introduced the concept of pinky-promises to her.
Eleven appeared from the hall and Rowen looked over her shoulder to see. The former moved a little quicker than she had been before, stopping at the kitchen table with Mrs. Byers, staring down at the message Nancy had written across the cardboard.
Mrs. Byers looked at it too, then at Eleven. "You opened this gate before, right?"
Eleven nodded as everyone else joined them in the kitchen. "Yes."
"Do you think if- if we got you back there that you could close it?"
Eleven never answered her, but she glared down at the message as if she was mulling it over, thinking hard. She glanced at Mrs. Byers, a determined way about her.
"Is that all we need to do?" Rowen asked next to the girl clad in dark makeup and clothes. "We just get Eleven to the gate and that's it?"
A grumble of disagreement brought her gaze to Hopper. "No," he said. "If it was the size it was last year... maybe. But it's not like it was before. It's grown... a lot. And I mean that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."
"Demodogs..."
Hopper turned to the kid in the red, white, and blue trucker hat. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Dustin," Rowen muttered, throwing him a look.
But she was ignored. "I said, uh... demodogs. You know? What I said in the car. Demogorgons and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass..."
"How is this important right now?" Hopper snapped.
"It's not. I'm sorry."
"I can do it," Eleven said with certainty.
But the chief shook his head. "You're not hearing me."
"I'm hearing you," she told him firmly. "I can do it."
"Even if El can, there's still another problem." Mike interrupted the soft banter. "If the brain dies, the body dies."
Rowen furrowed her brow. "Uh, yeah. That's kind of the point, isn't it?"
"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's apart of that army." Lucas finished.
"Closing the gate will kill him."
That statement left the entire group feeling heavy. It made sense. The Mind Flayer got Will on the field. It was in him now. Will felt what it felt, curved inward at the pain that filled his stomach when the demodogs were whacked with bats and torched with fire. If the gate would kill them, it would kill him... and she didn't even want to begin to imagine how unbearable that would be. Not just for Will but for his family and his friends who stood around her.
Rowen squinted at the table, one specific word highlighted in her mind. "Hold on... You said this thing was like a virus, right? If it is, then there has to be a way to get it out of him."
Her offer seemed to spark a flurry. Thoughts began to swirl through everyone's heads and she could see it so plainly. They were all trying to add to that, say yes, there is a way.
"Maybe there is."
Everyone turned to Mrs. Byers. She looked to Rowen, nodded slightly, then she got up without another word. She headed down the hall to the room Will had been placed in. Rowen immediately followed her, as did everyone else.
"He likes it cold."
"What?"
"That's what Will kept saying to me... He likes it cold." Mrs. Byers went towards the open window, shutting it. "We keep giving it what it wants."
Nancy looked down at Will's unconscious form. "If this is a virus and this is the host, then?..."
"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan answered.
"So, if he likes it cold..." Rowen thought aloud.
"We need to burn it out of him." Mrs. Byers finished for her, tone hardened. She was ready to do whatever it took. Rowen could see that as plain as day.
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," said Mike.
Dustin nodded. "Yeah, somewhere far away."
Everyone fell silent, thinking, wondering...
"The cabin," El said, gaze pinned on Hopper.
"What?"
"The cabin," Hopper echoed, realizing. "My cabin. It's near the edge of town." He moved towards the bed, wrapping Will in the blanket before picking him up. "You can go there," he told Mrs. Byers. "That thing won't have a clue where it is."
Everyone moved aside to let the chief pass, Mrs. Byers hot on his heels. They stepped over the threshold one by one, crunching over papers, dispersing into different areas of the house. Hopper muttered something quietly to Mrs. Byers, Jonathan took Will from his arms. Rowen waited by the front door as Steve and Nancy left to search for heaters, and the kids separated outside to do the same.
Many minutes passed until her name was called.
"Rowen," the chief waved her outside. "I'm taking El to the lab, they're taking Will to the cabin. I want you and Harrington to stay here. Keep an eye on those kids, alright?"
"Wait, you-..." she laughed dryly. "You want us to sit here and do nothing?"
"I want you to stay safe. I want those kids to stay safe. There's been enough child endangerment as it is."
"Yeah, because we put ourselves in danger." He ignored her comment. "What if you need help?" she tried.
But Hopper wasn't having it. He reached the driver's side of the Blazer and pointed before she could utter another word. "Stay here," he instructed. "You hear me?"
Rowen felt a hand nudge her arm and her gaze fell on slicked-back curls.
"I can do it." Eleven told her.
Rowen wasn't an idiot. She knew what the girl in front of her could do. She knew that Eleven had done impossible things before... yet she couldn't help but give the younger girl a wary look. "Are you sure?"
Eleven nodded with certainty. "Pinky promise."
Somehow those two words resonated in a place that made Rowen both believe her and feel scared for her at the same time. Her heart was heavy and she stared uneasily at the girl that was about to take on something unimaginably terrifying and so much bigger than herself. She wanted to drag Eleven by the arm and tell her no, don't risk her life for the rest of them, don't put herself through that.
But... she was also well aware of the fact that she didn't have a say. She was coming along for the ride and that was it, which was why Hopper kept a hard gaze when she glanced his way. Rowen nodded reluctantly and gave Eleven something of a smile. Eleven mirrored it, then stalked towards the other side of the SUV. Nancy shut the door to Jonathan's car and the remainder of their group watched as they left.
A few minutes seemed like a few hours when all that filled the Byers house was pacing and the sound of glass being moved around on the floor. They sat in the aftermath of discovering what it was they needed to do. Lucas was sweeping it, Max was holding a dustpan... there was a dead Demogorgon in the fridge and she wasn't even surprised that Dustin got Steve to put it in there. Like she told Nancy, he was scary good at convincing people... But that wasn't even the weirdest part.
The weirdest part was that they were actually doing what Hopper told her to do. And, while Rowen might have been pleased with it two hours ago, now... now she hated it. She wanted to help.
"Mike! Would you just stop already?" Lucas snapped.
"You weren't in there, okay Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."
"The chief will take care of her," he tried reasoning.
"That doesn't mean that they won't need help," Rowen told him.
Then Steve stepped in, wiping his hands of the monster he just stuffed in the fridge. "Listen, guys. If the coach calls a play in the game, bottom line, you execute it. Alright?"
"Okay, first of all, this isn't a stupid sports game," Mike bit back. "And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."
"Righ-... so my point is..." Steve trailed off, jaw slacked as if he was about to say something, but was reconsidering. "Right. Yeah, we're on the bench. So, uh... there's nothing we can do."
Rowen threw Steve a sarcastic smile. "Nice one."
He returned the expression.
"That's not entirely true." Dustin countered. "I mean, the demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."
"So, if we get their attention..."
"We could draw them away from the lab."
"And clear a path to the gate."
"Yeah, and then we all die!" Steve exclaimed.
Rowen gave the kids confused stares. "Are you sure it's not the four of you that have a hive mind?"
"Rowen, there's no way we could have a hive mind," said Dustin. "We'd have to have a collective consciousness for that to even be possible."
She crossed her arms. "You're finishing each other's sentences. That sounds a lot like a hive mind to me."
"Um, hello? Is no one going to acknowledge the fact that if we do this we could, I don't know... die?" Steve held out his arms, looking between all of them. "No? Just me?"
"I mean, it's a possibility, yeah," Rowen told him.
"No, it's not a possibility, Rowen. It's a fact."
"I got it!" Mike suddenly pushed between them, headed quickly towards the back of the house. They followed him into the kitchen where he kneeled in front of one of the drawings on the fridge. "This is where the chief dug his hole," he said, hands placed on top of a red 'X'. This is our way into the tunnels."
Mike moved again, stopping at the edge of the hall. "Here. Right here," he continued, kneeling over a bigger collage of drawings. "This is like a hub. See how all the tunnels feed into here? Maybe if we set this on fire..."
"Uh, yeah. That's a no."
"The Mind Flayer would call away his army..."
"They'd all come to stop us!"
"Guys..."
"Then we'd circle back to the exit. By the time they realize we're gone..."
"Guys..."
"El would be at the gate!"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Steve shouted above them, clapping his hands until all eyes were on him. He placed his hands on his hips and gestured towards Mike. "This is not happening."
"But-"
"No, no, no, no, no! No buts! I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe and that's exactly what we plan on doing. Rowen told the chief we'd keep you all here so we're staying here on the bench and we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?"
"This isn't a stupid sports game!"
"I said does everybody understand that?" he repeated, flinging the towel that once sat over his shoulder in their faces. "I need a yes."
The kids' silent protests filled the house. They didn't look so willing to give their 'yes' and collapse back onto Mrs. Byers's couch.
"Rowen, would you back me up on this?" Steve asked.
It suddenly occurred to her how quiet she had been on the subject.
As crazy and abrupt as Mike's idea sounded, she found herself thinking about it over and over, not so immediately against it as Steve had been. It seemed they had traded places within the span of a few hours. When Rowen was hesitant on the bus, Steve had been ready to charge without hesitation. Now... now it was almost the other way around.
It's not as if she was tying her laces and preparing herself to meet what they were facing head-on... but she was no longer thinking of luring the demodogs away as stupid anymore, either.
He's an idiot, but he can be pretty smart sometimes.
Five pairs of eyes landed on her and her jaw slacked. She didn't agree with him right away, didn't even nod. Rowen only looked between them all and felt her mind go blank... until it wasn't. Her face contorted into something between hesitant to agree and hesitant to dismiss Mike's plan so quickly. And it landed on Steve.
She wrung her hands, mouth open. "I don't know..."
"What do you mean you 'don't know'? They want to set the tunnels on fire with us in them."
"That's not what I said!" Mike argued.
"Yeah, but... what if it's not as crazy as you think?" Rowen offered, gesturing her hands down to the drawing at their feet.
"'Not crazy'?" Steve echoed. "Have you lost it? That's completely crazy."
Rowen threw her hands up slightly. "Maybe I have. I don't know," she said. "But I'd rather lose it then sit on my ass again while everyone else is out there trying to stop these things. Hopper and Eleven might die for all we know."
"Who says they're gonna die?"
"No one! Maybe they won't. Maybe they don't need help at all! But the thing is, we don't know that for sure. So what if they do need help?"
It was clear that Steve didn't know how to answer. His hands rested on his hips once again and his mouth pressed into a thin line. He wasn't convinced either, and Rowen didn't blame him.
"Listen, I know it's stupid," she admitted. "We pretty much did the same thing at the junkyard and believe me when I say I wish that never happened. But..."
"But we didn't know what we were up against then," Dustin finished for her.
"Yes! Thank you."
"When we were on the bus, we were trapped. We didn't have anywhere to go," Lucas added. "That's the difference between that and this. The tunnels give us a way to go in and out so we can escape before the demodogs can get to us. It's safer."
"Lucas that's not safer. That's just a different kind of stupid." Steve snapped. "How do you know it won't be any worse than the junkyard?"
"We don't, but that doesn't mean we can't do it," Dustin told him. "We just have to be smart about it this time."
"Exactly!" Mike exclaimed. "If we draw out a path then we'll know where to go. We find the hub, set it on fire and run straight back to the hole before they can catch us."
But Steve silently shook his head in protest.
Rowen turned to him. "Don't get me wrong, I am scared... shitless, but I'd rather be scared shitless and helping. You can stay here if you want. You can... I don't know. You can tell the chief I took them to the tunnels. Rat me out for all I care. But if we have a chance to help them, then I'm helping. Even if it's just a little bit."
Truth be told, Rowen wasn't sure how well their plan would go without Steve. Sure, she was determined. The kids were, too and the plan was good, it just needed to be tweaked so they were sure they wouldn't make any mistakes and get one or all of them hurt. It was possible for them to do it without him and Rowen was prepared to do so if he said no.
But, even though Steve may have said she was "good at this", she knew he was better. They needed better, just in case their plan didn't go as smoothly as they hoped. Which was why she was hoping that they somehow convinced him.
His jaw was clenched and he looked like he was mulling it over, at least thinking about it... but he didn't have time to answer either way.
Before Steve could even open his mouth, an engine revved outside, far off yet loud and only growing more so. Rowen's feet dragged her towards the front window without thought. She recognized the sound before she could even process what was happening and when she got to the window, spotting headlights head towards them...
You've got to be kidding...
Her stomach did several consecutive flips and as Max rushed to peek through the window with her, seeing the same, Rowen cursed.
"Shit," she hissed. "It's Billy."
