"Max! Max!" Lucas yells.

Dustin, who is rarely the voice of reason in a crisis, responds to calm his nerves. "That wasn't an earthquake—it was a mud slide."

"I don't care what it was. We need to get down there. Max is down there—all of our friends!" Lucas says panicked. They are only two party-members left on the surface. He peers over the side, careful not to get too close in case he should fall over too.

"We'll find them—let me see if the radio is damaged," Dustin plays with the buttons and antenna. His time at Camp Knowhere came with the perks of being able to tear apart a transistor radio and put it back together in a flash, adjusting his settings was just as simple.

"This is Dustin; does anyone copy? Over," Dustin lifts his hand to the back of his head. He can feel a headache coming on.

Lucas looks at him worried. Dustin puts out his hands to Lucas in the sign of confusion. Lucas's eyes narrow onto Dustin's palms and eventually sees he too. Blood.

"Oh shit!" he says before passing out.

"Wake up, man! Wake up! I need you. Come on Dustin! Stay with me, snap out of it!" Lucas is on the ground cradling his head. He'd torn off his jacket to tie up his head when he couldn't find the medical kit, not that they'd have enough gauze to completely wrap around Dustin's hair.

Dustin comes to after another minute of probing. Lucas finally leans back and takes a breath.

"What happened?" he asks.

"You blanked out. I don't know if it was how hard you hit your head or the sight of all the blood. You definitely have a concussion, man."

"Ugh!" Dustin sits up gingerly and feels his head for the makeshift bandage. Lucas shrugs, gesturing that it was the best he had. Dustin thanks him before reevaluating his radio. He hits all the right buttons before making another call to anyone in the party who might hear the distress call.

"This is probably a stupid question, but do you think we can climb up?" Max asks looking at the muddy dirty that had finally settled. It was brown, dirt ramp leading up.

"I don't think it's safe to just go up. There's nothing to hold onto..." Will responds.

"Do you have your radio so we can call up? I lost a hold of mine," she admits. Will nods and digs under his shirt. He has a nasty rug burn where the radio dug into his skin as he plummeted, but thankfully at least he still has it. He calls for help, not expecting who will answer.

"Krrrghszzz... Hello?... brrr... Can anyone hear me? This is Will..."

"WILL! This is Mike! I'm here. Respond!" Mike dives to answer. Eleven is heavily breathing as she works through the pain and fear. In the last 5 minutes, water has begun to appear on the ground. No one answers. "Come on! We need help. El is injured, and we're stuck in some cave. OVER!"

"Mike," El calls. He ignores the radio to address her needs. She points to where the water is coming through from what looks like the only way out. It was a miracle they had all this air, but now it looked like their time was running up.

"Shit!" he yells. He does his best to block the water with some rocks, but also leave enough space for fresh air.

"Mike, I'm sorry," she mumbles tearfully.

"What are you sorry about?" he asks her kindly pushing aside her hair and holding her cheek.

"I-I think we're going to die in here," El says voicing her worst fears.

"No, how can you even say that? They're going to find us," Mike retorts putting pressure on her wound.

"I don't think so," she shakes her head and starts to cry.

She's never felt more useless. She couldn't save Hopper or Billy. The latter had died right before her, and she was literally powerless to stop it. Now, she was in another desperate life or death scenario, and she couldn't protect Mike from the same fate. She's a liability, and the people around her get hurt.

Mike acts tough, but he looks worried now that she seems to be giving up. He hugs her tight to him. Her head perfectly fits in the nook of his neck.

"We're going to be fine. I promise you, El. I promise," he says kissing her face.

The muddy water slips slowly through the rock wall he created. He shields her face from the sight.

Will and Max's head are leaned close to hear if they can make it out. They understand that Mike and El are together. They need to save their friends. Hopefully, Dustin and Lucas will be able to find them.

They heard a choppy response to his calls.

"I don't understand what he is saying," Will says.

Max pulls away her ear from the radio; "I think—did Mike say... 'cave'?"

Max rushes ahead of Will, looking for anything cave-like.

"Didn't they go into a cave to get that earthquake machine that Dustin cooked up? Why are there so many caves in this area?"

"I'm pretty sure it didn't exist before the mudslide," Will replies briskly. He is trying to walk towards a better reception, but Mike hasn't replied in a couple of minutes.

"This is crazy! We talked about no danger and now are friends have limited air and there is no way to find them!"

"Well hold on! Maybe there is. You just have to think like Dustin—a nerd. If we ended up over there," she points to the left. "Mike and El were over there. I think they got derailed by a giant valley oak tree."

"An oak tree?"

"Yeah, just like the ones I know from growing up."

"Max, there are no oak trees here. You're wrong, umm... mistaken, but wrong."

"I climbed trees as a kid. I would know if it was..." she trails off. As she looks around, she sees only pines. "Oh my god, that's how we can find them? I know what I saw. We need to find that tree! Come on!"

TO BE CONTINUED

~A.N. Back again! I am very excited about this whole mud slide thing. I hope all the characters will be fine! *fingers-crossed* ;)