-Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Stranger Things

A/N: Another update for all you gorgeous readers, I hope you enjoy it, please share the love and leave a comment. xx

Chapter 11: Die, or go in

In that last split second, even less than the split of a second, a decision had to be made—die, or go in.Hopper's first thought was to die, it was something that he had prepared himself for, it was something he had prepared himself for many times over.

But in that final moment he thought of her- 'the kid'

his kid

She'd be alone—completely and utterly alone in the world. Just like she'd been when he'd found her that night in the woods, the night that she'd put her trust into him. That night had been the start of their journey together, both being the missing piece for each other's puzzle. A daughter missing a father and a father missing a daughter, they'd found each other despite everything that had happened in their lives, that had to mean something.

His next thought had been Joyce, that first moment they had met as kids, that first smoke they shared under the bleachers and watching her over the years plaster a brave face for her boys- always having to do everything on her own- she was used to that; she shouldn't have to be. He had finally made his way into her heart, she was going to give him a chance, give them a chance.

Those two reasons alone, are the one reason that he made his choice,

-his choice to go in.

He made his way in, without even a millisecond to spare, the light of the laser being so bright it created a veil to hide his escape-- that he had counted on. It was better that way; the kid wouldn't be able to find him, and Joyce would just think he had faded away into nothingness. He didn't want anyone coming in after him, if it was in his cards to escape- than that would on his own accord, he wouldn't risk any of their lives for his own. He knew El's character, she was brave and fiercely protective of all the people she loved and cared about and for that reason, he had to ensure that no one saw his mad escape.

He landed on his hands and knees, knowing exactly where he was; based on the uneven sludgy ground he had landed on. Too afraid to look up to see what was in front of him, that same affliction causing him not to look back. He knew that there was no escape, he was trapped now. With all the internal strength he could muster, he pushed himself up off the ground to make his dash.

It was just like how he remembered it, dark, cold, erratic bolts of red lightening filled the sky providing some light for him to see where he was going, everything seemed so similar to life as he knew it- but so different. It was like a constant storm, but unlike a normal storm, a pit of despair filled his body like a weight vest, straining him to make his way through the already treacherous ground. Bits of what appeared to be ash, floated through the sky making his already haggard breath worsen, knowing that this ash like substance was most likely some kind of poisonous spore, he ripped off one of this sleeves and provided himself a mask, he then continued to find a way out or at least a place to hideaway while he figured out what to do next.

The middle school? The lab? There was a hole in the woods somewhere wasn't there? Nancy Wheeler had mentioned she had found that barb girl there.

No,

All the holes are closed.

Already knowing, but not accepting his inevitable fate, he continued walking, keeping low and hiding where he could, to ensure no creatures of the upside down spotted him,

The Demogorgon's were his main concern, he wasn't sure what else may be lurking, but he knew he wouldn't stand a chance even to just one, with just his pistol on his hip.

He had been walking for what seemed like hours, when he hit the wall, a building that he couldn't seem to landmark, had he really been walking for hours? Or had it been far less? He didn't know, he was dizzy, parched and his whole body felt like it weighed at least two times more than usual, which was why he had to pinch himself when he thought he saw a bright light coming from the other side of the wall…

He approached closer, but as he did… a familiar sensation began to take over him…

Tree roots,

no vines,

They had already began snaking around his feet before he knew what was happening, by the time he had gazed down they had taken him over up to his knees. It left him standing like he was fighting a battle with quick sand, the more he struggled to move, the more it constricted around him, he reached down for his gun, his knife, for something- anything to cut the dark, life-sucking tentacles away from him. But there would be no escape, hewouldn't allow it, instead he would save the sheriff as a pawn in his game.

This time he would make her come to him.

--

"Oh, Fuck Harrington, of course, it would be you" Billy said condescendingly shaking his head.

"Yeah, yeah, don't cream your pants again." Steve replied equally thrilled.

"What do you want anyway? You going to give me my walkie back anytime soon? I've had to use dad's shitty one." He added annoyedly.

"Yeah, I sure as fuck don't need it, I'll give it back to you now if you want… Just need your help with something." Billy said casually, rubbing his chin.

"Why would I want to help you?" Steve asked surprised by the request.

"Well not for me, I need help to find Eleven again, seems she has a pattern of wandering off, it's pretty late and dark outside and uh… her powers seem to be very unreliable." He explained blandly.

"You've got to be kidding me… you are full sweet on her, aren't you?" Steve asked chuckling.

"Big tough Hargrove! Finally found your kryptonite huh?" He continued mocking.

"NO Dipshit, I just don't want to be a total dick and leave her out there all night alright? There could be bears and shit out there, I don't know- coyotes or something." He said defensively.

"Haha, okay than, whatever you say, I'll help you Romeo, meet me at the arcade in half an hour, they're probably all there anyway." Steve said still laughing in the background.

Dickhead, held the button down so I can hear him losing his shit,

What a prick.

--

Billy caught himself looking out the window to peer into every bush along the way to the arcade, just hoping to catch a glimpse of a red jacket, unfortunately such an event proved to be unseen. He was surprised to see that Steve was already at the arcade when he arrived, standing out the front, leaning against the window, his arms were crossed, the sleeves of his jacket hiked up, the one foot that was pressed up against the wall gave off the impression that he thought he had better places to be.

Billy parked his car across the road in one of the street parking bays, he then coolly made his way across the road, to confront Steve. As he approached the entrance to the arcade, he noticed a bunch of girls obviously from the high school, they were looking at him that was clear enough.

Billy interpreted their stares as sexual advances he'd seen the look many times before, it was a 'I wonder what he looks like naked?' kind of stare.

"Who said there were no cows in town?" He murmured under his breath as he walked up to Steve, completely unimpressed and distracted by more pressing matters, he dismissed the attention without even a second glance.

"Harrington, here so early? Excited to see me?" He said sarcastically chuckling.

"Actually, I thought if I got here and they were all here, I could just radio you back and then I wouldn't even have to see you.—the loss of the walkie would have been a small price to pay." He countered with a smirk.

"Touché." Billy replied.

"So… are they here?" Billy asked looking through the window to answer his own question.

"Nope, not here, I've been trying to get them on the radio, but no one's answering." He informed, his tone slightly concerned.

"Well... do you know where the little shits would have gone?" Billy pressed frustratedly.

"The trusting part of me wants to think that they are happily together doing nerdy stuff in one of their basements, but the logical side of me says that they are… elsewhere." Steve said stressfully, as he raked his hands through his hair.

"Any idea where 'elsewhere' is?" He pressed further rolling his eyes at how simple his answers were being.

"The lab." Steve said with a rather large sigh.

"They were ranting and raving about it the other night, weren't they? So that's most likely where they are going to be." Steve reasoned, as he began to walk in the direction of their cars.

"Great." Billy huffed following behind him.

"Look, if El is right, and Hop is somehow trapped in the upside down and there's scientists in the lab again… then this could be really bad… like Stargate bad." Steve said quietly, ensuring that no one around them was listening.

Stargate, him.

"So… What are you suggesting then?" Billy asked impatiently, gesturing with his hands to speed up.

"Well I don't know, maybe we should get Jonathon and Nancy to come with us… The more the merrier right." Steve stated sarcastically.

"No, let's just go-- Byers is hours as away and we don't need the princess getting in the way." Billy said angrily as he stomped off towards his car.

"If you're coming, then meet me in front of the gate, we'll walk in from there- my cars too loud." He stated as he hopped into the car to start up the engine.

His mind had already been made up the second, Steve had mentioned the lab, Him, and El all in the same sentence, he was going with or without his help- and with that decided, he sped off down the road, leaving Steve to follow in his tracks.

--

"Far-out, is this road normally this dark?" Billy asked himself as he peered his way down the poorly lit road.

He was almost at the lab now, he could see that Steve had decided to join him, he snorted at the thought of the two of them joining forces, if you had told him six months ago that he would somehow be playing 'rescue the kids' with Steve Harrington he would have died laughing.

Harrington, "the hair", the guy who used to 'run the school.' Right… I have better hair than him and I don't even have to blow dry mine.

He'd never actually been to the lab before, but when he had been taken over by the flayer, he'd seen everything, all that he had done, all that he was capable of and most all—he knew that he wanted El. Putting his confused feelings for her aside, whether or not he wanted to admit to himself or not, he knew that they still had a connection to each other, they had to-- after stargate. That connection alone, was enough for him to feel protective of her, but this feeling in the pit of his stomach suggested it was something more, it felt like it was consuming him, she was unexpectedly all he could think of, knowing that she was quite possibly in danger and that he wasn't there to protect her… made him feel sick? Sick at the thought of her getting hurt or feeling like she was alone—he hated that thought because that was how he felt… all the time.

He parked his car behind the abandoned guard house, not wasting anytime getting out to light up a fresh cigarette. As he exhaled the smoke from his lungs, he noticed that not only could he not see the smoulder from his cigarette, but he also could barely see the space in front of him.

Fog, that explains why I couldn't see jack shit.

He wondered silently to himself, if the fog was going to be an ally or their downfall; sure, it could have quite possibly caused him to crash his car on the way down… But it would be good for sneaking into the facility, No one would even see them coming. Before walking to meet Steve again, he went to the trunk of his car and peered inside, with one arm on the door and the other digging around for his desired item, he was unable to see so he patted around until he found it—a baseball bat. He didn't even play baseball, but God knows he'd been in enough fights in the last few years to justify carrying it around with him.

Looks like I'm batterin' up tonight.

He closed the boot of the car with one hand and held his bat with his other, he then made his way through the grass and mud, to be greeted by Steve who had parked just a few feet behind him, he must have turned his headlights off because he hadn't even noticed him pull in.

"So, are we doing this?" Steve asked abruptly

"I brought my bat too—this one has had a few upgrades though." Steve said holding up his bat with all the nails sticking out if it.

"Well I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going in." Billy said as he passed him, purposely knocking into Steve's shoulder.

"Thanks for your help Steve, oh sure, no problem Billy, anytime." Steve said sarcastically to himself as he followed in behind him.

--
They silently made their way in through the front gate, both equally despising the others company, but knowing that if anything sinister lurked inside that they would need to lean on each other. After a few minutes of walking, they reach the back end of the building, they had made the decision to find a fire exit in the back, thinking that if there were any security cameras, they would be less likely to be noticed.

"Look," Steve said, pointing towards the pile of bikes thrown over to the side of the stairs.

"They must have had the same idea as us about going around the back." He added, checking out their surroundings to see if there were anymore signs as to where they may have gone.

Billy carefully pulled the fire exit door open, he stood back from it, almost expecting something to pop out, but when it didn't he quickly made his way inside, it was dark, but the emergency lights created a florescent glow against the walls that bounced off the floor, delivering enough light to see possible dangers and light up the path that they needed to take.

Was there a generator perhaps?

Steve rolled his eyes from behind him, at Billy's reckless act, "This isn't the time to play hero you know." He stated annoyedly.

Billy ignored him and continued creeping down the hall, trying his hardest not to make anymore noise than what he needed to.

"Where is this hole?" He asked turning to look at Steve.

"As far as I know there is no more hole, El closed it up." Steve said confusedly.

"Well where was it?" Billy pressed further.

"The basement maybe?" Steve replied.

"Right, so stairs then." Billy said nodding.

The pair continued down the hallway noticing that the walls still had blood splatter on them from the initial cause of the closure. The realisation increased both of their awareness, this place could be dangerous—it could be deadly even, they raised their bats even higher at the thought-- waiting for any moment to start swinging. They soon reached the door to the stair well, Steve stepped in to open the door, Billy nodded to him to give him the go ahead to open it, if there was something there waiting it was going to be pegged down—he'd make sure of that.

They held their breath as the door swung open, a metallic squeak sent a piercing echo down the hallways, causing both young men to both jolt from the unexpected surprise, Billy's arms tensed up, his hands gripped even tighter around the bat, already swinging before he could see what was actually in front of him.

What the fuck,

"Billy?"

"Steve"

-

-

"Dustin?!" Steve said shocked, as he pushed Billy out of the way to see his friend.

"What the hell is going on? Why are you here?" Steve asked anxiously.

"I was just on my way to get my walkie, --they have them." He stated in a panic.

"They-… have Max and Lucas, they took them somewhere, in the other building… on the other side… they didn't see me… --El she went in, she went in to get Hopper, she was upset there was some doctor there, he was talking to her, she just blast a hole in the wall and went in, I don't know Steve, I don't know how bad it is, the flayer… he might… I just don't know…" He explained, his voice breaking as it did when he was upset.

"Alright calm down… where is this other building? Steve asked coolly, attempting to calm the situation.

"Where's the hole?" Billy interrupted agitatedly, grabbing Dustin by the collar of the shirt.

"…Down the stairs, on the left…-- You can't go in there Billy, I don't think El will even make it, her powers are so weak and they keep going in and out. We have to go and get--" Dustin informed.

Billy abruptly released Dustin's shirt, to turn and face Steve. I need you to go and my sister and that little shit with her." He said reopening the door to head down the stairs.

"Wait—where are you doing, you can't actually be considering going in there?" Steve questioned worriedly.

"Look, please—I just need you to go and get my sister-- I need your help whether I like it or not." Billy said almost vulnerably.

Shocked by his reaction, Steve just gave him an understanding nod and watched as the door closed behind him, leaving only the sound of estranged footsteps behind.

"Come on, let's go, we're going to need Nancy, I think it's time to make a call to Mrs Byers as well" Steve said, gesturing to Dustin to follow him.

--

Billy reached the bottom of the stairs in record time, another door was needed to be opened and this time he felt even more on edge than last time, he held his breath again as he jolted the door open with one hand the other on his bat ready to swing.

-

Nothing was there.

No tentacle creature,

No Demogorgon,

But there's light,

A lot of light.

He slyly walked towards the obvious brightly lit hole in the wall and bent his head down to peer into it, all he could see was a thick mucus like substance covering the entry, it certainly didn't look inviting and it made his skin crawl at the thought of climbing into, --but she was in there and he wasn't leaving without her. With that decision made, he began smashing his bat into the small hole in the wall chiselling a way in-- a way to her.

He held his breath and closed his eyes and when he opened them,

he was in.

A/N: Sah sorry for the Cliff hanger, I should be able to update again tomorrow