"ELEVEN!" Mike yelled, pulling down her mask to reveal her rolled eyes. He shook her shoulders, desperately trying to wake her. "ELEVEN, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Shit, shit, shit!" Dustin screamed. "What's her favorite song?!"

"EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE!"

"Shit, shit, shit!" Argyle cursed. He still smelled like weed.

Jonathan ran across the cabin to search for a record. But, scanning countless albums and cried, "I can't find it!"

"SHIT!" Mike shrieked. "ELEVEN, PLEASE WAkE UP!"

"Erica, you're okay. Just try to breathe."

Lucas's little sister's breathing ragged as she held her bleeding leg. She groaned.

"Shit…" she cried. Finally, she could hold in her cry of pain any longer. "AH!"

"AH!"

Steve recognized that voice. As he stood on weathertop with the others, they stared in the direction of the scream.

"Erica!" he called as he ran down the hill.

Lucas put a hand on her back as tears poured out of her eyes. "Just breathe," he soothed.

Suddenly, they heard a rustling from somewhere in the bushes, and Lucas's heart dropped. It was probably another demodog.

To his surprise, Hopper and Steve jumped out of the bush, closely followed by Joyce and Nancy. As Steve hit the creatures with his bat, Nancy decided to get a few good shots at them. Hopper helped Erica out of the tree.

"I gotcha," he said. "Come on."

By the time he picked her up, the demodogs were already dead.

Hopper ran to the van and laid Erica in the back with Joyce, Lucas, and Steve, who attempted to patch her up. It was a pretty nasty bite, Hopper must admit. Erica would be fine, though.

Reeving up the engine, they sped down the road.

Suddenly, Dustin's voice came over the radio.

"STEVE, DO YOU COPY?!"

Picking up the walkie, he said, "I copy."

"ELEVEN- SHE'S BEING VECNA'D! WE NEED BACKUP!"

Hopper slammed on the brakes.

"Hand me the walkie!"

Tossing it to him, Hopper asked, "What's going on!?"

"VECNA HAS EL!"

Hopper looked petrified.

Eleven ran down the hallways, each one full of dead bodies. She'd been here before, very recently. Blood spread across the tile floor as she tried not to slip. El needed to escape.

She'd figured it was Vecna by now, but the thought still terrified her. The last time she'd fought him, Max had died. God knows what would happen now.

Sprinting to the rainbow room, she found it empty—no bodies, no children, just the standard room full of bright colors under dull lights.

"Show yourself!" she screamed.

"Eleven…" Vecna growled, "...your time is running out."

"Get out of my head!"

"Since Nancy couldn't tell the truth, it seems I must show you…."

Tell what truth?

Suddenly, the lights blinked, and the next thing Eleven knew, she was in a room full of dead children. Shrieking as she stood over a dead child, El backed into a blood-covered wall.

"This was only the first massacre I committed. Would you like me to show you the next?"

Before Eleven could say no, she was in Eddie's trailer as Chrissy's body was mutilated. Next was Fred's. Then Patrick's. And then poor Max's as Lucas clung to her.

Eleven cried and cried as Vecna continued.

"But that's not all, Eleven. This is only the beginning…."

Her heart dropped as images flashed through her mind.

Something with gaping teeth climbing out of the massive portal. The Wheeler family lying dead throughout their house.

Then there was Mike.

Though she couldn't tell where he was, Eleven could still see his body.

His eyes were sucked into his skull as his bones lay in all different directions. His jaw was broken, and his fingers curved in an unsettling fashion. He was so limp. So, so lifeless.

Eleven wailed.

But then….

She was back to reality.

Crying out as her eyes rolled back into place, Eleven felt Mike grab her into an embrace. She laid on him for lord knows how long until they finally pulled away. Then, cupping his face to make sure he was real, she kissed him hard.

She wasn't going to lose him. She wouldn't let the future come.

The others arrived a few minutes later. Eleven was still clinging to mike as Hopper picked her up into an embrace.

"You okay, kid?"

"Mhm…."

As he let her go, Eleven made eye contact with Nancy. They gave each other a knowing look.

They'd both seen it.

Robin slowly made her way out of bed, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head. It'd get better eventually. She'd slept enough that she was no longer tired anymore, and eager to see what was going on, she didn't have much of a choice.

Walking to the door, she opened it and examined the living room.

Erica's leg was bleeding everywhere as Joyce and Nancy helped patch it up. Eleven and Mike's bodies were practically attached at the hip. Robin noticed how the superhuman girl looked scared. Lucas was sitting next to his sister, trying to give her some comfort through the painful process.

Steve quickly noticed Robin and sped-walked to her. "You need to go lay down-"

"I'm fine."

"But-"

"I said I'm fine, Steve."

He shook his head. "You've got a concussion."

"It's not that bad. I'm standing and walking, after all," she pointed out.

"Yeah, no, that's not good enough."

"Okay, well, I'm still not going back to bed. So boo-hoo."

Steve sighed. "Fine, but just take it easy."

By that point, the rain had cleared up enough that it wasn't pouring through the giant gap in the ceiling, giving Robin a chance for Steve to lead her over to the soaked chair.

"Your throne," he presented.

"It's lovely…."

After making sure Erica was comfortable and okay on the couch (thank god they'd used it as a barricade last summer, so it didn't get wet), Lucas paced across the cabin.

"We need to go back for Max," he said.

Mike shook his head. "How are we get her out of there with her life support?"

"We can't just leave her behind!"

"We'll find a way, but we need to think about this logically," Jonathan replied.

Suddenly, something overhead became louder and louder. Looking through the roof, they saw Yuri's helicopter 'Katinka.' Running outside and following it to the hill, the group matched Murray, Yuri, and Dimitri exit Katinka.

Murray stared at Hopper and said, "I see things have only gotten worse."

"Yeah," Hopper gruffed.

"Quite the large group you have, American," Dimitri said in a thick Russian accent.

"Eleven kids…" Joyce mumbled.

"I'm an adult," Steve said.

Robin scoffed. "You never act like it."

He playfully shoved the girl's arm.

As Hopper led them back inside, the planning continued once more.

"Okay, so we need to find a way to move the life support. Then, El can take care of all the creatures while we move everything," Lucas suggested.

Everyone thought to themselves.

"Okay, that's not a bad plan. The only problem is that we still need a way to power her life support. It's not like the cabin has any power," Dustin pointed out. "We'd need something with a battery."

"What about the car?" Jonathan said. "What, we go ahead and use the engine and get some gasoline every once in a while."

"Do you think it could work?" Nancy asked her boyfriend.

"Probably, yeah. We've got no other option."

"Okay, that's nice and all, but how will we transport all those machines?" Steve asked.

Yuri laughed aloud. "Why not Katinka? She has flown across the ocean; she can fly once more."

"And fit all it in there?"

"Probably, yes," he responded. "All we need is a little bit of luck."

"We need certainty, not luck," Will argued.

"I can not promise anything, but if Katinka can fly you home," he said, looking at Joyce and Hopper, "she can move machines."

"I'll take those odds," Lucas agreed. "If it means rescuing Max."

After El had checked the void to ensure Max was still alive and well, the group set out to save the young girl.

Eleven, Hopper, and Nancy would fight off the monsters while Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Robin grabbed Max. They'd return for her medical equipment after bringing her up the helicopter pad on the hospital's roof. Steve had tried to get Robin to stay at the cabin, but she had refused. Jonathan, Argyle, Will, Mike, and Erica would stay home, communicating with the others.

As Joyce, Murray, Yuri, and Dimitri boarded the helicopter, the rest piled into the van. And just like that, they were off.

But as Will watched them go, a strange feeling washed over him.

Arriving at the hospital, the van group headed inside. If they were fast enough, they could beat the hivemind before it could send an enormous amount of creatures after them.

Once in the dimly lit hallways, they walked past the dead nurses. Lucas couldn't help but shiver.

Dustin held his walkie to his mouth. "We're in."

"Copy that," Will replied.

Suddenly, a Demogorgon rounded the corner. Lucas thought they'd have to put up a fight, but Eleven quickly snapped its neck in half. Lucas remembered, when they were younger, how Eleven had almost died trying to kill the Demogorgon. Now she made it look simple.

"Come on," Hopper directed.

Following him up a staircase, Lucas wanted to run badly to Max's room. To carry her out of this hellish place.

As Eleven, Hopper, and Nancy quickly killed some more beasts, they made it to Max's floor.

"Alright, Nancy and I will protect this hallway while Eleven gets the other one. That way, we can get Max in and out."

Everyone nodded, and they were off.

As the group stayed in the living room, waiting for more messages, Will felt the hairs on his neck stand up.

"Will…" a low voice echoed from somewhere outside the cabin.

Sprinting to Max's room, Steve slammed the door open.

Will snuck out of the cabin. He didn't want anyone to worry if he told them about what he was hearing. But, no. He needed to follow this voice.

"Will…" it repeated from down the forest.

As he followed it to the hill, he stared at the burning town.

Lucas looked around the room. The window was smashed open, and glass shards scattered on the ground.

Suddenly, Will's eyes flashed between visions.

His friends were screaming. Nancy was sobbing. Eleven was shrieking.

Mike was dead.

Will cried out in horror.

Lucas gazed at Max's bed.

Will fell to the grass as tears flowed out his eyes.

Max wasn't anywhere to be found.