It was close to nine at night when he finally awoke in a tangle of limbs with Chrissy still wrapped around him. There was a bit of clean up involved since both of them had fallen asleep immediately after having sex and while Chrissy went to wash herself off, Eddie did his best to eliminate all traces of their love-making from the mattress. It wasn't as if it mattered terribly that they got any stains out, but since Eddie wasn't entirely sure if Isaac was going to regularly share the room with them, he didn't want to expose his brother to his private affairs.
On the pretense of heading down to the cafeteria once they were properly dressed, they heard a thunderous crash from somewhere above them and took the stairs two at a time to come running into what appeared to be a conference room that had been taken over by the teenagers. On the list of things Eddie had not suspected to ever see during the apocalypse was Dustin and Lucas being taught karate moves by Murray on one end of the room while Max, Mike, Will, and Eleven pushed each other about on wheeled chairs, racing around the table.
"Eddie, Chrissy, come race with us," Max invited when she saw them watching from the doorway.
"It wouldn't be a fair race if I joined in. My legs are longer than all of yours," said Eddie.
"And besides, this is all just a major injury waiting to happen," added Chrissy.
"Then don't race, just spin," offered Mike, pushing a chair at them.
Eddie couldn't say no to the prospect of spinning around in a chair so fast that he ran the risk of puking or else being thrown out so violently that he hit his head and gained a concussion, so he plopped down in the chair next to Mike, tucked his knees up until his whole body fit in the seat, then pushed off of the table. Eleven took hold of the back and started to spin him faster and faster until he was gripping the armrests to avoid being launched out of his seat. When Eleven finally let go, his weight slowed the ride down quicker than if he'd weighed as much as Max or Will and he came to a stop facing the door where four duplicate Isaacs were standing looking mildly interested in the proceedings.
He tried to greet his brother, but didn't want to projectile vomit on him, so he kept his mouth shut and waved instead.
"What're we doing here?" asked Isaac plainly in that tone that wasn't as disapproving as an adult's but not as understanding as a child's. His hand was now wrapped in white gauze and it appeared that he had had one of the nurses stitch up his self-inflicted bite mark. He watched Murray demonstrate a takedown on Lucas, much to Dustin's enthusiasm and then saw Mike crash Will's chair into the wall.
"We are avoiding our responsibilities," said Eddie now that his wooziness had somewhat subsided. He spread his arms wide to gesture at the selection of chairs around them. "Come join us, brethren."
"You are a grown-ass man..."
"See, statistically, this is why males account for more head injuries than females at an annual rate," said Robin, joining Isaac in the doorway with Nancy and Steve.
"Hey, not all of us are trying to go for a record to see how many bones we can break at once," said Dustin as he watched Murray do a sidesweep of Lucas's legs and take him down to the floor.
"Nothing against Murray because he seems like a great teacher, but ask yourself, o eager one, what good karate will do you against the forces of the Upside Down?" said Eddie skeptically. "And that's assuming that you ever get close enough to have to actually battle a UDC, which I will campaign against heavily. You youngsters are not allowed anywhere near a UDC."
"We have more experience dealing with UDC's than every soldier guarding this place," Dustin protested. "And you can't hold us back forever, Eddie. Our parents aren't here, so we can fight if we want to."
"That would be incorrect," said Murray. "Will's mother is here and very much forbid him from fighting and while Hopper is Eleven's dad, he can't exactly hold her back because she's the only one with powers, but for the rest of you who are underage, the soldiers can prevent you from fighting if you pose a risk to the safety of everyone else or yourselves, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an invitation to do battle with these XYZ's or whatever you call them."
"He's got a point, Henderson," said Steve, much to Dustin's dismay. "Just because you've seen these things and been close to them, that doesn't mean you know how to fight them. I mean, the closest you got was when all those demodogs ran past us in the tunnel, so you've got a big fat zero on battle experience."
"That doesn't mean I couldn't take them if I needed to," Dustin argued. "And I fought Dart when he was still growing. And remember that Russian doctor I lit up with that shock rod?"
"Pretty sure you killed him, actually," said Robin in recollection.
"Thank you, Robin. See? I'm proven in battle and so are Lucas and Will because they fought the Mind Flayer and Mike fought Billy."
"And I've told you before that chucking fireworks at a giant meat monster doesn't qualify you for shit," said Isaac. "And neither does swinging a pole at a possessed human or electrocuting a comrade. We don't have final say, but when the time comes and it's all hands on deck, it's gonna be all legal age hands in the vanguard, not up and coming sophomores."
"So you're saying you'd take Chrissy's help over ours? No offense, Chrissy, it's just that you're, well, tiny," said Dustin a bit awkwardly.
"She knows how to shoot a gun, though," Eddie pointed out, resting his chin on Chrissy's shoulder from behind. "All five foot three of her is packing when it comes to firing off some pretty accurate rounds. She shot Vecna in the head and shot one of those feline creatures at the trailer park. It was like a-a watchamacallit…a Displacer Beast. I mean, it's not her fault that one bullet wouldn't take it out, but she still scored a blow and that's with only a few months of lessons here and there from myself or Nancy."
A blinding flash made Eddie drop his arms from around Chrissy and bark, "Goddammit, Robin!" He leaped onto the table and ran the length of it, throwing himself onto Robin and grabbing her around the waist so she couldn't escape. "Gimme the camera!"
Robin curled around the camera in her hands, protecting it with her life and hollering, "Nancy, save it!"
As the type of no-nonsense being her reputation reflected about her, Nancy Wheeler was still not immune to reverting to childish mannerisms like the rest of them and swooped in to take the camera from Robin and run back to the other side of the room where Mike and Eleven set up a chair barricade to keep Eddie back, defended by Steve.
"I am getting my hands on that camera, I don't care how many of you I have to take down to do it. And El, no cheating," Eddie warned as he released Robin, took a chair, and with one knee mounted on it, rolled himself forward kamikaze style in a glorious display of a final charge even though he was vastly outnumbered. He crashed into the barricade but managed to scramble over the top and tackle Steve.
Steve had been the one to teach Eddie a few wrestling moves once upon a time to be used against Jason and the jocks but Eddie remembered only one of them and was at a disadvantage as Steve pinned him down and held him there for a few seconds before Eddie managed to upend him by grabbing his ankle. Both tried to go for a headlock at the same time which resulted in a confusing mess of grappling arms.
"I get that you're appreciative of me stepping in back in that observation room, but this might be a little too much," said Steve with Eddie's arms squeezing somewhat gratuitously around his neck.
"Yeah, you're a fine-looking specimen, but my heart belongs to someone else," Eddie retorted.
"So does mine," said Steve for only Eddie to hear with a suggestive glance at Nancy who was trying to find an escape route to get the camera to Max.
Eddie feigned a backwards fall and Steve let go of him in an effort to catch himself, which left Eddie free to run for Max who was backing away at the far end of the table, waving the camera tauntingly.
"Just because you're a girl, don't think I won't body slam you to get that thing," Eddie warned.
"Oh, I wouldn't put it past you with me, but I don't think you're gonna be so rough with her," said Max, tossing the camera to Chrissy.
"You bastards should be ashamed of yourselves, turning my own girlfriend against me for a polaroid," said Eddie in a mock wounded voice. "Chrissy, how could you? You're just as much of a victim in this as I am."
"Yeah, but I don't mind the pictures, so you're alone in this fight," Chrissy teased.
Eddie looked to Isaac who was standing atop the center of the table, arms once again folded as he surveyed the scene below. He had climbed up at the start of Eddie's suicidal charge but not once offered a hand to assist, which Eddie took affront to.
"Are you gonna help me out, or what?" Eddie demanded.
"No, I'm not. I'm enjoying myself just fine by watching."
"You're the essence of party pooper, you know that?"
"But look at how much fun I'm having," said Isaac with a deadpan expression.
Eddie came right up to Chrissy until he was pressed flush against her while she held her arm out as far backwards as it could reach to keep the camera out of his grasp. He leaned over her, trying not to let a smile break through his look of absolute seriousness as he reached for the camera, but then Isaac snatched it out of Chrissy's hand and gave Eddie a come and get it raise of his eyebrows.
"I dislike you to monumental proportions right now," said Eddie as he hopped onto the table with his knees bent slightly in preparation to rush his brother for possession of the camera.
"You know you can't take me, not anymore."
"I'm still taller than you. And I weigh more, too."
"Probably seven pounds, at that. You're a human stick figure, and we both know that that half inch height difference didn't help you last time, so I say to you, little brother: jump for it."
Eddie lunged. Isaac tossed the camera into Robin's waiting hands and caught Eddie's upper body as Eddie tried to tackle him at waist height. His left hand grabbed the elastic waistband of Eddie's underpants which were poking out of his jeans at the back and Eddie panicked.
"Don't you dare," he hissed, trying to upset Isaac's balance enough to trip and pin him.
"Wedgie!" Dustin exclaimed. "Give it to him, Isaac! Wedg-ie, wedg-ie!"
The room began to take up the chant, much to Eddie's humiliation and he was forced to drop to his knees and surrender his foothold just to avoid having his boxers pulled up into his unmentionables. Isaac pivoted, swinging his leg up over Eddie's head, reaching down, and grasping one of his ankles before deliberately falling onto his back and folding his legs around Eddie's hips as he started to rotate Eddie's ankle in a direction it didn't naturally bend.
Just where the hell Isaac learned this move was anyone's guess, but he was twisting Eddie's ankle unforgivingly and Eddie had to tap out almost immediately. A round of applause followed Isaac's laughably easy overtake of Eddie and to add to his disgrace, Robin snapped a photo of him lying on his stomach in defeat.
"Heel hook finish, very nice," commented Steve.
Chrissy propped her elbows up on the table and rested her head in her hands as she watched Eddie start to drag himself forward to scoot off the table without upsetting his back. "Are you okay?"
"You took up arms against me. Traitor," said Eddie when he had reached the edge of the table and Isaac took hold of him by his belt loops to drag him off.
"Forgive me?" asked Chrissy.
"No."
Chrissy stood on tiptoe to kiss him playfully. "How about now?"
God, he loved this woman, even if she was turning things around to recite his own words back at him.
"Get a room, you two," said Robin.
"We have a room and even when we're in there, you still invite yourself in to take pictures, which is how this whole thing got started."
"What's so wrong about wanting to kiss your girlfriend in public?" asked Mike with his arm around Eleven.
"Up until a few months ago, I didn't think Eddie believed in the concept of girlfriends," said Lucas. "I'd never seen him around another girl–ever."
"That's not saying much since you only knew him for about seven months," said Chrissy.
"But it was true," Eddie pointed out. "I was scorned and cast aside by the female population of Hawkins High and for that reason, I once was a cynic, like many of you, and doubtful that there existed such a thing as true love in this wretched world. But I have seen an angel grace this earth with her presence and I am now a converted believer, so seek love to your heart's content, Young Michael, and all who would venture forth on this quest for true love."
"I forgot how he used to talk like that all the time," muttered Dustin. "It's nice to see the return of the Dungeon Master."
Just then, Hopper, Mrs. Byers and Mrs. Hargrove entered the room, cast a look about, and then rounded on Murray accusingly.
"Why does it look like a bomb went off in here?" asked Mrs. Hargrove.
"I was not privy to how any of this was going to go, blame the one with the Van Halen hairdo for enabling this behavior," said Murray, pointing to Eddie.
"I see you turning green with envy. Don't lie to me and tell me you wouldn't sell your soul for luscious locks like these," said Eddie, flipping his hair suggestively.
"Well, as much as I hate to break up whatever you children are doing in here, I've got some news, not sure if it's bad or not," said Hopper. "Owens told me there's a man in the lobby claiming to be Don Cunningham. I didn't get a look at him, so I couldn't tell you if that was him, but he said he asked to speak to Chrissy."
All the playfulness and levity in the room went right out like someone had chased it with a high-powered fan. If they weren't already, everyone was now aware of Chrissy's strained relationship with her father and the nonexistent one with her mother, so for Don Cunningham to brave the roads and the UDC's just to come and speak to Chrissy, it sounded too far-fetched to not be concealing an ulterior motive.
"He had his chance to do that already and he blew it," said Eddie before Chrissy could speak. "At all those court meetings, anywhere in between, after the judge ruling, while she was still living under his roof, maybe? He had his chance to protect his daughter, but he knew what his wife was doing to her and never put a stop to it so no, he may not speak to her."
"Eddie–" Chrissy began.
"No, he doesn't get another chance to let you down! He failed you as a father, as a parent, as someone who's supposed to protect you. Shitty parents don't deserve second chances." He was coming at this argument completely biased on behalf of it being his girlfriend's father and the fact that his own parents had failed him miserably, a fact that Chrissy knew well. "I'm not gonna give him an opportunity to hurt you more than your mom already has. He can get right back in his car and piss off, as far as I'm concerned. Let him go back to your mom and tell her that her plan to get to you through him didn't work because–"
"Owens said Chrissy's mom's in the lobby, too," added Mrs. Byers with an expression that told them she was bracing for the explosion from Eddie at this news.
"She's what?" Eddie thundered.
"Who let the bitch in?" Isaac demanded. "I thought we were trying to keep the monsters out? And I thought she had a restraining order against her? Not that any laws or civilized society exist in Hawkins anymore to uphold it, but I promised her violence if she ever violated that order again and voila, she sure did, so if you'll all excuse me, I have a murder to commit."
"No, Isaac, sit down," said Chrissy, but when he ignored her, she ran around to cut him off and pushed uselessly against his chest. Her shoes glided backwards on the linoleum floor as he kept walking without ever slowing down. "You can't just go out there and hit a woman!"
"That's not a woman," Isaac snarled. "That's a cockroach that keeps climbing out of the toilet to raise a stink after you've flushed it down twenty times already. It's obvious the bitch won't take no for an answer unless someone physically makes her and here I am, wanted criminal, willing, able, and made for the job."
"Listen, I appreciate you being upset for me, I really do, but you can't go out there and lay hands on her unless she does something to me first."
"She already has."
"No, not today. Her being here isn't cause enough to-to do whatever you were planning to do."
"Kill her."
"Now, be serious–"
"You think I wasn't being serious?" Isaac's eyes flashed dangerously. "I think I've proven just what I'm capable of."
Eddie held in his breath, waiting to see if anyone would question this, if Jason's murder was about to come to light for everyone to know, but no one said anything and Isaac didn't expand on detail.
"She came here for me, so I'll be the one to talk to her," said Chrissy firmly. "And I will be the one to tell her that I want her to leave. If she does anything after that, you have my permission to make her leave. But I have to talk to her first. Can you hold in those murderous tendencies until then?"
"No promises," said Isaac, but at least he had stopped trying to barge out the door.
"Chris, you don't have to go out there," said Eddie worriedly. "Just have Hopper tell her to go pound sand. You don't have to listen to one word out've her mouth and I can't just stand there and let her say more hurtful things to you than she already has."
"She can say whatever she wants, but she's not my mother anymore and her words can't hurt me," Chrissy promised, though with a slight tremble to her voice. "I want you there, Eddie, but you need to let me do this on my own."
Eddie was still completely against the idea of letting Mrs. Cunningham within shouting distance of Chrissy, but that wasn't his call to make. He could only offer his support, bite his tongue, and hope that any lingering traces of Vecna inside of him didn't spur him to quick anger and do something he might regret. Even if the town didn't believe Mrs. Cunningham concerning Eddie in regards to rape, he was still believed to be armed, unstable, and dangerous, and he would only prove that if he laid hands on the woman before she did anything to merit such an action.
Flanking her on either side, Eddie and Isaac escorted Chrissy to the ground floor lobby but hung back once they were within sight of the Cunninghams. Two soldiers stood guard at the doors and had evidently been stationed there to prevent Mrs. Cunningham from combing the building for Chrissy.
Mr. Cunningham rushed forward at the sight of his daughter with every intention of hugging her but Chrissy stepped back in a clear sign that she did not want to be touched by her father. She ignored him otherwise, staring daggers at her mother who was wearing a very plastic and false-looking smile at the sight of her.
"What're you doing here?" asked Chrissy shortly.
"I came for you, sweetie."
"No, what are you doing here?"
"I want you to come back with me–"
"Stop it. Tell me what you're really doing here or I'll have them throw you out without a car and make you walk back to the hospital, if you can make it."
"Chrissy, your mom just wants to talk–" began Mr. Cunningham, but Chrissy cut him off.
"She wouldn't come all the way out here just to talk when she could have done that before we went to court. She has orders to stay away from me and if you helped her disobey those orders by driving her here, I have nothing to say to you."
Mrs. Cunningham shot Eddie a very dirty look that wished a slow, painful death upon him and then lifted her arms as if expecting Chrissy to run into them. "With everything happening out there right now, we decided that it was time to put the past behind us and start over. Family is what matters most right now and we want you safe with us. The hospital is better equipped than this place–"
"How did you know to look for me here? If I'm leaving a trail for you to follow, I want to make sure I don't do it again."
"We heard one of your friends' parents discussing it. We recognized your friend's name and figured you would be with them."
Eddie reminded himself to have a stern talking with Dustin and the others about filling their parents in on anything they didn't strictly and absolutely need to know.
"I know you're scared, honey. I know you think you can't come back with us because you're ashamed of what that boy did to you–"
"That boy is a man and that man has saved me from everything that's trying to kill us right now–and from you. You made false sexual assault allegations against him and tried to make the whole town believe he raped me to earn yourself some sympathy after people started turning their backs on you for the way you treated me. You're going to go on TV and tell everyone you lied, or I'll do it for you and then what do you think people will say when they find out how you've been harassing me despite the judge's order to stay away from me?"
"He's ruined you, hasn't he?" asked Mrs. Cunningham with another filthy look at Eddie.
"No, that was you. That was only ever you. You took away my chance to be a kid, be a teenager, but I'm a better, stronger woman for being with Eddie than I ever was being your daughter. From this moment onward, you won't refer to me as your daughter. You have no daughter; you lost that right. I am dead to you because you've been dead to me for years. Leave me alone, leave Hawkins, and forget about me. If you try to contact me in any way when this is over, I'll pursue further legal action and it would make me the happiest woman on Earth to see you behind bars for this. Now, leave, Trisha."
Mrs. Cunningham's left dimple twitched and then Eddie heard the voice he knew well as the bitch assumed her true form. "You can't talk to me like that. I protected you from years of bullying from all those girls in school who would have made fun of you for being the fattest cheerleader on the squad. I made you presentable when you refused to take care of your own body and helped you attain a positive image in this town. And how did you thank me for all those years of putting up with your binge eating in your closet and then puking it up? You ran off with the first boy you could find who you knew I wouldn't approve of like the little whore you are. And you spread lies in court and made the town think that I was some kind of monster for trying to help you. Now you stand there defending a man accused of being violent. He attacked Jason, for Christ's sake, threw him out to be eaten after beating the hell out of him. And you'd defend him after all of that? Is it because you're carrying around his bastard in your belly, you ungrateful slut?"
Isaac had to seize Eddie around the middle to prevent him from hurtling himself at Mrs. Cunningham at these words. Eddie may not be under Vecna's influence anymore, but he was still an IED when it came to defending his girlfriend. The ease with which Mrs. Cunningham spewed those lies, the fact that she was delusional enough to believe them, that she had truly done everything with Chrissy's best interest in mind, it was mind-boggling and infuriating and Eddie was having none of it.
"Not yet," said Isaac in his ear. "She hasn't done anything yet."
"You were ready to commit murder five minutes ago without her having done anything. Get off," Eddie snapped.
"Not until Chrissy says so, dammit."
As much as it killed him to admit it, Isaac was right and Eddie couldn't lay a hand on this woman unless she put her hands on Chrissy first, so he would have to settle for verbal defense and he tapped Isaac's joined hands across his stomach to let his brother know he was calm enough to be let go before stomping forward to come and stand at his girlfriend's side in a show of support.
"You're done and you're leaving right now," he told Mrs. Cunningham coldly. Then, he addressed Chrissy's father with the same icy glare. "And you stood there and let your wife say those things to your daughter without doing shit, just like you've always done because of the coward you are, so you can leave, too."
"You don't have the authority to order me to do anything," said Mrs. Cunningham, bristling with indignation.
"No, but I can drag you out by your hair and throw you out anyway if you give me cause to and no one would do a goddamned thing about it. I do have the authority to protect my girlfriend, a privilege you gave up."
"Touch me and I'll sue you."
"I don't have anything to sue for, so go right ahead," Eddie invited. "See where it gets you."
"And I'll sue your ass right back," Isaac added, stepping up to Chrissy's other side.
"Who're you?"
"Chrissy's future brother-in-law," said Isaac boldly. "I spoke to you over the phone a few days ago about coming onto my property and sullying my doorstep with your bullshit. And I do have the authority to forcibly remove you from this compound if you don't do so voluntarily in the next five seconds. You're a cancer to your daughter's well-being and we're permanently extracting you from her life right now. If you want to be a child and make me count, I will. What's it gonna be, Trisha?"
Mr. Cunningham made a weak sound like he was trying to urge his wife to leave but Mrs. Cunningham was hellspawn and refused to back down even at the prospect of having to square off against two grown men.
"I'll see both of you thrown in jail for this," she swore. "And Chrissy, when you have nowhere else to go and no one else to take you in and have to sell yourself into prostitution to pay for this-this animal's baby's formula, know that I won't be letting you into my house ever again."
"I'll try to hold back my tears. If you break the terms of the restraining order again, the next time I see you, all it'll take is one phone call to the police to put you where you belong. Try not to get eaten on the drive back."
"Ma'am, I think you and your husband had best leave now," said one of the soldiers at the door and Mrs. Cunningham spat upon the floor at Chrissy's feet before storming out with her husband trailing obediently in her wake. When they lost sight of her perfectly styled frizz of hair disappearing into her car, Chrissy gave a sharp exhale and turned herself into Eddie's arms.
"You did great, baby," he told her sincerely, swaying slightly in place to a fictitious rhythm to soothe her nerves.
When they finally broke apart, Chrissy turned to Isaac and asked coyly, "Future brother-in-law?"
"Well, if we all survive this, the odds of you two breaking up are slim to none since you don't just break up with someone you saved from an alternate dimensional serial killer demon, so unless you two are leaving some sort of back door open that I don't know about, I'd say there's two rings with your names on them in the next three to five years."
"I hope you realize I'm gonna have to kill you now," said Eddie, face burning.
"Get in line."
Eddie had no further rebuttal, as Isaac had given him something quite serious to think about, even if the concept wasn't entirely new. He had thought fleetingly of what a future with Chrissy would be like past the stage of boyfriend and girlfriend. It was a proven fact that he did not intend to let Chrissy go anywhere without him, that he had solidified their future together in his head, but he hadn't considered that maybe marriage was on the table at some point. Less than half a year of dating had not prepared him for marriage at all, but he and Chrissy had survived a shitton more than most, if not all couples did throughout their entire relationship and if they didn't end up a bonded item after this, what was the point? She was his, wasn't she? And she'd made it very clear that he was hers, so what was he waiting for? He might as well pop the question right now.
But he was getting ahead of himself. They needed to survive Vecna first, find out if their town would still be standing in the aftermath, get the chance to be young and wild for a bit longer.
"There you are, Hopper said I'd find you here," called Owens at the sight of them as he came out of the stairwell with Wayne and Eleven in tow. "Eddie, Isaac, there's something our hallway cameras caught after Eddie's burn that we feel both of you need to see."
In no universe did those words bode well for anyone involved and so, fearing what they were about to walk in on, Eddie, Isaac, and Chrissy followed the doctor back up to the third level to the security room where several screens displayed live footage of hallways, specific rooms, the parking lot which had been converted into a base for the military, and the road leading up to the security checkpoint. Brenner was already seated at the monitors and at the sight of Eddie and the others filing in, directed their attention to one screen that showed a mounted camera view of the currently empty sub-level corridor with the crater Isaac's fit had left still in the floor.
"We ran tests on Isaac after Eddie's burn this morning and though immediately following there was nothing new to report, we took scans of his brain and found the same type of activity that was found in Will Byers's brain the day of the massacre at this lab. Swelling, pulsing, abnormal functions. We thought it originally was due to his reaction to Eddie having the infection burned out of him and was simply in a state of shock, but then I had the idea to review the footage taken of the hallway while Eddie was in the experimentation room."
"We wanted to see if we could spot the infection fleeing the building," added Owens. "Chrissy, Wayne, you'll recall that black cloud that spewed out of Eddie once we had cured him? We wanted to make sure that all traces of it had fled the facility and this is what we found. I caution you that this may be disturbing."
Owens pressed the "play" button on the keyboard and Eddie saw Isaac on the floor outside the observation room, hugging his knees to his chest and clamping his hands over his ears as he twisted about, no doubt in an effort to blot out Eddie's screams which were surprisingly muffled but nevertheless audible on the tape. Eddie watched Isaac bite down on his knuckle, feet hammering on the floor, and he could hear his own agonizing screams from within the next room, begging someone to turn off the heat, cursing those who didn't do as he asked, dying. Slumping against the wall, Isaac sank down until only his head remained off of the floor when suddenly the door from the other room burst open and a billowing, swirling black cloud shot out into the hallway, circling overhead as if sniffing Isaac out.
Isaac gave a cry of despair, a plea of mercy, and tried to crawl away, but the cloud descended upon him and began entering Isaac's mouth, nose, and eyes as if it were being suctioned in by a powerful vacuum. Isaac writhed on the floor, eyes pure white and ghastly as every smoky particle of the cloud penetrated him until with one tiny grey sliver disappearing into his mouth, the cloud vanished and Isaac flipped onto his stomach with a shuddering force that split the ground beneath him. He choked for air, called out Eddie's name feebly, and then spewed an inky black liquid out of his mouth before collapsing where he lay.
"Holy shit…" Eddie breathed, then turned on the spot to cast his eyes over Isaac who had been thumbing at his upper lip as if waiting to be found out like a guilty child discovered in the act of wrongdoing. "Why didn't you say something? You didn't say anything."
"I didn't know," Isaac mumbled.
"How do you not know? How do you not feel something like that going right into you?"
"Maybe because I was already in too much pain to feel it," said Isaac bitterly. "I don't remember anything after I bit my hand open and when I came to, it was just an empty space in my memory. I don't remember it happening at all."
"And you didn't feel it either? You'd just been pumped with a double dosage of the infection and that didn't affect you in any way?"
"Will was unaware of being infected in such a way as well," said Owens. "Memory loss is one of the first signs of an advanced deterioration of regular brain functions, from what we've seen."
"And if Henry didn't want you all to know he had just re-infiltrated Isaac to a much stronger degree, he would have made an effort to fly under the radar, so to speak. He would want to keep this more powerful presence hidden and undetected until he could use Isaac to greater effect. But he's been exposed now, and I do not believe that Isaac can be trusted as he was before. He's more dangerous than he was this morning, and I think the situation calls for him to be restrained until the generators have time to recuperate from Eddie's burn to supply us with enough power to make Isaac undergo the test."
As if on cue, the screens all went out, the overhead lights flickered and died, and Isaac dove for Brenner. His hands locked around Brenner's throat and both of them went toppling over into the monitors. Eddie and Wayne each grabbed one of Isaac's arms and Eddie could feel the throbbing pulse of the black veins at work, pumping strength and energy into Isaac's limbs to assist in strangling Brenner.
"El, do something!" Eddie cried, but Owens was faster and almost as if he had come prepared for this sort of reaction, he stuck a syringe full of an amber liquid into the crook of Isaac's neck. Isaac gave a sharp shout and removed one hand from Brenner's throat to pull the syringe out of his skin. He clutched the needle in hand like a weapon, but his knees were already buckling, his head lolling forward in a state of drowsiness. Wayne laid him gently upon the floor and Brenner moved away, massaging his throat.
Owens stuck his head out into the hall and called for help, asking for someone to reboot the generators, but the orderly who reported to him explained that all power in the building was dead, cut off in a blackout. Instructing the orderly to radio the other two safehouses for an emergency drop off of supplies to get the generators back up and running as soon as possible, Owens regarded Isaac on the floor and then Eddie with the air of someone delivering bad news concerning a loved one in critical condition to the waiting family.
"That aggression is indicative of Isaac's mind caving in to Henry's will. If we don't burn the infection out of him within the next twelve hours, he'll be lost. And if we don't get the generators back online, we'll have nothing to burn him with."
/ / /
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A bit of a shorter chapter, but I'm sure you all will live. Also, I don't play D&D, I know nothing about it other than what the show reveals so it's one great hunky dory coincidence that the "felines" with tentacles coming out of their shoulders that I created a few chapters back are actually creatures that exist called "Displacer Beasts" since I was trying to come up with a name for them and decided to do a little research into D&D monsters. They look like panthers with six legs and tentacles, so there's your visual reference. Go figure.
