Inside Out: Malignant

by BrittWitt16

She knew everything would be different, but she never expected this much to stay the same. A year later, and Christine still has panic attacks and nightmares about the Upside Down. It doesn't help that Dustin's being weirder than usual, or that Hopper has her under surveillance. It also doesn't help that she has terrible taste in guys... Sequel to Inside Out

15. The New Girl

"Someone has to go after them."

"Wha—excuse me?! No!"

"Steve—"

"Are you insane?! Chris, there were like a dozen of those things, okay?! Like two dozen! And we have one bat, one shotgun, and three unarmed kids."

"Obviously I'm not talking about the kids."

"Then what are you talking about?!"

"Splitting up. You get them out of here, and I'll follow Dart."

"Hey, what? I'm not going home! If you two—"

"Shut it, dickhead. The adults are talking."

Dustin gave Steve a reproachful look and returned his attention to the dead creature on the ground, which he was currently poking with a stick. Christine sighed, but she didn't have a chance to argue before Steve rounded on her again.

"Okay, now I know you're insane," he hissed. "You're not fighting those things alone."

"I'm not gonna fight them, Steve," she attempted to reason with him. "I'm gonna follow them. We won't be able to pull off something like this again, and we need to know where they are. Otherwise it's Barb all over again, remember?"

"No no no! Don't try to pull that shit with me. You were just yelling at me because I wanted to go up against one of them, and now you wanna tail twenty and just hope they don't see you coming? Absolutely not!"

Christine chewed the inside of her cheek. She knew it wasn't a smart idea, but it didn't seem like they had a surplus of options. "Fine. What do you want to do?"

"What we need to do is regroup," Steve said firmly. "This is way too much for us to handle alone. I say we go to your house and call for backup."

"Call who?" she asked. "Dustin just screamed for the entire party on comms and we got radio silence. Plus, we still have no idea where Nancy and Jonathan are."

"Then we call Hopper."

"Who is also MIA."

"Then we try again!"

Christine hesitated, folding her arms over her chest. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"You—what?" Steve looked at her incredulously. "Why wouldn't that be a good idea?"

"Because…" She glanced over her shoulder, checking to make sure the kids were occupied. She took a step closer to Steve and lowered her voice. "Because Hopper's working with the lab."

"What?" He frowned at her. "Why would you think—"

"Look, it's a long story, and we don't have time for it right now. I know he's been cooperating with the lab, and they can't know we're poking around again. Or that we told Max about last year. If we say anything to Hopper, he'll turn us in and then we'll be totally screwed."

"Chris, we're already totally screwed! As far as I'm concerned, the guys from the lab could come in clutch right now."

Christine's jaw clenched. It wasn't pride that was stopping her; at least, it wasn't just her pride. She didn't like the way that the creatures had run off at the drop of a hat. What had called them back to the lab? Was there something bigger and nastier that had broken out? Or had the scientists been playing in the Upside Down for so long that they'd found a way to control the monsters? Dustin had been on the radio all weekend shouting about his code red. What if the bad men had heard him? Did they already know what the kids were up to? Had the creatures been sent just to wipe the party out?

That sounded far-fetched, even to herself. Christine was being paranoid and she knew it, but that was why she wanted to follow them. They needed to know what was really going on, what they were really up against. It wouldn't make them any less screwed, but at least they'd be able to prioritize.

"Helloooo?" Dustin waved his arms to get their attention again. "Mom? Dad? We got a plan, or what?"

Christine glowered and flipped him off. Steve huffed, clasping his hands behind his neck.

"Look, why don't we go to Jonathan's house?" he suggested. "If no one's picking up the radio, it's probably our best chance of finding someone. Even if we don't, it gives us a chance to reload before we go out there again."

"Reload?" Christine asked skeptically.

"Yeah. Jonathan bought all that hunting shit last year, and he's got his dad's gun, and his mom's uh—axe thing."

Steve mimed a hacking motion, as if Christine might not know what an axe was. She was furious to find herself smirking, and even more furious when Steve caught her.

"So?" he asked expectantly. "We got a deal?"

She debated for a few seconds, but it was more for effect than anything. Their options were slim, and Steve's plan was better than her idea of wandering off alone.

"We can't do anything until we get back to the car," she said at last.

"Then we get back to the car," Steve agreed. "Yo! Asshats! Grab your shit. We're getting out of here."

"Finally!" Dustin groaned, letting his head fall back. He dropped his stick and climbed into the bus to grab his things.

Max looked around, alarmed. "Uh…what about the dead aliens…?"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Lucas assured her. "The Bad Men will take care of it. You know, the government spies from the lab? They're good at making things disappear. Like, really good."

"The Bad Men. Right. Got it."

She still seemed uncertain, but with a creature from another dimension lying dead at her feet, there wasn't much room to argue.

The group set off from the junkyard together, following the train tracks the way Steve and Dustin had come. Naturally, the two of them took the lead, Dustin occasionally calling out on his radio while Steve kept his bat at the ready. Max and Lucas walked behind them, on foot this time; Lucas had grudgingly left his bike behind, knowing it would only slow them down if he had to walk it through all the brambles and branches of the woods. Christine brought up the rear, where she could repeatedly count everyone in the group and keep an eye out for any more monsters in the trees.

"So those things," Max asked quietly, after several minutes of marching in silence. "That was a Demogorgon?"

"Not really," Lucas said, tossing his head to the side. "We think they're gonna be Demogorgons. These were a lot smaller."

"And they can't jump between dimensions yet," Christine added.

"And they have tails," Steve chimed in.

"Exactly," said Dustin, "so they were more like dogs. Like D—a Demodog!"

"Dude." Steve turned to point at him. "Yes."

Dustin grinned. "Yeah?"

"Yeah! That sounds good."

"Greeeat," Lucas drawled. "Well now that we have a name that sounds good, can we get back to Dart? Are you sure he wasn't one of the things—"

"Demodogs."

"Fine. Are you sure he wasn't one of the Demodogs Chrissy took out?"

"Positive," Dustin said confidently. "Dart was the one we saw first, who jumped at Steve."

"And you're positive that was him?"

"Yes! He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."

"But he was tiny two days ago," Max pointed out.

It was clear that Max was still struggling to grasp the concept of monsters that could defy the laws of reality. If physics as they knew it was out the window, it was only fair that biology went too. Dustin, however, was less than patient.

"Well, he's molted three times already," he said in annoyance.

Steve faltered mid-step. "…Malted?"

"Molted. Shed his skin to make room for growth, like hornworms."

"Or snakes," Christine explained. "Remember the skin you found in the cellar?"

"Ohhh." Steve's frown disappeared and he nodded in understanding. "Yeah, that—that makes more sense than milkshakes."

Christine grinned and rolled her eyes. They landed on Lucas, who was watching her in disdain.

"What?" she asked him.

"Just—just why?" He gestured to Steve in exasperation. "Seriously, what is it? Why him?"

"Huh?" Steve asked, glancing over his shoulder. "Why him what?"

Christine allowed herself to relax; as usual, Steve was clueless as to what was going on.

"Watch it," she warned Lucas. "Last week you didn't know what 'overbearing' meant, so you don't get to judge."

"I knew what it meant! I just—look, I got confused."

Max smirked at him. "What did you think it meant?"

"Uhhh—I just—she—"

Lucas floundered, which only made Max's smirk wider. Dustin cleared his throat impatiently, giving them a nasty look.

"The point is that Dart's probably going to molt again, and soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."

"Yeah," Steve scoffed, "and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."

"Wait, a cat?" In an instant, Lucas had overtaken Dustin, slamming a hand on his chest and bringing their group to an abrupt halt. "Dart ate a cat?!"

"No," Dustin lied at once. "What? No!"

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked. "He ate Mews."

Christine sighed wearily. "Steve…"

"Mews?" Max asked him. "Who's Mews?"

"It's Dustin's cat."

"Steve!"

Dustin glared at him in outrage, but the damage had already been done.

"I knew it!" Lucas shouted, shoving Dustin back several paces. "You kept him!"

"No!" Dustin said at once. "No. No I—no, I—"

Lucas raised his eyebrows expectantly, and Dustin's defense broke along with his voice.

"He missed me! He wanted to come home!"

"Bullshit," Lucas spat.

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon!"

"Oh, so now you admit it!"

"Guys, who cares?" Max interjected. "We have to go!"

"I care!" yelled Lucas, and he jabbed a finger at Dustin. "You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"

"SO DID YOU!"

Dustin's outburst was loud enough to make Lucas falter. "W-what?"

"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin reminded him, pointing his flashlight directly into Max's face.

Max spluttered indignantly. "Ha! A—a stranger?"

"You wanted to tell her too!" argued Lucas.

"Yeah, but I didn't, Lucas! Okay? I didn't tell her! We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even. We're even!"

"No, no! We're not even. Don't even try that!"

"It's a party decision," Dustin asserted. "So the party decides. Right, Chrissy?"

He turned to look at her expectantly, and Christine almost laughed. "Oh, you don't want to ask me. As soon as I can make sure you're not gonna die, I'm gonna kill you both."

"Chrissy, you know what he did was worse," said Lucas. "I wouldn't even have had to tell Max if he'd told the truth."

"Oh, so you were just gonna keep lying to me?" Max demanded.

"Just for a little while!" Lucas reasoned. "When we told you, it would've been a party decision."

"Which still goes against the nondisclosure agreements, and is still breaking the law," Christine pointed out. "You knew how dangerous this was gonna be, and you brought Max anyway. I think you're both idiots."

"Fine," Dustin said with an exaggerated shrug. "We're both idiots. We're even."

"Your stupid pet could've ate us for dinner!" Lucas shouted at him.

"That was not my fault! Also, he wasn't gonna eat us!"

"Both of you stop—"

"Oh, so he was just crawling over to say hello?!"

"He wasn't—"

"GUYS!"

Steve's voice finally broke through the fight. Christine was surprised to find that he wasn't standing next to her anymore. She'd been so caught up in the boys' argument that she hadn't noticed him wander away from the tracks. He was standing in the brush, looking deeper into the woods. Once everyone had stopped shouting, Christine understood why.

A familiar screeching was echoing through the night air, even louder than it had been at the junkyard. Christine didn't need her compass to guess where it was coming from.

Steve swung his bat back onto his shoulder before glancing back at her.

"Stay here," he ordered, and marched into the trees.

Christine rolled her eyes. She turned back to Dustin and Lucas, jabbing a finger into each of their chests. "The two of you stop fighting and get Max back to the car."

She'd barely made it off the tracks when she heard the rustle of feet following her.

"Screw that," said Dustin. "You've got the shotgun."

"The party sticks together," added Lucas. "It's safer that way."

"I told you guys I'm gonna kill you, right?"

"Yeah, we got it," said Dustin, and she could hear the eye roll in his voice.

"Good." Christine walked a little faster so they wouldn't be able to see her smile. "Now, will one of you go back and bring Max? I can hear shouting from here."

She was prepared for another hike, but it didn't take them long to find their way through the trees. The forest opened out onto a clearing on a steep hill that looked over town. The view was clear for miles: the sleepy town of Hawkins, the highway beyond, the twinkling lights of other towns that had no idea what was going on in the woods. The sight was enough to take Christine's breath away; it was gorgeous, but it also reminded her just how far they'd walked.

The screeches continued, clearer now that they were out in the open. The fog had followed the Demodogs away from the junkyard, billowing through the treetops below. They boys shined their flashlights out over the scene, which just made everything look more opaque.

"I don't see them," said Dustin.

"Dustin, we're like two hundred feet up," Christine reminded him. "If you could see them, you'd be Superman."

"Nice one."

"Thank you."

Lucas lifted his binoculars again; he scanned the horizon, doubling back when he spotted something in the distance.

"It's the lab," he confirmed, glancing up at Christine. "You were right. There're going back home."

"Wish being right felt better," she said bitterly.

Christine squinted at the red lights flashing in the distance, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. She'd never seen Hawkins National Laboratory before. She knew it existed, that it was lurking in the woods, full of suspicious men running suspicious experiments, but she'd never actually seen it. Now the building lay before her, real as anything, and the gravity of the situation hit her in a way it never had before.

This was a real building, where real people worked, where real people parked their cars and clocked in at the office. They ran medical tests on innocent children, little boys like Will and little girls like Eleven. Inside the building, armed soldiers guarded a portal to another dimension that was filled with monsters. They'd opened that portal, and dozens of people had died. Barb had died. And instead of fixing their mistakes, instead of helping all the people they'd hurt, they'd swept the whole thing under the rug. This was where the bad men were.

Rage swelled through her chest, the kind that Nancy had been talking about all week, and for a fleeting moment, Christine found herself hoping the scientists had no control over the Demodogs; if the monsters stormed the building, there would only be monsters in their path.

The red lights blinked, and so did Christine.

Eleven had thought she was a monster. She'd grown up in that building, isolated from the world, deprived of everything a little girl should want. She'd been pushed to her limit, opened the gate by mistake, and then sacrificed herself to save them.

For the millionth time, Christine wondered what had happened. Had Eleven died fighting the Demogorgon? Had she gotten trapped in the Upside Down? Had the doctors at the lab been searching for her all this time, scouring both dimensions to get her back? Hopper had been breathing down Christine's neck all year, asking questions about Eleven, and yesterday, he'd vanished. Was he in there with her right now? Was Eleven locked in the same room she'd grown up in, waiting for the next monster to get her?

Christine was running before she'd made the decision to move.

She careened down the hill, her sneakers threatening to slip on the grass. The others were shouting behind her, the same way logic was shouting at her from the back of her brain, but she was beyond thinking at this point. The only thing that mattered was getting to the lab, and she would deal with the consequences when she got there.

Unfortunately, the consequences caught up to her first.

Christine had to slow her pace as she dove into the next batch of trees. The brush was thicker here, no wide path cleared out for her with train tracks. The roots and tall grass forced her to a brisk walk, which was all the rest of the party needed to catch up.

"Chrissy! Chris, stop!" Steve was panting as he came up behind her, tripping over his feet. "This—this is insane! We had a plan! We were—"

"I know."

"Then why are we going?!"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just—I have to see."

"Have to see what?! Whether or not we—we're gonna get torn apart by a bunch of devil dogs?!"

"Demodogs," Dustin corrected, appearing on Christine's other side.

"Okay, it—it literally doesn't matter!"

"Well you can't call them Devil Dogs. That doesn't sound scary. That's a cake."

"It doesn't matter how it sounds, Henderson! They are still going to eat us!"

"Look, you wanted backup," Christine snapped at Steve. "The lab is closer than the car. It's better to go straight there than drive home and hope their receptionist picks up the phone."

"O-okay, and what about the part where they find out what we've been doing and that Lucas told Max the truth? What happened to 'We'll be totally screwed'?"

"We're already totally screwed, right?"

She was walking too fast to look at Steve's face, but she could hear his strangled noise of frustration, followed by a string of colorful curses. The grass crunched loudly as Max and Lucas finally caught up and joined the back of the group.

"What the hell's going on?" Lucas demanded. "Do we have a new plan?"

"No," Dustin said simply. "Christine's lost her mind."

"Okaaay…then why are we following her?"

"Because the party sticks together. And she has a gun."

There was a beat of silence, presumably filled by the others exchanging dubious looks behind Christine's back.

"Well," Max piped up, "that's good enough for me."

She doubled her pace, falling into step beside Christine up front.

The lab was farther than it had initially looked. By the time the group reached the edge of the woods, they'd slowed from a brisk walk to a crawl. Dustin and Lucas kept their flashlights out, scanning the surrounding trees in case any Demodogs were lurking in the shadows, but the monsters' howls still sounded a safe distance away. Outside, it was only the sound of the grass under their feet, the wind through the branches, and…

Christine's arm shot out to the side, stopping Max in her tracks and forcing the rest of the group to stutter to a halt.

"What is it?" Max asked nervously.

"Do you guys hear that?" Christine squinted in the dark, trying to place the noise. "That humming, like…"

"Like a car," Lucas supplied, perking up. "That's gotta be the main entrance."

Cautiously, Christine took another few steps forward. Hawkins National Laboratory was a military base, and as much as she wanted to see it for herself, she was pretty sure security wouldn't be thrilled to find them snooping around.

A twig snapped under her shoe, making her freeze. She flinched as a voice called out through the dark.

"Hello? Who's there? Who's there?!"

Christine paused, her head cocked to the side. She knew that voice. She didn't like it, but she knew it.

"Jonathan?"

"Christine?!"

Steve's head rocketed up at the second voice, and he jogged to catch up with Christine at the tree line. "Nancy?"

"Steve?"

It was impossible to tell which of them was more surprised. Nancy and Jonathan were standing on the side of the road, Jonathan's car idling behind them. Lucas had been right: they'd made it to the front entrance of the lab. Pressing as that had seemed thirty seconds ago, seeing Nancy for the first time in days pushed the whole situation from Christine's mind.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded, pouncing on Nancy with a hug. "Do you have any idea how worried we've been?!"

"I'm fine," Nancy assured her, still sounding baffled. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you two doing here?" Steve countered.

Even though his voice was even, Christine still felt Nancy flinch at the implication. Christine gave her an encouraging squeeze, but as she pulled out of the hug, she couldn't stop herself from shooting a curious look at Jonathan. The way he immediately averted his gaze didn't exactly fill her with confidence.

"We're looking for Mike and Will," Nancy explained.

"They're not in there, are they?" asked Dustin, nodding his head toward the building.

Nancy frowned. "We're not sure…"

"Why?" asked Jonathan.

Christine and Steve exchanged a wary look, but they were saved the trouble of answering.

Another roar tore across the yard, louder than anything they'd heard so far. They were definitely in the right place, and if there'd been any question about what the creatures were before, there wasn't now. Almost all of the windows in the building were dark, but on some floors, the lights were flickering on and off. Something was screwing with the electricity.

Christine felt the phantom sting of Christmas lights scratching her skin, and swallowed hard.

"W-what the hell was that?" Jonathan demanded in a shaky voice.

"The Demodogs," Dustin supplied, making Nancy's frown deepen.

"The what?"

"Demodogs," Max repeated. "It's like a Demogorgon, but smaller."

"Wait," said Jonathan, shaking his head, "hold on—who are you?"

"This is Max," Lucas introduced. "Max, this is Mike's sister, Nancy, and Will's brother, Jonathan."

Max lifted her hand in an awkward wave. "Uh…hi."

Neither Nancy nor Jonathan replied. They squinted at Max, looked at each other, and then turned in unison to Christine. Christine sighed and raked a hand through her hair.

"Alright, short version: Lucas broke his NDA, so Max knows all about last year, Dustin accidentally adopted a baby Demogorgon but lost it, we all tried to trap it and then found out there's about twenty and followed them here. How's your weekend going?"

She gave them a pained smile as they gaped at her. It was a few seconds before they came back to reality.

"Dustin, are you insane?!" Nancy shouted, just as Jonathan rounded on Lucas.

"You told her?!"

"I thought it was a pollywog!"

"We needed help!"

"A what?"

"Then you ask us! Ask Chrissy! You don't tell—"

"Hey!" Steve snapped at Jonathan. "They made a mistake and they're trying to clean it up. They did ask for help, otherwise we wouldn't be here."

"Steve," said Nancy, dumbfounded, "you know what those things can do. He never should have—"

"I SAID I didn't know!"

"Look, Dart isn't the problem right now," Christine interjected. "There's twenty—"

"Dart?" Jonathan repeated incredulously. "You named it?!"

"Yes, Jonathan, I named him! I thought he was gonna be a frog!"

"It doesn't matter!" Christine snapped. "There's more than one Demodog, so clearly there's something bigger going on than Dustin adopting a new pet."

"Did you call the others?" Nancy asked.

"We called everybody," Lucas insisted. "Nobody picked up!"

"Yeah, including you two," Dustin said accusingly. "What gives?"

"We were busy," said Jonathan, and Steve's eyebrows skyrocketed.

"Busy?"

"Look, it's not important," Nancy jumped in. "Christine's right, we—"

"I think it's pretty damn important," Steve pressed, taking a step forward. "Chris and I almost got our faces torn off by a bunch of monsters in a junkyard, and we haven't heard from you in days. What was keeping you so busy, huh?"

Nancy flinched. "Steve, it's not what—"

"Ha! It's not what it looks like?!"

"Hey, back off," Jonathan warned him. "It was important."

"So important you couldn't tell us?" Christine demanded. "The two of you just straight up vanished without any warning or any sign you were okay! We thought you were gone! We thought we lost you, like Will, like Barb, like—"

"That's why were gone!" Nancy burst. "I couldn't let them sell the house, Chrissy. I couldn't!"

Christine's heart plummeted and her mouth fell open. "Nancy…"

"I promise it's fine."

"Are you kidding me?! A-are you insane?! You brought them into—"

"We didn't tell them! They're safe, I promise, and we didn't—"

"We went straight to the press," Jonathan cut in. "The reporter her parents were talking to."

At that point, Steve burst into laughter. Words might have been failing him, but the rest of the party exploded in protest.

"A REPORTER?!" Dustin screamed. "ARE YOU INSANE?!"

"What about the government snipers?" asked Max.

"Wooow," said Lucas, shaking his head. "And you wanna yell at me for telling people?"

"He already knew most of it," Jonathan defended. "All we did was give him the tape."

"THE TAPE?! WHAT TAPE?!"

Dustin's eyes looked ready to pop out of his head. Steve was still wheezing with laughter, too enraged for words. Christine wished her body would response the same way, but at the moment, her throat was swelling with a familiar panic that made it impossible to think.

"Chrissy, I couldn't tell you," Nancy pleaded, wringing her hands together. "I knew it would be risky, and after everything you said about your dad and—and with Hopper watching you—"

"Hopper?" Lucas repeated. "What does that mean?"

"Because he's friends with her dad?" Dustin asked, but the question went unanswered.

"—I didn't want you to get involved until I was sure it was safe."

"Nancy, this—you—none of this is safe!" Christine managed to stammer. "They'll know exactly who's responsible, and where to find you and—and—o-oh my God, they—they already know!"

"No! No, they don't," Jonathan said, in what he must've thought was a soothing voice. "Chrissy, I know, but I promise no one followed us. No one—"

"Hopper!" The shotgun slipped out of her hands as she choked out the word, her brain reeling so fast that it was hard for the words to keep up. "He didn't come to the matinee, and he always comes to the matinee, and I knew something was wrong! I thought—I thought he was missing because it was something about Eleven, or—or—or the Demodogs or Will, but if you were talking to a reporter then—"

"Will?" Jonathan asked urgently. "Do you know what's wrong? Did they take him?"

"Wait, Hopper's missing?" Nancy demanded.

"Someone took Will?" asked Lucas.

"—Chrissy said Hopper didn't show up to the matinee—"

"—no one at the house, and there were all these papers—"

The conversation devolved into waves of panicked rambling, each person trying to question and answer someone else in the group. Christine was oblivious to the chaos; it was too busy inside her head, her frantic thoughts overlapping each other in an incoherent mess.

Nancy and Jonathan had gone to the press. They'd broken their NDAs and the lab was going to know it was them and their lives were going to be over. Nancy, Jonathan—all of them, maybe. How ruthless would the lab be when they cleaned up the mess? The party had blown their first and only chance. They'd be arrested, or vanished, or killed, along with the reporter and anyone else he'd spoken to. Would the Hollands disappear next, supposedly moving out of town? Would Jonathan and Nancy be the next teenage runaways, soon to be followed by Christine and the others? Was that why the Demodogs had come after the party? Was this already the beginning of the end?

Christine jumped as something flew in front of her face. She tensed, ready to fight, but Max immediately retracted her hand and took a step back. She was watching Christine with deep concern, the others still arguing behind her.

"Uh…are you okay?" she asked uncertainly.

"I—I d—"

It was like her lips were incapable of forming words. That, or a wire had come loose in her brain, shocking her nerves and causing the rest of her muscles to start shutting down. She was still processing the Demodogs, the lab, the reporter; she didn't have the brain capacity to assess if she was okay.

"The power's back!"

Nancy's voice cut through the bickering, prompting everyone to look at the building. Floor by floor, the windows were lighting up—solid, steady light rather than the ominous flickers from before. Christine's heart leapt into her throat, another malfunction, but before she could recover—

"Ow! Wha—Max, wait!"

Max didn't wait; she grabbed Christine's wrist tighter and continued to yank her across the lawn, towing her after the rest of the party as they sprinted toward the front gate. Christine stumbled along, seconds from falling over, until her brain was forced to catch up with her feet. Jonathan was at the head of the pack, bolting around his car so he could dive into the security booth. He slammed his hand down on the control panel and everyone turned to the gate.

Nothing happened.

Jonathan frantically pressed the button again and again, but the gate stayed resolutely closed.

"Let me try," Dustin offered, shoving Jonathan out of the way.

"Hang on—"

"Let me TRY, Jonathan!"

There was a scuffle as the boys argued over who got to push the button, which Christine did her best to ignore. Her eyes were already scanning the fence for points of weakness, trying to assess the best way in. The easiest alternative would be to just drive through the gate, chain-link be damned, but the fence posts didn't leave much of a gap, and she was willing to bet they were reinforced with concrete. Jonathan's shitty car wouldn't stand a chance. Going under the fence would take hours, if it was even possible, and with two different kinds of barbed wire lining the top, the path over the fence wasn't looking appealing.

"What do you think?" asked Nancy, stepping up to her side.

"It's probably a security failsafe," Christine guessed, "which means the only way to reset it is inside, and unless Jonathan has bolt-cutters in the trunk, I don't think that's happening."

"We can't climb over?" Steve asked, sidling up to her other shoulder.

"Not gonna happen. I mean, even if Jonathan pulled up next to the fence to give us a boost, we'd still need to cover the top. I don't think a denim jacket and a few sweatshirts are strong enough to top industrial-grade barbed wire."

"Huh. Too bad you don't have those leather pants."

Nancy and Christine both turned to him in surprise, and Steve promptly clamped his mouth shut.

A loud buzz made all of them jump, and the chain link rattled as the gate began to slide open.

"Hey, I got it!" Dustin laughed in victory from the gatehouse. "I—I got it!"

Jonathan rushed forward, stopping on Nancy's other side. "I'm gonna go find them."

"What?!" Steve's head snapped to look at him. "Dude, did you miss the part with the twenty monsters and—"

"Yeah, Steve, I got it! But Will and my mom are missing, and if they're in there, I have to get them out."

"I'll come with you," Nancy said resolutely.

"Of course," Christine added. "We'll all come."

"Uh, no," Steve disagreed, gesturing to the kids. "They're not coming."

"No, just stay here and watch them," Jonathan ordered.

He was already heading for the car when Nancy grabbed his arm. "Hey, you're not going in there alone!"

"I—fine!"

"Well, if you're going, I'm going," Steve told her fiercely. "I'm not losing you again."

"Steve—"

"Look, all of you go!" Christine snapped. "I'll watch the kids. Just go!"

Jonathan and Steve both nodded and hopped in the car, but when Nancy moved to do the same, Christine grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Hey, hey—check the parking lot first, okay? If you don't see Joyce's car or Hopper's truck—"

"We'll come right back," Nancy said resolutely. "I promise."

They looked at each other, their eyes wide and nervous, both of them trying to look confident but falling just short.

"I was really worried, you know," Christine whispered. "I'm still really worried."

"I know." Nancy pulled her into a hug, squeezing her apology into Christine without voicing it. "I'll tell you everything when we get back."

"You better. I have a feeling we have a lot to talk about…"

Nancy laughed weakly and, as they released each other, they both turned to look at the car. Jonathan was anxiously drumming his hands on the steering wheel, Steve in the backseat with his bat in his lap; he'd left the passenger seat for Nancy without being asked.

With one last goodbye and a few more words of caution, Nancy joined the boys in the car. The Ford's engine strained and groaned as Jonathan kicked it into gear and slammed his foot on the gas, launching the car forward as fast as it could go. Christine stood in the middle of the road, watching the taillights get smaller and willing herself to keep it together. Lucas and Dustin were hovering behind her, and she carefully arranged her poker face before she turned to face them.

"So…what do we do now?" asked Dustin.

"Now we wait," Christine answered, "stop anyone else from going in, and keep a lookout for trouble."

"We'll be ready," said Lucas, brandishing his binoculars. "Hey, Dustin, think we can get on top of the security booth?"

"Sure." Dustin shrugged and looked at the cubicle, twice as high as either of them. "How hard can it be?"

They both nodded in determination and hurried back to the gatehouse, circling it with interest as they tried to find the best route on top. Christine smirked as she watched them; there was no way they'd manage it, but if it kept them occupied and made them feel productive, she wasn't going to stop them—especially if it kept them from fighting.

"Hey, uh…" Christine turned to find Max standing behind her, gingerly holding the shotgun. "You left this back there. I figured you might want it."

"Oh, God! Thanks. Here—"

Christine hurriedly relieved Max of the weapon, moving to sit on the curb at the side of the road. Max trailed after her, shuffling her feet for a few seconds before she sat down too. Christine did her best to focus on the gun, checking it over to ensure the safety was on and she hadn't damaged anything when she dropped it, but out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Max nervously picked at her cuticles. The poor girl was probably terrified—even more so now that Christine had openly had a meltdown. At least, that's what she thought until Max cleared her throat.

"I just wanted to say, um…thanks. For before."

Christine lifted her head with a frown. "Before?"

"Yeah. On the bus, I—I totally froze, so…thanks for…I don't know. Having my back."

Max gave her a tense smile and quickly looked back at her feet. It took Christine a few seconds to process that Max wasn't scared; she was embarrassed.

"Of course," Christine said gently. "And, trust me, you're handling this way better than any of us did last year."

She'd intended it to sound encouraging, and while Max was still smiling, she looked bitter as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, right. Lucas told me about last year—all that stuff with the compasses and fighting the monster and looking for the gate. And back there, with the Demodogs? You were like Sarah Connor or something."

Christine choked out a laugh. "Wow, well—thank you, very much, but uh…I think you're giving me way too much credit. Demodogs are one thing, but if you put me up against a cybernetic assassin, I would be toast."

She pointedly placed the shotgun down on the grass behind them, still chuckling to herself. Max looked at her curiously.

"You watched Terminator?"

"Yup. I work at the movie theater, so I've already seen it like ten times. Not my favorite, but it's way better than some of the other stuff we get. And Sarah's pretty cool. Course, I can't picture her stopping everything to have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the action, so…"

Christine propped her elbows on her knees, trying to sound casual. Now that the moment had passed, the whole thing was embarrassing. There were twenty-odd monsters storming a government facility, her friends potentially trapped inside, and she was panicking about what would happen later if by some miracle they all made it out alive. She couldn't afford to lose it when the kids needed her the most. What kind of a babysitter did that?

"It happens to me too. Sometimes." Max was picking at her cuticles again, staring vacantly across the road. "It's like your brain just shuts down because there's too much going on. Or there's nothing going on, and the stupidest little thing sets you off. I can be totally fine in my room, and then a door closes too hard and I just…freeze…and I don't wanna move or breathe and…then I blink, and realize I've been sitting there for twenty minutes."

Christine cautiously looked over at her. She knew Max was guarded, and didn't want to risk pushing her for sensitive details; that was a line she wasn't going to cross. So instead, she looked: at Max's hollow expression, the way she was tugging at her sleeves, how her shoulders hunched forward to make her look smaller. Christine wasn't going to ask, because she had a bad feeling she already knew the answer.

"Is there somewhere you like to go?" she asked Max. "To clear your head? Get out of the house?"

"Not really," Max answered. "I like the arcade, but Mom thinks I spend too much time there. Plus, she usually makes Billy drive me even though it would be super easy to skate their myself."

"You have skates?" Christine asked, and Max scrunched up her nose in revulsion.

"Skateboard. Or at least, I had a skateboard, until Billy decided to run over it with his car yesterday. Just another thing he had to ruin for me."

Max folded her arms on top of her knees just like Christine had and glared down at the gravel beneath her feet. Christine bit her lip; that hadn't been the subject change she'd hoped it would be. She was still trying to think of something to say when Max spoke again.

"He hates me."

"Max, I'm—"

"He does," Max insisted, and there was a heart-wrenching tremor in her voice. "And I know it's because his dad treats him like shit, but then he treats me like shit and—and I can't do anything about it! He scared off all my friends at home, and now I'm trapped out here, and it's like I'm not allowed to be happy because he's miserable all of the time. He's just picking apart my life and destroying it because he thinks it's funny, because he knows I have no friends and nowhere to go."

Max shook her head, her eyes squeezed tight to hold back tears. Christine could only watch with her jaw clenched tight. Now she could see that Max was scared…not just of the Demodogs.

Christine had spent days putting it off, refusing to address the obvious so she could daydream just a little bit longer. She'd dared to hope for the best, but somehow found that she wasn't surprised by Max's words. Her chest was filled with the same hollow horror she'd felt when she found out Barb died: scared, heartbroken, but on some level, she'd already known.

Billy wasn't just a bad boy. He was a bad guy.

Christine had been able to tell that from the way he drove his car, reckless and wild. She'd seen it in his cold eyes when he'd stared down Tommy at Tina's party, in his wolfish grin when he'd complimented her T-shirt on Halloween. She was starting to understand his interest in the design: a bound woman, terrified and covered in blood.

She tried to think back to that moment in the hall—pinned between Billy and her locker, her cheeks flushed as he raked his eyes over her, the way her heart skipped when he winked at her. It was impossible to feel any of that now. With Max hunched over next to her, smothering the sound of her whimpers so she could seem strong, all Christine felt was a heavy, sickening guilt.

She glanced over her shoulder, checking to make sure that the boys were still occupied with their futile quest to climb on top of the gatehouse, then took a deep breath.

"It's just me and my dad at home," she started softly. "My mom—she died when I was a kid, so he had to take care of me by himself. He used to travel a lot for work, so we had to move like every couple months. And when you're moving around like that…I didn't really have any friends until I came to Hawkins."

"And now you're having the time of your life?" Max asked sarcastically.

Christine cocked an eyebrow, then gestured to the large government facility where the emergency lights were still flashing. Max sheepishly ducked her head, and Christine chuckled.

"Hawkins still feels like a trap sometimes, but take it from someone else who used to be the new girl? It gets easier. And until it does," she added, before Max could finish rolling her eyes, "you can always chill at my house."

That caught Max off guard. Her attitude momentarily fell away as she blinked at Christine in surprise.

"…Seriously?"

"Sure," Christine said with a shrug. "Not to brag, but my dad's pretty cool. Even Steve hangs at our place when he wants to get away from his parents. Of course, I live next door to Dustin, so it's not always peaceful…"

She shot a pointed look at the boys over her shoulder, which made Max laugh. Christine grinned as she continued.

"Otherwise you can stop by the theater. If it's slow, I might even be able to sneak you in through the side door."

"Wait, for real? Even if it's rated R?"

Max's face instantly lit up, and Christine narrowed her eyes. "That…depends. Why?"

"There's this horror movie coming out this month," Max explained quickly. "Usually I have to ask my dad to take me, but he lives in LA, and my mom would literally never let me watch it. It's about this guy who kills kids in their dreams and—"

"Nightmare on Elm Street!" Christine blurted. "Oh my God, I'm so excited to see that. Usually, I'm more of a slasher fan, like Michael Myers—"

"Me too!" Max laughed. "I was Michael for Halloween. And I totally scared the crap out of the guys."

"Ha! I wish I'd—"

"Uh, guys?"

Dustin was standing in the middle of the path, shining his flashlight through the gate. Christine snapped her mouth closed and followed his gaze down the driveway. She heard it before she saw it—the screeching of tires as a car came hurtling straight for them.

"Dustin, move!"

Christine jumped to her feet, but Lucas had already seized Dustin's arm and hauled him out of the way. Barely a second later, Jonathan's crappy Ford came skidding around the corner and tearing down the road, horn blaring the whole way. The car went right by them, but before Christine had even a moment to be confused, a second car took its place. Chief Hopper's truck came to an abrupt halt and Steve leapt out from the passenger seat.

"Come on! Hurry! Get in!"

Christine shoved the kids forward first so Steve could load them one by one into the car: first Max, then Lucas, then Dustin, and then he held out his hand for her.

"Chrissy, come on! Let's move it!"

But she didn't move. She looked back at the building, torn—if there was even the slightest chance—

"She's not in there."

Christine turned to glare at Hopper, who was watching her from the driver's seat. She hated the stupid, all-knowing look on his stupid, scruffy face, his jaw clenched as he prepared himself for her argument. More importantly, she wasn't ready to believe him.

"Christine," Hopper said sternly, "I can promise you, she is not in there. Alright? It's just a bunch of dead bodies, and unless you wanna be one of them, you need to get in the damn car!"

She didn't want to trust him. What she wanted to do was tell him to take his promises and shove them up his ass, but the kids were beating on the inside of the windows, shouting for her to hurry up. Steve brandished his hand again, his face pleading.

Christine swept the shotgun off the ground and shoved it into Steve's hands. Then, with one last look at the building, she jumped into the car and climbed into the back. She'd barely sat down before the vehicle was in motion again, rocketing off into the trees and leaving Hawkins National Laboratory behind.