"You're going to kill both of us." She whimpered, too afraid to raise her voice. Their feet scuffling across the floor as they swept down the hallways already seemed too loud. Every step away from Bob, Joyce, Hopper widened the chasm to her freedom. It had already been dangerous before, but she didn't think she'd even see the ledge again.
"Don't worry. An additional alarm went off in the East Wing. All the noise has drawn those unholy animals away from here." Edgar said.
His grip on her was bruising, and she grappled with his arm as she fought for more oxygen. A man in a lab coat lay in the middle of the floor. She faulted in her struggle, something feeling too familiar about him. But they didn't pass him, instead they came to a stop right in front him as Edgar jostles her, trying to find something on his belt.
It was Mr. Ingraham crumbled on the ground. His face sported bruises and there's a smear of blood on his chin. His glasses lay besides him, cracked in the lenses and rim awkwardly twisted. All the terror, the demondogs, the bodies of unknown people, and now Mr. Ingraham — it became too much.
The emotions surged forwards all at once like a tsunami. Then it hit her, all at once. Its roaring silence deafened her, and she was pulled in all directions as she lost orientation with the world around her.
"First time getting shocked?" He said, pushing open the door to the stairwell with his shoulder. "Don't worry, it happens to everyone."
It was a feeling that seemed to plunge all emotion down into its freezing depths, until she forgot she had them at all. He led her down two flights of stands below ground. He must have been right in his statement on the demondogs, because they don't run into a single one.
There's lights strung up on wires and floor is dirty. The floor seems to be halfway done with renovations. Half the wall has been painted white. Some plastic paint-stained tarpaulin bunched up against the wall where the paint job stopped. If the scientists had their offices on the upper floors, she wandered what this floor was for.
With hand still tightly holding his gun he reaches around her, pushing the metal handle down. Heat that felt like an inferno rushed out to oppress them from the boiler room. He pushed her inside and there's a creak as he fumbles with the door behind him, most of his attention dedicated to her. The door closes, removing the only respite against the heat.
"Those animals hate heat. They'll avoid this area." Edgar relinquished his hold on her, but kept the gun pressed against her side, "Don't bother struggling, no one's coming for you. The people you tried to exit the building with already left. Who cares enough to come back?" He said.
For the first time she wanted to cry. The truth was bitter, and it sunk into her bones. It was only her and Edgar, locked in a boiler room together. He had a gun in here trained on her. Out there was death and demondogs.
Edgar nudges her forwards with his weapon, and he does so like she needs a reminder. "You're nothing but a child. But you're also an experiment and you can't fool me like you do the others. I know what you're capable of, I know what you'll to do survive."
Her arms are raised in surrender as he moves adjacent to her. She waits for what do to next. There's nothing else to do when she's looking down the barrel of a loaded gun.
"Walk — slowly — towards that pipe. Sit down in front of it." He said. "Any fast movements from here on out? I will shoot."
With mechanical steps she made her way across the chipped cement floor. By now a thin sheen of humidity blanketed her skin. He observes her so very unlike the scientists had. To them she was as good as any other object. But Edgar looks at her with something livelier, more interested in her.
Her face becomes redder from the warmth. He hums in acknowledgement like he's sympathetic to her predicament.
His eyes wander the room. "Hotter than it should be in here. 'Think something's broken."
Then he snaps his fingers at her several times. "Alright shock's over, can't have you staring off into the abyss for the rest of the night."
She's pulled back into her body again, no longer hovering besides it like an unwitting victim gazing in. He looked satisfied as her eyes are trained on him.
Keep your attacker talking, distract them. Didn't she read that somewhere? Did she hear it? Right. The important thing was to keep talking with him. Keep him talking, until she came up with a plan.
"I can check if you want." She said. Her voice may be trembling, but the words still came out. She's surprised she can even hear her own voice over the roar of blood in her ears.
"You a secret mechanic or something I don't know about?" He asked.
"I — no."
"Well then you won't do much good, now will you?" Edgar seemed disappointed with her, the same mocking sort of disappointment a parent may use if they were teasing their child. Except Edgar's eyes were glistening with a fondness. It was a deep loathing that had festered into an acidic toxicity. It had burned through whatever chance of kindness he may have once had in him.
She bit her tongue for a moment. No, she had to ask. Had to keep him talking. "What do you want with me?"
"You're asking the wrong 'W' question." He said.
She paused, trying to figure out which one he meant. But when she found it with a dreaded assurance, she whispered it. "Why do you want me?"
"Why?" He squatted down in front of her. "Because your freak friend killed my friend."
Everyone was so frazzled they move right around Billy and Max like they were mere stones in a tumultuous river.
"So you just left her there?" Dustins' voice rose above the rest of the uneasy chatter.
"Trust me, we couldn't have gone back if we'd wanted too. Now I have a call to make." Chief Hopper replied. He sounded worn down, every setback chipping away the fight within him.
The house didn't look any better from the outside. In fact the outside managed to contain the pandemonium that'd swept through the rooms like a violent hurricane. Billy felt like he was either about to get indoctrinated into a cult, or sacrificed by one. Both prospects were equally miserable.
Billy had seen Hopper twice since he'd arrived in Hawkins. Once, when he'd passed by the diner off Main Street and witnessed the chief stuffing a burger down his throat and cleansing his palette with a vanilla shake. Fat had been running down the side of his mouth like it was trying to escape its fate of being consumed by the chief. The second time had been the older man chain-smoking outside a decrepit convenience store, looking like he'd just realised he had been head of Hawkins police force for the past couple of years, and deeply regretted it.
Now Chief Hopper ignored both Max and Billy and strode right past them to yank the phone from the wall and hastily jab in numbers like the harder he hit the more likely someone would pick up. "It's all gone to shit." Chief Hopper muttered as he held the ringing phone to his ear.
The way Hopper strode in so easily without even giving the messy house a second glance told him what he needed to know. The chief was fully involved in whatever was happening.
Billy thought he was going to interrogate a few kids who'd lived here their whole lives, not get an entire frantic cavalry turning up on the front doorstep. Not to mention said cavalry included Harrington. Clearly whatever was happening was doomed from the start if this was the best they had. Taking a deep breath, he shoved down his frustration. Getting information was going to go slower than he'd anticipated, and playing nicer was going to be an extra challenge.
Joyce and Bob settled an unconscious Will onto the couch. Following on their heels with concern marring their features were Jonathan and Nancy. Diane might have relayed everyone involved in with the supernatural underbelly of Hawkins, but seeing was believing. Still, he couldn't help but look on in disbelief. Diane being dragged back to a national laboratory was real. Whatever they were on about right now couldn't possibly be happening, yet they were treating it within the realm of the absolute. At least in the chaos he could be more direct than usual. He just didn't believe he'd get answers as fast as he expected.
"Bob help me with the blankets." Joyce gestured behind her to some quilts draped over a worn rocking chair. Her voice was frayed, caught between conviction in her task of saving her son and despair over the future of him.
It didn't take long for someone to realise Billy was still here, and it came in the frowning form of Steve Harrington.
"What are you doing here?" Steve's hands were on his hips with an expectant look like he was trying to mimic his own father cutting an imposing figure. But Harrington just looked like a wilting flower pretending its stem was still sturdy enough to compete with the rest of the flowerbed.
Billy gave him a toothy smile that teetered on the edge between bluntly pleasant and sharper than a wolf's. "Came for some beauty tips, and my are you looking radiant tonight Harrington. Tell me, what's your secret to those rosy cheeks? Running away from another fight?"
Chief Hopper's voice grew with frustration as he met a dead end. Dustin and Mike were looking cautiously over to where Steve and Billy stood across from each other, straining to listen to their low, terse conversation. But Lucas was staring at Billy with a measured looked. Billy and Steve glanced Hoppers way for a moment before they focused back on the primary source of their ire.
Steve opened his mouth and closed it, caught off guard. He crossed his arms. "I don't know what you're talking about. Look man, we're kind of busy right now. Come back tomorrow or something."
"No, don't think I will." Billy replied cheerfully, though there was an undercurrent to his tone he didn't try and hide. The warmth in his voice was like the peak of a geyser blowing off light steam, but beneath the surface was a scalding heat that threatened to explode outwards.
An often buried intelligence flashed in Steve's eyes as he caught it, though he didn't back down. Instead he crossed his arms, seeming to anchor himself to the middle of the Byers living room as his cautious gaze turned into a defensive glower. "You really don't want to be a part of this. Don't think it's your scene."
"Part of what, exactly? Looks like you're all in over your heads." The faint tang of mockery seeped through his words.
Despite all the jostling and noise around him, Will remained in an uneasy slumber, chest rising and falling in short shallow breaths. His skin had a clammy parlour that indicated a deep-rooted sickness. Somehow, everything led back to that fucking facility in the Middle of Nowhere, Hawkins. Billy took a deep breathe and shook his head once. Fine, screw the Non-Disclosure Agreement.
"Seriously, why are you here?" Steve asked with a flare of impatience.
"Thought I'd get a first class ticket for the superfreak-upside-down-conspiracy ride." Billy replied.
Steves eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "You knew this whole time?"
He'd only been finding out snippets sporadically through the night, but Steve didn't know that. Right now he could play this as knowing about everything as long as Harrington has, perhaps even longer. "Stevie-boy doesn't know everything happening in his Kingdom, I see."
"So you could've helped with back-up but—"
"Firstly, I don't do backup. Secondly, no amount of stray demon-dogs could make me give a shit about you or them." He jerked his head towards the group.
"If this is about your sister—"
"It wasn't, but now that you brought it up why were you with her and a bunch of other kids in a forest?"
"The whole building is a catastrophe." Lucas interrupted, no longer content being on the periphery of the conversation. "It's on lockdown, dogs are everywhere—"
"And they have Diane." Dustin butted in, forging past his suspicion of Billy.
"They have her, and now the rule of law has broken down inside the Lab. Is that right?" It wasn't a question. He hated Hawkins. They couldn't even kidnap someone right.
"I assume you know the rest, since you were with her earlier." said Dustin. He had that same look Harrington had. For someone who tried to blend into the shadows, it turns out Diane had a few people who didn't like the concept of the two of them spending time together. Or maybe they just didn't like Billy being around anyone they knew. It was a toss-up and he didn't quite care on which side the coin landed.
Just as Dustin reached the end of his hasty retelling of the nights events, ending with Diane back in the lab, Mikes voice burst forth from the whispered conversations around the room.
"That's not enough!" Mike shouted at Chief Hopper.
"What do you want me to do, huh? We are up against something we can't handle. We are outmanned, outgunned — or whatever would even work on whatever the hell is keeping that portal open — and outsourced." With every passing sentence Chief Hoppers voice into a crescendo, ending with throwing his hands in the air at wits end. Finally he shrugged as defeat deflated his despair. "There is no plan, Mike. We'll have to live with that."
Billy had watched the ordeal unfold from his corner, "So you're just going to leave someone behind who was taken under your watch, Chief Hopper."
The Chief stiffened beneath the weighted judgement. "Someone tell me who the hell he is and what he's doing here."
Fire shot through Billy's veins, and he forced it down to a simmer. All of it culminated in an imperceptible twitch of his ring finger.
"He's a classmate." Steve said, shooting Billy a dubious look.
"Just a classmate, Harrington? I thought we were friends. As for what I'm doing here, I was wondering how normal it is in this town to get hauled off to the National Laboratory." Billy couldn't keep the edge from biting into his tone.
"Did they say why they took her?" Steve asked.
"They said she was government property, took her blood. Think they found what they were looking for." Billy answered curtly. He was waiting with tightly crossed arms, ready for someone to criticise why he didn't do anything to stop it. Or waiting for someone to tell him he was full of it. Instead he was met with stunned silence.
Lucas began frantically waving his hand in small motions in jittery excitement like the words couldn't leave him fast enough. "On the bus — her nose — "
"It was bleeding." Max finished, hair whipping around as she looked at the group.
Lucas nodded. "That thing she did, when she got the animal to stop like it was in a trance."
Dustin looked at Mike looked at Lucas and Lucas looked at Mike as they all realised exactly what that meant. "I think she has powers too." Dustin said.
"Wait, Diane Dobler?" Nancy said as her and Jonathan spared a glance at each other.
"Isn't she in your year?" Jonathan asked.
"No I think she's in yours, graduating early or something." Nancy whispered back.
Joyce joined the fray, leaving Jonathan to watch over Will. She was a mousy woman with a frantic energy that exuded off of her in intermittent surges. "Diane can't be like El. She's grown up here the whole time. I've watched her grow up."
"She's been pretty normal at my house." Dustin said.
"Said they've always had her." Billy lamented.
"That's not possible." Joyce shook her head.
"Well, it is." Billy replied with a snap of impatience. Billy had been there, he'd seen the documents, heard that arrogant labcoat, and he'd witnessed the way they'd taken her blood.
"She told me she'd been there earlier." Steve said.
"You didn't think to follow up?" Dustin asked.
Steve raised his hands in defence as Dustin speared him with a judgemental look. "Thought it had something to do with her parents."
"I — wait. Just so we're all on the same page. You're saying Diane is an experiment?" Bob's steady voice was almost lost in the frenzied chatter.
"What else could she be?" Dustin asked, looking over at Bob who was still next to Will with a loyalty that was rare for any dad (in Billy's opinion), let alone a step-dad.
This was turning into a messy puzzle. Except the more pieces he managed to put together, the murkier the big picture became.
"Maybe they have El too." Mike said. "Maybe that thing didn't take her. She might be in the lab right now."
"They don't have her." Hopper said with finality that caused Steve, Dustin and Nancy to look at him curiously.
Mike ignored him as he pressed on with newfound hope. "You can't know that. They could have her — we have to find a way to stop those things."
"They don't have her, Mike." Hopper's frustrated shake of his head punctuated his words.
"Well we know they have Diane. We need to do something." Lucas said.
It was the first, and hopefully only time, Billy found himself agreeing with Lucas Sinclair. He might be distracted trying to figure out what was happening around him, but he hadn't forgotten Sinclair.
"We wait for the military." Nancy said.
"Just leave her in there?" Dustins stare was demanding.
Nancy's stare was hollow, and in the topic of death she held a startling blankness. "People die all the time."
"Fuck, Nancy." Steve breathed.
Her gaze sharpened as she looked at him, challenging him to disagree with her statement. "What, Steve? You know it's true."
Steves face softened. They might not be together any more, but he'd seen the carnage after Barb had been murdered by the Demogorgan. He just didn't know how to navigate through the debris or how to pick up the pieces. "I know. That's why we need to protect everyone we can."
"And everyone we need to protect is here. We have to protect ourselves first, or we're all dead." She replied with a chill that carried through her words like a draft through an old house. The coldness lingers in the air, and she stares right back at them.
"It's bullshit." Dustin said.
Bob looked over his shoulder from where he was kneeling on the ground in front of Will. "Now, I don't think she'll give up easily. But we can't leave her there."
"You already did." Billy pointed out.
Bobs face dropped. "You're right. I did. She helped get me out, and now she's stuck in there."
"That man — he just, he took her. He could've fled the building when you restarted the systems," Joyce glanced at Bob, "or he could've killed any one of us. He wanted her."
"What'd he look like?" Max asked.
"He was tall and blonde." Joyce said.
Great, that covered just about a quarter of the country.
"One of their guards." Bob added.
Billy tried thinking of everyone they'd passed inside the Lab, but no one stood out. But it didn't have to be personal, did it? Whatever the lab had waned with her, they'd found it in her blood.
"They received my call. They'll be here soon." Hopper sighed as he tried putting an end to their speculation. A good chief would try to put an end to the chaos, except no rulebook applied to Hawkins.
"If the systems were rebooted, it'll be taken as a fluke by anyone who received the signal. No one's coming." Billy said.
"How do you know?" Nancy asked curiously, still rubbing Jonathan's back in a soothing gesture that she barely seemed to be conscious of.
"Does it matter?" Billy asked.
"Even if that's true the signal still got out and they will be here." Hopper said.
"All you can do is make a phone call? Do you not have control of Hawkins?" asked Billy.
Hopper sensed a change in Billy, one that had the professional engrained in him stand straighter. His voice was that of an experienced Chiefs, voice rippling with waves of authority. "That's enough, from all of you. We're all going to wait and that is all."
Billy tried to temper the disdain being written clear across his face.
"You've all done good tonight, more than anyone could've asked of you guys." Bob interrupted with a soothing voice that calmed the room back down into an uneasy simmer.
"It's not enough." Mike said again, but this time defeat dragged through his words as he crossed his arms.
"Can't we just . . . go all of us to the National Laboratory and break down the door?" Steve asked.
"Did you not hear the part where it's overrun?" Dustin replied.
"Yeah, I got ears, Henderson. I just — think we should do something." Steve trailed off.
"Ya think?" Dustin replied.
"Those mutated demondogs seem to be crawling around everywhere." Billy grumbled.
"Everywhere . . ." Mike muttered as he stared deeply into the carpet like he was searching for answers that danced around the edges of his mind, eluding vital realisation.
"Demodogs." Dustin corrected.
Billy raised a brow.
"We're calling them demodogs now, it sounds better. It's like Demogorgan, and dog, meshed together." Dustin interlocked his fingers as he saw the dawning confusion spreading through the group, except for Steve who'd already accepted Dustin's pitch earlier. "It's — it's a play on words. Just — nevermind."
"Demodog — demondog — whatever." Billy ground through his teeth as he tried to keep his composure. "There can't be that many out there. How many, ten? Twenty?"
"Twenty?" Dustin scoffed. "More like an army."
Mike snapped his head up at that, and the gears were whirring so hard in his brain, steam nearly shot out of his ears. But no one was paying attention to him, they were all staring at Dustin like he'd grown a second head.
"If there was an army of those things out there I think everyone and their mother would've been clutching their pearls by now. They're not exactly trying to keep a low profile." Billy said as he tilted his head back to look at the ceiling with thinly veiled frustration.
Mikes eyes widening in revelation at the same time Bob pointed to the trail of papers, "Those things are navigating underground. They've build an entire tunnel system right beneath our feet."
"That's how he's controlling them. That's how he's hiding them." Mike burst out, nearly before Bob had finished speaking. "If we can stop Him, we can stop His army too."
Mike slammed the piece of paper on the table, causing Max to pull back as she looked up at hi, warily. Billy was waiting for anyone to step in and put an end to this game. But everyone was watching Mike like he was correct, like this was all real. Except there was no army. There was nothing controlling those dogs. It was just a weird government experiment got wrong with no oversight.
Will ran around the corner and grabbed a piece of paper. It was a crude drawing with a black blob with tentacles. Max yanked it out of his hands while Dustin and Lucas peered over her shoulder.
"The Shadow Monster." Dustin said.
"It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." Mike said.
"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max said.
"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything." Mike said.
"Explain it to us old people who don't know the rules?" Bob asked with a kind smile.
"Okay, so, the Shadow Monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Mike said.
"And so does Dart." Lucas said with dawning realisation.
"It's like Mr. Clarke taught us. The Hive Mind." Mike said.
"Hive mind?" Steve asked.
"A collective consciousness. It's a super organism." said Dustin.
"And this thing that controls everything — it's the brain." Mike said.
"The Mind Flayer." Dustin said, before getting up and rifling through a pile of books shoved up against the wall. Then he threw the book down on the table and reiterated, "The Mind Flayer."
"The hell is that?" Hopper stared down at the book, exhausted enough to try to hear the kids out.
Dustin went on a long-winded explanation of something that sounded like it was from a crappy arcade game. Which is exactly why Billy avoids arcades. Also to avoid the stench of sweaty nerds who'd gotten more action in a game than they'd ever get from a woman.
"Oh my god, none of this is real. It's a kids game." Hopper said.
"No, it's a manual, and it's not for kids." Dustin said, agonising over his repeated defence of the DnD manual. Then there was some more arcade speak that went over Billy head.
"This Mind Flamer, what does it want?" Nancy cut through Dustin rambling.
Either Nancy was smart enough to have found a way to work with the kids with information that could be translated towards the saner amongst them. Or, she fully bought into all of this too. It wouldn't be too crazy, since everyone else around here seemed to believe it too. But whatever inched them closer to coming up with a solution that kidnapping teenage girls and placing them in government held facility wasn't good.
"It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Dustin said."It wants to spread, take over other dimensions."
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas added.
Talk about hyperbole. Although Hawkins being wiped off the map didn't seem like a bad thing. It'd probably make Indiana a more desirable place to move too, in Billys opinion.
"That's great, that's great. That's really great." Steve said, voice sounding as thin as a thread about to snap. "Jesus!"
Of course Harrington would buy into all of this. But a twinge of pity hit Billy. The guy was fully buying into all of this. "Chill out Harrington, it's only a few dogs."
Billys words seemed to go right out the window. No one was listening, too rapt on their kids book.
Nancy barely acknowledged her previous lovers mild breakdown as she peered down at the book. "Okay, so if this is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it. . . "
"We kill everything it controls." Mike finished.
"We win." Steve said.
"Theoretically." Lucas said.
"Great," Hopper took to the book from Nancy with deeply furrowed brows, "So how do we kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?"
The townies were out of their minds. Figures this would happen after he listened to Max. Coming here was a colossal waste of time. They didn't know anything, and neither did Billy. But at least he wasn't faking a solution based on a children's book.
Billy almost got up to drag Max out of the house the moment Dustin Henderson went rambling on about zombies and fireballs and probably pixies — he'd stopped paying attention by then.
The Chief threw the book down onto the table. "What the hell are we doing here?"
"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin replied.
"We are." The Chief spun around to glare at them.
"How are they going to stop this?" Mike asked. "You can't just shoot them with guns."
"We don't know that. We don't know anything." Hopper replied.
"We know it's already killed everyone in the lab." Mike said.
"Bullshit." Billy spat out before he could stop himself. Several eyes flitted his way. "Diane's still in there, alive. And she — mentioned something about powers."
Bob seemed to agree. "She's still in there, and we don't leave anyone behind."
"Then we need to act fast." Lucas said.
"We know its only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin said.
"They're right. We have to kill it." Joyce said. "It's the only way we save Will, and it's the only way we get Diane back. And I want this thing dead for good."
"Me too. But how do we kill it? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper said.
Bob tapped one of the papers. "Well, we know a few things. We know it's avoided bodies of water, we know it doesn't like high heat. We know it acts like a virus, and we know it's created its own pathways right beneath our feet."
"We can't flood the tunnels. Unless we blew up the reservoir, there's a tunnel that goes right around it, right?" Mike looked at the group, voice tinged with speculative hope, ". . . can we blow it up?"
"No." Hopper crossed his arms.
"We don't have enough explosives." Lucas said.
"Even if we did, we still wouldn't blow up the entire reservoir." Hopper said.
"What about fire, then? Can we just throw some gasoline in?" Steve asked.
"But that'd only hurt a part of the vines." Nancy's eyes wandered across the inter-sectioning papers as she tried to find inspiration against their formidable force.
"If anyone know how to destroy this thing, it's Will." Mike said. "He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."
"Mike's right. If we can get through to Will, then we know how to stop the Mind Flayer and we can rescue Diane." Lucas said.
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now." Max said.
Mikes brain was running faster than his mouth, and exasperation flashed through his eyes as he had to drag the others up to his speed. "He can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."
"I don't think a blindfold is going to hold him." Nancy said.
"No . . . but a room he's never been in before might." Hopper said slowly. But it was enough to get the group to pause. A silent wave of agreement passed through the group, giving them new energy.
"Where exactly are we going to find a new room?" Dustin asked.
"We don't have to find one, we just have to make one." Jonathan's eyes connected with Hopper, and a silent understanding was shared between the two.
"Let me get the tools." Bob said.
"We need to hide everything he could use to recognise our location." Hopper's voice sounded commanding again, back in control with a plan to be executed. Mike followed Hopper out the door.
"I'll get the sheets from your room." Nancy said to Jonathan.
"I'll get them from Moms." Jonathan said as they both strode down the hallway with purpose.
Joyce strode her sons hair as she spoke in whispered tones. "It's okay baby, we're all here for you. You're not alone."
Everyone moved with renewed purpose, easily dodging each other as they moved across the rooms, gathering the tools they needed. Everyone except Billy. He was always an imposing presence, even when he stood to the side. Peoples eyes couldn't help but be dragged his way. Even in their tasks, their eyes would flit to him as they passed by, hauling several materials with them as they went. He needed to do something to look busy before glances turned into suspicious stares.
"That was a pretty heavy sedative Will got hit with. I think we'll need something a little stronger than some morning radio to wake him up." Bob said.
Joyce looked up at him with a smile as she thought back on easier times.
Billy didn't know why he was offering to help with any of this. It felt like he was supporting the cornfield crazies for a solution that was going down the wrong road. "Ammonia works most of the time. It'll perk him right up."
Bob and Joyce glanced at each other. Great, here came the questions on how he'd know. Instead Joyce pondered for a moment before nodding. "I think we have a bottle under the kitchen sink. Oh, and the cotton balls under the sink in the bathroom."
Bob rose up, "I'll help Hopper."
Joyce squeezed Bobs hand, and they lingered for a moment before breaking contact. Joyce had already turned back to Will before Bob had finished taking his first step towards the shed. Everyone was moving around the place with the drive of worker ants.
As he wandered down the hallway he saw Jonathan on the left, kneeling down as he removed a corner of the bed sheet. Billy glanced around, but no one was going to interrupt them anytime soon.
He stepped into the bedroom, but Jonathan was going about his task with singular vision. His movements were harsh as he tugged the sheet out from a corner it was particularly well tucked into.
"Hey." Billy said.
Jonathan looked up, startled. He gave back a half-mumbled 'hey' in response, hands still on the bed.
"So I finally get to meet Jonathan Byers." said Billy, throwing it out like it was just some smalltalk over fries at some diner. Jonathon seemed surprised Billy knew who he was, but he knew everyone. Billy mimicked taking a shot, looking through a camera lens, "Heard you're good at taking photos."
It took Jonathan a moment to answer, torn from his thoughts. "Oh, uhm, thanks."
"Heard you've been getting creative with your photos." Billy said, and the made sure they both knew what sort of photos he was talking about.
Jonathan swallowed and shook his head, taken back by the harsh alteration in topic. "No it's not like that—"
"You even look at Max, I will break every single joint in each of your fingers. And if you touch her? Well, I don't think I need to tell you what I'll do then do I?" Billy said, carrying out his threats in a pleasant conversational tone. If anyone heard his voice down the hallway, they'd probably think the two of them were old friends catching up.
He left Jonathan alone still by the side of the bed, but it didn't look like Jonathan even wanted to defend himself as he sat on the carpet, staring at the interwoven brown threads. After a moment he swallowed harshly, and then got back to work.
He found the cotton right beneath the sink in a little plastic turquoise basket, just like Joyce said. He had to catch two bottles that fell out as he opened up the cabinets overflowing with lotions, hair ties, makeup, and empty hairspray bottles. He shoved everything back in again, trying to balance the exfoliator sponge that teetered precariously on the edge. Then he hastily closed the doors before everything could fall out. There was a gentle thud as someone fell against the cabinet doors. He stood up and backed away slowly. It was someone else's problem now.
Ambling towards the living room, he hovered in the archway, listening in on the brewing quarrel taking place between Mike and Dustin. Max sat on the floor cross-legged with lips pressed together, looking relief she hadn't been dragged into their argument thus far.
"Your sister wants to leave Diane behind." Dustin spat.
Mike stiffened at the attack on his sister. "We don't know who Diane even is anymore."
"Uh, yes we do, or did you forget when you came over to my place she's been there?" Dustin asked.
"Yeah the one babysitting you even though you're too old for one?" Mike shot back.
Dustin rolled his eyes. "You know how my mom is — and that's besides the point."
"No, it's exactly the point. How do we know she's not working with the lab?" Mike asked. "Why would she volunteer to watch you? Watch us?
Dustin glared at him. "Seriously? Were you not listening when they told us about the guy who took her? And you think she was watching us before we knew El even existed?"
"Kinda convenient." Mike shrugged.
"Either Diane is a secret agent for them and El is in there too, or El is gone and Diane was taken against her will. Pick one, Mike." Dustin said.
"I'm choosing not to trust her right now. If she turns out to be good later, then that's great." Mike exclaimed.
"So you'll just let her die? Diane who helped you with your planetary science project? Diane who helped us with our campaigns?" The lines deepened across Dustins forehead.
Mike crossed his arms and shook his head rapidly. "No, but Nancy's right. We have to focus right now. "
"Yeah, focus on getting Diane out." Dustin said, raising his voice.
Mike raised his voice, matching Dustins. "What about Will?"
"We can focus on both of them." Steve cut in, standing in the doorway. He looked at Dustin, "Come on, I need your help out here."
The tension in the room diffused the moment Dustin disappeared and the two boys were separated from each other. With a roll of his eyes, Mike dropped down to rifle for something in the cabinet beneath the seat.
"I get why El was your mage now." Max said, tentative hope creeping onto her face as she worked to befriend Mike and diffuse the remaining tension lingering in the room.
Mike turned around. "What?"
"Lucas, he told me about her." Max supplemented as she held the bottle of Bopeep ammonia.
Mike eyed her distrustfully. "Well, he shouldn't have. And just because you know the truth, doesn't mean you're in our party. You do know that, right?"
"Yeah, I know." Max said, swallowing as she dropped her gaze back onto the bottle of ammonia. Max hid her hurt well but Billy knew how it sounded, covered beneath a veneer of indifference flimsier than a sheet of gossamer. "I mean, why would you want a stupid zoomer in your party anyway?"
"Wheeler, wasn't it?" Billy asked like he didn't already know who all of them were. Mikes head snapped up like he was startled to be receiving attention from the older teen. "Think they said they needed your help in the shed."
His eyes were cool, daring Mike to cross what they both knew was a command rather than an off-hand comment. Of course, it was between how smart Wheeler was in listening to him, and how daringly stupid he'd be in calling his older sister to back him up. But the younger Wheeler analysed the situation correctly and turned a shade paler. He stood up and gave a shrug of defiance, getting the last word — or rather, gesture — in before he left.
"It's not a big deal." Max muttered as Billy sat down next to her.
They sat opposite each other, working to collect the rest of the materials in their vicinity that was needed for the shed. He gathered them at a slow pace.
"You knew Diane was like El?" Max whispered.
Billy looked around to make sure no one was listening in, but everyone was preoccupied. In that moment Max found the truth, like she always did if he wasn't careful around her. She was too smart for her own good.
"Oh." Max said, idly playing with the bottle of ammonia to look busy. "But then why—"
"Max." He warned and she dropped her questioning.
"Got it." She replied.
They stood up at the time same. Billy gripped her shoulder lightly. "He's a fucking idiot." He said about Mike.
Max gave a half-hearted appreciative smile and ducked her head before heading outside. But he knew that she'd be quick to forgive Mike Wheeler. And that's why Billy found the group so dangerous.
A mountain of junk lay on the grass as the shed had been cleared out. The others were already hard at work, covering up the walls with fabrics to disguise the shed.
Tarp rubbed against the ground as it was hauled up and nailed down right below the ceiling. They were surrounded by the clangs and thuds of makeshift hammers haphazardly hammering down bedspreads and tarps to the old wooden walls. Without a word Billy grabbed the corner of an off-white bed sheet and helped string. The trepidation of what was to come blanketed over all of them, leaving them to work in uneasy silence. Fear trickled through the atmosphere, so thick and heavy, that for a while Billy brought into their world too. There was something out there. Except now, they needed to keep something in.
When they were done setting up, Hopper expelled everyone from the shed except for Wills family, and Mike who was ready to fight the Chief if he told him otherwise. Once trudging back to the house and shutting the door behind them, everyone dispersed, lost in their own thoughts.
Lucas and Max sat opposite each other in the hallway. Nancy leaned against the living room wall, looking at her palms like she was memorising the lines if only to pass the time. Harrington was swinging one screwed up baseball bat around. There was nothing anyone could do, and Billy wasn't in the habit to ever sit around doing nothing. Yet it was what they'd all be tasked with.
"If he finds out where we are, will He send those dogs after us?" Max asked quietly.
"He won't find out." Lucas insisted with a gentle air of authority. There were a lot of reasons Billy didn't like the kid, but he had to hand it to him, Sinclair could bullshit with conviction.
"Even if he does, they can't get through the house." Billy said. Plus, what were a few dogs on steroids? Sure, they looked fucked up. But they couldn't be that strong. "Worst case I'll just go out and hit 'em a few times. They'll run away with tails between their legs."
"They're a lot stronger than you think. They don't go down easy with bullets, either." Steve said.
Billy felt the familiar tension growing between his shoulder blades. How braindead was Harrington to not see the way both kids were huddled together in the hallway, speaking in whispered tones like they were already hiding from the demondogs. The demondogs looked muscular, but as long as they knew they were coming and had a few weapons to hit them back with, then they'd back off, right?
"Just because your ears are larger than radio satellites, doesn't mean you have to listen in on every channel." Billy said with a saccharine sweet smile. "Go back to practicing Slugger, you might have a big night ahead of you."
Steve glowered at Billy, but refused to throw a comment back at him. Everyone descended back into their own activities without another word spoken. Time moved at a glacial pace, and Billy was reaching the end of his sanity. It was too quiet.
Steve was swinging his spiked bat like he was practicing for the little leagues. Billy would say Major Leagues, but Steve looked like he was trying to swat away a swarm of bees instead of standing in Fenway Park. He snorted at the sight, which snapped Nancy out of the deep trance she'd sunken into.
"This probably isn't the town welcome party you were expecting." Nancy said as she looked up at him, offering a tentative smile.
At Nancy's voice Steve faltered in his swing, and his eyes seemed to pierce through the window in newfound concentration. Billy tampered down the smile at the sight. Well they might be stagnant, but now he'd found a way to pass the time. No wonder Stevie had been so silent with him, trying to be on his best behaviour in front of Nancy Wheeler. There was no way Billy was ever going to get into the miserable existence of ever trying to change for a girl. Waste of time.
Billy pushed off from the wall, making a point to stand right where Steve could see him idly standing beneath the archway. Billy was fairly sure there was something more happening between Nancy and Jonathan. It was in the way they seemed to orbit around each other without being fully conscious of it.
His lips turned upwards a lazy smile and his lids lulled just a fraction, looking as at ease as ever. They were close friends, right? "Think I already got that on Halloween . . . you know you and Jonathan make a good team. 'Guys must've been together forever."
Steve gripped the bat tighter.
Nancy smiled and glanced down at the rug as she fought a blush spread across her cheeks. It was the look of someone both lightly embarrassed at being caught, and giddy at the revelation that'd been breathed into their relationship. She gave a dismissive shrug. "Oh no — it's not, you know a big deal or anything."
"Sure." Billy said breezily.
"I'm sorry for earlier." Nancy said, though she didn't sound apologetic as she quickly steered their conversation into a topic she was more at ease with, "I don't know what's happening between you and—"
"There's nothing happening." he interrupted, "I just thought you'd like to get one of your own out."
"No, I do. That's — it's nice of you." Nancy said, and she must be backtracking now at the looks everyone had given her in her absoluteness of life and death. "If we can, I do, I mean. But Hawkins . . . it's different now. There is no winning, not really."
Nancy Wheeler, ever the pessimist. Tommy had told him a lot about the perfect princess with a penchant for romantic theatrics, but he'd left out the icy calculations.
"So the Lab, sounds like you know it." Billy asked.
Like dark clouds suddenly hanging at the edge of the horizon, her face darkens. "I know what they've done. I know what they're going to do if they're not stopped."
"Why doesn't the Chief just stop them then? This is his town, isn't it?" Billy asked.
"Hawkins National Laboratory is different. I don't know how or why, but they have more power than they should to do whatever they want." Nancy said.
"Screwed up they haven't been shut down yet." Billy replied before their conversation lulled for a short while.
Nancy tried to look bored as she looked at her nails. "The whole security response . . . how do you know so much about that?" But there's an energetic inflection to her words like flint on steel, betraying her interest.
Before he could dance around the question, all the lights in the house began flickering rapidly. Everyones heads whipped up like they hoped their eyes were betraying them. Energy hummed and the lights burned like they were about to explode. Nancy moved first, and the others followed her towards the door. But the shed was covered up, and it was impossible to see what was going on.
"Should we go out there?" Max asked.
"No." Billy answered promptly.
"Hopper told us to wait. That's what we're going to do." Steve angled his head as he looked out the window like he might gain a new vantage point. Then he withdrew his head in disappointment.
Just as they made to move away from the door Hopper came bursting out with everyone but Will in tow.
"What happened?" Dustin asked as they crowded around the circular dining table. Billy kept himself to a distance from the group, angling his head so he could see what was happening on the table better.
Hopper began scribbling on the back of an old envelope. Dots and lines. One by one he translated the morse code.
"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper looked up at the group that surrounded him, listening intensely.
"We need to keep him with us." Joyce said.
"Talking to him, bringing up memories helped." Bob said. "I think we just gotta keep talking to him. Let him know we're right here with him. I don't know how the virus works, but distracting Will seems to give him enough autonomy to talk with us."
"We gotta get everything that means something to him." Jonathan said.
"You guys stay here, translate the morse code. We're going to go get answers." Chief Hopper said.
About every five minutes, they received a new message consisting of an array of tones in various rhythms. They translated each letter, stringing them together.
Harrington unconsciously touch his ear when a new message arrived and Billy suppressed a smile. Harrington was so easy.
The bickering continued between Dustin and Lucas, finding time between each letter to throw jabs at each other.
Max and Lucas found the next letter at the same time and looked at each other with a victorious smile. But when Billy caught her eye, they widened for a moment before she ducked her head.
CLOSE GATE
The phone rang, shrill and insistent. Dustin barrelled past them, dodging bodies or moving others out of his way, "Shit. Shit."
He picked up the phone and smashed it back down again. Silence.
It rang again. Dustin moved towards the machine but Nancy moved faster. Gripping it with both hands she ripped it off the wall with a grunt before throwing it onto the ground.
"Do you think he heard that?" Max took a tentative step forwards.
"It's just a phone, it could be anywhere, right?" Steve asked, so quietly the words seemed to be more for his own peace of mind.
No one responded as they glanced around warily like something would come through the walls at any moment. Then Steve got his reply. Deep howls echoed through the tunnels in chorus. It was a low hollow sound that reverberated through the tunnels promising death. Every moment that passed they grew steadily louder. Until they cut off, all at once.
That was coincidence. Shitty coincidence. The hive mind didn't exist. It didn't. The kids leapt onto the couch and peered out the windows.
"Get the fuck away from the windows." Billy snapped at them despite himself. They whipped their heads around and at his murderous expression were already scrambling to get away from their perch.
The others burst through the backdoor and quickly slammed it shut. Will was unconscious again. Quickly the group drew towards each other in defence.
"Do you know how to use this?" Hopper asked, raising a shotgun out for Jonathan to grab.
But he was short of breathe like the walls were caving in on him. He was looking around the room in a daze, like the sheer power of the Mind Flayer had finally hit him. "Wh-what?"
The Chief shook the shotgun at him with more insistence, trying to jolt Jonathan from his shocked stupor. "Can you use this?"
"I can." Nancy volunteered, catching it with ease as he tossed it at her.
Without batting an eye, Steve stood at the forefront, giving his spiked bat a flourishing swing before gripping it tight and aiming at the door. Well, Billy hadn't expected that from Hawkins Finest.
Billy turned around to see Max behind Lucas, slingshot raised. Billy stood in front of both of them, swept up in the frantic energy of impending doom, and flexed his fingers. He didn't need a gun to face a dog. Every shift of the shadows and every rustle from the bushes outside set them on edge as they scanned the area.
The clicking language that sounded so alien and curious came from beneath the window, and then a quick scuttling like the demondogs was surveying the parameter. The bush rustled with movement.
Nancy swung her gun with controlled movements, trailing the noise. "What are they doing?"
Howls and screeches came in warbled chorus like they were rapidly honing in on a target. A mewl of pain followed a thud against the outside wall.
Everyone flinched as the window shattered inwards. A demondog was launched unceremoniously inside and came to a rolling stop as it hit the wall. It twitched, then stilled. Hopper walked towards it, every step weighed with caution. As the kids tried to move, Billy slammed out his arms like a guardrail, and gave them a look daring them to try taking another step of suffer the consequences. Mike tried ignoring his warning, and found his shirt tangled with Billy's fist for a moment before he released Mike with enough force to make the kid stumble backwards.
There was a creak from behind and everyone turned sharply towards the front door. The first lock moved on its own accord, jerking sharply to the right. Then the second lock began to tremble as the metal corded chain jangled against the door. It faltered for a moment, before the force slid the lock open with more certainty. The chain swung back and forth as it fell off the bar. With a creak the door swung open slowly. A young girl stepped inside. It had been her throwing a demondog through the window — with a supernaturally strong force.
It was real. All of it. Just like that, the fight fled him as it transcended into the realm of absurdity. Everyone here was right. Those demondogs weren't some creatures created from natural elements in a test tube by some twist scientists. There was a door open to a world he couldn't comprehend with an entity he couldn't even begin to visualise, and whatever it wanted it was beyond banging on their worlds doorstep. It was already here.
A/n: New year, new chapter.
I hadn't intended to get dark this early on, but it ended up going that way. Next two chapters will be a little intense but there'll be upcoming fluff. The chapter was bigger than usual but since it deals with so much of what's already been written in the show I wanted to get it over with in one go.
Runaway Fantasy Princess: Sometimes the worst people keep on living. Edgar's not willing to die easily either, he has unfinished business. Looks like El might have created some collateral damage.
1Demoness: I love Bob too much to let him die right now.
.2019: thanks :)
MulishaMaiden: Next chapter the adults are gone to Billy doesn't have to pretend to be as civil as he was which means more Steve-Billy talks
Edgar does not have good things planned. Next chapters are going to take a darker turn, but it won't be too angsty right now. It's too early for that. Thank you, writing Max-Billy scenes is always fun, they're so bad at saying what they really mean to each other (mostly Billy).
GreenBanshee: Thank you! Updates have been slower than I'd like, but I am keeping this story going :)