Chapter 40

Dustin and Robin had gotten a head start to set up his old communications tower, so they wouldn't be totally cut off underground. Lucas and Max were left above ground also, to get the rescued kids to the hospital, which had gone into almost a lockdown after so many violent crimes in a week. They'd be safe there, with Gloria. The plan was that all of the other adults would stay below ground until they had everyone – Hopper had insisted on that so he wouldn't find Lily and bolt, Alexei knew. Hopper trusted Joyce, but he'd never trust Alexei. And he wasn't sure he blamed Hopper. What would he do if he could get away safely with his own child and had to leave the others? He hoped not to find out.

He, Tanya, Hopper, Nancy and Evan had guns. Joyce dug a tire iron out of her trunk, and the other boys improvised weapons. And of course, El never needed anything like that.

They'd all chosen code words and obscure personal questions to answer. If this Eight that El had talked about could make them see Nazis and dead soldiers, surely she could simulate one of them to lure the others into a trap. They'd all agreed to make physical contact with anything before shooting, in case it was a mirage. Alexei had his doubts about whether Hopper could be trusted to ask questions before shooting, but Tanya was going to be his partner, and she could keep a level head. They'd split up as couples, each pair taking one of the six spokes on the underground wheel of the lab and going room to room to find the kids, but no one believed it was going to be that simple.

"Anything else we need to go over before we go down there?" Tanya asked.

"Let's do this shit," Mike said.

"In case anyone needed inspiration," Will said with a roll of his eyes.

They all crowded into the elevator, with the four shooters at the front. Evan leaned in closer and whispered as they descended. "Mr. Medvedev?"

"Vat?"

"Does this sort of thing happen a lot here?"

"More than you'd believe, kid," Hopper said before Alexei could answer.

The elevator touched bottom and the door slid open. Nothing but shiny steel and industrial lights. Still, Alexei felt his chest tighten. He'd never wanted to come back here. But Lily was here, somewhere.

"We should move," Tanya said. "I don't like this."

They quietly split into their pairs and moved quickly around the edge of the wheel. There were no rooms to check there. Joyce quickly squeezed Alexei's free hand. "Let's do this," she said.

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Will and Evan took a hall of sleeping compartments. "You stand guard, I'll look inside," Will said. Evan nodded, and Will couldn't help thinking it wasn't every guy who'd follow him into something like this.

He felt along the floor, the chair and the bed. If they could make people see things that weren't there, surely they could make a room look empty. Nothing. He looked under the bed, just to be sure, and recoiled. "Demogorgon!"

Evan rushed in. "Where?"

The demogorgon slid out from under the bed and pulled itself up in front of Will. Will backed up against the wall and the thing just stood over him, menacing, but not touching.

"Babe, what is it? Where is it?" Evan asked. Will turned to him, and only then did he realize he was crying.

"In my head," he said. "Always in my head."

Evan hugged him. "It can't hurt you. I'm not going to let anything hurt you."

Will took a few breaths, walked past the demogorgon and felt under the bed. "Nothing in this one. Let's keep going."

"You sure about this?" Evan asked.

"Yeah. Now that we know they aren't real, what are they going to throw at us?" Will said with more confidence than he felt. "We passed the test."

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In the next hallway over, Nancy was also seeing a demogorgon coming toward her. Jonathan had gone into a room, and this thing had come out. "Jonathan!" she screamed, hoping he was still alive to hear her. And the demogorgon ran toward her. She steadied her gun, her finger squeezing the trigger, but something felt – off. And then the thing was right before her, holding onto her shoulder, but it felt nothing like a demogorgon. "Jonathan?" She touched its face, and it felt warm and slightly scruffy, like Jonathan did when he hadn't shaved that day. "Oh God, I could have killed you." The illusion fell away, and her boyfriend looked at her in bewilderment. "We can't separate. We'll do each one together."

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Tanya was in her element. Clearing a building was one of the easier things she'd been trained to do, and while she wouldn't have admitted it, Hopper was decent company. Most Americans were so soft – no wonder Alexei fit right in – but Hopper was a man who knew how to do what needed to be done.

So she was surprised to find he hadn't come out of the room he'd gone to clear.

She followed him in, gun drawn. He was sitting in the chair, staring at the empty bed. "Hey sweetie," he said, and touched the air with tenderness, like he was caressing someone's face. Tanya lowered her gun.

"Hopper," she said. "Hopper." He was totally absorbed in whoever he saw in that bed. She shook him. "Hopper."

"Go away," he said. "Today's my day off with Sarah."

She wasn't trained for this. Tanya searched her memory for something. She knelt beside the bed. "Who is Sarah?"

"My little girl," he said, and tickled the air. He laughed along with the child in his mind.

"Why is she here?" Tanya asked.

"To get better."

Tanya suspected she had never gotten better, and suddenly understood what she was up against. Hopper didn't really know her – he certainly would ignore her to stay with his daughter. She thought about giving up and leaving him, but she was sure their enemy would put a knife in his neck while he was charmed by the illusion. "What about your other girl? El?"

"She doesn't need me," Hopper said.

"She does," Tanya answered. "Sarah will always be here with you. But El needs you now. Do you understand?"

Hopper blinked at her, as if just seeing she was there. "I can't leave her," he said.

"You aren't leaving her," Tanya said. "You're just letting her rest."

Hopper got up and kissed the air, and patted the bed as if he were tucking a child in. "I'll be back, sweetie," he said. "Daddy has to do his job."

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El and Mike were checking the shower room when Papa stepped out of the shadows.

"Why are you fighting me, Eleven?" he asked. "Why are you fighting your brothers and sisters? You can never truly belong to these people. Only your own kind can save you. Only we can heal that wound, that terrible wound, festering deep inside you-"

El screamed and threw her power at him. Papa flew back against the wall and fell to the floor – as Eight.

"Is that her?" Mike said.

"It's her," El responded. She felt herself shaking until Mike wrapped his arms around her. "My sister-"

"It's okay," Mike said. "You're okay."

"I don't want to let her die," El said.

"You want to get her out of here?" Mike sounded incredulous.

"Yes."

"Okay."

Together, they carried the limp Eight to the elevator and brought her up. "Would she do the same for you?" Mike asked.

"I want to be better than her," El said.

Mike took her hand and squeezed it. "You are the best."

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Joyce had almost hit him in the leg a few times with her tire iron before she was able to let the demogorgons go by her. Alexei didn't blame her. He kept an eye on the corridor while she searched the rooms, because he didn't trust himself to search properly while a man he had killed watched him. They were all around him, lurking, and he felt like he was having the most lucid nightmare of his life. Then suddenly, they vanished, and that somehow made him even more uneasy.

"Not there either," Joyce said as she left the last room.

"Den all dat's left is de center," he said. "He'll be vaiting for us."

"Where would you go if you needed to defend yourself down here?"

"De lab." He shook his head. "Ve von't get drough dat glass."

"If Lily's on the other side, I'd like to see anything stop me."

Now was not the time to argue about the laws of physics rarely bowing to emotions. "I'll go first," he said. "Hope he doesn't vant a shootout."

He opened the door to the communications room, and a bullet whizzed by. He shut it again, peeped through the glass in the door, and ducked before the man shot it out. He and Joyce pressed themselves against the wall on either side of the door. "Time to try anudder vay."

He waited until they were far enough away that the man shouldn't hear him before radioing the rest of the group. "He's in de control room, vith a gun. Ve need to try de back vay."

The back way could be opened with a key card, but he'd lost his years ago. Fortunately, there was a back-up option to enter a code. He typed in 11717. "De start of the revolution," he said, and silently thanked the teacher who'd made him memorize so many important dates in Soviet history. He softly pushed the door open with his shooting arm, so the barrel of the gun was exposed first. Nothing. He opened it as quietly as he could. The man was still watching what he thought was the only door. He and Joyce stole across the empty room. The Americans had taken the ruined key and anything else interesting. They climbed the rickety stairs to the control room.

Tiny faces peeped out at them through the windows. Alexei and Joyce both held their fingers to their lips. Joyce tried the door, but Alexei knew it locked from the inside. Maybe he could shoot out the lock, but he didn't want to hit the children, and that would surely bring the man. And the children couldn't simply unlock themselves, since the man had used every heavy thing they still had down there to build a barricade.

"Can we break it?" Joyce raised her tire iron.

"Not viddout bringing dat man."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"I'm dinking, Joyce," he hissed.

The door behind them scraped the floor. Alexei raised his gun and turned to see the kids. They joined them on the stairs. "Hopper and Tanya are going to create a distraction," Mike said.

"Vat kind-" Alexei started to ask, but the rest of the question was drowned out by gunfire. "Dat vill vork."

El knocked the barricade away like a child's block tower and flicked open the lock with her mind. Alexei ran to grab Lily when suddenly a screeching sound in his head nearly brought him to the ground. He looked around and saw everyone covering their ears, except Conner, who was rocking faster and faster. Even the gun battle had ceased. He briefly wondered if he could knock the boy out long enough for them to regroup, but fortunately Joyce had a better idea. "Hey buddy, whatcha doing?" she asked as she slid next to him, somehow managing to look calm and friendly despite the pain in all of their heads. It must be a skill mothers developed over time, he decided. Slowly, she calmed him down, and the noise receded.

The door from the communications room opened. Of course the man would wonder what had happened. He grabbed Lily, Joyce took Conner, Evan had Manny and Jonathan took LaTisha. "Run," he said.

They made a break for the back exit. The man took several shots, but the moving targets avoided the bullets. Nancy stopped and took a few shots back to give them cover as they ran. They were almost to the door when Alexei felt something pop in the back of his leg. At first he thought it was his old injury, but then he felt the blood running down his leg. He got through the door and put Lily down before sinking. "Take her and run," he said to Nancy. "He doesn't vant me."

"It's going to be okay, Daddy," Lily said, and he hoped that she truly did see the future, because he couldn't figure out how his next plan could lead to an okay ending. When they'd gone, he forced himself to stand and wedged himself in the corner of the door. Then he opened it, just enough to get his gun through, and started shooting. It didn't matter if he hit anything. He needed to keep the man busy and block one way of following the kids. If Hopper and Tanya were still alive, they were probably doing the same.

He held off after shooting a few rounds. Nothing. Then the old loudspeaker crackled. "Don't you hear it calling?" the man said. "The future? The next stage of human evolution? You see, it chose us to bring it into this world. And now I'm making it more followers. You should be honored to see what your children have become. But you're weak, selfish humans who only care about your own desires. But don't you worry, we'll fix that."

"Can he get that gate open?" Hopper's voice demanded over radio.

"Not viddout a key and a steady supply of nuclear vaste," Alexei said.

"Then what's his play?"

"El opened it. He vas counting on de kids."

"Then what-"

The man opened the door Alexei was hiding behind. "Goodbye, doctor," he said, and raised his gun. Alexei pulled his trigger instinctively, forcing the man to jump back, then pulled the door shut. It would hold against ordinary bullets. The question was how long he could keep it shut before he became too weak from blood loss.

"Give it up, it's over," Hopper said, and Alexei was sure he and Tanya had their guns trained on the man. He opened the door and pointed his at the man. "One move and you're a dead man."

"Gods don't die," the man said, and Alexei thought for a moment he looked crazy enough to believe he was immortal. He dropped the gun, but turned to the wall. "Show them, father." And a crack started to form in the wall.

Tanya was the first one to take a shot at him, and Hopper and Alexei quickly joined. It was no use – the man had created something like a force field around himself. And the crack in the wall was spreading. Alexei grabbed his radio. "El, we could use anudder miracle." He yelled up to Hopper. "Grab someding and ve'll distract him."

It was entirely futile, taking pieces of furniture and hitting the man. He easily threw them into the wall. But maybe it bought just enough time, Alexei thought, as he felt the earth rumble beneath him. Eleven was back, and she was angry.

"We are gods, sister," the man said, reaching out to her.

"No," she said, and tried to throw him down. Their powers locked, and there they stood for a moment, hands out, noses bleeding. "Leave my friends alone!" El finally screamed, and threw the man through the swiftly opening gate.

"Close it!" Hopper yelled, and El screamed as she pulled the wall together. The man's hand emerged as he tried to claw his way out, but something pulled him back. His scream of primal terror echoed even as the gate sealed behind him.

"I've never felt so superfluous in my life," Tanya said.

"You get used to it," Alexei said, and struggled to stand.

Hopper rolled his eyes and threw his arm over his shoulder. "Why are you always the one who needs to be carried out every time this happens?" he demanded.

"You can get shot next time," Alexei retorted. "I've done it tvice."

"All right, fine, let's get out of this hellhole."

Dustin's voice came in over the radio. "Talk to me, mole people. Over."

Tanya took the radio. "Call me a mole person again and you'll kiss your chubby ass goodbye. We're coming out. The hostile is dead and the gate is secure. Over."