Rosalyn thought it was the end as the Demobat strangled her. Eddie used a paddle to smack them off. Robin helped him pull the one from her neck. She sat up to catch her breath while watching Steve slam a bat on the ground repeatedly before he put his foot on it to rip it apart. "Jesus H. Christ!" Eddie cursed as he helped her stand up. "Shit! Are you okay?"
She looked down to see that the sweater was ripped and more red and black than yellow. "I'm not dead, so I guess I'm fine." She held onto his arm to steady herself.
Nancy was checking over Steve when he turned to see his girlfriend. "Rosalyn, when I tell you to let go, you do it."
"I would have swam in after you anyways." She stood on her own to glare at him.
"Well, at least then you wouldn't have got bitten and choked." He felt his gut twist at her bruise neck and bloodstained sweater.
"Do you guys think these bats have rabies?" Robin was using a flashlight to stare at the dead bat.
Everyone turned to look at her wondering how her mind went there at this moment. "What?" Steve glared.
"It's just that rabies is my number one worst fear. And I think we should get you guys to like a doctor soon, because once the symptoms set in it's too late. You're dead." She rambled.
"My worst fear is my blood attracting a monster that will kill me," Lyn stated her biggest worry at the moment.
Screeches ripped through the air making them look to see six bats flying. Steve pushed them behind him. They landed in front of them, hissing in a warning. "Alright, there's not that many, we can take them, right?" He stares as they open their jaws to roar.
"Fuck, they called in reinforcement." Lyn cursed when a swarm was flying over to answer their calls.
"The woods, come on." Nancy ran towards the dead trees that made up the Upside Down woods.
Everyone followed her. "Great, more running." Robin held on tight to the flashlight. They ran to skull rock and hid under there, waiting for the swarm to fly over and away from them. "That was close." Robin crawled out.
"Too close." Eddie agreed.
"Fuck!" Lyn held her side where a bite was stinging. She looks to the side when she hears a thud to see Steve holding onto the side of the rock. "Steve!" She ignored her pain to check on him.
"I'm fine. I'm fine." He insisted.
"No, you're not. You're losing a lot of blood." She looks at the bite wound above his hip that was gushing.
"You both are." Nancy looks them over. "Sit down, I know some first aid." They slide down the side of the boulder. She ripped strips from her long skirt to wrap the wound.
Robin kneels to try and comfort them. "So good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies, but if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or start to feel aggressive like you want to punch me let me know."
"Robin?" He hisses.
"What?" She asked.
"I kind of want to punch you." He pants.
"Sense of humor is intact, that's a good sign." She laughed.
"Ready?" Nancy had a strip ready for Steve.
"Just do it." He left his hands up. He hissed as she wrapped it around him. She tied it tightly to stop the bleeding.
She moved over to Lyn. "I got to take this off to see what I'm working with." Lyn bit her lower lip to hold back the noises of pain as she took off the sweater.
"Those damn bats." Steve looks at the three large bite marks: Her collarbone, side, and hip.
"I can't help it that I'm delicious." She winks.
Steve chuckled as he shook his head. "Sense of humor is a good sign."
"I'm going to need to lift your shirt," Nancy told her.
"Turn away." Robin pushed Eddie so his back was to them. She turned around also. Lyn took her back off the rock so she could lift her shirt. Nancy tied a strip that would cover the wounds on her hip and side. She tied another like a sash to cover her collarbone. She put her shirt back down.
Steve and Lyn struggle to get on their feet. "Thank you, Nancy." She smiled.
"It's no problem." She thought of how Upside Down changed her life. Three years ago, she thought dating Steve was the most exciting thing that happened to her and she hated Lyn, seeing her as competition. Now, she was good friends with both of them and she wouldn't have it any other way. She was determined to get them all out alive.
Eddie climbs onto a rock to look out at the familiar yet scary land. "So, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and scary shit?"
"You got it." Lyn nods.
He was about to hop off the rock. "Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind." Nancy warns.
"A what?" He asks.
"All the creepy crawlies around here, dude, are like one or something. You step on a vine, you step on a bat, you step on Vecna." Steve explained it in the way that he understood it.
"Shit!" He carefully climbed down from the rock.
"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except for people, obviously." Robin asked.
"As far as I understand," Nancy told her.
"We've all only been here once. I was underground." Lyn gave the bad news to the two newcomers that this was new territory for them too.
"So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate." Robin got excited as she spoke.
"I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin." Steve scoffs. "But, guns, yeah."
"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom. Lyn has a few too." She spoke up.
Eddie pointed at Nancy. "You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?"
"Full of surprise, isn't she?" Robin smiled. At one moment, she too thought that Nancy was a straight-lace-goodie-two-shoes.
"A Russian Makarov and a revolver." She told him.
"We have guns in our bedroom?" Steve looks at Lyn.
"Yeah, I didn't think you would approve." She needs it to feel safe. She knew that wasn't logical. Guns can cause more problems than solve them.
"Yeah, I don't. We have a teenager in the house that does dumb shit. Your mom would be hysterical if she saw it. You have depression." Steve listed the reason they shouldn't be there. "The gun range is one thing, but this is another."
"I know, it's stupid. But, we need them now." She didn't need to have this argument.
Eddie put a stop to the argument by throwing his jean vest at him. "For modest dude."
Steve looks at him wondering about his priorities. He put it on nonetheless. The ground shook like an earthquake was happening. Eddie grabs Robin and Nancy to cushion their fall to the ground. Steve grabs Lyn with one hand while holding onto the rock with the other to stop them from falling.
They listen to the angry shrieks from something other than the bats. "Yeah, so guns seem like a good idea to me." Eddie looks at Nancy.
"Yeah, me too." Robin nods.
"So, what are we waiting for?" Steve turned on the flashlight and led them through the woods.
They were walking through the woods to the Hendersons. They headed there first since it was closer. "Couldn't we have tried a road or something less creepy?" Robin was paranoid about what could be hiding behind every tree.
"It is faster this way. We're almost there." Lyn had been through this wood many times: calling for her mom's cat, playing with the kids, or when she wanted a break from it all. The ladies walk a bit ahead leaving Eddie and Steve by themselves.
"Eddie, hey man, Listen I just… I wanted to say thanks for saving my ass back there." Steve ran so he was walking beside him.
"Shit, you saved your own ass, man. I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there." Eddie gave him a high compliment.
"Ozzy?" Steve tilts his head.
He sighs that it went over his head. "When you took a bite out of that bat. Ozzy Osbourne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat's head off onstage. Crazy train is one of Lyn's favorite songs." He tried to jog his memory on the guy.
"I know the song. I don't know the guy." Steve wanted the listing to stop.
"It's very metal what you did is all I'm saying." He got to his point.
"Thanks." He said slowly. He didn't see it as a complement but he knew Eddie did.
"Henderson told me you were a badass, insisted on the matter in fact." He would always argue with him, not wanting to think his ex-fling's new man is better than him.
"Henderson, said that?" Steve was shocked. He was under the impression that Dustin thought Eddie was cooler than him.
"Oh yeah, shit, kid worships you, dude. Like, you have no idea, it's kind of annoying, to be honest." Steve laugh because he had to hear about Eddie all the time. "I don't know why I care what the little shrimp thinks, but I guess I got a little jealous, Steve. I couldn't accept the fact that Steve Harrington was a good dude. I mean, rich parents, popular, chicks love him, not a douche? No way, man, no way. That's, like flies in the face of all the law in the universe and my own personal Munson doctrine." Eddie laugh at how much luck one guy could have.
"I would have thought it was about, well you know." Steve nods to his girlfriend.
"Oh yeah, of course, that too. You're living out my daydreams with that….Still jealous as hell by the way." He leaned in to say. Steve let out a nervous laugh as he leaned away. "Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass, not under normal circumstances." They stopped when they heard a branch snap. Steve shines the light in that direction. They went on when they saw nothing. "No, outside of D&D, I am no hero. I see danger and I turn my heel and run. At least that's what I learned about myself this week."
"Give yourself a break. If it makes you feel better I used to be a big douche. The only reason I changed is because of those ladies." Steve nods to them.
"Funny, because the only reason I jumped in was because of them. Lyn was willing to go down with you. The other two went straight in after you. I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind." Eddie confessed.
The ground shakes making the guys have to grab onto trees. "Here we go again." Eddie hisses.
"Second on my list of least favorite things are earthquakes." Robin held on to a boulder. "Seriously, I'm unsteady enough as it is."
Nancy let go of a tree to take off running. "Nancy, where are you going?" Robin yelled.
"Nancy, don't run off." Lyn ran after her.
"You can't say that while running off too, Lyn!" Robin whines.
"Lyn! Rosalyn! Nancy!" Steve ran after them. Eddie and Robin followed not wanting to be left behind.
They found themselves in Henderson's backyard. The sky was flashing red thunder that was shaking the underground world. "Come on," Lyn led them into her house. When they went through the backdoor, Lyn stopped to look around. Besides the vines, the house looks like the one from her nightmares of her zombie mom.
"You alright, babe?" Steve put a hand on her lower back.
"I'm fine. Let's go." She led them to their room. She froze when she saw a Demogorgon curled up, sleeping on her bed. "Dart." She saw the spots on his butt.
"What the fuck!" Eddie's eyes were wide as it stood on its hind leg.
"Hi, Dart. You remember mommy, right? I feed you, give you frozen towels, cuddle you." She backs up as it tilts his head. "Please, please, remember my love." She was grasping at straws.
He put his head in the air and sniffed. He opens his flower mouth to roar at Eddie. Lyn reaches into his pocket to pull out a bunch of three musketeer bars.
She opened it up. "Sit." She ordered. He did as he was told. She slowly walks to the open window and throws a bar out of it. He jumped out to get it. "Watch him." She orders.
Robin shut the window to stare out of it. "He's scarfing it down."
Lyn reached under her bed to pull out a long shoe box that used to hold knee-high boots that now had an ASP pistol and revolver. She opened it up to see the long black boots. "That's not guns." Eddie pointed out.
"None of my clothes are here." Steve opens the closet. He was hoping to find a change of clothes.
"Isn't this the dress that Tammy wore when she played Sandy in Grease?" Robin pointed at the sewing mannequin.
"That was three years ago." She went to her sewing desk to see the costume designs she got roped into doing for a cheap price. She snatched the calendar off the wall. "November 6, 1983. The day that Will went missing."
"So, Upside Down is a creepy version of Hawkins from three years ago?" Robin asked.
"So, there will be no guns at my house either." Nancy felt defeated.
"We can still get the bat. I'll get the crowbar. The hair spray." She grabbed the can and threw it at Eddie. "With your lighter, you can use it like a flame thrower." He put the can in his pocket.
"He's eating a demobat that was trying to fly into the house." Robin updated them on Dart.
"Do you think he's been protecting the house?" Steve asked.
"Probably, he did grow up in it." She grabbed her backpack. She walks downstairs to open the hallway closet to pass Robin a hockey stick. She got the crowbar out of the garage. "Come on, let's go to Wheelers."
When they stepped into the backyard, they heard pounding footsteps to see Dart running toward them. He stops to sit in front of Lyn. "I'll miss you, Dart." She opens the rest of the bars and throws them all over the yard. While he ran around to get them, they walked into the forest.
They walk into the Wheeler's home. There were vines and dust everywhere. "Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler." Robin teased.
"Come on, I don't want to stay here longer than I need to." Nancy opened the garage door to get the bat and put the nails in them. Eddie and Robin follow her to look for other tools that could be used as weapons.
"Lyn." Steve grabs her arm to stop her from going along. "Listen…"
She concentrated on hearing what he wanted her to. "Dustin." His voice was faint but she would know it anywhere. "Dustin! Dustin! Dustin!" They scream for him. "Hello, can you hear me, Dustin!"
The three ran back in. Nancy had the bat in hand. "Maybe they do have rabies." Robin watched them scream for a boy they knew couldn't be there.
"What are you doing?" Nancy asked.
Steve put the light in their faces. "He's here, Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's in the walls or something. Listen." He got excited.
"I think he's in your house in our world. So maybe we can find a way to talk to him like Will did." Lyn explains while Steve kept screaming his name. "Steve, shut up so they can hear." He pouted but did as he was told. The three of them were able to hear Dustin faintly ranting. Robin, Eddie, and Steve started to scream his name. Lyn kept flicking the light switch.
"Alright, either the kid is a total douche or he can't hear us." Steve gave up.
"We need to figure out how Will did it." Nancy joined Lyn in trying to turn on a lamp.
"Guys, are you seeing this?" Steve pointed the flashlight at the glowing chandelier that was hanging over the dining table. Gold glowing dust surrounded it.
Nancy reached out to touch it. "Everyone give it your energy." They circle it and reach their hands up to move it around.
Lyn was surprised that it felt good. It was a warm tickling feeling that you would get when you were at the top of a rollercoaster. "It tickles." Eddie smiled.
"It kind of feels good." Robin agrees.
"Does anyone know morse code?" Nancy remembers how we were able to talk to Will when he was possessed.
"No." Robin and Steve answered.
"I should have learned it when Dustin wanted to teach me." Lyn whines.
"Does SOS count?" Eddie asks. Robin and Nancy stared at him in amazement. The guy who had to repeat his senior year three times knows some morse code. "Is that good?"
"It's more than good, get in touch." Lyn pointed at the light. Eddie put his hand up to repeatedly make the code. "Come on, Dustin." She prayed that he would notice.
"We're going to Nancy's room. Wait by her bed." Dustin could be heard yelling. They cheered at being able to reach them. "Can you signal again if you can hear me?" Eddie repeated it.
They ran up to Nancy's room to wait. "Come on, Come on." Steve chants while they kneel by the bed.
"Lite Brite." Lyn gasped when a glowing square appeared on Nancy's bed. Nancy stuck her hand in it and moved the dust around. Dustin's laugh echoed through the room. "No matter what happens at least I got to hear it one more time." She sighs, with a smile.
"None of that talk." Steve scolds her.
"We're not moving it, but we're going to unplug it, stand by," Dustin yelled. The light wasn't as bright but it was still there. "Try now." Lyn nudged Nancy who was right in front of it. She spelled Hi. "It worked!"
"His second-grade teacher was wrong. His loud mouth would prove to be useful later on in life." She couldn't believe his voice was traveling dimensions.
They cheer at the good news. "Yes!" Eddie hugged Robin and Lyn who were on either side of him.
Nancy wrote to them that they were stuck. "You can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin asked.
"What's watergate?" Steve asked.
"Cause it's in water and it's a gate." Robin nods, getting why he would name it that.
"Oh, that's cute." Eddie agrees.
Nancy wrote out the word, guarded. "The gates being guarded!" He figured it out.
"Yes!" Steve cheered that this was going smoothly.
"We think we have a theory that can help with that." He told them.
"Genius child." Robin praises.
"We think that watergate isn't the only gate. There is a gate at every murder site." Dustin relayed.
"Of course. That makes sense." Lyn nods.
"You understand that?" Nancy looks at her.
"You said it yourself, whenever the Demogorgon killed it left an opening. He's killing to make gates." She yelled out the next part. "We're going to the trailer park."
"It's like seven miles away," Eddie told them. They sat in silence thinking about walking that far in such a dangerous place.
"Nancy? I know your house is weirdly creepily frozen in time and shit but haven't you always had bikes?" Robin thought of a way they could get there faster.
They were riding bikes to the trailer park, praying that nothing would try to kill them. "Here it is." Eddie stopped in front of a trailer. They got off the bikes letting them hit the ground. Lyn pants, never having ridden as fast as she did for so long.
"That's got to be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled inter-dimensionally." Robin never exercised so much before
"I just inhaled a bunch of that crap." He coughs. "It's stuck in my throat." They walk into the trailer to look up at the red portal that had black vines surrounding it. "Goddamn." Steve turned off the light since the portal was lighting up the trailer.
"This is where Chrissy died… like right where she died," He told them.
"I think there is something in there." Robin noticed it was moving.
"What the hell is that?" Eddie squints to get a closer look. They saw something poking through. A bunch of liquid dropped as it broke through. They scream as they back up.
They creep slowly towards the hole in the ceiling when the thing goes away. "No way." They stared up at Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Erica standing in Eddie's trailer in the human world.
"Holy shit, this is trippy." Robin stares up at them. They were upside down from their perspective.
"Bada-bada-boom." Dustin yelled. "We're going to get you out."
Lucas and Max carried Eddie's mattress out so they would fall on it. "Those stains are uh…" He tried to defend the large yellow stains.
"If I have to land on them I don't want to know." Anna put her hand up to stop him.
"Not quite sure how these physics are going to work." Dustin had the sheets he ripped and tied into a rope. "But, here goes nothing." He threw it up. The gravity of the Upside Down made it fall through and stick in the air. "Pull on it and see if it holds."
Robin put her weight on it and it held in the air. "Guess, I'm the guinea pig." Robin struggles to climb up to the roof. Once she went into the human world she fell from the ceiling onto the mattress.
"You go next, I don't want any self-sacrifices." Steve pushed his girlfriend towards the rope.
"I did that once." She grabbed the rope.
"Twice." He pushed her up.
She let out a yelp when she lost her grip in her world making her fall on the mattress. "Come on." Dustin helped her up.
Eddie went through. "That was fun, Shit." He took Lyn's hand. She pulled him up.
"Shit, Vecna got in Nancy's head," Steve screams. They looked up to see her standing still. "We need music."
"I got the music." They ran to Eddie's room.