At the Byers', Joyce tried to call Hopper. She was sent straight to voicemail, so she hung up.
Afterwards, she looked around the house, which was now loaded with these drawings. She still couldn't make sense of them, no matter how many pieces she put together.
In Will's room, Will was talking to Mike.
"It's like I can hear what the shadow monster's hearing," he explained. "See what he's seeing."
"Like in the Upside-Down?" asked Mike.
"Some of him is there," Will replied. "But some of him is here, too. In this house and… in me. It's like he's reaching into Hawkins more and more, like the more he spreads, the more I feel him."
"And the more you see these now-memories," Mike added.
"At first I just felt it in the back of my head," said Will. "I didn't even really know it was there. It's like when you have a dream, and you can't remember it unless you think really hard. It was like that. It was like, now I remember. I remember all the time."
"Maybe that's a good thing," said Mike. "You're like a spy now, a superspy, spying on the shadow monster. If you know what he's seeing and feeling, maybe that's how we stop him. Maybe all this is happening for a reason."
"What if he figures out we're spying on him?" asked Will. "What if he spies back?"
"He won't," Mike assured.
"How do you know?" asked Will.
Mike touched Will's hand to give him some assurance. "We won't let him."
While Will did feel a bit better being comforted by his friend, he still wasn't sure about this.
Meanwhile, Hopper was looking around the tunnels. He brought out his gun just in case anyone snuck up on him.
After searching for a while, Hopper found this plant. The plant sprayed something on Hopper that disoriented him. A second plant did the same.
Hopper grunted and coughed as his sight disoriented. After a while, he passed out. The hole that he dug closed, destroying any chance he had of getting out when he woke up.
Stranger Things 2
Chapter 5
Dig Dug
Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan had been driving nonstop. It was time to rest.
The trio found a motel and decided to spend the night there. They went to the front desk. There was a worker sitting there, but she appeared to be zoned out. Nancy rang the bell to get the worker's attention.
"We'd like a room, please," she said to the woman.
"Single or double?" the worker asked.
"Double," the teens replied in unison.
After getting the key, the three teens entered the room and got ready for bed. Steve and Nancy sat with each other on one bed, while Jonathan sat alone on the other. The three sat silently, unable to fall asleep.
That's when Jonathan turned to Nancy and Steve, thinking about turning the light off.
"Nance, Steve, on or off?" he asked.
Nancy giggled, confusing Jonathan.
"It's nothing," she assured. "Just deja vu.
That's when a thought came to Steve's head that he said aloud. "Don't you think it's weird that Nancy and I only seem to hang out with you when the world's about to end?"
"It's not going to end," Jonathan assured.
"It feels like it," Steve retorted.
That's when Nancy brought her hand out to show her boyfriend and crush. The hand that she cut about a year ago to draw the Demogorgon to them. The scar was still there.
"Do you still have yours?" she asked.
Steve and Jonathan showed their hands, the ones they cut that same day, and like Nancy, the scars remained.
That's when they noticed they were all holding each other's hands. They felt awkward and moved their hands away. Steve fell asleep quickly afterwards. That left Nancy and Jonathan to talk to each other.
"What happened?" asked Nancy. "To us? After everything, you just… disappeared."
"Yeah, Will needed me," Jonathan replied. "And Steve…"
"I waited," Nancy retorted.
"Only a month," Jonathan replied.
Nancy rolled over. "I want them off."
Jonathan turned the lights off and everyone fell asleep.
Back at the Byers', Will woke up screaming. This woke Mike up.
"Will, what's wrong?" he asked.
Will sat silently and eventually climbed out of the bed.
Will ran out to the Living Room, Mike following close behind. They saw Joyce sitting in the Living Room.
"Mom," Will called, but Joyce wasn't listening. "Mom!" That got Joyce's attention. "I saw him."
"You saw who, baby?" Joyce asked.
"Hopper," Will replied. "I think he's in trouble. I think he's going to die."
In the tunnels, Hopper woke up. He was sick to the stomach and threw up. After he finished, he got up, grabbed his flashlight, and made a run for it. He realized that he lost the opening he came in from.
"Shit!" he shouted.
He used a knife to tear off a piece of his clothes, so he could use it as a face mask and block the fumes.
As he continued searching the tunnels, he saw the pathway split in two. He tried his luck and went left.
At the Sinclairs, Lucas and his family were having breakfast. Lucas had Max on his mind for a while and wanted to make her happy. He decided to ask his dad for advice.
"Dad?" he asked. "When mom is mad, how do you make her not mad?"
"That's a good question," Mr. Sinclair replied. "First, I apologize, and then I give her what she wants."
"Even when she's wrong?" asked Lucas.
"She's never wrong, son," Mr. Sinclair replied.
"That's right," Mrs. Sinclair added, holding her husband's hand.
Lucas quickly got up and set his food aside.
"Not hungry?" asked Mrs. Sinclair.
"Nope, not really," Lucas replied.
"Where are you going?" asked Mr. Sinclair.
"To hang out with… Dustin," Lucas lied. He was really going to talk to Max.
Lucas ran out of the house and biked away, passing Dustin's house.
In Dustin's house, Ms. Henderson entered the house while Dustin was on the phone.
"Dusty, baby, you're sure she's not in your room?" she asked, referring to the cat.
Dustin held his finger out, signaling her to wait.
Once he hung up, he lied to his mom. "Good news, they saw her around Loch Nora."
"How did the poor baby get all the way out there?" Ms. Henderson asked.
"I don't know," Dustin replied. "I guess she got lost, but they're gonna go look for her. I'll stay here in case they call again, and you're gonna help look?"
Ms. Henderson hugged her son before leaving to find her cat.
With Ms. Henderson out of the house, Dustin was able to go face the demogorgon on his own. He put on hockey gear as armor and made a trail of food to lure the demogorgon into the basement. He then went to his room, calling out, "Dart, breakfast time!"
Dustin hurried out of the house before the demogorgon could catch him. He hid in the shed.
Dustin watched through a crack in the wood as Dart walked out of the house, following the trail. He was hoping the creature would fall for his trap, but it stopped. It jerked towards Dustin. It knew he was in there.
Seeing no choice, Dustin burst out and tried using his hockey stick to send Dart flying into the basement, but it got back up. It grabbed Dustin, growled, and was about to bite.
The Hollands had just moved to a smaller house in Hawkins after selling their old one. Barb was walking around the new neighborhood, like she did every day in her old neighborhood. She might have been broken, but some habits never break.
Barb heard some loud barking and turned to where she heard the noise. She saw a paranormal creature, not unlike what she encountered in the Upside-Down, about to attack a child. She thought back to her traumatizing experiences in the Upside-Down, and decided she wasn't going to let what happened to her happen to anyone else.
She ran towards the monster and kicked it as hard as she could. She did stub her toe, but she was able to get the creature off the kid.
Dustin got back up and grabbed his hockey stick. He hit Dart one last time, this time, sending it into the basement.
Barb shut the doors and locked them, keeping the monster from being able to get out.
Elsewhere, a nice trucker drove Elle to where she wanted to go.
"I think this is the place," he said. "5-1-5 Larrabee, right?"
"Yes," Elle replied. "Five-fifteen. Thank you."
Elle was about to climb out when the trucker said one last thing. "You apologize to your mama, yeah? Must be scared half to death. How long's it been?"
"Long time," Elle replied.
The trucker drove away as Elle walked towards the house. She approached the front door, braced herself, and knocked.
"Go away, I'm not interested!" a voice shouted.
Elle wasn't going to take no for an answer. She continued knocking until the door opened.
"Whatever mumbo jumbo you're selling, I'm not buying, okay?" said the woman at the door. "Now get lost!"
The woman closed the door. Elle wasn't having it. She concentrated, and used her powers to remove the lock and open the door.
"I want to see Mama," she muttered menacingly.
The woman led Elle to her mom. Terry was still sitting on the rocking chair, repeating, "Three to the right, four to the left. Breathe. Sunflower. Rainbow."
"Mama, can you hear me?" Elle asked.
Elle got on her knees and looked her mom in the eyes.
"Mama, it's me Jane," she said. "I'm here now."
Terry turned to Elle for a bit before turning back to the TV repeating, "Breathe. Sunflower. Rainbow. Four-fifty."
Elle turned back to the other woman and asked, "What's wrong with Mama?"
Meanwhile, Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan found a small house in Chicago.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Jonathan asked Nancy.
Nancy looked at a card that read, "3833".
"Yeah," Nancy replied.
Jonathan stopped the engine and the teens climbed out of the car. They approached the front door and rang the doorbell.
"Look at the camera," said a voice on the speakers. Jonathan looked around the speaker for a camera. The voice continued. "Not the loudspeaker, the camera, above you, to your right."
The teens turned to their left and saw a camera. Right after, a bald man in his 40s, Murray Bauman, answered the door.
"Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Steve Harrington," he greeted each one. "You three are a long way from home."
He gestured to the three to enter. They gladly did so.
"Well, I hope you didn't come all this way to tell me about the bear in your backyard, Harrington," said Murray. "I've heard that one already."
Murray led them into a room filled with technological devices and a cork board with a bunch of photos pinned onto it.
"Go ahead, don't be shy," said Murray. "I've followed up on 200 tips, most bogus, but that's how these things always go, okay? I know every last step Barbara took that day, every last person she talked to. The answer to what happened to your friend, it's up here somewhere. I assure you that. I just gotta connect the right dots."
Nancy looked around to see the many flaws in Murray's theory. "The timeline's wrong."
"I'm sorry?" asked Murray.
"The timeline is wrong," Nancy repeated. "And those kids with the buzzed hair, they're not Russian. They're from Hawkins Lab. Their names were Eleven and Twelve."
"You might wanna sit down for this," Jonathan added.
Murray stared at the three teens, intrigued by what they had to say.
At the arcade, Billy was dropping off Max.
"If you're not out in an hour," said Billy.
"I'm walking home, I know," Max interrupted.
"Watch the attitude, shitbird," Billy scolded.
Max grabbed her skateboard and walked off. She flipped off Billy as he drove away. Afterwards, she entered the arcade.
Max went to the Dig Dug machine to see a sign that read, "Out of Order".
Keith approached Max and said, "Sorry about that, Road Warrior."
"What happened?" asked Max.
"Short circuit in the motherboard," Keith explained. "A real bummer. But fret not. I got another machine up and running in the back."
Max led Keith into the back of the arcade, usually meant for employees only. He opened the door to reveal Lucas sitting in there with a grin. Max reluctantly entered the room.
"You better get me that date now, Sinclair," Keith told Lucas before shutting the door.
"I told you I would," Lucas replied.
Keith made a gesture to tell Lucas to stop talking before saying, "And keep things PG in here, all right?"
With that, Keith shut the door.
Max turned to Lucas with fire in her eyes. "What is this shit, stalker?"
"I needed a safe place," Lucas was about to explain.
"A safe place to what?" Max interrupted. "Be creepy?"
"Listen, I'm gonna tell you the truth about everything that happened last year," said Lucas. "But if anyone finds out, you could be arrested. Maybe killed."
"Killed?" Max asked in disbelief.
"I need to know," said Lucas. "Do you accept the risk?"
"This is stupid," Max whined.
"Do you accept the risk?" Lucas repeated.
Max reluctantly nodded. "I accept the risk."
The two sat down as Lucas explained everything. "Last year, Will didn't get lost in the woods. He got lost somewhere else."
Max started to get intrigued.
At the Byers', Will made another drawing.
"Is this where you saw Hopper?" asked Joyce.
"I think so, yeah," Will replied.
Joyce took the picture as she and Mike looked around to find where this picture matched with the "map". After a while, Mike found the spot.
"Here!" he called Joyce.
"Now we just need to find where this place is," said Mike. "Did Hopper say anything before he left?"
"Something about… vines?" Joyce replied.
That's when they heard a car pulling up. They looked to see if it was Hopper, but it wasn't Hopper. It was Bob.
Joyce opened the door and approached Bob, who was holding some art supplies and brain teaser games.
"Surprise," he said. "I would've called, but you said not to clog up the line."
"You know, we're fine," said Joyce. "We don't need anything."
"When I was sick as a kid, and I was sick all the time as a kid," said Bob. "Nothing made me feel better than focusing on these brain teasers. I could teach him how to play."
"He's sleeping," Joyce lied. "Now's just not a good time, but I'll call you, okay?"
Joyce kissed Bob on the cheek.
Bob walked off saying, "Always call me. They don't call me Bob the Brain for nothing."
That's when Joyce realized that Bob could help. "Bob!"
"That's my name," said Bob.
Joyce led Bob inside the house and looked at the drawings. He turned to Will. "You drew these?"
Will nodded.
"Why?" asked Bob.
"I told you, no questions," Joyce scolded as she walked to another part of the room. "We just need you to figure out…" She realized Bob wasn't following her. "Bob, over here." Bob followed Joyce. She showed him the certain picture that Will said Hopper was in. She continued explaining. "We need you to find this."
"What is here?" Bob asked. "Treasure?"
"Bob, no questions," Joyce scolded.
Bob led Joyce to another room as he spoke to her. "Joyce, you can talk to me, you know that?"
"Yeah," Joyce replied. "What's the problem?"
"Joyce, Will doesn't look well," Bob replied. "You don't look well. What's going on? Is this one of Will's episodes? I'm sorry, I just don't see how any of this is good for either of you. Even if I wanted to play along, I don't know how. I don't know the context of the game." That's when Bob noticed something about one of the drawings. "Wait, I know that shape. It's Lover's Lake. I get it." He continued looking at the pictures. "If that's Lake Jordan, then you can probably find… yea, Sattler's quarry. And if you just follow it naturally, it moves to the Eno River, and there it is. So the lines aren't roads, but they act like roads. They act like roads 'cause when you follow them, you'll see… they don't go over water. That's the giveaway. It's not a puzzle, it's a map of Hawkins." He turned to Will. "Right Will?"
Will was absolutely shocked. Not even he thought that was what he was drawing.
In the tunnels, Hopper was looking around. He tried calling his fellow cops on his walkie, but no one copied. He looked around at all the vines. He brought out a lighter and moved it closer to the vines to see how they would react. They moved back, as if they didn't want to touch the flames.
Hopper tore out some of his clothes, and grabbed some nearby wood, and used them to make a torch. He used the lighter to light the torch. He used the torch to move the vines, allowing him to see the wall. He started tearing it open with his hands.
Elle was explaining everything to the woman, who she found out was named Becky.
"I need a little help understanding," said Becky. "Can you tell me where you came from, where you've been all this time?"
Elle wasn't paying attention. She was too busy looking at her mom.
"A policeman and a woman came looking for you last year," said Becky. "Did they find you?"
Again, Elle wasn't paying attention. She was too busy thinking about her mom. "She won't get better, won't she?"
"They don't think so, no," Becky replied. "But she's not in any pain. She's just stuck, they think. Like in a dream, a long dream."
Elle sighed. "Is it the same dream?"
"We don't know," Becky replied. "Sometimes she says different words, but usually those."
Elle cried softly. Becky took Elle's hand. "She always believed you were out there. You and your brother. She always believed you both would come home one day."
"Home? Brother?" asked Elle.
Becky nodded.
She then led Elle to a room that looked like a room for a child. She looked around and could only describe it with one word. "Pretty."
"I can get you a real bed, and you can stay with me if you want," Becky offered. "I wanna help you, but to really do that, I need you to talk to me, okay? Doesn't have to be now, doesn't have to be today, but when you're ready, okay?"
"Okay," Elle nodded.
That's when Elle noticed a light flickering, and then another.
"That happens sometimes," said Becky. "Old house, bad wiring, or if you ask my crazy Aunt Shirley, it's haunted."
Elle knew it was the latter. The house was haunted. She followed the flickering lights back to her mother.
Elle noticed blood dripping down Terry's nose.
"I don't understand," said Becky.
"She knows I'm here," said Elle. That's when the channels started flickering. Elle knew what this meant. "She wants to talk."
At the Byers', Bob was having everyone measure the area with a tape measure.
"I got 3.6 inches, what do you got?" asked Bob.
"I'm not sure," Mike replied. "Mrs. Byers?"
Joyce finished connecting the rope. "Twenty-one feet, four inches."
"What about Tippecanoe to Danford Creek?" asked Bob.
"Sixteen feet, ten inches."
"What about Danford to Jordan?"
"Come on, this has gotta be enough," said Joyce.
"It's not," Bob replied. "The ratio isn't exactly one-to-one. I mean, if you're twisting my arm, and you are twisting my arm, I would say that the X is..." He did a bit more calculating before coming to his conclusion. "Maybe a half-mile southeast of Danford?"
"Thank you," Joyce thanked.
Everyone ran to the door. Bob was confused but he followed.
Back in the tunnels, Hopper was trying to crawl through the wall, but wasn't doing well. He collapsed and started coughing. That's when this vine started trying to grab him.
"Son of a bitch!" he shouted.
He tried to run, but the vines were too strong. They held him to the floor and started to suffocate him. He tried to reach for his knife, but it was too far out of reach.
"And that was the last we ever saw of them," Lucas finished explaining to Max. "I can't believe it's been that long. Feels like yesterday."
"I bet," said Max, who was having a hard time processing the story.
"It's crazy, I know," said Lucas.
"It's crazy, but I really liked it," said Max. "It'd make a great TV show."
Lucas couldn't believe what his crush was saying. "Liked it?"
"Yeah," Max replied. "I mean, I had a few issues. I felt it was a little derivative in parts. I wish it had a little more originality, that's all."
"You don't believe me?" asked Lucas.
"Lucas, come on, seriously?" asked Max. "How gullible do you think I am?"
"Why would I make this up?" asked Lucas.
"I don't know," Max replied. "To impress me or something? Or you're just, like, insane."
"I tell you all of this top-secret stuff," said Lucas. "Risking my life. And this is how you react? This is funny to you?"
"Yeah, kinda funny," Max replied. "Stupid but funny."
Max was about to walk out.
"Where are you going?" asked Lucas.
"Story time's over, isn't it?" asked Max before walking out.
Lucas ran out after Max. "What's wrong with you? Isn't this what you wanted?"
"I wanted to be part of the group," Max replied. "Not part of a stupid joke."
"It's not a joke," Lucas retorted.
"You did a good job, okay?" said Max. "You can tell the others I believed your lies if it gets you experience points or whatever."
Max was about to walk off, but Lucas grabbed Max's hand.
"We have rules in our party," he said. "The most important one is, 'Friends don't lie'. Never ever, no matter what."
"Is that right?" asked Max, showing him the fake "Out of Order" sign on the Dig Dug machine. "Then how do you explain this?"
"I had to do that to protect you," Lucas retorted.
"From who?" asked Max loudly. "The big bad baddies from Hawkins Lab? Or maybe it was to protect me from the Demogorgon from another dimension? Oh, I know, you're protecting me from an evil psychic who wants to use me as a sacrifice to open a portal so he can destroy the world."
"Max, I'm serious, shut up," Lucas whispered.
"Oh, no no no no!" Max yelled, getting tired. "You know what it was! It was Eleven and Twelve, the kids…"
Lucas covered Max's mouth. "Stop talking. You're gonna get us killed. Do you understand?"
Max forced Lucas' hand off her mouth. "You're serious?"
"I really wish I wasn't," Lucas replied.
"Prove it," said Max.
"I can't," said Lucas. "You just need to trust me."
That's when they heard a car.
"Shit," Max muttered. Billy arrived early. Max ran to the door. Lucas tried to follow, but Max aggressively grabbed his arm. "Don't follow me."
Max ran out the door and into the car. Billy noticed Lucas at the door.
"What the hell did I tell you?" he asked.
"I'm not late," Max replied.
"You know what I'm talking about," Billy replied.
"Oh, Lucas?"
"So he has a name now?"
"It's a small town, okay? We weren't hanging out."
"We know what happens when you lie."
"I'm not lying."
Billy glared at his sister before rolling his eyes and driving away.
Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan just finished playing the tape of Owens' confession to Murray. Needless to say, this was bigger than he thought.
"Is it enough?" asked Nancy. "The tape, is it enough? Is it incriminating?"
Murray stood up and walked out of the room. He started pouring himself a cup of vodka.
"What are you doing?" asked Nancy.
"Thinking," Murray replied.
"With vodka?" Steve asked.
"It's a central nervous system depressant," said Murray. "So yes, with vodka."
Once he finished pouring his cup, Murray went to the record player to play a record.
"Seriously, music?" asked Jonathan.
"Yes, it helps me," Murray replied.
"Think?" Jonathan interrupted.
The record started and a jazz song played. Murray took his cup and walked away.
"How long is this going to take?" asked Nancy.
"Longer if you keep talking," Murray replied.
"Is the tape incriminating or not? It's a simple question."
Murray laughed. "There's nothing simple about it. Nothing simple about anything you told me."
"You don't believe us, do you?" asked Jonathan.
"Oh, I believe you, but that's not the problem," said Murray. "You don't need me to believe you. You need them to believe you. Them, with a capital T. Your priest, your postman, your teacher, the world at large. They won't believe this."
"That's why we made the tape," Steve retorted.
"Oh, that's easy to bury," Murray retorted back. "Easy."
"He admits it, you heard it," said Nancy. "He admits culpability."
"You're all being naive!" Murray raised his voice. "Those people are not wired like me and you. They don't spend their lives trying to get a look at what's behind the curtain. They like the curtain. It provides stability, comfort, definition. This would open the curtain, and open the curtain behind that curtain, so the minute someone with an ounce of authority calls bullshit, everyone will nod their heads and say, 'Aha, I knew it! It was bullshit!' That is, if you even get their attention at all!"
"So you're saying we did all of this for nothing?"
"I'm saying, I'm thinking!"
Murray sipped his vodka and grunted. He walked back to the counter and poured another cup.
"That's it," he muttered.
"What's it?" asked Nancy.
"It's just too strong," Murray replied as he sipped this new drink. "Better. Perfect."
"We water it down," said Nancy.
"Precisely," said Murray.
"What?" Steve and Jonathan asked in unison.
"Your story, we moderate it," Murray replied. "Like this drink here We make it more tolerable. Perhaps Barbara was exposed to some dangerous toxins. A leak from the lab, like Three Mile Island or something. Something scary, but familiar. Close enough, that it hits the man right where it hurts. And those assholes that broke Barb will go down."
Murray offered the kids some of the drink. They reluctantly drank from their cups.
At the lab, some scientists showed Sam Owens a discovery they made. They collected some soil from the Upside-Down. They put the soil in a beaker and put a flame under it. The soil reacted, floating around the beaker in a circle. Soil in other beakers started floating in the exact same motion.
Becky cut a towel for Elle to use as a blindfold. She wrapped the blindfold around her eyes.
"So, I can stand here and I won't mess it up?" asked Becky.
"It won't," Elle replied.
"If you talk to her, will you tell her that I love her and I'm sorry that I didn't believe…" Becky was about to ask.
"Stop talking," said Elle.
Elle closed her eyes and focused.
When she woke up, she found herself in the void. She approached Terry and said, "Mama, it's me. Jane. I'm here now. I'm home."
Terry turned to Elle and said, "No." She grabbed Elle by the wrist, and then disappeared.
Elle looked around and saw a woman running around screaming before falling. Elle tried to help her.
"Mama, what do I do?" she screamed.
But Terry didn't reply.
Elle found herself in a flashback.
Terry's stomach was slit open, allowing two babies to come out of her. Terry woke up, and the first thing she saw were sunflowers. She turned and saw Becky.
"Hey there," said Becky.
"Where are Jane and John?" asked Terry.
"I'm sorry," Becky apologized as she hugged her sister and cried. "They weren't breathing."
"I saw them," said Terry. "They were crying. I heard it, he was there. He took them."
Terry tried to get up, so Becky called some nurses. They injected something into Terry that knocked her out.
Later, Terry opened a safe by turning the knob right three times, and left four times. pulled a gun out of the safe.
Afterwards, Terry went to Hawkins Lab. When a security guard asked for her badge, she pointed her gun at him and demanded he stay back. She saw him reach for his gun and shot him dead.
After killing the guard, Terry ran around the lab in search of her kids. She found a door with a rainbow on it. She opened the door to see three kids in the room. A boy and two girls.
"Jane, John," she said happily as she was about to hug her kids.
That's when some guards grabbed Terry and carried her out of the room. She tried to fight back, but they were too strong.
Terry was strapped to a table. Martin Brenner was in the room.
"Four-fifty," he said.
The scientists electrified Terry's brain, turning her to mush.
The memories all replayed faster as Terry's voice repeated, "Sunflowers. Three to the right, four to the left. Rainbow. Four-fifty. Breathe."
Elle woke up shocked and traumatized knowing what happened to her mom.
Joyce, Bob, Mike, and Will drove over to where they believed Hopper was at. They were driving through an empty grass field.
"This place is empty," said Mike. "Are we in the right place?"
"We're in the vicinity," Bob replied. "We're close. I don't know, it's not precise."
"But we did all that work," said Joyce.
"I told you, the ratio isn't one-to-one," said Bob. "We needed to take…"
Will closed his eyes and focused on locating Hopper. He found him. "Turn right."
"What?" asked Joyce.
"Turn right," Will repeated. "I saw him, in my now-memories. Turn right."
Joyce made hard right, they ended up sliding down a slope. Thankfully, they stopped before they could crash. On another positive note, they found Hopper's car.
"Superspy," Mike smiled.
"Boys, stay here," said Joyce as she got out of the car.
"Mom, it's not safe," Will warned.
"That's why I need you to stay here," Joyce retorted. "Stay here!"
Joyce and Bob got out of the car and started looking around. They saw vines.
"Give me that," said Joyce.
"What?" asked Bob. "The shovel?"
Joyce nodded. Bob gave Joyce the shovel. Joyce started digging until she got rid of the vines. Afterwards, Joyce climbed down, and Bob followed.
"Hopper!" Joyce called out.
"Joyce, what's going on?" asked Bob. "These tunnels. Is this Will's map?" Bob was amazed. "We're in Will's map. How did he know about this?"
Joyce searched the tunnels for Hopper, calling out for him. There was no answer.
That's when Joyce found a cigarette. Hopper's cigarette. This meant he was nearby.
Mike and Will got out of the car and walked towards the hole.
"Do you see anything?" asked Mike. "In your now-memories?"
Will shook his head.
That's when a bunch of "Hawkins Power" vans drove into the scene.
In the tunnels, Joyce and Bob continued searching for Hopper until they found him. He was alive, but barely. They grabbed Hopper's knife and severed all the vines.
Joyce hugged Hopper. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Hopper assured.
They saw the vines growing again. However, a man arrived with a flamethrower.
"Get out of here, now!" he shouted.
Hopper, Joyce, and Bob made a run for the exit while the man started setting the vines on fire.
Outside, Will fell to the floor, twitching. He screamed in pain as his face distorted. Mike grabbed onto Will, trying to calm Will down, but nothing worked.
A.N.
Now that was a scary episode.
The main thing I wanna bring up is Barb taking Steve's place in this story. Since Steve has gone with Nancy and Jonathan to expose Hawkins Lab, I figured, since Barb's still alive, this is how I'll utilize her. My original plan was for her to have episodes just like Will and have her be possessed by the Mind Flayer as well. I then realized that I could do better, thus I came up with this arc where Barb isolates herself from everyone after the Upside-Down stuff, only leaving the house for school, or a walk. Her bonding with Dustin will make Dustin the first person she ever opened up to since returning from the Upside-Down, and thus, it'll be the first step she takes to rebuilding herself.
I'm gonna do a bit of a switch-up. The next chapter won't be "The Spy". Instead, it'll be the episode that comes afterwards, "The Lost Sister". It'll be renamed "The Lost Brother". A common hatred I see with that episode is its placement. I decided to fix that by swapping that episode with the one that came before.
I have a small announcement to make. Part 4 to the Amphibia OC Insert is delayed to April 8 at the earliest. During March 19, I'll be on vacation with my family. I don't think I'll be able to post chapters while on vacation. I'll still be sure to finish part 2 of this rewrite by then, and once I get back from vacation, I'll go straight to writing part 3 of this rewrite.
Anyway, that's all for now. See you next time.
That's all I have to say.