Everyone had found out where the boys had been hiding, as well as the girl that Hopper was tracking down (who he initially believed was Will). At the junkyard.
All they could do is wait until Hopper is back with them.
Cassie is blinded by headlights, noting that a car is coming towards the house.
And when they get out of the house, Hopper is back, with Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and the girl.
Nancy races over to Mike and hugs him. Cassie goes over to hug both Dustin and Lucas. "You two okay?" she asks.
"Yeah, we're fine." Lucas breathes out, him and Dustin hugging her back.
"Is that my dress?" Cassie hears Nancy ask.
Cassie then notices the girl that has a blonde wig and a pink dress on. "Cass, I wished you could've seen it. She made a whole fucking van flip right over us…" Dustin is explaining to Cassie.
"Okay, that is cool, but I think she's still skittish." Cassie admits as she squats down to the girl's level.
"Hi, my name is Cassie. What's your name?" she asks, trying to put a sense of ease into the girl, who just looks at her with a wide-eyed expression and not saying anything.
"It's okay. We can trust her." Mike tells the girl. There is something about that where Cassie feels that Mike is protective of her. All the girl does is lift up the sleeve of the blue windbreaker that she is sporting over Nancy's dress, revealing the 011 tattoo.
"We call her El." Mike reminds Cassie.
"Okay, El. Those bad men that were trying to get you and the boys, we are not with them. It's okay." Cassie continues to try and ease El's frantic state. Once she feels relaxed and reassured, they all head inside the Byers house with Mike drawing something on a piece of paper.
"Okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat. Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're this flea." Mike begins to explain the theory that Mr. Clarke had told him at the after-service of the "funeral". "And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding."
"Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space." Mike continues. "A gate." Dustin adds in.
"That we tracked to Hawkins Lab." Lucas further explains. "With our compasses." Dustin pipes in.
Cassie couldn't say anything. This is a lot to process, and how these boys, who are only in the 7th grade, can go through all of that calmly is astounding to her.
"Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle." Dustin further elaborates.
"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asks the boys. "Yes." El softly chimes in.
"Near a large water tank?" Hopper asks again. El nods. "Yes."
"H-How'd you know all that?" Dustin asks Hopper. Cassie is able to connect the dots. "You were there."
"Is there any way that you could…that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this–" Joyce is asking. "The Upside Down." El interrupts, and then later nods.
"And my friend Barbara? Can you find her, too?" Nancy asks, to which she lightly nods.
Everyone is now putting that to the test. El has her eyes closed and has a picture of Barb. They were all silent, the only noise being emitted was the static from the radio. The lights have flickered in and out as El now opens her eyes.
"I'm sorry." El breathes out.
Joyce became confused. "What's wrong? What happened?" she stammers through her words.
"I can't find them." El responds to her. Cassie just places a reassuring arm around her shoulder. She doesn't want her to overwhelm herself to the point of passing out. El then excuses herself to go over to the bathroom while Jonathan comforts Joyce.
"Whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak." Mike explains to everyone after El has left for the bathroom.
"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets." Dustin further elaborates.
"Like flipping the van earlier." Lucas gives out an example. "It was awesome." Dustin notes.
"But she's drained." Mike continues, ignoring the add-on that Dustin gave out. "Like a bad battery." Dustin adds in.
"Well, h-how do we make her better?" Joyce asks.
"We don't. We just have to wait and try again." Mike answers her.
"Do you know how long?" Cassie asks Mike, in which he shrugs. "I don't know."
"The bath." El pipes in. Everyone turns to look at her. "I can find them. In the bath."
With one call to Mr. Clarke, the call-to-action is to build a make-shift sensory deprivation tank. They plan on using the kiddie pool that Joyce has and use that as the sensory deprivation tank. She helps Dustin and Lucas spread out the pool.
Shortly thereafter, the Wheeler siblings come back from fixing the hoses to the water system. The pool gets filled up, with Nancy adjusting the heat, as Hopper and Jonathan begin to dilute the salt into the water.
As a final test, once the egg begins to float on the water, it is good to go.
El places the goggles, which are covered in duct tape, over her eyes, and Cassie and Joyce help her into the pool.
Once El lays down, with the only sound being the static that she is concentrating on, the lights flicker before turning off, taking everyone, with the exception of Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, back by surprise.
"Barbara?" El asks. Cassie looks over at Nancy. The lights began to flicker on and off as El's breathing increased.
"What's going on?" Nancy asks.
"I don't know." her brother replies back to her. Nancy then turns back to El. "Is Barb okay? Is she okay?"
"Gone." El repeats over and over. Cassie puts a hand over her mouth, muffling the gasp, as Nancy looks horrified.
"Hey, sweetie. It's okay." Cassie tries to soothe El as she is continuing to panic. Her yells of 'gone' became louder.
"It's okay. It's okay, honey. I got you." Joyce also tries to calm down El. After a couple of moments, El seems to calm down.
"Castle Byers." El says. Cassie is somewhat familiar with the fort that has been built within the middle of the woods near the Byers house.
"Will?" El calls out. Cassie begins to pay closer attention.
She is hoping that Will is fine after the crushing realization of what happened to Barb.
"You tell him…Tell him I'm coming." Joyce stammers through her words.
"Hurry." they all hear Will's voice through the hand radio.
"Okay. Listen, you tell him to…to stay where he is." Joyce tells El to tell Will. "We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey."
El then sits up from the pool, ripping the goggles off of her head. Joyce comforts her.
While they are drying El off, Nancy exits the gym. Cassie follows her and sits down next to her.
"I know I'm the last person you want to see, but if you need a shoulder to cry on…" Cassie is about to say, but Nancy just leans her head on Cassie's shoulder, a stray tear falling down.
After some moments of silence, Jonathan came back inside of the school and sits down on the other side of Nancy.
"We have to go back to the station." she tells Jonathan. "Your mom and Hopper are just walking in there like bait. That thing is still in there. And we can't just sit here and let it get them, too."
At those affirmation of words, Cassie Grant is now 100% determined to go along with whatever Nancy is thinking about. "Let's finish what we started."
REVIEWS:
MyRandomThoughts: Soon enough. There will be more bow action soon
