Eleven is shocked to see her fellow prisoner. "Seven?" The older girl only stares at her, gears turning in her mind.
"El-" The girl's voice is strained, stammering, like she hasn't spoken in a very long time. The last time Eleven had seen her, her hair was a short, black fuzz lining her scalp. Now it is longer, the flat strands sticking in every direction and framing her thin face. She is emaciated and dirty, unlike one year ago when she and Eleven were both still trapped in the lab. "Ele..ven?"
"You know each other?" Mike asks her, all of them crowding the back of the bus, hiding from the helicopter overhead. The teen looks back and forth between Eleven and her friends, not knowing if she can trust them or not. Did Eleven escape or was she sent by them?
Lucas is mum, narrowed eyes taking in the stranger. Dustin, eyebrows raised, jumps on the teen. "You're Seven? As in, you're from the same place as Eleven? Do you have powers? Can you do things with your mind?" Filly recoils from the excited boy. "Sorry!"
Eleven nods. "Seven... got away. A year ago." Lucas' gaze softens a touch.
"I... not Seven now. Filly." She hesitantly reaches for the younger test subject. "Eleven. Long time."
Eleven reaches out as well, sitting near the girl on the floor of the bus. "Didn't know you were... here," Eleven says softly. "I got out. Sorry I didn't look."
"Okay. You... not know." The smile feels foreign on Filly's face, the muscles crying from the motion. She just wants to make the girl feel better, but they are weak from disuse. "Happy you here. Long time alone." She's trying her best to make sense, but there are peices she's missing. She feels dumb. She knows there are bits that go between those words, but how does it all fit together again? How can she construct a sentence when it's been so long? When she reads, she can pick out key words and meaning, but the details have become lost to her. Things like "is," "and," and "to" have faded from her memory. She can't remember. She misses her dictionary more than ever.
Eleven is silent now, but the other boys want to know more.
"So, you're... Filly? I'm Mike." He sticks his hand out for her. She had seen him do this with the other boy, Lucas. Timidly, she does the same but isn't expecting the strength of his grip. "This is Dustin," he says, pointing to the boy with missing bones, then points at the dark skinned boy. "And this is Lucas."
"We're Eleven's friends, do you know what that means?" asks Dustin.
"Yes. I... remember friend."
"Okay, okay! You seem to know how to talk pretty well," begins Lucas. He's hoping she has information that can help them find Will. "Can you tell us anything about the lab? Anything you remember is fine."
"Bad place. Evil people. I not like remember." She doesn't want to talk about that place. "Bad people chase you. I same."
"S-Filly," Dustin says. "Our friend is missing. We want to find him and if you can help, we... would really appreciate it."
Appreciate: verb, value /əˈpriː.ʃi.eɪt/
1. to recognize how good someone or something is and to value him, her, or it.
2. to understand a situation and realize that it is important.
It was one of the words at the start of her dictionary. Hearing the way the child speaks, pleading with her in his way, it tugs at her heartstrings. Black Beaty had been a horse and even he could speak to his friends.
"Not want remember... I help. Ask." She tries to listen to how they say things, tries to remember how she used to say things. "Um... Ask m-me what...you need?" She is doing her best. The dark haired boy leans closer to the two girls, hopeful.
"Yes! Yes, we need to know how to get in there. How, how did you escape?"
Filly thinks for a moment. How should she say it? She's trying to learn from their phrasing. It's been so long her voice is getting sore already. "I... find hole. I watch, th-then I run. "How" I leave is hole."
Lucas speaks up now."Okay, what about the fence?" All three boys are facing her, hanging on every broken stenence. "How did you get through the fence?"
Through: preposition, adverb /θruː/
from one end or side of something to the other.
""Through?" Um, Not go through... Go above. Uh, over fence. Sharp."
"Yeah, barbed wire," says Lucas. "Do you know how many people are in the lab?"
"Many people there. No trust, they hurt you," Filly grasps Eleven's hand and she allows it. The two didn't know each other too well, but they were the only ones who could sympathize with the other. "Hurt us."
The curly haired boy gulps. "Okay... Did you use your powers? Eleven uses hers sometimes. Like earlier, she flipped a freaking van over our heads," the boy seems to admire Eleven, Filly thinks. Are they not afraid of her power? "It was awesome."
"Aw-sum?"
"Awesome. It's like, something that's really good."
"Awesome..." she repeats again. "I see. I see through... "stuff." You... Your bones not there."
"What?"
Dustin is only confused by her. She tries again.
"You," she points at Dustin's mouth. "missing things. Teeth. Bone." Her words send the boys reeling. Is she saying what they think she's saying?
Mike shifts, waving his arms. "Hold on, hold on. Hold on! You're saying you have x-ray vision?"
Eleven holds her hand tighter when she jumps. His demeanor startles her, thinking she's said something wrong. She fears she has upset the boys. "X-ray?" she says softly. Dustin is the one to answer her.
"X-ray, as in you can see our bones? See through our bodies? Holy shit, can you see us naked too?"
"No. I look through skin, walls. Inside. I see your skeleton." He lets out a breath at her words. Filly lets go of the tension in her body at what he says next. It makes her smile, ignoring the strain in her cheeks. Dustin returns it, displaying his missing teeth.
"Awesome." He turns to the other boys. "Is that not awesome? Come on, she's got Superman vision!"
"Okay, yes. It's pretty awesome," Lucas says.
"Right." Mike glances up at the roof. "Can you see them? The helicopter, can you see where it is?"
Her eyes change. They go wide, pupils dilating, veins bulging at her temples as she looks up. "Yes. Is above, go in circles." The veins receded, eyes going back to normal.
"That's freaky." Filly frowns at Lucas' observation. She knows what a freak is. Dustin shoots him a look. Before anything else can be said, a crackling voice catches Dustin's ears.
"Mike, are yo u there? Mike?"
"You guys hear that?" Dustin poses the question for the second time that day. The group looks about, wondering. Filly searches, seeing nothing.
"Mike, it's me, Nancy."
At the sound of his sister's call, Mike jumps from his seat and grabs his backpack. Filly and Eleven shuffle closer to the group of boys. Filly looks in wonder at the radio he produces, not knowing what it could be.
"Mike, are you there? Answer. Mike, we need you to answer."
"Is that your sister?" Lucas asks the taller boy. He says nothing.
"This is an emergency, Mike. Do you copy? Mike, do you copy?"
"Okay, this is really weird," Dustin remarks, looking at the black box in Mike's palm. Filly doesn't understand. Who is speaking? What is Nancy? What is Mike holding? She thinks it's better to wait. Lucas moves for the radio, but it's snatched away.
"Don't answer."
Lucas protests, however. "She said it was an emergency!"
"What if it's a trick?" the other boy counters.
"It's your sister!"
"What if the bad people kidnapped her? What if they're forcing her to say this?"
Filly feels cold inside. The bad people they speak of must be the ones from the lab.
"I need you to answer."
"It's like Lando Calrissian. Don't answer," Dustin advises, looking at his friends.
"We need to know that you're there, Mike."
While Filly searches their faces, unsure of exactly what is going on between them, another voice speaks from the radio. "Listen, kid, this is the chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl."
"Why is she with the chief?"
"How the hell does he know about..."
"What is chief?" Her question makes them look at her, but none answer.
"We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up. Are you there? Do you copy? Over."
Mike's head swivels back and forth, but no one says a thing. After a moment, he presses the button to reply. "Yeah, I copy. It's Mike. I'm here. We're here."
Filly has decided that she likes these children much more than the ones at the lab. When she went missing, she knows no one looked for her like they are looking now. She will choose to trust them, even though they are giving away her position. She thinks they are the opposite of what she expected.
Dustin paces the bus, the middle walkway the only space that is free of Filly's things. The blankets and illowshe had found were shoved against the wall so she could sit with Eleven. Mike sits aside her on the bucket Filly uses to collect rainwater from the opening in the bus' roof. Lucas waits on the bench she had turned to face the window. They wait in silence, listening to the sound of the boy's footsteps, but Mike breaks it.
"Will you stop pacing?"
"It's been way too long," the boy returns. "You know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe this is all a trap and the bad men are coming to get us right now!" Filly doesn't like what Dustin is suggesting.
"It's not a trap," argues Lucas, hands up in exasperation. "Why would the chief set us up? Nancy, maybe, but the chief?"
Dustin points at the other boy. "Lando Calrissian."
He continues to pace as Lucas shouts at his back, "Would you shut up about Lando?"
"I don't feel good about this. I don't feel good about this!"
"When do you feel good about anything?" Lucas screams back at him. When they hear tires on gravel, however, all anger disappears and they rush to the driver's seat.
"Shit!" Dustin cries, hushed, seeing cars approach the yard.
Filly doesn't move. She can see just fine from here, through the bus and through the junk to the cars that near them. She calls to the boys, "Bad men. Here. We hide." The four hurry back to her where they hide amongst her things, pressing against the walls.
"Lando," Dustin repeats, feeling vindicated by the agents' arrival. Filly could hyperventilate now, but she dare not let go of her sight.
"You think they saw us?" wonders Lucas, leaning back under the window.
Eleven and Mike are stuffed behind the bench seat where her hope is stored. "Both of you, shut up."
The three men exit their vehicles. Filly watches them. She sees them stalk the yard, weapons in hand. "Guns. They come."
The group silences even their breathing at that. Filly is no different, forcing away her sight as one man nears the bus and checks under it. She doesn't want to see. She's shaking, clutching the seat of her hope's bench as she lays as flat as possible. She tries to pray but her thoughts are too scattered.
The bus door cracks open, Filly and the children tensing. She can't watch.
"Hey!" The sound of impacts hit their ears. They wait, hoping they aren't awaiting their death.
"What the-" the voice cuts off with a scream. The door creaks louder this time. Filly watches the group stand. She follows them up, praying for a miracle.
"All right, let's go." The man who stands there wears a brimmed hat, looking entirely different than anyone she had seen at the lab. Is he safe, she wonders. The boy's inaction makes her stay as well. "Let's go!" The man leaves the bus and everyone makes to go after him. Filly will not leave without her book. It goes with her everywhere.
"W-wait!" She says to the boys. They turn back and watch her retrive the green and gold hardcover from her seat, waiting. She's happy that they would listen to her, feeling almost secure with them watching. The book is in her arms, hidden under poncho where she grips it. "Okay."
The oversized truck he leads them to is tan with lights on top. Filly takes in the writing on the side before she's pushed in by the boy with missing teeth. In the truck, all is silent while the man starts the engine.
"HAWKINS POLICE DEPT. CHEIF"
Filly fidgets with her hope, staring at the back of his head. "Who?"
Their eyes meet in the rearview, the man taking in the full group as he pulls out of the lot. "Me?" At her nod, he responds. "I am Jim Hopper, the police chief."
"Chief?" He looks at Filly oddly.
Dustin turns to her. "Yeah. He's the boss."
She knows what a boss is. The lab staff calls Brenner that. He is the head of this "police dept.," she guesses. While he drives, she again looks at the boys she accompanies. Filly likes not being alone anymore, but it's difficult to leave her safe place. She's afraid.
Dustin smiles at her and she feels it fade, just a little. Before she knows it, the truck is being stopped. The door of the one story building they face flies open, three people stepping out in a hurry. Hopper is the first to exit, prompting her companions to do the same.
Lucas holds the door, gesturing for her to follow. Filly doesn't know what else she would do. She has come to enjoy the company, she thinks.
"Mike. Oh, my God, Mike!" The voice is the same as from the radio, the first one. Looking back, Filly sees Mike embraced by a taller teen, taller than Filly. "I was so worried about you."
"Yeah, uh... me, too."
Filly stands by the children, slipping behind her fellow subject. She like the company, but this is a bit too much for her. Eight pairs of eyes feels like too many.
"Is that my dress?"