Chief Hopper explains what happened on the way to The Byers' house. All of us climb out and go inside. I look around at all the drawings on the wall and floors. Hopper uses the phone to get a hold of the other police or the military or something.

I notice Will laying on the couch asleep and I go up to him. I kneel in front of him and stroke his hair for 30 minutes before speaking.

"I'm so sorry, bud," I whisper, "Sorry I wasn't there. I should have been." I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up to see Steve and Jonathan.

I stand up and let Jonathan take my spot and I hug Steve tightly.

We go into the kitchen and I sit in between Max and Mike.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asks Hopper when he hangs up the phone.

"We'll see," Hopper sighs.

"'We'll see?' Mike scoffs, "We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

"We'll stay here, and we wait for help," Hopper walks off to go talk to Joyce and I lay my head down on the table.

Mike stands up and walks out of the room, causing me to lift my head. He comes back with a few brain puzzles, "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV? He petitioned the school and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah," Dustin and Lucas agree.

Mike shakes his head, "We can't let him die in vain."

"What do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin asks, "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."

"Demo-dogs?" Max questions

"Demogorgan dogs," Dustin makes a mashing motion with his hands, "Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words--"

"Okay," Max stops him.

Dustin turns back to Mike, "I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."

"But there's an army now," Lucas sighs.

"Precisely," Dustin nods.

"His army," Mike mutters.

"What do you mean?" Steve asks.

"His army! Maybe if stop him, we can stop his army, too."

Mike runs off and comes back with a picture of a giant shadow thing.

"The shadow monster," Dustin mumbles.

"It got Will that day in the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him," Mike informs.

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max inquiries.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything."

"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." Steve complains, not understanding.

"Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will," Mike explains.

"And so does Dart," Lucas adds

"Yeah," Mike nods, "Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind."

"Hive mind?" Steve asks.

"Do you ever pay attention in class?" I groan, "It's a collective consciousness. A super-organism."

Mike points to the drawing, "And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain."

"Like the mind flayer," Dustin confirms.

Lucas snaps his fingers and I nod.

"The what?" Steve and Max ask.

We gather everyone into the kitchen and Dustin gets the manual.

"The mind flayer."

"What the hell is that?" Hopper questions.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its the home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over thier brains using it's highly- developed psionic powers."

"Oh, my God. None of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper groans.

Dustin scoffs, "No, it's manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor--"

"Analogy," Lucas interjects.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is," Dustin sighs.

"Okay," Nancy speaks up, "So this mind flamer thing--"

"Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin interrupts.

"Waht does it want?" Nancy questions.

"To... conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race."

L-Like the Germans?" Steve stammers.

"Uh, the Nazis?" I ask him.

"Yeah yeah, yeah, the Nazis." Steve nods.

I shake my head and look back at Dustin.

"Uh... If the Nazis were from another dimension, t-totally." Dustin answers, "Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Mike adds.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas stresses.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve comments, running a hand through his hair.

Nancy picks up the manual, "Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..."

"We kill everything it controls. We win." Mike finishes.

"Theoretically," Lucas sighs.

Hopper takes the manual from Nancy, "Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?"

Dustin chuckles, "No. No, no Fire-- No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because..." Dustin notices the looks we are giving him and starts stammering, "... b-because zombies, y-you know, t-they...they don't have b-brains, and the mind... the mind flayer, it...it... It likes brains. It's just a game. It's a game."

Hopper throws the manual down on the table, "What the hell are we doing here."

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup," Dustin says sassily.

"We are!" Hopper groans.

"Even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" Mike questions, "You can't just shoot this with guns!"

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper grunts

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab!" Mike barks.

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas adds

"We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin explains.

"They're right." Joyce sniffles walking into the room, "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Hopper walks towards her, "I know, me too. Me too, Joyce, Okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No. But he does." Mike points to a sleeping Will, " If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max says, "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now,"

"Yeah," Mike starts, "But he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."

All of us help Chief Hopper and Mike clean out the shed. Then, we cover the walls and ceiling with trash bags, tarps, and cardboard.

I go to walk back into the shed, but stop when I hear Steve and Nancy talking, "What you did, um, helping the kids...that was... really cool."

"Yeah, those little shits are real trouble, you know?"

"Believe me, I know."

I walk inside and hand Nancy another tarp. I look up at Steve and smile softly Why'd I fall in love with him? Out of all the people on the world. Why him? I shake my head and walk back inside the house.