❁

and meadow couldn't help but smile at the sight of the other kids.

they all ran over, meeting the group at the bottom of the stairs. "you flung that thing like a hot wheel!" dustin laughed, running over to eleven who was being held up by mike.

meadow made her way over to max, hugging her and giving will a hug too. "what happened with billy?" she asked max, seeing that eleven was clearly beaten up.

"he's flayed. well, he's controlled by the mind flayer."

she turned to steve. "what?" she looked back to max.

"it's a long story. what happened to you?"

"what are you doing here?" lucas asked his sister.

"ask them," she replied, pointing to steve, robin, dustin, and meadow, "it's their fault."

steve put his hands on his hips. "true, yeah. totally the. it's absolutely our fault."

"child endangerment." meadow nodded, using erica's phrase.

"i don't understand what happened to that car." robin said, not updated on the upside down or on eleven.

"el has superpowers." dustin explained, gesturing to the girl.

robin's brow furrowed. "i'm sorry?"

"superpowers." steve said. "she threw it with her mind. c'mon, catch up."

"that's el?" erica asked, pointing to her.

robin was still confused. "who's el?"

"i'm sorry, who are you?" nancy asked robin.

"i'm robin. i work with steve."

"she hacked the top secret code." meadow explained.

steve nodded. "yeah, which is how we found out about the russians in the first place."

"russians?" jonathan looked at him. "wait, what russians?"

"the russians!" steve said as if it was obvious.

max looked to him. "those were russians?"

"what, didn't you hear our code red?" dustin asked.

"yeah," mike said, "but i couldn't hear half of what you were saying."

"goddamn low battery." dustin cursed.

steve looked over at him. "how many times do i have to tell you with the low battery?"

"maybe if you hadn't been trying to use it when we were in the elevator-" meadow added, steve nodding his agreement.

"well, everything worked out, didn't it?" dustin defended himself.

"worked out?" erica asked. "we almost died!"

dustin nodded. "yeah, but we didn't, did we?"

"it was pretty damn close." steve argued.

"okay.. russians?" lucas said, still not over it. "as in.. they're working for the russian government?"

"what are you not comprehending?" dustin replied.

"the russians are trying to reopen the upside down." meadow explained.

"am i not speaking in english?" dustin continued. "we have a full-blown red dawn situation."

"so this has nothing to do with the gate?" max asked.

"no, it has everything to do with the gate, did you not hear me?" meadow replied, leaning against steve.

eleven fell down, making all bickering instantly stop. mike and dustin were the first to be at her side, everyone else following suit. she whimpered in pain. "my leg.. my leg.."

"her leg.. okay.. get that off." jonathan peeled the bandage off of her leg to get a better look at it.

the whole group gasped, seeing how bad her wound was. something inside of her leg moved, making meadow furrow her brows and look down at it. "we gotta cut that out." she said to jonathan, feeling slightly nauseous at the thought.

eleven was wailing in pain, and the sound hurt meadow's heart. robin began to talk about a player on her soccer team who broke a bone, and meadow and steve looked up at her. "robin, you're not helping." steve said as kindly as possible.

"i'm sorry." she said, clearly panicking.

"alright, el?" jonathan looked to her. "this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"

"okay." eleven sobbed as mike laid her down so she was sitting up against a wall.

jonathan put on a pair of gloves. "i need you to stay real still. you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" he handed her a wooden stick.

"jesus christ." dustin said, looking over at his sister with scared eyes. meadow moved over to him and closer to el, looking down at him and rubbing his back. jonathan took out a knife, and dustin almost lost it, hiding his face in his sister's shoulder. "holy shit."

jonathan looked around the group for confirmation. "do it." mike said. that was all jonathan needed. he put the knife into her skin and eleven screamed. the thing was still moving as jonathan put his entire hand into her leg, trying to see if he could pull it out.

"jonathan, stop." meadow said, seeing the pain el was in.

"everyone stop talking!" he replied.

the whole group uncomfortably screamed and gasped, robin even looking away. "stop!" el screamed, spitting out the stick. "i can do it." she sat up, putting her hand out and moving it out with her mind. she wailed and screamed, and the glass wall behind them broke.

meadow, closest to the wall, screamed as steve put his arms around her head to shelter her from the falling glass. she wrapped her own arms around dustin, shielding him from the damage.

eleven screamed loudly as a slug-like creature sprouted from out of her calf. she tossed it to the floor and watched as it slowly scurried away before a boot stomped it. there stood hopper, joyce, and even murray. the whole gang was back together again.

now that everyone was there, the group began to clearly explain what had happened. "so.. so that thing was a part of the mind flayer?" meadow asked, seeing a few nods. "and.. and it can combine with other small things to make one huge, world threatening, mind flayer?" nancy nodded. " yummy."

"how big is this thing?" hopper asked.

jonathan shrugged. "it's big. thirty feet, at least."

"yeah. it sorta distorted your cabin." lucas added. "sorry."

steve looked to the group. "okay, so, just to be clear, this.. this big fleshy spider thing that hurt el, it's some kind of gigantic.. weapon? but instead of, like, screws and metal, the mind flayer made its weapon.. with melted people." his bruised eye was finally open now, and he looked to meadow for confirmation.

"yeah, pretty much." she said.

"yes, exactly." nancy replied.

steve nodded. "okay, yeah. yeah, i'm just making sure."

"are we sure that this thing is still out there? still alive?" joyce asked.

"el beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." max replied.

"but if we close the gate again.." will continued.

max nodded. "we cut the brain off from the body."

"and kill it." lucas finished. "theoretically."

"yo-hoo!" murray yelled, waving papers in his hands. he laid each paper down on a table, showing a highly detailed map. "okay, this is what alexei called the hub." he said as he pointed to the papers in front of him. "now, the hub takes us to the vault room." he trailed his fingers across the map's lines, and meadow recognized the map to be of the russian base underneath them.

"okay, where's the gate?" hopper asked.

murray pointed. "right here." he discussed the distancing. "maybe fifty feet or so away from the vault room."

"more like five hundred." erica replied. "what, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's a commie disneyland or something?"

murray seemed offended. "i'm sorry, who are you?"

"erica sinclair." she replied sassily. "who are you?"

"murray.. bauman." he seemed confused by her confidence.

"listen, mr. bunman," she said with a hand on her hip, "i'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but i've been down in that shithole for twenty four hours. and with all due respect, you do what this man tells you," she said to the rest of the group, "you're all gonna die."

murray was still offended. "i'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?"

"um, i'm ten, you bald bastard!"

"erica!" lucas cut her off.

"i love her." meadow said as she shook her head fondly, sitting on one of the tables nearby. steve was sitting in the chair in front of her, and she played with his hair absentmindedly.

"she's right." dustin said, gesturing to erica. "you're all gonna die, but you don't have to. excuse me." he moved to the map, pausing before touching anything. "sorry, may i?" he said to murray, who nodded with a smile. dustin sat down and pulled the map closer to him, pointing out the locations he'd seen in his time down there. "we can be your navigators." he said to hopper.

the older man shook his head. "no." he said simply. "nope."