While Matthew mindlessly twirled his crowbar around in his hands, Lucas asked Dustin, "You're positive that was Dart?"

Dustin replied, "Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."

The red-headed girl told him, "Well, he was tiny two days ago."

Dustin retorted, "Well, he's molted three times already."

With his eyebrows furrowed, Steve said, "M-Malted?"

In turn, Dustin said to him, "Molted. Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."

Max asked Dustin, "Well, when's he gonna molt again?"

Dustin told her, "It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."

Steve replied, "Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just a cat."

It was then that Lucas stepped in front of Dustin and said, "Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?"

In turn, Dustin said to him, "No, what? No."

Then Steve asked Dustin, "What are you talking about? He ate Mews."

Then the red-headed girl turned to Steve and asked him, "Mews? Who's Mews?"

Steve told her, "It's Dustin's cat."

It was then that Dustin yelled, "Steve!"

Not long after that, Lucas yelled, "I knew it! You kept him!"

While Matthew simply rolled his eyes at them with a sigh, Dustin replied, "No! No. No, I... No, I... He missed me. He wanted to come home."

In turn, Lucas yelled, "Bullshit!"

Dustin told him, "I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"

Lucas replied, "Oh, so now you admit it?"

With a shake of her head, the red-headed girl asked them, "Guys, who cares? We have to go."

Lucas yelled, "I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"

Dustin replied, "So did you!"

In turn, Lucas said, "What?"

While pointing his flashlight over at the red-headed girl, Dustin told him, "You told a stranger the truth!"

With a scoff, the girl said, "A stranger?"

Then Lucas yelled, "You wanted to tell her, too!"

Dustin replied, "Yeah, but I didn't, Lucas, okay? I didn't tell her!"

With a sigh, Matthew said to himself, "And this is why I'm not friends with anyone. All that happens are fights, fights and more fights over the stupidest shit."

While Matthew went to take out another cigarette, Dustin said to Lucas, "We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even. We're even."

Lucas replied, "No, no! We're not even. Don't even try that. Your stupid pet could have ate us for dinner!"

Dustin yelled, "That was not my fault! He wasn't gonna eat us."

Lucas asked him, "Oh, so he was just trying to come and say hello?"

It was then that Steve turned to the four of them and yelled, "Guys!"

Not long after he yelled that, the sound of screeching was heard in the distance.

As soon as Steve started to head towards the sound of screeching, Matthew, Dustin and Lucas were quick to follow and left behind the red-headed girl.

While staring after them, the girl said, "No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound? Hello? Hello?"

It was then that Matthew yelled, "No time for questions, Red! Now move your ass!"

With a shake of her head, she said, "Shit."

Then she quickly started to walk after the four of them.

After stopping a good distance from the woods, Jonathan said, "Hello? Who's there? Who's there?"

It wasn't until the lights had stopped shining in their faces that both Jonathan and Nancy could see Steve Harrington standing with a small group of middle-schoolers and Nancy's little brother Matthew Wheeler.

Simultaneously, both Jonathan and Nancy said, "Steve?"

In turn, Steve said, "Nancy?"

Then Dustin said, "Jonathan."

Then Nancy looked over at Matthew and asked him, "Matt, what are you doing here?"

While pointing his crowbar at Dustin, Matthew replied, "Ask Henderson. He's the one that had me go with him to begin with."

While Nancy only sighed to herself, Steve asked them, "What are you doing here?"

Nancy told him, "We're looking for Mike and Will."

Dustin asked the two of them, "They're not in there, are they?"

Nancy replied, "We're not sure."

Then Jonathan asked them, "Why?"

It was then that the sound of the Demogorgons screeching from the inside of the lab was heard, which got them all to turn their heads and stare in the direction of the lab.

While taking a couple of steps forward, the red-headed girl said, "Guys?"

Not long after she said that, bright headlights were soon enough shining at them and the sound of the vehicle repeatedly honking its horn at them was heard, which got them to quickly move out of the way, just in time for the car to go racing past them.

Not long after the car had driven past them, another vehicle had stopped just beside them and Hopper waved his hand at them and said, "Let's go."

Then just like that, the five of them quickly got into the vehicle and then Hopper drove them far away from the lab.

With a nod of his head, Dustin asked, "They didn't believe you, did they?"

As he turned to look over at the group of middle-schoolers and the single high schooler that were over by the table, Hopper said to him, "We'll see."

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

Hopper told him, "We stay here, and we wait for help."

While Hopper turned away from them and went to walk away from the kitchen, Matthew only scoffed to himself with a mere roll of his eyes.

After picking up a Rubics Cube, Mike asked, "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?"

In turn, Lucas said to him, "Really?"

While Matthew sighed to himself and crossed his arms over his chest, Mike turned to them and told them, "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"

In turn, both Lucas and Dustin said, "Yeah."

While Matthew clenched his jaw to keep himself from saying anything too insensitive about a guy that was just killed and eaten by a Demogorgon, Mike said to them, "We can't let him die in vain."

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

With her eyebrows furrowed, the red-headed girl said, "Demo-dogs?"

With a wave of his hands, Dustin said, "Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words—"

In turn, she said to him, "Okay."

Then Dustin told them, "I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."

With a raise of his eyebrows, Lucas said, "But there's an army now."

Dustin replied, "Precisely."

It was then that Mike said to them, "His army."

After turning his head to look over at Mike, Steve asked him, "What do you mean?"

While he looked around at the other middle-schoolers, Mike said, "His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."

After putting the open book on the table, Dustin said, "The mind flayer."

Hopper asked him, "What the hell is that?"

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

It was then that Hopper said to them, "Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game."

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

With his eyes now closed, Lucas said, "Analogy."

While Matthew turned to look over at Lucas with a sigh and his eyebrows raised, Dustin asked Lucas, "Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

With a wave of her hands, Nancy said, "Okay, so this mind flamer thing—"

Dustin replied, "Flayer. Mind flayer."

While Matthew simply rolled his eyes at Dustin, Nancy sighed to herself before she asked Dustin, "What does it want?"

Dustin told her, "To conquer us, basically. It-It believes it's the master race."

With a wave of his hand, Steve asked Dustin, "Like the— Like the Germans?"

While Matthew simply closed his eyes with a sigh, Dustin replied, "Uh, the Nazis?"

Steve said to him, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis."

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

Then Mike said to them, "It wants to spread, take over other dimensions."

Then Lucas said to them, "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."

With a wave of his hand, Steve replied, "That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!"

After Steve had already turned his back on them, Nancy said to them, "Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..."

With a nod of his head, Mike told her, "We kill everything it controls."

Then Dustin said to her, "We win."

In turn, Lucas said, "Theoretically."

It was then that Hopper said to them, "Alright, great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?"

With a chuckle, Dustin said, "No. No, no, Fire— No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because... because zombies, you know, they-they– they don't have brains, and the-the mind flayer, it... it... It likes brains. It's just a game. It's a game."

As he turned to look away from Dustin, Hopper asked, "What the hell are we doing here?"

Dustin told him, "I thought we were waiting for your military backup."

As he turned to look back over at Dustin, Hopper replied, "We are!"

It was then that Mike asked Hopper, "Even if they come, how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns."

Hopper yelled, "You don't know that! We don't know anything!"

Mike told him, "We know it's already killed everybody in that lab."

Then Lucas said, "And we know the monsters are gonna molt again."

Then Dustin said, "And we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town."

It was then that Joyce said to Hopper, "They're right. We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

After stopping in front of Joyce, Hopper said to her, "Me, too. Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

Mike replied, "No. But he does." As he started to walk out of the kitchen and over towards the room that Will was in, Mike said, "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

The red-headed girl said to him, "I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now."

Mike replied, "Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."

After watching Matthew use his lighter to light the cigarette that was hanging out of his mouth, Nancy asked him, "So, what made you decide to join Dustin and Steve, anyway?"

With a shrug of his shoulders, he replied, "Why not? It's not like I had anything better to do. Besides, Henderson's scared of me. He wouldn't have asked for me, unless he really needed my help with something. Then, of course, Harrington showed up at the house with a thing of flowers that I guess he bought for you, so then Henderson decided to take Harrington along with us."

It was then that Nancy turned to look away from Matthew and quietly said to herself, "Oh."

In turn, he said, "Yep."

Then he took the cigarette out of his mouth and let out a sigh and watched as the smoke came pouring out of his mouth.

It was only when he went to put the cigarette back into his mouth that he stopped when Nancy said to him, "You know, I heard that you pulled out a knife and threatened someone with it at school. Is that true?" When he only nodded his head, she asked him, "Who did you threaten?"

He told her, "Billy Hargrove."

She asked him, "Why did you threaten him exactly?"

With a shrug, he replied, "'Cause the asshole took my lighter from me and then tried to punch me. I had to do something. Besides, there was no way in hell I was gonna let some wannabe alpha male try to kick my ass or force me into doing shit that he wanted me to do. Especially one that relied on intimidation alone to get shit done."

With her eyebrows furrowed and a mere shake of her head, she asked him, "And you don't do that?"

With a scoff, he said to her, "Of course not. I do it with both intimidation and ass-kicking." When Nancy only shook her head to herself with a small smile on her face, he told her, "Besides, the asshole had it coming, anyway. From what Val told me, he takes his anger out on her and her kid sister, so I figured that if not me, then someone was gonna kick his ass or stand up to him somehow somewhere down the road."

With a shake of her head, Nancy asked him, "Do-Do you like her?" When he only tilted his head at her, she said to him, "Valerie. Do you like her?"

With a scoff, he said to her, "Don't be ridiculous, Nance. I'm not into her like that. I'm not really into anyone like that."

She asked him, "You mean to tell me that there isn't one single person at school that caught your attention? Not a single one?"

For a split second, a certain senior at the high school that had crazy long hair, rings on a couple of his fingers and a watch on one of his wrists had come to Matthew's mind.

After simply blinking to himself and clenching his jaw, Matthew said with a shake of his head, "No, of course not. That school is filled with assholes and dumbasses. There's not a single person at that school that caught my interest."

Nancy only hesitantly nodded her head before she watched Matthew let the cigarette hang out of his mouth with his eyes closed and his hands clenched into fists.

After Hopper had walked back into the house with Joyce, Jonathan and Mike close behind him and grabbed himself a pen and paper, Dustin asked them, "What happened?"

While he drew things out on the paper, Hopper told them, "I think he's talking, just not with words."

While Hopper started to write letters underneath the dots and lines on the paper, Steve asked him, "What is that?"

In turn, the boys— excluding Matthew— and Hopper had said to him, "Morse code."

Then Hopper read aloud, "'H-E-R-E."

Then they all said, "Here."

With a sigh, Hopper told them, "Will's still in there. He's talking to us."

With a sigh of his own, Matthew repeatedly eyed the dots, the lines and the word 'here' written underneath it before he brought his attention over towards Jonathan, who simply turned his back on them and went to walk into another room.

After the three middle-schoolers and Matthew had quickly made their way over towards where Steve and Nancy were sitting, the six of them read aloud, "'Close gate'."

It was then that the phone in the room started to ring, which got Matthew to quickly pull his crowbar back out of his backpack, while Dustin said, "Shit. Shit."

As soon as he reached the phone, Dustin simply hung it back up on the wall, only for it to start to ring again.

Not long after it started to ring again, Nancy grabbed the whole phone off of the wall and threw it at the floor with a groan, which got Matthew to silently eye his sister with his head tilted to the side.

And while Matthew silently eyed Nancy, the red-headed girl asked them, "Do you think he heard that?"

Steve replied, "It's just a phone. It could be anywhere. Right?"

Not long after he said that, the sound of Demogorgons screeching in the distance was heard, which got Matthew to say, "Yeah, no, Red's right. He definitely heard that, and we are definitely in some deep shit now."

After grabbing another gun and making his way into the room closest to the front door, Hopper said, "Hey. Hey, get away from the windows!" After the small group of middle-schoolers had quickly moved away from the windows, Hopper looked over at Jonathan and asked him, "Do you know how to use this?"

In turn, Jonathan said, "What?"

Hopper asked him, "Can you use this?"

It was then that Nancy took a step forward and said, "I can."

Not long after the gun was tossed over towards Nancy and she had actually caught it, Hopper and the three teenagers that were holding different weapons of their own in their hands stared ahead at the windows to the front of the house, while Lucas had his wrist rocket pointed straight at the windows.

And while Matthew kept his crowbar at the ready and was looking around himself as he listened to the sound of the Demogorgons screeching in the distance, the red-headed girl asked them, "Where are they?"

It wasn't long after that that they heard loud thudding coming from the front door, which got them all to quickly turn in that specific direction.

While Matthew slowly breathed in and out in an attempt to get control of his now rapid breathing, Nancy asked them, "What are they doing?"

From outside of one of the windows, they could see some foliage moving around and could hear the sound of the Demogorgon from outside of that very same window.

Then they quickly looked back over towards the front windows when they heard some snarling and groaning.

And while the creature started to let out a screech, Lucas pulled back on his wrist rocket some more, just before the sound of the Demogorgon screeching had abruptly stopped.

It was then that a crash was heard, and the Demogorgon had flown through the window and landed just a couple of feet in front of them.

While they all quickly backed up from the unmoving Demogorgon, Matthew yelled, "What the fuck!"

After a couple seconds of just staring at the unmoving Demogorgon, the group started to slowly move towards it, while Dustin said, "Holy shit."

While staring down at the Demogorgon, the red-headed girl asked them, "Is it dead?"

It wasn't until Hopper had pushed its head aside with the bottom of his boot that he started to lower his gun, only to stop when the sound of a door creaking from behind them was heard.

Then they quickly turned around and looked over at the front door and watched as the lock had turned all on its own.

After letting out a shaky breath, Matthew took a step forward and was standing slightly behind Hopper as he watched the chain to the door move on its own as well.

Then the door started to swing open, and Matthew started to lower his crowbar when he saw just who was walking into the house.