While El continued to scream and Matthew only repeatedly looked between El herself and the bump on her leg with wide eyes, Erica asked them, "What is that?"

Mike told them, "There's something in there."

Then El yelled, "No!"

Then Dustin said, "Jesus Christ."

It was then that Jonathan told them, "Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?"

While Jonathan started to quickly run away from them, Dustin said, "Jesus Christ."

While Matthew tried to think of something he could do or say to get El's mind off of the pain that she was dealing with, Mike said to her, "Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake." Then Mike said to his brother, Dustin, Nancy and Steve, "Let's get her on this side, on this side."

It wasn't until they'd turned El over that Robin told them, "It's, uh... You know, it-it's not actually that bad. There was a... The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and, like, the whole bone came out of her knee– six inches or something, it was insane."

With a sigh, Matthew looked over at Robin and yelled, "How is any of that supposed to fucking help us right now?!"

Robin started to say to Matthew, "I-I'm just saying—"

Then Steve said to her, "Robin."

Robin replied, "Yeah?"

With a shake of his head, Steve told her, "You're not helping."

In turn, Robin said to him, "I'm sorry."

It was then that Jonathan finally got back to them and got onto his knees in front of El before he said, "Okay. Alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"

While sobbing, El said, "Okay."

Jonathan told her, "Need you to stay real still." After putting on some plastic gloves, he held a single wooden spoon out towards El and Mike as he said, "Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?"

While Mike went to put the wooden spoon in between her top and bottom rows of teeth and El simply grabbed onto one of Matthew's hands, Dustin said, "Jesus Christ."

While Jonathan started to move the knife down towards El's leg, Dustin said, "Holy shit. Holy shit."

Then Jonathan stopped moving the knife and looked over at Mike, who said to him, "Do it."

In turn, Jonathan said, "Okay."

As soon as Jonathan started to cut into her knee with his knife, El let out a muffled scream and tightened her grip onto Matthew's hand, which only got him to close his eyes with a sigh.

After Jonathan had put the knife down and onto the floor, El started to scream some more and let out a sob as the grip she had on Matthew's hand had become even tighter.

At that point, Matthew was keeping his own eyes squeezed shut as he listened to El's screaming and sobbing.

Then El's screaming had become even worse when Jonathan started to slowly put his glove-covered fingers into the open wound on her leg.

And while her screaming had simply continued, Nancy yelled, "Jonathan!"

In turn, Jonathan yelled, "Stop talking!" After hearing El scream some more and not be able to find the thing that was causing her pain, Jonathan yelled, "Goddamn it!"

With a shake of her head, El yelled, "No! Stop it!" After she pushed the wooden spoon out of her mouth, she yelled, "Stop! Stop! I can do it. I can do it."

While still holding onto Matthew's hand, El had finally pushed herself up into a sitting position and put her other hand over the open wound before she let out a yell and then yelled, "God! God!"

Then El threw her head back with a yell at the same time that she tightened her grip on Matthew's hand some more before she let out a scream, which caused the glass display that stood behind them to suddenly shatter into pieces and made the others– excluding Matthew, for obvious reasons– to duck for cover.

It wasn't long after the others had ducked for cover that a creature of sorts came flying out of El's leg and letting out a shriek as it stayed levitated in front of El before El thrusted her arm and it was sent flying far away from her.

While Matthew grabbed onto El the best that he could and pulled her even closer to himself, the creature started to move its way across the floor and over towards the entrance to the mall, only to eventually come to an abrupt halt when a single boot had come crashing down onto it.

It was then that the twelve of them slowly looked up from the boot and up at the one person that the boot belonged to.

And it was only when they looked up from the boot that they could see Chief Jim Hopper standing with Joyce Byers and a man that Matthew himself had never seen before.

But based on what little Nancy had told him about her visit to the man with Jonathan Byers just last year, it didn't take him long to realize that the man he didn't recognize was none other than Murray Bauman– the very man that had seen to it that the partial truth about what happened to Barbara Holland was broadcast to anyone and just about everyone because of all of the different newspapers that the tapes they recorded that were sent to them.

And despite the hand that Murray had in the matter, Matthew couldn't help but wonder just what the hell he was doing with them and why he was standing with Joyce and Hopper– both people that Matthew knew had some actual experience with the Upside Down and everything that came with it.

While Matthew repeatedly looked between Valerie, Mike, Nancy and El with furrowed eyebrows, Mike said, "The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."

Then Nancy told them, "And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it."

Hopper asked them, "How big is this thing?"

Jonathan replied, "It's big. Thirty feet, at least."

In turn, Lucas said, "Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." After seeing the way that Hopper only sighed to himself, Lucas said in a whisper, "Sorry."

With a nod of his head, Steve asked them, "Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?"

With a nod of her own head, Nancy said, "Yes."

Then Steve said, "But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people."

Nancy replied, "Yes, exactly."

In turn, Steve said, "Yeah, okay. I– Yeah, I'm just making sure."

With a nod of her head, Joyce asked them, "Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?"

Max told her, "El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive."

Then Will said, "But if we close the gate again—"

With a nod of her head, Max said, "We cut the brain off from the body."

With a nod of his own head, Lucas said, "And kill it. Theoretically."

Matthew replied, "Theoretically or not, I say we do it, anyway. I mean, it's better that we kill it than risk the chance of it going after El again, right?"

It was only when Hopper was about to say something that he suddenly stopped when they all heard a voice yell, "Yoo-hoo!" After they all turned around to see Murray waving papers around in the air, Murray yelled, "Yoo-hoo!"

With furrowed eyebrows and a scrunched up nose, Matthew slowly looked over at Nancy, who only shrugged at him, before he let out a sigh and simply shook his head to himself.

With his hands hovering over the papers, Murray said, "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

Then Hopper asked him, "Okay, where's the gate?"

As he pointed at another part of the paper, Murray said, "Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so."

It was then that Erica took a couple of steps forward and said, "More like five-hundred." When Murray had only stared at her in response to her words, Erica asked him, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

It wasn't long after she said that that Murray asked her, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

With a nod of her head, Erica replied, "Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

In turn, Murray said to her, "Murray... Bauman."

With a shake of her head, Erica replied, "Listen, Mr. Bunman, 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, you're all gonna die."

While Hopper stared down at Erica with furrowed eyebrows, Murray asked, "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?"

It was then that Erica told him, "Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

With his own eyebrows furrowed, Lucas yelled, "Erica!"

Erica replied, "Just the facts!"

With a nod of his head, Dustin said, "She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to." As he took a step closer to the table, Dustin said, "Excuse me. Sorry, may I?"

With a plastered grin on his face, Murray said, "Please."

After Dustin had sat down at the table and in front of the paper, he said, "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

With his eyebrows raised, Hopper asked him, "You can show us the way?"

With a wave of his hand, Dustin replied, "Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators."

With a shake of his head, Hopper said, "No." When Dustin's face had fallen in response to his words, Hopper shook his head once more and said, "Nope."

As she made her way over towards where Dustin was standing with his friends, Erica said, "Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die."

Dustin replied, "Yep, most likely."

Lucas said to them, "You guys survived."

As he turned to look over at his friends, Dustin told them, "Barely. We could've really used you guys down there."

With a nod of his head, Mike said, "Could've used you up here, too."

Lucas replied, "Yeah, man. We missed you, dude."

Then Will said, "Yeah. Big-time."

As he went to wrap his arms around his friends, Dustin told them, "I missed you guys, too. Big-time."

It was then that Erica said to them, "Please don't cry, nerds."

Then Lucas stepped out from behind Dustin and said, "Erica."

Erica replied, "Keep saying my name, see what happens."

It was then that Hopper said to them, "Hey, heads up." After tossing Dustin a radio, Hopper told him, "You can navigate, just from someplace safe."

Dustin replied, "It's not that simple."

Then Erica told him, "The signal won't reach."

Then Dustin said to him, "Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That's me. If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start." After Hopper had only raised his eyebrows, Dustin said, "And a car."

While Mike and Max helped walk El out of the mall and towards Nancy's car with Matthew close behind them just in case El needed him to do something for her, Max said, "El, you're bleeding."

Then Mike asked El, "Are you okay?"

El said to him, "Yeah."

Then Matthew asked El, "Do you need anything? Do you, like, need me to grab you anything? Anything at all?"

With a groan, El said to him, "No, Matt. I think I'm okay."

With a sigh, Matthew only nodded his head to himself and watched as Max opened the latch to the back of the car and helped El inside of it.

And Mike and Max helped El into the back of the car, Nancy got into the driver's seat of the car and put the key into the ignition before she went to turn it and drive away from the mall, only for the engine to start sputtering.

When Nancy attempted to start the engine to the car once more, Jonathan asked her, "What's wrong?"

Nancy said to him, "I don't... I-I don't know." After several seconds of continuing to hear the engine sputter, she said, "You can't be serious. Come on!"

It was then that Lucas asked the three Wheeler siblings, "Didn't your mom just buy this car?"

Nancy replied, "Yes. I'm sure it's fine."

Then Will asked her, "Did you leave the lights on?"

Nancy said to him, "No."

Then Lucas asked her, "Do we have gas?"

Nancy yelled, "Yes!" Then, after several seconds of hearing the engine continue to sputter, Nancy yelled, "Come on!"

It was then that Jonathan yelled, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just stop, stop! Pop the hood."

After the hood to the car opened up and the two soon-to-be seniors got out of the very front of the car, the sound of a car engine roaring in the distance could be heard, which got Matthew to quickly turn his head in the direction of the noise and say, "Shit."

It wasn't long after that that they could hear the sound of the engine to Billy's car revving from the other side of the parking lot.

With a sigh, Matthew said, "I really don't want to have a fucking round two with this asshole trying to kill me."

It was then that Nancy hit her hand on one of the windows to the car and yelled, "Back in the mall! Back in the mall!" While they all quickly got out of the car and started to run back into the mall, Nancy yelled, "Go! Go, go, go!"

While pacing around the inside of the mall, Mike said into the radio, "Scoops Troop, I repeat, do you copy? We're trapped in the mall and in need of emergency transportation. Scoops Troop, do you copy? Billy has found us. He has disabled our car and we are trapped in the mall. Repeat: Billy has disabled our car and we are trapped in the mall."

While Mike continued to talk into the radio, Matthew lightly grabbed El by her arm and said to her, "Hey." When she turned her head to look over at him, he asked her, "Are you okay?"

When she only nodded her head, he asked her, "And your leg isn't hurting anymore? Not even that part on your leg where that freak of a monster came out of it?" When she only shook her head, he said to her, "That's good. 'Cause—"

With her eyebrows furrowed, El asked him, "Because why?"

After watching her tilt her head at him and stare down at where he sat in a chair with her eyebrows furrowed, Matthew said to her, "Just, uh, just forget it, okay? Just know that I'm glad that you're okay. Okay?"

With a nod of her head, she said to him, "Okay." After a couple seconds of silence, she said to him, "Matt."

In turn, he said to her, "Hmm?"

She asked him, "Why were you nice to me?" When he only stared up at her with furrowed eyebrows, she said, "When we first met. When you were out of your school. Why were you nice to me? Because Mike told me that you weren't nice. He said that you were mean. So, why were you nice to me?"

With his own eyebrows furrowed, Matthew frowned to himself before he said, "I don't know. I guess, uh, after being hated by everyone for as long as I could remember because of my explosive anger and the fact that I was an asshole to anyone and everyone that I just wanted at least someone in this town to not hate me or be scared of me or something. And then there you were– some girl I didn't know that was standing in my house with a shaved head and was talking weirdly and who was apparently friends with Mike, even though I'd never seen you around before that day. I guess I was just afraid that– if I wasn't nice to you– that maybe I'd end up chasing you away like I seem to do to everyone else in this fucking town. So, I was nice to you." After letting out a sigh, he said, "I mean, don't get me wrong, El. After everything that happened when I found out that you had superpowers, I was kind of– at least for a bit– regretting being nice to you because if I wasn't nice to you, then I wouldn't have been dragged into this Upside Down shit. But then again, I probably wouldn't have gotten dragged in anyway, if I didn't get into that fight with Stephen Hagan a couple years ago. Or maybe I would've, I don't know."

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

With a sigh, he told her, "The only thing that matters is that I did meet you, El. Okay? And as far as I'm concerned, you're family. Even though we're not related, I still see you as this little sister that I need to protect and make sure that nothing bad happens to. So, whatever you need, I'm here for you."

With her eyebrows furrowed, El asked him, "So, would that make you my brother?"

With a shrug of his shoulders, Matthew replied, "Yeah, I guess it would."

With a frown on her face, she said, "But I dated Mike. Wouldn't that mean that I was dating and kissing my brother?"

In turn, Matthew said, "Huh. I guess you're right. I, uh, never thought about it that way. But whatever. You're still like my sister. But that doesn't mean that I have to be like your brother or anything." When her frown had only deepened, he told her, "Let's look at it this way, alright? If it wasn't for you showing up when you did, I'm pretty sure that I'd be bored out of my fucking mind and spend my time worrying about me embarrassing myself in front of this person I like at school. So, you, uh, kind of saved me there with that one."

When she only continued to frown to herself and blink down at him, he hesitantly asked her, "Do you, uh, need a hug or something?"

It was then that El quickly wrapped her arms around Matthew, which got him to slightly chuckle to himself as he wrapped his own arms around her.

While he kept his arms wrapped securely around her, he told her, "Don't worry, El. As long as I'm here, I won't let anything bad happen to you. I promise. Okay?"

With a nod of her head, she said to him, "Okay."

And for the time being, the unrelated sibling duo remained in each other's arms and took peace in the fact that they were there for each other, despite not knowing how the rest of the night would unfold for them and what trouble would come from it eight months from then.

After El's failed attempt at moving the car, the entire group each made another attempt to push at the car.

And while they did that, Jonathan yelled, "Push!" As soon as it was fully pushed onto its side, Jonathan said to them, "Alright, great. Alright, now, all the way. Ready? Three, two, one... Push!"

It wasn't long after that that the car was pushed yet again and was once more standing on all four wheels, which got Mike to say to them, "Told you. Physics."

While Nancy and Jonathan attempted to open the hood to the car, Matthew quickly made his way over towards where his brother was standing and watching the couple, only to stop and turn to Max when she asked them, "What's she doing?"