EVERYONE TALKED TO EACH OTHER ALL AT ONCE, trying to catch up with what had been going on and when last any of them had seen Mike or Will. Rachel tried to participate in the conversation, but the throbbing pain in her shoulder distracted her. She moved away from the others and shrugged off her jacket to get a better look at the wound, wincing when she saw the claw marks dragged across her left shoulder. 

"Rachel?" Glancing behind her at Steve's voice calling her name, she quickly tried to cover her wound so he wouldn't see how bad it was while he walked over to her. "Let me see," he said, swatting her hand out of the way. A frown formed on his face as he saw that it was still bleeding. "We need to wrap it with something, try to stop the bleeding." Without waiting for a response, Steve turned and stalked over to Jonathan's car, yanking the back door open.

"Hey!" Jonathan exclaimed with a scowl. "What the hell are you doing?"

Steve ignored him, rifling through the two bags inside the car. One he knew was Nancy's, having seen it in her room before. By the looks of the clothes and things packed in both hers and Jonathan's bags, he could tell they'd stayed together the past couple nights when they were off doing whatever. He wasn't sure if he cared anymore, though. Steve had known for a while that Nancy wasn't really into him; he was just her second choice, something for her to fall back on when Jonathan isolated himself after everything that happened last year. For a while, though, Steve just didn't want to believe it― but ignoring it wasn't an option anymore. If Jonathan was what Nancy wanted, then she should just go for it.

Besides, there were other things to worry about. Stealing a clean t-shirt from Jonathan's bag, Steve closed the car door and started walking back toward Rachel. "Hey, that's my shirt!" Jonathan complained. "Stay out of my―" He cut himself off when Steve used the shirt to wrap around Rachel's wound, realizing what it was for as Steve tied a knot to make sure it stayed in place.

"There," Steve told the brown-eyed girl once his work was done. "It's not much, but it should do the trick."

Rachel managed a small smile, briefly squeezing Steve's hand in gratitude. "Thank you."

"The power's back!" Nancy exclaimed suddenly, her eyes wide as she watched the lights on each level of the lab flicker back on. Jonathan, seeing that she was right, hurried over to the button to try and open the gate. When it wouldn't work, Dustin moved him out of the way and started pressing the button himself.

Minutes passed by until, finally, the gate slid open. "Hey. I got it!" Dustin said proudly, a grin spreading across his face. "I got it." 

"Let's go," Jonathan told Nancy, the two of them hurrying to get inside his car.

"Hey, wait!" Lucas complained, trying to reach for the handle so he could get in the back. Steve grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the car as Jonathan peeled off, racing inside the gates and up to the doors of the lab. "What the hell, Steve?!"

"There wasn't room for you, kid," Steve said matter-of-factly. "They have to get Mike, Will and Mrs. Byers― who knows who else."

With nothing else to do, the five of them stood around impatiently and waited. Dustin walked away from Lucas, who was talking to Max, and instead approached his sister as she stood next to Steve. "How's your shoulder?" He asked, realizing that he hadn't taken the time to check on her yet. "Does it hurt?"

Rachel's expression softened when she saw the concern in her little brother's eyes. "I'm alright, punk," she told him gently, reaching her arm around his shoulders to give him a side hug. "Don't worry about me, okay?" Steve watched the exchange between the two siblings and smiled to himself. As much as Dustin and Rachel got on each other's nerves, it was obvious that they loved each other a lot.

"Guys," Max spoke up, causing the others to follow her gaze. Jonathan's car whipped around the corner, and he laid his hand on the horn as he flew towards them. Max and Lucas quickly ran out of the way to avoid being hit as Jonathan drove through the open gate, with Hopper's truck right behind him. 

"Let's go!" Hopper shouted at the five of them standing outside, screeching his truck to a stop. Steve yanked open the door, making all the kids climb into the back and then watching over Rachel as she climbed into the front, sitting in the middle. As soon as Steve got in and closed the door, Hopper slammed his foot on the gas pedal and took off. The sudden, jarring movement caused Rachel's shoulder to hurt, and she clenched her jaw tightly to fight back a wince.

"What are we going to do?" She asked the Chief worriedly.

"For starters, get the hell away from that lab," he answered curtly. "We need help, military help. I'll have to make some calls."

"What happens if they don't believe you?" Rachel tried not to think of all the creatures they had left behind at the lab, and the fact that her brother was right― the next time they molted, they'd be either fully grown or damn close to it. 

"I don't know, kid," Hopper told her honestly. "I don't know."

↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓

THE KIDS GATHERED AROUND THE BYERS' DINING TABLE and listened intently as Hopper argued with the authorities on the phone. Will was resting on the couch, sound asleep and looking sickly as Nancy and Jonathan stood vigil at his side. Joyce had wandered off down the hallway, a haunted and faraway look in her eyes as she muttered something about wanting to be alone. Rachel's initial reaction had been the same, but she knew the moment she was by herself, she would most likely break down. So, trying to post-pone the inevitable, she stood with her back to the others and stared out of the dining room window.

"I don't know how many people are there," Hopper snapped as he spoke into the phone. "I don't know how many people are left alive." There was a pause, and then he was shouting, "I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper!" He huffed as the woman said something else. "Yes, the number that I gave you, yes. 6-7-6-7... I will be here." He slammed the phone against the hook in frustration, a scowl on his face.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked him. 

"We'll see."

"We'll see?" Mike echoed angrily. "We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

"We stay here, and we wait for help," Hopper snapped firmly, turning and walking down the hall to check on Joyce before Mike could argue with him any further.

"You okay?" Steve asked Rachel quietly, approaching her from behind as she looked out the window.

Turning to face him, she answered, "If I said yeah, would you believe me?"

"No."

Rachel sighed, glancing over to where her brother sat with his friends at the table before looking back up at Steve. "What are we going to do, Steve?" She whispered worriedly. "Those things, they're out there and... and there's so many and... What are we going to do?"

His expression fell. "I wish I had an answer for you, Rach."

"Steve." Her voice dropped even quieter, making sure Dustin wouldn't be able to overhear what she was going to say next. "I'm scared."

"I know," he responded. "I am, too." Rachel met his gaze for a long moment, then let out another sigh and leaned her forehead against his chest without thinking about it. Steve hesitated before wrapping his arms around her and hugging her, resting his chin on the top of her head. "We'll figure it out, somehow."

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins A.V.?" Mike's voice penetrated the otherwise-silent room as he stood up and grabbed the Rubik's cube Bob had left for Will. Apparently, Bob had been the sole reason that Mike, Will, Joyce and Hopper had gotten out of Hawkins' Lab― but he'd been attacked and killed by those creatures before he could make it out. Rachel hadn't been there when it happened, and she was glad for that.

Lucas's eyebrows shot up in surprise at Mike's words. "Really?"

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then he had a fundraiser for equipment," Mike told them. "Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?" His friends nodded in agreement as he set the Rubik's cube on the table in front of them. "We can't let him die in vain."

"Well, what do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin demanded. Rachel shifted in Steve's arms, turning her head the other way so that she could see her little brother. "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those demo-dogs on our own."

"Demo-dogs?" Max asked him.

Dustin looked at her. "Demogorgon... dogs... demo-dogs... It's like a compound. It's like a play on words―"

"Okay," she cut him off, understanding what he was getting at.

He sighed as he turned back to Mike. "I mean when it was just Dart, maybe."

"But there's an army now," Lucas added, backing Dustin up.

"Precisely."

"His army," Mike said.

Steve and Rachel frowned at Mike's words. "His army?" Rachel echoed, finally pulling away from Steve as they both looked at Mike. "What do you mean?"

"His army," Mike repeated himself. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." He turned and ran out of the room, coming back with a piece of paper in his hands. Everyone crowded around him to get a look at what Will had drawn on the paper, Rachel frowning at the strange dark creature looming over the town. 

"The Shadow Monster," Dustin spoke aloud as he stared at it.

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

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

"To the tunnels, to the monsters, to the Upside-Down, everything," Mike confirmed quickly. 

"Whoa, slow down, slow down," Steve spoke up, trying to keep track of every piece of information Mike was throwing at them. Rachel took the drawing from her brother to get a better look at it, and Steve peered over her shoulder at it as well.

Mike took a deep breath. "Okay, so. The Shadow Monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."

"And so does Dart," Lucas added, catching on.

"Yeah. It's like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind."

"Hive mind?" Steve repeated, his eyebrows raised. 

"A collective consciousness. It's a super organism," Dustin explained to him.

"So that's the thing that controlling all of it?" Rachel asked, pointing to the drawing of the Shadow Monster.

"Yes," Mike confirmed, nodding emphatically. "It's the brain."

"Like the Mind Flayer," Dustin realized.

"Exactly."

"The what?" Steve and Max both asked at the same time, each of them clueless. Rachel had heard bits and pieces about the Mind Flayer before, since her brother and his friends were constantly playing Dungeons & Dragons all the time.

Dustin and Mike ran down the hallway to Will's room, digging around for his D&D manual before quickly returning to the dining room as everyone but Joyce and Will gathered together. "The Mind Flayer," Dustin announced, slamming the book down on the table with it open to the page that explained what they were talking about. 

"What the hell is that?" Hopper grumbled.

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

"Oh, my God. None of this is real. It's a kid's game," Hopper snapped impatiently.

Dustin glared at him, offended. "No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor―"

"Analogy," Lucas corrected.

"Analogy." Dustin turned to Lucas in annoyance. "That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

Nancy approached the table and peered down at the manual. "Okay, so this mind-flamer thing―"

"Flayer. Mind Flayer."

Nancy ignored him, asking, "What does it want?"

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

Steve looked up, trying to find a way to compare the creature to something. "Like the― like the Germans," he suggested, nodding.

Rachel tapped his arm, shaking her head when he looked at her. "Like the Nazis," she corrected him quietly.

"Yeah, yeah," he said quickly, looking around at the others. "The Nazis, that's what I meant to say."

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

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

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

Steve pushed himself away from the table, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "That's great, that's great, that's really great," he muttered sarcastically. "Jesus!"

Nancy picked up the manual and walked closer to Rachel, the two of them examining the page together as they processed everything. "Okay, so if this thing is like brain that's controlling everything..."

"If we can find a way to kill it, we'd kill everything it controls," Rachel finished, she and her best friend glancing at each other.

"Exactly," Dustin agreed. "And we win."

"Theoretically," Lucas mumbled.

Hopper stormed over and took the manual out of Nancy's hands so he could see what they were talking about. "Alright, great. So how do you kill this thing, shoot it with fireballs or something?"

Dustin snorted in amusement. "No, no, no fireballs. Uh..." He cleared his throat and answered seriously. "You summon an undead army, uh, because... because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the― the mind flayer, it... it... it likes brains..." Dustin sighed, seeing the flat look on Hopper's face. "It's just a game. It's a game."

Hopper scowled and slammed the manual on the table. "What the hell are we doing?" He muttered under his breath, stomping away from the table.

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

"We are!"

"Well even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" Mike pointed out. "You can't just shoot this with guns!"

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

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

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

"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this time," Dustin finished matter-of-factly.

"They're right," a soft voice spoke up. Rachel and the others all turned, surprised to see that Joyce had finally come out of her room. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Hopper walked over to her, his expression softening at the broken look in her eyes. "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 said, crossing the floor as he moved toward the unconscious boy laying on the couch. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

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

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is," Mike responded. There was a long moment of silence as everyone realized Mike was onto something.

Maybe they could find a way to get rid of this thing, after all.