꧁꧂

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ-ɴɪɴᴇ: ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ᴍᴇ ᴅᴏᴡɴ

"The Mind Flayer- it built this monster in Hawkins," As we had the whole story told, everyone who still needed to catch up listened, which was most of us considering there was so much that had happened in the last few days- for all of us. "to stop El, to kill her and pace a way into our world."

"And it almost did." Nancy says after her brother. "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" As Steve paced back and forth, Hopper carried on the questions. Was now a bad time for a nap? I feel like now is a bad time for a nap.

"Hey, eyes open." Looking back up from the floor, I groggily looked over at Max with my tired face, weakly smiling at her words. I was certainly trying to.

"It's big." Johnathan murmured. That's what- "Thirty feet at least." It wasn't looking good for us, huh...

"Yeah." Lucas says. "It sorta destroyed your cabin." He slipped in casually. Sorta? Is some of it still standing or what? "Sorry..." The boy whispered softly, nodding on.

"Okay, so, just to be clear," Steve spoke up, next to both me and Max, of who was practically the only one keeping me awake currently. "this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El," El wasn't doing too good, even onto her second soda yet the girl still had had not much color return to her face. "it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?"

"Yes." A tired Nancy replied.

"But instead of screws, metal, wood- instead the Mind Flayer's weapon is... bones, flesh and just to throw it in the same category; melted people?" I asked, arms crossed as I held back a yawn.

"Yes." Nancy nodded over to me. "Exactly!"

"Yeah, okay..." Steve says, also nodding his head along, "I- Yeah, I'm just... making sure."

"Are we sure this thing is still out there?" Mom asked. "Still alive?"

"El beat the shit out of it." Max says. "But, yeah, it's still alive."

"But, if we close the gate again-" My twin spoke up, bringing us back around to some kind of a plan.

"We cut the brain off from the body." Max nods, looking over at me for confirmation, while I could only nod. The outline of the plan was good. We did need to close the gate. But El was in no stable way to stand, let alone go through the whole of that Russian base- even with Hop by her side. And for her then to close it, too?

"And kill it." Lucas finished her words as I let my thoughts get the better of me.

"That's the theoretical, bit." I murmured.

"YOO-HOO?!" All head turned, including Elevens, at the shout of a voice across the mall, along with the sound of papers rustling together. Murray waved his hands around, papers and papers in each hand as he did so. "YOO-HOO?!" Rule number thirty-nine: be careful when you invite Murray to something. To anything. He might get pissed

⊹˚˖⁺

The man placed the papers onto the table for all to see, pointing at different parts of his map as he spoke. "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub.' Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper obviously was not in the mood on learning how to read a map, and was far more concerned about, well, the lives at stake.

"Right here." The man pointed before continuing. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room- maybe fifty feet or so." I glanced over at Dustin and Erica across the group and knew we had to step in.

"More like five hundred." Erica says, stepping over to the table. Murray looked up at her, mouth dropping open. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray questioned after a moment of silence.

"Erica Sinclair." I raised an eyebrow, smirking a little as she made it sound as though it was obvious. Max gave me an expression as though to ask if this was what I'd dealt with for so many hours. "Who are you?" I nodded back at Max, and she shook her head, eyes wide.

"Murray... Bauman..." He replied slowly.

Erica raised her hand up as she spoke. "Listen, Mr Bunman- I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours." When glancing over at Lucas, I held back another laugh when I saw the look of shock being displayed by him. "And with all due respect," Which was none. "you do what this man tells you," she carried on, glancing over at Joyce, Hopper, and basically all of them here. "you're all gonna die."

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray asked us all. Oh boy...

"Um, I'M TEN, YOU BALD BASTARD." At that point, I was glancing away, snickering.

"ERICA?!" Lucas began at his sister.

"Just the facts!" She returned. Max nudged me, sending me a glare to stop laughing in such a serious situation.

"She's right." Dustin spoke up. "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to." He stepped over to the table, already taking the papers from Murray. "Excuse me, sorry- may I?"

The passive aggressiveness between the two was another level from even me and Max's sarcasm. "Please." Murray replied, obviously not impressed.

Dustin moved over and sat down, taking a pencil out of his vest pocket before directing the others about the Russian base. "Okay, see this room here?" He asked, pointing. "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." The boy drew a line from the circled room, over to said room. "It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

The two nodded up at the three adults. "You can... show us the way?" Hopper clarified.

"Don't worry," Dustin waved his hand, dismissing the man's suspected thoughts. "you can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your..." He glanced over at the girl next to him before back at the man. "navigators."

He nodded, seeming as though he was going to agree until, "No." The smiles, or whatever hopeful look that was on their faces fell off as Hop continued to shake his head. "Nope."

⊹˚˖⁺

"Well, that settles it." I clutched my stomach as Max held out the slushie for me to take. This girl was desperate for both me and El to drink it up with our current physical health, but it wasn't like a slushie was going to fix a broken bone. "He's gonna die. They're gonna die." Erica was also full of positive words.

"Yep... most likely."

I sighed, leaning against the girl's shoulder. "Max, when this is all over, can we do nothing school related or skating relating. Just sit on my couch and eat junk food, cuddle and do shit all for a while?" My voice was low and quiet as I asked it, eyes closing every few moments when she handed me the slushie, insisting on me drinking it.

"We can do that every day during your recovery." She said just as quietly back, notably moving a few strands of hair out of my face. Rule number forty: GOD I AM NOT YOUR STRONGEST SOLDIER

Lucas spoke over to Dustin and Erica while I took a large sip of the drink, then looking over at El for her to drink some of it. "Have you ever had slushie before?" I asked with a small smile. The girl shook her head, trying her best to sit up, yet worrying me to the core and causing me to react quickly. Holding her upright and reaching over, I was practically babying her as she took small sips of the drink and pulled faces at it.

"I don't like it." She spoke softly and apologised right afterwards, causing me to only smile again, nodding.

"HEY! Heads up!" I glanced over at Hopper as he raised his voice over at Dustin, the group of boys and Erica while walking towards them. "You can navigate, just from someplace safe."

"Not that simple." I called from where I was sat, furrowing my eyebrows at the small walkie talkies that he was holding. "The signal those hold won't even reach down there."

"Not with this." Dustin continued on. "You need something with a high enough frequency band," as the boy spoke, Max crossed her arms and stood up, smirking at the nerdy words that left the boy's mouth. "to relay with the Russian's 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," Hopper wasn't pleased, to say the least, and his face was rather... laughable. "one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins... Oh, wait. That's me."

Hop had never looked so tired in his life, and that was saying quite a lot considering our past, too. "If you want us to navigate, you've got us." Dustin explained. "But we need a head start." Hop nodded a little while both Erica and Dustin then looked at each other, conferring before back up at the man. "And a car." 

⊹˚˖⁺

My head leaned low, eye lids closing every few moments before I'd jolt back awake. Now really wasn't the time for me to be moments away from sleeping, but after the Russian base, and the whole night of no sleep before that on top of a hill with Dustin, I think I had good reason.

"How's your stomach?" I leaned my head on Max's shoulder when she asked me the question, eyes still very close to shutting.

"Like I've been punched there ten times and broken them in a Russian elevator..." I murmured back at her. The girl chuckled momentarily before I felt her move away, nudging me at the same time to stay awake. Mom stood in front of me, a sympathetic look on her face. "Hey, momma." I murmured quietly, doing my best to stand up without showing the pain I was actually in.

"How are you holding up?" When she asked the question, I raised an eyebrow, smirking a little, too. She understood just exactly what that meant, no denying that, of course. She reached a hand out to my shoulder as we stood in complete silence, pulling me into her embrace.

"Stay safe, mom." I tell her, leaning my head against her own shoulder, arms wrapping around her. Her arms were much tighter than my own, holding onto me as if her life depended on it. "Mom?" I pulled her away when she stayed silent, noticing a tear or two in her eyes. "Hey-" I put on the bravest smile that I could, which was kind of weak, holding her only half of an arms width away, anyways.

"I've got to do this." She repeated the five words over again while I stood in front of her, nodding. If I could join her, Murray and Hop, I would, but there was basically no way all of them would agree to that. She continued her panicking ways, rambling on before I shook her head at the mention of Will.

"I'm going to keep him safe." I assured her firmly. "Stuck to the hip, remember?"

She nodded glancing around for a moment before her eyes landed on a certain red head, of who was surprisingly stood next to Mike while the group spoke to each other. She then looked back at me. "Seriously?" I asked, quivering an eyebrow. "We'll have that conversation once this night is over." I insisted to my mother.

She smiled, unexpectedly leaning in, and kissing the top of my head when she did so. "I'll be back soon, honey." When I pulled out of her embrace, part of me wished I hadn't, because a little part of me was doubting we were all going to come out of this unscratched.

"Mom?" As she moved away and towards Hop, she looked back at me. "Love you." I smiled weakly over at her, holding back any last tears that had interests of taking charge.

The woman nodded back at me. "Love you too, honey." 

⊹˚˖⁺

"El?" I pulled a face over at the girl as the four of us walked towards the car, seeing her grimace in pain. Her nose was beginning to do that thing again.

"El, you're bleeding." Max pointed out to her; head tilted to get a better look.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked, then, a moment of silence.

"Yeah." But Eleven's answer was just as convincing as the History classwork I'd copied off of Johnathan's work from the same when he'd gone over it.

Max cautiously moved ahead, opening up the back of the car door for the girl and boy to go through. When they did, she then looked over at me, expecting for me to follow right after the boy. I held my hand out for her to take, causing a furrow of the eyebrows from her until I gestured for her to get in before me.

The driver's door slammed shut as the four of us sat in the back, curled up together and waiting for the engine to start up, still. Hearing Nancy turn the key, we all also heard the engine sputter, yet not actually start.

The two in the front of the car let out a small argument and bickering session as she continued to turn the key back and forth. The six of us anxiously sat behind them, questioning the horrible luck we currently had.

"Didn't your mom just buy this car?" Lucas asked from in front of us.

"YES." Nancy replied, throwing her hands in the air momentarily. "I'm sure it's fine."

"Did you leave the lights on?" Will questioned.

"No." Nancy replied quickly.

"Do we have gas?" Lucas added on.

"YES." A more annoyed Nancy replied, trying the ignition key again. After another annoyed Nancy attempt at the engine, Johnathan stepped in, stopping her and making her open up the hood.

Both of them stepped out of the car to see inside the hood, leaving the six of us to awkwardly sit in the Wheeler car together. I went to make a comment and remark to relieve the tension between the group of us, stopping dead when I heard an all too familiar sound.

A car engine roared in the distance, and all heads turned to look over at it in the distance. Billy.

Feeling a tug on my arm, I looked over at Max beside me, already feeling the growing fear within the girl. She could hardly take her eyes off at the headlights in the distance, with emotions of worry suddenly increasing in the car.

The car's engine revved, over and over again, yet didn't move from the end of the parking lot. "Hey? Max?" I asked, shaking her hand entangled with my arm. When she did pull her eyes away, I could see the horror inside of her in the eyes.

"BACK IN THE MALL." Nancy slammed her fist against the window closest to my head, causing me to jolt upright before we all got out quickly, probably quick enough to put the Flash up for his money. "BACK IN THE MALL, GO- GO- GO-" The girl shouted over at us as we did so, with Johnathan doing the same and echoing her words. But the worst part of all? The never-ending, haunting rev of an engine in the distance.