Eleven, Mike, Joyce, Hopper, Will, Nancy and Jonathan stood on Weathertop and watched Hawkins slowly decay. The smoke was engulfing the entire sky, and the more smoke there was, the more lightning. The trees were graying. Will couldn’t help but notice the similarity of the puffs of smoke to the Mind Flayer. Maybe Vecna was taunting them. The flower El had plucked disintegrated in her hand. She exhaled heavily, and her grip tightened.
“We need all the help we can get,” El announced, determined. She turned around and faced her friends and family.
“Yeah. Let’s go to the high school first, we’ll pick up Dustin, Steve and Robin,” continued Mike.
Jonathan nodded. “Then we’ll go to the hospital.”
The group ran down the hill back to Hopper’s cabin. They were about to go into the forest, but Joyce stopped them.
“Hold on. I’ll call Murray and tell him to meet us at the hospital.”
“Where even is Murray?” Nancy asked, somewhat concerned.
“He’s at a hotel.”
“He’s safe, don’t worry,” reassured Hopper. “Call Owens too.”
El’s eyebrows widened, and then shrunk again. She realized that she had left Dr. Owens in the hands of the military, and was ashamed.
“Oh yeah, El,” Will started, “What happened to Dr. Owens? Wasn’t he with you at the Nina Project, or did he just leave you with Brenner?”
“No, he was… But… after the military attacked I guess… I guess I just forgot about him… I just left him there, after everything he did for me…”
“It’s okay El, you had a lot on your mind,” calmed Mike.
“Wait, wait, wait… Brenner?!” Hopper was understandably confused. “Brenner’s alive?! And you were with Owens? And what’s the Nina Project? Oh! That’s why your head is shaved again! But what happened?”
“I will explain what happened at the hospital, when everyone is there.”
Meanwhile, Joyce had gone into the cabin and dialed Murray’s hotel room number. Murray’s grumpy, suspicious voice flooded in from the other side.
“Who is this?”
“Murray, it’s Joyce.”
“Oh Joyce. Hi Joyce.”
“Listen, have you finished unpacking?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, can you get to the Hawkins Memorial Hospital? You can just sit in the reception. We’re going there soon.”
“And as in we, you mean—” “I mean Will, Jonathan, Hopper, El, Mike, Nancy, Dustin, Lucas, Steve, Robin and Erica. You remember Nancy, Dustin, Lucas, Steve, Robin and Erica from last year, right?”
“Well yeah, and Nancy since even before then…”
“Good. Then meet us there.”
“Wait—”
Joyce hurriedly hung up and then dialed Owens’s number. But it kept on ringing. She dialed it again, but same thing. She left the cabin and went outside.
“Okay, I told Murray to meet us at the hospital, but I can’t get a hold of Owens.”
“Yeah, well, this military dude captured him,” Argyle replied.
“Argyle! I’d literally forgotten about you,” Jonathan admitted.
“No sweat, my dude! I was just collecting some dandy mushrooms.”
“Yeah, I could see that…”
“Wait, wait, wait… Owens was captured? Agent Stinson didn’t tell us that!” Joyce exclaimed, looking at Hopper.
Hopper shrugged. “Well, like I said, she isn’t exactly Miss Talkative. Plus, there’s only so much she can tell people, even if we’re literally certified friends of his.”
“Alright, let’s go, we don’t have much time to waste,” commanded Nancy.
Without any more delay, the group walked through the forest. Soon they reached the road. On the other side was Lover’s Lake; or at least what was left of it. There was no water left, but the gigantic pit was still steaming. Through the middle, the wide gate remained. Mike and Will wondered why the Mind Flayer, any Demogorgons or Demodogs weren’t emerging from it and attacking the at least fifty scientists, agents, soldiers, police, firemen and community workers.
“Okay, there’s the car…” Nancy pointed to Karen Wheeler’s car which had rescued Steve, Robin, Nancy, Will and Lucas from the Spider Monster at Starcourt Mall last year. “…but it’s only six-seater, and there are eight of us.”
“It’s fine,” Jonathan started, “Argyle and I can drive his van.”
“Alright then. Everyone get in and buckle up,” Nancy ordered.
Jonathan was slightly disappointed and worried that Nancy didn’t volunteer to come with him and Argyle in the van. Then again, it is her mom’s car. But still, the way Nancy said Steve has grown up…
Nancy drove with Joyce next to her, Hopper and El in the middle row and Mike and Will in the back.
It took about seven minutes for them to reach Hawkins High School. A large crowd had congregated in front of the main school building.
“Alright, everyone stay here, I’ll get Steve, Robin and Dustin,” Nancy once again commanded.
“Your sister’s really turned into quite the leader,” Joyce said to Mike.
Nancy bumped through the crowd and ran into the gym. A large number of people sat on mats with PB&J sandwiches. Nancy first found Robin making the PB&J’s.
“Nancy, hi!”
“Robin, we’ve got to go.”
“Where?” Robin asked, laying down the peanut butter-covered knife on a napkin.
“The hospital. Everyone’s meeting there. Steve brought his car here, right?”
“Well yeah—”
“Good. Where is he? And where’s Dustin?”
“Well, Steve is right over there folding clothes, and… I’m not really sure where Dustin went, but he was talking to Eddie’s uncle.”
“Right. Well stay here, I’ll go get them.”
Nancy marched towards Steve, and Robin went back into the cafeteria kitchen.
She walked around the kitchen, and screamed, “VICKIE! VICKIE, WHERE ARE YOU?!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah hi Robin!” Vickie replied breathlessly.
“Hi. So um… well… I kinda maybe have to go help my weird friends with something… so… catch ya later? How about you come over to my house this… this Friday?”
“Well so… I don’t know your address…”
“Oh! Yeah! Right! Right! Silly me!” Robin snatched a napkin from Stacey Albright’s hand and scribbled her address onto it, and then handed it to Vickie.
“Alright then!” Vickie said.
“See ya!” Robin rushed out of the cafeteria to find Nancy, Steve and Dustin waiting for her.
“Let’s go,” Steve ordered.
After Nancy, Steve, Robin and Dustin got out of the building and once they pushed through the car, Nancy suddenly stopped.
“Oh yeah… So guys… Hopper’s alive…”
“WHAT?!” The three were simultaneously shocked and overjoyed. Of course except Robin, who was just shocked, because it’s not like she knew Hopper even a bit.
Dustin, Steve and Robin ran to Karen’s car.
“Well hi chief!”
“Where were you all these days?!”
“How’d you survive, sir?”
“Woah, alright, I’ll answer all your questions once we reach the hospital. But hey, it’s good to see you guys. Except you ice cream girl, I barely know you.” Robin wasn’t sure whether to be offended or not.
“Well, actually, Robin and I work at the Family Video next to Palace Arc—”
“Didn’t ask, Harrington. Didn’t ask.”
“Hi Steve, Dustin!” Joyce called out.
“Oh, Mrs. Byers! How’re you doing? Didn’t see you there!” Dustin said.
“Oh hi—”
“We have time for pleasantries later. Get in Steve’s car,” Nancy strictly ordered.
Steve, Dustin and Robin piled into Steve’s car and drove away, and Nancy got into her mom’s car.
The two cars reached the hospital in a couple of minutes.
The nine got into the hospital and saw Jonathan and Argyle chatting with Murray about Nazi Germany.
“Mr. Bauman! How are you?” Nancy said, smiling.
“Nancy, hi.” Murray exhaled.
“So, uh… I guess we’re going to Max’s room, right?” Robin asked.
“Well yeah,” Nancy replied.
The twelve walked into the reception, and were immediately stopped by that same receptionist from ‘85.
“Where do y’all think you’re going? Two at a time!”
Nancy had learnt not to listen to her. The last time she did, she and Jonathan were attacked by their Flayed ex-boss and ex-colleague.
But she didn’t need to act; Murray immediately flipped the receptionist off, and said, “Go die in a hole.” Swiftly, the twelve piled into an elevator and headed to the third floor.
As the elevator door opened, Dustin said, “3C, 3C…”
After searching a bit, they all arrived at the room. Dustin knocked, and Lucas opened the door.
At first, he was a bit startled to see the humongous group. And then he nearly fell down upon seeing Hopper.
“CHIEF?!”
“Hey kid. Not a ghost, don’t worry.”
“So you didn’t die after all,” sassily said Erica.
The group walked towards the bed.
Lying on the white sheets was Max, all color drained from her skin.
“Alright, well, now that we’re all here, here’s what’s gonna happen. Before we can plan what we’re gonna do, we need to know what exactly has happened. First, I think we’re all most eager to know how Chief Hopper survived,” said Nancy.
“Okay then. Here goes,” started Hopper. “So at the Starcourt base, after Joyce destroyed the Key, I managed to jump into this veranda kind of thing. There, the Russians captured me. They shipped me off to the Kamchatka Peninsula where they put me in this prison and made me work on railroads. I struck a deal with a guard there, Dmitri Antonov. He contacted his peanut butter smuggler friend Yuri Ismaylov and…”
The story went on and on; soon Joyce and Murray joined in. How Yuri scammed them and Murray’s karate moves aboard the plane all the way to outmaneuvering the Russian Demogorgon, burning the Demodogs and finally being rescued by Katinka.
“… And then we reached Alaska, from where Agent Ellen Stinson brought us to Hawkins.”
Then Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle explained how they rescued El from the military, and El explained the Nina Project and what had happened at Hawkins Lab in 1979.
Finally, Steve, Nancy, Robin, Dustin, Lucas and Erica explained what they did in Hawkins during Vecna’s attacks and their plan to defeat him.
Everyone was overwhelmed by the realization that everyone worked together from completely different places to help defeat Vecna, and it still didn’t work.
“And… remember how I had those visions? When Vecna had me? Like the gates opening through Hawkins. Well… some of those things still didn’t happen. Like the gaping creature, and the army of monsters… Demogorgons, and I think Demodogs, and Demobats,” Nancy said.
“Well… do you think you have any idea what this gaping creature is?” Steve asked.
“At first, I had none. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. But then I realized it was a little like something I had seen. It looked like it was made of flesh and blood… and I realized…”
“That there’s gonna be more Flayed! And the Mind Flayer’s gonna build a new proxy body,” understood Dustin. Everyone was dead silent.
“I mean, yeah. But at first I thought it was causing the tremors in the Upside Down. So something else was,” Nancy said.
“And this all is somehow connected to the fact that the Upside Down is stuck in November 6, 1983. Will… are you sure you didn’t somehow do anything weird?” asked Robin.
“I don’t really have any memory. But I think there might be a way to get it back. Remember when the Mind Flayer possessed me? You guys were trying to exorcize me, when I was like, telling you guys to close the Mothergate through the Morse code. Jonathan, you played—”
“Should I Stay or Should I Go…” Jonathan replied. “It makes sense; you were singing it when you were in the Upside Down.”
“So you think that if we play that, you might get back your memory?” Joyce asked.
“I mean, I might… I did get back my memory for a bit when you played the song in ‘84.”
“Okay, but first, we need to close the gate. El, can you do that?” Mike asked.
“I am not sure. When I closed the Mothergate two years ago, it was much smaller. These gates are much bigger and there are four of them. I—”
El couldn’t finish. There were sounds of horrendous screaming outside the window. Steve pulled the curtains, and everyone looked at the street.
It was worse than they had ever imagined. Demogorgons and Demodogs were attacking people. Dustin, Lucas and Mike recognized James Dante; he was being mauled by a pack of Demodogs. Demobats were flying in the sky, attacking random people. And in the distance, there were blazing fires.
Lucas inhaled. “It’s started. It’s judgment day.”
Mike was panicked. “El! Close it! Quick!
El held out her hand and moved her fingers. The gate sizzled a bit, but it didn’t close. At all.
“Oh god oh god oh god!”
“Hold on. I know what we need to do. I need… I need to get to Chicago.”
“CHICAGO?!” Everyone screamed at El as if she was absurd.
“I need to get to my sister…”
“You mean…” Mike was concerned. “You mean that… that psychopath?”
“She is not a psychopath, Mike. She was just angry. Understandably. You know what those people did to her… to us… the bad men. And then… on our way back, we need to stop at Bloomington…”
“Bloomington? What for?” Lucas asked.
“Terry. Terry Ives, her mom. She lives there,” Hopper replied. “But El… we… we don’t—”
“No. We need to make time for this. She was able to show me important things last time I came to her. This time, she may be able to help me. Help us. Help Hawkins.”
“Okay then. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, you guys go with El and Hopper to get her sister and meet her mom. The rest of us will stay here and try to fend off the monsters,” Nancy said.
“No… I want to be here. With mom and Jonathan. Besides, I know the Mind Flayer best of anybody here, and we can assume he’ll come,” Will said.
“Alright then. Let’s go,” announced Hopper.
“Wait wait wait, with no planning and preparation you’re all of a sudden going to Chicago?” asked Murray. “This is absurd! Absurd!”
“No one asked, Mr. Bunman,” snapped back Erica.
“Erica!” chastised Lucas.
“What’s it to you?” asked Erica.
“Okay, first things first, we need to get to the PD. There I’ll ask Flo what happened to my jeep. Oh yeah… they don’t know I’m even alive,” remorsed Hopper.
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Sooooo that was that. It's so rushed it's terrible. Thats the problem with me whatever I write its so rushed. This is worse than any fanfiction ive ever read. And I focused too much on my fav characters so its biased too.
