Chapter Sixty-One: Big-Time

We all gathered in the food court to fill everybody in on what had been going on. Apparently, Dad, Joyce, and Murray Bauman had met the man who built the laser gun, a man by the name of Alexi who had been killed my Germans at the Carnival, while the kids had been running from this new monster that they and Jonathan and Nancy had discovered separately, the kids by their investigation of Billy, and Nancy and Jonathan through their investigation of an old woman who was possessed like Will had been last year. And you know...Steve, Robin, Erica, Dustin, and I trapped in a secret Russian base, being tortured and interrogated.

I stood beside Steve, him rubbing a hand between my shoulder blades as El laid on a bench, her head on Dad's shoulder and her newly-bandaged leg in Joyce's lap.

"The Mind Flayer," Mike explained, "It build this monster here in Hawkins,  to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." 

"And it almost did," Max added, "That was jut one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" Dad questioned.

"Its big," Jonathan reported, "Thirty-feet at least."

"Yeah...it sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas told him. "Sorry." 

"Ok, so just to be clear," Steve stated, "This...this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, its some kind of gigantic...weapon?"

"Yes." Nancy confirmed.

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

"Yes, exactly."

"Yeah, ok. I-yeah, I was just making sure."

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce questioned.

"El beat the crap out of it but yeah, its still alive." Max answered. 

"But if we close the gate again..." Will prompted.

"We cut the brain off from the body." 

"And kill it," Lucas finished, "Theoretically." 

"Yoo-hoo!" We all turned around as Murray walked towards us, waving papers in the air. "Yoo-hoo!" 

~~~

We all gathered around a table in the food court, where Murray laid out a hand drawn map.

"Ok, this is what Alexei called 'The hub'. Now 'The Hub' takes us to the vault room." He explained.

"Ok, where's the gate?"

"The gate is here." I pointed to the giant contraption in the middle. 

"I don't know the scale on this, but I think its fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty-feet or so."

"More like five-hundred," Erica corrected, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like its Commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

"Murray...Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman,  I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that hole for fort-eight hours, and with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." Dad furrowed his eyebrows, looking at me. I nodded.

"She's right." I said.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray questioned. 

"Um, I'm ten you bald bas-"

"Ok, let's just...hit the breaks on that." I said, putting my hands on Erica's shoulders. "But she is right. That is 500 feet that is crawling, and I mean crawling with scientists and armed Russian guards, and they will now be on high alert, seeing as four teenagers and a ten-year-old girl managed to break into their facility and escape with their lives. You won't be able to just go marching in there."

"She's right," Dustin agreed, stepping up to the paper, "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me, sorry, may I?"

"Please." Murray said sarcastically. He grabbed the map and the pencil, sitting down at the table.

"Ok, see this room here?" He circled it on the map. "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." He drew a line to the weapon room. "Its a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

"You can show us the way?" Dad asked skeptically.

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero crap, and we'll just be your...navigators."

"No." I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Dad," He looked up at me, "Did you miss the part where these two saved our lives?"

"Nope." He said simply. I sighed, shaking my head. We all disbanded, Dad going around to all of the guards and grabbing their supplies, while I made my way over to El and Max, sitting down beside them.

"How you doin' kid?" I asked.

"Better." She said, laying her head on my shoulder. I sighed, suddenly having a flashback to the much smaller, much balder version of Eleven, sitting in the bleachers with her head on Mike's shoulder, his jacket wrapped around her. What happened to that little girl? She grew up so fast. "I'm glad you're here."

"I'm glad you're here. You saved our lives." I told her, putting my hand over hers on my leg. "People seem to be doing that for me a lot today." Max leaned over her to look at me.

"Well its about time someone returned the favor." I chuckled, shaking my head, letting my eyes travel to where the boys and Erica were standing.

"Well, that settles it," Erica said, "He's gonna die. They're gonna die."

"Yep, most likely."

"Hey," They both turned around to look at me, "Don't talk like that."

"You guys survived." Lucas pointed out.

"Barely." Dustin replied, turning to face them. "We could've really used you guys down there."

"Could've used you up here, too." Mike agreed. 

"Yeah, man," Lucas said, "We missed you, Dude." 

"Yeah, Big-time." Will added. Dustin walked over and they all wrapped an arm around each other. 

"I missed you guys too. Big-time."

"Please, don't cry, nerds." Erica said. I chuckled, shaking my head at the sassy ten-year-old that had somehow grown on my in the past forty-eight hours.

"Erica." Lucas scolded.

"Keep saying my name, see what happens."

"Hey, heads up!' Dad yelled, tossing a radio to Dustin. "You can navigate, just from someplace safe."

"Its not that simple." Dustin told him.

"The signal won't reach." Erica added.

"Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band 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, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins.  Oh wait," Dustin gestured at himself with the radio antenna, "That's me. you want us to navigate, you got us, but we need a head start." Dad raised his eyebrows, nodding. "And a car." I stepped forward.

"Robin, Steve, and I will take Dustin and Erica to the radio tower." I said, stepping up to the front of the group. "But seriously, its a warzone down there, so please, please do me a favor and don't go and get yourself killed, because I will be seriously ticked off at you if you do." He smiled, pulling me into a hug. 

"Do me a favor and try not to get more beaten up in the next few hours. I don't think you or your boyfriend's face can take much more abuse." I chuckled, pulling away.

"Its good to see you."

"Yeah, you too." Eleven came up to stand beside us. 

"We all meet back here, ok?" I said, "Alive." He nodded, pulling us both into another hug and kissing the tops of our heads before we all jumped into action.