Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven: Every Choice

~~~Riley~~~

We set off across the desert, Holly snd I leading the way while Max trailed begrudgingly behind us.

I found myself thinking back to the way Steve and Dustin were alone with Sara, I was with the others in lord knows what condition, and for all I know, and Vecna might be sending Demogorgans and Demodogs after Max's body at any moment.

"Alright, I think we've been at this long enough." Max said after a while.

"Whats the difference between this and your 'wait to be rescued' plan?" I asked. "We're stuck here either way. We might as well see if this pans out."

"Besides, we've searched an inch of this place." Holly argued.

"At last, you get my point," Max said, "I've spent I don't know how long searching out here, but too long, and you're not just going to suddenly find something that I haven't, ok? Not even Riley, you're good but you aren't that good."

"It's nit my abilities I'm banking on here." I said, glancing at Holly. She smiled.

"Did my brother ever tell you about Uncle Eric?" She asked.

"Uncle Eric?"

"I know this story." I agreed, nodding. "He's a metal detectorist, isn't he?"

"Yep," she agreed, looking at Max, "Do you know what that is?"

"He searches for metal." She answered dryly.

"Yeah, with his metal detector," she clarified, "looking for super old treasures and stuff that dead people have left in the ground. Anyway, his favorite place to search is Indianna Beach Amusement Park, I mean he searched there for years, but all he ever found was a bunch of cheap trinkets. Then one day, he opens up the newspaper and boom, front page, some random tourist found a tin can filled with gold and silver coins worth like, millions of dollars."

"Right, so let me guess, in this scenario, I'm Uncle Eric..."

"And I'm the tourist." Holly said confidently. I shrugged.

"Max, the thing about being familiar with something , is that sometimes you become desensitized to it, you think you've seen it all and it all looks the same because it always has. Sometimes, you need fresh eyes, a new perspective to shake things up. Look at it from a new angle." I said.

Holly paused, taking the telescope oit of her bag and extending it, looking around while Max trudged around behind her, tipping her head back in annoyance.

"I know, you're a grizzled, jaded old survivor." I said, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. She hugged me back, leaning her head on my shoulder. "Trust me, I feel you. Just let the young ones do their thing, ok? I promise, they'll surprise you."

Holly sighed, pulling the telescope down and taking the cap off of it.

"So stupid ." She grumbled. She looked at the cap for a moment, before lifting it up to the sky, allowing me to see a familiar shape cut into the center of it. She turned back the way we came, looking through the telescope again.

"Op, you see! It's happening!" I exclaimed, shaking Max violently.

"Were you always this annoying?" She asked, pushing me away from her.

"No, I have a baby now, so you all have to put up with my dorky parental energy until she's old enough to be embarrassed by me." I said.

"M marks the spot." Holly mumbled to herself. She walked past us, heading back toward the cave.

"Where are you going?" Max asked, shielding her eyes from the sun.

"I have an idea!"

"What idea?!"

"I'll show you when we're closer!"

"Holly!"

"You said you wanted to go back! Well, we're going back!"

"Come on, Grandma. Follow the child." I said, grabbing Max's shoulders and pushing her toward Holly.

"Any time you want to wake up would be great." She said dryly.

~~~Steve~~~

Dustin and I kept climbing the stairs, a process which was becoming insanely difficult due to the weird thick goo that began covering the surface of them. We'd found one of those things that lets you strap a baby to your chest in the car seat bag, so Sara was strapped to Dustin's back like a backpack while I led the way.

"Guys, if you can hear us, we're coming! I repeat, we're coming!" I said into the radio.

"Steve, slow down!" Dustin begged, his voice coming out desperate and high-pitched. "The higher up we go, the more dangerous it gets!"

"Yeah, well all the more reason to speed up!" I said. "Just let me go first, keep your distance a little bit."

"We're no use to them if we're dead, STEVE!"

Dustin grabbed the back of ,y jacket, yanking me backwards as a whole chunk of floor broke open right where I was about to put my foot. I looked through the slime hole, watching as the debris fell several stories to the bottom floor. I pointed my flashlight up to see that the stairs above us were basically gone, disintegrated into goo with only a large hole remaining.

"As I was saying."

~~~Amber~~~

"Riley, come on wake up! We could use your powers here!" I shouted, tapping the side of her face while Jonathan, Nancy, and and Eddie tried to find a way to break through the door. Some parts were goo, as Eddie had figured out, but other parts were solid and glued together by the substance.

Nancy trudged across the room, making a beeline for an abandoned chair.

"What are you doing?!" Jonathan called after her.

"A few floors down it looks like one of those soldiers cut through thst door." She said. She snapped a chair leg off of the chair, carrying it back over. "Watch out."

She jammed the leg through one of the solid parts, sending a waterfall of the goo rushing through the hole.

"Get back."

"YOU'VE GOTTS BE KIDDING ME!" Eddie squeaked, turning back towards me. He rushed to Riley, grabbing her shoulders. "HOPPER-HARRINGTON, WAKE UP! WAKE THE HELL UP!"

"That's not gonna work, I've tried that!" I shouted, peeling my jacket off and wading over to the door. I shoved the fabric into the hole, plugging the leak that was threatening to fill the room. It didn't stop what was flooding in from the ceiling, however.

In fact, large holes began opening up from the ceiling, sending large waterfalls of goop raining down onto the floor.

"The tables!" I shouted. "I think all we can do now is try and stay above it, hope it stops eventually! I mean, that's what happened on the lower floors, right?!"

"It looked like that, yeah!" Nancy agreed.

"The table!" Jonathan shouted. "Get to the table!"

Eddie and I climbed up onto one table with Riley, and Jonathan and Nancy climbed up on another one across the room, making it nearly impossible to hear anything they were saying.

"I came back from the dead just to be killed again by MELTING DRYWALL?!" Eddie exclaimed.

"Hey...at least we're together this time." I said with a shrug. He looked at me with a serious expression, reaching over and grabbing my hand.

"I didn't wish you were in the mess we were in last year." He said. "For your sake, I'd prefer you were back in New York, but selfishly...I'm glad you're here."

I nodded in agreement, reaching up and pulling back the hair that was plastered to the side of his face. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling the spare ponytail holder off my wrist and using it to pull his hair back.

"I always did have a thing for you with a ponytail." I said. He laughed, shaking his head and leaning his forehead against mine. We could hear Nancy and Jonathan talking to each other across the room, but we couldn't make out what they were saying.

"What do you think the odds are thst we don't die here?" He asked. I shook my head.

"Not good," I said, "But I'm the newbie to all of this. Am I wrong to assume they've all survived worse?"

"No! No, they definitely have!" He agreed. "Plus, we have the advantage of Hopper-Harrington. Even if she's unconscious and can't help us, there's no way in hell Steve doesn't come after her."

"Even if he does, what's her gonna do?" I asked. Eddie shook his head.

"You haven't seen the way these two go to bat for each other," he said, "Trust me, he'll think of something."

~~~Hopper~~~

We relocated back to the cabin, and were in the process of filling up the tank so El could find Will.

I paused inside the doorway if my room, glancing at Joyce as she sat with Will, crying silently.

"We're almost ready out here." I told her.

She nodded, snd I walked over, sitting down beside her.

"El's gonna fix this. Shes gonna fix it." I said.

Even as it came out of my mouth, it felt wrong. Dangerous, and...suddenly I found myself thinking of all the times over the past twenty-something years that I'd said the same thing about Riley. Shes gonna fix this, she'll take care of it, she'll k ow what to do...maybe the only reason she always knows what to do is because I made her feel like she had to know. I was counting on her to know...and now everyone else is too. Is that because of me? Because I count on her too much or...is it because it's the person that my over-reliance turned her into?

"It was my idea, Hop," she said quietly, "it was my idea for him to go in there. I don't know, I just thought maybe, after everything thst happened, after everything I saw him do, then I started thinking maybe all this time that Ive been trying so hard to protect him, Ive really just been holding him back. By not listening to him...by not trusting him. And so if I just...I don't know if I just believed, and let go that I don't know, somehow this could all work out. I don't know, it's like every choice thst I make is wrong."

"I know," I agreed, "I mean, I did the opposite, I only ever trusted Riley. Ive trusted her since she was a kid, and all she ever wanted was for me to protect her. Now she hates me, she...she threatened to cut me out of her life, said I was putting her kid in danger."

"What?" Joyce asked.

"No, shes right, Joyce, she's...it was almost like when Sara died, it was...there was nothing I could do, you know? I couldn't protect her, so with Riley I didn't even try. I mean, I left her alone down there for a year and a half, shes traumatized all over again and it's because I wasn't there for her the way I should've been. But then with Eleven I'm overprotective and she resents me for that, so...I've got one kid begging me to finally hang onto her snd the other one demanding to be let go, it's...Joyce, one of the joys of being a parent...is that you'll have a constant reminder your whole life that every choice you've made...has been wrong."

She looked at me with tears in her eyes, and I grabbed her hand in mine.

"With Riley...I was wrong. I was wrong, and she is paying the price for it, and I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to undo the hurt I've caused her," I said, "But you Joyce...you have always been there for your kids when they needed you the most. So this...it's not on you, Joyce. It's not on you." I pressed her hand to my lips.

~~~El~~~

I ducked into my room, changing into a wetsuit before joining Mike in the living room again.

"That looks nice," he told me, "Did Murray find that for you?"

"Yeah." I said, walking over and feeling the water.

"Santa Clause has good taste." He said. "Hey...back at the Squawk? Kahli, she said something weird...about this not being over, even if we kill Henry? Do you know what she's talking about?"

I did. Of course I knew...while we were in the Upside Down, Kahli showed me what the lab was doing to her, Riley, and Sara. What they wanted to do. They were trying to make more numbers, like us. She thinks that even if we kill Henry, they will just keep making more and more kids, hurting them the same way they hurt us. They did it to Riley...they did it to my niece...and they'll do it to others.

She thinks the only way to end this once and for all is for all of us to go out all at once...to end us in addition to Henry. And maybe when it comes to her and I, she has a point, but...

Riley deserves to have a life. Her own life, with Sara, and Steve, and maybe Dad finally treating her the way she deserves. I'm not going to tell her that she needs to kill herself and her daughter in order to ensure this doesn't happen again. It wouldn't be fair.

But I would be lying if I said it hasn't occurred to me what would happen to her if I did what Kahli was asking. It's like what she said in the car, Dad was a parent to me in a way that he wasn't with her...that he hadn't been since her other sister died. But was that only because of me? If I hadn't been around, if Riley was the only kid that Hop had to protect, would any of this have happened? If I'm gone...would that mean Riley would get her life back? A life with Dad and her family, a life without monsters and scientists and everything that comes with it?

But whatever conclusion I land on...it isn't as though I can tell Mike any of that. So instead, I say:

"It doesn't matter. I should warm this up."

I walk over to the kitchen sink, turning up the hot water.

"Ok, well...if it doesn't matter, then why was hop so angry at her?" He asked, trailing after me.

"It's nothing, Mike. Really." I said.

"Friends don't lie."

"I'm not lying."

"You're avoiding, that's a cheat!" He argued. "I just want to help."

"You can't help." I told him. "Not with this."

I walked around him, going back to the tank.

"Let me be the judge of that." He said, as I leaned against the edge of it. "El, come on."

"There's a lab...in the Upside Down," I admitted, "They're restarting Papa's program, using Riley and Kahli's blood. They were experimenting on Riley's baby, trying to make new numbers."

"The military?" He asked, sitting down beside me. I nodded.

"Ok, so after we kill Vecna, we destroy this new lab. End the program, like a little side quest." He suggested.

"Mike, no you don't understand. They don't need a lab to make new numbers. Henry's blood...it's in me. I'm not a monster. I know that now. But with me, with my blood...they can make more monsters. They can make more Henry's."

"And what about Riley's powers?" He asked. I furrowed my eyebrows. "She can access people's memories. What if she could...I don't know, create new memories, make them forget about you, or think you're dead? The military will always be after you, we've always known that. That's why we can't stay in Hawkins. When this is all over, we're leaving. Escaping to some far off land. Remember? Somewhere where they can't find us. Somewhere where there's at least one waterfall?"

"Mike...this isnt like one of your campaigns. You don't get to write the ending." I said, putting a hand on his face. "Not this time."

"Maybe I don't," he said, "But we do. You, me, Lucas, Max, Will, Dustin and Riley . Because this is our story, and it starts with getting Will back."