Wheelers Household

You stand in front of El cleaning off her face with a clean, wet cloth. You wipe the last bit of dirt off her face and place the cloth in the sink.

You sigh, "That's better."

She turns to look at her reflection in the mirror, she touches the top of her head and looks over at you.

"You don't...need it."

"Still pretty?"

"Yes, pretty." You assure her, she looks back at the mirror, a smile playing onto her lips.

"Ten?" El turns over to look at you.

"Y-yeah-" You respond surprised, looking back at her.

"I'm glad I'm home," She responds, smiling brightly at you.

You look down at the ground for a moment, trying to form a good response. "I'm glad you're home too." El leans closer to you and closes her eyes.

You outstretch you arms, preparing to hug her.

This is the closest you've ever been with a person, let alone a girl.

Dustin slams open the door with Mike beside him, their both panting. "Guys, I think Lucas might be in trouble." Mike and Dustin lead you to the Super-Comm. He picks it up and holds it for the three of you to hear. Lucas' voice is heard distinctly on the radio but you can't make out any words.

"Remember how he said he was looking for the gate Mike? What if-- What if he found it?" Dustin asks, his fear beginning to take over.

"What's he saying?" You ask, Dustin and Mike both shake their heads.

"We don't know, he's out of range." Dustin responds.

"S-son of a bitch!" Lucas yells, he says something else but it's all unintelligible under the static.

Mike grabs the Super-Comm and holds it up to his mouth. "This is Mike, Lucas, do you copy?"

"Yes, yes I copy! They know about Eleven and Ten get out of there! The bad men are coming!" Mike puts down the Super-Comm and looks over at you and El.

"Stay here." Mike and Dustin both run upstairs and you listen to their footsteps underneath the floor.

Mike comes down the steps and motions for you to follow, you four go out the back door. Mike and Dustin grab their bikes while you and El run through the grass.

Dustin and Mike both stop, allowing you to get onto their small bikes. You look over your shoulder to your right and see about ten Hawkins repair vans, but there's someone you know standing beside the truck. Watching you, beside about twenty other repair men.

Dr. Brenner eyes you with intensity as Mike and Dustin both begin to pedal down the hill. You watch with bated breath as Dr. Brenner and the fake repair men get into their cars and start them up; everyone in your party knowing who their looking for.

You cut through another backyard as Dustin grabs his headset piece. "This is Dustin, over." He listens to Lucas speak before yelling out to El and Mike.

"Lucas will meet us at Elm and Cherry road!" He pressed the headset piece again. "Alright meet you there lucas, Over and out."

Dustin pedals behind Mike, quickly following right behind them. You look down the road behind you, the road aligned with the leaves of fall and see the vans catching up at a good pace.

"Shit! Follow me!" Mike yells as he goes down a drive-way and into a backyard. You watch as Mike almost crashes into two children playing tag. Dustin drops down off the hill and onto another road.

Lucas swerves into view from your left, out of breath. His cheeks are slightly red, a simple sign of the amount of exhaustion he's feeling. In Between pants to the left of you, "Where are they?" He says in-between breaths.

"I think we lost them." Dustin chimes, head switching in every direction, you hear tires screeching around a corner as Mike begins to yell.

"Go! Go! Go!" All five of you pedal down the street. The vans behind you catch up quickly, the surprise from seeing them forcing Dustin, Mike and Lucas to pedal faster.

With nowhere to go, everyone speeds down the road. The bad men right on your tails, almost a hair behind.

Suddenly another car pulls out from in front of you and you know what you must do. It might just be the nail in the coffin to make you pass out. Still, you wait till the car gets closer and closer until almost, in slow motion, you lean forward, focusing on the car and your breathing. Just before it reaches you, you begin to lift, it's hard and when Eleven helps lift it's a needed help. Together you two send the van flying and it crashes behind you. Landing onto other cars and stopping the bad men from pursuing. The car lands upside down and almost immediately catches fire.

You wipe your nose and notice there's only a small amount of blood. That was tough but are you getting stronger or more efficient when using your power. Or was it just because Eleven helped you that there's less blood.

You keep riding till you reach the Junkyard where you had gotten into a fight with Lucas earlier. You hop off the Bike and take a seat beside El on the ground. Adrenaline beginning to leave your system.

"Holy Shit! Did you see what he did to that car!" Dustin says, excitedly. Barely allowing himself to even breathe.

"No Dustin, we missed it." Mike rolls his eyes.

"B-but, it was El too.." You stammer, your small vocabulary not helping.

El shakes her head beside you, "I helped at the end." She says, smiling at the end.

"That w-was-" Dustin stammers.

"Awesome!" Lucas finishes his sentence for him. Lucas walks up to you and El and gets on one knee.

"All the stuff I said about you both being a traitor and stuff. I- I was wrong. I'm sorry." He apologizes and puts his hand on your shoulder and El's.

"Friends. Friends don't lie. I'm sorry too." El also apologizes. You look over at Lucas, feeling a knot of sympathy growing in your stomach.

"I'm sorry too." You hold out your hand for him to shake which he does.

He lets go as Dustin and Mike begin to speak to each other.

It's quiet, the air thick on this fall day. A slow breeze flows past, sending shivers up and down your spine.

"I thought you were—" Lucas mumbles under his breath, slight fog forming in front of his face with the words.

"What?" You ask, looking at the boy incredulously.

"I thought you were bad but your not that bad." He finishes, finally looking from the ground to meet your eye. "Well." He turns around quickly, his breath quick as he walks away.

You and Eleven both share a look of surprise at the boys kind words, but smile all the while, any peace within your small intense world is worthwhile.

After a few minutes, Lucas organizes three branches of wood into a triangle and calls everyone over.

He grabs a rock and traces the outside right rim of the triangle. "This is Randolph road." He goes to the top of the right rim of the triangle circles the entire thing with the rock. "The fence goes around the entire thing, and the lab is right here. The gate has to be in there, it has to be!" He places an empty soda can in the middle of the triangle.

"Well who owns Hawkins Lab?" Dustin asks.

"Sign says 'Department of energy." Lucas responds, looking over at Dustin.

"Well what's that mean?"

"It means, Government, Military stuff like that." Mike answers for Lucas.

"Then why does it say energy?"

"Just trust me. Alright? My dad told me before." Mike tells Dustin.

"Mike's right, there's Soldiers stationed out front of it." Lucas adds.

"What, do they make like Light bulbs or something?"

"No, weapons... To fight the Russians, commies and stuff." Mike says, He rolls his eyes. You can tell he just wishes Dustin would understand.

"Weapons." Lucas says to himself as he begins to realize.

"Oh shit!" Dustin grabs his blue, red and white cap.

"That place is locked down like a fortress." Lucas sighs, and rubs his forehead.

"Then what do we do?" Dustin asks, Mike shakes his head.

"I don't know, we can't go home. We're fugitives now." Mike responds to Dustin's question.

You listen for a moment as you hear a helicopter's blades begin to whirl a little ways off. You look towards it and see the helicopter flying right towards you.

"Guys." You say, everyone stops talking and follows your gaze to the giant flying object.

"Oh Shit!" Mike yells, the three of the boys shove their bikes under a rusty bus that barely sits on the old black tires and make a mad dash inside.

"Get down." You whisper to El, the two of you crouch next to each other against one of the chairs. Listening as the helicopter begins to pass over top of you.

The helicopter still flies around near the Junkyard, every seat, as quiet as mice.

"Mike? Mike!" Mike walks over to Lucas' backpack and opens it up, taking the Super-Comm out, he listens to a girl speak over the radio. "Mike? Mike, it's an emergency."

"Is that your sister?" Lucas asks, he tries taking the Super-Comm but moves it away at the last second. "She said it was an emergency Mike. It's your sister. I think you can talk to her." Lucas says, and rolls his eyes.

"What if the Bad Men kidnapped her?" Mike asks, Nancy begins to speak through the radio again. "Mike, we need you to answer!"

"It's like Lando Calrissian. Don't answer!" Dustin adds onto the conversation.

A man comes onto the radio, "Listen kid, it's the chief we know you got the two kids and we know who's after you. Just tell us where you are." The chief says through the Radio.

"Why is she with the Chief?" Lucas asks.

"How the hell does he know about El and Ten?" Dustin questions, he looks over at you and El then back at the Super-Comm.

"We can protect you, but you gotta answer. Are you there, do you copy? Over." The chief insists that Mike answers.

Mike brings the radio up to his mouth, "Yes, I copy. It's Mike, we're here. Over."

You wait silently for a reply, or maybe you just zoned out but when Dustin begins pacing through-out the Bus you're brought back down to earth.

"Will you please stop pacing?" You ask Dustin, him doing it is just making you nervous.

"Maybe, Maybe Mike was right after all. Maybe it was all a trap and the bad men are coming to get us right now!" Dustin says as he continues to pace.

"Why would the Chief set us up? Nancy, Maybe." Lucas responds. Mike throws up his hands in exasperation.

"Lando Calrissian." Dustin adds.

"Can you shut up about Lan-" Lucas almost finishes but the sound of a car pulling up echoes in the bus. The five of you gather near the front of the Bus as a new car pulls beside the Bus. Another pulls in front the exit of the Junkyard. The five of you crouch-walk to the back of the bus, taking places behind the hard chairs.

"Lando." Dustin says.

"Shush." You whisper and bring a finger to your mouth.

You listen as the doors of the cars open, your estimate is that there's about three of them. You hold your breath as you hear the door to the bus open slowly. The creaking sends shivers down your spine.

You hear loud grunts and all of you stand up to catch a view of who it is. The door to the bus creaks open and a man steps inside. He wears a police outfit with a hat, his badge shines in the sun as he looks over at all of you.

He pants, "Hurry up, let's go." You all hurry outside the bus and get inside the chief's car.

..

By the time you reach the Byers house, it's already night time. As soon as you pull up, three people from inside the house rush out to meet you.

As soon as Mike gets out of the car, the girl who looks like his sister, Nancy from the picture rushes over to Mike and hugs him.

"I was worried about you." She says.

"S-Same here." Mike responds.

Nancy looks over Mike's shoulder and looks at El. "Is that my dress?"

Before any of you get to answer, "So did you guys figure anything out?" Jonathan asks, You nod and he walks inside the house and sits down on the couch as you all begin to pile in.

Mike grabs a piece of paper, he draws a line an acrobat then a flea and begins to explain it to Joyce, Nancy, and Jonathan. "Okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat. Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space." Mike puts the paper down on the table.

"A gate," Lucas says. "We tracked it to Hawkins Lab.

"With our compasses." Dustin adds.

Dustin notices the look on their faces of confusion and begins to explain. "So, the gate has a really strong electro-magnetic field, and that can change the compass needles."

"Is this gate underground?" The chief asks from a recliner to the right of the couch.

"We don-" You begin to say.

"Yes." Eleven tells him.

"Near a large water tank?"

"Yes."

"How do— did-"You stammer, surprised at the man's knowledge, you look over at the chief but he doesn't even send a noticeable glance your way.

"Is there any way you could reach will in this- This-" Joyce questions.

"Upside Down." You answer for her.

El nods, "Is there any way you could reach my friend Barbara?" Nancy asks, El nods again.

A few minutes later El sits on a chair in front of a table, the Super-Comm on the static channel and a black and white photo of Barbra in front of her. She closes her eyes and the light above starts to flicker.

Soon after she opens her eyes and she shakes her head, "I'm sorry."

Joyce looks at El, confused. "What do you mean?" Joyce asks.

"I can't find them." El responds.

El nose starts to bleed and she excuses herself to the bathroom.

"Whenever they use they're powers, they get weak. The more energy they use, the more tired they'll get." Mike says.

"Like, he flipped the van earlier. It was awesome." Dustin blurts out, he's still very excited about what you did.

"But she's drained. Like a bad battery." You explain to them all at the table. "Same thing happens for me when I use my powers, I just have a higher resistance to it for some reason."

"Well... How do we make her better?" Joyce asks.

"We don't. We just have to wait and try again." You respond.

"Well, how long?" Nancy questions, you shrug.

"The bath," Eleven says from behind you. Everyone was tuned into the conversation that you all didn't notice Eleven who had just left the bathroom.

"What?" Joyce asks.

"I can find them in the bath."

You watch as Dustin walks over to Joyce's phone and begins to call someone. It rings for a moment before the person on the other line answers.

"Mr. Clarke, it's Dustin. Mhm. I just. I have a science question." He listens for a moment before he speaks. "Do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks? Specifically, how to build one." He listens again as the person on the other line speaks. "Fun. You said we should never stop being curious and we should open every curiosity door we find. Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?!" Dustin grabs a notepad from a nearby table and starts writing stuff down on it.

"Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" Dustin asks Joyce.

"Good, then we just need Salt. A lot of it."

"How much is a lot?" Chief asks.

"1,500 pounds." Dustin responds.

At the school

Everyone gets out of the car while you, El, and Joyce go inside the nurse's office to find some bandage to wrap around El's eyes.

Joyce quickly finds some tape and begins to unravel it. She and El both sit down in seats in front of each other and begin to talk in hushed whispers.

"You both are very brave. What you're doing for me.. for Will. For my family." Joyce sighs and grabs El's hands. "Me and Ten are both gonna be there with you the whole time, and if it ever gets too scary.. just let me and Ten know. Okay?" Joyce asks.

"Yeah, just

El nods, "Okay."

"You ready?" You ask. El nods.

The three of you head out into the gymnasium, everyone stands near the pool and you can hear the static coming from the radio from even this far away.

El walks over to the pool, she takes off her socks, she hands the Watch to Mike, Joyce puts the taped over goggles to El and she steps into the pool.

You and Joyce guide her slowly to the middle of the pool, once you let go she lays down, her face barely above the water.

The lights shut off and the only thing providing light is the moon shining from the outside windows.

You listen as electricity begins pulsating, "What's that sound?" Nancy asks.

"I-I don't know."

"She's getting stressed out." you say.

"Where is Barb, is she okay?" Nancy questions El.

"Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone." She repeats. You push her closer as she begins to start screaming. "Gone! Gone! Gone!" You and Joyce grab her shoulders and Begin speaking to her.

"Don't worry. It's okay, you're safe." You say.

"It'll all be fine." Joyce adds. You both repeat it about three times and Eleven calms down. You keep hold of her right shoulder as Joyce holds the left.

"Castle Byers." Eleven whispers.

She's quiet for a few seconds before she speaks again. "Will?"

Everyone trades glances. Joyce starts to speak, "Tell him we're coming and for him to stay where he is."

"Hurry." You hear Will whisper through the radio.

You try to hear him again but start to hear sobbing, "Elev-" You begin to speak but she sits up fast and throws the mask off. She scrambles backwards into your arms.

"Are you okay?" Joyce asks, rubbing El's shoulder.

Hopper gets El a towel, You, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and El all sit on the bleachers. El wraps the towel around her body as she leans on your shoulder.

You all sit there for a while, you wrap your arm around her and she snuggles closer.

Joyce and The chief both go out the gymnasium doors. Leaving you, El, Jonathan, Nancy, and the party left.

You all sit there for a while like that, and it's a nice moment. For however long it lasts.

...

"If I leave there will be trouble." Will sings to himself, rubbing his body with his wet hands to keep himself warm.