a plan, hopefully

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Gabe sat beside Will on the edge of the fountain in the middle of Starcourt Mall. Everyone else was either standing or sitting around, all their faces pale as the three separate groups caught each other up. Joyce's group spoke up first, explaining about the Mayor, Larry Kline, being involved in some shady Russian shit (more evil Russians. Great) and the kidnapping of a scientist, Alexei, who they had taken to Murray's home in Illinois (that explained the road trip) in order to translate everything the man was yammering. That was how they'd learned that the gate had been reopened, and how they immediately needed to get back home for the kids—especially Alina, El, and Will, who would be most in danger when the Mind Flayer resurfaced. It was a thrilling story, and Gabe was proud of Joyce for kicking the Mayor where the sun didn't shine for alerting the Russians to their presence at the fair, which was how Alexei had died.

Then Dustin, with the help of Steve and Robin, explained how he'd overheard a secret Russian code on his Cerebro the night he tried to contact Suzie, and had immediately rushed to Scoops Ahoy the next day in an attempt to translate it. Robin ended up cracking it, and with the help of Erica, who was small enough to fit into the vent system (that explained why Steve and Robin kept giving her free ice cream), she had let them into a hidden room that actually turned out to be an elevator, plunging them deep underground and allowing them to see first-hand the intricate machine the Russians were using to open the gate. It was strange, Gabe thought, crossing and uncrossing his legs as he listened, how everything had gotten connected, even though each group had no idea what the two others were doing. And it was this connection that had led them all together.

Mike was the last to explain all the shit the party had been through. Gabe watched Joyce, who was sitting with Alina, stroking her daughter's hair, went even paler as he, with the help of Max, wove the tale of their journey. She looked like she was desperately wishing she had been there for them.

"The Mind Flayer," Mike continued now, "it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."

"And it almost did," said Max. "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"Yeah, and I nearly got flayed," Alina piped up. Everyone turned to her. This was certainly new information. She hadn't said anything about this. Though maybe it was because she didn't want anyone to worry about her, wonder about how close she'd been to disappearing entirely. "In Billy's mind," she elaborated. "Heather... I wasn't thinking. I let her get too close."

"Jesus Christ," Joyce muttered, and doubled her hold on the girl.

Hopper, who was holding a calmer El in his arms and was wearing a Hawaiian shirt that was very similar to Gabe's, spoke up. "How big is this thing? The actual Mind Flayer, I mean?"

"It's big," said Jonathan. "Thirty feet, at least."

Lucas swallowed. "Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." Hopper immediately glared, and Lucas hastily added a "Sorry."

"Okay, so just to be clear," began Steve, "this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?"

"Yes." Nancy nodded.

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

"Yes, exactly."

"Yeah, okay," said Steve, seeming a little overwhelmed. Probably because all of this was completely and utterly insane. "I—Yeah, I'm just making sure."

"The flayed," Alina said. "I saw it happen back at the hospital, with Tom. He was dead, and then he started convulsing, and this weird slime shit started leaking out of his body, and it was like he deflated into a pile of goo, but the goo was still alive. And then it combined with the Bruce goop, and it made that monster we fought in the hospital. That one was only made of two people, though, and the one we fought must've been made of at least twenty."

"Yeah," said Gabe, queasy at the thought of so many people dying. "The Mind Flayer was having them eat fertilizer and guzzling chemicals and shit. And because they weren't really human, they didn't die from the stuff. That's how whatever they turned into was made."

Joyce shuddered at the thought. "Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?"

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

"But if we close the gate again—" Will started.

"We cut the brain off from the body."

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

"Yoo-hoo!" the sound of Murray's voice startled them all into turning around. The bald man was walking up to them, waving his arms, papers in hand. "Yoo-hoo!" he repeated.

He gathered them all around a table at the food court, slamming the poorly drawn maps down. "Okay," he began, "this is what Alexei called 'the hub.'" He pointed at a room in the middle of one of the maps. "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" asked Hopper.

Murray pointed at another spot on the map. "Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so."

Erica, who had barely said a word this entire time—probably too busy thinking about ice cream—finally spoke up. "More like five hundred." She stepped forward, hands on her hips, as Murray turned to face her. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry," Murray snapped, "who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair," the little girl sassed. "Who are you?"

The man blinked. "Murray... Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman," Erica began, "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for twenty-four hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

Lucas blinked, and then rubbed his nose. His little sister seemed to have a talent for embarrassing him.

Murray looked more offended than embarrassed, though. "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" he snapped.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

As Murray's eyes bulged, Lucas sputtered out an, "Erica!"

"Just the facts!"

"She's right," Dustin piped up. "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may I?" he stepped forward, up towards the map, and Murray stepped back.

"Please," he said, with a tone of resentment clear in his voice. Gabe gathered that he didn't like kids very much. Or teenagers. Probably anyone under the age of twenty-five. Which meant he was probably picturing that he was on a far-off beach somewhere, far away from the mob of kids he had to deal with.

Dustin sat down at the table and slid the crinkled map towards him. "Okay, see this room here?" he asked. "This is a storage facility." He circled one of the boxes (Gabe honestly didn't understand this map at all) with his pencil. "There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system." He drew a line that connected to another box. "That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

"You can show us the way?" Hopper repeated.

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

"No." Hopper's tone was firm, and Dustin's grin fell as the Chief shook his head at him. "Nope. No way in hell am I bringing two kids down there with me."

"But—"

"That's final. It's too dangerous."

"Hopper," began Gabe slowly, "in case you didn't hear Dustin, he, Erica, Steve and Robin were already down there. They've already been in danger. And they can help you."

"And I said it's not happening," snapped Hopper, glaring down at Gabe, who flinched at the heavy weight of his stare. "Joyce, Murray and I are going in there ourselves, and you all are going to head to Murray's house in Illinois. It's safe there. Nobody will get to you there."

Immediately, everyone burst into protests. A safe house? In Illinois? So what, they were supposed to just sit around while the adults risked their necks in an attempt to close the gate? What if they died? What if they couldn't close the gate? The Mind Flayer was still after them, and it had been proven that walls weren't enough to keep it out.

It was bullshit. But Hopper wouldn't even hear any of their logical arguments. He just headed off and prepared himself, leaving everyone mutinous.

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

"Yep, most likely," sighed Dustin.

"You guys survived," Lucas pointed out, causing the boy to whirl around to face them, the members of the party he hadn't seen in what felt like forever.

"Barely," he said. "We could've really used you guys down there."

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

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

"Yeah," said Gabe. "If I'd known you were sneaking around Russian bases, I would've totally helped. I mean, that sounds super cool, even if you were like, super close to dying. But I mean, I'm used to that, I guess, given that we were also almost dying up here. And I got beat up. And—" he noticed the others' stares, "Never mind. This isn't the point. We missed you a lot, Dustin. The party isn't complete without you."

"Yeah," said Will. "We missed you big-time."

And then Dustin pulled Gabe, Lucas, Mike, Will and Alina all into a hug. A mix of party past and present, a mix of friends old and new. A bond that had threaded itself so deep through each of their souls that Gabe doubted it could be broken even if they moved to Alaska. He leaned into the hug, a smile on his face that only grew bigger when Dustin said, "I missed you guys, too. Big-time."

"Please don't cry, nerds," snipped Erica. Everyone broke the hug and faced her, faces warm. Lucas clenched his jaw.

"Erica."

"Keep saying my name, see what happens. Also, just to be clear, this has nothing to do with Alina. She can cry all she wants."

Alina laughed and high-fived her.

"Hey, heads up." Everyone turned to see Hopper, who tossed Dustin a walkie-talkie. "You can navigate," he continued, "just from someplace safe."

"It's not that simple," said Dustin.

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

"Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower. But for that to work, you need to have 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." He grinned. "Oh, wait." He tapped his chest with the antenna of the walkie-talkie. "That's me. If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start." He looked to Erica. "And a car."

And that was how Dustin got access for him, Erica, Steve and Robin to ride in the car Hopper had stolen from an innocent man in a gas station who was probably a little too rich for his own good. Before Dustin left, Alina gave him a tight hug, ruffling her hand through his curly hair. "Be safe, dickwad. I love you, man."

"I love you, asshole," Dustin replied. "Try not to get possessed again. Good luck."

Alina grinned, and then she moved out of the way so Gabe could say goodbye. He threw his arms around his friend, too, and held him tight. "Don't die," he told him. "Even though the likelihood of that happening on the hill is low. Just don't."

"Don't die on the way to Murray's," Dustin said. And then he was gone, and Gabe was alone, preparing for a road trip that would never occur.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧