Although all of us were safe, the only thing I was thinking of was those Demodogs. Where they could potentially be. And if they were coming back. "Guys, stop quickly." Steve said and we all stopped. He put his hand on my shoulder. "You okay?" He asked me and I looked at him.

"I'm worried. What if my brother is where they are going? If they are heading to Will and my brothers with him." I said and I was about panicky he looked at me.

"He's a smart kid. He'll get himself out of the situation. Besides he won't be alone." He said to me and I felt a bit better after that.

"Thanks for that. You know I just worry." I said to him and he nodded. We then kept walking onwards.

"You're positive that was Dart?" Lucas asked Dustin.

"Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern in his butt." Dustin said and I see he clearly cared about this thing.

"He was tiny two days ago." Max said to him, these things probably have different growth cycles.

"Well, he's molted three times already." Dustin said to us and I looked at Steve then at him.

"Malted?" We asked him, that was the right word right.

"Molted. She'd his skin to make room for growth like hornworms." Dustin said I didn't even know what a hornworm was either but now wasn't the time for that.

"When's he gonna moly again?" Max asked him I looked at Dustin. Hopefully not soon.

"It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends." Dustin said and I didn't even want to think of them.

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat more than just cats." Steve said and I looked at him.

"It'll be us next." I said to him and that's when Lucas stopped Dustin.

"Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?" He asked Dustin and it was Mews.

"No, what? No." Dustin said to him and was he forgetting what happened.

"What are you talking about? He ate Mews." Steve said to him and I looked at Dustin.

"You told us this earlier." I said to him and Max looked at the two of us.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" She asked us and I guess Dustin hadn't talked pets yet.

"It's Dustin's cat." Steve said to her and Dustin looked at us.

"Steve!" Dustin shouted at her.

"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas shouted at him, he was pissed.

"No! No. No, I...No, I...He missed me. He wanted to come home." Dustin said to us and I shook my head at him. That's not what happened.

"Bullshit!" Lucas shouted at him.

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?" Dustin asked him and he just admitted to everything.

"Oh, so now you admit it?" Lucas asked him, he clearly was now.

"Guys, who cares? We have to go." Max said and she was right. I was glad that someone was there agreeing.

"I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas shouted at him and this was turning into something Steve and I wouldn't understand.

"So did you!" Dustin shouted at him, here we go.

"What?" Lucas asked before Dustin shone the torch in Max's face.

"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin shouted and that's when Max scoffed.

"A stranger?" She asked him. I looked at Steve. We just had to let them get this out.

"You wanted to tell her, too!" Lucas shouted at him. I just shook my head.

"But I didn't, Lucas, okay? I didn't tell her!" Dustin shouted and I heard screeching in the distance.

"Did you hear that?" I asked him.

"Yeah." He said and the two of us walked a little bit.

"We both broke the rule of law, okay?  So we're even. We're even." Dustin said and I wish they'd cut it out now.

"No, no! We're not even. Don't even try that. Your stupid pet could have ate us for dinner!" Lucas shouted and Steve and I kept walking.

"That was not my fault!" Dustin shouted and I looked back at them.

"Guys?" Steve said to them.

"Guys." I said to them but they weren't listening.

"He wasn't gonna eat us."  Dustin said to him. I bet he wasn't.

"He was crawling to come say hello?" Lucas asked him and I'd had enough.

"Guys!" Steve and I shouted. We then heard the screeching again. We started to head towards it.

"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Max asked before we were completely gone. I was hoping that the sound wanted to take us to a dead end. Instead it was to an overview of Hawkins.

"I don't see him." Dustin said. Lucas got his binoculars out.

"It's the lab. They were going back home." Lucas said to us. They were heading for Will.

"Or maybe they're going to evolve again." I said to them all. We then started on a walk to the lab.

"Hello? Who's there? Who's there?" I heard a familiar voice shoot. It was Johnathan.

"Steve? Y/n?" They both asked and I looked at her.

"Nancy?" We both asked as we saw them.

"Johnathan." Dustin said.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked us. We were seeing what we could do.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked them.

"We're looking for Mike and Will." She said to us and I looked at her.

"I'm looking for Hunter." I said to them and I looked at the lab.

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked and I had a feeling they were. With those monsters.

"We're not sure." Nance said to us and this wasn't too good.

"Why?" Johnathan asked and we heard the screeching again. I looked at the lab. It was louder here.

"Because of that." I said to them. This wasn't looking too good at all. That was when everyone started to talk over each other.

"We haven't seen Will- -" Dustin said and I walked with Nance. We had to go in.

"I haven't seen since..." Steve said. The power was back on.

"The power's back." Nancy said to us all.

"We gotta get in there." I said and we went to the control booth for the gate. Jonathan started  push the buttons but it didn't work. Dustin then went in.

"Let me try." Dustin said to him.

"Hang on- -" Johnathan got out to him.

"Let me try, Jonathan." Dustin said to him. Nothing was working. "Son of a bitch! You know what..." Dustin said and the gates weren't opening.

"I really hope we don't need to scale this." I said to myself. Steve then got closer.

"I could give you a boost over." He said but he was too short for that. That's when the gates opened.

"Maybe another time." I said to him with a nod.

"Hey! I got it! I got it!" Dustin said letting a chuckle out. Was it even safe to head in? I didn't know but I would for my brother. I wish we had Eleven back. How I was hoping I'd see Hunter leave that lab. Nancy and Johnathan then drove the car in. I rested my head on Steve's shoulder as he playing with the torch.

"Guys." Max said and that's when I saw two sets of headlights coming. "Guys get back." Max shouted. Hopper then stopped.

"Let's go." He said and Steve opened the door for everyone.

"Come on!" Dustin shouted and Steve shouted for everyone to get in.

"Come on, let's go! Let's go! Come on!" Steve shouted and I was last in. I had to make sure the younger ones where in first.

"Hopper, have you seen Hunter?" I asked him. 

"He's with Joyce and the others." He said and I felt better. We then went to the Byers household. I was cuddling into Steve whilst Hunter was with his friends. Will was on the sofa. Knocked out. "Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens. I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive! I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper!" Hopper said as I started walking with Steve into the dining and kitchen area. "Yes, the number that I gave you, yes. 6767...I will be here." He said before hanging the phone up.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked him, they most likely didn't. They hadn't witnessed it.

"We'll see." He said to us.

"'We'll see'? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike said but that was all we could do.

"We stay here, and we wait for help." Hopper said before walking away. Hunter came over to me.

"Sorry I didn't say where I was going." He said to me and I looked at him.

"Don't worry about it. Besides your ok, that's all that matters." I said to him and I ruffled his hair.

"But Bob's not." He said to me and he then went to sit back down again. It was silent. No one said anything. I saw Mike stand up and start walking away.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of the Hawkins AV?" Mike asked us and I looked at him.

"Really?" Lucas asked him and he looked back at us.

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?" Mike said as he came towards them.

"Yeah." Dustin, Lucas and Hunter got out. Mike then put the blue square down on the table.

"We can't let him die in vain." Mike said to us and we wouldn't. We'd fight back.

"What do you want to do, Mike? The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own." Dustin said to him and we couldn't. We needed help.

"Demo-dogs?" Max asked him.

"Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words- -" Dustin started explaining. He wasn't getting the girl.

"Okay." Max got out, she wasn't a fan of him I could tell.

"I mean, when it was just dart, maybe..." Dustin started off.

"But there's an army now." Lucas said and we'd need more people so we could take them down.

"Precisely." Dustin answered.

"His army." Mike said to us.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked him.

"Who's army?" I asked him, I was lost in the conversation.

"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike said and that's when he went off we followed him. He showed us a drawing.

"The shadow monster." Dustin said as he looked at it.

"It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." Mike said to us all, so we had to stop the shadow monster.

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked, I was starting to understand this slightly now.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything." Mike said to us, Will was a vessel for everything.

"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." Steve said to us all.

"I think I get it." I said to them all.

"Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And of the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Mike said to us. Everything was connected.

"And so does Dart." Lucas said to him.

"So, Will's a vessel of sorts." Hunter said I always knew us Solace siblings thought the same.

"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind." Mike said and I had no idea what that was.

"Hive mind?" Steve and I asked at the same time.

"What even is that?" I asked them all.

"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism." Dustin said and I still didn't understand it.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike said to all of us.

"Like the mind flayer." Dustin said and I didn't even know what that was.

"What?" Max, Steve and I all asked after Lucas had snapped his fingers. That was when the D&D book came out.

"The mind flayer." Dustin said as he opened the book on the kitchen table.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper asked him.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers." Dustin said and none of those words meant a single thing to me.

"Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper said to us and I'd agree but after everything that happened. Anything was possible.

"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor- -" Dustin started before Lucas cut him off.

"Analogy." Lucas corrected him. It didn't matter at this time.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is." Dustin said to us all. This wasn't helping us.

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing- -" Nancy started but she was cut off.

"Flayer. Mind Flayer." Dustin corrected her.

"What does it want?" She asked him. I was hoping he had a good answer.

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin said and I saw Steve look at him.

"Like the Germans?" Steve asked his history was no correct.

"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin corrected him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis." Steve said to him.

"Uh...if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Dustin said to us all, I could tell that Hopper had enough.

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike said to us and I looked at him.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas said to us.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve said as he started walking away.

"Hey, don't get those thoughts." I said to him but he wouldn't listen to me.

"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." Nancy started. I then looked over at Mike.

"We kill everything it controls." Mike said to us all.

"That's how we do defeat it." Hunter said to us all.

"We win." Dustin said to us.

"Theoretically." Lucas said to us. We just need to make this a real thing now.

"Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Hopper asked as he took the manual from Nance.

"No. No, no Fire- -No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because...because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the Mind Flayer, it...it...it likes brains. It's just a game. It's just a game." Dustin said and we had no hope. No hope at all.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper said as he dropped the book. This wasn't going to help anyone.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin said to him as he started to walk away.

"We are!" Hopper shouted, I wish they'd hurry up.

"How are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike said to him, this things was undefeatable for now.

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper shouted at him.

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." Mike said to him.

"We know the monsters are gonna moot again. We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin said that was when I saw Joyce appear.

"They're right. We have to kill it. I want to kill it." Joyce said, she'd lost the person she'd loved today.

"Me, too." Hopper said to her.

"I- -" She started.

"Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper said to her and she looked at him.

"No. But he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it weakness." Mike said to us. Will was the key.

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." Max said to him and maybe he'd double cross us.

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike said. That's when Mike and Hopper went outside. I stayed inside with Hunter.

"You okay bud?" I asked him as we started looking around for things to use in the shed.

"I'm okay as I could be. I saw what that thing did to him." He said to me and I put a hand on his shoulder.

"You can talk to me about it whenever your ready." I said to him and he looked up at me.

"I will, but not tonight." He said to me and I nodded. We managed to find some things before taking it to the shed. We had to make sure you wouldn't be able to tell what it even was. Johnathan then brought him out with Joyce. The final touches were added to make it look official.

"All right, you ready?" Hopper asked Joyce. Steve put his arm around me. It gave me a sense of comfort.

"Yeah." Joyce said before Hopper managed to wake Will up. We then went back to the house. Steve started to practice his swings and I was plotting on my shooting rang skills. Soon the lights started to flicker. Johnathan, Mike and Hunter were still in the shed. I was wondering how they were. I was hoping they were breaking ground. The rest of us were waiting for something. That's when Hopper came in.

"What happened?" Dustin asked as Hopper sat down at the table. Writing stuff down.

"I think he's talking, just not with words." He said, he was writing Morse code.

"What is that?" Steve asked us all.

"Morse code." We all said to him.

"H-E-R-E." Hopper spelt out to us.

"Here." We all said.

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper said and that's when Johnathan came in and got the boombox. We then started to decipher more codes. Hopper was sending them via radio.

"Dash, dot, dash, dot." Lucas and Dustin got out.

"Yeah, got it." Lucas said as he went down the list.

"C." Max said and Nance wrote it down. We kept going.

"L." Lucas got out. "O." He said after a second. It had to be close. "S." He said.

"Close?" I asked them all.

"E." He said.

"Close what?" I asked them all. No one knew.

"G. A. T. E." He said. Close gate, but what gate. We then looked at the notepad.

"'Close gate.'" We all said that's when the phone started to ring.

"Shit. Shit." Dustin said before he answered and put it back down. It then rang again. Nance took it off the wall.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked us. He probably could.

"It's just a phone. I could be anywhere. Right?" Steve asked and I looked at him.

"It's not a distinctive thing. We could be in a different state for all he knows." I said trying to make myself believe it. I didn't though. I then heard screeching again. "Shit!" I shouted. He knew where we was. We were screwed.

"That's not good." Dustin said that's when the others got in the house. I got my gun ready.

"Hey. Hey, hey away from the windows!" Hopper shouted at the three at the window. "Do you know how to use this?" Hopper asked Johnathon as he had a gun in held out a gun to him.

"What?" He asked him.

"Can you use this?" Hopper asked and that's when Nance walked forwards.

"I can." She said to him and he threw the gun to her. She caught it. We all got ready. Guns pointed at the window and door.

"Where are they?" Max asked us. We didn't answer. We heard the growling from outside. We then heard thudding from outside.

"Hunter, behind me now." I said to him and he was behind me.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asked they were stalking us. We then heard a snarl. Before groaning and more screeching. It then stopped and one was thrown through the window. Dead.

"Holy shit." Dustin got out.

"Is it dead?" Max asked us and Hopper kicked it. We then heard the door creak. The latches then started to undo. It was Eleven. She was back. Home. I smiled.