— THE HIVE MIND
season two — episode eight

CHAPTER SEVEN

AS SOON AS THEY had heard those distant screeches, they immediately got to work on trying to get inside of the lab. They circled around each other, the ones who were familiar with each other discussing random things that Oliver truly wasn't listening to. His eyes were fixated on the eery-looking lab in front of him.

His eyebrows furrowed when the lights suddenly turned on and he shoved Lucas and Dustin out of the way, getting closed. "Guys." They turned to him, which forced them to also look at the lab. "The power's back," Nancy mumbled before the capable ones ran over to what seemed to be a control booth.

Jonathan scrambled inside and started pushing down on all of the buttons, praying that one of them would open the barb-wired gate that kept them from getting inside. Oliver made it to the other side just as Dustin started to shove Jonathan out of the way, trying to have his go at opening the door when his attempts failed. "Let me try."

Jonathan stayed where he was and Dustin wrapped his hand around one of his arms, shoving him back. "Let me try, Jonathan!" He hovered his thumb over the big red 'OPEN' button before continuing pressing down on it, frowning when he realized his attempts were failing as well.

"Son of a bitch! You know what. . ." He didn't give up, however, and continued to press the button nonstop. Oliver smiled softly at him, beginning to grow quite fond of the boy. Oliver turned his head when a faint beep echoed around them. He raised an eyebrow when the gate opened but didn't think much of it. He assumed that they had to have restarted everything since they had supposedly shut down the lab.

"Hey! I got it!" Oliver highly doubted that it was him who unlocked the gate but let him have his fun. Nancy and Jonathan scrambled into Jonathan's car, quickly telling the others to stay there before they sped off, leaving them in the cold October weather while they hoped their friends were okay.

Oliver leaned up against the control booth, the adrenaline he had was finally wearing off and his leg was killing him. He looked down at his leg, pulling up his pant leg ever-so-slightly. He frowned at the sight of the makeshift bandage that was wrapped around it already soaked in blood. Thank god he didn't wear his favorite jeans.

Steve caught sight of him and frowned, slowly making his way over to him. He sat down on the yellow half-pillar that was beside him, facing away from him. "So. . ." Oliver didn't look over at him, only staring at the shiny metal gates in front of him. "How are you handling all this?"

Oliver laughed, shaking his head at the unbelievably stupid question. "Well, for one, I almost died while fighting a dog-lizard and then I find out there's a lab that makes fucking human weapons. . ." He turned to him as Steve did too, a sarcastic and bitter smile on his face. "I'm doing swell." Steve laughed softly, turning to face him now.

      "Yeah, sorry for dragging you into this. Thought we could use your brains." He shrugged and waved him off, the pain in his foot disappearing momentarily. Steve's eyes flickered down to his leg as if he were inspecting it. Oliver noticed this and smiled softly, pushing him off of the wall before walking over to stand in front of Steve, reaching over to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I'll be okay. Don't worry." Steve looked up at him, nodding slowly.

"You better be." He muttered and Oliver shook his head, the smile on his face growing. Oliver's eyes moved past Steve when he saw a blur of fiery red. He furrowed his eyebrows as he watched Max get closer to the gate, peering past it with a squint. "Guys?" Steve turned around and yanked her out of the way just as a car zoomed past them. Jonathan's car to be exact.

Oliver straightened his posture, putting some weight onto his leg in hopes of getting used to the feeling. After their car went by, another pulled up. A Police car. The chief's to be more specific. "Let's go." Steve wasted no time and ran over, pulling the door open. He turned around and ushered the rest of them in. "Come on, get in! Get in!" The teenagers with him bolted over and crawled in, not even bothering to fasten their seatbelts as the chief sped away, abandoning the lab.

Their seating arrangements were quite uncomfortable, but they didn't dare to say anything, truthfully just wanting to get out of the cold and danger. Oliver sat in the backseat with Max next to him, next to her was Lucas. On the floor of the car sat Dustin with his knees pulled up to his chest. Oliver would've laughed at how stupid he looked but he knew that then wasn't the time. Up front was Steve — who was turned around and watching the lab get farther and farther away.

The car ride was silent and awkward. At least for Oliver. He was surrounded by people he didn't know very well and was now speeding to a house he didn't know. He wasn't even sure some of them knew he was there.

So he remained quiet the entire time, looking out of the window at the cold and gloomy atmosphere of Hawkins. When they actually arrived at their destination, he waited until the others got out before he even thought about leaving, making sure that they were alright. He climbed over the front seat and stepped out onto the gravel below them, looking at the house in front of him with a dazed sort of look. Steve, who had yet to go inside, watched him carefully.

"Come on." Steve walked over to him and wrapped a secure arm around him. "Let's go." Oliver placed his hand over his shoulder in order to help support him and Steve grabbed ahold of it, helping him walk into the house. When they got inside, Dustin was already waiting for them with bandages and disinfectant, a goofy smile on his face. Oliver couldn't help but smile back at him, shaking his head. "Come on, put him over here so I can help him." Max peered over Steve's shoulder and immediately rushed over.

"Let me help. I skateboard so I know how to clean and treat wounds." Oliver nodded his head before allowing himself to be set onto the ground by Steve, leaning up against a wall. Max and Dustin both got down onto their knees, Dustin rolling up his pant leg and removing his makeshift bandage — which was now covered in fresh and dried blood — while Max told Steve to go get some soapy water and a rag.

As soon as the male returned, Max grabbed the bowl from him and dipped the rag inside, soaking it completely before ringing it out and setting it on top of his wound, carefully cleaning the dried blood around it. Oliver scrunched his nose the closer she got to the actual wound, mentally preparing himself for an intense sting that he knew the disinfectant was going to cause him to feel. He knew all too well how much the liquid burned, and he was not looking forward to it.

Max applied a little pressure onto his leg while she tried to get the dried blood off of the actual wound and Oliver felt like his soul left his body. He bit down on his lip and ran a hand through his hair, pushing the messy blonde strands out of his eyes. "Sorry." She muttered, frowning a little as she witnessed his reaction. He quickly waved her off with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it." He told her, looking back down at the wound — which looked a lot better than it felt now that the blood had been cleaned up.

From the side, Dustin prepared to hand Max another rag that had disinfectant poured onto it. As soon as Max set the now red-stained rag into the bowl of soapy water, he handed her the other rag and Max looked up at Oliver. "This is gonna burn like a bitch." He nodded his head and frowned, looking away from the wound so that, hopefully, he wouldn't feel it as much. His father had always told him to do that whenever he had to get shots or something.

That was far from it, though. He hissed in pain as soon as she set the rag onto his leg. Subconsciously, he grabbed ahold of the hand that was in the corner of his eyes, not even thinking about who it belonged to. Their fingers tangled together and he squeezed it, feeling comforted by the squeeze he received back.

Steve looked down when he suddenly felt someone grab his hand before looking over at Oliver, a small smile planted on his face. He didn't even think about letting go and instead squeezed his hand, trying to help him calm down in a way. He couldn't help but feel his cheeks warm up slightly, looking at the ground to avoid letting anyone see him. However, Dustin looked at their intertwined fingers and then at Steve and smirked, eyeing the pink tint that covered his face.

Max finished up quickly, knowing how badly the disinfectant burned. She pulled the rag away from his skin and quickly bandages him up, making sure that it was tight enough to add pressure. She moved the supplies that they had used to the side and gave him a quick thumbs up. "You're all good now." She told him with a small smile. Oliver looked down at the fresh bandage and nodded his head. "Thanks."

She nodded and got up, taking the supplies with her as she walked off. Dustin followed after her quickly, gushing about how cool she was and if she could teach him. Oliver slowly turned when he felt a weight in his hand and awkwardly pulled his hand away from Steve's, clearing his throat. Steve seemed to have the same reaction and the two boys looked away from each other, one messing with his hands while the other rubbed the back of his neck. "Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens!" Oliver looked up as soon as he heard the chief yelling into the phone.

"I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive!" Those words sent shivers down Oliver's spine. A few hours ago he didn't believe a thing that came out of Steve or Dustin's mouths, but now, he was living it. And apparently, they had already gone through this before and he felt bad.

"I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper!" Oliver could tell that he was starting to get annoyed with whoever was on the other end and pursed his lips. "Yes, the number that I have you, yes. 6767. . . I will be here." At that he slammed the phone back onto its hook, hanging up on whoever was speaking to him. Oliver pushed himself off of the floor and made his way over to the kitchen table — where almost everyone else was.

Steve followed after him, keeping a little distance just in case Oliver had felt uncomfortable from their previous encounter. "They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked the older man and he turned to face them, annoyance written on his face. "We'll see." Someone that he now knew as Mike Wheeler looked over at him, exasperated. "'We'll see'? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

"We stay here, and we wait for help." Oliver moved over to an empty chair and sat down, relieving his leg of any pain. He set his hands in front of him on the table and slouched, starting to feel way too tired to do anything else. Mike sat across from him, keeping his gaze locked on something. Suddenly, he got up and walked over to a stack of what seemed to be brain teasers before lifting a soma cube that was held together by some rubber bands.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Oliver had no clue who he was talking about, but he was talking about AV Club — which he had been in when he was in eighth grade, so he just kept quiet. "Really?" Lucas asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him." He started to walk over to the table, moving the cube from one hand to the other.. "Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah." Dustin and Lucas stated quickly just as he set the cube onto the table, a serious look on his face. "We can't let him die in vain." Oliver had to take a double-take after hearing that. Someone they knew had died. It was no wonder he started talking about him so suddenly. "What do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin asked him, knowing that they probably couldn't fight these things.

"The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own." Oliver turned to him at the nickname he had given the creatures with his eyebrows furrowed. "Demo-dogs?" Max asked, leaning forward in her seat. Dustin turned to her and stared for a few seconds as if saying 'isn't it obvious?'

"Demogorgon," he put his hand to the side, "dogs," he put his other hand opposite of that hand. He pushed his hands together as if compacting them. "Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words—." Max quickly stopped him from explaining further.

"Okay." Dustin stopped abruptly and pursed his lips before he continued to talk. "I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe. . ." Oliver nodded his head. It didn't seem like it would've been as hard to fight off just one rather than a whole bunch of them. "But there's an army now."

That got Oliver thinking. When they were fighting them on the bus, it seemed like they were called back by something. It made him wonder if something was controlling all of them. Like a. . . like a collective consciousness. "Precisely." Dustin said, pointing at Lucas. Oliver stared at the middle of the table while his mind worked at a thousand miles per minute. "His army," Mike said.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked from where he stood behind the group, leaning against a counter. "His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Oliver looked up at that, watching as Mike started to run in the other direction. The group exchanged looks before they followed after him into what seemed to be a bedroom, but everything was covered by the drawings that surrounded the house. Mike ran over to one side of the room and grabbed a piece of paper off of a desk before running back over to them, handing it to Dustin.

"The shadow monster." Oliver looked over Dustin and peered down at the freaky drawing that he had in his hands. Is that what that poor boy on the couch had been seeing? "It got Will that day on the field," Mike said quickly, starting to explain his hypothesis to them. "The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max questioned, trying to take in the information she was being given. Mike nodded. "To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything." He added. Steve, whose brain moved a lot slower than the rest of them, rubbed his head from behind them. "Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." He took the drawing from Dustin and looked at it, giving Oliver a better view.

Oliver sighed and started to dumb it down for him. "The monster's connected to everything basically. So my guess is if anything it controls feels pain, like those vines you were talking about, so does that monster, those other monsters, and so does Will." The three boys in the group looked at him in surprise, not expecting someone to grasp the idea so quickly. "It's a hive mind."

"Hive mind?" Steve questioned, waiting for Oliver to elaborate a little more. "A collective consciousness. It controls everything." Steve nodded, starting to understand what he was saying. Mike nodded along and pointed at the monster on the piece of paper. "And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain."

Dustin seemed to have a lightbulb moment right then and there. "Like the mind flayer." Lucas and Mike looked at him in realization, Lucas snapping his fingers before pointing at him. Steve, Max, and Oliver looked at each other, confused. "What?" They all asked in unison.

Dustin quickly ran over to a shelf in Will's room, pulling out a book before rushing out of the room, going toward the kitchen table once more. "Somebody go get the others." Mike nodded and went to go inform everyone, calling them to the table. Oliver got over there as fast as he could and watched as Dustin flipped through some pages before finally slamming the book down onto the table. "The mind flayer." Hopper, who had just gotten to the table, crossed his arms over his chest.

"What the hell is that?" Oliver took the book from Dustin and started to read the words that sat underneath the illustration of the mind flayer. He read it silently and quickly, sliding it back over to him in the span of a few seconds. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home." It seemed like Dustin knew more about this thing than him, probably having played this Dungeon and Dragons game that it came from.

"Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers." Hopper shook his head as he heard this, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game."

"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids." Dustin quickly corrected, pointing at the book in front of him. "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—." Dustin was cut off by Lucas, who corrected him on his grammar. "Analogy." Dustin turned to Lucas with the most flabbergasted look on his face. "Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

Nancy, who was standing beside Dustin with her arms crossed, leaned across the table to get a better look at the book. "Okay, so this mind flamer thing—."

"Flayer. Mind flayer."

"What does it want?" Nancy finished, completely disregarding Dustin. Dustin thought for a minute, trying to figure out the best way to explain this without saying that they were basically doomed. "To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Steve piped up after this, thinking about something immediately.

"Like the Germans?" Dustin turned to look at him, a frown on his face. "Uh, the Nazis?" Steve went silent but nodded, sort of embarrassed that he had been wrong in front of everyone. "Uh. . . If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally." Oliver snickered and Steve elbowed him in his ribs, causing him to stumble a bit before massaging them while glaring at him.

"So, basically, it views other races, like us, as inferior?" Dustin nodded at Oliver, giving him a thumbs-up, telling him that he was correct. "It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Mile added, and soon after, Lucas added something too. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."

"That's great. That's great." Oliver turned toward Steve, who was the one freaking out. "That's really great. Jesus!" He turned and walked away for a moment, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it. . ." Nancy trailed off, hoping that someone would know what she was implying. Thankfully, her younger brother did. "We kill everything it controls."

Oliver furrowed his eyebrows, immediately recognizing a flaw in this plan. Wasn't it in control of Will as well? "Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Hopper asked, obviously not taking them seriously.

Dustin chuckled. "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." Hopper looked down at him intimidatingly. "It's just a game. It's a game."

"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper asked, talking more to himself than anyone else. Dustin, who was offended that Hopper didn't think his idea was plausible, started to talk. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup."

"We are!"

"Even if they come how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike pointed out, remembering seeing one of them get up even after getting shot multiple times. "You don't know that—."

"Actually, he's right." Everyone turned toward Oliver, who had taken a seat since his leg was starting to hurt again. "That gun you have," he pointed at the gun that leaned against the wall. "If that didn't stop them, nothing can." Hopper stared at him, silent. Oliver swallowed thickly at the attention he gained but quickly shook the feeling off when everyone turned away from him. "We know it's already killed everyone in that lab," Mike added, diverting the attention away from him.

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again," Lucas added. Dustin nodded, pointing at him, before he added something as well. "And we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town."

"They're right." The new voice almost scared Oliver until he turned around and saw the heartbreaking sight of a disheveled and puffy-eyed Joyce Byers. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it." Hopper nodded and started to walk over to her. "Me, too. Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Mike turned his attention the Will, who was laying on the couch. "No. But he does." Everyone else followed after him and looked at the boy as well.

"If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness." Max crossed her arms over her chest as she listened to him, confused. "I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now."

Mike nodded, knowing that was true. "Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."

a shorter chapter this time ( and a little peak at olivers intelligence )