(Ep. 7: The Bite)

Scoops Troop, the name given to them by Dustin, all peeked their heads out through the crack of the door. Now that the movie was finished, it was just a matter of blending in with the hopes those armed guards wouldn't notice them.

What was once a silent floor had been replaced by the loud crowd just walking around as they discussed the far too confusing movie. Gwen doesn't want to admit the regret of having left the cinema just to search for a damned shake, which was of no use since everything was closed.

Dustin takes a step back as he addresses the group, mostly Steve, Gwen, and Robin. "Whatever you do, don't bring attention to yourselves." And just like that, the group calmly walks out as if they're not panicking on the inside.

Joining the crowd seemed too easy for Gwen's sake. Usually their plans don't go accordingly so she could only wonder what misfortunes are heading their way. She bumps into a few moviegoers, muttering a few apologies that are of no use since none of them look at her once. They're far too entertained talking about Back to the Future, forcing her to fade them out as she refuses to hear any spoilers.

Steve holds a firm grasp on Gwen as they slip their way through the crowd. Her hand is colder than normal, bringing him to blow warm air into them as he rubs their hands together.

"Well, shit, that worked," Erica says, impressed the plan she once doubted was turning out to be successful.

"Course it worked," Dustin states, cockiness dripping at the tip of his tongue. "We just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebes, and home sweet home, here we come."

"Uh, Dustin?" Steve, Gwen, and Robin exchange glances, slightly terrified on how the boy would react. "We might not wanna go to your house."

"Why?" he nonchalantly asks, not even catching on to the shakiness in his voice.

"Well..." Steve starts walking at a leisure pace to try and get some distance between them. Knowing this kid, he's positively certain he's about to lose his shit right now. "I might've told them your full name."

Dustin's head quickly springs up, "What's wrong with you?"

"And..." Gwen takes a brief pause because how can she explain that she gave out information as well? Sure it wasn't his full name, but mentioning that he was the creator of the device that intercepted the Russians made her just as guilty as Steve. "I told them you were the one who made the Cerebro."

"Are you shitting me?!" he angrily whispers, his eyes widening in utter disbelief his own sister ratted him out.

"I didn't mean to," she remarks in a hushed tone while scanning the perimeter to make sure no guards are lurking around. "We were drugged so-"

"You're my sister so you're supposed to keep me safe! Not throw me into the lion's den!" Dustin snaps and frantically waves his arms around, "You have to suck it up!"

"Suck it up?" she repeats, glaring at her brother as he throws her the most menacing of looks. "Easy for you to say! You weren't held captive or drugged so you have no room to talk!"

"So?"

Steve's brows furrow in disbelief, "So?"

Dustin scoffs, "So you resist! You tough it out!" He continues walking, looking back through his shoulders to glance at the pair, "You tough it out like a man!"

Gwen can't believe what she's hearing. Is he being serious? Is he actually saying those words right now? She tries to argue back, but his blatant lack of sympathy has left her at a complete loss.

Steve leans closer to Gwen as they share equally annoyed looks directed to their kid. They shake their heads disapprovingly, not understanding what's the deal with this kid and where he got this much attitude from.

"How about I hand you to those Russians if you think you can handle-"

"Guys?" Robin pulls Dustin and Erica back from their sleeves. She nods her head over at the exit, the one they were supposed to escape through. "We got company."

Glancing over at the exit, they see armed guards wearing all black and pretending to be nice to the movie watchers.

Gwen's not even surprised anymore at their terrible luck. Every time things seem to be running smoothly for them, there's always that pesky little thorn in the way. She can't even be bothered to panic because she's used to it by now.

"Looks like we gotta run again," she tugs on Steve's arm and uses her other hand to hold Erica next to her. "Let's go!"

"Abort," Dustin announces, his eyes widening when the guard's eyes fall on them and begins reaching for his gun. "Abort! Abort!"

The group doesn't have to think twice about running off. They follow Steve as he leads the way, his hand never once letting go of Gwen's as just feeling the softness of her touch is able to ease his nerves.

Gwen has no clue of where they're going. There's no other reachable exit other than the one at the front. Sure they can try reaching Scoops Ahoy and run out the back into hallway, but what's to say those Russians haven't covered the entire perimeter already?

Her feet nearly trip at the quick speed of their running, her chest is heaving uncontrollably, and she can't help but fear for her friends and brother. What was supposed to be a fun little pass time that was meant to be nothing serious, turned out to be more sinister than expected. Damn it, she's over Hawkins already and this whole freaking supernatural thing.

She glances back in hopes those guards have gotten lost in the crowd, but they're still following them with no sign of stopping. Reaching a far corner, she comes to an abrupt stop when her body crashes against Steve's.

The escalators are closed off...

Maybe it was the drug that made her hallucinate things, but she was certain it had been open earlier. They were working fine so why the hell did they close them off?

She looks over at her friends and sees the panicked look on their faces. Her heart breaks at seeing her brother and Erica filled with nothing but terror. They're just kids so they have no reason to be involved in this. God, she hates this. She hates this town and those guards for not letting them off.

"Come on!" Robin wiggles herself into the space in between the escalators and slides herself down the tiny space.

The remaining of the older teens help the youngest slide down. Gwen raises Erica and gently places her in between the gap. Daphne makes sure to squeeze her backpack as tightly as possible and pushes her down. Next is Dustin, who immediately gets on and makes his way down without thinking twice. The Sinclair girl looks back at her friends as they motion her to hurry since they're going next.

As soon as Gwen reaches the ground, she waves the others to run off while she waits for Steve to come down. His feet didn't even get a chance to plant themselves since her hand was already dragging him to the others, who had chosen the nearest food stand with the name of The Great Cookie to hide in.

Steve helps Gwen jump over the stand before he joins her and the rest of the group. They all huddle behind the counter and hold tightly to each other's hands. Their breaths are ragged, their eyes are filled with fear and hysteria, and their minds are trying to prepare themselves for their imminent death.

The faint footsteps become louder by the second. Gwen holds tightly to Steve and Dustin's hand, not wanting to accept that they're dying here in this goddamn mall. There's no way in hell they're going to make it out of this alive. There's no escape, no one to come and save them. It's just them.

She closes her eyes and holds her breath, counting down the seconds until their footsteps are right in front. Gwen tries to find any comforting thoughts, but all her brain is telling her is how pathetic she is for not living her life to the max. But how can she even think like that when she's experienced a love that's captivated her deeply? And she has friends and family, everything that brings her life meaning.

Her thoughts are interrupted when a loud sound fills the empty mall, echoing throughout the food court that causes the group to jump at how sudden it was. At first, Gwen believed it had been the first shot, but once she checks none of them are harmed, she starts focusing on the sound.

It's a car alarm.

It doesn't make sense for a car to be going off. She wants to look back and check what the commotion is all about, but she's left frozen that all she can do is just listen.

That's when a gust of wind is felt and a loud crashing is heard after. The group stays in place just looking at each other as if waiting for any of them to make the first move. The silence becomes deafening, hurtful to bear that gives them the courage to slowly peek their heads over the edge of the counter.

Steve frowns when realizing the alarm came from the car parked on the opposite side. He always walked past it when coming to work, so how could he have forgotten about it? Just seeing it flipped upside down and terribly wrecked with smoke coming out, makes him shake his head in disappointment because it was a really great car.

About to mention it to his girlfriend, he's stopped when noticing she's focused on something else. Following her line of sight, it is only then that he learns how this happened. On the second floor stands Eleven, blood dripping from her nose as the rest of their friends appear from behind.

__________________

"You flung that thing like a hot wheel!"

Gwen has never been happier to see those incredibly annoying teens that she's been forced to babysit for the past year. She's relieved to see that they're fine, although she comes to notice the tired look on their eyes, almost like they haven't slept in days.

Meeting up at the food court, she feels the arms of Nancy and Jonathan embrace her tightly.

"What the hell is wrong with your face?" Jonathan questions and grabs her face to inspect it in close detail. He glances over at Steve, who is in much worse condition than she is so he could only wonder what type of hell they went through.

Gwen rolls her eyes and pushes his hand off, "I should ask you that same question. You look like shit."

"You won't believe everything that's happened," Nancy takes a deep breath and runs her hands through her tangled hair. She doesn't know how to explain that Billy Hargrove became possessed by the Mind Flayer and went around infecting people that have now melted into a giant spider like creature. Just hearing it in her mind makes her feel like a nut job.

"Ask them!" Erica yells and points an accusatory finger at Steve, Robin, Daphne, and Gwen. "It's their fault!"

"True, yeah, totally true," Steve agrees as he looks over at Lucas. "It's absolutely our fault."

Robin and Daphne keep glancing at the car. Not understanding how a perfectly good vehicle ended up getting completely wrecked. Both of them look over at their friends to try and get an explanation, but they're too distracted mingling with each other that doesn't give them the chance to ask.

"Can someone explain what happened to that car?" Daphne points behind her shoulder as she keeps staring at the rest of the group.

"How in the world did that happen?" Robin keeps looking back, now doubting if the drug had actually left her system and she had hallucinated everything.

"El has superpowers," Dustin nonchalantly says like it's the most normal thing. He can't even bother to explain more because based on the fact that all of them are together, something must definitely be wrong.

"Wait, what?"

"She moves things with her mind. Like a telekinetic," Gwen chimes in as she joins the circle. She can't help but want to laugh at the look on her friends' faces. At least they're handling it way better than she did.

Daphne flails her arms frantically and starts pacing around in circles, "How is that even possible? Superpowers aren't real."

"Yeah, well, they are. Just like monsters and other dimensions," Steve reiterates while waving his hand towards El. "Come on, try to keep up."

"That's El?" Erica's eyes are wide and filled with amazement. She wasn't certain if what Dustin told her was real, especially since Lucas had been involved.

"Who's El?"

"I'm sorry, who are you both?" Nancy's voice disrupts the puzzlement of the two girls. She sounds slightly annoyed yet interested to learn who the newcomers are.

"That's my lame cousin, Daphne," Erica remarks, waving her arms in her direction rather annoyingly.

"Wait, what? You have a cousin and you didn't tell me?" Max pipes up as she hits Lucas' shoulder with force. "I thought no more secrets!"

"It's not even a secret! I just forgot to tell you!" Lucas starts taking a few steps back, his hands shielding his shoulders to avoid getting more hits from the redhead.

"How can you forget?" Max argues, bringing the Sinclair cousin to stand next to her with her arms folded.

"Yeah, how can you forget?" Daphne questions in irritation.

"Because it's not important!" Lucas blurts out, only to regret it when seeing the anger form in his cousin's eyes.

"Oh, so now I'm not important!"

Nancy jumps in, folding her arms across her chest as she points over at Robin, "Now that we know who she is, what about her?"

"I'm- I'm Robin. I work with Gwen and Steve," she stutters, not having expected to see Nancy Wheeler involved in this mess because how can the princess be a part of something so strange?

"Her and Daphne helped crack the top secret code," Dustin informs the group with a proud smile.

"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place," Steve explains as he waves his hand in the air for emphasis while the other is placed neatly on his hip.

"Russians?" Jonathan finally speaks up, now even more confused at how many more problems seem to be happening. "Wait, what Russians?"

"The Russians!" Steve yells, frustrated at having to repeat himself.

"The ones that drugged us and held us captive underground," Gwen tries to dismiss the situation as she really just wants to forget everything, but Jonathan still has a dumbfounded look from not understanding anything.

"You were drugged?! So... you took drugs without me?!"

Did he not hear the part where we were held captive?

"That's what concerns you?! That I was drugged without you?!" she snaps at him, brows cinched together and arms flailing around angrily.

Jonathan shrugs and gives a nonchalant nod. He knows it's not the appropriate response, but he figured if he got drunk for the first time with her, he wanted to experiment with perhaps some weed with her as well. "I mean..."

He can't even continue since she's already slapping his shoulder, which only worsens the pain one of the flayed caused. In a panic, he looks over at Nancy as if expecting her to help, but she's just smiling and letting Gwen do her thing.

"What are you guys talking about?" Lucas questions in disbelief.

Dustin groans, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he was certain he already told them everything. "Did you not hear our code red?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't understand what you were saying!" Mike remarks with an eye roll.

"Goddamn low battery!"

"How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?!" Steve's frustrated this kid doesn't listen to anything he tells him. Especially since he warned him about it back when they were trapped on the elevator, but of course, the stubborn kid does as he pleases.

"Well, everything worked out, didn't it?" the curly haired boy snaps.

"Yeah, after we were nearly killed!" his sister exclaims, motioning to the dead guards sprawled all over the floor and then to her and Steve's faces.

"It's not my fault you got your asses handled," Dustin mutters under his breath.

She scoffs as her mouth hangs slightly agape at his insensitivity that she can't bother to argue back because nothing she says will change his mind.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's not fair!" Steve's patience is hanging by a loose thread. He's appalled that this kid can't bother to show any sympathy because if anything, they got involved in this whole Russian mess because he just had to crack the code. It's ridiculous, that's what this is.

"Okay, Russians?" Lucas interrupts, looking over at Dustin for a clearer explanation. "As in, they're working for the Russian government?"

"What are you not comprehending? Am I not speaking English?" Dustin rebuts, frantically waving his hands in the air as it'd be of any use. "We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation!"

"So this has nothing to do with the gate?" Max questions, earning yet another groan from the curly haired boy.

"It has everything to do with the gate!"

"Was that red thing we saw down there... the gate?" Daphne wonders, still shaken at the fact that the supernatural is real.

"The one the machine was pointing a laser into?" Robin adds and is relieved she's not the only outsider to this and there's someone just as clueless as her.

The group erupts in a fit of arguments and attempted explanations, but none provide enough specificity to even begin to make everything appear somewhat normal. The Sinclairs start bickering with each other about who knows what while Nancy tries to explain to Steve and Gwen everything regarding the Mind Flayer. Just as she finishes, Steve tries telling her how it was all Dustin's fault those Russians were after them in the first place.

Through the chaos and all, all of them come to a sudden stop when a loud thump is heard. All of them snap their heads in its direction and are met by El on the ground. Both her nostrils are covered in blood, tears are streaming down her face, and her hands are reaching out for her injured leg.

"El! What's wrong?" Mike frantically asks as the others rush to the young girl's aid.

"My leg, my leg!" she breathes out, her hand continuing to reach for it as she squirms on the floor. Immediately, Jonathan crouches down next to Nancy and unfolds the bloody bandage wrapped over the lower part of her leg.

The group erupts in discomfort at the sight. Underneath the bloody gauze, there's a large lump covered by black veins that extend all over it. It almost looks like a spider bite that was left untreated and has become extremely infected. Blood and pus are slipping out onto the edges that have faded out into a lighter red and purple.

Gwen has seen a lot of terrifying things, but this right now is taking the number one spot. She's not sure if her mind is playing tricks on her or if that drug is still in her system, but she's pretty certain something moved inside the injury.

"What is that?!"

El shrieks in pain, squirming uncontrollably as whatever thing is inside her keeps moving like it just found its home. Her yells keep getting louder as they turn into sobs and her hands grip tightly onto Mike's hand as the thing moves even more as if her screams bring it joy.

"Keep her talking and awake, okay?" Jonathan orders the group before running off. He looks around the food court, unsure of where exactly to look until he just dives into the Imperial Panda's kitchen.

"Stay awake, El!" Mike pleads, "Just stay with me!"

"Let's get her on her side," Gwen holds her gently by the shoulders and carefully lays her onto Mike's open arms. El reaches out for her hand and squeezes it tightly, continuing to scream in agony as all of them wait for Jonathan to come back.

"You know, it's actually not that bad. There was one time where the soccer goalie, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee," Robin runs through her words, unsure of how to make this situation any better.

Daphne can sense the panic in Robin's voice and the need for someone to say anything, which causes her to say the first thing that pops into her mind. "And there was also the time where my granddad got into a car accident that left him with broken legs and broken arms. He couldn't move for almost a year," Daphne looks up at her cousins and awkwardly smiles. "You guys remember, right?"

Steve glances at the pair with a frown, "Guys, you're not helping."

"Didn't he die soon after?" Gwen blurts out, only to regret it when everyone stares at her completely stunned. It's only then when she realizes just how terrible she sounded and how completely useless her comment was.

"Gwen-"

"Right, sorry," she mutters and flinches when Jonathan runs back. He drops the supplies he brought from the kitchen - gloves, a wooden spoon, and a kitchen knife that seem slightly burned almost like he sterilized it over the flames.

"All right, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathan warns her through his sympathetic look. The younger girl nods through her sobs and squeezes even harder on Gwen's hand. She can hear her hand popping from the tight grasp, but she ignores it as this is nothing compared to what El is experiencing.

Gwen's never been the type to get queasy around blood. Probably from all the times she fixed herself after every fight. Guess she just got used to seeing it that it doesn't bother her anymore, but something about this brings an unpleasant feeling to form at the pit of her stomach. Maybe it's the fact that there's a creature inside her leg or how terrible her injury looks. No offense, El. Gwen just can't shake the terrible feeling away that she's certain she needs to look away, but her gaze is unable to glance from the sight.

"I need you to stay real still," he tells her as calmly as possible while putting on the gloves. With his free hand, he reaches over and hands her the wooden spoon, "You're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?"

The knife hovers above the infected wound for a few seconds, only making the anticipation deadlier as the thing starts moving around like it senses what's about to happen. There's hesitation coming from Jonathan, which makes Gwen want to yell at him to just do it already. He takes a deep breath and slowly, he presses the knife onto the bump, causing blood and pus to slip down her leg and onto the floor.

El's screams become louder and much more painful. She tries staying still, but having Jonathan's hand slip into her wound made it incredibly challenging to not move around in agony.

Gwen feels herself stumbling back at the wave of nausea now overpowering her. She feels useless just sitting here and not being able to do anything to ease her pain. She hates hearing her in agony and hates everything about this because none of this should be happening in the first place.

The group exclaims in disgust as Jonathan's hand keeps digging itself even deeper, making the small cut become larger than it was. Gwen wants to beg him to stop because it seems he's only making this worse, but she's speechless as her ears ring from the pained screams coming from beside her.

El starts leaning forward, spitting out the wooden spoon as she begs him to stop. Jonathan's eyes are filled with guilt as Nancy presses her hand against his shoulder to push him back.

The young girl releases her tight grip on Gwen's hand and straightens herself up. She lets out a weakened grunt and raises her shaky hand above her leg. Her body starts trembling and an even louder scream is released.

Immediately, the thing inside her starts twitching uncontrollably. There's resistance on its part as it tries moving further from the opening and deeper into her leg, but the force coming from her is much stronger. The creature starts coming out, slowly becoming raised into the air as the glass from The Gap shatters and the neon lights flicker. El wails in pain, her eyes are filled with tears as she wavers the thing twitching in mid air before it's tossed across the mall.

The creature is still for a split second before it regains movement and starts dragging itself away like it has some place to go. Only its mission is cut short when a large boot comes down and smashes it.

To everyone's relief, the boot is revealed to belong to the one and only, Jim Hopper.