seven. RUN

"SO, you have powers?" Billy questions as the two walked side by side down the railroad tracks. They were making their way back to the car to hopefully come up with a plan to figure out where the demogorgons went.

Billy was still in disbelief of what happened. About those crazy critters and how Phoebe tossed them across the field with just a flick of her wrist.

"I guess you can say that," Phoebe replies looking over to Billy. He was looking at the ground with his hands in his pocket reimagining the events from before. He was a bit shaken up, but he didn't want to show that fear and now he finally understood what Phoebe meant by protecting them all herself. "What are you thinking?" Her soft voice caused him to look up.

"Everything that happened. It's fucking crazy. I didn't know you went through that before. I would have never thought that things like that exist. It's honestly scary." He confessed. He stopped walking and turns to look at her fully. Phoebe noticed he stopped and came to a halt. She was standing in front of him, a bit confused about his sudden action. Billy stood there, preparing himself for what he was about to say to her.

"Are you okay, Billy?" She worries.

Ahead of them, you can hear the kids arguing, but they weren't paying attention to them. Only to each other. He felt like he should take advantage of the moment.

"W-When I saw you outside and saw more of those crazy dogs coming at you, my heart honestly fell. I thought you were going to die and for some reason, I was terrified. I never felt that kind of fear in my life." He finally looks up at her and she was shocked to see his blue eyes glistening, tears ready to fall. "I was afraid to-to lose you." Billy admitted. He stuttered a bit because he was a bit nervous to let that out. He never confesses his true feelings to anyone, but it was different with Phoebe. It always was.

"Why?" She whispers. Her eyes meeting his shimmering blue one's. Phoebe wanted to hear him say those words. Everyone always said terrible things about Billy. She knew there was some good in him. There's always some type of goodness in people and there's a story behind every one.

"Because," he looks away from her.

Phoebe quickly placed her hands on his cheeks for him to look at her. "Tell me."

He doesn't respond. Instead, he leans down and gently presses his lips against her. Phoebe smiles against his lips and wraps her arms around his neck while his slide around her waist. Pulling her closer to him and deepening the kiss.

"EWWW!" The kids yell. The two separated from their kiss in shock. Billy was upset that the moment was ruined, while they both looked towards the kids.

"Alright, lovebirds, come on. I heard something." Steve informs. He makes his way up the small hill and the kids, besides Max, followed and so did Phoebe and Billy. Leaving the young redhead there.

"Hey! Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Max questions, shook. "Hello! Hello?" She calls, but no one answered or stopped for her. She sighs and decides to chase after them.

The group made their way out of a section of woods and saw a view of Hawkins. It was foggy as always. They looked around the dark town and tried to hear or search for where the Demogorgons went.

"I don't see him." Dustin speaks, referring to Dart.

Lucas raises his binoculars to his face and looks through them. "Its the lab." He tells them.

That's when it all fell into place. "They were going back home." Phoebe concludes, looking at the team. "Come on. We have to go."

"What? Go to the lab with all of those Demogorgons? That crazy." Max says as she watched the blonde beginning to walk.

"We need too! We have to figure out what's going on there. Hopper could be in there! Maybe Will too! We need to go." Phoebe explains, "they have to have done something to release all of those Demogorgons." She adds, looking at Steve who nods.

"She's right. Let's go." Steve orders.

The group followed and continued their way through the woods. Flashing their lights to guide the way. Billy held onto Phoebe's hand to help her not trip over anything while the kids stood behind Steve who lead the group.

Several time has passed and they were soon almost out. There were just a few new trees to get through.

"Hello! Who's there?!"

Phoebe knew that voice. Johnathan? What was he doing here? They finally made their way out, completely, and saw Nancy and Johnathan standing there.

"Steve?" They both said in unison.

"Nancy?"

"Phoebe?"

"Johnathan?"

"And Billy?!"

Names were being thrown until they all started to make their way together.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked, looking at Steve.

"What are you doing here?" He questioned back.

"We're looking for Mike and Will?" Nancy replies.

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin pointed towards the lab and returns his gaze to Johnathan and Nancy.

"We're not sure." Nancy countered, looking at Steve who was already looking at her.

"Why?" Johnathan wondered.

All of a sudden, a loud wailing caught the whole group's attention. They looked towards the Hawkins lab in fear. The screeching continued and the dim lights from inside the lab were flickering on and off.

"We have to figure out a way inside." Phoebe states. The groups huddle up in a circle.

"You still want to go inside there? With all of those creatures?" Max questions, her eyebrows raised in shock.

"Like I said; Mike and Will could be in there. So could Joyce and Bob and maybe Hopper. We have to save them!" Phoebe points out, again, while looking towards the frightening building.

"What if they aren't?" Dustin says, "I mean I haven't seen Mike since the day Will he that episode on the field at school."

"Okay, I know for sure that Mike, Will, and Joyce are together. I was with them like a day or two ago. After Will had that episode at school." Phoebe informs. "Maybe something happened while I was gone and Joyce decided to bring Will here with the doctors." She proposes looking at them all.

They continued to chat about where could Will and Mike have last been. Talking about all the events that occurred leading them up to here.

Nancy's head perked up when she saw the lights of the building turning back on. She makes her way through the group and looked towards the building. "The power's back."

The group looked and saw the lights on.

"Maybe we can open the gate now." Phoebe bids. They ran towards the control panel to open the gates. Johnathan goes inside and presses the button. Nothing happened. He continued to press the button nonstop.

The others looked towards the gate to enter and it wasn't opening.

"Let me try." Dustin offers.

"Hang on-"

"Let me try, Johnathan!" Dustin pushes him back and tries pushing the button himself. The gates still weren't opening. "Son of a bitch! You know what?" He began banging on the button and still nothing.

Dustin continues to try and unexpectedly, the gates open. "Hey! I got it!" He cheers with a smile. "I got it."

The group stood in front of the gate and watched it open. Billy grabs a hold of Phoebe's hand and looks down at her. She nods to him with a reassuring smile that everything will be okay.

"Okay, me and Nancy will go inside to get the others and come for you guys after." Johnathan plans. The groups nod and let him follow through with his plan. The two got into his car and drove passed the gates to go towards the lab.

The rest remained behind and waited.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Billy asked Phoebe who was biting her nails, nervously. If Hopper was in there, she prayed that he was safe, but where on earth could El be? She knows for a fact that Hopper wouldn't drag her into this or even let her step foot in that building.

"I don't know." She answers, still nibbling on her nails. Billy noticed and grabbed her hands to hold them in his.

"Hey, everything is going to be fine. Try to calm down." He attempts to comfort. Phoebe nods and wraps her arms around him. She laid her head on his chest and released a sigh. Breathing in and out to relax.

"Guys." Max calls. They all looked towards her to see what she was calling them for.

They heard a car screeching against the concrete from a turn. Johnathan was driving back and Phoebe smiled when she saw Hopper's car.

Johnathan began honking, telling them to get out of the way. He was in a hurry and Phoebe knew he was because he usually never speeds.

"Get out of the way!" Steve yells. Everyone quickly got out of the way and watched Johnathan speed pass them.

Hopper stops in front of them.

"Dad!" Phoebe exclaims.

"Come on. Let's go!" He orders.

Steve opens the door for kids to get inside. "Hurry up. Get in! Get in!" He demands as the kids piled in. Steve and Billy joined them in the back while Phoebe sat in the passenger seat.

"What are you doing here?" Hopper immediately interrogates when she closed the car door and he speeds away.

"Helping my friends. We had an encounter with one of the Demogorgons." She replies.

"Demogorgons?"

"Those crazy-ass creatures." She clarifies. "I went home to look for you and - neither of you guys were there." She explains looking over to her father with sad eyes. She was trying to have him understand that El was missing too.

"We'll deal with that after." He tells her.

She nods, "I'm happy that you're safe."

"I'm glad that you're safe too." He grabs a hold of her hand and she smiles.

Minutes have passed and Hopper pulls his car in front of the Byers house. They all got out of the car and entered the house, meeting up with Joyce, Johnathan, Will, Mike, and Nancy.

"How is he doing?" Phoebe asked Mike who sat at the kitchen table with the other kids.

"He's sleeping. We can't have this thing that's taking control over his body know where we're at." He informs, looking back at Will who laid on the couch with Johnathan holding his hand and Nancy comforting him.

Hopper made his way to the phone and calls someone. He argued with the person on the phone, explaining to them what just happened, but Phoebe assumed they weren't believing him because of how much he was arguing with them and how upset he was becoming.

"I will be here." He slams the landline onto its holder and sighs.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked.

"We'll see." Hopper replies, looking at the kids and three teens who lingered around the table.

" "We'll see"?" We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike argues and making hand movements.

"We stay here and wait for help." Hopper replies, sternly. He glares at Mike as he walks away.

Phoebe looked around the room and noticed someone was missing. "Where's Bob?" She searched.

Mike lowers his head and played with his hands. "He...uh...died. Those creatures killed him." He sadly informs.

The room was suddenly filled with sadness. Phoebe felt her heart ached at how Joyce must be feeling like. Billy acknowledges her sadness and pulls her close to him. Running his hands through her hair as she attempts to not let any tears out.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Mike tested. They all turned to look at him.

"Really?" Lucas raised.

Mike turns to look at them all. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him." He continued to educate as he walked back to the table with a blue block in his hand. "Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah." Dustin and Lucas reply.

He placed the block on the table. "We can't let him die in vain."

"What do you want to do, Mike?" Phoebe asked, backing away from Billys embrace a bit. She folded her arms across her chest and waited for an answer.

"Yeah, the chief was right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own." Dustin let's out.

"Demo-dogs?" Max asked.

"Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words-" he continued to explain as if Max didn't understand from the beginning.

"Okay." She says, letting him know she had enough.

Dustin looked at his hands but continued to talk, "I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."

"But there's a whole army now." Lucas cuts in.

"Percisely." Dustin finished.

"His army." Mike speaks, looking at the table as if he was thinking.

"What do you mean?" Steve quizzes.

"His army!" He repeats. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." They all looked at him confused as to who he was referring too. Mike starts walking off and the ground followed him. He went into Will's room which they followed in with him. He searched for a picture and held it to then.

"The shadow monster." Dustin says.

"It got Will that day on the field. The doctors said it was like a virus, it infected him." Mike informs the group who were all looking at the pictures.

"This is some creepy shit." Billy comments as he looks at the picture.

"Honestly." Steve agrees.

Phoebe smiled at the two boys agreeing with each other.

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max put together.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the upside-down, everything." Mike clarifies, looking into Max's eyes with serious ones.

"Woah. Slow down. Slow down." Steve says, wanting them to slow down with the explanation because he wasn't fully understand and neither was Billy.

"Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, so does Will." Mike explains as they all continue to listen.

"And so does dart." Lucas adds.

"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind." Mike continues.

"The hive mind?" Steve trails.

"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism." Dustin explains, turning to Steve.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike showed the picture of the monster again.

"Like the mind flyer." Dustin chimes. A couple of them looked at him confused, besides the young boys.

Lucas snaps his finger and points it at Dustin.

"The what?" Billy, Steve, Phoebe, and Max wondered at the same time.

The young boys left the room and the others went after them. They were heading back to the kitchen while Dustin went to get something.

Dustin came back with a book in his hand. He's looking through the pages and laid the book down on the table, opened to a certain page.

"The mind flayer." He points to a picture.

"The hell is that?" Hopper's voice startled a few because they hadn't known he join the group. So did Nancy and Johnathan.

"It's from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. Okay, it enslaved race from other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers." Dustin informs the group.

"Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kid's game." Hoppers scoffs while shaking his head.

"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—"

"Analogy." Lucas corrects Dustin.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" Dustin argues, angry about being corrected in a time like this. "Fine. An analogy for understanding what the hell this is."

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing—"

"Flayer. Mind flayer." Now Dustin corrects Nancy.

She sighs, "what does it want?" She questions looking at Dustin.

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin replies.

"L-Like the Germans." Steve adds. Phoebe narrows her eyebrows and looks at Steve along with everyone else. Not believing what just came out of his mouth.

"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin corrects.

Steve looks around, embarrassed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis."

"Uh, if the Nazis were from another dimension, t-totally." Dustin said, trying to make Steve not look stupid for what he just said. "Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Dustin finally finished.

"It wants to spread, take on other dimensions." Mike includes.

"We are talking about the destruction of our worlds as we know it. " Lucas complete. A few of them were a bit shaken from what the boys were all saying.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve freaks out as he turned his back to the table and walks away while running his hand through his hair.

Phoebe takes the book in her hand and begins to speak. "Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." she trails while walking to the spot where Steve was standing.

"Then we kill everything it controls." Mike says.

"We win." Dustin said.

"Theoretically." Lucas adds.

Hopper walks over to Phoebe and takes the book from her hands. "Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs if something?" He asked, looking at the book.

Dustin chuckles, "no. No, no fire—no fireballs." He earns a glare from Hopper for his laughter. Dustin becomes serious again, "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." Dustin stutters, smiling a bit.

Hopper slams the book shut and throws it on the table. He stomps away. Annoyed and angry for even listening, "what the hell are we doing here?" He mumbles.

"I thought we were waiting for your military back up!" Dustin argued.

"We are!" Hopper snaps.

"Even if they come, how are they going to stop this?" Mike questions. "You can't just shoot this with guns!"

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper fought.

"We know that it's already killed everybody in that lab!" Mike yells, lifting his hand up as if he were pointing to the lab.

"And we know that the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas includes.

"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin says as well.

"They're right." A hoarse voice speaks. Everyone turns and sees Joyce standing there. Her tear-stained face and messy hair. "We have to kill it." Hopper walks over to her, "I want to kill it." She pleads.

"Me, too." Hopper agrees.

"I-"

"Me, too. Okay, Joyce? But how do we do that?" Hopper wonders. "We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Joyce sighs and looks up at him.

"No." Mike chimes, "but he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max says. "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now."

The group all began walking towards Will's body that laid on the couch. Staring at him while he was in a deep slumber.

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike concludes.

They all came up with a plan to use the shed as an interrogation room to put Will in. They covered up the wall of the shed with blankets, cardboard boxes, wood planks, newspaper, anything they could find.

"Do you think this is going to work?" Billy asked Phoebe as he helped her cover the chair with tape and cardboard.

"Yeah. It has too. It's the only choice we have." Phoebe replies while looking at Billy. He smiles at her and tucks a piece of her hair behind had ear.

"Come on. Let's go help in the shed now." He helps her off the floor and carries the chairs over his shoulders back to the shed.

They entered the shed and helped tape or staple the papers and such onto the walls. Covering any open parts with everything they found.

After they all finished doing that, Johnathan carried Will into the shed and tired him go the chair. The others left the shed, leaving his well-known ones in the room, excluding Hopper who said that it was best for him to stay just in case if things got out of hand.

"What if the mind flayer figures out where we are? Do you think-"

Phoebe cut Billy off before he could continue, "he won't and if he does, I'll be here to protect you all." She says.

"By yourself? Those things are scary and strong." He states.

Phoebe smiles, "and I'm stronger. I'm the only one here who can really defeat these things." she placed a hand behind his neck for him to look down at her.

"But what if something happens to you? How can you-"

"Billy, stop. Everything will be okay. I've done this before. I'm sure I can do it again." She reassures. Even though the last time when they were in this mess, El was here and no one knows where the hell she is now. Phoebe shakes the thought and stood to her tiptoes to kiss him. It was loving and passionate. Billy parted the kiss and pressed his forehead to her. Both of their eyes still closed and panting softly. "We'll be fine." She whispered against his lips.

Suddenly, the lights start flickering. The two left their spots and went into the living room where most of them were. Then lights soon came to a stop and everyone calmed down a bit.

After a couple of minutes, the back door opened.

"What happened?" Phoebe asked.

"I think he's talking, just not with words." Hopper replies as he sat at the table and wiring dots with lines.

"What is that?" Billy and Steve quizzed.

"Morse code." The boy and Phoebe answered.

"H-E-R-E." Hopper spells.

"Here." Mike put together.

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper says. Johnathan went into the room, grabbed some things and left with the others he came with after they come up with a plan. The ones who were in the shed with him, decided that they were going to talk about memories with Will and hoping that it will help to contact him and figure a way out to end all of this.

Phoebe cleared off the table and gathered some paper and pens together. Dustin was going to help with the morse code. Hopper had a walkie talkie that every time it rung Dustin received it and wrote down a dash or a dot.

"These kids are pretty cool." Billy comments as he watches Phoebe sit beside Dustin waiting for the kids to translate the dash and dots so she can write it out.

"They're crazy, but really smart." Steve says.

"C!" Lucas says.

"L."

"O."

"S."

"E."

Every time a letter was called out, Phoebe writes it down. Billy found her really attractive right now, helping out the little kids and being so focused on something. Everything she does he finds hot.

"G."

"A."

"T."

"E."

Phoebe put the words together and her eyes widen. The kids huddle around her and so did Billy and Steve.

"Close gate." They all read.

Suddenly, the phone starts to ring, loudly. Everyone became startled and sprinted towards the phone before it gave up their spot.

"Shit. Shit!" Dustin picks it up and hangs up immediately.

They all stood around looking at each other. Until the phone rings again. Dustin went to pick it up and hangs up again, but Phoebe decoded fo just rip the phone off the wall and tossed it to the floor.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max quizzed. Phoebe looked back at her and shrugs.

"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere. Right?" Steve tries to reason.

Mike steps in and looks towards the blonde. "Phoebe, you're the only one who is capable of closing the gate. Eleven isn't here to do so."

"I-I-"

"You have too, Pheebs. Like Mike said you're the only-" before Dustin could finish, the demo-dogs roaring in the distance was heard. They shuffled toward the window and Dustin spoke.

"That's not good."

"Come on. Everyone get back. They're coming." Phoebe orders the kids as she pushed them back. The back door was opened and the team from the shed came in.

Hopper was the last in. "You okay?" He looked at Phoebe, worried. She nods and he smiles.

"Come on." Both of them entered the living room and Hopper noticed the kids looking out the window.

"Hey. Hey, get away from the windows!" Hopper demands. The kids scurried away and hid behind the adults. Hopper held two shotguns in his hands and decided to hold one out to Johnathan. "Do you know how to use this?" He asked.

"What?" Johnathan stutters.

"Can you use this!?" Hopper repeats.

Nancy steps in, "I can." Hopper tossed the gun to her and she caught it. Loading it. In the front lines, were Steve, Nancy, Hopper, and Phoebe. Ready for anything. Hopper and Nancy had their guns, Steve with his bat, and Phoebe with her hands.

Billy was a bit worried, but he knew they all could handle this. They've done it before.

"Where are they?" Max's voice echoed through the house as the screeching of the demo-dogs we're being heard from outside.

Suddenly a loud thudding was heard and everyone began freaking out. They looked towards the direction the noise and growls were coming from.

"What are they doing?" Nancy squinted her eyes.

The bushes from outside the window they were all looking out of was moving. Everyone's breathing became heavy.

Once again, a loud growl was heard and they all turned to that direction. A loud sound of monsters groaning and growling was heard. Everyone was panicking on the inside from how much there might be out there, but they tried to remain calm on the outside.

The sudden growling and screeching came to an abrupt stop. It sounded as if the demo-dogs whimpered from being hurt.

They all looked out the window and unexpectedly, the glass shattered as a demo-dog was being thrown in. Everyone screamed in panic and backed away. It laid on the floor, not moving or anything. Hopper and Phoebe slowly walked towards it.

"Holy shit." Dustin comments.

"Is it dead?" Max and Billy wondered.

Hopper stretched his leg out and kicked the demo-dogs head. It only moved when he kicked it, other than that, it laid on the floor lifeless.

Then, the door creeks which caught everyone's attention. When the locks began unlocking and the chain fell from its place, Nancy, Hopper, and Steve raised their weapons. Phoebe pushed through them when she realized what was happening. The door fully opened and everyone's weapons were lowered.

Phoebe's eyes watered up when she saw who walked in and everyone else expression was priceless because they couldn't believe who was walking in; besides Hopper of course.

Mike stepped forward, besides Phoebe. Happy to see who it was.

"El."