"MATERIAL GIRL" // Will Byers x Reader

Waltzing in Disneyland //CHAPTER 22

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

'The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world.' Mike explains to the newcomers. 

'And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it,' Max adds. 

'How big is this thing?' Hopper's eyebrows scrunch up, and he quickly glances over at El, most like to to check if she's okay. 

'It's big.' Jonathan says. 'Thirty feet, at least.'

'Yeah.' Lucas makes a sheepish expression. 'It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry.' 

Hopper sighs under his breath. 

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

'Yes.' Nancy nods. 

'But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people.' Steve raises an eyebrow. 

'Yes, exactly.' 

'Yeah, okay. I... Yeah, I'm just making sure,' He shakes his head. 

'Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?' Joyce asks. 

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

'But if we close the gate again...' Lucas trails off. 

'-We cut the brain off from the body.'

'And kill it. Theoretically....' Lucas says slowly. 

'Yoo-hoo!' A voice calls from the other side of the room. 

It's the guy named Murray, I think, who was with Hopper and Joyce. 

' Yoo-hoo!' He slams a yellow paper down on the table. 'Okay, this is what Alexei called "the hub." Now, the hub takes us to the vault room.' Murray points out the different places on the map. 

'Okay, where's the gate?' Hopper inquires. 

'Right here.' Murray places his finger down. 'I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so.

'More like 500,' Erica interrupts. 'What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?'

'I'm sorry, who are you?' Murray frowns. 

'Erica Sinclair.' She snaps. 'Who are you?'

'Murray...Bauman.'

'Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die.' Erica crosses her arms. 

'I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?' Murray squints at her. 

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

'Erica!' Lucas scoffs. 

'Just the facts!'

'She's right.' Dustin cuts in. 'You're all gonna die, but you don't have to.' He moves in front of Murray, looking at the map. 'Excuse me. Sorry, may I?'

'Please.' he rolls his eyes. 

'Okay, see this room here?' He circles a place on the map. 'This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. 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 says slowly, an unfathomable expression on his face. 

'Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators,' Dustin waves his hand. 

'No,' Hopper shakes his head. 'Nope.' 

_

'Well, that settles it.' Erica says, raising her eyebrows. The adults are busy grabbing weapons and stuff, while we have our heartfelt reunion, talking about what will be their unfortunate deaths.  'He's gonna die. They're gonna die.'

'Yep, most likely,' Dustin nods curtly. 

'You guys survived,' I point out. 

'Barely,' Dustin says. 'We could've really used you guys down there.'

'Could've used you up here, too,' Mike says. 

'Yeah, man. We missed you, dude,' Lucas slaps Dustin on the back. 

'Yeah. Big-time,' Will smiles. 

'I missed you guys, too.' Dustin says. 'Big-time.'

'Please don't cry, nerds.' Erica says sassily. 

'Erica.' Lucas sighs. 

'Keep saying my name, see what happens.' she retorts. 

'Hey, heads up.' Hopper tosses Dustin a radio. 'You can navigate, just from someplace safe.'

'It's not that simple.' Dustin shakes his head. 'The signal won't reach' 

Cue the long speech. '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 someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situate dat the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That's me. If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start. And a car.'

Steve, Robin, Erica and Dustin head out to the Ham Radio, using Hoppers 'borrowed' car, while El, Max, Mike, Nancy, Jonathan, Lucas, and I stay behind. 

The plan is that we'll go to Murray's house to hide out, until the adults (Murray, Joyce, and Hopper) close the gate for (hopefully) the last time. 

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?