Another side

Chapter 15

"He said he was building something. That it was all for me." Max looks at her. "Building something...... Is he talking about the flayed?" "He must be," Nancy says. Lucas paces around. "So he's building army just like we thought." "Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." We all look at Mike. "He's building it to stop Eleven," Will finishes off for Mike. "Last year El closed the gate on him and I have a feeling that really pissed him off. And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's gone." "Game over," I finish off for Mike."

El takes a deep breath. "He also said he's gonna kill all of you." My breath hitches. God, I don't think I can take anymore near death experiences. Billy grabs my hand. Suddenly Nancy stands up from where she was leaning. "Did you hear that?" We stay quiet and I hear it. A faint screeching sound coming from in the woods. "It's just the fireworks Nance." I look at Jonathan. "No, no I heard that." Nancy looks at Eleven. "Sam, when he told you this it was inside this room?" Eleven nods and now it seems everyone can hear the faint thudding noise. I feel Will shift from above and I see his hand starting to slowly move to the back of his neck. Fuck! 

"He knows we're here, doesn't he Will?" Will nods silently and I let out a shaky breath. Of course he fucking does. We all go outside determined to get away but when we reach the car we see a large monster much larger than the one at the hospital tearing it's way towards us. That's it! I'm gonna die today. We run around preparing ourselves for battle and board up the whole entire house and closing every single exit. We stand in a circle and we can hear it get closer until suddenly the rustling stops. We stand there in silence for a couple of seconds. Suddenly a tentacle shoots through the wall causing us to all break free trying to get away. It stops right in front of Eleven.

Jonathan raises his axe and starts cutting into it with his axe. The tentacle whacks him sending him flying towards the wall. It advances towards him and Nancy starts shooting at it with his gun but she runs out of bullets causing her to back away into the wall. It moves towards her but just before it touches Eleven uses her powers to stop it and rips it in half causing the tentacle to go back through the wall it came from. We all breath a sigh of relief but it's a bit too early because another tentacle breaks through the wall followed by another one and El stops both of them. Using her powers she rips both of them. She tries to catch her breath but this monster is relentless and breaks through the roof grabbing her leg and pulling her up.

We all scream and grab her and pull as Nancy puts a bullet in her gun. "Nancy shoot it!!" She shoots at it but it doesn't do much on the monster's hold of Eleven's leg. Lucas grabs the axe and starts hacking away at the tentacle that is holding her as Nancy continues shooting. We're pulling as hard as we can but it's pulling us towards it as well. Finally Lucas cuts through the tentacle and Eleven falls back on Mike and I. "El are you ok?" Mike looks at her leg and there's a part of the tentacle that still biting down on her leg. He rips it off and she screams in pain. 

The monster snarls from above us and we remember it's still there. Fuck. Now what? El stands up and starts advancing towards it on her injured leg. It roars and starts poking it's head through but El stops it and she starts screaming as she uses her powers to slowly rip it's head apart. As soon as she does we start running out. Max helps Eleven out along with Mike and we all run to the car as fast as we can. We get in the car and Eleven is wailing in pain. Nancy starts the car and we drive off as fast as we can. We drive to a store and Nancy picks up a rock and throws it through the glass door breaking it and we walk inside. 

Max and Mike help Eleven and I walk behind them. They set her down and pull up her pant leg to reveal a very bloody leg. I turn away. That shit looks painful. Nancy pulls out something and Max bends down. "Woah! Hey, what are you doing?" Nancy looks at her like it's most obvious thing. "I'm cleaning the wound." "No, first, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage." Everyone except Billy and I look at her weirdly. "I skateboard, trust me." She grabs a cloth and puts it on El's leg. "Mike, hold this." He immediately holds the cloth on her wound. "Hold it firm." 

She looks at Nancy and Jonathan. "We're gonna need water, soap." They look at her in shock for a second before registering what she says and running off to get them. Lucas suddenly empties the content of his bag. "Does any of this help?" "No! But you can go get me a wash cloth and a bowl." "A bowl?" "Lucas! We don't have time for this." Lucas and Will run off and Max goes to get bandages while Billy and I stay with Eleven keeping her calm while Mike holds the cloth over her wound. Max goes to look for Lucas and Will. Mike gives me and Billy a look and we take a hint and go and sit in the aisle behind them. "Are you ok?"

Billy looks at me. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I lean on him. "It's just... you've been quieter ever since that memory of you and Sam." He smiles sadly. "I remember that day. It was so much fun. I've never really told you the story of me and Sam, have I?" I shake my head. "We used to be best friends. His parents died when he was 5 and he moved in with us. It was so much fun living with my best friend. He loved my mum almost as much as I did and she loved him like he was her own son." 

He grabs my hand and starts playing with it. "Fast forward in time, my mum left cause she couldn't handle my father's abuse and he became violent. He started acting like my dad. Then he decided he wouldn't be friends with me because my dad's main target was me. We went from brothers to enemies in the span of two years and suddenly he hated me and was violent towards me. Unfortunately for me, I never stopped loving him like a brother." I see a tear roll down his face. 

I wipe it off gently before hugging him tight. Suddenly we hear Mike yelling Dustin's name. I immediately stand up and help Billy up before we run to where Mike and Eleven are sitting and Nancy and Jonathan are already there. We sit around El as she uses her powers to try and locate Dustin. I'm sitting on the floor leaning on Will's legs who's sitting on the fruit rack thingy. Their arguing about coke which is stupid. El rips off her bandana. "Hey!" Lucas and Mike look at her sheepishly. "Sorry," they say in unison.

Mike looks at her. "Did you find him?" When she tells us where he is I look at her confused. As we walk with our supplies I look at the others. "So he's so panicked about the gate, that he went to the movies?" "Are you sure he said gate?" Mike glares at Max for doubting him but Will backs her. "He might have said great. Like this movie I'm watching is great." "Well it sounded like gate. Which would explain how the Mind Flayer's still alive." Nancy nods. "Yeah we just have to shut it again." "Then the monster dies," I finish for her. "But if not we always have Lucas' fireworks." Lucas glares at his girlfriend. (I think they're still dating, I'm not sure anymore) "Keep mocking my plan, Max. Keep mocking it."

They start arguing and I chuckle. We get to the mall and there's men in black are walking around we hide behind Eleven as they start walking towards something with their guns raised. Eleven causes a distraction using the car on display. They look up and see us then Eleven flings the car at them. We look to see Dustin, Steve, and two girls I don't recognise. Dustin smiles. He runs towards us. He goes and hugs Mike and Eleven. I hug Steve and he smiles. I haven't seen him this whole summer. The young girl with them looks at Lucas. "Lucas?" He looks at her. "What are you doing here?" I think it's his sister. She points at the other three. "Ask them! It's all their fault." "That is true. It's absolutely all our fault," Steve says.  

The  other girl with them looks confused. "I don't understand what happened with that car." "El has superpowers." She looks at Dustin confused. "I'm sorry?" Steve answers for him. "Superpowers. She threw it with her mind. Keep up." Lucas's sister looks at El. "That's El?" The other girl looks at her confused. "Who's El?" Nancy looks at the girl confused. "I'm sorry, who are you?" She looks at Nancy. "I'm Robin. I work with Steve." Dustin looks at us. "She cracked the top secret code." "Which is how we found out about the Russians," Steve adds on. Now I'm super confused. "Russians? What Russians?" Steve looks at me like I'm dumb. "The Russians!" I scoff "Wow Steve that clears up a lot." Max looks at Steve confused. "Wait those were Russians?" "Some of them," Lucas's sister answers.

 Lucas looks frustrated. "What are you talking about?!" Dustin looks at all of us confused. "Didn't you hear our code red?" "Yeah, but we couldn't understand what you were saying," Mike answers. Dustin groans. "Goddam low battery!" Steve starts scolding Dustin about low batteries and everyone starts yelling at each other. I notice El walking away so I walk towards her and grab her shoulders. "El, are you okay?"

She looks at me then she just collapses taking me down with her. Everyone looks at us and immediately run towards us. "What's wrong?" She whimpers. "My leg, my leg." They go and pull her pant leg up and judging by everyone's groans of disgust her wound seems to have gotten worse but I can't see. "There's something in it." El screams in pain and I try to keep her calm but she just keeps screaming. Oh shit.