The Girl With The Flamethrower

I.VII.II

They watched as Hopper pulled in and the kids got out.

Kimberly quickly walked over to Dustin and pulled him into a hug, "Are you ok?"

Dustin just nods, and holds his sister tighter.

Nancy does the same to Mike, "Mike. Oh, my God. Mike! I was so worried about you."

Kimberly pulls away from Dustin to pull Lucas into a hug, glad that they were all safe.

Mike says, "Yeah, uh... me, too."

Nancy and him pull away, and she looks back at Eleven, "Is that my dress?"

Kimberly lets go of Lucas, and moves over to Eleven, gently placing a hand on her shoulder, smiling, "I'm so glad you are ok. A little annoyed with the boys for not telling me the truth, but I understand."

Eleven just pulled her into a hug, hiding her face in her shirt. Kimberly smiled and wrapped the girl into a warm hug, knowing that was the best thing she could do right now.

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Mike holds up the sheet of paper to explain, "Okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat. Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space." Mike punches a hole through the page,

Dustin inputs, "A gate."

"That we tracked to Hawkins Lab," Lucas says.

"With our compasses," Dustin explains, "Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle."

"Makes sense, smart thinking. I'm proud," Kimberly smiles at her brother. Who gives her a grin back.

"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asks.

Eleven answers, "Yes."

"Near a large water tank?"

"Yes."

Dustin stutters, "How do you know all that?"

"He's seen it," Mike says.

Joyce looks to Eleven, "Is there any way that you could... that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this—"

"The Upside Down," Eleven answers.

Joyce whispers, "Down. Yeah."

Nancy asks, "And my friend Barbara? Can you find her, too?"

Eleven nods and everyone moves to grab what she needs.

Static is all that's heard while Eleven works, a few moments later tears well up in her eye, "I'm sorry."

"What?" Joyce stutters, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Eleven cries, "I can't find them."

Kimberly pulls her into a hug, and reassures her that it'll be ok.

"I'm going to grab you some water ok?"

Eleven just nods.

Mike explains, "Whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak. The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets. Like, she flipped the van earlier."

Dustin smiled, "It was awesome."

"But she's drained," Lucas says.

Mike says, "Like a bad battery."

Kimberly handed Eleven the glass and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. Eleven took it gratefully.

"Well..." Joyce stutters, "How do we make her better?"

"We don't. We just have to wait and try again."

Nancy asks, "Well, how long?"

"I don't know."

Eleven gets up, "The bath."

"What?" Joyce looks at her.

"I can find them. In the bath."

Dustin was on the phone with Mr. Clarke occasionally writing things down, while Kimberly was with Eleven.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I want to help. I will be ok Kimberly."

She smiled, "My friends call me Kimmy, and you little Eleven have earned that honor tenfold."

Eleven smiled, and pointed towards herself, "El. Friends call me El."

"Does that mean I get to call you El?"

Eleven nodded smiling.

"El it is then."

The two of them joined the others at the table listening to Dustin.

"Yep, all right. Yeah, we'll be careful. Definitely. All right, Mr. Clarke. Yeah, I'll see you on Monday. I'll see you on Monday, Mr. Clarke. Bye." He put down the phone and looked at Joyce, "Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?"

Joyce furrowed her brows, "I think so. Yeah. Yeah."

"Good. Then we just need salt. Lots of it."

"How much is 'lots'?" Hopper looked at him.

Dustin looked at his paper, "1,500 pounds."

"Well, where are we gonna get that much salt?" Nancy sighed.

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