Escaping Her Mind

Chapter Nine: Connection Unstable

The group is thrown out of Max's mind and out of her memories. They all gasp awake in the pizza shop, looking around at each other with gasping breaths. Eleven springs up from the water, sputtering and wiping water from her face. She coughs a few times, trying to catch her breath. 

"What happened?" Lucas questions, looking around. His eyes land on Eleven. "She was right there, we almost had her! Why did you pull us out?" He questions, standing from where he was sitting. 

Eleven holds a hand over her chest, still trying to catch her breath. Mike rubs her back with one hand while holding out his other hand to stop Lucas from asking any more questions. "Give her a second." Mike tells Lucas. "El? El, are you okay?" 

Eleven nods through gasps for air. "I'm...I'm okay..." She pants.

"Come on." Mike says, putting one of her arms around his shoulders. "Help me get her out of this thing." He speaks to no one in particular. Everyone jumps in to help but Lucas is the closest since he was trying to get an answer out of her. He puts her other arm around him and helps haul her weak body out of the pizza dough freezer. The two boys help Eleven sit down on the counter as she continues to catch her breath. 

Just then, Jonathan runs into the room. "Guys, we got a problem." He says, looking around at the group that is now awake and Eleven who is sitting soaking wet on the counter. "Okay, good, you're awake."

"What's wrong?" Will questions. 

Jonathan locks eyes with Lucas. "Your mom just called." He says.

"His mom called the pizza shop?" Steve questions. "How did she even know we were here?" 

"No, she...she didn't call here." Jonathan stammers out. "She called my mom who called us because she knew we were here because of the note we left and -- look, the point is, the hospital called." He rambles before getting to the point. "They couldn't get a hold of Max's mom. But she had a seizure."

"What?" Lucas breathes, his body going still and his blood freezing. "Is she..."

"She's okay." Jonathan says as the others breathe out in relief. "She's okay. They don't know what caused it. But I have a theory and it involves eight hitchhikers in her mind." 

"This isn't working." Mike says. "We need to stop blindly going through these memories and go to ones that matter."

"What do you think we've been doing?" Steve questions. 

"The only thing I've learned about the girl is that she has a lot of walls." Robin says. "And I'm pretty sure most of us already knew that." She points out. 

"That's it!" Dustin exclaims. "She has a lot of walls. So we have to go to a time when her walls fell down." He tells the group. 

"Like...like her therapy appointments?" Steve questions. "Isn't that, like, illegal?"

"Like the night she confessed..." Lucas whispers. He looks around at the group. "The night she confessed to me was the most I've ever seen her without her walls. I think we have to go there." He looks at Eleven. "And it connects to Billy's death so it should be easy leading us there." 

"Can you make that happen? Can you take us to a certain memory?" Mike questions, looking at Eleven.

"I...I can try." Eleven says, looking around at the group. 

"Wait a second, guys." Nancy speaks up. "Are we sure this is a good idea? I mean Eleven looks drained and Max just had a seizure because we were in her mind." 

"We were so close." Will says. "We saw her there. And not memory her. The real her. She was there, running up to us. We have to go back." The group converses, some make their points and others argue.