CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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Act 1-Chapter 16: The bathtub


The group was still waiting for the chief to show up. They were all trying to sit comfortably, all but Dustin, in silence whilst they waited. Lucas was leaning his chin on his arms that were lying on a chair, Avery had her head leant on Mike's shoulder whilst El was curled up on one of the chairs. Dustin however kept pacing around the bus, beginning to believe that Nancy and Hopper were captured by the bad men. 

"Will you stop pacing?" Mike asked him after a short amount of time.

"It's been way too long. Y'know what? Maybe you're right! Maybe this is all a trap and the bad men are coming to get us right now!" Dustin yelled, very stressed.

"It's not a trap! Why would the chief set us up? Nancy, maybe. But the chief!" Lucas told Dustin, which caused Mike to scoff.

"Lando Calrissian!" Dustin pointed out, carrying on the reference he made before.

"Would you shut up about Lando!" Avery yelled, lifting her head up, finally getting annoyed by his antics.

"I don't feel good about this! I don't feel good about this!" Dustin shouted in Lucas' face. Lucas yelled something back and then they sat in silence. A few seconds after, they heard tyres. The five of them all rushed to the front of the bus, praying that it was Hopper to come and rescue them. Much to their luck, it wasn't. The bad men had tracked them down. They ran to the back of the bus again and hid, hoping they wouldn't be spotted and that Hopper would show up soon. 

"Lando!" Dustin said matter of factly, now that, he thought, his point was correct. Mike told them both to shut up so they didn't get caught. 

The bad men were walking all around, looking for the party. Eventually, one of them walked up towards the door of the bus the five were hiding in. He saw the bikes that they hidden underneath it and walked towards the door, knowing they were inside. He poked his hand through the slightly open door, beginning to open it fully. Just as he was about to step in, a fist hit him on top of the head, causing a fight to break out between the two. Eventually, one of them won, knocking the other one out.

"Alright, lets go," Hopper said after just walking into the bus, "lets go!" The five grabbed their things and ran out of the bus, into Hoppers police car and towards safety.

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After a while, they arrived at the Byers house. Three people ran out of it. Johnathan, Joyce and Nancy.

"Mom! Johnathan!" Avery yelled, running up to her mother and brother, engulfing the two in a big hug. 

As that happened, Nancy ran up to Mike, bringing him into a hug to. 

"I was so worried about you!" Nancy said to her brother. Mike agreed, a bit suspicious on why she was acting so weirdly to him, but shook it off. Eventually the two families broke apart and went inside.

Mike began explaining everything about the flea and the acrobat to the other group, using Will and Nancy's friend Barb as the flea and them as the acrobat. He explained everything about the Upside Down, the demogorgan, the gate, how compasses helped them find the gate, where the gate was. Everything that they knew.

"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asked. El nodded, "Near a large water tank?" he asked again. El nodded again.

"How do you know all that?" Dustin asked him.

"He's seen it!" Avery muttered to her friends. 

"Is there anyway that you could. You could reach Will? You could talk to him in this...?" Joyce asked El.

"Upside Down," El muttered. Joyce nodded. El nodded her head to the question.

"And my friend Barbara, can you find her too?" Nancy questioned. El nodded again.

Nancy placed a photo of Barb in front of El, Mike changed the walkie talkie to be static and El closed her eyes, trying to find the two. The light above them flickered and then she gently opened her eyes. 

"I'm sorry," El whispered.

"What? What's wrong? What happened?" Joyce asked.

"I can't find them," El told her, beginning to tear up, thinking she let everyone down. El got up and went to the bathroom, the others all sat down thinking of another plan. 

"Whenever she uses her power, she gets weak," Mike told the rest of them.

"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets," Dustin added. 

"Like, she flipped a van over earlier," Lucas exclaimed. Dustin thought it wasd important to tell them how awesome it was.

"But she's drained," Mike informed them

"Like a bad batterY," Dustin continued.

"How do we make her better?" Joyce asked them.

"We dont, we just have to wait and try again," Avery told her mother. 

"How long?" Joyce asked. The party just shrugged when the bathroom door opened and El walked out of it. 

"The bath," she muttered. All of them looked at her confused, "I can find them, in the bath."

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