Don't Panic - B. Hargrove

NINETEEN

The teens from the junkyard walked through the darkness; David was tired as he hoisted his flint, Max sticking close to his side as they followed Steve and the other boys.
"You're positive that was dart?" Lucas asked his friend.
"Yes. he had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt." Dustin responded in annoyance. "
He was tiny tie days ago."Max pointed out.
"Well, he moved two times already."Dustin said.
"Molted?" Steve asked.
"Shed his skin like a snake."David explained to him.
"When's he gonna molt again?" Max continued to ask the important questions.
"It's gotta be soon." the other boy responded.
"When he does, he'll be fully grown or close to it. And so will his friends." "Yeah, and he's gonna eat much more than just cats." Steve agreed with Dustin. Lucas immediately stopped his friend.
"wait...cats? Dart ate a cat?"
"No, what? No." Dustin wildly shook his head, but Steve wasn't having any of his bullshit.
"What are you talking about? He ate Mews." 
"Mews? Who's. News?" Max asked in confusion.
" Dustin's cat." David sighed heavily. Lucas was pissed.
"I knew it! You kept him!"  David completely blended out their argument about Dustin keeping the monster as his pet.
He felt awful, and a migraine emerged from the day's overload. Steve was equally done with the kids and glanced around. Then he froze. "Guys!" he called out, but nobody listened. Only David lifted his gaze towards his friend.
"Guys!" Steve barked louder, and the kids went quiet to look at him.
Now all of them could hear here the screeching in the distance. Without saying something, Steve started to follow the noise, and where Steve went, David followed.
So they all found themselves jogging through the night and toward the sound.  They came out on a hill that was overwatching Hawkins's lab, and David had the immediate and very unpleasant suspicion they had found the source.
As they approached, a familiar voice called out: "Hello? Who's there?"
and David's heart jumped.
He ditched the group and ran towards the silhouettes of Nancy and his brother, jump scaring them by falling into their arms.
"You're back!" he exclaimed happily. Jonathan held him right while Nancy gawked at Steve, who was coming into sight with the kids.
"What are you doing here?" she called out.
"What are you doing here?" Steve responded.
"We're looking for Mike and Will." she explained, and David peeled himself off his twin.
"They're here? I thought they were looking for Hopper!" 
"We're not sure."Nancy softly replied, her eyes filled with empathy as she reached out for the boy's hand. "Why?" Jonathan fought on to his brother's threatening tone. Loud screeching from the lab made an answer obsolete
. A discussion broke out on his to act next when Nancy noticed how the lights were back on.
"The power's back !" she exclaimed, st at the lab. This was just what they needed to open the gate. Jonathan rushed to the gatehouse and tried to push the button multiple times, but nothing moved.
"Let me try." Dustin pushed him aside. "Hang on.." the teen mumbled, but Dustin managed to get him off.
"Let me try, Jonathan!" he told the boy off and started fumbling with the button himself, which was as equally effective.
But suddenly, it worked, and Nancy and Jonathan left to drive up to the building. David was leaning against Steve again, crawling the emotional support the boy was offering with his you're existence while holding his breath.
His entire family was in the danger zone, and his heart almost exploded in worry. It was the second time he was left behind, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Guys!" Maxine suddenly said as she looked up the road, and a pair of headlights appeared.
David sighed in relief. They were back. Jonathan's car approached at full speed and passed by. Then, with a honk, Hopper's jeep stopped next to them.
"Jump in!" the man told the group, and none of them wanted to argue with that.
They all squeezed into the back, and when Steve and David plopped into the passenger seat, Hopper sped after the other car.
"I'm glad you're okay." David told the man, who briefly grinned at him. "Thank you for finding me, kid. It was damn close."
"Of course." David smiled softly. "When this is over... you should consider joining the police. You got some real talent there." Hopper added.
"I don't know if I'm brave enough for that job. You must have gone through hell today.
" And with that, Hopper told them everything that had happened at the lab.The strange convoy stopped in front of the Byers' house, where David jumped out of the car to look for his mother and Will. The kid looked like a corpse as Jonathan gently took him out of the car and carried him inside.
" We had to sedate him. It can look through him." Joyce explained to  David, looking after his brothers, placing her hand firmly on his arm. Her eyes were swollen, and her gaze was strangely determined.
"It?"
"The shadow monster ."
David was too tired to ask any further; he just accepted the news for now and let Joyce lead him inside, where he slid to the floor next to the couch where Will was lying. He put his chin up next to him, closing his eyes for a brief moment.
"We'll get through this." he mumbled. "I don't know how, but we'll make it, and everything will be fine. Then we play Dnd for as long as you like."
He briefly glanced up as Steve plopped down next to him while watching Hopper discuss with the authorities on the phone about what had happened and how to act next. It didn't go well. Frustrated, he hung up.
" They didn't believe you, did they? " Dustin asked him, leaning against the duking table surrounded by the other kids.
"We'll see." Hopper said, and he didn't sound like he was expecting much. Mike was furious about that.
"We'll see. We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" he called out, his voice a bit too loud and high for David's liking, who pressed his eyes shut again due to the pounding headache.
"We stay here, and we wait for help." Hopper made clear, his voice calm but his eyes stern.
With that, he left to check on Joyce, who had left to sit in her room, mourning the death of her boyfriend. David was sad too; now everything would be different again without Bob. His mom would be different again, and he had hoped so much she would get her happy end.
She deserved it. And he wished he could be the one comforting her. But he couldn't. So he looked at his younger brother instead. He looked creepily peaceful in his forced slumber, pale and fragile. It made David's heartache. The house was silent for some time; nobody dared to speak while hearts broke and despair lay down on them like a thick blanket. A funeral would be more fun than joining a group of people faced with the potential end of the world. David let out a sigh, and at the same moment, Max sat down by his other side as if it was the most natural place for her to be. David hated how she had been dragged into this mess. She had nothing to do with the upside-down.
At least not until today. Mike was the first to stand up and pace around the room, then stopped to pick up one of the games Bob had brought for Will. He looked down at the blue cube but stared right through it as he spoke up: "Did you guys know that Bob was the founder of Hawkins AV?"
"Really?" Dustin asked in disbelief.  Mike nodded.
"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him."
David remembered the story all too well. He had been so proud that his mother was dating a man like Bob. A smart one, caring and gentle. It had given him hope. Bob had given him hope. Mike placed the cube on the table.
" We can't let him die in vain."
Dustin looked at him funnily. "What do you want to do, Mike? The chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own. We tried."
"Demo-dogs?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow at the word creation.
"Demogorgon dogs," Dustin explained. "It's like a compound. It's like a play on words..."
"Okay," she cut him off, rolling her eyes. Dustin ignored her.
"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."
"But there's an army now." Lucas agreed.
"Precisely" Dustin nodded.
"His army." Mike realized, and Steve, out of all, was the one catching on to that.
"What do you mean?" the older boy asked.
"His army!" Mike repeated, looking at David for help, but the boy's brain was foggy and mushy.
"Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."
Now David understood where he was coming from and jumped to his feet. "The shadow monster!" he called out. Mike nodded in excitement.
"The doctor said it was like a virus; it infected him."
"So this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max thought out loud, having followed David to stand by the others.
"To the tunnels, monsters, the upside-down. Everything." David overthought the idea further.
"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." Steve interfered.
"Okay, so the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Mike elaborated, doing his best to speak clearly.
"And so does Dart." Lucas pointed out, getting the hand of the concept.
"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind."
"The hive mind?" Steve looked at Mike as if he was talking about rocket science.
"The hive mind." David echoed, completely understanding himself.
"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism." Dustin briefly said to explain, but they had lost Steve.
So Mike just continued.
"And the shadow monster is the the thing that controls everything. It's the brain."
"Like the mind flayer! " Dustin called out, and everyone who played Dnd agreed with that analogy. Only Steve and Max were the odd ones out. "What?" they asked in unison.