Don't Panic - B. Hargrove

TWENTY-TWO

To Hopper, it was out of the question that Eleven was allowed to close the gate. He didn't want to risk losing her. Neither did the others. They had just gotten the girl back, and sending her off to battle again felt wrong to all of them. But the realist in David was well aware they had no other choice. The girl was their best weapon, and without her, the world was lost. The gate needed to be closed.

David remembered vividly how he and Nancy had stumbled into one of those last years, and he didn't wish for anyone to experience the same.  Being there, the upside-down had felt like his body was rotting alive, the toxic hair hurting his lungs with every breath. And there had been the Demogorgon, the adult one, chasing them down.
Jonathan had rescued them just in time. El was no stranger to that, and she willingly took the risk to protect her newfound family. And Hopper couldn't ignore that. So he sighed unhappily.
"It's not like it was before. It's grown." he started to share what he'd seen at the lab.
"A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there.The place is crawling with those dogs." "Demo-dogs." Dustin pointed out, earning a glare from the man.
"Sorry, what?" "I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and digs. Put them together, and it sounds pretty badass... "
"How is that important right now?" Hopper interrupted him.
"It's not. I'm sorry." Dustin averted his gaze to the table.
"I can do it." Eleven spoke up, her gaze piercing into Hopper.
"You're not hearing me." the man tried to make her change her mind, but she wasn't letting him influence her decision.
"I hear you. I can do it." Mike had another point to consider.
"Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point?" Max asked, confused, and once again, David understood all too well what Mike was implying.
He gasped, pressing himself closer to his mother's side. Will was part of the army. He was going to die if they didn't find a solution. Luckily, Joyce's mind was already working on a plan, and suddenly, she jumped up. Everyone followed as she entered Will's room as if she did for the first time, her considering gaze taking the scene in intensity until it settled on the open window that was allowing brisk air to enter the room.

"He likes it cold." she said, plainly staring at it.
"What?" Hopper softly asked her.
"He likes it cold." David repeated his mother's words.
The room was cold. "It's what Will kept saying to us. He likes it cold." She moved over and slid the window close.
"We keep giving it what it wants."
"We keep him comfortable." David agreed, excitedly grabbing Jonathan's arm to press it.
"We need to make the host uninhabitable!"
His twin stared at him, but Nancy behind him mumbled: "Like a Virus." David nodded eagerly.
"So if he likes it cold and is the most comfortable freezing..."
"We need to burn it out of him." Joyce concluded; her face was determined. "But not here. It has to be somewhere he doesn't know this time. Far away from here." Mike said.
"I know just the place." Hopper said, locking eyes with Joyce.

And then it was all a hurry again. Hopper told Jonathan the directions while carrying Will into the boy's car. Jonathan and Joyce would take him to a cabin in the woods where nothing could disturb their cruel intentions. Meanwhile, Hopper would take Eleven to the lab, doing his best to get her to the gate.
David was helping Steve and Macy search the pile of things Hopper had thrown out of the shed before for radiators of any kind that would help to burn the monster out of his baby brother.
He didn't like the idea of watching Will sweat and toss around, and he was already unsteady on his feet by now, the day more and more taking a toll on his balance as well. Steve watched him in worry.

"You're okay, Doodle?"
"Just a bad migraine." the boy waves it off. He could feel Nancy watching him closely. Steve turned to her.
"You should go with them. Instead of Doodle."
"What?" she turned to face him, surprised by his words.
"With Jonathan." Steve softly said while stretching out an arm to support David by the waist.
"No, I'm..." she scoffed.
"I'm not just going to leave Mike... Besides, I'm sure David wants to go with his family."
"No one is leaving anyone." Steve made clear, awkwardly bending to inspect a heater he'd just found while still holding on to his best friend.
David was torn on whether to stay or go. So he just let himself plop to the floor, tears running down his face. Steve let him know how he couldn't make that decision for the boy, and now that he didn't need to support him anymore, he could step closer to Nancy.
"I may be a pretty shittx boyfriend, but... turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter. And David and I make a great team." 
He lifted the heater and pressed it into Nancy's arms.
"Steve..." Nancy breathed out, but Steve just smiled at her before turning to look down at David.
"You've done enough for today. You've given everything you could. You need to rest." His voice was gentle, and David knew by the look on his face that he was probably right.
Going with them like this, he would end up as a burden.
"Okay." he simply said. Nancy would be able to support Jonathan better than he could.
So she left with them, and David watched from the porch as Jonathan's and Hopper's cars drove off into the night.
"It was the right decision," Steve told him, hand on his shoulder.

David didn't answer. He let his friend lead him back into the house, accepted how he was parked on the couch, and took the Glas of water Max was offering him. Indifferent, he watched as Dustin emptied the fridge to preserve the Demo-dog's dead body as if he was watching a mediocre sitcom on TV.Steve wasn't too happy having to carry the creature.
"Is that really necessary?" he asked. "Yes, it is, okay? This is a grind-breaking scientific discovery.
We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog. Right, Doodle?"
David didn't get response. He couldn't care less what was going to happen with the body. He was done.
"All right, all right, all right." Steve sighed, going along with the boy's plan to make him stop talking.
"But you're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, all right?" he told him as he squeezed the creature into the fridge and smacked it shut until it could fall out again.
Meanwhile, Lucas and Max had started to clean the mess El had caused with her kill, making themselves useful around so they wouldn't have to think about the end of the world. Mike was pacing in front of the couch, and David lazily followed his movement as in a trance. "Mike! Stop!" Lucas told him.
David didn't care about that either. "You weren't in there, okay, Lucas?" Mike barked at him.
"That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."
"Demo-dogs?" Dustin called from the kitchen, and Mike snarled at that. "The chief will take care of it." Lucas tried to ease his friend's worries, but it didn't work, as Mike glared at him. "Listen, dude, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?" Steve entered the conversation to keep the boys from fighting.
"Okay, first of all, this isn't a stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench." Mike told him off.
"So my point is..." Steve began to stammer, briefly pausing to think what was hardly ever a good omen for his argumentations.
He looked like his brain had stopped working, or worse as if he had to admit that he didn't have a point. "Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do."

With that, he snaked the towel he'd been carrying over his shoulder as he would during basketball training, and as he crossed both arms in front of his chest, it somehow made him look like a mother on duty.How fitting for his personality.
" That's maybe not entirely true."David pointed out from the sofa, only listening to the conversation with one ear as his gaze had mindlessly traced the map still covering the walls.
And right now, an idea had plopped into his mind. It was a stupid one, of course. But it could be his last hurrah on this mission, and he really needed that. They all turned to face him.

"The hive mind." the boy reminded them.
"When they ran away from the bus, the mind flayer had called them. So if we could get their attention just long enough, make it call them to us, El and Hopper could sneak up to the gate without any trouble."
"Clear a path to the gate!" Mike breathed out.
"Yeah, and then we all die." Steve shook his head.
"Why do you tell them things like that, man?" he frowned at his best friend. "That's one point of view." Dustin shrugged.
He was fully on board with the idea. "No. That's not a point of view, dude. That's a fact." Steve did not allow that attitude.
Mike, on the other hand, had wondered, following the map to the red x.
"This is our way into the tunnel," he announced, and David rose from the couch with a heavy sigh to join him.

"Maybe if we set the hub on fire... "  Mike thought out loud.
"Oh yeah, that's a no." Steve violently disagreed, but was ignored by all of them.
"The mind flayer would call away his army" David nodded along. 
"And then we circle back to the exit, and boom! Done!" Mike summed up the idea.
"Guys.!" Steve rudely interrupted the following discussion on executing the plan by clapping into his hand and placing them onto his hips.
"This is not happening." he set his foot down.
"But..." Mike started but was immediately interrupted.
"No, no, no, no. No buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing. We're staying here on the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?" he looked at them individually, even at David.
" This isn't a sports game! "Mike called out in annoyance, quickly silenced by Steve and his towel gesturing around:
" I said, does everybody understand that? I need a yes. "

But there wasn't a yes coming from anyone. Instead, an engine revved in front of the house, and Max's eyes widened at the familiar sound.
"Shit."