Complete Chaos

033

The group added three new members Joyce, Hopper, and Murray.

They were all together near the fountain except for Murray, he had left somewhere, but Julia didn't pay full attention to know where he was.

El was next to Hopper, resting, while Julia was sitting down next to Robin. She focused on her breathing every time she felt a sharp pain. Steve's hand that was on her back moved in a circular motion to ease the discomfort.

"The Mind Flayer built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her, and pave a way into our world," Mike explained as the group stood near each other in a half circle.

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked the kids since they had already fought it.

"It's big," responded Jonathan, his hands by his side, Nancy standing next to him, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Thirty feet, at least."

"It sorta destroyed your cabin," added Lucas. Hopper exhaled and lightly shook his head, "Sorry," whispered Lucas apologetically.

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El. It's some kind of gigantic weapon?" Steve asked, sitting next to Julia, his hand never moving from her back.

"Yes."

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon with melted people," he continued to ask, wanting to make sure he was following along. Julia nodded, her head resting on his shoulder. 

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked from across Steve and Julia.

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive," the young redhead with two braids responded.

"But if we close the gate again," Will started by saying. "We cut the brain off from the body and kill it," Max added. 

"Theoretically," Lucas said, looking at the two adults.

"Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hoo!" Murray said loudly, moving pieces of papers above his head. He was wearing a white tank top and jean shorts.

He walked to where the others were and placed the papers on a table nearby.

"Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'" the papers were the blueprints of the Russian underground facility.

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked, standing next to Murray. The group had moved to be closer to the adults.

Murray pointed to the edge of the piece of paper. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so," he explained, moving his finger across the paper.

"More like 500," Erica responded, walking toward the adults. Erica had her hands on her hips as she continued, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

Hopper didn't say anything but lifted his eyebrows slightly, "I'm sorry, who are you," the man with big glasses asked, leaning on the table.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you," the young girl said confidently.

He was hesitant for a second, then responded, "Murray Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman," she emphasized the last name. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die," she said, pointing at the rest of the group.