Family Line - Dustin Henderson

010|

River watched as Hopper paced back and forth across the room infront of him trying to get call anyone who could possible help them. He was sat at the table in the Byers living room, after being forced by Dustin to sit down.

The Henderson boy sat besides him every so often sneaking glances towards River, still a little worried about him. The colour had yet to return to his cheeks and he hadn't spoken a word to anyone.

He wanted to say something, anything to make sure River was okay, but his mind went blank whenever he tried to think of something. Mike suddenly stood up from the table, walking into the other room picking up one of the brain teasers were was sat on a stool.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?"

"Really?" Lucas was the only one to answer.

"he petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund raiser for equipment. Mr Clarke learned everything from him." He paused slowly walking back towards the group, "Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah." Dustin muttered nodding his head.

Mike placed the puzzle in the middle of the table, "We can't let him die in vain."

"Well what do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin spoke up, "The chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."

"Demo-dogs?" Mac questioned from the other side of the table.

"Demogorgon dogs, Demo-dogs," Dustin started to explain, "It's like a compound. It's like a play on words."

"Okay." Max scoffed.

Dustin sighed shaking his head, glancing towards River, his mood lightening slightly when he saw the Hargrove boy smiling towards him.

"I mean when it was just Dart, maybe..."

"But there's an army now." Lucas finished.

"His army." Mike muttered under his breath.

"What do you mean?" Steve looked up.

"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike once again walked off into the other room, the group following him this time watching as he picked up a drawing of a giant spider-like creature.

"The shadow monster." Dustin realised.

"It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus. It infected him."

"And so this virus... it's connecting him to the tunnels." Max spoke, slowly figuring it out.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything." 

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down." Steve shook his head looking around the group in confusion.

"Okay, so the shadow monster's inside everything." Mike explained, "And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."

"And so does Dart." Lucas added.

"Yeah, it's like what Mr Clarke taught us. The hive mind."

"Hive mind?" Steve repeated.

River wasn't really sure what they were talking about anymore, he could still hear them but nothing seemed to be able to stick in his mind. His head still felt like it was spinning and all he wanted to do was go and sit back down.

River looked up confused when he was suddenly dragged back into the other room by Dustin, the rest of the group following behind them, Mike sending a confused look towards Lucas as he watched to two.

"The mind flayer." Dustin spoke, slamming a large book down onto the table which everyone was now stood around.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper asked.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."

"Oh mu god, none of this is real. This is a kids game." Hopper groaned, annoyed.

"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids." Dustin defended, "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor-"

"Analogy." Lucas cut in.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" Dustin questioned, "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing-"

"Flayer. Mind flayer."

Nancy rolled her eyes continuing what she was trying to say, "What does it want?"

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race."

"Like the Germans?"

"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis." Steve stuttered.

"Uh, if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike spoke up.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve walked away from the group slightly standing off to the side. River quickly followed him, he wasn't adding anything to the conversation, it wasn't like they really needed him there. He wondered if anyone would notice if he just left and went home.

"They're right." A new voice joined the conversation from down the hall, River wasn't exactly sure who was right, and what they were right about. He hadn't been listening, "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

"Me too." Hopper walked towards her, "Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No." Mike spoke looking towards Will who was still asleep on the sofa, "But he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this tings, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max reminded, "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now."

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."

Dustin sat besides River trying to find any old newspapers or anything that they could use to cover the walls of the Byers shed so Will wouldn't know where he is. He was originally helping Lucas but had walked away after a few seconds to help River.

Dustin froze slightly thinking back to the conversation they'd had on the bus at the junkyard, "You know, if you ever need someone to talk to i'm here." 

River looked up confused, "W-w-what."

"Well, i'm your friend," Dustin tried his best to ignore the weird feeling he got in his stomach when he said 'friend', "And well, I just wanted you to know, that i'm always here, if you ever need anything."

River nodded his head, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that. He'd never really had a friend before, there had been people who were friendly to him but they never really wanted to actually talk with him about things.

They'd finished setting up the shed and Mike, Joyce, Hopper and Jonathan were now in there trying to get any information out of Will that they could. 

"What h-h-happens if Will f-f-figures out where w-we are?" River muttered after a few seconds of silence, turning to look towards Dustin who was sat beside's him on the sofa. He felt like he probably already knew the answer, and he really didn't want to have to see those 'Demo-dogs' again.

"He won't find out." Dustin reassured, gently placing his hand on the Hargrove boys shoulder.

There was a sudden flickering of lights from all around them and Nancy and Steve rushed towards the window which looked over the shed. Dustin moved his hand until he was once again holding River's hand, noticing how the boy suddenly tensed up at the bright lights. 

They stayed in silence for what felt like forever, no one could bring themselves to talk. Everyone thinking about the same thing, what if Will did figure out where he was.