A Deal With God

Chapter 18: The Look

There was a collective sigh of relief when Quinn released the doctor's hand and turned her gaze away from him. The man's trembling hand fumbled for the stress ball in his lab coat pocket as he took an empty seat at the kitchen table. He sat there quietly as the kids regrouped, discussing ways to defeat the "Mind Flayer".

"Okay, so, if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it...," Nancy started, picking up the Dungeons and Dragons manual Dustin was using as a "reference" for this situation.

"We kill everything it controls," Mike finished for her.

"We win," Dustin concluded.

"Theoretically," Quinn reminded them.

"Great, so how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Hopper asked sarcastically, snatching the manual out of Nancy's hands.

"No, no, no fireballs," Dustin chuckled. "You, uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because..." he stammered seeing Hopper's face.

"Because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the Mind Flayer, it...it likes brains. It's just a game, it's a game," Dustin conceded.

"What the Hell are we doing here?" Hopper asked slamming the manual shut and dropping it onto the table.

"I thought we were waiting for military backup," Dustin tried to defend himself.

"We are!" Hopper shouted.

"But even if they come, how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns," Mike argued, getting worked up like before.

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper replied, trying to keep his cool.

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab," Mike started.

"We know the monsters are gonna molt again," Lucas continued.

"We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town," Dustin added.

"They're right," Joyce said, pulling everyone's attention again. "We have to kill it." Hopper looked at her with sympathetic eyes.

"I want to kill it," Joyce insisted looking up at him.

"Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that?" He said gently. "We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No, but he does," Mike stated, turning to look at Will, still unconscious on the couch. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer," Max reminded the group.

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

"What about Quinn? Can't she zap his mind a little? Snap him out of it?" Dustin asked. Everyone turned to look at the girl in question, who was standing over the D&D manual at the table, flipping through her copy of The Return of the King. She looked up at the mention of her name and pulled the pencil she had between her teeth out of her mouth before speaking.

"You're thinking of a lobotomy and there's substantial evidence that proves they are wildly ineffective and that they cause irrevocable brain damage," she explained before turning back to her room, jotting something down in her book. The group turned to look at Dr. Owens who affirmed the validity of this information with a nod.

"Why do you know that?" Steve called after her.

"No reason!" She called back after a beat. "What if we staged an interrogation room?" She suggested, emerging from her room. Hopper pondered this idea for a moment. It was too risky to try inside the house, but then he remembered the Byers had a shed out back. Quinn and Mike followed behind him as he crossed the backyard and flung the shed door open.