Escape ~ S.Harrington

51} Plans and Heartfelt Goodbyes

"The Mind Flayer built this monster in Hawkins," Mike was trying to catch everyone up so they were all on the same page, "To stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."
"And it almost did," Nancy took over, "That was just one tiny piece of it."
"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked.
"It's big," Jonathan replied, "Thirty feet at least."
"Yeah," Lucas agreed then turned to Hopper, "It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry."

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this..." Steve bit his lip, trying to comprehend everything, "This big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?"
"Yes," Nancy nodded.
"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people."
"Yes, exactly," Nancy confirmed.
"Yeah, okay. I- Yeah, I'm just making sure," Steve rambled.
Jenna grabbed his hand and started to rub circles on the back of it. He looked down and smiled at her before bringing their hands up and kissing the back of hers.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked.
"El beat the shit out of it," Max cringed, "But, yeah, it's still alive."
"But if we close the gate again-" Will tried to get a word in.
"We cut the brain off from the body," Alice said, hesitantly, hoping it was the right thing to say.
"And kill it," Lucas added, "Theoretically."
"Yoo-hoo!" Murray started walking over to the group after going off on his little scavenger hunt, bringing over some papers with him, "Yoo-hoo!" He set the papers down where everyone could see and started to point at different spots, "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."
"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked him.
"Right here," Murray pointed to a new spot on his drawings, "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so."

"More like five hundred," Erica stood up and approached Murray, coming face-to-face with him, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"
"I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"
"Murray... Bauman."
"Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for twenty four hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."
"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?"
"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"
"Erica!" Lucas yelled at his sister.
"Just the facts!" She sassed back.

"She's right," Dustin shrugged, defending her, "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may I?"
"Please," Murray stood back, rolling his eyes obnoxiously.
"Okay, see this room here?" Dustin started pointing around on the maps, "This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."
"No," Jenna intervened, "No way in hell am I letting you go back down there. I'll go."
"But we could just be their navigators. You haven't even seen half of the base!" Dustin whined, but Jenna wasn't having it.
"Nope. You are not going back down there. Understood?"
"But-"
"No one is going down except for me, Joyce, and Murray," Hopper stared Jenna dead in the eyes.
"I'm going. You can't stop me. I'm technically an adult now," She smiled at him.
"I don't care. I want everyone safe."

"But I've thought about this. I really can help. The machine that is opening the gate, it's all electricity. If you give me enough time, I can position myself in front of the beam, absorb the current through me, and I can shoot it back in a way that closes the gate instead of opens it. Then you guys can turn the thing off once I get it closed."
"I don't know-" Hopper eyed her suspiciously.
"El closed the gate last year. It's my turn to help," She looked into his eyes, silently pleading with him.
"Ugh, fine. But only if you stay safe and out of danger. Let us, the real adults, take the shit, got it?"
"Yes chief!"