Escape ~ S.Harrington

84} Learning to Fly

The group of eight walked across the field out behind WSQK towards the tunnels. Most of the group hung together while Mike and Will trailed behind slightly.
"Any word from Derek yet?" Lucas asked Joyce, who had the walkie.
"Not yet," She shook her head, "Just give him time. It hasn't been that long."
"I just can't get over the fact that the fate of the world rests on Derek freakin' Turnbow."
"You and me both, Sinclair," Jenna nudged him slightly.
"I thought we were back on a first name basis, Henderson?"
"Right, sorry," She winced.
Lucas shot Alice a questioning glance, to which she shot one right back at him.

"Well, Lucas," Robin pushed the conversation onward, "When you look in the mirror, do you see a Navy SEAL looking back at you?"
"Sometimes people need someone to believe in them," Joyce shared some of her parental wisdom, "And then they can do amazing things."
"Hey, Lucas?" Alice tugged on his sleeve, "A word, please?" He nodded and fell back slightly with her, "So it wasn't just me that Jenna fucked up with, huh?"
"What is up with her today?" He snuck a glance at Jenna, "She doesn't feel right."
Alice's voice dropped just above a whisper, "I don't think that's Jenna."
"You don't?"
"No. Jenna would never and I mean NEVER call me Ally... ever. That's what my parents used to call me and when they found out I... uh... wasn't into guys, they used to tell me 'Where's our sweet little Ally that we raised because this isn't her.' Jenna knows how much I despise that name with every bone in my body. Whatever is pretending to be her is doing a really shitty job at it."
"It's fooling everyone else, though."
"I think Will knows something's up. For now, I say we leave it be, but we shouldn't be telling it anything super important from now on. Agreed?"
"Agreed."

"What's going on over here?" Jenna approached them with a wide grin, "Keeping secrets, are we?"
"No," Alice scoffed, "We were just catching up."
"Yeah," Lucas nodded, "We haven't gotten to talk in so long, figured we should before anything happens."
"Makes sense. Glad you two had a good talk then."
"And open sesame," Murray proudly opened the hatch to the tunnels, "Oh, well, have fun!"
"Thanks, Bald Eagle," Jenna patted him on the shoulder, "As always, I go first."
"Vecna likes to control the hive mind like a puppet master," Jenna abruptly stopped her movements and turned towards Mike, who was talking just a bit too loudly, "So maybe when you tap into the hive, you can pull the strings, too."
"Jenna?" Alice squared down near the hatch, "Come on. I need to go in there, too."
"Right," She snapped back to normal, "Sorry," She hopped all the way down and out of the way.
Better not think too much about that puppet theory or else I'll have to turn him into one, too.

~

"Ugh!" Nancy threw the walkie to the ground, "Hopper and El are taking way too long! Where are they!? We can't just keep waiting around like this!"
"I say we ignore them and figure out another way out of here," Steve shrugged, "I mean, I of all people want to get out of here and find Jenna the most, so let's figure something else out."
"Just because Jenna's not here doesn't mean you should be making all of the calls, Steve," Jon groaned.
"Do you have something to say to me, Byers?"
"Look, all I'm saying is you're not thinking in the clearest headspace right now and maybe you shouldn't be the one telling us all what to do."
"I agree with Steve," Nancy stood next to him, "This is also about my little sister. This wall thingy can't go on forever. There has to be a way around it."

"There isn't," Dustin burst through the doors with a drawing he made on a map of Hawkins, "This wall is a circle. A circle completely surrounding the Upside Down."
"Oh yeah?" Steve raised a questioning eyebrow, "How exactly did you figure that?"
"Because unlike you, I didn't sleep through Algebra 1 or my tutoring sessions with Jenna," He proudly smirked and laid the map out, "My telemetry tracker picked up a weird frequency coming from the wall, and it took me a bit to place, but I've heard it before. Rather," He pointed at Jon, "We have. Remember when we were out looking for Hop, and you heard that sound off of Irwin Road?"
"Yeah," Jonathan nodded, "You said it was interference."
"It was. But this interference, it wasn't coming from a military broadcast or an EMI. It was coming from this wall, which is important, because that gives us three known locations. So, I connected the dots, measured the midpoints, drew the perpendicular bisectors-"
"Okay, dude," Steve anxiously messed with his hands, "We're not your teachers, so we don't need to see your work. We get it. You think it's all a big circle."