The other Mayfield (Will Byers X Reader)

010. The plan

~Y/n POV~

"At the base, in the Upside Down, there's a chopper ready for the taking. We fly up to the Abyss, kill the freak, rescue the kids, and fly back down," Hopper explained, laying it out like it was straightforward, like all the pieces already fit together.

I listened, letting it sink in, yeah this plan already had holes. There were a lot of them. Enough that I knew someone was going to say something. Hopefully.

"Who exactly do you expect to fly this thing?" Dustin asked, leaning forward slightly as he looked at Hopper.

Good. Someone said it.

"It's a helicopter. They've got pilots," Hopper replied without missing a beat.

"Right," Murray said, nodding slowly, his tone clearly sarcastic.

"We force one to fly," Hopper added.

Robin shook her head a little. "Another kidnapping plot. Love it."

"Okay, but how is this pilot gonna fly a chopper into the rift?" Mike asked

"What do you mean? We just fly through it," Hopper said, like it was the simplest answer.

"What?" Mike asked, looking at him in disbelief.

"Idiot," Murray muttered under his breath.

"Just fly through it?" Lucas asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

"These rotors are like forty feet wide. It's too big. It's not gonna fit," Dustin added, already shaking his head as he looked at Hopper.

"Steve hears that all the time and goes in anyway. Don't you, Steve?" Robin said, a grin slipping onto her face.

I let out a small chuckle, lowering my gaze for a second.

Beside me, Will smiled too, quickly looking away like he didn't want to get dragged into it.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Steve asked, glancing between me and Robin, though his focus lingered more on her.

"It's funny," Murray said, nudging Steve slightly.

"Everybody shut up," Hopper cut in, his voice firm enough to pull the room back together. "Look, if somebody else has some magic bean that I don't know about, I'm all ears. If not, it's a risk that we gotta take. We fly, or we die."

"Fly or die," Murray repeated, almost thoughtfully.

"Well, then I guess we die," Dustin said.

"We're not gonna die if we commit to a plan," Hopper replied, gesturing toward the glass board covered in drawings.

"Can we weigh out a few more options before—" Dustin started, but he didn't get far.

Voices overlapped immediately.

"Yeah, we die, I guess, you said we have to get up two thousand feet—"

"Don't take that shit, Jim," Murray added.

"You're not listening to each other," Robin raised her voice, but no one really stopped.

The room filled with noise, everyone talking over each other, trying to be heard, trying to make sense of something that didn't fully make sense yet.

I felt myself start to drift, the arguing blending together into something distant. There was too much of it, and not enough time for any of it to matter if no one could agree.

The only thing that grounded me was Will's hand in mine, his thumb moving slowly over the back of it in a steady, absent motion.

I looked up at him, catching the small, awkward smile on his face as he glanced toward the others, his eyes flicking back to mine like he was silently saying, look at them.