Walls [Jonathan Byers]

Chapter 10:

Dustin slammed the open book down on the table and looked up at us. "The mind flayer."

"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 it's highly-developed psionic powers." Dustin explained.

"Oh my God. None of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper said.

"No. It's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor..." Dustin said before Lucas cut him off.

"Analogy." Lucas corrected.

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

"Okay. So this mind flamer thing.." Nancy started him Dustin cut her off.

"Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin said.

Nancy sighed. "What does it want?"

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

"Like the Germans." Steve said.

"Uh. The Nazis?" Dustin asked looking at him.

"Yeah yeah yeah. The Nazis." Steve said.

"Uh. If the Nazi's were from another dimension totally. Uh. It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Dustin said.

"It wants to spread and take over other dimensions." Mike added.

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

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve said leaving the table while freaking out.

"Okay. So if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." Nancy said as she picked up the book and moved around the table while reading it.

"We kill everything it controls." Mike finished.

"We win." Dustin said.

'Theoretically." Lucas added.

Hopper walked over and took the book. "Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?"

"No. No. No fire... No fireballs." Dustin said laughing. "Uh. You summon an undead army because.... Because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... It likes brains."

We all looked at him.

"It's just a game. It's a game." Dustin said.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper asked slamming the book down and walking away.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin said.

"We are!" Hopper yelled turning back to face us.

"But even if they come how are they supposed to stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike said.

"You don't know that! We don't know anything." Hopper said.

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

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas said.

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

"They're right." Joyce said from the hallway. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

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

"No. But he does." Mike said walking towards Will. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He's know it's weakness."

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

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

We made a plan and got to work to clear out the Byer's shed. I was helping Hopper clear out the building.

"Hey kid." Hopper called while I put something down on the ground outside

I turned to see him walking out of the building.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"How's your mom?" He asked putting what he had in his hands down.

We were both turned to each other now.

"You know, after the twins and all." He finished.

I nodded. "She seems good. Why?"

"Just haven't talked to her in a while. We were best friends in high school until your dad made her stop talking to me." He explained.

"Really?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. He was such an..."

He stopped before he could say anything else.

"Asshole. It's fine. I already know." I laughed slightly.

He nodded. "Tell your mom I said hey and if either of you need anything, call me."

"Will do cheif." I nodded.

We went back to work until everything was cleared out. Soon all of us were occupied with a part on transforming the building. I helped tape stuff up on the walls and as soon as we were done Jonathan came in carrying Will. He set him down on the chair and he was tied up. Once everything was ready all of us except Joyce, Hopper, Mike, and Jonathan were forced to go back inside.

"Can we talk?" Nancy asked.

I turned to look at her. "What?"

"We need to talk." She sighed.

I raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Don't play dumb. You know what." She put her arms over her chest.

I sighed and reluctantly nodded. She pulled me away from the others and we were facing each other.

"Are you mad?" She started.

I remained quiet.

"Please, Lee. Answer me." She begged.

"Why?" I asked quietly.

She looked down.

"I mean. I'm fine if you two like each other but you should have talked to me before he went ahead and cheated. I would have taken it better and would have understand." I said. "But now... I'm just..."

"You're what?" She asked.

"Confused." I managed.

Just then the lights started flickering. Nancy and I rushed out to join everyone. All of us walked towards the door, preparing for anything. The lights stopped flickering and we all relaxed. Minutes later everyone came in and Hopper sat down at the table.

"What happened?" Dustin asked.

We all swarmed the table.

"I think hes talking just not with words." Hopper said as he wrote down something.

There were a bunch of dots and a line.

"What is that?" Steve asked.

"Morse code." The boys said at the same time.

"H. E. R. E." Hopper spelled out.

"Here." Everyone read.

Everyone looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief.

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper said looking around at all of us.