Will to Survive

Starcourt Mall

El and Max entered the cabin, seeing Hopper sitting on the couch watching TV. He smiled when he saw the girls, but it went away when he saw the anxious looks on their faces. He sat up and motioned them to sit by him. The two girls sat down on the couch and faced him, ready to say what they had to say.

"There's this new girl in town named Evelyn. We met her yesterday in the field. But I saw something," El said, sounding really nervous. "She has a number. 015. And I heard her talking in a supercom to someone. Mentioned the gate and the party. She's from the lab and planning something. I'm scared Dad. I don't want to go back." Tears started to form in her eyes. Max put a hand on her shoulder in comfort, patting it gently.

Hopper looked away and sighed. Of course their happiness wouldn't last forever, there always had to be something to ruin it. He looked back over at his daughter and strokes her soft hair, making her look up at him. The police chief knew that what he was going to say would hurt El's chances of being normal, but this had to be done for now. He needed to protect her from the dangers the lab and this random girl would bring her. El wouldn't suffer a similar fate that Sarah did many years ago.

"El, from now on, you can't go outside by yourself. I'm gonna have to cancel the move too, but I'll still have the house on hold," Hopper said in a calm tone. "The only time when you can go outside is when it's with me, the kids, Joyce, Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Reyna, Keelan, Ryder, Cat, Heather, Damien, and Jordan. You can't go by yourself like how you did today. It's too risky to be alone."

El nodded, understanding these changes in the rules. She leaned over and hugged Hopper tight and he hugged her back. After a few minutes, father and daughter pulled away and smiled. El felt so lucky to have been adopted by Hopper. He was the best father to her, unlike Papa. He would never hurt her or use her for experiments. She was being cared for by someone who actually cared about her and she could never feel so lucky in her life.

Max stood up and smiled at the two. "Hey Hop, do you think we can still go to Starcourt Mall? The other kids will be there and Steve works at the ice cream shop. We'll be careful," she asked. The party had made plans to visit Steve at the mall daily, considering how he pretty much acted like their adoptive mother.

Hopper nodded as El stood up from the couch. "Of course. Just be safe okay? It's a public place so make sure one of you is with El at all times," he said in a stern voice.

The redhead nodded and smiled at the police chief in reassurance. "Don't worry, she'll be okay. Mike will most likely be with her most of the time anyway so I wouldn't worry," she said in a slight teasing voice. El blushes and gave Max a look, who laughed a bit in response.

The two girls left the cabin together, leaving Hopper there alone. He went over to the phone and dialed in a number. This was the number of an old friend.

...

Mike, Will, and Lucas were outside of the Starcourt mall, waiting for the other members of the party to show up. Dustin had gone inside to make sure that Steve was still working that day, but he was taking a while. He was most likely annoying Steve anyway so it didn't worry the other three boys.

"Hey Mike?" Will asked, walking up to Mike. "Why do you look worried?"

Mike sighed and looked at the ground, folding his arms. "I'm a little worried about El. She hasn't been late like this before. Max sometimes is late because of Billy, but not El. What if something happened to her again? What if something bad is happening?" He said, growing more worried by thinking about bad things. 

Will put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't be scared okay? El will be fine. You know that the lab is gone and that you and El closed the gate. She's strong anyway. She'll be okay, Alright?" He reassured him. Will knew that his friend worried a lot nowadays because of everything that happened. Mike had lost El three times the past year and it had hurt him a lot. There was nothing to do but reassure him that El is fine.