Will to Survive

Now What?

The party ran as fast as they could out of the mall. As soon as they all stepped outside, helicopters and black vans all pulled up in front of them. Military soldiers immediately stormed out of the vehicles, shouting orders at one another and marching into the mall. The party members all exchanged looks with one another, knowing that the clones and the monsters were still inside.

Out of one of the vans came Hopper and Joyce. The police chief followed the military inside as Joyce looked around for the kids. Will took notice of his mother and ran to her, pulling her into a tight embrace. His mother hugged him back, relieved that her son was okay. Jonathan ran over to join in on the hug, grateful that his family was still alive.

Ambulances also arrived on the scene with EMTs coming out to help the injured party members. El was assisted with her bleeding leg and the others had their injuries all checked out. Mike squeezed his girlfriend's hand to comfort her from the pain in her leg. El started to cry, thinking about what had happened in the mall and when the gate opened. She looked behind her to see vines growing on the outside of the building. It was worse than before. Mike pulled her into a tight embrace to comfort her more, letting her cry into his shoulder.

After a while, the military and Hopper all exited the mall. Some of the soldiers were holding the clones in captivity while they tried to resist. They also had blood on their uniforms, which the party immediately knew what had happened in there.

"We need to get back to base," one of the soldiers told Hopper. "There's nothing we can do about those monsters in there, or that weird gooey thing in there."

Hopper nodded at him. "Alright. Thank you so much for helping us find the kids. They'd be dead by now if it weren't for you," he replied.

El caught the whole conversation and stood up. "I have to help," she said. "I have to close the gate. I did it before, I can do it again."

"No, El, you can't," Hopper said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's growing faster than it did when it was last open. The vines are spreading more and the military doesn't have enough flamethrowers to hold it back. If you even try to close it, you'll die."

"I don't care!" El yelled at her father. "Hawkins is in trouble and I need to save it!"

Mike stood up and grabbed onto El's arm. "We can do it together, again," he told her in a reassuring tone. Then he turned to the police chief. "Right?" He asked for confirmation.

Hopper shook his head at the kids. "Look around you, kids. At the rate this is spreading, it will kill the both of you if you tried to do it together. It's too late now," he explained. "The best we can do is go to the military base to plan what we have to do next."

El and Mike both exchanged worried looks as they followed Hopper into one of the vans. Lucas, Will, Dustin, and Max joined them in the car, having split up the party into different groups in the vans. A soldier came in and drove off to head towards the military base, which was new to the kids because they had seen all of the town. They had never seen a sort of military base before, so that meant it had to be new.

The ride was quiet for most of the way, Dustin was especially quiet. "Dustin, you okay?" Will asked his friend, worried for him.

"Y-Yeah it's just..." he said before sighing. "I'm sorry guys. I let some stupid crush get in the way of trusting you guys about Evelyn. I should've believed you from the start, but I believed her and she nearly killed me. I am really sorry."

Mike gave his friend a smile. "It's okay Dustin. It's actually understandable with people like us now," he said. "We're not kids anymore. I mean what did you think? We were going to sit in my basement all day? Play games for the rest of our lives? No, we're not. We're growing up and facing real life because of this whole Upside Down thing. It sucks, but my point is that none of us expected for this to come back. All I wanted to do was have a great summer with all of you and for El to finally experience life. Now it's not like that, but as long as we're facing this together, it's fine with me."

Lucas nodded in agreement. "Mike's right. I just hope that while we are growing up, we all stick together, you know?" He said. "Now more than ever, we have to be a team. I'm not worrying about what you felt for Evelyn because you were falling for her because of teenage hormones. I ain't blaming you, dude."

Dustin smiled at his friends. "Thanks guys," he said. "From now on, I'm going to trust you guys and believe you when you say something, even if the girl is good looking."

El smiled back at her curly haired friend. "Friends don't lie, Dustin. Lets keep it that way," she said, holding out both of her hands. The six kids held hands and squeezed them tight, happy that they were all together again.

The van pulled up in a giant building, which the kids immediately recognized. It was Hawkins Lab, now being used as a military base for the soldiers. The soldiers that drove the party members in separate vans all gave them access codes to get in. Once the party stepped inside, they saw all the survivors in Hawkins.

Mike and Nancy saw their Karen, Ted, and Holly inside and ran to them to hug them. Karen hugged her two kids in relief that they were alive. Ted joined in on the hug as well and Holly too, although she didn't understand what was going on. 

Lucas and Erica went to their parents and hugged them as well. Dustin found his mom in the crowd and hugged her tight. Max hugged her parents as well and was forced to tell them that Billy wouldn't be coming to join them in the base. It was upsetting for her to tell them because even they looked upset, but she could tell it was an act by her stepfather.

Keelan joined the Sinclair family in their reunion and Ryder went to the Hendersons as well. Heather, Damien, and Jordan went to Max's family to help comfort them from their loss of Billy. Reyna stayed with El and Hopper, not seeing her adopted family anywhere. She didn't know what happened to them, whether they died or turned into monsters. It upset her to think that they were gone now. El noticed her sadness and wrapped an arm around her to comfort her.

After a while, El heard a few soldiers talking to each other. Curious, she snuck off from everyone else to listen to the conversation the soldiers were having. Hiding behind the corner, she leaned forward to listen in and what was said shocked her.

"Soon enough this thing is going to spread to the rest of the world. We have to get the word out."

"Who knew that the end of the world would happen this quickly? We need to quickly finish project Pegasus now in order to save everyone."

"What the hell is that project anyway?"

"It's been a top secret project for years now. We were working on it for years now and it's almost complete. All military bases around the world have access to it, meaning that we can save the rest of the world and not just us."

"But How is it going to save all of us?"

"It's going to take the survivors to space until we can go back down again."

And then El's jaw dropped.