𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

xxii. BIG TIME

All of them stood in the food court where the tables and seats were. Charles and Will stood side by side at one of the tables, watching Sarah, Hopper and Joyce all stand around the table where Murray stood at the table, putting a paper down. "Okay, this is what Alexei called the hub. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." Murray explained.

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked. "Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." Murray says and Charles glanced at Will next to him who was holding his arm. He was kind of hugging it again with his chin on Charles' shoulder. The boy glanced up at him and held his arm tighter. "More like 500." Erica Sinclair said.

Murray, Hopper and Sarah look at the little girl. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" She said. "I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked her. "Erica Sinclair, who are you?" She sassed.

"Murray... Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman," she said with her hand raised and Charles smiles, glancing down. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you," she says as she looked from the group then back to Murray, "you're all gonna die." She finished.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray said and Charles sighs, crossing his arms. "Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" She exclaimed and he shows a shocked face. "Erica!" Lucas scolds his younger sister. "Just the facts!"

"She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may I?" Dustin said as she approached the table, standing on the left side of Sarah. "Please." Murray smiled, a fake one and so Dustin sat down, Erica next to him. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way." Dustin explained to the adults as Erica nods.

"You can show us the way?"

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators." He continued to explain and Hopper nods but said, "no." Right away.

They both give him looks as Sarah rolled her eyes, "nope." He repeated. "Hop—" "no." He said right away, cutting her off, but they all knew he was gonna give in and let them anyway.

As they all got ready to go through with their plans, the plan being that Hopper, Sarah, Murray and Joyce were going down to the Russian base, Steve, Robin, Nancy and Jonathan were apparently taking all of the the kids to Murray's place.

Charles was standing with Will, holding an hand to his lowerback as Will stood there with crossed arms, watching as Erica walked over. "Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die." She says and Dustin nods. "Yup. Most likely."

"You guys survived." Lucas said and Dustin turns to them. "Barely." Dustin said. "We could've really used you guys down there." He said and Charles starts smiling. "Could've used you up here, too." Mike said, smiling as well at Dustin.

"Yeah, man." Lucas nods. "We missed you." Charles says and Will nods. "Yeah. Big time." Will nods and Dustin goes to Lucas' side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as Lucas did the same. Mike wrapped an arm around Charles' shoulders and he reluctantly wrapped his around Mike's shoulders as he pulled Will close, smiling.

"I missed you guys too.. Big time." Dustin said and the moment was sweet and made Charles happy. "Please don't cry, nerds." Erica says and they all pull back, Lucas looking at her. "Erica." He says and she shot back, "keep saying my name, see what happens." Charles stifles a laugh.

"Hey. Heads up." Hopper made his way over and threw the radio to Dustin. "You can navigate, just from someplace safe." He said and Dustin looks up at him. "It's not that simple." He says.

"The signal won't reach." Erica explained. "Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That's me." Dustin concluded and pointed to himself.

"If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start." He explained. "And a car." He said as Erica slowly nods her head. As Dustin and Erica left with Robin and Steve, Charles turned to Will who looked up at him right away.

"You okay?" Charles raised a hand up to Will's shoulder, slowly trailing up to his neck and Will nodded right away. "You sure?" He asked and Will nodded right away again, glancing behind Charles who quickly turned to see their moms were both watching them with small smiles. "I'll be right back." He whispers and Will nods.

Charles walked over to his mom as Joyce walked by, going straight to Will. "Be safe with Jonathan and Nancy, kiddo." Sarah said and Charles nods once, looking down. Sarah sighed, reaching up and ruffling his hair. "When did you get so grown and mature?" She asked and he smiled.

"I have a great mom." He says and she sighed, pulling him into a bone crushing hug before she quickly let him go. "Don't wanna ruin your reputation." She joked to him and he rolled his eyes, smiling more widely at her.

"You be careful too, mom.. I'm worried, because of the stuff Dustin said.. and just.. Be careful." He concluded and she smiles at him. "You weren't a badass because your dad was, you got that from me, kiddo." She says and he chuckles.

"I love you." He says and she smiles more softly. "I love you too, baby.." She said and he sighs, pulling her into another hug before he let her go and walked off, standing and waiting until Joyce finally let go off Will who walked over to Charles.

"You okay?" Charles chuckled since he heard Will complaining about his mom hugging him too hard. "I am if you are.." Will said, staring at Charles who pulled him into a side hug as they walked together over to Lucas, Max and Mike.

"Hey. We should probably go." Mike said to Hopper and El. Hopper looked down sighing and El looks at him. She leaned over and hugged him. He hugged back right away, and Charles watched them with a faint smile on his face.

They slowly pull apart and he nodded as if to let her know he was okay. She smiled, before looking away as Mike and Max walk over. Mike helps her up as Mike wrapped an arm around her. "Mike." Hopper said and he stopped, turning around. "Come on.." Charles whispered, at the other side of El, she wraps an arm around him, smiling.

She walks with his and Max's help, they lead her up the small flight of stairs carefully as Mike was told to be careful by Hopper as Nancy and Jonathan walked over, leaving with them.

authors note hi sorry for disappearing for like almost a week on u guys. 💗

will: yeah, big time
me: rush