In case you don't live forever

Chapter 10: Compass

Peter's Pov:

Mike stuck a pencil through his own version of Mr. Clarke's diagram, scaring El a little. After the funeral, the four of us walked to Mike's house to talk to El about everything Mr. Clarke told us. "It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But that's got to be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?" Mike explained to El. "Right" El answered. "What we want to know now is, do you know where the gate is?" Lucas asked her. El shook her head and I looked over at Dustin playing with a compass. "The how do you know about the upside down?" Lucas sounded annoyed.

El didn't answer she just played with her thumbs a little before looking over at Dustin still playing with a compass. "Dustin, what are you doing? Dustin?" Mike asked him looking over at him. "Dustin!" Mike yelled followed by Lucas "Dustin!" Dustin looked away from the compass to look at us. "I... I need your compasses" He told us. "What?" I asked him. "Your compasses. All your compasses, right down!" Dustin yelled and we all looked at him like he was crazy.

Mike ran upstairs and grabbed all the compasses he could find and ran back downstairs and put them on the table and we all stood around it. "What's so exciting about this?" Mike asked. "Well, there all facing north, right?" Dustin told us. "Yeah, so?" Lucas asked. "Well that's not true north" Dustin said. "What do you mean?" I asked quietly. "I mean exactly what I just said, that's not true north. Are you guys seriously this dense?" Dustin looked at our questioning faces and Lucas just shrugged his shoulders. "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, right? Which means that's true north" Dustin used his fingers to point to the directions. "So what your saying is the compasses are broken." Mike said. Dustin put his hands on the table "Do you even understand how a compasses works? Do you see a battery pack on this?" Dustin picked up a compass and showed Mike. "No" Mike answered.

"No, you don't. Because it doesn't need one. The needle's naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole." Dustin explained getting more questioning looks especially from me. "So, what's wrong with them?" I asked. "Well, that's what I couldn't figure out but then I remembered. You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there is a presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power. And then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said. The gate would have so much power.." Dustin continued with Mike finishing his sentence "It could disrupt the magnetic field." Dustin nodded a little "Exactly." "Meaning if we follow the compasses north..." Lucas spoke having Dustin interrupt him "They should lead us to the gate." We looked at each other then I looked at El. Her facial expression seemed worried.

The five of us walked along the train tracks holding a compass in our hand following the direction they were all telling us to go. Dustin walked beside Lucas, El walked beside Mike and I walked slightly behind El and Mike, thinking about Will. His perfect lips, man how I would love to kiss those lips. Everything about him was perfect. Why am I even thinking about these things? He's probably not even gay. I was snapped out of my thoughts when the rest of the group came to a stop at the junkyard.

"Oh no" Dustin complained. "Oh no? What's oh no?" Lucas asked him. "We're headed back home" Dustin told us. "What?" Mike asked. "Are you sure?" Lucas sounded annoyed. "Yeah, I'm sure. Setting sun, right there. We're looped right back around" Dustin explained. "And you're just realizing this now?" Lucas sounded very annoyed. "Why is this all on me?" Dustin asked him. "Because you're the compass genius!"I spoke up. "What does yours say?" Dustin asked us. "North" We said in sync. "Makes no damn sense" Dustin sighed. "Maybe the gate moved" Mike suggested. "No, I don't think its the gate. I think its something else screwing with the compasses" Dustin looked around a little.

"Maybe its something here" Mike spoke. "No, it has to be like a super magnet" Dustin told Mike. "Its not a magnet. She's been acting weirder than normal" Lucas turned around and looked at El. "If she can slam doors with her mind, she can definitely screw up a compass" He continued. "Why would she do that?" Mike asked. "Because she's trying to sabotage our mission. Because she's a traitor!" Lucas yelled. Lucas slowly approached El. "Lucas, what are you doing?" Mike asked him following him. "You did it, Didn't you? You don't want us to find the gate. You don't want us to find Will" Lucas sounded like he was going to explode ant second. "Lucas, come on, seriously just leave her alone" Mike spoke. "Admit it" Lucas continued to look at El ignoring everything Mike had said. "No" El quietly spoke. "Admit it!" Lucas screamed grabbinf her wrist. He looked at her sleeve to see blood. "Fresh blood, I knew it" He pushed her wrist back down. "Lucas come on!" Mike yelled making me jump back a little. "I saw her wiping her nose on the tracks! She was using her powers!" Lucas raged. "Bull! That's old blood, right El? Right El?" Mike looked over at El. She stood quietly, not answering Mike's question. "It's.... Not. It's not safe" She finally spoke, sounding like she was going to break down into tears.

I sat on the ground quietly listening to Mike and Lucas fight. "What'd I tell you? She's been playing us from the beginning!" Lucas yelled at Mike. "That's not true. She helped us find Will" Mike fought back. "Find Will? Find Will? Where is he, then? Huh? I don't see him" Lucas walked away fro Mike pretending to look for Will. "Yeah, you know what I mean" Mike yelled at him. "No, I actually don't. Just think about it Mike. She could've just told us where the Upside Down was right away, but she didn't. She just made us run around like headless chickens" Lucas yelled back. "Alright come down" Dustin walked in between the two.

"She used us, all of us! She helped just enough so she could get what she wants. Food and a bed. She's like a stray dog!" Lucas flailed his arms up as he talked. "Screw you, Lucas!" Mike yelled at him. "No, screw you Mike! You're blind.. Blind because you like that a girl's not grossed out by you. But wake up man, wake the hell up! She knows where Will is, and now she's letting him die in the Upside Down." Lucas got closer to Mike's face. "Shut up!" Mike yelled violently. "For all we know, its her fault" Lucas's voice was a little calmer than before. "Shut up" Mike's voice sounded course. "We're looking for some stupid monster.. But did you ever stop to think maybe she's the monster?" Lucas pushed Mike with one arm. "I said shut up!" Mike yelled before tackling Lucas to the ground. I stood up and stood next to Dustin quietly not really knowing what to say. "Stop!" El yelled quietly.

"Knock it off you idiots!" Dustin yelled. "Stop it!" El yelled again. "Mike get off!" I yelled speaking for the first time. I just wanted this fight to be over so we could go back to finding Will. All of a sudden I hear a loud, ear piercing scream and see Lucas fling through the air. He landed with his back on something. "Jesus!" Dustin yelled as the three of us ran toward him. We all got down on our knees and started shaking Lucas, trying to wake him up. "Why would you do that? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?" Mike yelled back at El. After a minute or so Lucas still didn't wake up. I was getting seriously worried and my breathing started to get heavier. I was going to have a panic attack. My lungs were tighting up and I pulledd my inhaler out of my fanny pack and inhaled the medicine, taking a huge breath. Just as I was getting my breath back to normal Lucas woke up. "Lucas, Lucas you okay?" Mike asked him. "Lucas... Lucas how many fingers am I holding up? Lucas how many fingers?" Dustin asked, holding up 3 fingers. "Lucas.. Let me see your head" Mike said slowly reaching his hand toward Lucas's head. "Get off of me" Lucas slapped Mike's hand. "Just.. Lucas just let me see" Mike said as Lucas got up and pushed Mike "Get off of me. Peter, lets go" He grabbed my hand and stormed off with me by his side.

Word Count: 1486