In case you don't live forever

Chapter 14: Gone

Peter's Pov:

Hopper pulled up in front of the Byers house and we all got out of the car. Nancy, Jonathan and Joyce all ran out of the house to greet us. "Mike.. Oh my god. Mike!" Nancy ran up to Mike and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I was so worried about you" Nancy told him. "Yeah, Uh... me, too" Mike said hesitantly. Nancy held onto Mike' shoulders and looked over at El. "Is that my dress?" She asked her and El glanced over at Dustin quickly but didn't answer Nancy.

We went inside and all sat in the Byers living room. Mike grabbed a piece of paper and drew the same diagram Mr. Clarke showed us and explained it to the adults. "Ok, in this example, we're the acrobat. Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip in time and space" He explained. "A gate" Dustin interrupted. "That we tracked to Hawkins Lab" Lucas added "With our compasses" I spoke. "Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the direction of a compass needle" Dustin explained. "Is this gate underground?" Hopper asked us and El nodded "Yes." "Near a large water tank?" My dad asked El. She nodded again "Yes." "How do you guys know all that?" Dustin asked Hopper and my dad. "They've seen it" Mike mumbled. "Is there any way you could... that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this.." Joyce asked El and she interrupted her "The Upside Down" El spoke quietly but firmly. "Down, yeah" Joyce whispered and El nodded. "And my friend Barbara, can you find her too?" Nancy asked El

El sat at the Byers kitchen table with a picture of Barbara and a supercom in front of her. The rest of us stood around the table watching her. She closed her eyes and static came from the radio. The lights flickered a little and El opened her eyes again. "I'm sorry" She muttered softly. "Whats wrong? What's happening?" Joyce stuttered, nervously. "I can't find them" El said softly, tears building up in her eyes. She stood up and left to the bathroom.

"Whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak" Mike explained. "The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets" Dustin said. "Like she flipped the van earlier" Lucas added. "It was awesome" Dustin spoke again. "But she's drained like a bad battery" I added. "Well... How do we make her better?" Joyce asked. "We don't. We just have to wait and try again" Mike answered. "Well, how long?" Nancy asked Mike. "I don't know" Is all he answered with. "The bath" El spoke, standing at the door frame. "What?" Joyce turned around in her chair. "I can find them. In the bath" El explained.

Everyone stood in the kitchen, watching Dustin on the phone. I held onto my dads hand tightly as Dustin waited for Mr. Clarke to pick up the phone. "Mr. Clarke? Its Dustin" Dustin spoke. I couldn't hear what Mr. Clarke was saying on the other line so it just sounded like mumbling. "Yeah, yeah. its just, I.. I have a science question" He spoke into the phone. After a few seconds he spoke again. "Do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks? Specifically how to build one?" He asked Mr. Clarke. "Fun" Dustin said to Mr. Clarke. "You always say we should never stop being curious. To always open any curiosity door we find. Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?" Dustin asked. That must've made Mr. Clarke change his mind as Dustin made us get him a notepad and a pencil. He sat down at the table with the phone and wrote down somethings. "Yup, all right. We'll be careful. Definitely. All right, Mr. Clarke. Yeah, I'll see you on Monday. I'll see you on Monday, Mr. Clarke. Bye" Dustin finished and hung up the phone. "Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" He asked Joyce. "I think so, yeah" She answered. "Good, then we just need salt. Lots of it" Dustin said. "How much is "lots"?" Hopper asked him. "1,500 pounds" Dustin answered Hopper. "Well, where are we going to get that much salt?" Nancy asked.

Dustin, Lucas and I rolled the kiddie pool into the gym. "This dam thing us heavy" Dustin mumbled as we rolled it to the center of the gym. When we found a good place for it we unrolled it. We strugged with it for a while and when we finally got it to stay up Nancy and Mike came in with the hoses. We placed them in the pool and Nancy turned it on. Lucas sat beside it holding a thermometer in it to make sure we got the exact temperature. "Colder!" He yelled at Nancy and she adjusted the temperature. "Warmer!" He yelled and she adjusted the temperature once more. "Right there!" He yelled when it got to the exact temperature. Hopper, My dad and Jonathan came into the gym with bags of salt and porued some in. Dustin took an egg and placed it in the water to see if there was enough salt and the egg sunk to the bottom. They put more salt in and Dustin tried again. This time the egg stayed on the waters surface which met there was enough salt. Mike placed Will's supercom on the cart we had just beside the pool and turned it on so there was a static coming from it.

El came in the gym with Joyce and she took off her socks, Mike's watch and put on some goggles with duck tape across them. She got in the water and we all sat around the pool. She laid down in the pool letting herself float to the top and the lights flickered out. We stayed silent and I sat beside my dad, gripping his hand tightly with my good arm, scared that she wouldn't be able to find Will. That he had really died in the Upside Down. For real now. El's breathing became heavy and the lights flickered again. "What's going on?" Nancy asked. "I don't know" Mike answered. "Is Barb okay? Is she okay?" Nancy asked El. El just repeated "Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone" and Nancy cried. Joyce tried to reassure El "Its okay. Its okay. Hey Its okay. We're right here. We're right here, honey." Things fell silent again. "Hurry" I heard from the supercom. It was Will. He was still alive. There was whimpering from the radio and El bursted up, scared and went back into Joyce's arms.

We got El out of the water and sat her down on the bleachers with a towel wrapped around her. Hopper and my dad started to leave the gym to go find Will and I ran up to them. I wrapped my arms around my dad "Please be safe. I don't want you getting stuck in that place" I told him. He hugged me back and kissed my forehead. "I will be safe. And we will get your best friend back" He reassured me. We pulled out of the hug and smiled at each other before he left the gym and I returned to my friends.

Word Count: 1242