Smoke -- Jim Hopper

67. THE PLAN

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"So, this thing is like a giant weapon?" Steve said, nursing his cut lip, "instead of nuts and volts the Mind Flayer is made out of melted people," he said, trailing off.

Nancy shook her head, "yes, exactly."

Steve shrugged, his eyebrows furrowing, "okay, yeah sure, just making sure."

Joyce sighed loudly, "are we sure this thing is out there and still alive?"

"El beat the shit out of it, but it's still alive," Max answered confidently.

"But," Will added, "if we close the gate again-"

"Cut the brain off from the body," Max interjected.

"We can kill it," Lucas said, "well theoretically."

Natalie chewed the inside of her cheek, they were really about to go through all this shit again. All because of some Russians who thought they could control the Mind Flayer.

"Yoo Hoo!" Murray shouted, cutting Natalie out of her thoughts. He ran towards them flapping around a handful of papers, "I've got a plan!"

Everyone stood abruptly to their feet and gathered around Murray who forcefully slapped the papers down on a table, "okay," he began, "this is what Alexei called 'The Hub.' Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay," Jim said rubbing his chin, "but where's the gate?"

Murray pointed a finger to one of the boxes on the paper, "right here. I don't know the scale on this but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so?"

Erica scoffed, "more like five hundred," she said and raised an eyebrow at Murray's dropped jaw, "what? You're gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

Natalie stifled a chuckle and Murray shot her a nasty glare. She put her hands up.

Murray turned his gaze back to Erica, "I'm sorry, who are you?" he asked his voice laced with annoyance.

"Erica Sinclair, who are you?" Erica shot back.

"Murray Bauman," he replied a little shocked.

Erica raised her hand and waved it around, "listen Mr. Bunnman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things but I've been down in that shithole for twenty-four hours" she looked towards Jim, " and with all due respect if you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

"Wow," Natalie whispered and Lucas gave her a knowing look.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray snapped, clearly not liking being shown up by a little girl.

"Um, I'm ten you bald bastard!" Erica retorted her hands on her hips.

"Erica!" Lucas said in shock.

"Just stating the facts," Erica said, defending herself.

Dustin nodded, "she's right, you're all gonna die. But, you don't have too." he said and pushed Murray out of the way, "excuse me, sorry may I?"

Murray looked livid, "please go ahead," he said through clenched teeth.

Dustin sat down and pulled the papers toward him. He pointed at another small box on the sheet, "see this room right here?" He circled the box, "this is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds down into their underground ventilation system, which 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."

Jim pursed his lips, "you can show us the way?"

Dustin rolled his eyes, "don't worry you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your navigators."

Jim smiled and took a breath before answering, "no."

Dustin and Erica gaped at him, and he shook his head, "nope."

With that, Jim turned on his heel and the group disbanded. Natalie watched him walk towards a dead guard and grab the automatic rifle and check the ammo.

"Well," Erica said from next to her, "they're gonna die."

Dustin nodded, "Yup, for sure."

"Hey," she said, raising her eyebrow at both of them.

"Sorry, just the truth," Erica added with a shrug.

Natalie sighed and walked away from the group of kids as they started to talk about their experiences over the last few days. Natalie grimaced as she stepped over a large pool of dark crimson blood. "Jim?" she said as she neared him.

"Yeah," he looked up at her while he was inspecting the nozzle of the gun.

"You know we need their help," she said as sat down next to him.

Jim nodded, "I know, there's a couple of walkies that we can use to communicate, but 'we'. Nat, you can't come this time."

Natalie's shoulders slumped, "I know."

Jim looked at her shocked, "what?"

She met his gaze, "I know I can't come. The fewer people that go with you the better. I'm pregnant and I don't want to risk the baby." She sighed, "As much as I want to go with you to make sure you stay safe. I probably should stick with El, make sure her leg gets treated."

Jim wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him, "I'll be fine, I promise," he said quietly and kissed her temple, "I know this is hard for you."

She nodded, looking down at her lap. Natalie could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage as her mind conjured up a million things that could go wrong.

Jim slipped his arm from behind her and reached down to grab two walkies next to them, "let's get this over with so we can go home, yeah?"

"Yeah," she said quietly and forced a smile on her face.

Jim returned her smile and looked towards Dustin, "kid!" he said and threw the walkie at Dustin who barely caught it, "you can navigate, just from someplace safe."

Dustin looked up at Jim, "it's not that simple, the signal won't reach. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russian's 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 and already preferably situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh wait, that's me."

Jim shifted his weight and restrained from rolling his eyes.

"You got us," Dustin continued, "but you got to give us a head start and a car."

Jim blinked and stared at them before fishing out the car keys in his back pocket, "take these and go." he said lowly and put his hands on his hip.

Dustin nodded and grinned as Steve and Robin rushed to join them. Natalie watched them rush out the door.

"What are we going to do about the rest of the kids?" Joyce asked, "they can't stay here."

"Why don't we take them to Murray's place?" Natalie pointed out, "it's far away from here and basically invisible to anyone looking for it."

All eyes landed on Murray and he groaned, "fine, fine, but if you gremlins mess anything up in there. I swear!" he grumbled as he pulled out his mass of keys. "Who's the most responsible?"

Jonathan and Nancy raised their hands but Natalie spoke up, "I'm actually going to go with them."

Murray scoffed, "Yeah, no way in hell. We need four people not three."

"She's not going, Murray," Jim interjected, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh yes, she is, unless you want to have this plan fail, Jimbo." Murray snapped.

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