Stranger Things (Season 2)

Chapter 8: The Mind Flayer (Part 2)

At the Byer's house

The group had just arrived back from the lab. Nancy was with Jonathan, her hand on his shoulder. She couldn't imagine what he had been going through in her absence.

Ashton and Steve just looked at each other, pacing back and forth in nervousness. Steve glanced at Poppy, who was with Max and the kids in the kitchen. The two smiled at each other, despite all the hell going on around them.

Hopper was on the line, trying to call for any sort of backup. "Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens. Look, I don't know how many people are there. I don't know if there's even anyone left alive! I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper! You have my number, just get someone down here! Anybody! Immediately!" Hopper said and hung up, sighing in frustration.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked him. Hopper turned to the kids saying, "We'll see." "We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike objected. "You have a better idea, kid? Go back and charge head first into those things? We stay here, and wait for help" Hopper said walking out of the kitchen.

He went to Joyce's room door, knocking on it softly. He wanted to try and calm her down from seeing Bob die. He opened the door, and went inside. Joyce was sitting down, faced in the direction of the wall. She wasn't crying, just emotionally tortured. Hopper sat next to her, putting an arm around her to comfort her.

The kids were still sitting in the kitchen, thinking about everything that's happened that night. How they saw all those people die, including Bob. Mike got up and walked over to a nightstand, picking up a small blue cube, with some rubber bands around it. He held onto the cube, thinking about Bob and what he'd done to help them get this far. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Mike asked. "Really?" Lucas asked, kind of shocked. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Even had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him" Mike explained, walking over to the others and putting the cube down on the table. "We can't let him die in vain" Mike said. "What else can we do Mike? You heard what the chief said. We can't do anything except wait here" Lucas said. "We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own" Dustin said.

Poppy raised an eyebrow. "Demo-dogs?" "Demogorgan, dogs...Demo-dogs. It's a compound. A play on word" Dustin said. "There has to be a way we can kill them" Max said. "There's too many for us to deal with. They have an army now" Lucas said. "His army...." Mike said. "What do you mean?" Ashton asked, walking in with Ashton. "His army. Maybe if we stop it, we can stop his army, too" Mike suggested, putting down Will's drawing of the shadow monster.

"The shadow monster" Dustin said. "That day it got Will out on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, that it infected him" Mike said. "And so this virus, it connects him to the tunnels?" Max asked. "To the tunnels, monsters, Upside Down, everything" Mike said. "Ok, slow down, I'm trying to take all this in" Steve pitched in. "So, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, so does it's hosts" Mike said. "And so does Dart" Dustin pitched in. "Exactly. Like what Mr. Clarke said. It's a hive mind" Mike said. "Hive mind?" Ashton asked confused. "It's a collective conscience, like a super organism" Lucas answered. "And the thing that controls everything, is the brain. Which is the shadow monster" Mike said. Dustin immediately thought of something similar like this.

"Like the mind flayer" Dustin said, making Lucas's eyes open wide and snap his fingers at what he said.
Ashton, Poppy, Steve, and Max all looked at each other lost.