One Eighty Stranger Things book Three

Chapter 4: The Sauna Test

It's hard not to feel a little sorry for Max, here she is, a California transfer to the seemingly normal town of Hawkins who's ready to take the events of 1984 as a blip and move on with her life.

And from her perspective, maybe it was just a blip. She wasn't around for the previous year, the one in which Will and Celeste disappeared and almost died (the first time.). And, by all appearances, things have been relatively normal ever since Eleven sealed the portal to the Upside Down.

No wonder she tries to reassure El and Celeste that everything's still okay after they crash Billy's dinner with Heather and her parents, then take off before Heather's parents take a dive to the tune of "American Pie."

Max is the last of the gang to catch on that the town might (again) be in trouble. Others are already on high alert, and not just in Mike's basement. Dustin, recently annoyed that nobody answered his walkie-talkie call, remains incommunicado while he, Steve, and Robin try to figure out what to do about the mysterious room being guarded by the Russian with the big gun.
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"Which one?" Max asked, holding up two different comic books. One being Wonder Woman, and the other being Green Lantern. Celeste sat on the end of the bed, as Eleven climbed in next to Max.

"I don't know." El said.

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about
anymore, okay?" Max reassured.

El stared plainly, "It doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't make sense?" Celeste asked.

El couldn't shake that feeling, that something was up. "Heather. The blood. The ice."

"Heather had a fever, so she took
a cold bath, but she's better now. That has to be it."

Max explained, "I don't know where that blood came from, but... We saw her. We all saw her. She's totally fine."

"What about Billy?" El questioned.

"What about him?"

El didn't want Celeste to be scared, but knew she would be, she's been through a lot. Eleven wished she could take her friend's pain away, "He seemed wrong."

"Wrong is kind of like his default. But it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."

El pointed at the comic book, "Who... is that?"

Celeste smiled, "See, this is why you can't just hang out with my brother all the time."

"This is Wonder Woman. AKA Princess Diana. She's from Paradise Island, which is, like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors." Max smiled and they began to read the comic book to El.
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The Next Morning

Celeste stirred in her sleep, she groggily awoke to someone talking, when she could properly and coherently hear who's voice it was, Max picked her walkie talkie. "Do you copy? This is a code red. I repeat, this is a code red. Max. Do you copy? This is a code red." Lucas repeated.

"Shut... up." Max replied, turning off her the walkie talkie.

The girls laid back down, trying to fall back asleep, a few minutes later Max's phone was ringing. She got up annoyedly and answered it. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm sleeping. Go away." She said.

"This is Mike. Do not hang up. Something happened, something bad. Our very lives can be at stake." Celeste popped her head up, she could faintly hear her brother's voice.

"What are you talking about?" Max asked.

"Just come over to my house. We'll explain everything." Mike told her.