One Eighty Stranger Things book Three

Chapter 8: The Battle of Starcourt

Joyce, Hopper, and Murray arrived at the mall just in time for the chief to squash the bit of the Mind Flayer that El painfully removed from the wound in her leg. The group stood in a circle, talking about their plan. "The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike said.

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Max replied.

Celeste was glad to see that the adults were with them, this whole ordeal was very scary and stressful. "How big is this thing?" Hopper asked.

"It's big. Thirty feet, at least." Jonathan answered.

Lucas looked at Hopper, "Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry."

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?" Steve said.

Nancy looked at Steve, "Yes." She said.

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people." Steve concluded.

"Yes, exactly." Nancy replied.

Steve nodded his head and mumbled, "Yeah, okay. I... Yeah, I'm just making sure."

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked.

"El beat the crap out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Celeste told Joyce.

"But if we close the gate again..." Will trailed.

"We cut the brain off from the body." Max said.

Lucas knew where this was leading to, "And kill it. Theoretically." He told the group.

"Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hoo!" A man yelled, he was waving papers around, he set those papers down onto a table. It was Murray.

"Okay, this is what Alexei called
"the hub." Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." He explained.

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." He theorized.

Erica crossed her arms and shook her head, "More like 500. What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked the girl.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" Erica replied.

"Murray... Bauman." Murray looked at Erica offendedly, as if she didn't know who he was, when, in fact she didn't.

"Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that stupid hole for 24 hours." Erica told him.

"And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." Dustin nodded along, since he, Erica, Steve, and Robin were trapped in the elevator for over twenty four hours.

Murray scoffed, "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" He asked.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald idiot!" Erica shouted.

Lucas exclaimed, "Erica!"

"Just the facts!" She replied to her brother. Erica shot Murray's plan of attack right down. Of course, neither was Erica 4, nor was she wrong his plan was going to get them killed.

Dustin stepped in, "She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may I?"

"Please." Murray stepped back, while Dustin began explaining what happened while he and the others were trapped.