006- the hive mind
"You're positive that was Dart?" Lucas asked as they walked along the train tracks. "Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt." Dustin insisted. "He was tiny two days ago." Max spoke from behind the group. "Well he's molted three times already." He explained. "Malted?" Steve furrowed his brows. "Molted." He corrected. "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."
"When's he gonna molt again?" Indi asked curiously. "It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown or close to it, and so will his friends." Dustin explained. "Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats." Steve sighed. "Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?" Lucas asked, eyes wide. "No. What? No." Dustin panicked. "What are you talking about? He ate Mews." Steve stated, equally as confused as the rest.
"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asked. "It's Dustin's cat." He said as if it were obvious. "Steve!" Dustin yelled. "I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas looked to Dustin annoyed. "No! No. No I... He missed me. He wanted to come home." Dustin explained, almost a sad tone layering his voice. "Bullshit!" Lucas yelled. "I didn't know he was a demogorgon!" Dustin argued. "Oh so now you admit it?" He asked.
"Guys- who cares? We need to leave." Indi spoke, trying to break up their argument. "I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" He continued yelling. "So did you!" Dustin yelled back. "You told a stranger the truth." He shined the light in Max's face. "You did too!" Lucas argued. "I had to tell her! She walked into my cellar and saw Dart's tunnel and skin, there's no good excuse for that Lucas!" He yelled. "We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even, we're even." Dustin sighed. Lucas continued to argue when Indi noticed Steve stepping off to the side. "Guys." He said worriedly.
"Guys!" He yelled, catching everyone's attention to the nearby screeching. Everyone followed towards the sound running through the trees. "Hey guys? Why are you heading towards the sound! Hello?" Max called. "Max, just come on!" Indi yelled. They walked through the forrest until they came to a cleaning on the top of the hill. "I don't see him." Dustin stated. Lucas got out his binocular and looked around. "It's the lab." He said. "They were going back home."
We walked back through the woods towards the lab before we heard someone yelling. "Hello! Who's there?" They yelled. "Harrington who is that?" Indi asked, worry laced in her tone. "I guess we're gonna find out." He said as he stepped out of trees, everyone following behind.
"Steve?" The two people said in unison. Indi recognized the girl to be the same person who handed her the flyer to the Halloween party. "Nancy?" Steve asked. "Jonathon." Dustin said, walking closer. "What are you doing here?" She asked, seeming annoyed. "What are you doing here?" He asked. "We're looking for Mike and Will." She stated.
"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked, pointing to the lab. "We're not sure." She said. "Why?" Jonathon asked. A familiar screech rang through the air, causing everyone to turn their heads away from the lab. Everyone started to panic, arguing about Mike and Will. "Who are you?" Nancy asked. "Uh- I'm Indi." She said awkwardly. "I'm Max's sister." She gave an awkward smile.
"The power's back." Nancy stated, looking towards the lab. Jonathan ran over to the gate, looking in the control box to see if it would budge. He pressed the button repeatedly, causing nothing to happen. "Let me try." Dustin walked into guard house. "Hang on."
"Let me try, Jonathan!" He shoved. He pressed the button, the gate still not moving. "Son of a bitch! You know what?" He pressed the button repeatedly, the gate opening this time. "Hey! I got it!" He smiled. Jonathon and Nancy got in the car, driving up to the lab to find Will and Mike.
"Harrington, I'm really wishing I would've looked both ways right about now." Indi paced. "What the hell did I get myself into." She sighed. "Hey." Steve grabbed her arm. "I'm sorry I ran you over and dragged you into this, but this is what we're dealing with now. We're in this together. All of us." He said softly, nodding his head towards the group of kids.
"Guys." Max spoke up, motioning to headlights that were approaching. "Look out!" Dustin yelled, causing all of us to run to the side of the gate. "Guys, get back!" Max ran, avoiding the first car that sped passed. The second car came to a halting stop. "Let's go." The chief of police motioned us to get in. "Go on! Get in, get in!" Steve rushed.
~*~*~*~*~
"They didn't believe you did they?" Dustin asked the chief of police, Hopper, after he got off the phone with the authorities. Indi paced around Joyce's dining area, the kids gathered at the table. "We'll see." He responded calmly. "We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike argued. "We stay here, and we wait for help." He said, walking away.
"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Mike spoke softly. "Really?" Lucas questioned. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything, and then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome right?" He asked. "Yeah." They agreed in unison. "We can't let him die in vain."
"Well what do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin asked. "The Chiefs right on this. We can't stop those demodogs on our own." He said. "Demodogs?" Max furrowed her brows. "Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words you know? Like-" He rambled. "Okay." Max nodded, cutting him off.
"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe.." Dustin thought out loud. "But there's an army now." Lucas added. "Precisely." He agreed. "His army." Mike said, looking down. "What do you mean?" Steve asked as he leaned against the counter. "His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too."
He ran into Will's room, all of them following. "The shadow monster." Dustin said, taking the drawing from Mike. "It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." He explained. "And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Indi asked, motioning to the drawings of tunnels spread throughout the house. "To the tunnels, the monsters, the upside down, everything."
"Whoa, slow down. Slow down." Steve held up his hands. "Okay so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does will." Mike stated. "And so does dart." Lucas added. "Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind." He said. "Hive mind?" Steve asked, not understanding. "A collective consciousness. It's a super organism." Indi spoke from beside Steve. "You are a secret nerd." He leaned to whisper to her, giving an amused eyebrow raise. "Shut up, Harrington." She elbowed him.
"This is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike said, flipping through the drawings. "Like the mind flayer." Dustin spoke. "The what?" Max asked.
"The mind flayer." Dustin said, dropping his book on the table in front of everyone. "What the hell is that?" Hopper asked. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly developed psionic powers." He rambled.
"Oh my God, none of this is real. This is a kids game." Hopper scoffed. "No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor-" He said, starting to raise his voice. "Analogy." Lucas corrected. "Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy from understanding whatever the hell this is."
"Okay so this mind flamer thing-" Nancy started. "Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin corrected. "What does it want?" She asked. "To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." He explained. "Like the uh- like the Germans." Steve added. "Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin asked. "Yeah, yeah, the Nazis." He breathed. "If the Nazis we're from another dimension, totally. It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." He continued.
"It wants to spread, and take over other dimensions." Mike added. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas stated. "That's great. That's great, that's really great. Jesus." Steve sighed, turning to walk away. "Holy shit. So we're going to die, basically?" Indi paced around the room.
"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything so then if we kill it?" Nancy asked. "We kill everything it controls." Mike responded. "We win." Dustin stated. "Theoretically." Lucas added.
"Alright, great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper asked. "No, no, no fireballs." Dustin said, holding back a laugh. "Uh, you summon an undead army.. because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it- it likes brains. It's just a game. It's a game." Dustin defended. "What are we doing here?" Hopper threw the book back down on the table. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup." He stated. "We are!"
"Even if they come how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns!" Mike argued. "You don't know that! You don't know anything!" Hopper yelled. "We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." He said. "And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas added. "We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin stated.
"They're right." Joyce said, walking up behind everyone. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it." She said angrily. "Me too. Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper stated. "No. But he does." Mike said, walking over to the couch Will was currently asleep on. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness."
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." Max spoke. "Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."
A/N!!
-this chapter is kinda a filler chapter but dw there will be more Steve/Indi content coming soon! Thank you for 100 reads! Just a couple days and we're already to 100- I can't wait to see where this story ends up by the time I'm finished with it and I can't wait for all of you to see as well!
xoxo- ray