— CHAPTER 17 —
DO YOU COPY?

SATURDAY 12th NOVEMBER,
1983

LUCAS flattens a map out onto a sheet of metal, which the group huddle around curiously, as he points to various spots. "This is Randolph Road, right here," he says. "The fence starts here, and goes all the way around... and this is the lab right here." Lucas taps his finger on a small square on the map. "The gate's gotta be in there somewhere. It's gotta be."

     Leaning in closer, Cath inspects the spot on the map that is supposed to be the Hawkins Lab — seeing how near it is in relation to her house makes goosebumps slither across her skin. These people were out to get them. To get Eleven. They were willing to possibly put kids in harm's way, by the looks of it... Lucas had saved them. Without his warning, the Bad Men could have sweet-talked the Wheelers into doing God knows what, and taken back Eleven. Cath doesn't even know where to begin to express her gratitude.

"Well, who owns Hawkins Lab?" asks Dustin.

"The sign says 'Department of Energy'."

"'Department of Energy'? What do you think that means?"

"'Hawkins Power And Light'," Cath recites as she remembers those words emblazoned on the repair vans that were chasing them. "It could be a cover-up for something."

"Definitely," Mike agrees. "I'm pretty sure it means government. Military."

"Then why does it say 'Energy'?" Dustin queries.

"Just trust me, alright? It's military. My dad's told me before."

"Mike's right," says Lucas. "There's soldiers out front."

"Do they make, like, light bulbs or something?"

"No, weapons..." Mike shrugs with a small twitch of his mouth. "To fight the Russians, and Commies and stuff."

Weapons? For a moment, Cath is wondering what kind of weapons before it clicks into place. Why the Bad Men were so desperate to get Eleven back. She turns to look at El, who is knelt quietly at her side watching everything unfold. The girl looks so innocent here, her hands folded in her lap with the sleeves a little too long for her arms — but she is the weapon. Of course she is. If
Eleven can break Troy's arm with a tilt of her head, it doesn't take much imagination to wonder what else she is capable of...

"Oh, Jesus, this is bad. Really bad. The place is like a fortress!" Lucas says, pinching the bridge of his nose. Cath is feeling similar despair, as the true weight of their situation sinks in.

"Well... what do we do now?" Cath asks uncertainly.

"I don't know, but we can't go home," Mike replies. "We're fugitives."

"Fugitives?!"

"Cath, the lab will be looking for us! All of us and our families."

"B-But I don't wanna be a fugitive..." she stammers. "I just wanna go home..." Her bottom lip starts to quiver, but she bravely tries to suck it back in as Troy's chants of crybaby echo in her head. She is soon distracted, however, as an ominous growl from the sky catches all of their attention.

"Guys? Do you hear that?"

Helicopters. They can see them now, the choppers slicing through the air and the black metal glinting from sunlight as they hover over the junkyard. "Go, go, go!" Mike cries, all of them lurching up and ushering each other like spooked animals into the rusty bus right next to them. Slamming the door shut behind them, they duck behind the seats, the choppers still incessant and roaring above them.

For a moment, Cath forgets to breathe.

Then the whirring of the helicopters recedes, as does their shadow from the windows of the rusted bus as they must think the space is all clear. But they won't emerge so easily — Cath doesn't trust the coast to be clear enough, for them to walk out and not meet gunpoint or worse. This nightmare just seem to warp more and more with each hour...

"Mental..." Dustin whispers, bewildered.

━━━━━━

AFTER a joint effort in scrubbing the Hawk Theatre's marquee between Steve and Daphne, Nancy 'The Slut' Wheeler is forever erased. When their work was done, Daphne had asked him where he was going. "No idea," he'd replied honestly. She had watched Steve slowly get into his BMW, uncertain of where he would go next, before he drove off into the distance. Then Daphne checked in with Thomas, who seemed only a tad more lenient, but she was under strict instructions to go straight home...

... So instead, Daphne goes to the police station, in the hopes of finding Jonathan and Nancy. Upon her arrival, Joyce is chewing out one of the police officers as a cuffed Jonathan with a bruised head sulks in his chair. "Why is he wearing handcuffs?" she demands.

     "Well, your boy assaulted a police officer."

     Daphne's brows shoot up at him, and Jonathan rolls his eyes.

     "Take them off," Joyce snaps.

     "I'm afraid I can't do that."

     "Take them off!"

     "You heard her. Take them off," Hopper intervenes gruffly, dressed down in plaid and jeans.

     "Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but you need to see this..." One of the officers lifts up a cardboard box onto the table, and Daphne freezes awkwardly. Inside are the bullets, bear traps and other resources they had bought from the shop this morning. She tries not to react too visibly, sharing a sidewards glance with Nancy.

     "What is this?" Hopper asks.

     "Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car."

     "What?" Joyce retorts, eyes growing wide.

     "Why are you going through my car?" Jonathan fires back, glaring daggers at the police officer looking behind him.

     "I wanna see you in my office," Hopper says, nodding behind him. Catching the looks of the girls, he adds, "All of you..."

     Daphne, Jonathan and Nancy all share a long look, before the Byers boy glances up at Hopper from his seat. "You won't believe us if we tell you," he murmurs.

     The police chief chuckles softly. "Why don't you give me a try?"

     So they do. In a few minutes, within the confines of Hopper's office, they all find themselves explaining how they tracked down the monster, how it is attracted to blood, and what they were setting out to do with the weapons. Daphne watches the faces of the adults change in reaction to all of their statements, but most of all she notes the pain in Joyce's eyes as she looks at her son. She must be worried sick about him too, surely.

     Once the confession has ended, Joyce and Jonathan step outside for a private word. Before Nancy slips away, Daphne calls her name when she is halfway through the door. "Nancy?" she says. "The graffiti's gone. It's all sorted."

     Gratefully, Nancy nods, although none of the tension from her shoulders releases. The Wheeler girl slips away, leaving just Daphne and Hopper in his office. He starts scribbling something down on a notepad furiously — as Daphne watches him, although he is dressed-down, she realises this might be the most focused on his job Hopper has ever looked. He seems completely engrossed in this case.

     "So what now?" she asks, fiddling with the zipper on her jacket. "Are you gonna call my dad or something?"

     "Too risky," Hopper mumbles. "Your house could be bugged."

     "Bugged?" Daphne echoes, suddenly sitting up straight in a cold sweat. He must be joking.

     "At least mine was. Tore the place down to find the chips in the lights. And if the people who bugged my house know you're involved in this, who's to say they wouldn't bug your house too?"

     "Holy crap..."

     Before she can stop herself, Daphne finds her gaze drifting with a magnetic pull to the missing poster tacked onto the wall — not of Will, but of Tonya. They have used her yearbook photo from last year, and underneath in neat handwriting are her physical descriptors with the McCarthys' address and phone number. How many of these are up around Hawkins by now? And how long will they all stay up?

     "Everything alright, Delaney?"

     Hopper's gruff voice brings her back round. He is sat still in his seat, eyes narrowed at her. He turns haphazardly in the chair to note Tonya's poster, before looking back at her while the penny drops. "You know something about her, don't you?"

     Daphne says nothing.

     "Daphne..." Hopper pulls his chair in closer, propping his elbows on his desk. "If you know something about Tonya — where she is, if she's okay — you have to tell us. It's just you and me right now. You can tell me."

     And she could. She really could. But Daphne is scared of what will happen next. When she says it out loud, that Tonya is dead, what then? Will she be tied to this girl's death forever, as the one who almost got her out? Who watched it all happen?

     "I—"

     A shrill voice from the other side of the station derails her train of thought; Hopper seems visibly irritated. It is somehow instantly recognisable as an agitated mother — the squawks of "I want an apology!" and "Where is the Chief? I want to speak to him, right this instant!" are incessantly annoying. As Daphne follows Hopper out from his office, she finds this to be true. She is here with her son, a whining boy around Cath's age who is cradling his arm in a sling.

     "What the hell is going on here?" Hopper asks, intervening in the scene.

     "Chief—" Powell tries to say, but the irate mother cuts him off.

     "These men are humiliating my son!" she spits.

     "No, no, no! Okay, that's not true," Callahan tries to defend himself.

     "There was some kind of fight, Chief."

     "A psychotic child broke his arm!"

     "A little girl, Chief, a little one," Callahan says sleazily.

     "That tone!" the mother cries, thrusting a finger in his face. "Do you hear that tone?"

     "Honestly, I'm just trying to state a fact—"

     "Please, I don't have time for this! Will you please take a statement..." Hopper then mouths, "and get her out?"

     Callahan understands the message, and Hopper begins walking his way back to Daphne, who lingers at the doorway of his office watching the scene unfolding. However, he stops abruptly in his tracks when the boy starts speaking up. When asked what the girl looked like, the boy answers, "She had no hair and she was bleeding from her nose. Like a freak."

     "What'd you just say?" Hopper asks with a sudden urgency, returning briskly to the injured boy.

     "I said she's a freak!"

     "No, her hair. What'd you say about her hair?"

     "Her head's shaved. She doesn't even look like a girl..."

      Shaven head, doesn't even look like a girl. The epiphany hits Daphne with such force that she audibly gasps. An insignificant memory, such a small one, suddenly sticks out in her memory — Benny's Burgers on Monday. There was that strange little boy she thought she saw in his kitchen... but it was a girl. Whoever this 'freak' is, it has to be her. Daphne has more questions than ever before now, and she emerges from the office to hear the conversation better.

"And... and..." the boy struggles for words.

"Tell the man, Troy," his mother eggs him on.

Troy, as he seems to be named, gulps as if he is swallowing his pride for a moment. "She can... do things."

"What kind of things?"

"Like... make you fly... and piss yourself."

Daphne's brows knit together with confusion, and she does start to wonder if maybe the 'trauma' of his broken arm is getting to his head. But Hopper is still laser-focused. "Was she alone?" he interrogates.

"She always hangs out with those losers."

"Losers? What losers?" Hopper asks firmly, at first construed as passive-aggressive by Troy, before he soon realises that the police chief genuinely wants to know.

"Those nerds from school..." Troy says. "Frog— I mean, Wheeler... Henderson, Sinclair. Cath Delaney was also there, too," he adds. Daphne almost sees it coming from the mention of the other boys, but it still somehow shocks her. "I don't know why she hangs out with them. She used to hang out with the smart girls, and now all week she's been sticking to those weirdos."

"You mean my sister?" Daphne remarks loudly from behind them. She folds her arms across her chest, a defensive stance to put Troy in his place, and it appears to work. But truthfully, she isn't worried about what a puny twelve year-old is feeling right now — where is her sister?

Daphne soon finds herself in the backseat of a car with Nancy, speeding off to the Wheeler's household — but when they get there, the place is crawling with what are repair vans at first glance, although each doorway is crawling with agents cloaked in black coats filtering in and out. The scene is absolutely insane, and ignites a sudden panic inside Daphne. Is Cath in there? What are they doing with her? Is she safe? Self-awareness guiltily beats her down, a realisation that this past week she might have just been the least responsible older sister ever.

Nancy appears to feel the same way too, as she leaps out from the car in complete distress before Hopper wrangles her back in with Daphne and Jonathan. As a helicopter whirs past, the same thought crosses over both the girls' minds — all of this for my eleven year-old sibling?

"Look, we need to find them before they do," Hopper says, "Do you either of you have any idea where they might have gone?"

"No, I don't."

"I need you to think."

"We haven't talked a lot. I mean, lately..." Nancy admits guiltily, sighing.

When Hopper turns to Daphne, in hope of more clarity, she sadly shakes her head. "I knew something weird was going on with her this week, but... all of this?" she stares out of the window in disbelief. "She was so secretive about it. I had no idea." And worse, Daphne can't believe she didn't act sooner or try to stop her. Maybe Dad was right about me being an irresponsible sister, she thinks glumly.

"Look, is there any place that your parents that your... your parents don't know about that he might go?"

Jonathan pauses, considering this. A flicker of fondness lights up his eyes, as if he is searching through childhood memories of him and Will, before he looks up at Hopper with conviction. "I don't know. I might."

"What do you mean?" asks Hopper.

"I don't know where he is, but I think I know how to ask him."

━━━━━━

CATH has no idea how long they have all been cooped up in this bus. With no room to pace back and forth, they all sit huddled behind the chairs — the rusted metal is cold to the touch, and chills her the more they just stay here like sitting ducks. There have been a few absent-minded games of 'I Spy' suggested by Dustin, before they ran out of things to spy...

In another tense silence that stretches between them, Cath shuffles in her seat. She has been thinking about the future. Not too far, of course, since thinking about the future in general scares her. But she finds herself wondering what happens when all of this is over. The question eats her up until she can't contain it any longer.

"Hey, guys," says Cath. They all look her way and she suddenly feels out on the spot. She swallows thickly. "... When this is all over, I mean, if we make it out of here... what's gonna happen?"

"I don't know," Lucas shrugs. "I guess everything goes back to normal."

Back to normal. She considers this for a while, tucking her knees into her chest. She thinks about all they have been through, what they have endured together, just for it all to go back to normal. And what was normal before everything changed? She can't quite remember.

"I don't want that," Cath finally replies, barely a whisper.

"What do you mean?" Mike asks.

"I mean... after everything, I don't know if I can just go back to how everything was before. You know, back with the girls at school."

"Freaking Sandy Brooks," Dustin growls, the old-time Science Fair rivalry re-surfacing once more.

Mike pretends he didn't hear that remark, and turns his full body her way. "But you don't have to hang out with them, if you don't want to. You can hang out with us."

"But... you don't really know me," she says.

"Of course we do!" scoffs Dustin. "Exhibit A: you like cats, correct?"

"I guess so..." Understatement of the century.

"Touché, and exhibit B: you must be a fan of The Beatles," Dustin concurs. "You know, Ringo the cat?"

"Rin-go?" El enunciates, with deep concentration.

"He's the drummer in The Beatles," Mike explains to her briefly. "They were a band a few years ago."

"Band?"

"... Never mind."

"I had a Beatles phase a few years ago, yeah," Cath nods. "My dad is also a big fan..." The way the boys and Eleven gather around, their undivided attention focused her way, feels almost entirely new to her. She almost feels bad, as if she is talking about herself too much. "I can play some Beatles for you one day, if you like, El." In response, the timid girl nods, although she still seems to have little understanding of who or what The Beatles actually.

"So I take it Ringo is your favourite?" Lucas assumes.

Cath shakes her head quickly. "No," she smiles. "It's actually Paul. That was what I originally wanted to name my cat when we found him, but Daphne thought that Paul was too normal of a name for a cat. She was even more against John and George, so... Ringo it was."

After a small pause, Dustin grins. "I think that's fair. A cat named Paul would be pretty weird."

"What's weird about a cat named Paul?" Lucas argues.

"Lucas, picture this: it's the middle of the night, you hear this mrrrowww in the street, then your neighbour walks out and starts calling out 'Paul! Paul! Paul!' Now, tell me you wouldn't mistake that for a human being."

"Paul's better than something mushy, like Cherub or Muffin."

     "Well, what if there was a cat called Lucas? If you're walking down the street, a cat and their owner passes and they address Lucas, you're gonna think it's you, aren't you? With a name like Ringo, there isn't any confusion, 'cause how many Ringos do you know?"

"People don't walk cats, you airhead!"

"They don't, but that doesn't mean they can't..."

     The debate only grows more ridiculous, somehow more hilarious in hushed voice, and Cath finds herself giggling as she, Mike and Eleven watch it spin out of control — for a moment, she even forgets why they are in this bus, and that they're actually hiding from mortal danger. El is even smiling a little bit.

     "Hey, Cath?" Mike suddenly says, and when she turns away from the boys' obscure cat debate, she notices he has suddenly grown earnest.

     "Yeah?" she asks, hesitant for a moment over what he is going to say.

     "Yesterday, you said something about us only being a search party, or something... what did you mean by that?"

     Cath sighs. She remembers back to when she had blurted that out, how genuinely terrified she had felt. Fear... Cath has always been so scared. Scared of the shark in Jaws, of riding her bike in case she breaks a limb again, of just taking. She's trying to learn courage. It isn't coming easily, and by no means is it fully-fledged yet. But she is getting to a point where she doesn't want to be scared of simply

"It doesn't matter," Cath finally answers, because it really doesn't. "Really. What matters right now is finding Will once and for all."

Mike nods slowly, his eyes searching her for truth in her answer — she hopes he got the message. What she said yesterday doesn't matter, because that feels like a lifetime ago now. However, the issue soon wipes clean when a crackle emits from his bag. A voice soon follows, as it asks, "Mike, are you there? Mike?" The voice is female, fairly young but definitely older than them. The kids exchange a confused look.

"Did you guys hear that?" Mike asks, unzipping his bag and removing his Supercom to get a better listen.

"Mike, it's me, Nancy."

"Your sister?" Cath remarks in surprise. How on Earth is Nancy getting this line? And why, more importantly?

They sit in silence, afraid to respond in any way as the words grow more desperate. "Mike, are you there? Answer. Mike, we need you to answer. This is an emergency, Mike. Do you copy?"

"Okay, this is weird..." says Dustin.

"Don't answer," says Mike, when Lucas tries to snatch the radio from him and answer.

"What if it's an emergency?" Lucas asks.

"What if it's a trick?"

     "It's your sister."

     "What if the Bad Men kidnapped her? What if they're forcing her to say this?"

There is a muffling of voices on the other end of the line, the radio perhaps being exchanged from one person to another. The kids huddle around the Supercom in expectant silence... another voice appears.

"Mike? Or Cath, anyone, are you there? It's Daphne."

Cath flinches while resisting the urge to snatch the Supercom and tell her, "We're here, we're here! I miss you. Please come find us." But instead, she stills herself, feeling all of the stares of the boys and Eleven focus on her.

"I need you to answer. One of you, literally any of you. We... I need to know you're safe."

"It's like Lando Calrissian," says Dustin. "Don't answer."

"I disagree," Cath argues, ignoring another one of Dustin's references she doesn't recognise, "Daphne would never do something like that, even if she had been captured... which she hopefully hasn't been..."

"How do you know that?" asks Mike worriedly.

"I just know. Daphne's strong. She would never bend that easily, even for the Bad Men. She just isn't like that."

"Mike, come on, Nancy and Daphne together? This has got to be real!" Lucas insists.

The line crackles once more, and this time a gruff voice talks back at them. It's Hopper. "Listen, kid, this is the chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl."

Almost in unison, Cath and the boys all whirl around to look at Eleven, who is listening intently to the radio. A million questions impending on them, as they dance in panic around the notion of whether to pick up or not. Why are they with the Chief? And how the hell do they know about Eleven?

"We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up."

"Help and protection sounds pretty nice right now," Cath admits sheepishly.

"Are you there? Do you copy? Over?"

"If we can't trust Hopper at this point, then we're totally screwed," Lucas makes a fairly good point.

Mike finally caves in with a decision. He picks up the Supercom and extends the antennae, a small click dispelling their debate as they stay quiet for their line. "Yeah, I copy," he says with firm conviction. "It's Mike. I'm here..." With a look around him at his surrounding friends, Lucas and Dustin, Cath and Eleven, he adds: "We're all here."

━━━━━━

A/N;

this was kind of a 'meh' filler chapter because i wrote it between my college workload, but also very significant because daphne and cath now know about each other's shenanigans behind each other's backs! this is basically going to be them when they reunite next chapter:

there are now only six chapters left of paranormal. for some that might sound like a lot, but at the rate i've been going recently, i could reach the end quicker than i expected (and definitely before christmas too!). so my question for you guys is do you think i'm going a tiny bit too fast? the rest of these chapters are really planned out, and the next few ones are mostly action-based as they take place in the last couple of episodes from season 1, and then there are some aftermath/filler ones at the end. while i'm super excited to get onto book 2 (which might actually be my favourite in this series) i also don't want to rush paranormal if that makes sense?

^^ on that note, please don't feel bad about being behind on chapters! i'm very happy for you to read this book at whatever pace works for you. everyone has their own busy lives, including me, and i understand people are trying to keep up with other books on here too.

thank you for reading! please leave a comment if you get the chance, feedback is always very much appreciated. hope you enjoy the rest of your day/evening.

(p.s: i have no idea what that cat debate between dustin and lucas turned into... it was meant to be pre-teen banter, so hopefully i achieved that effect? either way, if your cat's name is paul, this is not a personal vendetta against cats named paul 😂)

— Imogen

[ Published: October 14th, 2021 ]