The adults and teens all stood around each other. Some of them sat on the fountain while others strood in front of them or sat on a bench in front of the fountain. Alex's whole head was drenched from Lucas dipping his head into the fountain to wake him up.

"The MindFlayer, he built this monster in Hawkins. To stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world" Mike and the others explained to the rest on what the situation was.

"And he almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Nancy inputted

"How big is this thing." Hopper asked

"It's big, thirty feet, at least" Jonathan answered

"Yeah, it sorta destroyed your cabin, sorry" Lucas said as Hopper silently sighed in disappointment.

"Ok, so let's just be clear, this... this big fleshy spider things that hurt El and flayed Delilah, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon" Steve said confused as he pointed towards Eleven who later in her dad's arm and an empty space behind like Delilah would be there.

"Yes"

"But instead of, like screws and metal, the MindFlayer made its weapon... with melted people" Steve continued

"Yes exactly"

"Yeah, ok. I- yeah I'm just making sure"

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

"El beat the shit out of it, by yeah it's still alive" Alex answered as water dripped down his shirt

"But if we close the gate again-" Will started

"We cut the brain off from the body-" Max continued

"And kill it, theoretically" Lucas finished. A loud sob broke out from Eleven's throat. Fresh tears spilled from her eyes, covering the old ones.

"W-we can't" El shook her head as she cried. Everyone furrowed their eyebrows in confusion.

"Why can't we, you guys did before" Alex said, completely weirded out, this was the second time Eleven had told them that they couldn't kill the MindFlayer.

"Delilah, she- she, she not apart of the army, she's leading the army." El explained through broken sobs

"El, what are you talking about" Nancy asked

"Delilah is the MindFlayer and the MindFlayer is D-Delilah, t-they are one, they are the same person." Eleven shivered as she repeated the same words that Delilah had told her in the void. Everyone looked at each other then stared at Eleven in confusion.

"So if we kill The MindFlayer, we're... killing Delilah as well" Alex said, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. Eleven nodded while others tried to not to cry, no one wanted to lose dear old Delilah Henderson.

"Wait but where not actually killing the MindFlayer, we're just blocking him off from our world" Lucas reassured but it seemed like he was trying to convince himself that his best friend would be ok in the end.

"That's the thing, if Delilah is basically The Mindflayer, than there will always be a piece of him here. If we want to completely stop the Mindflayer from taking over our world we have to..." Mike trailed off as they all thought the same thing but no one dared spoke of it.

"We have to kill her" Max whispered out, loud enough for them to hear. Everyone drowned in their sorrows, why did it have to be Delilah?

"Yoo-hoo, yoo-hoo" a sudden yell stopped their mourning. They all turned around to see the same man that was with Hopper before.

"Ok, this is what Alexi called 'the hub'. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." The man explained.

"Ok, where's the gate" Hopper asked

"Right here, I don't know the on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room. Maybe 50 feet or so" the man estimated

"More like 500" Erica stepped up and interrupted.

"What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" Erica continued

"I'm sorry, who are you" the man asked in disbelief

"Erica Sinclair, who are you?"

"Murray... Bauman" Murray answered hesitantly.

"Listen Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die" Erica said with sass while she pointed at the rest of them.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me" Murray complained

"Um, I'm ten you bald bastard" Erica insulted

"Erica!" Lucas scolded

"Just the facts" the girl defended

"She's right, you're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me, sorry may I?" Dustin stepped forward and interrupted them.

"Please"

"Ok, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system." Dustin sat down and explained the map. He drew a line from the storage room to the weapon room.

"That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way." Dustin finalized

"You can show us the way?" Hopper repeated the sentence slowly

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll be your... navigators." Dustin reassured to absolutely nothing. Hopper nodded sarcastically

"No" he simply responded while shaking his head. Dustin and Erica looked at him like he was stupid

"Nope"

Hopper took some of the guns from the dead guys bodies. He cocked the assault rifle while everyone else got ready to leave.

"We'll, that settles it. He's gonna die, they're gonna die." Erica stated while she walked towards Dustin and stood behind him.

"Yep, most likely" Dustin agreed

"You guys survived" Lucas interrupted

"Barely, we could've really used you guys down there" Dustin informed as he looked Mike, Will and Lucas.

"Could've used you up here too" Mike said

"Yeah man, we missed you dude" Lucas smiled and Dustin gave a slight smirk back.

"Yeah, big time" Will said before they all joined in a group hug.

"I missed you guys too. Big time"

"Please don't cry nerds" Erica said. The boys turned around to see Alex now beside Erica, the boy giving them a weird look.

"Erica" Lucas scolded again

"Keep saying my name, see what happens." The girl sassed.

"Hey, heads up. You can navigate just from someplace safe" Hopper explained

"It's not that simple" Dustin started

"The signal won't reach" Erica finished

"Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians radio tower." Dustin spoke quickly.

"But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower. One preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh wait, that's me" Dustin rambled

"If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start, and a car." Hopper looked like he really wanted to murder someone, and was probably hoping he could do exactly that by the end of the night to let off some steam.

Dustin had given the three groups code names. The group that had fought the Mindflayer was called The Griswold family. The group that went to the Russian base before was The Scoops Troop and the three adults that was in Illinois was called The Eagles Nest.

The said Griswold Family we're heading to Nancy's car to drive to the safe house in Illinois. Eleven grunted in pain as Max and Mike helped her to the car.

"El you're bleeding" Max informed

"Are you ok?" Mike asked

"Yeah" El mustered out. Max opened up the door to the back of the car and helped Eleven in.

"Lay down" Mike instructed. They all snuggled in the back while Lucas, Will and Alex were in the seats in front of them.

Jonathan and Nancy entered the car before Nancy tried to start the ignition. Key word, tried.

"What's wrong," Jonathan asked while Nancy kept turning the key but the car just wouldn't start.

"I don't... I don't know"
The engine sputtered but refused to completely turn on.

"You can't be serious, come on" Nancy was quickly getting frustrated.

"Didn't your mom just buy this car?" Lucas asked from behind the two adults.

"Yes, I'm sure it's fine"

"Did you leave the lights on"

"No"

"Do we have gas"

"Yes" Nancy yelled, obviously mad.

"Come on"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, just stop, stop" Jonathan grabbed Nancy's arm to stop her from completely breaking the key.

"Pop the hood," he said as he went out of the car. Nancy opened the hood and joined Jonathan at the front of the car

"What the hell"

"What"

"The ignition cable's gone," Jonathan informed Nancy. All of a sudden, a roar of an engine was heard from the very empty parking lot.

They all stared in horror as Delilah stood angrily in the driver seat of Billy's blue camaro, completely alone.

"Who taught Delilah how to drive!" Nancy yelled out furiously. Delilah revving the car, threatening and intimidating them in a menacingly way, it was definitely working. Nancy slammed the glass window scaring the kids.

"Back in the mall! Back in the mall, go, go, go" Nancy instructed while the kids all ran out of the car and back inside the illuminated building.

Delilah just stared and continued to rev Billy's car with a glare.

"Scoops Troop, I repeat, do you copy? We're trapped in the mall and in need of emergency transportation. Scoops Troop do you copy? Delilah has found us" Alex tried to reach the others but with no avail, they did not answer back.

Meanwhile, Nancy stole a pistol from one of the dead Russian guards.

"You're gonna kill her aren't you?" Max mumbled as her and Will looked at Nancy.

"This is just a precaution, ok" Nancy answered

"And not just against Delilah. If she knows we're here, so does the Mindflayer, I mean they are the same person." Will told Max. Nancy, Max, Will and Jonathan stared at Alex as he passed the beat up red car from before.

"No chance that thing'll drive, right?" Nancy smirked jokingly at Jonathan.

"We don't need it to drive, we just need the ignition cable." Jonathan realized

All of them except Eleven and Will tried to push the car right-side up but with no avail, it wouldn't budge and they couldn't move it.

"Shit"

"Let me try" Eleven offered

"El..." Mike disagreed. The girl stepped forward with determination.

"I can do it"

They all stood behind her as she tried to move the car. Metal squealed as she tried to at least make it fall over on its own. She panted as nothing happened

What happened to her powers?

The group had grabbed a bunch of stools to help them push the car. Eleven couldn't do it herself so they improvised. The car was now on its side.

"All right, now all the way, ready?" Mike said. They put the stools against the car and pushed. They all groaned as the car finally fell over.

"Told you, physics" Mike breathed out. They all jumped from the counter and Nancy and Jonathan went to go get the ignition cable.

"What's she doing?" Max said as she looked at El who was going through a garbage can. Mike and Alex who were beside the redhead turned around to see Eleven. The brunette took out the same can Lucas had drank from and placed it on a table. She focused on crushing it with her powers but nothing happened.

"Eleven, are you ok" Alex asked as him, Mike and Max walked towards her. She looked back at them but didn't utter a word.

A distant rumbling could be heard from above. Max and Alex furrowed their eyebrows and turned to each other in unison. They both looked up at the glass ceiling to see something moving on the roof, the glass cracking.

"Mike" Max and Alex called. The said boy stood beside them and looked up.

"Nancy!" Mike yelled across the mall, alerting her and Jonathan who had just gotten the cable. Mike grabbed Eleven with Alex and Max behind them.

The flesh Mindflayer fell from the roof. It shrieked and roared as the others hid.

(2055 words)