Troy was terrified, his pale face filled with horror. Looking at the human corpses tied to stone pillars by vines, being crazily devoured by humanoid, canine, and feline monsters, he peed his pants again, shivering uncontrollably.
He had been caught. Despite running and hiding for all these days, he ultimately failed to escape the clutches of those monsters.
He couldn't speak at this moment, and his esophagus felt extremely uncomfortable. A small, long strand of the sentient vines had branched off and crawled into his mouth like a snake, forcibly prying his jaws open to the point of near-dislocation. The vine was so tough it couldn't be bitten through, and it was disgustingly injecting something into his body from time to time, making his stomach churn and his whole body ache.
As the pain persisted, his head slowly went numb.
The monsters didn't eat Troy. Instead, they circled him a few times, sniffing his scent as if observing him or treating him as something else entirely.
In his agony, he slowly grew numb and fainted... Just as Troy completely lost consciousness, a low, raspy voice suddenly rang out, "I need a pair of eyes to help me observe the outside world."
As soon as the voice fell, Troy was carried even higher by the vines. The vines inside him acted like conduits in a siphon, the tubes pulsating.
Upon hearing the voice, the group of Petal-headed monsters everyone called Demogorgons let out a roar toward the sky, then immediately turned and led a dozen canine Demogorgons toward the distance.
Eleven took a sharp breath and withdrew from her meditative state. Her heart was pounding violently, feeling as if it were about to jump out of her chest. That voice just now made her extremely uneasy; she felt as though she had been watched by something for a moment. This didn't make sense, because she had clearly become stronger and was inside the mental space; she shouldn't have been peered at like that.
"Are you okay?" Richard asked, looking at Eleven, who was covered in cold sweat, with concern.
"I saw him." Eleven regained her composure and described the scenes she saw with varying cadence, then pulled out a tissue to wipe her nosebleed.
"Where?"
"Hawkins Middle School, The Upside Down."
"Understood." Richard nodded, then slung his backpack, which was already packed with all his gear, onto his back. He stretched, ready to depart at any moment.
Chief Hopper looked at the fearless Richard and said with a complex gaze, "Kid, be careful. If anything happens to you, Eleven Will be sad."
"You should worry more about yourself," Richard said with a faint smile. "By the way, there's a pryable panel under my sofa. I've placed my homemade Flamethrower inside. I hope you guys can take it and use it."
"Why would we need that?" Chief Hopper expressed his confusion, a strange look flashing in his eyes as he asked with some suspicion, "Do you think those monsters Will come after us too?"
Richard adjusted his backpack straps so it wouldn't bounce around during vigorous running. "Eleven has decided to go on a killing spree tonight," he said. "Don't expect to be able to reason with those lunatics. Killing them is a last resort, and there Will inevitably be a bloodbath. Do you think the Demogorgons in The Upside Down Will remain indifferent when they catch the scent of this unusual blood?"
Thinking about it, there was indeed a high possibility.
Richard glanced back at Eleven, then at Hopper, and nodded. "If there are no more questions, then let's prepare to start the operation. I'll head out first."
With that, he went out, hopped on his bicycle, and sped toward The Lab... Mike dumped everything out of his schoolbag, then took several precious, beautiful stones from the cabinet in the basement. He also packed a fully charged flashlight into his bag, then hurriedly ran out of the basement and toward the door, saying at the same time, "Mom, I might be back late tonight. If... if I don't come back all night, tell Nancy. Nancy knows what to do!"
By the time he finished speaking, Mike had already left, leaving behind only a closed door and a swaying doorbell.
"Hey! Mike! Do you know what time it is!?" Seeing this, Mike's mother, who was holding a phone, wanted to chase after him but couldn't leave. On the other end of the line came the confused voice of Troy's mother; it seemed she had finally realized her son's disappearance was suspicious and had finally found her way to Mike's house after searching around.
Nancy, who had just come downstairs after hearing the commotion, saw her brother hurriedly leaving home on his bicycle. Her heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help but look at her mother. "Mom, did Mike just mention me?"
Seeing Nancy's questioning gaze, Mike's mother replied somewhat blankly, "Yes... yes. He said if he doesn't come back tonight, I should tell you, and that you'd know what to do."
Nancy's expression changed drastically. She rushed downstairs and grabbed the phone.
"Hey, Nancy, I'm still using that," Mike's mother said quickly.
Nancy gave a forced, perfunctory smile, then said to the woman on the other end, whose voice sounded displeased and arrogant, "Sorry, we have things going on at home. If you don't have anything else, we'll leave it at that. Thank you."
With that, Nancy pressed the hang-up button and hurriedly dialed Jonathan's number.
At the same time, over at the Byers' house, Will had also just snuck out the back door. Joyce, who was preparing dinner for her sons, saw a flash of headlights outside the window. She froze instantly, then hurriedly opened the kitchen window and shouted, "Will, where are you going?"
"Sorry, Mom, I have to go!" Will said, delivering a classic American individualistic hero line.
Joyce intended to chase after him, but then the phone in the house rang again. Having no choice, Joyce went to answer the phone first. Before Joyce could say anything, Nancy's voice came through: "Jonathan, I think Mike and the others are about to do something stupid. Is Will still at home? If he's about to go out, please make sure to stop him."
Joyce dropped the phone with a thud. Hearing the noise, Jonathan walked out of his room curiously and looked at his mother standing dazed in the hallway. "Mom?"
"...Looking for Chief Hopper?" Florence, the administrative receptionist at the police station, received a call from the Wheeler house. She looked at the memo on the desk calendar with confusion and said to the girl on the phone, "Chief Hopper is not on duty right now."
"Can you tell me where he went?" Nancy scratched her head, feeling that tonight was unusual.
Florence replied in a regretful tone, "Sorry, I'm not too sure about that."
"Thanks," Nancy replied weakly and hung up with a slight bitter smile.
"What on earth is going on, Nancy?" Mrs. Wheeler stood with her hands on her hips, looking serious. She didn't know what secrets Nancy, Mike, and the others were hiding, to the point where Nancy had made several calls in a row—to the Byers' house, to someone named Steve, and then to the police station.
Nancy hesitated. She didn't dare and didn't want to tell her mother that the various eerie events happening in town were related to The Lab. Setting aside whether her mother would believe her, it would definitely bring danger to the family.
Beep beep!
Just then, a horn honked outside the door, and glaring headlights shone through the glass on the door into the house.
Mrs. Wheeler was momentarily blinded by the light. Seizing the opportunity, Nancy bolted out the door, quickly jumped into the passenger seat of her boyfriend's convertible, and urged, "Go, go, go! Drive, hurry!"
"Nancy!" Mrs. Wheeler rubbed her eyes and chased out of the house. Seeing her daughter drive away in a stranger's car, she felt a sudden wave of distress.
"Sorry, Mom, I promise I'll bring Mike home safely!" Nancy looked back and left her mother with those words.
Mrs. Wheeler was both anxious and aggrieved, but unable to stop any of it, she could only stomp her feet in place. Then, she angrily slammed the door and walked back inside. She was about to vent her anger on her husband, but she saw Ted, who was tired after a day of work and had been playing with their young daughter after dinner, already fast asleep in the comfortable armchair, holding their tired little daughter. All her emotions had to be bottled back up.
The living room was quiet, save for the sound of the television playing a program that no one was watching and the sound of Mrs. Wheeler's breathing as she tried to adjust her emotions.
Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, Mrs. Wheeler sniffled, turned off the TV, took a blanket from the sofa to cover the sleeping father and daughter, then went to the kitchen to find a bottle of red wine. She sat at the kitchen table, drinking alone.
She only dared to drink half a glass, afraid of getting drunk and missing a phone call, which would prevent her from receiving news about Mike and the others immediately... "What's going on? What's wrong with Mike and the others?" Steve asked while driving.
Nancy sighed. "I'm not sure either, but I feel like Mike and the others have discovered something, and those little idiots want to play hero."
"Ah—" Steve was greatly shocked and then asked, "Is it because they saw the news on TV?"
"What news?"
"Apparently, the two bodies recovered from the lake were fakes and exploded in the morgue. All of this is suspected to be the work of two bikers, one big and one small. Now, the Hawkins city government is being blasted by public opinion because of this."
"What!?" Nancy's eyes widened, and she immediately guessed the truth. "Could those two 'bikers' be Richard and Eleven?"
Steve smiled helplessly. "I'm not sure, but I have a strong feeling it is."
"Even though Mike and the others are a bit reckless, they're not complete idiots. I think they'll definitely gather first and then go look for Eleven, that girl with superpowers." Nancy clutched her hair; she could really empathize with her mother's feelings now. That stupid brother of hers!
Hearing this, Steve immediately suggested, "Then why don't we just go straight to Eleven?"
"Do you know where Hopper's lakeside cabin is?"
"I don't know." Steve said as he shifted gears and steered the wheel sharply to pull a U-turn, smiling out of the corner of his eye, "But Robin does."