HOPPER THEM THROUGH THE HALLS, managing to get them into the foyer and hurriedly ushered them out. Joyce staying inside as Hopper softly places Will leaning onto Mike

And, there was a moment of peace. Hopper patting Mariella and Mike on the shoulder softly, the two kids smiling at each other as Mike carefully paced his fingers with hers. That is, until there was a scream. Joyce.

Their heads snapping towards the door as they see Joyce staring at something, screams escaping her mouth and nearly instantly, Mariella let go of Mike's hand and is about to rush back into the lab. Hopper lifting her up by the waist and pushing her back towards Mike.

"No. Stay here, Mariella. Mike, don't let her go," He says, cocking the rifle and entering the lab.

Mike holds Will up with one arm, gripping Mariella's wrist with the other as they listen to Joyce and Bob scream. Then, they hear gunshots. It seemed to last forever. The screams, the gunshots, the screams, the gunshots. Over and over. They can see the flash of the bullets escaping the rifle over and over again. Until, it stopped.

They watch as Hopper drags Joyce out, her arms flailing and screaming hysterically. "What happened?" Mike shouts.

Joyce crying and shouting out. Mariella's hands going up to her mouth in shock before she looks to Mike. "Bob..." She whispers as another tone of the creatures runs towards the glass door. Banging against it and causing the glass to crack. More appear, each of them cracking the glass.

"He's gone! He's gone!" Hopper says to Joyce, pushing her away from the doors. Mariella's eyes fixed in the scene, heart breaking for Joyce as Mike's head turns to the sound of a honking car. It pulls up.

Jonathan looks out the cars open window. "Come on! Get it!" He shouts at them.

Hurriedly, Mariella and Mike grab onto Joyce, leading her to the car as Hopper lifts Will up and runs in after them.

And, in just a matter of time, they get in. Panic in their minds, grief in their veins, but nonetheless. In.

The ride was silent. Mike and Hopper thought it was from all of them being in shock. Mariella and Joyce liked to think of it as a moment of silence for Bob Newby, superhero.

♧

The kids sat crowded around the table. Hopper on the phone talking to someone angrily while Jonathan speaks to Will's sedated body. Mike held onto Mariella's hand, her head leaned on his shoulder as she rubs her nail into her skin.

Hopper slams the phone onto the hook, grimacing. "They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asks.

"We'll see," Hopper turns to them.

Mike leaning forward, Mariella's head falling as he does so. "'We'll see'? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" He says.

"We stay here, and we wait for help," Hopper replies, turning away and walking off.

Mike leaning back, lips formed into a line. "Bet you wish you were in California right now, huh, Max?" Mariella speaks up, voice lazy, her elbow on the dining table and face in her palm.

Max looks up to her, nodding slowly. "Yeah, me too," Mariella shakes her head before she looks to Dustin, Lucas, and Mike. They stared at her in confusion, her behaviour was off. "You guys okay?" She asks.

"You're acting stupid," Lucas responds. "Are you okay?" He adds.

Mariella scoffs. "A bunch of people died in that lab and we watched it. Bob died and Mrs. Byers had to watch it! Will is possessed by some shadow creature and Hawkins is in some pretty bad danger. Safe to say, none of us are okay," She responds, sarcastically, placing her head on the table and shutting her eyes.

They sat in silence once again and Mike couldn't help but wish that none of this had happened. That last year had never happened. That they didn't have to endure this.

He got up, wandering towards the mind games Bob had brought for Will. Mike recalled how full of life and happy Bob was this morning and his heart broke. None of this should've happened.

He picks up a blue box. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" He says staring down at the box sadly.

"Really?" Lucas asks curiously, Mariella lifting her head from the table.

Mike turns back to them. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him," He explains, a sad smile on his face.

He walks towards them once again. "Pretty awesome, right?" He places the box onto the table.

"Yeah," Mariella, Dustin, and Lucas respond, nodding softly.

Mike stares down at the box. "We can't let him die in vain," He says.

"What do you wanna do, Mike?"Dustin asks while shaking his head. "The chiefs right on this. We can't stop those demo-dogs on our own,".

"Demo-dogs?" Max asks, tilting her head.

They all stare at Dustin confused. "Demogorgen. Dogs. Demo-dogs," He replies, putting both hands out and mashing them together as emphasis.

They continue to stare, unimpressed. "It's like a compound. It's like a play in words," Dustin goes on, looking to Max who had wide, confused eyes

"Okay," She shakes her head.

"I mean when it was just Dart, maybe," Dustin looks back to Mike.

"But there's an army now," Lucas adds in.

"Precisely," Dustin nods.

Mike looks down. "His army," He says.

Steve looks up at him. "What do you mean?" He asks.

"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too," Mike goes on, staring between his friends.

"But how?" Max asks him, squinting her eyes. "How are we going to figure that out?".

"The DeGray way," Mike looks down to Mariella who scratched at her nail beds. She looks up to him, rolling her eyes.

"'The DeGray way'?" She scoffs, shaking her head.

Lucas nods, understanding what Mike meant. "We do it the way you do everything. Take what we already know and fill in the rest with all options then we take the most logical," He explains, looking to Mariella who scrunched up her nose.

"Alright but what if it doesn't work?" Max asks, noticing the way Mariella shook her head unconvinced.

"Yeah? What if we guess wrong?" Steve adds in, not knowing the girl well enough to understand.

Dustin, Mike, and Lucas shake their heads. "You don't guess. You use logic. It's like a logic game," Dustin responds.

Mariella laughs. "A logic game? That's how my brain works to you?" She asks, shaking her head and leaning into her chair.

Mike nods. "Yup. Everything you do is calculated in that thing you call a brain," Dustin responds, tapping the top of her head.

"I don't know how you do it but you figured out that Will was connected to the tunnels. If we all work together we can figure it out," Mike explains.

Lucas scoffs. "Don't know how she does it? Look at her dad, he does the same in his cases. She's got a lawyers mind," He says before standing up. "Where do we start, Mike?".

"Will's room," Mike responds, nodding. "His drawings," He walks off towards the room and they all follow. Mariella sighing and following after them last.

'The DeGray way. What bullshit,' She thought as she enters Will's room and watches as Mike begins shuffling through Will's papers.