Panic quickly set in once more at Nancy's unresponsive form as Maggie and Steve quickly hurried back through the gate. Steve going straight to Nancy's side in case she started floating, while Maggie headed to Eddie's bedroom with the others, rifling through the cassettes that Eddie had initially dumped while looking for a song for Maggie.

"Steve says you need to hurry!" Erica yelled as she ran down the hallway, bursting into the room. 

"Yeah, no shit." Dustin shouted back.

Max nodded. "We're trying. We can't find anything."

"What is all this shit?" Robin asked, looking up to Eddie. 

"What are you even looking for?" He questioned. 

"Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!" Robin exclaimed, flipping through the various tapes in her hand. 

"This is music!" Eddie shouted back hysterically. 

Maggie continued to rifle desperately, not wanting to lose her friend, until Erica burst into the room, letting everyone know that Nancy was awake and that she wanted to move to Max's trailer before discussing anything in fear of Vecna overhearing them. 

Once everyone was seated and settled, Nancy gathered herself, before explaining what she had seen. "He showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this... giant creature with... a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then... he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they... they were all..." She explained shakily, Maggie frowning at her state, knowing that she had been just the same before Nancy being taken by Vecna had shot adrenaline through her body. 

 From beside Maggie, Steve shook his head at Nancy's explanation. "Okay, but... he's just trying to scare you, Nance. Right? I mean... I mean, it's not real."

"Not yet." She returned. "But there... there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but... they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

"If Vecna just explained everything to Nancy then why also go after Maggie?" Lucas questioned, looking over to the brunette who sat in silence.

At the sound of her name, Maggie looked up to meet Lucas' gaze. "I was probably just a backup. But there's got to be a pattern to these killings."

"Four chimes," Max muttered in realisation, catching Maggie's gaze. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times.  Four exactly."

Nancy nodded. "I heard them too."

 "He's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max said. 

 "Four kills. Four gates." Lucas realised. "End of the world."

"If that's true... he's only one kill away." Dustin realised. 

"Oh Jesus Christ." Eddie said, his head in his hands. 

 "Try 'em again." Steve started, gesturing to the phone. "Try 'em again."

Max complied, walking over the phone only to get a busy signal once more.  

 "Anything?" 

Max sighed, hanging up the phone. "No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal." 

"Maybe you punched it wrong. Try again." Steve suggested. 

"I didn't punch it in wrong." Max retorted. 

 Steve shrugged. "Well, I don't know."

"I think she knows how to use a phone." Dustin added. 

"I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong."

 Max walked back over to the phone, calling it again only to yield the same result. "Same shit."

 Lucas frowned. "How is that possible?" 

"I told you, Joyce has this telemarketer job. Always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it."

"Yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now?" Max interjected. "That's not Joyce. No way. Something's wrong."

"She's right. It can't be just coincidence. It can't be." Nancy started, pausing for a second to think before looking up at the group. "We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down."

Steve shook his head. "Whoa, no, no, no." 

 "Nope." Eddie added. 

 "No, let's think this through." Steve reasoned. 

"What is there to think through?"

"We barely made it out of there." Steve reminded as Maggie shivered slightly beside him. "Both you and Maggie went down, I'm not letting that happen again."

"Yeah, because we weren't prepared." Nancy explained. "But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him." 

"Or he'll kill us." Steve pointed out. "The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us."

Robin nodded her head. "And for good reason. We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?" She questioned as the group shouted out the name they thought best suited. "Right, we've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One." She continued. "He's a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my... my point is, he's super powerful. Could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight."

"Then why fight fair?" Dustin interjected. "You're right. He's like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths. And weaknesses."

Erica scoffed. "Weaknesses?"

"When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna." Dustin explained. 

Lucas nodded. "That would explain what he was doing in that attic."

"Exactly." Dustin returned. "When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless."

 Steve scoffed. "Defenseless? What about the army of bats?"

Dustin paused, considering it. "True. We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow."

"And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie asked.

 "No idea." Dustin replied honestly. "But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings. Not one that I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next. Don't even know who he's going to attack." Robin explained.

"Yeah, we do." Max interjected, everyone's eyes falling to her. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me."

Lucas shook her head, looking in the redhead's direction desperately. "Max, you can't. He'll kill you."

"I survived before. I can survive again." Max pointed out. 

"It doesn't have to be Max though." Maggie interjected, desperate to not let the younger girl suffer again. "He marked me too, so let me do it."

Max turned to her. "Yeah, but with Vecna's preference for the number four, I bet he would probably want to go for the first four he attacked, which means me. Maybe you are right and you were just a backup if he couldn't get to me."

Maggie grimanced understanding her reasoning, hestiantly nodding. "Fine, but the second it gets too much for you, I'm going in."

 "I just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic." Max looked around the room. "Then you can chop his head off. Stab him in the heart. Blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly don't care how you put this asshоlе in his grave. Just, whatever it is, whatever you do, try not to miss."

The group nodded, a plan taking shape as Eddie moved to grab a newspaper slamming it on the table. "Check this out. The War Zone. I've been there once. It's huge. They got everything you need for, uh... well, killing things, basically."

"You think fake Rambo has enough guns there?" Robin asked before pointing to a section of the advertisement. "Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?"

Eddie smiled. "Well, lucky for us it is, so... This place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks."

Erica scoffed. "If we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to some store called the War Zone."

Nancy shrugged in her direction. "Normally, I'd agree, but we need the weapons. So I think it's worth the risk."

Lucas nodded. "Me too.

"But is it worth the time?" Dustin questioned. "It'll take all day to bike there and back." 

"Who said anything about bikes?"

"You got some car we don't know about?" Steve questioned, looking in Eddie's direction. 

 "It's not exactly a car, Steve. " Eddie said with a smile. "And it's not exactly mine, but, uh... it'll do." He continued, before looking in Max's direction. "Hey, Red, uh, you got a ski mask or a bandanna, something like that?"