MARIELLA STANDS UP FROM THE CHAIR, walking over to Bob and staring around. "We've been looking at it all wrong," She mumbles, shaking her head. "We were so busy trying to solve it, we didn't see what was right in front of us," She goes on, grimacing to herself as she turns to Bob who nods.

"Sometimes you've just got to see things from another lens," He tells her with a light smile. And, you see, this is a piece of advice which would never leave the young girl. A piece of advice which she'd hold onto until she breathed her last breath.

She nods in agreement, "You're right, things aren't always right in front of you," She responds, smiling back softly and sitting back down next to her friends.

"Alright well, how about we... Label the lakes and then we can use a map and measure," Mike suggests as he stands up.

"That's... That's a good idea," Bob says.

And so, they set to work, searching the house for the materials needed and began to mark papers down with lakes.

♧

They've been at this for what seemed like forever, standing in different rooms as Joyce came in and out with a tape measure, Mike holding the other end in the living room. Bob sitting at the dining table with a map, pen, and ruler, shouting at them measurements.

They were beginning to grow impatient, bobbing their heads and cracking their knuckles while this process lulled on and on.

"Alright, I'm 3.6 inches, what do you got?" Bob calls out to Mike.

Mike shrugs to himself. "I'm not sure! Mrs. Byers?" He yells to Joyce as he holds the tape measure to Lovers Lake.

Joyce sputters out, frantically looking around the halls. "Hold on!" She shouts back, dragging the tape measure into a room and placing it against Tippecanoe. "Twenty one feet, four inches," Joyce confirms.

Bob nods, using the ruler to draw out the line before calling back. "What about Tippecanoe to Danford Creek?" He asks.

Joyce sighs, frazzled. "Danford? Where's Danford?" She stammers, Mike, Mariella, and Will searching their areas.

"Dining room!" Will replies, pointing to the wall, Joyce rushing over.

"Sixteen feet, ten inches," Joyce says, Mariella walking away from where she was stationed and sitting down at the dining room table across from Bob and staring at the map.

"What about Danford to Jordan?" Bob looks to Joyce.

Joyce places the tape measure down, walking over to the table and looking down at the map. "Oh, come on. This has to be enough," She stutters out while Mariella traces the lines with her finger.

"It's not... It's... It's really not," Bob replies, shaking his head.

Joyce leans closer to Bob, looking to him frantic. "Okay. Can't you figure it out?" She pleads as Will and Mike crowd around the table, standing behind where Mariella sat.

"Well, it's hard. The ratio isn't exactly one-to-one," He sputters, gesturing to the map. "I mean, if you're twisting my arm and you are twisting my arm," He goes on, looking to Joyce before staring down at Mariella's fingers which walked across the lines, eyes closed, counting out inches and feet in her head.

She was treating it like one of her algebraic problems she would do to comfort her, making up a scenario with the numbers they had and knew, and attempting to solve the rest. Stopping, she looks up. "If I'm counting right, it'd be around here. I just don't really know where here is," She says, circling the area with her fingers.

"Yes!" Bob nods, the rest staring down at the map in shock. "It's not an exact location but this would make sense. About half a mile southeast of Danford," He goes on before looking to Mariella. "How'd you do that?" He asks while Joyce gasps with excitement.

Mariella shrugs. "I made it up as a math problem, helped me make more sense of it. You found out the location though, that's the helpful part," She explains modestly.

"You're gonna go far, kid. With that type of brain, trust me," He smiles as Joyce embraces him quickly. Mariella smiling at her hands before standing up next to Mike and Will who both nudged her with smug smiles.

"Thank you! Thank you," She exclaims, kissing his cheek and grabbing the map from the table. "Well done, Sweetie," She adds, looking to Mariella and rushing to the front door. The kids following after her hurriedly.

Bob pauses, following after them confused. "What? Are we... Are we really going?" He asks, following after them with pen still in hand.

♧

They sat crammed in the back of the car. Mariella on the outer seat, Mike in the middle, and Will in the other side. Their heads peering outside the windows curiously as their eyes searched around the dark surroundings.

"There's nothing. There's nothing here," Mike panics, looking away from the window and towards the front where Joyce drove.

She sighs, looking to Bob and Mariella with worried eyes. "Are... Are we close?" She asks.

"We're in the vicinity," Bob replies quickly while Mariella stayed silent, eyes squinting through the dark, attempting to make out anything. Nothing was coming to her. Nothing. She couldn't see anything and she couldn't think of anything.

"What's that mean, the vicinity?" Joyce presses.

Bob shakes his head. "It means we're close. I don't know. It's not precise," He says scanning the map.

"But we did all that work," Joyce breathes out.

"I told you, the scale ratio is not exactly one-to-one. We needed to take-" Bob begins, cut off by Will jolting forward.

"Turn right!" He says, eyes wide. All of them turning to look at him confused.

"What?" Joyce asks, turning her eyes back into the road.

"I saw him," Will responds.

Joyce looks around. "Where?" She asks again.

"Not here. In my now-memories," Will explains, desperate.

"Your what?" Bob asks turning back to him.

Will ignores him looking to his mom and shouting. "Turn right!".

She turns the wheel quickly, the tires screeching against dirt and crashing into a sign and a haystack, all of them screaming as she loses control on the car. Mike throwing his arms in front of Will and Mariella's bodies to prevent them from thrashing forward. The car continuing on until it bumps into another car parked on the grass. It was Hopper's.

"Are you okay?" Joyce asks, turning her head back to the backseat where the kids say breathing heavily. They nod shakily, Joyce looking back towards the dashboard.

"Superspy," Mike comments looking to Will and Mariella before running his hands through his hair.

"What's Jim doing here? Joyce?" Bob asks as he stares at the back of the car i front of them.

Joyce ignores him, looking to the backseat once again. "I need you all to stay here, okay?" She says, opening her car door and beginning to get out.

Will shakes his head frantically, trying to get up but is kept in place by Mike holding him back. "No. Mom, Mom, Mom. It's not safe," He calls out, grabbing her hand before she can leave.

"That's why I need you to stay here! Stay here!" Joyce goes on, pointing her finger at them before Bob and her both slam the doors and exit the car.

Breathing heavily, the three of them watch from in the car as Joyce begins to shout out to Hopper, picking up a shovel from the ground and stabbing at it until she's able to go into it.

Once both Bob and Joyce are in the hole, Will begins to open the door. "What are you doing?" Mariella asks, leaning forward and watching him inch it open.

"We have to go out there," He says, opening it wider and unbuckling his belt.

"But your mom said-" Mariella protests, looking to Mike to back her up but is cut off by him.

"Will's right. He's the only one who knows what's going on. We have to go out there," Mike interrupts, unbuckling his belt and following after Will who was already standing outside the car and waiting for them to follow.

Breathing out as Mike exits the car, Mariella hesitantly unbuckles and follows after them. Staying silent as they walk closer and closer towards the hole in the ground.

Mike looks to Will before looking back to the ground, "You see anything? I mean, in your now-memories?" He asks.

Will shakes his head. "Guys, we should get back in the car," Mariella urges them, pulling at their sleeves while looking around the dark field nervously.

They ignore her, staring down at the hole until they hear the sound of tires screeching from behind them and headlights turn on. Dozens of Hawkins Labs trucks pulling up into the field. Eyes wide, they turn to one another.

They stand still, close to one another while they watch as dozens of people leave the vans in hazmat suits. Some entering the hole in the ground, others staying up. All of them, ignoring the kids. The three of them begin to walk away from the hole back towards the car slowly.

That is, until, Will grunts clutching his stomach before doubling over onto the ground and shaking. Instantly, Mariella and Mike falling down to their knees beside him.

"Will? Will, you okay?" Mike asks, taking hold of his shaking shoulders.

Mariella stares, eyes wide in fear as she she stammers. "Will? Oh God, Will!" She panics, hands flying to her mouth.

Will continues to grunt, before turning from his side and onto his back, screeching loudly. Mike quickly back up, pulling Mariella up with him, eyes wide and hair messy.

"Oh God, Oh God! Someone help," Mariella cries out, staring down at Will's body while he convulses violently. Eyes rolled to the back of his head and mouth hanging open as screams escape it. She stares at him despite the fact she wanted to turn away. She didn't want to see this. She couldn't see this. The way her best friend laid there screaming, helplessly.

Mike quickly grabs her, turning her away from the sight and hugging her tightly. Mumbling to her, "Don't look, don't look, Mar. It's going to be okay. He's going to be okay," in hopes to comfort her. It just made he more delirious, fighting against Mike while tears fill her eyes.

You see, Michael Wheeler has always told his friends the truth. It's the number one rule in their party. Friends don't lie. Yet here, for the first time, Mike wasn't really sure if he was telling the truth anymore.