Chapter Text
The van rattles over another crack in the road and Mike’s spine thumps the metal wall.
Argyle’s driving like he always does: one hand on the wheel, one hand floating around making weird little circles, radio low. Jonathan’s in the passenger seat, map open, jaw clenched, staring so hard at the horizon you’d think he could drag Hawkins out of it by sheer willpower.
In the back, it’s cramped and weirdly quiet.
El’s on the bench, wrapped in a blanket someone found in the bunker. Knees pulled up, bare feet tucked under her. Her buzzcut is still patchy-damp from the tank, little beads of water drying on her neck. She keeps glancing at the metal wall like she can see straight through it to wherever Max is.
Will’s on the bench opposite her, one foot braced on the floor, arms folded over his chest. He’s angled toward El, not quite staring, but… close. Every time she shifts, his eyes track it. It makes sense that he’d be worried.
Mike sits on the floor between them, back against the wall, knees drawn up. He can feel Will’s sneaker pressed against his jacket.
Nobody talks for a while.
Then El says, “We need to stop.”
Jonathan half-turns in his seat. “We can’t stop yet,” he says. “We’re not even out of Nevada. We can switch drivers, but we gotta keep moving if we want to—”
“Not for sleep,” El cuts in. “For me.” Her fingers tighten on the blanket. “I need a place.”
Mike’s stomach does a small, ugly flip. “A place for what?”
“To find them again,” she says. “Max. The others. I can go back. Make sure they are okay.”
Mike leans forward immediately. “Okay. Yeah. We can do that. We can stop somewhere on the way, right?” He looks to Jonathan for backup.
Jonathan glances in the rearview. “Sure. There’s gotta be a motel or something before we hit the state line. But that’s gonna cost us time.”
“Time we don’t really have,” Will says, sudden and sharp.
Mike turns toward him. “Dude—”
“I’m serious.” Will’s got his hands locked around his knees, knuckles white. His voice is tight in a way Mike isn’t used to. “If Vecna’s going after Max, every minute we waste is… bad. El can’t actually do anything from here other then check to make sure they are ok. So what’s the point of stopping?”
That lands with a weight Mike doesn’t want to admit makes sense.
Because yeah. Sure El can do things from a distance but just… spying. Listening. Finding. Not… changing anything.
“Maybe knowing is better than not knowing?” Jonathan offers. “If they’re… already…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. “We should at least—”
“If they’re already,” Will cuts in, “then we can’t help them from a motel in Nevada. We need to get to Hawkins. That’s where this is happening.”
He looks at Mike when he says it, eyes intense, like he’s waiting for Mike to agree.
And Mike… kind of does. His brain keeps doing the math: miles to Hawkins vs whatever horrible clock Vecna’s running on.
“Will’s not wrong,” he says. “If all you can do is watch, that’s—” he gropes for a word that isn’t useless— “that’s not gonna stop him.”
El’s jaw tightens. “You think I cannot help them from here,” she says. It’s not quite a question.
“I didn’t say that,” Mike says quickly. “Just— You… find people. You listen. You don’t… change it.”
“That was before,” El says.
She drags in a breath. Mike watches the way her shoulders square, like she’s bracing for impact.
“Papa taught me something new,” she says. “In the tank. A piggyback.” The word sounds weird in her mouth. “I can go into Max’s mind. Not just watch. Fight him. From here.”
The van goes quiet.
Mike feels something in his chest flip, like someone turned a light on. “You can fight him,” he repeats. “From here.”
“Wait.” Jonathan twists around in his seat, staring at her. “‘Papa’? As in… Dr. Brenner? He’s alive?”
El nods once. “He was with Dr. Owens. At NINA.”
Mike’s stomach drops. “He was there? With you?”
“Yes,” she says. “He helped me remember. Helped me get stronger.”
Jonathan’s mouth pulls tight. “So he was with those soldiers? With the army?”
“No.” El shakes her head. “He left before they came. He said he had to get something. Something that could help us.”
There’s a beat where nobody seems to know what to do with that.
Then El looks back at Mike, eyes hard. “But I can help Max now,” she says. “If we find a place. If you help me.”
He wants to say Of course, yes, let’s turn around right now and break into the nearest 7-Eleven freezer. But beside him, Will has gone stiff.
“That’s… different,” Jonathan says slowly. His eyes are darting between the road and the mirror. “That means if we stop, we’re not just… watching her die.”
“Or watching nothing,” Will says. He sounds… strained. “El, you said yourself you’re not as strong as before, right? What if you try and it doesn’t work? What if you just piss him off and then we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere while he kills Max anyway?”
It comes out harsher than anything Will usually says. Mike’s head snaps toward him.
El’s eyes narrow. There’s hurt there, yeah, but something sharper too.
“Why don’t you want me to save Max?” she asks.
The question lands hard enough Mike actually flinches.
“I—I do,” Will says. The words stumble. For a beat his face just… blanks. Not embarrassed, not guilty. Just like everything behind his eyes drops out. Then it scrambles back into place: eyebrows creased, mouth pulled down. Hurt. “Of course I do. I just—if it goes wrong, we’re even farther away. We can’t get to Hawkins in time to—”
“You said we cannot help them from here,” El cuts in. “Now I say I can. You still say no.”
Her gaze is locked on him in this unblinking, almost clinical way that makes Mike’s stomach twist. He thinks about the way Will has been glued to El since she climbed into the van. The way he kept leaning in when she talked about Hawkins, about Max.
Jonathan’s watching Will now too, brow furrowed.
“I just don’t think we should waste time,” Will says. Volume down, but the edge is still there. “We need to get home. Hawkins is what matters. If we stop, we’re gambling with—”
“I am gambling,” El says. “With my powers. Not yours.” She looks from Will to Mike, then to Jonathan. “You said you would help me save them. If I can do it from here, we do it. Yes?”
Mike opens his mouth. Closes it. The part of him that is all math and panic wants to argue logistics. The part that loves Max and Lucas and Dustin and everyone else more than his own lungs wants to shove Argyle out of the driver’s seat and scream to find the nearest bathtub.
“Yeah,” he says, feeling the word settle like a decision snapping into place. “Yeah. If you can actually fight him from here, then we stop. We find somewhere. Whatever you need.”
Jonathan nods. “I’m with El,” he says. “If there’s even a chance…”
All eyes swing back to Will.
For a long second he just stares at El. That blank look slides over his face again. Then, like someone flipped a switch, it twists into something else: wounded, tired, resigned.
“Fine,” he says, voice small. “If you think you can actually save her… fine.”
Mike’s shoulders loosen a little. Argument over. Decision made. He doesn’t like that they’re splitting the difference between “drive like hell” and “go mind-wrestle a serial killer in a freezer,” but at least it’s a plan.
El keeps looking at Will for a second longer, like she’s waiting for something else. Will just… breathes. Eyes a little too unfocused.
“You okay?” Mike asks him quietly, bumping his shoulder against Will’s. “You look like you’re gonna hurl.”
Will blinks like he’s coming back from somewhere very far away. His mouth twitches into a quick, almost-smile.
“Yeah,” he says. “Just… tired.”
Mike buys it. Because of course Will’s tired. They all are. Nobody slept. They drove across half the country. They watched a girl blow up military hardware with her brain.
He settles back against the seat, lacing his fingers with El’s. Ahead of them, Jonathan and Argyle are already arguing about the closest town with, quote, “a bathtub and chilled vibes.”
Behind his ribs, something nags. A tiny itch he can’t quite reach. Mike tells himself it’s just stress. Just everyone cracking in different places.
They’ll find a place. El will find Max. They’ll save her. Then they’ll go home.
Everything else can be weird later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The RV turns off the road and bumps onto rough ground. Everybody sways with it.
“Careful, man,” Robin says from the front. “None of us have seatbelts.”
“This thing handles like crap,” Steve mutters, but he slows down anyway.
They roll into a flat, empty field with a line of trees between them and the road. The sky’s starting to go orange.
“Here,” Nancy says, leaning over Steve’s shoulder with the map. “Pull over. We’ll be out of sight from the road, but still close.”
Steve parks. The engine ticks as it cools.
Lucas looks to the back bench.
Will is curled in the corner, half lying against the wall. Max’s oversized T-shirt has slipped off one narrow shoulder again. The shorts are rolled twice at the waist and still look like they’re trying to fall off. One sock is halfway down his ankle.
He looks tiny. Like, if you didn’t know better, you’d think he was in elementary school.
He hasn’t really slept since Max’s trailer. They wiped Upside Down gunk off him, threw him into clean clothes, and just… kept going. No wonder he’s gone.
There’s a faint dried line of blood under his nose. Left from War Zone.
Lucas’ brain automatically throws up an image of El with blood under her nose. He shuts it down. Will panicked, fell, whatever. Nosebleeds happen. El’s the one who pops veins when she uses her powers.
A draft sneaks in from the RV door. Will shifts, curling tighter.
Lucas pauses before reaching up to the overhead cabinet, digs out a scratchy green blanket, and shakes it out. He hesitates a second, then drapes it gently over Will, tucking it around his shoulders so it doesn’t slide off.
Will makes a small noise, but doesn’t wake. Just burrows into the warmth.
“Okay,” Nancy says quietly. “Everyone out. We need to get ready.”
The doors hiss and clunk open. Hot air and the smell of dry grass rolls in.
Eddie hauls a big duffel out and dumps it onto the ground. They spread an old blanket and spill everything out on top of it: guns, rope, bottles, rags, nails, duct tape, tools, ammo.
Robin blows out a breath. “Great. A fun family picnic.”
“Not enough,” Erica says, eyeing the pile. “But it’ll have to do.”
Everyone gathers around.
“Plan,” Nancy says, kneeling by the blanket and flattening the map. “One more time, so no one screws it up.”
Lucas ends up next to Max, Dustin on his other side. Steve and Robin hover behind Nancy. Eddie crouches, hands on his knees. Erica stands with her arms folded.
“Upside Down team,” Nancy says, tapping the map. “Steve, Robin, me. Dustin and Eddie lead us to the gate at the trailer park, then stay near the gate as we continue to the Creel house.”
Dustin nods. “Gate tour guide. Got it.”
“Once we’re in, Eddie and Dustin handle the bats from the trailer roof,” Nancy goes on. “Steve, Robin and I go straight for Vecna’s body.”
She traces the route with her finger.
“Topside team,” she continues. “Max, Lucas, Erica. You go to the real Creel house. Max does exactly what she saw in her vision. You let him in, hold him as long as you can, and give us time to hit him inside.”
Max is staring down at the map, jaw clenched. Lucas wants to take her hand and also drag her away from all of this.
“And Will…” Nancy pauses, glancing back at the RV. “For now, he stays here. In the RV. Doors locked. Windows shut.”
Dustin’s whole face scrunches. “We’re just leaving him? Again?”
“We don’t have the people to babysit him and still run this plan,” Nancy says. “Bringing him into the Upside Down or the house is worse. We know Vecna and the bats both went for him first chance they got. We are not putting him in front of that.”
No one loves it, but nobody tosses out a better idea either.
“Once we get closer,” Nancy adds, “we’ll figure out where to park him. As far from the house as we can while still being able to get back to him.”
Lucas still pictures Will alone in the dim RV.
“Inventory,” Nancy says. “Then we move.”
They gear up.
Shotgun to Steve. Handgun to Nancy. Ammo divided out. Bottles and rags to Robin and Nancy. Eddie helps pour gasoline. Rope around Eddie’s shoulder. Duct tape looped through Erica’s arm. Lucas gets a metal spear-thing they made and a flashlight. He doesn’t care, his real job is Max.
They test walkies. Erica goes to the far tree line and back, talking into hers. Robin practices the lighter until she can flick it without dropping it. Steve checks the shotgun again. Nancy runs through the plan in shorter sentences until everyone can say their part back.
The sun sinks lower. Sky turns purple. Lucas keeps glancing through the RV window.
Will hasn’t moved much. Still curled in the corner, cheek against the wall, breathing slow. The too-big shirt and shorts make him look even smaller. His hand is tucked under his chin like he fell asleep mid-thought.
“Time,” Nancy says eventually. “We go.”
They haul gear back into the RV and climb in after it.
Lucas heads straight for the back bench.
Will’s still out. Curled in a little ball.
“Hey,” Lucas says, nudging his shoulder. “Byers. Wake up.”
Will makes a small noise, scrunches his face, then blinks awake. His eyes are red-rimmed, unfocused.
“We there?” he mumbles.
“Field stop,” Lucas says. “We’re almost to Hawkins. We just went over the plan.”
Will sits up a little, rubbing his face. The shirt slides off his shoulder again. He hauls it back up automatically.
“Sorry,” he says quietly. “I just… I haven’t slept since…” He stops.
“Yeah,” Lucas says. “Don’t worry about it.”
Nancy leans over a seat. “Quick version,” she says. “Some of us go into the Upside Down through a gate at Eddie’s trailer. Some of us go to the Creel house. You stay in the RV. Doors locked. We’ll park you away from the house.”
Will frowns, still groggy. “In here?” he asks. “Alone?”
“For now,” Nancy says. “It’s safest. The upside down wants you. We’re not serving you up to it.”
Will’s mouth twists. “I could—”
“Will,” Lucas cuts in gently. “You’re running on fumes. You look like you’re gonna tip over. Just… rest for now. We’ll figure it out when we’re closer.”
Will presses his lips together, like he wants to argue but doesn’t have enough energy to back it up. “I don’t wanna just sit,” he mutters.
“You’re not ‘just sitting.’ You’re ‘not getting eaten,’” Dustin says from the aisle.
That gets the tiniest huff of something like a laugh out of Will. Then he leans back against the wall again, eyes heavy but open this time.
Steve starts the engine. They roll out of the field, through the trees, and back onto the road.
Hawkins slides into view in pieces. The water tower. Familiar streets. Houses with boarded windows and “For Sale” signs. It feels wrong, like someone messed with the saturation.
Lucas watches out the window, and when the trees thin he catches it: headlights behind them, not too far, keeping pace with them.
He squints, trying to see more, but they hit another line of trees and the view is gone.
“Everything okay?” Max asks softly from the aisle.
“Yeah,” he says. “Just watching the road.”
By the time they pull up a few streets over from the trailer park, the sky’s gone dark blue. The park itself is mostly shadows and porch lights.
Steve kills the engine. “All right,” he says. “Gate squad: this is us.”
Upside Down team grabs their gear. Steve, Robin, Nancy, Eddie, Dustin. Ammo, rope, Molotovs, spear, everything.
Dustin pauses by the back bench, looking at Will.
“Just sit tight, okay?” he says. “Be safe.”
Will straightens a little, still bleary. “You guys be careful,” he says.
“Always,” Eddie says, too fast.
Will’s fingers curl on the edge of the seat. “I don’t like staying in here,” he adds, a little stronger this time. “I can help.”
“We need you safe more than we need one more person swinging at bats,” Nancy says. “Right now, this is helping.”
Dustin hesitates, chewing his lip. Then he suddenly steps in and wraps his arms around Will in a quick, tight hug.
Will’s face hits Dustin’s chest instead of his shoulder now. Dustin is that much taller. The sound Will makes is a muffled, startled squeak, smothered in Dustin’s T-shirt. His hands hover for a second like he’s not sure where to put them, then clutch at the back of Dustin’s vest.
“Don’t die,” Dustin mutters into his hair.
“You either,” Will says, voice small and squashed against him.
Dustin pulls back, eyes shiny but determined, and gives his arm one last squeeze. Will just gives Dustin one more worried look and says, “Just… come back.”
Dustin smiles softly. Older, somehow, in a way that makes Lucas’ chest twist. “Promise,” he says, before turning to Lucas.
They look at each other for half a second.
“Don’t die,” Lucas says, blunt.
Dustin huffs a tiny laugh. “You either.” He steps in, gives Lucas a quick, hard one-armed hug, then pulls back and taps his chest. “See you after we slay the dark wizard.”
“You better,” Lucas says.
Then the five of them slip out into the night, hunched low, moving between trailers. They shrink to shapes and then disappear.
The RV feels emptier immediately.
Now it’s just Max, Lucas, Erica, and Will.
“Next stop, the Creel house,” Max mutters as she gets in the driver's seat. “Awesome.”
The drive to the Creel neighborhood doesn’t take long, but it feels longer.
The houses get bigger, yards wider. A few windows are lit, but most of the street is dark.
Max pulls the RV over on a side street off from the Creel place, half hidden behind a row of trees and a sagging fence.
“Okay,” she says. “This looks like an appropriate distance.”
Lucas peers out the front.
The Creel house looms over the block. Dark, chipped, and heavy, like it’s sucking up all the light around it.
Max is staring at it too. Her hands are clenched into fists.
“All right,” Lucas says, more to himself than anyone.
They start sorting gear again. Max gets her headphones and Kate Bush tape, tucked in her pocket. Erica checks her walkie and the binoculars. Lucas gets his makeshift spear and flashlight, plus the bat from earlier. Just in case.
Will stands up slowly, blanket still around his shoulders like a cape. The nap helped; he looks more awake now, but there are deep shadows under his eyes.
“So this is it,” he says quietly, looking toward where the house must be through the trees. “This is where he is.”
“Yeah,” Lucas says. “Topside him, anyway.”
“And you want me to just stay here,” Will says.
His voice isn’t groggy now. It’s flat.
“Yeah,” Lucas says automatically. “We park you here, doors locked. Erica’s gonna be out front, watching. We’ll come back as soon as it’s done.”
Will stares up at him.
“No,” he says.
Erica raises her eyebrows. “No?” she repeats.
“I’m not staying in here by myself,” Will says. “Not again. You shut me in this thing, I’m not going to just sit and wait. I’ll try to get out. I’ll try to follow you. I know I will. So it’s better if you just… don’t put me in that position.”
The words come out fast and a little shaky, but they’re clear.
Max looks at him properly now. Lucas does too.
Will pushes on, shoulders hitching under the blanket. “I can help Erica,” he says. “I can sit with her. Watch the house. Use the radio. I know how to spot… wrong stuff. I’ve been looking for it for years.” He swallows. “If something comes near you, we can warn you. If you leave me in here, I’m just going to end up doing something stupid and you won’t even see it until it’s too late.”
His eyes go a little shiny but he doesn’t cry. He just looks up at Lucas, straight-on, like he’s desperate for someone to actually hear him this time.
Puppy dog eyes. Will had this thing where he’d look at you like that and you’d cave.
It hits the same now. Except now Lucas is looking down at him. Way down. Will’s swallowed in Max’s T-shirt, shorts rolled twice and still slipping, socks half off. He looks like a kid who should be worrying about math homework, not apocalypse plans.
For a second Lucas can’t help thinking, How was I ever that small?
“This is what Nancy wanted,” Lucas says weakly. “You in the RV. Safe.”
“And Nancy’s not here,” Will says. “Just us. You. Max. Erica. You can put me with her, where you can actually plan for me, or you can pretend I’ll stay in the RV and act surprised when I don’t.”
Erica lets out a low whistle. “He’s got you there,” she says.
Max crosses her arms, looking between them. “I agree with him,” she says. “Locking him up in a big metal target, alone? That’s worse. If something happens, we’re screwed. At least if he’s with Erica we know where he is.”
Erica nods, already half sold. “I wouldn’t mind the backup,” she says. “Two sets of eyes could be useful.”
Lucas feels his stomach twist.
This is not the plan. Nancy didn’t sign off on this. Dustin would freak. Steve would definitely freak.
But he also knows Will’s not bluffing. Even when they were small—or smaller in Will’s case— Will could be stubborn. When he says he’ll bolt if they leave him, Lucas believes him.
He looks at Will again.
Up close, the kid really does look wiped. Yet his fingers are still tight on the walkie like someone’s going to snatch it away. But there’s something steady in his eyes now too. He’s not throwing a tantrum. He’s focused.
“If something happens to you out there…” Lucas starts.
“If something happens to me out there,” Will says, “it’ll happen where you can see it. Where you can maybe do something about it. Not in the back of a van with nobody watching.”
Lucas knew he was right.
Max nudges Lucas with her shoulder. “We don’t have time,” she says quietly. “Make the call.”
It hits him then: this is on him. Not Nancy. Not Dustin. Him.
He takes a breath.
“Okay,” he says finally. “Fine.”
Will’s shoulders drop an inch in relief.
“You go with Erica,” Lucas says, pointing at him. “You stay in cover. You do not go near the house. You listen to her and to me. If we radio and say run, you run. If you see anything weird, you don’t investigate it, you call it in. Got it?”
Will nods fast. “Got it.”
Erica sticks out her hand. “Come on, Byers. Guess you’re officially my assistant.”
Will huffs. “Co-lookout,” he says.
“We’ll renegotiate the title later,” she says.
They slide the side door open and climb down. Max and Lucas follow.
They move down the block, staying in shadow. The Creel house rises in front of them, dark and heavy.
Across the street, behind a low stone wall and a sagging hedge, sits a tiny playground; a rusted rocket ship, half-broken swings, and a scraggly clump of trees.
“That’s you,” Lucas tells Erica and Will, nodding toward the rocket ship. “You can see the front door from there.”
Erica climbs up the rocket first, binoculars bumping against her chest. Once she reaches the top, she finds a comfortable position and stays there
Will follows, blanket caught on the rust for a second before he tugs it free. He settles next to Erica, walkie in his hands.
Lucas crosses over to them for one last check.
“Channel three,” Erica says, lifting her own radio. “You, us, and Dustin’s group. Anyone weird shows up, we call. Then we run.”
“Good,” Lucas says. He looks at Will. “Remember what I said. No hero stuff.”
“I remember,” Will says. “I’ll stay with your sister.”
Lucas pauses. “Not leaving you alone this time,” he says, low.
Will smiles. “Good,” he says. “I’m kind of done being alone.”
Lucas takes one last look at the two of them tucked behind the hedge: Erica, small but solid, binoculars ready, and Will, even smaller, blanket wrapped tight, walkie clutched, eyes on the house.
Just two kids in a playground. He turns away before he can change his mind.
“Ready?” he asks Max.
She nods, jaw set, tape in her pocket.
They cross the street together toward the Creel house. Gravel crunches under their shoes. The porch looms.
“Let’s do this,” Max says.
Lucas follows her up the steps.
The front door groans as they push it.
The outside noise dulls as they step inside, and the door shuts behind them.