036 Returning to the Real World
ROAR!
The Demogorgon crashed through the wall, pinning a corpse beneath it. Its head, shaped like a blooming flower of teeth, ejected a long, slender tongue. Its appearance instantly shattered the standoff between Eleven and Dr. Brenner.
The Demogorgon let out a roar at the crowd and began charging like a starved beast. As it sprinted forward, saliva sprayed everywhere, its massive claws lunging toward the armed agents standing in its path.
RAT-TAT-TAT... Facing the automatic gunfire, the Demogorgon shielded its head with one hand and charged forward, sending two armed guards flying. The bullet holes covering its body healed rapidly as it swung its thick arms in a wide arc, sweeping several more people aside.
"Dr. Brenner, you need to get back!" one of the security detail urged, staying close to shield him while advising him to retreat.
Though Dr. Brenner's eyes were filled with terror, he chose not to leave. He looked at Eleven and said, "Eleven, please help us."
Facing Dr. Brenner's pleading eyes, the kind-hearted Eleven eventually softened. She glanced back at her nearly defenseless friends and decided to act once more. Using her telekinesis, she seized the rampaging Demogorgon, pinning it down firmly before lifting it into the air.
The ferocious monster was held as if by an invisible giant hand, completely unable to resist. As Eleven slammed it left and right, violently smashing it against the ground, the gymnasium was instantly reduced to chaos. Several large craters were gouged into the bleachers, and the Demogorgon's body became deformed from the repeated impacts.
"I'm sorry, Eleven, but I have to do this." Just as Eleven was about to tear the Demogorgon apart, Dr. Brenner unexpectedly pulled a syringe from his pocket and unhesitatingly plunged the needle into Eleven's carotid artery.
"No!" Steve and Mike shouted in shock and rage. As Steve lunged forward swinging his nail-studded bat, the armed guard who had been protecting Dr. Brenner suddenly blocked him. An elbow strike followed by a vicious blow from the rifle butt caught Steve's face twice. His vision went black, and he collapsed unconscious.
Mike and the others were blocked by additional security personnel and easily forced to the ground.
"Let's move out." Dr. Brenner cast a cold glance over Mike and his friends. Cradling the sleeping Eleven in both arms, he ordered everyone to evacuate. He was convinced that without the protection of Eleven's abilities, this group would be killed by the recovering monster without them having to fire a single shot.
BANG!
However, just as Dr. Brenner took a step, he felt sudden pain shoot through his calf and the sole of his foot. Following the gunshot's echo, he saw Chief Hopper glaring at him with murderous intent. The man growled hoarsely, "Where the hell do you think you're taking her?"
"Kill him!" Dr. Brenner broke into a cold sweat from the pain and dropped to one knee, yet he still protected Eleven. He spoke viciously to the guards beside him.
The three armed personnel on the scene had already opened fire on Chief Hopper before Dr. Brenner even finished speaking. Although Hopper was a big guy, his movements were neither slow nor clumsy. With a few quick strides, he ducked behind a wall, letting the automatic fire rake a series of bullet holes into the concrete above him.
The three security guards moved forward attempting to flank Hopper, but at that moment, Steve—who had been playing possum on the ground—suddenly surged up. With a roll, he grabbed the legs of an armed guard in front of him, causing the man to crash down hard.
"Take this!" Lucas had already caught Steve's signal when he went down. He operated his wrist-rocket slingshot, and a ball bearing accurately struck one guard's eye. The man fell to the ground screaming in agony, and his weapon discharged, accidentally hitting his employer, Dr. Brenner.
Dr. Brenner groaned as the stray bullet caught him in the left shoulder. This time, he could no longer hold Eleven, letting her slip from his arms onto the gymnasium floor.
"Son of a bitch!" Seeing two of his teammates down, the team leader's anger flared. He turned his weapon toward Mike and the others, but at the critical moment, a gunshot rang out from behind him. Hopper emerged again and put down the corrupt team leader with a single shot.
Dr. Brenner was wheezing heavily, unable to speak. He looked coldly at the people surrounding him. He wanted to touch that peaceful, innocent sleeping face, but Hopper beat him to it, scooping her up and cradling her protectively in his arms. Brenner gritted his teeth in frustration, his peripheral vision catching sight of the monster behind him.
WHOOSH, WHOOSH... Roaring flames appeared, engulfing the body of the monster that hadn't yet recovered from Eleven's assault. Robin was manning the flamethrower, while Nancy—that tough girl—had somehow obtained a gas canister and was dousing the creature as it writhed helplessly in the inferno.
Seeing this, Dr. Brenner suddenly let out a long sigh and simply rolled over onto the ground, giving up entirely.
He had lost, and he had lost completely.
Pathetically, he had lost to a group of kids and a small-town police chief.
"You'll pay for what you've done," Hopper said coldly, looking at Eleven sleeping in his arms and suppressing the urge to kick that smug face a few times.
Dr. Brenner kept his eyes closed, but there was no defeat visible on his face. He said in a calm tone, "What do you plan to do next?"
"Expose The Lab's crimes, shut down this facility, and bring peace back to Hawkins, obviously," Hopper said matter-of-factly, letting out a cold snort.
"If you reveal The Lab's secrets, Eleven's secret won't stay hidden. The Department of Energy will know of her existence. The military will find out. Trust me, they'll only be more ruthless than I was. They'll either take Eleven and use any means necessary to extract her power, or they'll simply eliminate her as a threat."
"We just won't let the outside world know about Eleven. Simple as that," Hopper sneered, though a calculating look flashed in his eyes. It seemed Richard had indeed thought this far ahead and planned an escape route for the girl.
Hearing this, Dr. Brenner wanted to say something more, but he heard an exclamation from Robin's direction. The burning monster had experienced a final burst of strength. With a wild sweep of its arms, it sent Robin and Nancy flying. Then, at the moment its life was about to end, it forcibly tore open a temporary gateway to The Upside Down on the basketball court floor. It stumbled a few steps toward Hopper and the others before finally disintegrating into ash.
Looking at the forcibly torn rift in the floor, everyone's expressions changed instantly. Robin wanted to crawl forward and incinerate the passage, but she found that the flamethrower she'd brought had been damaged in the violent collision. It felt like several of her ribs were broken, making it extremely difficult to move.
Nancy could barely stand, but her condition wasn't much better than Robin's.
"Wait, listen. Does it sound like there are voices coming from that thing?" Will said, staring intently at the opened gateway.
Human voices?
Everyone froze and immediately fell silent to listen carefully. They could hear faint sounds emanating from the rift.
"Mom?! What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't stop worrying about you guys, so I had to come help!"
"Jonathan, how's Troy doing?!"
"Still working on it!"
"..."
The voices of Jonathan, Joyce, and Richard all echoed from the gateway, which made everyone realize instantly that these three were currently in The Upside Down version of the same location.
"Joyce! We're right here!" Hopper shouted toward the rift.
The other side went silent for a moment, and then Joyce's voice came through, filled with surprise and confusion, "Hopper?"
"Thank God, there's a temporary passage here. Let's get out through here!" Richard's excited voice came from The Upside Down. The sound of him fighting some kind of massive creature was also clearly audible to everyone.
Hearing this, everyone immediately rushed forward, wanting to help Richard and the others escape from The Upside Down back into the real world. But an exclamation from Jonathan made everyone's blood run cold.
"Mom, watch out!" Jonathan shouted. Immediately after, before anyone could get close, the rift was pierced by a massive, scythe-like spider leg.
Everyone recoiled in terror. Just a glance at the cold gleam reflecting off that roughly five-foot-long insectoid limb made their hearts freeze. They could hardly imagine what Richard and the others were dealing with on the other side.
At this time, the basketball court in The Upside Down was an inferno. Most of the vines had been incinerated by the flamethrower Joyce brought. The corpses of those Demogorgon Spiders were consumed within the flames, and a handful of surviving spiders immediately retreated, fleeing in fear of the fire. Only the largest Demogorgon Spider remained. It was as tall as a three-story building—its body wasn't massive, but its spider legs were incredibly long.
Just as Joyce was about to have her head impaled by the largest Demogorgon Spider on the court, Richard tackled her in time, saving her life.
Joyce's face was still frozen in shock, pale and bloodless. Her muscles were trembling, and she seemed completely unable to move.
[Weak Point Exploitation] activated.
Enduring the massive mental strain that activating this ability placed on him, Richard's mind became crystal clear once again. Every vulnerable spot on the giant spider above him was exposed to his enhanced vision.
Richard first aimed at the joint of one of the Demogorgon Spider's legs and hacked at it viciously, destabilizing the creature's stance.
SQUELCH!
Suddenly, a vine became active at the worst possible moment. It lunged out of the sea of fire and coiled around one of Richard's ankles, restricting his movement. This directly caused Richard's actions to be half a beat too slow, and a spider leg pierced straight through Richard's right thigh.
"Richard!" the Byers mother and son cried out in horror.
"Don't worry about me, keep working on him! I've got this!" Richard shouted without looking back.
Vaguely, Richard thought he heard the vine that had briefly ensnared him let out a weird, sinister chuckle before it burned to ash. But Richard, consumed by pain, didn't pay it much attention. Gritting his teeth, he swung his blade again, hacking off the spider leg that was embedded in his thigh.
The giant Demogorgon Spider, having lost two legs, crashed to the ground. The bud-like head on its body hissed continuously, while its remaining spider legs thrashed and slashed about wildly.
Richard barely dodged several strikes from the spider legs. Finally, dragging his nearly useless thigh, he sprinted toward the giant Demogorgon Spider and thrust his machete into its fleshy abdomen. Instantly, a torrent of fluid and unformed spider eggs gushed out. Seeing the spider's struggles grow weaker, Richard wasn't satisfied. He twisted the machete inside the abdomen, shredding its internal organs until the spider showed no more signs of life. Only then did he stop.
"Cough, cough!" Hearing violent, youthful coughing, Richard looked toward Jonathan's position. He saw Joyce and Jonathan, mother and son, weeping with joy as they embraced. Each of them held one of Troy's hands as the boy finally resumed breathing. Their efforts hadn't been in vain after all.
They had saved him!
...It wasn't until the filthy, blood-covered Richard and the others had all crawled out of the temporary Upside Down gateway and returned to the real world that the crisis of this bizarre and terrifying night was finally over.
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