SATELLITE [STEVE HARRINGTON]

consent

"ALL RIGHT, IT SHOULD FIT NOW."

Ginny snorted at Dustin's statement. "That's what she said."

Dustin, who had cleaned out the Byers' freezer, and Steve, who held the dead demodog wrapped in a blanket, both gave her deadpan looks.

She grinned. "Sorry."

Steve sighed, exasperated. "Is this really necessary?"

Dustin scoffed. "Yes, it is, okay?" he spat. "This is a ground-breaking scientific discovery. We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog."

Giving in, Steve muttered, "All right, all right, all right.. But you're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, okay?"

He tried to sling it into the freezer, but its head hit the side. He struggled to shove it in. "Help me out?" he asked bitterly.

Dustin shrugged. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Get the door, man!"

Rolling his eyes, Dustin did as he was told, closing the door quickly after steve backed out so the creature would stay.

Ginny watched Steve pick at the slime left on his jacket. He rubbed it on top of Dustin's hat. "Phew."

In the other room, Max and Lucas were cleaning up some of the broken glass, Mike pacing relentlessly. She heard Mike before any of them.

"That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs!"

"Demodogs!" Dustin shouted in her ear.

She flinched away from him. "God, Dustin, stop screaming."

"The chief will protect her," Lucas insisted, when Dustin, Ginny, and Steve entered the room.

Max made a face. "Like she needs protection."

Steve came in swinging. "Listen, dude. The coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?"

"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game," Mike spat.

Ginny bit her lip, thinking, Wrong analogy for this group, He should've said something like if the dungeon master says "boop-be-de-boop, you're dead," then boop-be-de-boop, you are dead.

"And second," Mike cried, "We're not even in the game. We're on the bench!"

Steve wiped his hands with the hand towel he used to get rid of the demodog slime. "So, my point is..." He nodded. "Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so uh, there's nothing we can do."

"That's... not entirely true." They all looked at Dustin. "I mean, these demodogs have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."

"If we get their attention..." Lucas realized.

"Maybe we can draw them away from the lab," Max said

Mike nodded. "Clear a path to the gate."

Ginny crossed her arms. "Sounds risky."

Steve nodded, mirroring her. "Yeah, risky like we will all die!"

"That's one point of view."

Mike took off into the other room and Dustin and Steve bickered.

"No, that's not a point of view, man. That's a fact."

"I got it!" Mike pushed into the other room, finding a spot on the map Will drew. He poked a spot on the wall. "This is where the chief dug his hole. This is our way into the tunnel. So..." He followed the trail into the other room.