Hell on Earth

Chapter Twenty Four - The Return

Steve and Cynthia led the kids through the woods. When they got closer to the lab, they started to hear voices. Steve lifted up his bat and Cynthia put her blade up. They looked at each other, nodded, and walked out of the woods.

Cynthia broke out into a smile.

"Steve?" Jonathan and Nancy asked together. "Cynthia?"

"You guys are all right," Cynthia sheathed her blade and walked up to them. She pulled Nancy into a hug and then Jonathan.

"Nancy?" Steve asked. "Jonathan?"

The kids came out of the woods.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jonathan asked them.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked the same question.

"We're looking for Mike and Will," Nancy explained.

Cynthia's eyes widened, "Don't tell me that they're in there."

"We're not sure," Nancy bit her lip.

"Why?" Jonathan asked them.

Then, the monsters screeched from inside the lab.

"We have problems," Cynthia told them. "Like big, Upside Down problems."

Jonathan and Dustin went inside the big box that controlled the gate. Everyone else stood outside. They were all chattering about when they last saw Will and Mike.

"Oh god," Nancy leaned against Jonathan's car. "I can't believe that Mike could be in there."

"Don't worry," Cynthia grabbed her hand. "If he is in there, he has Joyce and Hopper with him. They won't let anything bad happen to him."

"I can't believe that it's back," Nancy muttered. "I thought we were done with it."

"We all did," Cynthia whispered.

The gate opened. Dustin and Jonathan ran out of the box.

"Let's go!" Jonathan yelled at them.

They all hopped into the car. The back was pretty cramped with Cynthia, Steve, Lucas, Dustin, and Max in there. It was so cramped that Dustin was sitting on Cynthia's lap. The car raced down the road to the lab. When they got there, they parked by Hopper's police car. They all looked out of the car and saw Hopper pulling Joyce out of the building while carrying Will while Mike followed them.

"Come on!" Jonathan honked his horn. "Let's go! Let's go!"

The small group ran into Hopper's police car. Hopper looked at Jonathan through the window, "Your house now kid."

Jonathan nodded and the cars raced back down the way they came. They drove quickly to get to Jonathan's house. When they got there, everyone unloaded and started hugging each other. Will's unconscious body was carried inside the house. Mike looked sad as the other boys followed them inside the house. Hopper led Joyce inside.

"What's wrong with your mom?" Cynthia whispered to Jonathan.

"She keeps whimpering Bob's name," Jonathan whispered as they walked inside the house. "He went to the lab with them."

"Oh," Cynthia bit her lip. Jonathan didn't need to say the words. She knew what had happened.

Jonathan and Cynthia walked into the kitchen. The group had already begun discussing what to do about everything. Cynthia was glad that a plan was already being put into motion.

"Precisely," Dustin nodded. "His army."

"What do you mean?" Hopper asked. "His army?"

"Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too," Dustin explained. "The shadow monster: it got Will that day on the field."