[byler] fight or flight

3. Mike

It was already midnight when we found the gas station where we had left the van.

While we were walking here, El told us everything. And, to be honest, it was all kind of confusing. 

She said she got her powers back by unlocking a memory in which she had somehow teleported a man, Henry, who also went by 001, to the Upside Down, right after he killed all the other kids that lived in the lab and almost killed her. And this 001 was after Max.

When she finished telling us the whole story, Will was crying, and I was holding back tears. Argyle had to leave mid-story since he was having a panic attack. We were sitting in the back of the van, in silence, El looking out of the window when someone knocked on it.

"This van's been here for the last five hours. Is there a specific reason for that?" it was the tall guard that heard me when I proposed to do a runner.

Both Will and I didn't know what to say. El saw us stare at each other in panic and misunderstood the situation. She looked at the guard dead in the eyes and he stumbled to the ground.

"EL!"

"He's not dead."

"Oh my god, El. He was not going to hurt us."

"Sorry," she said, wiping the blood off her upper lip. Jonathan appeared from behind the van and looked at us, then at the unconscious man. Two other men were coming towards us and the four of us looked at El. She nodded, and the men joined the first guard on the floor. 

We jump off the van and stare at each other in panic.

"What are we gonna do now?"

"We could fill the tank and leave."

"We're not going to make it in time." speaks up El.

"What?"

"They were planning to do something. Tonight. Max is going to let Henry get into her mind to help the others kill him. They don't know what I know."

"Wait, you said Nancy is with them, right?".

"Yes, it's her, Steve, Dustin, the girl from Scoops Ahoy, and a boy with long hair. Lucas is staying with Max".

"Holy shit," Jonathan and I said at the same time.

"Well, what are we gonna do then?"

"I think I know a way to help her from here."

El drew a stick figure in one of the windows of the van. "This is Max. When One attacks, he'll be in her mind. But I can do that too" she said, drawing a small thought balloon, with two other stick figures in it. "I went into Mama's mind, then into Billy's. I can go into Max's" she said confidently. "She can carry me to One. I can piggyback. I'll protect her from him, fight him from here.

"Mind fight. Righteous" said Argyle, nodding.

"Wait, do you think this could actually work?"

 I can't bear the thought of El putting herself in danger again for a shot in the dark. But Max's life depends on it. I've seen those pictures. I wish I hadn't. Chrissy, the only girl in the cheerleader team I liked (Eddie wouldn't stop talking about her), Nancy's friend, Patrick, the only guy that had been nice to Lucas since he joined the basketball team. Their bones broken, their eyes. Their eyes. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"I have to do this, and I'll do it," she said, and the look in her eyes told me she won't change her mind. "But a bathtub would help."

"Yeah, gotta be clean to enter the mind". 

"What? No! It's a sensory deprivation tank. It helps El calm down and focus on her powers" I explain to Argyle. I don't think he's able to understand all of this. It's too much, I kinda feel sorry for him for getting involved in this.