Escape ~ S.Harrington

70} Concocted Plans and Camper Vans

"He showed me," Nancy had started to talk of what Vecna had shown her in her mind, "things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things. I saw dark clouds spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this... giant creature with... a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then... he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they... they were all..." Nancy started to get too overwhelmed.

"He was just trying to scare you, Nance," Steve comforted, "Right? I mean, it's not real."
"Not yet," Nancy whispered back, "But there... there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but... they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

"Four chimes," Max said, "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."
"I heard them too," Nancy told her.
"He's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max realized.
"Four kills," Lucas said, "four gates. End of the world."
"If that's true, he's only one kill away," Dustin shook his head in disbelief, "Jenna? Did you know any of this at all?"

"I didn't know many details," Jenna told him, "I just knew that he wanted to take over Hawkins. He's wanted to do that since I knew him years ago."
"You knew him?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, when I was in the lab. Brenner was disappointed in him, he was his first experiment, and used me to cover him up. We're both number one. And he hates me for that. We used to get along just fine, but then Eleven came along and he hyper fixated on her. Before that, though, he'd tell me all the cruel stuff going on in the lab behind the scenes and how he wanted us to rule the world together. One and One. But when I got out, he was pissed and said that I didn't deserve to be a One. And here we are, enemies."

"This is too much to unpack," Alice buried her head in Robin's shoulder.
"We need to try them again," Dustin gestured to the phone.
"Yeah, try them again," Steve nodded.
Max walked up to the phone trying to get ahold of the California gang, but had no luck.
"Anything?" Dustin asked her when she hung up.
"No," She shook her head, "Rang a few times, then went to a busy signal."
"Maybe you punched it in wrong," Steve reasoned, "Try again."
"I didn't punch it in wrong," She sassed.
"Well, I don't know!" Steve defended.
"Steve, I think she knows how to use a phone," Jenna whispered in his ear.
"Hey, I'm just saying she could've typed it in wrong."

Max tried the line once again and was met, again, with a busy signal.
"Same shit," She sighed.
"How is that possible?" Lucas wondered.
"I told you, Joyce has this telemarketer job, always on the phone," Dustin explained, "Mike won't stop whining about it."
"Yeah, the phone's been busy for, what, three days now?" Max said, "That's not Joyce. No way. Something's wrong."
"She's right," Nancy agreed, "It can't be just coincidence. It can't be. Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them. Not if he's dead. We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down."

"Whoa, no, no, no, no, no," Steve waved his hand at her.
"Nope," Eddie shook his head.
"I'll go," Jenna shrugged, "What's a little bit more time spent in that hell hole."
"No," Steve grabbed her hand, "I'm not letting you go again. You are not going back there. Let's think this through a bit more, Nance."
"What is there to think through?" Nancy asked.
"We only made it out of there last time because of Jenna and she's not going back there again."
"But we weren't prepared last time. But this time, we will be. We'll bring weapons and protection, and Jenna because she said she'd go. We'll go through the gate, find his lair, and we'll kill him."