There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

FIFTY SEVEN

E Pluribus Unum

Eleven wandered around in the dark void. She was trying to find the location of the Holloways, Mrs. Driscoll, Bruce Lowe (one of Nancy and Jonathan's ex colleagues) and Billy Hargrove. While she searched the void, the rest of the party stood around in the kitchen. They were giving her some space to do her thing while they waited.

"It can't be good for her to be in there this long." Mike said.

"Mike, you need to relax." Max told the boy.

"What if she gets brain damage or something?" He worried, pacing up and down outside El's bedroom door.

"Oh, shit." Lucas exclaimed. "Is that, like, a real thing?"

"No, it's not." Max answered. "He made it up. Mike doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh, and you do?" Mike fired at her.

"No, I..."

The pair continued arguing while Nancy continued her investigation down the phone. "Yes, from The Hawkins Post. I- I called a couple of days ago about the-" The man on the other end interrupted her. "Yes, yes, um... I was just following up to see if anything else had gone missing, or if- Okay. Um, sorry to bother-" The man hung up, cutting her off. Slightly dejected, she hung the phone back on it's receiver. Jonathan crossed that contact out in the book they had been going through. Nancy couldn't help but sigh. "Who's next?"

"There is no next." Jonathan told her. "Unless you want to start calling random people's homes."

She chucked her notebook down onto the counter. "It doesn't make any sense."

"What part of any of this makes sense?"

"There's a pattern, okay? A consistency to their behaviour. They've been feeding on these chemicals since this started, and- and, what, they just stop, out of the blue?"

"Maybe they have all the chemicals they need." Will suggested from where he sat on the stool next to the kitchen counter. "Maybe they've all turned into those... things."

"But what about the source? I mean, did the Mind Flayer just suddenly stop infecting people? And even if the flayed are monsters now, why can't El find them?" Nancy ranted.

"Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?" Max asked, crossing the room to where the others were. Mike and Lucas were right behind her. "Who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"

"The way that you frame that is such bullshit." Mike fired at her.

"It's not bullshit, Mike. This is your whole problem. And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass."

"El dumped you?" Nancy asked her brother, eyes wide and eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, because she is conspiring against me." He pointed at Max. "She's corrupting her."