CHAPTER 28: THE LONG HAUL

I feel more free than I have in years
Six feet in the ground
— Doomsday, Lizzy McAlpine

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November 4th, 1984: Hawkins

THE WALK BACK TO HAWKINS WAS SHORTER THAN the walk to the junkyard. Maybe it was because they were nervous and nervous people tend to think things are going faster. Or maybe, their feet were subconsciously taking them a little bit faster; the lives of their friends and everyone else in Hawkins riding on their shoulders.

Daphne was still horror-stricken from their close encounter with the baby demogorgons. It had been a year, but she could still remember every last inch of emotion she had experienced when she encountered one for the first time. And to almost lose Steve to the monster that had taken her best friend from her... Daphne was an odd combination of furious and terrified, a mixture that never ended well for her.

Unable to handle any more strong emotions, Daphne had tuned back into the kids' conversation about the demogorgons just in time to overhear Lucas ask, "You're positive that was Dart?"

"Yes," replied Dustin firmly. "He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."

Dart — Dustin's demon pet that they had tried and failed to capture. And now he had joined up with his demon friends, and they were more royally screwed than ever. For once, Daphne didn't even have a plan... she just wanted to go back to Hawkins, find Hopper and let someone else save the world this time.

"He was tiny two days ago," Max pointed out.

The redhead had recovered remarkably quickly from almost being eaten by a demogorgon and Daphne couldn't help but admire her for it. Max was resilient, a lot more resilient than Daphne ever was. The most striking thing about Max, Daphne thought, was that she didn't have any stakes in this. She had nobody that she was fighting to protect, but she was risking her life anyway. Daphne thought that was a mark of an incredible strength of character if there ever was one.

"Well, he's moulted three times already," said Dustin in a 'duh' tone.

"Malted?" repeated Steve, a baffled expression on his face.

"Moulted," answered Dustin. "Shed his skin to make room for more growth like hornworms."

"Excellent," mused Daphne. "I was just thinking that all these flesh-eating monsters were missing were hornworms."

Dustin shot her an exasperated look, but before he could respond, Max cut in. "When's he gonna moult again?"

"It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."

Daphne shuddered at the thought. They had barely managed to fend off the Demogorgons at the size they currently were. The last thing they needed was an army of fully grown monsters parading around Hawkins with an appetite for human flesh.

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."

Lucas stopped in his tracks at Steve's comment, grabbing Dustin's shoulder to force him to look at him. "Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?"

Dustin's eyes widened a fraction. "No, what? No."

"What are you talking about?" said Steve confusedly, causing Daphne to roll her eyes at his obliviousness. They really didn't have time for this. "He ate Mews."

"Mews? Who's Mews?" asked Max, instinctively looking to Daphne for an answer.

"It's Dustin's cat," said Steve, before Daphne could respond.

"Steve!"

"I knew it! You kept him!" cried Lucas, annoyance seeping into his face.

Daphne rolled her eyes again, moving away from the group as Dustin's pathetic defences filled the silence of the woods. She paced back and forth a little way away, trying to come up with a plan in her head. She knew they had to find Hopper and El first of all, but then what? Could they defeat a Demogorgon army on their own? Even if they could, they still hadn't even figured out where the monsters had disappeared to in the first place—

A faint screeching in the distance stopped Daphne in her tracks. Her head snapped towards the direction of the noise and she moved over to the edge of the trail, shining her torch through the gaps in the foliage. Steve noticed her reaction, coming to join her as they both exchanged worried looks.

"Hey, guys?" called Steve, barely audible over the kids' bickering. He received no response. "Guys? Guys!"

"Guys!" yelled Daphne, her voice cutting through the air like a pointed dagger. The kids immediately stopped talking, turning towards the older teens. "Come on."

She followed behind Steve, whose grip on his bat had tightened a significant amount, into the trees. The kids exchanged worried glances before hurrying after them. Daphne stopped at the top of the slope to make sure they were all still with her, frowning as she noticed Max still standing frozen in the middle of the trail.

"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" she asked, her voice rising in pitch as she grew more panicked.

"Max, come on!" called Daphne, gesturing for the redhead to follow. She was not about to leave the child alone in the middle of the woods while a pack of Demogorgons were on the loose. "Stay near me."

"Shit," Max cursed under her breath, before giving in and running towards Daphne.

Daphne grabbed her hand as soon as she got close and pulled her after the others. The bare branches scraped at her skin as she darted swiftly through the vegetation, dragging the smaller girl after her. The sight of flashlights a few feet away pointed them in the direction of the others and soon they emerged into a field. The grass was so tall it tickled Daphne's arms and it was difficult to see anything in the almost suffocating black night. They were at the top of a tall hill looking down on Hawkins. Fog rose in thick clouds, obscuring their view of the rest of the town.

"I don't see him," said Dustin, moving closer to the edge of the steep decline. Daphne grabbed the collar of his shirt, dragging him backwards and away from the edge of the hill.

Lucas picked up his binoculars, scanning their surroundings for the source of the noise. "It's the lab," he said, causing Daphne's heart to flutter. Of course it was the bloody lab. When was it ever not the lab? "They were going back home."

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November 4th, 1984: Hawkins Lab

The gates wouldn't open.

Jonathan was inside the security booth, rapidly tapping the 'open gate' button to no avail. Daphne, Steve and the kids had bumped into Jonathan and Nancy, who were looking for Will and Mike, outside Hawkins Lab. Upon realising that Will and Mike were most likely trapped inside the lab with the demogorgon army, the group had understandably launched into a state of panic.

Daphne was inspecting the perimeter, looking for any chink in the security that might allow them to sneak inside. El had escaped from Hawkins Lab once, so she knew there had to be a way out. She just had to find it.

"We need to get inside," Jonathan's angry voice pierced the silence of the night, as Dustin pushed the older boy out of the way to try the button himself.

Daphne refrained from thanking Jonathan for stating the obvious, deciding that sarcasm was probably not the answer right now. "It won't open," she told them, glancing over from where she was crouched over a wide pipe. "The power is out so the lab's on lockdown. The only way to open those gates is from the inside."

Jonathan looked at her incredulously. "Then what do we do? Climb over?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Daphne, wrinkling her nose. "You'll kill yourself if you even try."

"Do you have any other ideas, or are you just here to wow us with your negativity?" snapped Jonathan, eerily reminding Daphne of how antagonistic they both used to be with one another barely a year ago.

She narrowed her eyes, choosing not to snap back. His brother was in danger; she could make allowances this one time. "El escaped from Hawkins Lab once before. Hopper said he found a piece of her gown outside a pipe-tunnel thing. If we can find that, there's our way in."

"So we spread out," said Nancy, jumping in authoritatively. "Search the entire perimeter until we find it."

"And then what?" asked Steve. "Once we get in, how exactly do you propose we fight off the army of Demogorgons inside?"

They all exchanged worried looks. It appeared that nobody had thought that far ahead. Daphne was about to voice her own concerns when a loud squeaking noise drew their attention back towards the gate.

"Hey, I got it!" cried Dustin happily, gesturing towards the open gate which most definitely had not opened due to anything that Dustin had done. "I got it!"

The four teenagers hurried back over towards the gate, peering inside at the now lit-up lab. The noises from inside were getting more persistent and a lot louder and Daphne could feel her heartbeat rising. She didn't want to be a cynic, but she couldn't quite fathom how they were all going to make it out of this alive.

"If we make too much noise going in, we could draw the Demogorgons out and block the others' escape route," she said. "We don't know what they're doing in there, but we have to assume they have a plan."

"I can't just sit around and not do anything while my brother is in danger," argued Nancy, running a hand down her face.

"We'll make things worse if we try to interfere," reasoned Steve. "We don't know where they are. Daphne's right, we could end up leading the Demogorgons right to them."

They all looked around at each other uneasily. Sitting and waiting around was not any of their strong suits. Especially when they could hear vicious screeches coming from inside a building that they knew their friends were inside. Daphne didn't know when she had begun to care so much about the well-being of these random children and the police chief, but she did know that she would be devastated if anything happened to them.

One way or another, she was in it for the long haul.

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author's note !

i love character development ❤️

what is your favourite ship in the show? personally i like lumax & ronance!

i have just finished writing season three! & i have completely planned out season four as well. i can't wait for you to read it all.

please remember to vote & comment, i love hearing from you all! <3

love, el xx