Chapter Five: Shock Jock

Do you know why I chose them?

Why I chose them to reshape the world?

It is because they are weak.

Easily broken.

Easily reshaped.

Controlled.

The perfect vessels.

Oh, baby.

-Mom. -Oh, baby.

I don't understand. How did you…?

He's a sorcerer. A real-life, honest-to-God sorcerer.

Mike.

You did it. You really did it.

The kids.

Vecna… he's got the kids.

I know. Derek, Mary, Glenn.

No. Not just them.

The others, they didn't make it out of Hawkins.

I could've helped them fight if I had just acted sooner.

But I was too late.

And now he's got all of them.

All 12.

We failed.

I failed.

No.

The tunnels. Radio Shack.

Your memory of what happened, of how you came to be here might be foggy…

-Mary! -…confused.

Holly!

The monsters… they tried to take you.

Hi!

But I saved you just in time.

-How are you? -Good.

This place, my home,

is now your home too.

Your sanctuary.

As long as you do not venture into the woods where the monsters live,

you will be safe here.

Now, I know many of you are wondering

when the rest of your friends and family will join us here.

The difficult truth is there is more at stake

than just the lives of your loved ones.

I don't wish to frighten you.

But I believe you are brave enough to know the truth.

An evil darkness is spreading across not just Hawkins,

but the whole world,

and soon it will be too late to stop it.

You can think of this darkness like the Black Thing in your book.

Just as the Black Thing threatened Meg's family,

so does the darkness threaten yours,

but I believe I have found a way to defeat this darkness.

How?

I have traveled far and long beyond our dimension.

In my travels, I discovered another world.

A world far from Earth.

This world is much like ours, only…

good.

Free of monsters and darkness.

It is the light.

Which brings me to the true reason why you have been chosen.

You…

are not like other children.

Like Meg, you are special.

You have dormant powers in here.

And I believe if we work together, we can awaken those powers,

channel our energy and draw this new world to ours.

And as the light…

reaches the darkness,

the light will expel the darkness,

your loved ones will be saved, and you…

you will be heroes.

Yes, Holly?

Are you going to leave again?

To bring more, uh, special kids here?

Poor Holly. She was the first one chosen,

and she was left here all alone.

But don't worry, I won't be leaving you.

Any of you. Ever again.

But for now,

eat and play.

And most importantly, rest.

Because tomorrow?

Tomorrow, it begins.

You said no one left this room.

That's direct from Sec. No one came in or out.

You're saying what? They vanished like Houdini?

I don't know, sir.

I want every square inch of this building checked.

Every room, vent, access panel. Let's go. Move. Move!

You okay?

I lost it.

We're too far.

It's okay. We're far enough away they're not gonna catch up with us now.

That's a hell of a trick you pulled.

I mean, maybe I should say it was bitchin'.

Wasn't that the word you added to El's vocabulary?

I'm a… bad influence.

Yeah, join the club.

-Lucas? -Shit.

-Oh, no. -Hey. Hey, guys.

Oh, no.

-Hey. -Oh, shit.

It's just a scratch.

-God, Mike, first aid. -Shit. Shit, shit!

Let's see.

-Can you lift it? Show us? -Yeah.

Ugh!

That's not too bad.

Oh, shit.

Yeah, it looks like just the right amount for a couple of badass scars.

I'm sorry I couldn't protect the kids.

You did everything you could. You… You fought.

You risked your life. Nice swing, by the way.

You saw?

He more than just saw.

So, Demos floating, limbs snapping, dying.

That was… That was all you?

I mean… Yeah.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

You know what this means, right? You're like Will the Wise, but for real.

-Not really. -He's more like a sorcerer than a wizard.

Okay, yeah. I mean, sure.

But you get what I'm saying, though, right?

Like, this totally changes the game.

We got our second El.

I'm not like a second El. I don't have powers.

I'm just… I'm siphoning. I'm stealing Vecna's.

And to do that, I have to be near the hive mind,

and Vecna's not coming back.

-But his Demos might. -I don't think so.

They came for the kids, and he's got them all,

and he has his vessels.

"Vessels"?

That's what he called them. He said, "vessels for reshaping the world."

I just hope your theory's wrong.

What theory?

November 6th.

The day all this started…

is the day it ends.

You good?

Okay, Lucas, take it slow. Take it slow. I got you. I got you.

Come on, man. One more step.

Hey, hey. Come here.

I wonder if there's a way we can jack back into the hive mind

and access his powers again.

That's not possible, not unless--

The hive is close, I know.

But what happened tonight,

none of us thought that was possible either.

Mom.

Listen, I'm just saying, what if…

what if this time,

you don't use your powers against his army.

You use them against him, against Vecna.

Stab him with his own sword.

You didn't fail tonight.

What you did…

was extraordinary.

You said so yourself.

Vecna chose you because he underestimated you.

I think we all have. I know I did.

And that is a mistake I will never, ever make again.

But I'm willing to bet everything that he does.

And when he does,

it'll be the last mistake that son of a bitch ever makes.

It's a miracle they made it back in one piece.

Wish I could say the same thing about Harrington's precious Beamer.

This is what you're gonna do?

Act like nothing happened, make jokes?

You find Vecna, you come home. That was always the plan.

-That was never real, was it? -Of course it was real.

You're lying.

Just like how you lied about my training. You couldn't have me on your crawls

because your plan was to kill Vecna alone and die.

Hey. Listen to me. What happened today was different.

The kryptonite, you couldn't fight. I didn't have a choice.

And the bomb?

The bomb was… It was a fail-safe.

A fail-safe no one knew about.

I saw in your eyes tonight.

I saw.

You were planning to die.

And you always were.

Hey!

Your friends were supposed to be here, yeah?

Oh, you gotta be shitting me.

Well, this looks really promising.

We're in the lobby.

And… where are we going exactly?

Right. Like, what is it we're looking for?

-You've all seen Return of the Jedi? -The one with the teddy bears?

-Ewoks. -Yeah, it's the best one.

-Is it? -No, but every child loves it, so tracks.

In the film, if you recall,

the rebels need to destroy a second Death Star,

but it's surrounded by a protective energy shield,

which is created by a shield generator.

Yeah, cool. Thanks for the summary of a movie we've all seen.

It's an oddly relevant movie, Steve.