Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer

Mother of God.

It's... it's polycarbonate. It can't get through.

Mother Mary and Joseph.

You sure about that glass?

What the hell?

-We're too late. -What?

We're too late!

What's going on?

We're under attack.

What's going on down there? Does anybody copy?

Hurry!

Stairs! Stairs!

We need to make Will sleep.

-What? -He's a spy. If he knows where we are,

-so does the shadow monster. -He's lying!

He killed those soldiers. He'll kill us, too!

He's lying! He's lying! He's lying! He's lying! He's lying!

Shit!

Those are gunshots!

He's lying! He's lying!

Okay, Will, Will, listen, listen. Do you know who I am?

Do you know who I am?

You're...

You're... You're Mom.

Hold him down.

No! No! Let go! No! No! Let me go! Let go!

-No, let me go! - I'm sorry.

-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. -Let me go! Let go! Let me go!

No! Let go! Let me go! Let me go!

We gotta go. We gotta go.

Come on!

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Hey, guys, we're home.

Guys?

Hello?

Max?

Billy?

Yeah, I'm a little bit busy in here, Susan.

Open the door. Right now.

What's wrong?

Why don't you tell us?

Because I don't know.

-We can't find Maxine. -And her window's open.

-Where is she? -I don't know.

You don't know?

Look, I'm sure she just, I don't know, went to the arcade or something.

I'm sure she's fine.

You were supposed to watch her.

I know, Dad. I was.

It's just you guys were three hours late, and, well, I have a date.

I'm sorry, okay?

That's why you've been staring at yourself in the mirror

like some faggot instead of watching your sister?

I have been looking after her all week, Dad. Okay?

She wants to run off, then that's her problem, all right?

She's 13 years old. She shouldn't need a full-time babysitter.

-And she's not my sister! -

What did we talk about?

What did we... talk about?

Respect and responsibility.

That is right.

Now, apologize to Susan.

I'm sorry, Susan.

It's okay, Neil, really--

No, it's not okay. Nothing about his behavior is okay.

But he's gonna make up for it.

He's gonna call whatever whore he's seeing tonight

and cancel their date.

And then he's gonna go find his sister.

Like the good, kind, respecting brother that he is.

Isn't that right, Billy?

Isn't that right?

Yes, sir.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.

Yes, sir.

Find Max.

You're positive that was Dart?

Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt.

-He was tiny two days ago. -Well, he's molted three times already.

-Malted? -Molted.

Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms.

- When's he gonna molt again? - It's gotta be soon.

When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it.

And so will his friends.

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

Wait, a cat?

-Dart ate a cat? -No, what? No.

What are you talking about? He ate Mews.

Mews? Who's Mews?

-It's Dustin's cat. -Steve!

I knew it! You kept him!

No!

No.

No, I... No, I...

He missed me. He wanted to come home.

-Bullshit! -I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?

-Oh, so now you admit it? -Guys, who cares? We have to go.

I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!

-So did you! -What?

You told a stranger the truth!

A stranger?

You wanted to tell her, too!

-But I didn't, Lucas, okay? -

I didn't tell her!

We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even. We're even.

No, no! We're not even. Don't even try that.

Your stupid pet could have ate us for dinner!

- That was not my fault! -Guys?

He wasn't gonna eat us.

He was crawling to come say hello?

Guys!

No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?

Hello?

Hello?

I don't see him.

It's the lab.

They were going back home.

Look, this is us, and this is the nearest exit.

But even if we somehow make it there, there's no way out.

-What do you mean? -The locks are fail secure.

Fail secure?

If there's a power outage, the building goes on lockdown.

Can it be unlocked remotely?

With a computer, sure, but somebody's gotta reset the breakers.

-Where are the breakers? -Breakers are in the basement,

three floors down.

Hey, where are you going?

To reset the breakers.

Okay, then what?

-Then we get out of here. -No, then the power comes back on.

If you wanna unlock the doors, you have to reboot the computer system,

and then override the security codes with a manual input.

Fine, how do I do that?

You can't. Not unless you know BASIC.

I don't know what that means.

-It's a computer programming language. -Teach it to me.

Shall I teach you French while I'm at it, Jim?

How about a little German?

How about you, Doc? You speak BASIC?

No.

Okay, I got this.

I got this.

No. Bob.

It's okay.

It's gonna be okay. Remember, Bob Newby, superhero.

Okay, grab his walkie.

All right, you know how to use one of these?

No.

Safety on. Safety off. Point. Squeeze.

Point and squeeze. Okay. Easy-peasy.

If anything happens down there, I want you to come right back up.

Right back here. Listen.

Don't wait for me. As soon as I get those doors open...

-I'm gonna get them out. -Yeah?

I promise.

Okay, well... I'll be in touch.

Why are the lights off?

Maybe it's closed?

Security took the night off?

I don't think so.

It's not working?

No! The power's off.

-Jonathan? -What?

I think there's something in the woods.

Nancy, stay back.

Hello?

Who's there?

Who's there?

Steve?

-Nancy? -Jonathan.

What are you doing here?

What are you doing here?

We're looking for Mike and Will.

They're not in there, are they? -We're not sure.