Chapter Text
“So, let me make sure I’m understanding this right,” Will said, a dull ache already forming behind his eyes. “You came here because you thought I was in the Upside Down still—er, the Vale of Shadows, whatever—and you thought you could use the gate to get there, which you somehow knew was already open—"
“I figured that part out.” Max added.
“I figured out about the compasses in the first place,” Dustin added.
“Right, okay, but you planned to check out this lab, because you weren’t sure if I meant this one or the one in the Upside Down—”
“May I remind you all, I knew he meant this lab, and none of you believed me.” Steve said accusingly.
“You guessed and happened to be right.” Dustin grumbled. “Statistically, it was bound to happen eventually.”
“—and then you just walked in, shut down the cameras, and searched the place?” He said dubiously.
“Basically,” Lucas said, shrugging.
“No one tried to stop you?” He asked. “No guards, no scientists, no one?”
They all shook their heads, looking unsettled by Will’s urgency.
“Right.” He nodded again, pressing thumbs into his eyes a little too hard. “Okay.”
He sat on a desk right in front of the wall of blank screens that normally showed surveillance footage of the lab and the surrounding area. Jonathan sat on one side, his mom on the other. They’d maintained constant contact since the second they all sat down twenty minutes ago, shoulders and knees. It really didn’t bother him…it shouldn’t have, anyway. He couldn’t really explain it. He would have thought that any physical contact after being deprived for so long would have been a comfort. But instead, it made his skin crawl. Perhaps the very fact that he’d been deprived was the reason he couldn’t stand it now. Like someone who’d given up alcohol for a long time could get wasted off a single drink. His tolerance was so low that his body couldn’t handle it.
It was also strange being stared at by so many people. That in and of itself wasn’t unusual; he’d been subject to many a test which required a lot of people studying him all at once. But the fact that they were all on his side was just as intimidating.
They’d told him the story of how their group had formed, how they’d been looking for him and investigating other disappearances ever since, and how they got his message and hatched a plan to come rescue him. It took some deciphering—Dustin was privy to frequent interruptions—but he got the gist. Will, for his part, shared little about his experience. They must’ve been curious, but Will was so grateful they didn’t press for details. He absolutely was not ready to get into all that yet, not until they were all safely away from this place and Brenner was behind bars.
“You look upset,” Lucas said worriedly. “Are you upset?”
“No, no, I mean…” What was he trying to say here? “I’m glad you’re here , obviously, and that no one gave you trouble, it’s just…”
“Just what?” Mike asked worriedly.
He chewed his lip. Why, after all Brenner had gone through to keep him here, would he leave the main door unlocked? Possibly the only door? Will had never tried to escape before, so he supposed it could have been unlocked the whole time, but it seemed strange. Surely, he would have some security measures, even to keep civilians away from all the highly illegal happenings going down in this lab.
“It’s a little suspicious,” he said eventually.
From the silence that followed, he knew they had all been thinking the same thing.
He remembered those early days at the lab. A man with dead eyes leering down at the child strapped to a table. Torturing him into unconsciousness more than once. Forcing him to train and fight and shoot and bleed, and all the while holding the threat of his family’s demise over him. And somehow that same man left the front door unlocked?
“Alright, everyone, let’s not panic.” Nancy interrupted before anyone’s thoughts could spiral too out of control. “We have control of the surveillance system, so we should be able to see where everyone is and avoid those areas.”
“That’s a good point,” His mom said. She waved a hand cluelessly around the setup. “Can you boys get this thing up and running again?”
Lucas, Mike, and Dustin got to work. They’d shut down all the cameras the minute they got here, which was apparently a lot easier than getting them back up. Will watched with more than a little envy as their experienced fingers flicked switches and punched in commands. Where’d they learn to do that? Will certainly never learned it when he was in AV club.
It took them a couple of minutes to get everything working again, and all three Byers hopped down from the desk so everyone could take a look. The whole lab was up here, snippets of hallways and labs and training rooms forming a map which should have made sense to Will but didn’t.
“It’s empty.” Steve said.
It was true. Mike flipped through the screens quickly, and not one of them showed evidence of a single living thing. He thought of all the times Will himself must’ve appeared on these screens, being watched by some lazy guard eating popcorn or something. It made him shiver. Even now, even watching empty hallways, it felt wrong somehow.
“Hold on, can I…?” Mike stepped aside and Will flipped through the screens. He went through them all at least twice, and still didn’t find what he was looking for.
“There’s stuff missing.” He said, going through one more time to be sure.
“What stuff?” The chief asked.
The gate. He wanted to say but didn’t. The bedrooms.
“Just some testing rooms.” He said evasively.
“Are they important?” Steve asked.
“Not necessarily.” He said. “But it’s weird that they’re not here.”
Why weren’t they here? There were cameras all over, and those particular rooms needed surveillance more than any other. So how come they could see everything except the most important places?
“Think that’s where they’re hiding?” Mike asked. “In one of the rooms without cameras?”
“They have cameras, we just can’t see the feed for some reason.” He continued his fruitless search. “Maybe there are other surveillance rooms for certain feeds? That seems strange, though. Why wouldn’t…?”
Unless he planned this.
Will froze.
“Will?” Jonathan asked worriedly. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He thought Brenner hadn’t heard his message. But was it possible he knew about the whole thing? He could have overheard, then followed Dustin to the others, listened to the whole plan, and planned an ambush. He probably left a clear path on purpose, so they could come inside unhindered.
He knows they’re here.
“Will, you’re worrying me, what’s the matter?” His mom asked, resting a hand on his shoulder. He flinched away, earning a wounded look that filled him with guilt.
“S—sorry,” he said, positively shaking by now.
“What is it?”
“I…” He gulped. “I think this is a trap.”
“What?” Dustin asked in a high-pitched squeak. “What do you mean?”
He slid his gaze over to his friend guiltily. “The…the message I sent you? I think he may have overheard it. I didn’t think he did, I covered the camera and I thought I was far enough that sound wouldn’t come through, but…if he did, then he must know you’re here, and—"
“Will, slow down, honey,” his mom said, reaching out a hand then pulling it back at the last moment and hugging it to her chest instead. “Who might have heard you?”
“Dr. Brenner.” He hated the way his voice broke halfway through.
“Brenner…” the chief said, thinking hard. “That crackpot who ran all those weird psychic experiments back in the 60’s?”
He forced himself to nod, but he could not bring himself to look at him. Will’s face felt hot. So the chief knew about the experiments. Did he know Will was one of them?
“Psychic experiments?” Max asked. “You mean like palm readings?”
“I mean like mind control shit. They called it MK Ultra.” The chief explained.
“Oh yeah,” Lucas said, snapping his fingers. “I read about that when we were researching. The CIA sanctioned it, right?”
“Yeah.” Hopper said. “They hoped they could use it in the Cold War. You know, like assassinating enemy leaders without stepping foot out of their houses. Nothing came from it of course, but participants came forth later and said all kinds of crazy shit about this guy. Said he drugged ‘em, then put ‘em through all kinds of physical abuse, malnourishment, sleep deprivation…one woman claimed he kidnapped her newborn baby, but the case was dismissed.”
He turned a suspicious eye towards Will, who withered under the scrutiny. “He still works here? Figured he’d been fired a long time ago.”
“No, he’s…he’s still around.”
The chief considered him for a long moment. His gaze flickered down for the briefest of moments, taking in his hospital gown, and Will could practically see the puzzle pieces coming together in his mind.
Don’t ask questions. He pleaded mentally. Please, don’t ask.
Hopper opened his mouth again—perhaps to make an inquiry, perhaps an accusation—but at the last second, he hesitated.
“I thought they made weapons here.” Dustin unknowingly interrupted. “I didn’t know about any of that.”
“I think they do,” Max put in. “I saw tanks outside. Maybe they do both.”
“Well, it hardly matters now.” The chief said brusquely. “Regardless of who works here or what they’re doing, the point is they probably know we’re here and they’re not going to let us go easy.”
Guilt churned in Will’s stomach. This was all his fault. He hadn’t meant to, but no one could deny that they were in this mess because of Will. Because they’d tried to help him.
“Ok, let’s not lose our heads.” Nancy said, stepping forward and taking the brunt of the attention. Everyone, including Will, swiveled desperate gazes her way. “Fact is…yeah, you’re probably right. Getting in was way too easy. We found you and got here without running into anyone, and this thing with the cameras is suspicious, to say the least.” Everyone stared at her incredulously, wondering where her positivity had gone. “But we’re not helpless.”
Will’s fingers curled.
“We have weapons.” she continued. “We have the chief of police. And now we know that they’re planning an ambush, which means they’ve lost the element of surprise. We have control over most of the cameras, so even if we can’t tell where they are, we can at least tell where they’re not.” She said this all like a general mapping out battle plans. “Lastly, and most importantly, we’ve got Mrs. Byers, and I would not bet against her, especially now that she’s got Will back.”
This got a laugh. Even his mom, who was coiled tight with anxiety, eased up a little and accepted the comment with an acknowledging shrug.
“So let’s just put our heads together and think for a sec.” She said rationally. “What do we know about this place?”
The threat of time hung heavily over the group, but they allowed themselves a few minutes to discuss the possibilities. They’d studied the building’s blueprints and between that and Will’s knowledge, they formed a sort of mental map of the place.
There were few windows, all barred or bulletproof or too high up to be a potential escape route. Weapons (lethal and nonlethal) were stored in the training rooms if needed, assuming they could get there before Brenner stopped them. No, there weren’t any other exits, not according to his knowledge or the blueprints. Except for the gate, he supposed, which would only take them out of the frying pan and into the fire.
“Okay,” Nancy said, the only one who hadn’t given into hopelessness yet. “Hopper, can you call for backup or something?”
He considered for a long moment, but ultimately shook his head. “We’re a small force. I could call them up, but even if they believed me, I don’t like their chances against those tanks outside. No, for something like this we’d need the Feds, and I don’t think these lab psychos would wait around long enough for them to show up, if they came at all.”
He was eventually bullied into calling anyway, so that even if they didn’t get here in time to save them, they might still get the lab shut down. It didn’t sound like they believed him on the phone, but they said they’d check it out ‘soon’ which could mean anything from hours to days to never.
More ideas were tossed around. Blowing up an exterior wall would be great if they had any explosives. Commandeering a tank, but those were already outside, and if they got to a point where one was in reach, why would they bother commandeering it? Finding a grate or a duct or something to fit all of them, including the 6-foot-6 chief of police, would be nearly impossible.
“Alright, well…what if we…?” Nancy said. She was putting up a brave front, but no one was fooled. Even her optimism had its limits, and it looked like she’d just found it. She turned to Will, and he could plainly see how badly she was trying to hold it together. “Is there any other way out of here?”
He fidgeted under everyone’s desperation. He pressed the tattoo harder against his thigh, certain that if they saw it, they’d know instantly what it meant.
He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t want to tell them about that. Not yet. It was too…private? That wasn’t quite the right word. Maybe he was afraid that even if he told them, he still wouldn’t have what it took to save them all.
Unfortunately, time was ticking and they were out of options.
“I…might know a way.” He said reluctantly and everyone’s hope clung to him like anchors. “But it’s completely crazy, and it might not work, and I know it’s going to totally freak you all out, but it…I mean, I guess you already know some of it, and you’re seen a lot of crazy stuff, so maybe it won’t be as shocking as I’m making it out to be—”
“Will.” His mom cut him off. “You’re rambling.”
“Right.” He gulped and looked to the chief. “Well, um…you mentioned that stuff about psychic experiments?”
“Yeah?” Hopper said as if he hadn’t quite heard him.
“Well,” He gulped. God, why was this so hard to say? “Well, the thing is…it did work. Brenner got it to work, it’s just, he didn’t use it for the war. And it didn’t work on everyone, but on…some…”
While everyone’s eyes were still on him, his attention snagged on the screens.
How did I not think of it before?
He moved closer to the screens.
Her room’s not up there.
“He got it to work on some people.” He said as if in a trance. “Even better than he expected.”
Brenner wouldn’t want me to know about her.
“And she might be willing to help us.”