We all grabbed a makeshift weapon and went to find Steve. He was being held down by some sort of bat-like creature and he was struggling to breath as one pinned him down by the neck and two others were feasting on his flesh as he tried desperately to get them off. Nancy swung the oar that she had to hit one of them off. 

"Hey there." She said with a huff as we prepared to fight these demobats. 

"Quick! Hold it, Robin!" Nancy said as Robin stepped on the one around Steve's neck. 

"I got it." She said as they tried to hit it to get it off of Steve.

"Get it! Kill it! Kill it!" Eddie cheered them on. There was a sound coming from above and we saw that there were more of them coming. 

"Shit!" Eddie said as Nancy and Robin continued to help Steve. I adjusted grip on the oar and prepared to hold them off. Eddie hit one with his oar and I swung at another one making contact. 

"Yeah! Come on!" Eddie screamed ready to fight more of them. 

"Nancy, behind you! Watch out!" Eddie yelled as one attacked Nancy from behind. Robin helped her as we continued to fight them off. Swinging at them one by one and connecting. 

"God damn it! Shit!" Eddie said as his oar splintered and broke. 

"Eddie! Duck!" I screamed and he did so as I swung and hit one that was about to attack him. Nancy and Robin continued to struggle as Nancy got attacked. Steve finally got the one off of his neck and held it in place by it's tail and swung it to hit it against the ground. 

"Come on, come on, come on, you son of a bitch! I said come on! Let's go!" Eddie yelled as he stabbed one that was coming right at him. "Frankie, three o'clock." He then warned me and I swung the oar and hit it away from us. Steve then continually hit the one he was holding against the ground and pinned it there with his foot as he ripped it apart. He then spit out some blood and breathed heavily. I had to say it was very effective. 

"Steve!" Nancy said worried about him. 

"Jesus Christ. Jesus H. Christ!" Eddie yelled discarding his broken oar. 

"Shit, are you ok, Harrington?" I asked noticing his torso was torn to shit.

"Well, they took about a pound of flesh. But other than that, yeah, never better." Steve joked and I chuckled. Of course he would make a joke at this time. 

"Nice to know that you can always joke in life threatening situations." I shrugged and he nodded exhaustedly. "Are you ok?" I asked Eddie concerned with how he was handling this. 

"Ask me when we get out of here." He said looking at his surroundings and I nodded agreeing with him. 

"Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?" Robin asked freaking out. 

"What?" Steve asked confused.

"It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get you to a doctor soon because once symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already dead." Robin said worried about the possibility of rabies. We then heard more of them approaching and got ready to fight again. 

"All right. There's not that many. We can take 'em. Right?" Steve asked not completely confident in our abilities. 

"You were saying?" Robin said as more approached. 

"The woods. Come on." Nancy said as she started running towards the woods and we all followed. 

"Great. More running." Robin said sarcastically. We made it to Skull Rock and hid underneath it to avoid being spotted by the demo-bats. 

"Oh... okay. That was close." Robin said exiting our hiding place. 

"Yeah. Too close." Eddie said in a scared voice. 

"Oh, sh... shit." Steve muttered falling against the rock weakly.

"Steve? Jesus." Nancy said worried. 

"I'm fine. I'm fine." He shrugged her off. 

"You're not fine, Steve. Let her help you." I said and he nodded as Nancy guided him to a seated position to help him. 

"You're losing blood." Nancy said assessing his wounds. 

"Okay. So the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies. But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know." Robin ranted nervously.

"Robin." Steve grunted in pain.

"Yeah?" She asked. 

"I kinda wanna punch you." He admitted.

"Sense of humor's still intact. That's a good sign." Robin chuckled. Nancy ripped off a piece of her shirt to make a bandage for Steve. I decided to give them some privacy. 

"How you holding up?" I asked Eddie and he sighed. 

"This place has been under Hawkins the whole time." He stated and I nodded. "It kinda makes you wonder what other crazy shit has been happening in the world." He said and I chuckled. 

"You have no idea. You should hear about the Russians." I told him and he looked at me confused.

"Russians?" He asked for clarification.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you when we get out of here." I promised and he nodded as he climbed up a fallen tree trunk to get a better look at the area.

"So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" He asked everyone.

"Pretty much." Nancy answered matter-of-factly. "Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind." Nancy warned.

"It's all a what?" Eddie asked confused. 

"A collective consciousness." I explained.

"All the creepy crawlies around here. They're, like, one or something. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna." Steve explained simply and I nodded. 

"Shit." Eddie said being careful and not stepping on the vines. 

"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?" Robin asked. 

"As far as I understand it, yeah." Nancy confirmed.

"So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate." Robin brainstormed and it wasn't a bad idea. 

"I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah, sure." Steve said agreeing with Robin's plan. 

"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom." Nancy said an idea forming in her mind.

"You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?" Eddie asked in surprise.

"Full of surprises, isn't she?" Robin asked rhetorically. 

"I have an arsenal in my garage. We could head there." I offered.

"Your house if further than mine. We don't want to be walking all day." Nancy explained. 

"Fair enough. What do you have?" I asked. 

"A Russian Makarov and a revolver." Nancy explained further. 

"Yeah, you almost shot me with that one." Steve recalled from a few years prior.

"You almost deserved it." Nancy said as they made eyes at each other. What would Jonathan think? Eddie then broke up the flirting when he threw his vest at Steve's chest. 

"For your modesty, dude." He said humorously and I chuckled. Then the ground started to shake and I fell into Eddie, who caught me, but also fell to the ground. He protectively wrapped his arms around me and I did the same to Robin who fell on top of us. The earth then stopped shaking and we could hear demo-bats in the distance. 

"So guns seem like a pretty good idea to me." Eddie said breaking the silence.

"Yeah, me too." Robin agreed. 

"So what are we waiting for?" Steve asked leading the way to Nancy's house. I was walking beside Eddie trying to keep a good pace so that we could get out of here quickly when Steve stopped us. 

"Hey, Eddie, can I talk to you, man?" He asked and Eddie nodded. 

"I'll be with Nancy and Robin." I told him and gave his arm a squeeze and smiled before joining the girls. We were walking for a while when a second earthquake hit and everyone braced themselves. 

"Second on my list of least favorite things, earthquakes. Seriously, I'm unsteady enough as it is." Robin yelled and I chuckled. Nancy then started running.

"Nancy! Where are you going? Nancy!" Robin asked. We all ran after her and we came to a clearing. We saw her house in the distance. 

"Come on." Nancy said determined to get her guns to go home. We all followed her. I walked beside Eddie a little behind the others. 

"So, what did you and Steve talk about?" I asked curiously.

"Nosy, are we?" He asked sarcastically.

"I'm just wondering." I shrugged. 

"If you must know, we talked about how he's actually a pretty solid dude." Eddie admitted. 

"Anything about me?" I asked nervously.

"What about you?" He wondered.

"I don't know. Did I come up?" I asked still wondering if they talked about me. 

"If you must know, I admitted that I'm pretty jealous of his relationship with Dustin and his friendship with you." Eddie told me and I smiled.

"You're jealous of my friendship with Steve?" I asked with a smirk .

"Pretty much." He admitted as we continued walking. 

"Careful, Munson. Someone might think you're falling in love with me." I said using his line against him. 

"In your dreams, Edwards." He said using my line against me as we joined the others and walked the remaining distance to Nancy's house. We entered the house and found vines everywhere. 

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler." Robin joked looking around at all the vines.

"Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to." She said leading us up to her room as we all followed. She entered her room and got a shoebox out of her closet and opened it. 

"Those aren't guns." Eddie pointed out. 

"These heels are pointy, but I was hoping for a deadly projectile." Robin joked trying to diffuse the tension.

"I don't understand." Nancy said moving the heels and looking in the box in disbelief that they weren't here.

"Maybe you left them somewhere else." Eddie suggested. 

"There's a six-year-old in the house. I know where I keep my guns. And also, I threw these away years ago.

"I get that grades are important, but perhaps studying can wait till we get out?" Robin said as Nancy picked up flashcards. 

"These are from sophomore chemistry. And this... this wallpaper, this is old wallpaper. And this mirror, this went to a yard sale. And you... You're not supposed to be here. No, I gave you to Cousin Joanna two years ago." Nancy said going around her room pointing out everything that was out of place. 

"So, you're saying that these things aren't supposed to be here?" I asked and she nodded. "How is that possible?" I asked, but nobody answered. 

"What is it?" Eddie asked as Nancy picked up her diary.

"Nancy? You're freaking me out." Robin said. 

"I think the reason that my guns aren't here is because they don't exist yet." Nancy admitted looking up from her diary.

"They don't... exist?" Eddie asked confused.

"This diary should be full of entries. It's not. The last entry is November 6, 1983." Nancy revealed. 

"That's the day Will went missing." I said uneasily. 

"The day the gate opened. We're in the past." Nancy confirmed. We then heard Steve yelling Dustin's name from downstairs. We all went to check it out to see what was going on. 

"Dustin! Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me? Dustin! Du... Hello? Hel... Hello?" Steve yelled as we all saw him pacing around the kitchen looking crazy.

"Maybe he really does have rabies." Robin suggested referring to Steve's behavior. 

"Hello! Hello?" Steve kept yelling. 

"What are you doing?" Nancy asked confused. 

"He's here. Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's like... He's in the walls or something. Just listen." Steve asked as we could faintly hear Dustin from the real world. We all then started calling out for Dustin. 

"All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douche bag." Steve said giving up on calling out to the boy. 

"Will found a way." I said remembering him talking through the lights to Joyce and I. 

"What?" Steve asked confused. 

"Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce and I through the lights." I said as I went around and tried to turn on the lamp that was on the counter. 

"Lights?" Steve asked confused.

"The switch. Try the switch." Steve told Nancy and she did as instructed, but it didn't work. 

"Guys? You seeing this?" Steve asked noticing the chandelier gathering specks of dust around it that were yellowish in color. Nancy started touching it and it reacted to her touch.

"Woah." Eddie said in wonder. We all then started touching it. "It... Tickles." Eddie observed as he touched it. 

"It kinda feels good." Robin added. 

"Does anyone know Morse code?" Nancy asked and we all shook our heads. 

"No." Eddie said, but then remembered something. "Wait, does SOS count?" He asked looking around us. "Is that... Is that good?" He asked obliviously. 

"Yes, that counts. Do your thing, Munson." I said pushing him towards the light and he nodded shaking his hands in preparation as he started signaling S.O.S.

"It's working." Robin said as we all watched Eddie signal for help. Dustin told us that he knew we were there and we all let out happy sighs of relief. 

"Thank God Dustin Henderson knows everything." I said knowing that we'd probably be doomed without him. 

"Follow us to Nancy's room and we can figure out a way to communicate there." Dustin ordered us and we were waiting there for their plan to work. 

"Okay, you guys seeing this?" Dustin's distorted voice asked. Nancy interacted with the lite brite and we knew it was going to work. 

"Holy shit!" Erica said happily. 

"We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it. Stand by. Yank it. Okay, try it now." Dustin ordered and we all looked for Nancy to figure out how to communicate. 

"Okay. Um... Uh...Hi!" Nancy wrote with the lights. 

"Hi!" Dustin said happily. "That worked!" Dustin informed and we all were so happy we could communicate with them. 

"Hi!" Eddie shouted happily at the lite brite and I chuckled at how cute it was. 

"Okay. Um... Um... " Nancy thought about what she was going to write and began writing Stuck. 

"Stuck." Dustin figured out. 

"We are." Nancy answered though they couldn't hear. 

"Uh, you can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin asked us. 

"What the hell's Watergate?" Steve asked confused.

"'Cause it's in water and it's a gate." Robin pointed out.

"Oh. That's cute." Steve said. 

"Right. Um, no. It's..." Nancy thought about what she was going to write and spelt out the word guarded. 

"Okay. Uh, Watergate's guarded." Dustin figured out. 

"Perfect. Yes. Yes. Yes." Steve confirmed happily. 

"We think we have a theory that can help with that." Dustin told us and I sighed in relief. 

"Genius child." Robin muttered relieved. 

"We think Watergate isn't the only gate. That there's a gate at every murder site." Dustin explained. 

"Does anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy asked us. 

"Well, Vecna probably opened gates up to murder all his victims, so maybe there's other gates there." I suggested and they all looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about. "Just ask Dustin." I said pointing to the lite brite. Nancy wrote a question mark. 

"Okay. Seriously? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you trust me?" Dustin screamed at us frustrated.

"Jesus Christ. This kid's gotta get his ego in check." Steve said done with his attitude.

"It's his tone. Right?" Eddie added and Steve nodded. 

"Okay. So... So how far is your trailer?" Nancy asked Eddie.

"Seven miles." Eddie and I answered simultaneously and everyone looked at me weird. 

"What? I've been there a lot." I shrugged and Eddie smirked at me with a knowing look. 

"Nancy?" Robin cleared her throat to change the subject. "Uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?" Robin asked having a genius idea. We all grabbed a bike from Nancy's garage and started our seven mile journey to Eddie's trailer through the disgusting Upside Down. We all biked past the Creel house, that we knew Vecna occupied. We pulled up to the trailer park and dropped the bikes. 

"Right here." Eddie instructed as we walked towards his trailer. 

"That's gotta be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled interdimensionally." Robin said sarcastically.

"Just inhaled a bunch of that crap. It's stuck in my throat." Steve said coughing to try to get it out of his throat. "Goddamn." Steve said as we all looked at the bright red gate.

"This is where Chrissy died. Like, right where she died." Eddie informed sadly and I grabbed his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. He squeezed my hand back and smiled at me. 

"I think there's something in there." Robin said as it looked like something was coming out of the gate. 

"What the hell is that?" Eddie asked confused, but also fascinated by what we were witnessing. The gate then burst open and we all jumped back to avoid whatever was there. Steve approached the gate slowly to check it out. We were behind him to see what it was. 

"No way." He said in disbelief. We saw Dustin, Erica, Lucas, and Max from their ceiling as if they were upside down. 

"Hi there." Dustin greeted happily.

"Hi." We all replied. 

"Holy shit, this is trippy." Robin said in disbelief. 

"Bada-bada-boom!" Dustin screamed in delight. The kids all worked on a plan to get us out of there by starting to tie sheets together and bringing Eddie's mattress out for us to lay on. 

"Those stains are, uh... I dunno what those stains are." Eddie said as his mattress was visible from our side of the gate and I looked at him and smirked. 

"Frankie seems to know what they are." Steve said noticing the look I gave Eddie. I slapped his shoulder widening my eyes in disbelief that he would say that. 

"Shut up." I told him, my cheeks reddening in embarrassment. 

"Not quite sure how these physics work. But, uh... Here goes nothing." Dustin said throwing the sheets through the gate. "There we go." He said as the sheets came through to our side of the gate. Dustin let go of the sheets and seeing that they stayed in place. "All right, pull on it! See if it holds!" He instructed and Robin grabbed the sheets and pulled and they surprisingly held. 

"This is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life. And I've seen some crazy shit." Erica said in disbelief.

"Guess I'm the guinea pig." Robin said climbing through the gate and falling on the bed. 

"Oh my God! Oh, thank God. That was fun." Robin said landing on the mattress. 

"Edwards, your turn." Eddie said gesturing to the sheets. I let go of his hand and grabbed the sheets. 

"I'll see you guys on the other side, I guess." I said as I began to climb the sheets. It was the weirdest feeling of my life because one moment I felt like I was holding my entire weight and then I felt weightless and then I was feeling my body being pulled to the ground as I landed on the mattress. 

"Holy shit. That was the trippiest thing I've ever felt in my life." I said catching my breath before Dustin offered me a hand to get off the mattress. "Thank you." I said hugging him and kissing his cheek grateful that he found us a way out. 

"Don't mention it." He said clearly blushing a little. 

"All right, guess I'll go." Eddie said as he climbed out of the upside down. 

"That was fun." Eddie said after landing on the mattress and I offered him a hand to get up. He accepted it and leapt off the mattress glad that we were finally in our own dimension. "That was a fun date." He said sarcastically and I looked at him weirdly. 

"What?" I asked confused.

"An interdimensional date is going to be pretty hard to beat, right. I mean I think it's game over for any other guy that you will ever date." He said sarcastically and I rolled my eyes. 

"Who says I want to date other guys?" I asked and he smirked as we waited for Nancy and Steve to climb through the gate. 

"Nancy. Hey! Hey! Stay with me. Nancy! Hey! Nancy, wake up. Wake up! Nancy!" Steve's panicking voice came through the gate. 

"Vecna." Max said terrified that Nancy was going to get killed by Vecna.