As the sun began to reach the western side of Hawkins, Anna, Steve, and Dustin approached the old junkyard on the hill. Old cars having long seen better days littered the open field, with a quickly-deteriorating bus at the back of the pack, now more rust than metal, however the scenery provided them with plenty of space to get to work.

"Oh yeah," Steve said, looking around at the scene before them with an approving nod. "Yeah, this'll do. This'll do just fine." he stepped forward, reaching back into the bucket full of meat and continuing to sprinkle the path for d'Artagnan to follow. "Good call, dude," he nodded back in Dustin's direction, and the Henderson boy couldn't hide the proud smile as he aimed it back up at his older sister.

"So whereabouts do you think we should end the trail?" Anna asked, walking a few paces ahead of the boys. "Landon's bringing another trap from the store, so we'll need enough space."

"Right about..." Steve trailed off, eyeing the bus at the end of the lot and stepping forward until they were about halfway between the edge of the field and the cars. "Here. We'll pour a trail of gasoline from here towards the bus, and when he's close enough, I'll light it."

The three of them gathered together in front of where Steve stood, and collectively, they turned over what was left in their buckets, sending the contents to the ground between them. Anna stepped back instinctively so as not to get any of the meat on her shoes, the remnants settling into a pile with a sickening squelch at the end of Dart's trail before Landon's trap would await the creature.

"I said medium-well!" A familiar voice called from the other side of the field, and the three of them looked up to see Lucas waving alongside Becca and Landon, along with a redheaded girl around Dustin's age, who greeted them with a small smile as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweatshirt.

"Who's that?" Steve asked, but when Dustin didn't answer, the two teens looked back at him, only to see Dustin watching the newcomers with a stony expression. Steve exchanged a quick glance with Anna, his eyebrows furrowing together as she looked back at the redhead.

"That's Billy Hargrove's sister, right?" Anna asked Dustin, recognizing the girl as the same one who'd gotten out of his Camaro on their first day at Hawkins High. "The girl you wanted to show Dart to."

"Max," Dustin muttered.

"Whoa, whoa, this girl's Hargrove's sister?" Steve asked, venom lacing his tone. "That guy's a dick," he muttered.

"Step-sister," Dustin corrected. "There's a difference."

"Alright, boss, what's the plan?" Landon called out as the groups met up, a cardboard box in his hands holding the trap inside. "Where do you want this thing?"

"Over by the meat pile," Anna instructed, noticing the missing figure among them. "Where's Michelle?"

"We couldn't find her anywhere." Becca explained. "We called their house a bunch of times, but nobody answered. Stopped by, too, before we came here, but nobody was home. That's where we found Lucas and Max, though."

"Michelle's probably wherever Will and Mike are." Dustin suggested, looking anywhere but in Max's direction. "We've been trying since last night to call them, too."

"So what's the plan?" Landon asked again. "We've got less than an hour of light left, and I don't particularly feel like putting this thing together in the dark and losing a hand."

"I thought you said you could put one of those together with your eyes closed." Becca reminded him, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked back at their friend skeptically.

"Let's not test that theory," Landon said, rolling his eyes as he set the box down a few feet away from the meat pile.

"As much scrap metal as you can find to reinforce the bus, we'll use that as our base." Dustin soon took control, relaying the plan to the others. "Then Landon puts the trap together. If Dart follows the trail, he'll wind up in the trap, and then we'll get him."

"And then what?" Becca asked.

Dustin held up the can of gasoline still in his hands while Steve pulled his lighter out of his pocket. "Then we fry up a Demogorgon for dinner."

"Do we really have to eat it?" Lucas asked, grimacing. "Because that sounds nasty."

"No, Sinclair, you don't actually have to eat it." Steve sighed. "Now let's get to work."

One by one, the group split up as everyone got to work in their respective stations. Landon stayed in the center, beginning to put together the trap, and Anna wandered over towards a spot where three old cars were parked side by side, with various sheets of scrap metal littering the ground around them. Anna picked up the sheet closest to her, bringing it over to the old bus and leaning it against the side before going back to grab another one. As the group worked, Anna could see the sun beginning to set over Hawkins, and she could only hope that they had enough time to get the bus ready before night fell.

"Are you kidding me?" Steve scoffed, and Anna followed his gaze to where Dustin and Lucas had ducked behind one of the cars to talk. "Have they been there the whole time?"

"Pretty much," Max confirmed, and Steve shook his head, picking up a metal chair and walking over to where they hid behind the car, before banging the chair against the metal of the trunk.

"Hey!" Steve scolded as the two boys jumped back in surprise. "Dickheads! How come the only one helping us out is this random girl? We lose light in forty minutes, let's go." he stepped forward before turning back to see them still behind the car. "'Let's go,' I said."

"Alright, asshole!" Dustin scoffed. "God,"

"Okay!" Lucas called after Steve. "Stupid,"

The group continued to work with the remaining daylight they had, fortifying the bus with layers of metal on the inside as well as a ladder Max had found that gave them access to the roof, where Lucas volunteered to act as lookout with his binoculars once night had fallen. They worked fast, knowing time was of the essence, as as the sky turned gold, alerting them they only had a few minutes left, Anna looked around, ensuring everything was in place.

In the space across the field, the trap now lay ready near the pile of meat. Steve stood over the trap with the can of gasoline, pouring a line from the center of the trap across the field until a short distance away from the bus. As he picked the can back up, he looked at where Anna still stood outside, jerking his head back in the direction of where everyone else waited on the bus.

"All set, Henderson?" Steve asked, and Anna nodded, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket as she walked over to him.

"All set," she agreed, and he held out an arm, gesturing for her to climb aboard the bus first before he followed after her.

As they stepped aboard the fortress, Becca was already sitting in the driver's seat, and as Steve shot her a thumbs up, she pulled the lever to close the door, securing it in place. The last bit of light was setting below the horizon, darkness beginning to settle over the group as they huddled together inside the empty bus, taking seats on the floor as they began their wait.

As the minutes passed and the last rays of light had faded away, bathing them in the dark, Lucas grabbed his binoculars, climbing up the ladder to assume his post as lookout. Steve pulled the lighter out of his pocket, absentmindedly flicking it on and off, the brief flashes of flame illuminating the bus around them, if only the tiniest bit. Anna and Landon sat on the floor across from him, but Becca stayed in the driver's seat, ready to open the door whenever given the signal. Max sat on the floor behind the driver's seat, leaning back against the old upholstery of the chair, and Dustin paced the small area, watching between sheets of metal at the small spots of the windows that peeked out, offering them a glimpse at the misty night around them.

"So you guys really fought one of these things before?" Max spoke up, eyeing the three teenagers that sat on the other side of the bus, and Anna, Steve, and Landon simply nodded in response, though none of them were overly eager to talk about their experience from the year before. "And you're like, totally, a hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"

"Shit, don't be an idiot, okay?" Dustin snapped, causing Anna's eyes to widen in surprise at her brother's outburst. "It wasn't a bear."

"Dusty," Anna scolded.

"Why is she even here if she doesn't believe us?" Dustin asked defensively, looking at Anna before his gaze moved back to Max, who stared back at him silently. "Just go home."

Max sighed, rising from her seat and moving towards the ladder. "Jeesh, someone's cranky." she chided. "Past your bedtime?"

Without another word, Max climbed up the ladder to join Lucas on the roof, leaving Dustin behind with the older teenagers. Anna and Becca exchanged a worried glance, but Steve looked back at the younger Henderson with an impressed look, nodding his head approvingly.

"That's good," Steve encouraged. "Just show her you don't care,"

"I don't," Dustin said in a small voice, causing Steve to look back up at him with a sly wink. "Why are you winking, Steve? Stop."

"Did Steve give you advice?" Becca asked Dustin. "I'll give you a better one. Don't listen to Steve."

"I know you're upset, Dusty, but she's in on this now." Anna tried to assure him. "I know you don't want her trying to find her way home with Dart out there on the loose."

Dustin sighed, taking a seat next to his sister. "I hate it when you're right."

"Dart?" Landon asked, furrowing his eyebrows together in confusion and disgust. "This thing has a name?"

"Yeah, he lived at our house for about a week." Anna said, feigning enthusiasm. "Dustin found him Halloween night in our garbage can and kept him as a pet."

"I didn't know he was a baby Demogorgon, okay?" Dustin defended.

"He grew really fast, and we trapped him in the cellar." Anna explained. "But he broke through the wall and got out, and nobody was answering yesterday. When we finally went to try and find Mike and Nancy, we ran into Steve outside Wheelers', and he agreed to help us."

"And now we're all here just trying not to die." Steve summed up. "Just like old times, right?"

"It doesn't make sense." Becca said. "I thought this whole thing was over. Eleven killed the Demogorgon, and we haven't seen anything from the Upside Down since. How did a baby one suddenly wind up in our world?"

"And more importantly, where's the gate to send it back home?" Dustin continued. "I mean, think about it, Hawkins Lab wouldn't be likely to let a Demogorgon just waltz its way outside, right?"

"Alright, new plan," Becca suggested. "We find this thing, we kill it, and then we actually have a normal high school life this time, I mean it. Deal?"

Anna exchanged a quick look with Steve, who knew all too well that her life had been anything but normal in the months since their initial encounter with the Upside Down, since the night Barb was attacked by the pool. "Deal," they all chorused.

As the group fell back into an uncomfortable silence, a sharp shriek pierced through the air, not too far away from the field housing the junkyard. Dustin instinctively jumped a little closer to Anna for a moment before shooting back to his feet to look out the window again, his eyes scanning the dark around them desperately for any sight of the young Demogorgon.

"Get ready," Dustin warned them. "He's here."