Chapter 32: Underground Veins
A thin line of gray-white light barely squeezed through the small, narrow vent high above, slicing through the dimness of the room, yet failing to bring the slightest warmth.
Andy opened his eyes on the folding bed, his pupils adjusting to this familiar light.
He didn't get up immediately, just lay there, staring at the crisscrossing wooden beams and pipes on the ceiling, which cast jagged shadows in the daylight, like a reflection of his current state of mind.
The fierce argument with Hopper last night, those words laced with anger, disappointment, and ultimately pierced by cruel truths, still buzzed in his ears.
Each word felt like a barb, lodged in his heart, causing a dense ache with the slightest tug.
Katherine, Mom, death, the Lab... these words collided repeatedly within his closed-off consciousness, trying to piece together a blurry image of the mother he had never met, only bringing deeper emptiness and cold.
And whenever Andy pondered deeply, he felt as though he had forgotten something even deeper within himself.
Ever since returning from the Upside Down last year, he had always felt like he was overlooking something, and now it seemed there was more than just that—things from even earlier...
Recalling Hopper's final expression of shock, pain, as if all his strength had been instantly drained.
Andy knew he had pierced more than just a secret; he had torn through a fragile protective layer that had been maintained for a long time.
Despite the intensity of the argument, despite him almost slamming the door of Hopper's cabin shut with resentment and pain as he left in the end.
But as he walked alone along the dim forest path in the early morning, his enhanced perception, derived from his ability and surpassing that of ordinary people, still allowed him to detect the heavy, cautious footsteps not far behind him, and that shadowing, anxiety-filled, vigilant gaze.
Hopper had been following him, maintaining a distance that was neither too far to lose him nor too close to disturb him, like a silent, stubborn guardian, scanning for any threats that might be lurking in the darkness on his behalf.
Until Andy safely reached the entrance of the rented basement, until he slipped inside and closed the creaking door.
Hopper seemed to linger in the shadows outside for a while longer before the faint sound of his boots stepping on fallen leaves, gradually fading away as he turned to leave, could be heard.
This silent following made Andy's feelings more complicated than any words could have.
There was concern, responsibility, perhaps guilt, but also the rules and boundaries that Hopper insisted on, which could not be crossed.
Andy slowly sat up, the thin blanket slipping from his shoulders.
He didn't, as usual, use his mental tendrils to gently touch the direction of Hopper's cabin, sensing if Eleven was safe, or attempt to establish a faint mental link with Dustin, Mike, and the others to watch over them.
He didn't even use telekinesis to make himself a simple breakfast.
A heavy, almost numb exhaustion enveloped him—not physical, but mental.
A tremendous sense of loneliness, like the gloomy air of the basement itself, pressed down heavily.
He seemed to have many connections in this world—Eleven like a sister, Hopper... a kind of complicated father figure, the Byers family, Mike and others as friends.
And there were feelings he couldn't quite articulate now, feelings that seemed to go beyond friendship, like with Will, and also... Henry.
But now he felt utterly helpless and alone. Hopper had hidden the truth about his mother, Eleven knew nothing about it, and his other friends couldn't possibly understand.
And those who might understand him, the fellow siblings who had shared his suffering in the Lab, were already scattered—some died that day, others still missing, their fates unknown.
Just like that, wearing thin pajamas, he walked to the old sofa in the center of the room and slowly sat down.
He sank into the unyielding cushion, wrapped his arms around his knees, rested his chin on them, and let his unfocused gaze fall on a slightly darker water stain on the opposite wall.
Time seemed to lose all meaning here.
The angle of light projected from the vent slowly changed, from the pale gray of dawn to the relatively brighter pallor of midday, then gradually tinged with the dusk's yellow.
Andy remained almost motionless, like a frozen statue.
Hunger and thirst occasionally reminded him of his body's existence, but they were ignored by the vast silence of his mind.
His brain wasn't completely blank; on the contrary, countless fragments of thought floated and collided within it.
About the cold corridors and humming instruments of the Lab, Henry's chilling secrets, the eerie nature of the black particles in Will's consciousness, the faint roars behind the gate to the Upside Down, the possible suffering his mother Katherine endured...
These thoughts were chaotic, yet all pointed in the same direction—power.
He needed power. If he had enough ability, it seemed all of this could change.
When the light from the vent had completely transformed into a somber twilight blue, Andy finally moved his stiff neck.
The long period of sitting still hadn't brought peace; instead, beneath the numb surface, the impulse to do something, to break through the current situation, to find more answers had accumulated even more intensely.
He needed an outlet, a direction, a way to temporarily escape this feeling of powerlessness.
He stood up, his steps somewhat unsteady as he walked toward the small space in the corner of the basement that had been simply partitioned off to serve as a bathroom.
But Andy's purpose now wasn't to bathe.
He turned on the faucet, cold water rushing into the bathtub, quickly mixing with the warm water stored in the hot water pipe.
He tested the temperature with his hand, adjusting it to slightly below body temperature—a slightly cool level that was relaxing but not sleep-inducing.
Then, he let the water continue to fill the bathtub until the water level rose high enough to submerge most of his body.
Next, he turned and his gaze fell on a heavy burlap sack with a rough logo printed on it, sitting beside the bathtub.
It was industrial-grade salt that Hopper had stored here at some point, with coarse grains, originally perhaps intended for melting snow in winter or some rough work. The bag was already about a third empty.
Looking at this sack of salt, an idea became clear in Andy's mind—he needed to make a homemade sensory deprivation tank.
During his days in the Lab, aside from the complex special nutrients injected into his veins and drug stimulation methods,
using a 'sensory deprivation' environment to force the subject to turn all attention inward, thereby perceiving and controlling their own psychic power more acutely, was a known method—risky but potentially breakthrough-inducing.
Andy didn't know if Hopper had stored so much salt here with the thought that there might be a day when a sensory deprivation tank would need to be made.
But now, this salt happened to provide him with the necessary materials.
Perhaps... a thought stirred in Andy's mind. On Halloween night, to guide Eleven's psychic power toward the consciousness space where Will was, he had, unprecedentedly, deeply resonated and fused with Eleven's ability.
That feeling wasn't just an addition of power; it was more like a brief, deep exchange and learning.
Afterward, he vaguely felt that his mental perception seemed to have broadened somewhat, gaining a fuzzy, directional sense of extension.
It wasn't like his original wide-range scanning or fine reading; it was more like an ability... to explore toward a specific target.
This was likely the 'remote location' ability Eleven used to locate Mike and Barb.
He had found himself more than once seemingly able to mimic or comprehend the characteristics of others' abilities through deep contact or intense resonance.
Why this learning mechanism existed, even he didn't fully understand; perhaps it was some special mark left on him by Dr. Brenner's set of potential-stimulating experiments.
But he was clear that this new, unenhanced ability was usually very weak, with limited perception range, crude positioning accuracy, and high consumption.
To truly unlock its potential, the 'sensory deprivation' experiment was perhaps the only feasible method he could think of right now.
Even though he had seen the cruel record from Hopper's memory fragments that his mother Katherine had already passed away, her remains not even at peace, hope hadn't completely died out.
He still had siblings.
There were quite a few test subjects who had escaped from the Lab earlier.
For example, Number Three, Ricky, who was said to have run out long ago, also possessed mental reading abilities.
And there were the sisters, Number Nine and Number Nine-Point-Five, who could control temperature... Were they still alive? Were they also hiding in some corner of this world, struggling to survive like him and Eleven?
The principle for configuring the concentration for making a simple sensory deprivation tank wasn't complicated.
The core was to make the saltwater dense enough so that the human body could semi-float on the surface, reducing perception in other parts of the body.
Simultaneously, the water temperature should be suitable, light blocked out, and sound minimized as much as possible, thereby maximizing the deprivation of external sensory input.
To ensure safety and avoid sinking or excessive buoyancy due to improper proportions, Andy concentrated his mind, mentally connecting to Dustin, who was currently rummaging around his home.
He didn't pay attention to those things; he just focused on finding Dustin's memory from last year about helping Eleven make a sensory deprivation tank.
Soon, he found the relevant information fragments, sifting through parts about the principles, looking for information on temperature and the approximate required salt concentration range...
Withdrawing his psychic power, Andy began to act, using telekinesis to scoop the coarse salt from the sack.
At the same time, another strand of telekinetic force, like an invisible hand, reached into the warm water of the bathtub, starting to stir slowly and evenly to help the salt dissolve.
Andy stopped adding salt, used telekinesis to take out an egg, and carefully placed it into the saltwater.
The egg sank a bit at first, then, buoyed by the saltwater, wobbled and floated to the surface!
About half of it was exposed above the water, floating stably, neither sinking to the bottom nor completely toppling over.
This phenomenon made Andy breathe a sigh of relief. This state indicated that the buoyancy configuration of the saltwater was basically successful, enough to support him in achieving the desired semi-floating effect.
Afterward, he made a simple, light-proof blindfold, tried it on his face to ensure complete, impenetrable darkness before his eyes.
Everything was ready.
Andy removed his clothes, folding them neatly on a stool nearby.
He stood by the bathtub, feeling the cold October air of Indiana, the damp and chilly air in the basement.
Then, he lifted his leg and slowly stepped into the bathtub.
The sensation of the saltwater immediately enveloped him, thicker and more supportive than ordinary water, a slight coolness transmitting through his skin.
He adjusted his posture, slowly sinking his body into the water, leaving only the area above his mouth and nose exposed.
The strong buoyancy of the saltwater immediately took effect. He felt his body's weight being largely lifted, his limbs naturally relaxing and floating apart. A strange sense of weightlessness and relaxation began to spread.
He took a deep breath and put on the homemade blindfold.
Instantly, the last of his vision was deprived.
The soundproofing effect of the water in the bathtub wasn't perfect, but external sounds became extremely distant and fuzzy, as if coming from another world.
The water temperature was slightly cool, eliminating perceptions of hot and cold changes.
The buoyancy of the saltwater maximally reduced tactile feedback between his body and the container; his sense of smell was left only with the scent of industrial salt mixed with water.
As his senses were deprived one by one, Andy felt as though he were slowly sinking into a warm, thick, soundless, and lightless ocean depth.
The external world rapidly faded, its sense of presence becoming thin.
His attention, as if pulled inward by an invisible hand, began to focus entirely on his own interior.
The rhythm of his heartbeat, the faint hum of blood flow, the subtle sensation of air passing through his nostrils as he breathed... and the pulsation of the psychic power hidden deep within his consciousness, usually interfered with and masked by countless external information.
In absolute sensory deprivation, the sense of time began to warp.
Andy didn't know how long he had been floating in the saltwater—maybe a few seconds, maybe minutes.
His breathing gradually became slow and deep, his heartbeat rhythm stabilizing.
External interference was minimized; inner mental vision became unprecedentedly clear.
He began to actively mobilize that new, fuzzy feeling of 'remote location'.
However, perhaps because he hadn't fully adapted to Eleven's unique communication method anchored by strong emotions or images, or perhaps because this new ability itself was still in an extremely unstable embryonic state, Andy's initial attempts went awry.
He didn't successfully condense that precise location; instead, due to excessive concentration and tension, a slight loosening occurred in his mental control.
It was this slight loosening that triggered a chain reaction!
As if a fine crack had appeared in a dam, Andy's vast and precise mental barrier, used for daily shielding and filtering external mental noise, instantly lost some stability in the extreme state where internal attention was completely turned inward and external senses were nearly zeroed!
"BOOM——!!"
Not a physical sound, but a soundless, yet deafening roar erupted deep within Andy's mental world!
It was as if a long-suppressed flood had burst through a dam, or like a thousand radio channels exploding at the same time, at maximum volume!
In an instant, all kinds of sounds, emotions, fragments of thought, like a violent tsunami, crazily surged into Andy's consciousness!
He heard countless voices speaking, arguing, and laughing. These sounds didn't reach him through his ears but acted directly upon his mental plane—jumbled yet intensely real.
He felt a myriad of emotions, like splashes of multicolored paint, spilling into his once-silent ocean of consciousness.
He saw countless fragmented images, flashbacks, and illogical fantasies... fragments of active surface thoughts from people all over Hawkins, and possibly even farther, surged uncontrollably toward him, this suddenly opened mental node.
This sensation was eerily similar to the scene years ago in Hawkins Laboratory, during his first ability awakening when he lost control due to his inability to manage it!
Only back then, the range was perhaps confined to the laboratory building. Now, amplified to an extreme by sensory deprivation, the scope and intensity of this mental leak likely far exceeded anything before!
A massive torrent of information assaulted the core of Andy's consciousness, bringing intense dizziness and near-ripping pain. His body involuntarily tensed in the salt water, his breathing becoming rapid.
However, unlike that panicked child who could only passively endure years ago, the present Andy had experienced much more. Under Brenner's harsh, even cruel, training, he had mastered a considerable degree of control.
Though the initial onslaught was fierce, he wasn't completely overwhelmed.
"Steady... filter... block... focus..."
He silently recited the methods learned in the Lab for dealing with mental overload and interference.
His formidable willpower stood like a pillar against the current, holding firm with difficulty amidst the chaotic storm of information.
He stopped trying to hear every voice, see every image, and feel every emotion.
That was futile; it would only scatter his consciousness faster.
Instead, he gathered his psychic power, constructing layer upon layer of internal barriers and filters.
Letting the most chaotic, superficial, and irrelevant informational noise flow away, only allowing relatively stable, intense, or signals of certain specific frequencies to seep through.
This process was extremely mentally taxing. Sweat and tears streamed from the corners of his eyes, merging with the water.
But he gritted his teeth, persisting, striving to adjust his breathing, guiding the flow of his psychic power back onto a controllable track.
To Andy, it felt like an eternity had passed. Finally, the madly rushing torrent of information began to weaken and become relatively ordered.
Now, most of the chaotic background noise was blocked out. Yet, he could still perceive the existence of a vast "mental field" radiating outward from him as its center, filled with countless faint points of light and the ripples of emotion and thought waves they emitted.
But now, this information no longer had an overwhelming, invasive quality. It was more like a huge, dynamic, somewhat blurry background star chart.
(Reference: X-Men's Cerebro)
He had succeeded! Not only had he stabilized a situation on the verge of spiraling out of control, but in this extreme state of sensory deprivation, the range of his mental perception had been amplified to an unprecedented degree!
How far exactly? Andy wasn't sure.
But the feeling was exceptionally clear. The boundary of his mental perception had already extended far beyond the geographical limits of Hawkins, reaching into the broader surrounding areas.
His consciousness swept like invisible radar waves over an extremely vast expanse of land.
Within this immense range, countless points of life flickered like stars on a summer night, brightening and dimming.
He could vaguely sense the outlines of towns, the paths of roads, even the silence and vitality of large forests or farmlands.
A feeling akin to omniscience arose, as if within this mental domain, everything was under his gaze.
In this state, the consumption of psychic power was enormous. Andy could feel that familiar weariness, originating from the depths of his consciousness, gradually accumulating.
But he didn't immediately withdraw his perception.
The opportunity was rare. Since he had already expended so much psychic power to reach this state, he had to make good use of it, to try and explore areas usually beyond his reach.
First, he thought of Hawkins National Laboratory.
Was Dr. Owens really investigating them? Were there unknown activities still happening beneath the Lab?
Where exactly was the source of that abnormal feeling, intertwined with the familiar scent of the Upside Down, that he had sensed before?
He focused his attention, adjusting the focal point of his mental perception, looking toward the direction of the laboratory.
His mental vision crossed space, focusing on that tightly controlled area.
The main building of the Lab appeared in his perception as a relatively quiet field of thoughts—the state of researchers during their daily work.
But outside the main lab building, in the area to the south... Andy perceived a relatively empty patch of land that held exceptionally turbid and restless emotional fluctuations.
That was... a pumpkin patch? Halloween had just passed, many pumpkins still remained in the fields.
And at the edge of this pumpkin patch, a strong and familiar point of consciousness light caught his attention—it was Hopper!
His emotional wavelength was filled with focus, doubt, vigilance, and a stubborn sense of determination.
Andy's mental perception zoomed in like the most precise lens.
He saw Hopper swinging a shovel, digging vigorously near some seemingly withered pumpkin vines!
Dirt was constantly being turned over and tossed aside.
Hopper's movements were forceful, with a fierce intensity. Sweat seemed to bead on his forehead in the early winter's cold air.
What was Hopper digging for here?
Recalling Halloween day, also near this area, he had sensed a weird aura similar to the "Upside Down" but subtly different... Now, thinking carefully, that sensation didn't seem entirely like the Henry he remembered.
Instead... it was more like the aura emitted by those invasive "black particles" he and Eleven had jointly dispersed from deep within Will's consciousness yesterday!
While largely the same, the manifestation and texture differed.
Could Hopper have noticed something too?
Andy's curiosity was thoroughly piqued, mixed with a trace of worry for Hopper acting alone.
Without alerting Hopper, he condensed his psychic power into a finer, more concealed strand, like an invisible probe, quietly seeping down along the edge of the pit Hopper was digging.
His psychic power penetrated the relatively soft soil, down, further down... At first, it was ordinary soil, mixed with stones and plant roots.
But soon, Andy sensed something abnormal.
The texture of the soil began to feel... slimy? Damp? As if soaked by some mucus rich in organic matter.
Immediately after, his mental "tentacle" touched something.
It was a tangle of thick, fleshy vines, entwined like blood vessels or plant roots!
They were buried deep in the frozen earth, their surfaces showing an unhealthy dark red or purplish-black hue, pulsating faintly as if with their own life rhythm.
The vines' surfaces were covered in slippery mucus, with unsettling nodules bulging in places or sprouting finer, tentacle-like branches.
These vines weren't static; they were writhing and extending extremely slowly, in all directions, especially creeping toward the residential areas of Hawkins, quietly expanding their network.
The entire underground seemed to hide a colossal, breathing, growing tunnel system formed by these evil, living vines!
This sight filled Andy with a wave of physiological disgust and chill.
This scene was so similar to the vines seen everywhere in the Upside Down a year ago!
But there were differences. These vines seemed more substantial, more tightly integrated with this world's soil. Their aggressiveness was temporarily restrained, but their scale might be even larger!
His mind followed a relatively thick main vine, tracing it toward a deeper, more central source.
These vines all seemed to subtly point toward the same origin.
Passing through the intricate, maze-like network of vines, his psychic power continued extending downward. The underground temperature seemed to change subtly; the air carried a faint scent of decay and spores.
Finally, his mental perception reached a huge underground cavity, wrapped and guarded by layers of vines.
At the center of the cavity, the sight caused Andy's mental form to shudder violently.
It wasn't a naturally formed cavern, but a huge, irregular-edged scar, as if violently torn open!
The scar presented a bizarre state between matter and energy, its surface flowing with an eerie glow of intertwined dark red and deep purple, resembling both lava and infected tissue.
Countless thick vines spread precisely from the core of this "scar," like the "blood vessels" or "nerves" of this wound.
And inside that scar, deep within the flowing light at its core, Andy saw something terrifyingly familiar, something that made his hair stand on end.
It was the black shadow that had ravaged Will's consciousness!
They weren't evenly scattered but swirled, churned, and coalesced like a dense, liquid-like darkness with a collective consciousness, located in the core region deep within the scar!
Each churn emitted intense malice, hunger, and a desire to erode the real world.
They seemed bound within this gate by some force, unable to invade directly as they had in Will's consciousness, but their restless, desperate urge to find an exit was frighteningly clear!
This was no ordinary Upside Down leak.
This was a passage deliberately maintained, possibly even being fed!
Those black particles might be a more refined, more aggressive manifestation of some Upside Down force, either bred within or attracted to the depths of this passage!
At that moment, as if sensing Andy's external mental probe, the mass of black particles churning at the scar's core suddenly stilled, then surged even more violently!
A sharp, hostile mental shockwave surged back up along Andy's mental connection!
"Ugh!" Andy's body in the bathtub jolted violently, ripples disturbing the salt water.
He felt a needle-like stabbing pain shooting straight into his mind. The mental connection with the black particles instantly became extremely unstable, filled with interference and aggression.
Almost simultaneously, far away in the Byers house, Will Byers was in a fitful sleep in his own bed.
His brow suddenly furrowed tightly, large beads of cold sweat quickly forming on his forehead. His body began to twitch unconsciously, and suppressed, painful whimpers escaped his throat.
As if he was being dragged back into that nightmare of being chased by shadows and invaded by formless entities!
It wasn't until Andy's psychic power, under attack and his own shock, fluctuated violently that this cross-space resonant interference peaked.
Will jolted awake from the nightmare, eyes wide, chest heaving, his face pale with post-terror exhaustion.
Meanwhile, by the underground pit, Hopper's digging had reached a critical point.
With one forceful shovel strike, the ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way!
He was prepared, nimbly jumping back a step while shining his flashlight into the suddenly revealed opening.
The flashlight beam pierced the darkness, illuminating below—an entrance to a downward-sloping cave, covered in winding vines!
Damp air, carrying the scent of humus and a certain sweet, fishy odor, wafted from the hole.
Hopper's heart sank. His suspicions were confirmed; there was indeed something abnormal underground.
Gritting his teeth, he placed the flashlight in his mouth, grabbed the edge with both hands, and carefully first probed one foot down, stepping onto a relatively thick vine inside the entrance that looked like it could bear weight.
And at the exact moment Hopper's foot entered the ominous, vine-filled entrance to the underground cave—
Andy's psychic power, having tracked the vine network, arrived precisely at the core "scar" gate hiding the churning black particles!
He saw the boundless malice and restlessness behind that gate, and he perceived Hopper's strong, familiar point of consciousness light, defenselessly, step by step, approaching the very forefront of this dreadful network, heading toward that potentially explosive source of danger!
Distance, time, and space were compressed on the mental plane at this moment.
Andy could almost see the sole of Hopper's boot on the slimy vine, hear the faint, rustling sound of countless tiny creatures crawling from the cave depths and the low hum of the black particles churning, smell the increasingly thick scent of decay and threat.
A massive sense of crisis, like ice-cold water poured over his head, instantly overwhelmed Andy!
Hopper had no idea what he was facing!
This wasn't an ordinary monster's nest. It was a passage connected to a terrifying energy source, filled with living traps, and potentially ready to release shadowy entities capable of eroding consciousness at any moment!
"No—!!!"
In the sensory deprivation tank, Andy immediately directed his psychic power toward Hopper's consciousness.
"Hopper! Get out of there!"
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