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### Required beats 1. Opens in the Wheeler house: Holly present, Ted on couch, Karen in kitchen, Mike and kids visible. 2. Nancy drives Mike and the kids to Family Video, naturally showing the old world and relationships. 3. Nancy goes to the library. 4. Day Zero hits Hawkins. 5. Robin and Steve flee to the library. 5
### World / body / threat Early summer Day Zero to first week. Phones/landlines/cells fail in stages. Water and electricity become unreliable. Show living people through doors that do not open, cars, panic, warnings, looting or avoidance. Living dead are present but the trio learns rules through action, not genre know
### Objects Nancy's phone stays with Nancy. Steve's phone stays with Steve. Karen's letter, maps, supplies and Steve's car carry forward.
### Exit point The trio leaves Hawkins with the regional evacuation direction and no certainty. Steve leaves in functional shock after stopping his parents; Chapter 003 must continue the grief rather than reset him. ---
## Chapter 003, The Shape of Three
### Purpose First road chapter. Turn Nancy, Robin and Steve into a functional survival shape without making Ronance a couple yet.
### Required beats 1. Months on the road through lived stations, not montage. 2. Steve drives, carries, fixes, guards, takes first hits, notices water/cold/silence. 3. Steve is not emotionally reset after killing his parents. He begins in functional shock and hyperfunction: driving too long, sleeping badly, overprotec
### World / body / threat Late summer into fall. Show heat turning to chill, bad sleep, food/water decisions, injuries, hygiene, periods, dirty clothes, roadblocks, moving vehicles at a distance and dead drawn by sound.
### Exit point The trio has become a system because they know not only how each person works, but how each person breaks and how the others stay. Steve is functioning and capable, but his parents remain an active wound. ---
## Chapter 004, The Year That Made Him Necessary
### Purpose Deepen the trio until Steve's apparent death is believable and devastating.
### Required beats 1. More months of road survival through dense stations. 2. Steve's parents remain an integrated wound, not a repeated climax and not erased. A smaller trigger or behavior shows the aftermath still active, while laughter, competence and ordinary life have also returned. 3. Robin is in love with Nancy
### World / body / threat The road must include people. Someone's trap, claimed place or ambush logic contributes. Living dead come through sound and pressure. Weather and road conditions make extraction impossible for Nancy/Robin.
### Exit point Nancy and Robin leave Steve behind believing he is dead or unreachable. Robin exits in active rupture; Nancy exits in functional control. Chapter 005 must continue both trajectories separately. ---
## Chapter 005, The Pink Wrapper Before the Door
### Purpose Ronance after Steve. Make grief, kiss, body, Virginia failure and Shell approach one living arc.
### Required beats 1. Begins immediately after leaving Steve. 2. Robin's grief remains physically volatile: disbelief, rage, crying, pain, attempts to turn back, compulsive speech and periods of silence. Do not compress her into one breakdown. 3. Nancy's grief remains distinct: movement, route, wound care, self-blame,
### World / body / threat Fall toward Month 16. Hunger, water, dirty clothes, menstrual/hygiene needs, road danger, human traces and living dead pressure must stay physical. Shell approach must include caution, sound, line of sight, and a door moment.
### Exit point Ronance reaches Shell's edge. First contact waits for Chapter 006. ---
## Chapter 006, The Door That Did Not Open Quickly