✓ Adventures In Babysitting / Steve Harrington ¹

𝙭𝙭𝙞. rise of the nerds

The air grows hot, dangerously hot as they approach the bright beam of light.  Abby feels the sweat start to bead above her brow, her skin feels dangerously warm, any second now and she feels that she'll melt.  The light that it emits is almost blinding and Abby has to hold up an arm to shield her eyes from the beam of electricity.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!" Dustin pants before he takes a deep breath and squeals.  "HOLY SHIT!"

"Guards!  Go!" Erica screams. 

They turn to see the guards charging at them with malicious grins spread across their faces that sends chills down Abby's spine.  Steve shouts for them to follow and leads the way down the nearest staircase, shoving more guards out of their way and pushing over a stack of large barrels.  Abby watches them topple like bowling pins.  Any other time, she would feel more than just a small twinge of guilt as the guards get buried under the cylinders of metal, but today she's too clouded by the adrenaline that rushes through her veins and the desperation to get out of there to spare a second glance toward the Russians.

They burst through a nearby door.  Steve slams the door shut behind him and holds it closed the best he can with his arms.  Banging sounds from the other side as the Russians pound their fists against the metal.  The door bucks from beneath Steve as he continues to hold it shut, but Abby knows that it won't last long.  Robin scrambles into action and joins Steve at the door, leaning her shoulder against it and putting all of her weight into keeping the door shut.  Dustin and Erica have scrambled up the stairs and kneel before one of the grates as they pry it open.  Abby stands perfectly in the center of it all, stuck at an impossible crossroads.

Her father had told her once of the paradox, Buridan's ass, in which a donkey that is equally as starved as it is hungry is placed precisely between a bale of hay and a bucket of water.  It continues on to say that the donkey will die of both hunger and thirst because it cannot make its mind up about which way to go.  Abby supposes that she's the donkey in this situation.  She can help Steve and Robin hold the door shut long enough for Dustin and Erica to escape with the small hope that they don't get caught, or she can scramble up the stairs and join Erica and Dustin to make sure that they stay safe. 

Luckily, Steve makes the decision for her.  "Abby, just go!  Go get some help and keep those two safe!"

Abby doesn't have to be told twice.  With shaking limbs and a heart-sinking in guilt she steals one last glance back at Robin and Steve before stumbles up the stairs.  Erica has already disappeared under the flooring, but Dustin stays standing, watching in horror as the door buckles underneath the weight of Robin and Steve once again. 

"Dustin!" She screeches.  "Go!"

"I won't forget you!" Dustin calls toward Steve before Abby shoves his head under the flooring.

"We'll come back for you, I promise!" Abby screams before she too ducks under the grate. 

With a final, reverberating slam, the grate closes above her, sealing them off from the rest of the world.  But they're far from safe.  The Russians are bursting into the room above them, shouting and clamoring as she, Dustin, and Erica crawl as quickly and quietly as they can away from the room.

✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*

They take solace in the wide air vents by a humming, circulating fan.  The walls around them are cold and smooth, easily big enough to fit a grown adult within them, but despite their size, Abby can't help but feel as though the walls are constricting around her.  She thinks about the friends she has left behind at the mercy of the Russians, about the promise she had made to them before she had disappeared beneath the flooring.  She only hopes that they all survive long enough for her to keep her word.