Ahoy? | Steve Harrington

chapter eight: the battle of starcourt (p1)

"Yes, exactly," Nancy nodded.

"Yeah, okay, we're just making sure," Steve told her. Joyce interjected.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked.

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive," Max responded.

"But if we close the gate again--" I cut Will off. (Soz Will)

"We cut the brain off from the body," I nodded, "Like last time." 

"And kill it," Lucas added, "Theoretically." We sat in silence for a moment until it was interrupted by that guy who walked in with papers.

"Yoo-hoo!" He shook the papers over his head and placed them down on a table, "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub.' Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." Alexei? Who even is this guy?

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked.

"Right here," The guy answered pointing to a place on his map, "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." Only 50 feet?

"More like 500," Erica corrected him, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

The guy was shocked, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair," She quirked her eyebrow at him, "Who are you?"

"Murray...Bauman," He responded.

"Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you," She says directing it at everyone, "you're all gonna die."

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" He questioned.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" I laughed at her snide remark.

"Erica!" Lucas was baffled by his sister's choice of language.

"Just the facts!" She turned to him. 

"She's right, though," I agreed with the small girl.

"You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me," Dustin walked past everyone to the maps, "Sorry, may I?"

"Please," Murray said sarcastically.

"Okay, see this room here?" Dustin pointed to a room, "This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way." Erica nodded in agreement to his as Hopper looked unsure.

"You can show us?" He was not convinced.

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your..." Dustin paused dramatically, "navigators."

Hopper smiled and shook his head slightly, "No. Nope."

.

Everybody was getting ready for their own parts of this 'mission.' I took this time to have a conversation with Max about everything I missed/everything she missed.