𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 ✧ robin buckley

10 | the key

Everyone was sighing in relief as Steve shut the door, but Azalea stood like a deer in headlights.

She whispered to Steve beside her, "We've got company."

The group all turned slowly and stared worriedly at the man at the comms table. He soon became aware of their presence, swiveling around in his chair, sharing their look of shock.

Azalea had the passing thought of how confused he must be—especially because of how ridiculous they all looked. Two of them were clad in sailors uniforms, one had a 'My Little Pony' backpack, and they were all just teens and kids.

The Russian man started to reach for the gun in his belt holster.

"действовать осторожно!" Robin suddenly spouted, walking towards the man, a protective arm in front of the group, "действовать осторожно!"

Azalea realized she was saying 'tread lightly', regurgitating some of the code she remembered.

She was insane. In a stupidly brave way.

The man responded in confusion, though no one knew what he said.

Robin continued, stepping closer still, "серебряный кот."

Silver cat.

It wasn't working. The man only got more agitated as his confusion grew, and he reached for his gun again.

Azalea pulled Robin away by the hand from the man quickly by the hand, scared of what was going to happen next.

Steve surprised them all and burst in anger, roaring towards the man. He took him down before he could reach his weapon.

The group all watched helplessly as the Russian man swung, Steve barely dodging it. Azalea winced as the man slammed him into a control desk, and then grabbed him by the back of his Scoops uniform.

Steve then grasped onto a speaker from the desk, and in a single hard blow, he knocked the Russian over the head with it. The man melted to the ground unconscious.

Gasping for air, Steve fixed his hair while the rest of the group gaped in awe.

"Dude!" Dustin yelled, a grin spreading across his face, "You did it! You won a fight!"

The group all pulled in deep breaths of calm, finally being safe for the time being.

"Thanks, by the way," Robin told Azalea, referring to pulling her away from the armed Russian earlier, "I don't know what I was thinking."

That's when she realized they were still holding hands. Heart rate rising fast, Azalea's cheeks flushed slightly as she dropped Robin's hand, "Sorry."

Robin looked as if she was going to say something, but she was cut off by Erica and Dustin bickering.

"What are you doing?" Erica asked condescendingly.

Dustin grabbed a key card from the unconscious Russian, "Getting us our ticket out of here."

"You want to walk all the way back?" Erica glared.

"Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe." Dustin retorted sarcastically.

"Have a picnic? We came here for the radio."

"This plan is way better. If I knew Steve could knock out a Russian, that would've been our plan in the first place."

"I'm with Dustin," Azalea added standing beside them, "It's not ideal, but it's better than sitting and waiting like sitting ducks for someone to possibly hear our broadcast for help."