the view between villages // a stranger things choose-your-own-adventure

PAGE 8: Fight back

Your fresh start to Hawkins was a bust, due to evil soldiers and whatever else lurked in the dark corners of town. If you died here, it wouldn't even matter, because your dad would be waiting for you in whatever comes next.

You resign yourself to being okay with that, but something nags in the back of your mind. He wouldn't want that for you. He would want you to keep living, even though the pain of living without him felt unbearable sometimes.

"Chin up, kiddo," he would say, any time you were going through a tough time. "Face it head-on."

You could almost imagine him saying that to you now. And then you think of Steve and Robin, and Dustin and Erica, and you realize you need to get out so you can see them again and make sure they got out safely.

With a second wind, you hop off your cot and scan the room. They gave you a spoon to eat your oatmeal with. Maybe you could chisel out? It would take a while, but that works in movies, right?

Then you notice the sink on the opposite wall. The spoon could be a makeshift tool and help you unscrew the water pipe under the sink. And then maybe you could bash through...the concrete? Ugh, you're fucked.

Before you can spiral once more, you hear voices. American voices. But they aren't coming from the door. They're coming from the back corner of the cell, behind what you thought was a water stain but now looks a bit like a seam...

"Hey!" you shout, pounding on that spot of the wall. "Can anyone hear me? I need help!"

The voices pause. It's muffled, but you hear someone ask, "Hop, do you hear that?"

"HELP!" you cry out again. "PLEASE! CAN YOU HEAR ME? I NEED HELP!"

You hear someone shout, "Stand back!" You do, and then hear pounding on the wall. Thud, thud. And then, bang bang bang!

You flinch at the sound of bullets, but the firepower does the trick. The secret door swings open, revealing two Russian soldiers. Their uniforms are riddled with bullet holes and blood, but they seem relatively okay.

You panic at the sight of their uniforms, but the woman says, "Don't worry, sweetie! We're Americans too."

"How did you get those uniforms?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to," the man says gruffly. He asks for your name and you give it. The woman gasps, and the man's narrowed eyes widen slightly.

"Oh my gosh," the woman says. "You're Steve's friend!"

"You know Steve and Robin?" you say. "Oh my God, are they okay?"

"They're fine, just shaken up. But they think you—"

"We don't have time for this," the man says sharply. He turns to you. "We'll get you out of here, kid. You coming with us, or not?"

You nod and follow them into another room, where they introduce themselves as Chief Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers. They're working on some plan to blow up the laser you saw earlier and are just waiting for a signal from their friend.

Apparently, there's also a monster loose upstairs in the mall. Since it's not like things are bad enough already.

Alarms blare. Hopper and Joyce run to the door, using a stolen keycard to open it. You follow, unsure of what you're doing but wanting to stick with them. For the first time all day, you have real hope that you'll get out of this.

You three run past Russian soldiers, but they don't pay you any mind, distracted by the alarms and chaos. You end up in a vault of some sort with a wall safe.