Risky Business ｡ Stranger Things

19 : The Dead Zone

"We gotta go. We gotta!" Hopper rumbled. And around him, Prue could see an unconscious Will Byers with his mother standing over him with a syringe in her small hands. Bob Newby and Mike Wheeler were standing close by the bed, both with pasty white faces and fear reflecting in their eyes. Hopper didn't hesitate, didn't stop to think, just scooped up Will's limp body and headed back into the hallway; the rest of the gang following.

"We should've gone home. Like you had suggested," Grey said to his older sister over the alarms, his pale face washed in blinking orange light. She wanted to say something comforting or reassuring but no words formed on her tongue. So, she wrapped one arm around his shoulders, guiding him to go in front of her, leaving her at the end of the pack. She could still hear screams and gunfire and people running in every direction: it was chaos. The group got stuck in one hallway and were forced into the closest room: the surveillance room. Joyce's shrieks were still ringing in Prue's eardrums when the door was closed and locked. Inside the room, the outside sounds were muffled behind the closed door and the concrete walls, but it didn't make it any better. Hopper popped down Will and Joyce flocked to his side, with Mike standing close, probably feeling as helpless as Prue and Grey did. The Owens siblings were crouched against a shelf of old surveillance footage and Prue's eyes flashed towards the wall of screens showcasing the laboratory and all the people dying and the monsters crawling the halls. She couldn't decide what she was feeling the most: scared, useless or glad she was inside this room and not out in the cold and shadowed hallways with shouts and echoes of gunshots. And Prue wasn't the only one to be stilled by the surveillance footage playing on the screens. Everyone had turned and stopped, taking in the horror and distress that played through live video streams from the lab's cameras. Joyce gave a gasp, her hand flying to cover her mouth and Bob muttered heavenly curses while Sam dragged a hand over his eyes and forehead. The monsters were everywhere and people were dying or dead everywhere, the hallways running red with blood. The lights flickered overhead and the screens crackled with fuzzy static and the group were shoved into darkness. Grey clutched at Prue's side, his body shaking with fear.

"Oh, my god. Oh, my god," Joyce stammered, her tiny voice weak with fear and distress. The laboratory's power had been shut off and only the monsters screeching outside broke the eerie silence. Boiling tears welled in Prue's eyes and she tightened her arms around Grey, wishing she had insisted that they go home hours beforehand. Or at the very least kept her flashlight on her.

"Prue? Grey? Are you both okay?" Sam's voice sounded in the darkness, and it was a small comfort.

"Yeah, mostly. You know, besides the fact that we're stuck in a creepy as fuck laboratory with creepy as fuck monsters trying to kill us and no idea why this is all happening," Prue offered through a throat thick with tears.

"I'm so sorry, Dad. We shouldn't have broken in or stolen your access card. I regret everything now!" Grey choked out, his honesty and regret matching the fear in his wavering voice.

"I knew I didn't just misplace my card!" Sam groaned in the darkness. "It's okay. Everything is going to be okay," he added, but his tone wasn't very reassuring or confident. Someone did find a flashlight though, the beam cutting away the darkness. Sam was already moving, scavenging around in the drawers. He pulled out a blueprint of the lab and Hopper grew closer as he pointed out their location and then the nearest exit. Grey finally let go of Prue, his breathing calming down and he had started to look around the room, always exploring and collecting recon even in the face of impending death. "All the locks are fail secure," Sam was explaining to Hopper, Joyce and Bob. "If there's a power outage, the building goes into full lockdown." Dread stirred in Prue's stomach as she wiped the back of her hand across her wet cheeks.

"Can it be unlocked remotely?" Bob Newby asked, his clever brain already ticking ahead. Mike Wheeler was listening intently, but his eyes kept drifting back to Grey still going through drawers.