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IT felt like they had been walking for days, but in actuality, it had probably only been an hour. The corridor was long and skinny, and Veronica silently wondered if it went on forever. The end was nigh, plunged into darkness, and haunting her as they got closer and closer. "It's like a never-ending wormhole," Dustin had said once. "Do you think we've been walking in circles this whole time?"
They all rolled their eyes, but there was a tiny inkling in Veronica's brain that questioned if he was right. She tended to doubt the younger boy sometimes, and it never worked well in her favor.
Veronica hugged her arms around herself as a chill passed through the air. This place was air conditioned more than the actual mall. Steve thought to himself if now was the right time to put his arm around Veronica as goosebumps raised on her arms, but considering that they were now walking through a secret Russian base, he decided that wasn't the best option.
"I really wish Robin was here right now," Veronica exhaled, trudging alongside the group. Her boots squeaked against the clean, canvas floors. "I can guarantee that one of those maps would be very useful to us right now, considering we're – um – lost in an underground facility run by the Russians."
"At least we can enjoy the scenery," Dustin suggested while gesturing to the walls around them. "I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."
Steve narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about? It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs. There's no exit. There's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."
"Would be nice if we had one of those carts so we wouldn't have to walk all this way," Veronica added, crossing her arms over her chest. "But, to be fair, this hallway probably isn't meant to be walked. They probably only use it for transportation to the main headquarters, if my assumptions are correct."
Dustin agreed with a nod. "You got a point, lady," he wagged his finger in Veronica's direction. "These guys have developed the perfect system for transporting cargo. It all comes into the mall like any old delivery. And then they load it up onto those trucks, and nobody's the wiser."
"You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asked.
Veronica wrinkled her nose. "That shit was definitely not poison. I'm telling you, it looked like the goo from those aliens in the Deadly Spawn."
"It's gotta be much more valuable," Dustin continued, "like promethium or something."
Steve raised an inquisitive brow. "What the hell is promethium?"
