Stranger Teens ✓

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Hey, hey, hey! Be careful, careful, careful!" Robin rushed over to her and I was soon to follow. She takes it away from her. "We don't even know what that is."

"Exactly," Erica sasses. "It could be useful."

"Userful how?" I crossed my arms at the little girl.

"We can survive down here a long time without food," she begins. "But if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

"I hate to break it to you, but this is not water." Robin gestures towards the cylinder with the green substance in it.

"No, but its a liquid," Erica points out. "And if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."

"Language," I warned with a scowl on my face.

She looked at me up and down. "You're not my Mum."

Robin scoffs. I heard a distant electronic whirring sound behind us and I glanced back at the door. I stepped towards the wall and pressed my ear against it.

I then popped up through the hatch to warn the boys. "We've got company,"

They looked down at me. I jumped up, Erica and Robin following me. We stayed here until we knew it was coast clear. I watched the two Russians take boxes from the grated ceiling panel. We all sat around it because that's the place where we can't be seen.

Steve reaches out a warning hand then holds his finger in front of his mouth, indicating for us to be quiet.

Steve locks eyes with Erica who holds the cylinder. Steve and I jumped down with the children in Steve's hand and before the door could close, Steve placed the cylinder under the door to stop it from closing.

"Let's go," Steve informs us and with that, one by one, we all go through the gap, Steve hurrying everyone along.

I watched as the cylinder begins to crack. "Come on, Steve lets go!" I hurried him as he shimmied through the gap and before the door could close on him, the cylinder breaks and the green fluids splatters.

The green fluid was practically burning on the ground.

"Jesus Christ," Steve speaks as Stiles helps me up from the ground.

Robin looks at Erica. "You still wanna drink that?"

"Holy mother of God," Dustin had turned around and I turned around after him. My eyes widen.

Oh My God. We were faced with a long tunnel, it seems to be never-ending. "Well..." Stiles begins. "Hope you guys are in good shape." He pats Dustin shirt before grabbing my hand. "Looking at you, roast beef."

I turned around to them. "Let's go, come on."

-

"I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive," Stiles informs us as we continue to walk the long tunnels.

"What are you talking about?" Steve looked at him. "It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, no exits, there's just an elevator that drops you to halfway to hell."

I had to giggle at that one.

"They're Commies." Erica looked up at Steve. "You don't pay people, they cut corners."

"To be fair to our Russian comrades," I begin. "I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking. Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

"It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," Dustin continues on for me.

"And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser," Robin finished.

"You think they built this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asks from beside me.

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison," Stiles tells Steve. "It's gotta be much more valuable like... promethium or something."

"What the hell is promethium?" Steve questions.

"It's what Victor Stone's Dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," Robin explains.

"You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill." Erica informs us.

"No, no, no." Steve stops her. "No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right?"

"Why so sensitive, Harrington?" I tease. "Afaird of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?"

"No," Steve denied. "I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus."

"Promethium," Dustin corrects. "Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever."

Stiles cuts them off. "All I'm saying is it's probably being used to make something."

"Or power something," Robin adds.

"Like a nuclear weapon?" I looked over at my two friends.

"Totally," Robin made eye contact with me and smiled.

"Walking towards a nuclear weapon," Steve responses sarcastically. "That's great. That'd be great."

"Oh, you sound so much like Stiles," I tell Steve, groaning slightly.

"No, he sounds like you," Dustin tells me.

"You're right, I've been spending too much time with him," I pressed my lips together.

"But if they're building something," Robin continues on. "Why here? I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places. At the very best, we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland,"

I drowned Robin's voice out and stopped completely, Stiles, Steve, and Dustin stopping as well. Steve looks at us. "You think the Russians know?"

"About..."

"They could," Stiles quietly said.

I looked at them. "So it's connected?"

"Maybe," Dustin murmured.

"How?" Steve asks.

"I don't know, but its..."

"Possible," we all say at the same time.

Robin noticed that we stopped and turns around with Erica. "I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

We all share a quick look, before man's Russian voice came along on the walkie. "Walkie," Dustin, Steve, and I all said before rushing towards Erica's bag.

Erica had dropped the bag on the floor and pulled out the walkie, we all kneel to the ground. Robin takes the walkie pulls up the integer.

Robin looks at us. "It's the code."

"Wherever that broadway cast is coming from-"

"It's close," I finished. "And if there's one thing we know about that signal..."

Dustin sent me a smile, making eye contact with me. "It can reach the surface."

"Let's go,"

A/N

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