Stranger Things - Steve Harrington X Reader

Chapter 8: The Battle Of Starcourt

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Max affirms.

"But if we close the gate again-" Will starts.

"We cut the brain off from be body." Max continues.

"And kill it." Lucas finishes. "Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo!" The bum from before, who I now know is called Murray, calls from within the mall as he waved papers around. He approaches us and sets the papers down on a nearby table. "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'." He points to a location on one of the papers. "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asks as he looks at the papers.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." Murray says, pointing to spots on the papers.

"More like 500." Erica steps up. Murray looks at her with a look that I can't place on his face, but I see annoyance. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's some commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asks.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

"Murray... Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?"

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

"Erica!" Lucas scolds.

"Just the facts!" Erica argues.

"She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may I?" Dustin steps up to the table and gestures to the papers.

"Please." Murray smiles, annoyed.

Dustin sits down on the nearby chair and pulls the papers to himself. "Okay, see this room here?" He circles a spot on the papers with Murray's pencil. "This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon." He draws a line to the weapon room. "It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

"You can show us the way?" Hopper asks doubtfully.

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators." Dustin smiles.

Hopper smiles back. "No." Dustin's smile falls. Hopper shrugs. "Nope."

...

Steve and I sit on the counter of a nearby shop as everyone does their own thing to get ready. Steve sits next to me and holds my hand comfortingly, yet discreetly. We don't think some people would be happy seeing us together, ahemJonathanahem, so we decided to keep it a secret until it's a good time. We sit there in silence.

We let go of each other's hands when Dustin and Erica come to us saying that we need to get to Dustin's radio tower that is situated at the highest point in Hawkins.

Before we leave, I go to Mom. "Mom." I call to her as I jog her way and she turns around.

"Oh, sweetie." She holds her arms out and I wrap mine around her in a hug and she does the same.

"Please be safe." I mutter into her shoulder. "I can't lose you. We can't lose you." I say, referring to Jonathan, Will and I.

"I am going to come back, I promise you." She smiles with teary eyes as she pulls back and holds my face. "I love you, so much." She sniffles.