Stranger Things: Book 2

Chapter 23: The Red Army.

<<•••>>

StarCourt Mall

The Secret elevator plummets down the shaft. Inside, Steve, Robin, Erica, and Dustin scream. "Shit! Shit!" 

"We're going down! We're going down!"

"Yeah, no shit, Harrington!"

"Why don't these buttons work!?"

"Press the button!"

"What do you think i'm doing!?"

"Come on, press something! Just press something!"

"Push it!"

The elevator stops in a violent way causing everyone to fall over.

"My groin. It fell on my groin."

Dustin helps pick up the box that fell on Steve as everyone else starts to get up. "I can't move."

"Is everyone ok?" Robin asks everyone, touching the back of her head.

"Yeah, i'm great, now that I know Russians can't design elevators!" Steve yells, running to the buttons, pressing all of them at once.

"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work."

"They're buttons, they have to do something!"

"Yeah, if we had a keycard."

"A what?"

"It's an electronic lock. Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a card, it won't operate, meaning--" Robin walks over to Steve.

"We're stuck in here." Dustin adds.

"Yeah."

"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. But if i'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you three are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit..your..throat." Erica tells everyone sassily.

"I don't care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack's Party! Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian Elevator!" Steve spits back causing Erica to give him a weird look.

"Hey. What if we climbed out?" Dustin asks pointing to a hatch on the ceiling.

The hatch door swings open, Dustin walking out of it, everyone else following behind. They look up.

"What were you saying about climbing?" Steve sighs looking at the endless elevator shaft.

<<•••>>

Hess Farm

Hopper, with Joyce, passes a mailbox reading "Hess" in the car. He smokes his cigarette with one hand on the wheel.

"Looks like somebody's home." Hopper pulls into the driveway and sees a Lynx delivery truck, then parks. 

Hopper and Joyce slowly turn the door knob of the abandoned looking house as it creaks open. Hop puts his gun over his flashlight and sees only a single table with a white coffee mug placed on it; Joyce follows behind him with her flashlight, pointing it at an ashtray placed on a chair.

A strange noise can be heard in the distance. "Did you hear that?" Joyce looks at Hopper concerningly startled. 

They slowly walk into the next room as the light above them pulses softly. Hopper looks around a bedroom frantically and spots an uncovered mattress. "Where's that coming from?" Hop asks Joyce as the strange noise fills the room.