I SMELL A NEW CHAPTER.
Y/n's pov
"Erica, do you copy?" Robin spoke into the supercom from where we were situated on the roof once again.
"Mm-hmm. I copy. You nerds in position, or what?" Erica said from the other line.
"Yeah, we're in position." Robin answered quietly, so as not to draw attention like the last time we were up on the roof. "It's quiet here, so you've got the green light."
"Green light. Got it. Commence operation: Child Endangerment." Erica said.
"Can we maybe not call it that?" I asked, taking the walkie for a second.
"See you on the other side, nerds." She responded and the line went quiet, signalling that Erica had begun her journey into the vents.
——
It was quiet on the roof for quite some time, the minutes ticking on painfully slow before we heard any sign of Erica.
"Alright, nerds. I'm there." Erica said into her headset.
"Do you see anything?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're all so excited about." She replied.
"Any guards?" Robin asked.
"Negative." Erica confirmed.
"Booby traps?" Robin asked with a smirk.
"If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps, wouldn't they?" Erica scoffed.
"Thank you for that." Robin deadpanned.
There was a second of silence before Erica's voice once again rang from the walkie.
"I'm in." She said.
"Oh, god." Steve groaned into his hands and I patted his back reassuringly.
A buzzing noise pulled all our eyes back to the doors as they opened and out walked Erica who stopped and looked up at us.
"Free ice cream. For. Life." She said, looking up to where we were.
——
The five of us stood packed together in the small space of the locked room.
We were all peering over the Imperial Panda box that Steve was cutting open.
He handed Dustin back his pocket knife after he had finished cutting the tape that had the box bound together.
Steve opened the cardboard lid and unfolded it to reveal something least expected.
There, inside of the simple cardboard box was another box, made entirely of metal with one definitely purposeful handle in the middle.
Steve glanced back at the four of us before twisting the lid as steam spilled from the container.
He discarded the lid to reveal four handles in smaller versions.
"That's definitely not Chinese food." Steve said.
"Yeah, no shit." I responded quietly.
He was about to grab one of the small handles but stopped himself.
"Uh, maybe you guys should, uh, you know, stand back." Steve said.
Robin shrugged and complied, and Erica and I took a step back but Dustin stayed put.
"No." Dustin shook his head.
"Just step back, alright?" Steve said, trying to shoo Dustin away.
"No." Dustin repeated.
"Dustin-" I tried.
"Step back!" Steve said loudly.
"No!" Dustin repeated.
"Seriously!" Steve replied.
"No!!" Dustin shouted. "If you die, I die."
The locked room went silent as we all stared at Dustin.
"Okay." Steve finally shrugged.
He turned back to the handle, and with a sharp inhale he twisted and unlocked the lid, more steam pouring out.
Steve held up the cylinder to reveal a glowing green substance.
"What the hell?" Steve said.
"What... is that?" Robin asked.
The heavy noise of grinding gears and unnerving sound of squeaky pulleys rang through our ears as we were all jerked forward.
"Is that just me or did the room move?" Dustin asked.
"I don't think that's just you." I said in a worried tone.
"Booby traps." I heard Erica mutter, actually sounding scared for once.
The small room echoed with even more and more squeaks, clicks and whirrs and Robin snapped into action.
"Okay, you know what? Let's just grab that and go." She said, snatching the cylinder containing the green substance from Steve.
Dustin ran to the panel where all the buttons were situated and started feverishly pressing 'open door'.
Nothing happened as his clicks became more and more frustrated and violent.
"Which one do I press, Erica?" He asked.
"Just press the damn button, nerd." Erica said.
"Which one do I- I'm pressing the button, okay?" Dustin said in a panic.
"Press 'open door'!" Erica shouted.
"I'm pressing 'open door'!" Dustin yelled back.
"Just open the- press the other buttons!" Steve butted in as the three of them began to shout over each other.
"Guys, just get out of the way and let her press the button!" I shouted over their voices.
"Would you stop?" Erica shouted.
"I'm trying!" Dustin yelled.
"Would you let me just do it?! Would you just stop?!" Erica yelled.
"Just open the door!" Steve shouted.
In a last ditch attempt, Steve hit every button he could see and the room jolted and began to shake, clanging and banging around us.
"Look what you did, Steve!" I shouted over the commotion.
A red barricade suddenly came over the door, blocking our only way out.
The whole room itself was suddenly plunging to the ground at an alarming speed, knocking us into the walls and floors painfully as terrified shrieks emerged from our mouths as the room dropped like the cords had snapped on an elevator.
The sudden plummet of the secret room had made sure that death was inevitably waiting for us at the bottom, if there even was a bottom.
Our screams still hadn't stopped and I wasn't sure they would anytime soon.
"SHIT! SHIIT!" Dustin shrieked, reaching for the control panel.
"WE'RE GOING DOWN!" Steve screamed, his head whipping around in panic. "WE'RE GOING DOWN!"
"YEAH, NO SHIT, HARRINGTON!" Robin yelled.
Dustin continued to slam his hand down on the buttons as I pried myself from my grip on the metal table and quickly grabbed onto him.
With one arm wrapped tightly around me, he pressed each button over and over with no result.
"WHY DON'T THESE BUTTONS WOOORK?!?" Dustin cried out again.
Erica bolted to the panel, fighting with Dustin to press the correct button.
"PRESS THE BUTTON!" she shouted at him.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK IM DOING?!" Dustin shouted back at her.
"COME ON, JUST- PRESS- SOMETHING!" Steve stuttered out.
"JUST PRESS A BUTTON!!" I yelled.
"PUSH IT!" Erica shouted.
Suddenly, the room jolted and the plummeting stopped, sending us all once again hurtling into the cold metal floors.
Robin held her head where it had collided with the metal wall and Dustin and I untangled ourselves from an uncomfortable and slightly embarrassing heap on the floor. Erica was beside us, propped up on her elbows as her face screwed up in a wince and Steve groaned from where he laid, squashed in between a shelf and the wall, the heavy package from before now on top of him.
"My groin." He wheezed. "It fell on my groin."
He took a deep breath and tried his best to push the box off of him but to no avail.
"Dustin! Get this off of me!" He called out.
Dustin finally got to his feet after helping me up and went to Steve's side, hoisting the box off of Steve and returning it to its rightful place on the shelf.
"...Is everyone okay?" Robin asked, still clutching her head.
"Yeah, I'm GREAT," Steve yelled, storming over to the control panel and shoving Dustin out of his way. "NOW THAT I KNOW RUSSIANS CAN'T DESIGN ELEVATORS!"
Dustin was shoved into me and he quickly backed up, a plethora of apologies leaving his mouth.
"Are you okay?" He asked me quietly.
"Yes and no. I'm fine, but considering I just plummeted to the ground in a secret Russian elevator, I'm not so good." I replied.
Robin sighed at Steve, stepping forward.
"Okay, we've clearly established that those buttons don't work." She said.
"They're buttons! They have to do something." Steve argued, waving his hands around.
"Yeah, if we had a keycard." I said, turning to the two of them.
"What?!" Steve asked.
"It's an electronic lock." I explained, motioning to the panel. "It's the same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning-"
"We're stuck down here." Dustin sighed from beside me.
"Yeah." Robin nodded.
Steve ran a hand through his sweaty hair, he slammed the panel door shut angrily.
"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 four are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit. Your. Throats." Erica explained, fake cutting her throat with her finger for emphasis.
"I don't CARE ABOUT TINA! Or uncle Jack's PARTY!" Steve snapped, waving his hands around. "Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!!"
Erica shot him a glare and I followed Dustin's eyes up to the ceiling.
"Hey, what if we climbed out?" He asked, pointing to a hatch.
"We could try." I shrugged. No plan was a bad plan at this point.
——
Dustin pulled me out of the hatch from where I stood on some piled up boxes and Steve joined us soon after.
The three of us looked up and all our hope was lost as we looked up at the never ending shaft that stretched on for miles until my vision got foggy and i couldn't see any farther.
When Steve finally broke the silence, even his voice seemed to bounce off the walls and get lost above us.
"What'd you say about climbing?" He asked in hopelessness.
Word count: 1605
Aweee yeah