S3 x E05 — The Flayed
DONT FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT PLEASE!
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The screaming in the elevator kept going as they went down. Erica and Dustin were screaming at eachother, Robin was holding onto the wall for a dear life. While Steve was yelling with Melanie by his side trying to shut him up.
"Shit! Shit"
"We're going down! We're going down!" Steve screamed as Melanie put her hand on his mouth making him keep yelling but muffled.
Robin yelled back, "Yeah, no shit, Harrington!"
Dustin and Erica kept pushing the buttons, "Why don't these buttons work?"
"Press the button!"
"What do you think I'm doing?!"
The elevator started shaking more and since Melanie wasn't holding onto anything she went down with one major smack. She landed on her head making her unconscious.
Steve his eyes went wide as she kept screaming but now also in fear for his girl, "Come on, press something! Just press the button!"
Dustin kept screaming as Erica screamed at Dustin, "Push it!"
Suddenly the elevator stopped and everyone except Melanie who was already on the floor fell.
"Oh! My groin. It fell on my groin!"
Robin held her head in pain ignoring Steve his comments, "Nobody cares about your groin! Melanie is dead!"
Erica yelled, "She's knocked out idiots! Not dead!"
Robin shook her head, "Nope pretty sure she's dead."
Steve knew how panicked Robin could get in situations like this, knowing Melanie was fine he took her pulse feeling a light heartbeat. Robin sighed in relief when Steve told her she was fine.
Melanie groaned slowly waking up. She held her head in pain, as it hadn't had enough time to heal yet. "Lord, is everyone okay?" She asked looking up.
"Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!"
Melanie her eyes went wide at his reaction lightly laughing. She slowly got up as Robin helped her. Robin cleared her throat, "I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work."
"They're buttons. They have to do something."
Melanie snorted, "Doesn't work like that."
"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 keycard, it won't operate, meaning—"
Dustin groaned realizing, "We're stuck in here."
Robin sighed, "Yeah." Steve closed the little door to the buttons in anger, annoyed.
"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 throat."
Steve put his hands on one of the boxes in anger, "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!"
Dustin cleared his throat, "Hey. What if we climbed out?"
After Steve and Dustin found out the climbing is physically not possible they went back in deciding to sleep and try again in the morning.
The next morning Dustin was on top of the elevator trying to get a signal, "Code red, I repeat, code red. Does anyone copy? This is a code red, I repeat, a code red. This is a code red, I repeat, a code red. Does anyone copy? We are innocent children and we are trapped under Starcourt Mall. The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins, and if we are found, they will torture and kill us."
Steve climbed up, "Hey. Gotta take it easy on that thing. Gonna drain the battery."
"The mall just opened."
"So?"
"So someone could be in range."
"What do you think, Petey the Mall Cop is gonna rappel down here and save the day?"
"All right, why are you such a cranky pants after getting to spend the night with Melanie?"
"Shh! Jesus Christ. Will you just stop snooping around in my relationship?"
Dustin gave him a smirk, "I heard you guys talking all night."
"We were trying to figure out a way to open up the door while you children were sleeping. After eight hours, we're still exactly nowhere, which is, you know, probably just a little bit of the reason why I'm feeling just... a tad cranky."
Steve starts unzipping his pants making Dustin look confused, "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking a leak. Look away. Look away!"
Inside the elevator Robin points to Steve's piss in disgust. Melanie is sitting on the floor; her face is turning white as she hasn't fed on human blood for a while she scoffs seeing the pee, "Can you redirect your stream, please?"
Steve redirects it like asked making both girls gag, "Ugh."
Melanie was really good with controlling her blood lust, but if you're trapped for over a day with only humans it's getting a bit difficult.
Erica starts smalling the metal with the green liquid making both girls look up in shock, "Hey, hey! Be careful, careful, careful! We don't even know what that is."
"Exactly. It could be useful."
"Useful how?"
"We can survive down here a long time without food, but if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."
"I hate to break it to you, but this is not water."
"No, but it's a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."
Robin scoffs and looks up as she hears people in the distance, "We've got company."
Erica climbs up the elevator, Robin following behind who's helping Melanie up. The two russians walk in grabbing a few boxes and leaving soon after, closing the door behind.
The door is still a little bit open. Steve hurries putting the metal in between it. "Let's go. Go. Go, go, go, go, go."
"I'm going!"
"Henderson. Go, go."
Robin follows after Erica and Dustin go, Melanie goes after Robin. Melanie struggles not having much energy but Robin and Steve help her. Steve quickly goes next just barely making it. The metal breakd and the green liquid sizzles.
"Jesus Christ."
"Ooh! You still wanna drink that?"
Dustin turns, "Holy mother of God."
Steve sighs seeing the long way they need to walk. He puts his arms around Melanie carrying her along, "Well... hope you guys are in good shape. Looking at you, roast beef. Let's go, come on."
Melanie gives her boyfriend a thankful smile. Steve gives one back but also getting worried what will happen if she doesn't feed soon enough.
Dustin turns to Robin offended, "Why me?"
Halfway the walk Melanie passed out again. Everyone was worried and rushing hoping there was something they could do to get out here before Melanie would actually die.
"I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."
"What are you talking about?" Steve asked who was carrying a passed out Melanie, bridal style.
"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."
"They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners."
"To be fair to our Russian comrades, 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."
"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?"
"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison. It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something."
"What the hell is promethium?"
"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components."
"You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill."
"No, no, no. No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right?"
"Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?"
"No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus."
"Promethium. Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever. All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something."
"Or power something."
"Like a nuclear weapon?"
"Totally."
"Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That's great. That'd be great."
"But if they're building something, why here? I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places. At the very best, we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland, but maybe that's it. Maybe it's our very..."
Robin and Erica kept walking as Dustin and Steve stopped in they're track realizing something, "You think the Russians know?"
"About..."
"They could."
"So it's connected?"
"Maybe."
"How?"
"I don't know, what I do know is that we need to find Melanie a blood source, but it's..."
Steve looks at the passed out Melanie in his arms agreeing with Dustin. Both nod in agreement, "Possible."
Robin turns around, "I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"
Suddenly a man is heard speaking Russian, Dustin rushes to the walkie-talkie as Steve follows behind careful not to drop Melanie by running.
The man on the walkie continues in Russian as Robin tries translating it, "A trip to China sounds nice. If you tread lightly. It's the code."
"Wherever that broadcast is coming from..."
"It's close. And if there's one thing we know about that signal..."
"It can reach the surface."
"Let's go."
After more and more walking they finally made it out of the long pathway. Robin was now carrying Melanie as Steve was checking all the corners, "Okay, clear. Clear, come on, let's go."
"Okay, that was close."
"Too close."
"Relax. All right? Relax. Nobody saw..."
They turn the corner walking right into a room full of workers and Russian people. Steve ducks in panick, "Shit. Jesus!"
"Red Dawn."
"I saw it. First floor, northwest."
"Saw what?"
"The comms room."
"You saw the comms room?"
"Correct."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there."
"That could be a hundred different things."
Robin turned to Steve, "I'll take those odds. We need to hurry. If Melanie doesn't wake soon we will.."
Steve panicked, "Yeah! I know Robin. I know."
Steve turns to the rest, "All right. We're gonna move fast, we're gonna stay low. Okay?"
"Okay."
They all start following Steve trying to be sneaky. "Shh! Move it. Let's go. Sh, sh. Come on."
They turned and all freeze seeing a Russian soldier. The man tries grabbing his gun but Robin speaks to him in Russian. "Tread lightly! Tread lightly!"
The man speaks back in Russian, "Who are you?"
"Silver cat... Silver cat."
"I don't understand."
"China?" The man scoffs trying to grab his gun. When suddenly Steve starts yelling as he sprints towards him.
He tries to tackle the man to the floor but gets pushed away. Steve ducks away from a punch and hits him back. The man lands on the control pad and then on the floor, his head starts bleeding and suddenly Melanie's eyes open.
"Dude! You did it! You won a fight!"
Steve looked at the knocked out man proudly. Before Robin could even try to stop Melanie from killing someone, Melanie already used her superspeed. Speeding over to the knocked out body of the man. Before she knew it her fangs were in the man's neck, almost sucking him dry.
Steve speeded over to her, "Mel! Mel! Melanie! Stop."
Melanie looked up quickly, her veins around her eyes were visible as blood was around her mouth. Her eyes softened as she saw Steve and realized what she was doing.
"I'm sorry." Melanie said with tears in her eyes. Steve pulled her in for a hug rubbing her back, "It's okay. It's okay. I'm here. It's alright."
In the meantime Dustin took the keys from the unconscious man. Which lead to an argument between him and Erica. Meanwhile Robin found out that the Russians have made they're own portal to the upside down.
She came back down the stairs where Melanie had cleaned the tears and blood from her face. The color in her face was returning as she finally had some blood in her system again.
"Guys. There's something up there."
The four of then followed behind Robin. They're eyes went wide. Dustin, Steve and Melanie realizing what it was.
"Holy shit."