tw - violence, underage drug usage
Mike! Mike!
He can't hear you.
SAVANNAH SLOWLY DRIFTED BACK into consciousness. Her head falling forwards making her snap up in her seat. "Honestly, I don't really feel anything." Steve muttered.
"Where am I?" Savannah whispered. "You guys feel anything?" Steve asked the girls. "I mean, I... I feel fine. I feel normal." Robin said. "Don't move your head too fast." Savannah advised. Steve chuckled. "I kinda feel good."
The three broke into laughter. "You wanna know a secret?" Robin asked. "I like it, too!" She giggled.
"They messed up the drug." Savannah slurred. "They messed it up!" Robin exclaimed. "Morons. Hey, morons!" She called. They continued to yell for the Russian guards. "Oh, no. There's definitely something wrong with us." Robin's eyes were wide open. "Something's wrong."
The buzzer for the door went off as it opened, in walked the doctor, a Russian soldier, and the head guard. Savannah was high but she still registered who it was. Her eyes went to the doctor who was unpacking a lot of sharp and pointy things from his bag. Robin nervously laughed. "Would now be a good time to tell you that I don't like doctors?" She asked, shaking her head.
"Let's try this again, yes?" The head guard stood in front of Steve. Steve just nodded. "Who do you work for?"
"Scoops." Steve chuckled. "Scoops Ahoy." Robin broke into laughter making Savannah laugh as well. "How did you find us?" The Russian man continued to question. "Totally by accident."
The man looked up at the doctor, saying something in Russian. The doctor nodded and turned to his table filled with medical tools picking up plier like ones. "What is that shiny little toy?" Steve asked cluelessly as the doctor walked over to him. The doctor grabbed Steve's hands preparing to rip his fingernail off. "Woah, woah, woah, hey, hey." Steve said. "Stop, stop! There was a code!" Savannah yelled. Robin nodded. "Yes. A code. We heard a code!" The doctor froze.
The head Russian guard walked in front of the girls. "What code?" He asked. Savannah lightly nudged Robin as a silent way of saying "Tell him.". Robin nodded. ""The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west." Blah, blah, blah." She said before chuckling. "You broadcast that stupid spy shit all over town, and we picked it up on our Cerebro, and we cracked it in a day. A day!" The Buckley girl exclaimed happily. Savannah just nodded along. "You think you're so smart, but a couple of kids who scoop ice cream for a living cracked your code in a day, and now, people know you're here."
"Who knows we are here, little bitch?" He yelled at the girl. "Uh, well, Dustin knows." Steve said with a smile as if he wasn't being held at gunpoint. "Hey, Steve?" Robin tried to stop the boy from talking. "Yeah, Dustin Henderson, he knows." Steve continued. "Steve!" Both girls yelled at the same time.
"Dustin Henderson." The guard repeated. "It is your small, curly-haired friend?" Steve smiled. "Oh, curly-haired. Great hair. Small. Kind of like a 'fro. Yeah." Steve nodded. "Where is he?" The man asked, walking in front of Steve. "Oh.. he's long gone, you big asshole. And he's probably calling Hopper, and Hopper's calling the US cavalry." Steve laughed. "They've gonna come in here, commando-style, guns a-blazin', and kick your sorry asses back to Russia. You're gonna be two pieces of toast."
Robin made a squeaking sound as she laid her head back on her friends who also broke into laughter. "Is that so?" The man asked, crouching to Steve's height level. Steve shrugged. "Yeah."
They continued to laugh a little but stopping at the sound of an alarm blaring. Much like the one that went off once they had found out the kids were down here. Steve turned to the man giving him a smug look.
The officer left the room, the doctor staying and standing by the three kids. The door slammed opened again revealing Dustin and Erica running in, Dustin slamming a pole like weapon into the doctors chest which electrocuted him making him fall to the floor.
"Damn, Curly-fries!" Savannah laughed proudly as he dropped the weapon. "Hey! Henderson! That's crazy, I was just talking about you." Steve muttered. "Oh, my God." Robin smiled as the Henderson child undid the binding around their bodies. "Get ready to run." Dustin removed one of the bindings.
•••
AS ELEVEN GOT CLOSER to the storm like whirlwind she heard voices coming from it. She saw a man gripping young Billy's arm, yelling at him.
The boy jerked out of his grip, running away from the man. Eleven ran after Billy and into the middle of the storm.
Thunder-clapped as she got into the middle seeing the same man along with Billy's mom and a young Billy. She now guessed the man was Billy's dad.
They were fighting back and fourth about Billy's mom coming back later, the father accusing her of cheating. Billy's dad started to get physical making Billy jump up and yell as his dad, his dad only threw him to the side before sending a punch to his mom.
Billy's small voice appeared again, this time she saw him on the phone with what seemed to be his mom, begging for her to come home.
A small body ran behind her making her turn to see a slightly older Billy chasing after a kid, body slamming the kid down to the ground and punching them over and over and over again, using the same words his dad had used for him.
The next memory she noticed was his father introducing someone to him. That someone being Max which he hadn't looked pleased about. Anyone could tell that just by his face.
"Who's there?" Billy's voice from the present suddenly yelled. Eleven turned around as Billy continued to ask the question. Ahead of her sat headlights from a car and as she got closer she heard Billy's screams.
Eleven make her way through the hurricane, finding herself at a place that was located in Hawkins. Her eyes went to a crashed car in the bushes before they darted above her.
Back in the real world Eleven was panting, the kids continued to anxiously watch her. "I think I found it. The source." Eleven said. "Where, El? Where are you?" Max asked.
Eleven's eyes averted from the top of the storm and towards the building near where Billy's car had crashed. "Brimborn SteelWorks." Is what the sign on the building read. "Brimborn SteelWorks." El answered the red-head.
Jonathan got up from his seat and ran towards the kitchen, grabbing the book he had originally been using to find numbers for Nancy to call. He flipped through the pagers muttering the name of the location, Nancy running up beside him to help. "Here, steel." He said, surveying the page. "Found it. Six-five-two-two Cherry Oak Drive." He read out the address. "That's close." Nancy said, looking up at the older Byers boy.
"El, El, we found it. Get out of there." Mike yelled to the girl in the void.
Eleven from inside the void closed her eyes, everything that had happened to Billy flashing in her memories before she ripped off the blindfold, only to find she was alone in the cabin. None of the kids were there. Nancy or Jonathan weren't there. No one was there.
"Mike?" She yelled, standing from the floor. "Mike! Mike!" Her voice echoed throughout the cabin. No one was there. "He can't hear you." A deep voice from behind her said making Eleven slowly turn. Billy came around the corner, staring directly into El's eyes.
"You shouldn't have looked for me. Because now I see you." He burned a cigarette out in an ashtray before walking towards Eleven. "Now we can all see you." El let out stressed and anxious breaths as Billy walked forwards. "You... let us in." With every step Billy took towards her Eleven stepped away from him. "And now... you are going to have to let us stay."
The brunette girl shook her head, tears welling in her eyes as she backed away. "Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it." Billy stopped, finally breaking eye contact with Eleven. "We've been building it.." He smiled, averting his eyes back to girl. "for you. All that work, all that pain..." Eleven had backed up into the kitchen. "all of it.. for you."
Eleven sobbed as she cornered herself against the counter. "And now it's time. Time to end it. And we are going to end you. And when you are gone, we are going to end your friends."
"No!" The girl yelled. "And then we are going to end.. everyone." Eleven shook her head. "Get away!" She raised her hand and launched Billy away from her.
Eleven ripped her blindfold off making the group jump. "No!" She screamed. Mike quickly ran towards the girl, taking her in his arms. "El, you're okay. It's— it's okay." Eleven sobbed in the boys arms as blood dripped from her nose and she tried to catch her breath.
Viola gripped onto Max's hand so tight as El sobbed.
•••
A WHILE LATER THE three teen girls sat on the couch, Eleven was leaning into Viola who was carefully messing with her hair. El liked it.
"He said he was building something. That it was all for me." Eleven told them. Max's eyebrows knitted together. "Building something.. is he talking about the flayed?" The red-head asked.
Oliver flinched as the fireworks went off, Will was next to him, sitting on the top of the couch behind Max. The bowl-cut boy rubbed Oliver's arm to try and comfort him.
"He must be." Nancy said as Viola braided a small piece of Eleven's hair. "So, he's building an army, just like we thought." Lucas said from behind the couch. "Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." Mike said. "He's building it to stop Eleven." Will nodded along.
"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off." Mike guessed. Lucas scoffed. "Like, royally." He raised his eyebrows as he said so. "And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way—"
"Game over." Lucas finished for his friend. "He also said he was gonna kill all of you." Eleven whispered. Viola sucked in a breath as she undid the braid in Eleven's hair, still trying to calm the girl down a bit. "Yeah, well, that's nice."
"He's been wanting to kill me since I was a kid so, I guess some things don't change." Oliver said Will turned to him with wide eyes. "Why is that." Oliver shrugged. "Dunno, he just didn't like me." The Lockeheart boy explained. He did actually know. But that was a huge talk for another time.
The group stayed quiet for a minute, trying to process what Eleven had just said. A screeching sound in the distance made Nancy hop up from her spot. "Can you do a little braid again?" Eleven whispered, slightly turning her head to look at Viola. "Yeah, of course." Viola smiled, taking a few small pieces of hair and starting on it.
"Do you guys hear that?" Nancy asked. Viola looked up, still braiding Eleven's hair as she did so. "It's just the fireworks." Jonathan tried to calm Nancy down. "Billy..." Nancy turned towards Eleven. "when he told you this, it was here, in this room?" She asked. Eleven nodded in response as Viola finished the small braid.
A stomping sound made the group freeze and go silent. A chill traveled across Will's neck, goosebumps appearing. "He knows we're here." Will spoke out.
Jonathan slammed the front door open, the group following him outside, down the road beside Nancy's car. In the sky there were multi-color fireworks exploding, but they were drowning out the sound of something else.
In the distance a large figure came into view. It looked exactly like the creature from the hospital but one hundred times bigger. Bigger than Hopper's cabin. It knocked trees our of its way before letting out a large roar.
•••
"JESUS, SLOW DOWN!" STEVE yelled at Dustin who was diving wildly. "Yeah, what is this, like, the Indy five-hundred?" Robin yelled as well.
Savannah jolted, hitting her head on the red trucks walls. "Fuck!" She exclaimed. "It's the Indy three-hundred." Steve corrected. "No, dingus, it's five-hundred!" Robin yelled at him. "It's three-hundred!" He yelled back.
"Will you two shut up! Just say it's a million or something." Savannah said making them all burst into laughter. "What is wrong with them?" Erica said to Dustin. "I don't know." The curly-haired boy said in a stressed tone.
The elevator came into view but Dustin didn't realize and continued to speed towards it. "Dustin, watch out!" Erica yelled making the boy slam down on the breaks, hitting a couple metal cans. The three young adults slammed into the trucks wall again, groaning in sync. "You guys all right back there?" Dustin asked. "I think I have a concussion." Savannah muttered, the taste of metallic entering her mouth. "Ew, my tongue is bleeding." She grimaced. Dustin and Erica turned to each other. "Their fine." Dustin shrugged.
The two went to the back of the truck, opening the door seeing the three high teens. "Come on. We gotta go, now." Dustin yelled at them. They barley moved an inch. "Come on! Get out!" They leaned forwards pulling the three out themselves basically.
Dustin put the keycard in, opening the elevator. The five pilled into the box room. Dustin then put the keycard in again, closing the doors. The next thing they knew they were being shot up to outer space. Steve and Robin were playing on a dolly, Robin pushing it around as Steve kept his balance on it. "You look like you're surfing." Savannah said groggily. They all laughed. "They seem drunk." Erica said, looking up at Dustin with concern. "Why would they be drunk?"
"I'm a natural, look!" Steve exclaimed as Robin pulled the dolly back making the boy fly forwards onto the floor. "Wipeout!" Robin laughed. Savannah plopped onto the dolly, sitting on the edge of it with wide eyes. Robin took a seat next to her.
Dustin crouched down besides Steve, putting a hand to the boys head. "He's burning up." He told Erica. "You're burning up." Steve said, pushing his hands away. Dustin opened Steve's eyes wide trying to get the boy to cooperate but he was being a baby. "His pupils are super dilated." Dustin said turning to Erica. "Oh, I know why." Savannah smiled. Dustin turned to her. "Why?" He asked.
She stayed quiet for a moment, taking a big breath before speaking. "So, basically these Russians wanted us to tell them the truth and we were telling the truth but they didn't believe us... so they bought this doctor guy in who gave us this shot in our necks and I was crying." She took another huge breath at the end. "Oh, the shot was drugs I'm pretty sure." She laid her head in Robin's shoulder.
The curly-head boy turned back to Steve, tapping his cheek. "Steve, are you drugged?" He asked. "How many times, Dad? I don't do drugs. It's only marijuana." Steve said while chuckling. "This isn't funny, man. Are you gonna die on us?" Dustin asked seriously. Steve raised a hand and tapped his nose. "Boop." He smiled. "We all die, my strange little child friend. It's just a matter of how... and when." Robin said creepily.
"They're gonna be looking for us up there, so I need you to tell me where you parked your car." Dustin told Steve who looked over to the girls. "Oh, can we make a pit stop at the food court?" He asked. Robin nodded. "I would kill for a hot dog on a stick. "Ooh!" Savannah tapped Robin's shoulder excitedly.
"All right. Yeah, food. Yes. Yes, you can have as much food as you want," The Henderson kid told the three. Robin clutched her fists excitedly. "but only if you tell me where your car is parked." Steve froze looking up at Dustin. "Uh-oh." He muttered. "Uh-oh?" Dustin asked. "The car's off the board. They took my keys. The Russians, they took the keys." Steve inverted his pockets. "Like, forever ago."
Robin broke out into laughter making Savannah start laughing. "Sav, what about you?" Dustin asked the girl who checked her pockets before hissing. "Oh.. I rode with Steve today.." She muttered. The three began to laugh more. "That's a bummer, right?" Steve asked.
•••
DUSTIN AND ERICA THREW the elevator doors opened to which the three behind them giggles. "Oh, My God, that tastes so good." Robin stuck her tongue out and licked the air. "Can you guys taste the air?" She asked her friends next to her who copied her actions.
"I taste it! I taste it!" Steve exclaimed as the two younger ones walked ahead of them, freezing as the gate opened and Russian guards yelled at them to stop. "Shit! Come on! Come on!" Dustin said to Erica, quickly turning and running back towards the three older ones.
Dustin grabbed Steve and Savannah while Erica grabbed Robin, pulling them towards the entrance of the mall where staff was only allowed.