"GO!" Steve yells. "NOW!"
You want to protest once more, to join him and Robin in barricading the door, but you realize why he wants you to go so badly: he wants you to keep an eye on the younger kids. He wants them safe and out of the clutches of the Russians.
"We'll come back for you two!" you say. "I swear it."
With that, you duck into the vents and close the grate just as the door bursts open. You hear yelling in Russian as Steve and Robin surrender.
You slap a hand over your mouth to keep yourself from crying out. How the hell did your life turn into whatever the fuck this nightmare is?
Dustin and Erica crouch a few feet ahead of you in the vent. At the sight of you looking so scared, they wilt.
"Are they going to be okay?" Erica asks, voice small.
"I don't know," you say. "But we're going to find a way out of here so we can come back for them and bring them home. Let's go."
It's much easier for Dustin and Erica to crawl through the vents. You, on the other hand, feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland when she eats the wrong thing and grows way too big.
"Ouch!" you grumble, the top of your head smacking against the ceiling once more. "God, I wish these were bigger."
As you three wander toward relative safety, Dustin regales you and Erica with the true history of Hawkins. It turns out the boring small town you chose to start over in has a much, much darker past than you thought. Even worse than Russians, somehow.
Erica is shocked that her brother Lucas was involved in any of the heroics, finding that too hard to believe.
"Need help with that?" Erica asks as he tries to stop a fan from spinning so you can get by.
"No."
"Well, it's taking a while, so—"
"No shit Sherlock!" Dustin snaps.
"Let's not fight," you say quickly, hoping to keep the peace while you're all in close quarters. "We have to work together to get out of here and get Steve and Robin some help."
"They're screwed if we can't stop these fans faster," Erica says. "We've made it about 0.3 miles in 9 hours. Then, we had to walk 3 hours down that tunnel, so I'd estimate ten miles back to the elevator, which should take us...12 and a half days."
You and Dustin share a look.
"Did you just do that math in your head?" you ask.
"I'm good with numbers," Erica says proudly.
Dustin cackles and proclaims that Erica is a nerd, to which she protests vehemently. However, you agree, especially when Dustin reminds Erica that My Little Pony is inherently nerdy.
"Don't worry, Erica," you say. "All the best people are nerds."
"Whatever," she grumbles, just as Dustin gets the fan stopped. The three of you continue trekking through the underground vents.
Your mind wanders to Steve and Robin. You can't believe they were taken. You're no badass, but you'll do anything to get them back. They don't deserve to rot in this place, especially when they sacrificed themselves for you three.
It's a relief when Dustin slides open a floor panel and ushers you and Erica out of the vents. You've ended up in a storage room of sorts, filled with rows of the neon green corrosive liquid.
Dustin beelines for a transport cart and sits in the driver's seat.
"How about you let the person with an actual license drive?" you say with a raised eyebrow.
Dustin sighs but acquiesce, sliding out of the seat to search for the keys.
"Hey, Dustin?" Erica asks, eyeing a tall cage. "How big did you say that demogorgon was?"
The demogorgon was a monster Dustin and his friends had faced before. He had also explained that the "animal attack" he and Steve survived at the junkyard was from baby demogorgons.
"Big," Dustin says. "Nine feet or so. Why?"
You and Erica scan the cage's height and share a look. You shudder at the thought of monsters running around these tunnels along with evil soldiers.
Erica sees a large cattle prod by the cage and her eyes widen.
"Whoa!" she says. "I wonder what that does."
Before you can stop her, she picks it up and presses a button. The prod zaps it in your direction, making you jump.
"Okay!" you say, stepping to Erica's side and gingerly taking the device from her. "Let's not play with that right now."
"What the hell is that?" Dustin says, now holding keys for the cart.
"A deadly weapon!" Erica says. "Could be useful for taking down the commies and saving your friends."
You look at the weapon in your hands. Huh. You hadn't thought of that...
Dustin wanders back to the cart and explains that a rescue mission would be impossible, that the best thing to do is to go get help like Steve wanted. You initially figured he was right, that the three of you could make it back to the surface, get Chief Hopper, and race back down here in time to save them.
But the more you think about it, the more you feel like you need to forget that plan and take matters into your own hands. How long do Steve and Robin have, realistically, before things go south for them?
"Erica's right," you say, before you can lose your nerve. "We need to get Steve and Robin now."
Dustin groans.
"Not you too!" he says. "We have to think logically."
"Okay, fine!" you say with a hollow laugh. "Let's play that game. Let's think logically. Steve and Robin are two American citizens caught breaking into a Russian base during the Cold War. Outlook? Not so good."
Dustin purses his lips.
"I don't think this is a good idea," he says.
"I do!" Erica says, snatching the prod back from you. "We just need a way into wherever Steve and Robin are being held."
A half-formed idea pops into your head. You start loading the transport cart with green cylinders.
"What are you doing?!" Dustin asks. "Shopping for chemical weapons?"
"This is our way in!" you say. "This is our flash and bang. Gather as many of these as you can, and then we're busting Steve and Robin out of here."
Dustin sighs but agrees to go along with the plan. Once you all have enough ammunition, you begin driving the cart down through the bunker, careful to avoid the busier corridors.
The combined force of Erica and Dustin's super-nerd-brains is a godsend. They remember the way you came and the rooms you almost got caught in before.
"If I'm correct," Dustin says, "which I am, Steve and Robin are probably being held in the room below the comms room."
The three of you park the transport cart behind a stack of barrels and hide by the comms room entrance. You each grab as many cylinders as you can carry and empty three on the floor.
It eats away at the concrete like it's nothing, leaving a human-shaped hole that drops into a storage room. You hop in first, landing a little funny on your ankle, but you're able to help Dustin and Erica land safely.
Erica brings the cattle prod, which you take from her. She grumbles but allows you to do so.
You three start for the door, but then you hear voices.
"It's Steve!" Dustin says. "I hear him...laughing?"
"Over here!" Erica says. She puts her ear up next to a vent in the ground. "I can hear him clear as day."
"They must be another floor down," you say. "Good thing we have extras." You unload another three cylinders onto the floor, directly below your first hole, and watch as it bubbles and pops!
Another climb down, and you're in a hallway. You pull the younger teens behind a corner when you see an angry-looking general stomp out of a room with a soldier on his heels. As the door swings shut, you catch a glimpse of your friends tied up.
"We found them!" you whisper. "But there's another guy in there with them."
"That's no problem," Erica says, nodding at the prod in your hands. "Zap him with that thing!"
You falter, looking between the door and the weapon. You really, really don't want to hurt anyone. But you need to rescue your friends.
Without hesitation, you burst into the room and brandish the cattle prod like a knight's lance. You point it at the man in the lab coat.
"Back away from them!" you bark, nodding in the direction of Steve and Robin.
The doctor scowls and points a scalpel at you.
"Mine's bigger than yours," you say, a bit smug. "You're outnumbered. Stand down."
"I knew you guys would find us," Steve says with a drunken smile. You feel sick at the sight of his bloodied face. What did they do to him?!
"Quite the rescue party," the doctor drawls in a thick Russian accent. Like lightning, he moves by Steve and holds the scalpel by his throat.
Steve tenses in his seat. Dustin and Erica let out squeaks of fright. Robin loudly whispers, "Wait, what's happening?"
"If you don't drop your weapon," the doctor tells you, "I'll kill him right now."
You aren't happy about it, but you know what you need to do. You feel like these new friends of yours will become more like family—a family you need after your father's death. You won't let this jerk take away that family.
When you realize there's no other option to stop the doctor and save Steve, you jab the shock prod into the bastard's chest, wincing as he convulses and falls to the ground.
Dustin and Erica rush to untie Steve and Robin, who babble about how they're so happy to see you all.
You stand over the unmoving doctor, frozen in shock. You killed him. You killed him. You didn't want to, but it's what you had to do.
"Let's go!" Dustin shouts, snapping you out of your swirling thoughts. You lead the group through the base and back to where your transport cart is hidden and drive like a bat out of hell.
Steve and Robin giggle furiously in the cargo hold, and you scowl.
"What's so fucking funny?" you say, still reeling from everything that's happened.
No answer, except more laughs.
You park by the elevator and open the doors with the keycard you swiped from the dead doctor. Once everyone is loaded inside, Dustin hits the button to start the elevator's ascent.
Steve and Robin pretend to surf and laugh like nothing is wrong. It irritates you to no end.
"What the fuck is wrong with you two?" you snap. Once Steve tumbles off his makeshift surfboard (aka, a transport cart on wheels), you kneel by him and place a hand on his forehead.
"Stop it," Steve giggles. "Your hand is cold."
"They're burning up," you say.
"You're burning up," Steve mumbles. "Because you're hot. Hotter than Phoebe Cates."
You ignore his flirtations and pull open one of his eyes. Just as you thought, his pupils are dilated.
"What's wrong?" Dustin asks, hovering a few feet behind.
"Maybe they're drugged?" Erica says.
"They're definitely drugged," you say.
"I don't do drugs," Steve says. "It's only marijuana."
"This fact may shock you," you deadpan, "but that, technically, is a drug. Stop laughing! This is not funny. I need to know what they did to you. Are you gonna die on us?"
"We all die my strange little friend," Robin says, kneeling by you with a wild look in her reddened eyes. "It's just a matter of how and when."
"That's not ominous," Erica scoffs.
"Shush!" you say. "I have a plan. When we get to the surface, we'll beeline for the parking lot and load into my car. We can lay low at my apartment for a while until the heat dies down, or until we can get a hold of the Chief of Police. Sound good?"
Everyone agrees to the plan, but it immediately goes off the rails when your escape route is blocked by Russians with scary guns. Dustin leads you all back into the mall through an employee entrance, and you navigate your way to the movie theater.
You force Steve and Robin to take seats in the front row, despite their multitude of complaints.
"Don't go anywhere," you warn in a harsh whisper. You start to walk away with Dustin and Erica to find more open seats, but Steve leans forward and says, "Wait, we can't have a movie date if you sit all the way over there!"
"This isn't a date," you say patiently. "You're on drugs and probably traumatized. Rain check?"
Steve is mollified by that and nods. "Rain check."
He winks at you and then winces, his swollen eye evidently bothering him. It makes you angry at the Russians all over again.
You, Dustin, and Erica find seats at the other side of the theater.
"We need to get out of here," Erica says. "Let's run to your car."
"Word's gotten out about our prison break, if I had to guess," you murmur. "There could be soldiers guarding every exit. We need backup."
"I'll get us some help," Dustin says. "You two watch Tweedle-dee and Tweedledum."
"Wait!" you say. "You're a kid! You can't go off on your own, especially not while we're being hunted."
"You need to make sure those two idiots don't do anything stupid!" Dustin says.
"I can watch them," Erica says. She sticks her nose in the air. "I'm practically a teenager. I'm mature."
"Erica, you're ten!" you say.
"And a half!" she says. "Everyone always forgets that part."
WHAT DO YOU DO?
A. STAY IN THE THEATER - go to page 5
B. GO WITH DUSTIN - go to page 6