"And... Blend" Dustin instructed as the group left the bathroom and into the crowd of people.
"Well, shit, that worked" Sherrie smiled as she held Steve's hand.
"Course it worked." Dustin retorted "We just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebes, and home sweet home, here we come."
"Uh, Dustin?"
"What?"
"Yeah, we might not wanna go to your house" Steve said embarrassingly
"Why?" Dustin asked
"Well this idiot told them your full name" Sherrie
"What is wrong with you?" Dustin scoffed
"Dude, I was drug." Steve defended himself
"So?"
"So, you resist. You tough it out. You tough it out like a man!"
"Oh, yeah, it's easy for you to say." Steve rolled his eyes
"Guys? Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a pleasant evening. Abort" Dustin whispered quietly, trying not to drag attention to them.
"Abort" Sherrie turned her head to see a Russian in a black suit
"shit"
"Come on let's go let's go!"
Sherrie, Dustin, Steve, Erica and Robin ended up running to the food court part of the mall, hiding behind a counter. Sherrie hid her face in Steve's chest, holding his hand tightly.
She was scared before but this time she was really scared. No one was around to help them.
"It's okay, Sher" Steve whispered very quietly to Sherrie.
"Keep all entrances slicked down. I repeat. Keep all entrances locked down" The Russian talked in his walkie talkie "Everyone get over here. I found them"
Out of nowhere, The car that was in the center of the mall came wailing at the Russian, killing him instantly
The group all stood up and saw Nancy, Jonathan, El, Mike, Lucas and Max at the top of the escalator. El used her powers to save them from the Russian.
"You flung that thing like a hot wheel!" Dustin exclaimed to El
"Lucas?" Erica asked her brother
"What are you doing here?"
"Ask them. It's their fault." Erica pointed to Sherrie, Steve, Robin and Dustin
"True, yeah. Totally true. It's absolutely our fault" Steve put his hands up in surrender
"I don't understand what happened to that car" Robin spoke up
"El has superpowers" Sherrie explained
"I'm sorry?"
"Superpowers. She threw it with her mind. C'mon, catch up." Steve scoffed as if Robin was supposed to know
"That's El?" Erica asked in shock
"Who's El?"
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy asked Robin.
"I'm Robin. I work with Steve" Robin introduced herself
"She cracked the top secret code." Dustin added
"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians" Sherrie continued
"Russians? Wait, what Russians?" Jonathan questioned
"The Russians!"
"Those were Russians?" Nancy asked
"Some of them."
"What are you talking about?" Lucas scoffed
"Didn't you hear our code red?" Dustin spat
"Yeah. Couldn't understand what you were saying" Mike sassed
"Goddamn low battery." Dustin cussed under his breath
"How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?" Sherrie scoffed
"Well, everything worked out, didn't it?" Dustin said sarcastically
"Worked out? We almost died." Sherrie flew her hands in the air
"Yeah, but we didn't, did we?"
"Okay, Russians? As in, they're working for the Russian government?" Lucas asked for clarification
"What are you not comprehending? Am I not speaking English? We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation" Dustin freaked out
"So this has nothing to do with the gate?" Max chimed in
"It has everything to do with the gate" Dustin yelled
"Woah woah woah what's wrong with her?" Sherrie asked in a worried tone
"My leg. My leg" El cried
Mike laid her down on the ground and pulled the bottom of her jeans up slightly. Everyone looked at it and it looked almost as if there was a worm underneath the skin of her leg
"Oh my god"
"There's something in there" Mike cringed
"Jesus christ. Keep her talking. Keep her awake okay? Jonathan instructed as he went behind another restaurant to get a knife to try to get the thing out of El
"It's, uh...You know, it's not actually that bad. There
was a... The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane" Robin rambled
"Robin. You're not helping" Sherrie looked away from El.
"Sorry"
"Okay. All right, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathan finally came back with a knife and a wooden spoon
"Okay" El sobbed.
"Need you to stay real still. Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" Jonathan instructed as he gave her the spoon. El bit down on it and Sherrie let go of Steve's hand and kneeled down on the ground to hold Els hand instead
"Do it" Sherrie nodded at Jonathan.
"Okay"
Sherrie turned her head away while still holding Els hand. El screamed loudly as Jonathan drew the knife against the skin of her leg.
"Oh shit!" Dustin exclaimed as Eleven kept screeching in pain
"Jonathan!"
"No! Stop it! Stop! Stop!" El grunted "I can do it. I can do it"
Eleven focuses on what she was about to do to her leg. She let go of Sherries hand and Sherrie went over behind Steve and held onto him tightly. El used her powers to get the creature out of her leg and flung it across the room "Oh my god!"
♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎
"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world" Mike explained to the group
"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it" Nancy added
"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked
"It's big" Jonathan murmured "Thirty feet at least"
"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry" Lucas apologized
"Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic.. Weapon?" Sherrie asked
"Yes."
"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people." Robin added
"Yes, exactly"
"That's so disgusting" Sherrie crunched her nose
"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?
El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive.
But if we close the gate again... We cut the brain off from the body. And kill it" Dustin theorized
"Theoretically."
"Yoo-hoo!" A man in a tank top and shorts spoke up. He had a bald spot on his head and he had glasses. He was maybe in his mid forties or so. The man slammed the papers down on a table Okay, this is what Alexei called the hub Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."
"Okay, where's the gate?"
"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." the man drew on the papers
"More like 500" Erica interfered, taking a step toward the man "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"
Sherrie snickered at the interaction. " I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" Erica sassed
"Murray... Bauman" The Mystery man introduced himself. He seemed to be off guard.
"Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die" Erica continued
"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray asked. His face had confusion written all over it.
"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" Erica corrected him
"Erica!"
Sherrie started laughing uncontrollably. It was too funny. Perhaps the funniest thing she's seen since before all the Russian drama started.
"Just the facts!"
"She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. Sorry, may l?" Dustin pointed to the blueprints
"Please" Murray stepped aside
"Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way." Dustin explained
"You can show us the way?" Hopper countered
"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators" Dustin simplified
"no. Nope."
"Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die" Erica proclaimed
"Yep, most likely." Dustin agreed
"You guys survived" Will chimed in
"Barely" Dustin scoffed "We could've really used you guys down there."
"Could've used you up here, too" Lucas gave them a soft smile
"Yeah, man. We missed you, dude" Mike agreed
"Yeah. Big-time."
"I missed you guys, too. Big-time" Dustin hugged his friends
"Please don't cry, nerds" Erica groaned
"Erica"
"Keep saying my name, see what happens" Erica threatened her brother
"Hey, heads up. You can navigate, just from someplace safe" Hopper said
"It's not that simple. The signal won't reach.
Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That's me. If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start.
And a car" Dustin ranted
Hopper gave Sherrie the keys to his car. It wasn't actually his car. He stole it from someone in Illinois
"Be safe" Sherrie hugged Hopper
"Don't worry about me, Kid. You still have that gun?" Hopper asked her
Sherrie shook her head "No. It's at my house"
"Here. Take this one" Hopper reached in his pocket and gave Sherrie a spare gun he had
"Thank you"
They all said goodbye to their friends and left the mall.