( songs for the chapter )
⋆ africa // toto
⋆ for a friend // the communards
THANKFULLY, THE JUNK YARD WAS just a stone's throw away from Hawkins Lab. The five of them arrived at the entrance of the building, only to find that all the guards were gone. Even from outside, Kate could see the anxious shuffling of the workers through the windows.
The kids began to inch past the gate, but Steve was quick to stop them. "What do you think you're doing?
She turned to the kids too. "Yeah, you guys need to stay out here."
"Why?" Dustin asked as her and Steve made their way inside.
"Because I said so," the two eighteen-year-olds replied at the same time.
They walked through the glass doors and passed all the doctors, who apparently couldn't have cared less about the two teenagers that had entered the facility. They took the stairs, despite Steve's protests.
"What did you see?" He asked through heavy breaths as they walked up the next flight of stairs.
Kate was momentarily confused at his question, before she realised he was talking about the 'episode' she'd had several minutes prior.
"Not a lot," she shrugged, not knowing how to answer the question. "I just saw Will, and my Dad, and–"
"How did you do it?"
"I don't know," Kate replied truthfully as the two of them finally reached the right floor. They ran to Will's room, and upon entering, were met with three pairs of confused eyes.
"Where've you been?" Joyce asked the girl.
"Getting backup," Kate joked with an awkward smile, pointing beside her to Steve; he waved with his free hand, while the other was clutching his bat.
"What happened?" Mike asked, noticing the two's rather frazzled appearance.
Steve put a hand on his hip as he started to explain. "Dustin told me he couldn't find his friends and that he needed help, because 'Dart grew again' – whoever the hell that is. So we lured him to the junkyard, but it turns out, Dart has a bunch of friends. So, uh, yeah, we almost died. But we're here now, so–"
His was cut off by the sound of the alarm blaring. Everyone shared confused looks – except for Will, of course, who seemed to be stuck in his own world.
They heard running and the sounds of worried voices from outside the room. Mike picked up a shot. "We need to make Will sleep."
"What?" the mother asked, shocked by the boys suggestion.
"He's a spy," Kate told her, recalling her conversation with Will from a couple of days prior. "If he knows where we are, so does the shadow monster."
"The shadow monster?" Steve wondered lowly, his voice a few octaves higher than normal.
"She's lying!" Will yelled, sitting up in his bed.
"He killed those soldiers, he'll kill us too!" Mike yelled.
Will began to chant: "They're lying! They're lying! They're lying!"
"Okay, Will, listen! Do you know who I am?" Joyce asked, cupping the boy's face in her hands.
He quieted, staring at his mom. He was silent for a few moments, as he racked his brain. "You're... You're," he stammered. "You're mom."
Joyce shook her head sadly, before turning to Kate and Steve. "Hold him down."
The teenagers grabbed his arms, as Mike give the older woman the shot. He began to yell as she put the needle in his arm. Tears filled the mother's eyes as Mike's hand clutched his ears to muffle the sounds of Will's cries.
"Let me go," he whispered as the medicine began to take effect. "Let me– let me go..."
The brunette fell asleep, lying limp against the pillow. The door then flung open, revealing Jim, Bob, and Dr. Owens. The former looked at the boy laying in bed, before looking over to Kate. She'd left early that afternoon without saying a word to anybody; but suddenly she was back, and she'd brought Steve with her.
But he didn't have time to worry about that. The door down the corridor was bound to be knocked down by the newly released demogorgons.
"We gotta go," he muttered as he pulled the sleeping Will in his arms and over his shoulder.
The seven of them ran out of the room and down the hall. Steve absentmindedly grabbed Kate's hand, making sure to keep her close to him.
The sounds of screams and gunshots and monster roars seemed to follow them every which way. It was apparent the demogorgons were slowly cornering them. They all ran to the nearest door, which happened to be the security room.
As Jim laid Will down, Kate turned to look at the small televisions displayed on the wall. They all featured some sort of monster, or horribly mutilated person. Or both.
"Oh my god," Kate whispered, mainly to herself. The other six of them crowded beside her, looking at horror that was reeking on Hawkins Lab.
The lights began to flicker above them, before shutting off completely.
Dr. Owens scrambled for a map while Jim found a flashlight for him. Kate stood beside her father, with Steve standing close behind her; their bodies' were only inches away from touching.
The doctor was trying to calculate the easiest way to get out of the facility. "But even if we somehow make it there, there's no way out."
"What do you mean?" Jim wondered.
"The locks are fail secure. If there's a power outage, the building goes on lockdown."
"Can it be unlocked remotely?" Kate asked with her thick brows furrowed.
The man shrugged. "With a computer, sure, but somebody's gotta reset the breakers."
Kate glanced over at Bob, and the two made brief eye contact before Jim asked: "Where are the breakers?"
Dr. Owens turned back to the map. "Uh, breakers are in the basement, three floors down."
Her dad nodded before making his way to the door.
Kate put a hand on his shoulder. "Where are you going?"
"To reset the breakers."
"Okay, then what?" she sassed.
"Then we get the hell out of here."
"No, then the power comes back on," Kate explained. "If you want to unlock the doors, you have to reboot the computer system, and then override the security codes with a manual input."
Her words seemed to go in one ear and right out the other. "Fine, how do I do that?"
"You can't. Not unless you know BASIC."
"I don't know what that means–"
"It's a computer programming language," Bob chimed in.
"Teach it to me," Jim shrugged.
"Shall I teach you French while I'm at it, Jim? How about a little German?" he turned behind him. "How about you, Doc? You speak BASIC?"
"Um, no," he sighed.
"We got this," Kate turned to Bob who nodded at her.
"We got this," he repeated.
"Uh, no," Steve stepped in, putting himself between the two of them. "You're staying with me– us. I mean, y-you're staying with us."
"There's a billion computers in that basement. Bob can flip the switch, and when he does, I'll have a headstart to opening the doors," she told him. "It'll be ten times easier than if he went alone."
The brunette put his hands on his hips and shrugged. "Wherever you go, I go."
"No. You've saved my life more times than I can count. You need to be ready to run when we get those doors open. Bob and I can do this."
Jim left the room quickly, before dragging a bloodied body back inside. Bob grabbed the man's walkie-talkie as Hopper handed him a gun. "Do you know how to work one of these?"
Bob furrowed his brows and shook his head. "No."
"I'm way ahead of you," Kate said sarcastically, pulling her gun out of her bag. She reached down into the man's pockets, grabbing some spare ammo.
Jim sighed. "Why do you still have that?"
"Emergencies?" she responded. Her statement sounding much more like a question.
He shook his head. "If anything happens down there, you come right back up, okay?"
Kate nodded as they stood, Jim hugged her tightly. And once they parted, she went to Steve.
"Don't wait for me." the blonde whispered to him. "As soon as we get those doors open–"
"I'll go," he told her. Not because he really would, but because he knew it was what she wanted to hear — and Kate could tell. She smiled and shook her head before wrapping him in a quick embrace.
He breathed in deeply, the smell of her vanilla shampoo reminded him of when they first met. The only thing he could smell was vanilla and it made his teenage boy hormones go wild. Steve smiled softly at the small memory and the two stepped apart.
"We'll be in touch," Bob told the rest of the group. Kate made eye contact with her dad one last time, before the two exited the room.
Her and Bob ran down the flights of stairs, before reaching the basement. He held the flashlight, while Kate held the gun – both of their eyes wandering around the room, trying to spot any demogorgons before they spotted them first.
The breaker room was littered with dead bodies. It seemed like everyone had been trying to get out, but the monsters got to them before they could.
She stepped over the man that laid at the entrance, before walking to the computers. Bob flipped the switch for the power, and the lights flickered to life.
"Kate. Bob. Can you hear us?" Dr. Owens' voice fizzled through the walkie-talkie.
"Loud and clear, Doc. Just give us a minute," Bob responded before sitting at the computer next to Kate. She was coding the system to the main doors, while Bob was coding the outdoor gate for everyone to exit.
The green pixelated letters popped up on screen. The two were only one button away from opening the doors. Bob picked up the device and said: "open sesame," as they pressed the buttons at the same time.
They both let out a sigh of relief, before they were met with another problem: getting out of the room. They could hear demogorgons from every which way.
"We've got some company," Bob told them as they made their way to the door.
"The west stairwell," Owens said.
Kate nodded. "I've got an idea.
Apparently, Jim had heard her. He worriedly asked into the microphone. "What are you doing, Kate?"
She didn't answer him. Instead, she sat back down at the computer one last time. She clicked a few buttons before turning on the overhead sprinklers in that stairwell.
"Okay. Okay, that worked," Dr. Owens told them. "Now, get out of there!"
They didn't need to be told twice. Bob and Kate quickly exited the room and out to the hallway.
"Alright, I'm gonna guide you guys, okay?" Owens told them. "It's, uh, getting a little crowded up here, so we're gonna have to take this slow."
"Okay," Bob nodded.
They began to walk down the hallway corridor and Dr. Owens said: "Okay, now, your next right. And just keep walking."
The two of them did as instructed, quietly walking down the hallway, before older man's voice hurriedly sputtered out, "Stop!"
"What?"
"There's a door on your left. Do you see that?" Owens asked. "That's a closet. Yeah, I need you to get in it."
"What?" Bob asked.
But Kate didn't give it another thought. She opened the door before pulling the man in with her. He turned off his flashlight at the sound of footsteps outside of the door. They could see the monster's shadow from under the door and Kate immediately reached for her gun – only to find, she didn't have it. She swore under her breath, remembering she'd accidentally left it in the breaker room.
Thankfully, though, the demogorgon walked away and they were one step closer to being out of Hawkins Lab. The two of them panted and leaned against the wall beside each other.
"How're you holding up? You guys alright?"
"Yeah," Bob sighed. "Yeah."
"What about you, Kate? Don't go quiet on me."
"I'm good," she breathed quietly.
"Okay. You've got a pretty clear shot to the door door. You guys can do this, okay. You're almost home free."
Bob and Kate looked at each other and nodded. He slowly twisted open the doorknob, before opening it. They walked out and looked around, seeing that the coast with fairly clear. Despite that though, they quickly ran to the exit. And the blonde all but tripped over herself upon reaching the last set of doors as Bob shut them.
She groaned before lying on her back, feeling pain shoot up her foot; leave it up to her to be the clumsiest one at the most inopportune moment. Upon seeing Steve standing at the exit, Kate sat up with a small laugh. She was attempting to stand when the door was suddenly broken down.
Everything else seemed to happened in slow motion.
She didn't even have time to scream as a large demogorgon jumped on top of her. Kate fell back to the ground, her head aggressively hitting the hard floor. Through the ringing of her ears, she could hear yelling and the sound of gunshots as Jim tried to shot the monster away.
It didn't work.
The demogorgon reeled its arm back, before stabbing the girl with its claws. Kate let out a bloodcurdling scream and tears trickled down her face as only one thought ran through her mind. "I'm going to die."
But the odd thing was, she didn't.
From a few feet away she heard Bob yell as he ran towards her. Kate looked at him through blurry eyes, momentarily wondering what the hell he was planning to do.
Her question was soon answered. Bob tackled the monster and the two of them toppled to the other side of the room.
Kate couldn't even begin to process the situation before she was wrapped in Steve's arms. With newfound strength – and all the adrenaline running through his body – he picked the girl up and carried her out of the laboratory. Jim somehow managed to grab Joyce, while still holding Will over his shoulder. Once the two of them were out, Hop shut the door – locking the demogorgons inside.
The blonde breathed shallowly as she found it hard to keep her eyes open. Still in Steve's arms, they got in the passenger seat of Jim's cop car – he'd put Will and Joyce with Jonathan. Kate sat in Steve's lap, basically limp in his hold.
The brunette brought a hand to her face as the kids got in the backseat of the vehicle – they were all shocked to see the teenager's situation, scared even.
"You have to stay awake, okay? Just keep looking at me," Steve begged, feeling tears fill his on eyes. Kate tried to keep them open, but the need to sleep was taking over her. "C'mon, babe. Look at me. It's going to be okay; you're okay."
"Steve," she sighed, her eyes fluttering open momentarily. Through the immense pain from the wide gash in her side and the definite concussion, she'd momentarily forgotten where she was. It was like she'd just woken up, and was expecting to find herself back in Hawkins Lab.
But she wasn't.
She was in Jim's car, and the kids were safe in the backseat, and her dad was next to her, and she was in Steve's arms. And despite the pain, Kate looked up at her best friend's face – his sweaty, tear-stained, blotchy face – and felt more at peace than she'd had in a long time.