( songs for the chapter )
⋆ dead man's party // oingo boingo
⋆ hungry heart // bruce springsteen
"WHERE WERE YOU TWO GOING?" Ozerov chuckled as he and his soldiers marched back into the room. He looked at Kate as he shook his head, clicking his tongue before ordering his men to sit them back up. They did so without hesitation.
A bald man with round glasses came up beside Kate, to the table with the tools that sat only a few feet away from her. He grabbed some sort of gun, loading it with a strange blue liquid.
Ozerov crouched in front of Steve with a malevolent grin. He put the boy's chin between his thumb and forefinger, pressing down hard enough to make him wince. "Try telling the truth this time, yes? It will make your visit with Dr. Zharkov less painful."
The soldier then nodded to the doctor, and he walked to Steve with the "gun" in hand. The brunette, of course, began to freak out. "Wait a second. Wait, wait, wait! What is that thing?"
"It will help you talk," Zharkov smiled.
"Did you even clean that thing?" he yelled, before screaming as he shot the needle into his neck.
Kate watched in horror as he did the same thing to Robin, terrified she'd meet the same fate as the ones before her. However, after Robin cried out when the gun met the skin under her jawbone, Dr. Zharkov began collecting his tools.
Ozerov stood next to her.
"Don't worry. It was only a pinch." He sarcastically smiled before pinching at the skin of her cheek. Kate immediately pulled her head away, staring up at him with a sharp gaze.
After a few more moments, him and the rest of the soldiers finally left the room with the promise of returning 'once the medicine set in.'
"Are you guys okay?" Kate asked to the two teenagers in front of her. They looked incredibly out of it, like the were moments away from falling asleep.
"Honestly, I don't really feel anything," he mumbled.
"I... I feel fine," Robin shrugged. "I feel normal."
"Yeah, I feel- I feel normal," Steve nodded before a smirk tugged at his lips. "I kinda feel good."
"Wanna know a secret?" Robin smiled
"What?"
"I like it too," she admitted before the two of them were set off in a giggling fit.
Kate stared at them with a shocked gaze, trying to process the entire situation. They were completely and utterly zany from whatever medicine they'd been given, and it was the worst case scenario for the three of them. Now, there was absolutely no chance of escaping – not that there was any before. But it would be impossible to do much of anything with two dopes high on meds.
"Morons," Steve scoffed though a laugh. "They messed up the drug."
"They messed it up! Hey, morons! Morons!" Robin called out to no one in particular, before turning to Kate with wide bloodshot eyes. "Oh, no. There's definitely something wrong with us."
"Tell me about it," Kate responded with a monotone.
The door suddenly buzzed and the soldiers entered yet again. Ozerov and Zharkov walked in behind the guards.
The doctor walked towards Kate like he had before. He removed the rusted tools from the tray, replacing them with cleaner, sharper, bigger ones. He pulled out a butcher's knife from his black bag, running his fingers lightly over the blade.
"Would now be a good time to tell you that I don't like doctors?" Robin asked but received no response.
Ozerov stood in front of Steve and said, "Let's try this again, yes?"
The brunette ran his tongue of his suddenly numb lips as he nodded tiredly.
"Who do you work for?"
"Scoops," he chuckled. "Scoops Ahoy."
"How did you find us?"
"Totally by accident."
"Bol'she lzhi," he muttered to the doctor. More lies.
Zharkov nodded, before picking up a pair of pliers. He walked over to Steve, and the brunette loonily smiled, "What is that shiny little toy?"
The man didn't respond. Instead he grabbed Steve's pointer finger, putting his nail between the metal. He let out a yell before Kate began to shout.
"Kod! Byl kod!" Code. There was a code, she yelled out in Russian, gaining the attention of the guards in the room – particularly Ozerov, who began walking to the girl.
"Kod?"
"The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west," Kate repeated the message she'd memorised long ago.
"You broadcasted that stupid spy shit all over town," Robin spat. "We picked it up on our Cerebro, and we cracked it in a day. A day! 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, suka?"
"Uh, well, Dustin knows," Steve told him with a smirk.
"Steve. Don't," Kate told him.
"Dustin?" Ozerov furrowed his brows, walking over to the brunette.
"Yeah, Dustin Henderson, he knows–"
"Steve!" Kate shouted, but it was already too late.
The soldier nodded to himself as he repeated the name. "Your small, curly-haired friend, yes?"
"Yeah. Curly-haired. Great hair. Small. Kinda like a 'fro."
Kate sighed heavily, putting her head down. Not only were they about to be killed, but now Dustin was too.
"Where is he?"
"He's long gone, you big asshole. And he's probably calling Hopper, and Hopper's calling the U.S. cavalry," he snickered. "They're gonna come in here, commando-style, guns a-blazin', and kick your sorry asses back to Russia."
Robin and Steve began to laugh together. Ozerov shared a quick look with a doctor, before the two of them began to laugh too. Kate seemed to be the only sane person left in the room – she could see the man's sinister smirk, and knew he was only moments away from making Steve regret those words.
But before he could do anything, the alarms began to go off. Ozerov got suddenly nervous – thinking that what the boy said was true – and Steve just looked at him with a smirk, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.
He left the room with all of his soldiers behind him, but Zharkov stayed. Distant screaming echoed down the hallway, and Kate's ears perked – she knew that yell.
Dustin and Erica entered the room. The curly-haired boy held a large taser in his hands, and held it against the doctor's chest until he collapsed. He then began to untie the two teenagers from the chair.
"Hey! Henderson!" Steve yelled, happily. "That's crazy, I was just talking about you."
"Oh, my God," Kate breathed out upon seeing the two kids. He reached into his pocket, pulling a tiny pair of keys he'd gotten from God knows where. He uncuffed her, and the blonde immediately wrapped his arms around the boy.
He reciprocated the hug, and whispered in her ear. "Get ready to run."
⋆ ⋆ ⋆
Kate desperately wanted to be the one to drive the cargo truck, being that she was the only person with a license who wasn't under the influence. But Dustin told her that he had to do it because she 'still looked a little pale' and that he was 'the one with the keys, anyway.'
So while Dustin and Erica were sat comfortably in the front, Kate was crammed in the back with Steve and Robin.
The thirteen-year-old was swerving all over the place, going as fast as he possibly could. The alarm was still blaring and the two teenagers, still loopy as ever, were arguing.
"I'm telling you, it's the Indy 500," Robin yelled.
Steve shook his head zanily, his hair all over the place. He held up three fingers. "It's the Indy 300!"
"Dingus, it's 500!"
"It's 300!"
"Let's say a million," she suddenly joked, causing both of them to laugh loudly. Kate was practically squished in between the two of them, nearly going deaf with the sound go their laughter paired with the loud alarm that was still going.
"Dustin, watch out!" Erica yelled out of nowhere.
Before Kate could ever try to assess the situation, the boy suddenly slammed on the breaks. The three in the back hit their head on the metal door behind them.
"You guys alright back there?" Dustin asked as he turned around.
"No," they all groaned in pain.
The boy turned to Erica with a wavering smile, "They're fine."
The two of the exited the truck before unlocking the door of the back, allowing the three of them to finally get out. Dustin used his keycard and led them into the elevator, that was working perfectly – thank God.
Steve immediately jumped on a red metal platform cart, pretending to surf. Robin stood behind him, trying to move him back and forth, but only managed to completely throw him off. The brunette fell to the floor as she yelled loudly, "Wipeout!"
"Are you guys drugged?" Erica asked in confusion.
"How many times, Dad? I don't do drugs. It's only marijuana," Steve mocked.
Kate shook her head with a sigh and crouched down beside him. She lightly grabbed his face in her heads, forcing him to look at her. Steve grinned and lightly touched her nose with the tip of his fingers. "Boop."
"Steve," she said, pushing his hand away.
He did it again. "Boop."
"Steve. They're going to be looking for us up there, so I need you to tell me where your parked you car."
"Can we make a pit stop at the food court?" he asked.
Robin smiled. "I would kill for a hot dog on a stick."
"You can have as much food as you want, but only if you tell me where your car is parked."
"Uh-oh," Steve said, with his eyes wide.
Kate raised her brows. "Uh-oh?"
"The car's off the board," he explained, digging into his pockets as he laughed. "The Russians, they took the keys. Like forever ago."
The blonde turned back to Dustin and Erica, wondering what the hell they were supposed to do now. Steve drove Kate that morning, which meant her car wasn't there either and that there only form of transportation would be Robin's bike.
Once the elevator came to a stop, the five of them walked out, and Kate swore she'd never been so happy to be outside. The sky was dark and the stars were plentiful and the cool breeze felt like Heaven on her skin.
"Oh, my God, that tastes so good," Robin said as she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. "Steve, can you taste the air?"
"I taste it. I taste it!"
Kate stopped in her tracks upon seeing two guards at the gate. They turned around at the sound of Steve's voice, and immediately began running towards them. "Hey, get over here!"
"Shit!" Dustin exclaimed.
The blonde grabbed the doped up teenager's hands and pulled them back towards the building.
"Why are we running?" Steve asked as the curly-haired boy used his key card to open the door again. Kate pushed Steve and Robin inside and ushered the kids in behind them, before going in herself – shutting the door in the guards' faces.
⋆ ⋆ ⋆
The three sober ones of the group, decided that the theatre would be the best place to hide for the time being. It was dark and it would be much easier to blend in there than any other place in the mall.
They snuck into the Back to the Future premiere, as Steve stole a bag of popcorn from the trash by the door. Unfortunately, there weren't five seats all together – only two on one end and two on the other. Fortunately, Kate didn't need a seat.
"You two, sit," she said pointing to the chairs at the very front of the cinema.
"No," Robin whined, but sat down anyway. "These seats are too close!"
"Yeah, these seats blow," Steve agreed through a mouthful of stale popcorn.
Kate shrugged, feeling like a mother trying to get her kids to behave. "Then don't watch the movie,"
"But I want to watch it."
"Then watch it!" she yelled, causing a man to shush her. Steve and Robin quickly turned around and shushed him too.
"Sorry," Kate muttered to the man, before turning back to the two teenagers. "Don't. Move."
"Aye-aye, captain," Steve slurred with a lazily smile, saluting her briefly.
Kate shook her head, trying to hide her smile, before following Dustin and Erica down to the other end of the theatre. She crouched down in the aisle, next to Dustin.
"It's official," the boy sighed. "I'm never having kids."
"What are we even doing here?" Erica asked.
"We're laying low," Kate responded, grabbing the girls bag and pulling out her supercomm.
"Like Oswald."
"Oswald was found in a theatre and shot to death," the younger girl told him.
Dustin shrugged. "A week later."
"The point is, his plan didn't work."
"Because it was a set-up," Kate whispered. "He was a patsy."
Erica rolled her eyes. "Tell me your joking–"
"Shh!" a woman hissed, and Dustin and Erica were quick to respond with shushes of their own.
The girl sighed as they turned back around. "We need to get out of here,"
"Well, you guys watch Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and I'll be back in a second," Kate quietly told them before beginning to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Dustin stopped her.
She turned back around with a smirk, raising the supercomm in her hand. "To find us a ride."