STEVE WAS IN THE PROCESS OF FISHING A POCKET KNIFE, one that Ringo was unaware he had in his possession, out of his pocket while the others curiously glanced around the cramped and isolated room. It didn't seem to lead anywhere, no hidden doors or exit points that were immediately visible to them. Grappling for one of the boxes and beginning to tear through the tape sealing it, everyone gathered round for the moment of truth.
"What if it's a nuke?" Ringo anxiously asked, fiddling with her fingernails.
"The box is a little small for that, don't you think?" Was Robin's logical response, accompanied by the signature eyebrow raise she usually wore whenever one of their group would make a ridiculous comment.
"Is it bad if I say that I hope it is?" Jessica cringed while she spoke, "I mean it would be better than making all this effort for a box of freaking chow mein."
By the time she finished, Steve had the box opened and was curiously peering inside at a suspicious metal box, equipped with a handle at the top for opening.
"Well, at least it's not Chinese food," he shrugged nervously, reaching in and clasping the steel handle to slowly raise it up and reveal the mysterious contents inside. Ringo flinched at the loud hiss of air that followed, slowly leaning forward until the sight of four more handles met her eyes. Sighing and hoping it wasn't a Russian Doll type of scenario, the blonde bravely reached in to open it once more - but was promptly stopped as Steve grabbed onto her hand.
"Maybe I should do it," he suggested, shooing the others backward with his hands. "You should all stand back." His words encouraged everyone to move except Ringo and Dustin, who were giving Steve an incredulous look.
"If its actually a nuke I don't think it'll make a difference if you open it," she remarked, "sit down Prince Charming."
"I'm not moving," Dustin stubbornly added, staying put even when Steve gently shouldered him to the side.
"Just go!" Steve huffed.
"No!" Dustin shouted all of a sudden, silencing the already quiet room. "If you two die, I die."
There was an awkward pause - a drop of a pin could have been heard clearly, before Steve finally broke the tension with a casual shrug and an 'okay', redirecting his gaze to Ringo's hand as she slid open one of the capsules, lifting the heavy object upward to inspect closely.
The substance the glass was encased around was absolutely inexplicable, an indescribable green, murky liquid that appeared to have a gel-like consistency and floating particles inside of it.
"What the hell?" Steve murmured, leaning in closer to see now that he was certain they weren't about to explode.
"I've never seen anything like it," Jessica mused, stepping forward behind Ringo, her mind burning with curiosity.
"I mean, it looks a lot like what came out of my mouth during the infamous Vodka hangover of December 1984," Ringo drily commented, the object falling straight out of her palm and causing the group to jump in unison, for the second it slid back inside a large mechanical whirring noise filled the box room.
Simultaneously, they each looked to the blonde with a shake of their head - clearly blaming her for eliciting some form of booby trap. Growing increasingly paranoid, Robin grappled for the tube once more and brought it to herself.
"Okay, let's just grab this and go!" She gushed nervously, scrambling alongside the others to reach the exit. Dustin was the first to reach the control panel for the door, and after an ensuing fight between the teenager and Steve, an echoing boom that seemed to resound within the walls of the boxed room was heard. A plummeting feeling akin to falling through the sky followed, which Ringo could only have compared to the sensation of falling out of bed while dreaming, only to wake up with a jolt. But the way in which her boyfriend screamed at the top of his lungs and hurtled to grab onto her for safety, told her she certainly wasn't imagining the fact the room was definitely flying at high speed in a downward direction.
Jessica gripped onto Robin's hand, an unfamiliar flash of fear spread across her usual cool expression, while the woman she gripped onto was using her free hand to grab onto anything that wasn't moving. Erica and Dustin seemed to be in a battle of the screams to see who could sound the loudest and albeit the girliest, but neither of them met the sheer amount of decibels that Steve Harrington was screeching against the metal walls. Ringo, in an apparent state of shock, simply stood still - with no sound emerging from her mouth that had fallen open slack.
With a final surge of pure instinct, Ringo gripped onto the nearest metal shelves to brace herself for impact, while everyone else in the 'elevator' flew towards the ground in a heap. Including Steve, who had yet to stop screaming even well after establishing he was still alive.
"Stop screaming!" Jessica roared, at a miraculously loud enough level to be heard over his squeals, while she surged her way toward a frozen Ringo. "Ringo, are you alright?"
"I can't believe I went to Hell," was all the blonde replied, in a distant tone, her eyes wide and haunted. "I didn't think I was that bad... I know that I threatened to renounce God and worship my ever-loving father Satan the next time he made me break out, but that was just... a joke..."
"You're not dead, Ringo."
"You would say that, demon," she answered, mouth settling into a grim line. "Don't think you can fool me with your trickery, Satan-"
Ringo's words were promptly cut off by a smack that sent her head turning sideways and her cheek burning red, although it was sufficient enough to snap her from whatever revere she had fallen into.
"Sorry, dude," Jessica shrugged, only half-apologetic. "I think you went into some form of shock, it was freaking me out."
"I was being dramatic, Jessica!" She complained, lifting her hand to rest over her painful face. "A simple 'shut up' would have sufficed!"
Steve, having too snapped out of the moment he was having, lunged for the control panel and re-attempted to launch the lift.
"I think we've established the buttons don't work," Robin deadpanned, checking over Erica to ensure she was alright. The last thing she wanted was for the pre-teen to land them with some hefty child-endangerment charges. "You need a keycard because without it, it won't work!"
"Just so you nerds know," Erica began, a tone in her voice suggesting an oncoming rant was imminent, "I'm supposed to be at Tina's house tonight. And Tina always covers for me, but if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you five are responsible? She'll hunt each of you down and slit your throats."
"Listen, brat," Ringo snapped, "Uncle Jack isn't gonna be in the partying mood when he finds out we've all starved to death. Not only are we trapped, but I've been holding pee since I got here and unless one of these vials has the magical solution for that it's about to get real drunk Sorority girl in here!"
"We could die in a Russian elevator and you're concerned about your bladder?!" Steve shouted at his already yelling girlfriend, face a dark red shade from stress.
"I can pretend I'm somewhere other than this place by closing my damn eyes but I can't pretend that the warm liquid about to run down my legs is apple juice!"
In another place, Steve would have recoiled at how turned off her statement left him. But thankfully for the sake of their romantic future, Dustin was presenting to them a solution - a vent in the ceiling, one they could use to climb their way to safety. Blindly, the two boys clambered upward to inspect the fruitfulness of their idea, while the three women left behind simply shook their head in disbelief.
"We fell for at least five minutes," Jessica sighed, "how long will it take them to figure out that we can't Indiana Jones the shit out of this?"
"Oh, shit," Steve's voice carried down and met their ears.
"I think they just found out," Ringo smiled weakly, doing a little dance on the spot to aid her full bladder.
✵
It had been approximately eight hours since the group became trapped inside the box room, and Ringo was revisiting the idea that she was trapped inside some form of torturous purgatory. Four hours in, the group had to surrender and allow her to pee inside of an emptied metal box - which would be a nice surprise for whoever eventually opened it in search of the strange green vials. Embarrassment aside, Steve hadn't been able to look at his girlfriend the same after seeing her crouched over to pee. Sure, Steve Harrington would love Ringo Wheeler through everything - but their relationship hadn't exactly reached the 'urinating in front of each other' stage just yet.
"Do you think Steve is repelled by me now?" Ringo murmured to Jessica, the duo seated and leaning against the door that once was able to be opened. Her boyfriend and Dustin were heard arguing over the usage of the walkie-talkie on the elevator's roof, while Robin and Erica bickered over whether or not the acid green liquid was drinkable.
"Nah, Robin could walk out of a sewer coated in horse shit and I'd still think she's amazing," Jessica breathed out, an undertone of longing in her voice.
"I swear to god if you don't ask her out soon I'm murdering her in cold blood to eliminate the problem," the blonde replied with a smirk.
"It's different for me, okay?" Came her sullen reply, voice suggesting there was more to Jessica's insecurity than she let on. Furrowing her brows in concern, Ringo turned her head to her friend, prepared to question her further until the distant sound of whirring could be heard through the ear closest to the door.
Eyes widening, Ringo shot up and relayed to the others they would soon be having company as they began to clamber up the roof vent to Steve and Dustin. Sure enough, within seconds of reaching safety, the door opened swiftly to reveal two guards that immediately seeked out the boxes cleverly disguised as Chinese food.
A short conversation in Russian was shared, but the extent of their knowledge in the language was purely down to the translated broadcast - and therefore of no help. Spying that Erica was still holding one of the removed vials, Steve waited until the coast was clear to usher the group down and slip the glass jar down just in time to stop the door from fully closing. With the narrow gap that was left, it allowed the others to slide underneath and escape the wretched room that threatened to make or break Steve and Ringo's romantic relationship.
With Ringo being the last to leave before Steve, she took a deep breath of the air that was - albeit not entirely clear for being god-knows-how-many miles beneath ground, but certainly clearer than a trapped room with four teenagers and a child. A crackling sound met her ears, which her eyes followed until she gasped upon seeing its source. Steve was still sliding underneath the gap, but the glass in the vial was threatening to shatter at any second. Grappling for his freed arm, she dragged him outward, just managing to jolt him from underneath the door within a second of it slamming shut and the container smashing underneath it.
Steve squeezed her hips gently in a thankful gesture, Ringo leaning into his chest with gratitude that they had finally managed to escape the hell hole of a room, but their eyes remained on the green liquid that was now freely spread across the ground - burning the concrete underneath it.
"Still wanna drink it?" Robin smartly remarked to Erica.
"Guys," Dustin called out to regain their attention, where his focus had not left the hallway laid out before them. "Holy shit."
There appeared to be no end in sight that was visible to the human eye - no doorways, no side tunnels or exit points. Only a long stretch of a tunnel that could have lead them anywhere.
"You've got to be kidding me," Ringo deadpanned.
"Well, hope you guys are in good shape," Steve sighed, taking the first steps forward and lightly smacking Dustin's belly, "looking at you, Roast Beef."
"I swear to god if I ever feel like losing weight I'm coming to you Dustin, to see whatever outlandish and dangerous idea you have next that will have me walking for ten days!" Ringo ranted, crossing her arms over her chest and sulking at the thought of the coming journey.
"Name one time that happened!"
"Last Halloween! You had Steve and I walking for close to eight hours down the train tracks to find your devil dog!"
"You see that as a bad memory, but I see that as an important moment in which we solidified our friendship as the incredible threesome, okay?!" He defended.
"Do I want to ask?" Robin lowly asked to Jessica, as they trailed along beside each other.
"I sleep better when I don't ask," Jessica shrugged.
After what seemed like hours, but what was realistically probably only thirty minutes, Steve had finally fallen into step alongside his girlfriend to make amends for the accidental silent treatment he was giving her.
"Hey," he greeted shortly, grimacing when she didn't reply. "This blows, right?"
Ringo didn't answer immediately, giving him a knowing glare that had him shrinking down, confidence wavering.
"I'm sorry for being awkward for the past few hours, I'm an immature asshole and it won't happen again," Steve explained, hoping she would forgive him quickly and without an argument for the now infamous pee scandal of 1985. "If it helps, I peed too while I was on the roof of the elevator."
"It's not that, okay?" She huffed, stopping in her step to turn and face him fully. "Here we are again, walking into something that could very well get us killed. You could have died already underneath that door. The last thing that I want is you giving me the silent treatment over a little bit of freakin' piss! I'm scared, okay? There's only so many times we end up in these unbelievable situations before we run out of lives."
Stunned into silence, Steve stuttered over his words for a moment, trying to formulate a response to her explosion of emotion. He hadn't much considered the implications of their whereabouts until that moment, and the realization was beginning to settle in like an icy chill down his spine. This wasn't just them dealing with demogorgans - they were unarmed, walking into a Russian army base with trained soldiers that were definitely armed.
"Look, I'm sorry... I didn't know you were freaking out. I was just being immature, but you're right. This is a different ball park than before, but I'll protect you, okay?" He reassured, before he began to speak in a lone, panicked breath. "ButofcourseyoudontneedprotectionyoureastrongandpowerfulgoddesswhocouldtakeanymananydayandIloveyou."
"Smooth," she chuckled, slipping her fingers through his as they began to walk again to catch up to the others, somewhat feeling less anxious than before. There was no changing their circumstances, and Steve had a terrible track record with fights, but it was pointless spending what could have been her last few hours at odds with the man she loved.
"I mean you have to admit..." Dustin voiced suddenly, letting out a small whistle, "as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."
"What are you talking about? It's a total fire hazard," Steve rolled his eyes, "there's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to Hell."
"They're commies, if you don't pay people they cut corners," Erica comically commented.
"I think it's a brilliant line of defense," Ringo took a quick glance around at the tunnel that had not changed its appearance in nearly an hour. "No American in their right mind would be motivated enough to walk this far, we'd rather be nuked."
"But... we're walking this far?" Erica recoiled in confusion.
"I said 'in their right mind'."
"To be fair to our Russian comrades I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking," Robin suggested. "They developed a perfect system for transporting that cargo. It all comes into the mall like any old delivery, they load it onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser."
"You really think they built this whole mall for some green poison?" Steve doubted.
"I really seriously doubt it's just green poison," came Dustin's somewhat excited response, "it's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something."
"Nobody ask what promethium is," Ringo stated in a flat tone, eyeing that both Jessica and Steve were poised, readying to ask. "I don't want whatever mind-fuck of a comic book answer he would give back to us to explode my brain."
"Didn't something freaky happen you guys at Halloween? I mean Hawkins is never this exciting to have two insane stories within a year," Jessica casually commented, although it may have pointed something critical out. Ringo had never told Jessica the full extent, albeit - Jessica didn't want to know it all. She was fine living in blissful ignorance for now.
But it was too much of a coincidence. A lab that tested on children until they gained superpowers was enough. A whole new alternate dimension that held a gateway resting right in this very same town was madness. But a secret Russian base completely unrelated to both incidents setting up shop in Hawkins?
Steve, Ringo and Dustin had seemingly come to the same conclusion as they lingered behind the other three, huddled together to speculate.
"You think it's all related?" Steve dared to ask.
"It's too much of a coincidence," Ringo shook her head. "Maybe they want to harness that dimension."
"I don't know, but it's possible," Dustin added as his input, before their private session was interrupted by a curious Robin.
"I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"
Before they could even begin to formulate a lie to cover themselves, they were seemingly saved by a familiar voice resounding through the speaker of Dustin's walkie-talkie. Grappling to get a handle on it, they all crouched together and listened to the same words they could quote from memory - regardless of the language barrier.
"It's the code," Jessica breathed in surprise.
"It must be broadcast close to here," Robin speculated, "which means..."
"We could contact the surface," Dustin answered for her, a determined look flashing across their faces. They had done what they came to do in proving that a potential Russian attack was imminent. But now, they had to focus on escaping with their own lives first.
✵
By the time they reached human life again, another hour or two had passed at the very least, and it wasn't exactly a welcome surprise. The tunnel had led to a massive hub that was positively bustling with soldiers, scientists and every person you would not want to get caught trespassing by. It collectively took their breath away when they saw it for the first time, but Erica's reassurance that she seen the comms room was enough to push them to maintaining the covert nature of the mission.
Steve has taken charge as a leader of sorts, and although it should have been the last thing on her mind, all Ringo could think about was how positively fine he looked ordering them from position to position, like a military general leading his team to safety. He was the last to enter the room once they had finally reached it, ushering the others in first and putting his own safety last as they bustled in and collapsed against the door in exhaustion - thankful to be out of harm's way.
Or so they thought, until one by one they slowly turned to see there had been one guard remaining in the room - who was now slowly standing from his seat and staring at them all inquisitively. There was a moment of pause, the tension in the room thick enough to taste, before his hand slowly began to reach toward his belt for a weapon that would end their young lives then and there.
Robin jumped up and shouted something in Russian to startle him, Ringo guessing it was one of the words from the recording judging by its familiarity and the guard's probing response, also in Russian. Panicked, the blonde continued to ramble off whatever she could remember from the tape recording until the ruse was finally up and the guard came to his senses.
Once again reaching for his belt, Dustin bravely stood in front of Ringo as if to protect her from an oncoming bullet. But Steve was faster - dashing out in a blur and attacking the Russian head on, they grappled with each other in a few tense moments before the ice-cream scooper finally got the upper hand and knocked his opponent out cold. Finally feeling as if she could breathe again now that Steve was safe, Ringo let out a shout of surprise alongside Dustin, who was still holding his arms out to protect the blonde behind him.
"Dude!" He yelled excitedly. "You won a fight!"
Steve eyed his friend's position in front of his girlfriend wearily for a second, before finally succumbing to the victory and adopting a lazy, triumphant smirk. Shoving aside the teenager, Ringo darted towards Steve and threw her arms around his shoulders, chest still tightened from the stress of watching him fight.
"You crazy son of a bitch," she was gasping, before leaning back in his arms and pressing a quick but strong kiss to his lips, "I have never been more attracted to you!"
"Who knew seeing me fight would be such an aphrodisiac to you," he grinned widely, chest swelling with confidence. "Should I take up boxing?"
"Typical," Dustin scoffed to Jessica, who was dumbfounded beside him. "You nearly take a bullet for a girl and she still chooses another guy."
"You are such a dork," she rolled her eyes in reply, roughly shoving the side of his head with her hand.
"Guys!" Robin interrupted them all from the respective moments they were having, "there's something up there!"
With that, they trailed up the metal stairs quickly after the girl, pressing themselves against the glass window frames to get a glance at whatever was inside giving off such a strong blue light. Once their eyes adjusted to the new brightness, Steve, Ringo and Dustin's mouths fell open in a different type of horror to their other friends. For as terrifying as the others thought it was to see a hole being formed in the wall to what looked like a blood red room on the other side, only the original trio knew exactly what was happening - and how much worse it was than anything the others could have guessed.
✵
"Mrs Wheeler?" Ben voiced timidly, the mother of his best friend still instilling a fear in him like no other - even though he still held a deep respect for her after the time they had banded together for Ringo.
"I told you to call me Julia, kid," the woman answered, barely even glancing to confirm that it was him she was talking to. She was standing outside of the shutters to Scoops Ahoy, trying to peek through even the smallest of gaps for any sign of life inside.
"What are you doing then... Julia?" He questioned, eyeing her suspiciously.
"I'm trying to see if my prodigal daughter is sacked up inside of this place," she explained, anxiously glancing toward the clock above the entrance to the mall and confirming that, yes, Scoops was meant to have opened over an hour ago. "And if she's not, then I'm trying to see if that big-bird boyfriend of hers is so I can torture him until he tells me where she is."
"She didn't come home?" Ben prompted, eyebrows shooting up out of concern. He didn't think it would be like Ringo to pull a disappearing act, it was just as suspicious as Scoops not being opened on the busiest shopping day of the week. Julia had every reason to be so high-strung.
"No," Julia sighed, tucking her hair behind her ears and straightening her posture once she noticed an approaching man make a beeline for the store front.
"Sorry, ma'am," he greeted with an apologetic tone, "my staff have seemingly gone AWOL, I just found out that they didn't open up. I'll get you your ice cream in a minute."
"I don't want your damn chalky ice cream I'm looking for my daughter, who has also seemingly gone AWOL. Who didn't show up for work? Was it Steve Harrington?"
"Yeah, Steve," Phil answered, tone full of suspicion as he regarded upon the mother with newfound interest. "And Robin, too. You think something's happened?"
"For Ringo's sake she'd better hope she's dead in a ditch, because if I find out she just stayed out all night without calling she'll be dead anyway," Julia turned to storm off in the opposite direction, footsteps full of intent but there was no denying the worried curl in her lower lip. Sure, she thought Ringo was improving now that she was back in Indiana and had a job she truly loved, but what if she was just as off the rails as she had been a year ago, only became better at hiding it?
There was an even worse possibility staring her in the face - the chance that something genuinely had happened to her daughter and her friends.
"Wait up, Julia!" Ben's voice, once timid but now fully determined, "I wanna help!"
"Come on then, I'll need an alibi if I have to break any laws," Julia responded, nodding towards the passenger side having finally reached her car. She paused before getting in upon seeing his horrified expression, tossing an eye roll and a reassuring comment. "I'm kidding, jump in."
"Where to first?" He questioned, fumbling with the seatbelt for a prolonged number of seconds. Julia cocked an eyebrow as he seemed to struggle, tugging and tugging at the belt that seemed to catch every he pulled it out. Finally, after an awkwardly long time, he managed to free it and clip it on, returning her gaze with burning cheeks.
"The Harrington house," Julia finally answered, looking over her shoulder as she began to reverse from the spot.
"But I don't think Ringo would willingly go anywhere near Steve's mom."
"I don't either, but who knows? Maybe the wicked witch got on her broom and fucked off back to the cave she was born in."