Everyone piled into the car once more and zipped right out of the quick mart parking lot.
"You brought the cereal with you?" Mike asked, baffled as he took notice that Amanda had indeed hauled the box of cereal under her arm and had taken it with her.
Amanda nodded. "If we were gonna be breaking and entering, might as well have left with something."
Mike looked at her, confused. "Weren't you the one going on about breaking and entering being illegal?"
"Opinions change. And besides, it was life or death, every man for himself, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive, that type of thing."
Mike opened his mouth to respond and then close it, and Will tried his best to stifle his laugh. Amanda then opened the bag and held it out to Mike. "Want some?"
Mike shook his head and Amanda shrugged, taking her bag back, as well. She held it out to Will, who happily took a handful of his own.
"What's going on between you two?" Mike asked, looking between the two of them. "We've decided to build an alliance," Amanda answered simply. Will feigned offense. "I thought we were friends!"
"Friends can be allies, you know?"
"That doesn't answer my question," Mike brought the conversation back around before it could turn into something else entirely. "It does, actually," Amanda responded, "you asked what was going on, and I told you that we've decided to build an alliance and that we have become friends."
Mike looked at them blankly and then there was silence. "So," Amanda spoke up after a while, "who was on the radio that got you screaming about a code red?"
"Oh," answered Mike, "that was Dustin. He said was calling from the theater in Starcourt Mall. Something about the Russians infiltrating from the underground."
"We did hear the music in the message coming from the horse ride that one time so it makes sense the Russians were right under our nose. Which is kinda scary if you really think about it," Amanda recalled. "So not only are we fighting the Mind Flayer, — "
"But we're fighting Russians, too," Will finished her sentence. There was another silence that fell upon them as Nancy sped the station wagon down the street.
When Amanda was in school, everyone around her thought it strange how she believed that if you were to put a handful of Lucky Charms in your pocket, it'd bring you good luck. However, she didn't have any Lucky Charms on her. She just had her Smurf Berry Crunch, which she thought was just enough luck. So she put a handful into the left pocket of her overalls and hoped for the best.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'
When Nancy's car came to a screeching halt, Amanda had to bite her lip to keep from screaming because she thought the car was going to tip over.
"Everyone okay back there?" Nancy craned her neck to look at the three of them who were in the trunk. They all nodded, albeit Amanda looking like she was going to puke any second. Must've been all the cereal she ate.
They all made their way into the mall to see that it was already a mess. Making their way over to the banister, they saw these men in uniforms with guns, all shouting in Russian. Amanda turned her head a little to see four people crouched behind the corn dog counter.
"Guys," she whispered and pointed to the four people, who she later made out to be Steve, Robin, Dustin, and the little black girl who was constantly asking for samples at Scoops Ahoy!. "Look."
They all turned in her direction to see what she was seeing.
"Oh my God," Lucas realized, "is that — "
Lucas got cut off at the sound of a gunshot ringing out. El was the first to take action as she used as much of power as she could to fling the car that was sitting in the middle of the mall over to the Russians, knocking them out and possibly killing them. "Well, that takes care of the evil Russians," Amanda commented offhandedly.
The crew of them all went down to go help everyone who was hiding out in the corn dog stand.
"Erica?" Lucas asked, "what are you doing here?"
"It's their fault," Erica was quick to reply, pointing to Steve, Dustin, and Robin. "Yeah. Totally our fault," Dustin complied. "Made her sneak through the vents. . .and such."
"Are you guys okay?" Nancy asked. But before anyone could answer, Robin cut in. "I don't understand. What happened to the car?"
"El has superpowers." Dustin turned to her. "I'm sorry?" Robin asked, catching what he threw at her perfectly, but asking again to make she heard right.
"El flung the car with her mind. Come on, catch up."
"Who's El?"
"The one who looks like she's about to faint any minute." Steve pointed to El, who was about to fall to her knees from excruciating pain.
"El!" Mike exclaimed, rushing over to her. "What's wrong?"
"My leg," she groaned. They all looked for the source of pain and it didn't take long because what was causing her so much pain was pretty noticeable as it was pulsing and pushing against her leg.
"Oh, that's gross." Amanda covered her mouth and looked away in disgust. "How do we get it out?"
"Okay, I'm gonna find some supplies to get that. . .thing out. Keep her distracted," Johnathan instructed and then went off to go find what he needed. El continued to roll around and groan on the floor, moaning on about how much it hurt. And it truly looked like it did. Amanda's stomach was churning just looking at it.
Johnathan came back with a heated knife in one hand and a clean rag in the other. "You take this," he handed the rag over to El, "put that in your mouth and bite because this might hurt." El put the rag in her mouth and bit as Johnathan got ready to remove the little bit of the Mind Flayer that was stuck inside El's leg. The knife came down onto the bulbous wound and El let out a blood-curdling scream. "Keep her still!" Johnathan ordered.
"Johnathan! Stop!" Mike exclaimed. "No!" El retorted through tears, "I can do it! I can do it." More screams erupted from her as the little baby creature pushed its way through and Amanda felt like she was about to pass out just from looking at it. Dry heaving, she turned away. "You okay?" asked Will. "Do I look like I'm okay?!" Amanda responded between pants, a little harsher than necessary because she was in such shock. Will shook his head and carefully pulled her into a hug.
A few more wails bouncing off the walls later, the creature made its way out of El's leg and Johnathan was quick enough to step on it. "There'll be more where that came from."
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'
After a while of just conversing and game-planning, three people burst through the doors of the mall. Amanda was quick to recognize two of them as being Mrs. Byers and Sheriff Hopper but she wasn't sure who the third man was.
"So how big is this thing?" Sheriff Hopper was quick to get down to business. "It's big," Johnathan replied, "about thirty feet or so."
"And it kind of. . .destroyed your cabin," Lucas chimed in. "Sorry 'bout that."
"So you're saying that the thing that hurt El. . .is a weapon? And instead of it being made out of metal, it's made out of. . .melted people?" Steve asked reluctantly, trying his best to wrap his head around what was happening. "Yes!" Amanda commended, "exactly!"
"Oh. Okay, cool. Just making sure."
"Are. . .you okay?" Amanda asked as she watched Steve reach for a chair to lean against. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he assured, "I just need to sit down."
"Yoohoo!" exclaimed the balding man as he waved some papers around. Sheriff Hopper and Mrs. Byers went over to him to discuss what he had in his hands. Everyone came around to look at what he had, as well, but Amanda hung back a little. She wasn't really sure whether or not it was okay for her to be there because didn't know if they could see her or not.
Will saw her standing a way away and was quick to pull her in with the rest of them. "You're on this team now, whether you like it or not," he mumbled, intertwining his hand with hers. "I know that, but I don't know if your mom, the Sheriff, or that guy can see me," Amanda mumbled back, "what if they see me?"
Their conversation was cut short when the guy started discussing the game plan for finally closing the gate down for good. "Getting to the gate from the vault room shouldn't be far. Maybe about fifty feet or so. I'm not entirely sure about the scale on this thing."
"More like five hundred," Erica spoke up. "I'm sorry, who are you?" the man asked, bewildered by Erica's presence. "Erica Sinclair," she responded sassily, "and you are?"
"Murray. . .Bauman."
Amanda punched Will's arm in excitement. "That's the guy that wrote the article about the lab shutting down!"
"Yeah," Will agreed, rubbing his arm, "and ow!"
"Listen," Erica continued on, "I don't mean to offend how you run your ship or anything, but if you follow this man, you'll all die. It's not Disneyland where you can just waltz on in!"
"What are you, four? Why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray shot back at her. "Try ten, you bald bastard!" Erica retorted. "Erica!" Lucas scolded. All she did was shrug. "What? It's true."
After that whole squabble, they all regrouped and returned their focus to the floor plan and tried to figure out a way to get into the vault room without getting scorched by communists.