The Lab
Readers Point of View
"Good job today Eleven."
I can hear Papa's voice echo into the waiting room, right outside the testing lab where I've been waiting. "Bring Eleven to the special project. While you two bring Twelve in." Papa orders as I catch a slight glimpse of Eleven being forcefully dragged away while I'm brought into the room for todays pre-testing.
A man in a pure white suit came and put a wired helmet on my head, making sure it's secure before backing away, leaving Papa and I in the room.
"For this test I want you to try and crush this simple can. You think you can do that?" Papa asked. I looked away from him and at the can, a simple task we do quite often, yet energy draining task nonetheless.
I focused on the can.
A couple seconds passed by, and nothing.
"Focus. Let it come to you. Envision the can being crushed." Papas words keep echoing in my head until we saw the simple can begin to shake a bit. Vibrating quietly before quickly getting crushed.
I felt blood falling from my nose as my head was getting foggy.
"You did good, however, you still need to get stronger. We will work on that and in due time." Papa smiles, but his words send a wave of sadness over myself.
I'm still not strong enough for him.
"Bring her back to her room." Papa ordered as I felt the men in white suits harshly grab my arms lifting me up and throwing me into my room. Slamming the door as they left.
Ever since the others disappeared these guys have been more rough with Eleven and I. That day was when we began to do more intense testing. Before it would be simple tasks like the pre-test I did today but after the special project started the normal testing I had gotten used to became a pre-test. Now the real test is still too difficult for me to handle. So for now I'm stuck doing little tests as I try my best to get stronger.
Before this place was lively and while I didn't really befriend my other brothers and sisters, but still they made this less like a prison.
Now it just feels lonely. No more rainbow room. No more play time. Only testing and resting.
That's all we do.
"Emergency. All soldiers report to the special project lab. I repeat all soldiers report to the special project lab-"
The distressed voice over the announcements gets cut off as I hear footsteps outside my room running away from my door.
I look at the ground to see a small crack in the floor, that crack moved up the walls and onto the door. Breaking the lock and letting the door slowly creek opened.
I watched with wide eyes as Eleven runs by my room. She looks scared and stops right in front of me. We stand there for a little bit simply staring at each other, until we heard people running towards us.
"Get them both."
A soldier orders as they take out a weapon they normally use on us.
I felt myself get more panicked as the men started to come closer turning on their weapons and showing us the blue electricity, and without thinking I threw the guards across the room.
I felt proud of myself but that moment ended quickly when I felt Eleven grab my hand.
I was confused.
Where was she running to?
If she was going to attempt an escape she has to know that she's running the wrong way. Right?
"Where are you running to?" I asked seeing as she didn't look back, almost as if she knew where to run.
She opened a door and led me into an unknown part of the lab.
"This way." She pointed to a small tube only big enough for kids to fit through.
She opened the gate of the tube with her powers and bent down as she started to crawl through it.
As I was wondering what I should do I heard people yelling and footsteps running towards us.
"Both the numbers have escaped."
"We have to get them back."
"Try your best not to kill them."
The bad men kept yelling for us.
They're going to find me if I stay here and do bad things to me. If I go with her, I have a chance to live. To be free. The choice is easy. I'm going with her.
I decided to follow Eleven into the unknown as I bent down and began to crawl through the long dark tunnel.
We crawled for an excruciating long time through the dark tunnel, but finally we were able to make it out.
Now it is just Eleven and I.
The last two numbers have finally escaped.
It feels weird. A good weird.
But we weren't out of the woods yet.
"How did you know where to go?" I was the first one of us to speak up.
"I don't remember..." She trailed off.
While we aren't the best at conversations we both now have a similar goal.
To escape from the bad men.
"We can't stay here." I tell her looking back towards the lab which was now in the distance.
We begin a long silent walk through the unknown forest. The floor was sharp and had these prickly plants on it that made walking a little painful but it was tolerable.
However as time moves onwards the warm sun goes away leaving us outside at night. We both begin to shiver from the cold and occasionally seethe in pain from stepping on a prickly plant.
Finally we find something different from plants, rocks and trees.
It's a bright glowing sign that reads:
"Bennys Burgers."
"Look at that." I pulled on Elevens arm.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I don't know. But it's something different. It could be helpful." I tell her as we decided to quietly go and investigate.
We snuck into the building through a back door.
The minute we walked an unknown smell was lingering inside the room.
We looked around the back for awhile until something caught Elevens attention.
I peaked my head over her shoulder and saw good smelling food on the counter.
Eleven and I ran up to the food and started eating it without thinking. However, we ended up paying the price for it as someone witnessed us eating.
"Hey!"
A man shouts. He was tall, had hair on his face but not his head and was wearing a greasy outfit.
Eleven and I looked at each other and then rushed away while I quickly grabbed the fries. Sadly he caught us pretty quickly. He seemed fairly annoyed but also confused as he grumbled a few words telling us to sit down while he went to the back to get something.
People stared at us and when the man came back he gave us some bright yellow shirts with the Bennys Burgers logo on it.
He told us to go in the bathroom to change while he closes the shop for the night.
The shirt was really big. It fell all the way down to my knees but it was better then the hospital gown I had on before.
When we got back the place was empty as we spotted the man sitting at the table with more food right in front of him.
His attitude was calm now as he watched Eleven and I happily eating the food he gave us.
"So you guys got your food, now time for a little give and take. Tell me what are your names?" The man asked.
Eleven and I shared a skeptical look and decided not to answer the man.
"Not talkin' huh?" The man added and took our food away saying: "No talking means no food."
"No-" I say grabbing his arm to stop him from taking away the food. The man stopped taking the food away and watched as I turned my arm around, showing him my number Twelve tattoo. I looked at Eleven and nodded as she showed him hers too.
"Twelve and Eleven? What does that mean?" He asked confused.
"Our names." I tell him with an annoyed tone as he continued to keep the food away from us.
"Where did you two come from?" He asked another question but since he kept the food away we did not answer.
"Did they ever hurt you? Is that why you had that gown on? You escape from a hospital after they hurt you?"
Eleven and I sat quietly until the man finally gave up, handing us the food he told us to eat up while he left to "make a call."
We quickly finished our food and were called to the back where the man was waiting for us with more food.
"Since you two were good you can have ice cream for a treat. Now a proper introduction, I'm Benny." He tells us shaking my hand then Elevens, and finally hands us our ice creams.
We start "devouring" the ice cream as Benny says when all of a sudden we heard a loud knock on the door.
"I'll go get it and tell them we're closed okay?" Benny tells us as we watched him go over towards the door and answer it seeing a blond haired woman standing their.
Benny greets her and the second he turned his back the woman pulled out a gun and shot Benny in the head.
Benny went wide eyed and within seconds he dropped dead. Looming behind the woman was the man we ran away from in the first place. Papa. He slowly entered stepping over Bennys body. As guards started following Papa through the door with huge guns.
We didn't have much time to process what was happening all we knew was that we had to run or be captured. Eleven and I shared a panicked look as we both ran out the back entrance where we originally snuck inside.
Out there was more guards waiting for us with guns at the ready.
Eleven quickly threw them back into the forest as we tried to run away, but the bad men kept coming in bigger groups making it difficult to run.
"Eleven." I whispered subtly looking at her "I'll distract them. You run. I'll come find you." I add slightly pushing her towards the woods.
She hesitated for a moment and eventually turned her back towards me as she reluctantly ran away while I faced the men.
I watched Papa come out of Bennys Burgers telling the men to hold their fire.
"Twelve you are only fighting the inevitable. Come back with me." Papa tells me.
In a panicked state I used my powers and threw Papa into the group of guards.
As the guards regrouped they raided their guns aiming them at me.
"Come with us calmly or we will have to shoot." One of the guards ordered.
I focused on the men and their guns and lifted them into the air.
One of the guards managed to move his finger ever so slightly and shoot one bullet at me, thankfully it didn't hit but barely scratched my arm.
I seethed through my teeth but kept the men in the air. I was prepared to kill them when something stopped me. A weird demonic screech made me stop as I dropped all the men.
The lights on their guns started flickering on and off as I felt a strange presence slowly creeping up behind me.
I swiftly turned around to face whatever was behind me, however, when I looked I saw nothing but darkness.
It was weird. Like I was taken away from where I was and brought into a different place.
The atmosphere was colder and the air felt thicker. As if it were toxic.
I turned back to face the bad men but they weren't there. They all had disappeared.
Now I was totally alone.
No Eleven. No Papa. No bad men.
No one.
At least that's what I thought when I heard slimy movements behind me and again demonic screech.
This time I didn't take time to look behind me. Instead I ran. I ran as fast as I could. I didn't know where I was running to I just knew I had to get away from whatever was behind me.
Word count: 2212
Edited.
Hi! So this was originally my first fanfic I wrote (and it showed-) but I came back to edit it since I wanted it to be better.
I did edit this story (twice now and I'll come back and edit this again if I think it's still bad.) but I'm sure there's still some spelling or grammar mistakes so if you see one please comment it and I'll fix it right away.
Heads up I'll keep my word counts at least 1000* words, since I personally like longer stories and the episodes are super long giving longer parts! This is going to follow the og plot of Stranger things! I don't own characters besides
Y/n (somewhat) everything else belongs to the Duffer brothers.
Thank you for reading, enjoy!
:)