STEVE
THE TUNNELS WERE SPIRALING FROM ONE END TO ANOTHER, with turns that led to nowhere. It was like the tunnel Dustin's pet demodog made, just bigger and scarier. Weird ash pieces floated from everywhere, and there was a bluish tone to the whole area.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's this way," Katie's brother, Mike, said, looking down at a map that was probably drawn by a twelve-year-old.
"You're pretty sure, or you're certain?" Dustin asked behind him.
"I'm 100% sure. Just follow me and you'll know." Mike said in a know-it-all tone that reminded Steve of his few but impressionable conversations he'd had with Katie before a few days ago.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I don't think so. Any of you little shits die down here, I'm getting the blame. Got it, dipshit?" Steve said, stepping parallel to Mike.
"Language," Katie mumbled from behind, light brown hair tucked into a sweater hood. He winked his flashlight at her exasperately before centering it back on Mike.
"From here on out, I'm leading the way," Steve said, snatching the paper into his hands. "Come on, let's go. Come on. A little hustle!"
"Relax, Harrington. Jesus, they're all, like, twelve," Katie said, shaking her arm of some dust. Steve looked at her disapprovingly. From potentially getting an infection from a demogorgon's claws to dying in a second dimension, that girl was way too brave to have slept with him.
They walked for another ten minutes, before reaching the center of the tunnel system. Branches reached out from them in all directions, so they were definitely in the middle.
"What is this place?" Max murmured in curiousity and revulsion.
"Guys, come on. Keep moving," Steve called, Katie at his side as he matched her pace.
They were almost twenty feet out before there was a terrifying scream from Dustin. Katie gasped and ran back in the previous direction, but Steve was faster, scrambling past Max and Mike, his chest pounding.
"What happened?!" Steve yelled, alarmed.
"It's in my mouth! Some got on my mouth! Shit!" Dustin said, ripping his bandana off.
"What's on your mouth?" Katie asked, confused. "Dustin! What's going on?!"
Dustin yelled in effort as he spat out what seemed to be nothing, but maybe it was something as he coughed and retched heavily. Mike looked at Steve in confusion, but Steve shushed him quietly as he watched Dustin struggle, not knowing how to help.
Dustin finally looked up from his crouched position. "I'm okay,"
Katie sighed from beside him, giving Dustin a pat on the shoulder.
"You serious?" someone said.
"Very funny, man." Steve said sarcastically.
"Jesus, what an idiot." Max said, as they turned around and continued walking.
They walked another twenty feet, before Steve stopped, scanning the map before looking up at his surroundings.
"Alright, Wheeler," he said to Mike, though he felt Katie turn her head. "I think we found your hub,"
If they thought they were in the middle of the system earlier, they were wrong. Weird tentacly or slimy things covered the walls here more than anywhere else, and a weird table-thing grew out of the earth, covered in slime.
"Let's drench it," Mike said beside him in conviction.
They poured gasoline on the walls, floors, and all over. Steve was glad to get the heavy canisters out of his and Katie's backpacks as they carefully avoided the extra-gross tentacles snaking around the room (if you could call it such). He and Katie were throwing the liquid onto the higher walls, since only they were tall enough to reach them.
"New dimension, slime monsters, kids on an adventure?" Katie said beside him, grunting with effort as she heaved a splatter of gasoline onto a slime patch. "Sounds a lot like a supernatural TV show, if you ask me,"
"Dunno," Steve chuckled. "Maybe we're all in a TV show together,"
"Maybe. Or maybe not, my life's too dry to be made into a show," Katie said, shaking a canister to make sure there was still liquid inside.
"Nah, I disagree. Ice Queen- turned babysitter adventurer? Sounds pretty interesting to me,"
"You got a point there. Pretty similar plotline with you, Harrington," Katie said, and Steve could sense her smile underneath the bandana.
"God, Harrington," he said, emphasizing the way she called him by his last name.
"You don't like your last name?" Katie said, as if she read his mind.
"Eh, it's alright. Just reminds me of my dad. Pure asshole, that man is," Steve said, tossing some gasoline on the walls with extra vigor.
"Huh. He reminds me of someone," Katie said thoughtfully.
"Sometimes like these I'm tempted to drip a little gasoline on that pretty hair of yours," Steve threatened mockingly.
"You wouldn't, it'd hurt too much for you to watch me burn," Katie replied, eyes curved saucily.
Steve laughed. She was partially right. In few days he'd properly known her, they had went monster hunting, slept together, revolutionized a junkyard, and visited a second dimension. It was an impressive track record, and it had brought them together, whether they liked it or not. If Steve thought about it real hard, he could easily call Katie Wheeler one of his closest friends (which was also partially because he didn't have any regular-close friends).
They finished, walls and floors dripping with gasoline, as they all crouched near the entrance. Katie handed Steve her lighter, and he took it to do the honors.
"Right, you guys ready?" he asked rhetorically.
"Ready," they all choroused.
Steve took the lighter, ready to flick it on.
"I am in such deep shit," he said, before chucking the lighter into the middle of the room.
It was an instantaneous reaction, as the room lit up with the flames multiplying a thousandfold. The walls were ignited, and the heatwave was felt alongside the brightness of tentacles waving in the air to helplessly stop the burn. Steve shielded Katie and Dustin, the two people closest to him, with his body as the flames grew higher and higher, reaching the ceiling against the cool blue of the ambience. They danced their way up, before going sideways and reaching towards the group.
"Go, go, go!" Steve yelled in panic as the kids and Katie ran in the opposite direction.
"Steve, c'mon!" Katie yelled to him, and he scrambled next to her as the flames threatened to swallow them whole.
"Let's go, let's go!" Steve made his way to the front again, his path now illuminated with the firelight.
"Guys! Help, help! Help!" Mike yelled, and Katie rushed from his side to her brother.
"Where?! What is it?" She yelled, then noticed the fat tentacle wrapped around Mike's ankle.
"Everybody back, back now!" Lucas yelled, as Steve raised his bat to repeatedly whack the tentacle, the nails piercing it hard enough that it let go of the boy's leg.
"You good?" Katie asked, before a growl and a screech sounded from behind them.
They whirled around, to see the demogorgon that had scratched Katie's arm earlier. A burning hatred and hostility rose up in Steve as he raised his bat, ready to step in front of Dustin.
"Dart?" Dustin said instead, in a shockingly calm tone. He then proceeded to take a step forward, alarmed chatter going on from the people behind. "Trust me,"
"Hey. It's me, it's me.It's just your friend, it's Dustin," he said, almost sounding happy as he knelt down. "You remember me? Will you let us pass?"
Dart's face opened up to show the disgusting teeth and drool in its mouth, as Steve's body tensed once more, the only thing stopping him from charging in being Katie's hand on his shoulder.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry.I'm sorry about the storm cellar. That was a pretty douchey thing to do. You hungry? Yeah?" he took off his backpack.
"He's insane," Lucas said, and Steve heard Katie murmur an agreement.
"Shut up," Steve whispered, focusing on Dustin.
"I've got our favorite. See? Nougat. Look at that. Yummy. Here, all right? Eat up, buddy. Come on. Come on," he said, and beckoned frantically with his hands for the others to pass as the demogorgon starting snacking on the nougat bar.
Steve reluctantly did so, sticking in the back of the group to wait for Dustin as he talked to the demogorgon, offering him more. Dustin got up and was about to follow them, turning back to whisper a goodbye before doing so.
They were about to reach the opening with the rope, before the tunnels shook with a rumble that unsteadied all of them but Steve, who planted his feet.
"What was that?" Katie said fearfully, to the sound of a monster roaring.
"They're coming," Mike whispered from the other end. "Let's go! Run! Run,"
They all scrambled back through the tunnels, Steve stepping on people's feet more than once as they used the walls to propel them forwards. The pounding of flesh against dirt grew louder as the monsters advanced.
"There! Let's move, come on!" Katie yelled as the rope came into view.
The duo pushed each kid up the rope, one after the other, as the roaring grew louder and louder.
"Come on, move, move!" Steve yelled as Max, Lucas, Mike and Dustin all made their way up to above.
"Katie, go, now!" Steve yelled, and Katie planted two feet on the rope, before Steve looked at the tunnels and noticed the shadows moving. Katie did, too, and she let go of the rope.
"Plant your feet," Steve said steadily to her, knowing it was too late for the both of them. He could hear Katie's heavy breathing as she did so, watching dozens and dozens of monsters advance.
"Kathy! Come on!" Mike's cries echoed from above, but Katie didn't take notice as the monsters arrived from the corner, ready to pounce. Steve raised his bat, ready to strike, before-
Nothing happened.
The monsters ran past them, bumping into their lower legs as they did so, but they were unharmed. One rammed into Katie's leg, causing her to tip over, but Steve caught her and held her against his chest as he felt her heart pounding against his own skin. They looked at the wave of demogorgons, all heading in one direction, thinking the same thing; that they had been called. And whoever they were called to was in big trouble.
Finally, when the last demogorgon rumbled past, Steve let go of Katie, both of them panting from the adrenaline. He looked past the dusty scuba-diving goggles she wore. Her eyes had blue inside them. A lot, actually.
"Guys, let's move! Eleven's in trouble!" Lucas interrupted from above, and Katie hoisted herself up the rope once more.
Steve waited until Max and Lucas grabbed her arms to heave her to safety before going up himself, taking the rope alongside with him.
"The mind. It's called the demogorgons to Eleven," Mike said.
"How- how'd you know that?" Katie panted.
"Uh," Mike was about to respond, before the lights of Billy's Camaro flashed right in their faces, turning on to maximum as it nearly blinded Steve and the others.
It uses lights to communicate. Steve remembered his encounter with his first demogorgon last year, and realized that something was happening, somewhere, with the monsters. And it wasn't a bad thing.
And as the lights of the Camaro dimmed, and Mike's shoulders fell in relief, Steve felt like he took his first breath in days.