CHAPTER NINE - E PLURIBUS UNUM
PART ONE
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"I DON'T UNDERSTAND," Robin admitted when they started to explain, rushing down the stairs to get away from the massive device that Jackie could only assume was being used to open the gate again. "You've seen this before?"
"Not exactly," Steve answered, still trudging forward.
"Then what, exactly?"
"All you need to know is that it's bad," Dustin said, and she could hear the waver in his voice. Despite that, Jackie felt a little more at ease knowing she wasn't the only one who felt like her shit just got rocked. What happened the year before gave Jackie nightmares herself, she couldn't imagine how Dustin felt going through it twice. And now, three times. Dustin was still barely a teenager.
"Really bad," Steve agreed.
"Like end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad," Dustin spoke quickly.
"And you know about this how?" Robin questioned, disbelief clouding her voice.
"We've been through this before," Jackie replied. "Just trust us, okay? We need to get out of here. Now."
"I-"
"Steve," Erica cut Robin off, staring at something behind them with wide eyes. "Where's your Russian friend?"
Cynthia paled from next to Dustin. "Uh-oh."
They all glanced to where the unconscious man was supposed to be, soon realizing that he wasn't there. An alarm blared, and red lights began to flash. Jackie looked out the window to see him clutching his bleeding head, and pointing into the room they were in.
"What a snitch. Okay you ugly bastard, I'll remember that!"
"Jackie," Steve snapped, grabbing her hand as they struggled to find out what to do. "Not the time."
Steve ushered them back into the room where the gate was being opened, and they sprinted through the room, narrowly avoiding Russians. Jackie nearly fell while running down a flight of stairs, but caught herself thanks to the railing. Dustin dramatically shrieked, and pushed a man with a mask on out of the way. She would've laughed if she weren't so frightened for her life.
The six of them ended up at the front of the machine, the power from it blowing the hair out of Jackie's face.
"Holy shit holy shit HOLY SHIT!" Dustin was screaming. There was nothing to do other than stare at each other hopelessly as the guards started to swarm in.
"This way!" Steve ordered, pulling Jackie by the arm as they ran down another flight of stairs. Steve roughly shoved a man during the process. As more guards appeared around the corner, Steve swore and pushed a bunch of barrels onto them.
They ran into a room, and Steve quickly shut the door behind him, struggling to hold it closed as the Russian men pounded on it. Jackie and Robin hurriedly ran to his rescue, forcing it to stay shut with their body weight, but it was obvious they wouldn't hold for long.
"Here!" Erica yelled, picking up a panel off the floor. "Come on!"
"Just go!" Steve ordered, and Cynthia looked back and forth between the groups.
"Go!" Jackie yelled. "Take care of them!"
"I—" Cynthia went to speak, but Jackie shook her head.
"Seriously, go! Keep them and yourself safe!"
Swallowing, Cynthia's eyes briefly darted to Robin who stood next to Jackie, before she slowly nodded and climbed in after Dustin.
"We'll come back! I promise!"
"Go!" The three remaining of them yelled hopelessly just as Cynthia's head disappeared out of sight, and the Russians took control of the door, flinging them backwards onto the floor. Jackie winced, raising her hands in surrender with the others as they aimed their guns at them.
She spared a look to her left, making eye contact with Steve, and then another guard. "This should be fun," she muttered bitterly.
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Everything was blurry, mostly. If she hadn't been so uncooperative, maybe she still would've been able to see. But authority and being tossed around like a rag-doll had never mixed well with Jackie Mayfield.
She screamed and struggled against the guards as they dragged her through the halls. Her face pounded after being punched at least four times, she didn't even want to know how horrible she looked at the moment. She could taste blood, the metallic taking over her tastebuds as she bit back tears at the pain.
"Get off of me!" A familiar feminine voice demanded, and she recognized it as Robin's. The guards swung open the door, and Jackie glanced over to see Robin and Steve being dragged in as well. Her heart dropped into her stomach at his face, his eye was swollen and he was completely unconscious.
"What did you do to him?" Jackie screamed, struggling to rip her hands out of the guards' grasp. "Let me go! Assholes! I hate you! Rot in Russian hell!"
The three of them were thrown onto the ground, the girls crawling over to Steve who laid there, motionless. Jackie's heart was thundering in her chest, and she could hardly feel the pounding of her face over the ache in her heart.
"Steve? Steve!" Robin demanded, sharing a look with Jackie. The door swung open, and an older man waltzed in, his footsteps echoing through the corridor. "What'd you do to him? What did you do?!" Robin was smacked harshly across the face, and she fell back on the floor at the impact.
Jackie watched in horror, her gaze fixing itself on the cruel man in front of her, reeling back as she readied herself for his hand. He ordered the other men to do something in Russian, and they lifted Jackie's arms up, roughly shoving her into a chair. Robin and Steve were placed next to her, the seats arranged into a triangular shape.
"Steve, wake up!" Jackie commanded, watching as his dead sagged. "Steve, wake up, seriously it's not nap time, you dipshit."
"How are you so calm?!" Robin questioned, struggling against her restraints.
"You think this is calm?" Jackie replied, her voice cracking as tears formed in her eyes. "I'm about to die in a secret Russian base and my stupid boyfriend is unconscious and he's not answering and I want to make sure he's okay! I am not calm! This officially the worst fourth of July ever!" She glared at the man standing in front of her. "Go to hell."
"I think your friend need a doctor," the man said, his voice was laced with a thick Russian accent. He threw his hands up, crouching down in front of Robin, who puckered her lips. "Good thing. We have the very best." He turned back to the other men, and began to laugh.
Soon, the room was filled with chuckling, and the redhead shifted uncomfortably, her hand brushing Steve's. She swallowed as she tried to grab it, wanting to somehow comfort him, and maybe even herself, but the bindings were too tight and she blinked back tears.
Robin spit in his face, and despite the situation they were in, Jackie grinned. "Nice one! I'd totally high five you but I can't move my arms."
"You're going to regret that, little bitch." The man sneered, Robin raised her head defiantly, and Jackie admired her brave exterior. The tears streaming down her own face weren't very threatening.
The men slowly started to pour out, and Robin shook violently. "Bastards! Let us out of here!"
Of course, they didn't, and the two girls soon gave up on trying to get out of their restraints.
"I'm so sorry we dragged you into this, Robin," Jackie said quietly after a few minutes of silence, her head dropped with shame. "This is all my fault. If we didn't ask you to-"
"It's not your fault," Robin cut her off softly. "I did this willingly. And if I'm going to die, at least I'm going out with my best friends, right?" Jackie let out a loud sob, her head dropping as the tears fell down her face. "Hey, it's okay," Robin comforted.
"No it's not. None of this is okay. Steve is bleeding, and unconscious. You're also bleeding, and I'm about to piss my pants out of fear." Surprisingly, Robin let out a laugh, Jackie couldn't fight off her own smile. "Okay, we are insane people for laughing right now."
Robin snorted, "yes. We are." They sat in a comfortable silence, before the girl shifted in her seat. "If we make it out of here, do you think I'd have a shot with Cynthia? I've always had a crush on her, if I'm being honest—but she never noticed me." Robin scoffed. "Cheerleader and band kid. God, what am I even saying right now?"
Jackie glanced at her the best she could. "Robin, I don't think that kind of stuff matters. Cynthia isn't a typical cheerleader. She never has been. Especially now. You know, traumatic stuff like this is bonding. Who else is gonna relate to getting stuck in a Russian lair? She'll never be able to tell this story to anyone else without getting a crazy look."
Robin laughed, before growing serious again "So you're okay with it?"
She reeled back at the question. "Of course I'm okay with it. Who cares, right? I mean, love is love. If anyone has a problem with that, that's on them. Not on you. And they're totally shitty people, by the way. I'll sick my very aggressive younger sister on them. She's like a guard dog."
Jackie's heart broke at the thought of her sister, she wondered if she was okay. Surely, there had to be someone on the surface who knew about their disappearance, right? If not, she had the potential to never see Max again, and Jackie swallowed the lump forming in her throat.
Robin let out a loud sigh. "You're the first person I've told."
Jackie felt a smile form on her face. "Thank you, for telling me. I'm kinda honored."
"Yeah," Robin mumbled. "Just, don't let anyone else know though."
"Oh, yeah," Jackie shifted in attempt to get more comfortable, failing miserably. "I would never."
"I'm really glad I met you, Jackie. Even if we die here today, I'm glad I got to come out to at least one person in my life."
"Well," Jackie started. "We have to get you set up with Cynthia first. So we can't die today. Maybe tomorrow, but not today."
"Right," Robin agreed. "No dying for us today."
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a/n
(rewritten as of 6/24/21. still kinda shitty oops)