Once the mall closed, Steve, Robin, Dustin, and I head for the roof, and settled into our position watching the door. We waited until the last delivery of the night, and until the armed guard left the premises, to radio Erica.
"Erica, do you copy?" Robin asked.
"Mm-hmm. I copy. You nerds in position or what?"
"Yeah, we're in position. Its all quiet here, so you've got the green light."
"Green light. Roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment."
"Can we maybe not call it that?" Steve nodded in agreement.
"I mean, that's kind of what it is, let's be real." I said.
"My point exactly. See you on the other side, nerds."
It was another twenty minutes until we heard from her again.
"Alright nerds. I'm there."
"Do you-Do you see anything?" Robin questioned.
"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about."
"Any guards?"
"Negative."
"Booby traps?"
"If I could see them, they'd be pretty crap traps, wouldn't they?"
"Thank you for that." I chuckled.
"I can't tell if I like her or not," I said to Steve, "I think I do."
"Of course you do." He said dryly, putting a hand on my knee.
"I'm in."
"Oh gosh." Steve tangled his hands in his hair in relief as the doors came swinging open and Erica stood in the doorway, decked out in safety gear with two flashlights taped to her helmet.
"Free ice cream for. Life." She called from the ground. We all stood up, climbing down from the roof and meeting her down below.
We rushed in and quickly located the Imperial Panda and Kauffman shoes deliveries. Dustin handed Steve his pocket knife and he cut them all open. As Steve handed Dustin back the knife I pulled one of the boxes open, revealing a very weird, very industrial looking container. I reached in, grabbing the handle, when Steve put a hand on my shoulder.
"Why don't you let me do that?" I raised my eyebrows at him and he held his hands up. "Right...sorry. Forgot who I was talking to." I nodded, shooting him a smile before twisting the bar and removing the lid. We all looked into the container to see that not only was there some kind of vapor emanating from the container, there were four more handled-objects waiting to be extracted and inspected by us, a child, an eight grader, and three Mall Ice-Cream shop employees, one of which still being a High School student.
"That's definitely not Chinese food." Steve said. I reached in, going to grab one of the handles when Steve stopped me. "Ok, you got the lid, no reason for you to take all the risks." I held my hands up now and he reached in, grasping the handle. "Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back."
Robin and Erica stepped back while Dustin and I stayed where we were.
"No." Dustin said.
"Just step back, ok?" He put a hand on his chest, trying to push him back.
"No."
"Step back! Seriously!"
"No! No!" Dustin exclaimed. "If you die, I die." Steve glanced at me and I shrugged.
"Ok." He twisted the handle, pulling out a cylinder full of bubbling green goo. "What the heck?"
"What is that?" I carefully touched my fingers to the glass turning it in Steve's hand to inspect it closer.
"Whatever it is...its nothing good, I can tell you that much." I said. Suddenly the room rattled and we all looked around in shock.
"Was that just me, or did the room move?" Dustin questioned.
"Booby traps." Erica whispered. The room began vibrating again, but this time it didn't stop.
"You know what? Let's just grab that," Robin took it out of my hand, "And go." She moved to put the cylinder in Erica's backpack, and Dustin walked over to the control panel.
"Which one do I press, Erica?"
"Just press the dang button nerd!"
"Which one? I'm pressing the button, ok?"
"Press Open door!"
"I'm pressing 'Open Door'!" Suddenly everyone started yelling at once, and Steve walked over, pressing the buttons too, which triggered a giant metal wall to slide down over the door, trapping us inside. Next thing we know the lights begin blinking and the room drops, triggering screams from Robin, Dustin, and Erica. Steve and I look up in the corner as lights speed by, indicating that was once just a random room is now an elevator and its heading down to some undisclosed location.
"Crap." We said together. The elevator picked up speed and then everyone was screaming and clinging on to whatever solid surface we could find.
"We're going down!" Steve screamed.
"Yeah no duh, Harrington!" Dustin ran over to the control panel, hitting the buttons.
"WHY DON'T THESE BUTTONS WORK!" He screeched in a girl-like voice. Erica ran over to join him.
"Press the button!"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING!?"
"COME ON PRESS THE THING, JUST PRESS THE BUTTON!" They began hitting all of the buttons until the elevator finally came to a sudden stop, sending me to the ground on top of Steve, and an incredibly heavy box down on top of me. I groaned in pain as my head collided with Steve's sternum.
"My groin," Steve groaned, "You fell on my groin."
"Well sorry, I'll be more careful where I fall next time." I said sarcastically, rubbing the back of my head as I struggled to push the box off of me.
"Are you ok?" He asked, his fingers probing the back of my head.
"I'm fine. You?"
"Dustin! Get this off of us!" Dustin ran over, lifting the box and Steve stood up, hooking his arms under mine and pulling me up with him. I rubbed the back of my head.
"Is everyone ok?" Robin asked.
"YEAH I'M GREAT NOW THAT I KNOW THAT RUSSIANS CAN'T DESIGN ELEVATORS!' Steve screamed, rushing over to the control panel.
"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work."
"They're buttons, they have to do something!"
"Yeah, maybe if you had a keycard with the proper clearance they would do something." I pointed out.
"What?" He asked.
"Its the same kind of lock as the outside, meaning if we don't have a keycard, the thing is practically useless, meaning-"
"We're stuck in here." Dustin said. Steve slammed the control panel door shut, putting a hand on my back.
"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me, but if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you four are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down one by one, and slit your throat."
"I don't care about TINA! Or UNCLE JACK'S party!" Steve yelled. "You're mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a RUSSIAN ELEVATOR!" I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Ok, let's just calm down, and think rationally here for a second, ok?" I suggested. "We need a way out, and clearly the door is not an option so..."
"What if we climbed out?" Dustin suggested, pointing up to the maintenance door.
"That'll work."
~~~
Steve boosted Dustin up so that he could open the maintenance door. Then once he was up and through, he grabbed my waist, lifting me up to it before following behind us.
"What were you saying about climbing?" Steve asked as all three of us looked straight up at what looked like an endless tunnel of nothing.
"Ok...so much for that." I said, my voice echoing painfully in the metal elevator shaft. "Its ok, there has to be a way out of here, we can figure this out."
"I appreciate your optimism, but its not really looking like there is a way out of this one." Steve said.
"Yeah, well we've thought that before, and we're all still here to tell the tale." I pointed out. "But I have a feeling no one is around, so we're probably gonna have to wait until morning for this thing to be powered up again."
"Great. So we just have to sit here and wait for the Russians to find us." Steve put both hands on his head.
"No, we just have to sit here and formulate a plan for when they do." I said, taking his hands off of his head. If we have some vague idea of what's coming, we have the next twelve hours or so to figure out what we're going to do when it does." He sighed, but nodded.
"I'm sorry," Dustin said, sitting down on top of the elevator, "I dragged you guys into this. This is my fault."
"You didn't drag us into anything, Dustin. We chose to be here, and I would much rather be here with you then for you to be here on your own, so personally, I'm satisfied with the circumstances of our situation." He smiled and I turned back to Steve.
"Alright...let's figure out what we're gonna do."
~~~
Morning came, and we still and no idea what we were going to do.
"This is a code red, I repeat, a code red. This is a code red, I repeat, a code red. Does anyone copy? We are innocent children and we are trapped under Starcourt Mall. The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins and if we are found, they will torture and kill us."
"Hey!" Steve cut off Dustin's rambling by climbing through the elevator shaft and pulling me up after him. "You gotta take it easy on that thing, ok? You're gonna drain the battery."
"The mall just opened."
"So?"
"So someone could be in range."
"What do you think, Petey the Mall Cop is gonna rappel down here and save the day?" Steve asked skeptically.
"Alright, why are you such a cranky pants after getting to spend the night with Riley after having her not talk to you for like, a week?" He shot back.
"Yes we had a really romantic evening trapped in an elevator trying to form a game plan that would keep us from dying. Easily the best date idea ever." I said sarcastically.
"We were also trying to figure out a way to open up the door, while you children were sleeping. After eight hours, we're still exactly nowhere which is you know, probably just a little bit of the reason why I'm feeling just a tad cranky." He walked over to the corner of the elevator and unzipped his pants.
"Oh gosh." I groaned, turning around.
"What are you doing?!" Dustin asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing, I'm taking a leak, look away. Look away!" I groaned in disgust as the sound of his urine hitting the wall filled the elevator shaft.
"Can you redirect your stream please?!" Robin shouted. He finished up and re-zipped his pants and I turned around, my nose scrunched up in disgust.
"What?! You gotta go, you gotta go!"
"Yeah, I guess. I just wish I didn't have to be here to witness it." I pointed out.
"What, you can climb through an oozy slimy Upside Down portal but pee is too much for you?" He questioned. I shrugged.
"Fair point." Suddenly Robin's head appeared in the maintenance hatch.
"We've got company."