Run Away (Steve Harrington X Reader)

c h a p t e r: 12

-Y/N-

My legs were aching, but I did not dare stop. We had been walking for hours now. With each step I could feel pain erupting through my leg, only diminishing when it got its chance to lift up, then returning again once it touched the ground and supported my weight – all in what seemed like an endless cycle.

"I mean, you have to admit," I started to say, "as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."

"What are you talking about? It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell." Dustin complained.

Him, Steve, and I were walking together a few paces behind Robin and Erica.

"They're Commies." Erica said. "You don't pay people, they cut corners."

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking." I thought hard. There was no practicality in walking like this. "Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

Steve was catching on to what I was trying to say.

"Yeah." He agreed. "It all comes into the mall like any old delivery. And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser."

"You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" Dustin questioned.

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison." Robin shook her head. "It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something." She suggested excitedly.

"What the hell is promethium?" Steve asked.

"I've read about it in comics. It's what Victor Stone's dad used, right?" I clarified.

"Mhm." Robin nodded. "He used it to make Cyborg's bionic parts."

"And cybernetic components." Dustin added.

"You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill." Erica put her hands to her stomach as if she were going to throw up.

"No, no, no." Steve waved a little finger. "No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right?" He said a bit harshly, as if it hurt his ego.

"Yet you're dating one." Erica said pointedly.

"Why so sensitive, Harrington?" Robin asked.

"Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?" I crossed my arms.

"No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus." Steve defended.

"Promethium." Dustin corrected.

"Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure actually." I muttered.

"All I'm saying is," Robin continued, "it's probably being used to make something."

"Or power something." Dustin suggested.

"Like a nuclear weapon?" I said.

"Totally." Robin grinned.

"Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That's great." Steve whispered sarcastically.

"But if they're building something, why here?" Erica questioned.

"I see what you mean." Robin agreed with her, "I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places. At the very best, we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland."

Erica continued to talk, "But maybe that's it. Maybe it's our very..."

But I tuned them out as Dustin and Steve stopped mid-step. I stopped with them as they came to the same realization that I did. Hawkins was only special to those who knew why. There was only one reason they would choose to build anything here.