The Fate of Hawkins; A Stranger Things Fanfiction

Chapter Five: The Flayed

Y/n's POV

Things turned worse pretty quickly. The elevator picked up speed as it dropped, making it impossible to move anywhere without feeling like you were gonna either fly up and hit the ceiling or stumble to the floor. I was still clutching the metal shelving unit behind me, hoping that it'd keep me grounded.

"Shit! Shit! We're going down! We're going down!" Steve declared.

"Yeah, no shit, Harrington!" Robin exclaimed.

"Why don't these buttons work?! Come on!" Dustin uttered and slammed his palm into one of the buttons, causing the elevator to slam to a stop. Dustin and Erica collapsed to the ground by the control panel, Robin stumbled backwards into a metal shelf, hitting her head against a pole, and Steve toppled into a corner where a large box fell on top of him. I was the only one who managed to keep my balance.

"Oh. My groin," Steve groaned out. "It fell on my groin. Someone get this off of me!"

"I'm coming," I murmur and take a few steps in his direction. I squatted down and slid my hands under the box before standing back up and placing it back on its pedestal. Whatever the box contained, it was pretty heavy, and the effort it took strained my quads. I winced as I straightened my posture, rubbing the back of my leg to provide myself some sort of pain relief.

"Is everyone okay?" Robin quizzed as she got to her feet.

"Not really. That wasn't fun at all," I comment.

"Well, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" Steve yelled and pushed on the buttons some more.

"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work. They only would if we had a keycard. It's an electronic lock," Robin noticed. "Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning..."

"We're stuck in here," Dustin deduced.

"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's," Erica notified us. "And Tina always covers for me. But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you three are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throats."

"I don't care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack's party! Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!" Steve shouted.

"Steve, calm down," I instruct and place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Everything's gonna be okay. We'll figure something out. Look, there's a vent on the ceiling. Lets build a staircase and see what's up there. Maybe we can climb out."

It didn't take long to build a set of stairs. With all of the boxes and shelving we had in the elevator with us, it was easy. Once we had a stable few steps, I started my way to the top, where I hoisted myself up onto the roof of the elevator. From there though, things fell apart. I looked around, and there were no ladders in sight to climb out of the shaft. There also weren't any doors leading to other floors, so we couldn't even climb the elevator cords to reach them. Add that to the fact that we were hundreds, maybe even thousands of feet below where we entered, and we were screwed.

Steve raised his eyebrows at me. "What were you saying about climbing?"

..................................................

"Code red, I repeat, 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," Dustin relayed over his radio from the roof of the elevator.

"Dustin, will you please give that a rest?" I plead from where I was snuggled into Steve's side. "Some of us are still trying to sleep. And by some, I mean all of us!"