suıʞʍɐɥ oʇ ǝɯoɔlǝʍ sƃuıɥʇ ɹǝƃuɐɹʇs

Chapter Twenty-Two: Continued

pǝnuıʇuoɔ
oʍʇ-ʎʇuǝʍʇ ɹǝʇdɐɥɔ

July 3, 1985

After about ten minutes Steve dropped me back onto my feet but laced his fingers through mine. This corridor felt like it was never going to end. "I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive,"Dustin said. "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," Steve told him. "They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners," Erica said.

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking. Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo," Robin chimes in. It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," I said. "And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser," Robin added. "You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asked. "I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison. It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something," Dustin said.

"What the hell is promethium?" Steve asked. "It's a chemical element," I told him. "It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," Robin added. "You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill," Erica said. Steve looked down at her, No, no, no. No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right?" He told her. "Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?" Robin teased him. "No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus," he said.

"Promethium, babe. Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure. He was one of the Titans, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire," I said. "All I'm saying is, it's probably being used
to make something. Or power something," Dustin cut in. "Like a nuclear weapon?" I asked.
"Totally," Robin said. "Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That's great. That'd be great," Steve said. "But if they're building something, why here? I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places. At the very best, we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland, but maybe that's it. Maybe it's our very..." Steve, Dustin, and I stopped in our tracks.

"You think the Russians know?" Dustin asked. About..." Steve said. "They could," I shrugged. "So it's connected?" He asked. "Maybe," Dustin said "How?" I asked. "I don't know, but it's..." Dustin said then we all said "Possible." In unison. Erica and. Robin had walked a few feet ahead of us. "I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Robin asked. We heard voices over the walkie and ran to the bag Erica had. We listened as they talked in Russian and Robin translated the message for us. Teen broadcast was close wherever it was coming from.

We continued walking until we finally came to where we started seeing other people. We had to hide until they walked past. "That was close," Robin said. "Too close," Dustin said. We walked around the corner and our mouths fell open. They had a whole fucking lab down here. Russians walking around with guns. We quickly hide behind  a small red container. All of us squashed together.

"I saw it. First floor. Northwest," Erica says. "Saw what?" Steve asked. "The comms room!" She said in a hushed tone. "You saw the comms room?" I asked her. "Are you sure?" Dustin asked her. "Positive. The door was open for a second. And I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there." We made the quick decision to make our way up to that room. We hid behind shipping containers until we got to the stairs that led up to it and rushed inside.

When we turned around we saw one of the commies. He stood up and was going to call someone until Steve rushed him and fought with him. To our surprise he was actually able to knock him out. "Dude, you did it! You won a fight!" Dustin said, smiling. Dustin then went over and grabbed the keys off the guy. I walked over to Steve, "you okay there big guy?" I asked. His arms wrapped around my waist and gave me a quick kiss.

"Hey, guys! You might want to see this!" We walked up another set of stairs where Robin was. A bright light filtered through the window in the door. When we looked inside there was some kind of laser hitting the wall. And in that was a gate to the Upside Down.

E Pluribus Unum

When we went back down the stairs and back into the control room the guy Steve had knocked out was gone. When we opened the door to leave there were Russian guards coming at us. We all ran. Weaving in and out of people to avoid being caught. We were able to get into another room just in time. Dustin's and Erica pulling off a grate to escape through. Me, Robin, and Steve all put our weight on the door to keep it shut.

Steve looked at me, "go with them. I got this," he said. "What? No! Are you fucking crazy I am not leaving you!" I said. "Babe, go! I need you to go, please. I'll be fine. We're right behind you!" He said. I hesitated but then went and started pushing the kids to jump down. I looked back at Steve and Robin. "Go! We got this," Robin said. "Steve." He looked at me, "go! Babe, go! I love you but please fucking go!" He yelled. I climbed down and ran with the kids.

"Where's Steve and Robin?" Dustin asked. "Just fucking go!" I said. Once we were far enough away we stopped at the large fan that was in the ducts. We had to figure out how to stop it so we could get through. "We need to go back and get them," Dustin said. "I know, Dustin. Just please let me think." I sat back while he and Erica talked and tried getting into the box that would allow us to turn the fan off.