"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
If there was one plus about the corridor, it had been empty.
But, once the six of them came to the end, that emptiness was thrown out the window when, oh yeah, Rowan was reminded this was a functioning secret Russian base under Starcourt and they were all six American kids who could have endured gruesome fates if caught by the Soviets. So they had to do a game of hide-and-seek where being found meant grisly torture and death.
Like now, as they hunkered behind a crate as two Russians walked past and a cart driven by two uniformed Soviets whirred past, wheels almost gliding across the concrete floor. Rowan was almost envious—her legs wouldn't be aching as bad as they were if they'd gotten their grubby hands on a cart. But it was not to be, so Rowan's legs had to suffer the pain of walking for what felt like hours and now crouching down behind a crate with five other people.
Steve peered around the corner, serving as lookout for them all. When it appeared that it was empty, he whispered, "Okay, clear, clear. Come on, let's go."
One by one, they crawled out from behind the cramped space of the crate, tiptoeing across as Robin muttered, "Okay, that was close."
"Too close," Dustin agreed.
"Any closer, and they could have spotted us," Valerie murmured, Rowan nodding in agreement.
"Relax, all right? Relax, nobody saw..." Steve started off, but the words trailed off when he rounded the corner. When Rowan rounded the corner along with Valerie, Robin, Dustin and Erica, she saw why.
Before them was what seemed to be the hub of the facility, with a woman speaking Russian over speakers as men and women in lab coats walked about, people in HAZMAT suits, and uniformed soldiers marched along the floor or scanned from above railed balconies, as a red cart-car whirred across. There was something against the far wall Rowan couldn't fathom its use for but it had a lot of blinking lights and a door leading into a room that closed right after she'd caught that glimpse.
Shit, this was bigger than she thought, than any of them thought.
What the hell are they doing? she thought, but that evaporated when she saw one of the soldiers looking down—right at them.
"Fuck!" Rowan hissed.
"Shit!" Steve cursed a second after.
"Quick, get to cover! Hide!" Valerie whispered urgently as they all scrambled behind a red box, Rowan ducking behind Steve as she watched Valerie push Erica behind her—for someone who was annoyed by Erica, Valerie had grown quickly protective of her—as they all crouched behind it, Rowan's heart ratcheting in her chest in a frantic beat.
