Jailbird || Stranger Things

fifty-four ➵ tower of terror

It was a long way down. 

    Teresa had attempted to count the seconds, but her head began to throb with each shake of the elevator that she chose to believe was something in the tunnel. Although her brain that was churning through the massive amounts of information knew it was probably the wires that must have gone slack in order to allow their incredibly speedy descent. At that point, she was just letting her brain run in order to keep calm in the midst of the screaming from her friends.

    "Shit!"

    Amidst the chaos of the others trying to figure out how to get them out, with too much shouting and button pressing to comprehend, Teresa felt her world turn. The dizziness completely overtook her, and while they were falling down vertically into the pit of the Earth, for her, it felt like it was all turning upside down.

    "Reese?"

    When she came to, they were no longer falling, and the others were no longer screaming. It was quiet, but tense. Steve knelt beside her, breathing heavier than she was.

    "Is everyone okay?" Robin asked, clutching her head just by them both.

    "Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" Steve's voice became stressed, reaching for Teresa's head and gently helping her up. "Are you good?"

    "Did I faint?" she asked, looking to Robin after she gave Steve a nod, who immediately turned to go towards the panel.

    "You fell like a sack of potatoes," Dustin chimed in as Robin got up and helped Reese to stand.

    "I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work," she waved at the other sailor costumed teen.

    "They're buttons," Steve turned back, just as stressed as previously, "They have to do something!"

    "Yes, if we had a key card," Teresa replied, rubbing the back of her head as she picked her backpack up and threw it back on. The others immediately looked to her, but she just reached into her bag for a suspicious looking little bag and threw a pill back. "It's a painkiller, my head is throbbing," she excused, zipping the bag back up as she approached Steve.

    "A what?"

    "It's an electronic lock," she explained, nudging Steve from the panel and pointing to the card reader. "Same as the loading dock door."

    "If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning—"

    "We're stuck in here," Reese finished with Dustin.

    "Yeah," Robin looked to Steve, standing beside Reese, making him slap the button panel closed in annoyance.

    "Just so you nerds are aware," Erica piped up, making the others look to her, though Teresa knew this wasn't about to be good. "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! Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

    Teresa's face fell into her hand, the smack audible in the small space.

    "All right," she suddenly stood up straight, clapping her hands. "Everybody calm down."

    "Calm—"

    "Calm down!" she retorted immediately, cutting Steve's raised voice off again. "Don't raise your voice at me. Not at us. Stop it," she stared him down, the intensity making him sigh. "Shouting is not gonna help. Raised voices are not gonna help. We've been in worse spots. Take a damn breath and think."