Jailbird || Stranger Things

fifty-six ➵ distant relations

This was the longest hallway in the world. Teresa was becoming pretty damn sure of that fact.

And not even the conversation along the way was managing to allow her thoughts to ease up a little. They continued to claw at the inside of her skull, wanting to break out and be let loose, pushing against each fold of her brain as she tried to make sense of them. Why was she seeing things in her dreams? How did she know? What exactly was going on, and why the hell were they in a political take on a Stephen King novel, for crying out loud!

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

So surely, El was Carrie, right? She was the one with freaky telekinesis powers. But she was just the eleventh subject, right? So if there's at least one more of her, in Chicago, then where—were there more?

"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."

And what was in that file? The photo of Teresa's mother with Terry Ives. The file didn't go into too much information, but she knew from Jim that Terry remained in the program, even if her own mother didn't. Phoebe left, gave birth, and left the kid in Hopper's care the moment he returned from the war. And then Phoebe Jones just ceased to exist.

Teresa wasn't the only one who called bullshit on that one.

"They're commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners," Erica replied, all four of them completely oblivious to Teresa bringing up the rear, deep in thought as she ambled on.

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking," Robin added. "Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

"It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," Dustin agreed, letting Robin finished their mutual train of thought.

"And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser."

Steve's brows furrowed in thought as he contemplated their points, "You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" he looked to the nerds on the other end of the line.

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison," Teresa spoke up for the first time, having tuned in a couple of steps ago. She realised there were slightly more important matters at hand than her family background.

"Exactly, it's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something," Dustin nodded, looking to Steve.

"What the hell is promethium?"

"It's what Victor Stone's dad used—"

"—To make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," Robin helped out, finishing Teresa's sentence in one breath.

"You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill.," Erica shook her head, immediately interrupted by Steve.

"No, no, no. No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right?"

Teresa let out a laugh as Robin smiled at his refusal, "Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?" she teased.

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

"Promethium," Teresa and Dustin sighed in annoyance.

"Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever," he added. "All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something."

"Or power something," Reese agreed.