Girls Just Want To Have Fun | Robin Buckley

still not caught

July 3, 1985

"Code red, I repeat, code red," Dustin's voice echoed down from the roof of the elevator. Jill sat up from where she had been laying on the floor. She rolled her eyes. "Does anyone copy? This is a code red, I repeat, a code red."

"I can't believe he's still trying with that thing. No one's gonna hear him from all the way down here," Jill said.

"This is a code red, I repeat, a code red. Does anyone copy?" Steve stopped his pacing and went to the hole in the ceiling, hoisting himself through the hole with a grunt. "We are innocent children and we are trapped under Starcourt mall," Dustin continued. "The Red Army had infiltrated Hawkins, and if we are found, they will torture and kill us."

"Well, at least he's speaking the truth instead of sugar coating it," Jill told Robin and Erica. Robin was standing beside where Jill was leaning on the wall, looking over the buttons again and again as if it would reveal something now that it was morning. Steve, Robin and Jill had spent most of the night moping and trying to find out a way to get out of the room.

"Hey," Steve told Dustin. "Gotta take it easy on that thing. Gonna drain the battery."

Jill heard Steve say something about a mall cop before he climbed the rest of the way through the elevator hatch and both boys lowered their voices. Jill looked at Erica, who was digging through the crates and eyeballing the green stuff in them. Jill sighed and leaned her head against the wall, resting her tired eyes as she heard Robin muttering stuff under her breath. She opened her eyes at the sound of running water. She followed Robin's glance through the window to see a liquid running down the wall. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Can you redirect your stream, please?" Robin called to the boys. The stream moved to the left and Jill watched in disgust. "Ugh." Robin groaned in disgust. Jill laughed at the disgusted expression on Robin's face.

Jill leaned off the wall and looked at the buttons from beside Robin. Robin leaned forward to get a better look but quickly stood straight back up when a metal banging sound started from the center of the room. Robin and Jill both spun around to see Erica banging one of the glass vials against a large metal can.

Robin rushed over to Erica and ripped the vial from her hands. "Hey, hey! Be careful, careful, careful. We don't even know what that is."

"Exactly. It could be useful," Erica sassed.

"Useful how?" Jill asked over her shoulder.

"We can survive down here a long time without food, but if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

"I hate to break it to you but this is not water." Robin showed Erica the vial.

"No, but it's a liquid." Jill snickered. "What? If it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."

Jill heard Robin sigh and could tell that she had rolled her eyes. Jill turned away from the buttons as she heard a noise from behind one of the walls. She looked at Robin, who ignored the fact that Erica had taken the vial back from her, and they both rushed over to the door and pressed their ears against it. It sounded as though a car was moving around outside of the room, and by the sounds of it it was moving toward the elevator.

Robin turned and looked at Jill, who had had her eyes on Robin the whole time. Robin sprinted to the elevator hatch and peeked her head through to yell at Steve and Dustin, who were still on the roof. Robin hopped back into the room and motioned at Erica and Jill. Erica grabbed her bag and the vial and quickly crawled onto the roof with help from Robin. Next was Jill who was easily able to make her way onto the roof on her own. As soon as she was up she turned back to the hatch and offered her hand to Robin, who quickly took it to pull herself up. Robin pushed the hatch back shut just in time for the door to slide open.

Two Russians walked into the elevator. The taller of the two men had a lit cigarette in his hand and immediately headed towards the crates in the room. The smaller of the two had barely made it into the room before he stopped and sniffed the air around him.

"You smell that?" He asked the other man in Russian. On the roof everyone turned to look at Jill, who stared through the air vent at the two men. Although the voices were hard to hear, they weren't completely inaudible, and Jill lowered her body a little closer to the vent to help herself listen.

"What?" The other man asked, a box already in his hands.

"Piss."

The taller Russian sniffed the air around him and shrugged, taking the box in his hands out to the small vehicle they had apparently arrived in. The other man went into the elevator and grabbed a box as well. Jill leaned up slightly from the vent, seeing as the two were no longer talking to each other and just carrying the boxes in silence. She looked up first at Robin, and then to Steve who had a finger to his mouth, motioning them to stay quiet.

The Russians left just as quickly as they came, leaving behind dozens of unopened crates. The second their vehicle started up Jill and Steve both quickly stood up. They rushed across the few feet of roof that separated them from the hatch as the door began to close. Jill swung open the hatch and quietly dropped the top onto the roof, not knowing if the Russians would hear it thud. Steve hopped through first and grabbed the vial out of Erica's' hands. She let out a noise of annoyance. Steve jumped onto the table and then to the floor, diving to shove the vial in the way of it from closing. Jill hopped down onto the floor and Erica threw Jill her bag as she hopped through the hatch. Jill tossed the bag to Steve, who was still on the ground, and he shoved it under the crack.

Dustin was the next one off the roof, and Jill quickly helped him as he jumped down. Erica was already through the door by the time Robin jumped down. She accepted Jill's hand and as soon as she hit the ground she pulled Jill by her hand to the door. They released hands to slide under the gap, Robin first and then Jill. Jill rolled an extra foot to give Steve enough room to get safely away from the door, which he did. No sooner had he cleared the door that the vial exploded, leaving green goo all over the floor.

All five of them sat up quickly, eyeing the liquid left on the floor.

"Jesus christ," Steve sighed.

"Ooh," Erica mumbled, watching as the goo seemed to disintegrate part of the floor as it sank into it. Robin turned to look at Erica with her hands on her knees.

"You still wanna drink that?" Robin asked. Erica gave her an annoyed look.

Jill continued to watch the floor disappear under the liquid until Dustin said, "Holy mother of God."

They all turned to look where Dustin was looking. The only exit from the area they were in was down a hallway, and it certainly wasn't a small one. Peering down the hallway there seemed to be no end, no doors on the sides to let them into rooms, no hallways leading off to other areas, just a plain, long hallway. The stretch had to be at least a mile long, or at least it looked it from the area they were looking at it from.

"Well..hope you guys are in good shape," Steve pushed between Dustin and Robin and slapped Dustin's chest as he walked past him. Jill looked at Dustin, who was directly to her right. "I'm looking at you, roast beef," Steve told him.

Steve began down the hallway in front of them and the four of them stared at him. "Let's go. Come on." Steve turned around and told them. Robin gently put an arm against Dustin and Erica to push them slightly forward. Jill fell into step beside Robin as they followed Steve.

"Why me? Dustin asked.

Jill shrugged. "I think that should be the least of your worries seeing as we are heading down a secret hallway in a Russian headquarters that looks to be never ending."

Dustin nodded and sped up to catch up to Steve. Jill rolled her head back and stared at the ceiling and sighed, "Why did we all have to be so goddamn noisy?"