CONFIDENTIAL|steve harrington x oc|BOOK 3

chapter 15- movies

"Woah! Careful!" Phoebe yells from the back of the small, red vehicle. Dustin and Erica had shoved her, Steve, and Robin into the back of the cart and were now zooming down the never ending hallway back to the elevator. Phoebe was having a mild panic attack as her brother haphazardly sped away from the Russians chasing them. Steve and Robin, however, thought differently and were now arguing about racing. 

"It's not the Indy 300, dude." Steve groaned. 

"It's the Indy 500, dingus!" Robin corrected. 

"No, it's 300!" Steve argued. 

"How about...a million!" Robin offered, sending them both into another fit of laughter. They skidded to a halt, the older teens being thrown into the front section of the vehicle as Dustin opened the back while Erica used a stolen key card to open the elevator. The door closed as soon as they were all inside and began shooting upward. Dustin and Erica stood by the buttons, watching their antics continue.

"It's like I'm surfing!" Steve shouted. 

"Surfing, yeah!" Robin agreed while Phoebe yelled through laughter, "Steve, stop! You're gonna kill yourself!" The elevator jolted and sent Steve toppling off the push cart and into Phoebe, both of them crashing to the floor.

"Wipeout!" Robin yelled, laughing so hard she was almost crying. 

"They seem drunk." Erica pointed out. 

"Why would they be drunk?" Dustin questioned before walking over to Steve and looking at his eyeballs. "His pupils are super dilated."

"Drugs, maybe?" Erica offered. Dustin went to check Steve's eyes again, but Steve shoved him away. 

"How many times do I have to tell you, Dad." he mocked. "I don't do drugs. It's only marijuana." Steve and Phoebe laughed. 

"What did they do to you guys?" Dustin asked Phoebe who just shrugged and continued laughing. "We need to know if you guys are gonna die on us."

"We all die, my strange little child friend." Robin said from her crouched position. "It's just a matter of how and when." It was silent for a split second. Then more laughing. Dustin shook off their insanity before trying to get back to his point. 

"Whatever, they're gonna be looking for us up there, so I need you to tell me where you parked your car."

"Oh, can we make a pit stop at the food court?" Steve asked. 

"I would kill for a hotdog on a stick," Phoebe gasped.

"All right, yes, food. You can have as much food as you want, but only if you tell me where your car is parked." Dustin continued to probe. 

"Uh-oh." Phoebe said innocently. 

"Uh-oh?" Dustin repeated to his sister. 

"The car's off the board." Steve said. 

"What?"

"They took the keys. The Russians, they took the keys. Like forever ago." Steve explained as Robin resumed her laughter. "That's a bummer, right?" Dustin looked to Erica, but she just shook her head. 

As soon as the doors opened, Phoebe ran out and began spinning in circles. Robin followed and immediately stuck her tongue out, liking the air in front of her. "Oh, my God! That tastes so good! Guys, can you taste the air?" Suddenly the gate ahead of them began whirring open and two men with guns sprinted towards them. 

"Shit! Come on! Come on!" Dustin screamed as he turned around and ran back into the mall, dragging his sister by the arm. 

"Why are we running?" Steve asked while Robin followed suit, whooping and giggling. Dustin navigated his way through the maze of back hallways.

"Where are we going?" Erica asked. 

"Just trust me." he assured. He then paused at a door and stuck his head out. "All clear," he whispered before ushering them through another set of doors into a movie theatre. Phoebe glanced at the screen and shrugged, not recognizing the movie as Steve shoved his hand in the garbage to retrieve an old bag of popcorn. Dustin dragged them down the aisle and sat them in three empty seats in the front row. 

"No, no, these seats are too close!" Robin argued.

"Then don't watch the movie." Dustin deadpanned. 

"We wanna watch it." Phoebe sassed. 

"Then watch it!" Dustin yelled, a little too loud, earing a series of shushes from other movie-goers. "Whatever you do, don't go...anywhere."

"Fine...dad." Steve sassed, earing another giggle from the girls. Dustin and Erica ducked and walked across the screen to another pair of empty seats on the opposite side and sat. 

"Okay...it's official. I'm never having kids." Dustin sighed. 

"What are we doing here?" Erica asked. 

"We're laying low. Cooling off. Like Oswald."

"Oswald was found in a theater and shot to death." Erica informed him.

"A week later." Dustin retorted. 

"The point is, his plan didn't work."

"Only because it was a set up."

"What?" Erica was not following his points.

"He was just a patsy."

"Tell me you're joking." A few people behind them shushed them, they just shushed back. "We need to get out of here."

"Alright, you watch the Three Stooges. Make sure they don't go anywhere." Dustin instructed. 

"And where are you going?"

"To find us a ride." He unzipped her backpack and pulled out his walkie talkie. 

Phoebe looked away from the screen and into the bag of popcorn, "Do you guys know what's going on?" she whispered. 

"No." both Steve and Robin replied. 

Meanwhile, Dustin had managed to sneak into a projector room and was attempting to radio for help. He spoke into nothingness for minutes before someone finally heard him. "Mike?"

"Dustin, is that you?" Mike said on the other end. 

"Mike! Oh my God! Dude, you would not believe what is going on! So, first, I totally by accident intercepted a Russian code. Me and Phoebe and Steve and Robin, she works with Steve, worked on cracking it for a whole day. It was rough, Russian is hard! It had something to do with a shoe store and the Chinese place in the food court and 9:45 and night. So we waited until late that night and followed some guys and saw them unloading boxes into a storage area. Then we didn't know to get in there, so we convinced Erica Sinclair to climb through the vents in the mall. Anyway, we ended up below the mall in some tunnels. And their are Russians! Real, evil Russians. In Hawkins. And they're using some poison shit to open the gate. It was like a whole other story that we don't have time for. But basically, we're at the movies and we need a ride. Can Nancy drive and come get us? We need serious help!"

"Dustin, I ca- You're bre- sl -wn." Mike's voice crackled. Dustin frantically checked the battery power, screaming profanities when it flashed red. He hurried back down to Erica, hoping that Mike had at least caught the important bits of his message and they were on their way. 

"Do you have any batteries? Double-A?" he asked as he sat down. 

"Why would I have batteries?" Erica asked. 

"I always carry extra batteries." He said, somewhat offended that she didn't understand his logic. 

"Then what's the problem?"

"I need 8."

"8?"

"Shit. Guess we'll have to go to plan B."

"Plan B? What's plan B?" Erica asked, but Dustin looked past her down the aisle, his face falling when he saw empty seats. "Where are they?"