[ 𝚂𝚞𝚗 & 𝚁𝚊𝚒𝚗 ] ~ 𝙹𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝙱𝚢𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

XIX - Nope!

Twelve had been bandaged back up. The ten year old Harrington kid apparently carried around medical supplies instead of normal things a kid would have in their backpack, like toys or candy or. . .anything else, and wrapped Twelve's leg up better than Justin had seen some adults do it. She even put a couple bright yellow sunflower stickers onto the bandages which made Twelve smile. The guy who stomped on the arm-thing, Justin learned, was the Chief of Hawkins' police force, the man who owned the cabin Justin watched the flesh monster destroy, and Twelve's dad. And the strange bearded man. . .Justin still didn't know the name of. 

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." 

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Nancy added after her brother.

"How big is this thing?" Twelve's dad asked with the young girl laid against his side, still exhausted. 

"It's big." Jonathan muttered. "Thirty feet, at least."

"Yeah. . .It sorta destroyed your cabin." The Chief dude sighed at Lucas's words. "Sorry."

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this. . .this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic. . .weapon?" Hairington questioned, clearly not believing the people who had been running around like headless chickens, trying not to die all day.

"Yeah." Justin scoffed. 

"But instead of like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon. . .with melted people."

"Yes, exactly." Nancy huffed out her words.

"Yeah, okay. I- Yeah, I'm just making sure." Steve nodded. 

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce, Jonathan's mom, asked. Justin was still trying to figure out where these three adults had come from and why they weren't there when a bunch of kids were getting chased by a literal monster and Russian spies who were drugging the supervision watching two impressionable ten year olds and a sassy six year old. But hey, at least they were here now?  

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Max nodded.

"But if we close the gate again-" Will started, only to get cut off by Max.

"We cut the brain off from the body."

"And kill it." Lucas finalized with gumption. ". . .Theoretically."

"Right. Theoretically." Justin let out a soft scoff. She didn't want to go back toward that thing.

"Yoo-hoo!" The bearded man - who had at some point left apparently - yelled, walking back over to the group. He had two sets of papers, one in each hand, and he was waving them frantically. "Yoo-hoo!" He repeated. Where had he even gone? He stomped over to the group of. . .god knows how many, and slammed the papers down on a table. "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub.'" He pointed down at a box. 

"Who the fuck's Alexei?" Justin murmured under her breath. 

The balding hobo gave her an annoyed look, apparently hearing what she'd said, before going back to talking. "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" The tall man, Dustin's friend had called him. . .Hob or something, asked.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." The strange man dragged his finger along the yellow paper. 

"More like 500." The six year old brassed. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" 

"I'm sorry, who are you?" The man asked.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" 

"Murray. . ." He paused, as if hesitating on his own name for just a second. "Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman. I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." She mouthed at everyone. 

"I'm sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?"

"Actually she's six." Justin smirked, looking over at the hobo. 

"Uhm, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" 

"Uh- Y- Erica!" Lucas shouted. 

"Just the facts!" 

Justin couldn't help it as she raised her hand and gave what she felt like was a mini-her a high five.

"She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to." Dustin started, stepping up beside the smiling six year old, and lightly nudging past her. "Excuse me. Sorry, may I?" Dustin asked the grumpy old man.

"Please." He said sarcastically.

Dustin sat down across from the hobo, pulling the yellow papers in front of himself to look at them. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility." He circled with an oddly short pencil. "There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system." 

Dustin's short friend stepped up next to him, scratching at her arm for some reason. "It will lead you to the base of the weapon." She added as Dustin drew a line across to the 'gate' or whatever they'd called it. Looked kind of like a ray gun in one of those weird nerdy sci-fi movies Dustin loved.

"It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me, Lucy and Erica-"

"Lucy, Erica and me." The short girl corrected Dustin's grammar.

"Sorry- Between Lucy, Erica and me, we can show you the way."

"You can show us the way?" Hob raised his brow, looking irritated at just the idea. 

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your. . .navigators." Dustin, the short one and the six year old all nodded together.

"No fucking way." Justin scoffed at the same time as Hairington and Rylie. Great. She was agreeing with him. That felt wrong for so many reasons. 

"I just got Lu out of that death trap, she's not going back in." Steve scoffed. 

"I will tie Lucy to a tree before she goes down there." Rylie added, a protective tone to her words as she stepped up behind Dustin and mini Harrington. 

"No." Hob added, shaking his head as he looked down at the kids. Dustin's little smile fell, and the man only shook his head more and shrugged. "Nope." 

"You're gonna tie her to a tree?" Justin whispered, getting a slight shrug and nod from Rylie. 

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Word Count - 1057

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Published - June 29, 2024

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