𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓 - 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧

41. escape from camazotz

DIRECTLY FROM THE LAST CHAPTER

"Steve!" Aubrey finally pulled out of his grasp; they stood on the landing between the staircases. "Listen to me!"

"No!" he scolded her.

"Will you just relax for two minutes?" she sighed, "What are we even doing?"

He shook his head, trying to catch his breath, "Aubrey, you are hurt."

"We don't know how bad it is!" she told him, "I feel perfectly fine, seriously," she tried to assure him, "We can't panic. It could just be a tiny cut, from the glass earlier at the church— or because I keep hitting my head. I probably have a concussion," she scoffed, "But I'm okay right now." she promised him, "We are not leaving here without everyone, I don't care, that's not what we do. We need to stop and think for two—"

There was a clamor of footsteps coming from behind them. Dustin was running up the stairs. He pushed Aubrey into Steve as he ran past them.

"Dustin?!" she yelled.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Steve shouted at him too, but he just kept running.

"Listen to me! Don't touch anything!" he demanded of them as he continued running.

Not even a minute later, there was a huge shake and a loud explosion, sending Steve and Aubrey smushed back into the wall. They had to hold onto one another for a few minutes until the shaking subsided. The two of them barely took any time to collect themselves before running after Dustin.

They found him sitting up against a wall, holding his head as dust fell over them. "Dustin!" they yelled.

Steve shook him, "Hey! What the hell was that?!" he placed his hand on his shoulder, "Was that the shield generator? Did they find it?" he begged him for an answer.

"I was wrong," Dustin shook his head, "I was terribly, catastrophically wrong."

"What?!" they each questioned.

"After you guys left, I found a journal. Brenner's journal," he told them, "The key to destroying that wall is in this lab, but it is not a shield generator. It isn't dark magic, Vecna didn't make it." he described to them, "Science did."

Aubrey glanced over at Steve, then back to Dustin, her stomach churning with fear. She had definitely never seen Dustin like this. He was so... so scared, but his tone was so calm.

"Theoretical physicists call it exotic matter. A single source of energy that is holding that giant wall together, and I think Nancy just shot it." he scoffed.

"Which... is not good?" Aubrey asked him. He shook his head no immediately.

Steve scoffed, "How is any of that bad? That's exactly why we're here, to get through this wall."

"You are not listening to me!" Dustin snapped.

"Yes, I am listening!"

"Vecna didn't make the wall! So he isn't on the other side, which means Holly and the missing kids aren't either. Nobody is."

"Then what the hell is on the other side of that wall?" Steve asked, but Dustin didn't even look at him. He just frowned. "Dustin, what's on the other side of the wall?" he asked Dustin again.

"Death," he spoke quietly. "This whole time, everything we have ever assumed about the Upside Down has been dead wrong," he said. "This place, the Upside Down, it isn't another dimension. It's not another world. It's a wormhole," he told them, "A bridge between two points in time and space, between our world and another."