Wait For Me ~Stranger Things Fanfiction~

Chapter forty-two:

3rd Person POV:

"Dustin!" Wendy called out in worry as she saw him on the floor in pain. "Dustin, you okay?!"

"What the hell was that?!" Steve asked. "Was that the shield generator? Did they find it?"

"I was wrong.." Dustin breathed out. "I was terribly, catastrophically wrong."

"About what?" Wendy asked.

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

"How is that bad?" Steve asked. "Isn't that what we needed to get through this wall."

"You're not listening!" Dustin said loudly.

"I am listening!" Steve insisted.

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

"Then what is?" Wendy asked.

"This whole time, everything we knew about the Upside Down is wrong," Dustin said. "This place, the Upside Down, it isn't another dimension. It's not even another world. It's a wormhole. A bridge between two points in time and space, between our world and another."

"And if the bridge collapses?" Steve asked.

"Then it takes us with it.." Wendy said in realization. "Show me the book."

Dustin held out Brenner's journal, Wendy quickly reading through the pages as Steve started to pace a little.

"Any clue on how long it takes a wormhole to collapse?" Steve asked. "10 minutes, maybe 20?"

"I thought it'd be instantaneous, but clearly not," Dustin sassed.

"Why do you sound disappointed?" Steve asked.

"I'm not disappointed," Dustin huffed.

"You sound disappointed," Steve pointed out.

"I'm confused," Dustin corrected.

"I'm trying to read," Wendy said sharply to the both of them.

"As far as I see it, there are two possibilities," Dustin said. "Either this is the afterlife, and we're spirits. Which seems unlikely."

"Ooh," Steve mockingly imitated a ghost.

"Or Nancy didn't completely destroy the exotic matter," Dustin finished. "Because if she did, the walls of the wormhole would have collapsed and we would've been sucked into oblivion."

"Maybe it takes more than buckshot to destroy it," Wendy suggested.

"So, then, what are we waiting around here for?" Steve asked, taking Dustin's radio.

"Where are you going?" Wendy asked.

"To see if I can get a signal on this thing to find Nancy," Steve answered as he went up the stairs.

"Steve, wait!" Dustin called out as Wendy quickly shut the journal.

The two of them ran after Steve up the stairs.

"Steve, we don't know how dangerous it is up there," Wendy reasoned.

"Exactly, we don't know if it's safe," Dustin agreed.