There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

EIGHTY FOUR

Escape From Camazotz

"Jonathan! Nancy! Jonathan!" Dustin yelled, gripping tightly to the taped together walkie-talkie as he ran as fast as he could up the many flights of stairs of the lab.

"What the hell are you doing?" Steve groaned as the younger boy smashed into his chest, continuing to race past both him and Cat.

"Dusty, what's wrong?" Cat asked, voice filled with heavy worry as she watched her younger brother continue to run up the stairs, yelling repetitively into his radio for the rest of their group.

"Listen to me! Don't touch anything!" Dustin continued to scream his warnings down the radio, unaware that the pair on the roof couldn't hear him. Cat shared a concerned look with Steve, their eyes wide with fear, before they both bounded up the stairs after Dustin. They barely made it up to the next landing before the building shook, a large explosion rippling out over the Upside Down. Cat fell into Steve's chest as the pair crashed into the wall, his arms wrapping around her tightly.

After taking a moment to compose themselves once the earth had stopped shaking, Cat ripped herself out of Steve's grip and the two raced up the next set of stairs in search of Dustin, worried that the younger boy had gotten hurt in the explosion. "Dusty!" Cat cried when she spotted him sitting on the floor, one hand cradling the back of his head as he leant on the wall behind him. "Are you okay?"

Both she and Steve crouched on the landing next to him, the pair scanning their eyes over him for any new, visible injuries. "Dustin. Hey. What the hell was that?" Steve asked, his voice gentle, all words shared between them in their previous argument now forgotten. "Was that the shield generator? Did they find it?"

Dustin placed a hand on sister's shoulder, calming her down just a touch. "I'm okay. But I was wrong. I was terribly, catastrophically wrong."

"What do you mean?" Cat asked, her face filled with confusion as she stared at her younger brother.

"After you guys left, I found a journal." Dustin began to explain to the older teens. "Brenner's journal. 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 shook his head slightly as he spoke. "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."

Cat's face visibly paled at her brother's words, and she sank back on her heels. "How is any of that bad?" Steve asked. "That's exactly why we're here, isn't it? To get through this wall."

"You are not listening to me!" Dustin yelled, frustrated.

"I am listening."

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