𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻.

thirty seven.

SORCERER

edited.
2846 words.

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"That's not all!"

"There's another problem!" Charlie dropped her bike.

"On the way here," Mike explained, out of breath. "We saw soldiers load Debbie Miller onto a bus with a bunch more kids! And then we followed them for two blocks more- and then they loaded more kids onto it!"

"I don't think they're taking them to school."

"Vecna's not the only one who wants these kids."

* * *

"Cargo has arrived! I repeat, cargo has arrived." Erica repeated. "They're taking them into a barracks second from the library."

Joyce nodded, flipping on the projector and marking where Erica said. "Tunnels." She queued and Mike added the layer paper to the projection.

"Yeah." She pointed at the wall. "See? The north tunnel of the MAC-Z runs right underneath the barracks."

"Lucky break."

"Bound to happen one of these days."

"We're gonna need a lot more luck if we want this plan to work." Mike frowned. "If we're right and the military is trying to protect these kids, the barrack is gonna be heavily guarded. We have to dig up into the barracks, unnoticed, grab the kids, get them to Murray's, smuggle them out of Hawkins."

"All before anyone notices they're gone." Will finished.

"Dick."

Charlie raised a brow at Robin. "What?"

"Sorry, did I say that out loud?" She frowned. "But you guys know Tom, Dick, and Harry, right?"

Everyone shook their heads no.

"Seriously?" She gawked. "None of you have seen the great escape?" She marched to the front of the room, taking a seat on the table. "Basically, it's about these POWS, right? And they're stuck in a barracks just like this one, and they need to escape so they dig these tunnels. And they call their tunnels, Tom, Dick, and Harry. They have to hide the tunnels from the nazis so they put Tom in this dark corner and they put Harry under the stove, and they put Dick in the washroom. And personally, for us, I like Dick."

"Wow." Charlie breathed. She was constantly astonished how Robin could speak before thinking.

"Oh, sorry." She shocked her head. "The washroom. I actually don't even- nevermind."

"Okay," Joyce sighed. "Say we go with Dick. How do we find the washroom?"

"And how do we get the kids to it?"

"How do we even know which kids are being targeted by Vecna?"

Charlie's eyes fell on Derek, the boy they'd saved. He was sitting on the couch, stuffing his face as he ignored everything they were talking about. "What if we use a spy?"

Mike seemed to catch her drift. "Yes! Someone who could get into the barracks, measure the distance from the washroom, find out which kids have seen Mr. Whatsit, and somehow avoid the military all together."

"Well that's a lovely plan but, who are you gonna get to do this?"

"The only person here nobody would suspect." Charlie shrugged, motioning to Derek.

He frowned at the sudden attention. "What?"

* * *

"You okay?" Mike nudged Charlie's shoulder.