007 | Stranger Things | discontinued

two.

"chapter seven: 'the bathtub'"
Seven had curled up on the couch and fallen asleep almost immediately. Dustin took a blanket from the corner of the room and draped it over her, while Mike was listening to his supercomm.

"Bad men!" Lucas's voice was scratchy over the radio, as Mike held it close to his ear.

"What's that he's saying? Mad hen?" Dustin thought aloud.

"No... bad men." Mike replied worriedly.

"The bad men are coming!" Lucas shouted, more distinguishably this time.

"Shit. We need to go. Now. Seven, wake up! We have to get out!" Mike shook Seven awake lightly. "Let's go!" Seven stood, as though she had been shocked by electricity. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, but Dustin grabbed her arm.

"Seven, we have to go." He pulled her along with him, picking up his bike. They all ran out to the road, where Eleven and Mike climbed onto Mike's bike and Dustin swung his leg over his own. "Come on. It's safe, just hold on tight, okay?" Seven nodded firmly and climbed onto the bike. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," he repeated over and over again.

"Dustin, do you copy?" Lucas's could be heard over Dustin's headset.

"Yeah I copy. They're on us!" Dustin replied.

"Where are you?"

"Cornwallis!" He shouted.

"Okay, meet me, Elm and Cherry!" Lucas directed him.

"Copy, Elm and Cherry," Dustin repeated, so Mike could hear.

"Okay!" Mike nodded. Vans were closing in on them, so Mike cycled off the course of the road and down into a playground.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!" Dustin screamed, ringing his bell furiously as they cycled through a pair of girls who were playing clapping games. Seven clung onto Dustin's shoulders, throughly confused. She only knew that the vans could not be good. They reappeared on the road, skidding to a halt as Lucas joined them.

"Who's that?" Lucas asked, panting.

"Long story. We'll explain later." Mike dismissed the question, as he turned in horror to see at least four Hawkins Energy vans appear round the corner. "Go, go, go, go, go, go!" He screamed. Nobody needed telling. They all cycled at full pelt.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," Dustin was shouting to himself.

"Shit?" Seven asked, getting no reply. There was a slightly more pressing matter at hand, as yet another van practically jumped out at the five children and was driving towards them, closing them off, giving them no options as to where to go. Seven looked ahead in shock. This could not be good. Stop, slow down, no, don't do it, she stared at the driver, focussing as hard as she could on planting that one thought into his head. To her surprise, the van did not stop. In fact, it flipped through the air, over the three bicycles, and crashed, top down, behind them, forcing all of the vans to halt.

Relieved, the boys cycled away, taking one last look back. Seven was horrified to see Papa step from one of the vans.

"Papa?" She murmured. "Is Papa a bad man?" She asked Dustin over his shoulder.

"Yes, Seven," he was audibly out of breath, but continued pedalling. They came to the junkyard, where they dismounted their bikes. "H-holy shit! Did you see what she did to that van?" Dustin seemed to have gained his breath back.

"No Dustin, we missed it." Mike replied sarcastically.

"But... that- that was..." Dustin stuttered like a broken engine.

"Awesome." Lucas finished, an impressed look on his face. "Look, I'm sorry for calling you a traitor and everything. I was wrong." He said to Eleven.

"Friends don't lie." Eleven's voice cracked a little. "I'm sorry too." She smiled a little at Lucas.

"And me," Mike added, holding his hand out. Seven noticed that this was the same movement Dustin had made when they first met. Lucas grabbed Mike's hand and shook it. Seven was extremely confused.

"So, who are you?" Lucas folded his arms, turning to Seven, who still had blood trailing from her nose from earlier, not that she had done much to help.

"0 0 7." Seven mumbled.

"Another?" Lucas asked in bewilderment. Dustin nodded enthusiastically.

"She has mind control powers!" He informed Lucas. Seven, unsure of what to do, held out her hand. Lucas took it, smiling encouragingly.

"I'm Lucas. Nice to meet you." He nodded.

"I am Seven. It is nice to meet you too." She repeated his phrase.

"Now that we've met, I have something important to show you guys," Lucas announced. Everybody knelt down in a circle as he built a little model with various items. "And this is the lab, right here." He placed a soda can in the middle. "The gate has to be in there somewhere."

"Who owns the lab? I mean, the vans said Department of Energy," Dustin asked.

"It means military, my dad's told me before." Mike explained. Dustin began to ask why it said Energy, but Mike cut him off. "Just trust me, okay. They make weapons to fight the Russians and commies and stuff," he explained to Eleven and Seven, who had looks of confusion across their faces at 'military'. "We can't go home."

"We're fugitives now." Lucas added. Dustin gasped suddenly.

"Guys. Do you hear that? Guys!" He had turned around, seeing a helicopter flying overhead, "Oh, Jesus, this is bad."

"Go, go, go!" Mike exclaimed. The three boys shoved their bikes under a run down bus, and climbed inside, making sure Eleven and Seven made it in. They all crouched down below the windows, sitting in the quiet for a while, until a muffled voice could be heard from Mike's backpack.

"Mike, are you there? Hello, Mike, it's me, Nancy. Mike, we need you to answer." She started to sound impatient.

"Is that your sister?" Lucas asked in disbelief.

"This is an emergency, Mike."

"Don't answer it!" Lucas urged. "It could be a trap."

"Like Lando Calrissian." Dustin pointed out.

"Lando?" Seven asked, confused.

"He's a character from something called Star Wars." Dustin explained briefly.

"Listen kid, this is the chief here. If you're there, we need you to pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl." Hopper's voice could be heard through the radio.

"How does he know about..." Lucas was cut off by Hopper speaking again.

"Kid, we really need you to pick up.."

"It's Mike. I'm here. We're here."  Mike finally spoke. "We're at the old junkyard."

"Okay, we're on our way over now." Hopper replied.

Seven sat, staring at Eleven, at a total loss. She was extremely confused as to what was going on. She absent-mindedly fiddled with the buckle of the old, slightly mangy dungaree dress she was wearing.

"We need to explain this all to Seven." Dustin spoke after a while. Mike and Lucas nodded in agreement. Seven looked up at her name being said. "So basically, our friend Will, he's missing. We met Eleven after he went missing." Dustin began explaining, as quickly as he could.

It wasn't long before Seven knew most of what had happened since her split with Eleven. She knew of the Upside Down, too, and of a small extent of the dangers it posed.