Breathe ⭐️ Reddie

51

Stan made it to New York in record time. Everyone had their weapons, and voted that El take the only bullet proof vest they had, since she would be the one approaching Bowers.

"Are you sure they'd come back here?" Bev asked in disbelief. She didn't think that Bowers would be willing to come back to a base that the Hive knew about.

"Where else could he go? Besides, they're not really much of a threat anymore. Most of their people are dead," Eddie responded, following Mike Hanlon through the secret entrance.

When they entered the same hallway that Richie and Mike had walked down when they first infiltrated, everyone felt chills run up their spines.

It had clearly been unused for a while, dust settled all over the floor, the lights dim and in need of changing. All of the teenagers clutched their weapons tighter, expecting someone to jump out at any second.

The hall was eerily quiet, the only sound being the heavy breathing of the teenagers. Lights flickered as they walked, Eddie leading the group. They walked slowly for nearly a half an hour, until Eddie brought them to the secret room's entrance.

Stan pushed the door open and they all rushed in, guns pointed around the room. The sight they were met with was not what they expected.

"Come to finish me off, Kaspbrack?" Henry asked from where he laid on a couch in the room.

Henry's leg was wrapped tightly in a bandage, and dried blood covered his face. His nose looked broken, and in his left hand he was clutching a bottle of alcohol.

"What happened?" Eddie asked, not lowering his gun.

"You know what happened. They had us captured, then lined us all up and started shooting. My dad and I are the only ones who escaped," Henry said, laughing weakly, despite the tears in his eyes.

Eddie tensed up, looking around the room for any sign of Henry's father.

"Don't worry, he's not here," Henry said, answering the visible question. "He went out to get more bandages, and he's not armed. So, if you're gonna kill us, might wanna take care of me now and deal with him when he gets back."

Eddie rolled his eyes and went over to Henry, grabbed the alcohol from his hand and throwing it across the room. It shattered and the smell of cheap liquor filled the room.

Henry shrugged. "Whatever, get on with it," he said, laying back and closing his eyes.

"We're not here to kill you, asshole," Bev snapped, annoyed with how calm Henry seemed in the face of death.

Henry perked up at the voice. "Is that the slut?"

Bev narrowed her eyes and pulled out her knife, only to be stopped by Ben, who grabbed her arm.

"We need your help," Eddie said, finally lowering his gun.

Henry started laughing loudly and obnoxiously. "You need my help? Wow, I thought my day couldn't get any better!"

Eddie ignored the sarcasm. "We're not with the Hive, anymore. They've got Richie and some of our other friends. We need your help to get them out."

"So you're sending me on a suicide mission?"

"No, I-"

Henry cut him off, sitting up. "I'm not helping you. You guys can kill me, torture me, whatever. But I will not help you. It's your fault that my mom is dead, your fault my friends are dead. I will not be a part of your stupid rescue mission."

"You killed your mother, you fucking sick-" Bev started, but Henry started laughing again, cutting her off.

"Is that what you were told? I would never kill my mom. She protected me, raised me, and told me the truth about the Hive. That there's more than one, and you guys are solely focused on experimenting on innocent people and taking over the world."

They all stood in silence until Stan spoke again. "But the note, it was left by-"

"The Hive. I didn't plan on taking Eddie myself, but they found us out. My mom ordered me to take him, and said she probably wouldn't make it out. It was our plan to escape together, but it didn't work like that. They framed me for killing her, didn't they?"

Eddie wanted to scream, wanted him to be lying. He couldn't, though. The look in Henry's eyes told him that they had been played the entire time. The Hive had everything figured out.

"You really didn't hurt her?" Eddie asked.

Henry laughed again. "No, I didn't. If you're not going to kill me, make sure to close the door on your way out."

"We need your help!"

"Sorry, I may be close to death and have lost everything, but I'm not helping Hive members."

Eddie groaned in annoyance, and everyone else casted him pitiful looks. That's when the door opened and Henry's father walked in. The teenagers all pulled out their weapons again, but were ignored.

Henry's father walked over to Henry and began rewrapping his leg, not paying any attention to the teens with their weapons.

"They come to kill us?" he asked Henry.

"Nope, they need our help."

Both Henry and his father began laughing at that. Once Henry's leg was wrapped and in place, his father turned around and looked at the teenagers, eyebrows raised.

"How desperate are you? Coming to us for help when we kidnapped all of you? You must have fucked up really bad," he said, chuckling.

"The Hive is corrupt. We learned that and now we realize that we messed up and our friends are captured and we need your help," Eddie rambled, knowing that every minute they say debating was another minute that Richie was stuck getting tortured.

"Sorry, kid."

"Why can't you help us? You hate them as much as we do!" Eddie snapped, his anger level rising.

"Maybe so, but we have no reason to help. None of our members are there. All of ours are dead."

Henry's father turned his attention back to his son, cleaning the blood from his face and handing him a bottle of water and Advil.

The teenagers didn't know what to do. They had no plan, no help, but they needed to get their friends out. At that moment, El collapsed to the ground, wailing.

"El?!" Eddie yelled, shaking her shoulder. "El?!"

Her face was scrunched up, tears leaking down her face. She curled into a ball, crying and screaming.

Henry's father noticed El for the first time and pushed his way past Eddie, helping her sit up. He pulled a syringe from his pocket, and before anyone could protest, he jammed in into her leg.

Almost instantly, El quieted down, breathing slower.

"Can you hear us?" Henry's father asked, receiving a small nod from El. "Why are you panicking?"

"Th-the Hive. They don't... they don't need me... Richie... he's working with them. To... to protect Mike. If he doesn't help... Mike dies," she squeaked, still shaking despite calming down.

"What are they making him do?" Eddie asked, panicked.

"B-bomb... bomb!" El cried out, pulling her knees to her chest. "Targeting...they're taking over..."

With that, El opened her eyes and looked at the group with a terrified expression before passing out.