Clean cut American kid ~ Stranger things

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"Why do you have that tattoo!?" Mike cries out as he rips the bandage from my wrist to have a clearer view. I can't keep the pained gurgling noise from passing through my clenched teeth and I struggle to not fall unconscious from the pain.

"Mike, you're hurting her!" Will yells and pulls the hysterical boy away from me. My legs give out and I slide down against the car while clutching onto my wrist. I gasp for air and try to inure the jarring sensation so I can pull myself together and be of any help. Before either of me and Mike manages to calm our breathing we're interrupted by the sound of tires coming closer. Heaps of white minivans turn onto the patch. The words Hawkins Laboratory are written in a large font on each car. My eyes widen. I quickly wrap the now unraveled bandage around my wrist to hide my tattoo before I push myself off the car. I need to see what's happening and be ready to defend myself.

People in white protective suits along with armed soldiers well out from vehicles. But they don't pay any attention to us as they fan out before closing in around the pit before us like ants on a forgotten waffle. The people in white drop through the portal without hesitation. After a few minutes of me looking at the creased foreheads of the people focusing on the pit the commotion starts. Three dirty people are fished up from the upside down and brought to the side by some of the people in protective gear. It's Hopper, Joyce and Bob. They're okay. I run myself over to them. Before I can throw my arms around the chief a gloved hand shoots out and I receive a push to my chest and fall backwards. My body hits the ground and this time I can't keep myself awake. The mumble of voices fades in the background as I slip into unconsciousness.

*****

My eyes flutter open and I'm met by brightness. I let my vision adjust and look around the room. I'm in a hospital bed, in the middle of a sterile room. I look down at myself to find my skin scrubbed clean and my body covered in nothing but a thin hospital gown beneath a blanket. My arm has been put in a cast. I hold it up and feel the weight of it. I wiggle my fingers as much as I can. Nothing. I feel nothing. It's numb. I've been drugged. I turn the cast over. In the place where the same thing is written underneath the cast is it scribbled in messy handwriting with a marker. 237. They found me. They got me.

My breathing picks up. I'm not staying here. My legs wobble when my feet hit the floor. How long have I been unconscious? I walk over to the door and put my ear against it. There's no sound coming from the other side. I carefully push the door open but it creaks loudly anyways. Shit. A soldier appears in the doorway. He smirks down at me and grabs onto my healthy arm.

"She's awake. 237's awake." He calls into his radio as he drags me down the corridor.

"Good, good." A voice crackles through from the other end. "Bring her to us."

My heart stops for a second before it starts to pound in my chest. This isn't real. This isn't happening. This is a nightmare and I have to wake up. I whip my hand around towards the soldier and he flies backwards without me touching him. I stare at him with my mouth agape. I did it. Consciously. A crooked smile tugs at the corner of my mouth as I wipe away the warm liquid trickling down my top lip. The soldier looks at me in shock. Then he pulls himself to his feet again. I was so awestruck with myself that I forgot I was trying to run. Before he can come close to me again I turn on my heel and sprint down the hallway. I hear the soldier scream into his radio. I don't have a lot of time and I don't know my way around this place. This is a different lab than the one I was in before. They have every upper hand they can have. Except for one.

I turn a corner and at the end of the hallway two other men appears. One of them brings a radio to his lips and says something into it. I don't have time to turn around because I hear the heavy boots of the first man behind me. I concentrate on the two in front of me. The distance is decreasing with every tenth of a second. My naked feet are quietly thudding against the linoleum floor. I channel the panic flowering in my chest and with a shove from my mind their feet are swept of the floor. I charge at the same time as they collide with the floor. It feels as if time moves in slow motion as I leap over their bodies in true E.T.- experience. My feet connect to the ground and I almost trip because I'm carrying more speed than I ever knew. The newfound control over my powers have injected me with a new shot of adrenaline and hope.

I'm flying down sets of stairs when I finally see daylight through exit doors. I push through them and my feet lead my out onto the asphalt. The soldiers are right behind me. But they've stopped. As have I, because we've all realised that I have nowhere to escape. The small parking lot is surrounded by tall fences and a gate guarded by more soldiers.

No. No. No.

My body is shivering from the cold air and the revelation that I am truly fucked. Not only do they have me trapped, but they also have a confirmation that the experiments they performed on me have been successful. I confirmed it to them. I was so happy about the sudden control I though I held over my powers that I didn't overthink the consequences of using them in front of these people.

From the parking lot I hear a car door slam and I look over. Hopper steps out of his police car. He's dressed in scrubs and got a blanket draped over his shoulders. His eyes are red. He's been crying. He looks around the scene before him. Shivering little me, surrounded by armed soldiers.

"Hey!" He growls loudly to the men closing in around me. "What the hell are you doing!"

The soldiers step back and I run over to Hopper. He engulfs me in a bear hug and I bury my face in his chest. Sobs rattle through the both of us. Me from relief and him from whatever happened to him in the car.

"I'm sorry." Hopper whispers into my hair.

"What?" I lean back to look up with a frown.

"I told them." He mutters. "Your hand looked really bad, and they saw your tattoo, so I told them everything."

I stand frozen. He told them everything. After giving me the impression that I was in danger for when the word got out that the experiments were successful. He brought me to the lab. If I weren't freezing I would take a step back. But Hopper's warmth weighs more than the unexpected betrayal. I lower my gaze to look at my hands.

"But I trust Sam. I trust him. They're not doing those experiments here any longer. It will be okay." He hugs me tighter. "It will be okay."

"What were you doing in the car?" I ask him with his behaviour in mind. I feel like he's not only talking to me.

"Just a call home." He dismisses. I wonder who he calls home to but I sense that this is not time to think about that. A new violent shiver racks through me as a freezing wind blows past my very much naked back.

"Let's get inside." Hopper says and wraps the blanket he had over his shoulders around me. I thank him and follow him inside again.

"Shame on you." Hopper snarls towards the soldiers as we pass them and I can't help but smile to myself. Even when he's mushy from crying and dressed in scrubs he's more authoritative than ten soldiers with uniforms and machine guns.