Clean cut American kid ~ Stranger things

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Silence floats eerily through the air. Everyone is frozen still. I hear my heart pounding in my chest. There are three or four of them now. I study the first one. It's looking right at me. Well, it's facing me but I don't know if it's looking since it doesn't have eyes. It's so close. It pushes off the ground and slams itself towards the glass. I jump backwards out of reflex.

"It's polycarbonate, they can't get through." Sam says somewhere behind me. He sounds afraid. I stand still. The demogorgons collectively slam against the window. Cracks start to appear.

"You sure about that glass?" Hopper mutters sarcastically. It's going to shatter any time now. I plant my feet on the floor. I'm not going to cower. The glass breaks and I'm about to charge forward but a large arm hooks around my stomach and yanks me off my feet.

"Let's go!" Hopper screams and herds everyone through the door. I'm the last one out, dragged behind him. He puts me down and I'm about to open my mouth in protest when he instead wraps his hand around my arm and yanks me with him. Everyone stumbles on their feet before running for their lives down a corridors in different directions. Hopper's got my elbow in an iron grip. I hear Dr Sam is with us somewhere behind us, screaming directions. We take a turn back into the room where Joyce, Bob and Mike are hovering over Will's bed. Joyce is holding a shot. Will is anaesthetised.

"We gotta go!" Hopper hands my elbow over to Mike as if I'm a dog in a leash. What the fuck? "Don't let go of her." He orders Mike before he scopes up Will. We hear turmoil from the building and start to run again. We need to get out. Nancy's little brother keeps holding on to my arm though I try to swat him away. Annoying. I'm pleased to notice that I run faster than him and he's struggling to keep up with me as I force us to take the lead.

We don't make it far before we almost tumble straight into one of the beasts. I push it away with my free arm. Well, the imaginary extension of my free arm. I hear Hopper bossing around from behind me. I try to continue forward but Mike holds me back. I'm last into a room and Hopper slams the door behind me. My arm is let go but before I can breath out I'm pushed against the door.

"What the hell was that Sherry?" Hopper is breathing down my neck. I cower involuntarily. I hear some timid protests from Joyce and perhaps Dr Sam. I can't see them because of Hopper's giant body blocking the view. But I know everyone is silently watching us. The attention is mortifying. This fight between Hopper and me is starting to get annoying. He knows what to expect by now. I straighten my back.

"I thought we wanted to get out of here!"

"I don't mean just now outside of this room, I mean down at the control room!"

I clench my jaw and stare at him. Breathe Sherry. Slow and steady.

"When I said that we needed you I meant til the end."

"It wasn't a suicide mission I was just trying to give a little resistance!" I protest.

Hopper sighs and shakes his head. Oh you're tired of this shit old man? We all fucking are.

"Go and sit down." He mumbles and lets go of me. I deflate against a wall. The floor is cold against my bare legs.

One of the walls in the room we're in is covered in surveillance displaying every corridor in the building. There are demogorgons everywhere but that's not what's catching my eye. It's all of the bodies. The blood rubbed into the linoleum floors. An ill feeling itches my back.

I tear my eyes away and notice that Mike is staring at me from under his bangs. We haven't said a word to each other since he was supposed to wrap my wrist and freaked out over my tattoo.

"I saw what you did," he says quietly. I sigh.

"I think you already knew I could do that."

He sits up straighter in his chair and cautiously clears his throat.

"Have you seen her? Have you seen El?" He asks. I notice a shake in his voice.

"No, I've never met her." I tell him. A small crease appears between his brows.

"Never?"

I shake my head. His shoulders slump.

"Oh okay."

Oh god this is one squeamish child.

"Look Mike, me and Eleven are different generations of..." I struggle to find the right word. "... the experiments." I clear my throat. "And we were in different labs."

Mike nods.

"I get it."

There's an electric buzz coming from the wall and the light starts flickering before it finally gives out and the room goes black. Great.

***

I'm benched and watch as the three grown men argue like little children on a plan on how to get us out. I can't be bothered after they failed to let me use my powers to get past the monsters. Now the entire building is an obstacle to get behind. Eye roll. They're such amateurs. I can't be bothered.

I get a singe of guilt for taking this so lightly. I saw the bodies on camera. The demogorgons are lethal. Soldiers are dead. I chew on my bottom lip. Joking and underestimating death is a defence mechanism. I've always done that. From the first time when I was eleven and ran away from home. I was walking along the highway and saw my life flash before my eyes every time an eighteen wheeler would rumble past me. I realised by then how close death is at all times, and decided to always do whatever I wanted as if it was the last thing I would do. Always impulsive. Never hesitate. Keep the show going.

I notice commotion in the room.

"What's happening?" I ask as Hopper picks up Will.

"Bob returned the power and unlocked the doors, we're getting out."

Finally.