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"WELL, I HOPE you're all in good shape," Steve muttered, gesturing forwards the endless hallway that laid before them. He patted Dustin's chest. "Looking at you, roast beef."
Dustin rolled his eyes as Steve took Jackie's hand into his own, and the couple began to move. They only got about three steps before they realized the others weren't following. Steve huffed. "Let's go!"
They walked for what it felt like hours, and Jackie had to admit that she was in fact, out of shape as well. Her legs were beginning to hurt, but not as much as she'd thought they would. Endless hours of cheer had prepared her for this.
Her thoughts whirled, she let her mind wander to Heather, to Billy, and to Max. At the thought of Max, her stomach clenched. She wondered what her little sister was up to right about then, she wondered if any of her family had noticed she was missing. Her mother would, maybe. If she detangled herself from Neil, she would. Max? Max would've noticed in an hour if something was wrong—but she hadn't been home in days, preoccupied with Eleven. Or she hoped.
"I mean, you have to admit it," Dustin said. "As a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."
"There's nothing impressive about this," Jackie argued, rolling her eyes. "My legs hurt like hell and I'm hungry."
"What're you talking about? It's a total fire hazard, Dustin," Steve said, annoyed. "There's no stairs, no exits. There's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."
"To be fair," Robin cut in, "I don't think these tunnels were designed for walking. I mean, think about it. They developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."
"And it all comes into the mall like any old delivery," Dustin added.
"Well maybe next time they should leave an extra car thingy lying around," Jackie mumbled.
"And then they load it onto those trucks, and nobody's the wiser."
"You think they built this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asked, abruptly stopping their interlocked hands from swinging back and forth.
"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison."
"We should call it the forbidden Mountain Dew. I think it has a ring to it."
"You think everything you say has a ring to it," Dustin shot at her.
"Uh, yeah. Because it does, dipshit."
"All I'm saying is," Dustin continued, rolling his eyes, and staring straight ahead now. "It's probably being used to power something."
"Like a nuclear weapon?" Jackie asked. "Or a very large radio tower? I'll take the latter."
