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Chapter 14

The Lab

"Are you guys serious about this right now?" Steve questioned from the passenger seat of the car.

"What's wrong, Stevie? Afraid there's ghosts?" Robin laughed from the driver's seat.

The party—plus Robin and Steve—were parked outside the entrance gates to Hawkins Lab. After finally deciding what to do, the group invited Robin and Steve to help look for clues in the lab. Safe to say Robin was ready for it while Steve was put a little on edge. He quickly changed his mind, however, after he realized nothing he could say would stop them and he'd prefer to be there when the cops showed up.

"No!" Steve shot back defensively. "Getting arrested, maybe!"

"Steve!" Dustin spoke up from the backseat. "No one is getting arrested!"

"Yeah!" Will said nodding his head. "The chief lives under the same roof as me. We'll be fine."

"All I'm saying is, this is not how I expected to spend my Sunday." Steve said stepping out of the car with everyone following suit.

"I knew you guys told us she was special, but I never knew she was that special." Robin said looking up at the worn down building behind the closed gate.

"Yeah," Max said looking at the two. "Just remember, what we told you can not be repeated. For our safety and yours."

When they were trying to convince Robin and Steve to come, they wanted a reason why they were breaking into an old government building. Well, more like Steve wanted a reason. Robin was already on board before they even finished their first sentence. So, they ended up telling them everything about El. That also may have helped change Steve's mind.

"Yeah, okay." Steve said walking up to the gate that divided them and the lab and tried to open it. It didn't move at all. "Well, looks like that's not going to work and considering that's barbed wire up there we can't climb over it. This was a bust, everyone back in the car."

Steve started to go back to the car before the sound of the gate opening scared him enough to make him turn around.

"Hey, dingus!" Robin called from a booth on the side of the road. Steve turned to her and saw her point to a bunch of controls inside it. "There's an open button!"

"Oh, great." Steve said the least bit excited.

Robin lead the way up to the double doors that were the only thing stopping them from getting into the building. There were chains around the doors with a big 'keep out' sign placed on the door.

"Guys," Steve tried to have disappointment in his voice but he was failing miserably. "Sorry but until we have a key or something to cut this with, we can't do anything-"

He was cut off by the sound of the chains being removed and he looked over to see Will throwing them on the ground.

"What? How do you?" Steve smattered.

"When Hop came here to investigate," Will explained, "he told me he had to cut the chains and how he probably needed to replace them. I think he forgot to replace them."

"Huh. That's convenient." Steve rolled his eyes.

"Alright," Mike spoke up grabbing the door handle and turning to look at everyone. "Remember, look for anything out of the ordinary. Any kind of clues that might help figure out where Brenner is."

"Yes. And I would like to add something." Steve raised his hand so he could get their attention.

"What is it this time, dingus?" Robin rolled her eyes at him. "Why are you trying to not let us have fun?"

"I'm just asking that we stick together, okay?"

"Fine!" Mike said having enough of this. "Then we should do one room at a time. And remember who we're doing this for. So there's no turning back now."

Mike opened the door and led the group into a lobby area. It was worn down greatly considering it has only been a year since someone has been in it. But then again, it was mostly because of Hopper destroying it.

A 'wow' came from Robin as she started to search, making Will nod his head and say, "Hopper really tried to look for clues here."

"If he'd already looked here, then why are we here?" Steve asked from his crouch position on the floor. He had been looking at some of the broken tiles that littered the place.

"Steve, we've discussed this!" Dustin shouted at him from across the room.

"I know! I just think-"

They continued fighting for a few minutes until Robin broke them up and everyone fell silent looking for clues. The silence was broke fifteen minutes later when someone noticed something.

"Guys!" Lucas said making everyone turn to him. "Where's Max?"

Everyone looked around, Max wasn't in the room. She wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Max!" Will called.

"Max, where are you at?" Robin yelled.

"She came in with us, right?" Mike asked looking at the group.

"Yeah!" Lucas said trying not to panic. "She was ahead of me when we walked in!"

"Guys!" Max's voice yelled from a hallway. A few second later she came into view and everyone let out a sigh of relief. She, however, did not. She had wore a panicked expression making everyone feel on edge. "I found something!"

"Didn't we say that we would stick together?" Steve scolded her.

"Yeah, yeah. But look at what I found." Max said leading the way down a long hallway until they reached a stair case that led them down a floor.

"How did you find something down here? We've only been here for fifteen minutes?" Steve asked the redhead.

"I was trying to find the big picture of the building and I saw something that you guys might want to see." Max said leading them down to the bottom of the staircase.

Finally, they turned to see a hallway with a bunch of doors. The group looked at each other confused.

"Why are we here?" Lucas spoke for the group.

"Because look!" Max said pointing to something next to the first door with her flashlight.

"One?" Robin asked clearly confused.

"It's not the number, it's the way it was written."

001

"It's like El's tattoo." Mike realized making his eyes widen.

"What?" Steve asked with his head bugging out of his head. "She had a tattoo?"

"Yeah, the lab made her get it." Dustin explained. "By numbering them that was their way of keeping track of all of those who they experimented on."

"Oh, yeah. Cause that totally makes sense." Steve said rolling his eyes again.

"Forget about that." Max said getting annoyed with Steve. "Look at this." She said walking over to the next door that had 002 next to it. "This is where they kept their subjects."

She walks down the hallway more with the group following closely behind. She stopped at a door that read 011.

"Eleven." Mike breathed out.

"This was going to be her room if she didn't. You know." Max looked at everyone behind her.

"Maybe they did bring her back here." Lucas thought out loud.

"Well," Will said. "There is a way to find out."

Authors note
I am starting to get really excited for this story now. 😊