Complicated • Stranger Things

23 - E Pluribus Unum

"The gate." Steve, Dustin, and I said at the same time.

"I don't understand. You've seen this before?" Robin asked as we went back down the stairs.

"Not exactly," Steve replied.

"Then what, exactly?" Robin asked.

"All you need to know is it's bad," Dustin told her.

"Really bad," I added.

"Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad," Dustin said.

"And you know about this how?" She asked.

"Um, Steve? Where's your Russian friend?" Erica asked. It was then we realized that the man was gone. A few seconds later, an alarm started going off.

Steve opened the door to see what was happening. I heard shouting before Steve slammed the door back shut.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Steve yelled as we all ran to the stairs.

We ran through both sets of doors, the people turning to look at us. We turned left and made our way down some stairs. It was all a blur. We were shoving past people and somehow made it to the machine. The five of us stood there, not knowing exactly what to do. Then, Steve called for us to follow him. We continued running until we entered a room. Steve slammed the door shut and tried to stop the dozens of men from getting inside. I went to help him hold the door shut and Robin joined soon after.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Dustin called over to us. Erica lifted part of the floor to crawl through while the three of us shouted for Dustin to go. "I won't forget you!"

Just as Dustin disappeared, the door went flying open, pushing us to the ground. The room quickly filled with Russian men, all of them pointing guns in our direction.

The men grabbed us and forcefully brought us to our feet. I felt a gun being pressed to my back, warning me not to try anything. They led us down a hallway and eventually the three of us were separated. I was brought into a room and my hands were tied to the seat behind me. I was left in the room alone. The longer I waited, the more anxious I became.

What're they going to do to me? Are they gonna kill me? Will I ever see my dad again? Or El? Is Steve okay? Will we ever get out of here? Are Dustin and Erica safe?

The sound of a door opening pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up to see two men entering the room. They mumbled a few words to each other before they turned to me.

"How did you get here?" One of them asked with a thick Russian accent.

"Uh, t-the elevator. With all the boxes." I couldn't let them know that we knew about what they were doing or that we knew about the code. "My friends and I, w-we were asked to help with some boxes, so we did, and then the doors closed on us and we ended up here. We were trying to find a way out."

The two men exchanged glances. They weren't buying it.

"Who do you work for?" The same man asked.

"Who do I work for?" I repeated the question. I was in my Scoops uniform, did they really think I was some government spy? "I-I work at the mall. Scoops–Scoops Ahoy."

"How did you get here?" The man asked. Again?

"I told you. The elevator. Maybe if you didn't have shitty security–" I cut myself off once I realized what I was saying.

They continued asking me questions and they soon became violent. If they didn't like my answer, they would slap me across the face. They said they were going easy on me because "I'm a girl." I didn't want to know what that meant for Steve.