four

"Erica, do you copy?" Robin asked into the radio. Night had fallen, and it was time to begin the operation. The mall was completely closed down, and Erica was the only one left inside-sitting in the back room of Scoops waiting for them to give her signal. The others were on a rooftop overlooking the door-waiting for the guard to leave.

"Mmhmm, I copy." Erica answered. "You nerds in position or what?"

"Yeah, we're in position." Robin said.  "It's all quiet here, so you've got the green light." The four were lined up at the edge of the roof, watching and waiting. PJ was the lookout for the door behind them-and would let them know if anyone tried to open the door. They'd blocked it up and even tied it closed with a belt just in case. Robin was on the radio and had the blueprints in front of her. Dustin has his binoculars and was watching the door, while Steve just sat there-though he had helped PJ barricade the door.

"Green light, roger that." Erica replied. "Commence operation, Child Endangerment."

"Can we maybe not call it that?" Robin sighed.

"See you on the other side." Erica said. "Nerds." It was nearly two minutes before they heard her voice again. "Alright, nerds. I'm there."

"Do you-do you see anything?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about." Erica replied.

"Any guards?"

"Negative."

"Booby traps?"

"If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps, wouldn't they?" Erica sassed.

"Thank you for that." Robin sighed.

"I'm in." Erica said.

"Oh, god." Steve sighed, rubbing his hands through his hair. A few seconds later, they heard a buzzer, and the door opened-there was Erica.

"Free ice cream, for life."

•••••

Steve cut open the tape on the box, everyone crowding around to try and see what it was. He pulled the top open, revealing a smaller metal box with a handle on the top of it. Steve reached in and grabbed it, turning it. It popped open, a bit of steam pouring from the box as he pulled the top off and set it on the box next to him. They all leaned over the box, confused. There were four more twist handles, one of which looked like it had green light coming from under it.

"That's definitely not Chinese food." Steve said. He reached in and grabbed a handle, hesitating. "Uh, maybe you guys should, ya know, stand back." Robin, PJ, and Erica stepped back at bit-but Dustin refreshed.

"No." He said.

"Just step back, okay?" Steve sighed, pushing against Dustin's shoulder.

"No." Dustin shook his head.

"Step back, seriously."

"No. No!" Dustin raised his voice. "If you die, I die." Steve stood silent for a moment.

"Okay." He shrugged, gripping the handle and turning it. More steam poured out as he lifted up a glowing green container. "What the hell?"

"What is that?" PJ asked. The room they were in rumbled loudly.

"Was that just me or did the room move?" Dustin asked as they all looked around.

"Booby traps." Erica whispered. Something mechanical began to whirr all around them.

"You know what? Let's just grab that and go." Robin said, taking the container from Steve's hand. Dustin went over to the control panel that Erica used to open the door and began mashing the "open door" button, but it wasn't working.

"Which one do I press, Erica?" He asked.

"Just press the button, nerd." She replied as Robin put the container in her bag. Steve beckoned PJ over, and they began to unlock and take out the other containers.

"Which one?" Dustin asked. "I'm pressing the button, okay?!"

"Press 'open door'."

"I'm pressing 'open door'!" Dustin and Erica started to argue so Steve went over to the control panel.

"Just open the-press the other button." He sighed.

"Guys, get out of the way so she can push the button—!" Robin yelled. They all began to yell over each other, ending with Robin yelling. "Just open the door!" And with that, a red wall slid down over the doors and they all shut up. Suddenly, the room jolted and began to move. Erica began to scream as they all braced themselves and looked around wildly.

"Oh shit." Steve was looking up at the corner where the vent had been. PJ followed his eyes and saw concrete wall and lights moving past them. The room was an elevator, and it was rapidly picking up speed. Soon they were all screaming, trying to hold onto something so they wouldn't fall.

"Shit! Shit!" Dustin screamed, going back to the panel and mashing buttons.

"We're going down! We're going down!" Steve yelled.

"Yeah, no shit, Harrington!" Robin yelled back at him.

"Why don't these buttons work?!" Dustin yelled. Erica went over to the panel.

"Press the button!" She said.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" Dustin yelled at her.

"Come on, press something!" Steve yelled.

"Just press the fucking button, Dustin!" PJ yelled. The two kids kept slamming on the panel until the elevator abruptly stopped, making them all fall to the ground. The kids fell near the door, Robin fell against the shelves and hit her head, PJ fell against the wall and hit her head, and Steve fell to the floor with one of the boxes falling on top of him.

"Ah! My groin." He groaned. "It fell on my groin. Dustin! Get this off me!" Dustin helped push the box off as PJ got back to her feet, holding her head. She held a hand out to Robin, who gladly accepted it, and pulled Robin back to her feet.

"Is everyone okay?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, I'm great! Now that I know Russians can't design elevators!" Steve yelled, getting to his feet. He pushed Dustin out of the way and began hitting the buttons again.

"We've clearly established that those buttons don't work." Robin sighed.

"They're buttons! They have to do something!" Steve yelled.

"Yeah if we had a keycard!" Robin pointed out.

"A what?" Steve asked.

"It's an electronic lock." Robin said. "Same as the loading dock door." She walked over and pointed out that next to the panel there was a place to swipe a keycard. "If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning-"

"We're stuck in here." Dustin said.

"Yeah." Robin nodded.

"Just do you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me." Erica started, and the other four just looked at each other. "But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you four are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat."

"I don't care about Tina!" Steve yelled. "Or Uncle Jack's party! Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

"Hey." Dustin said lightly. "What if we climbed out?" He was pointing up. They all looked up to see a hatch.

•••••

The boys went up to take a look while the girls stayed below.

"Anything?" PJ yelled up.

"We've gotta be hundreds of feet down." Steve said, his face appearing in the hatch. "We'll look around more but it's not hopeful."

•••••

They must've been down here for over eight hours now. Dustin and Erica both slept while the three older teens talked on top of the elevator all night. Now, four of them were in the elevator while Dustin was on top, trying to use his radio to communicate with the rest of the party-but he hadn't gotten any responses so far.

"I knew something was up yesterday." PJ sighed. She and Robin were sitting against a wall. "When I got Mike on the radio he sounded so rushed and weird. I should've told them what we were doing. Maybe we could've gotten help by now."

"Hey, it's not your fault. It's not like you knew we were gonna get trapped in an elevator, hundreds of feet below ground all night." Robin said, a light smile on her face. PJ had been beating herself up all night, worried. She was supposed to be with Max last night, yet, here she was. Out of nowhere, they could hear liquid hitting the wall. Robin looked up and sighed. "Could you redirect your stream, please?" Then, Erica started to bang one of the containers against a large metal oil drum that was in the elevator.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Robin said, getting up quickly and running over, taking the container from Erica. "Be careful! We don't even know what that is!"

"Exactly!" Erica argued. "It could be useful."

"Useful how?" Robin asked.

"We can survive down here a long time without food, but if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

"I hate to break it to you, but this, is not water." Robin said, holding the container up.

"No, but it's a liquid, and it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst? I drink." Robin rolled her eyes and scoffed, but got distracted when she heard the door whirring. Erica snatched the container back and Robin rushed to the door. Seeing her, PJ stood up.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Oh, shit." Robin said, her eyes wide. She rushed over and climbed up the boxes, sticking her head through the hatch. "We've got company."

"Okay, umm...up there!" PJ said. "We can all hide on top."

"Are you sure?" Robin asked.

"There's no where down here." She said. "Come on, Erica." Robin climbed up and the two girls helped Erica climb up quickly. PJ began to put boxes back in place.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked.

"We can't let them know we were here, can we?" PJ asked, shoving the last box onto the shelf. She heard the door beeping and looked around frantically. She wouldn't have enough time to climb up. "Close it!" She said quickly, opening one of the oil drums. She'd poked around the night before, and found one of the drums was empty.

"PJ, what are you doing?" Robin asked.

"Just trust me and shut the hatch!" PJ hissed, clambering into the drum and shutting the lid over her. The door slid open, and she could hear two Russian men talking. The men left and she poked her head out, seeing them all climbing down. She hopped out and closed the lid again, watching Steve dive and stick the glowing green container between the door and floor so the door couldn't shut all the way.

"Let's go!" He rushed. Erica threw down her bag and he threw it under the door quickly. Erica then jumped down herself and was first through. Dustin was second. The glass on the container was cracking by the millisecond. As soon as Robin was through, Steve pushed his sister under the door. Robin grabbed onto her outstretched hand and pulled her through. Then, at the last second, Steve slid through himself. The glass completely broke and the green goo spilled all over the floor, melting it instantly like corrosive acid.

"Jesus Christ." Steve sighed.

"Ooh!" Erica marveled, rushing over to look at it.

"You still wanna drink that?" Robin asked.

"Holy mother of god." Dustin sighed, and the other four straightened up, looking where Dustin was looking. The only thing behind them was a long, never ending hallway lined with blue lights.

"Well...hope you guys are in good shape." Steve sighed. "Looking at you, roast beef." He patted Dustin's shoulder as he walked past him, starting down the hallway. He turned when no one was following him. "Let's go, come on." Robin urged Erica along while PJ slung an arm around Dustin's shoulders and pulled him with her.

"Why me?" Dustin asked quietly.

"He's an asshole, ignore him." PJ answered.