five

The five of them had been walking for hours down the never-ending, still straight, hallway. There hadn't been any side halls or doors or anything, just the continuous straight hallway. They'd long since stopped talking, only speaking up every once a while to fill the silence.

"I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive." Dustin spoke up, his voice echoing.

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked. "It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

"They're commies." Erica said. "You don't pay people, they cut corners."

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking." Robin sighed. "I mean, think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

"It all comes into the mall like any old delivery." Dustin nodded.

"And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser." Robin said.

"You think they built this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asked.

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison." Dustin said. "It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something."

"What the hell is promethium?" Steve asked.

"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components." Robin answered.

"You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill." Erica groaned.

"No, no, no. No, don't lump me in with them." Steve shot back. "I'm not a nerd, alright?"

"Why so sensitive, Harrington?" Robin smirked. "Afraid of losing cool points to a ten year old?"

"No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus." Steve said.

"Promethium." Dustin corrected. "Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever. All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something."

"Well, actually, Steve has a point." PJ said. "Why else would Hawkins suddenly get a mall? And, moreover, how come no one would notice Russians building this underground...whatever it is?"

"You got an idea, don't you?" Steve asked.

"So we all know Mayor Kline is like, a big piece of shit right?" She asked. "What if he's in on it all? Like, he had the mall built to allow his Russian buddies to make this?"

"Makes sense how they'd be able to build it while the rest of the mall was being built." Robin nodded.

"And didn't you notice how there were those huge fences around the mall while it was being built-and they had literal armed guards at the gate 24/7 so you couldn't get in?" PJ asked. "Maybe the whole mall was built by Russians and that's how the Russians who built this didn't stick out."

"Wait, what would that green shit be used to make?" Steve asked.

"Maybe it's powering something." Robin shrugged.

"Like a nuclear weapon?" Dustin asked.

"Totally." Robin nodded.

"Walking towards a nuclear weapon, that's great." Steve sighed. "That'd be great."

"But if they're building something, why here?" Robin asked. "I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places. At the very best we're a toilet stop on your was to Disneyland, but maybe that's it..." Robin and Erica kept walking forward while Dustin, Steve and PJ all slowed to a stop. What's the one thing that's ever happened in Hawkins? The one thing Russians could be interested in?

"You think the Russians know?" Steve asked.

"About—" Dustin trailed off.

"They could." Steve nodded.

"So it's connected?" PJ asked. "But how would they have found out?"

"I don't know, but it's..." Dustin sighed.

"Possible." The boys said together.

"Would that mean El could be in danger? And the others?" PJ asked.

"Maybe." Dustin nodded.

"But they've got Hopper with him, he's like, like a badass." Steve said. "Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy, they're all up there too."

"But still, Russian spies coming after a 13 year old girl..." PJ bit her lip.

"We just gotta get outta here and get to them fast." Steve said, and the other two nodded.

"I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Robin asked, making the three jump. They turned to see Robin and Erica had stopped a ways ahead and were looking back at them. The three of them looked at each other, and looked back, Steve opening his mouth to say something when Dustin's radio hissed, and a mans voice came through-speaking Russian. The three of them rushed over and Erica took out the walkie. Listening for a second, Robin was able to say the words as the man said them. It was the secret code they'd heard before.

"It's the code." She said.

"Wherever that broadcast is coming from-" Dustin started.

"It's close." Robin nodded. "But if there's one thing we know about that signal..."

"It can reach the surface." Dustin said.

"Let's go!" They all got up, moving faster than they had since they started.

"Who do we contact first?" Steve asked.

"Hopper." PJ answered. "He's got that guy, the military guy. Owens. We get Hopper to call him-the military would be on this place real quick and we could be saved."

"Hopper? Like police Chief Hopper?" Robin asked.

"Long story, don't ask." Dustin said.

•••••

They had finally reached an offshoot-but could hear workers coming so they hid behind a large metal box. Finally, the workers on foot passed-as well as one of the little carts-and Steve poked his head out.

"Okay, clear." His whispered, and the others followed.

"Okay, that was close." Robin said.

"Too close!" Dustin corrected.

"Relax." Steve said. "Alright? Relax. Nobody saw..." They rounded a corner to see a large lab type room-full of scientists and military guys. They all ducked down behind a red cart, getting as close together and to the wall as possible.

"Red dawn." Dustin gasped.

"I saw it." Erica whispered. "First floor, northwest."

"Saw what?" Steve asked.

"The comms room." Erica explained.

"You saw the comms room?" PJ asked.

"Correct." Erica nodded.

"Are you sure?" Dustin asked.

"Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there."

"That could be a hundred different things." Dustin said.

"I'll take those odds." Robin nodded. Steve sighed and poked his head out, leading to the others following suit. They all came back after they saw the door.

"Alright." Steve said. "We're gonna move fast, we're gonna stay low. Okay?"

"Okay." The rest of them nodded. Steve went first, then Robin, then Erica and Dustin, with PJ being last. They made it to their first place successfully, ducking behind some boxes. They moved again to duck behind a cart, only there wasn't enough room so PJ had to stay on the boxes. The door opened and scientist came out, so Steve waited for him to walk away before going to the door-catching it before it closed. They all moved forward, PJ narrowly missing being sighted-everyone else was in the room. She watched a guard pass before running over-and she made it. Steve shut the door and she let out a deep breath-Robin patting her shoulder. The four them turned around and froze, seeing a Russian guard sitting in a chair-who also turned around and saw them. He took off his headphones and stood up, looking confused. Then, he reached for his gun.

Robin stepped forward, reciting words from the code in Russian to distract him. He was talking back to her, but she didn't seem to be getting anywhere. She looked back at Steve, who didn't know what to do. Robin stepped forward, saying something else, but the man didn't like that. He was about to take out his gun when Steve yelled loudly, running forward and body slamming the man into the desk. The man quickly threw Steve off, throwing him into another desk. Steve turned around just in time to dodge a punch, but the man threw him to the side. The man grabbed Steve's shirt from the back, but Steve elbowed him in the stomach and broke free. While the man was staggered, Steve picked up what looked like a phone from the desk and swung it around, hitting the man on the head with it. The man fell back, slamming his head onto the desk before falling to the ground unconscious.

"Dude!" Dustin called out, a large smile on his face. "You did it! You won a fight!"

"Jeez..." Steve smirked, still breathing heavy. Dustin ran over, taking a red keycard from the man's belt.

"What are you doing?" Erica asked.

"Getting us our ticket out of here." Dustin said.

"You want to walk all the way back?" Erica asked.

"Oh, well, we can hang out here for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe." Dustin mocked.

"Have a picnic? We came here for the radio!" Erica huffed. The two the them began to argue while Steve saw on a desk, trying to regain his breath. Robin had wandered off, and PJ was busy inspecting the guards gun.

"What are you doing with that?" Steve asked as his sister stood up, gun in hand.

"It might come in handy." She shrugged.

"Oh, so now you're gonna shoot someone?" He asked.

"You knocked this guy out!" She argued. "And I never said I was going to! If we run into anyone on the way back we could like, ya know, threaten them to get them out of our way or something." She said, putting the gun into her sweatshirt pocket. Steve rolled his eyes and she sat on the desk next to him. "Good fighting, by the way."

"Yeah, thanks." He nodded. They sat in silence, listening to Erica and Dustin argue. "Hey, I uh...I just..." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Sorry. For like, all of middle and high school. I was a real asshole."

"Yeah, you were." She nodded, a light smile on her face. "But you don't need to apologize, Steve. Not to me."

"Why?" He asked.

"You never did anything to hurt me." She said.

"Yeah, but I let it happen." He said. "Tommy H. and Carol and Tammy and Tina and...and all those guys I just...I never stood up for you. So, I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's cool." She said, bumping his shoulder with hers. "High school sucks for everyone in different ways. For you, it was that you thought you needed to be an asshole for people to like you. For me, it was that I didn't have any friends. But here we are."

"Yeah...here we are." He smiled back.

"Guys!" Robin said, shutting them all up and coming down from a staircase none of them had noticed. "There's something up there." They all followed Robin up the stairs and through a door, seeing another door ahead of them. Walking over, Robin and Erica looked out one side while Dustin, Steve and PJ looked out the other. It was a giant lab, with a room full of scientists through the door in front of them. Beyond that, on a lower level, were people in hazmat suits, walking around with clipboards and doing something to the giant machine that took up most of the room. This machine was pointed away from the group, aimed towards a giant glowing red hole. The machine turned on like a laser, shooting at what Dustin, PJ, and Steve all knew to be a gate into the Upside Down. They could unmistakably hear the screeching of what sounded like a Demogorgon in the distance.

"Holy shit."