Chapter 6 (Steve's POV)

"This is a code red, I repeat. This is a code red. Does anyone copy it? We are innocent children, and we are trapped under Starcourt Mall. The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins, and if we are found, they will torture and kill us." Dustin speaks into his walkie-talkie.

We have been trapped in this elevator for hours. Tatum and Dustin are trying to get someone to answer on top of the elevator, and Robin and Erica are down in the elevator.

"Hey! Gotta take it easy on that thing. You're gonna drain the battery." I say climbing up on top of the elevator. 

"The mall just opened." Tatum says. 

"So?" I say.

"So someone could be in range." Dustin says.

"What do you think Petey the mall cop is gonna rappel down here and save the day?" I snicker.

"Alright, why are you such a cranky pants after getting to spend the night with Tatum?" Dustin says playfully.

Tatum scoffs but smiles. She was sitting with her legs criss-crossed. Her elbows were on her knees, and she was resting her head on the palms.

"Dude, shut up. Stop being a creeper." I say. Tatum nods in agreement.

"What? I'm not doing anything." He says.

"You know, Dustin was trying to convince me to break up with you." I say.

"What? Dustin what the hell!" Tatum yells.

"I just mentioned it. I never said you had too." 

"Well, that plan must have really worked out because now we are trapped in an elevator together." I say.

"You guys were talking all night.." Dustin continues.

"Yeah, we were trying to figure out how to open the door while you guys were asleep." Tatum says.

"And after 8 hours were still exactly no where which is probably still a little bit of the reason why I'm feeling just a tad cranky." I say.

I walk over to the wall facing away from Dustin and Tatum, then start to unzip my pants.

"What are you doing?" Dustin says.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking a leak. Look away. Look away!" My voice echoes as I start to pee.

Dustin turns around, but Tatum doesn't move she just moves from the criss cross to laying flat on her back, staring up.

"Can you redirect your stream, please?" Robin shouts from the inside of the elevator.

I shifted to the side, but there was a weird banging from the inside of the elevator.

"Hey! Hey! Be careful! Careful! We dont even know what that is." Robin yells.

Erica was trying to open the weird tube with the green goo inside, "Exactly. It could be useful."

"Useful how?" Robin says, confused.

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

"I hate to break it to you, but this is not water." Robin scoffs.

"No... but it's a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink." Eric's grabs the tube back an holds it close to her chest. 

Robin lunges towards the door and puts her ear to the door of the elevator.

There was a distant electronic whirling sound from outside the door. 

"We've got company!" Robin shouts. Some one was going to open the door! This was our chance to escape this madness.

Tatum helped me pull Robin and Erica up onto top of the elevator. 

We watched through the top, and the Russian opened the door with a keycard. The elevator door thrusts as it opens completely, and the 2 Russian men began to walk inside. 

One of the Russians started to sniff around the room. They began speaking in Russian, so obviously we couldn't understand. 

The other Russian had a cigarette, and he was already grabbing boxes. He started to sniff too but shrugged it off. 

Weird.

"What are they talking about?" I whisper. 

Tatum puts her hand over my mouth as we look down and watch them. 

Erica was still holding the green tube in her hands, and the Russians started to drive away in the little cart they had brought to hold some of the boxes. 

The door began to close as they drove further and further away. I jumped down from the top of the elevator and grabbed the green tube I put it under the door to prop it up just in time for us to fit through. 

"Let's go!" I say, Robin passed me Erica's back pack and I slid it under the gap. 

Erica slid under the door, then Dustin and Robin and Tatum followed, and I slid under last. As I was going sliding through the door and the floor, the glass in the green tube started to break from the pressure of the heavy door. Luckily, I made it out right before the glass shattered, and the door squished me. 

We all got up off the floor and looked at the now exposed green goo. It was sizzling and steaming.

"You still wanna drink that?" Robin teases Erica's smuggly.

"Holy mother of.." Dustin says. 

We all turn. There was a hallway that had to be a least miles long. 

"Well, I hope you guys are in good shape." I say. 

I tap Dustin's back, "Looking at you roast beef."

I begin to start walking and Tatum quickly follows grabbing my hand. The others just stay there and watch.

"Let's go cmon!" Tatum says. 

They run after us, catching up to where we were. 

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"I mean you have to admit, it just a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive." Dustin says.

"What the hell are you talk about? It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit. There's just a elevator that drops you half way to hell."  I tell Dustin.

Here we were, walking down this damn tunnel. We have already been walking down here for around  hour, it's almost never ending. 

"They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners." Erica says. 

"To be fair to our Russian comrads, I don't think this tunnel was built for walking." Robin begins. 

"Robin is right. Think about.. they developed the perfect system for transporting cargo." Tatum says.

Dustin nods, "It all comes to the mall like any old delivery."

"Then they load up onto those trucks and nobody is the wiser."

"You really think they built this whole mall just to transport that green poison?"

"I doubt that it's something as boring as poison. It's gotta be much more valuable like promethium or something." Dustin says. 

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

"Like the half human half robot guy?" Tatum questions. 

Erica puts her hands on her stomach like as if she was sick, "Your all so nerdy it makes me physically ill." 

"What! Don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, alright?" I say looking down at Erica closely.

Tatum chuckles, "Why so sensitive, Harrington? Are you scared of losing cool points to a 10 year old?" 

"No. I just don't know jack shit about Prometheus."  I say wrapping my arm around her waist and pinch  her sides playfully. She swats my hand away so I place my arm on her shoulders instead.

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

"Or power something." Robin says in deep thought. 

"Like a nuclear weapon?" 

"Totally." 

"Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That's great." I say shrugging my shoulders sarcastically.

"But if their building some shit why here? Hawkins? Of all places? At the very best we are a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland but maybe that's it.." Robin continues to rant while Steve, Dustin, and I stay back from the group and Erica and Robin carry on walking foward. 

"You think these Russians know?" Tatum asks.

"They could.."

"So it's connected?" I say.

"Maybe.."

"How..?" 

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

"Possible." The 3 of us say.

Robin and Erica turn around, "I'm sorry, is there something you guys wanna share with the class?" 

We all just stare, but then the radio static goes off and starts hissing, and the Russians start speaking again.

"Walkie."

We jog over to Erica and grab her backpack. 

Tatum grabs the walkie-talkie out of the bag and we listen to the Russian speak. Robin starts to speak on sync with the Russian on the walkie. 

"It's the code." Tatum says.

"Wherever that broadcast is coming from its close." Dustin says.

"And if there is one thing we know about that signal. It can reach the surface." I say.

"Let's go." Robin says. 

We all got up and began to walk again. They group was silent as we continued on walking through the tunnel until Eric's broke the silence.

"So what were you guys talking about over there?" 

"Evil Russians." Dustin says.

Erica rolls her eyes at him and keeps walking. I look over at Tatum who was falling behind. She wasn't keeping us with the others pace and she was also picking at her nails nervously. She looked zoned out, unfocused and just worried. The others didn't notice her but I stopped walking till she started to catch up. I stare at her and a small smile tugs at the corner of my lips as she comes closer to me. I hold out my arms and hug her. 

"Stop stressing. It's gonna be ok. Promise." I whisper to her. She looks at me with a smile and pulls away from the hug to keep walking. I pick up her hand and give it a gentle squeeze. 

"What are you two love birds doing back there?" Robin says whipping her head around at us. 

"Nothin." I say planting a kiss on Tatum's temple. Robin rolls her eyes and turns her head back around.

I smile at Tatum and receive a smile back. I look foward and realized Dustin, Robin, and Erica were way ahead of us. I started to jogg still holding onto Tatum's hand.

"Wait up!" 

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Somehow we found our way to the end of the tunnel. I can hear Russian chatter from far away so now we have to sneak around to find a way out.

"Ok, clear. Clear, c'mon, let's go." I say motioning for everyone to follow behind  me.  A few guards walked past us as we made out way over here but we made it. 

"That was close.. Too close." Tatum says. 

"Relax. Alright? Relax, nobody saw.." My voice began to fade as we turned a corner.

There was an entire system, of rooms, and a lot of Russians.

We stood there in awe until an armed guard was started to look over in our direction. We hid in behind a big red toolbox near the entrance of this secret lab.n

"Red Dawn." Dustin mumbled.

"I saw it. First flood northwest." Erica whispers.

"Saw what?" Robin whispers back.

"The comms room!" Erica whisper shouts.

"You saw the comms room?" I say.

"Correct!" 

"You sure?" Dustin says.

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

Dustin sits up slightly, "That could be a hundred different things."

Tatum turns to me and looks me directly in the eyes, "I'll take those odds."

I sigh and shake my head. I was out of breath and nervous but I had to take those odds too. 

I looked from behind the toolbox to see if the coast was clear to make our next move.

"Alright. We're gonna move fast. We're gonna stay low." I command quietly.

Everyone nods, and I begin to take off, and the 4 of them follow. We stopped behind another big box and waited for a woman to pass by, and then we ran again. 

"Shhh, move it!" I say.

A door panel was beeping as a Russian was exiting the room we needed to go in. As he exited, I quickly held the door open and pushed everyone inside. I closed the door behind me and turned around. 

A Russian wearing a set of headphones got up in shock. He went for his gun on his belt but then Tatum started to say Russian words at him. They were words from the code. 

I look at Tatum.

This is my chance.

I yell as I run at the Russian.

I grab his torso and smash him onto a machine. He pushes me back and throws a punch, but I dodged him. He grabs my shirt collar and throws me into a table with a bunch of button. I elbow his stomach, and he grunts. I reached for some sort of walkie-talkie and bashed the Russians head, and he fell to the floor unconscious.

I fixed my hair as I panted.

"Dude! You did it! You won a fight!" Dustin yells, pointing at me.

I laughed softly as Dustin reached for the guards keycard in his pocket.

Tatum laughed with me, and Robin started to wander off. Tatum walked up to me giving me a short kiss and a small hug. She then wrapped her arm around my torso and rubbed my back. It was comforting and sweet of her. 

"What are you doing?" Erica asked Dustin very loudly.

"Getting our ticket out of here." Dustin said, holding the keycard that unlocked all the doors. He stole it from the Russian I just beat the crap out of. 

"You wanna walk all the way back?" Erica exclaims.

"Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic, maybe." Dustin says sarcastically.

"Have a picnic? We came here for the radio!"

The two began bickering as Robin went up a staircase, Tatum and I stood near the bottom to see what she was doing. 

"Guys! There is something up there!" Robin says eagerly.

We all walk up the stairs and quietly go through the door. 

"Holy shit." Tatum says. We were looking through a glass door that acted as a window. There was this insanely big machine, and it looked like it had electric volts or something coming out of it.  I think they were trying to open a...

I look at Tatum, "The gate."

"I don't understand. You guys seen this before?" Robin asks. 

"Not exactly.."

"Then what exactly?" 

"All you need to know is that it's bad. Like the end of the human race, as we know it kind of bad." Dustin says very worried. Tatum teasingly slapped Dustin's arms. She didn't want to worry Robin or Erica. 

"And you know about this, how?" Robin says, as we all ran back down the staircase.

"Uhm, Steve, where is your Russian friend?" Erica asks. I looked around until my eyes focused on the floor and saw there wasn't an unconscious Russian man lsying on the floor. Shit!  

An alarm starts blaring through the building. 

"Shit!!" I run over to the door we came in through to see Russian guards charging this way.

"Halt!" They shouted.

I slammed the door shut, "Go!"

"GO!!!!" I shouted.  We ran over to another that was in this room. 

We sprinted through the door with no where to go because now we were face to face with the gate. The Russian guards yelling and chasing after us. 

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!!" Dustin yelled repeatedly.  We ran down another staircase to another door to lead us out of this room.  

I threw a metal barrel at a guard in atrepmt to slow him amd the other gaurds down. We ran through the door at the end of the staircase and I held it shut using all my weight trying to protect everyone. 

"Tatum! Robin! Help me!" I called out.  The 2 girls ran to help me hold back the gaurds at the opposite end of the door.

"C'mon, guys!" Dustin said. Him and Erica were trying to climb into this vent to escape. 

"Just go! Get help!" I shouted.

"Wait, hurry up!" Dustin shouted back.

"Just go!" Tatum said, holding the door with all her might.

"Come one guys! Hurry!" Dustin yelled again.

"JUST GO!" I shouted again.  I looked over at Tatum as a few tears fell down her face.

Dustin sadly sighed as he went through the small opening on the floor.  And that was it.  The guards broke through the door. Tatum fell to the floor crying and I squirmed over to grab her while Robin was panting and out of breathe. 

The gaurds pointed their guns at us so we held out hands in hope they would shoot. 

A/N: IM FR SO IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO GET THIS CHAPTER OUT. I have been busy bit ill try to get back on track with these. Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter!! Bye! ❤️