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― season three, episode seven;
CODE RED

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4103 words

*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

The weight plummeted towards my face and I braced for impact, gritting my teeth so hard I might have chipped a tooth.

Suddenly in one swift motion, something struck him in the back of the head, making him keel over, messing up his aim. The weight still dropped, cutting through the air with a great force, but instead of nailing me in the face, it only struck me in the elbow. Unfortunately, it still really hurt.

The new shooting pain that stabbed all the way up to my shoulder was enough to give me the boost that I needed to flip over. Will and Lucas ran forwards, helping me back over to the wall, propping me up against it, taking a look at my involuntarily limp arm. My head was throbbing and my stomach reeling but I managed to see what had caused Billy to alter the weight's course with my head.

It was Mike.

He stood over Billy's body, the older teen having collapsed onto the floor, with the pipe that had once secured the door in his hand. This impact had saved my face, and had made Billy drop El. She fell onto the ground, still gasping for air.

"Go to hell you piece of shit!" Mike yelled at Billy, attempting to bring the pipe down on him again, but Billy flipped over, catching the makeshift weapon in his hand. He yanked it out of Mike's grasp, throwing it across the room. Billy started to back Mike up against another wall, the younger boy now defenseless.

I tried to get Lucas or Will's attention, to tell them that they needed to help Mike, but an especially sharp ache ripped through my arm, reaching all the way up to my neck this time. I squeezed my eyes shut, crying in pain as I was slid down to the floor.

"Ashley, look at me." I couldn't force my eyelids open to do what Will was telling me, but I let his familiar, comforting voice bring me some peace. "We're gonna get out of here, and I'll call Mom and you'll be okay, I promise, I just-"

My eyes snapped open and Will was cut off by El screaming, and the loud sound of bricks being torn apart and tumbling to the ground. She had lifted Billy into the air and then thrown him against the wall, this time with enough strength that he broke through the bricks, ending up outside in the grass.

Suddenly, all the chaos went quiet. The only sound was the flickering electricity and El's quiet sobs as she crumpled to the floor, exhausted. I was left on my spot on the floor while everybody going over to look out the new hole in the wall.

The more minutes that passed in the silence, the more reality started to hit me, along with the pain. Before long I was wailing, grabbing at my limp, injured arm, unable to feel my own touch through the swelling. Will was back at my side before anybody else.

"Guys! We have to get out of here, I need to call my mom!" His voice trembled. "I think her arm is-"

"No, no!" I sobbed, shaking my head. "Billy. Where's Billy?"

"I really don't care about him right now, Ash, please, just let me-" A tear dripped down his face. "I don't...I..." He dropped his head as his shoulders started to shake.

I lifted my good arm, placing it on his back, wishing more than anything that I could hug him. This whole experience was retriggering for me, I couldn't even imagine how he must feel.

"He's gone."

I glanced over Will's shoulder to look at Mike. "W-what?"

"Billy." Mike repeated. "He's gone."

*.✧ 𝐂𝐇𝐋𝐎𝐄 ✧.*

We were all screaming our heads off as the elevator continued to plummet towards the ground, and I was starting to think that there was no ground, and this was some kind of satanic elevator that would fall for all of eternity.

I was squeezing the shelf so hard that my knuckles were turning white, and my teeth were gritted, having been braced for impact for minutes now.

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

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

Dustin moved back over to the control panel, starting to slam every button aggressively. "Why don't these buttons work?" He screeched. Erica joined him by the buttons, starting to slap them herself.

"Press the buttons!" She said, the calmest one out of all of us.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Dustin yelled right in her face.

"Chloe?"

I whipped my head to look at Robin, who had just choked out my name. "What?"

She swallowed hard. "Before we all die, I just want you to know that you're the best friend I've ever had, thank you for dealing with me for all these years, and for keeping all my deepest, darkest secrets, and-"

"Robin shut up!" I cut her off. "We're not gonna die!"

"No, we're totally gonna die." Steve scoffed.

"Oh fu-" My cursing was cut off by the elevator jerking to a stop. Even with my intense grip on the shelf, I still came crashing to the floor, along with everyone else.

"Is everybody okay?" Robin checked in with us from her spot on the floor.

Steve pushed himself to his feet angrily. "Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" He pushed Dustin and Erica out of the way so that he could have access.

"Steve, I really don't think those buttons work." I groaned, rubbing the back of my head, which had hit the metal shelf when I fell.

"They're buttons!" He exclaimed. "They have to do something!"

"Yeah, if we had a keycard!" Robin said, standing up.

"What?" Steve and I chorused.

Robin sighed, going over to Steve. "It's an electronic lock. Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate. Meaning-"

"We're stuck in here." Dustin finished for her.

"Yeah." Robin nodded, slumping against the wall in defeat.

I got to my feet, stumbling my way over to Dustin. I put an arm on his shoulder, "Hey, you okay?"

"No I'm not okay!" He yelled at me.

I blinked at him, unfazed, until he sighed and dropped his tense shoulders. "Yeah, I'm okay." He corrected himself.

"Just so you nerds are aware," Erica announced. "I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. 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 throats."

"I don't care about Tina!" Steve burst out, having had enough. "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 spoke up. "What if we climbed out?"

We all followed his finger, which he had pointed towards an emergency trap door on the ceiling. After giving each other wide eyed looks, we all sprung into action. Dustin jumped onto one of the tables, pushing the door open. He grabbed onto the edge on the outside, hoisting himself up onto the top of the elevator. Steve was right after him, but Robin, Erica and I stayed inside, letting them check it out first.

Faintly, I heard Steve sigh, then say, "What were you saying about climbing?"

*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

Mike's front door was flung open, and all six of us burst inside. Mrs. Wheeler jolted up to look at her surprise visitors from her place behind the cutting board in the kitchen.

"Mike?" She called, but he didn't answer her, as we all went right for the basement. Will grabbed my good wrist, pulling me into the kitchen with him.

"Hi Mrs. Wheeler." He said.

"Hi, sweetie." She smiled at us, but still looked confused. "What are you guys up to?"

"Oh, just uh, hanging out." Will lied. "We just came back from the pool, and Ashley slipped and she hit her elbow. Do you have any ice?"

"Oh, yes! Are you alright, sweetie? Do I need to call a doctor, or your mom?"

"No," I said quickly. "Just ice will be fine."

"Okay," She narrowed her eyes at us. "Did you guys not swim or something? It's just, your hair is dry."

"It dries fast!" We both blurted at the same time. I laughed nervously, adding, "It's genetic."

"Oh-"

"Ice please." Will repeated.

"Right." Mrs. Wheeler went over to the refrigerator, opening one of the doors, pulling out an ice pack, holding it out. Will took it, thanked her, and then dragged me away before she could see the seriousness of my injury. He helped me walk down the stairs, even though it was only my arm that was hurt, not my legs. We joined the rest of the group in the basement.

"It's late...we're gonna try and get some rest." Lucas told us. "We'll regroup in the morning."

"O-okay." I said, hissing as I pressed the freezing ice pack against my arm.
I crossed the room, sliding down to the floor in front of the couch, propping my back up against it. I lifted my throbbing arm onto the arm on the couch, keeping the ice pack under it, hoping that if I kept it raised overnight some of the swelling might go down. I jumped when I felt somebody sit down beside me, but relaxed when I saw that it was Will.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I'll go somewhere else."

"No," I smiled softly. "You can stay here."

He nodded and leaned against the front of the couch himself, just like I was, sliding over until his head hit my shoulder. My smile grew and I let my own head fall to the side until my cheek hit my shoulder. Then, I closed my eyes and let the much-needed sleep overtake me.

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I was immediately aware of the stiffness and shooting pain in my arm, making my head reel. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to fall back asleep so I didn't have to feel the pain anymore, but it was much too strong. I didn't dare to move, afraid of what kind of fire would rip through my arm if I did.

"I found him." El spoke suddenly, jolting me the rest of the way awake. I stifled my yawn, opening my heavy eyelids the rest of the way.

"Who are we finding?" I whispered to Will, who had woken up before me and was sitting up next to me.

"Hopper." He filled me in.

I nodded, turning back to look at El. She was sitting on the couch, a suit tie wrapped around her eyes, a single bead of crimson blood dripping out of her nose.

"Where is he?" Max asked her.

"Woods." she replied. "He's with...Will's mom."

"My mom?" Will and I chorused again, looking at each other worriedly.

Max furrowed her brow. "What are they doing?"

"Ill...annoy." El stammered. "They're going to Ill-annoy."

My eyes widened and I felt Will tense up beside me. There was a loud knocking on the basement door, making us all jump.

"Mike! Breakfast!" Mrs. Wheeler yelled down to us.

When I had flinched, I had unintentionally moved my arm, and, as I had suspected, it hurt. A lot. I gritted my teeth to stop from crying out, hunching over from the pain.

"Not now, Mom!" Mike screamed back at his mother while everybody hurried to help me. Even El ripped off her blindfold to kneel down beside me.

"God, it hurts..." I breathed as Max helped me put my arm the rest of the way down.

"Why is your mom in Illinois?" She groaned. "She needs to be here."

"I wish I knew!" I gasped when I tried to bend at the elbow, the pain raging on. "The last time I talked to her she was going on and on about magnets!"

"Magnets?" Will questioned.

"Yeah, they kept falling off the fridge or something," I said offhandedly.

"Weird." He frowned.

"Yeah-" I was cut off by Max touching my elbow, causing me to yelp. "Shit! Max, what the hell?"

"Sorry," she shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure you can still feel your elbow, no nerve damage or anything. I fall off my skateboard all the time, that's what I always check first."

"Well, I can feel it!" I let my chin hit my chest, forcing myself not to cry.

"Is that good?" El asked Max, who clicked her tongue.

"Not exactly." She answered. "Ashley, wiggle your fingers."

I tried to do as she said, but there was no movement, even though I was trying really hard. I was suddenly aware of the pins and needles that pricked at my fingertips.

"Max, I can't feel my fingers." I whimpered.
"Shit, it might be broken." She hissed.

"I'm getting Mike's mom to call a doctor." Will jumped to his feet.

"No!" I caught his wrist with my free arm. "We have to stop Billy first."

"Ashley, your elbow is broken!" He exclaimed.

"I might be." I corrected him, letting go of his hand. "Just get me more ice, I'll be fine."

"But-"

"Ice." I said firmly. He opened his mouth like he wanted to protest, but decided against it, turning and going up the stairs quickly.

"Just...try not to move your arm too much, okay?" Max told me.

"You sure you're good?" Lucas piped up, looking worried. "We have time to go to the doctor if-"

"I'm fine, Lucas. Thank you." I wiped at my teary eyes with my good hand, embarrassed to be crying but the pain was shooting up to my neck now.

"You said, Illionois." Mike brought the conversation back to El. "Like the state?"

El shrugged. "Ill-annoy."

I sniffled, feeling the pain go down slightly the more that I rested my arm. Max moved away from me, motioning for El to follow her. "Let's wipe your nose, yeah?"

El nodded, pushing herself off of the floor to go with her, the two girls disappearing into the small powder room. Will had returned with the fresh ice and he and Lucas helped me move onto the couch so I could be as still as possible. Mike stayed where he was, scoffing angrily.

"Something's not right." He said. "I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden he's hiking with Ms. Byers to Illinois. And Dustin's MIA too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence."

I let my head fall to the back of the couch cushion, sighing frustratedly. Will sat next to me and Lucas went back to his earlier seat. "What does it matter?" He asked. "The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us."

"Up to us to do what exactly?" Mike shot back.

"Find Billy and stop him." Lucas replied.

"Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?"

"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time." Lucas had another counter argument up his sleeve.

"Okay, then what?" Mike pressed him.

"Then we win!" Lucas exclaimed.

"No, see, that's the problem." Mike said. "We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer."

Finally, Lucas was stumped. "How in the hell do we do that?"

"I don't know." Mike started to pace.

"Maybe El does." Will offered, and this made Mike stop walking to look over at the bathroom door.

"What are they still doing in there?" He sighed.

"I don't know." Lucas shrugged. "Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms."

"It's true." I said, still staring up at the ceiling.

"Why?" Mike asked me.

"Don't know." I answered, looking over at him. "It's peaceful in there. No boys to bother us."

Mike groaned, rolling his eyes at me and going back to staring down the door. "They're conspiring against me." He decided.

"That's what you're concerned about right now?" Will snapped at him and I had to stifle my giggle.

"It's not my main concern." Mike defended himself. "It's just a sub-concern."

"I thought it was already over."

"It's not over, okay? We're just...taking a break."

"She said she dumped your ass, that doesn't sound like a break."

"It wasn't!" Max called through the door.

Slowly, I was starting to piece together what had happened between El and Mike and I was trying to fight my smile at the pureness of it. Personally, I felt like they were all too young for relationships and hearing about their problems was endearing. I'm glad that Will hadn't taken an interest in that just yet, I don't even know how I would feel about that. I mean, it was weird enough seeing Jonathan with Nancy, and he was my big brother, so I have no idea what it would be like if it was my younger one.

"You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?" Max went on. Then, the two girls giggled which only made Mike more angry.

"Conspiring." He repeated in a whisper. "I told you, they're conspiring."

Will rolled his eyes and slouched further down next to me. There was another knock at the basement door and Mike snapped his head in the direction of the noise. "Not now, mom!" He yelled.

"Mike, open the door." Nancy demanded.

He furrowed his brow and ran up the stairs, throwing the door open. Nancy and Jonathan were standing in the doorway, out of breath, staring down at us.

*.✧ 𝐂𝐇𝐋𝐎𝐄 ✧.*

"Code red, I repeat, code red."

Dustin's voice startled me awake, and only it took me a minute to adjust to my surroundings before I remembered where we were. I squinted against the bright elevator light, seeing that everybody else was already awake. Dustin's voice came from above me so I assumed he must be on the roof again. Robin and Erica were leaning against the wall looking bored, and Steve was climbing up the hatch to join Dustin on the roof.

My younger brother waited a moment for a response and when he didn't get one, he tried again. "This is a code red. Does anyone copy? Code red."

"Hey, chill out with that thing." Steve stopped him. "You're gonna drain the battery."

"The mall just opened." Dustin answered.

"So?"

"So, someone could be in range."

Steve scoffed. "What do you think Petey the Mall Cop is gonna repel down here and save the day?"

Sick of listening to their bickering, I turned my eyes to Robin. She was bent over the control panel, staring at the buttons.

"Any progress?" I asked, pushing myself to my feet.

She sighed frustratedly, shaking her head. "Nope. And Steve and I stayed up all night trying to figure it out, and we still got nothing. I would've gotten you to help me instead, but you had somehow fallen asleep on this uncomfortably hard floor. Ever since I met you, you have always been able to fall asleep anywhere."

"It's my only talent." I shrugged.

Robin laughed at this, turning her eyes back to the panel. While she was moving her gaze, she saw Erica in the corner and gasped. Running over to the younger girl's side, she snatched the flask of green liquid out of her hands. "We don't even know what that is!"

"Exactly. It could be useful." Erica tried to grab it back but Robin jerked her hand away again.

"Useful how?"

"We can survive down here a long time without food," Erica went on to explain. "But if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

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

"No but it's a liquid." Erica said. "And if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."

Robin rolled her eyes, giving back the green juice. She returned back to the buttons, where I was now standing next to her. For a moment, it was just quiet enough that we could hear some faint rattling noises coming from the walls next to us. I sucked it a breath, making fearful eye contact with Robin before she hurried to warn the boys.

"We've got company." She stuck her head through the open hatch to speak.

"Okay!" Steve's voice went up an octave. "Everybody on the roof, now!"

Robin finished climbing up the rest of the ladder, with Erica and I right on her heels. Just as Steve was shutting the hatch behind me, the elevator door started to open. Steve grabbed my hand to pull me back, and I swear that my heart had never beat so fast as it was in this moment.

We heard loud footsteps enter the elevator, and then two men started speaking in Russian. I pinned myself against the concrete walls of the elevator shaft next to Robin, Erica and Dustin while Steve watched the Russians through the window on the top.

Eventually, Steve gave the signal that the men had left. He motioned to Erica, who was still holding the glowing neon jar. "Give me that." He mouthed to her.

"Why?" She whispered back.

"Just trust me, okay. Hand it over."

She did as she was told, which was a first, and Steve tucked it under his arm. He opened the hatch, hurrying down the ladder. The large automatic elevator door was still going down when he landed on the floor. He had to dive so he made it before it closed completely, shoving the jar between the door and the ground, propping it open.

"Oh my god, did he just have a good idea?" Robin whispered.

"I think so." I replied, my heart swelling.

"Come on!" Steve hissed up at us, and we hurried to join him. He helped Erica lay down, pushing her while she scooted under the door to freedom. Then it was Dustin's turn, and by this point the glass jar was starting to crack.

"Hurry!" He whisper-screamed at Robin, who was going now.

Finally, it was my turn, and I took to ducking and rolling to escape, but my legs were still under the door when the glass broke.

"Shit!" Steve gasped, diving under the rapidly closing door so that he was out, and I choked back a scream as I pulled my ankles out of harm's way. The green liquid exploded out of the jar, just barely missing my shoes. It formed a puddle, stream and sizzling noises rising from it. Steve and I scrambled to move out of the way as the liquid burned a hold straight through the floor.

Once we were all on our feet and safe, I could finally breathe again. "Jesus Christ," I whispered, watching the green acid eat away at the ground. "Erica, you were gonna drink that?"

She opened her mouth to, inevitably, snap something snarky back at me, but Dustin interrupted. He was turned away from the rest of us, unable to tear his eyes away from where he was looking.

"Holy mother of God." He breathed.
I snapped my head to look at what had got him so worked up, and I nearly choked when I saw. I was staring down a seemingly endless hallway, illuminated with blue lighting, that was giving me spaceship vibes. It was almost dystopian.

"Well," Steve joked. "Hope you guys are in good shape." He pushed to the front of us, slapping Dustin on the chest. "Looking at you, roast beef."

Dustin looked down at his t-shirt that had graphic letters reading ROAST BEEF, which Steve was referring to. When none of us moved right away, Steve turned around, walking backwards, waving for us to follow him. "Come on, let's go."

"Why me?" Dustin questioned, starting after Steve, who didn't answer him. I glanced over at Robin, who simply shrugged at me before walking off after the boys. Erica and I were the last to start walking. The hallway lit us all up with a blue tint and I had to pinch myself a couple of times to make sure that I wasn't dreaming.

Nope, this was very real.

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