dumpster diving

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   Jonathan had an idea. The car that El had pummeled the Russians with couldn't drive—it was completely wrecked—but they didn't need it to. The only thing wrong with Nancy's own car was that the ignition cable was missing, an ignition cable that would surely be in this one. The only problem was that the hood was against the food court stand, and to access the cable, they needed to tip the car over. Which was how Gabe found himself in the pizza place with the others, straining his non-existent muscles in an attempt to push the vehicle over. Even with the manpower of himself, Lucas, Alina, Nancy, Jonathan, Mike and Max, the car refused to budge more than a few inches. Even when Gabe's foot found the wall in an attempt to put all of his weight on it. It still didn't move.

"Push!" Jonathan ordered, like they hadn't already been doing that. Gabe's arms trembled, sweat glistening on his forehead, his breath coming in shallow breaths, and the car moved a little bit forward, though definitely not enough to tip over completely. Gabe wondered if he was about to dislocate his shoulders. It felt like it, anyway.

There was one more heave, and then the car fell back towards the counter, crashing up against it with a shattering of glass. Gabe yelped, shielding his head, and managed to avoid the pieces of the window. But that wasn't the main problem at hand. The problem was that they still couldn't get the ignition cable, which meant that they were still trapped in the mall. If Billy found his way in, they would be easy pickings. Fish in a barrel.

"Shit!" Lucas swore. Gabe just leaned against the counter, expelling large gasps. His arms felt like they had been wrenched out of their sockets, and he resolved that, if he survived everything, he would start working out. Start lifting or something. Because right now, he had as much muscle as a spaghetti noodle.

"Let me try," suggested El. She was standing beside Will, watching them struggle, because, obviously, no one expected her to throw out her back on a wobbly leg. And as for Will... well, he'd just gotten lucky. There was no more space left for him.

Mike, who was panting, his black hair falling all over his face, hit the counter. "El..."

El limped forward. "I can do it," she insisted.

"Why didn't you start with that?" Gabe groaned, rolling his aching shoulders forward. El didn't answer, and he sighed, going around the counter in order to prevent the girl from ramming the car right into his head. The others did the same, Alina bypassing the walk around and instead vaulting over the broken car, and gathered behind El.

El reached out her hand, and the car immediately began to groan, shaking a little. The metal squeaked and El gasped heavy breaths, but whatever she was doing, she was doing it wrong, because the car was refusing to budge. As El's gasps got heavier, her face screwed up more, and the car still didn't move, Gabe was beginning to realize that something had happened with her. A day ago—no, scratch that, an hour ago—this would've been easy as pie for her. She could've probably done it with her eyes closed. But now...

El yelled out in frustration and then dropped her arm. The car still hadn't moved. Shit.

Mike stepped forward, his eyebrows furrowed. "El?"

El blinked. She looked near tears. "It's not..." she swallowed. "It's not working."

"What are we supposed to do now?" Will asked. Like he'd been doing anything before. Gabe had to admit, he was a little angry at the boy. Even though now obviously wasn't the best time. But Will had been all prepared to tell him this secret of his when suddenly he got cold feet. And now he was avoiding his gaze.

Mike turned to Alina. "Al, I hate to ask, but—"

"My powers won't do shit for tipping a car," Alina finished for him. "It's heat and light. I'd only damage it further."

"So what do we do now?" Gabe asked. "Billy can come in here right now! We need to get out of here!"

Mike rolled his shoulders forward, and his eyes drifted to the stools by that sat in the food court. His eyebrows furrowed, and then, after a tense moment, his eyes lit up. "I got it. Everyone, grab one of these stools. We're going to wedge them under the car and use them to tip it over." He noticed everyone's stares and shrugged. "It's physics. C'mon. We don't have much time."

At Mike's urging, Gabe lifted up one of the stools and headed back around the counter with the others. He knew they were running out of time, and they needed to do whatever they could in order to access the ignition cable and get the hell out of here. So he didn't ask any questions, just wedged his stool under the table and began to push yet again. His chest heaved yet again, but this time, they managed to tip the car onto its side, which was more than they'd done before.

"All right, great," said Jonathan. "All right, now all the way. Ready?"

Wielding his stool and feeling immensely stupid, Gabe nevertheless positioned himself. "Three, two, one... push!" Jonathan ordered, and Gabe shoved the car as hard as he could with his stool. The car, laboring under the weight of eight people, finally budged, and then collapsed, falling to the ground with a clatter. Right-side-up.

They'd done it.

"Told you," Mike gasped. "Physics."

Alina and Gabe both high-fived him. It was possible that Mike had saved their life with that trick, and there was now a new urgency trickling through them. They needed to get the ignition cable as fast as possible and get the hell out of this mall.

Which was exactly what Nancy and Jonathan were trying to do. "How do we get it open?" Nancy asked, trying to pop open the non-budging hood.

"Uh, there should be a latch," said Jonathan. "Check under the wheel."

Nancy moved out of the way, and Alina and Will's brother continued to try and pull up the hood. "You see it?" he asked, when he saw Nancy had made her way to the steering wheel.

"I don't know, hold on."

"What's she doing?" Max's voice made Gabe whirl around from the scene, diverting his attention from Nancy and Jonathan. He didn't know what he had expected, but it definitely wasn't El, head in the trash can, rifling through and sending bits of paper and plastic bags to the ground. She was making quite a mess, and curiosity dragged Gabe forward as the floor got more and more dirty.

Eventually, El seemed to find what she was looking for, which happened to be a can of new Coke, not unlike the one Lucas had slurped on while El and Al were in the void. El set it down on a ledge, and that was when it clicked to Gabe what she was trying to do. "Shit," he said aloud. "She's trying to use her powers."

"Do you think she overexerted herself?" Mike asked. "Like... her battery ran out of juice? Or do you think it's..." he looked to Alina, who had joined them, and Gabe understood what he was insinuating. The thought actually worried him, quite a bit, for, although they did have Alina, El's powers were the most versatile and helpful in the battles they'd done through.

"We'll have to find out," said Max, and then the four of them walked up to their friend, who was concentrating hard on the empty New Coke can. It would've been a strange scene if none of them had known what she could do.

"El," said Mike. "Are you okay?"

El turned to the four of them, her eyes darting back to the New Coke can, which hadn't changed in the slightest. Worry was evident in her eyes, and for good reason. Her powers weren't working.

"Do you think it was from the bite?" Max asked. "Or are you just out of energy?"

"It can't be from the bite," said Alina, who was the most qualified person they had in all things power-related, besides El, of course. "At least, I don't think. She was using her abilities after she got bitten, though, like with the car, and drawing that creepy little thing out of her." She stepped forward, and Gabe remembered that she had actually lost her abilities. She'd apparently suppressed them until the age of twelve, and then lost them for nearly another year after that. "But it doesn't seem like she ran out of battery, either. I mean, when she did before, she looked way worse than now."

"So what do you think it is?" Gabe asked.

"Well... the Mind Flayer. It was the one that took my powers from me when it was inside me. It was inside El a different way, but we know it didn't affect her powers when it was in there, because she could use them. But maybe... maybe it was somehow siphoning off them when it was inside her leg. Maybe when she took it out of her... shit."

"You think it took her powers with it?" Max asked.

"I don't know. It's just a theory. But I... El, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure they'll be back soon. Maybe you're just subconsciously suppressing them, like I was. Like, if you use too much, or you see something horrible happen. Or have something horrible happen. Like, you know, have a creature literally crawling around in your leg. So I wouldn't worry, for now. You suppressing your powers is definitely a possibility."

El raised a hand and wiped the blood from her nose. "Yeah," she said softly. "It could be."

But to Gabe, she didn't sound too convinced.

Just then, Alina's face paled. Goosebumps rose on her arms, and she brought a trembling hand to the back of her neck, where the hairs had stood up. Her eyes went wide. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit!"

"What is it?" Max asked, but before she could respond, there was a low, distant rumbling from above, reminding Gabe of the giant footsteps he'd heard back at the cabin. Immediately, he looked up, his heart pounding, and spotted a fleeting movement on the glass roof of Starcourt Mall. With every step, the ceiling rumbled, and his stomach felt like it was dropping to its toes. He knew what it was. And he knew that they had taken too long.

"Mike," said Max quickly, her voice trembling. Mike, who had been oblivious this entire time, turned, staring up at the ceiling, listened to the glass on the skylight clinking. His face paled as another footstep rattled it, and Gabe shrunk back, his heart hammering.

The glass was beginning to crack, and Mike shouted out for his sister. "Nancy!" he screamed, and that was when Gabe caught the glimpse of a face. A face he recognized quite well. A face that had repaired itself from El's brutal attack back at the cabin.

"Lucas!" Alina screamed, and then she was running, running forward towards Lucas, who hadn't seemed to have noticed anything, leaving Gabe, Mike, Max, and El behind. The four of them watched her go for a split second, and then Mike latched onto Max and Gabe's hands, jerking them backward.

"Come on!" he shouted, pulling them away from that terrible face. Gabe caught onto El, and then he was running, sprinting away, his heart rattling hard in his chest just as the skylight shattered into pieces, glass raining down right where they had just been standing. Gabe didn't look back, determined to get as far away from the thing as he could, but he did hear the thud as the thing hit the ground, and the roar. The roar that told Gabe that they were all doomed.

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