Chapter Twenty-Six

"The gate," Steve says as Russian scientists are watching the key, as it continues to work opening the gate. Through the windows in the door at the back of the room where Dustin, Steve, Robin, Erica and I are.

"The gate," Dustin confirmed.

"Ah, shit, the gate," I murmur, running a hand through my hair. I was stressed now.

"I don't understand," Robin says as we walked down the stairs to the comms room. "You've seen this before?"

"Not exactly," Dustin tells her as we entered the comms room.

"Then what, exactly?" Robin asked, annoyed.

"All you need to know is it's really bad," Dustin tells her.

"It's really bad," Steve repeated.

"Like, really bad." I stretched the word out, turning to Robin.

"Like, end of the human race as we know it kind of bad," Dustin concluded and I nodded in agreement.

"And you know this how?" Robin questioned.

"Um, Steve?" Erica asked, catching all of our attention. "Where's your Russian friend?"

The Russian soldier that Steve had knocked out earlier, had vanished. Then, an alarm erupts. Steve runs over to the exit. He opens the door. Steve quickly slammed the door shut and runs back to us before we run back to the observation room.

We bust through the doors and stopped. Seven Russian scientists stop what they were doing and turned back to look at us. Crap.

Dustin, Steve, Robin, Erica and I run downstairs and into the rift chamber as the soldiers burst in. We're all scurrying across the catwalk, reaching the end of the key, it's a beam of energy relentlessly working on opening the gate. I stare in slight awe.

As the soldiers get close, we run in the opposite direction, trying to get as far of them as possible. We go down another set of stairs, taking out a guy in a hazmat suit ascending the same stairs. More soldiers burst through the door.

Steve knocks over a stack of barrels, temporary blocking the soldier's path. "This way!" Robin called out to us, leading us into another room.

Steve closes the door. He uses his body weight to hold it closed as the soldiers try to force their way in. Dustin and Erica are searching for a way out.

"Help me!" Steve tells Robin who was close by. Robin runs over to Steve. Erica had found another way out.

"Here! Come on, let's go!" Erica exclaimed. Erica lifts up a grilled floorboard leading to the ventilation ducts and jumped in. Dustin is close behind and I'm close behind Dustin. Dustin jumps into, and I turned to Steve and Robin.

"Come on!" I pleaded to Steve.

"Just get out of here!" Steve yelled at me. We both make eye contact.

"I can't just leave you, come on!" I continued to beg him to come with me, he can't sacrifice himself for me.

"No!" Steve shakes his head. "Just get some help!"

My body was literally shaking, I felt like having a panic attack. Huge anxiety takes over me. "What are you doing?!" I cried.

"Juno, please, go!" Steve tells me, pleading in his eyes. "I love you. I can't let anything bad happen to you."

My voice cracks, tears streaming down my face hesterically. "I—I lo—"

"No! Tell me when we see each other again." Steve cuts me off, and my legs were shaking as I slowly lowered myself to the floor. "Go!"

I drop to the floor, feeling everything collapse underneath me. "Where are they?" Dustin whispered to me.

I let out a shaky breath. "Giving us more time."

︾ 

Dustin, Erica, and I are kneeling beside a duct-sized fan. Dustin is working on a nearby panel to stop the fan from churning, while also explaining to Erica the events that had to happen in the last two years.

"So, when we set fire to the hub, we drew Demodogs away so El could close the gate." Dustin began our story. "But now, for some insane reason, the Russians appear to be trying to reopen it, which just destroys everything we risked our lives for."

"By we, you're including Lucas?" Erica asked, looking almost sceptical about it.

"Yes, of course." Dustin nodded.

"So, all that shit you told me, Lucas was there?" It seemed like Erica was having a hard time believing her brother was among this.

"Yeah," I confirm.

"My brother, Lucas Charles Sinclair?"

"Yes!" Dustin exclaimed.

Erica rolled her eyes. "I don't believe you."

"Wait, so you believe everything about El and the gate and the Demodogs, and the Mind Flayer, but you're questioning your brother's involvement?" Dustin asked her.

"That's correct," Erica replied.

"Makes total sense." Dustin sarcastically said and resumes working on the panel.

"Um, do you need help with that?" Erica asked, eyeing Dustin.

"No," Dustin replied.

"Well, I mean, it's taking a while, so—"

"Yeah, no shit, sherlock." Dustin retorts.

"All right, so if we don't find a more efficient method to stop these fans, we're never gonna find help, and your ice cream buddies are screwed," Erica concluded and I didn't want to panic right now. I can't lose Steve. Not yet.

"Yeah, with that attitude, they are." Dustin snapped. "Jee-zus!"

"I'm just being realistic." Erica fires back. "I mean, we've made it about point-three miles in nine hours. Then, we walked three hours down the tunnel, so I'd estimate ten miles back to the elevator, which should take us approximately twelve and a half days."

I turned to her. "Did you just do all of that in your head?"

She shrugs. "I'm good with numbers."

"Holy shit." Dustin says in realisation "You're a nerd."

Offended, Erica looks at Dustin. "Come again?"

"You... Are... A... Nerd." Dustin slowly repeats, looking at Erica.

"Okay, you better take that right back, nerd." Erica snapped.

"Can't put the truth back in the box." Dustin smuggley replied.

"But it's not that truth." Erica denied.

"Let's examine the facts, shall we?" Dustin asked. "Fact one: you're a math wiz, apparently."

"That was a pretty straightforward equation." Erica brushed it off like it was nothing and I rolled my eyes, crossing my legs together.

"Fact number two: you're a political junkie."

"Just because I don't agree with the Communism as an ideology..."

Dustin holds up her pink MLP backpack. "Fact number three: you love my little pony."

Erica looks at him like he was crazy. "And what does my little pony have to do with this?"

"Ah, let's recall the ponies' latest adventure, shall we?" Dustin asked. He's watched my little pony? "The evil centaur team and Tirek turns Applejack into a dragon at Midnight Castle, and then Megan and the other ponies have to use Moochick's magic to defeat his rainbow of darkness, saving them from a lifetime of enslavement. All the pink in the world can't disguise the irrefutable fact that centaurs and castles and dragons and magic are all standard nerd tropes. Ergo, my little pony is nerdy. Ergo, you, Erica, are a nerd."

"And how do you know so much about my little pony?" Erica questioned.

"Because I'm... A nerd." Dustin stated proudly this time, smirking. Dustin pulls the cover off the panel and rips out a pile of wires. With a crackle and a buzz, the fan shorts out and comes to stop. "Let's go.... Nerd."

I chuckled and we crawled through the stopped fan and into another section of the ventilation ducts. "Have you watched my little pony, Juno?" Erica asked me as we continued on our adventure.

"Have you met my Dad?"

︾ 

A floor panel finally slides open, and Dustin, Erica, and I poke our heads up. "Jackpot," Dustin claims. We climb out and take a look around. Something Dustin's and my eyes.

Dustin was giggling and gleefully walks to a waiting Tuk Tuk mini truck. "Do you even know how to drive?" Erica asked us.

"I do," I responded and Dustin pouted.

"Oh, come on, please, let me drive!" Dustin pleaded.

"No," I tell him. I hopped into the driver's seat and saw that there were no keys. "Aw, come on."

"You seriously thought they'd just leave keys in there?" Erica asked sassily and I huffed.

"There's gotta be a spare," Dustin tells us. I searched the cab, Erica wanders a few steps away as Dustin and I searched.

"Hey, Dustin, Juno," Erica called over.

"Yeah?" Dustin asked as we were busy looking for the keys.

"How big did you say that Demogorgon was?" Erica asked.

"Big," Dustin responded. "Nine feet or so. Why?" Dustin uses a screwdriver to open a locked cabinet mounted to the wall. He pulls out a set of spare keys. "Found 'em!"

Dustin turns to face Erica and so do I. We both frowned. "Uh... Erica?" I called out a little worriedly. I can't lose a child. Not yet.

Suddenly, Erica was beside Dustin and me holding an electroshock prod, it was buzzing a crackle. "What the hell is that?!" Dustin exclaimed.

"A deadly weapon," Erica replied. "Could be useful."

"For what?" Dustin stressed.

"What do you think?" Erica sasses. "Taking down commies, saving your friends."

"Thought you were more realistic than that, nerd." Dustin teased and Erica rolled her eyes. She goes over to the tuk-tuk mini truck, I followed her and get in the driver's seat. There was enough room for the two to squeeze in.

"We don't know where they are, and even if we did, there are a million guards up there with deadlier weapons than that." Dustin continued. "The best thing we can do for them is to get out of here and find help. Our chance of surviving, and theirs, rises substantially. Just trust me with this. Please?"

With that, I turned on the truck and began to drive down the long hallway. And let me tell you, it is so much better than walking.