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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴅᴏᴡɴ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ꒱


❝ YOU BETTER RUN, YOU
BETTER TAKE COVER ❞

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The next day, the quartet commandeered Erica Sinclair's help to access the secret room. Jessie had been properly introduced to Robin and after she'd explained her connection to the Russian words she joined them on their quest to infiltrate the "lair." Now, Erica was preparing to make her way through the vents while the older teens waited atop the adjacent building.

"Erica, do you copy?" Robin asked quietly into their radio.

"'I copy,'" the younger girl replied as her static-y voice sounded through the receiver. "'You nerds in position or what?'"

"Yeah, we're in position," Robin answered. "It's all quiet here so you've got the green light."

"'Green light. Roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment.'"

Jessie smirked at the name. While she and Lucas were like oil and water, she could respect his sister's outlook. She didn't necessarily agree with everything but at least the ten-year-old wasn't a girlfriend-stealer.

"Can we maybe not call it that?" the older teen radioed back.

"'See you on the other side, nerds!'" was Erica's only response. Then, the line went silent. After a few minutes of waiting while they stared at the gray door, her voice returned: "'alright nerds! I'm there.'"

"Do you see anything?"

"'Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about.'"

"Any guards?"

"'Negative.'"

"Booby traps?"

"'If I could see them they'd be pretty shit traps.'" After another moment, she gave a positive affirmation. "'I'm in!'"

"Oh god," Steve groaned as he put his head in his hands.

Finally, the doors were buzzed open to reveal a victorious Erica Sinclair. Her hands were proudly positioned on her hips as she declared, "free ice cream for life!"

They didn't respond as they quickly raced down to join her on the ground. As they filed into the room, the younger girl shut the door behind them. Steve's eyes flicked to each of the innocent-looking boxes until they landed on the ones from Imperial Panda. He made a beeline for it and ripped open the taped lid as he pushed it open.

The remaining members of the group leaned forward to peer inside. Instead of normal take-out supplies that should have been there, a silver box with a circular handle greeted them. Jessie began to reach into the box to open it until Steve slapped her hand away. 

"What have I said about touching unknown objects?" The brunette huffed in annoyance as he unlocked the lid. Four more metal handles appeared beneath the carrier. As he placed the lid aside, Steve muttered, "that's definitely not Chinese food." He reached in to pull out one of the cylinders. "Stand back." Robin and Erica followed his direction while the younger teens stayed near him, causing him to shoot them an irritated look. "Just step back, okay?"

"No," Dustin said.

"Step back. Seriously."

"I'm not afraid!" Jessie protested.

The older boy pushed gently on Dustin's chest. "Step back. This doesn't have anything to do with not being afraid."

"No! If you die, I die."

He sighed but relented. "Okay."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned the handle and pulled out the container to reveal a sickly green liquid that floated inside of it. The brunette studied it curiously. "That looks like the Hulk's piss."

"What the hell?" Steve asked.

"What is that?" Robin wondered.

As they stared at the green goop in awe, the room began to groan around them. Dustin was the first to pull his gaze away from the tube. "Was that just me or did the room move?"

"Booby traps," Erica whispered.

As the room shifted around them again, Robin sprang into action and pulled the vial out of Steve's hands. "Let's just grab that and go."

Dustin hurried over to the panel and began to hit the 'open door' button but nothing happened. "Which one do I press, Erica?"

"Just press 'open door!'"

"I am pressing 'open door!'"

"Just press the other button!" Steve exclaimed as he joined the curly-haired boy. Together, they slammed every button on the control panel.

Jessie sighed as she watched them. "That's not going to end well."

The older boy ignored her and, frustrated, hit the center green button forcefully. A dark red panel fell from the ceiling and hit the floor to block their exit. As if triggered by the thud of the gate, the room finally gave up and shot downwards abruptly. Everybody except for Jessie screamed as they raced downward to an unknown destination.

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Finally, they came to a stop. Jessie had fallen into one of the shelves and currently felt like her stomach was being impaled. Unfortunately, everyone was in about the same state.

"Agh! It fell on my groin!" Steve complained. "Dustin, get this off of me!"

Dustin moved to help free the older boy from the boxes that had fallen on top of him. The brunette pushed away from the wall as Robin struggled to stand. The older girl looked around at the rest of the group. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, I'm great!" Steve snapped. "Now I know that Russians can't design elevators!" He resumed his button slamming.

"We've clearly established that those buttons don't work!" Robin exclaimed.

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

"Yeah, if we had a key card."

"What?"

"It's an electronic lock," Robin explained. "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.

"Yeah."

"Just so you nerds are aware, 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," Erica threatened them.

That was the last straw for Steve as he shouted: "I don't care about Tina or Uncle Jack's party!" He took a breath. "You're mom's not going to be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

Dustin ignored their argument and looked up at the ceiling curiously. "Hey. What if we climbed out?"

As the boys went to inspect the exit, Robin turned to the younger teen. "Are you in the same boat as Erica?"

Jessie gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Is someone going to come looking for you if we don't get out?" As she was in the 'older' group and Steve wasn't present, Robin felt the need to check with the girl. Besides, everyone at least knew of Salvador; if they hadn't had an age gap, she thought they might've been good friends despite what the town thought about her.

The brunette hesitated for a moment before she shook her head. "No."

There was a pause as no one was quite sure what to say but luckily Steve and Dustin chose that moment to return with disappointing news. 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

The next morning (or, at least what they thought was the next morning) Dustin radioed for help. "Code red! I repeat, code red! Does anyone copy?"

He continued to say the phrase over and over while Jessie rolled her eyes. "I doubt that the Russians would invest in a transmission in this hellhole. Why don't you turn it off and save the battery for later?"

The boy ignored her so she climbed back down into the room. Robin had gone back to analyzing the panel while Erica began to bang one of the green cylinders against a box. The older girl's gaze moved to the wall for a second and she grimaced. 

"Can you redirect your stream, please?" The dark stain on the wall shifted over a few inches though the disgusted look on her face didn't change. Then, she noticed Erica's activity. "Hey, hey! Be careful." She took the tube from her. "We don't even know what it is."

"Exactly. It could be useful."

"Yeah, useful in our deaths probably," Jessie put in.

"All I'm saying is that we can survive down here a long time without food," the younger girl began shortly, "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 and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."

A new sound caught Robin's attention and she pressed her ear to the door. She listened quietly to the activity on the other side before she announced, "we've got company."

They clambered up to where the boys were standing and quickly shared their news. Quietly, they gathered around the ceiling grate to watch the activity below. Two workers entered and spoke Russian in short sentences. The second worker shrugged in response to the first and carried a box to their cart.

Once they were done with their task, Steve snatched the tube Erica was holding from her and hurried back into the room. Before the door fully closed, he placed the cylinder underneath it. He turned to the others. "Let's go! Go, go, go!"

The younger members of the group slid out first before Robin and Steve followed them. As the older boy made his escape, cracks began to appear in the vial. Thankfully he made it out in time just as the glass gave way. It shattered and spilled poisonous green liquid that sizzled on the floor.

"Still want to drink that?" Robin asked Erica. The girl huffed but didn't respond.

"Holy mother of God," Dustin breathed as he turned to face the long hallway.

"Well, I hope you guys are in good shape." The older boy patted Dustin on the shoulder. "Looking at you, roast beef."

At least the weren't running. Jessie sighed. "Well, now's a good time as any I suppose." In a slight sing-song tone, she began: "'ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall. Take one down, pass it around. Ninety-eight. . .'"

Steve let out an agonized groan.

[edited jul. 2022]