xxxi. way down we go

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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
WAY DOWN WE GO

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THE MALL WAS dead quiet when they arrived. They went through a back entrance and immediately knew they weren't the only ones there. There were men wearing all black, holding guns and hunting down Dustin, Steve, Erica Sinclair, and a girl Liz recognized as Robin from Scoops Ahoy who were all hiding behind the counter of a pizza place. They hid on the second floor of the mall and watched as Eleven stepped forward. She stepped up to the railing and soon, a car alarm was going off from one of the cars that you could enter to win from the mall.

Eleven pushed her hand forward, simultaneously pushing the car into the two men, sending the car flying into another place at the food court. The group of four slowly stood up from their hiding spot, looking at the dead men, and the car before looking up and seeing everyone at the railing. When Liz saw Dustin, a smile crept upon her lips.

They all quickly rushed down to the first floor, the reunions starting. Dustin laughed as he saw Eleven and ran into a hug with her and Mike, "You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!"

"Lucas?" Erica yelled once she saw her brother.

"What are you doing here?" Lucas asked, clearly shocked to his sister here.

"Ask them," Erica pointed to Steve and Robin. "It's their fault."

"True, yeah. Totally true," Steve nodded. "It is absolutely our fault."

Liz immediately went to Steve. Her eyes widened once she saw his face which was bloody and beaten. Cuts littered his face and one of his eyes was so swollen, he could barely open it, "Oh my God! What the hell happened to you? Are you okay?"

She jumped into his arms, both of the Harrington siblings squeezing each other as tight as they could, happy that they were both okay. Steve let go first and immediately grabbed Liz's face, turning her head harshly. He noticed the small cut she had on her cheek from the other day and he gasped, "Me? What about you? What happened to your face?"

Liz rolled her eyes, removing his hands from her face, "It's not a big deal. It doesn't even hurt anymore."

Steve grabbed her face one more, "Are you sure? How did it happen? Are you okay?"

Liz slaps his hands away once more as Robin scoffs, "It's just a small cut, dingus. She's fine."

Liz smiles at her, "Thank you."

Steve's eyes widened and he gestured to Robin, "Oh Liz, you know Robin, right?" Liz looked at Robin who smiled at her and Liz smiled back. Steve then chuckled. "You guys should chat, you have a lot more in common than you think."

Liz rolls her eyes, "How about let's focus on you and the fact that you can't go a full year without getting your ass beat. Seriously, what the hell, Steve?"

"I don't understand what happened to that car," Robin announced, looking very confused as she looked at the car which was smashed on the other side of the mall.

"El has superpowers," Dustin explained, gesturing to El.

Robin furrowed her brows in confusion, "I'm sorry?"

"Superpowers," Steve explained. "She threw it with her mind. C'mon, catch up."

"That's El?" Erica asked, pointing to the girl.

"Who's El?" Robin exclaimed.

"I'm sorry," Nancy interrupted. "Who are you?"

"I'm Robin," Robin smiled. "I work with Steve."

"She cracked the top-secret code," Dustin explained.

"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place, "Steve added. Liz was so confused. So much information was being thrown at her that she didn't know what to do with.

"Russians?" Jonathan asked. "What Russians?"

"The Russians!" Steve yelled, gesturing to the two dead men on the floor, their blood now pooling over the linoleum.

Max gasped, "Those were Russians?"

Erica shrugged, "Some of them."

"What are you talking about?" Lucas exclaimed, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Didn't you hear our code red?" Dustin asked.

"Yeah," Mike answered. "But I couldn't understand half of what you were saying."

Dustin shook his head, "Goddamn low battery!"

"How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?" Steve scolded, slapping his hands together.

"Okay, well, everything worked out, didn't it, Steve?" Dustin tells him.

"Worked out?" Erica scoffed. "We almost died!"

"Yeah, but we didn't? Did we?" Dustin argued.

Steve chuckled, "It was pretty damn close."

"Okay, Russians?" Lucas started, wanting to know more about that subject. "As in, they're working for the Russian government?"

"What are you not comprehending? Am I not speaking English?" Dustin asked him, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically. "We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation!"

"So this has nothing to do with the gate?" Max asked.

"It has everything to do with the gate!"

They were all too busy arguing and trying to inform each other of the new information they had found that they didn't even notice El had walked off. They all eventually shut up and turned around once El had collapsed onto the floor. Mike rushed over, "El! El! El! What's wrong?"

She was whimpering and her forehead had beads of sweat planted on it as she let out small cries of pain, "My leg. My leg."

"Her leg, her leg. Okay," Jonathan nodded as he took off the bandages that Max had done.

Gasps were heard around the group as well as groans of disgust. The wound had only gotten worse. It was almost glowing now and it had started moving underneath her skin like a worm. Eleven started to groan in pain before letting out a loud scream. Liz watched her wound and it almost looked like there something inside her leg, something alive. Mike clearly thought the same thing, "There's something in there."

"Keep her talking," Jonathan informed them. "Keep her awake, okay?"

He sprinted off to find supplies, searching through all the different food places in the food court they were currently in. Eleven's wound was continuing to ooze out blood onto the linoleum. Her moans of pain had stopped as she was starting to drift in and out of consciousness. Mike started to shake her, "Hey, hey hey. Stay awake, awake." He turned to Dustin and Steve. "Let's get her on this side, on this side."

"Uh... you know, it's — it's not actually that bad. There was a..." Robin started rambling as Mike, Dustin, Steve, and Nancy attempted to move Eleven to a different angle. "The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane!"

The whole group stared at her, all of them confused as to what that story was doing to make the situation better in any way, shape, or form. Steve pursed his lips, "Robin."

"Yeah?"

He shook his head, "You're not helping."

Robin sighed, "I'm sorry."

Jonathan sprinted back to them, his shoes pounding on the hard linoleum before he kneeled beside Eleven. He had a large knife, gloves, and a wooden spoon in his hand, "Alright, El, this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Eleven nodded as he put on the gloves. "Need you to stay real still." He then handed her the wooden spoon. "Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?"

Mike put the spoon in Eleven's mouth. Liz was starting to stress out but hoping and praying that Eleven would be okay. Liz stood beside Max who looked just as worried. The two girls shared a look before grabbing each other's hand and squeezing tight, both praying Eleven would be fine. Jonathan moved the knife closer to Eleven's shin, hesitating for a moment before starting to slice into her leg. Eleven started to scream the second the knife cut into her skin. The entire group, even Jonathan, looked disgusted by the sight in front of them. Jonathan threw the knife down before closing his eyes and reaching into Eleven's wound, causing her to scream even more. Jonathan dug through the wound, the squelching noises making Liz feel nauseous.

"Jonathan!" Nancy called out, not knowing what he was trying to do.

"Stop talking!" Jonathan yelled back before starting to dig deeper into the wound. He was trying to grab whatever was in there but he couldn't get a good grip on it. "Goddamn it!"

Eleven shook her head, the spoon falling out of her mouth. "No! Stop it! Stop!"

Nancy had to push Jonathan back to get him to stop. Eleven sat up, tears falling down her face as she whispered in pain, "I can do it. I can do it."

Eleven sat up, Mike and Dustin helping her. She took a deep breath before holding out her hand over her wound and squeezing her fingers. The movement caused more movement to occur in her leg as she started to try to get the creature out. Eleven squealed in pain as the creature moved and fought back inside her leg. She cried out and screamed as the tiny, slimy creature that resembled a slug slowly came out of her leg. She screamed so hard that the glass window behind them shattered and landed among the group. Steve shielded Liz and Max from the glass as it fell on them. Eleven then threw the creature across the room before it was stepped on by Hopper.

The entire group looked across the room, seeing Hopper, Joyce, and another man that Liz didn't recognize. Liz felt herself sighing in relief as it was no longer just the kids and the teens. She also knew that Hopper and Joyce would most likely have information that would help them. Things were going to start coming together and that's exactly what happened as the group relocated to the center of the mall, right at the fountain the food court. They had started explaining what was going on, Hopper mainly wanting to know about the Mind Flayer.

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world," Mike explained to Hopper as he nodded along.

"And it almost did," Nancy added. "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked curiously.

"It's big," Jonathan nodded before pursing his lips as he guessed the size. "Gotta be thirty feet, at least."

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin," Lucas nodded as Hopper sighed, not seeming surprised at that statement. "Sorry."

"Okay, so just to be clear, this... this big fleshy, spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?" Steve asked as he stood beside Liz and Max. Nancy answered his question with a 'yes'. "But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people."

Nancy nodded, "Yes, exactly."

Steve nodded, seeming very weirded out by the whole thing, "Yeah, okay. I — Yeah, I'm just making sure."

"Are we sure this thing is still out there — still alive?" Joyce asked.

"El beat the shit out of it," Max tells her, nodding. "But, yeah, it's still alive."

"I think it's the strongest thing we've ever dealt with, so far," Liz explained.

"But if we close the gate again —"

"We cut the brain off from the body," Max finished.

Lucas nodded, "And kill it. Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo!" A voice called out, approaching the group. Liz turned around, as did everybody else. It was Murray waving his arms at them as he held some papers in his hand. She had learned his name only a few minutes after meeting him. He was strange but he seemed to know a lot about the Russians. "Yoo-hoo!"

He set the papers down on one of the food court tables and pointed at what looked like a map, "Okay, this is what Alexei called, the hub. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked, looking over Murray's shoulder.

Murray pointed to another room on the map, "Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so."

Erica Sinclair stepped up, shaking her head at the man, "More like 500. What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry..." Murray started, furrowing his brows at the girl. "Who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair," She answered, putting her hands on her hips. "Who are you?"

"Murray... Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman," Erica started, holding her hand up to silence the man, making him scoff at her in surprise at her attitude. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours." She then looked at the rest of the group. "And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

Hopper furrowed his brows while Murray just scoffed, "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?"

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

Liz raised her eyebrows in surprise as she stifled a laugh. Lucas, however, scolded his sister, "Erica!"

Erica whipped her head towards Lucas, "Just the facts!"

"She's right," Dustin nodded, agreeing with the girl he had spent the last 24 hours with. "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me." He gestured to Murray's paper. "Sorry, may I?"

Murray smiled sarcastically, "Please."

Dustin sat down at the table and pulled the papers towards him. He then pulled a pencil out of his vest pocket and pointed to a room, "See this room right here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon." He looked back up to Hopper and Murray. "It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

Hopper raised his eyebrows, "You can show us the way?"

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators," Dustin assures them.

"No," Hopper tells them. He shakes his head before giving Dustin a smile. "Nope."

Hopper then walks off with Murray to prepare to go down below the mall to where the Russian's lab is. The kids grouped together by the fountain once again while the adults went to work, grabbing weapons and any other supplies they might need. Erica met up with the group by the fountain before concluding, "Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die."

Dustin nodded, "Yep. Most likely."

Lucas furrowed his brows in confusion, "You guys survived."

"Barely," Dustin scoffed. "We really could've used you guys down here."

Mike nodded, "Could've used you up here, too.

Lucas nodded, "Yeah, man. We missed you, dude."

Liz smiled at Dustin, "I'm sorry I wasn't there, but I'm glad you're alive."

"Yeah," Will nodded. "Big time."

Dustin walked towards them and the group wrapped their arms around each other, doing a group hug as Dustin smiled at them. It was clear everyone missed each other very much but the important thing was that they were together again, "I missed you guys, too. Big time."

Erica gives them a disgusted look, "Please don't cry, nerds."

"Erica," Lucas warned.

Erica narrowed her eyes at him, "Keep saying my name, see what happens."

"Hey, heads up!" Hopper calls out as he walks over to the group. He tossed a walkie talkie to Dustin. "You can navigate, just from someplace safe."

"It's not that simple," Dustin argued. "The signal won't reach, not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay the Russians' radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins." Liz shook her head at him as Dustin smirked. "Oh, wait. That's me. If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start. And a car."

Hopper pulled a set of keys out of his pocket before tossing them to Dustin. Dustin and Erica hurried off to Steve and Erica before exiting the building to head to Dustin's radio tower. It was decided quickly between Hopper and Joyce that they needed to get everyone out of the mall that didn't need to be there. They decided that Nancy and Jonathan would take the kids to Murray's house where they would be safe while Hopper and Joyce ended things. Liz agreed with the plan, knowing they would all be safe. Knowing their plans, however, something was going to get screwed up and she mentally prepared herself for that as they exited the mall with Nancy and Jonathan, the looming battle preparing to settle over Hawkins.

























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[ 2836 WORDS ]

this was kinda boring i'm sorry !!
but the big fight is coming next chapter
so it will be way more entertaining !

also, 2 more chapters until we say goodbye
to elizabeth harrington 🥺🥺

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