307. My Crew Let's Go

307 / my crew let's go

Despite their sobriety, Dustin still would not let Steve or Lucy lead the way out of Starcourt—not with the Russians roaming around trying to catch them. He headed the group as they peeked out of the cinema bathroom, watching the theatre goers file out as the movie came to an end; it was the perfect time for those being hunted by Russian soldiers to sneak out under cover of regular Americans.

"Blend," Dustin instructed everyone; they walked out of the bathroom and joined the clamoring crowd as casually as they could.

"Well, shit," whispered Erica, looking around at the sea of Hawkins folk that had engulfed them, "that worked."

"Course it worked," said Dustin arrogantly, and Lucy could have smiled at the familiarity of his tone. "Now we just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebs and home, sweet home, here we come."

"Uh, Dustin?" said Steve hesitantly.

"What?"

"Yeah, you might not wanna go to your house."

"Why?"

"Well, I might've told them your full name."

"What is wrong with you?" hissed Dustin, thwacking his arm.

"Dude, I was drugged!"

"So?"

"So!?"

"So, you resist," insisted Dustin firmly. "You tough it out. You tough it out like a man."

"Oh, yeah, that's easy for you to say," said Lucy matter-of-factly, who was certain Dustin would not think the same way if he had been the one under interrogation.

"Uh, guys," said Robin, slowing to a stop in the center of the crowd; the others followed her worried gaze and found the two Russian guards checking IDs at all the exits.

"Abort," said Dustin at once. "Abort, abort, abort—"

It was too late; the man with the ponytail locked eyes with the Scoops Ahoy uniforms in the crowd, and immediately they abandoned their posts to begin following them. Dustin turned, and the others followed; they run for the escalators, but they're locked down for the evenings, gates blocking their exit.

"No biggie," said Robin easily; she took the lead and began sliding down the center of the two escalators.

"Okay, yeah," said Steve, gesturing for the others to follow. "Let's go."

The rest of them took turns following Robin in sliding down to the first floor, then looked up to the second to find the Russians rushing to the stairs in the corner as they spoke quickly into their walkie talkie. They probably had ten or twenty seconds before they would be on them again.

"We've gotta hide," said Steve, and they all scanned the food court for somewhere to duck; Lucy wordlessly pointed to the open Great Cookie counter, and the others followed. Moving as silently as they could since the mall was finally clearing out of guests, Steve held open the swinging door, and each of them crouched behind the counter with bated breath.

The mall was silent now; closed for the evening since the last movie had come to an end. Lucy could hear every step the Russians were taking, and how their voices were getting closer and closer—they spoke in Russian to their comrades, their voices sinister and much too familiar to Lucy now. She put a hand over her mouth as they grew ever closer, afraid her body would betray her and she would let out a scream.

The Russians, however, fell silent. Lucy knew this to be a bad sign. She restrained herself from turning around to glance over the cookie counter, knowing they had likely zeroed in on their hiding spot already; they were moments away from training their guns on the Americans and taking them back as hostages—

A car alarm began blaring with no warning. Lucy let out a little squeal and jumped at the sound, but if the Russians heard her, they were more interested in the car alarm. One of them muttered something in Russian that Lucy would have attributed to "what the hell?" which, if she were being honest, was exactly what she was thinking.

She and Steve exchanged a glance, and they nodded; the two of them turned slowly and peeked only the slightest bit over the counter to see what was going on.

The Russians were encroaching on the display Chrysler that sat unused in the middle of the food court, guns trained on it. The horn and lights were going insane, blaring faster than a regular car alarm. Lucy frowned.

Then the Chrysler jerked itself across the food court, smashing easily through the four Russian men; it dragged them through the chaos of many tables and chairs, then finally crashed to a stop outside the New York style pizza place on the other side of the food court. The Russians were buried beneath the wreck, and Lucy was not sure they would be able to get themselves out—they were unconscious, like rag dolls.

"Holy shit," whispered Lucy; she and Steve slid over the cookie counter and rushed over to the scene, and the others followed them at once.

The security guards weren't unconscious. They were dead. Their twisted, battered bodies lay lifeless across the food court. Lucy watched the Chrysler's hubcap rolling from one end of the court to another, then noisily coming to a stop next to the man with a ponytail; his fractured skull was leaking blood at an alarming rate.

Together, the five of them looked over to where the Chrysler had sat only a moment ago—then they raised their eyes to the second floor.

Dustin let out a gleeful laugh and parted from his group, rushing over to join the newcomers as they descended the stairs. Lucy jogged over with him, still astonished, but with something more important on the mind—

"Leo," she said, so relieved she could have sobbed, and he must have known how worried she was because he let her take him into a bear hug, squeezing him around the core as tightly as she could, worried he would run away again.

"Lucy!" He held her just as tight, showing an alarming amount of emotion for a boy his age; he leaned away as if trying to drink her all in. He took note of the blood on her face and clothes, eyes wide. "Jesus, Lucy, what the hell happened to you? Where have you been?"

"You flung that thing like it was a Hot Wheel," said Dustin, laughing, embracing El.

Next to them Lucas was staring at his sister as though she had grown two heads. "What are you doing here?"

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

"Yeah, yeah," admitted Steve, hands on his hips. "Totally true. It's absolutely our fault."

"I don't understand what happened to that car," said Robin, raising her hand as though she were in a classroom.

"El has superpowers," said Dustin immediately.

"I'm sorry?"

"Superpowers," said Steve, as though it were obvious. "She threw it with her mind. Come on, catch up."

"That's El?" said Erica, pointing to her as she wiped a nosebleed with her sleeve.

"Who's El?" said Robin.

Nancy shook her head. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

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

"She helped us crack the top secret code," Dustin told the others.

Steve pointed to him. "Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians."

"Russians?" said Jonathan, brow furrowed. "What Russians?"

"The Russians!" said Steve forcefully.

"Those were Russians?" said Max.

"Some of them," replied Erica.

"What are you talking about?" said Lucas.

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

"Yeah," said Mike, "but we couldn't understand a thing you were saying."

"Goddamn low battery!"

Steve thwacked his shoulder. "How many times do I have to tell you, with the low battery—?"

"Well, everything worked out, didn't it?"

"After we almost died," Lucy reminded him.

"Yeah, what the hell happened to you?" Leo repeated, staring at the blood on Lucy's face. She waved him off for now.

"Nobody died, though," said Dustin.

"It was pretty damn close," shrugged Steve.

"Okay, Russians?" repeated Lucas, backtracking. "As in, they're working for the Russian government?"

"What are you not comprehending?" insisted Dustin. "Am I not speaking English? We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation."

"They're just Commies?" said Jonathan, arms crossed. "Why are they in Hawkins? What are they working on?"

"Journalism," suggested Robin dryly.

"Does it have to do with the gate?" said Max, eyes darting between Steve and Lucy.

Dustin rolled his eyes. "It has everything to do with the gate."

"El," said Lucy suddenly, taking notice of her absence; she looked to the other side of the food court just in time to see El's knees buckle and give out. She collapsed to the floor. The others rushed over to her at once.

"El!" exclaimed Mike, kneeling beside her. She was still conscious, but barely. "El!"

"What's wrong with her?" said Erica.

Mike kept his eyes on El. "What's wrong, El?"

"My leg," she said weakly. "My leg—"

Lucy noticed for the first time that El had a thick pad of gauze wrapped around her calf, stained deep with blood already. Jonathan knelt and peeled it back to reveal a sickening wound; it stunk, it oozed with pus, and it was totally gross. Lucy would have puked if she hadn't already emptied her stomach contents.

Before anyone could say anything, there came movement from inside the wound. Lucy put a hand to her mouth to hide her gasp, and the others reacted audibly. El wailed in pain.

"What is that?" muttered Erica, scowling with disgust.

"Is there something in there?" whispered Lucy; she clutched Steve's arm to keep herself upright.

Dustin gagged. "Jesus Christ."

"Keep her talking," instructed Jonathan. "Keep her awake."

He ran off, back into the food court, to begin rummaging through drawers behind counters. Lucy did not know what he was searching for, but she kept her mouth shut. This was perhaps the first time she had spent any considerable amount of time near Jonathan Byers in a while.

"Hey, hey," came Mike's voice, and Lucy lowered her eyes to see him jostling El gently. "Stay awake. Stay awake, El. Will, help me move her—"

They began adjusting El so that she was in a more comfortable position, leaning against Mike for sturdiness. Robin was pale-faced.

"You know, it's, uh, it's really not that bad," she said quickly, sounding breathless. "There was a... 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."

"Robin," said Steve.

"Yeah?"

"You're not helping."

"I'm sorry!"

Jonathan rushed back over from the countertops and knelt beside El again. He held a pair of plastic gloves, a wooden spoon, and a serrated knife.

"Okay, El, alright," he muttered, "this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"

She nodded, already in anguish. "Okay."

"I need you to stay really still," he instructed, putting on the gloves. He handed her the wooden spoon. "Here, you might want to bite down on this, okay?"

"Jesus Christ," said Dustin.

El obliged and bit down hard on the stem of the wooden spoon. Jonathan readied the knife over her throbbing leg wound. Lucy tightened her grip on Steve's arm.

"Jesus Christ!" said Dustin again, and Leo from somewhere further away said, "Holy shit!"

Jonathan had pushed the tip of the blade into the wound. Blood and puss oozed out at once. Jonathan kept cutting without a word, making a three-inch long incision down El's tibia. He dropped the knife, then inserted two fingers inside the cut.

"Jonathan!" exclaimed Lucy, eyes wide with fear.

"What are you doing?" demanded Nancy.

"Stop talking!" he replied; Lucy watched his fingers slide around beneath El's skin. He couldn't seem to find whatever he was looking for.

"Stop it!" screamed El, spitting out the spoon. "Stop! I can do it."

Everyone fell silent, and Jonathan moved away to give her space. She focused her gaze on the wound in front of her, then tipped her head down. She began to use her powers to draw whatever was living inside of her leg out of it, whimpering in pain. Her nose began to bleed. As the thing got closer to the surface, El screamed; the glass of a window display shattered.

The chunk from inside El's mind looked like it came from the Upside Down.

El let the thing hover before her for a moment. It squirmed against her powers, ready to escape, like it was sentient—then El flung it away.

With a sickening splat, the chunk landed a few feet out of the food court. It recovered quickly, beginning to inch itself like a worm back to its roots; slowly at first, then faster.

It did not get far before a boot stomped it down, squishing it to disrepair.

Lucy had never been so glad to see Hopper or Joyce in entire her life.

Via Speaks

Family reunion! Lots of dynamics all interacting at once.

Gee I hope nobody that Lucy beefs with is taken by the Mind Flayer and her empathy makes her feel really bad for him