Chapter Sixty: The Gang's All Here

We waited in the bathroom until the movie let out, and then we blended in with the rest of the crowd, hoping to sneak past the guards in the rush.

"And...blend." Dustin told us. We all rushed out into the group, Steve grabbing my hand and intertwining our fingers.

"Well shoot, that worked." Erica said.

" 'Course it worked. Now we just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebes and home sweet home here we come."

"Uh, Dustin?" Steve asked.

"What?"

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

"Why?"

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

"What is wrong with you?!"

"Dude, I was drugged!"

"So?!"

"So?"

"So you resist. You tough it out. You tough it out like a man."

"Yeah? Let's so how well you do under the influence of unidentified Russian drugs boy genius." I said sarcastically.

"Guys." Robin said, stopping us in our tracks. We looked up to see the guards there, checking people's bags and IDs.

"Abort." Dustin said, as we continued to stare in shock. One of the guards looked up, spotting us. "Abort! Abort!" We turned around and took off running in the opposite direction of the crowd, stopping at the powered down, roped off escalator. I immediately jumped into action, sitting down on the space between the two escalators and sliding down, the others following suit.

It wasn't long until the Russians followed suit, so we dove into Hot Dog on a Stick, all of us crouched down behind the counter, unable to do anything but listen to the footsteps and Russian mutterings of the guards that surrounded us. We heard footsteps gather in front of the counter and slowly start to progress towards us, when suddenly, the alarm of the show car across the room started going off.

Next we heard an insanely loud crashing sound, presumably the car flying across the room, and I instantly knew who was to blame.

"Eleven!" I exclaimed, looking at Steve with wide eyes. We all stood up from  behind the counter to see the Russian guards all dead on the floor and the show car flipped over and pressed up against one of the food stands. I began looking around, looking up at the second floor, not only to see Eleven looking a little worse for ware, but Will, Lucas, Max, Mike, Nancy, and Jonathan as well.

We ran out of the store and they ran down the escalator, meeting us halfway. I furrowed my eyebrows as I saw Eleven limping, her arm wrapped around Mike's shoulders.

"You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin said, running over and hugging them. I ran up next as Dustin pulled away. Her eyebrows drew together in concern when she saw the state of my face.

"What did I tell you about drawing attention to yourself?" I asked, smiling before wrapping my arms around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug. She laughed, wrapping her own around my waist and allowing me to hold her up.

"Lucas?!" I heard Erica exclaim. I pulled away, keeping an arm around her and looking at the siblings.

"What are you doing here?!"

"Ask them. Its their fault." She said, shoving at thumb and Steve, Robin, and I.

"True, yeah. Totally true, its absolutely our fault." Steve agreed.

"However, I'm glad we did it because we'd be dead without here." I told Lucas.

"I don't understand what happened to that car." Robin reported.

"El has superpowers, remember?" Dustin asked.

"Oh, so this is El?" She questioned. I nodded.

"El, superpowers, she threw it with her mind, c'mon, catch up." Steve told her.

"That's El?" Erica repeated.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy asked, gesturing to Robin.

"I'm Robin, I work with Riley and 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.

"Russians? Wait, what Russians?" Jonathan asked.

"The Russians!" He exclaimed, gesturing to the dead guys on the floor.

"Those were Russians?" Max asked.

"Some of them." Erica replied.

"What are you talking about?"

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

"Yeah, we couldn't understand half of what you were saying." Mike told him.

"Gosh dang low battery!"

"What do I always tell you about the low battery?!" Steve exclaimed.

"Basically, evil Russians, built the mall so that they could transport a chemical substance to power a machine that they're using to try and open up the gate. Dustin intercepted the code on Cerebro, Robin cracked it, we got stuck in their elevator and have spent the last forty-eight hours being drugged, beaten up, and interrogated until Dustin and Erica busted us out." I explained.  Everyone began to argue, and chat, and it was only now that I noticed that Eleven had walked away from me. I turned my head to look at her, to see her turning to face us again, her face looking tired as blood streamed from her nose. I furrowed my eyebrows, walking over to her.

"El...what's wrong?" I asked. She started to fall but I caught her, slowly lowering us both to the ground. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa."

"El!' Mike yelled, running over to us. "El!"  I pulled her so that she was sitting between my legs with the back of her head resting on my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"My leg," She groaned, "My leg."

"What's wrong with her leg?" I asked, gently stroking he hair. Jonathan and Nancy crouched down beside her, beginning to remove blood soaked gauze from her shin. "What happened?!"

"Monster attack," Mike explained, "It was like the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer rolled into one."

They all exclaimed in disgust as they caught sight of the wound on her leg. Suddenly it began to move and she began to cry out in pain.

"El! El, are you ok?! El?! El!"

She screamed, leaning heavily against me. She began screaming and and crying the more the object moved around inside of her.

"There's something in there!" Erica said.

"What is that?"

"NO!" She screamed. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, tears streaming down my face as I combed her hair back, trying to keep her calm.

"Keep her talking, keep her awake, ok?" Jonathan said, running into one of the nearby food stamps.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, you're ok sweetie. You're ok, you're gonna be fine, ok? You're gonna be fine." I told her. She squeezed my arms, sobbing, her shoulders shaking against me. I looked up, my eyes finding Steve, who reached down and put a hand on my shoulder. 

"You know, its not actually that bad," Robin said nervously, "The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg and like the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane."

"Robin." Steve said.

"Yeah?"

"You're not helping."

"I'm sorry." I tucked El's hair behind her ear as Jonathan came back wielding a knife and a wooden spoon. 

"Alright El, this is gonna hurt like Hell, ok?"

"Ok." She sobbed.

"I need you to stay really still." Mike grabbed her hand as I wrapped my arms tighter around her. "Here, you're gonna wanna bite down on this, ok?" He handed her the wooden spoon and Mike took it, putting it in her mouth.

"Do it." Mike told him. He sliced into the wound, causing her to scream into the spoon. I looked away, the tears continuing to flow at the sound of my little sister in so much pain. Jonathan began to dig into it with his fingers, trying to locate the moving thing and pull it out, but the deeper he dug, the louder she screamed.

"Jonathan!" 

"Stop talking!" He yelled.

"NO! STOP IT!" She screamed, letting go of the spoon. "STOP! STOP!" He stopped, pulling away from her. "I can do it." She sobbed, sitting up fully, moving away from me. "I can do it." She was panting as she reached a hand out, directing it at her leg. She screamed as the moving object moved closer to the cut, letting out one loud, guttural scream that made the lights flash and shattered the shop window behind us. She pulled out the object, which looked like just a little moving blob and tossed it across the room. I watched where it landed as it began to scamper away, only getting a few inches before a boot stomped down on top of it, decimating it. I trailed my eyes up the leg to see my Dad, flanked by Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman. Eleven leaned back against me and I pushed her hair back again.

"Would you look at that," I said quietly, tucking her hair behind her ear and pressing my lips against it."The gang's all here."