Chapter 15: The Makeshift Elevator
NIGHT threatened to embrace the small town of Hawkins once more when Jean and the rest stepped outside the now closed Starcourt mall.
Concentrating, and trying to tune out the troop's constant (and whispered) chatter, Jean placed two fingers against her temple. She closed her eyed shut and went inside the Russian guard's head.
After a moment alone with the redhead, Dustin and Steve suggested that Jean try and read his mind while they were on the lookout, before Erica could begin her voyage.
If they could find out what was in those boxes without entry, that would be a fantastic and completely safe approach.
"Why didn't we think of this before?" Steve asked Dustin, scratching his head. They had Jean, a girl who could literally read minds, how were they so foolish as to miss this point?
Jean, Steve, Dustin and Robin were lined up in that order, left-to-right, lying against the rooftop as they observed the loading dock from the top.
"Think of what?" Robin whispered. The blonde girl was completely in the dark on Jean's abilities so she could only look curiously at them.
Jean snapped her eyes open, huffing in disappointment and at her sheer stupidity. "He thinks in russian." She bit out, referring to the language barrier.
"Because of that." Dustin, holding his binoculars in hand turned to Steve, feeling equally as stupid.
Fair eyebrows scrunched, Robin looked at the three. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Nothing." Jean, Steve and Dustin chorused at once, only causing Robin's curiosity to peek.
Once the armed guard left, the troop waited a moment before contacting the Sinclair girl.
Radio static popped as Robin turned on the walkie talkie. "Erica, do you copy?"
"Mm-hmm. I copy." The ten year old declared, determination fluttering in her tone. "You nerds in position or what?"
"Yeah, we're in position. It's all quiet here, so you've got the green light." Robin stated.
"Be careful." Jean spoke over Robin's voice, fearing for the girl's safety.
"Green light, roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment."
At Erica's jab, Jean pinched her nasal bridge, her worry spiking. Lucas's younger sister was her responsibility, and if anything happened to her, it would be on Jean. "Can you please not call it that? You're making me feel worse about this whole situation."
Erica snickered. "See you on the other side. Nerds."
With a sigh, the redhead tried to calm her nerves. "If you see anything dangerous just head back, okay?"
"I'm not messing up my chance for eternal free ice cream." The dark haired girl scoffed.
A series of coughs and grunts came from Erica as she crawled through the confined space, as they heard it, Jean and Steve exchanged worried glances. Then they heard the young girl speak, "All right, nerds. I'm there."
"Do you-Do you see anything?"
"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about." Erica announced. Satisfied smiles went up Dustin, Steve, and Robin's faces while nervously awaited.
"Any guards?" Robin asked, promoting for Jean to flinch in concern.
"Negative." Was the ten year old's flat out answer. And relief coursed through the group.
"Booby traps?" Asked Robin.
"If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps, wouldn't they?" Erica retorted, her sassy persona resurfacing.
The blue eyed Scoops Ahoy worker pursed her lips, offended slightly at Erica's sarcasm. It seemed that she finally met her match. "Thank you for that."
"Welcome to my world." Jean mumbled, earning a chuckle from both Steve and Dustin.
A sound of something falling echoed on the radio, and Erica grunted afterwards. "I'm in." She yelled.
A second after, the sound of a klaxon horn wailed from the storage room even up to the roof where they were seated.
A breath of awe escaped from the teenagers' mouths.
Erica Sinclair walked out, strutting as she stopped in front of the opened doors. "Free ice cream for life." Erica yelled, placing a hand on her hip.
Descending the staircase of the rooftop in a hurried haste, the group sprinted towards the storage room. Their curiosity fueling the skip in their steps in excitement to find out what the commies were transporting.
Steve, due to his athletic background, was first to arrive, followed closely by Grey. He rushed to open the first box he found-labeled to belong to Imperial Panda- and the rest just watched as it revealed to have silvery metal containers inside.
"That's definitely not Chinese food." Steve breathed out, his and everyone's eyes on the peculiar looking object.
Steve sighed, slicking his hair back as he tore his gaze away from the box and looked at the people surrounding him. "Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back."
As told, the three females stepped back without hesitation, while Dustin remained rooted to his spot by his mom. "No."
The brown haired guy narrowed his eyes at Dustin, gesturing for him to move away in fear for his safety. "Just- Just step back, okay?"
"No."
"Step back. Seriously."
The red haired telepath watched the exchange from the sidelines, her mouth slightly parted in merriment at their adorable antics.
"No! No! If you die, I die." Dustin declared, boring his eyes into Steve's.
After what seemed like forever, Steve shrugged and shook his head in surrender. "Okay."
Jean couldn't help the amused smirked that worked on her lips. Now they were friendship goals. "I just wish I had someone who loves me like that." She playfully chirped, earning a snigger from the other two females and a playful glare from Steve and Dustin.
"Don't worry, you already do." Robin retorted, her suggestive words eliciting the tensing posture of the Harrington boy.
"What do you mean-"
"Shuush, I'm going for it." Steve hushed them, in an attempt to avert their conversation from the teasing direction it was heading. He was successful as all of them watched tentatively while he twisted the metal disc. The compressed air hissed as he pulled a cylinder and raised it for inspection.
"What the hell? What is that?" The brown haired nineteen year old asked in wonder, the rest mirroring his expression as they observed the glass cylinder containing something akin to green goo.
Before any one of them could speak or make a move, a slight rumbling occurred, the room shook for a moment like it was trembling.
"Was that just me, or did the room move?" Dustin asked, his eyes roaming the enclosed space.
Eyes darting around in panic, Erica let out a whisper. "Booby traps."
The premonitory mechanical whirling and the unstable environment made Jean and everyone with her nervous.
They needed to get out of there.
"You know what? Let's just grab that and go." The blonde girl declared, prompting a hurried Dustin to frantically press the button needed for their departure. "Which one do I press, Erica?" He queried once realizing the button he was pressing was doing nothing.
"Just press the damn button, nerd."
Jean started to hyperventilate as the air hissing increased, her footing on the floor was becoming even more unstable as the room shook.
"Which one? I'm pressing the button, okay?"
"Press 'open door'!"
"I'm pressing 'open door'!"
"Just press the other button!" Steve interjected, pressing a flurry of different buttons.
Robin huffed in frustration, giving Dustin a slight shove so Erica could show them what she did to open the door earlier. "Out of the way so she can push the button."
Erica's attempts seemed to prove as futile as Dustin and Steve's. And Jean began walking around the room mumbling to herself that she knew this was a bad idea.
"Just open the door!" Robin yelled, her composure dissipating, panic all was she was feeling now.
And when matters couldn't get any worse, another door slid down shut with a loud clang, giving all of their fright a boost.
Then they started dropping.
"Oh, shit."
The room that turned out to be an elevator was propelling downwards at such an immense speed, Jean was sure that nothing would cushion their fall once they crashed to the ground.
And so they screamed.
"Shit! Shit! We're going down! We're going down!"
"Yeah, no shit, Harrington!"
"Why don't these buttons work?!"
"Press the button!"
"What do you think I'm doing?!"
"Come on, press something!"
"Just press the button!"
For some reason, the group's out loud yelling was no match to the terrified shrieks that were inside their heads. And Jean heard it all.
'We're all gonna die!''I should've went to Tina's!''Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIIIIT!''AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!'
"Everyone just calm down!" She yelled, her head begging to develop a headache from their intense broadcasting, they needed to calm their minds.
"How the hell are we supposed to do that?!" Robin rebutted, hands clinging to the wall for dear life.
After what seemed like forever, the fall abruptly stopped and they crashed onto the floor. The sudden shift in momentum caused all of them to drop on the ground, and they grunted in pain.
"Oh!" Steve gasped in pain as a box fell in the space between his legs.
Jean and Robin winced as they attempted to get on their feet. The former hurried to Erica's side to make sure she was okay.
"My groin. It fell on my groin." The ninteen year old said, his voice strained. "Dustin! Get this off of me! I can't move." And the younger boy did as told.
"Is everyone okay?" Sighing, Robin asked.
"Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" Steve aggravatedly exclaimed after getting up to his feet. He shoved Dustin out of the way and headed immediately towards the non-functioning buttons and pressed them desperately.
"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work."
"They're buttons. They have to do something." Steve retorted to Robin's declaration.
Robin pursed her lips. "Yeah, if we had a keycard."
"A what?" Harrington asked, the bewildered look on his face was the same on Jean's.
"It's an electronic lock. Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, - it won't operate." Robin stated in a matter of fact.
Jean raised a hand, trying to comprehend what was just said. "You're telling me that we waltzed into the lion's den with full knowledge that we might not get out?" She asked, the irritation seeping into her tone.
The blonde was slightly taken aback at Jean's somewhat hostile words. "I didn't think we'd need one on the inside." She muttered.
"Great, that's just great." The redhead bit out, sliding down against the wall and sitting down on the floor.
"The point is-" Robin began, and Dustin finished her sentence. "-we're stuck in here."
"Yeah."
Out of nowhere, Erica spoke after a surprisingly long period of her silence, she usually didn't spend this much time not talking. "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."
"Oh, my God, I'm so dead." Jean whimpered, holding her head in her hands.
Steve, now on edge, slammed his hands against the boxes. "I don't care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack's party!" He snapped, surprising Jean. "Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"
Jean hummed, her downcast expression slightly lifting. Maybe if she died here, Mrs. Sinclair wouldn't be able to get to her. "Way to see the silver lining." She said to the taller boy.
Erica Sinclair glared at the two.
Dustin looked up, seeing a small hatchet up on the elevator and an idea popped in his head. "Hey. What if we climbed out?" He suggested, pointing his hand up and everyone followed his line of sight. A gleam of hope shining in their eyes.
All that optimism faded once they found out that they were halfway into the earth's core.
Jean hugged her knees, berating herself for getting into this mess. She was supposed to take care of Erica and keep her safe. And she couldn't even do that.
The Sinclair perked an eyebrow at the depressed girl, watching her for a while made her even more nervous. "Pull yourself together, aren't you supposed to be the adult here?" She asked, plopping by her side on the ground.
Jean breathed in sharply, brushing back her hair with a brisk hand. "I'm so sorry. I should've stopped you from doing this. It's all my fault." She said apologetically, her eyes glossy.
The rest of the group were sitting quietly, hearing the girls talk as they wallowed in self pity.
"Yes," Erica nodded without hesitation. "Yes, it is."
"Jee, thanks for consoling me." Jean managed a soft smile, rolling her eyes.
Erica Sinclair snickered. "I bet you're wishing that mullet hero of yours could come to the rescue again, huh?"
At the ten year old's words, Steve's eyes widened and his head snapped in their direction. "What? What is she talking about?"
"Nothing." Jean lamely denied. It was safe to say that Steve and Billy hated each other, so if he were to find out that she'd been talking to him, much less agreed to go on a date with him, she would never hear the end of it.
"Didn't you have a date lined up with him? I forgot to ask."
Thank you, Erica.
The teenage boy's brown eyes widened even further, his shock reaching new levels. "What?!"
Choosing to ignore Steve's incredulous inquiry, a very confused Jean turned to Erica. "Wait wait, how'd you know?" She asked her. The telepath didn't even tell anyone except Max and El, so how did Erica find out.
"You two were putting up your flirty display in front of everyone at the pool. Of course, I know." Erica claimed, eyeing Jean like she was the stupidest person to ever live. "I mean he doesn't look nice and all, but he did call my mom for me when you drowned the other day."
"He did?" The statement that left Erica's mouth almost made Jean gasp. She remembered the day when she drowned at the pool, so disoriented that she completely forgot about the Sinclair, but she was relieved when Billy told her that her mother came. It was a a bit peculiar that the girl's mother came to pick her up out of nowhere that day. Jean didn't know that Billy was the one responsible.
"Is she talking about Billy?" Steve asked, his bewildered expression unshakable.
Dustin then joined in with an equally stunned look. "Billy? Billy Hargrove? The guy who beat the shit out of Steve last year?!"
"Come again?" Jean asked, raising her eyebrows. The two had a fight? Was that why Steve disliked him so much? Her mind bombarded by questions.
"Woah! Woah, hey! He did not beat the shit out of me." Steve angrily denied, snapping at Dustin. It was like he trying to ruin his image in front of Jean.
"Um- Yes, he did." Dustin declared, unrelenting.
"We just got into a little fight." Harrington said, still glaring daggers at the fourteen year old. "Wait you went on a date with Billy Hargrove?"
His question and tone caught Jean off guard and she let herself think about it seriously. Why did she feel so terrible at the thought of Steve finding out? They were friends. Why was to her, him finding out about a date that didn't even take place such a big deal now?
"I was supposed to. But...we never got to it."
"Oh.." Steve mumbled, his face loosened a little, like a five-year-old who had been told their pet fish had died. His brows sank a little and the slight brightness in his dark eyes faded.
In Jean's mind, she found that Steve Harrington was warm and sincere, fun and reliable. As she looked at his dejected expression, the redhead couldn't help but wonder why she felt this confused feeling in her heart.
Steve and Jean wormed their way into each other's lives in only a couple of months, and she held him dear in her heart. But once she found the love letter in her bag and began speculating it was him who wrote it, Jean began to think of Steve in another sense.
And as she thought about Billy, she found that it was different. He was captivating. Him asking her out gave her butterflies at the time. She grew to like him after a while from their first meeting, since she thought she had finally understood him. Of course, now she had no idea what Billy was thinking -even her telepathy proved to be useless for some reason- and she wondered why he even bothered with her from the beginning. It was a mystery to her.
Steve nervously shifted on the cold floor.
Finding out who he considered to be his biggest enemy get the heads on him by asking out the girl of his affections, and seeing that she actually agreed to it, he was absolutely heartbroken. But seeing the distressed look on Jean's face at the moment, he forced down the bile that wanted to surface and pretended like he hadn't heard what transpired minutes ago.
If his act of pretense didn't sit well with the girl, she showed no signs of calling his bluff. Though, it was obvious that she still felt extremely uncomfortable. He didn't know that if she could feel that he was, too, but it was fortunate that their moment of silence was broken by Erica Sinclair.
"I'm hungry."