A/N: Now things are starting to get interesting. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! It was a lot of fun to write and ends with my favourite bit so far. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! Let me know what you think!

Chapter Twenty-Five

I quickly turned the car with a three-point turn and followed. It was likely going to be a bad idea but there was no way that I could let some kid pass by without finding out what was going on. I followed them to a field and when they finally stopped, I did too. I shut off the car, climbed out and watched as multiple children exited the car. I knew at least two of them.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The kids all turned and stared at me in surprise, lit up by my headlights. Out of the backseat, a larger body fell and then finally stood up. I watched it carefully and as it ran a hand through its hair, I recognized it.

"Steve Harrington?" I considered the fact that I wasn't supposed to know about monsters or that he was going to protect children. "What the hell are you doing in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of kids?" He stepped into the light, looking at me in confusion. He looked like he went a round with a meat grinder and lost. "What happened to you?"

"What? Tammy?"

"It's Kate now," I said. He was clearly going to be useless. I looked at Dustin who had dragged me around the other day. "What's going on? Now." I used a tone I heard Sam use on the principal.

We don't have time for this!" one of the kids snapped.

Dustin went to the trunk of the car they all fell out of and opened it. "Look, you remember when I was looking for my friends earlier?" he asked me. "Well, I needed their help. There's something wrong in this town and we're going to help out our friend by…"

"You don't need to tell her," the kid from before snapped. "She's not involved!"

"We are not going down there!" Steve snapped.

I decided to cut them a little slack if only to get more information on what the hell they were doing. "Is this about the monster?" I asked. All of them turned to look at me.

"What monster?" Lucas asked. "Where?"

"In the woods. I was out walking my dog the other day and came across it. Its whole face opened up like ahh!" I made an opening motion with my hands in front of my face. "It chased me until I turned and kicked it and chased it off."

There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other.

"You kicked Dart?" Dustin asked.

"I'll kick anything if it tries to eat me," I said. "Now what the hell is all this?" I motioned to them as Dustin got back to moving. He handed out gas cans and wasp killer, bandanas and goggles and gloves. "Because there is no way that this is a camping trip."

The kids looked at each other again but Steve spoke up.

"It isn't and we're not doing anything. We're going to get back in the car and go home!"

"No we're not!" the kid who snapped at me earlier shouted. He was beginning to get on my nerves.

"Guys, we should tell her," Max said. "She's a badass! She can help!"

"No, she can't!" the only kid I didn't recognize snapped again. "We're going to help our friends and that's it! We're running out of time! El's going to be there!"

"Look!" Dustin cut in the tension. "There's monsters running loose, a lot more like the kind you saw in the woods. We're going to go down in these tunnels, draw them out and set them all on fire."

"No," Steve said. "No, no, no, no! You think...you think you're going down there? You're wrong! This ends now!" It was good to know someone had some sort of common sense between them all.

Dustin turned on Steve. "Listen, Steve, I get that you're upset. But the bottom line is a party member requires our assistance. It is our duty to provide that assistance!" I watched as the strange kid pulled out a rope and tied it to the car and threw it on the ground. It kept going until it was taut. There was a hole. "I know you promised Nancy you'd keep us safe...so keep us safe." He handed Steve a bat and a bandana.

"Wait! There is no way I'm going to let you all go down there by yourselves and face...whatever the hell it is."

"This isn't your problem," the unknown kid said. "Go home."

"We don't have any more protective gear," Dustin said. "The air is poisonous. Or it could be. We don't know."

"Yeah, hold on." I went around to the trunk of my car. I pulled on the gloves and goggles I used in the junkyard. There was an extra shirt in the back and I tied it around my face before I grabbed the sledgehammer. I held it over my shoulder and closed the trunk. I looked over at the kids staring at me. "Okay, let's go."

oOo

I threw the hammer down first before I went in. I refused to let the kids go in first when they had no idea what was in there. As the only one who was slightly trained in fighting, and actually the oldest one in the group, they had agreed that I was going to go first. And by they, I meant that I demanded and refused to let anyone else go before me. The tunnels were creepy. Steve took the lead which was fine by me because it felt like a horror movie down there. It also felt like one of those haunted scare houses that showed up every Halloween. I took up the rear, which gave me more room to swing the sledgehammer without hitting anyone if I needed to use it.

"Any of you little shits die in here, I'm getting blamed," Steve said as he took the lead. I tried not to laugh.

"Jesus," I muttered as we kept going. "This place looks like something from Freddy Kruger's nightmares."

Dustin stopped as something made noise and looked at the ground.

"Let's keep moving," I said.

"Hold on." He went to pull down his bandana and I grabbed his arm quickly.

"Dude, if you're going to explore, fine but don't be an idiot. That's how you get replaced with plant people!"

"Right," he bent closer and the plant sprayed something in the air, hitting him in the face. A defence measure of some sort. Dustin fell back screaming.

"Hold on!" I knelt down and wiped his goggles clean. "See? You okay?" The others came running back.

"What are you doing to him?" Lucas nearly yelled.

"Cleaning him off!" I snapped. These kids were trying my patience. It did not help that I was stuck in the middle of a horror movie with them. I got up and helped Dustin up. "Let's go."

We continued on. Apparently, Steve was following a map which was good because there were so many turns and twists in these tunnels that it would have been easy to get lost in. Especially as the fog density kept changing. We finally stopped as Steve looked over the map.

"Alright, Wheeler, I think this might be the hub."

I looked around. It was a large area, bigger than any of the tunnels we had gone through. It looked like multiple others connected to it. Like the den in mole-rat tunnels.

The kids looked at each other.

The annoying kid spoke. "Let's drench it."

I stood on guard as they covered the area in gasoline. In any typical horror movie, the monster would come as the heroes looked like they were going to succeed. I wasn't going to let anything like that happen to a bunch of kids. Even if it still felt like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The kids and Steve were pretty efficient at covering everything they could. The smell felt like it was going to start suffocating us.

"Not going to help?" Dustin asked.

"Someone's gotta keep watch. Too many entrances and exits here. Can't be too careful when something can sneak up on you."

He looked like he was going to respond before he nodded. "Good idea."

oOo

We ducked into the tunnel we came from when they were finally out of the flammable liquid they carried in. Steve and I covered the entrance to the tunnel, where the fire was going to start, as much as we could. We both seemed to agree without exchanging words that the last thing we needed was for the kids to catch fire if they accidentally spilled any of it on themselves. I had tried to get the kids to go further back but they wouldn't agree, they wanted to see it burn. It seemed a little malicious if I hadn't known about the monsters, and if I was honest, I didn't want them far. Who knew what else was in these tunnels.

"You guys ready?" Steve asked. Some of the kids replied:

"Ready!"

"Ready."

"Ready."

"Light her up," Dustin said.

Steve flicked over a metal lighter. "I am in such deep shit," he muttered before tossing the lighter. I half expected it to go out before it got there, but the lighter and gas did the trick and in seconds it was up in flames. The vines on the ground came to life, flinging in the air like the watcher in the water attacking the Fellowship of the Ring.

"Holy shit," I muttered. Something screeched. It sounded like the walls themselves were crying in anger.

"Go! Go!" Steve ushered us to run. He quickly took the lead. I followed once all the kids were ahead of me. We needed to move quickly before whatever was living in these tunnels came for revenge.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Steve called out, trying to make us move faster. Someone was doing a constant loop of "oh my god" ahead of me.

We stopped in another chamber before Steve finally realized which direction we needed to go.

"This way!"

The kid called Wheeler tripped on a vine and I stopped myself quickly before I passed him. The vine was climbing up his leg and it was eerily reminiscent of the vines from The Ruins. I hated that book. It nearly gave me nightmares the first time I read it because my imagination went into overdrive.

The kid tried to pull it off as he called for help.

"Hold on!" I lifted up the sledgehammer. I saw the fear in his eyes like he thought I was going to smash his leg to free him. I aimed lower, away from his leg to where the vine was thicker. I hit it once and it felt like something screamed again. I slammed the hammer down again and watched as the vine recoiled, curling up into itself to retreat from the blows. I hit it again. I stood up, lifting the hammer again but the vine retreated into the wall. I rested the hammer on my shoulder.

"Holy shit."

I turn to find the kids staring at me. "What?"

"Holy shit," Dustin's voice cracked. "You're Thor!" He hit Lucas. "Look! She's totally Thor!" Lucas pushed him away.

"She's a badass!" Max said. I smiled at her before Steve helped Wheeler up.

Before we could move, there was a low growl behind us. Goosebumps popped up on my arms and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I knew that growl.

We all turned as one. The monster from the forest was there.

I nearly bared my teeth back at it. This was the cause of a good part of my stress for the last two days. It tried to eat me.

"Dart?" I looked at Dustin who stepped forward. "Is that you?"

Everyone tried calling him back and I reached for his arm but he slipped past me. Max was holding on to the back of my shirt tightly. I shuffled forward, trying to reach Dustin in case the thing in front of us lunged. Max fisted both of her hands in my shirt. Fuck. The kid was scared and she had every right to be. I looked back at her as best as I could.

"It'll be okay," I murmured.

"Hey, it's me. It's...Dustin. Remember?" The monster tilted its head like a dog. What the fuck. "Will you let us pass?"

The monster growled and I felt everyone flinch. I gripped the hammer tighter. Dustin didn't flinch. He just watched the monster before reaching into his backpack. "You hungry?" Considering how calm he was in the face of very real danger, as opposed to earlier, I had to admit. Dustin was a little bit of a badass. Or at least, he had the potential to be.

"Nougat. Your favourite." He unwrapped something and threw it at the monster. The thing crept a little closer to the candy on the ground. "That's a good boy." As it started eating it, Dustin waved us to go by. We crept as quietly as we could. Steve led the way and I waited until we were almost all past. I waved for Dustin to join us. He moved quickly but I stopped when he did at the mouth of the next tunnel. He looked back at the creature still eating the candy. "Bye buddy," he whispered. I wrapped an arm around him.

"Come on."

oOo

The way back felt like it was never going to end. Like we were lost in a strange labyrinth of twists and turns that never seemed to lead where they were supposed to. Sarah Williams, I was not. Though, if David Bowie was going to be waiting at the end, this might have been worth it.

The ground suddenly shook as a large boom echoed through the tunnels. It sounded like an explosion.

"What was that?" Max asked. The sound faded into a low echo of growls. I looked behind me. More of those creatures were coming.

"Shit! Run!" Wheeler shouted and we took off.

We darted through the tunnels, the creatures were starting to catch up.

"There!" Lucas shouted.

"Go! Go! Go!" Steve yelled. We got to the rope and Steve helped Max climb up. He turned to me. "You next!"

"Lucas! Go!" I shouted. I looked at Steve. "There's no fucking way I'm not getting these kids up there first. I'm not letting them get eaten! Help them! I'll...I'll stand guard." I didn't know exactly what Steve was capable of, but I knew what I could do. I had fought off one of these things before. While I wasn't under the illusion I could fight the horde coming to us, I might be able to at least buy them some time if I needed to.

The creatures ran towards us. We were about to be swarmed.

"Dustin!" Wheeler screamed.

An arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me close. My back hit a chest and I felt Dustin curl into my side. The kids screamed above us. I closed my eyes and the grip around me tightened slightly. Fuck. I didn't want to die. Not being mauled to death.

I felt the creatures brush by my legs and I thanked whatever higher power was out there that I wore jeans today. Nothing bit me though. I opened my eyes. The monsters were running past us. The grip loosened and I turned to look where they were going. Steve let go of me as he turned as well.

"Eleven…" Wheeler sounded like he was in awe above us.

We got Dustin up the rope first once the demons were gone. Steve offered me his hands to step in to boost me up. "Hold this," I said and handed him the sledgehammer. I grabbed the rope and shimmied up. As I got to the top, Lucas and Max helped me out of the hole. I reached down into the hole. "Hand me the hammer!" Steve lifted it up. He was tall enough that I didn't have to reach too far down to grab it. Once I took it out of the hole, Steve climbed out.

As we headed towards the cars, the headlights lit up brighter than anything possible. I covered my eyes, trying not to be blinded. After a minute or so, the lights dimmed back to normal.

As the kids started talking, I sat down on the ground. The events of the day, the weekend, were catching up to me. Steve sat next to me. I glanced at him.

"What the fuck is wrong with these kids?" I asked softly.

He looked at me and laughed under his breath. "I have no fucking clue. Welcome to the club though."

I made a face. "This club sucks."

He laughed harder.

[tbc]