Back with the mall group, the seven of them rushed down the stairs so they weren't caught by the Russians inside the other room. "I don't understand. You've seen this before?" Robin questioned all of them besides Erica.

"Not exactly," Steve said.

"Then what, exactly?" Robin prodded.

"All you need to know is it's bad," Dustin told her.

"It's really bad," Steve added.

"Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad," Dustin continued on dramatically.

"Like, worse-than-a-Russian-nuclear-weapon bad," Chris said to further the effect of it being astronomically dangerous.

"And you know about this how?" Robin asked no in particular since they all seemed to know what it was, apart from Erica.

"Um...experience?" Alicia answered, but it sounded more like a question.

"Experience?" Robin repeated in exasperation.

"Lots of it," Beverly confirmed with a nod, swallowing hard.

"Um, Steve? Where's your Russian friend?" Erica queried slowly. Steve furrowed his brows and looked down, noticing that he was gone.

Then, all of a sudden, alarms started blaring all around them, making them flinch. "Shit!" Steve breathed out, rushing over to the door and opening it up to see that the Russians had found them. He quickly slammed the door shut and said, "Shit. Go, go, go, go!"

"Shit!" Dustin exclaimed as they all ran up the stairs, trying to get away from the Russians. They pushed through the door hurriedly, not wasting any time.

"Move! Let's move!"

Dustin opened another door and they all tumbled through, stopping once they had gone into the room where Russian scientists were overlooking the machine to open the gate.

"Shit!" Beverly gasped as they all looked at the group, confused looks on their faces.

"Go! Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" Steve yelled before they all continued running again. "Go, go, go!"

They ran towards the stairs that were outside the room, connected to a platform, nearing the machine blasting the gate. There was a Russian in a hazmat suit on the platform and Dustin shrieked, shoving him away instinctively before they all ran past.

The Russians in uniforms were right behind them, trying to catch up with them. "Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!" Dustin kept on repeating as his voice cracked, looking at the gigantic machine trying to reopen the gate even more than it already seemed to be. "HOLY SHIT!"

"Guards!" Erica pointed out. "Go!"

"This way!" Steve directed quickly, moving down another piece of stairs that led down to the ground. He pushed past another Russian in a hazmat suit, clearing the way for everyone else. "Oh, shit! Oh, shit!" he shouted as more Russians came from another room. He impulsively pushed metallic barrels towards them, making them fall over to buy them some time. "Come on! Go, go, go, go!"

Alicia pushed Erica in front of her, not wanting her young sister to fall behind at all. Steve quickly grabbed Beverly's wrist, pulling her along since she had almost slipped into a wall. He then looked over his shoulder and said, "Oh, shit! This way!"

The Russians were almost caught up, so they quickly ran into another room blocked by a door. "Come on!" Robin urged and they all ran inside, Steve slamming the door behind them. The Russians started pounding on the door harshly, pushing to get inside. "Guys!" Steve called out, trying to get their help to push against the Russians. Beverly, Robin, and Chris quickly ran over, trying to help Steve.

"Shit," Alicia breathed out, her forehead sweating because of how scared she was and because of all the running she just did.

"Help me! Come on!" Steve continued.

While Beverly, Robin, Chris and Steve tried to keep the door shut, Dustin, Alicia, and Erica found a way out through another air duct. "Here! Come on, let's go!" Erica yelled once they got the vent open.

"There's a way out!" Alicia told the other four, looking over towards the door to see the four of them still pushing against it. Erica quickly hopped inside, not wasting a a second to get the hell out of there.

"Come on!" Dustin said, nodding his head towards the way ours.

"We can make it!" Alicia said frantically, her brows knitted together in concern.

"Go! Just get out of here!" Steve said since, even with the four of them, the Russians were still stronger because they had more people.

"Go, come on, now!"

"No! Just go get some help, okay?" Steve bellowed and Dustin hopped inside, yet he still waited. "What are you doing?!"

"Go!" the four of them screamed in unison.

"I won't forget you!" Dustin shouted, pointing at all of them.

"Go!" they all repeated and Dustin quickly scrambled away.

"Alicia, go with them!" Beverly told Alicia since she was still hesitating.

"What about—!"

"Don't worry about us! Just make sure they don't do anything stupid!" Beverly cut her off. "Please!"

Alicia looked in between the vent and her friends before she reluctantly hopped inside, a worried look on her face. "Go!" Beverly shouted and Alicia followed after the kids, tears threatening to form and spill from her eyes at the thought of them dying by the Russians.

As soon as the vent closed, the Russians were able to burst through the door, sending the four teens flying. They landed against the wall heavily and the Russians stormed inside, their guns immediately pointed at them as the soldiers yelled in Russian.

The four held their hands up, their eyes wide in fear.

✦ ✧ ✦

As Alicia, Dustin, and Erica tried to figure a way out of the vents while arguing about beings nerds, the Russians interrogated Beverly, Chris, Steve, and Robin in separate rooms.

Chris and Steve were basically being punched to death while Beverly and Robin were being slapped at, or getting their hair yanked.

"Who do you work for?" the Russian asked Beverly for the millionth time, like all the other Russians did to the others as well. There was also another Russian in the room, tasked to be the one who abused her.

"Starcourt Mall," she told him for the umpteenth time, trying to keep eye contact to show that she wasn't lying. Although, on the inside, she was astronomically freaking out, and was close to just throwing up everywhere.

The Russian angrily looked at her, and nodded to the other Russian and he slapped her again, making her groan in pain and wince since the spot on her face was already sore.

"Who. Do. You. Work. For?"

"I-I've been telling you! Starcourt! At — at a clothing store. It's — it's not a chain, s-so you probably wouldn't know it. It's, um, it's Beck's Boutique. T-that's where I work, that's all!" she stammered out, letting the fear get to her a bit.

"How did you get here?" he questioned for the hundredth time in his thick Russian accent.

"L-Look, I told you, all right? I'm — I'm sure the others would say the same!" she began, and the two Russians shared a look. "We — we ordered something and — and it didn't come in, s-so we thought we'd check out the — the loading dock! B-But then when — when were inside, it turned into an — into an elevator! I-I don't even k-know how, but that's the truth, please."

She hoped that the others had a similar story, not wanting to be killed for lying. She also hoped that they weren't being hurt like she was, but she wasn't very optimistic on that wish.

The Russians shared a long look, their eyes narrowed as they considered what she was saying. "P-Please, don't — don't hurt us. It was an accident," she forced out and they looked back at her, their eyes still narrowed. "Please," she begged.

"Which one is the boyfriend?" the Russian asked randomly.

"W-What?" Beverly said in confusion, her voice quiet and weak.

"Which one is the boyfriend?!" he questioned again, this time even louder.

"Wha — N-Neither of them!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide. "Why — why — why is that important?"

"So we'll know which one to kill first if we find out you're lying," the Russian told her and her heart dropped all the way to her stomach, her breathing becoming heavier. "So, which...one...is...it?"

"I told you...neither," she breathed out, not meeting their eyes.

"I guess we'll just have to kill both then," he drawled with a smirk, and the other Russian chuckled evilly.

"No!" she shouted and the other Russian slapped her again before they grabbed her arms, pulling her up from where she sat. "Get off of me!"

"Quiet, suka!" the Russian spat, roughly shoving her towards the door. They opened the door up and dragged her across the hall where they opened up another door, shoving her inside the room at the same time as Chris, Robin, and Steve.

"Get your hands off me!" Robin seethed before they threw her on the ground next to an unconscious Steve.

The other Russians also pushed Beverly and Chris onto the ground, making them fall onto each other. Beverly immediately pushed away from Chris and went over to Steve since he was passed out. "S-Steve? Steve, wake up. Steve! Come on!" she said shakily, trying to shake him awake.

Chris spit on the floor, his face bloody and bruised, but not as bad as Steve's. Probably because the Russian he got to punch him wasn't as stockier as Steve's was. "Are you okay?" he asked Robin and the girl nodded slowly, looking over at Steve worriedly.

Another Russian, who seemed to be the leader, then walked into the room, nearing the four teens on the floor. "What did you do to him? What did you do?!" Beverly questioned loudly, looking at the Russian desperately.

"Ah, that one must be the boyfriend," the Russian behind them snickered. "Now we know who to kill first."

"Shut the f—!"

The leader slapped Beverly across the face again, sending her on the ground with a gasp. "Bev!" Robin and Chris said at the same time, looking over at her with wide eyes.

The leader directed the other Russians to do something and they went over to pick the four of them up. "Don't touch me!" Robin yelled, but they obviously didn't listen.

Beverly groaned in pain since her cheek was burning from how many times she had gotten slapped. It was red and sensitive, making her want to dump a bunch of ice water on it.

The Russians forced them onto four chairs where Beverly and Steve were back to back, while Robin and Chris were back to back. "St — Steve, wake up!" Beverly tried again as the Russians started to tape their two chairs together. "Steve, please."

"Come on, man, wake up!" even Chris said, hoping that the Russians didn't almost kill him with their brutal interrogation tactics.

"What did you do?!" Robin shouted before the Russians were able to tie them all up, the pairs of chairs next to each other in the center of the room.

The lead Russian grabbed Steve's head and pushed it back, looking at the unconscious boy. "Don't touch him," Beverly seethed angrily, her voice hoarse. The Russian began to tsk tauntingly, letting Steve's head drop down. "Steve? Steve, can you hear me? Please, Steve."

"I think your boyfriend need a doctor," the Russian said in English as he walked around to face Beverly and Robin's side of the room. Beverly didn't even take the time to correct the Russian in fear of what he would do. "Good thing..." he trailed off, bending down to become face to face with the Crawford girl, "...we have the very best."

The Russian looked back at his comrades and started to laugh before he looked back at Beverly. Her face scrunched up and she impulsively spat in his face because of how furious she was.

The Russian blinked in surprise before he wiped the spit off with a small towel he got from his pocket. He looked at the girl in front of him and she held her head up, trying to show that she wasn't scared even though she was close to peeing herself.

"You are going to regret that, suka," the Russian shook his head at her as he pointed at her. He then directed something in Russian before he began to walk away.

"Bastards!" Robin chastised. "Let us outta here! Bastards, let us out! Let us out!" she screamed hoarsely as the door closed.

"Robin, there's no point," Chris told her weakly, hanging his head low. "We're trapped in here until we starve to death, or they beat us to death."

"Steve, please, wake up," Beverly continued even though it didn't seem like he would wake up any time soon. "Come on, please."

"He's out cold," Robin told her even though they all already knew that. "Who knows when he'll wake up."

"Fuck," Beverly muttered under her breath, her lip quivering. She didn't even have time to cry because of everything going on, but now since the Russians had gone, the tears were threatening to fall.