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THIRTY FOUR!
close the gate
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         The drive to the outskirts of Hawkins was a hectic one to be honest. The group didn't understand why they had allowed the rebellious redhead, Max Mayfield, to sit behind the wheel but they had no choice due to the circumstances surrounding the actual licensed drivers (Steve and Stanley Harrington).

This forced the group of teens to settle their own nerves and occasional nausea to deal with the constant drifting and high speed. The fact that the group of eight had all jammed themselves into the small five seater of Steve Harrington's BMW was not helping but they somehow worked out a decent enough seating arrangement.

The group of preteens' eyes were pulled away from the road when they heard an audible groan come from the back seat. It definitely belonged to the eldest, Steve Harrington, who was clearly starting to wake up from his harsh sleep.

"Nancy?" He called out in a mumble, glancing up at Mike Wheeler. The annoyed boy gave him a dirty look in return.

"No, don't touch it." Dustin ordered, when he saw the older teen trying to inspect his own wounds that were covered in childish bandaids. "Hey, buddy, it's okay. You put up a good fight. He kicked your ass but you put up a good fight. You're okay."

"Okay, you're gonna keep straight for half a mile." Wendy spoke up, glancing down at the road map in her hands. She had luckily found it in the glovebox. "Then make a left at Mount Sinai."

"What's going on?" Steve questioned, rushing to sit up. His eyes almost popped out of his head when he spotted Max Mayfield in the driving seat. "Oh my god!" He freaked out.

"Just relax." Dustin tried his best to calm. "It's Max. She knows how to drive."

"Yeah, in a parking lot." Mike pointed out, not helping to calm the older Harrington boy at all.

"That's still more than you can." Stanley reminded.

"Besides the point, they were gonna leave you behind but I promised that you'd be cool, ok?" Dustin assured the teen.

"Oh my god!" Steve exclaimed before Max had pressed down harder on the gas pedal.

This had caused the small car to speed up even more as it made its way down the narrow road. This action had caused Steve to panic even more. "Woah, woah, woah, woah! What's going?! Oh my god! No! Woah! Stop the car! Slow down!" He begged.

"I'd told you he'd freak out." Mike pointed out.

"Stop the car!" Steve demanded.

"Everybody shut up! I'm trying to focus!" Max screamed, becoming frustrated.

"Oh, wait! That's Mount Sinai, make a left." Wendy pointed in realization once she had noticed the landmark outside the front windshield.

"What?" Max looked at her in confusion.

"Make a left!" Wendy demanded.

The redhead nodded, harshly yanking the steering wheel to the left. This had caused the sports car to make a sharp turn. As the car had tightly turned, it came to face to face with some poor person's mailbox that had been destroyed upon impact. The group screamed, holding onto each other for dear life as the car had made it back onto the dirt road.

Max was accidentally too far off the road and drove straight into the wooden sign that advertised the local pumpkin patch. The redhead continued to speed through the grasslands before harshly hitting the break, a mere few feet away from the gapping man dug hold in the ground.

"See zoomer." Max smirked happily at her skills.

Just as the redhead had parked the car, everyone began to climb out. Everyone except for Steve Harrington, who was still trying to grasp the situation he was currently stuck in. The teens paid no attention to their clueless babysitter though.

They just all rushed to open the trunk that contained the abundance of their belongings. Each of them collected a pair of googles, a bandanna of some sort and some gloves that they had stolen from the Byers residence. They had needed these items to protect them from coming in contact with the toxic chemicals of the Upside Down.

"Guys?! Hey, where do you think you're going?" Steve questioned in disbelief but was ignored. "What are you deaf? Hello?! We're not going down there, I made myself clear! There's no chance we're going into that hole, alright? Do I make myself clear?!"

"Steve, someone is in danger. I saw it in my vision. We must go down there." Wendy stopped the older teen from his useless warnings.

"The bottom line is that a party member requires assistance and it is our duty provide that assistance." Dustin explained. "Now I know you promised that you would keep us safe, so keep us safe." The curly haired boy handed the iconic baseball bat to Steve, who sighed in annoyance.

He knew that he was fighting a lost cause and the only thing he could do was protect the kids as they ventured into the unknown tunnels. One by one, each teen had lowered themselves down into the dark abyss. The claustrophobic tunnel was covered in slimes vines and the air was filled with deep dust. It looked like a horror movie down there.

"Holy shit....." Steve breathed out in disbelief, once he had reacted the bottom and gotten a good look at the place.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's this way." Mike spoke up, pointing down a random tunnel passage.

"You're pretty sure or you're certain?" Dustin questioned.

"I'm one hundred percent sure!" Mike exclaimed in annoyance. "Just follow me and you'll know."

"Woah, woah, woah, hey, I don't think so!" Steve called, pushing his way to the front of the group. Everybody stared at him.

"Here we go again." Stanley muttered under his voice in a bit of sheer annoyance.

"Any of you little shits die down here, I'm getting the blame. Got it, dipshit?" Steve pointed out, earning a nod from the group of preteens. "From here on out, I'm leading the way. Come on, let's go." The eldest Harrington boy walked first into the unknown with the group of preteens following closely behind him.

"God." Lucas breathed out, taking a good look at the place around them.

"What is this place?" Max questioned in disgust.

"Hell." Wendy confirmed.

"Guys, come on, keep moving." Steve called out to the group, upon seeing them all stopped.

As the group continued to trek through the dark tunnels, they were met with the echo of a blood curdling scream. The group shared a look of concern with each other before sprinting towards the direction of where that scream could of occurred. They were expecting to be met with a dead body or something but instead, it was just Dustin Henderson. The boy's bandanna had loosen, causing him to breathe in the foul air and he freaked.

"What happened?" Steve questioned in a worried tone, flashing his light onto the boy.

"It's in my mouth! Some got into my mouth! Shit!" Dustin screamed bloody murder but only earned glares in return from the group. The boy ignored them and just placed his bandanna back over his mouth. "I'm ok." He assured, after he had finished his coughing fit.

"Are you serious?" Stanley asked, deadpanned.

"Very funny, man." Steve glared at the curly haired boy. "Nice, very nice."

"Jesus, what an idiot." Max mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes in the process.

After dealing with the whole fiasco with Dustin Henderson, the group had continued their journey through the tunnels. For most of the trip, the tunnels sort of just had the same disgusting look to them that it was easy to get lost within.

It was only when they had stumbled upon an opened area that they think they had hit the section that the Wheeler boy was droning on about. "Alright, Wheeler, I think we found your hub." Steve pointed out.

"Let's drench it." Mike ordered.

Each preteen had grabbed their own personal can of gasoline, uncapping the top to begin aggressively drenching the place. They had poured so much of the flammable liquid, that the ground felt like it was a few inches higher than it really was. Lucas Sinclair also had the genius idea to spray the walls to ensure that everything would burn evenly upon being ignited.

After dumping all their contents, they cornered themselves into one of the small tunnels that led out to the exist. "Alright, you guys ready?" Steve questioned, nervously holding out his lighter.

"Ready." The whole group confirmed.

"We are in deep shit." Steve spoke to himself before releasing the lighter.

The metal device hit the ground, immediately causing flame combustion. The entire place was engulfed in flames within seconds, causing the group to stumble back to avoid the harsh wicks of fire.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Steve demanded.

On command, everyone quickly got on their feet before scrambling away from the raging fire to get to safely as fast as they possibly could. They needed to find the exit out as fast as humanly possible before the Upside Down seemed revenge against them for committing arson.

Unfortunately for them, one of the vines had come alive and immediately attached itself to Mike Wheeler's ankle. The poor boy had fallen to the ground with a shriek. The teens quickly rushed to his aid but it was Steve's baseball bat that had freed him. A few swings and the vine had pulled away in pain. Dustin and Lucas had helped the Wheeler boy onto his feet

But before they could leave, they were met with another enemy.....One of those demodogs (most likely Dart). "Dart." Dustin spoke in disbelief before carefully stepping towards the beast.

The teens called after him but he ignored them. "Trust me, please." They all instantly shut themselves up to let the boy continue.

"Hey, it's me. It's me. It's just your friend, it's Dustin." He spoke softly, removing his googles to appear more friendly to the beast. "It's Dustin, alright? You remember me? You'll let us pass?"

The beast snarled in disagreement, showcasing its rows of sharp teeth to demonstrate. Everyone jumped back but Dustin was unfazed, standing still. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the storm cellar. That was a pretty douchey thing to do." He apologized in a soft tone.

"This is crazy." Nina spoke softly to Stanley, who nodded in agreement with wide eyes.

"He's insane." Lucas pointed out in similar shock.

"Shut up." Steve hissed.

"You hungry, yeah? I've got our favourite. See? Nougat." Dustin spoke, showing off the favourite chocolate bar.

He unwrapped the bar, breaking a piece off for the beast to eat. He placed the piece onto the ground and Dart quickly gobbled it up. As he was distracted, the group of teens slowly made their way past the monster to escape.

"Goodbye, buddy." Dustin waved off before following after the rest.

The group ran through the tunnels as fast as they could in order to find the exit. "There! There!" Lucas pointed out, upon seeing the rope hanging. That was the exit.

"Come on! Let's go!" Mike ordered.

The group all quickly rushed over to the rope. Steve got in front of the teens, in order to make sure that everyone got out first. He first picked up Max, who grabbed onto the rope before pulling herself up. Once she was out, Steve had moved onto helping Lucas get out. Max stood at the top, reaching her hand down to help pull the Sinclair boy out. This process continued for each of the teens until it was just Dustin and Steve left.

Unfortunately for them, they had heard a large herd of demo dogs that were currently rushing towards them. But the demo dogs didn't want them, they wanted Eleven, so they had sprinted past the two without a care in the world. The two were helped out of the hole and everyone collapsed on the ground in relief.

They had just saved the world.......again.

★ 𝐎𝐃𝐃 𝐄𝐘𝐄 ! stranger things fanfic ★
(© 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝘆𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗯𝗶𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱)