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BRIAR CRANED HER NECK IN HER SLEEP, the ache was dull and irritating. It felt as though someone had deliberately pulled mussels out of place just to irk her even more than they had previously. Steve had gotten up before her with his determination to find some way out of the stupid Russian elevator they'd found themselves contained inside. She sat on her own listening to Clover recite her dream to Robin as though expecting the answer for escape to be somewhere inside.

Similarly to Steve, Dustin had clambered out the opening at the top of the lift earlier than necessary in order to blast his voice while talking into a walkie-talkie while he tried to reach some form of communication with the mall opening above them. Morning were always slow but Briar was silently sure that one in particular was going to be the worst morning she ever had. Maybe even the last she ever had.

Her mind was like a pit of snakes, hissing and twisting like anxieties as they ran wild over one another. What she needed was some words of assurance, maybe an ounce of hope and it wouldn't hurt to have Steve's arms around her again. But he strode around, jumping up and down from the small doorway in an attempt to look as though he was doing something.

Steve seemed to be trying to compensate for the fact he blamed himself and Briar felt guilt for a moment knowing that she'd blamed him too. But it wasn't Steve's fault they'd ended up trapped behind those stupid metal doors. They had all been naive in thinking they could ever stand a chance at getting to the bottom of some Russian conspiracy, especially without getting hurt.

"Is it just me or is it getting hard to breathe in here?" Robin asked as she paced around and stared at the walls.

"It's just you" Briar replied dully.

"I think it's the tight nature of negative thoughts" Clover replied with a smile, "we all just need to take a deep breath—"

"If it's getting hard to breathe what we don't wanna do is waste oxygen" Erica folded her arms.

"It's not getting harder to breathe" Briar snapped.

She was still rested on the floor with the back of her head uncomfortable against the metal. Briar was getting cold, there was no sense of warm down in whatever pit they'd fallen into. There was no jacket for Steve to lend her and certainly no way back up to the warm summers air. She wrapped her arms around herself, knowing that Robin was watching her with a concerned expression while she figured out how to escape. Briar was really hoping she got a move on.

There came the soft trailing of liquid from behind them and the four girls sat on the elevator floor turned in confusion to see the darkening of the stone wall behind the cardboard boxes. It took Briar a moment of confusion to realise it was Steve.

"Can you redirect your stream please?" Robin called in annoyance.

A second later Steve turned around but the noise remained and Briar rolled her eyes as she settled her back against a cardboard box as she messed with the laces on her converse for something to do, retying them tighter with the method of small bunny ears.

She was startled by a loud banging coming directly from her left, turning she saw Erica standing with a glass container of liquid in her hands. She was hitting it off the side of a table with a determined expression in her eyes. All three girls scrambled to their feet immediately.

"Hey, hey!" Robin called, hurrying over,

"Be careful!" Briar cursed loudly.

Robin snatched the strange object from Erica's hands, "We don't even know what that is"

"Exactly, it could be useful" Erica replied with a frown.

"Useful how?"

"We can survive down here a long time without food" she continued smartly, "But if the human body doesn't get water, it will die"

"I hate to break it to you but this is not water" Robin brandished the mess of green in front of the girls face.

"No, but it's a liquid" Erica folded her arms "And if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink"

"I don't think you want to drink that" Clover murmured as she stared at the way the almost acidic liquid looked from inside of the glass container.

Before any of the girls could continue the argument about the strange and possibly poisonous green liquid, there was a very prominent sound of whirring in the distance. It was coming like an echo and all of the girls looked at each other with a sense of panic.

"What was—" Erica began in confusion.

"Shhh" Robin hushed quickly as she dashed to the large metal doors and pressed her ear against it.

"We've got company" she said suddenly.

"What do we do?" Briar panicked as she looked around at the wild amount of cardboard boxes that scattered in the room around them.

"The roof" Clover pointed.

"Steve!" Robin called, a second later he poked his head over the hole in the ceiling and stared at them in a sense of confusion as the continuous sound of Dustin's walkie-talkie.

"We need to come up" Robin hissed, "there's people coming"

Steve sprang into action immediately, helping Eric's up by grabbing her arms while Robin gave her a leg up. The girl was helped to the side as Briar reached and took Steve's hand. He pulled her until she could grip the metal and she pushed herself up into his arms as Steve kept his hand on her back. Clover was helped by Robin who came up first before they pulled the metal door shut and sat silent as though aware all their words would count against them in that moment.

Briar reminded very close by Steve's side, curled into him as below they heard the loud sounds of the doors opening beneath them. She felt fear contain her, sitting with shaking hands and wide eyes. It brushed into her skin like thorns as she started to imagine all the ways their situation could go terribly wrong. She looked up at the others around her to see everyone seemed to be mirrored in a sense of fear.

Steve raised a finger to his lips carefully, wordlessly telling them all to be quiet. It was unnecessary really, Briar couldn't have uttered a word even if she wanted to.

She could hear words of Russian spill through the gaps in the ceiling, nothing correlated with the blankness of her mind. Briar had never understood the language, she sat in wait as she listened to moving boxes and shuffling footsteps. Briar was aware that when the Russians carted the boxes out of the elevator the doors would slam shut again and they'd be abandoned in wait.

Briar looked to Steve and it seemed by his calculating expression that he was thinking the same thing. He turned to stare at the others, poised in wait as his eyes traced over the scared eyes and quiet expressions. Sitting in front of Dustin sat Erica Sinclair, in her hands a glass cylinder containing the mysterious green liquid that seemed to move of its own accord.

Steve reached forwards and grabbed it just as the Russians wheeled cardboard boxes out on shaking carts. He went first, jumping down and calling for them to hurry. Before the large doors slammed shut, he shoved the glass cylinder between the floor and their containment. It sat there, holding against pressure and shining in the light.

"Let's go" he called, "Go, go, go"

Robin helped Erica down first and the girl pushed herself under the large doors, quickly followed by Dustin.

"Henderson, go, go" Steve was shouting as Dustin shoved his bag through the opening and rolled out after Erica. Robin and Clover jumped down together and Robin ensured that her friend was through before she grabbed the metal door with both her hands and slid herself out under easily.

Steve helped Briar down, hands on her waist as she turned and hurried towards the door. She could see the glass shaking, small cracks appearing over the cylinder as the green liquid bubbled inside like acid.

"Go!" Steve called desperately.

Briar dropped to the floor and followed Robin's movements of sliding herself under the door. Clover was there immediately helping her to her feet and Briar turned so fast she almost got whiplash, staring at the way the cracks danced over the surface of the cylinder like the movements of knives and her heart raced as though it was trying to win a medal.

"Come on, Steve, let's go!" Robin yelled.

Briar watched in terror as Steve tried to slide himself out, eyes close to the cylinder as he watched it begin to shatter. Briar hurried forwards, grabbing his arm and dragging him to the other side just as the glass exploded. Steve stumbled to his feet, bumping into her as she wrapped her arms around his waist. The green liquid seeped through the metal flooring, burning it in a putrid smell that trailed in curls of smoke.

"Jesus Christ" Steve muttered

"You still wanna drink that?" Robin asked Erica with a small, smug smile.

Briar felt Steve hold her close to him as the two of them stared at the burnt floor with paranoid expressions. He ran his hand up and down her back and for a moment she felt strangely content until she heard Dustin gasp out.

"Holy mother of God"

Everyone turned quickly to find they were standing in a corridor only it wasn't simply a corridor. From their perspective it looked never ending, stretching as far as they could see. The walls were lined with bright lights, silver metal that was dull to the eye. It made Briar's legs ache just to look at and she hung off Steve's arm with a hopeless expression.

"Well, hope you guys are in good shape" Steve sighed, "Looking at you roast beef" he added, hitting Dustin's chest lightly.

Steve laced his fingers with Briar's, pulling her forwards with a stride in his step which didn't match the idea that they were going to be walking until the end of time. That's the way that Briar saw it anyway.

"Let's go, come on" Robin stated to the kids

"Why me?" Dustin was whispering.

They walked in a weird formation, crowded together as though scared that Russians were going to come out of nowhere and attack them. Steve kept looking around almost nervously behind him as though ensuring they weren't being followed. He held tight to Briar's hand, leading the others who walked in a row of four, filling the corridor as they paced.

"I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone this is impressive" Dustin stated to fill the silence.

"What are you talking about?" Steve scoffed, "It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell"

"They're commies" Erica rolled her eyes. "You don't pay people, they cut corners"

"Literally cut corners" Clover muttered as she stared at the straight path they'd been walking on for what felt like miles.

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking" Robin chipped in, "Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo. It all comes into the mall like any old delivery and then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser"

"You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" Steve muttered.

"I seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison" Dustin replied, "It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something"

"What the hell is promethium?" Steve asked

"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components" Robin explained in her usual intelligent tone.

"What?" Briar murmured with a soft frown.

"You're all so nerdy it makes me physically ill" Erica complained.

"No, no, no" Steve shook his head, "Don't lump me in with them, I'm not a nerd alright?

"Why so sensitive?" Robin looked across at them, "Afraid of losing cool points to a ten year old child?"

"No, I'm just saying I don't know jack-shit about Prometheus" Steve stated

"Promethium" Dustin corrected, "Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure but whatever, all I'm saying is it's probably being used to make something—"

"Or power something" Robin suggested,

"Like a nuclear weapon"

"Totally"

"Walking towards a nuclear weapon, that's great" Steve muttered under his breath as he squeezed Briar's hand.

"But what if they're building something? Why here?" Robin sighed to herself with a small frown "I mean, seriously, Hawkins? Of all places. At the very best we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland but maybe that's it, maybe it's our very—"

Briar and Steve turned to each other very quickly, expressions open in a sense of understanding. She hadn't even noticed they'd stopped walking and it seemed the others barely did either. Clover, Robin and Erica kept walking as they rambled about Hawkins and it's lacklustre identity. The couple turned to Dustin who was standing staring at them with way more intelligence than the others possessed.

"You think the Russians know?" Steve hissed to Dustin in a low whisper.

"About all that... creepy shit?" Briar frowned.

"They could" Dustin nodded.

"So it's connected?" Steve asked lowly.

"How could it be?" Briar asked, "that's over with right? Eleven closed the gate... surely there's no way that—"

"I'm sorry is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Robin called.

The three of them snapped their gazes up immediately, attention latching on the other girls who were standing staring at them skeptically. Robin had her hand on her hip, looking like an overworked babysitter. Clover was staring lazily at the ceiling while Erica raised her eyebrows.

Dustin, Steve and Briar exchanged an anxious glance, all waiting for the perfect thing to say to erupt in their minds but Briar stood in a state of confusion unable to figure out what to do.

However before they could share anything with anyone, there came a static sound from Erica's My Little Pony backpack.

"Walkie!" Steve and Dustin called at once.

They ran across the corridor as Erica opened her backpack and pulled out the device which Dustin snatched with a desperate expression on his face. He pressed one of the buttons and a Russian voice spilled out into the echoing space around them.

"A trip to China sounds nice" Robin muttered under her breath, "blue meets yellow in the west, tread lightly...It's the code"

"Wherever that broadcast is coming from—" Dustin looked across to them.

"It's close" Robin started to smile, "And if there's one thing we know about that signal"

"It can reach the surface" Dustin grinned.

"Let's go" Robin jumped to her feet, grabbing Clover's hand in hers as they turned to start walking down the corridor again. Briar sighed in a tiresome way as she turned to stare at Steve. The idea of pacing towards known Russians and an obtuse sense of danger seemed like a terrible idea to her. Steve seemed to be thinking the same thing, she could see it in the darkness of his eyes but he leant forwards and kissed her forehead gently before their hands connected once more and the two of them followed the rest of the group with a sense of fragility lingering behind their tongues.

They walked for what felt like years to Briar who had grown used to sitting around all summer. Her legs hurt under the weight of the continuous movement as swung their arms together and occasionally bumped his shoulder against hers as though reminding her that he was there.

Robin led the way the majority of the journey, it seemed the idea that the Russian transcription had reached them placed a fire under her ass, she walked with Clover dragged behind her, hurrying every five minutes under the hope that they were nearly there. Dustin and Erica argued along the way about nothing in particular, voices always lowered in case scared they were going to get caught out by watching Russians.

It was when they reached the first corner that Robin stopped and turned to Steve questioningly. He walked forwards with Briar and gingerly poked his head around the bright wall. For a moment he was still and then he nodded his head at the angle that suggested they should all follow him.

Briar stayed close behind him, holding to his hand as they continued down the next corridor. As they approached the end, they heard the sound of whirring as though a machine was coming towards them. Turning, Briar saw a large red cart with two Russians sat inside, they were busy talking to each other in heavy accent which meant they didn't see the six kids staring at them in shock and horror.

Steve swore under his breath, darting around the next corridor and ensuring everyone followed, making it through as the cart went back down the corridor they'd just come from.

"Okay clear, come on let's go" Steve beckoned them. They hurried around the next corner, pattering movements sent their hairs on end.

"Okay, that was close" Robin murmured.

"Too close"

"Relax" Steve sighed, "Alright? Relax, nobody saw—"

His words died out as they caught their breaths and stared at the sight in front of them. Briar was sure she'd never seen anything like it in her life. It was a constellation of machines, men in lab coats and carts filled with weapons. There were red carts carrying cardboard boxes and people walking around importantly with purpose and places to be. Briar saw guards with weapons strapped to holsters looking around with almost evil glares.

"Shit" Dustin hissed.

All of them scrambled for cover at once, hitting against the right hand wall to duck behind a large metal container. Briar fell by Steve's side, Clover pressed close to her back as Robin pulled the kids to safety in the shadows. Russian voices drowned all her thoughts as she listened to the chaos of footsteps and tyres.

"Jesus!" Steve sighed

"I saw it" Erica spoke suddenly, "First floor, northwest"

"Saw what?" Steve asked wildly.

"The comms room" Erica stated in an obvious tone and Briar frowned at her in wonder.

"You saw the comms room?"

"Correct" Erica smiled.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive" she spoke in her usual smarmy tone, "The door was open for a second and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there"

"That could be a hundred different things"

"I'll take those odds" Robin looked to Steve

"Alright" Steve turned to the others, "We're gonna move fast, we're gonna stay low, okay?"

"Okay" everyone mumbled in response.

Briar yet again felt they were in an utterly useless situation that was undoubtably never going to end well but she nodded anyway and latched onto Steve's expression of encouragement in order to make herself feel better. He ducked around the corner for a split second before he turned and gestured for the others to follow. Briar went second, her back bent at an uncomfortable angle as they shuffled quickly over the floor with flustered expressions and they cast glances over their shoulders to the hoard of Russians simply casting ignorance to their existence.

"Shit" Dustin whispered from the back

"Move it" Steve turned around and Briar followed his eyes to see the four others keeping close on her tail. Robin was following Clover, holding her arm out for Erica and Dustin to ensure they were close behind.

They stopped behind another large wall of metal crates, crowding behind and pressing their shoulders off one another. Steve was taking deep breaths and Briar could tell despite his position leading the group that he was scared. She kept her hand on his arm as she turned and watched the others duck under the cover of the metal.

Steve watched carefully as one of the doors across from them opened. Erica had been correct about the lights and buttons, they covered walls and desks as Briar peered around Steve's shoulder. A man in a white lab coat walked out, leaving the door open. It started to swing closed as Steve turned to them quickly.

"Let's go" Steve stated.

They scrambled to their feet and hurried across the floor, Steve held the door open and the kids ducked in first followed by Clover and Robin. Briar stepped through as Steve turned and ensured their safe passage before shutting the door behind them. However as Briar stepped in the room after Robin her eyes collided with something that made her heart drop.

There was a Russian guard sat at one of the chairs behind the wall of buttons. At first he didn't see them but as Steve shut the door and turned to face the room he turned in his chair. Briar's eyes widened in fear and surprise as she saw him look over them in shock and heavy suspicion. Briar could feel Steve behind her and she wanted to run and never look back. She wanted to be in her bed, in her house hours away from everything that could hurt her.

Before Briar could really start to panic, Robin had stepped forwards with her hands held out as a sign of calm. Her eyes were just as frightened as everyone else's but she remained composed as the guards eyes flicked to her.

She spoke in Russian that Briar didn't understand but she recognised. It was the words taken out of the code. Briar turned to the guard to see he looked flustered and rather confused, shaking his head at Robin's words. She continued anyway, persisting in determination with her words that flurried out in worry. The guard had gotten to his feet, looking at the kids as though trying to figure out what they could possibly want. Briar turned to Steve to see his jaw was clenched, his eyes slightly faded.

Robin uttered another word before the guard seemed to see the foolishness of the situation, he reached for his pocket, taking hold of what looked like a communications device. Briar's heart dropped, it was all over like that, their hope and their chances. Briar felt her heart hammer in her chest before she heard Steve yell very loudly.

He ran forwards from behind her to the astonishment of the others who watched him in a sense of anxiety. The guard actually looked frightened as Steve dived at him and threw him back against the communications panel with his arms around the man's waist.

They collided with the sea of buttons when the guard grabbed hold of the back of Steve's uniform, blue polyester in his grip as he went to wrench the boy off. Steve stumbled backwards, slightly out of breath as the guard grunted with the effort of the attack.

The guard lunged into a punch, fist closed in purpose as his arm flew through the air. Briar gasped in worry for the boy before he ducked back out of the way, clutching to the comms panel behind him which he very nearly fell into. The guard lunged forwards again, grabbing hold of Steve's uniform as the boy held his wrists and tried to wrench him off.

He threw him forwards and Steve fell with a clatter against a table which caused Briar to bite so hard on the inside of her mouth that she tasted blood. Steve was trying to push himself up again as the guard grabbed hold of the blue shirt yet again and tried to wrench him backwards. Steve elbowed him hard in the gut and the guard coughed as he stumbled backwards.

Steve turned again, grabbing some sort of weird looking telephone. It was metal and heavy, he grasped it in his hand as the guard advanced on him again. Within a moment of baited breaths and horrible terrified eyes Steve threw the device to his dominant hand and caught it easily before he swung around and hit the man very hard in the side of the head. The guard fell immediately, colliding with a table before he smacked against the floor with a clatter.

Steve panted for breath as he reached a hand to his dishevelled hair and pushed it back into place easily while staring at the trail of blood on the side of the guards head.

"Dude!" Dustin yelled, "You did it! You won a fight!"

"Yeah" Steve whispered, nodding to himself in a state of shock. Briar paced across the floor towards him, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him towards her. Steve practically collapsed against her, resting on her weight as he held his arms around her waist.

"You okay?" She murmured in her ear. Steve nodded in response as Briar reached up and placed a quick kiss on his cheek.

"What are you doing?" Erica asked skeptically.

Briar and Steve turned to see Dustin stealing the keycard from the Russians belt, holding it between his fingertips.

"Getting us our ticket out of here" Dustin waved the keycard around.

"You want to walk all the way back?"

"Well, we could hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe" Dustin's words were lathered in a healthy amount of sarcasm.

"Have a picnic, we came here for the radio"

"This plan is way better, if I knew Steve could knock out a Russian that would've been our plan in the first place"

Briar turned to see that Clover and Robin had disappeared from the space next to the unconscious guard and the kids staring contest of authority. She frowned for a moment before she heard pattering footsteps and looked up to see the two of them pacing back down a flight of stairs with fear in their eyes.

"Guys" Robin spoke breathlessly, "There's something up there"

"Let's go" Steve murmured as he grabbed Briar's hand and led the way. She stood close to his shoulder as they walked up the steps towards a door that led into what looked like an observatory. Steve opened it carefully, pacing to a large window of glass that faced out towards what they were looking at.

Briar felt time stop, or maybe that was just her heart. What she was looking at didn't make sense. It was enticingly beautiful yet horrifyingly frightening at the same time. The wall looked as though it was alive, writhing in shades of dark red and purple. In the centre of a large room sat a machine, it whirred with astonishing power and from one side burnt with a bright beam of blue. It was difficult to look at straight on based on the magnitude of the light that almost blinded her, staining patterns on closed eyelids. She watched the way the light tore into the wall with ferocity. It ripped through the centre and pulled away at the corners. It was opening the middle of the wall and Briar knew exactly what it was which was possibly why it terrified her so much.

"Holy shit" Dustin stated simply

"The gate" Steve, Dustin and Briar spoke at the same time.

"Excuse me?" Erica raised her eyebrows as Steve turned and paced away from the sight in front of their eyes. There was a flustered expression in his eyes and Briar understood why. The previous year they'd been through absolute hell, they'd barely escaped alive and seen things that Briar never would've been able to conjure in her wildest nightmares. It still haunted her all those months later, creatures with no faces, whispering of shadows and other realms. She remembered it like a curse but she'd slept under the impression it was all over, that none of it could ever hurt her again but here it was right in front of her eyes. The beginning of something even more horrible.

"I don't understand, you've seen this before?" Robin asked as they hurried down the stairs.

"Not exactly" Dustin replied.

"Then what, exactly"

"All you need to know is it's bad"

"It's really bad" Steve sighed.

"Like end of the human race as we know it kinda bad" Dustin turned back to them simply.

"Like war of the worlds?" Clover asked.

"What?" Erica frowned.

"The book—"

"And you know about this how?" Robin asked wildly but before Dustin could compose an answer, Erica interrupted.

"Uh, Steve? Where's your Russian friend?"

Everyone turned around rather slowly, staring at the space of floor where an unconscious Russian guard had most definitely been lying only five minutes previous. It was becoming clear that Steve hadn't hit him as hard as they believed and there in the empty space sat the chosen weapon connected to the panels but no guard.

There was a few seconds of complete silence and fear of what would follow before the alarm started to wail throughout the room. It sent Briar's nerves alight as she listened to the trailing sounds of panic and saw the bright red light in the corner of the communications room flashing like a bad omen.

Steve darted forwards immediately, he grabbed hold of the door that they'd come through. He dragged the handle towards him and stared out for barely a second before he slammed it again with a sense of terror in his vision.

"Shit" Steve turned and started running for them, "Go, go, go"

Briar ran as fast as her heart as they turned and sprinted up the stairs. Steve raced ahead, grabbing Briar's hand and dragging her with him as he reached the door at the top of the stairs and pulled it open.

"Move, let's move!" Steve called, holding the door open and ensuring they were all inside before he wrenched open the next door.

A dozen scientists turned to look at them as the six kids stood glued to the spot.

"Go! Shit, shit, shit, shit" Steve turned and bolted again.

They turned and hurried through a side door as Briar felt memories flash in front of her face. She imagined every second as her last as she sprinted and felt her legs ache under her. They hurried down the stairs in front of them and around the corner before a blinding sea of light splashed over their faces in bright cerulean, creased in shadows as the whirring light ripped through the wall in front of their eyes.

"Holy shit! Holy shit!" Dustin screamed.

"This way!" Steve shouted again before they turned and hurried down another set of steps that led them into a corridor. He kept tight hold of Briar's hand and she could feel seconds fly by their heads in a sense of doom. The world had turned against them and there were eyes everywhere. Every wall could be the last chance, every corner could lead them to a new sense of panic.

As they sprinted round the next wall, Briar saw them running at her from the corner of her eye. There was a flock of about five all sprinting in uniform and shouting things that Briar didn't understand. There was anger in their eyes.

"Oh shit! Oh shit!" Steve called, turning quickly and pushing a stack of metal canisters at them.

The canisters rolled over the floor and knocked the guards off course which gave the six of them enough time to grab hold of a door and hurry inside.

"Come on!" Robin pushed Dustin and Erica inside first, "Go, go, go"

"Hold the door" Steve called and Briar turned and planted her hands on the surface of the heavy metal as Steve slammed it shut. She stood close to his shoulder and stared at him with an expression of panic. It was mirrored in his own soft eyes, the fright that passed through his expression into his stance and the way he watched the door in anticipation for something terrible.

All of a sudden, the guards started to throw themselves at the door. Briar cursed as all the weight and pressure hit against their wrists. She turned she pressed her shoulder against the door as a stronger barricade, planting her feet into the floor.

"Robin!" Steve called desperately.

The girl turned just as Dustin and Erica wrenched a door away from the floor, leading into what Briar presumed to be the vents. The door was larger than the one inside of Scoops, they all would've been able to fit inside but as Briar felt her shoulder become buffeted by the pressure of the guards hurling themselves at it she knew this wasn't going to be the case.

Robin turned and dashed towards the door to help, standing close to Briar as she held her weight against the door. Clover came running after Robin, placing her heavily jewelled wrists against the door.

"Come on, let's go" Dustin called as Erica disappeared down into the passage.

Briar looked to Steve who had his face screwed up in concentration. He turned to Briar and gave her a look she understood. He was telling her to go but she couldn't because she was well aware her escape wouldn't include him. She shook her head very quickly and Steve sighed to himself.

"Come on!" Dustin yelled again.

"Go! Just get out of here!" Steve replied quickly.

"Come on, now!" Dustin shouted,

"No! Just go get some help, okay?" Steve sounded desperate, his voice breaking slightly as they kept close to the door. Briar felt tears prick in her eyes and she turned and stared at Dustin who was looking at Steve in astonishment.

"What are you ding?" Dustin asked.

"Go!" They all called at once, their voices echoing around the room. The guards were growing in numbers, Briar could feel it against her arm as she closed her eyes tight and tried to imagine she was anywhere else except stuck inside of a Russian base.

"I won't forget you!" Dustin called loudly before he turned and slammed the large door above him.

It was clear that the pressure against the door was beating them and as Dustin disappeared from the sight, the four teenagers were pushed away from the door with a loud bang as it collided with the wall. They all fell back against the floor and Briar raised her hands into the air as she heard guns cocking all around her. Steve was right by her side but this didn't give her the comfort that it usually would. Her breaths were short and terrified as she stared up at the many Russian guards beginning to bear down on them.

Briar felt she'd never been possessed by such a sense of terror even the previous year when she'd learnt of the existence of monsters and other worlds. For some reason humanity managed to scare her all the more as she watched the guards calculate their movements with harsh eyes and a sense of victory. Briar turned to Steve before she lost him, before she was taken away from him. For once he was just as terrified as her, eyes wide in fear not only for Briar but for himself as well.

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A/n
Words - 5894
Published - 20th September 2022

Sorry it's been a while
I moved out and then I
got writers block and I'm
starting uni again so everything's
a bit chaotic. Updates might not be
constant but I'll do my best :)