14. tunnels, tunnels, and tunnels

TUNNELS, TUNNELS, AND TUNNELS

✧･ﾟ: * Nora never imagined herself sitting in the back of Billy Hargrove's car. Let alone sitting in the back of Billy Hargrove's car in between Mike and Dustin with her brother lying across the three, unconscious while Max drove and Lucas shouted directions at her.

Yet, here she is.

Mike is holding a bottle of gasoline with Steve's feet in his lap, Nora has two arms on top of his stomach, keeping him from falling to the ground at every bump, and Dustin holds his head with an ice pack to a bruise on his eye.

"Nancy?" Steve slurs, slowly waking up. He lifts his head a little, looking in Mike's direction before groaning and going to rub his eyes.

"No, don't touch it," Dustin gently pulls his hands from his face and smiles as Steve looks at him. "Hey, buddy. . . shush. It's okay. You put up a good fight. He kicked your ass, but you put up a good fight, buddy, okay? You're okay?"

Nora almost laughs as she watched Dustin treat her older brother like a small child. She wishes she had a camera.

"Okay," Lucas speaks to Max. "You're gonna keep straight for half a mile. . . then make a left on Mount Sinai."

"What- what's going on?" Steve looks over to the front of the car as Max makes eye contact with him. Nora watches the realization come to his face and he starts to panic, "Oh, Oh, my God!" He tries sitting up, but Dustin shushes him again.

"Steve, relax," he rubs his shoulder and Nora tightens her grip a little. "She's driven before."

"Yeah, in a parking lot," Mike says quietly, as if that would help.

"That counts," Lucas argues from the passengers seat.

"Oh, my God!" Steve just widens his eyes again.

"They were gonna leave you behind. Nora and I promised you'd be cool, okay?" Dustin tries calming him. Max speeds down the road which makes Steve more nervous. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on?"

"Max, maybe you wanna slow down?" Nora yells over the sound of the engine growling, Max just speeds up.

"Oh, my God! No! Woah, stop the car! Slow down!"

"I told you he'd freak out!" Mike yells at Dustin.

"Guys, not right now," Nora shouts, grabbing the halfway sitting up Steve harder.

"Stop the car!"

Max hits the steering wheel, "EVERYBODY SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO FOCUS!"

Lucas quickly points at a small sign, "That's Mount Sinai! Make a left! Turn left!"

Max barely notices the small mailbox as she turns sharply, narrowly missing a line of trees. The whole car rocks and everyone grabs onto each other while they were screaming. Max continues driving across the grass at full speed until she stops abruptly in from of a large hole.

Steve is the first to say something as they all breath heavily.

"HELLO?"

"Incredible," Mike breathes as Nora pushes herself off of him.

"Told you," Max pulls the keys out of the ignition. "Zoomer."

All the kids jump out of the car, leaving Steve to crawl out onto the dirt with a groan. They go around to the trunk and put on their goggles, bandanas, and gloves they brought to protect themselves.

"Oh no, guys," Steve mumbles, pulling himself up using the car. Mike just walks past him with the rope and gasoline. "Hey, where do you think you're going? What are you, deaf? Hello! Nora! I am your older brother. You have to listen to me!" Nora just walks with Mike to tighten the rope to the car, ignoring her brother. "We are not going down there right now! I made myself clear! Hey! There's no chance we are going down that hole, all right? This ends right now!"

Steve and the rest of the gang have gone down the hole.

Nora widens her eyes at the sight of the vine covered walls and hazy mist throughout. "Holy shit," Steve whispers, the last to come down.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's this way," Mike calls, starting to walk in some direction.

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

Mike turns around exasperated, "I'm one hundred percent sure! Just follow me, and you'll know!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey. I don't think so," Steve pushes up to where Mike is. "Any of you little shits die down here, I'm getting the blame. Got it, dipshit?" He snatches the map from Mike. "From here on out, I'm leading the way! Come on, let's go!"

The group hustles after him for what must've been a few miles - to Nora at least - until they reach a clearing breaking off into four different sections. They all look up, watching the bright red ceiling that seemed to be pulsating, like it has a heartbeat.

"God," Lucas breathes, taking in his surroundings.

"What is this place?" Max questions.

A beat. "Hell," Nora responds.

They continue through the tunnel until a sudden scream stops them in their tracks, followed by a few curse words. Everyone sprints back and they see Dustin, fallen on the ground, grasping at his bandana. Everyone is shouting his name, Steve trying to take control by asking what happened.

"It's in my mouth! Some got in my mouth!" Dustin screams loudly. "SHIT!" He coughs an unreasonable amount before ripping his bandana off and spitting at the ground. He looks up at the group with a sigh, "I'm okay."

"Jesus Christ," Nora stands up, walking back to where they were headed.

"Very funny, man," Steve rolls his eyes. "Nice. Very nice."

"Jeez. What an idiot," Max mumbles as they all walk away from him, leaving him to run after them.

After a few more minutes of walking, the group finds themselves at another intersection. A large boulder-like structure is at the center of the circle as slime oozes from the walls.

Steve looks at the map for a second before looking up again, "Alright, Wheeler. I think we found your hub."

"Let's drench it," Mike says in response.

Once they all grabbed cans of gasoline and covered the hub as much as possible with the flammable liquid, the kids stand behind Steve who holds out a lighter. "Alright, you guys ready?"

"Ready," they say in unison.

Wow, that wasn't even planned.

"Light her up," Dustin states.

Steve opens up the lighter and sighs, "I'm in such deep shit." He throws the lighter in and everyone covers their faces as the vines screech and twist as the orange and yellow fire engulfs them.

"Let's go!" Steve yells, pushing the kids out of the tunnels, everyone starting to run as Dustin continuously yells, 'Oh, my God.'

"HELP! HELP!" The group turns at the sound of Mike's frantic voice. They find him fallen on the ground, vines snaking around his ankles.

Everyone tries helping, but to no avail until Steve runs over with his bat. "Stand back, Stand back!" He repeatedly hits the vines until they slide off and everyone sighs in relief.

They have little time to celebrate as they turn and are faced with a Demodog.

Dustin slowly makes his way forward, a hand out. Max steps closely to Nora and their bodies press together.

Steve tries to stop Dustin by placing a hand on his shoulder, but Dustin knows what he's doing. "Dart."

The Demodog growls and despite all the protests, Dustin continues forward. He slowly takes off his goggles and bandana to reveal his face. "Hey, it's me. It's me. It's just your friend. It's Dustin." He kneels down before the creature, "you remember me?"

The Demodog makes a noise that seems to come across as a purr, and the whole group looks in surprise. "Then, you'll let us pass?"

Dart suddenly opens up his face, growling loudly as he displays his rows and rows of sharp teeth. "Okay, okay. Sorry," Dustin tries calming him down. "I'm sorry about the storm cellar. That was a pretty douche-y thing to do." Dustin reaches into his pocket for a candy bar, "you hungry? Yeah?"

Who just carries chocolate around?

"I've got our favorite, see?" Dustin slowly opens the Three Musketeers and places it carefully in front of Dart. "Nougat!" While Dart is distracted with the chocolate, Dustin quickly motions with his hand for his friends to pass. They do slowly and Dustin finally stands, starting after them.

"Goodbye, buddy."

The group starts sprinting as soon as they knew they were in the clear. As they run, the ground and walls suddenly begin to grumble and shake.

"What was that?" Steve slows slightly.

Roars are heard from one side of the tunnel and everyone shines their flashlights in that direction.

Mike's eyes widen as he yells, "They're coming! Run! Run!"

They all do as he says and run in the opposite direction without looking back.

They only have to turn once more before they come across the rope and quickly climb up.

Nora has just gone up after Max, who helps her up frantically and the two are breathing heavily together.

Nora looks down and Dustin scrambles with the rope, the monsters getting closer and closer.

"Dustin! Steve!" Her, Max, and Mike start to shout down as the Demodogs are closer to approaching the two.

They brace themselves, but it seems the Demodogs don't care about them. They just run past as if they weren't even there.

Mike breathes out everyone's thoughts, "Eleven."

Finally, everyone is out of the tunnel, safe and sound, and they start over to their car. The headlights start shining and they get brighter and brighter as the group shields their eyes. The lights stop and then go down to their original state and everyone knows. . .

The gate is closed.

a/n:

party time