CHAPTER 35
PRISONER PROCREATION FACILITY

"WHY DON'T THESE BUTTONS WORK?!"

Veronica plugged her fingers into her ears as Dustin's scream continued to pierce every wall around them. In fact, just about everyone was shrieking at the highest they could, even Steve, who held Veronica so tight that she felt her chest constrict. Dustin barreled over to the control box and smacked his fists against it, "C'MON, WORK!"

Erica elbowed him in the gut and screeched, "Press the button!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?!"

Steve jumped up and down, throwing Veronica around with him. "COME ON, PRESS SOMETHING! JUST PRESS THE BUTTON!"

Dustin cried at the top of his lungs as Erica persisted in yelling obscenities at him. Veronica looked up, watching the floors pass at a speed that she couldn't even fathom. The lights were blinding her. The whole floor was vibrating. Her stomach was doing flipflops, and she was pretty sure this was how Heather Holloway felt when Veronica fed her a cup of punch with ipecac at the sophomore year homecoming dance. Everything felt gross and the room was most definitely spinning. Oh, fuck, she thought to herself, I am going to be sick.

"KID," she howled, "IF YOU DON'T GET US OUT OF HERE, I'M GOING TO –"

The elevator came to an abrupt stop, flinging each of them across the floor. Veronica and Steve laid together on the opposite side of the room, both rubbing at a spot where their heads met the metal ground. Veronica blinked, coming to the realization of who's arms were around her, and she spun to face Steve, who was lying beneath her. They immediately flung their arms off each other and stood up, leaving a comfortable amount of space between them.

"Is everyone okay?" Dustin called out, struggling to get to his feet. Veronica lent him a hand.

"Yeah, I'm great," Steve huffed, sarcasm evident in his voice, "now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" He opened the control box for what seemed like the tenth time and searched the rows of buttons.

Veronica helped Erica up and blew strands of hair from her face. "Steve, the fucking buttons don't work. We need to focus on getting out of here and back to Robin so we can get the map."

"They're buttons, Ronnie!" He spat, turning to her with a crazed stare. "They have to do something!"

"Don't we need some kind of keycard?" Erica asked.

Everyone swiveled to face the younger girl, who shrugged casually.

"That looks like the lock that was on the loading dock," she explained, walking over to the box and pointing to a small device right next to it. Veronica thought it looked like a credit card reader. "If we don't got one, it don't operate, capeesh? Which means –"

Dustin finished, "We're stuck in here."

"Fucking hell," Veronica muttered, sighing into her hands.

"Just so you nerds are aware," Erica cleared her throat, "I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you three are responsible," she waved her hand in their direction, "she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throats."

Steve slapped his hands down on a sealed box. "I don't care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack's party!" He screamed, smacking the cardboard for emphasis. "Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

"Guys!" Dustin jumped up, trying to get their attention, before pointing in the direction of a vent on the roof of the elevator. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What if we climbed out?"

Erica looked up with a shake of her head, while Veronica couldn't fathom what Dustin was asking. He grinned wide at his friends, but he was only met with perplexed expressions.

Veronica wiped the sweat from her brow and sent Dustin a disapproving look. "Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?"

•••

Edward really wasn't sure what he was seeing, or the fact that he could even see at all through his bruised eye.

Hopper had made the suggestion that both he and Edward, as well as Joyce Byers, take a trip down to Hess Farm at sundown, hoping to find more clues that point them in the direction of the shadowed man from Hawkins Lab. Hess Farm was a tiny spot of land on the outskirts of Hawkins, and also the last piece of property Starcourt purchased from the town that they hadn't investigated. Edward expected to at least find someone residing in the two-story home, but the entire house was abandoned. The only sign of life once in it was an ashtray filled with dead cigarettes sitting on the armchair of a sofa. The whole house was quiet, completely still, except for the sudden electrical hum coming from below the floorboards.

"Did you hear that?" Joyce whispered, following behind Hopper and Edward as they maneuvered into the house. "Where is that coming from?"

A dim lightbulb burned above Edward's head as he ventured further, passing by the master bedroom. It had been stripped clean, but dust still stuck to every nook and cranny. Edward wiped the sweat off his brow and swiveled his flashlight around while also trying to keep a firm grip on his pistol. "It's below us," Hopper muttered, but Edward still couldn't pinpoint where he should be looking.

But then he noticed something.

Right below the foot of the mattress was a grey storage bench. It was probably white when it was first bought, but the collected dirt around the house probably turned it into something darker. He wasn't focusing on the color right now. He was focusing on the vent he suddenly noticed at the bottom of the bench, emitting a bright, red light.

"Hop," Edward breathed, "you gotta come see this shit."

Both Joyce and Hopper whipped their flashlights in Edward's direction, who was pointing to the vent with a shaky finger. "Jesus Christ," Hopper said under his breath, kneeling down to stare inside the lined crate. Red light flashed across his face. "There has to be something under this."

Sure enough, he was right. As soon as Hopper lifted the storage bench and chucked it to the side of the bed, they found a secret staircase hidden beneath the floorboards. A red hue sparkled in Edward's eyes as he stared at their discovery with awe. Lifting a finger to his lips, Hopper gestured for them to follow him down the stairs, weapon held high.

What they found down there was unlike anything he'd ever imagined, unlike anything he'd seen on the Twilight Zone as a kid. The room was filled with boilers and emergency lights, as well as control boxes connected to who-knows-what. Pipes ran along the walls and over their heads. Vents blew hot air all around them, causing more sweat to gather under Edward's armpits. They stopped as soon as they entered the underground lab, finding two men trying to fix a dead machine. One looked like a scientist working after hours, while the other was covered in dirt and wearing some kind of janitor's uniform. They stood up once Hopper pointed his flashlight on them.

"Hey, dipsits!" Hopper called out, causing one of them to drop a tool on the ground. "Hawkins, P.D."

Edward stood beside his partner, shielding Joyce behind them, but she refused to stay in the background. "Hands up!" He said, but neither of the men moved a muscle. "I'm not going to repeat myself!"

The janitor looked to his friend, brow crinkled with confusion. He began speaking in another language to him. Edward's eyes narrowed. Were they speaking Russian?

He shared a confused look with Hopper, before eventually turning back to the men before him. With a raised brow, Edward asked, "Habla inglés?"

The scientist shook his head, raising a single hand for the officers to not shoot. He, too, started to speak in the same language as his friend, and Edward was almost sure now that it was Russian. A voice emerged in his head then. He suddenly recalled what his daughter had said to him that morning: Would you believe me if I said it was Russian spies?

Edward's eyes went wide. It all made sense now – at least, he thought it did, but he didn't have time to think about that now. Not with the heavy footsteps echoing on the first floor, heading straight for the entrance to the underground lab. Edward knew those footsteps. He'd know the catlike stride from a mile away. The man from Hawkins Lab. They'd meet yet again.

If he were being honest, the last thing Edward expected was to leave Hess Farm that night with another black eye from the low budget version of Arnold Schwarzenegger and a Russian scientist handcuffed to his side. Maybe Veronica, and even Murray Bauman, hadn't been too far off after all.

•••

They had been stuck for at least eight hours. Veronica was pretty sure that time had drifted into the early morning now, and she was currently only running on adrenaline and an average amount of sleep from the night before. She tried working with Steve to open the door throughout the night while the two children slept, but they hardly made a dent in the case. None of their ideas worked, and Veronica was certain that they were never getting out of the elevator. What was she going to do about her dad's down payment for tuition?

The two teenagers sulked, sliding their bodies down a metal wall and hitting the floor with a slam. Veronica twirled a strand of hair from her ponytail around her ringer finger, thinking about how relaxing it would be to have a cigarette in her hands right now. If she was going to die down here, she wished to at least have a pack of Reds in her pocket, but maybe that was asking for too much.

"It's useless," Steve sighed, running a hand through his tall mane of hair. "This is all such ... bullshit."

"Yup," she replied, popping the P. "What do we do now? Wait for the Russians to find us? You know that we're not gonna be saved."

He shrugged. "I don't know. If we're lucky, they won't kill us. Maybe they'll put us in some kind of ... prisoner procreation facility.

Veronica met his eyes, which were serious for a brief moment, before they both burst out into a fit of laughter. She rubbed at her nose as Steve leaned his head back against the wall, trying to keep their giggles low while Erica continued to sleep on the other side of the room. Dustin paced on the roof of the elevator, trying to find a signal for his radio. Veronica sighed and turned back to Steve, who was keeping his eyes on the wall, trained away from her.

"Hey," she said in a soft voice, "I – um – I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. You know, about not being able to hang around you. I was stressed out and I – I don't know. That was wrong and I'm sorry."

Steve shook his head. "Ronnie, why do you think you need to apologize for how you feel?" He released a short chuckle. "I'm used to your random outbursts by now. Give me some credit."

"But I want to apologize," she insisted, "which is totally rare. I don't do that often. Just accept it."

He raised his hands in surrender, lips spreading into a grin. Steve always smiled at her for the stupidest of things, and her heart began an erratic pace. "Whatever you say," he snickered, lowering his hands to the floor so they rested right near hers, just inches apart. "I don't know if I can get used to this new you. Who are you without your stubbornness?"

Veronica hit his arm with the backside of her hand. "I'm still a bitch sometimes, but I'm working on it."

"I'm gonna miss you, Moreda."

She felt a sharp pang hit the inner walls of her heart, spreading throughout her entire body until it reached her toes. Just the sentence alone made her mind swirl, as if everything really was crashing on top of her. Veronica was excited to get out of Hawkins and attend college – don't get her wrong – but the simplest gesture of Steve missing her made her want to quit school altogether.

"Hopefully, not too much," she said, clearing her throat and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Steve was looking at her then, brow furrowed, as she refused to meet his eyes. "Give someone else a chance to have your attention while I'm away. How about Robin?"

"Attention?" He frowned. "You mean like dating? I'm not into Robin like that."

She shook her head. "Whatever. You get the point I'm trying to make, right?" Steve's expression went blank, leaving Veronica to realize that he most certainly was not getting it. She exhaled heavily. "I hope ... I don't know. Maybe you'll find a nice girl after I'm gone that'll treat you right. Someone who isn't riddled with trauma and shit like that. Someone better than I could ever be."

Steve held his breath. He wanted to tell her that that wasn't possible, that he had already found the girl and she was sitting right beside him, talking about herself as if she were nothing. Steve didn't need to look for that girl while she was gone, because Veronica Moreda would always be her and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. He didn't want a nice girl that was fresh out of high school and liked to go on movie dates. He didn't want someone better. He wanted Veronica.

"You should – uh ..." Steve looked away, bringing himself out of his subconscious. He coughed into his hand to ease the silent tension. "You should sleep."

She nodded willingly. "Yeah, you're right. All-nighters have never really worked in my favor."

Slumping her head against the wall, Veronica wrapped her arms around herself and leaned slightly against a wall of boxes for comfort. Steve stared at her for a couple of moments, wishing that he could brush the baby hairs from her forehead, before standing up. He headed for the roof of the elevator to check on Dustin's plan. The younger boy was hopeful, though in the back of his mind he knew they might be truly stuck this time.

Veronica only got about twenty minutes of sleep before the thump of metal against metal awoke her. Her eyes opened in a daze, and it took at least a few minutes for her to realize where she was. She must've been so tired that she immediately went into a deep sleep. Now her adrenaline was pumping, and she gathered all her strength to pull herself up from the floor. Rubbing the sleep from her lids, Veronica realized the banging sound was coming from Erica, who was currently hitting the metal cylinder of green liquid against a shelf of boxes for Kaufman Shoes.

"What are you doing?!" She shouted, sprinting over and ripping the cylinder from Erica's tiny grip. "You can't play around with this shit. We don't know what it is."

"But I'm thirsty," Erica scoffed, hands on her hips.

Veronica's eyes bugled. "Were you planning on drinking this?"

Erica shrugged. "Let me tell you something, Smurfette –"

"Stop calling me that!"

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

Veronica pursed her lips. "You can't consume unknown chemicals, Erica. This isn't water."

"No, but it's a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst," Erica snatched the cylinder back, "I drink."

The blue-haired teenager opened her mouth to speak, but a sudden electric buzz interrupted her thought process. Veronica slowly turned to the door, swallowing hard as the humming got louder with each passing second. This either could be really good for them, or really bad. She supposed it was going to be the latter.

Steve stuck his head out from the small opening that led to the elevator's roof. "Ronnie, Erica," he whispered, gaining their attention, "get up here now. We have company."

They were able to pull themselves up with the metal shelf holding a few Imperial Panda boxes. Veronica helped push Erica out first, and finally tugged herself through the opening with Steve's hands under her armpits. The four of them sat in a circle on the roof, silent as ghosts, as they listened to the door slide open from below. Two men began to speak in Russian and Veronica held her breath.

Steve stared through the tiny crate below their feet, watching the Russians pack up a cart with boxes. They talked amongst themselves, muttering unfamiliar words and laughing every so often. With a grim expression, Steve looked up and met Erica's worried stare, before his eyes casually slid down to the cylinder in her hands. Veronica watched the whole exchange, and she could already see the plan forming in Steve's head. She opened her mouth to whisper something, but he silenced her with a shaky finger and listened further.

The Russians were leaving.

"C'mon," Steve said, swiftly getting to his feet. He gestured for everyone to follow him back into the main elevator, where the door was currently closing again.

Veronica's chest heaved as she trailed Steve, using the shelf again as a latter, before helping Dustin and Erica down as fast as she could. Steve ripped the cylinder of green chemicals from Erica's fingertips, whipping it underneath the door before she could protest. They still didn't have much time, though. The door was going to close no matter what. They had seconds before they were locked in once again.

"Go, go, go!" Steve exclaimed, shoving Dustin through the small opening. Veronica kneeled beside him and assisted Erica through as the door began to crush the cylinder. Only thirty seconds remained. Steve glanced at her, realizing she wasn't making a single move, and shouted, "Ronnie, go!"

Grasping his shoulders, Veronica pushed him down and in the direction of the opening as it got smaller and smaller. "You don't need to be the hero this time, Harrington," she muttered, propelling him into the hole, "I will."

The door was creaking above her as she slid herself on the floor. Caught between a metal wall and the cold ground, Veronica found herself staring at the cylinder with wide eyes, watching the glass crack more and more as the seconds passed. Time was thinning. Feeling the door close in on her spine, Veronica hastily shoved herself out of the hole and rolled across the linoleum floor. The moment she escaped, the cylinder split, shards of glass surrounded a pool of burning green liquid.

Steve tugged Veronica up as the green chemicals bubbled, searing the floor and creating a harsh smoke in the air. She swallowed hard and yanked at the high collar of her uniform. "Maybe you had a point, Smurfette," Erica muttered. "That don't look too appetizing anymore." Veronica responded with a raised brow and stuck her hands into the pockets of her ripped jeans.

"Holy mother of God."

Dustin's statement had the rest of the group turning around, taking in the scene before them. A long corridor waited ahead, blue lights flashing every couple of seconds, an ominous feeling misting in the atmosphere. Veronica was frozen in place, mouth falling open just slightly. "I am definitely not in the proper pants for a trek like that," she murmured.

"I hope you guys are in good shape," Steve said, taking the lead and slapping Dustin on the shoulder. He snickered softly. "Looking at you, Roast Beef."

•••

A/N: OOOOOOOHHHHHHH we are in the thick of it now folks!!!!!

I just wanted to mention now something really important!!! With Robin not being in this scene (and a few other chapters), I want to make it clear that I am NOT erasing her character, or trying to replace her with Veronica. Making these changes just made sense plot-wise, seeing as there will be scenes coming up that are pivotal for Ronnie and Steve's development, and the only way to fit in these important scenes was to put them over others already in the show. (If that makes sense. Idk if it did 🤷🏼‍♀️)

Anyways!!! I hope you guys are excited! These next couple of chapters are some of my favorites 🥰 A lot of shit will be said, a lot of shit will go down, and Robin will return for the rescue!!

( made by JustSav )