Say Anything | Steve Harrington |

Ch. 36 Ensnarement

November 7th, 1984
In The Underground Tunnels

The further we trekked down the tunnel, the worse the condition seemed to get. It was colder, darker, and the air grew thicker as the particles in the air increased. The place seemed utterly lifeless.

"God," Lucas called out as he almost tripped over an overgrown vine. "What is this place?" Max asked as she and Lucas caught up with me, while Mike and Dustin walked ahead with Steve. "Guys, come on. Keep moving." Steve called out over his shoulder, bouncing his flashlight from between the map and the tunnel ahead of him.

Walking past Dustin, he stayed glued in his spot staring up at the ceiling. "Dustin, you okay?" I called out from just a few steps ahead of him.

"What the hell?" He whispered as he slowly raised a finger to point just above his head before a sudden gust of air hissed out from above us, and a cloud of particles consumed him.

"Shit!" Dustin screamed, collapsing to the floor, rolling around to escape the particles surrounding him. Quickly standing onto his feet, Dustin continued to scream as he ran towards me until he knocked both of us onto the ground.

"Help! Help!" He yelled at me, sitting upon his knees before pulling his facial covering down as the party rejoined us. "What happened?" Steve yelled while Dustin stayed hunched over. "There was some sort of trap," I stated, patting Dustin on the back.

   "It's in my mouth!" He yelled, continuing to spit out whatever the particles were made of.

Recomposing himself, Dustin slowly sat up, looking between the five of us. "I'm okay." He stated simply, his false teeth now missing from his mouth. "Jesus," I muttered, standing up from my place on the floor.

"You serious?" Max asked with a roll of her eyes while Steve and Mike turned back to continue leading the group. "Very funny, man." Steve stated. "Nice. Very nice." He muttered as the rest of the group followed him. "What an idiot," Max stated as I helped the boy up.

"Come on, and no more lingering, yeah?" I asked, pulling him towards the rest of the group by his arm. "Yes ma'am.."

After a few more minutes of walking, Steve came to a halt, holding his arm out to stop Mike from walking any further. "All right, Wheeler. I think we found your hub." He stated, sweeping his flashlight around the space in front of us.

If Mike was wrong, I would hate to see the real hub point for these things. The space in front of us luckily was empty, with multiple open tunnels leading in each direction around us. "Let's drench it." Mike stated, his grip tightening around the oil canister that he held.

Splitting up the group, we each took a different sector of the tunnel. Drenching the floor, the walls, everything and anything in sight.

Throwing our empty bins and tins of gasoline into the center of the hub, we regrouped in the tunnel that we had come from, "You guys ready?" Steve asked, pulling his lighter out of his jacket pocket.

Murmurs of approval erupted around the group before he flipped the cap of the lighter off. "Light 'er up," Dustin stated, kneeling next to Steve. "We are in such deep shit," I muttered more to myself than the group as Steve ignited the flame.

Throwing the lighter into a puddle of lighter fluid, the hub almost immediately went up into flames.

As the flames grew, the vines littering the walls and ground detached themselves, flailing around in the fire as if they were trying to protect themselves and extinguish the flames. "Let's go." I stated, grabbing onto Max and Lucas' shoulders and pulling the two down the tunnel while Steve did the same with Mike and Dustin.