Always Be There For You ~ Dustin Henderson x Reader

Chapter 20: The Mall Rats

 I woke up the next morning to the sound of my door being opened. I groaned in pain and clutched my head. Whatever that sleeping medicine was, it gave me a massive headache. I took off my glasses, wiped them on my shirt, and saw Ozerov sitting before me with a styrofoam container.

"Hello, Y/n," He greeted, holding the container out. I took it and opened it up, there were some hashbrowns and a fork inside.

"Ozerov," I replied coldly. I took a bite of my hashbrowns.

"Who was that young man?" Ozerov questioned, "Dusty, I believe you called him."
"Someone I knew in school," I half-lied, "He was a huge nerd, so he was probably screwing around with his radio and ended up on the wrong channel."

"Uh-huh," Ozerov was unconvinced, "Today's fact?"

"He likes it cold," I responded, in between bites of hashbrowns. Ozerov looked at me quizzically.

"The Mind Flayer," I stated, "The Mind Flayer doesn't like the heat." Ozerov stared me down as I finished my hashbrowns. I tossed the styrofoam container to the side and leaned against the wall. Suddenly, Ozerov's emergency radio crackled to life.

"Ozerov, чрезвычайная ситуация в лаборатории," A voice on the other side of the radio stated in a somewhat panicked tone. Ozerov nodded and knocked on my door, signaling for the guards to open it.

"Excuse me," He waved goodbye as he exited my cell, leaving me all alone. I sighed and hopped off of my bed. I flipped over my thin mattress and grabbed a notepad I had stashed underneath. I replaced the mattress, grabbed my pen, and examined the paper before me. I had a finished drawing of the whole party; Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, El, Max, and even Steve. As well as an unfinished drawing of Dustin. It wasn't my finest work, but drawing my friends was the thing holding me together. Without that simple outlet for my emotions, I wouldn't have been able to stay as sane as I was.

~3rd Person~

Ozerov opened the door to a high-security room. There stood a giant machine with hundreds of intricate wires and metal plates, pointing directly at a gate to the Upside Down. It had been temporarily turned off to allow a comrade to step through.

The call Ozerov got when he was with Y/n, was an emergency notification. The comrade who had gone through was unresponsive, and the gate was beginning to close due to a lack of intervention. For whatever reason, this gate was highly unstable, it wouldn't stay open without the Russians forcing it to come back every half hour or so.

"Comrade, respond! товарищ, ответьте!" The communications director yelled into the intercom. Everyone sat in silence, waiting for their comrade to respond.

"Emergency!" The comrade's voice crackled to life on the other side, followed by the sound of screaming. The communications director looked back at Ozerov with a distraught look on his face. Ozerov weighed his options before glancing at the comms director.

"Call Alexei, then we try round two."

As soon as Dustin could, he ran into Scoops Ahoy and rang the bell. Steve's co-worker, Robin Buckley, stood before him in her Scoops Ahoy sailor's outfit with an annoyed look. Robin had medium-length, light brown hair and blue eyes. She was the kind of person who didn't care much about what others thought about her, and just wanted to be herself.

"Hi," Dustin greeted.

"Hi," Robin blankly replied.

"I'm Dustin."

"I'm Robin."

"Is uh, is he here?"

"Is who here?" As if on cue, Steve shot out of the back room of Scoops Ahoy.