the unknown | steve harrington

chapter twenty: the end of the line

Daphne didn't know how she got to this point, stood in the hallway of an abandoned lab filled with Russian soldiers and setting fires. But here she was, Steve stood in the room with the door open as she waited for a fire alarm to go off.

It didn't.

It wasn't until she could barely breathe because of the smoke surrounding her did she run back to Steve, the sound of gunshots in the background as they hear people leave the room, running. Steve managed to shut the door before the chaos ensued, his back pressed solidly against it as he watched Daphne keel over for breath.

"Just need to add arson to the resume, then we're all set, right?" Steve quipped, trying to lighten the mood of the bangs echoing through the place behind them.

Each shot rippled through him through the door, eyes clenched as his body stiffened, as though him staying there prevented anyone from coming in.

"Can you just— can you get away from the door?" Daphne scolded, storming forward as she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her, the sound of Russian orders forcing Steve to push her away from the door and almost shield her from the door.

"You stay away from the door, are you kidding me?" The stress in his voice pointed at her made her brows crease in response, as though she couldn't believe the audacity of him being so sharp with her when she's trying to save his life.

"Alright, cute and everything guys, but we have a serious situation," Robin nodded her head towards the dying down noise outside.

While Steve, Daphne and Robin tried to discuss their best move, when to pounce, Hopper was right.

On the other side of the door, four soldiers surrounded four kids. They didn't really stand a chance, found within 15 minutes of stepping foot into the hallways and dragged individually into the rainbow room. A sad rainbow stripe against a chemically clean white, the mirror smashed with remnants still on the floor as Dustin, Max and Lucas are positioned behind Billy, who took the biggest beating after his big mouth decided to run itself.

The other soldiers had left the moment smoke started seeping through, the moment the gun shots sounded and the moment they realised maybe these teenagers weren't their biggest threat. However, to their distain, not all of the soldiers left.

All four were instructed to get on their knees, and while Dustin, Max and Lucas all shook with fear, Billy kept his eyes on the soldier pointing his gun, almost daring him, a smirk etched on his face. It was almost comical the contrast of smugness on his face against the black eye, sliced brow and burst lip all trickling with blood.

While Billy felt the fear gnawing at the back of his throat, he also felt alive. The most alive since he actually became alive. Like he had a purpose again, to protect these kids, because not having one has been soul destroying.

"Who else is here with you?" The Russian soldier asked, his accent only adding to his menacing stare.

"Go and fuck yourself." Billy responded, a small whimper falling from Max's throat behind him. "Actually, why don't you all go and fuck each other. Might lighten you folks up a bit." He added, his chin held high as another soldier chuckles at him, stalking towards him and making a show of his gun. "Oh, cool, you've got a gun, right?"

"Billy, you're making this worse." Dustin warned through gritted teeth.

"Listen to your little friend," the soldier pointed towards Dustin, Billy positioning himself in front, shoulders back to make himself bigger somehow. Again, only eliciting chuckles from the soldiers. "You have one purpose here," the soldier shrugged, cocking his gun. "You tell us who is here with you, or you all die." He stated, matter of fact.