come home ; PREQUAL

THIRTY-SIX

"Okay this is what Alexei called 'The Hub', now the hub takes us to the vault room," The man announced, everyone was sitting at the sitting area of Burger King, y/n's parents stood beside Hopper, Joyce and the lunatic man, Erica, Steve, Robin and Dustin sat in the left side of the adults meanwhile. Y/n, Will, Nancy, Johnathan, Eleven, Mike, Lucas and Max sat in the right of the adults.

"Okay so where's the gate?" Hopper asked, stepping closer to the man looking down at the sheet of paper.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this," the half bald headed guy instructed. "but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so," he estimated, looking up to Hopper.

"More like 500," Erica jumped in, she folded her arms. "What you're just gonna waltz in there it's Commie Disneyland or something?" She questioned the man.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" He asked, judgement sliding off his tongue.

"Erica Sinclair, who are you?" She questioned the man, he looked up at her with a questionable look.

"Murray... Bauman?" He answered looking at the girl with squinted eyes and furrowed brows.

"Listen, Mr. Bunman," she Murray who had a look of shock against his face. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down that shithole for 24 hours, and with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all going to die," she announced, pointing over to everyone.

"I'm sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?" Murray questioned, standing up, facing his palms towards her.

"I'm ten you bald bastard," she argued back, she looked more angrier at Murray.

"I like her a lot," y/n whispered to Will who chuckled.

"Erica!" Lucas stopped his sister, she looked over to him.

"Just the facts!" She announced before Dustin stepped forward.

"She's right, you're all gonna die, but you don't have to, Excuse me". He spoke, moving past Erica and towards the table "Sorry may I?" He asked Murray, pointing towards the sheet of paper.

"Please," he sarcastically smiled to Dustin, he sat down picking up the pen.

"Okay see this room here? This is a storage facility, there's a hatch in here that feeds into the underground ventilation system that will lead you to the base of the weapon, its a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way," He announced, pointing towards Himself and Erica.

"You can show us the way?" Hopper questioned.

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your...navigators," Dustin explained, smiling up to the cop, seeing him smile back.

"No." He told him, Dustin's smile faded. "No," he told him before wiping his chin.

Y/n gave out a long sigh, looking over to Will, then El and Max who all looked slightly irritated. Dustin got out of his seat and turned to where Will, Mike, Lucas and y/n were, the group stood up and walked over to the fountain, Mike and Max helping Eleven over too.

"Well, that settled it, he's gonna die they're gonna die," Erica announced, moving down the stairs and towards the small group.

"Yep, most likely," Dustin sighed, Erica folded her arms.

"You guys survived," y/n spoke, Dustin turning around to see Mike, Will, Lucas and y/n all looking towards him.

"Barely," he announced, looking to his closest friends with a smirk. "we could've really used you guys down there," he told them.

"We could've used you up here too," Mike told him.

"Yeah man. We missed you dude," Lucas announced, they watched as Dustin smiled to his friends.

"Yeah big time," Will announced, y/n bring her hands up, looping her arm around Dustin's and Will's neck, the rest of the group joined in.

"I missed you guys too," Dustin told them with a large smile, the group copied. "big time," he added.

"Please don't cry nerds," Erica spoke up, looking at the group with a smirk.

"Erica," Lucas yelled, letting go of the group hug.

"Keep saying my name see what happens," She bit back, unfolding her arms, y/n stood away from the group and looked towards the young girl who looked up at her with an odd expression.

"I think you and I are gonna get along well," y/n told the girl with a smirk, Erica looked up and smiled.

"Hey, head up. You can navigate. Just from some place safe," Hopper spoke, passing Dustin a walkie talkie as he finished.

"It's not that simple," Dustin told the adult, looking at the gadget before lazily holding it in his hand.

"The signal won't reach," Erica added looking over to Hopper.

"Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower," Dustin explained to the man who only held a look of irritation to him. "but for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcraft radio tower," Dustin paused. "one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins, oh wait... that's me," he paused, Hopper still looking at him oddly "if you want us to navigate you, we need a head start, and a car," he told Hopper, watching him fidget in his pockets before chucking him car keys.

"Now hurry up at get your head start kid," he told him, Erica and Dustin running towards Steve and Robin, they all went to the entrance of starcourt and headed out into the car park.