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not alina anymore
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. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧
"Alright, Wheeler," said Steve. "I think we found your hub."
The heart of the tunnels wasn't as grand as Gabe was expecting. He'd expected some kind of massive chamber, with more of those pulsating masses spread around, so that the room was filled with the sounds of soft breathing. He expected a graveyard, animal and human bones alike resting within piles of other junk. He expected a high ceiling, and Demodogs to be roaming about, ones that were instructed to stay behind while the others roamed the lab. But the hub, fortunately, seemed empty of all otherworldly creatures. It was a slimy cave-like place, with several tunnels branching out from the center, reminding him of the other area they'd recently been in.
The hub was like a heart in the human body—this was where all of the veins and arteries (the tunnels) connected to, to be pumped around Hawkins, the body. Unlike the human body, however, the tunnels weren't pumping a vital fluid needed to survive. No, they were pumping out darkness and rot. Killing pumpkins and trees and crusting them with slime. Spreading throughout Hawkins like a virus, corrupting everything they touched.
Mike's jaw clenched as he took this place in. "Let's drench it," he said. For Will. For everyone the Upside Down had already killed or hurt. For Eleven and Steve and Alina and Bob and even the men in the lab who had perished. Gabe nodded, gritting his teeth, and he got to work, spraying the area with gasoline, so that the entire thing would go up in flames. The others got to work as well, drenching, as Mike so eloquently put, the slimy walls, until the entire area was filled with the stink of it.
Gabe had never liked the smell of gasoline before. But here, standing in the heart of the Hawkins rot, sweat glistening on his skin, he'd never smelled anything better. This was the smell of revenge, and as they said, it was very, very sweet.
They were halfway through their drenching process when Alina finally had enough. "Guys." Her voice was deeper than normal, and filled with something that was so un-Alina it made Gabe pause. It wasn't malice, exactly, but hints of it were there, and it drew his eyes to her immediately.
