Home Strangerthingau

Chapter 23

Where is She?

Hopper parked his car near the entrance of the building, in case he needed a quick get away. He turned to face all the older teenagers in the car with him. "Ready?" He asked catching their attention. Before they were focusing on the dark, almost eery building that held so many secrets, they didn't know if they wanted to find out.

The teens all nodded there heads in response knowing there was no going back. They all got out of the truck and met up with Joyce's group of kids.

"So, what's the plan, Hop?" Dustin asked as they started walking towards the entrance.

Hopper stopped walking and looked back at them. "Okay, here it is. Your party sticks together trying to find El in her designated room, okay? Joyce, I want you to stick with the kids, make sure they stay out of trouble. And the older ones will be looking at the closets, other rooms, basically anywhere you think El could be. I will be looking at the labs to see if they're doing any experiments on her. If anyone finds her radio the groups, and if you don't find anything, go back to the car wait. Everyone understand?"

Everyone mumbled their response and started to walk into the building. Immediately after they got in they scattered off in different directions, staying with their group. They dodged security and other workers in the area as they tried to blend in with the crowd around them.

The kids and Joyce walked quickly to the staircase, not even wanting to take the elevator. They looked at three different floors before deciding Eleven's room wasn't on the floors. They went to the fourth and last floor and immediately noticed the similarities to Hawkins lab. There were doors with numbers on them, only instead of having all the doors closed, only one was closed, 011.

As they made their way to the door, they noticed how all the other rooms looked abandoned, like El wasn't the only one that had escaped. Or maybe, the other kids met a different fate.

Joyce tried the handle of El's room, the door didn't budge.

"It's locked." She sighed looking back at the group.

"Here, let me try something." Max said grabbing a paper clip from her bag and shaping it to fit the lock.

After about thirty seconds of struggling with the lock, the door swung open to reveal an empty room.

"Shit." Joyce murmured under her breath. She looked back at Will who already had his walkie in hand. "Call Hop."

"Hopper, she's not in her room." Will called to the other radios.

"Alright," Hopper sounded disappointed. "Go back to the car and wait for everyone else to finishing looking."

Everyone followed his instructions, feeling as though they lost a battle. Hopefully, they didn't lose the war.

"Don't worry, we'll find here." Nancy comforted Jonathan after hearing the conversation on the radio. "It's a big lab, she's gotta be in here. We just have to keep looking."

Jonathan nodded turning the handle to yet another door to another room without El in it. "Where is she?" He thought aloud.

They were on the second floor out of four and they have looked in every room possible. Nancy could call herself a professional lock picker at this point. Everyone in the group has been looking through the rooms, getting them done quickly. And surprisingly, not fighting as much. As much is the big part of that sentence.

"You two look so cute together." Robin said to the couple, fully knowing that Nancy and Steve have had a previous relationship.

"Robin, shut up!" Steve hissed at her.