The babysitters club|| Steve Harrington

23

"Holy shit"

Dustin whispered, which in Matteo's opinion captured the entire situation perfectly.

At first glance, the small room was nothing special— just a bunch of scientists gathered around consoles and talking among themselves. More Russian soldiers and Russian guards were stationed inside as well. Again, Matteo had a feeling that he had been teleported into one of the movies he loved to watch so much. The entire Russian bunker reminded him too much of the Death Star, and he really hoped Darth Vader wasn't on board.

Looking past just the initial control/ observation room though, lay something even worse.

The control room had glass walls that looked into an even larger room, ten times the size of the Hawkins High gym.

The worst of all though was a machine in the middle of this large room, vaguely resembling a canon. Electricity crackled on its surface, the mechanical rings seemed to move in circles buzzing with power as men in hazmat suits pushed canisters of the green goo in the side of the machine.

In truth, it looked unstable. Like one wrong touch and it would start shooting laser blasts everywhere. But it only blasted a beam of pure white energy, aimed straight at a pulsing rift in the wall or at least Matteo thought it was a wall. It looked too much like actual flesh, like a cut on the body of a huge beast.

The beam of energy hit the rift right in the middle and a cracking noise washed over all of them, even through the glass and the doors. The cut shrieked as cracks spread across the flesh wall.

Matteo reached for Robin's hand, threading his fingers through hers. His eyes wide in horror as he stared straight ahead, unable to blink.

A wave of pure fear and panic washed over him, like someone had stolen the very breath from his lungs.

They were just four teenagers and a ten year old in a Russian bunker who bit off more than they could chew. There was no way they stood a chance against something like this. His jaw went slack, his throat suddenly dry. His stomach contracted into a tight ball.

The only thing Matteo could hear was his own blood rushing in his ears and his heavy breathing. His friends weren't any better. He wanted to protect Erica and Dustin from whatever this thing was. If he was terrified, he couldn't imagine what the two of them must have thought.

"You know" Robin breathed out shakily, a pint of blood had drained from her face. She stared at the rift in the wall "It kind of looks like a va-"

"Robs I love your dirty jokes and I really appreciate you trying to lift the mood" Matteo glared at her, "But, this is not the time, what the fuck is that?"

Steve and Dustin shared a look of understanding, "The gate" They said in unison. They did that a lot.

Steve and Dustin didn't wait to explain, just raced out of the room and back down the stairs. The fear had paralyzed Matteo, but he shook his head and followed the two, pulling Robin and Erica behind him.

Their feet thundered down the steps as they walked back into the comms room. Anywhere was better than what they had just seen.

"I don't understand" Robin stared at the two, "You've seen this before?"

"Not exactly," Steve shrugged.

"Then what exactly?" Matteo tried to push down his panic. They needed to get out of there, as fast as possible. They never should have gone up there, just taken a key card and gone back to the surface, told the proper authorities about this stuff and went back to their blissfully unaware lives.

Instead they were still stuck down here, the Russians had something that looked slightly like a nuclear weapon and they were just teenagers playing heroes.