Chapter Text
It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Fuck. Steve didn't even really know how it happened in the first place. One moment, they were in the tunnels, the next the air had shifted, and then darkness had swallowed him and the kids. The next moment he opened his eyes, he saw flashes of red dance across a dark sky. Also, maybe even more distressingly, four faces were staring at him in concern.
“I told you,” Max hissed at the boys. “That was one hit too many! His brain is mush!”
“His brain isn't mush!” Dustin replied sharply, his voice rising impressively in pitch at the indignation. He almost felt touched by the offense the kid took on his behalf. Steve, however, had to agree with Max. At least he very much felt like his brain was mush. He felt disoriented and confused, and he had no fucking idea what even happened.
“Shut up,” He groaned to stop the bickering. The last thing he needed now was them bickering when his head was currently exploding. He realized that he was lying on the ground. The stone beneath him was frightfully cold. He tried sitting up, but his head was swimming.
“What happened? Where are we?”
The kids exchanged a worried glance, and he didn't like it one bit. “What’s the last thing you remember?” Mike asked.
“The tunnels,” he murmured. “We were in the tunnels, and the demodogs came running at us.” Again, the dweebs exchanged a look. That couldn't be good. “What?” He groaned. "What's wrong?”
“You don't remember what happened after?”
“What? No. Why? What happened?”
“The tunnels collapsed,” Lucas said, sounding almost a little detached as he recounted what happened. “We were running from the demodogs when it started, and then we were kinda - I don't know - sucked in.”
“Sucked in? How? Where?”
“Into the gate,” Dustin said, now sounding irritated that Steve had, apparently, such a hard time following. “We must have been closer to the lab and the gate than we thought, and when El closed it … it was like a vortex or a black hole or something, sucking us right in.”
“So … where are we?”
“On the other side.”
“The other side?” Steve parroted, panic turning his blood into ice in his veins. “Well … then we just … go through … the gate…”
Which was now closed. As he stared at the kids, he saw the same panic on their faces that he felt rising in his body.
-End of Chapter 1-