end zone | STEVE HARRINGTON

twenty-seven

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - S E V E N

season 3 episode 7

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ANASTASIA AND THE TWO CHILDREN SHARED A CONFUSED glance as they looked over at Robin and Steve. They were clearly not acting normal or even human at that point, which concerned her even more as they had clearly been injected with something. However, she pushed aside her worry and continued following behind Dustin as she held onto Steve who was muttering incoherent things under his breath. They sprinted down the hallways until they reached their cart.

Anastasia jumped into the back to help stabilize the two, as Erica and Dustin got up front with the latter driving. Dustin was going quick around the corners, which led to Steve saying. "Jesus, slow down!"

Robin slurred. "Yeah, what is this, like, the Indy 500?"

"It's the Indy 300."

"No dingus, it's 500!"

"It's 300!" Steve said, holding up three of his fingers.

Anastasia rolled her eyes, already tired of their childish behavior. "Let's say a million, and leave it at that."

They laughed at Anna's words, falling back as Anna stuck her head over to Erica's side, momentarily scaring the two of them as she asked. "Do you think they were given alcohol or just some weird drug. Like, what is wrong with them?"

"I don't know!" Dustin responded, just before Erica could warn him, Dustin ended up crashing into some metal cylinders, which at the moment left Anastasia feeling out of luck. Because the crash was of fast impact, and Steve and Robin weren't trying to protect themselves, they had been flung into the back, hitting their heads off the metal as Anna held in her laugh at them.

Dustin went around to get them with Erica in tow, as he released the lock holding the trio in place. Anna was glad she was able to now stretch her legs out after being in an uncomfortable position for most of the night. Dustin rushed them inside the elevator, and seconds later they were going back up again. Anastasia held in the sick rising to her throat and instead focused on the fact that Robin and Steve were acting as though they were surfers.

"They seem drunk." Erica said.

"Why would they be drunk?" Dustin asked in utter disbelief, even though he couldn't figure out the cause for their childish behavior.

"Wipeout!" Robin announced, holding out her hands almost as though she was on a TV show.

The sober three of the group, moved towards Steve, Dustin informed them that he was still awake by prodding him and shaking his head. He cupped his hand over Steve's forehead, telling them that he was burning up, which Steve replied with something cocky and sarcastic.

"His pupils are super dilated." Dustin also added on, after forcing Steve's eyes to open.

Anastasia rolled her eyes, stepping closer so that she was able to see. She took notice of his dilated, swollen eyes that made her worry. Steve leaned forward, placing a very sloppy kiss on her cheek as she pushed his face away. She giggled to herself. "They are high."

"Steve," Dustin got his attention by slapping his cheek. "Are you drugged?"

"How many times, Dad?" Steve groaned, booping Dustin's nose with his finger. "I don't do drugs, it's only marijuana."

"This isn't funny, okay? I need to know what they did to you." Dustin said in a serious tone, "Are you gonna die on us?"

"Better not." Anastasia rolled her eyes.

She checked over Robin, finding her in the same position as she noticed the small hole on the side of their neck. "They'll be fine. Fill them up with food, they'll throw up. Now please can we go, I need to see El and my dad."

Dustin nodded as the elevator doors opened and they stepped out. Anastasia let out a breath of relief as she felt the air hit her skin, reminding her that she was free. They quickly checked that the not so sober members of the group had followed them and were behind but frowned when they saw their mouths open and tilted up to the sky as they 'tasted the air'.

"Stop!" The sounds of guards calling them out caused the three to stop walking. They had no where left to run too, so they rushed into the back entrance of the mall making sure that the door was locked so they weren't able to get in. Anastasia recognized the route as the one they took to also sneak into movies, and she was glad they had done it so now they knew the way back.

Anastasia gripped onto Steve's hand, afraid of letting him go in case he ventured off somewhere else. She gagged when she saw him take out a bag of popcorn from the bin and put some into his mouth. Erica, Dustin and Anna pushed them into the front seats where there were thankfully space for them to sit.

"Dude, these seats blow." Steve complained, as he put more popcorn into his mouth.

"Then don't watch the movie." Dustin suggested, he lowered his voice so that they weren't gaining any unwanted attention.

"But we wanna watch it!" Robin scoffed.

"Then watch it!" Dustin ended up yelling, receiving someone to shush at him. Anna glared at him, as he cowered back into his seat when the other two walked away to go and find another place to sit. They grimaced when they saw the three empty seats at the end of the row, and made their way over when someone's hand clasped around Anna's wrist.

"Don't go." Steve pouted, "Sit with me, it can be like when we do it your house."

"No, now shut up and watch the movie." Anastasia told him, she pushed past and sat beside Erica who didn't even glance at her.

"Okay, it's official." Dustin sighed, "I'm never having kids."

"What are we even doing here?" Erica asked, eating some popcorn that wasn't hers.

Dustin shrugged. "We're laying low. Cooling off. Like Oswald."

"Oswald was found in a theatre and shot to death."

"A week later." Dustin commented.

Erica sighed. "The point is, his plan didn't work."

"Only because it was a setup."

Anastasia blocked out their conversation and focused on the movie. She was trying her best to ignore the feeling she had in her gut that something was going terribly wrong, which left her too feel scared for her sister and dad.

"We need to get outta here." Erica commented, which Anastasia agreed with.

"All right, you two watch Tweedle-dee and Tweedledum. Make sure they don't go anywhere." Dustin instructed them.

"Where are you going?" Anna questioned him curiously.

"To find us a ride." Dustin answered, grabbing his walkie as he quietly left the theatre.

Erica and Anna looked over at Robin and Steve, rolling their eyes when they saw the two of them muttering questions to each other whilst stuffing their faces with the popcorn.

Dustin finally arrived back, asking for more batteries which they didn't have and growing more frustrated by that since they had everything but batteries. That's when something caught his attention and he looked over to where Robin and Steve were supposed to be sitting. "Where....are they?"