July 2nd, 1985

Starcourt Mall

"Erica, what are you doing here?" I questioned, exiting the break room and approaching the girl that stood in front of the counter. "Figured you be with your boyfriend. You are one bad babysitter." She complained, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as she stared up at me.

"I thought Lucas was supposed to be watching you today." I inquired. "You just took the bus down here? By yourself? Erica, you can't just do that."

"Erica can do whatever she wants. Especially when her two bad babysitters leave her at home alone." She stated before turning back to the Robin who now stood behind the counter. "My regular. And she'll be paying."

Dustin quickly rushed out of the break room, stopping Robin from making the ice cream. "What if we were to say we have a proposition for you?" He questioned her with a sweet grin.

"I'd say, what's in it for me?" Erica questioned, looking intrigued yet annoyed by the lack of ice cream.

"How about we tell you once you see what it is you'll be doing?" Robin questioned the girl with a frown, debating her idea in her head.

I wanted so badly to call off the plan, we couldn't just endanger Erica like this. But I knew the other three would stop at nothing to get into that room and so far... This was the safest and somehow smartest way.

~~~

"Yeah, I don't know." Erica spoke slowly as she climbed off of the ladder we had placed in front of the vent. "You don't know if you can fit?" I questioned hopefully but the girl quickly scoffed at the question.

"Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to." She stated simply as she leaned over the table.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Robin questioned her, as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't have phobias." Erica informed us, much to our annoyance, she wasn't budging.

"Okay, well, what's the problem?" Steve questioned her. "The problem is, I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica." She stated, slamming her hand on the table for emphasis.

"Knew this was a bad idea..." I mumbled to Steve and Robin. "You know there's only one thing she cares about. Can you guys do it?" I questioned the two, knowing exactly what would make Erica budge.

"I mean..." Robin turned to Steve who held his hands up out of disbelief that she was actually considering the idea. "We can't just give out product." Steve groaned as he thought over the plan.

~~~

"It's the right thing..." I mumbled to Steve as he placed the final waffle cone on the banana split boat. "I hope." I added slowly, before taking the tenth ice cream Erica had requested from him.

Walking back to the table Erica, Dustin, and Robin sat at, I slid the ice cream across the table and towards her.

"How about now?" I questioned her as Steve stopped beside me.

Sliding the ice cream back across the table, Erica smirked at Steve and me. "I'd say, more fudge." She stated before waving her hand at Steve. "Go on." She whispered much to his annoyance.

Biting his lip to hold in his anger, I patted the poor guy on the shoulder as he took the ice cream off of the table and went to remake it again.

"All right. You see this?" Robin questioned the girl as she pulled out the blueprint to the air ducts, moving her finger along the red line she had drawn. "This is the route you're gonna take." She explained simply. "Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door."

"Then you find out what's in those boxes?" Erica added with a quirked brow as she toyed with the straw in her rootbeer float. "Exactly."

Erica hummed before turning to me. "And you say this guard is armed?" She questioned me. "Yes, but he won't be there." I informed her softly. "And booby traps?" She questioned.

"I'm sorry? Booby traps?" I asked her confused as to why there would be traps in the room. "Lasers, spikes in the wall?" She inquired, causing the three of us to laugh at the idea, annoying her extremely.

"You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment." She threatened with a pointed glare.

Shaking my head quickly, I held up Dustin and I's walkies. "We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time--" I tried to explain to her but she quickly cut me off. "Ah, ah, ah! Child endangerment." She shouted, getting shushed quickly by Dustin. "Erica? Hi, um..." He started slowly as she glared at him.

"We think these Russians want to harm our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" He questioned her, causing her to look down at her float. "You can't spell "America" without Erica." She stated before taking a long sip out of her empty cup.

"Uh, yeah... Oddly, that's totally true." Dustin mumbled as he thought over the fact. "So, so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country." She continued her slurping through Dustin's speech. "Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America... Erica."

Placing the cup on the table, a shiver passed through Erica as she took a moment of silence. "Ooh! I just got chills." She started with a wide grin, giving Dustin some hope, it shining in his eyes. "Oh, yeah, from this float, not your speech." She stated.

"You know what I love most about this country?" She questioned, lacing her hands together in front of her. "Capitalism." Not a shocker. "Do you know what capitalism is?" She questioned us as if we were the children in this situation.

"Yeah." We all mumbled in response. "It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all." She continued to further explain. "So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life."

I turned to Robin with a frown. "Guess I'll be getting a credit card after all." I mumbled sadly.

~~~

We waited until the final shipment of boxes arrived before hiding out on the roof and sending Erica through the vents, a walkie strapped to her chest for comms.

"All right, nerds." Erica's voice drifted through the old walkie as I held it tightly in my hand. "I'm there."

"Do you see anything?" I questioned her as I held the walkie close to my face as we looked down at the locked door, luckily no guards were in sight.

"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about." She started. "Any guards?" I questioned her nervously. "Negative."

"Booby traps?" I questioned jokingly to tease the girl. "If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps. Wouldn't they?" Rolling my eyes at the girl I responded with, "Thank you for that."

Kicking in the grate, Erica jumped from the vent and into the mysterious, locked room. "I'm in." She called out before pressing a button to open the door for them.

"Thank God..." Steve mumbled as he ran a hand through his hair, having obviously been holding in his anxiety for the young girl.

"Free ice cream for life." She stated happily as she walked out of the room.

Grinning down at the girl, we all stood from our spots on the roof, quickly running to the ladder that led down the building.

"Great job, Erica. Your country thanks you." Dustin started as he walked past her and into the room. "Did I miss something?" Steve questioned, looking over at me confused. "She did that for our country and ice cream." I stated simply before entering the room as well.

The room wasn't that exciting. With bland, cold, grey walls and filled with boxes for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes. Nothing was exactly out of the ordinary.

Shutting the doors behind us, Robin gestured to one of the Imperial Pandas boxes. "We gotta open at least one of them." She states, grabbing a box cutter from off of one of the shelves.

Taking the box cutter from her hands, Steve quickly opened the cardboard box to find... Another box. This one was metal with a pressure lock on the top of it.

"Do we open it?" I questioned as I looked over at Dustin, Steve, and Robin, who nodded slowly and fearfully.

Unlocking the lid to the box, the air hissed out of it as smoke seemed to flowed out of the now opened space. Inside the metal box were four more pressure locks, connecting to what we assumed to be tubes or vials.

"That's definitely not Chinese food..." Steve muttered before placing one of his hands over the lock. "Um... maybe you guys should, you know, stand back." Steve instructed, waving the four of us away from him.

The other three quickly backed away but I stayed firmly in my spot. "No." I stated. "Just step back." It wasn't a request, it was a demand. "No." I stated again, this time more forcefully. "Please, seriously." "No! If you die, I die." I stated firmly before nodding for him to open the lock.

"Okay..." He whispered, looking between me and the contents of the metal box before slowly unlocking it and pulling the vial out of its slot, the room shaking as he did so.

"What is that?" I questioned, taking a closer look at the green substance that seemed to glow from inside the tube. But Dustin was more distracted by the room rather than the vial. "Was that just me, or did the room move?" He questioned before quickly walking over to the control panel that controlled the door.

"Booby traps." Erica whispered as the room began to shake again. "You know what? Let's just grab that and go." Robin stated, pulling the vial out of Steve's hand and placing it in her bag as Dustin slammed his finger on one of the buttons while Steve continued to unlock more vials.

"Which one do I press, Erica?" Dustin questioned, grabbing all of our attention as he continued to slam his finger into the button. "Just press the damn button, nerd." She stated.

"Which one? I'm pressing the button, okay? It's not opening--" "Press "open door"!" She yelled at him. "I am pressing "open door"!"

"Just open the-- press the other button." Steve cut himself off as he walked away from the box of vials and toward the control panel.

"No, guys just get out of the way so she can push the button--" Robin tried to stop Steve as he slammed his hand against the control panel and over the other buttons, while Dustin tried pushing his hand away. "Would you stop and just let me do it?" Steve groaned as he pushed Dustin away, pressing all the buttons on the panel.

"Just open the door!" Robin yelled at the boys just as Steve hit the wrong button, a door closing down over our only way out of the room.

That's when the lights in the room began to flicker on and off, before the room began to shake violently, boxes fell over and none of us could stand up straight as we clung to the table and shelves around us.

I felt Steve quickly wrap an arm around me to keep me in place as the room continued to shake, looking through the cracks of the wall, I found that the room wasn't just shaking, it was moving down. Because it wasn't a room at all. It was an elevator.

"Oh shit." Steve mumbled as he too looked over the wall, his grip tightening on me as the elevator showed no signs of stopping any time soon.