C H A P T E R T W O :
" THE PHONE CALL "
･ ｡ﾟ ⋆✩⋆ ･ ｡ﾟ
･ ｡ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ
| N O V E M B E R 22nd, 1986 |
K a m c h a t k a , R u s s i a
"Sir, they are ready to enter the gate."
The only man who could speak English in the lab besides the highest Dr. told his boss, anxious for his response as his Russian comrades stood in hazmats suits at the gate to the other dimension, awaiting their next order.
"Tell them to enter the gate."
The man of high prestige answered, he was of high rank as he ordered many men around as he stood in his lab coat clicking a pen in his hand—his white hair shimmered dully under the lights of the underground lab facility in which they were drilling a hole into the gate.
They were successful this time around, no thanks to Dr. Alexei's semi-decent attempt at opening the gate just 5 months prior.
The man of high rank observed his workers while he stood in the safety of the control room, admiring how well his plans had gone through with all his work being put into it for the past 3 years since he left his previous lab.
His previous lab and experiments were compromised due to many complications regarding his test subjects and children and two adults, yet he didn't want to give up his efforts just yet.
So when that tall, grimy, monster pounced on him in the hallway of that middle school 5 years ago, he survived due to his other men shooting the alien-like monster off him before it attacked the same men.
When the children that caused him complications ran off down the middle school hallway—carrying his most prized experimental child, he was furious.
He was left to die alone on the floor of that middle school, but not before he dragged himself to the nearest exit, leaving a blood trail from his wounds that led back to the government cars parked outside, and painfully drove himself away to the hospital.
"Dr. Brenner?"
The lab assistant interrupted his thoughts as the clicking of his pen became more aggressive from remembering his most valued experiment slipping though his fingers.
He noticed that little time had passed since the hazmat suited men entered the gate, and his attention was snapped to the assistant that just spoke to him.
"What is it?"
Dr.Brenner asked, noticing his assistant's anxious face as he held his clipboard, pointing through the glass of the control room to see the hazmat men that had entered the gate returned without the items that Brenner had ordered them to retrieve.
Instead, the hazmat men returned with two people that looked oddly familiar as they stood with their hands cuffed behind their backs, their faces dirtied and their ragged clothes looked to be Russian uniforms covered in a grimy slime.
Brenner watched as the lab security guards escorted the two people through the lab and towards the interrogation office downstairs, making Brenner unusually nervous at the fact that these newcomers looked so familiar.
He left his assistant to follow him closely at his heels, leading him to the elevator and down to the interrogation room, passing the security guards that stood by the heavy red metal door.
And as soon as Brenner swung the door open to reveal the father and daughter sitting handcuffed at the gray table in the room, his breath hitched for he knew exactly why they looked so familiar.
Hopper and Y/N.
| O n e M o n t h L a t e r |
D e c e m b e r 22nd, 1986
The lab was a rapidly approaching succession, with the lab men proudly reporting the stats on their findings in the Upside Down.
They retrieved few creature eggs from the Upside Down, and successfully raised them to their demogorgon stage of maturity, harboring the monsters in cages—ready to be fed the prisoners that were being kept by the lab as livestock for the monsters.
The lab had accumulated prisoners from trying to penetrate the lab, including two important prisoners—Hopper and Y/N.
"Ser, seychas vremya kormleniya. Kakiye konkretnyye zaklyuchennyye vy by khoteli otpravit' v kletki dlya kormleniya?"
The assistant asked his boss who was recording important data onto his record sheets.
Brenner thought for a moment, pausing his hand from writing and looked up at his Russian assistant.
"Not the Americans."
Brenner stayed simply, returning his attention to his work as he listened to his assistant speak through a radio earpiece to the guards downstairs.
The two Russian guards downstairs walked along the grated pathway to the prison cells, one of them stopping by a cell—about to open it before the other guard stopped him.
"Ne amerikantsy—.."
Not the Americans, the guard told his partner, but the other guard had already unlocked the door by accident, hearing the two prisoners inside the cell burst through the door, tackling the guards in a choke hold before making them pass out.
The two escapees—Hopper and Y/N— grabbed a hold of the guards' key cards and their guns, running towards the elevator down the gated hall that the guards had used to get down here, using the key cards to unlock it and allow them to be carried to the upper floors.
They had been planning this escape for the whole month they've been imprisoned here.
As soon the elevator door opened, the hallway leading to the radio signal room used to communicate with other countries was being guarded by other guards—that was, until Hopper yelled as he quickly used the stolen shotgun and killed all of them, hearing the bodies slump the the polished floor.
They both ran down the hall towards the radio room, which was the only room that had a strong enough signal to carry all the way back to: Hawkins.
Y/N closed the door behind her, locking it as Hopper tried signaling any radio channel that anybody in Hawkins could be able to hear.
Nothing worked at first, until Y/N spotted a lab phone on the wall.
Russian guards were yelling and pounding at the door—trying anything to get through.
Hopper followed her gaze to the phone, quickly lurching to spin the dial to call the first number that came to his mind : Murray's.
Hopper didn't know what to even tell him over the phone in case people were listening in to the line, so Hopper left a genetic message before the Russian guards burst through the door—and forcefully took Hopper and Y/N out of the room with guns pointed to their heads.
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| D E C E M B E R 22nd, 1986 |
C h i c a g o , I l l i n o i s
THE CHICAGO air was especially cold and snowy in the night as Will came back inside from trying to get a good walkie talkie signal, shivering as he closed the door behind him in their motel room.
Christmas was almost here, and he couldn't be more excited.
"Ugh, the losers or the party won't answer my signals."
Will complained, referring to his friends in Maine and the party in Hawkins.
"Why do you call them losers?"
Joyce asked, a small smile on her face as she saw Will become more flustered that his walkie wasn't working.
"Because, that's what they call their party—the losers."
Will stated simply, as if it were the most obvious thing.
He had made friends with that group of kids in Maine, and although they weren't like his party in Hawkins, they were still his friends.
"Okay Will, why don't you go pack up again? Jonathan left your suitcase in your room."
Joyce called out to Will as he passed the kitchen where she was warming up the chinese food in the microwave.
They had made a pit stop in Illinois to rest since they were driving on the road for so long.
And, it gave El a chance to see Kali again.
"Sure!"
Will was beyond excited to go to Hawkins to spend Christmas with the party, hoping to be able to pack as much games and toys as he could, while leaving room for his new things when Christmas would arrive.
It was then that Eleven entered through the front door as well, looking upset and frustrated as she always did but this time, it was because she came back from the practice without dried blood seeping from her nose.
She was quieter than usual, not wanted to confront the fact that she could be permanently stripped of her telekinetic abilities.
"Hey, honey. You wanna come and talk about your practice with Kali today?"
Joyce was very much aware of Eleven's struggles with her loss of Hopper and her loss of her powers, so she had stepped up as the mother figure in her life because El was practically like her daughter.
El looked down to her dirtied sneakers, almost ashamed that she had failed yet again.
"No."
Her voice was hoarse from her screaming when she was determined to channel her emotions to ignite her abilities, but alas, she had no such luck.
All she wanted was to be able to have that sense of security with her, like she could still protect her family and the party.
When they traveled on the road trip from Maine to Hawkins, they decided to make a rest stop in Illinois, giving El a chance to meet up with Kali and receive her guidance once again in hopes that her powers would resurface.
"Alright. Why don't you go pack up with Will? We leave again tomorrow morning."
Joyce offered, shrugging as she set the dinner plates topped with chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas.
El tilted her head at Joyce, before she walked to her shared bed with Will where she packed her clothes on top of her motel bed, listening to Jonathan talking to Nancy on the motel phone.
"Yeah, we're in a motel in Illinois right now. We just had to here to make a rest stop because we've been driving on the road from Maine for a long time. Yeah, we leave to drive to Hawkins tomorrow morning."
Jonathan was no doubt hogging the phone from anyone else's use, but he couldn't help but want to speak to Nancy the closer they got to arriving at Hawkins.
"Jonathan, my walkie isn't getting a good signal, you need to free up the line in case—.."
Will was trying to plead his brother to free the phone from his over talkative sibling, because he wanted to be able to receive calls from his friends in Maine or in case Mike or the party called him.
Jonathan just shooed his brother away, making Will roll his eyes as he looked at El with annoyance at his big brother.
El smiled, seeing Joyce come over to tap Jonathan on his shoulder before making him end the call with Nancy—earning her an angered son.
"Mom!"
"Jonathan, you've been hogging up the line, give Will a chance to talk to some of his friends!"
Joyce exclaimed, a playful smile on everyone's face except Jonathan's, who was already huffing and mumbling under his breath as he packed his clothes back into his suitcase.
As soon as the phone was hung up back onto the wall, Joyce walked back over to the small kitchen across the small motel room the family of 4 shared together to finish heating up the take-out food—right before the phone's rings echoed throughout the room again.
Will rolled his eyes, thinking it was just Nancy again and El giggled along side him, silently making fun of Jonathan as they all waited for the rings to stop—hoping that whoever was calling would just give up.
But the caller didn't give up.
"God, Nancy must really want to talk to you."
Will snickered, before Joyce hesitantly went to pick up the phone since Jonathan was being stubborn.
But right as Joyce has picked up the phone, the caller had hung up—sending Joyce straight to their generic and threatening voicemail that they had left her :
" Hello, you've reached the previous residence of Murray Bauman. If this is you, mom, please hang up and call between the hours we've previously discussed—remember I don't live here anymore !
But..if this is Joyce—Joyce Byers, I've got an update on something. Something big : about everything that happened a few months ago.
It isn't good, or bad, it's just something..
Call me back when you have the chance."
The voicemail ended and the line went dead as Joyce was left with her fist clenched around the handle of the pastel yellow telephone, knowing exactly what Murray was referring too.
She felt her heartbeat race at miles she didn't even know were possible.
"Holy shit.."
Joyce exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding, her voice urgent and pleading as she begun to breath heavily.
She couldn't wait much longer to speak with Murray, and what's even better, is that they just so happen to be in Illinois where Murray used to live.
"Mom? What's wrong?"
Will asked, walking towards Joyce with his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.
But Joyce was too anxious.
Her fingers worked rapidly to spin the dial on the phone to redial Murray's secluded number, holding the phone with both hands to her ear.
The phone rung a few times, giving Joyce the chance to see the piercing stares of the three kids in the small motel room—silently wishing she could have more privacy.
"Hello, who is this?"
The voice on the other end was in fact, Murray, but he didn't like that people knew his number now.
"Murray? This is Joyce! I just got your voicemail, and—.."
Joyce's frantic words were cut short by Murray's own sentences.
"Good, Joyce. I must tell you something but I can't tell you over the phone. We need to meet as soon as possible. It's urgent."
Murray declared, and Joyce's breathing quickened as she knew that she had enough time to go meet Murray before they left to go to Hawkins tomorrow morning.
"Y-Yeah, of course. Where?"
She sputtered out, carefully listening in through the line as Murray hesitated.
"Just meet me at my old residence. You know where it is, so get here soon."
Murray finished, the call soon going dead as the line was cut off by his phone being put back into the lock.
Joyce was left with the dead ringing line, frantically looking around the room for her keys.
"Mom? What's going on?"
Will asked, obviously concerned for his mom's jumpy and nervous behavior.
"Murray called. It's important."
Joyce answered simply, looking around the motel room for her key, lifting her hand high with victory as she found them—jingling them in between her fingers.
"I'll be back soon, okay? Jonathan, keep an eye on them, I'll only be gone an hour or two."
Joyce quickly grabbed her winter coat, slipping in her arms through the sleeves as she ordered that Jonathan was in charge.
"Don't leave this motel room, love you all."
Joyce quickly announced before she opened the motel door, and as soon as she did, she slammed it closed behind her.
She marched to her car in the wintry wind, sliding in the passenger seat as she started the car with a revving engine, pulling out and zooming down the freeway towards Murray's old residence.
She could only hope that he was referring to what she thought he was referring to.
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sorry about all those time skips and such—sorry if I confused you but it'll all make sense soon.. ;)
so.. will made friends with the losers :)
so..Brenner is alive, there's that.
any theories so far? any predictions?
thanks for reading.. stay tuned !!
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