Stranger Things

Kamchatka, Russia

August 6th 1986

A man walks through a row of cells, eager to get his work done. Today should be the day, he thinks. The day the American will finally become useful.

He finally reaches the door to the American, unlocks it and opens the door, revealing the shadow of a man. He has a beard, a familiar figure, and is sunken into himself on the floor.

Several stories below, a group of men stand around a machine. A beam of light leads to an opening in the wall.

A new gate.

Auburn, Maine

August 6th, 1986

Eleven woke up with a start, sitting straight up and breathing heavily.

She had been having this vague dream for a while now. It was always the same. A bright light, unfamiliar men’s faces, and the shadow of a man she couldn’t see.

It was always the same, and left her nervous and afraid.

A light snore beside her pulled her away from her confusion.

“Mike,” she whispered. “Mike!”

“Wha-?” Mike mumbled, lifting his head.

“Come on, you have to get out of my bed before Joyce checks on us,” El told him, pushing him back towards his sleeping bag on the floor.

It had been a compromise. El didn’t understand why Joyce didn’t want them to sleep in the same bed. She knew it was something to do with boys and girls, but it still confused her. They had settled on allowing him to sleep on the floor with the door open. 3 inches. Joyce had said that it was a boundary, a word which El hadn’t yet had time to look up.

Mike groaned as he moved down onto the floor. He was snoring again before his head even hit the pillow.

El looked at the clock. It was 5:49 am.

She laid back down for a few moments before deciding that she wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep.

El went to the kitchen, and began to make coffee. It was a habit she had started after Hopper’s death, it reminded her of him. A comforting smell.

“Couldn’t sleep?” a voice behind her said.

She turned to see Joyce leaning on the doorway.

“I had that weird dream again,” El told her.

Joyce walked over, pulling out ingredients for breakfast.

“Do you think it could mean something?” El asked her.

“What? Like a vision?”

“Yeah, I mean, it feels... important,” El said, sipping on her coffee.

“But you haven’t had any powers for over a year,” Joyce started cooking bacon.

“I know, but—“

“El, I think you should stop worrying so much and enjoy this week with Mike because you won’t be able to see him until maybe thanksgiving. There’s nothing to worry about. Okay?”

“Okay...”

“Dustin, do you copy?”

“Dustin! Do. You. Copy?”

“Dustin!”

Dustin rolled over forgetting where he was, reaching for his walkie, only to realize that the voice wasn’t coming from his walkie. It was coming from his Cerebro.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes and pressed the button to answer.

“Yes, I copy. Sorry I fell asleep calling Suzie last night,” he said.

“Aw did you sing her the song?” Lucas teased. “Turn around, look at what you see——“

“Please stop, okay? It’s getting old,” Dustin complained.

“Oh no, Dustybun!” Max’s voice chimed in, “I don’t think it’s getting old at all!”

“Enough, guys. If you don’t stop, I’m gonna turn it off. What did you want?”

“We wanted to go to the arcade. You in?” Lucas asked.

“Meet you there in 15?”

“See you then.”

“So things still been quiet back in Hawkins?” Jonathan asked.

“Yeah, not much has happened since you left. Nobody’s been going missing or getting lost in other dimensions,” Nancy said half-joking, half-serious.

They were in Jonathan’s bedroom, getting ready to go eat breakfast.

“I just—“ Nancy began, but hesitated. “I just feel like we’re missing something. I mean, the gate is closed. El is safe, but her powers still haven’t come back. Everything’s just too perfect... like it’s tied up in a neat little bow.”

“Have you ever maybe stopped to think, that maybe, possibly... it’s over. Like, we get to be normal people again,” Jonathan suggested.

“Is it ever, though? Even if nothing ever happens...”

“You’re still paranoid. But whatever happens, if anything, we will stick together. All of us. Okay?” Jonathan told her.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right.”

“Let’s go get breakfast.”

Steve was stacking movies for the fourth time today, when he heard a familiar voice enter through the back door.

“Hey, dingus, save anything for me to do or are you being a gentleman again?” Robin asked as she situated herself at the counter.

“Are you kidding? I left you that huge pile of movies that some kid knocked over earlier,” Steve pointed at a tipped over shelf.

“Well thank you for that, dingus,” Robin went over to the shelf and began picking up the movies. “Will we be seeing your children today?”

“Probably.. it’s like if they don’t see me for too long, they burst an aneurysm,” Steve joked.

Then a bell above the door rang, and Steve looked up to see Dustin’s smiling face. “Speak of the devil...” he mumbled.

“Steve! We were heading to the arcade, but wanted to stop in and see if you were able to score us a couple more...” Dustin lowered his voice, “R rated movies.”

Steve rolled his eyes, but motioned for him to follow. He took them back to a storage closet, where he hid a few movies for the kids now and then.

“The Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Breakfast Club. Awesome! Thanks Steve!”

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t let Keith catch you with those,” Steve told Dustin as he threw the movies into his backpack.

Dustin ran off to the arcade, leaving Steve and Robin to work.

“It felt so real, like, I was actually there... and it looked... it looked like the void...” El spoke softly, her bedroom door firmly shut as she told Mike and Will about her dream.

“And you’ve had this dream before?” Mike asked.

“Yes. Always the same. Joyce thinks it’s just a dream, but... I’m not so sure...”

“El,” Will began, “when was the last time you actively tried to use your powers?”

El thought for a moment before answering, “A while, maybe a month... I haven’t been able to do anything.”

“Well...” Will thought, “what if we tried stuff to make your powers come back?”

“Like the sensory deprivation tank!” Mike suggested excitedly.

“Do you think it’d actually work?” El asked them.

“We won’t know unless we try...” Will said.

“Okay,” El agreed.

“Okay, we need to go buy some supplies... I definitely don’t know where that kiddie pool ended up,” Will said as he left the room.

El turned to Mike, who was sitting beside her on the bed. “What if they never come back? What if I’m stupid for even getting my hopes up?”

“El, you are not stupid. It doesn’t matter if you have powers. You’re amazing either way. I love you either way,” Mike said, grabbing her hand.

El smiled at him. “I love you too,” she said.

She leaned up and kissed him, but before their kissing could get very far, Will walked back in.

“Oh god, you guys are STILL super gross. Come on, the store’s only a couple streets away.”

The lab had been closed for nearly two years now, so getting back in had been easy. And it was clear that it had been done before, if the shattered windows were any indication.

A man stepped through the threshold of building, taking in the abandoned surroundings. There was a lot of dust, a few odds and ends left to never be used again, and there were several spots where dried blood could still be seen.

The man walked through the halls, looking for anything that could be of use to him. A few moments later, he was standing in front of a cemented-over wall. The gate.... or what was left of it. Completely sealed.

That meant she had been here.

At least once since that night.

The night he “died”.

Or so everyone thought.

Martin Brenner turned back around. What he was looking for was not here... but she couldn’t hide forever.

“Go! Go! Go! NO!!” Dustin yelled as his game of Dig Dug ended just short of beating Max’s high score.

“Face it, Dustybun. I am the queen of Dig Dug and you will never be able to beat my scores,” she boasted from beside him.

Dustin whined for a moment. “Well, I’m out of quarters.”

“Me too, let’s go,” Lucas said, grabbing Max’s hand.

The three walked outside to their bikes, removing them from their racks.

A loud screeching sound caught Dustin’s attention, as he got on his bike. He turned his head to look and what he saw caused his blood to run cold.

“Guys…” he said to the get the others’ attention. “Is that a…?”

“Hawkins Power and Light,” Lucas read off the white van as it passed.

Dustin and Lucas shared panicked looks, before jumping on their bikes and taking off towards the same direction the van had gone.

Max shouted in confusion, “Guys! What’s going on?!” When she didn’t receive an answer, she mounted her bike and began to pedal quickly to keep up with them.

They followed the van out to Maple Avenue, where it stopped in the Wheelers’ driveway.

“Over here,” Lucas directed them towards his own house, which had a pretty good view of Mike’s. They stashed their bikes in the grass and hid behind the bushes in the front yard to get a clearer view.

A man with white hair stepped out of the van, causing Dustin to swear and Lucas’ eyes to widen. Because, after all this time, the bad man, Papa was still very much alive… and still looking for Eleven.

They listened in fear as Dr. Brenner spoke with Karen Wheeler. They just hoped that she wouldn’t give away Mike’s location.

“And you’re sure your son hasn’t heard from her?” Brenner asked.

“Well, it’s so hard to keep track of what he gets up to these days. He has so many friends. In fact, he’s off visiting a couple of friends in Maine right now,” Karen laughed.

“Maine… where in Maine?” Brenner pried.

“Hm… I can’t quite remember. I can call and find out if you like…”

“No, that won’t be necessary. Thank you for your help,” Brenner turned and got back into the van.

Lucas and Dustin waited, holding their breath until the van was gone, before thoroughly freaking out.

“This is bad. This is really bad.”

“You don’t know that. She didn’t tell him the name of the town they’re in.”

“Maine isn’t that big of a state. He’ll probably search for them in a phone book or something and be able to find them!”

“Hey!” Max yelled, interrupting the two boys. “Would someone explain to me who that was and why we’re so paranoid about it!”

“That was El’s papa,” Lucas told her. “The bad man I told you about. He’s looking for El.”

“He can’t find her though, right? I mean, Lucas is right… he doesn’t know the exact town…” Max said, but she still looked nervous, like she didn’t fully believe that El was safe.

“We have to tell Steve. He’s the only one in Hawkins that can help us right now,” Dustin replied. “We have to make sure Brenner doesn’t find El.”

……..

Nancy perched herself on the counter of the little fishing shop that Jonathan worked at, swinging her legs and talking to him whenever there were no customers… which was pretty much most of the time.

“Sorry I couldn’t get off of work. It’s not exactly romantic to sit around in a fishing shop all day, while sweaty men come in to talk to us,” Jonathan apologized.

“It’s okay, I know you need the money… besides, we’ll have plenty of time at college to go on dates and do normal couple things,” Nancy smiled at him. In just a few short weeks they were headed for New York City. Jonathan at NYU and Nancy at Columbia.

Jonathan smiled.

“Can I ask you something?” Nancy suddenly said.

“Sure… what?”

“I know you told me to stop being so paranoid all the time and to drop it… but… haven’t you ever just had this gut feeling that told you that you were right, even when you had no proof or anything to show for it?” Nancy asked.

“I guess… but I usually am more guarded when it comes to gut feelings… For instance, with Will I denied that he was still alive even though my mom kept telling me he was.”

“Well, my gut feeling is telling me that something is off… I can’t explain it.. it’s just like… I look at the way things ended and it feels like it could be over, but I just keep thinking…”

“Thinking what?” Jonathan asked.

“I keep thinking about the Russians. If they knew how to open a gate here, why couldn’t they do the same thing somewhere else? If they’ve done it once, they could do it again… but this time, not in Hawkins.” Nancy looked up at Jonathan, hoping for some guidance.

“I mean, as much as I hope that’s not true. It does make sense,” Jonathan admitted. “Maybe we could do some research of our own. Just to see if any gates have been opened up anywhere else.”

“Is there a library nearby?” Nancy asked.

……..

Will, Mike, and Eleven returned to the Byers’ house with a pair of goggles, duct tape, thermometer, and as much salt as they could afford.

Mike turned the water on in the bathtub, and began to test the temperature to get it to the exact amount of warmth. Will was in the kitchen assembling the makeshift blindfold out of the goggles and duct tape, while El sat on the floor of the bathroom watching Mike. She was nervously fidgeting with her bracelet.

“Hey,” Mike said, sensing his girlfriend’s nervousness. “It’s gonna be okay. I know the bath makes you nervous, but I’ll be here the whole time. The whole time.”

“Promise?” El asked, turning her brown eyes on him.

“Promise,” Mike said lightly touching her cheek with his hand.

El gave a small smile and nodded, trying to calm herself.

Will walked in then, handing El her goggles. All three teens began pouring bags of salt into the bathtub until the egg from the fridge was floating perfectly in it.

Mike turned to El and grabbed her hand. “You ready?”

El took a deep breath before meeting his eyes and nodded. She stood up, stepped into the bath and lied down.

At first, there was nothing but the sound of silence as El laid in the warm salt water. Mike and Will waited with baited breath, hoping that something, anything would happen.

“It’s been almost twenty minutes already,” Mike whispered. “Should she get out?”

“I don’t know,” Will shrugged, looking at El, who hadn’t moved.

……..

“I just don’t understand why we can’t just call El and tell her what’s going on,” Max said as she put her bike in the rack.

“Because, Max, they could be listening,” Dustin told her.

Max, Dustin, and Lucas walked into the movie store, desperate to find Steve.

“Steve!” Dustin shouted.

Steve and Robin were both at the counter, looking bored, as it was a fairly slow day.

“What’s going on?” Steve asked, seeing the kids’ nervous eyes.

“We’ve got a code red. El’s papa is back, and he knows that Mike went to visit someone in Maine. He’s going to find her if we don’t stop him!”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down!” Steve told them. “Where is he at?”

The kids didn’t know, but agreed that they should find out right now. Steve and Robin gave Keith an excuse as to why they had to leave right this second, and met the kids outside. They all piled into Steve’s car and set off on a mission to find Dr. Brenner.

……..

Nancy ran into the library with Jonathan trying to keep up. She quickly found newspaper records from all over the country and began to leaf through them.

Jonathan joined her search. “What exactly are we looking for?”

“Anything that has to do with MKUltra or mind control experiments, maybe even missing kids?” Nancy told him, not looking up from the newspapers.

They searched for what felt like forever, and were able to find a few leads.

“Okay, we have seven different locations where MKUltra was running experiments...” Nancy said, reading through the newspapers. “Four of them have been completely shut down by the government, including Hawkins Lab, and the other three are still in use.”

“Well, where are they?” Jonathan asked.

“Um... Ohio, New York, and...” Nancy looked at the paper nervously before looking up at Jonathan, “....here.”

Jonathan stared back at her in shock.

El had been in the bath for an hour.

“Mom will be coming home from work soon... if she sees this, she’ll be mad,” Will whispered.

Mike nodded, and squeezed El’s hand that he had been holding.

“El?”

El didn’t move, and Mike began to panic.

“El?!” he said, sitting up and lightly touching her face to get her attention.

It was then that the lights went out, making Mike and Will both freeze in anticipation.

A few moments pass by in silence. But then, El was sitting up out of breath reaching for Mike, who hugged her as she caught her breath.

“El, what happened?” he asked her.

“I saw it again. My dream. But it was brighter this time. I think it’s real. I think it’s happening... but I couldn’t see anything new,” El said.

“El...” Mike began, “your nose.”

A small trail of blood was falling from her nostril. El wiped it onto her hand and looked up at Mike, who was smiling at her.

“Your powers are coming back,” Mike said.

Will grinned too, making El feel excited. Maybe they were finally coming back.

“What is he doing? What is he doing?” Dustin kept asking.

“I don’t know! Shut up!” Steve snapped, as he looked through the binoculars.

They were parked across the street from the only hotel in Hawkins, where Dr. Brenner was talking to someone they couldn’t recognize in the parking lot. They had been there for a long time and it was starting to get dark.

“I just wanna see!” Dustin whined from the backseat of Steve’s car.

“No! I told you, I’m in charge!”

“Both of you shut up!” Robin shouted, grabbing the binoculars out of Steve’s hands and looking through them.

“He’s getting back into that van,” she told them.

“We have to follow him,” Lucas said.

“Guys, we have to work tomorrow, and none of your parents know where you are,” Steve told them.

“So?” Max challenged. “It’s not like we all haven’t been MIA before, our parents won’t get worried.”

“Okay, okay, fine,” Steve conceded as he started the car back up.

Joyce walked through the hallway, checking up on the kids before heading off to bed. Jonathan and Nancy were asleep on top of the covers of his bed, Will was cuddled up in his blanket in his own room. Joyce walked to Eleven’s door, seeing that it was 3 inches open as promised, but Mike was in her bed with her. Joyce didn’t have the heart to wake them up and tell them to move. She knew they were good kids.

She finally made it to her own bedroom, sitting on the bed and reaching into her nightstand for her cigarettes. Just like every night before, she caught a glimpse of Hopper’s badge sitting beside the carton. She felt her eyes fill with tears as she let herself think about him. They had been so close. So close to getting to be together.

She shut the stand and laid down in her bed, facing the window as she watched the rain begin to spray the glass.

……..

Thousands of miles away and several miles beneath Kamchatka, Russia, the soldier we saw earlier is walking his captive to an interrogation room, where the captive is sat down, handcuffed to his chair, and given a single cigarette.

The American takes the cigarette, puffs on it, and coughs.

“So… are we ready to talk today?” the soldier asks in a thick Russian accent.

Hopper takes another puff of his cigarette and smiles weakly. “No,” he says.