Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

Welcome to your life

There's no turning back

- Tears for Fears

One thing movies and TV had not exaggerated about: It was damned cold in Russia. Which was where Joyce had to assume they were. They tried to get Yuri to confirm it for them, but he wasn't feeling particularly chatty, now that they had dragged him to a tree and tied him up.

Joyce huddled over a small fire in the relative shelter of the downed plane while she waited for Murray. He had agreed to go off on a scouting mission with less than his usual number of complaints, still on a high from his defeat of Yuri in the plane. But Joyce hated sitting there and waiting with nothing to do but stare at her watch and worry.

When he finally showed up, she frowned at him, although she was too cold and too miserable and too scared to get really angry. "You said an hour."

"I underestimated." He sank gratefully down next to the warmth of the fire.

"I thought you were dead." She hadn't really—Murray was kind of like a cockroach, basically unkillable—but she had definitely worried about something else terrible happening to him, leaving her stranded here alone in this frozen wilderness with only Yuri for company.

"Might as well be. We are truly in hell—if hell froze over. There's nothing south, but two miles north I saw some smoke. Could be a town, could be a house. Maybe somebody there knows where we can find this prison."

"The top-secret prison," Joyce reminded him. "Really?"

"Right. Any luck with our friend?" He gestured toward Yuri.

"What do you think?"

Murray chuckled and continued to warm himself. Once he felt like the circulation had returned freely to his fingers and toes, they got up together and went to try their luck with Yuri one more time.

They gathered their bags, too, and put out the fire. It was time to stop sitting next to this plane and get moving.

As they approached the tree where they had tied their former pilot, Murray called out, "Hey! Dipshit!" He knelt in front of Yuri and removed the gag they had tied over his mouth. "We're outta here. Last chance. Where's the prison?"

Joyce sighed and shook her head. Like she hadn't already tried this.

"I told you," Yuri said. "Yuri will help you for the right price."

"I told you we're wasting our time."

"Half," Murray said.

Equally startled, both Joyce and Yuri said "What?"

"You heard me, you stubborn bastard. Half the reward. Twenty thousand."

Joyce couldn't believe what she was hearing. This asshole had drugged them, betrayed Hopper, tried to turn them in to the KGB, and now Murray was going to pay him to lead them through this wasteland?

"Thirty thousand," Yuri countered, grinning.

"Twenty-two."

"Twenty-five."

They were all silent while Murray considered. "All right."

Yuri laughed in triumph.

Murray nodded. "Looks like we got ourselves—" He leaned forward and shouted the last two words into Yuri's face. "A moron!" Laughing, he said incredulously, "You thought I was serious. He thought I was serious." In a fake Russian accent, he added, "I got you! I got you good! There's only one thing you get if you take this deal," he finished in a more normal tone. "You get to live."

"You are not killer."

Joyce bent over toward him. "Oh, you're right. He's not a killer."

"No."

"But see, the thing is, we don't need to kill you. We can just leave you here. Because there's nothing for miles and no one will find you."

"No human, at least. I saw tracks," Murray whispered.

"Tracks," Joyce echoed.

"In the woods, Yuri. Bears."

"Bears."

"Who knew you could see your own future?" Murray returned to the fake Russian accent, shouting into Yuri's face, "Shall we fly out of here, little bird?"

"Uh, da, da," Joyce agreed.

"Bye-bye, Yuri."

They picked up their bags and started walking, not bothering to pull the gag back up, to further drive home the point that no one would hear Yuri scream. In the distance, an animal howled, right on cue.

It had only been a few steps before they heard Yuri's voice behind them. "Wait!" When they turned to look at him, he was bent over in defeat. "You should go east, not north. My warehouse is there. Supplies, guns, truck. We will need to reach prison by nightfall if you hope to save your friend. That is, if he's not already dead."

Joyce absolutely refused to believe Hopper could be dead. Not after all this time, not after she had come this far. She had to believe that somehow he had managed to survive his betrayal and they would get there in time. Otherwise, what had any of this been for?

Yuri was laughing again. In someone less annoying, his constant upbeat cheer would have been charming. As it was, she mostly just wanted to smack him. Maybe she'd get the chance at some point. She and Murray looked at each other, shrugged, and returned to the tree to untie Yuri from it and to reconfigure his bonds for walking.

"Gag up or down?" Murray asked.

Joyce considered it. Then she wondered why. "Up, of course. Do you want to listen to him?"

"Not particularly."

"Me, neither." She stepped in front of Yuri, looking up into his face. "If our friend died because of what you did, I will kill you. And I'll enjoy it."

He nodded, looking uncharacteristically serious. "I believe you."

"Good. Let's go."

And they set off through the Russian wilderness, in the snow and the cold.