Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

I'm Still Standin'

"I'm Still Standin'"

And did you think this fool could never win?

Well look at me, I'm a-comin' back again

- Elton John

Antonov pulled the grating away from the hole in the floor and Hopper stuck his head in, squinting down into the darkness to see what lay there. Horrors? Or a path to safety? Maybe both? It was hard to tell.

He pulled his head back out and sat on the edge of the hole. "Think this'll lead us out of here?"

"I give it a hundred to one odds."

For Antonov, those were pretty good. Then again, all the things Antonov had given such deep odds against had worked out all right so far, so maybe his gut wasn't the best metric to go by. Hopper laughed, sticking his feet into the hole and sliding through. It was a tough fit, but he was the largest of them. If he could make it through, so could everyone else.

Antonov followed him, then Joyce, then the guy with the gag, and finally Murray, and they climbed down, crawling along a damp and smelly corridor. Hopper decided not to worry what it was damp with. He already smelled pretty bad, and it didn't seem to bother Joyce. He wanted to stop and look back over his shoulder, make sure she was really there, really alive, but there was no room, and there was certainly no time. No telling what chaos that thing out there was going to wreak in the prison; no telling what countermeasures the Russians had against this day. He wouldn't put it past them to blow up the entire facility.

He could tell they were getting somewhere when the temperature started dropping, and the dampness turned to patches of ice. Coming at last to the end of the tunnel, banging his head on the wall, he felt around for the ladder that must be there. The rungs were very cold against his hands, and he only hoped the sweat didn't cause his hands to freeze to the metal. Nothing for that but to go fast.

At the top, he banged on the metal above him, holding his breath until he felt the panel start to give. Pushing up, ignoring the pain in his ribs, he could see daylight. The bright glow of sun on snow. It took a few tries before he was finally able to move the cover off enough to push it aside, his fingers numb and clumsy as they closed around the edge of the metal.

The fresh but freezing air of Siberia had never tasted so good. Even the snowflakes whipping his face were a relief. Hopper put his arms on either side of the hole and hauled himself up with some difficulty. His body was stiffening with cold and continued exertion, and he was nearing exhaustion. Still, it felt better to be on his feet, in the fresh air, no longer in prison.

Reaching down, he gave Joyce a hand, not sure when she and Antonov had changed places, then helped out Antonov, holding his friend's arm as he regained his equilibrium. Murray followed on his own, pushing the guy with the gag up ahead of him.

The five of them stood in a line looking across the expanse of untouched snow at the prison they had left behind. Giant damn place. Hopper had never seen it from this perspective before. No sign of any disturbance from their pet having gotten loose. Maybe they had it under control. It was possible. Unlikely, but possible.

Laughing in relief, he looked at Joyce, who was looking at him. He put his hand on her arm to reassure himself that she was there. They were here. And he was free.

Miracles, indeed.

"Murray, where'd we leave the truck? Wasn't it right over there?" Joyce pointed toward a pile of snow that Hopper couldn't have distinguished from every other pile of snow around them.

"Somewhere like that."

The guy with the gag suddenly started shouting vehemently, but since Joyce and Murray both ignored him, Hopper decided to as well.

Antonov frowned at him. "Who is your friend?" Joyce pulled the cap off the guy, and Antonov's eyes widened. He launched himself at the man with the gag. "Son of a bitch! You traitor! I kill you!"

It took both Hopper and Murray to pull him off. "Someone want to explain this to me?"

"Oh, this? This is Yuri. He's a greedy rotten pig who wanted his cake and to eat it, too," Joyce said venomously. "But he learned, didn't he? Oh, yes, he did."

Yuri glared at her.

Hopper got up very close to Yuri's face. "When this is over, we're going to have a very intense conversation. And then I'm going to let my friend here kill you. It's the least I can do, when you nearly cost him his life." And Joyce hers, but Hopper wasn't going to say that standing here in front of her. Yes, she had come for him. Yes, she had held him like she was never going to let go. Yes, she had had tears in her eyes when she talked about his funeral. But that didn't mean she wanted to pick things up where they left off. It didn't mean she had been dreaming about him the way he'd been dreaming about her. He wasn't going to push anything until she let him know what she wanted.

Yuri's eyes were wide with what looked like fear. Satisfied he'd made his point, Hopper let him go. "Now, where's this truck?"