Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

Sh-Boom

"Sh-Boom"

Oh, life could be a dream

(Sh-boom)

If only all my precious plans would come true

- The Crew Cuts

Joyce reached out for the keys to the truck as Hopper tossed them to her, but they fell at her feet and she had to scramble to pick them up.

"Come on, Joyce, quit screwin' around!" he shouted, opening the door and scrambling into the back of the car with the guy he had handcuffed himself to.

"Shit!" Joyce exclaimed, searching through the ring of keys for the one to the car.

"Joyce. Drive!"

"I'm trying!" she shouted back at him. It would be a lot easier if he'd stop yelling at her.

She finally got the right key and stuck it in the ignition as Hopper screamed "Joyce! Driiiiivvve!!" from the back seat.

The ignition caught and she jammed her foot on the gas, swinging the big car around in a circle in front of the farmhouse just as the guy with the big gun came out and started shooting. He hit the car several times, including smashing the back window, before Joyce got them out of the driveway and onto the road, taking out the Hesses' mailbox on the way. Fortunately, they wouldn't miss it, since they didn't live there anymore.

Once they were on the road, Hopper leaned his head back against the seat, panting. "Still think it was our government?"

Joyce rolled her eyes. As if this was all somehow her fault. "You tell me how I was supposed to know it was, what, the Russians? Is it the Russians? Why is it the Russians?"

"Hell if I know."

"Hop, where are we going?"

"I don't know. We can't go into Hawkins with this guy, though. Somewhere ... I don't know. Wait, yes, I do. There's this guy. We can go to his place; he might know something. Head for Illinois."

"Illinois? Hopper, what—?"

"Will you just trust me, Joyce?"

She really didn't have much choice. "Okay. Illinois it is."

Toward dawn, it became obvious that the car wasn't going to go much further.

"Hop. Hop?" No response, except a bunch of Russian words from the other guy. Joyce risked a quick look into the back and saw that Hopper had fallen asleep. She felt bad waking him—he'd had a long couple of days—but something had to be done about the car. "Hopper!"

"What?" Then he must have seen the column of smoke coming from the engine. "Shit. All right, pull over."

Dawn was breaking as Joyce pulled the car into the woods, far enough off the road to avoid being seen easily, and Hopper popped the hood and started tinkering with the engine, swearing more and more violently as he banged on various parts.

Hopper had handcuffed the Russian guy's arms around a tree, and Joyce decided to try explaining the situation to him, to see if she could get any answers from him at all.

She'd gotten to the magnets, picking up two rocks and banging them together to illustrate the point. "Okay. Magnets. Magnets?"

"Magnete?"

"Yes, magnete! Okay, so, uh, magnete on my fridge, my icebox, they—" She dropped the rocks. "They fell. Demagnetized, stopped working, Do you understand?"