★☆

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO; ALEXEI AND THE EXPLOSION
also known as;
( the flayed; part two )

★☆

"SON OF A BITCH!" STEAM HISSED FROM THE INNER WORKINGS OF HOPPER'S TRUCK, CAUSING THE CHIEF OF POLICE TO CURSE IN ANGER. Stella watched on with a fretful expression as the man anxiously tried to fix whatever was wrong. They were in the middle of the forest, miles out of Hawkins considering how long they'd been driving. Stella was no mechanic, but she was pretty sure cars that had been shot at two dozen times weren't super reliable. 

Joyce, however, was testing a theory of her own, smashing two rocks together in front of the clueless Russian, who had ended up being quite a nice person, bearing in mind he'd been handcuffed to Stella for over four hours now. His name was Alexei, and from what Stella could tell he liked to watch cartoons, or as he said, mul'tfil'm (мультфильм). Other than that, he hadn't bothered to say much, only bobbing up and down when Bruce Springsteen played on the radio and watching curiously as Hopper got angry at inanimate objects or the teenage girl to his right complained about wanting to sleep. 

"Magnet?" Joyce continued to hit the rocks against each other, her eyes filled with hope. "Do you know magnet? Magnet?"

Stella sighed softly. She'd been doing this for a while now. 

"Magnit?" Alexei repeated in his foreign accent, furrowing his brows together as he repeated after the woman. 

"Yes, magnit," Joyce clicked her fingers together in triumph, as if she'd just solved the most important thing. Stella had to give it to her, though, she wasn't a quitter. "Okay, so, uh, magnit...on my--my fridge, my icebox, and then they...they fell. They demagnetised, stopped working. Uh, do you understand?"

"Da," Alexei nodded, and Stella sent him an incredulous look. She hardly understood it.

"Okay, and this is this because of the machines that you're working on?" Joyce inquired, though she wasn't accusatory, instead very curious. 

"Machina?"

"Machina, machina, yes," Joyce nodded a few times, a smile growing on her face. She put her hands out and made revving sounds with her mouth, imitating a motorbike...or something of the sort. Stella chuckled softly, glad the mother was finding light in the chaotic situation. 

"Da, da, machina," Alexei too got quite excited, bouncing up and down from where he sat on a fallen tree beside Stella. He lifted his arms (also pulling Stella's left wrist with his right) and turned them to the sides. "Vroom vroom."

"Oh, no, not that car," Joyce shook her head, realising she'd confused the scientist a little. "The machines at Hess farm where we kidnapped you..."

"Joyce, please!" Hopper snapped, lifting his head from the engine, a scowl on his face. His hands were covered in grease and the cut on his head hadn't been cleaned, so it was clear he wasn't in a chipper mood. "You're giving me a headache, all of you!"

"What did I do?" Stella piped up, and Hopper pointed his wrench at her in warning. 

"Don't test me," the Chief grumbled, tossing the implement back in the tool box and running his hands through his hair. Joyce huffed and spun on her heel, stomping over to the man and placing her hands on her hips. The two began arguing, and Stella shut her eyes hanging her head. How did she get into these situations? First the demogorgon, then the demodogs, and now she was in the middle of nowhere handcuffed to a kidnapped Russian scientist with an affinity for American music and kids shows. Not to mention whatever that code was that Dustin intercepted. God, she hoped that hadn't gone anywhere. 

She didn't realise she had zoned out until Alexei nudged her in the side with his elbow. She opened one eye and turned her head to look at him. He seemed almost...concerned at her body language. "ты в порядке?" 

She didn't know what that meant, but by the softness of his tone, she assumed he was asked how she was doing. She could've been wrong, maybe he really needed to pee. 

She shrugged and looked down at the ground, twisting her shoe into the dirt. "I'm fine."

Alexei made a small 'hmph' sound, as if he knew she was lying. The side of Stella's lips curved a little in amusement, before she shook her head, knowing he wouldn't understand. He seemed to pick up on this too, and reached forward for the discarded notepad Hopper had thrown their way when they had argued about how to communicate. He pulled the pen from the side of the book and opened it to a new page, tapping the writing instrument against the ruled lines. Stella went silent, before taking it from him and starting to draw.

First, she drew herself and Steve. She drew Max, Will, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and El, as well as her parents in the background behind a sign that read Hawkins. "This is my family."

"Family," Alexei leaned forward, staring at the stick figures. "Ah, семья."

"Sure," Stella nodded in response. She then started to draw a picture of the world, with dotted lines moving away from Hawkins to places she wanted to visit, with a tiny airplane to make it clearer. She showed Alexei, before pointing at herself. "I want this. I want to travel the world and go to college."

She drew herself with a suitcase, waving goodbye to her family and walking towards the big prestigious building she had been accepted into. She didn't know how she had done it, but she had never been so proud of herself; even her parents could see how much she wanted to go. 

"оставляя дом," Alexei hummed, pointing at her and then at the doodle of college. Stella nodded. Leaving home. 

"Yeah," she muttered, starting to scribble the thing that was on her mind. She drew herself beside Steve, a love heart around the two. She showed Alexei, before she crossed it out and flicked back to the previous page, tapping the picture of college with her index finger. "If I go to college, I can't be with Steve."

"Ah," Alexei hummed, understanding her dilemma. He watched carefully as she shoved the notebook in her jacket pocket, returning her gaze to the ground. He smiled sympathetically and lifted his free hand, resting it on her shoulder. "я понимаю."

I understand.

The engine turning over broke the conversation, and the two looked up to see Joyce and Hopper trying to get the car started once more. They'd been arguing beforehand, but neither Stella nor Alexei cared enough to listen. It didn't seem to work, but Alexei's attention was caught, which in turn made Stella perk up. "What?"

"Try it again," Hopper muttered, and Stella furrowed her brows, watching the Russian in confusion. 

"Hey, hey!" Alexei piped up, getting to his feet, yanking Stella up with him. She groaned a little, as her wrist was already bruising, though she didn't bother saying anything. "стоп, stop!"

"Shut up, Smirnoff!" Hopper yelled, peering into the engine as it sputtered, and Alexei rushed forward, tugging the teenager along. 

The man began speaking rapidly, desperately trying to get the Chief to understand. Stella looked in his direction, catching on to what the scientist was saying. He must have heard the electricity crackling. Now she heard it too. "Hopper, get back!"

"Didn't either of you hear me?" Hopper snapped, storming towards the two. "Shut your damn mouths-"

The engine went up in a pathetic poof of smoke, but Stella knew that wasn't it. She looked over to the driver's seat with wide, panicked eyes. "Joyce, get outta there!"

The older woman leapt out of the car, running towards a nearby tree. It was good timing too, as the truck exploded, the top half going up in flames. Stella whistled lowly, her eyes lifting up to see the smoke rise into the sky. "Jesus. That was pretty impressive, I'm not gonna lie."

Alexei sighed irritably and stepped forward so that he was peering over Hopper's shoulder. "Stop."

★☆

"I thought this friend of yours lived in Illinois," Joyce muttered as they trudged through the forest. Alexei clung to Stella's arm, panting heavily as his exhaustion caught up with him. Stella was tired, yes, but she appreciated the fact that she wasn't sitting around, either in a car or on a log. She was glad to actually be doing something, and the fact that she was part of the rare species that enjoyed exercise, she wasn't complaining. 

"He's not really a friend, he's more of an acquaintance," Hopper responded, looking back every so often to make sure Stella and Alexei were still following. He wouldn't be surprised if they both got distracted by something and wandered off on their own. 

"Okay so, this acquaintance," Joyce continued. "Lives in Illinois, correct?"

"Yeah, yeah," Hopper nodded in confirmation. 

"So we're walking to Illinois?" Stella joked, looking up to find the sky amongst the treetops. The fresh air was doing her some good; it gave her time to think over the million different things in her head. 

"Yeah, we're gonna walk to Illinois," Hopper grumbled sarcastically, clearly too annoyed to catch on. "You know, I figure we'll be there by Friday evening. I hope that works for your schedule. Jesus Christ, Stella, we're not walking to Illinois."

"Okay then, what are we doing?" Joyce interjected, and Stella sent a grateful thumbs up her way without looking in the adults' direction. 

"I don't know, okay? I will figure something out," Hopper panted as they reached a clearing. He swatted the back of his neck to rid of a bug, his frustration only growing. 

"Isn't there someone in Indiana who speaks Russian that-" 

"You know what?" Hopper cut her off, stomping ahead of the group. "I'm all ears, Joyce. I'm all ears!"

Alexei heaved as he was forced to quicken his pace, and Stella glanced over, an amused look on her face. "Think about it this way; your calf muscles are gonna be sick by the end of this."

The Russian stared at her, trying to decipher what she said, before he cracked a smile. He had no idea why, but he knew she'd just made a joke, so he felt obligated to acknowledge it.

★☆

YEEHAW I LOVE A GOOD DYNAMIC