C H A P T E R   T W E N T Y - T H R E E 

" THE BREAK-IN "

･ ｡ﾟ ⋆✩⋆  ･ ｡ﾟ

| D E C E M B E R  25th , 1986 |

H a w k i n s , I n d i a n a ?

t h e u p s i d e d o w n

"WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE LOOKING FOR HERE?"

Murray followed closely behind Joyce as they waved their flashlights around them, trying their best to navigate out of the overtaken town.
Joyce had no idea where she was going, she was simply following her gut on where she would imagine Hopper and Y/N would go.

"Well, we just left what I'm guessing is supposed to be the 'town hall' ", Joyce stopped walking to use her hands to make air quotations throw her suit. "So, if I'm right, Y/N and Hop came this way too."

Murray exhaled at her word choice of 'if'.

"And if I'm right about that, and that we just left Town Hall, then if I know Hop at all, he would probably go to the only place he felt even remotely safe to protect Y/N."
Joyce tried to explain, earning furrowed eyebrows from Murray.

Murray wasn't exactly following what she was saying, earning a tired exhale from Joyce.

"The cabin." Joyce explained, already resuming her trek through to the outskirts of the forest and road that led down to Hopper's cabin.

She followed what she assumed to be the usual path that led to Hopper's cabin in their actual universe, hoping it was leading her the right way.

They finally made it inside the woods that they assumed to be Hopper's cabin, constantly looking over their shoulders.

There were snaps of twigs that echoed in their hearing as they made their way through the forest, constantly putting them on edge.
They thought it to be nothing but their own steps, ignoring it.

"How much longer?" Murray complained, obviously on edge as he kept looking around him to be sure nothing was following them.
It was extremely dark, the flashlight hardly produced enough light to see at all.

Joyce huffed, and stopped walking as turned to look at Murray with an irritated look. She then looked to the ground that he was standing on as he wandered around a little bit.

A piece of shimmering, reflective metal peeked from underneath the oozing leaves on the ground ; it was meant to be hidden.

"Murray, don't move." She warned, holding up her hand.

Murray tensed as he wasn't moving anyways, but he listened with a worried look, "What is it?"

Joyce simply pointed to the ground not but a couple inches away from Murray's stance, guiding his gaze to where she pointed.

"Oh my god," Murray exclaimed, annoyed. "I was about to step into a damn bear trap? You've got to be joking, what the hell is it doing here?"

Joyce ignored Murray's frantic exclaims, thinking about how it did end up perfectly hidden and placed there.

Someone had to have placed it there.

Jim. It was Jim and Y/N.

It had to be, how else would it have been set up?

"It was them, they laid it there." Joyce concluded to herself, Murray halting his exclamations as he listened.

"They must've set it up to trap anything from coming too close to them," Joyce continued, looking around her at the trees that surrounded them. "Which means, the cabin has to be close."

Joyce began to walk again, in whatever direction she predicted to be the way that the cabin was.

Murray sighed, "I'm not exactly sure why we're looking for the cabin," He began, trotting to catch up with Joyce.
"Shouldn't we be searching for some, oh I don't know, a large glowing alternate dimension exit sign?"

Joyce snickered, shaking her head ; amused.

"We are, but, I know Jim. I know what he would've done to protect Y/N, and he would've gone to the cabin—or, what sort of looks like the cabin." Joyce explained, her lips forming a thin smile at the thought of how Hopper would do anything to protect his girls—to protect Y/N here.

"I suppose." Murray surrendered, flashing his flashlight around at the trees that shined back at him with their slimy substance.

He stopped walking to guide his light to shine curiously down to trail along the trunk of the tree, seeing a particular cable wrapped around the base, which then trailed another wire along across to another tree.

A tripwire.

"Joyce, stop!" Murray rushed to stick his hand out in front of Joyce, causing her to bump into his back arm.
She looked down with her flashlight curiously, seeing a wire that she was about to trip against.

"Tripwire." Murray concluded. "Must've been the work of dear old Jim..trying to absolutely kill us."

Joyce looked up from stare at her feet where she stopped in front of the tripwire, to get a good look at her surroundings — until her eyes landed on a small wooden building not too far away.

It resembled the cabin that Jim lived in back at Hawkins, in the actual Hawkins. But it was much more eerie to see it here.

"Murray, there is it. That's the cabin." She exhaled with relief that they found it, hearing Murray exhale a breath too when he saw it too.

"That's great," He brushed it off hurriedly, "But where are we supposed to go from here?"

However, Joyce wasn't able to answer once she froze and tensed at the sounds of multiple cracks of twigs.
She exchanged worried looks with Murray, his eyes showing a glaze of fear of the worst.

He's heard stories, but he's never seen a demogorgon, and he feared this would be the time to find out.

"What was that?" Joyce breathed, both of their eyes darting around to locate the sources of the multiple noises.

But then, they both stopped to listen to what they thought sounded like voices. Multiple voices.

"Get down." Murray immediately stepped to drape an arm around Joyce to pull her down to the ground below them, to make themselves as invisible as possible.

"What?" She asked, confused as she saw Murray staring straight ahead of them, a couple meters away in the opposite direction from Hopper's cabin in the distance.

She followed his gaze, seeing that he was right to pull them to the ground to hide.

"D-Do you think they're—.."

"Russian spies? Yes. Russian soldiers? Maybe." Murray finished for her, his voice in a tone that sounded like an 'I knew it' voice.

Joyce turned to look at the soldiers again, seeing that they were also wearing hazmat suits while they seemed to be carrying out a routine.

They seemed to be passing through the forest, holding large cases of an object she knows she's seen before.
She needed to figure out where they were heading. "Come on."

Joyce got up, still hunched over as she tried to quietly make her way closer to the group of soldiers.

"Joyce!" Murray whispered shouted, sighing irritatedly as he reluctantly got up to follow her.

Joyce crouched as she trotted to a halt, watching the Russians making their way past the cabin.
She watched them intently, watching as they all seemed to be walking as though they knew exactly where they were going.

Because they did. These Russians have made this trip into the upside down, many times.

It was simply routine, and even Joyce could figure that out.

"We have to follow them." Joyce whispered, hiding behind the base of an oozing tree as Murray exhaled tiredly.

"Follow them? We're supposed to be searching for the gate entrance." Murray groaned, his voice muffled by his suit.

Joyce exhaled, knowing it would take too much of an effort to explain how this would help them.

"Just trust me." She replied, standing up from their hiding spot to then walk away to start following the Russians.

Murray shook his head, but ultimately trusted Joyce, so he followed her.
They kept a good distance behind the Russians as they followed them through the tangled trees, ducking behind one every so often to be sure they weren't seen.

"This is insane." Murray whisper-shouted at Joyce as they continued following the Russians. "How do we know they're even gonna lead us straight to Jim and Y/N? That's highly unlikely."

Joyce shook her head. "Murray, do you ever stop whining?" She smiled through her insult, earning a chuckle.

The duo stopped dead in their tracks when their gazes returned back to where the Russian walked, leading them towards a clearing in the forest before they were met with another forest entrance.

Except it wasn't just a forest entrance.

There was a pulsing, reddish, orangish glow to it, stringy vines and oozing slime draped across from each side of the wide opening.

There was monitors and wires and tech that stood just a few paces outside the gate, as if they were recording data or keeping tabs on the alternate dimension.

They watched as the Russians checked the equipment, taking samples from the alternate dimension before stepping and walking through the slimy, viney, entrance.

It was then that Joyce realized where they were going.

It was another gate entrance.

"Murray.." Joyce breathed out with disbelief. "T-That's it! That's the way into the Russian base! That's the way to Jim and Y/N!"

She turned to look at Murray with wide eyes, who returned her expression. They couldn't believe that they found it.

As soon as the last Russian stepped through the gate, Joyce and Murray emerged from their hiding spot behind the trees to run into the clearing where the Russian's stepped through the gate.

They trotted to a halt in their running steps as they were finally met with the face of the gate's entrance.
The glow was intense as the vines threaded from each side of the gate.

Joyce breathed heavily, the reality of their situation finally hitting her.

Jim and Y/N are just on the other side of that entrance.

They're so close.

Her eyes gazed at the grand gate beheld before her. This was it.

Joyce was so mindlessly determined with her adrenalin taking over her, that she began to walk towards the gate without a word.

That was, until Murray pulled her back by her arm gently, Hey, hey, hey."

"While I am very surprised we found the gate entrance at all," Murray began, breathless from the run.
"Please tell me you at least have a plan when we go through that entrance. Those soldiers could kill us right when we walk through."

Joyce turned to look at Murray, then down to where he held her by her arm.
  She jerked her arm from his grasp, her eyes fiercely determined now that she was so close to seeing Jim and Y/N.

"Anything could kill us out here, Murray." Joyce rebutted, "We'll improvise."

Murray sighed, reluctantly nodding while his eyes now looked up at the intimidating gate that stood before him.

It was finally time. It was finally time to save them.

"Are you ready?" Joyce breathed, her fists clenched at her sides. She looked over to Murray through his hazmat suit, the orange glow reflecting off.

"Whatever happens when we walk through, we stick together. We find them, no matter what it takes. Got it?" Joyce asked ; she was undaunted.

Murray turned to look at Joyce, nodding with mild confidence.

There was no turning back.

So together, the pair took coordinated steps towards the gate, lifting their heavy knees to step inside the vine's spiderweb-like entrance.

The glow now surrounded them as their once darkened surroundings turned brighter.
  The placed their hands in front of them, clawing their way through the vines and slime, stumbling as they made it through to the other side.

They tripped to the ground on the other side with a huff ; immediately noticing the difference in atmosphere.

Joyce groaned as she looked up from the now gray concrete ground where her slimy hazmat suit stuck a little bit.

She turned to Murray, helping him up as he sat to his knees.

They took in their surroundings, noticing the bright lights on the ceiling. There was no vines, no toxic floaters floating in the air.

They were no longer in the upside down.

Joyce then noticed that she and Murray weren't alone.

There were Russian soldiers in hazmat suits running and pacing in chaotic directions, even Russians with lab jackets seemed to be in a mass panic.

They were too busy to notice the two Americans sitting disoriented on the floor.

Everyone seemed to be frantic, running in random directions. It was pure chaos.

And Joyce and Murray didn't understand why the Russian were panicking so badly.
  Until they heard the blaring ringing of an alarm crying wildly, and the Russian voice over an intercom.

"Vnimaniye! V laboratorii proizoshel proryv, povtoryayu, proizoshel massovyy proryv. Eto ne drel'! Ochen' opasnyye eksperimenty bespolezny."

" 'Attention! There has been a breakout in the lab, I repeat, there has been a mass breakout. This is not a drill. Very dangerous experiments are loose.' " 
Murray translated aloud with confused eyes, exchanging glances with Joyce.

But it wasn't long before a separate alarm screeched soon after their entrance. However this time, the message was much different, putting Joyce and Murray on edge.

"Vnimaniye! Na vkhode v portal proizoshla neizvestnaya zapis'. Dolozhi tut zhe."

⋆

Author's Note :

OHHHH SHITTTT HERE WE GO!!!!

DUDES THEYRE IN RUSSIA NOW THEYRE LEGIT IN THE SAME PLACE AS Y/N AND HOPPER !!

bruh it took 23 chapters to get them in the same place whoopsies.. ;)

i can't wait to keep writing, its getting ME hyped.

.

what do you think about all this ??

any theories ? any predictions?

thanks for reading.. stay tuned !!

.2320 words.