"Okay, let's try this again," Ana enunciated exaggeratedly. "The machine y'all are working on-"

"Machina, machina, yes," Alexei repeated back in Russian. Despite being handcuffed around a tree, the scientist was surprisingly chipper and engaged while he tried to communicate with Ana, despite the obvious language barrier.

Continuing with her line of questioning, now that they had translated at least one word, Ana asked: "The machina you're building. What's it for?"

Alexei stared at her blankly in return. "Alright," Ana sighed; this wasn't going as well as she'd hoped. "The machina, yes?" Alexei enthusiastically nodded his head, showing he was following thus far. "Does it-" Ana paused, horrified by the words about to escape her mouth. "Does it affect magnets?"

Smiling, with what could only be described as childlike glee, Alexei nodded enthusiastically, "magnit, da."

Their progress was interrupted, however, when Hopper shouted: "Ana, please! You're givin' me a headache, both of you!" When she slowly turned to look at Hopper, who had been fiddling unsuccessfully with the broken Blazer, her face was scrunched with a look of reproach.

"Twice," Ana said as she strode towards Hopper, two fingers waving poignantly in the air. "Twice, you've yelled at me in the last day. Wanna see what happens on the third?" There was an unmistakable challenge in her tone that had Hopper's face dropping from a look of agitation to one of concern.

"I'm sorry," he apologized quickly, "but what have you learned, huh? You learned that Smirnoff over there is Russian and works for Starcourt, two things we already knew." His tone had turned a smidge softer, so there was that.

Resting her hip on the side of their seemingly useless vehicle, Ana argued the contrary. "Well, I've learned that his name is Alexei, not Smirnoff, and now I know the Russian words for machine and magnet. That's more progress than you've managed to make on the car." Hopper's mouth fell into a firm line at the observation.

Leaning down, so he was closer to eye level with Ana, Hopper instructed: "Yeah? Why don't you confirm whether this baby'll start, huh?" Before tossing the car keys at her head.

Catching them seamlessly, Ana climbed into the driver's seat while Hopper told her to "keep it in park, please."

"I'm going to put it in drive and run you over," Ana muttered to herself, though it was intentionally loud enough for Hopper to make out. Ana was almost certain she could hear the sound of Hopper's eyes rolling at her statement.

Turning the key in the ignition, the engine sputtered but didn't start. There was an electric crackling emanating from the engine block, but neither knew enough about cars to determine whether that was good or bad.

Leaning out the open door, Ana announced: "Yeah, it's a no go." Huffing in frustration, Hopper demanded that she give it another go, his brow set in a permanent frown.

Again, Ana turned the key, and again the engine attempted to turn over, but to no avail. Pressing her foot down on the gas, Ana continued to try and start the car while Hopper leaned over the engine in an effort to diagnose the problem.

From his tree, Alexei yelled at the pair to stop, but his warnings were drowned out by Hopper telling him to shut up. When Alexei continued to shout frantically in Russian, Hopper abandoned the vehicle altogether in favor of unleashing his pent up anger on the incapacitated scientist. "Aw, come on! D'you hear me? I said shut your damn-"

With the hood open, Ana couldn't see the smoke billowing from the engine block, but she certainly heard the high-pitched squealing that followed a burst of flames consuming the engine.

"Shit!" Ana exclaimed, clambering out of the vehicle just before the entire thing exploded in a burst of flames.

After watching the car simmer for a few moments in shock, Ana eventually turned to Hopper and shouted: "Did you just try to fucking kill us?"

With no vehicle to aid them, the trio began trekking through the woods, serving as a delightful snack for every flying insect they came across.

"Where exactly are we going?" Ana asked as she stumbled over the uneven ground.

Hopper's answer was decidedly short. "To see a friend."

"You have friends?" That question received no response, which was fair. "Alright, where does this friend even live?"

Again, the reply was brief. "Illinois."

"And, how exactly are we planning on getting all the way to Illinois? Are we going to walk there because Alexei and I might be built for cross country, but, babe, you're not." Ana knew she was intentionally agitating an already annoyed Hopper, but he'd nearly just blown her up, so she figured he deserved a little teasing.

After dragging Alexei along with him, and telling the Russian to keep up, Hopper scoffed at her assertion. "Yeah, yeah, we're gonna walk to Illinois. You know, I figure we'll get there by, like, Friday evening. I hope that works for your schedule. Jesus Christ, Ana. We're not walking to Illinois, okay?"

Crossing her arms over her chest in a show of disapproval, Ana pressed further. "Then, what exactly is your plan, or do you even have one?"

Letting out an exasperated huff, Hopper finally confessed: "I don't know, okay? I will-I will figure something out."

It seemed Hopper was thoroughly done with her inquisition at this point because he grasped Alexei by the bicep and pulled him forward, the two men charging onward ahead of Ana.

Had Hopper not left her to take up the rear alone, he would have been close by to witness Ana's eyes rolling back into her skull. Maybe even been able to catch her, as her body staggered sideways and fell limp to the forest floor.

Ana had been in this room only once before, when she'd been knocked unconscious at the pool house. Still, she recognized the same inky blackness which surrounded her on all sides and felt the familiar layer of wetness on the floor which covered her feet while she stood stock-still.

Some yards in front of her was an image of Hopper, yelling and slapping away bugs as he'd been doing moments prior in the woods. Somehow, Ana knew she couldn't reach him while in this realm, even if she were to try.

Being here once more, offered with it some strange sense of déjà vu. If Ana were shadow walking again, or whatever you called it, then that meant-

"Mom?" Ana's head whipped around at the noise, and her eyes landed on Eleven, who stood a few feet behind her, brow furrowed in confusion.

"Oh, thank God," Ana exclaimed as she rushed towards the girl, drawing her into a bone-crushing hug. Pulling back, Ana allowed both her hands to rest on El's shoulders. "I don't know how much time we have, are you safe? Where are you?" The questions ran together as Ana asked them hurriedly.

El looked overwhelmed but whispered: "I'm safe. I'm at Mike's house."

"Good, good," Ana said, her head bobbing in thought. "Your dad and I are heading to Illinois to find someone who speaks Russian. You need to call Will's mom if you get into any trouble." Her hands instinctively tightened on El's shoulders. It pained Ana to be so far away from her daughter, leaving the young girl to deal with these looming threats all on her own.

"I will," El agreed quietly. Ana could feel it now, a slight tugging, like a string was pulling her backward. "I love you, stay safe," Ana said hurriedly. She was able to drop a final kiss to Eleven's forehead before everything turned white.

"Ana? Ana? Come on, wake up!" Hopper's voice slowly drew Ana out of her stupor. The sun overhead blazed even brighter after her short stay in the dark room, and Ana needed time to allow her eyes to adjust to the drastic change in lighting. When her surroundings finally came into focus, she observed Hopper and Alexei looking down at her, their faces marred with concern.

Easing herself off the forest floor with a wince. Apparently, her landing hadn't been all that graceful; Ana announced: "I'm back, it's okay."

Hopper's face was one of bafflement at Ana's lack of evident care, despite being unconscious just minutes prior.

"What happened?" Hopper questioned. "You were fine one minute, and passed out the next."

Standing up, Ana began mindlessly brushing the leaves off her shirt and pants. "I saw Eleven in the void, or whatever. She's safe for now." This announcement had Hopper's eyes growing as wide as dinner plates, but Ana offered no further explanation to satiate his confusion.

Throwing his arms out in a show of bewilderment, he pressed Ana further. "And you don't find that weird? Why are you so calm right now?"

After picking a stray twig out of her long brown hair and tossing it back to the ground, Ana finally gave Hopper her complete attention. "It happened once before, did I forget to mention that?"

Fascinating how Hopper's eyes could somehow grow even larger. "What?" He exclaimed. "Yes, you forgot to mention that!" Hopper took this time to begin pacing and ranting in front of a mildly bored Ana. "I don't even know who you are right now. What else haven't you been telling me?"

If only you knew, buddy, Ana thought, but didn't express. Frankly, she found his whole dramatic show rather excessive at the moment. In an effort to pacify his discontent, Ana reached out and placed a gentle hand on Hopper's arm to still his endless pacing. "Listen, it happened once before when I was at the hospital. Yes, I find it super weird, but given that everything happening right now is weird, it slipped my mind. Okay?"

This explanation seemed valid enough for Hopper because he muttered, "okay," in affirmation while nodding his head.

"Oh, and one more thing," Ana added while looking over Hopper's shoulder. "Yeah…" Hopper responded hesitantly.

"Alexei's running," Ana informed.

"You son of a bitch!" Hopper hollered as they both took off running after the fleeing Russian scientist.

I'm going to keep powering through this bad boy even though my audience is noticeably dwindling by the day. "It's fine, I'm fine," I mutter while silently sobbing into my glass of wine.