Make sure y'all read the lil A/N at the end! Only reason it's not up here is because it contains spoilers for the chapter!
Also these are not going to be as long as I planned, but I hope you guys still like it!
We have a few little snippets from Christmas in this chapter, actually, one where Hopper finds out a secret.
Chapter Three: Faith is the Only Way to Survive
Thursday, July 4, 1985
The Upside Down
He was cold. That's the first thing he noticed. He was cold, and he was shivering.
The second thing he noticed was the noises. The chattering of his teeth. The wail of winds, the screeches of monsters, something that almost sounded like a wolf howl.
The third thing he noticed, when he finally opened his eyes, was that he was not underneath the Star Court Mall anymore. He was on the edge of the woods by the middle school. He didn't know how he got here from where the gate under the mall was, but he wasn't gonna complain.
The last thing he noticed, was the fact that he was in the Upside Down. Alone. The gate was closed, and he was trapped with no way out.
Hopper bit back a groan as he sat up, looking around. Looking at the middle school gym, all he saw was a sad, run down version of itself. One of the doors was hanging off its hinges, vines took up most of it, weaving in and around the walls of the building.
"What in the hell… was I thinking?"
In the distance, he heard a loud screech and scrambled up. He darted towards the gym doors, barely stopping to look and see if there was anything inside, and pulled the hanging door closed as much as he could.
Taking heaving breaths, Hopper turned around, his back to the door, only to find a somewhat normal gym. He expected the inside to be just as viney and disgusting as the outside, but he was wrong. It was dusty, as if it had only been abandoned rather than in a completely different dimension. Not much light shown through the broken windows, but what did definitely helped.
Had the Upside Down not been perpetually stuck in darkness, it'd be a lot easier to see inside. Those blue mats that kids had to use to do push ups or sit ups were stacked on top of each other in a corner, other gym equipment scattered around the floor and in the bleachers.
"You weren't thinking, dumbass." he muttered to himself. "It was either this or death. Everyone probably thinks you're dead anyways."
He slid against the wall until he hit the floor.
El will think he's dead. That was the last thing she needed. She had nowhere to go, the cabin destroyed… she definitely wasn't going to that Wheeler boy's house, he knew Karen and Ted wouldn't allow that. The only reasonable person would be Joyce…
Joyce. Joyce Byers, Joy, his Joy. She asked him out on a date. A real date, and he fucked it up by jumping in here, where he'd probably die anyways. That's where El would probably go. But… Joyce was moving. He didn't know where, he just knew she was moving soon, and he couldn't stop her. That would mean El would probably go with her. She'd have to, there'd be no other way.
"You idiot." he smacked himself in the forehead a few times and buried his face in his hands, letting out a muffled, angry scream. "Goddammit Jim. What have you done?"
A week later, Hopper had yet to come in contact with any monsters. It was like they were here, but weren't. He could hear them, but couldn't see them. So, he went exploring. He'd found a box of matches in the storage room of the gym, and had been able to make a fire. He had no idea how it worked here, as cold and damp as it is, but it did. It worked.
But he needed clothes, water and food. He'd explored around the school until he found the cafeteria, and food that was in the fridge and freezers were somehow not rotted or moldy, but stranger things have happened. It would last him a couple weeks at most, as it was enough for a hundred kids a day for a week, probably, but schools don't give kids much at lunch, and he had to eat a lot if he wanted to fill himself up any. So he had to find more if he wanted to survive.
He found some more clothes in a few houses near the school, along with food and other things in freezers and fridges. The only thing good from fridges, though, were water bottles and drinks- besides milk, at least. He'd found some canned food and took it with him back to the gym with every trip.
Anything hung up on a hanger was pretty decent, but anything on the floor or folded up in drawers was dirty and covered in vines. It didn't stop him from taking a pocket knife he found and cutting the vines and taking socks and underwear, deciding to wash them himself once he found a good water supply.
That water supply was at the pond where his old trailer sat. It didn't really have anything left in it in the real world, so he didn't bother going inside it. The water was definitely nowhere near being freshwater, so he filled up water bottles upon water bottles with it and took it back to the gym. He used a pot to boil the water until it was good enough to drink. It took a while, but it worked, and he made a decent supply of it, every other day going to the pond and back and adding to it so he didn't run out.
Monday, October 14, 1985
Kamchatka, Russia
He smiled as he heard his door begin to unlock, and he stood, leaning against the back wall. He put his hands up as he spoke Russian to them, the second the door opened.
"Friends, I know you have a creature." he stated calmly. "I recognize the shrieks."
"We are not your friends, Martin Brenner." the leader said. "You are to be fed to the creature, whether you tell the truth or lie."
Two other guards grabbed Brenner by the arms and hauled him out of the cell.
"I know how to get more for you. I know where the creature's are located."
"Why should I believe you?" the leader asked.
"Because… my daughter created them. Created the world with them in it. She can and she will make more if I ask her to."
"What is your daughter's name?"
"El. Short for Eleven."
Three days later, on October seventeenth, Brenner sat at the head of a table with Russian guards all around him, four men at the table with him, dressed in a suit and tie, a glass of wine and a well prepared meal in front of him.
"Your daughter, how does she create the world?" Bogdan asked.
"She has what is called Telekinesis. She can move things with her mind, can open portals into other worlds, visit a space in her mind."
"You lie!" a man at the end smacked his fists against the table.
"Oh shut it, Cheslav." another man, Karp, grumbled.
"Let the man talk." another said.
"Thank you, Fabiyan." Brenner nodded towards him. "What I speak is true. And my daughter can control them, I've seen her do it myself. It's been a very long time since I've seen her, though. I miss her."
"A father will always love his daughter. " Bodgan said, holding his glass up. The rest of the men followed suit and they clinked glasses. "We will help you find your daughter. If you help us open a portal into the other world."
"Of course." Brenner smiled. "Anything you want, I'll help you with."
They began to come up with a plan, Brenner telling them that the creature could only open a portal to it's home if it was well fed, and strong. That wasn't the case, he didn't know if that would work or not, but he had faith in the creature, and faith that he'd see his beloved daughter again.
Tuesday, November 26, 1985
The Upside Down
That's how it went for the next four months, give or take a few days. He'd go house to house to find food, and would come back with a few days amount. He'd lost weight in those four months, but gained some of it back in muscle. He worked out to keep his mind off things, and he was in a gym, after all. He fixed all the windows, and the doors, making sure it was harder for monsters to get inside of. He knew that if they wanted to get inside, they would.
He'd definitely seen monsters prowling about in the four months he was in the Upside Down. Baby Demogorgons, others he'd never seen. What looked like small versions of what El and the kids fought inside the mall. El had described to him what it looked like, before the battle really began. There was one that really had his nerves on fire. A spider, with hundreds of teeth, eyes that can see every movement, jaws that can snap a deer right in half.
Yep, there were deer in the upside down. There were other animals, too. Rabbits, bugs, foxes, turtles, frogs, etc. All were deformed, though, he guessed from the air. They were a good food source, though, the rabbits and deer. He'd managed to get a deer one day. It was injured and couldn't walk. He felt bad, but put it out of its misery and was able to eat off it for a week and a half. He usually stuck to rabbits and ducks when they got stuck in the vines, which happened fairly often.
Nothing had actually bothered him. It's like they didn't know he was there, but they had to have. They more or less just passed through during the night (which was very hard to figure out the day and night cycle, but he got it) and during the day, nothing was around but the animals. They all went the same way, none ever coming back. It's like the were grouping up in a certain area, and the more he thought about it, the more he figured out. They were gathering at or near the lab. But was he gonna go and investigate why? Nope.
Hopper thought he felt alone, all those months before El, but now? He really was. He missed her. He missed Joyce. Hell, he even missed Wheeler and his little gang of friends. He doesn't really talk, he doesn't have a reason to, unless he's swearing at something he dropped or knocked over.
There were days where he just laid around, thinking about what El was doing. He's sure she's with Joyce, and he's sure they've been out of Hawkins for a while, because the house here was empty, so that one had to be empty too.
It wasn't until two days before Thanksgiving that he heard another voice for the first time. He'd gone all the way out to the Wheeler's house, and was searching through the garage when he heard a faint bang and then,
"Michael! I made you and Nancy lunch before you leave!"
Karen's voice. It was very faint, he could barely make it out, but... Maybe if he yells loud enough, someone would hear him.
"Hey!" he yelled. Nothing. They couldn't hear him. He walked inside the house, empty other than vines and things everywhere. He could faintly hear them, but they couldn't hear him. He heard their whole conversation and grumbled to himself about the Troy kid. He didn't like him a bit. Hopper stayed there overnight, listening to them. He heard Karen and Holly tell the older siblings goodbye, and when the three remaining Wheeler's headed to bed, Hopper made his way over to the fridge, to the magnets.
He'd never heard anyone on the other side before… why now?
All of a sudden, he had a thought. If Will could communicate with the lights… maybe Hopper could communicate with something. Lights wouldn't work, the Wheeler's didn't know anything about it, so they'd just think the power was acting up. So, he did the next best thing.
He moved the magnets.
And on the other side of "Upside Down" Hawkins, a portal began to open.
Wednesday, November 27, 1985
Hawkins
"Mommy! Someone said hi to me!" Holly said excitedly.
"They did? Where?"
"On the fridge! They said Hi Holly with my magnets."
"That's weird, I wonder who it was?" she asked. Karen nor Ted messed with the magnets, and Mike and Nancy had been gone a day already. "It was probably Mike, before he and your sister left."
"No, they weren't like that yesterday." she replied, crossing her arms. "It was someone else."
"Who could it have been, Holly?" Karen asked. Holly shrugged.
"I don't know. But it wasn't Mikey."
She left her mom standing there to go play in the living room, and Karen sighed. It was probably just an imaginary friend.
Hopper sighed. His little trick worked, but also didn't. Maybe when Mike got back home he'd try again.
And he did, but it seemed the kid was either blind, or the trick didn't work a second, fourth, or tenth time. He tried everyday, though. He ventured out to get more food or water, and to hunt, and went to the Wheeler's house and tried to get Mike's attention. Nothing ever happened, so he just listened and listened.
He didn't know about the small portals being opened, or the men coming inside and going through another portal into Hawkins lab. No monsters made it known that they knew it opened. He didn't know it opened and that there was a way out until February twelfth, nineteen eighty-six, in the middle of the night, but that's still a ways away.
Feeding the creature worked wonders, and a little over a month later, Brenner was back in Hawkins lab. It was horribly run down, no power, but he was there. He was closer to Eleven.
"Don't worry about power." Fabiyan told him. "We will figure it out. Let's plan."
The creature was to stay in it's home for now, to breed, as Brenner said. The more creatures the better, especially the young.
"We only ever captured one, and it's dead, I believe. It was trying to kill my daughter's friends, and she protected them."
"It attacked you, too, didn't it?" Bogdan asked.
"It did, yes. An accident." Brenner reached up and ran his fingers over the rough scars on his face. "Blood attracts it, and I was bleeding. It was instinct."
"So if I bleed right now, it will come for me?" Cheslav asked.
"Probably." Brenner replied. "Her nose bleeds when she uses her powers, so if she's not careful it could hurt her too." he says as if she has complete control over them. Nothing controls them.
Well, one thing does. But he doesn't know that.
Friday, January 10, 1986
The Wheeler's/The Upside Down
Hopper heard about everything that happened with Max and her step-dad, and it made his blood boil. If he could, he'd get that kid away from all that bull shit and take her in as if she were his own. And he made a promise to get out of this place, one way or another, to help her.
Hopper never really believed in faith, after his daughter. Then El came along. And now, he wasn't gonna lose faith that he'd see her again. He would make sure of it.
Joyce, El, Will and Jonathan came back to Hawkins for Christmas and New Years. It hurt, a lot, hearing them, but not being there and seeing them. He heard El's contagious laughter, he grew angry when he heard Sinclair and Henderson making kissy sounds at his daughter and her boyfriend every time they were under the mistletoe at the Wheeler's house, which happened quite often.
But he was happy that they were happy. He'd never heard her laugh so hard. He spent his time listening, humming to himself Christmas songs he heard them playing, though it was faint.
"Do you hear that?" Mike asked one time, when it was just he and El in his room during Christmas break. Even in the Upside Down, Hopper could tell the door was open three inches.
"What?" El asked.
"Sounds like someone humming."
Hoppers eyes widened.
"Wheeler, can you hear me?"
"Someone just said something!"
"I didn't hear anything." El said, confusion in her voice.
"I swear I just heard something."
"Well who did it sound like?"
"It was… a deep voice. I don't know what they said."
"It was probably your dad talking in his sleep again." she said. "He is right below us in his chair."
Mike sighed. "You're right, I guess. I swear I hear a man's voice sometimes."
Maybe they could hear him, but it was faint? He'd yell until he couldn't anymore, but no one made any indication that they understood him, or knew it was him.
"You know, Holly's magnets have been moving around on their own."
A spark of hope flashed through Hopper.
"I think my house is haunted."
Goddammit, Wheeler.
El laughed at her boyfriend and shook her head. "Are we in A Christmas Carol now?"
"We might be!" Mike said. "It wouldn't be the craziest thing that's happened."
"True." El chuckled.
They talked for a few more minutes, voices slowly growing quieter until Hopper couldn't hear them. They'd fallen asleep.
Deciding to roam around some, Hopper left the room and walked down the hall. He paused at Nancy's room, where he heard their hushed whispers through the door. There were some areas louder than the other.
"What are we supposed to do, Jonathan?" Nancy asked.
"I-I don't know, Nancy."
"Do we keep it? Put it up for adoption? I can't kill it, I just can't."
Hopper's eyes widened. Nancy was pregnant.
"I mean… I kinda want to. Keep it, I mean."
"I do too, I think… My parents are gonna kill me." she let out a frustrated groan.
The Wheeler's would definitely be pissed, because it ruined their perfect look, but the one they've gotta worry about is Michael Wheeler. He may not have the best relationship with his sister, but he's protective of both of them, and Hopper has a feeling that it won't end well for anyone when he finds out.
"Someone's gonna get punched." he muttered, walking down the hall and to the stairs.
He decided to go to Harrington's house, where Joyce and the kids were staying while in Hawkins, and see what they were up to.
Tuesday, January 28, 1986
Melvald's
"We've been working here how long now?" Robin huffed, crossing her arms at her best friend. Steve stared at her for a few seconds, box in his arms.
"Like three months."
"Exactly, you should know where most of the stuff goes, dipshit. All that goes on aisle 7." she told him, pointing.
"Ah, I knew that." he turned and made his way to the aisle.
"Jesus." she sighed, shaking her head. He was such an idiot, but she loved him. She heard the bell go and turned around, putting a smile on her face, only to find the one and only Erica Sinclair and Dustin Henderson grinning at her. "Oh God, what do you two want?"
"I'm here to get stamps and find something for my girlfriend for Valentine's day." Dustin said.
"Uh huh, and why are you here, Missy?" she turned to Erica, who smirked.
"To make sure this idiot doesn't spend all our candy money on his girlfriend." she replied.
"Good decision."
"Where's Steve?" Dustin asked.
"Henderson! Get your ass back here and help me!" Steve yelled.
"Are you gonna pay me?" Dustin asked, following Steve's voice.
"Duh."
"That doesn't mean you still get to use all our candy money, Doofus!" Erica called to him.
"Yeah, yeah!" he yelled back. She rolled her eyes at him and turned, hopping up on the counter next to where Robin was standing.
"You know you're not supposed to do that."
"Mhm." she replied, grabbing a magazine and beginning to look through it. Robin chuckled and turned around to stock up on cigarettes behind the register.
Dustin and Erica were both good helpers, albeit annoying at times, but they somehow convinced customers to buy things they didn't need, racking up more money for the store than Steve and Robin had. They got their share of money, though. Neither were old enough to work, but Mr. Melvald added a little extra to Robin and Steve's checks to give to the two, promising them both a job when they were old enough. Dustin had a year and a half, since he didn't turn fifteen until September, and you had to be sixteen or older to work. Erica had five years, having celebrated her eleventh birthday in December.
"Ugh, this job is exhausting." Erica said as Steve and Robin began to close the store.
"You don't do half of what we do, Erica." Dustin said.
"Neither do you, shithead." Steve smacked him on the back of the head. Dustin just shushed him. "I'm assuming all three of you need a ride home?"
"Duh." Erica said, as Dustin said,
"When don't we?"
"Good point, but that doesn't mean you can be sarcastic little assholes all the time." Steve huffed, grabbing his keys. Robin just laughed and followed them out the door, locking it up behind her.
In the Upside Down, Hopper shook his head. It was one of his favorite things to do during the day, listen in on the four acting like idiots, though he did hear many meaningful conversations, some he shouldn't have heard. He voiced his opinions, even though they couldn't hear him.
The Robin kid had thought someone came in the store one day, when Hopper said something particularly loud, but went back to the conversation as if nothing happened.
Tuesday, February 11, 1986
The lab now was up and running again one hundred percent, and ready to have the new Demogorgon's reopen the gate. Though, everything was taking place down in the basement, since if the lab itself was up and running again, it would immediately cause suspicion to the small town and it's little superheroes.
Starting off, they had small glass containers that held many slugs, tiny, gross sounds coming from them as they grew and grew over the last few weeks, now too big and too mean to stay together. They had to put them in their own cages, fully grown now and just itching to get out.
"I thought it was your daughter who could create them." Cheslav said to Brenner that day. Brenner crossed his arms.
"I believed she was the only one who could, but they breed like other animals, albeit much faster, it seems. She created the world and the species, and any other creature inside it, she can control it all once we find her. Any luck?" he turned to Karp, who shook his head.
"We've looked all over town for your daughter. We found some friends in a store, and heard them talking about where she used to live, with a man named Hopper, who died last July. We found the place, and found a picture of her and that boy." Karp took the picture out of his pocket and gave it to Brenner,
"Ah yes, Michael Wheeler." Brenner smirked. "I'm sure he knows where she is."
How we feeling?
I'm sure none of this shit could happen in the real Upside Down on the show, but this is fanfiction so anything could happen! I'm treating this as an apocalypse world type of thing, with food, water, clothes, etc. You know what I mean. Hopper's gonna be here a while, so he's got to adapt and find a way to live.
Next chapter takes place in the real world, and we see some of the moments above in full :D
P.S. Yes I'm aware Brenner isn't El's bio dad, he's not in this story, he's just a creep lmao
