"We need to talk," came a familiar though unusually quiet voice from behind the woman as she stacked about her millionth can of soup.
Joyce turned around to face the chief of police, who wasn't currently dressed as such, and instead stood before her wearing jeans and flannel shirt. She could tell from the once over she gave him that the man was distressed, and about what in particular gravely concerned her. "What's wrong?"
im scratched the back of his neck anxiously, looked around the store to make sure nobody was watching them. "What time are you off?"
It was mid morning by then, just before ten. "Three. I'm supposed to pick up Willl." It was only his third week really up and going since everything, so Joyce still felt obligated to take him to and from school. She was lucky to have been granted the change in hours that allowed her to do so.
"Can Jonathan get him?"
"I don't think he works today, I can call the school and check." The woman said as her stomach dropped. She lowered her wavering voice. "Are we safe, Hop?"
"Yeah, but she might not be."
Joyce knew immediately who the man was referencing. "I'll talk to Jonathan. Pick me up at my house at three-thirty."
Snow was beginning to fall in large, wet flakes as Joyce and Hopper drove through the outskirts of Hawkins. Jim turned off on a gravel path that was quickly being covered with powder and pulled out of sight from the main road. He shut the car off, zipped up his jacket and stepped out, Joyce following his lead. She watched as he opened up the back and found it filled with countless wool blankets. The man grabbed a backpack from underneath one of them and shut the door, and as the woman glanced back at Blazer before following Hopper into the snow, she hoped desperately that the next time she rode in it, it would be with a little girl in tow.
Hopper lead Joyce through the woods, and while it may have looked to anyone else like they were wandering aimlessly, she could tell the man was headed in a very particular direction. A few minutes into their walk, a small, wooden box came into view. Jim kneeled next to it and opened the lid, swearing silently at the contents that he'd really hoped would not still be there. Joyce joined him beside it, staring down at the multiple little stacks of Eggos wrapped in saran wrap and racking her brain for any good reason why she hadn't taken them this time.
Joyce had been informed of Hopper's recent suspicions that Eleven hadn't actually disappeared at all and had in fact been hiding in the woods around Hawkins for the past few weeks. He'd told her about the hunter who had encountered a child that somehow knocked him unconscious and stole his coat and hat, had let her know that the food he'd been leaving in the forest was definitely being eaten, though he freely admitted he couldn't be sure who or what it was consuming it. Seeing the look on his face now, Joyce knew the man had really gotten his hopes up. She hoped for his sake and her own that if she was really out there, they could find her before it was too late.
"How long have they been there?" the woman asked, pointing to the Eggos.
"Three days." Jim answered. "Until this I was bringing them before and after work every day."
Joyce gazed around the forest, trying to determine where a scared child might possibly be hiding out here. Her heart sank; she knew from recent experience that Eleven could be anywhere.
"Well, let's start looking." she said, turning back to the man and turning her worry into determination.
Hopper reached into the backpack and pulled out a handful of marking flags, handing them to Joyce. "Let's split up while it's light and meet back here when it gets dark. She's smart, so if its her I don't think she would have gone very far from a reliable food source, I just don't know which direction she went in."
The woman looked up at a sky that showed no intention of slowing down its snowfall anytime soon. Hopefully it wouldn't cover their trails too quickly. "Okay, let's do this."
They headed in opposite directions, both of them tracing their steps back to the box several times and starting over in a different direction when they either went way too far one way or hit terrain they weren't able to cover on foot. They searched for over an hour separately before the last of daylight began to fade, both of them cold and disheartened as they trudged back to the meeting point and regrouped. Snow was only falling harder and the temperature was only dropping, and neither of them had seen even a hint that anyone was hiding in these woods, let alone the particular little girl they were looking for.
"When do you need to be home?" Jim asked, trying to gauge how long it would take to drive the woman back into town and return to keep searching.
"I didn't say," Joyce replied, feeling guilty. After everything that had just happened, she felt horrible about leaving her boys at night without giving them a time frame of when she'd be home. She hadn't even told them what she was doing, that Eleven might still be out there.
"I can take you back whenever you're ready."
However, it was just a little after five. She could spare another hour and make something up to tell the boys if they didn't find anything. "Let's keep looking together. Do you have a flashlight?"
The man produced two from the backpack, passing one to her.
"Okay," the woman said, flicking it on. "Which way haven't we tried yet?
They settled on a direction and began searching again, Jim taking the left and Joyce taking the right. They walked a ways before being forced to turn around when encountering a frozen creek bed. Midway back, a small woodland animal scurried across their path ahead of them and came to rest underneath a large pine tree. Joyce smiled slightly at the quiet squeaks of the small animal as they approached it, then stopped in her tracks when she heard the creature begin to eat something that was audibly crunchy. It took Hopper a minute to notice the woman had stopped behind him, and by the time he turned around, Joyce was following the sound and pushing aside the low hanging branches of the tree where the noise was coming from.
She immediately spotted the animal, a little snow mink, chowing down on a cache of frozen Eggos that were half buried in the snow. Her heart sank at the sight of exactly what she'd been fearing-that it had just been some animal all along-but it lifted again a moment later when she saw movement from the corner of her eye and looked up to spot a small sneaker as white as the surrounding snow peeking out from behind the trunk of the tree.
"Hop! Over here!" The woman called as she crawled forward, causing the mink to flee and the shoe to move out of sight behind the tree trunk, where a weak moan could barely be heard. The man was right behind her when Joyce lifted the stiff, partially frozen little girl into her lap and touched her face, her neck, her chest, looking for any sign that she was alive.
"Oh my God, I don't know if she's breathing!" Joyce said, her voice turning frantic. She was feeling that same awful and absolutely overwhelming sensation of panic that she'd felt when she found her son in an alternate dimension just weeks earlier and watched with horror as the man, the same who was beside her now, breathed life back into him. She hoped with all of her heart that she wouldn't have to watch him do the same thing now. She was moving, the woman kept telling herself, trying to steady her facing thoughts. She was moaning.
Jim pulled the child into his arms, peeling off his gloves with his teeth and pushing his fingers into her neck, searching desperately for a pulse. He didn't need to look for long; the contrast of the man's warm fingers on her ice cold skin was enough to make Eleven flinch violently away from him in shock, then unintentionally draw herself back towards his warmth a moment later, whining on both her inhale and exhale. Joyce let out a sob of relief at the sound as Hopper reached into the backpack and retrieved what looked like a giant folded up piece of tinfoil-a shock blanket-and proceeded to wrap the little girl in it before hoisting her into his arms, both of them groaning at the effort.
"Take both flashlights and lead the way back to the car. My keys are in my right jacket pocket." Hopper said, using his elbows and his own head to push the branches out of the way, protecting the child in his arms from the snow that fell due to his movement. Joyce trailed close behind for only a moment before immediately taking the lead, following their now barely visible flagged path at a much faster pace than had previously been set. Eleven was limp as Jim carried her through the forest, her head rolling on its own accord cradled against the inside of his elbow, her skinned, raw little legs dangling like a dolls from his arms.
They made it back to the box quickly and to the Blazer soon after, Joyce fishing the keys out of his pocket with her cold, shaking fingers and unlocking the doors, turning on the ignition and blasting the heat while Hopper lifted Eleven into the backseat and covered her with blankets. He removed her frozen hat and used the corner of one of the blankets to dry the icicles from the tips of the child's shorn but growing head of hair, rubbed warmth back into her exposed fingers. They'd been gone awhile, but the Blazer was quick to heat up, and at Joyce's suggestion, they moved the girl up to the passenger seat where the vents could hit her better.
Eleven was still unconscious but had started to shiver and shake uncontrollably, something both adults knew was actually a good thing. Her legs and arms trembled in an almost seizure like manner, her once knee high white socks that were now coated in blood and dirt slipping down to her ankles. Joyce touched her shoes, her socks, her dress, and found all of them soaking wet and freezing cold.
"We've gotta get her out of these clothes, Hop." she told the man who was acting as a buffer of warmth between the little girl and the passenger set.
He nodded in agreeance and lifted Eleven's legs so that he could untie her shoes. They were nearly glued to her feet, and as he peeled her socks off, the realization that she could be suffering from significant frostbite hit him and he was suddenly terrified all over again; what if nothing they did was enough for her, that she needed a hospital and there certainly wasn't one they could take her to without anyone noticing the numbered tattoo on her arm. He was more than relieved to find that, while her feet were grossly discolored and felt like a block of ice, Jim had actually seen worse, and he let out a loud sigh when he concluded that she wasn't at risk of losing any of her toes, though they'd still likely cause her quite a bit of pain for a few days.
Joyce immediately wrapped the child's porcelain feet in the shock blanket that Hopper removed from around her shoulders as he took off the oversized hunting jacket she'd stolen and unbuttoned the back of her pink dress. Eleven was still trembling and quietly moaned while the two adults tried as gently as they could to undress her. Her skin was still cold to the touch under her layers, and she was so, so skinny, each of her ribs visible, the left side of her bare chest rapidly pounding with every beat of her heart. They were able to slowly pull the stiff, dirty dress over her head, which reeked of mold and urine. Joyce had to cover her mouth to stifle a sob over the fact that the little girl was completely bare underneath it; she'd been out there that whole time without even any underwear.
Hopper threw her clothes in the back seat and covered her completely in blankets again before turning back to Joyce, a question on his lips that he himself wasn't even sure of yet. It took a minute before he spoke."I'm going to, uh, take you home, and then I'll figure out what to do with her from there."
"Shouldn't we take her to a hospital?"
"And tell them what?" he waited for her response, the question lingering in the air, one neither of them could answer. "Yeah."
"We need to get her warmed up and quick, so let's take her to my house and get a fire going, maybe give her a warm bath when she's awake."
"Joyce, it's not safe for her there," the man started.
"Well it's not really safe for her anywhere, Hop, and staying in your car with a naked child on your lap isn't any better than locking all the doors and windows and drawing the curtains at my house, and you know it."
Hopper sighed, weighing his options heavily and quickly. "Alright, for one night. I'll figure something else out tomorrow."