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Voices spoke over his head in words that sounded garbled and strange. Light dimmed and brightened in an alternating pattern over his closed eyelids. An acrid scent burned his nostrils, and metal flavor graced his tongue. Hands were gripping his arms, digging in painfully. His body ached, and his torso felt like it was on fire. And something else was wrong, but he just couldn’t figure out what was causing the feeling of dread.
He didn’t remember where he was or what had happened. The last thing he remembered… He didn’t even know what he remembered last. It felt as if he’d been dropped onto the earth with no recollection of how he got there and only the vaguest notion of who he was.
He slowly became aware that he was moving, being dragged along the ground. The idea sparked panic in his soul, but he couldn’t force his eyes to open. He felt the hands holding him heft him up onto a flat surface, pushing him further onto it until they could take their hands away without him falling to the ground. Whoever was talking gibberish above him moved away, and he was left lying there, his feet dangling over the edge of the… table?
A minute passed as he tried to figure out what was going on, hushed voices and urgent footsteps moving around him.
“Dustin Henderson.”
The familiar name, spoken in English amidst what he previously thought was only gibberish, clicked his memory back into place.
The gate. Eleven . Joyce.
Hopper gasped quietly as he finally managed to open his eyes. His vision was blurred as he took in his surroundings. People in familiar Russian uniforms bustled around him, stacking boxes and destroying papers. He was resting in the back of a small flatbed truck in an open area that looked like an emergency meeting place for the remaining scientists and soldiers.
He had to get up. He had to escape, find Joyce, and ensure Eleven was okay.
His vision grayed at the edges when he sat up, but no one was watching him, and another chance couldn’t be guaranteed. He had to move now .
Hopper was on his feet for only a few seconds before the dizziness grew tenfold, and he pleaded with himself to stay on his feet, keep going, and not pass out. Shouts sounded behind him, and footsteps rushed toward him.
He hit the ground and blacked out before a single soldier managed to lay a hand on him.