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Kali’s hand was chilled against Jane’s; her fingers twitched but were otherwise unresponsive, but Jane held on anyway. She could hear Hopper behind her, sense him hovering in the doorway in her periphery.
“That ain’t Vecna,” he observed, dry. A tinge of annoyance in his voice that made Jane want to bristle, to snap–but doing so would mean taking her eyes off of her sister. Jane wasn’t ready to do that. Wasn’t ready for the possibility that Kali might disappear if she stopped looking at her. She looked so thin, even thinner than she was when she was living on the streets, if possible. Hollow cheeks, dark shadows under too-pale skin, her beautiful hair sheared off. Wires connected to her, pushing things in her veins, pulling things out of them.
“No,” she says instead, deliberately soft against the surge of rage that threatens to electrify her. “This is Kali.”
“That’s great,” Hop said, still in that dry, annoyed tone. “Who the hell is Kali?”
“My sister.” Jane released Kali’s hand, eyes scanning over her body again to see what needed to be done to free the young woman from her prison. “Help me get her down.”
Hop stared at her for a long, heavy moment. Jane felt the brooding swoop of his eyebrows, the scowl twisting his mouth. Finally, he sighed.
“You owe me a conversation,” he grumbled, but he did as Jane asked. Together, the two of them manage to carefully remove needles from Kali’s body, to unhook her from machines and, with a little bit of telekinetic fiddling, unlocking the straps around her wrists and ankles. Kali collapsed forward, Hop barely catching her.
“Jane,” she slurred, and both Jane and Hopper froze for a moment at the faint, raspy sound.
“I’m here,” Jane promised, reaching for Kali’s hand again while Hop adjusted his grip.
“Afraid we gotta save the reunion for once we’re out of here, kids. Dr. Kay said there were reinforcements on the way.”
Jane finally pulled her gaze from Kali’s face to glance at her adopted father’s. She saw the grim set of his jaw, the flinty look in his eyes, and knew he was right. They had to get out of the military base quickly. And Kali wasn’t going to be any help.
“Let’s go.”
The reinforcements that Dr. Kay promised were nowhere to be seen as Jane led the way out of MAC-Z, Hopper carrying Kali behind her. He was holding her delicately, far from his chest as he could without dropping her while Kali wove in and out of consciousness. The lack of soldiers rushing to kill them should have comforted Jane, but it just made her skin crawl. Something was wrong, something had to be very wrong, or they would have seen someone, but no–they managed to make it out without being spotted by anyone. An alarm blared, red lights flashed, but no one shot at them. No one stopped them.
On the other side of the compound wall, Jane looked towards the foliage they’d taken cover in before. It was a little more difficult to do, now that they had Kali. And they still had to get across town, to Dustin and the others at the church. At a momentary loss, she glanced to Hopper for guidance.
“We need to move fast,” he said. “I don’t know where everyone was, but they’re going to notice that your friend here is missing, and they’re going to be even more determined to track you down.”
“I know. What do we do?”
Hopper looked around, then behind himself at the compound door. “I have an idea.” Very carefully, he set Kali on her feet, and Jane moved forward to wrap an arm around her waist and hold her up. “Be right back. Wait here.”
Jane did as she was told, clutching Kali and breathing in slow, deep breaths. Kali seemed to have fallen asleep standing up, her head lolling on Jane’s shoulder. Jane tried to stay alert, to pay attention to every sound she heard. The alarm was making it hard, though.
A few minutes later, Hopper reappeared behind the wheel of a military Jeep. He grinned down at Jane before hopping out of the driver’s seat, leaving the engine idling.
“Let’s lay her down in the back.”
It took both of them, but Jane and Hopper got Kali in the backseat before they climbed in themselves, Hop resuming his position in the driver’s seat. After a silent, shared glance, he nodded and put the Jeep in gear. As it bumped and jostled along the vine-covered ground of the Upside Down, Jane watched Kali’s sleeping form in the rearview mirror, filled to the brim with questions that would have to wait.
Hopper’s, however, did not.
“So, I take it Kali was another of Brenner’s kidnapped kids?”
Jane looked over at him, nodded. “Yes. Papa stole her when she was little, but older than I was when he stole me. I did not remember her for a long time, but after I met Mama…”
Falling silent, Jane was unsure of how much more to say. They didn’t really talk about the time Jane ran away, all those years ago. She didn’t want to stir up painful memories. She sidestepped it by finishing, lamely, “She is my sister.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Hopper sighed. “Well, if she’s your sister, I guess that makes her my family too. Think she’s going to be any help in all of this?”
Jane thought of all she had seen Kali capable of. She knew her friend would need to recover from what had been done to her, but even so, she nodded without much hesitation.
“Yes,” she said, still watching Kali sleep, “I do.”