"Why did you choose to ride with me?" Hopper asked Steve curiously during an extended period of silence while they were driving along the sleepy Hawkins streets. Joyce's and Jonathan's cars had already split off to investigate other routes so they were the only two beings on that stretch of road. Hopper glanced down at the compass resting on top of the dash every so often to make sure they were still going in the right direction.

"I don't know," Steve shrugged, his eyes following the dark outlines of the scenery passing by outside his window. He looked over to Hopper with the right corner of his lip curled into a half-smile. "I think we make a good team."

Hopper offered a similar half-smile back. "We're going to find her."

"I know," Steve sighed. He thought back to the last words One had imparted on him before disappearing through the portal. He contemplated whether he should tell Hopper his true feelings for Sarah, but he thought it might be better to wait until they were out of a confined space. Just to be safe...

Hopper turned the radio on to cut through the depressing quiet that had settled upon them but he struggled to find a station within range. "That's odd..." Hopper mumbled as he continued to turn the dial. All he heard was static.

"Here, let me," Steve offered, taking control over the dial, but as soon as he touched the knob it began to spin of its own accord. "Whoa! What's happening?"

Hopper looked away from the road for a brief moment to see the radio controlling itself. He was about to turn it off because it was distracting him from driving when Steve stopped him.

"Wait," Steve told him. "Look at the clock."

Hopper turned his attention to the digital clock and watched as the green lines that constructed the numbers rapidly flickered and changed. Single numbers appeared one after the other and it became clear to Hopper that the clock was no longer telling the time.

"Here, um..." Steve began to rifle through the glove box and throw things around the cab.

"Hey, watch it!" Hopper warned Steve after a pen struck him on the side of the head, but Steve ignored him.

"Do you have any paper in here?" Steve asked frantically after he reached the bottom of the glove box.

"I might have a little notebook in the center console," Hopper offered as he moved his elbow for Steve to look.

A smile broke out across Steve's face when he dug out the notebook and he flipped to a clean page. After grabbing the pen that had smacked Hopper in the face off the floor, he began to intently watch the clock and jot down the corresponding numbers. Hopper felt compelled to glance over every couple seconds.

"What are you doing, Harrington?" Hopper asked as he squinted at the illegible handwriting on the page. He had to swerve the truck out of the other lane after he realized that he had been looking at Steve's scribbles longer than the road.

"Look, the numbers keep repeating themselves!" Steve said as he thrust his finger at the clock. "There's twelve numbers total and there's a pause before it starts at three. Could it be some sort of message?"

"I think this whole thing with Sarah has got you going a little crazy," Hopper said sympathetically. "The dashboard is just fritzing out. I'll have to take a look at the wiring."

"You've seen literal monsters and you think I'm going crazy because I think the clock is trying to tell us something?" Steve stared at Hopper without blinking once.

Hopper was a little thrown off by Steve's remark and had to take a moment to respond when something struck him. "Wait, did you say there was twelve numbers?"

"Yeah; three, eight, two, eight, three, three, eight, six, three, zero, seven, one," Steve rattled the numbers off.

"I think it's coordinates," Hopper thought out loud. "There's twelve numbers in a full set of coordinates for Indiana and the coordinates for the police department also start with three-eight."

Steve studied the numbers a little longer before he rewrote them in pairs of six with decimals after the second number. "38.2833° N, 86.3017° W," Steve read out loud.

Steve twisted around in his seat and grabbed the map that he had thrown in the backseat while he was rummaging around the glove box. He felt a sharp pain rip through his still sore body after the sudden movement but he was too focused on his current task at hand to pay it any attention. He pressed the map across his lap and used his finger to follow the longitude and latitude lines until he found the spot he was looking for. "Take a right!" Steve directed.

Hopper quickly spun the wheel towards the right and the truck rocked as it flew over a pothole. "So we're just going to go to the coordinates that the clock tells us?" Hopper asked after he resituated in his seat. He had nearly gone airborne for a second there.

"It could be the rift!" Steve answered.

"Or it could be a trap," Hopper pointed out. "What about the compass?"

"Just--just trust me," Steve spluttered as he continued to study the map. "I have a feeling about this...and besides, the compass is pointing the same way."

Hopper shrugged his shoulders and followed Steve's directions the rest of the way until they reached the coordinates. When they arrived, they found themselves in the middle of nowhere on an old dirt road that was barely used. Looming trees surrounded them on either side and made the night sky feel darker.

"Is this it?" Hopper asked Steve as they hopped out of the truck.

"No," Steve answered and pulled the map closer to his face. It was difficult to see the tiny details in the dark. Having noticed that Steve was struggling, Hopper flashed his light at the map. "We'll have to walk a little ways."

Hopper grabbed the compass from the truck and pointed his flashlight towards the unwelcoming woods before them. A series of unfamiliar sounds greeted them in response sending shivers down Hopper's and Steve's spines. They could run into any matter of creatures in there, be it from their world or another.

"Looks like it wants us to go this way," Hopper announced.

Steve followed closely behind Hopper with the map tucked in his back pocket and his spiked bat over his left shoulder. Hopper had given Steve a strange look when he had grabbed it from the back of his truck but Steve informed him that it had saved their asses on more than one occasion and as such he wasn't leaving it behind. Although, walking through the twisted and troublesome trees, it didn't help to ease his fear very much.

"Hold up," Hopper said after several minutes of eerie silence. He held out an arm to prevent Steve from walking any further.

Steve, not having been paying the best attention because he had heard a strange noise that was particularly close and was looking that way, walked right into Hopper's arm. "What's wrong?" Steve asked once he realized that Hopper had stopped.

"The compass..." Hopper answered quietly. He, too, had heard a noise that gave him some apprehension and he felt an uneasy feeling that something was watching them. "It started pointing the opposite way." Hopper turned in a slow circle and watched as the compass needle spun with him.

"But doesn't that mean..." Steve began to ask when Hopper finished for him.

"...that we're right on top of it."

Hopper and Steve immediately looked down and jumped backwards, but they didn't see anything. At least, not at first.

Hopper bent down and began clearing snow and debris from the ground until a large blackened scar in the earth was exposed. Hopper looked up at Steve, who gave him a curt nod, before reaching out and gently running his hand along the disfigurement in the dirt. Upon being touched, the strange lesion hissed and tiny tendrils began to snake away from Hopper's hand, revealing part of a pitch black hole underneath.

"You got a lighter on you?" Hopper asked.

Steve thrust his hands into his pockets and pulled out their contents. A couple receipts blew away with the wind and Steve picked through what was leftover in his hands: a couple coins, a stick of gum, a cool rock he had found, and last but not least, a small lighter. "Here," Steve said, tossing the lighter into Hopper's outstretched hands.

Hopper flicked the lighter on and a small, warm blaze erupted at the end. He brought the flame closer to the scar and the black tendrils shriveled beneath its glow, the hissing noise they emitted becoming even louder and more pained. After a couple of swooping motions, Hopper had cleared enough of the strange overgrowth to reveal a hole large enough for a person to fit through.

Hopper rose to his knees and looked at Steve before grabbing the walkie from his hip and bringing it to his mouth. "We found the rift," Hopper said into the radio.

A couple of crackles answered before Joyce's voice broke through on the other end. "What's your location, Hop?"

Instead of answering, Hopper clipped the walkie back to his side and studied the dark hole at his feet. It was impossible to tell what would be waiting on the other side, but he didn't care so long as there was even a small chance that it was Sarah and Eleven.

"Hop?" Joyce's voice asked again, but she still received no response. Hopper turned the volume down until he could no longer hear her.

"Don't even think about leaving me behind," Steve snapped once he recognized the look in Hopper's eye. It was the look of a man who was ready to sacrifice himself.

Hopper let out a few chuckles before placing a hand on Steve's shoulder. He could feel Steve shaking beneath his grip and he knew how scared he was, but he also knew that fear wouldn't stop him from jumping into the rift right after him. "Wouldn't dream of it, Harrington."

Hopper and Steve lined themselves up on opposite sides of the rift, prepared to jump in one after the other. Before either could make a move, Hopper looked to Steve and asked, "Ready?"

Steve nodded his head with a determined smile on his face. "Ready."

Hopper reached out and grabbed Steve's hand to give it a strong shake before he took a step forward and let gravity take it from there. Once Hopper had completely disappeared into the pit, Steve followed suit and dropped into the darkness.

☆ ★ ☆

Alone once more, the blackened tendrils slowly stretched across the ground and sewed themselves back together, closing the rift that connected two worlds. This time, permanently.

★  ☆ ★ ☆ ★