A/N: A little over ONE YEAR ago, MCAppetizer won a place in a LiS fanart contest, where he had to render his favorite moment from the game. Now, over ONE YEAR later, I deliver my promise: a one shot to his specifications. Enjoy!
When faced with an impending force of nature that was hellbent on destroying their homes, the citizens of Arcadia Bay reacted in a range of fashions. From "The end is near," to "Pack your bags, kids," it truly was the most interesting, and last, moment in the bay town's history. Rising sea levels would have displaced everyone eventually, thanks to global warming; however, Max and Chloe could only focus on the immediate damage. The coastal portion town had been flattened entirely, and the outer residential areas had sustained heavy damage. Max and Chloe didn't explore. Miraculously, Chloe's truck had survived, along with most of her house. She packed up what she needed and took Max to the remains of the heinous school where it had all begun. Apparently, the contractors had also been somewhat heinous in their dealings and shoddy in their construction efforts, as the school was in shambles, and the dormitories were unsalvageable. By the end of the first day, Max couldn't take it anymore.
"Um... Let's go to th- the, uh.. Grand Canyon," she suggested.
Surprised, Chloe admitted, "I always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon."
Grimacing, Max replied, "I... umm, yeah. I, uh... I- I remember." Technically, Chloe didn't tell her. She had just mentioned the desire in that one, alternate universe.
Tossing Max her spare car key, Chloe said, "Sounds good, but you have to do some of the driving."
Max nodded, allowing a small smile to creep up on her.
Max and Chloe promptly left the whole mess behind them, driving south, back into the working world. They meandered for a few days, drifting really. Chloe wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her new gift of life, and Max wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her bloody hands. She used them to call her mom and dad to let them know what was going on. They wanted her and Chloe to come back to them instantly, but Max hung up on them. Subsequently, she had to block their numbers. She told herself that it would be temporary.
Laying on their motel bed, Chloe asked, "What's the plan?"
Flopping down next to her, Max curled up next to her girlfriend and explained, "We could go directly east, but if we go into California there are three national forests we could go through. Then we can visit Charleston Peak and-"
"What's so special about a peak?" Chloe wondered.
"It.. well, it looks nice," Max tried to reason. "It looks pretty, and I'm tired of seeing death and destruction."
Chloe turned on her side and enveloped Max in a hug. Looking into her eyes, Chloe smiled. "Okay. Let's go to Charleston Peak."
"And then the Grand Canyon," she added with a small smile.
It was more than Chloe had expected. Content, she pushed herself forward enough to give Max a grateful kiss.
The highway proved was quiet for Max and Chloe. After going through such an ordeal, with it all climaxing in the face of a giant hurricane and annihilation of their hometown, they were initially hopeful of the monotonous, get-to-work drive that so many people were usually focused on. It turned out that ninety-six percent of a town literally being wiped off the map was considered a national emergency. Thus, the highway was pretty vacant. It gave them time to think, but they unfortunately continued to spend that time thinking about what they had both done. It didn't help that everyone around them was in shock and hysteria. If Arcadia Bay was the hot topic for the local news stations, diner guests would have the volume cranked up and bring the mood back.
They were grateful to get back on 95-South. Slowly, they meandered through a whole host of national parks. From Oregon, they drifted through Umpqua, Winema, and the northernmost part of Modoc National Park; which led them into California.
Crossing the state line, Max thought that it truly was the beginning of a new chapter in her life. If there was any sequel material, it would surely be here. Unfortunately, it seemed to be more of a Hollywood rehash than a proper continuation of her life.
The opening shot was perfect: skyscrapers of wood surrounded them, with vibrant green scattered around and the occasional animal flying between the trees or leaping from the bubbling streams. In the wake of a state catastrophe, attendance to the parks was on the lower end of the spectrum; it gave Chloe and Max the perfect time to wander through the endless landscape. Often, even when she wasn't asked, Chloe would just pull over and let her precious Max have all the photo time she could ever want. The photographer had a way with animals, and these national parks were giving her plenty of material, from the odd wolf to the curious deer.
Max was in her element, so it was all the more horrifying when a tree branch squashed Chloe.
Shrieking, Max lept into action. She focused and rewound time, giving herself the opportunity to charge at Chloe and tackle her several yards. Chloe, of course, spouted off several colorful words before falling silent as the tree branch smashed down right where she had been.
The two sat in silence for a good half hour, clinging to each other as if the end had already come.
"Fuck life," Chloe finally said.
"Fuck it to hell," Max agreed.
They left Modoc with haste, back into civilization. The original plan had been to continue south, into the Lassen and Plumas parks, and from there further south into the Stanislaus, the fabled Yosemite, and the Sierra. A huge fan of the "Fallout" franchise, Chloe had even expressed interest in swinging through the Mojave National Reserve after coming out of Sierra, to which Max had eagerly agreed; they would turn east and visit Death Valley first, then swing through the fabled Mojave.
Instead, Max rerouted them onto Route 395. It skimmed past said parks and led them to Reno, Nevada. A big, bustling city, where there would be countless distractions to distract her from the latest horror she'd witnessed. She was thoroughly sick of forests and even debated having an extended tour of Vegas, though she eventually acknowledged that Chloe didn't have the money for that kind of excursion.
Sleeping under the stars in a shitty tent Chloe had chucked into her trunk was certainly a magical experience on its own, especially in a near-empty national park with peaceful wilderness aplenty; but, Max was happy when they checked into a shitty motel on the outskirts of Reno. As they ignored the scurrying roaches on the floor, they hastily tossed a blanket over the questionable sheets that their bed offered.
Balancing their large travel cases on the tiny, complementary bedside, Chloe hoped that it would be enough to detour the roaches from crawling all over their shit. Satisfied with her balancing act, she leaned over the bed and placed a grateful kiss on Max's lips. "I need a shower. You good?"
Smiling back, Max decided, "I'd love to join you."
Strolling past the bed, Chloe welcomed, "Great! I'll get it started!" She strutted backwards, making all sorts of quirky facial expression to her beloved. It was funny watching Max giggle, but then she suddenly snapped into horror.
"Chloe, stop!" Max shrieked, scrambling from the bed as if a nuke had just gone off.
Chloe knew her role and froze. Max smashed into her and wrapped her arms around her, pulling her away from the bathroom. She struggled to keep her balance with Max practically crawling on her, but she managed to keep them both on their feet.
"What?!" she frantically asked, reciprocating the hug to the best of her abilities as Max asphyxiated her. "Max?!" she struggled to gasp.
Max let go, though her composure was shattered. She needed Chloe's help to sit down on the foot of the bed. "You fell," she managed to choke out. "You slipped on the floor, and your head- it- it hit the tub faucet."
Chloe spent the rest of the night comforting Max, though she found herself looping what she normally had to say in response to her untimely demise. She wondered if this was her future, to be repeatedly killed and saved. She wondered if the Universe was prepared to wage a total, unadulterated war of attrition against Max over the life of one girl. She didn't dare ask Max about it.
They skipped Charleston Peak. Chloe felt it would be best to just get through the Grand Canyon and get back to Max's parents. She didn't know why, but she wanted to believe that surrounding herself with Max's family would make her harder to kill. She just stared ahead into the desert road. They didn't have a lot to say to each other. Thankfully, there was no one around to see the mysteriously somber couple; again, the silver lining to national tragedies is that tourism takes a plummet.
The Grand Canyon was endless, to Chloe. Its golden and orange cliffsides were carved as if some sort of god child had taken a screwdriver, jabbed it into a blank wall, and ran with their arm held straight around the entire interior several billion times. Each lap had, of course, required this god child to stop and move the screwdriver down by a micrometer before resuming. It was as finite as it was perfect. The flowing river at the basin was certainly inviting, but the fall was certain death. Chloe took her time in appreciating the beauty. Billions of years had produced a beautiful, boundless canyon that had been saved from big business industrialization by a rough ridin', gun totin' Republican president. She had written many papers on her favorite president. She wanted to see a lot of herself in him, minus the recent drama.
The Grand Canyon was empty, to Max. Its cliffsides were a hazard. She wondered which part of the guard railing would give way under Chloe's weight. There was a slight breeze; it wasn't enough to knock Chloe off balance and send her tumbling to her death, but she twitched whenever it picked up. When they finally trudged to Grand Canyon West, they came upon the human-made attraction: the Skywalk.
A massive cantilever in the shape of a horseshoe, the Skywalk jutted into the Grand Canyon at seventy feet. Its walkway was ten feet wide, and its decorative plaque proudly stated certified its structural integrity. Max was still mortified.
Chloe had taken a hand's off approach for the day, as she felt that Max had needed space to do some much-needed thinking. This was a point she had to contest. "We can't live in fear," she told Max as she gently pulled her across the firmly secured Skywalk.
Max's heart rumbled in her chest, bouncing and jumping and smashing against her ribcage. She took each step with even greater dread than the last.
She had to stop. To be honest with herself, she had been zoning in and out as they wandered. "I won't live like this," she decided.
Chloe, hand firmly in Max's, squeezed. She had walked all day through the Grand Canyon without hearing more than a few "uh-huh" responses and such. She had been waiting for Max to come to whatever conclusion was at the end of her thoughts. She wasn't too surprised.
"I'm so-" Max paused, pulling her hand out of Chloe's. Taking a few steps forward, she spat, "No. No, I'm not sorry." Turning to face Chloe, she crossed her arms and shivered in that slight breeze. "I- I am not going to live my life like this, Chloe. I got too many people k-" She had to pause to acknowledge, "Killed! Trying to save you. I've alienated myself, and- and, and it's just not healthy. It's not healthy to sacrifice so much for someone else!"
Chloe stood still, giving Max the time and silence she needed. They had come out to the very edge of the skywalk, so it wasn't exactly an ideal location. Still, she knew that Max had needed this from the beginning.
Wiping away the first few tears, Max quickly gave up and continued, "And it's not your fault. I know it's not your fault! I never said it was your fault!" She ran her arm across her nose and snorted hard. "This whole week has been fucking insane, and I know it's just a big accident that all of this fe- fell into place! But I'm sick of it! I've been a wreck for nearly two weeks, and I'm going to lose my mind if I keep trying to fight the Universe!" Max finally decided.
Turning away, she stormed across the rest of the skywalk.
Throat dry, Chloe managed to call out, "Good bye, Max." Her echo was the only reply.
Swallowing hard, Chloe went to lean on the railing.