Chapter 2

Max lay awake in bed, listening to the wind rattling through the house. The sandstorm was vicious and had carried on all through the late afternoon and long into the night. Unable to stand it anymore, Max swung her feet out of bed. She didn't want to wake anyone, but she needed water. Quietly, she crept to the kitchen sink and filled a cup with water before turning around. She could hear the wind whistling past the windows, but it was almost as if it were calling her name somehow.

In an almost hypnotic state, she put the cup on the counter and walked over to the door. Without her telling it to, her right hand extended to grab the doorknob. Suddenly, the dark mist that seemed to have crept into her head was yanked out again with an almost primal scream. Looking down at her hand, she realised she'd been rewinding. Her power had saved her life. Outside the windows, all she could see was the redness of the sand. If she'd gone out there, she'd have been suffocated to death. As it stood, the worst thing that had happened was that her power had emptied her cup and put it back in the cupboard. Shaking her head to clear it, she grabbed the same cup back from the cupboard, filled it again and went back to bed.

The rest of her night was filled with troubled sleep and the unmistakeable sound of her name carried hatefully on the hellish gale that surrounded the house as it desperately searched for any kind of weakness to grant it entry.

The next morning, Max met everyone else at the table. She was bleary-eyed and grouchy, but she tried her best not to show it.

"I see you're not much of a morning girl either." Rae yawned. "That's okay, Max. Neither are Ellie, Mum and I. Mum's currently sorting the sheep out and Ellie's going to join her once you pick an outfit. You, Dom and I are taking the horses today. Dom's already out there. He's better with mornings than the rest of us. Ellie's waiting for you in her room so you can pick some clothes out. She's apparently lined up three outfits she says are 'durable but versatile'. If I know her, any one of them could last you years."

"Thanks so much." Max said. Rae pushed a plate of pancakes towards her. On the table there was a bottle of lemon juice and some chocolate sauce. "How do you get stuff like chocolate sauce so far out here?" she asked.

"The city's not too far." Rae explained. "There's a guy who visits frequently who drops us some luxuries off. We still keep it so that we could potentially manage without it though. I think Mum quite likes him."

"I probably shouldn't ask, but I've noticed you never mention your dad." Max said, treading cautiously. "Did he go and live in the city or something?"

"Our father got caught outside when a sandstorm hit at night." Rae sighed. "In the morning, there was nothing but bones left. The velocity of it literally stripped him clean."

"God, that's awful." Max muttered. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't mention it to Dom." Rae said. "We had a visitor when it happened, and we were only really young. In the morning, he went with our mother and buried helped her him. Dom blames our dad's death on the man's presence. It's why he's not very welcoming to new people."

"I understand." Max nodded. Without another word, she started eating.

"I hope you'll excuse me if I go and help Dom." Rae said. "Once you're done here, go and see Ellie to get an outfit more suited to the desert and then get outside. I'm sure Mum can excuse the fact you're late up today since you were probably walking all day yesterday, but we'll need you up a bit earlier tomorrow if that's possible." Max nodded as she continued eating. Once she was done, she put her plate in the sink before going to Ellie's room. She knew which one it was from the giant red 'E' painted on the door.

"Come in, Max." Ellie called as Max knocked on the door.

"How did you know it was me?" Max asked.

"I heard your whole conversation with Rae in the kitchen, so I know you're the only other person in here. I wasn't listening on purpose, but this wall is paper thin." To prove her point, Ellie walked over to her bedroom wall and flicked it. It gave a hollow thud and seemed to shake worryingly. "By the way, like Rae said, I really wouldn't discuss what was said with Dom. Even after eighteen years, it's still really raw with him."

"I have a friend who's still pretty raw about losing her father." Max nodded understandingly.

"Is she the one you mentioned yesterday?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, it's her." Max replied.

"Can I ask how it happened?"

"I really don't think that's my place to say." Max said.

"Okay, got it." Ellie muttered. "By the way, you have three outfits here. They're all in varying shades of red and they all have full-body protection which means gloves, goggles and a piece of cloth sewn into the neckline to protect your mouth and nose and stop sand from clogging your airway in a sandstorm. This place is usually pretty quiet, but if one hits during the day and catches us out there, that faceguard and the goggles are your only hope of survival." Max nodded to show she understood.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. I've died twice already." Max said.

"Let's not make it third time unlucky." Ellie replied as she handed Max a pair of goggles. "If you get caught in a sandstorm, just pull your hood up, pull the goggles over your eyes if you haven't already and pull the cloth over your mouth. Just hunker down as best you can and we'll come for you, okay?"

"Okay." Max said.

"Like I said, it most likely won't come to that." Ellie reminded her quickly. "It's just that you need to know what to do if it does."

"I get that." Max had always prided her way of having measures in place in the event of a crisis. "Aren't all of these clothes a bit thick for the desert though?"

"Surprisingly they're not." Ellie said. "This is a really good fabric. It's one of those that can be really cool in the heat and warm in… Well, it's never actually cold here, but you get the picture." Max had a look over each outfit before grabbing one she liked. None of them were her usual style, but it looked the most comfortable. The hood was made of a thin but durable material and was sewn onto the main shirt. The lower shirt sleeves could be unzipped and fastened to points near the shoulders so it could be worn as either a short or long-sleeved shirt. The trousers were the same story. The lower legs could be unzipped and fastened to points near the hips so the trousers could be worn as shorts.

"I like the look of this." Max said.

"I'll be honest, that's the one I would have recommended." Ellie nodded approvingly. "I'm going to help Mum with the sheep. We'll need you outside in ten minutes." Max nodded and went into her own room to change. She shrugged off her shirt and jeans before folding them up and placing them on a stool in the corner of the room. As she changed into the outfit, she thought of Arcadia Bay and couldn't help but wonder what reality she was in. Were Rachel and Chloe still alive and well? She knew she'd have to get back to Arcadia Bay and find out, but part of her sensed something wasn't quite right here. That sandstorm had come out of nowhere, and why had she felt so entranced last night? Something had been screaming at her to open the door. Not to mention, she shouldn't even be alive now. She'd felt herself die in the tornado and she'd felt herself die fighting Jefferson when he'd hijacked her rewind power. That was twice now that she'd cheated death. Yet here she was being put up for a few nights and given clothes by people she didn't know. Promising herself answers, she shrugged on the shirt and trousers before heading for the door.

Max stepped out from the shelter of the house into the harsh sunlight. Looking round, she spotted the family gathered near the gate to the sheep enclosure. Ellie was clearly crying.

"What's wrong?" Max called, running over as Chen and Rae draped a tarpaulin over what they were gathered round.

"It's nothing to worry about." Dom said quickly as he cut Max off and purposely blocked her view. "The sheep panic in the storm, escape from their barn and suffocate. Ellie always gets shaken up by it. She just needs to take a minute."

"Domasi, just get it out the way." Chen ordered. "I know Ellie doesn't want to see this for longer than she has to and I don't particularly want Max seeing it either." Then she turned to Max. "Don't take that personally, Max. It's just that when we lose an animal it's not something we want to involve guests in." Max only nodded as Dom went round the back of the tarp, pulled one of the sheep's legs out and started dragging the carcass round behind the barn. While she didn't want to call these people liars, something bothered her. It was nearly invisible in the sand, but in her experience anything that died from oxygen deprivation didn't usually leave a massive trail of blood when it was dragged along the ground.