I do not own Life Is Strange or the characters or places from the game please support the official release
Chapter 2: Survivors of the Storm
As the two of them entered the truck Chloe took her jacket off. When she first tried to start the truck it would not. After about four tries it finally started. While they started to slowly move they truck spruted a little to show that it was struggling a bit to get a move on. They drove in silence for a short time with no sound but the rumbling of the truck. Luckily the drive back into town from the light house was not to long of a trip. The truck sounded like it was going to give in at any moment.
When the drove into the outskirts of the town the buildings here did not seem to have taken much damage. But the two girls knew that this was only the beginning. As they got deeper into the town the damage caused by the storm became more noticeable.
The first place they came across was the hospital. The front entrance took a beating, like a lot of other buildings around there was shattered windows but the front entrance had some of the walls torn from it and a few letters from the word hospital were missing. Luckily though the emergency room entrance seemed to have not really and debris around minus the few broken windows near it.
"Can we stop here? I want to check and see if Kate made it." Max said.
Chloe could easily pick up on the worry in Max's voice. As the truck came to a stuttering stop Chloe looked at Max and told her "Hey listen, no matter what we will get through this."
Max looked up a little teary eyed and said "I know. But still its going to be hard to accept what I just did and who I might have... no have gotten killed."
This made Chloe feel uneasy and angry to an extent. She did not expect Max to take this easy but at the same time she did not ask to be given a weird time power just to not be able to use it. Chloe wanted to help Max in any way she could but at that moment was drawing a blank. Chloe spoke up "I know this does not mean much but, think about what I told you up by the lighthouse. You did not ask for this to happen. Also you did not ask for this power." After she said this she realized that she sounded pretty harsh. She told the smaller girl "I'm not trying to be a bitch about this. I'm just saying this is not entirely your fault. Whatever force of nature gave you your time power is at fault here to."
Hearing this Max had a few tears rolling down the sides of her face. Max then replied "As true as that may be I'm still responsible for this in some way shape or form. Like I said it's just going to be hard to get past all of this and it will take a lot of time."
"I know it will Max, and I will be your side the whole way." Chloe responded. After a few minutes of silence Chloe added "Hey we might want to check our phones. You know to see if anyone we know has tried to contact us."
As Chloe pulled out her phone she pressed a button to light it up but the phone was clearly out of power. "Shitballs."
Chloe said in a slightly agitated voice.
Max did the same with her phone but saw that it was also out of power. She told Chloe "I guess we forgot to charge our phones last night."
Seeing as how if they wanted to go and look for people they know to see who made it through the storm they figured they would have to make do the old fashioned way by actually going place to place.
As the blue haired girl got out of the truck she shut her door behind her and went to open up the passenger door to let the brunette girl out of the truck. Once her door was closed Chloe grabbed the smaller girl's hand in a comforting but also reassuring grasp.
The two girls walked slowly to the emergency entrance of the hospital. As they neared the entrance they noticed that quite a number of people were gathered at the doors, enough to the point to where they could not get in. After a few minutes of observing all of the people they started to exit the doors and disperse into multiple directions.
While the crowd was thinning the two girls heard a familiar voice call out "Max is that you? Oh thank god you survived."
As they looked back at the doors they saw Kate standing there with a look of relief on her face. Kate hurried over to them and hugged Max.
While hugging Kate Max asked "Kate I'm so glad you're alive, but how did you manage to stay unscathed?"
Kate responded "Well when the storm first hit there was a lot of panic. But as the tornado came closer the hospital staff started to move all of the patients to the basement here."
After a few minutes of conversation between Max and Kate Chloe asked "So where are all of those people going?"
Kate said "Oh those are some of the staff and people who were visiting at the time volunteering to go look for survivors.
I'm helping organizing the searches. As a matter of fact I need to go report the start of the searches to the man trying to get a hold of fema on a short burst radio please come with me so we can keep talking."
"Has anyone had any phone service?" Max asked.
After a moment of consideration Kate replied "Not that I know of. I think the storm has messed with the cell phone reception pretty bad. Have either of you had any luck?"
Max said "Unfortunately both of our phones are out of power."
While the three of them were walking Max took notice of a few people who were clearly hurt during the storm and had managed to make it here to the hospital. She noticed that some only had minor scars and bruises here and there, but others clearly had suffered much worse.
Chloe noticed that Max had slowed down and had a very grim look on her face. She placed a hand of the smaller girl's left shoulder and whispered to her "Hey it's going to be ok." She knew this would do very little but did not know what else to say at the time.
Noticing that the two girls had stopped Kate asked "Hey is everything alright? Max you look really pale."
"I'm fine." Max replied. "Just still shaken up from the whole thing is all." Max was not sure what else to tell Kate. How could you tell someone that the whole reason the town had to go through the storm was because of the fact that she could not sacrifice the blue haired girl standing next to her.
Kate approached Max and gave her another short hug then they began to walk again. As they walked they saw a few more people who were attempting to help out the injured while they were waiting for doctors and nurses to get to them. After walking down the corridor they made their way to a room with a man sitting at a desk trying to get ahold of someone.
The man looked to be in his early fouries.
After a few moments of silence Kate told the man "Dr. Bagwell the first group of volunteers have started out their search for survivors."
Dr. Bagwell looked away from the computer monitor and told her "That is good new Miss. Marsh." At that moment there was a beeping noise coming from the monitor. The Dr. looked back at it and had a look of hope on his face. He the exclaimed "We have finally got through to FEMA." A few moments later after some back and forth between him and the representative he looked back at the girls and told them "I've just been informed that FEMA relief squads should be here within the next few hours. By tomorrow morning they will have a full force relief group here."
"That is great news." Kate replied in a high tone of relief.
After they left the room Max looked at Kate and told "Kate it's been good to see you again and amazing to see you survived the storm but we need to go and see about a few other people as well."
Kate responded "I completely understand there is a few people I would like to know if they survived as well but I have offered to help here so I at the moment cannot leave."
Chloe was standing a little bit behind Max not to sure what too say or do so she just decided the best thing to do was to be close by if Max needed her.
"Is there anyone you want us to be on the lookout for in particular?" Max asked.
Kate said "Mostly just some of the people from Blackwell are all I can think of at the moment."
Max and Kate hugged once more. Max added "I'll be sure to let other know you made it and tell them to come see you."
While they made their way back to the truck Max grabbed Chloe's hand again once they were outside. Chloe was a little surprised at this. Mostly because she was not expecting it so suddenly but also because Max waited until they got outside.
When they got back into the truck and tried to start it the truck had trouble starting again. After a few minutes Chloe finally got the thing to start. As they chugged along as they saw more of the destroyed town. Houses and business's in ruins. Not all of them were completely destroyed some were even almost unscathed. But there were still some that were just barely standing.
After about ten minutes of driving the tuck came to a complete sudden stop. The truck had given out and stopped right in front of Blackwell. Chloe tried time and time again to get the truck to start but it just would not start. Chloe yelled in anger "Fucking piece of shit!"
"Chloe calm down please." Max asserted in a soothing voice.
Chloe responded trying to calm herself down from her unnecessary outburst of anger at something she knew she should have expected "I'm sorry. It's just that I thought maybe my baby here would at least make it to my house."
Max told her "It's ok Chloe this thing seemed to be on its last leg anyway. The storm must have just rattled it so much that it finally gave out."
After a moment Chloe responded "Yeah I know. Well when we get past finding people I'm going to have to just get it fixed again."
Confused Max asked "Are you really wanting to get this thing fixed just to have it breakdown again and owe even more money?"
Chloe told Max "Hey this here is my baby. I cannot just dump her. She has been through worse than this. All she needs is just a little bit of care and she will be as good as new you will see."
Hearing this Max had to admit to herself if there is one thing that she knew for sure about Chloe it is that she loves this old truck.
Max looked at Chloe and told her "Well while we are here we might as well look to see if anyone is here."
Reluctantly Chloe agreed with her. As they got out they saw that the main building of the school was wrecked. The glass on the windows to the gym were all gone. The boys dorm was missing some pieces from the walls. After a little bit they made it to the little house in front of the girls dorm where principle Wells lived and saw him sitting on the steps.
Principle Wells looked up as he herd footsteps and got up to go see Max. Wells asked "Max are you ok?"
Max said "Yeah Mr. Wells I'm ok I guess. Is anyone else here?"
Just seeing that another one of his students was alive was a good sight to Wells. He told Max "There are a few other students over at the dorms getting a few things from their rooms if they can. It is safe to say that all of your semesters just got put on hold."
"You could say that again." Chloe said in a quick smirk. As soon as she said it she realized that now was not the time for jokes.
She then said "Sorry I did not mean to make a joke at time like this just happened, sorry."
Max just shook her head a little and principle Wells sat back down. Max told him "If it's ok with you Mr. Well I want to go and try to get a few things from my dorm if I can. I will talk some more after wards if you want to."
While rubbing the back of his neck he replied "Go on ahead I'll be here contemplating things."
After a minute of moving in and around some scaffolding that was around the entrance to the girls dorm the two girls finally made it inside the building. From what they could tell principle Wells was right, not many people had shown up yet to see about getting some of their things. Max was hoping to herself that they were ok and just not gotten around to showing up yet. Max had not really wanted to come collect much of her stuff maybe a change or two of clothes but she mainly wanted to see if anyone she knew was here at the moment.
As they approached Max's room they heard the sound of someone sobbing coming from Victoria's room. When they approached the door they saw Victoria sitting there with Taylor who was curled in a ball crying on the couch.
Max knocked at the door and asked quietly "Hey are you guys ok?"
Victoria looked up and exclaimed "Does it look like we are ok Max? We just had to go through that fucking storm."
This sarcasm and hatred in Victoria's voice was getting to Chloe. Chloe thought to herself yes we all had to go through this shit just now but don't go and take it out on Max. Chloe just wanted to put Victoria in her place but held herself back.
Taylor looked up and said to Max through a mountain of tears "Max it is so good to see that you survived." After a moment of hesitation she told the brunette "But during the storm, cour... cour..." Taylor had to take a moment before she could finish."Courtney did not make it."
Taylor then curled back up into a ball crying even harder now.
Max sat down next to Taylor and put her hand on her shoulder and told her "I'm so sorry. I know the three of you were great friends."
Hearing this Victoria stood up and almost shouted "What do you know Max. You don't know anything."
Taylor then looked up and asked "Victoria what has gotten into you. Max has done nothing wrong." Little did anyone know what kind of hell Max had to go through before anything happened from the storm only Chloe knew.
Victoria then continued "My point is she thinks she is all high and might because she thinks that just because you two had one little conversation about your mom she can just waltz in here and be able to make everything better."
"I'm not trying to do anything but just see if you two are alright." Max exclaimed.
Victoria then said "Well we are not so there you have it."
That was the last straw for Chloe. She could not sit idly by while this bitch was getting in Max's face. Chloe then stood up in Victoria's face and told her "You better back off bitch. You know you're not the only one who has lost someone this week. Besides you are no better than anyone yourself. You may not know me and this sure is my first time meeting you but just from this I can tell that you are a cruel bitch. We all just went through that fucking storm and here you are getting in people's faces and trying to hassle them. I may not be that good of a person but at least I know that I'm not as bad off as you."
Even though Victoria knew this girl was right she could not help but argue back "Who the fuck do you think you are bitch. I've seen you running around not doing a damn thing but getting high or drunk and just brining people down with you. I remember you now, your that girl who was always hanging around Rachel."
At this point Max was getting agitated with Victoria she had a right to be angry but not to take it out on Chloe. Max exclaimed "That is enough Victoria you do not get to take your anger out on Chloe. She has done absolutely nothing to you."
"I got this Max." Chloe assured the smaller girl. "By the way bitch, don't ever mention Rachel to me. You did not know her like I did.
And as for Max, I better not ever hear about you bad mouthing or putting her down again or I will fuck you up."
Seeing the fire in her eyes Victoria backed up some and saw that Chloe was serious. Victoria said "Whatever just leave me alone."
After taking another moment to check on Taylor Max then took Chloe's hand and led her back to her room. Once inside she decide to take a moment to calm Chloe down.
Max sat on the edge of her bed and look up at the blue haired girl and said "Thanks for stopping her from getting her rage on at me but did you have to be so harsh to her."
Chloe responded "I know I went a little far back there but she had to be put in her place. I mean we all just went through that massive storm and she still was being such a..." Max cut her off.
"I know and no she does not really have to be that way but maybe it is the only way she knows how to deal with everything at the moment." Max pondered to Chloe.
The blue haired girl looked into the brunette's eyes and asked her "You always do see the good in people don't you?"
Max said "I suppose I do. I guess that is why I can't stay mad at you then." They both giggled at this statement.
It did not take long for Max to get the few things she came for which was just her phone charger her laptop and charger for it and a few changes of clothes. She figured she would be able to come back for anything else she would or might need to get but for now that was about it.
After the few minutes they were in the smaller girl's room the two left and found Victoria waiting outside of the room for them.
She then looked up and quietly said "Max I'm sorry." The two girls were shocked to hear this. "Taylor calmed me down some and I did she what see was talking about. I was being a bitch at a time like this."
Max assured her "It is ok Victoria, we have all been through a lot today. Listen I will come back and check on you two but we have a few other people we need to go and see if they are ok. So I will talk to you later ok."
"Sure I guess we can talk more later Max." Victoria said.
Very shortly after the second conversation they had with Victoria they ran into Dana who was sitting in her room now. Max tugged at Chloe's hand a gave her a look that told her they should go check on the girl.
"Hey Dana, are you ok?" Max asked as she entered the room with her blue haired companion.
Dana looked up and smiled seeing that Max was ok and she had someone with her. Dana said "Max oh it is so good to see that you are ok." She then looked at Chloe and said "I'm sorry but you are Chloe right?" The cheerleader asked.
Shocked that someone she did not really know was at this moment was actually trying to see if she was ok.
Chloe responded hesitantly "Yeah I'm Chloe Price."
Dana said in a sad tone "I am sad to say that I only really know you from the fact that I've seen you hang out with Trevor and Justin some. I am Dana Ward by the way. It is sad this storm is what made us meet. I wish it was under better circumstances."
"Yeah me to." Chloe responded while still trying to figure out why this person who did not know her at all was all of the sudden seeminglyworried about her.
She then looked back at Max and told her "I'm sorry Max I just disregarded your question. I am ok I suppose. I'm just shooken up you know."
Max replied "Yeah I know I am shaken up to."
At this moment Dana then began to cry. After a few moments she spoke up "Max it happened so fast I did not really know what to do at the time."
After a moment of hesitation Max asked "What happened Dana?"
Dana then told Max and Chloe "Me and Trevor were outside when the storm started. When everything went down we were trying to get to the main school building where most of us here were held up during the storm. But on our way there a big chunk of the gym's outside wall came flying at us..." The cheerleader had to take a moment to cry and then to compose herself. "Trevor pushed me out of the way to not get hit but the chunk hit him then. We managed to get to the main building but he was having trouble breathing. After the storm ended Ms. Grant help me get him to the hospital. They said he has some broken ribs from where the debris hit him."
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Max gasped.
The next few minutes went on with Max crying with Dana. Chloe was feeling bad about how upset Max was getting. Seeing what all Max was going to have to deal with because she chose her over going back.
After about ten minutes Max told Dana "Hey Dana listen if there is anything I can do to help let me know."
Dana responded "Thanks Max, but I don't think there is anything right now."
Max said "Ok well let me know if anything comes up. I'll talk more with you later ok. Me and Chloe need to go and see if we can find a few more people."
"Ok bye Max. Oh and Chloe it was nice to finally meet you." Dana told the two girls.
All Chloe could muster up to say was "Yeah you to."
Max asked Chloe "You ready to head out then to see if we can find your mom or David?"
All Chloe could do was just nod at this time.
As they made their way outside they saw principle Wells sitting there drinking whisky pretty heavily. When they made it back to the truck Chloe attempted to start it again but had no luck. After the tenth or so time she sighed "I guess we just have to walk from here. Damn it."
Max put a hand on Chloe's shoulder and assured her "It is ok we will get it fixed when we get done searching for people ok."
Chloe gave Max a halfhearted smile then shook her head. The two then set off down the road to begin their search for Chloe's mom and step dad to see if wither of them had survived.
Author's note: First off I know I might have seemed to go a little off with the whole Victoria seen but in some cases some people only know how to deal with extremely stressful situations by lashing out at people in ways similar to that. Second thing is this game left such an impression on me I followed it from the very beginning announcement to the very last second of the last episode excited all the way and I got to take a lot from the game. That being said it may seem like some people are going to be a little different but as I said just a little bit ago in situations like this people tend to change quickly into a multitude of things. Also thank you for following with the story and any feedback or advice is appreciated.
