I do not own Life Is Strange or the characters or places from the game please support the official release
Chapter 7: Preparations
After they had finished feeding and watering Pompidou Max decided that she wanted to check in on Dana and Trevor. Chloe agreed that they should check on them. Max pulled out her phone and began to text Dana. MAX: 'Hey Dana is it an ok time for me and Chloe to come and see you and Trevor?'
About a minute later Max's phone buzzed. DANA: ' Yeah sure that would be nice by the way Justin and Juliet are here as well'
In this moment Max had realized that she had not seen or heard from Juliet since the storm. She felt a little bad that she did not try to find out if the girl was ok. MAX: 'Oh good Juliet is ok I was worried we will be there shortly'
Chloe asked "So are we good to go?"
The smaller girl informed her "Yes and Justin and Juliet are there as well."
The two made their way to the room that the others were in. When they approached the door to the room Max felt her nerves begin to kick in again. She was worried about what would await her inside about how bad Trevor's condition actually was. She did not know him that well but still felt bad about what had happened to him. Chloe could see the hesitation on Max's face and nudged her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. As the door opens the girls are greeted by the site of their friends sitting around the bed Trevor was in. The first thing they noticed was that not only did he have his chest bandaged up but he had tubes going into his nose to help him breath.
Hearing the door open Dana got up and went over to hug Max. Chloe stepped over to Justin and bumped his fist. Dana said "It is good to see you guys again."
Max replied "It is good to see you again too." When she let go of Dana she looked over at Juliet and told her "It is good to see that you made it out of the storm ok."
Juliet sat up and responded "It is good to see you as well. After the vortex party I got a call from my mother asking me to help her with some personal stuff early in the morning so I took a cab out of town and was not here yesterday. I just got back into town an hour ago, it must have been so awful for all of you here."
Justin chimed in "Like I told all of them I was so out of it I did not even know a storm happened."
Chloe joked back "Yeah and I am sure that being held in by the police had nothing to do with that."
"Why am I not surprised?" Juliet asked.
In a lazily attempt to defend himself Justin said "He I was only caught really high with just a little bit of weed."
Max took notice of the fact that Trevor was asleep and asked "Has there been any news on his condition?"
Dana responded "Well as for now he is just sleeping. They said he was lucky to have got here when he did. Because some of his broken ribs scraped against his lungs he was having trouble breathing so they put some tubes connected to a breathing machine down his nose to help him breath."
"I am so sorry." Max said quietly.
Dana told her "Max you have nothing to be sorry for." Max could not help but think again about how the storm as most likely her fault.
Justin spoke up "Man I have seen Trevor fail pretty bad at some skate tricks and get hurt but this is the worst he has ever been hurt I think."
Chloe added "You could say that again. I was there when some of those fails happened."
Dana replied "I was there for a few as well."
Justin then asked Max "Hey Max do you remember when on Monday he tried to demonstrate a tre flip and nut checked himself?"
"I do." Max replied.
Letting out a short laugh Justin continued on "Man that was funny."
Dana spoke up then "Anyone else remember the time he tried to grind the edge of the pool and fell in?"
Juliet added "Oh man his face was priceless when he hit the water."
The blue haired punk said "There was one time me Justin and Trevor were at the skate park some time ago when he went up a half pipe and attempted a three sixty nose grab spin but he did not level the board correctly on the landing and he ate it up."
They all sat around reminiscing about times Trevor had failed at skateboarding and some of the good times they had around him when he was not failing.
Max herself had only seen the one time so she did not talk much. After a while Dana noticed a strange look on Max's face.
Dana asked her "Hey Max are you ok?"
"Yeah why?" The small brunette girl asked back.
Dana said "You just seem as if something is bothering you."
Max knew that she could not confine in the girl what was going through her mind she would sound like a nut job. She was still surprised that she was able to convince Chloe that she could manipulate time. However she did not want to even think about using her powers again for the thought that she might have caused the storm. She realized that she has sat there for a good moment so she spoke up "I am fine really, just you know still recovering from seeing all that has happened."
After a small sigh Dana replied "Yeah I hear that."
A few moments later Trevor began to wake up and let out a few coughs. Justin said "Hey man you good?"
In a low scratchy and wheezy voice Trevor replied "I am still in a lot of pain but I guess so."
The blue haired punk chimed in "At least they will put you on some sick ass painkillers."
Trevor let out a short laugh and a few more coughs then replied "Hell yeah."
Max looks at Chloe and asks "Seriously?"
Holding up her hands in defense Chloe responds "Hey I cannot help the fact that that is true."
The two stay for a while longer just seeing how the others are doing but Max reminds Chloe that they need to check on her mother soon so they said their goodbyes for now and began to make their way back to Joyce's room.
When the two girls stepped off the elevator and were now back on the same floor as Joyce they had ran into David who was also on his way to see how Joyce was doing.
David greeted them "Hello Max. Hello Chloe."
Chloe hesitantly replied "Hey there David."
David said "I started helping the FEMA workers out and I am taking a short break to check on Joyce."
Max told him "We were just going to check on her as well."
The three of them went into Joyce's room and her face light up. Joyce called out "David, it is nice to see you. And how is my newest favorite..." Joyce stopped as she saw Chloe behind David motioning for her to stop and not let David know about her and Max being a thing. Joyce was quick to catch this and said "Newly acquainted sisters?"
With a confused look on his face David asked "What? Um what is going on?"
Joyce informed him "Max stayed with us last night and the nurse this morning thought that she was my daughter as well it is just a little thing we thought was funny. But in actuality Max is like a second daughter to me anyway."
After a moment David replied "Well ok then. So how are you doing?"
"I am doing alright I suppose giving everything that has happened. How are you doing?" Joyce responded.
David then explained "I am ok I suppose. After I went and filed out some paper work and gave a statement of what happened at the station last night I met up with the FEMA relief groups and began to work with them. I have been busy helping search for people and bringing them here for treatment.
The group I am with has found and helped four people today. We also have found three who did not make it."
Joyce told him "I am sorry you had to deal with the ones who did not make it but at least there are some you were able to help."
The two of them sat there talking for a while. Max and Chloe sat off to the side to not intrude. After a while David said his goodbyes and left to go back to working to help see if there was anyone else who needed help for a while.
Shortly after David left Chloe looked at her mother and told her "Mom we have something happening soon and we need some help."
Joyce asked "What is it sweetie?"
Max informed her "My mom called earlier and told me that her and my dad would be here tomorrow. But I know that they are going to try to take me back to Seattle but I do not want to go I want to stay with Chloe."
Taking a moment to think Joyce replied "I see. Well you can't change how your parents fell. If they want you to go back that is what they want."
In an agitated voice Chloe shot back "FUCK THAT! Max is staying with us!"
Rubbing her forehead Joyce stated "Calm down Chloe. Max is an adult now she can make her own choices. If she does not want to leave then she does not have to. But if her parents want her to go back they will want that. But it is her choice."
Max stated "I do not think it will be that easy, you know how my mother can get."
Joyce assured her "I do but I have a feeling that in the end she will succumb to what you want. That is just something a loving parent does." They sat in silence for a few moments before Joyce asked "Chloe why did you not want me to tell David about you and Max?"
After a sigh the punk said "You know how he was when he found out about me and Rachel. Also Max is new to the whole being together thing."
Joyce replied "Well in his defense he did catch you and Rachel in the afterglow of being together and smoking weed."
"MOM!" Chloe cried out. "Besides you and David both know I smoke weed anyway. So what?"
Joyce responded "Yes but you also know that we do not like the fact that you do. And yes I also know that you open the window to let it air out but we can still smell it a bit so I know you smoke in the house."
The blue haired punk then told her mother "Ok but can we please not talk about Rachel I am sure Max does not want to hear about me and her especially in that way." Chloe was not sure if she should let her mother know that they had found where Rachel was buried the other day and her eyes began to have tears forming in them.
Max did feel somewhat hurt about hearing about Rachel and Chloe together. She was not sure why she was a little jealous of someone who was not even here anymore. But it did hurt to hear about a heated moment between Chloe and Rachel being together like that. Max quickly took notice of the fact that Chloe had tears in her eyes.
Joyce asked "Chloe are you ok? You look like you are about to cry."
So much for not telling her about Rachel's fate Chloe thought to herself. She did not have it in her to tell her mother what had happened. Instead she just looked at Max about to fully start crying and Max just nodded. Max then looked at Joyce and told her "Joyce we found something the day before the storm and it was really bad. We found out that Rachel is buried in the junkyard. We went to go and see for ourselves and we found her body in a shallow grave. It was a horrible sight for Chloe to see."
With tears of her own now falling down her face Joyce took her daughter's hand and told her "I am so sorry sweetie."
Chloe could not muster up the strength to say anything instead she just collapsed down onto her knees crying. After a few minutes she crawled up and hugged her mother tight.
Joyce told her "I know sweetie. That must have been hell on you."
After a while Chloe looked up and said "I do not know what I would have done without Max."
Joyce replied "I see why you want her to stay now, she keeps you strong and you need her."
Max said "And tomorrow we have a whole different type of storm to deal with."
