Life is Gone: Eyes of the Storm
Chapter Twelve: American Rust
"American Rust." Chloe declared, her arms outstretched as she showed off the junkyard. "My home away from hell. Me and Rachel would come here to hang when going home didn't feel like an option."
Max's eyes swept over the junkyard as her mind processed Chloe's words. Max couldn't help but want to know more about Rachel. The picture Chloe had shown her, the one on the missing person posters, it stuck with Max, her face unnervingly familiar. Had Rachel really been in a part of the Facility? Max didn't remember her in the aftermath, and she thought she had met everyone then.
"Hey Chloe, what was Rachel like before she moved here? What did she do?"
Chloe paused, viably stunned by the question. It seemed odd to Max, the question didn't feel particularly intrusive.
"I… I don't know." Chloe replied. "I asked her a couple times, but I don't think I ever got a clear answer out of her. Part of me thinks she wasn't sure herself."
"That's odd." Max said, growing more and more curious about Rachel. She wasn't sure why, but she had a feeling that Rachel had something to do with the dreams she'd been having. She couldn't place why, she just did.
"Why did you bring me out to this junkyard anyway?" Max asked, steering them back off the topic of Rachel before it started to get too emotional.
"Right. Well, you have these cool new powers, and I want to play a game." Chloe paused for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell her something, before deciding to save it for later. "So, do me a favour and grab a few bottles, I have an idea."
Max raised her eyebrow, curious, but didn't object as she left to wander the junkyard in search of the bottles.
Max walked down the central path in the junkyard, between the shell of an old boat and the wreck of a car. Keeping her eyes peeled, she let her thoughts drift. She couldn't help but come back to thoughts of Kate. Max was really worried about her. Kate's depression reminded max too much of herself for comfort.
Her eyes continued to move as she thought, sweeping the area for bottles. Her eyes glanced up, and she focused, almost accidentally on the roof of the boat's cabin. For just the briefest second, she could have seen Kate up there, teetering precariously on the edge, just a small nudge from falling off.
The vision passed as quickly as it came, and Max was left with an inescapable feeling of dread. Quickly she pulled out her phone, desperate to check on Kate, make sure that what she had seen wasn't the truth.
Her heart raced as she saw a message on screen.
One missed call.
From Kate.
Her hands were shaking as she swiped at the screen, beads of sweat starting to build on her brow, desperate to hear Kate's voice and confirm her suspicions as false.
The phone start to ring.
And ring.
And ring.
Finally, one what must have been the final ring, someone picked up the phone.
"…"
"Kate, is that you?" Max tried hard not to let her voice sound desperate.
"Max? Is something wrong?" Kate's voice rang out the other end of the line. Max could feel the relief washing over her.
"Oh Kate, I just saw I missed your call and I got worried."
"It was nothing Max. I just wasn't feeling great and I wanted to talk about it." Kate said, sounding a little anxious that she had inadvertently worked Max up. "I'm fine now though." She added after a little pause.
"Are you sure?" Max asked, still stirred up by her vision. "You can tell me if you're not, you know that right?"
"I know Max. Was there anything else you needed, because I kind of need to go to class?"
Despite what she was saying, Kate was still worrying Max. Kate seemed tired to her, maybe even a little cagey. It was reminding her of how she would act on particularly bad days, where she would refuse to talk to anyone and instead just sit and dwell in her dark thoughts. Those days had been her worst, and if she hadn't had Lana there to help pull her out of them, Max wasn't sure where she's be.
Max tried to think, what would Lana do in this sort of situation? Maybe give her something to look forward too? Most of the things Lana would promise for that weren't really appropriate for Kate.
"Max?"
Max realised she'd been making Kate wait for a while and she was getting antsy about leaving. Reflexively, Max raised her hand and paused time around her as she continued to think. What could she do to help Kate?
The answer came to her as she idly watched reality fade in and out of itself, as it tended to do while time was paused, as though different objects where flickering in place.
Her power.
She could tell Kate everything. Her powers, the Facility, everything, in hopes that Kate would understand that Max had gone through similar things before, violated in a way she couldn't fully comprehend, and that would help Kate realise that she really wasn't alone. That things could get better.
That she would get better.
That being said, the conversation didn't feel like something that they should just have over the phone now. In addition to anything else, her powers seemed a tad unbelievable if you didn't witness them first hand. Lunch together then. They could get together and Max would tell her in person, later that very day.
Max allowed time to resume, watching as reality smoothly phased back into its normal flow.
"Kate, can you meet me for lunch today? I have something I really need to tell you, in person."
Kate was caught off guard by Max's seemingly sudden request and took a moment to respond.
"I guess Max, sure thing. Look, I really have to go now. Talk to you then?"
"Sounds great, Kate. See you then."
Max ended the call and looked back up to the boat's cabin. Even though she had just talked to Kate and she said she was fine, Max couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Max turned back to the path, eyes peeled for bottles.
Max had found four bottles, which she figured should be enough for whatever Chloe had planned. She started to wander her way back to Chloe, taking care to avoid the various bits of broken glass and rusted scrap metal.
As she walked, she noticed a small building out the corner of her eye. Surprised she didn't she it when she went past it the first time, Max stepped inside, curious. The building was filled with all sorts of stuff, some of it junk scavenged from other parts of the junkyard, the rest clearly brought in home.
The graffiti on the wall made it pretty clear who had set it all up. This had been Chloe and Rachel's hideout.
Max felt weird invading this personal space. It seemed sacred almost, a monument to Chloe and Rachel's relationship.
"Max."
Max heard her name echo off the concrete walls of the hideout. The voice sounded faint and ethereal, like it almost wasn't there. It definitely wasn't Chloe, and Max was sure they were alone in the junkyard.
Her senses on high alert and her mind screaming danger, Max turned around slowly to face back towards the door, careful not to disturb whoever – or whatever – said her name.
"Max."
The same voice again, a little louder this time, but still no more than a whisper.
A doe, ever so slightly transparent, its hooves not quite touching the ground.
The same one from her dreams.
Max instinctively took a step back, hesitant to get to close after what happened when she touched it in her dreams. Not to be deterred, the doe flicked its head dramatically, directing her attention down one of the paths through the junkyard, leading her close to a clearing at the junkyard's edge. Max just steered at the doe is it trotted in the direction it indicated.
Half way down the path, the doe paused, looking over its shoulder, checking if Max was following.
"Max, please…"
That voice again. Max tried desperately to place it, because the voice was ever so slightly familiar.
"What are you?" Max asked. "Why were you in my dreams?"
The doe didn't answer. Instead it beckoned her to follow it again, and continued to trot down the pathway, until it came to a stop near the end of the path, surrounded by several old billboards and the husk of a washing machine.
"Why did you lead me here? It's just more junk." Max wished that just for once in her life, something would be simple.
Unsurprisingly, considering its track record, the doe didn't answer. It just stood there, staring Max right in the eye. Max could swear there was a tear in its eye. The doe took a step forward and put its head against her hand, before she could pull herself away or stop it.
Max was beset by an onslaught of memories. They flashed past her quickly, barely lasting long enough for Max to actually pick out what was happening in them.
A comet crashing to earth in the dead of night.
Chloe and her pretending to be pirates in the woods surrounding the lighthouse.
Max doodling in the margins of her notebook, ignoring her teacher.
"Max…"
A very different Max, celebrating her 16th birthday, surrounded by friends and family.
"Max…"
The memory snapped away from Max, even as she desperately tried to cling to the image, even if it was a lie.
Max was standing in a black void. As she stared into it, a figure started to form. Slowly at first, glowing green particles, bright enough to make Max shield her eyes, started to coalesce and merge into a single form. Soon, the particles stopped moving and settled into their final shape.
Max wasn't sure if she'd have been able to tell without the help of the posters Chloe had spread all through out Arcadia Bay, but in front of her stood Rachel Amber.
"Save me."
"Save you? Save you from what?" Max asked. "The facility is gone. We're safe now."
Suddenly, the void surrounding Max flashed back to the junkyard. Rachel pointed at Max's feet.
"Save us."
There was dirt in Max's fingernails.
That was the first thing she noticed when she woke up.
Standing up, Max looked around at her surroundings. She was where the doe had touched her in the junkyard. It seemed as though almost no time had passed since she had been sucked into whatever dreamscape the doe had brought with it.
Or was it really the doe?
Was it really Rachel?
What would it mean if it was? Was Rachel a ghost or something?
Looking around some more, it seemed as if someone had been clawing at the dirt at her feet. Looking back at her nails, Max realised it had been her.
Why? She certainly didn't remember doing it, and she hadn't gotten very deep at all before giving up, judging by the size of the hole.
These dreams, or visions, or whatever they were, were getting weirded and weirder.
She was going to have to tell Chloe about this. If that was Rachel, she deserved to know.
Thinking of Chloe, Max remembered why she was here in the first place. She doubled checked that she had some bottles in her bag, then headed back off down the path, going to meet Chloe back near the main gate.
Her walk back to Chloe was thankfully uneventful, a pleasant change of place from everything else that had happened in the junkyard so far.
"Yo, Maximus! You took a whi – are you alright?" Chloe said, noticing the look on Max's face. "You looked spooked."
"I'm fine Chloe." That was mostly the truth. "I just need to process it for a minute, I'll tell you soon."
"Process it? What happened?" Chloe was still getting use to all the weird supernatural stuff Max seemed to have got caught up in.
"I just had another weird vision. Nothing to worry about." She hoped not anyway.
"That explains why it took you so long to find empty bottles in a junkyard." Max could hear the joking smirk in Chloe's voice. "If you need to talk about it at all, I'm all ears." Chloe said, her tone slightly more serious.
"Thanks Chloe." Max shifted her weight from one foot to the other, feeling a little bad that Chloe was offering her comfort for this, when she would probably be comforting Chloe when she found out what Max needed to tell her. "So, about these bottles…"
Max still didn't know what Chloe had planned but, eager for a distraction from what had just happened, was curious to find out.
"We," Chloe began, very matter of fact, "are going to test out your powers in a fun and exciting way."
"Are we now?" Max replied, one eyebrow raised. "And how are we going to do that?"
"With my little friend here." Chloe declared, pulling out her stolen revolver with a flourish that suggested Chloe had far more experience with a gun then she really did.
Max was incredibly glad that Chloe's showmanship hand ended with the barrel pointing to the ground. Now a little ashamed to admit it, Max would not have been surprised if Chloe had put on some kind of James Bond act and pointed it at her.
And if she had done that…
Max shuddered to think of what she might have done. Would she have gone into shock, had another awful flashback episode? Would she have responded in kind and start to actually fight Chloe before realising who she was?
Max's life recently had been filled with bad luck for the past many years. However, after yesterday and reuniting with Chloe, it finally felt like it was turning back around. However small it was, this felt like more good luck after years of bad. Max hoped tis was a sign her life was changing for the better, but there was a voice lurking in the back of her head telling her this wouldn't last.
"A gun?" Max asked, curious where Chloe was taking this.
"Yeah!" Chloe replied, excited by Max's curiosity. She had been expecting Max to resist more. Chloe realised once more just how much her best friend had changed over the last five years."
"I'm going to shoot these bottles." Chloe continued. "And you're going to use your powers to make sure I don't miss a single shot."
Max couldn't help but smirk. She wasn't even going to need to rewind for this.
"Go ahead." Max said, stepping behind Chloe so she could look down the barrel of her gun without seeming suspicious.
Thrilled that Max was on board so easily, Chloe lifted her arm and took aim.
"Wait." Max stopped her. "You're way off."
Max stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Chloe from behind, holding Chloe's arm and leaning over to see down the revolver's barrel.
"Here." She said. "You're a bit high, and way too far left." Gently, she pulled Chloe's arm in the opposite directions to correct her aim.
Chloe was barely listening. All she could focus on was the tingle of electricity going down her spine, and the warmth that Max was emanating. Chloe normally liked to lie to herself and say that she was calm and in control. She wasn't sure even she could believe that at the moment.
"You get that?" Max asked.
"Uhh…" Chloe still having a little trouble forming words and only faintly aware that Max had said something.
"Chloe?"
The sound of her own name on Max's voice snapped Chloe out of her daze. She was suddenly very glad Max behind her, so she couldn't see the blush that was starting to form on the punk's cheeks.
It would absolutely ruin her look, if nothing else.
There was no way she was falling for Max, was there?
"Yeah, I got it Max." Chloe replied, having no idea what Max had said.
Pleased that Chloe had responded, Max unwrapped herself from Chloe and stepped back, giving her the space to take her shot. Max hears a small bang as Chloe pulls the trigger and watches with pride as the bullet hits the bottle, right in the centre.
"Nice!" Chloe declared. "How many rewinds did that take you Max?"
Max hid her smirk before Chloe finished turning back around to face her.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Max replied, doing her best from keeping her smirk from returning and giving away the truth.
"Alright then, don't tell me." Chloe said, although there wasn't any malice in her voice. "Now then, next bottle!"
The next several bottles went in a similar manner. Max didn't have to rewind once, Chloe hit each bottle on her first try. She continued holding Chloe and physically lining up her shots, not entirely oblivious to the effect it was having on the girl.
After firing the third bottle in a row clean off the plank, Chloe was forced to admit to herself that maybe, just maybe, she did have a small crush starting to form on the shorter brunette who made her heart skip a beat when she held her.
Just maybe.
Maybe a lot.
