Chapter 10

Max and Chloe kept low as they approached the parking lot, crouching behind a row of shrubbery that ran along the footpath to the entryway. It provided them enough cover as they ducked through the old-fashioned archway that led inside and a quick glance told them it was empty. Feeling they could relax, they each breathed a sigh of relief as they ventured into the sea of parked cars. The lot was packed out. Of course it was. Everyone they'd spoken to hadn't been able to shut up about what an attraction the festival was. In one sense, that was good. Most of the cars looked in good condition and that meant they pretty much had the pick of the litter. A glance at Chloe told Max the taller girl would be happy to drive away in whichever one the key fob went with. On the other hand, there were other parking spots throughout town. Not as big as the lot, but it meant they could be searching this particular metal haystack for a needle that wasn't even there. And they couldn't afford to set off any alarms or risk attracting unwanted attention.

"I can't believe I'm actually about to steal a car!" Max decided Chloe had way too much excitement in her voice considering their situation.

"So what?" Max hissed. "I stole Jefferson's car after David saved me from the darkroom."

"Wait, what?" Chloe looked at Max incredulously. "You didn't tell me about that bit!"

"Yeah, I grabbed his keys and boosted his fancy-ass car to get to Arcadia Bay." Max shrugged, deliberately playing it off as no big deal. "I had to get to Warren to get that photo so I could warn you not to go to the party. It wasn't even that good to be honest. The radio was a piece of shit and it only picked up Truss Limpbow. And I guess the E6 tornado I was driving into hampered the ride quality a bit."

"Holy shitballs, I knew there was a reason I married you!" Chloe fought to keep the squeak out of her voice as she wrapped Max into a bear hug while the shorter woman fought to get free.

"Chloe! We're trying not to attract trouble!" Max protested as she pried her wife off. "Later, okay?"

"Okay." Chloe's dejected expression showed it really wasn't but she'd brought this on herself when she got them trapped there. As far as Max was concerned, there would be plenty of time for cuddles after she got them out of it. On cue, Chloe decided it was time for the moment they'd both been waiting for. She raised the key fob and hit the button as the two of them panned their gazes around for the tell-tale sign of flashing lights. Sure enough, the far side wall was briefly lit up orange against the darkness

"It's at the back!" Max told her, pointing in the direction of the lights. Chloe just about spotted it as they went out again and the two started making their way towards it. To stay low-profile in case anything came in after them, they chose to weave between the cars and duck through the gaps. They were making good progress until Max came up too early and smacked her head on a wing mirror. The pain was instant and the resounding crack was a dead giveaway.

'Please don't tell me there was an alarm on that!' Max thought just before the alarm started blaring. Quickly, Chloe dropped and rolled commando-style. No matter how much she'd try to deny it, Max could see that a glimmer of David had rubbed off on her. She followed suit in her own clumsy way, sliding on her stomach under a different car. She clapped her hands over her mouth and tried not to even breathe as she heard the shuffling of feet. A group of the figures had entered the lot and were looking around for them.

Max's heart felt like it was about to burst from her chest as the figures traipsed around the lot. She could see their shoes as their feet shuffled against the asphalt and hear barely-audible mutterings from them that didn't serve to make them any friendlier. At first she was actually relatively relaxed since they were just muttering and shuffling around. Then one of them bent down and looked under a car. That was when her heart stopped. It wasn't a car either she or Chloe were under, but the fact that they had the situational awareness to do that meant they definitely weren't as safe as she'd originally hoped. And as she watched, more and more of them started bending down and checking under cars. Now she found herself waiting for the inevitable. Either one of them would see her or Chloe would scream out as she was grabbed. Either way, she was ready with her rewind now that it was back where it belonged and was frantically trying to work out how to signal to Chloe without them seeing.

To her immeasurable relief, the need for her rewind never arose. By some cliché miracle they neglected to check under either car the two were under. It felt like an eternity until they heard the shuffling noise leave them as the figures all trooped out of the parking lot. Max and Chloe mentally counted in their heads before crawling forwards and out from under their cars. They each took a few deep breaths to de-stress and then turned their attention back to what they were doing. There was now an unspoken agreement between them that even talking would be too much noise right now.

Silently, they moved forward again. There wasn't much further to go and they were able to get past the rest of the cars with minimal hassle. By the time they'd reached their destination, they'd completely lost sight of the car they wanted. Chloe hit the button on the key fob again only for the two of them to gasp. The lights that came on belonged to a sleek dark blue pickup truck that looked like it was tailor-made for Chloe. The bluenette in question was nothing short of awestruck as she walked over and examined it closely. As much as she loved her old truck and as much as it had suited her, both she and Max could see her building up a good working relationship with this one. That was when her gaze strayed to the cargo bed. There was a tarp in the bottom that clearly had something under it. When she pulled it back, Max heard her breath catch in her throat.

"Oh, no fucking way!" she whispered as she reached in and grabbed something from out of the bed. The second Max laid eyes on it, she was torn between gasping in awe and throwing up from fear at what Chloe was holding.

"Is that a shotgun?"

"You can bet your ass and keep it!" Chloe whispered in a way that was practically a cheer. "Looks like an Akkar double-barrel home defence model. Not great for these wide-open spaces but it's something. Plus it'll look lovely mounted on the wall back home."

"What?" Max asked, her voice carrying a dangerous bluntness.

"Kidding." Chloe scoffed in a way that wouldn't have fooled Max when they were tweens as she broke it open to check the action. "Anyway, get on in. I'll keep this puppy right next to me until we're out of here." As much as she wanted to, Max couldn't argue. She was just as eager to get out as Chloe was. But something was playing on her mind.

"What about seeing if we can help?" she asked. "I thought we were going to do that next."

"Max, as much as I want to help here we almost got busted just now. If we both die that that's it. You can't rewind your own death! If you die it's game over! Plus I could never live with myself. There are just some things we can't put right, Max. I can't help but feel that a dispute between two people that have been living in this hell for longer than we can imagine might just fall into that category."

"But if we don't help then who will?" Max protested.

"Not us." Chloe said resolutely as she snapped the shotgun closed again. "Look, maybe if we can come back here another time and try it. Maybe. But what we need now is time to get our minds right. We need time to get ourselves right. We need time to get us right. And I need to fix what I managed to break today." Max thought about it, but the more she thought the more sense she found Chloe making. In then end, she couldn't find a protest to make.

"Fine." Max didn't like it and she could tell Chloe knew that. But they also both knew they had little choice. "But if a chance ever arises to try and set things right here, we're taking it. Got it?"

"Agreed." Chloe nodded as she opened Max's door for her before climbing in herself and setting the shotgun by her seat. "Now get the fuck in here, babe. Let's roll." And as Max climbed in, she had to admit that her overwhelming instinct to leave felt entirely justified as the truck's engine rumbled to life. In that moment, she felt as thought fate had just made their decision for them.

Author's Note: Okay, so I don't know how long it's been since my last update and it's late at night over here so I'm not going back to check. All I know is it's been way too long. Unfortunately, I have family circumstances that are ongoing. I won't go into details but I don't know when I'm going to get a free second to update again after this. At least for another two weeks or so, anyway. Believe me, it's the last thing I want but these things are sent to try us. You have my word that as soon as I'm able I will be back to updating again.

In the meantime, I hope you're all enjoying the story. For those looking for something else to read in the meantime, I always take care of my followers. That is why I give a shoutout and my whole-hearted recommendation to a story called Vampire Pirates of Arcadia Bay by Antlev. It's incomplete at the time of writing this so updates are still ongoing and I myself am eagerly awaiting the next chapter. If you do decide to check it out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have so far. With that said, thank you so much to everyone who's supported me up to this point- whether with reviews or by just clicking on the story. I'll see everyone in the next chapter- whenever that may be.