The two of us walk back in silence, which I'm just fine with considering I've already done way too much sharing tonight. And honestly, Victoria passing up the opportunity to make fun of me for my little breakdown is shockingly cool of her.

When we eventually step back into the clearing, Max immediately gives me a worried look. I don't know whether it's about Victoria or if she can tell I've been crying, but either way I give her a little thumbs up and what I hope is a reassuring smile.

"Alright, Caulfield," she says, as soon as we're close enough. "Let's hear this plan of yours."

No beating around the bush, I guess.

"Okay," Max nods. "It's actually relatively simple. We decided early on that the more moving parts there were, the more places there were for things to go wrong. But as long as we all do our parts, twenty-four hours from now the residents of Arcadia Bay will be out of town, the people who deserve to be in handcuffs will be, and we'll all be headed into a much brighter future."

"Nice intro," Victoria mutters.

Max shoots her an unimpressed look but doesn't comment. "The first thing we'll need is some spending money." She turns to David. "Do you have a key for Principal Wells' office?"

"Of course I do," he says, side-eyeing me. "Assuming nobody else took my key ring."

"Hey, I didn't do anyth-"

"Do you really think no one recognized your truck peeling out of the Blackwell parking lot last night?"

"I...uh..."

"Relax. I covered for you."

"...you did?" This shit is starting to freak me out a little. Is it actually possible that David has finally learned to be chill about some stuff? I feel like I should be watching out for flying pigs or something.

"What? You think I wanted to fill out a report saying my own stepdaughter stole my keys and snuck into the pool for a late-night swim?"

Oh. Yeah, that makes way more sense.

"Anyway," Max jumps back in. "I need you to go into his office tonight and get some things for us. There's a lot of stuff on his computer about Nathan that we'll want copies of, and there's an envelope of cash in his desk drawer marked as the handicapped fund."

"Excuse me? You want me to steal the school's handicapped fund for you?"

"I know how it sounds, but after Friday morning that entire building is going to be a pile of rubble. That money will help a lot more people in our hands than buried along with whatever is left of Wells' desk."

"Uh-huh. How do you even know about that?"

I feel my heart jump into my throat. How the fuck is Max gonna talk her way out of this one?

"From. The. Future." She reminds him, emphasizing each word. "Just drop it all off here first thing in the morning, okay?"

"Fine," he grumbles. "What do you need it for, anyway?"

"Chloe and I need to drive up to Seaside to pick up some supplies."

"Such as...?"

"Oh, you know. A few tools, some cable ties, bomb-making stuff, maybe some..."

I hope Max wasn't actually trying to sneak that one past us. As soon as the word 'bomb' comes out of her mouth, we all react fairly predictably; David most of all. "What?!"

"I know how that sounds, but you don't need to worry," Max says. "We're not going to hurt anyone, I promise."

"That's great and all," Victoria cuts in. "But I want to be clear that when I agreed to help with this insanity, that didn't include blowing things up."

"You won't have to. Chloe and I will take care of the 'blowing stuff up' part."

Okay, that's fucking dope.

David's still not a fan. "The hell would you know about making a bomb, anyway?"

I will keep a straight face. I will keep a straight face.

"The internet is a scary place, David," Max responds enigmatically. "You can learn all kinds of stuff, if you look hard enough."

"And what, exactly, do you plan on needing a bomb for?"

"To cause a blackout, but we'll get to that in a minute." She turns away before he can say anything else. "Victoria, until tomorrow evening, your only job is to act as normal as possible. Don't hide in your room. Don't do or say anything that you normally wouldn't. Definitely don't confront Nathan or Jefferson. Avoid them altogether, if you can, until it's time to go to the End of the World party. Think you can do that?"

"Spend all day doing exactly what I would have been doing anyway?" She rolls her eyes, only looking a little nervous. "Somehow, I think I'll manage."

"Knew I could count on you," Max smiles, ignoring the sarcasm. "Be at the party before nine. The first time around, Jefferson announced that you'd won the Everyday Heroes contest at nine-thirty. You went up onto the stage, gave a short speech, and right after that Jefferson asked you to come with him to discuss trip details or something. He must have drugged you then and taken you right to his car, because that was the last thing you remembered before the Dark Room."

Victoria shudders, skipping the snarky remark this time. I really can't blame her. The idea of voluntarily letting someone do that to me makes my skin crawl.

"David, at nine thirty-five you're going to check the Blackwell faculty parking lot. If Jefferson's car is gone, call the ABPD. Tell them you saw what looked like Mark Jefferson forcing a drunk girl into his car, that you couldn't get to him before he drove away, and that he was headed south."

"There's going to be a couple of officers at the party already," he points out, not looking especially happy about it. "It'll look strange if I don't tell them directly."

"Officers Seger and Griffin?"

"Yeah, how'd you..." He grimaces. "Oh. Right."

Max shrugs, obviously suppressing a smirk. "That's why you're going to call an officer you can trust directly. Given Seger and Griffin's reputations for being Prescott's thugs, I doubt they'll be surprised that you decided to go to someone else."

"Hm," he grunts, looking the way he always does when he's hit with something he doesn't like but can't really argue with. "Why not take Jefferson down before he can abduct Ms. Chase?"

"That won't work." Victoria holds up her letter, looking like the words have left a bad taste in her mouth. "Believe me, I wish it would, but my pen pal here was pretty clear about that."

"Pen pal?"

Ignoring David's muttered question, Victoria continues. "There's no reason for the cops to arrest him at the party, and if they catch up with him at any point before he gets to that pervert hole of his, he can just say he thought I had too much to drink and decided to give me a lift to my parent's house."

"Right," I snort. "As if anyone would buy that bullshit story."

She glances away, embarrassed. "It...uh...it wouldn't be the first time."

"Fucking what?" She can't be serious.

"I thought he was being nice, okay? Or at least trying to suck up to my parents. I never thought he'd...ugh."

David still doesn't look very happy. "Then how about tipping the police off to this dark room of his right now?"

"That won't work either," Max says. "He's got the place done up to make it look like it was Nathan acting on his own, just in case someone gets in. All he'd have to do is deny everything. I hate this as much as you do, believe me, but the only way to make sure he gets nailed to the wall is for the police to catch him in the act."

"Or we could just waste him and call it a day." The three of them stare at me like I've grown a new head. "Oh, don't look at like that. You all thought about it."

"No," Max says, firmly. "We're not going to kill him."

"That's rich, coming from you. Earlier today, you seemed all for the idea."

"Earlier today, you stopped me," she counters. "And I never said I don't want him dead. Just that we're not going to kill him."

"Why not, exactly? Seems like the practical solution," David points out, raising his hands a little. "Devil's advocate. That's all."

Max stays silent for a long moment - long enough that I start to wonder if she's even going to answer – then says, "Three reasons. First, I don't want any of us to have to live the rest of our lives as murderers. Second, I want to provide some real closure to the families of all the girls he's victimized in the past. That won't happen if Nathan ends up taking the blame for everything." She pauses, her eyes turning hard. "But mostly it's because he doesn't deserve to die. A pervert like him deserves to be in prison, getting the shit beaten out of him every single day. I want the rest of his worthless life to be a dress rehearsal for Hell."

She looks and sounds completely ruthless, and I'm sure that's the vibe that David is getting. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that can see the tension in her shoulders or the way she's clenching her fist. Who knows how hard this is for her to talk about? I really want to hold her hand and try to make her feel better, but step-douche is a stubborn hardass and right now she needs to look tough.

"Are we all on the same page?" she asks, waiting for David to nod before she looks to Victoria.

"I'm with you," she says, shockingly little bite in her voice. "I'm not interested in killing anyone."

Then she turns to me, and it's pretty obvious that this is one of those things I'll never be able to change her mind about. I miss the days when she was a pushover (except I really don't), but I still nod. "Fine. The freak lives."

"Glad we cleared that up." She sighs, some of the tension leaving her as she turns back to David. "You're going to wait a couple of minutes after your first call to the cops, then call them back and say you've got a hunch about where Jefferson might be headed. Tell them about the Prescott barn. If they ask any questions, you've got your whole investigation to back up your story."

"That won't be a problem," he says. "I've been working with a couple of their officers on that already. They'll listen."

"That's perfect. The patrol schedule has Bishop and McKay on tonight, and at that time of night they should be south of Blackwell." At David's surprised look, she adds, "That's based on their usual routes. We also got a copy of their official dispatch transcripts from the Oregon State Police."

"How the hell..."

"The Freedom of Information act is a beautiful thing," she grins. "The point is that at nine thirty-five and nine forty, they were at the gas station near the turnoff to the old rail yard. It's only a few minutes to the barn from there, so they should get there just before Jefferson. He'll be driving right into a trap."

"What if Jefferson spots them first?"

"Even if he does, the road there is too narrow for him to turn around and there's no way he'll escape them going in reverse. They'll catch him, arrest him, and Victoria will be safe." She looks down. "Hopefully."

"Way to fill me with hope, Caulfield," Victoria snipes. I'm not sure if she's actually trying to sound like that, or if it's just her default voice.

"You know, I actually tried to talk future you out of this. So did David. Repeatedly. You insisted that it was the only way."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Victoria snaps back.

"Are you backing out?" Max asks, evenly.

"Of course not."

"Then drop the fucking attitude and try not to do anything stupid in the next twenty-four hours."

Oh, for a picture of Victoria's face right now. I think she keeps forgetting that Max isn't the shy hipster she knew at the start of the week. I know I have once or twice.

"Do I look like your blue-haired attack punk?" Okay, I'd be offended if that didn't sound kinda cool. "I can control myself, Caulfield."

David jumps in before Victoria can turn her bitch dial all the way up to eleven. "Where are you and Chloe going to be during all this?"

"We'll be breaking into the NOAA Monitoring Station in Barview. There's only one technician working there at night, and we're going to force them to send a storm notice to the Tillamook Emergency Management Office. At roughly nine fifty, a storm warning SMS is going to go out to every mobile phone in the county, telling people to evacuate inland."

"SMS warning," David nods. "That's not a bad idea."

"You're the one who came up with it, actually."

"Oh." David looks so fucking pleased with himself that I want to slap him, but even I have to admit it's a pretty good idea.

"The next part was all Victoria." Max turns to smile at her. "Before we head to Barview, Chloe and I are going to set up the bombs we made on the power lines running from Arcadia Bay's electrical substation. After the SMS goes out, we're going to wait for five minutes, then set off the bombs and cut power to the entire town."

"That ought to freak some people out." Victoria sounds way more amused than she probably should. "They won't be able to get out of town fast enough."

"That's the idea. Unfortunately, it means the cell tower will go down, too. We won't be able to contact each other or anyone else after that.

"David, after you've tipped off the police, you'll need to start getting people off campus," Max continues. "The students at Blackwell are going to need you and the rest of the school's security staff to help them. A lot of them don't have a way to get out of town, so you need to make sure the dorms are clear before doing anything else."

"I'll take care of it." He nods, adding, "And if I see Nathan Prescott?"

I snort. "Leave him behind and let the storm eat him."

"Chloe! I already said we're n-"

That little fuck murdered Rachel (andburiedherinthedirtbutdontthinkaboutthat). Did she think I was going to forget that? "You can have it your way with Jefferson, Max, but I'm not going to give Nathan's daddy the chance to buy his little freak out of trouble."

"He won't. There's more than enough evidence in the bunker to implicate Nathan. Not even his father could make that go away."

"I don't ca-"

"Nathan's sick," Victoria jumps in. "People like Jefferson and his father twisted him up inside. He should be in a hospital." She takes a slow breath. "What happened to Rachel was fucking horrible, Chloe, but it was an accident. Even Max admitted that."

"I'll grab him, if I see him." David doesn't flinch under the glare Victoria sends his way. Guess you need time travel powers to get a little goddamn respect around here. "If I see him, Ms. Chase. I'm not going to waste time looking for him. I have a feeling I'm going to have my hands full keeping people at Blackwell from panicking."

"Oh, that reminds me," Max says. "Taylor Christensen in room 224 is taking care of Kate's pet rabbit, Alice. Make sure she doesn't forget her."

"She is?" There's something kinda weird in Victoria's voice. "Why?"

"She wanted to do something nice for Kate."

David gives Max a bemused look but nods. "I'll be sure to remind her."

"You won't have to," Victoria smiles a very un-Victoria-like smile. "Tay loves animals. There's no way in hell she'd leave that bunny behind."

"You know, I actually got that impression from her," Max grins. "Anyway, if everything goes right, Victoria will be safe and Jefferson will be in handcuffs before ten o'clock. The officers will probably want to get Victoria checked out at the hospital, just in case, and the rest of the ACPD is going to have its hands full with all the people leaving town. That'll make it easy for Chloe and I to make our way out to the bunker."

"What?" David blinks. "Why?"

"The two of us will be riding out the storm there." She frowns. "Trust me, it's not my first choice. I'd be happy if I never had to step foot in there again, but there's still a possibility that the storm is directly connected to one or both of us. If there's even the smallest chance that's true, I don't want to risk the storm showing up somewhere else just because we left Arcadia Bay. Chloe and I will be safest there."

He gives her a scrutinizing look. "You're really willing to risk your life to save Chloe?"

Wow. Thanks, you fucking dickbag.

He cringes. "Er...that came out wrong."

"Yes, David, I am," Max responds flatly, ignoring his lame non-apology. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

"Seriously, she is." Victoria holds up that letter of hers. "Future me made it pretty fucking clear that she'd tear down the sky to keep Chloe safe. And I kinda suspect she meant that literally."

Hold on...what?

Okay, have you ever had one of those really stupid revelations? Like when something is super obvious and you already knew it, but suddenly you're just super fucking aware of it? And there's no sensible reason for you to be surprised, but you still are?

Because I just had one of those.

Max loves me. And I knew that (or at least really suspected it) except she actually, full-on, ride-or-die loves me.

When the week started, Max was just some girl I hadn't heard from in a while (three years, ten months, and eight days since her last text message, but who's fucking counting?) and who I didn't expect to ever hear from again.

Yesterday she was an old friend that I was getting to know again. But even if we did fall into our old vibe pretty quickly, there was still a canyon-sized rift between us. At the time, I figured it would take a long while for us to fix that.

This morning, when the two of us woke up, I was almost ready to admit to myself that I still had a crush on her. Ten minutes later, she was kissing me like I'm her whole world.

And just a minute ago, I find out that she'd be ready to sacrifice the entire town to save me. That's kind of intense coming from a girl who felt like the next best thing to a stranger just a couple of days ago.

I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to something like that.

I'm not 100% sure I'm ready to.

"Anyway, I think that's all we can do tonight," Max says, pulling me out of my own head. "You two should get going. You've both got my phone number if anything happens, but otherwise just try to get some sleep. We've got a big day tomorrow."