A/N: Hope everybody's excited for this new part of Life is Abominable Episode Four because here it is! Things are going to get even more intense than before, and I mean hardcore intense. The journey will continue, and more will be revealed about the main antagonist of this story. Now, without further ado, let's start our new update shall we? Enjoy!
Previously on Life is Abominable...
Max, Chloe, Yi, Everest, and Peng reunite with Jin just as Burnish and his forces are about to close in on Everest and capture him once again, but fail due to Max discovering that Everest had gifted her with some of his own powers when he healed her hand back in the Gobi Desert. She uses her newfound abilities to destroy half of Burnish and Zara's convoy of heavily armored cars, as well as seal Burnish's truck inside a gigantic ice tornado that turns into a large icicle right in the middle of the Yangtze River. Everest also aids in helping the group escape by creating a gigantic tidal wave of flowers to surf on on the surface, which results in Max's Polaroid being destroyed as well as Yi's violin. Feeling guilty and responsible for the destruction of his surrogate mother's and Yi's prized possessions, Everest repairs the violin without his powers and it looks good as new. Now they will have to continue their journey with Burnish and his forces following closely behind them...
The Dahe Village. 11:27 AM
Burnish was watching as a large boat tugging his trashed truck on a small garbage freight down the opposite end of the river while Zara was talking to him. What Dave had told him during Zara's ferocious beating of him still stuck in his mind. He didn't forget everything he said about Zara being a psychopathic sadist who tortured and hurt anyone who stood in the way of getting what she wanted. He still had yet to receive the digital copy of Zara's mental health records that he had ordered from one of his other employees.
"They're headed to the Himalayas, sir. And the Yeti's powers will grow even stronger the closer he gets to those mountains. But there is still one more chance to capture your Yeti" Zara told him. Mr. Burnish looked to her, pretending to sound interested in what she had to say even though he was still focused on what she was hiding from him.
"At the foothills of those mountains, there is a bridge. Once the Yeti crosses it, he'll blend in and disappear. We will never be able to find him again" Zara explained to him. Burnish had to keep the ruse going that he still wanted to catch the Yeti, even though he was now mainly concerned for the safety and well-being of those kids.
"I've never seen powers like those before. Not just the Yeti, but the girl. Somehow she has been gifted the exact same powers that it has. It's intimidating" Mr. Burnish said. He tried his best to hide a smile from her, satisfied that his lying to her was working and that she truly believed he was still on board with the mission.
"Stay the course, sir. After this, no one will ever laugh at you again" said Zara.
"You're right. I'll leave the rest of it to you then, Dr. Zara" Burnish said before walking off to one of his other employees. He then stopped walking and listened closely to what she was saying to the head goon when she thought he wasn't even paying attention.
"What does that mean for us?" asked the goon leader.
"That Yeti's price tag just doubled. And so has the price tag on Caulfield's powers. Time manipulation AND control over nature like the Yeti's? We're going to be even more richer than we ever imagined. We'll be getting sent all sorts of currencies from other countries we've never even heard of just to get their hands on those types of powers for their own military" Zara replied without her British accent, which confirmed to Mr. Burnish that she was faking that she was indeed American just like Dave had said. Once she left the area alongside the lead goon, Mr. Burnish looked over to Paul who was the same employee he requested the digital copy of Zara's record from.
"Did you get the copy, Paul?" Burnish asked politely.
"Yes, sir. I even read it over a few times before downloading it onto my tablet for you to read. I was pretty disturbed by what I found inside" Paul said before handing his employer his work tablet. The elderly man took it and began to read through everything the file had on Emily Zara. Burnish could feel his heart drop to his chest the more he read. He also read about Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson's Dark Room where Rachel Amber was kidnapped, photographed and murdered. There also police reports and witness statements from David Madsen who was the chief of security at Blackwell Academy when all of these crimes took place, and how Zara could have been a possible accomplice to Rachel's murder. He couldn't believe what he was reading and it made him sick to his stomach the further he got.
"Oh my God... everything Dave said was the truth. She's criminally insane, Paul. We have someone who's probe to being a literal serial killer on our payroll!" Burnish said to him.
"What are you gonna do about that?" asked Paul. Mr. Burnish then took out a photograph from his coat and stared down at the image. It was a photograph of him when he was younger climbing Mt. Everest for the first time in his life. He then grew sad again, wondering what had become of him, kidnapping and holding a Yeti against it's will just to regain his fame? This wasn't who he was at all, it was whom Zara was molding him to be.
"Paul, I need you to give me your gun and any ammunition you have. I have a feeling I'm going to need it" Mr. Burnish politely ordered.
"Yes sir. But, what for?" Paul asked before he handed over his pistol and all four magazines containing bullets.
"When we get to that bridge, I'm going to double-cross Zara, and fight alongside Max Caulfield and the others who're with the Yeti. She's too dangerous to live, Paul. We HAVE to kill her or else all the other Yetis could be in danger, Caulfield as well" Burnish explained. Paul nodded in agreement with everything his boss had just said to him.
"Very good, sir. And I agree, as long as she's still breathing no one is safe. And if we don't kill her, it's going to keep happening. It doesn't stop at those kids" Paul told him. Burnish then hid the gun away carefully alongside the magazines and photograph inside his coat's inner pocket. Burnish then turned to look at Zara talking with some other members of his security staff and just glared at her.
"Mark my words, Emily Zara, Rachel Amber will get justice. This I swear" Burnish snarled under his breath, tightening his grip on the pickax he used as a walking-cane.
Back in the Bamboo Jungle. 11:42 AM
Max, Chloe, Everest, and Peng waited patiently for Yi and Jin to come out of the jungle. Max was nervous to see what Yi's reaction would be to finding her violin repaired by Everest, and if it would play the same again after being destroyed. The minute Peng saw Jin and Yi walk alongside one another and exiting the jungle, he ran over to them to get their attention.
"Come on! Come quickly!" Peng exclaimed with a happy look on his face.
"Everest?" Yi asked confused.
"You okay?" she asked.
"Don't worry, he's fine. But... look" Max said before Everest turned around with a look of guilt still on his face and he revealed the now fixed violin to her. The Chinese teen gasped and covered her mouth with only one hand in shock to see that her father's violin that had been broken had now been repaired like nothing had ever even happened to it.
"Is that...?" Yi said but paused in the middle of her question.
"Yeti hair? Hella yeah it is" Chloe answered. Yi had never been so grateful in her life than at this very moment. She slowly took the violin into her hands and smiled with tears of happiness threatening to leak down from her eyes and down her cheeks. Everest grunted quizzically as if to ask Yi if she liked it.
"It's like nothing ever even happened. It's as good as new" Max told her.
"No, Max. It's better than new" Yi replied before running up to Everest and hugging him tightly. The Yeti was taken aback by Yi's affectionate gesture, but he smiled and closed his eyes before hugging her back.
"But Max..." Jin said out loud, and everyone's eyes were focused on Jin as he now held the pieces of Max's spectra in his hands.
"What about your camera?" he finished. Yi then gasped and broke apart from Everest before she ran over to where her backpack rested and took out the bag she had gotten from the Polaroid Originals store back in the village.
"I was meaning to give this to you after we got Everest home as a way of saying "Thank You" for this adventure, but... I think it's better that I give it to you now" Yi said before taking the box out of the bag. Max gasped to see it was the Polaroid SX-70 she had been marveling over in the village and she took it into her hands slowly.
"No way... is that what I think it is?" Chloe said as she saw the picture of the camera's side angle on the top of the red box. Even Everest looked in shock at it.
"What is it, mama?" asked Everest in his thoughts.
"It's a camera, sweetie. It's an SX-70. Something I've always wanted" Max said out loud to respond to Everest's question. Everyone watched as Max opened up the box and took out the camera to reveal what it looked like when it was closed. Max tugged on the viewfinder to open the camera up and stared down into it, a smile forming on her face.
"Same camera Ansel Adams and Walker Evans used, right?" Yi asked. Max then looked to Yi before she pulled her into a hug.
"Thank you, Yi. Thank you so much" Max said as she still hugged her friend. Yi hugged back and the others only watched with smiles on their faces at how happy Max was now that she not only had a new Polaroid, but her dream camera as well. As soon as they broke the hug apart, Max then looked into the bag and saw all the packs of film Yi had bought for it. After opening up a box and placing the film inside the camera, she looked to everyone and spoke.
"Come on guys. Let's take a selfie" the brunette said. Without even a word, they all got behind Max and watched as she prepared to press the red button close to the lens.
"Smile on three. One... two... three!" Max counted down before pressing the button and the photo printed out the front of the camera. After they watched Max shake the photo to make it develop faster, everyone gathered around to see how the picture turned out. Everest was in the back making a "Shaka Brah" sign with both his hands while everyone else just either smiled or made a silly face.
"Oh my God, it's beautiful" said Max as she stared down at the picture.
"It's pretty good, Max" Chloe said.
"Pretty good? This is the best photo ever taken!" Peng exclaimed.
"It's something to always treasure" said Jin in agreement.
"Yeah. I'm happy you like it, Max" Yi told her. As soon as the photo and camera were tucked back into Max's camera bag, Yi placed her violin back inside it's case and the others were picking up supplies from the ground and placed it back inside Chloe's backpack. Then, all of a sudden, Jin remembered something and spoke up.
"Guys. Listen to me, I need to tell you something" he said. All eyes were on Jin now, awaiting for the young med-student to speak.
"When I was captured by Zara, she tortured me and forced me to give up where you guys were going to meet me. That's how she knew where to find you" Jin said with a guilty look on his face.
"Jin, it's not your fault. Zara is a psychotic masochist who takes pleasure in hurting others just to get what she wants. She's to blame for this, not you" said Chloe, trying to reassure him that Burnish and Zara finding them at the Dahe Village wasn't his blame to carry.
"No, there's more. She forced me to tell her about Max's time powers. She has plans to capture not just Everest, but Max too. Planning on cutting her open and discovering how her powers work so she can weaponize them and sell them to other country's military forces so she can get rich" Jin told her. Now everyone looked shocked at this.
"What? She wants to turn Max's powers into some kind of super-weapon?" Chloe asked with outrage in her voice.
"Yeah. And she's planning on betraying Burnish so she can sell Everest so they can study his body for scientific research too" he continued, which made Everest back away slowly and have a scared look on his face. He looked like he was about to cry at the revelation of what Zara had planned to do with him. Max then walked up to Everest and placed her hands on the sides of his face.
"She's not going to get you. I'd rather die then let her take you away" said Max using her telepathic bond with the Yeti.
"Promise?" asked Everest using his own thoughts.
"Cross my heart and hope to die, honey. Mama's going to protect you, no matter what. The bad lady's gonna pay for everything she's ever done, I swear it" Max replied in her head. Jin then walked over to the large duffel bag of weapons zipped it open to reveal several guns and magazines of ammunition.
"One of the goons said he knew Chloe and Rachel back at Blackwell. He's the one who freed me and gave me the weapons" said Jin as he revealed the weapons to everyone. Peng then walked up closer to get a better look at the inside of the bag and reached into it to pull out a folder.
"What's this?" asked Peng.
"I dunno. He never said he included anything else in there" Jin answered. Chloe then approached Peng and held her right hand out to him.
"Lemme see that?" she asked. Peng nodded and handed the folder to her before she opened it up. The look on her face turned into a look of horror as she continued to read the folder's contents.
"Guys, look at this. It's Zara's full mental health records" said the blue-haired girl.
"Wait, what!?" Max said before she peeked over Chloe's shoulder and began to look at the documents.
"Oh my God. Is this seriously her entire mental health history?" asked Max.
"Yeah. Criminal record too, even all the times she attempted to break into Rachel's house. Nothing's been censored or redacted either" Chloe answered. Yi then took the folder from Chloe and began reading over the words typed onto the paper for herself.
"Looks like you were right about the first three diagnoses. There's another two in here as well" said Yi.
"What does it say?" Jin asked.
"It says she's also a pathological liar and... oh Jeebus, she's also got anti-social personality disorder" said Yi, which made Jin, Chloe, and Max gasp in shock.
"Are you serious right now? Let me see that" Max said before she held out her hand. Yi handed the folder to Max who read the document again and saw that Yi was right.
"What's anti-social personality disorder? I don't know what that is" Peng asked with a look of confusion on his face.
"It's a type of mental illness where someone can lie, manipulate, and violates the basic human rights of other people without any sense of guilt" Max explained it.
"There are a lot of real life and fictional characters who display this kind of behavior. Like the Joker, Hannibal Lecter, Mr. Hyde, Ted Bundy, and Dexter Morgan. All of those people, Emily Zara included, are actual psychopaths" Chloe added.
"And a lot of them... turn out to be serial killers" Yi piped in. Max then saw something else hidden behind Zara's mental health records and saw a few other things sticking out from them. She reached behind the document and pulled out a cardboard slate that was the size of a piece of printer paper, and she gasped in horror what she saw what was written on it.
"You Talk, You Die?" Jin read what was written on the slate out loud. Max recognized it, it was the same sign Nathan Prescott held up in her vision she had while she was asleep on the train.
"Look, there's something else in here" Yi said before she took the folder from Max and pulled out three photographs that looked like they were printed off a very expensive digital printer. Yi then handed the pictures to Chloe to reveal all three of them were the same black and white photos Mark Jefferson had taken of her while she was held captive in his Dark Room.
"Oh my God. She has copies of that sick prick Jefferson's photos he took of Rachel" said Chloe in disgust. She felt like she was about to vomit the more she stared down at the pictures.
"This doesn't make sense. How did she get her hands on these?" Chloe continued as she handed the photo back to Yi. Max then remembered something Rachel had said to her in her vision. While on the mountain surrounded by bloody body-prints in the snow, she said "There's still one more" when she mentioned being avenged for her murder.
"There's still one more" Max whispered out loud, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Max? What do you mean by that?" asked Yi, confused about what she was talking about.
"Chloe, there's something I need to tell you. After we rescued Everest I continued having visions of that bridge. But it wasn't Everest sending me the messages, it was Rachel" Max explained. Chloe's eyes went wide and she turned to her friend after she mentioned Rachel's name.
"Rachel? She's been sending you visions too? What were they?" Chloe asked.
"They were always the same. But the most recent one I had was when we were still on the train. I was on some mountain by myself, and there were body-prints in the snow with blood staining them. Rachel then told me there was somebody else involved in her murder, Nathan and Jefferson weren't alone when they did the crime" the brunette continued.
"Judging by the copies of the photos that were taken of her in that Dark Room, I think it's safe to say Zara was the third accomplice" Jin said as he continued to stare down at the photos while Max explained her visions.
"And Nathan was in my vision too. He looked beat up, like the same way he did after Warren beat him up in the Blackwell boys' dorm. He was holding up that exact same sign, and it had the words "You Talk, You Die" written on it before dragging his finger across his throat" Max continued.
"This confirms it. I should have known, Zara was also one of Nathan's Vortex Club disciples. It makes sense that the major diagnoses in these documents would be redacted after his parents bribed someone to do it" Chloe said as she felt her blood boiling in rage.
"Now she's trying to get her sick kicks by capturing and torturing Everest, as well as make a profit off of Max's time powers" Jin piped in.
"What are we gonna do now?" asked Yi, feeling scared and afraid. Max then looked to Everest and then back at her friends.
"We're going to fight Zara. Rachel's been giving me these visions for a reason and I think I've figured out why I'm the one receiving them. Everything that Zara's done so far, what she has planned to do with both me and Everest, these photos, this sign, these documents... it's a declaration of war" Max told them. Chloe nodded in agreement and placed one hand on Max's shoulder before speaking up herself.
"You're right, Max. Rachel can't move on unless we kill Zara. Other people have suffered because of her, not just Rachel. And if we don't kill her, who knows how many more people are going to pay the price for her greed and other sadistic desires" the blue-haired girl said in reply.
"That also explains why the guard who freed Jin gave us the documents. As well as all these weapons, we've been given the gift of knowledge and we have to use it to our advantage" Yi spoke up.
"And Max just said some of these visions she's been having took place on a bridge right?" Jin asked.
"Yeah, why?" Max replied.
"There's a bridge just right underneath Mt. Everest. It's the last major stop we're going to have to make before we finally reach the mountain" Jin explained.
"Which means we could be walking right into a trap?" Peng asked.
"It sure as Hell sounds like it" said Chloe in response to the nine year old's question.
"So we're going to have to fight back if we're gonna get Everest back home" said Yi.
"It's settled then. The next time we see them, Emily Zara will die for her crimes" Max concluded. Everyone nodded in agreement, including Everest. They knew when the time finally came, the final battle to ensure Everest made it home safely was going to be a bloodbath.
A/N: And part three is done! Yi is happy with her violin being completely fixed, and Max is super happy that Yi has given her a Polaroid SX-70 to replace the one that was destroyed in the giant flower wave. We also now know the reason Rachel Amber has been sending Max these visions is because she has unfinished business and wants Max and the others to kill Zara so that not only she will be at peace, but many others will be too. The journey continues in the next update. Please review, thanks!