By the time Chloe had reached the edge of town, the rain had begun falling to the ground once more. It was a slow rainfall, much slower than was natural, but it was definitely coming down now.

Moving through the town was turning out to be slower work than she had hoped. While better than carrying Max all this way, she still had to work to maneuver the wheelchair with one hand around the various bits of debris the initial winds of the hurricane had kicked up. The other was still holding on to Max's shoulder, keeping firm contact with the girl. The warmth of her body underneath her hand was a minor comfort as she labored to keep her mounting panic at bay. She felt like she was losing in a foot race against the storm hanging out in the bay.

Still, it did give her some time to think.

It went without saying that this week had been the craziest of her life. Her best friend from childhood had bounced back into town and saved her life. The anger and betrayal at Max leaving had been festering so long that she had gone over what she would say to the girl if they met again a thousand times. Little barbs she knew about Max that she knew would tear down the old Max, at least. She wasn't proud of it, but pissing off the people closest to her had become second nature by now as it was easier than trusting them not to hurt her. Even Rachel had trouble putting up with her bullshit from time to time, and it sometimes had taken effort to not push her out of her life as well. So she had expected to do the same to Max if she ever saw her again. Not to mention the knot of worry she carried around from the tiny voice in her head saying Max wouldn't approve of what Chloe had been up to.

Yet once she had learned that it had been Max that had saved her, the barbs she had planned to send at the girl wouldn't come. She had still been angry, but it was mixed with a relief and surprise that made rekindling her friendship with Max a bit simpler. And despite her new look and lifestyle, Max had accepted her pretty well. Max's concern for her new lifestyle had avoided going too far into the territory of overbearing and border than boundary of genuine concern for her friend that made her feel cared after. Max had changed too, of course, but not as much as she had anticipated for someone coming back from the big city. She had gone from a budding photographer to a girl who knew more techniques about art and photography than Chloe knew even existed. It gave her a slightly more worldly feeling than Chloe knew how to place in anyone who had lived their lives in Arcadia Bay. But Max had managed to also hold on to the slightly shy but sarcastic personality that she had known so well before.

And not to mention, once Max had revealed the secret about her new ability to rewind time, it had washed away much of the lingering resentment she had for the girl in a rush of excitement. She had once or twice kidded with the name Super Max when they played make believe as kids, but now she really did have powers like something out of a comic book.

A week later, she wasn't sure if that excitement had been the right reaction anymore. In this case, it really had been too good to be true. Max had tried to explain her concern about the power, but she hadn't listened. Looking out over the bay, she wish she had appreciated what her friend had been saying a bit more. Like she said up on the cliff top, it sounded like the world had taken offense to Chloe Price still being a part of it. And each time Max worked to keep her here, things only got worse. She thought she could make up for it by telling Max to go back and not save her the first time, but secretly she was relieved Max hadn't listened.

'I don't really want to die.' She thought.

Her self-loathing over the past few years had danced around the thought of suicide, but she had never really entertained the thought on any serious level. She was angry at the world and at herself. She knew she was a fuck up. Pushing her mother away. Getting kicked out of school. Getting mixed up in drugs. She knew those things were stupid and would make life harder in the long run. But her plan up to a week ago was to just keep fighting against the crap life threw at her until she could run away from it all and start fresh. Time and fate or whatever else was behind this seemed to have other thoughts, however. Fate wanted her to pay up her due with interest.

And if that wasn't a deeply disturbing thought, she wasn't sure what was.

Chloe looked down at the girl in the wheelchair and smiled slightly. Despite how enormous the task had truly been to keep Chloe alive, and how personally damaging it had been to her, Max was still spitting in the face of the fate by choosing to save her. 'Really upping the best friend game there, Super Max.'

Shaking head to clear it of her thoughts, she took stock of her surroundings. The town looked different with so few cars and people around. She had seen one or two people along the way, all frozen, but the entire space looked like some strange ghost town she hardly recognized when it was like this. But she still had a feeling she knew where the doe was leading her.

They were drawing closer to the Two Whales diner, and while she was still confused as the the why of it, she couldn't say she was surprised. Whatever this storm was, her and Max were at the center of it. And the diner was one of the cornerstones of their story together. She remembered warm happy Saturday mornings as children where her dad had brought her and Max to the diner to see Joyce and get breakfast. She wasn't sure if Max remembered, but that booth she had sat down at was the same one where they had first decided to become pirates one day. Even after Max had left and she drew closer to Rachel, she had always felt a bit odd going there with her new friend. This spot was something between her and Max, and even though she was angry with Max for leaving, she still allowed herself to wall off the Two Whales and that booth as a special memory between the two of them.

After another few minutes of quiet pushing broken only by the slow patter of rain hitting the ground, she saw the Two Whales come into sight around the edge of a old run down corner store. She could actually also see the first crowd since she had gotten to town, most of them standing next to a car frozen in time, a plume of smoke coming out of the exhaust. It looked like the people were clutching the sides of the vehicle, perhaps begging for the driver to let them in and help them escape the town.

And standing just a few feet away looking like he was heading inside the restaurant before he had been caught in this moment was that kid Warren that hung around Max. Chloe watched as the doe walked over to the boy and stood there, eyeing them approach. Not sure what was special about Warren compared to the rest of the crowd, she pushed Max and the wheelchair a bit closer, moving in front of the boy, finally seeing that his face was caught in a moment of panic.

She felt kind of bad for the boy. From his perspective, the last week had been hella strange. Physics itself seemed to be taking a holiday from Arcadia bay and the girl he was interested in just suddenly stopped paying him attention in favor of an old friend who came out of nowhere. She couldn't say she had been particularly nice to the boy in their few interactions previously either. She had been a bit jealous that he was a new friend to Max and that he was trying to put the moves on her. But that didn't mean his shitty week had to end with him being in the path of a killer storm.

"I'm sorry dude," Chloe said, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder with the hand she had been using to push Max around.

As her hand made contact, she felt Warren jerk under her grasp, stumbling slightly as he resumed motion and fell into Chloe's space. His eyes cast about wildly for a moment, before looking up into Chloe's own shocked expression. "What the..."

Chloe was equally shocked. She had gotten used to being the only person in this moment of time already, and seeing that he could move and act changed everything. The only explanation she had was something about her connection with Warren was making this possible. "Holy shit.. dude! You can move!"

Warren looked at her confused, and looked like he was about to say something before he caught sight of Max just slightly behind Chloe, her body angled to keep one arm back on the girl and one arm forward to touch his shoulder. His expression instantly changed to worry. "Max! What's wrong with her! Hey, Max!"

Warren started to push past Chloe in an attempt to get at their friend, and not expecting the sudden movement, Chloe stumbled. Her hand on Max's shoulder began to slip, and she could feel her thoughts slowly to a halt. Yet despite the slowing of her mind, the wind and rain remained constant. With her grip on Max quickly diminishing, it seemed the rain and wind must be picking up in speed to match her slowing mind and body. Something about letting go of the girl seemed to be making the storm worse, and even though Chloe knew she had to hold on, her body was already beginning to lock up as she became trapped in that singular moment of time.

As the moment drew on, lengthening into what felt like minutes of her hand slowly losing pressure on the other girl, it was only as she started to see nothing but darkness that something heavy struck her in the back, causing her body to land across Max's lap and time to slow down again and her consciousness to speed up. She could just see the doe out of the corner of her eye, its body filling the space right behind her where it had basically body checked her back into contact with Max. And just above her Warren had Max's head in his grasp, turning it this way and that.

A sudden panic that he would try to move her again, she lifted a leg up and placed the bottom of her foot against his waist, kicking him back "Back off dude!"

She watched as his eyes widened in surprise for a moment as he began to stumble back, his body beginning the process of tipping over to fall before he froze in place, flailing awkwardly in the air. Breathing hard, Chloe looked around to see that the rain and wind had slowed down once more, but not back to the levels they were at previously. The rain was falling almost normally now, and a light wind buffeted the area. Looking out to the bay, she could now see the edge of the storm clearly rotating slowly, but still not moving anywhere as fast as it had at the peak of the storm they saw from the lighthouse.

The doe came over and pushed its muzzle against the cheek of Max, making a small snorting sound that almost sounded worried. Looking at the girl, she could see what had Warren and the creature so worried. The cloth in the girls nose was bright red now, and from the corner of her eyes Chloe could see two small tear drops of blood begin to make their way down the girls cheeks.

'Shit...'

Tearing off more of her tank top, she dabbed at the girls eyes, waiting to see if anymore came. Luckily it appeared as if the moment had passed, and her eyes stopped their bleeding. Unsure what else to do, she moved to quickly replace the cloth in her nose, wincing as in the moment she pulled out the older material from her nostrils a heavy flow trickled down onto her mouth before she could stop it again. She was beginning to worry how long they could keep this up even with Chloe trying to slow the flow of blood leaving the girl. She was honestly surprised the girl wasn't choking on it at this point, but she wasn't sure what else to do.

Shakily she shifted herself so she could kneel beside Max and keep an arm around her. Looking over at the doe, she reached out to place a hand against its neck. "Thanks. Saved my ass there." The creature leaned into her hand for a moment before moving next to Warren and looking at her.

"I know. I think I get what you want now. Just got to make sure he doesn't freak out again."

Chloe moved the wheelchair a bit closer to and behind Warren, positioning herself so she had a tight one arm hug around Max before touching Warren's back. Bracing herself, she felt the boy fall into her, luckily not moving her much as she hadn't given him room to built up any momentum.

Looking at her, his eyes clouded with anger quickly. "What the hell? Why did you kick me? What's wrong with Max? he shouted.

"Just shut up for a second Warren! She is the only thing stopping this god-damned storm right now, and if you mess with her you're going to get all of us fucking killed. So calm down." The order in the last statement earned her a glare. But she also noticed as his eyes started to really take in their surroundings, and it quickly gave way to confusion before widening in shock as she saw the crowd of people all frozen, standing around a car that now had its tires very slowly rotating on the pavement below. His gaze then moved to the bay and she could feel him flinch at the slowly rotating storm.

"I don't have time to explain," Chloe began, cutting him off. "Max is holding back the storm for the moment, and I need to stay with her. But you need to do something for us."

Warren swallowed hard, just nodding silently as he looked out at storm. Shaking him, she got him to look at her instead, and she glared at him until he seemed to make an attempt to focus. She needed him to be alert for this bit. He obviously remembered what happened what happened a moment ago before he had been frozen back in time. She could use that. He could get people to a safer spot if he moved quickly once the people began moving quickly again or whatever Max was doing stopped. The image of the hurricane tearing through the town was burned into her memory now, she could use that. She knew where they could go.

"Four or five blocks West of here you'll find an old warehouse. The old man who works there never closes the gate at the back of the building properly. A few kicks can usually get it to open. Get everyone there and hide inside. I think it even has a sub-basement, but you'll have to find that once you get there" She remembered seeing the storm more or less skip over that part of this district when it hit landfall. And she knew that the warehouse would be open because she had used the place a few times when she first started buying drugs from Frank, before he trusted her enough to come to his RV. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would have to do.

Nodding, the boy looked over at Max. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Yeah," she lied. She had no fucking clue what to do now, but he didn't need to be distracted by that fact. "I've got her. She's bled a bit before doing shit like this, just make sure you get everyone to safety so you can brag about it when you see her next. I've got to go now, but just don't forget, Warehouse to the west, entrance in the back."

He looked at her, and she wasn't sure if he believed her or not, but he finally nodded and pushed himself out of her grasp, moving towards the Two Whales. He made it only an inch or so away from her before his momentum was halted, before he slowed down enough she couldn't see any signs of life out of him.

Looking back at Max, she could see a tiny bead of red fluid building in the corner of her eye again, and she cursed. She had a feeling bringing others in to this pocket of time was stretching her too thin. Not sure what else to do, she cleared the blood before looking for the doe, trying to see what it would suggest. She nearly panicked when she couldn't see it in the immediate area, but a moment later she saw it headed down a street that led deeper into the town.

It seemed like the doe knew how they could help. She doubted a stranger would be easy to convince if she tried to bring them into this moment of time and usher them to safety. Not to mention that it looked like Max couldn't take too much more of that sort of action. So what did the doe want them to do next? If she recalled the path of the hurricane right, that most likely spot to find people she could possible convince where to hide would be Blackwell dorms.

So why was the doe leading them downtown?

Hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter.

As you can likely tell, I am still trying to find Chloe's voice in my writing. As this is a moment where she essentially isolated from anyone else, it gives her some time to explore her thoughts about this hectic week and what she can do to help. I think Chloe is an interesting sort of character. You could imagine taking her a number of different ways, depending on how you read her actions. So I want to really get into her head and voice to explain one way of interacting with the world and others.

Also, it will help when the slow build between her and Max really begins. Looking forward to that.

As is almost the ritualistic request from authors here, please like and review to let me know if you enjoy the story.

Clear Skies,

Rylkan