Chapter II: Recruitment (Chloe) - Day 2/Friday

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Have y'all seen the announcement for this new game 'set in the life is strange universe'? It's not LiS 2 or anything, but it's a pretty decent sounding thing. Apparently from DONTNOD, and coming on June 26th, and for free. It's called 'The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit'. From what I've heard, the company're going for a thematic sequel rather than a direct one: 'Relatable people facing relatable issues... with a twist of the strange'. Although they also say there are some clues to LiS 2's plotline if you're 'clever enough to piece the clues together'. Anyways, if any of you have seen it (go check it out, for those who haven't), what do you think of the announcements and whatnot so far? LiS 2 has also apparently been announced for this year (the end of September), so we've got that to look forward to too! This is a hella full year for Life is Strange. :D

Also, this has no relation to the fic, but Fun. are really fucking awesome playing acoustic. Check 'em out on youtube. There's a bunch more, but Ramen apparently isn't into nicely organised playlists so you may have to search a little. Other recommendations, Murder by Death (they're like Johnny Cash singing Decemberists' lyrics), After the Fire (specifically Der Kommissar, the song from the Atomic Blonde soundtrack), and Wolf Parade (specifically their new album, Cry Cry Cry. You're Dreaming is an INCREDIBLE song.). All of 'em are on Youtube, and they're all awesome.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

Blackadder261:

It does run that way, yeah. Didn't know that was called a book-ends format, but good to know. Hope you enjoy this chapter too, though a lot less drama happens in this one. Was going to be a little more, but I couldn't get it all written in time to meet my deadline.

And aww, you poor thing. At least it's not Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, I guess? :)

Kabeneri:

Not quite real yet. That comes next chapter. It would've come this chapter, but I ran out of time to finish the next scene, so I'm saving it for the next update.

MaxNeverMaxine:

Thank you! I was worried if this style (apparently book-ends format) would work, so it's really good to know it fits. I know it's been literally a year, so if you have played it you probably don't remember what you thought, but I'd be curious to hear about it if you did!

I should probably start replying to these long-delay messages in the inbox rather than on here...

"Who was Rachel?"

The Stranger smiled. "Rachel was... Chloe's Angel."

Her Angel? Is... that code for something?

"She'd befriended Chloe at one of her lowest points, and they'd gone through some things together. Things that forged the kinds of bonds that don't come around very often." She flashes a look at me, and there's something terrifyingly perceptive in those old brown eyes. "The bonds you should treasure, if you're lucky enough to find them." Her eyes go sad, reflective. "Chloe found them three times. Once with her father, once with Max, and once with Rachel. Each time, she lost them. Through no fault of her own, but... it had an effect on her."

We mulled it over. I like to think Adi, Oz, and I were that for each other, but... I don't know. Would I be able to survive losing them both like that? And what would I be like if I did?

Rachel lived in one of the suburbs of Arcadia Bay. Pretty trees lined the road, which was entirely clean, and the houses each stood alone in the middle of immaculately maintained gardens. A true suburban utopia.

Chloe had hit at least three gnomes and a fire hydrant along the road over the years she'd been driving over to visit or pick Rachel up, but this time, despite caring even less about these rich assholes and their lawn decor, she managed to drive cleanly to the Amber's house and skidded to a halt in front of it.

Well, almost to a halt. Chloe was out of the car before it had even stopped, running at full speed up to the Amber's door. It was locked, of course, so she resorted to knocking. Loudly. When that didn't work, she started yelling. "Rachel! Rachel! Open the door! Rach-"

A very confused, mildly alarmed older woman opened the door, and tilted her head at Chloe, one eyebrow raised in a puzzled arch of recognition. "Chloe? What are you- Chloe!" The woman was swept out of the way as Chloe charged in, heading for the stairs.

She was still yelling. "Rachel! Where are you? Rachel!"

"She's not here, Chloe!"

Chloe stops, turns, and glares. Hard. "Where the fuck is she then, Mrs Amber?"

"She's with her Father, in Portland. Now, what is this about, Chloe? Why are you running about my house yelling?" Rose was normally a calm woman, but her daughter's delinquent best friend running around her home using language like that was getting to be far too much for her.

Chloe, open, empathetic soul that she was, didn't notice the woman's discomfort. But she did realise that if she wanted to find Rachel, she had to make sure her mother fully understood the situation.

"This is about the end of the world, Mrs A. The end of the fucking world!" Despite her efforts to stay calm, Chloe was starting to get agitated again. Her motions became frantic; all quick, rapid little things that spoke of nothing but panic and fear. Remembering monsters that previously lived only in nightmares eating someone with whom you had been fighting for years, yet considered a family friend, was a very emotionally confusing thing. Her panic was understandable.

"What are you talking about, Chloe? The end of the world?" Mrs A's bewilderment was also understandable. Generally people talking about the end of the world -before we realised it had actually happened, obviously - were deemed lunatics or doogooders. Or vegans. Either way, they were never taken seriously.

Chloe began to pace back and forth in the front room, little flecks of dried blood scattering over the carpet as her shoes scraped over it. Mrs A winced every time one fell. When she saw the faint red footprint outlines Chloe's boots had left, I hear she almost started yelling. Almost. Rose Amber did have her limits, but she was a quiet woman at heart.

The Stranger chuckles. "A relic of the past more than any other, being bothered about things like that. It's amazing the meaningless trivialities we can find ourselves focusing on when we're not fighting daily for our own survival."

"Yeah, fair enough. Okay, uh..." Chloe ran a hand through her hair, wincing as one of her electric blue locks sticks to it, through static or sweat, and gently tugs at her skull. A quick shake of her head dislodges it, and she continues "So, I got arrested last night." Ignores Mrs Amber's gasp of disapproval. "When I woke up in the station this morning, there were these... things. Fuckin' Zombies, Mrs A. They'd, like, attacked the cops, killed a whole bunch of them. The entire station was hella fucked, blood and shit everywhere. Bell, one of the beat cops, helped me get out. He, uh..." Chloe sighed. She might be angry, might burn with the white-hot righteous intensity of it (Injustice had always gotten her fired up, when she was younger. She liked things being fair, and was more than willing to punch the shit out of the universe when things weren't. It was cute.), but she knew guilt. Bell, like him or not, had sacrificed his life to protect her. How the hell was she supposed to handle something like that? "They ate him. They're fucking real, and he was fucking real, and they ate him."

She looked up, met Mrs Amber's eyes. "I don't know shit about those things, Mrs A, but if any of the shit on TV is true, then we gotta grab my Mom, go get Rach and your husband, and find somewhere safe as soon as fucking possible. We gotta... We... we gotta..."

The shake of her hands began to spread, and Chloe's began to feel lightheaded. No matter how she pushed, the feeling continued. All that fire and intensity just drifted away, as her limbs became heavier and heavier, her eyelids began to droop, and her words began to waver. "We gotta..."

Finally, all the stress, the exhaustion, the fear, caught up to her. With a groan, she collapsed onto the carpet, and passed out cold.

Chloe awoke with a start. She'd never really slept well, not since her dad died. That night was worse. Her nightmares, once the screeching of metal and the squeaking of tires, turned to teeth, to hunger, and to blood.

It took her longer than she'd ever admit to slow her breathing. Nightmares were persistent fuckers. You try to bury them deep, drown them in cheer and good times, but somehow they always learned how to swim. When she finally did, she took a look around. The room was familiar to her, the shelves of books framed by awards and study materials. Rachel's room, a room of someone who'd achieved and would probably achieve more in the future.

She got to her feet, swaying a little as blood rushed to her head. She had no idea how long she'd been out, but judging by the dizziness and the light from the window, it was probably the morning after she'd passed out. A quick self-examination let her know that she was still in one piece, and she'd been cleaned up a little. Her shoes, now shiny and new looking, were sat together on the floor next to the bed. She swung her legs out, laced herself back into her big clunky boots, and headed downstairs.

A faint voice stopped her halfway down, and she crouched, staying quiet and straining to listen. Mrs Amber was talking to someone. Chloe couldn't hear any replies, so it had to be on a phone.

"Yes, yes. I think she's stable for now, but I don't know. Something happened, I think. She was babbling about monsters. Zombies, if you can believe it! Mmhmm. Yes. Okay. Thank you." She hangs up, tossing the phone onto a nearby surface. There's a moment of inaudible muttering before she picks the phone up again, dialing another number. "Come on, come on. These damned phone lines. Why isn't this working?"

Chloe decides to go down then. She probably won't get much more by eavesdropping. The boots clunk heavily on the steps as she clatters down, swinging her way into the open living room-kitchen-dining room that the majority of the first floor of the Amber's home was occupied by. "Hey Mrs A."

The woman smiles on seeing her. "Good morning, Chloe. Are you..." She's hesitant, like she's worried about overstepping. "Are you feeling better?"

Chloe shrugs. "More awake, sure. And my head isn't spinning as much. We've still gotta get out of here though. Do you have a car or something? I'd say we can take my truck, but I'm pretty sure you're not into my ride."

Mrs Amber winces. "Chloe. I... There's no such thing as Zombies. You must've hit your head, maybe taken something that you shouldn't have... You're seeing things that aren't real. You should go home. Get some sleep."

See before, on telling Chloe to do things. She scoffs. Loudly. Derisively. "Yeah, Mrs A. I thought that too, before they fucking ate someone in front of me."

She sighs, guides Chloe to one of the couches. "Alright, Chloe. Sit down, tell me the whole story. From the beginning."

Chloe thought about it. Thought about just leaving, gunning her engine and heading straight for Portland. But, she reasoned, if Mrs A hadn't seen Zombies yet, maybe she still had time. If she could convince Rose Amber that she wasn't crazy, maybe it'd be easier to convince Rachel and her father. Or Joyce, and her Step-Douche. Or herself. Madness shared is madness halved.

She sat down. "Right, so, uh... from the beginning. Yeah. Well, I told you I got arrested, right?"

She gets about halfway through the story, sometime around when she first found Bell, then she's interrupted by a knock at the door. It's hurried, and kind of sloppy. Less a ratatatat and more of a thockssathockssathockssaaaa. Mrs Amber nods to herself, standing up quickly. "They're here. That's good."

Chloe frowns, her brows furrowing deeply in confusion. "Who's here? Rachel?" Whoever it was, they were still knocking.

Mrs A flashes her an apologetic look from by the doorway. "No. I called the hospital, told them to send someone to check on you. I wasn't sure... I'm not a doctor, Chloe, but there's something wrong. I'd feel better if they-"

The door shatters inward, sending glass and splinters across the hall as a form hurls itself in. A hand lashes out faster than either of the two notice and latches around Rose's ankle, pulling her in. She screamed as she went down, kicking instinctively outward. Her instincts held true, this time, as the heel of her shoe jams into something vital and the form lets go of her with a howl.

Chloe rushes in, brain filled with a litany of panicked words that mostly revolved around not getting her best friend's mother killed. She stopped short when she saw the form's full appearance. It was definitely a zombie, though the snarling and attempting to eat Mrs Amber had given that away already.

Her eyes scrabbled around the room, looking for anything she could use as a weapon. For a moment, she cursed that she didn't still have the gun from the station, but there wasn't much she could do about that now. Wherever Mrs A had put it, it wasn't in immediate reach. So, she grabbed what was: a gaudy lamp, standing on a nearby surface. Now armed, Chloe simply charged in and swung down. The shade shattered across the thing, as did the bulb, and the zombie howled.

Chloe was puzzled. It sounded more hurt than it should, it was only a thin glass lampshade. Maybe it was weak to tacky shit, she wondered? The smell of burning flesh filling the room let her know the answer. The flow of current through the still-plugged in light clearly didn't agree with zombie face.

Mrs A scrambles back away from it, more frantic than Chloe had been, only stopping when her back hit the door of her husband's office. She stared at the thing, mouth opening mutely as she gawked. Eventually though, she managed to process events enough to form words. "That's a... that's a..."

Chloe nods. "Yep. Zombie." And, because she was Chloe and she couldn't resist, adds a quick "Told you so."

"You..." Rose shakes her head, eyes going distant as she disappears into the memory of it. "You did. You really did. How are they-"

Chloe interrupts. "No fucking clue. They weren't here, now they are. That's about all I got."

A few beats of silence pass as Mrs Amber tries to get her head around things and Chloe tries to be empathetic and personable.

As she abruptly begins to speak again, she knows she's failed. "What did you do with my gun?" It might not've been her gun yesterday, but it would be her gun from now on. If this thing went how she thought it would, there weren't going to be any cops around to take it back any time soon.

"I locked it in the safe."

The look Chloe gave Mrs A could've cut iron. Or, well. Maybe butter. "Why did you lock it in the safe?"

"It's what you're supposed to do with firearms."

Chloe very carefully started counting back from ten, taking very deep breaths. "Cool. Well, we're gonna need it soon, so it'd be hella awesome if you could get it for me." When Mrs A didn't move, Chloe knelt by her, tapping her on the shoulder. "Mrs-... Rose? We've got to get moving. Rach could be in danger, if the zombies got to Portland before us."

There's another moment before Rose answers. "O-okay. I'll find your firearm. But then what do we do?"

"We-" Even thinking the words was uncomfortable, painful even. "We go find my mom and my step-douche."

The woman raises an eyebrow at the nickname. "Step-douche?" She asks, both amused and confused.

Chloe shrugs. "He's a prick, but he was a soldier, so he'd probably be hella useful with shooting shit."

Rose nods. She scurries over to one of the pictures on the wall, lifting it away to reveal a hidden safe. A few quick taps has it open, and she pulls out Chloe's gun, along with a stack of bills. At Chloe's curious look, she shrugs. "It might come in useful."

Chloe shrugs. "Not gonna deny that. Cash gets you wherever and whatever the fuck you want these days, right?"

Rose gives a small, polite smile, handing over Chloe's gun while pocketing the money. "Quite." After another awkward quiet moment, she nods to herself, starting to look around her home. "Is there anything else you think we'll need? Maybe a-"

Chloe cuts her off. "Look, Mrs A. We gotta get out of here before more zombies show up. We can talk about this more back at my mom's place." When Rose looked taken aback at the brusqueness, Chloe grimaced. She really wasn't handling this well, and even she knew it. "Look, Mrs A. I'm sorry, but we have got to go. We can come back and get stuff if you want, but right now we need to keep ourselves alive first. Okay?"

Mrs A gave a begrudging nod. "Okay, Chloe. We'll leave now. We will have to take your... vehicle, though. My Husband took our car to Portland with him."

Chloe shrugged, unbothered. "Fine with me." With whatever thoughtfulness she could muster, she adds a quick "Sorry 'bout the mess." because it was worth establishing that fact in advance.

The two of them hurry out, stepping carefully over the body, and get into Chloe's car. Quite rightly, Rose gives the car a disgusted look, and Chloe a distressed one (to which Chloe simply shrugged), before putting on her seatbelt.

Chloe quickly speeds off from the house, roaring past the gnomes, the fire hydrants, the trees, the ridiculously ugly water features, all of which stood safe in the knowledge that death would not visit them this day. She left it all behind as she drove deeper into the town, navigating through back streets to her own home, and the heavily armed step-douche that lived there.