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A few hours. It had only been a few hours since one of the most tragic things to happen to anyone has happened. A giant tornado came out of nowhere and wiped the entire city, known as Arcadia Bay, of the face of the earth. No one knows if anyone made it out alive, and if any did make it out no one knows how many made it out. What is known is that two people made it out after the tornado hit, driving out of the wrecked city and not looking back.
These two people are named Chloe Price and Maxine Caufield, but she prefers to be called Max.
For a few hours now they have been driving away from the place that was once their home and not looking back, less they become more emotionally wrecked than they already were, one more than the other. Max had felt the worst of all after the tornado hit, feeling guilty about it having to happen, but Chloe kept trying to tell her otherwise. Chloe had also been suffering from this, she did not know whether her mother, or the one she married that Chloe finally accepted as a stepfather, a man named David, are still alive and looking for her right now. Of course, nothing Chloe said to Max made her feel less guilty.
For the past few days Max had somehow gained the power to rewind time, and for a while she thought it was cool, helping other people, solving a mystery involving a missing person, which did not work out in the end, and making a seriously messed up guy be figured out to be a killer and brought to justice. But no matter how cool her powers are they came at a terrible cost. Max’s friend Warren had told her about Cause and Effect and Chaos Theory making her believe that her use of time powers was the cause of the terrible events that lead to the tornado. The worst part was that Max could have stopped the tornado and saved the city from destruction but at a terrible price.
She would have to sacrifice her friend Chloe, who was supposed to have died at the beginning of it all.
Max had the opportunity to save Chloe or Arcadia Bay and, in the end, she believed that Chloe was her main priority and saved her instead of the city. A part of her did not regret her decision, she saved Chloe and for most of her time spent in Arcadia Bay she and her friend had been screwed over for the past several years. First it started with Chloe’s father dying in a car crash, then Max being forced to move away leaving Chloe alone, and five years later the one person that Chloe counted on had turned up dead.
The one person Chloe thought she would always have by her side after every bad thing that happened, a girl named Rachel Amber. Chloe thought that she was the cause of the tornado and not Max, that her spirit had been wanting revenge on the entire city for screwing them over and just wanting to get rid of it all. After everything that Rachel went through in life, from finding out that the mother that she always knew was not her real mother, that her real mother wanted to see her, but her father would not allow it, and probably worse of all, that her father was trying desperately to get rid of her real mother to the point that he hired a seriously bad dude to do the deed. All that plus her untimely death would make anyone want revenge and take out a whole city to get it.
Chloe was not sure if what she believed really happened, but she knows that Max was not the one that caused the tornado, sometimes these things just happen, no matter how strange it may seem. Chloe wanted to say that to Max, but she seemed lost in her own world right now, probably still thinking about the events of what just happened, so Chloe thought best to not saying, at least for now. All the better anyway since she looked down at the gas gauge and saw that they needed to refuel, luckily there was a truck stop not far from them, making Chloe pull over.
At the truck stop Chloe immediately got out to start refueling, but not before looking back at Max who kept looking out in space. Chloe wanted to comfort her badly but was afraid that any contact would make Max more emotionally unstable than she was now, so by force of will she got back to the task at hand. Grabbing the fuel pump, she started putting gas in the truck. Standing there board out of her mind, taking car of the truck was her least favorite thing about owning one, she started looking around and saw something weird. On the pumping station there was a set of numbers written on it.
3,9,16,8,5,18
Six numbers in total, Chloe thought of a golden opportunity. “Might as well get some entertainment for the next hour or so.” Chloe said to herself as she grabbed her signature permanent marker. She drew a circle around the numbers, arrows pointing at them, and on the bottom, she wrote a message.
Today’s lotto numbers!
Laughing to herself and slightly hopping that someone might be tricked into thinking this was real, Chloe was satisfied. It would have been strange and coincidental if it turned out that those were the real lotto numbers and a part of her wanted to get a card that had those numbers on it, but since they were running on fumes already, she though better to not play chance and just left it alone. After she was done refueling the truck, she paid with a card she had and the two left.
About ten minutes after they left the truck stop Chloe decided that she had enough of the uncomfortable silence and pulled the truck over, they needed to talk about where to go anyway. Chloe looked over at finally called to her. “Max.” Max did not look at her, but she shows a sign that she was listening. “Max please say something.”
A few seconds more of waiting for a response Max finally spoke. “It’s all my fault.”
Chloe was not going to have any of that. “Max don’t say that. You didn’t cause any of that.”
“I did Chloe.” Fresh tears started falling down Max’s face. “You saw what happened.”
“I saw a tornado that was caused by something other than you.”
“Chloe I’m telling you that I was the one that did it. We were talking about Cause and Effect and Chaos Theory, so it had to have be-”
“DON’T GIVE ME THAT!” Chloe shouted making Max stop talking. “Cause and Effect, Chaos Theory, that’s all bullshit. I’m telling you Max that you didn’t do any of that.”
“Then how, how did all that happen?” Max asked Chloe knowing the answer but secretly hoping there was another answer.
Chloe looked down and thought of one thing. “Maybe it was Rachel.” Max was about to say something, but Chloe kept talking. “Think about it, after everything that happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to have revenge on the whole city.”
“Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
“This coming from the girl that can rewind time.” Max wanted to say something about that but knew that Chloe was right to say that. “Besides, believe it or not, this wouldn’t have been the first time she caused a major disaster.”
“Wait what?” Max asked stunned by what Chloe said.
Chloe wanted to bite her tongue at what she said, she never told anyone about that day and was hoping that it would end up being a distant memory, she was almost right, for while no one talked about it. Still though Chloe opened her mouth and since Rachel was gone, she might as well come clean. “Do you know about the forest fire that happened three years ago?”
Max thought about it for a little bit and then had a surprised look on her face. “That was Rachel?”
Chloe nodded. “Rachel saw some serious drama involving her dad and it set her off very badly. She took a lighter and burned a picture of her father, threw it in a trash can, and just cried. I wanted to comfort her but then she started screaming then suddenly the wind started picking up and blew the fire into the trees, causing it to go everywhere.”
“My God.” Max said stunned.
“That was something that I could never forget even if I wanted to, it also makes me know for certain that you didn’t do anything, Rachel did.” Max wanted to argue that, but she saw a tear go down Chloe’s eye and decided not to add on to the pain. Both Max and Chloe stayed on the side of the road in silence while cars kept passing them by. Chloe decided to speak up again. “So, what are we going to do?”
“Huh?” Max asked.
“We need a plan, don’t we? We left Arcadia Bay like we always wanted, not how we wanted to, but we still did. So, what now?”
Max started thinking about it but came up empty. “I don’t know.”
“I could take you back to Seattle, let you see your family again.” Chloe said.
“What about you?”
“I’m sure I’ll figure something out.” In truth, Chloe had no idea what she should do, she never thought ahead of where to do once she left Arcadia Bay and since Rachel is now gone New York and L.A. seems pointless now, less she starts crying more.
“No Chloe, I saved you for a reason and I’m not leaving you ever again.” Max said.
Chloe was happy that Max thought that and she really did not want to be away from Max anymore. After everything that happened and all the time that they spent away from each other the last thing Chloe wanted was to be away from Max a second longer. Still though she felt like she needed to put Max’s needs above all else, Max saved her life after all, multiple times, so it was the least she felt like she could do. Just when she was about to argue about taking Max back to Seattle Max spoke up again.
“You know something, this makes me think back when we were little and thought about where to go after we left Arcadia Bay.” Max said smiling at what she said. “You remember what I always said we should do?”
Chloe thought about it and remembered what she said all those years ago. “You said we should sail the seas forever. Like pirates, the sea would be our home and we would always have each other.”
“Yeah, I was young back then, so it was fun idea when I had it.” Max said looking fondly at that memory.
Chloe thought that was a great idea too, too bad that life dealt them a bad hand and killed her father, made Max move away, and all the other things that happened to them. Still though here they were now, reunited, just the two of them on the open road. The road was kind of the like the sea, the truck is their pirate ship, and Max and Chloe were pirates, having no destination and not a care in the world. It was great and that was what made Chloe though of something great.
“Let’s do it.” Chloe said suddenly.
Max looked over at Chloe. “Do what?”
“Let us just keep driving. No destination, all the time in the world, just the two of us.” Max wanted to say something, but Chloe beat her to it. “Look out there.” Chloe gestured to the open road. “This road is like the sea and we’re in a pirate ship. We just keep driving, see everything the world has, and drive some more. It’s not completely like what you thought about but it’s pretty close.”
Max had to admit, that was an amazing idea, one that she wants nothing more than to get on board with. “But wait, what about money?”
“We’ll worry about that as we go along. And you did say that I was your priority right, that you never wanted to leave my side ever again, right?” It was true, Max did say that, to which Max nodded her head. “So, let’s do it, after all I am your partner in crime.” Chloe held her hand out to shake Max’s hand.
Max however, pulled Chloe into a hug. “And I’m your partner in time.” Chloe was stunned a little and had a slight blush on her face, but she wrapped her arms around Max. Soon they pulled away and Max said, “Alright I’m convinced. Let us set sail Captain Bluebeard.”
“S.S. Shitheap ready to set sail.” Max looked at her giving her a look that said, ‘really is that what we are calling this’. Chloe looked at Max and said, “We’ll work on the name later.” Chloe put the truck in drive and both her and Max started their new life on the open road.
No destination, all the time in the world, and best of all they had each other.