Afterwards: A Life Is Strange Fan-Fiction <A Choice Story>

Chapter 4

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Five years ago I didn't have to worry about this stuff. It was simpler then. Just Captain Chloe and her first mate Max ready to take over the world. Being a pirate wasn't so hard.

"Max, did you hear me? Max!"

"Hmm? Sorry Chloe, just thinking."

"Look at all of this." Chloe says while driving through a neighborhood. Or what used to be. "This is our fault, isn't it? My fault..."

"Chloe, there was nothing we could have done to stop the storm! If I did go back in time and let you die, it probably wouldn't have even done anything. How would killing you have stopped a storm?" We sit in silence after I say that. We pull up to the Two Whales diner. It's completely ruined. The building looks like it fell in on itself. Chloe runs to the entrance, which is almost destroyed.

"Holy shit Max! We gotta get in there! Mom's in there." She says as she tries opening the ruined door."Damn door won't open!" She says. Chloe starts to panic. "Max, let's try the other door. The side one, c'mon." She points to the smaller door on the side of the building. We run over to that side of the building, and I look over at the homeless woman's spot. Looks like she listened to me and got out before the storm. At least I helped someone. Chloe opens the side door. It opens with a creak; it looks like it's kind of an old door. I don't remember seeing Joyce or anybody else ever use it. She runs in.

"Chloe! Be careful!" I run in behind her. Chloe slows to a walk when we make it to the main diner part. I scan the whole room, and the sight is terrible: the old jukebox has tree in it, which is what probably caused the giant hole in the ceiling. Glass is all over the floor, the booths are ripped, and the desert display is stuck in a booth. The winds must have been really strong for all of this to happen. We look around the diner but no one is here. The counter. Joyce, Warren, Frank, and that other guy, they were behind the counter. I jog over to the counter, which is surprisingly still intact.

"Oh my god." I say while trembling. "Oh my god, oh my god." I slide down the front of the counter and start to cry.

"Max? What's wrong?" I can't form the words to tell her, so I just point to the counter. Chloe walks over and looks behind it. She just stands there, covering her mouth with her hand. I can see tears running down her face. I stand up and hug her.

"Chloe, I'm sorry."  We stand there and cry for what feels like a long time, but is actually only a few minutes. There behind the counter lies Joyce. She was crushed by one of the booths. Her face is still as pretty as always, even though she has no life left in her. This is my fault. I fucking murdered Joyce, didn't I?
...............
We drive in silence. Not even the radio is on. Chloe drives around what used to be a playground, but now it just looks like a junkyard, with cars and glass everywhere. Some of the playground equipment is still there: the slide is in the windshield of one of the cars, the monkey bars are in a tree, which is destroyed itself, well, uprooted, to be specific, and a swing set is sticking in the ground. It's horrifying to see the town you grew up in transformed into something like this overnight.

"Where are we going?" I ask trying not to come off as very assertive. Chloe doesn't say anything. She doesn't even move to look at me, like she sometimes does when she's driving. I haven't even seen her blink since the Two Whales. We drive past a building. I can't tell what it is, but it's a big building, and it's ruined, just like the other buildings here. I turn to face her. "Chloe, do you wanna talk about it?" She sits there, her face still unmoving. At least she's focused on the road. "I'm sorry about Joyce. I'm sorry about all of this. The storm was my fault, I don't know how or why it was connected to me, but it was." Chloe still sits there, not moving. Her eyes are focused on the road, which is mostly intact, minus a few cracks. I turn back and look out the window. It must have gotten really hellish down here. Most buildings are destroyed, cars are all over the place, and it's just a general mess. I haven't seen anything move besides a few animals. Hopefully everyone's ok. We pull up in a driveway, Chloe's driveway, I think. The house is ruined, like any other building. Chloe gets out and goes into the rubble.