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

Chapter 4

"It's gotta be here...c'mon."

"Chloe, what are you looking for?" She doesn't answer and continues to search through the broken house. She already has her keys, cigarettes, phone. I wonder what else she needs. I start to move some wooden planks out of her way. Chloe pulls a small piece of paper out from some wood. She stands there and just stares at it.

"This, Max." It's a picture of Joyce and Chloe together. It looks like it was taken years ago, when Chloe didn't have blue hair. She does have highlights in this picture though. How this survived the storm while most other things didn't is beyond me.

"You both look very pretty. When was this?"

"Three years ago. It is one of the better photos taken that birthday. That was the year David joined the "family", so you can imagine how some of the other photos look."

"I'm glad you found it." I'm glad she found something to keep the memory of Joyce living. Without something like this, I don't think she'd be able to sleep as soundly.

"At least I'll have a picture. You know the significance of a picture of someone you love."

"That's why I have so many pictures of you." I respond. Having pictures of the people you like is something I find important.  Chloe smiles a little and walks over to me, giving me a hug.

"You always know how to lighten the mood, Max Caulfield." Shucks. I didn't think I was that clever, but if you insist. She puts the photo in her pocket. "Well, what do we do now?"
Search around some more/Leave

(For those of you who didn't see this, I plan on putting minor choices on the same page. If you don't want to read the other choice, skip over it. I will space them out)

"We should definitely search around some more. Maybe we'll find someone." I say. We start searching through the rubble that used to be Chloe's house and the neighboring houses. I pull a piece of metal away from the ground and find some photos under it. I'm surprised they're still intact. The first one is of David and Joyce standing together in front of a lot of flowers. I wonder when that one was taken. Their wedding, maybe? The next one is a photo of Chloe when she was younger: maybe ten or eleven, standing in front of the Two Whales with Joyce. She's wearing her uniform. She must have worked there for years. It paid off though, she could make a mean Belgian waffle. The third photo is of...us. It's Chloe and I six years ago. We are sitting on the couch reading a magazine together. I remember that. That was a few weeks before Halloween. We were looking through a costume magazine and Chloe saw the pirate costumes and instantly fell in love with them. She, of course, wanted to be captain. I was her first mate. I take the pictures and put them in my bag.

"Chloe, you find anything?"

"Hmm?" She responds. She sounds like she's busy. I walk over to her.

"You find anything?" I repeat to her.

"Just going through old things. Memories." She's holding a picture of Rachel. It's badly torn, almost destroyed. "Rachel always wanted to leave this place, but she never would have wanted to see it like this." All of these memories are bringing Chloe down. I think it's time to go.

"We should probably leave. We're not finding anything here." I say. Chloe doesn't want to leave her ruined home, but I think she realizes that it's not going to get any better by just sitting here looking at old photos.

"You're right Max." She says after a little while longer of looking at the picture of Rachel. She puts it in her pocket and walks to the truck.
Go to next part

"Let's leave, there probably isn't anything here worthwhile." I say.
Go to next part

Next part
I follow Chloe to her truck, when something catches my attention. Wait. What is that? In the rubble a white thing is sticking up. It's an envelope. I bend down and pick it up. $5,000. Oh yeah. That was the money we stole from the school. It feels like years ago since we did that, even though it was only a few days ago. I walk over to the truck and get in.

"What did you find out there?" Chloe asks. She must have been watching me.

"Not much, only that five thousand dollars we had saved." A smile grows on Chloe's face.

"Max that's hella cool!" She says while shoving me playfully. "We definitely need that." It's certainly nice to have, but I'm confused by what Chloe meant.

"What do you mean?" I ask. Asking why we needed this money felt like a dumb question, but Chloe seems like she means more than just having five thousand dollars as spending money.

"We're gonna start over, right? I mean, we're not gonna live here. Mom is...well the only person left is step-douche and I don't want to live with him by myself!"

"I have school. I can't just leave." I respond. "And what about all our friends here?" I hope they're ok. "Chloe, we have lives here." Chloe doesn't say anything. She puts the keys in and starts the truck. "Where are we going now?" I ask.

"Maybe we should go look for people. Then we can talk about what we plan to do." That seems like a good idea. "So, where are we going Max?"
Go to Blackwell/Go to Dark Room

If Blackwell is chosen, go to Chapter 5
If Dark Room is chosen, go to Chapter 6