Life is Strange: After the Storm

"I need a way to get the secret out of you, Max."

Nathan slowly pried his eyes open when he felt the familiar stinging in his neck. It suddenly felt tough to keep his eyes opened. It was far too dark to see anything yet. When his eyes adjusted he noticed a figure standing over him. Nathan suddenly jolted awake from the paranoia creeping up on him. "Get the fuck away from me you psycho...." His mumbled as his voice trailed off, before he fell unconscious.
Frank laughed at what Nathan said. "Nathan. Does anyone ever listen to you when you say that." Frank put more of the clear liquid into the needle and walked to Max. He looked around the room. "What if I took Max. And Nathan?" He restated the question over and over again in his mind. He decided to take Max first and if they were still asleep when he went back, he would take Nathan. "What fun Nathan would be to torture in to telling me Max's secrets." He injected Max with the drug and carried her out of the diner.
Nathan had remained unconscious the rest of the time. Vivid and absurd dreams popped into his head of the wildest things.
Warren was asleep on the floor with a couple other people. He had offered up a booth to an elderly lady, who seemed to need it more than he had.
Frank snuck back into the diner making sure everyone was still asleep. He walked over to Nathan's booth and picked him up. "Woah. Nathan. How much do you way?" He struggled to get him out through the door. He put him in the front seat of Chloe's car and they drove away.
Nathan didnt notice or feel a thing. He was far too deep in his sleep to wake up from the tension.
Chloe squirmed around as her mom shook Chloe trying to wake her up. "Chloe! Chloe! Max and Nathan are gone. Along with your car. What happened? Why didn't you wake me up for my shift?" Chloe rubbed her eyes. "They-they're gone?" Chloe looked around the room. "Max?!" She ran outside and continued calling her name. "Max?! Max, where are you?!"
Nathan groaned as he started to wake up. He had a horrible headache, and it was awfully hard to peel his eyes open. He couldn't quite understand where he was, or what happened.
"Chloe!" Max jolted up. She could hardly open her eyes. "Wh-where am I?" All she knew was that it definitely wasn't the diner. Max rolled over. She felt was seemed like person. She opened her eyes as much as she could. "Nathan?" She shook him.
Nathan squinted. There was another figure next to him. He was finally able to open his eyes fully. The figure revealed itself to be Max. "What's going on..?" He asked her.
"I-I don't know.." She looked around but still couldn't fully open her eyes. "I can't open my eyes. Where are we?"
Nathan groggily shook his head. "No clue.." His voice trailed off. What the fuck was going on? The last thing he remembered was finally being able to fall asleep on those awful booths.
Max rubbed her eyes. "Ar-are we in the--" She stopped. She noticed bright lights and cameras. "Dark room?"
"N-No...we can't be...." He looked around in terror. The sight of the room had immediately brought back awful memories. The familiar smell was sickening.
Max tried to stand up, but fell as soon as she got to her feet. "What the fuck is happening? Is this some kind of nightmare?" Her eyes began to water. The memory of seeing Victoria lying next to her. The memories of the Rachel Amber pictures. "This can't be happening."
Nathan slouched, looking defeated. "I knew it...I knew he was going to come back for me..." Nathans voice trailed off. He looked over to Max suddenly. "C-Cant you fix this?" He stuttered.
"Nathan... I can't go that far back. We've probably been here for hours." She kept trying to get up, but continued failing.
"MAX?! MAX?! Where are you?!" She ran through most of the town wondering what happened until wound up back at the diner. She fell to the floor and cried. "Max.."
"This is it. This is where it all ends..." He murmured on to himself. Nathan didn't bother doing anything.
Warren awoke to the crying and yelling. He frantically looked around. "What's going on?"
After 5 failed attempts Max gave up. "I thought Jefferson was arrested. How could it be him?"
Warren. Max and Nathan are missing. Along with Chloe's car." Joyce went outside and hugged Chloe. "Chloe. It'll be okay. We'll find them. They probably just went out to find people, or food, or something..."
Nathan looked slightly relieved from hearing this. He couldn't stand the thought of Jefferson coming back for him. He cleared his throat. "If its not him...who is it?"
Warren followed Joyce outside to Chloe. He looked a bit stumped by this. Something wasn't adding up. "Wouldn't Max let us know first? Or at least Chloe?"
"I have no idea." She thought of everyone who it could be.
"If she left, she would of told me. This isn't like her!" Chloe got up. "W-what if Nathan took her?!"
"We need to get out of here." He paused. "I think M-Mark kept a gun in that cabinet." He murmured his name. Nathan sluggishly stood up, and propped himself up again the wall. He stumbled over to the cabinet.
Warren looked confused. "Why would he take Max?" He thought.
"I know he does. He went to get when David came." She remembered how she stopped him by pulling the cord to make the light fall.
"Because he's a lunatic! He fucking worked with Jefferson!"
"When David came? Are you saying that..Mark took you..?" He looked over to Max before taking the gun, and sticking it against his jeans.
"I'm not defending his actions, but he had a reason Chloe. As much as it looks like he did it, I don't think he would've been able to. You left quite a beating on him."
"I--he, didn't tell you?" She assumed Mr. Jefferson would of told him. "He 'took me' the night of the party. The night he 'killed you'."
"Well than Warren. Who do you think took Max?" Chloe walked up to him. She was considerably taller.
Nathan shook his head. "He stopped telling me things when I told him I wanted to quit." He paused. "I guess you didn't get my voicemail then."
Warren stood up straight and looked Chloe in the eyes. "I have no idea. But it can't be Nathan. The facts don't add up."
"I did get voicemail. I got it the night of the storm." She tried to stand up again, but not even the wall could help her. "How will we get out?"
She looked down on him. "Facts? Facts aren't needed to find out who kidnapped a person!"
"Whole load of luck it gave." He muttered to himself. Nathan used the wall as support as he treaded back to Max. He held his hand out, to help her up. "Same way we got in?"
"But you saw the physical condition he was in, he could barely walk before. And do you really think he'd do something to piss you off again?"
"The door is most likely closed and locked, since you know, they probably didn't want us to escape." She grabbed his hand with one hand and the wall with the other. She used all her strength to pull up until she got into a squatting stand. "Thanks."
Chloe backed off a little. "Well. I gue--" She cut off her words. "Tire tracks! We can follow those!" She turned around and followed the tracks. "Well, are you coming?"
"The door opens both ways. The only way we'd be trapped is if they put something on top of the last door, so we couldn't lift it. Hopefully they're too fucking dumb for that.." He replied as he helped her up.
Warren nodded. "Of course." He trailed after Chloe, who led the expedition.
"Well, don't you know your stuff about this room." She held onto his shoulder and used all of her strength to walk out of dark room.
Nathan thought for a moment. "He had an emergency exit door installed, but he never told me where it was. I'd expect it to be behind a shelf or cabinet or something." His voice trailed off as he looked around the room. Nathan looked on the floor in case he would see some scratches on the ground from moving a cabinet several times.
"What about, behind the white screen?" She pointed towards the cloth draped across wall. She lost grip on Nathan's shoulder and fell back down. "Ow!" She grabbed her shoulder. The blood soaked through the bandage, through her shirt.
"Shit, you alright Max?" He asked, looking worried. Nathan helped her up to a sitting position. He looked at her wound. They should probably change the bandage so she wouldn't get an infection. He stood back up, and stumbled over to one of the cabinets with medical supplies. After finally finding more gauze, he brought it back to her.
"Th-thanks." She tugged her sleeve down to her shoulder. "I-I need your help."
"Right...." He sighed and slowly undid her old bandage, trying to do it as carefully as he could. He started to unroll the new gauze and gently wrap it around her wound, trying to bring little to no pain through the process.
The door opened. "Well, well, well." Frank walked through the door. "Seems like you sleepy heads finally woke up." A grin stretched across his face.
"F-Frank?" She didn't even think about it being Frank. "Get the fuck away from me!"
Chloe walked beside Warren. "Um.. Warren." She looked at him. "Uh, well, Max loves you. She told you before she reversed time. In an alternate reality. But my truck was stolen. So she reversed. But she couldn't save herself from getting shot."
Nathan froze. He dropped the gauze and slowly turned to see Frank. He never expected Frank to turn on him this way. Nathan shakily stood up in front of Max, glaring at Frank.
Warren looked over at her. "S-She does? I didn't she actually did..." He sounded somewhat relieved to hear this.
Frank laughed at Nathan. "Are you going to fight back? Your too weak. If I were to lightly push you, you would fall." He walked up to Nathan and pushed him onto Max.
"OW!" She grabbed her shoulder. She tried to move out from under Nathan, but had no strength.
"Of course. She just, um, didn't know that you liked her." She elbowed Warren. "It was hilarious every time she pushed you to the friend zone."
Nathan swayed back. He shuffled off of Max. Nathan pulled the gun out and pointed it and aimed it at Franks chest. His trigger finger twitched, just itching to pull back. "What the fuck happened to you Frank?" He glared.
"Of course I liked her. I thought I was making it pretty obvious when I asked her out to the drive in." He chuckled at the memory. It seemed so long ago, with all the current things going on.
Frank pulled a gun out of his pocket. "You really think we were friends? Your hilarious." He laughed. "And you also think I would leave a gun around with bullets in it?"
"If I asked her to the drive-in she wouldn't think that I liked her." She smirked. "You don't get it, do you?"
"Friends? Fuck no." Nathan sneered. He kept his eyes on Frank. Nathan looked devastated. He attempted at shooting the gun, only to be disappointed when nothing happened. "Shit shit shit...." He muttered to himself.
Warren looked confused. "Get what?" He was genuinely puzzled by the thought. Did drive ins and movies no longer symbolize dates?
Frank walked to Nathan. He grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him up. "Nathan. Don't you ever shoot at me." He pulled him to the chair on top of the white screen. "Stay here." He walked to the first part of the room. He grabbed a roll of duct tape and walked back over to Nathan. "Now stay still."
"Ape films aren't the most romantic movies to go on a date to.." She laughed. "She thought it was just you two hanging out like friends."
Nathan began to tremble again. Actually, you know what? Fuck this. He's done being told what to do. He waited for Frank to come close enough to him. Once Frank started to put the duct tape on, Nathan headbutted him straight on.
Warren slapped his forehead out of embarrassment as his face turned a shade of red. "Are you serious?" I-I thought she'd prefer it to just some romantic movie..."
Frank backed up and grabbed his head. "Did you really, actually, do that?!" He took out his gun and put it up to Max's head.
"Nathan do something!" She was freaking out. She tried to reverse time but it wasn't working. "Not now. Not again."
"I didn't say it had to be a 'romantic' movie. But maybe less sci-fi. If your looking for an old movie, why not try The Breakfast Club, or something."
Nathan shook his head frantically. "Wait! Fuck don't shoot, I'll stay still.." Nathan bit his tongue. Frank using a teenager as a hostage? How pathetic. He would love to talk shit, but its probably not a good idea while someone's life was at stake.
Warren looked over to her. "That's a good idea! It's a fun classic that everyone loves. Thanks Chloe." Warren smiled at the suggestion. He'll definitely have to make something work once this is all sorted with.
Frank kept the gun on Max. "Get up Max!" He watched her try and fall. He pulled her up and walked her over to Nathan. He gave Max the tape. "Max, tie his arms to the chair. Now!"
Max shook as she grabbed the tape. She shakily rapped his arms with the duct tape. She mouthed, "sorry" to him and dropped to the ground to wrap his legs.
"Your hilarious." She stopped walking and laughed. "I'm not sure if there's a drive-in left."
Nathan tensed up and avoided eye contact with the both of them. He had to think of a way to get themselves out of here. Nathan blamed himself for them getting caught. If only they didn't waste time fixing her bandage, maybe they'd be free.
Warren shook his head. "No way, I did my research. There's one, but its like an hour away. Definitely worth it though." He grinned.
Max began to cry when Frank made her put the tape over his mouth. She trembled as he brought her over to the rolling chair and made her sit. She couldn't let this happen to her again. It had only been 2 days. "Please. Frank. What do you want?"
Frank wrapped her arms and legs and pushed her next to Nathan. "I know you have a secret Max. I just don't know what."
Her face automatically changed colors. "Then why do you need Nathan."
He put the duct tape over her mouth. "I need a way to get the secret out of you, Max." He grinned. He walked over to one if the trolleys and grabbed a filled needle. When he walked over to Max, she started squirming and nodding her head. "Stop moving Max!" Even though she didn't stop, he stuck the needle in her neck anyway.