Book Five, Chapter 104: A Rescue in Review

Kimberly kept the letter Anna had written us.

She stored it in her bag, the one she used her Luggage Tag on.

It was pressed inside a little book on home repair she had found at the bed and breakfast after we beat Permanent Vacancy.

We sat around the table and read it again, the memories flooding over us.

Dear Riley, Kimberly, and Antoine,

If you’re reading this, that means Silas agreed to Camden’s plan. Camden is a genius by the way. This was all his idea.

I’m sure you know this by now, but the helicopter ride we were meant to take to our storyline was doomed. We ended up running to the roller rink Riley pointed out near the airport. Reggie used a trope to sacrifice himself so that we could get there in time to beat the black snow. I hope he survived. I wish I could tell Grace how much of a hero he was.

The storyline was called Post-Traumatic. It involved time travel. Camden tells me I cannot say too much because we don’t want to spoil the story. Suffice it to say, he realized Carousel didn’t use real-time travel to make the story work. It just recreated the past. He figured that a version of the Carousel Atlas existed in the past, so we went to pick one up. It was amazing.

As much as I would like to say that we are going to try our best and conquer this storyline just the two of us, I know that isn’t realistic. When Camden passes, I will officially be the Last One Alive and Silas will show up to give me my Aspect. I will attach the Atlas to the back of Silas so other players don’t see it. It contains information that they should never see.

~

I had written up pages and pages to send. I wanted to talk about the times we shared before Carousel. I wanted to talk about the feelings I have for each of you, and I wanted to tell you how much I love you all.

I didn’t include those because Camden showed me the Atlas Holders’ Journal. In those writings, I found hope. Horror, too, but above all else, hope.

You don’t need me to send you a letter telling you how I feel because I want you to come and save me so I can tell you in person.

I will choose the Girl Next Door Aspect. I think it fits my personality the best. Look it up in the Atlas so you will know what to expect when you come to save us.

With love,

Anna

P.S. Camden says hello. He is in his own world right now marking up the Atlas so that you can find the important information quickly. He isn’t feeling very well either.

The feelings were still so raw.

It was finally time to finish Camden’s plan. We were going to rescue them.

I looked up the Girl Next Door Aspect for the Final Girl, like Anna had asked us to. I had read it a dozen times at least.

It was perfect for us. Final Girls, it seemed, were designed to set up their team’s rescue. That’s why they got to be the Last One Alive.

I read the Aspect trope aloud:

The Heart

Type: Rule/Buff

Archetype: Final Girl

Aspect: Girl Next Door

Stat Used: Moxie*

The Final Girl is the heart of any team she is on. As long as the heart still beats, the team may live.

Lone Survivor: the player will participate in their own rescue.

As a Girl Next Door, you are the Heart of your team and once you are the Lone Survivor, you may choose to end the story instantly, never needing to feel death’s embrace, and keeping all character progress and narrative momentum you had previously. When a Rescue team arrives, you will reawaken as a main character of the Rescue storyline.

Allies will be subtly buffed when protecting the player.

This ticket is granted after the player is the Last One Alive following the achievement of Plot Armor 21. Selecting this ticket aligns you with the Girl Next Door aspect.

“As long as blood pumps in your veins there is hope. Whether it pumps through your veins and then out an open wound is a separate question.”

That was the Final Girl’s gimmick—they could participate in their own rescue. Having her there to fill us in on everything that had happened would be a huge asset.

“We’re going to see Anna again almost instantly,” Antoine said. “And she won’t be locked in a cage or turned into a dumb NPC. We just might be able to pull this off.”

We just might.

We talked for a bit about general strategies, things we had to shop for, to prepare. We were going to use Isaac’s Writ of Habitation for the old jailhouse. It was built in a way that was easy to defend, but against a time traveler, there were plenty of opportunities for Carousel to throw a curveball, but that wasn’t a flaw.

If we tried to plan away all conflict, Carousel might get angry.

We would have to adapt to whatever situation we came across. There was truly no telling what might happen.

We didn’t have a lot of information on Post-Traumatic as a storyline—not from the Atlas, at least—but we did have one good source.

I had seen the trailer for the movie with my Coming to a Theater Near You trope that allowed me to see trailers for other storylines being played. I didn’t get a lot of use out of that one, seeing as there were no other players than us, but it had delivered on the day I received it. Surely, that was no coincidence.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Our friends in high places—our mysterious insider pulling the strings from who knows where—they had given us enough information to save Anna and Camden.

Why they helped us, I didn’t know. I didn’t even know who they were. But I wasn’t going to waste all the effort they had put in.

I wasn’t going to waste the sacrifices that had gone into making Project Rewind happen.

“I have to show you something,” I said.

I led everyone over to the small television that had a trope allowing me to show them what I saw on the red wallpaper.

I had told them about the trailer, but I hadn’t shown them yet. There was no use traumatizing them until it was time.

I turned the television on, and everyone gathered around to watch. They didn’t take a seat; instead, they silently stood as the trailer played, both in my mind and on the screen.

Dark, foreboding music played in the background.

The screen showed scenes of teenagers enjoying themselves at a roller rink. Everything looked vibrant and carefree. Laughter and joy filled the air, but the music remained heavy and ominous, creating an unsettling contrast.

The screen faded to black as the sound of an explosion rang out. A strange, unsettling noise followed—a mix of a building collapsing and something far worse.

The scene cut to a close-up of Anna, her expression troubled as she spoke.

“You mean he’s been traveling to moments in time where people are killed?” she asked.

The room was dimly lit as Camden appeared, shaking his head weakly.

“No,” he replied. “He’s targeting tragic events with that book. His amulets could only take him to points in time where humans suffered. The roller rink, the bridge collapse… Now he’s creating his own mass casualty events.”

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