As we stared at our new rescue tropes, Silas flashed his lights. He disappeared and reappeared five feet away.
Except he wasn’t facing us. The back of his machine was to us. And there was something on it.
A cloth bag with something large and rectangular was duct taped to the back of Silas’ box.
Taped to that, was an envelope with three names on it: Riley, Antoine, and Kimberly.
“What?” Antoine asked.
I shared the sentiment.
The others had stopped freaking out over the rescue tickets. We approached the object carefully.
I grabbed the envelope and ripped the cloth bag open. Inside the bag, was the last thing I could have expected: the Carousel Atlas.
Antoine flipped through the book. I focused on the letter in the envelope.
“Guys,” I said. I didn’t get their attention at first. “Guys,” I said louder.
They all looked at me.
I held out the letter.
“It’s from Anna,” I said, almost not believing it myself.
They were speechless. I was speechless.
After my brain started working again, I straightened out the letter and started to read it aloud.
The Atlas Holder’s Journal? I didn’t remember the version we had read even having that section. Antoine quickly turned to the page Camden had helpfully listed as “Start Here.”
Camden had gone through and marked every single entry that he wanted us to read. He had likely searched them out with his Eureka trope.
We opened the book right there on the forest floor and started to read the entries that Camden had put a star next to Silas moved his flashlight to help us see it. What a gent. The Journal started in 2001, which didn’t make much sense at first, but I kept reading. There were entire sections that had been blacked out to the point they couldn’t be deciphered.
I was speechless. Truly speechless. Whatever Project Rewind was, I needed to learn more about it. Luckily, Camden had the page marked for me. I turned to it. It was a single page. Its steps were written simply and without any more detail than needed.
Everything was a setup. Everything. I knew we were being guided around, but I could never imagine this.
My mind was ready to explode. Suddenly so much made sense. How had the players at the Lodge gone so long without progressing? How did they not even know what the main plot was?
It was kept from them!
The others finished reading just after I did. They had a similar reaction.
Even Dina was shaken, and she had been ready to watch the world burn since she got here.
"Did it say that it say that all the other players would be postered?" Antoine asked.
I pulled out my “Coming to a Theater Near You,” trope. I equipped it and was soon watching trailers in my mind's eye.