Notes from the Future: Laminated IV

Warped, melted and burned, this laminated note rests next to a cave-in and the remains of a glowstick in a corrugated aluminum pipe leading into the hillside near Martin Canyon Creek.

Dear ___onica,

I __ __ sorry. _ou should not have come this way, and there is no ____pe. C_____ your eyes and pray that it's _____ ____. [This portion of the page burned beyond legibility], always. 

I'm sorry that I failed you,

Tad

The following note is under a chunk of shattered concrete, deep in a fresh ravine along what was once the Dublin Grade on 580.

Honey,

I did everything I could to deter you from this course. If you are extremely unlucky, this note is the last thing you will ever see. I am so, so sorry. I try to think of everything. Please don't struggle. Please just close your eyes and sleep. There is no other way.

I will be lost without you,

Tad

This note is ziptied to a branch ten feet up in a fifteen-foot tall Oak tree.

Veronica, 

Wrong tree. Jump, roll and run for it. Don't go back for anything you drop. Go now.

Tad

This scrap of paper has floated to the scorched earth near a clump of boulders about half a mile downslope from the ridge:

Veronica,

I don't know if you can survive here. Please keep running. You might still survive. Max needs you to find him. Get back to the Compound, before [the rest of the note is burned away]

This note is somewhere too dark to see, somewhere impossible to reach. It is carved in stone. It may never be found.

Veronica,

If you find this note, I am amazed. If Max is with you, you have done some amazing, remarkable things. I have much to tell you.

But if Max is not with you, you must drop this stone right here and go back to the Compound. I don't care if it burned to the ground or not. Go back immediately, find Max, and return here. If I can, I will meet you upon your arrival.

Assuming Max is with you, here are your instructions ...

[the rest of the message on the stone can only be read if Veronica reaches that spot with Max; until that time it remains locked in solid darkness and may remain that way forever]