~June 18th, 1982~

~Cycle 144~

Through La Ville Sans Fin, a man and a woman walked. A handsome man with dark red hair in casual clothing and a strong physique despite never working on it. With him was a beautiful auburn-haired woman with her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. Henri and Aveline. She kept giving him beckoning looks as she guided him through the city.

"Where are we heading?" Henri asked.

"A car dealership." She replied as she glanced back at him, a beckoning look in her eyes.

Henri had an idea of which one she was thinking of. It was near a factory job he used to have in the eastern portion of the city; it wasn't far from where they were. But the path Aveline was leading them was a roundabout way of getting there.

"I could probably get us there faster than the way we're going now."

Aveline shook her head, "I'm avoiding a certain part of the city. There are some real assholes there."

"Oh, what did they do?"

"Their gang shot at me and my friends a few times."

"Oh damn." Henri's eyes darted around the street they traveled.

Aveline turned to him and lifted her shirt slightly, revealing a pistol at her hip, "Don't worry, you'll be safe with me."

Henri and Aveline circled around a portion of the city before reaching the car dealership. It was filled with vehicles far too expensive for Henri to ever afford. The building itself had glass walls where one could normally see people conducting business inside.

One of the glass walls was shattered. Henri and Aveline walked past the many extravagant vehicles in the lot and stepped into the dealership where he could hear several voices.

There were several other men and women in the building. Aveline's friends. Most of them were rummaging through desks and cabinets throughout the building. One muscular individual was holding a bat and wildly bashing it against a doorknob, as if was trying to break in.

A tan man around Henri's age saw them walk in. He wore dress pants and a tank top, as if he had initially dressed for work, but discarded some of his formal attire. He asked, "Who's the new guy Aveline?"

Most of the other individuals in the building looked over at them.

"This is Henri," Aveline introduced him cooly. "Say hi Henri."

"Hi Henri." Henri jested to the group. "What're you all doing here?"

The muscular man pointed at the door that he had been bludgeoning with a bat and said, "We're trying to get in that room. All the keys for the cars here are in there. Once we get in there, we're going joyriding."

Aveline's sultry voice asked, "Ever gone joyriding in one of these?

Henri glanced at the vehicles outside the dealership. Extravagant cars that he never would've been able to afford. He eyed a yellow sports car among them and smirked, "Sounds like fun.

From across the dealership a woman shouted, "I found some keys!"

They carried to the keys to the door, tried each one until one finally clicked into place and allowed them in the room. Inside were keys to every single car within the dealership, with tags corresponding to license plates.

Everyone began pulling keys from the wall. Henri hurried into the room and found the key to his yellow sports car and snatched it for himself.

The tan man stepped beside Henri, "Hey, I'm Luis by the way."

"Nice to meet you man." Henri greeted with a smile.

"We were thinking of racing to the beach to the north of town where they were celebrating the comet. We figure the planetarium near there could be the finish line. Does that sound good to you?" Luis propositioned.

"Sure. I don't think I'll win. I haven't driven anything in... years. But it'll be fun." Henri replied.

Everyone walked the lots of the dealership for their car. Henri could hardly believe it when he unlocked his sports car, slipped inside, and sit down. When he started the engine, he felt like a little kid having his dream come true. He accidentally placed the car into reverse, and rammed into a vehicle behind him as soon as he tapped the gas. At first, he was furious with himself for damaging it. But then he realized that when the cycle would restart, any damage on the car would be undone. Henri was far less careful after that.

The others began pulling their vehicles out of the dealership, lining up in the streets in the direction of the coast. Henri pulled into the street beside Aveline, who had picked out a dark red vehicle matching the color of her auburn hair. She nodded to him before focusing forward.

An array of fast cars revved their engines, waiting for something to initiate their race. Someone decided to be that start signal, spurring on his engine and barreling down the city street, with everyone else close at hand.

Henri was content to simply see how fast he could go, not necessarily worrying about winning. He found his position in last place. Despite that, he had never gone so fast. He could see heads turn on the sidewalks as their group zoomed past. It was exhilarating!

At points he saw the others pull out onto the sidewalk, driving along those to get ahead. He even saw a few individuals scurry aside to avoid being hit. Henri couldn't understand being that reckless.

The group left the main city and made it out into suburbs closer to the beach. They were not so crammed in then.

Henri decided to try and pull ahead, taking a side road and speeding down it to pass some of the other racers. He hit a trash can on that road, and it spiraled through the air behind him.

It was a good move, as he was now ahead of almost everyone. Only Aveline's auburn car and the black car of the muscular individual he met at the dealership were ahead of him.

But he wasn't about to compete with the reckless speeds they were moving at. They raced towards the astronomy center. But even when they were dangerously close to the building, neither of them slowed down.

Aveline managed to veer to the side, circling around the building at her intense speed. The other wasn't so dexterous. He clearly tried to turn away, but his forward momentum was too great. Henri watched as the black car rocketed into the planetarium, crashing through the front doors.

Everyone hurried inside through the destroyed entrance. There was a front counter where staff would likely meet visitors for the day. The counter had been plowed through.

There was a large circular dome room with several exhibits for visitors on its sides with a large-scale diorama of the solar system at the center. Beside that was a crashed black sports car, with smoke billowing out from it.

Henri and the others rushed to the car. Aveline calmly followed behind everyone. The front end of the car was completely crushed, the front window was destroyed, and the driver was missing. He must've crashed through the window.

They followed the trajectory he might've taken and found the body of the muscular individual covered in blood. His legs were absolutely mangled. What startled them more was when he started coughing blood and he started quivering.

Luis knelt next to him, "Hey, are you okay Olivier?"

The man, Olivier, tried to speak, but all that could be heard were guttural sounds.

Everyone was panicked as to what they should do, but Aveline seemed calm.

She knelt next to him. She placed a hand on him and calmly said, "Hey, I'm going to help you out, okay?"

Henri wondered what she was going to do. His heartbeat quickened when she pulled out her pistol. With no hesitation, she drew the gun to his head, pulled the trigger, and his quivering ceased.

The planetarium went quiet. Henri looked at the man's lifeless body. It reminded him of the way he found Patrice before. His breathing was haggard. He had to look away.

Luis uttered, "Aveline..."

"He was suffering, and he'll be back on the next cycle." Aveline calmly replied. "He won't even remember any of this happening. I did him a favor."

"But..." One of Aveline's friends muttered.

"I didn't see any of you trying anything."

Aveline's gang was quiet. But Luis eventually said, "You're right."

Henri calmed down. As horrifying as it was, Aveline probably made the right choice. Olivier would be fine on the next cycle like she said. Though, Henri felt he'd have a hard time doing the same. Even if it was to put someone out of their misery.

Aveline spoke, "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Aveline brought the group to the beach and started a bonfire for them. It took a while for group to lose their sullen attitude after seeing their friend die like that. But in the consequence-less world they now lived in, it was only a matter of time before their mood was lightened. The beach certainly helped.

Aveline stripped down to her underwear and stepped into the water. It didn't take long for Henri to tear off his clothes until he was down to his boxers so he could join her. The others were quick to join them as well.

The others seemed to pair off into couples as they swam. Perhaps some of them were already together. Henri waited for one of them to treat Aveline as their girlfriend, but none of them did. It seemed like she was still available.

Swimming helped everyone forget the gruesome sight they all saw that day. As dusk came and the bright blue light of the comet reflected off the water as they left it. They began to crowd around the campfire.

The others partially clothed themselves and circled around the bonfire. As they did, Henri noticed some of them had weapons. A pistol in a jacket or pants pocket. A dagger in others. He was glad he wasn't on their bad side.

Aveline wrung the wetness out of her hair, threw on her hoodie and sat by the fire. She looked at Henri with those alluring eyes of hers and she patted the sand next to her. He was happy to sit beside her.

"You have a fun day?" Aveline asked.

"More fun than I've had in a while." Henri replied.

"Want to meet up with us on the next cycle?" Aveline asked.

"Sure!"

"Okay, meet us by the gun store near the community as soon as you can once the day resets."

"Why there?"

"There are a lot of crazies now. We make sure we can defend ourselves if we need to." Aveline replied.

Henri had wondered where they got their weapons before. "I'll be there."

Luis threw a shirt on as he sat by the fire across from Henri. One of the women of their group sat beside him and held his hand. Luis asked, "What were you doing before, Henri?"

He shrugged, "Drinking mostly. Didn't stay fun."

Luis nodded, "Stick with us. You'll have a better time."

Henri glanced at Aveline before saying, "I can tell."

A woman among the group asked, "What about before the comet? What did you do then?"

Henri leaned back, "Well, before I was evicted from my apartment, I was fired from my terrible factory job. My boss used me as an example to the others when they don't hit production numbers. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that anymore."

The women replied, "I wasn't fired, but I'm happy I don't have to go back to my job either."

Luis commented, "Same here. I had a real scumbag of a boss. Hope I never have to deal with him again. Even when my mom was dying in the hospital, he didn't let me take vacation so I could see her."

"Geezus." The muscular individual around the campfire uttered.

"Where was that at?"

"Arc-CNC." Luis answered.

Henri chirped up, "Oh, I have a buddy who works- worked there."

"Oh, what's his name?" Luis asked.

"Patrice."

Luis's whole expression went dour. He sighed and said, "Yeah... that was my boss."

"Patrice did that?" Henri replied. "I know he's a workaholic, but even I'm surprised he'd do something that-"

"Heartless?" Luis replied quickly. "I wish the worst for that son-of-a-bitch. He deserves every bad thing that comes to him."

Henri would've liked to defend his friend. But he had an aching feeling that Luis was right. Ever since Patrice was a kid, he would lose sight of everything else when he had a goal he was working towards. His new goal of, 'ascending the corporate ladder' could've caused him to do some bad things.

Henri was never one to dwell on the negatives though. He asked Aveline, "What about you? What did you do before the comet?"

"It's not important." Aveline said simply.

The group winded down for the rest of the night, with some heading back home as the end drew near. Until it was just Henri and her sitting by the campfire as it began to dwindle.

Aveline stood and began to walk along the shore, with the waves occasionally cascading towards her legs. She beckoned, "Come on."

"Alright." Henri said, hopping to his feet and walking beside her. "The day is probably going to reset soon."

"Let's not think about that. What do you want to do now?" Aveline asked.

"Right now?"

"There aren't consequences anymore. We can do whatever we want and just enjoy ourselves. Is there anything you'd want to do tonight?" Aveline asked, her alluring eyes on him the entire time.

Only one thing was on Henri's mind, and he could tell she knew. Aveline took his hand and walked with him to a more private place on the beach.

He wasn't alone for the rest of the night.