The Gas Station
Where Carl sat beside Lightning Lou and pressed the button that changed everything — a moment he cannot take back.
Story so far
Weighing Juice Box's account of The Inevitable Ruin, Carl runs through the moments that cannot be taken back: Donut leaning over the parapet of the Nest Tower, Li Na marking all those people, Katia killing Astrid — or earlier, the moment she was told what couldn't be.
And he thinks of himself, sitting in that gas station next to Lightning Lou, pressing a button that would change everything. Having listed them all, he rejects the conclusion the curse draws from them, insisting these moments do not mean nothing can be done to change their fates.
Appearance
An Earth gas station, remembered from the day the world ended.
Role
Site of Carl's own irrevocable moment, invoked against the Inevitable Ruin.
Relationships
Sources — 4 recorded facts, by chapter
- Abandoned roadside station in the memory world where Carl sits with a ghost dog and decides the fate of the containment unit.
- The place with the button that would end it all, invoked as Carl's previous high-water mark for rage and temptation.
- The Earth gas station where Carl waited out Christmas morning with Lightning Lou, recalled at the parlay.
- Where Carl sat beside Lightning Lou and pressed the button that changed everything — a moment he cannot take back.