The group is out scavenging the armory, while Valentine is spending one last night resting. "I really wish I could have joined them." Lourdes smiles as she tends to Valentine's wound.

"It's healed very quickly. You can probably be on it again tomorrow."

"Oh thank god." Valentine sighs as she looks down at the thin cut. "It's not even that bad." Lourdes laughs as she stands up.

"Get some rest, Vale." Valentine nods before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

When morning comes Valentine wakes up late. She wakes up to Hal sitting down on her bed and handing her a bowl of oatmeal. "Mmm, thanks." Hal nods and hands it off to her.

"We're going to get Ben tonight, I want you to come." Valentine nods as she rubs her eyes.

"Right, got it. You know you can count me in." Valentine says as she begins to eat her oatmeal.

"You think you can help me grab some water?"

"Yup, let me finish this first." Hal nods as Valentine quickly eats her oatmeal before pulling on her boots and heading out to help Karen and Hal with the water.

The three are just heading away from the river with both hands full when Mike walks over to them. "Hey, Hal. Vale."

"Hey, Mike." Valentine smiles.

"Hey." Hal nods.

"Those harnessed kids you saw the other day-they were heading west?"

"Yeah, but they may have changed direction after we saw them." Hal tells him. "Hey, you, uh, never asked if I saw your son."

"I figured you'd tell me if you had."

"After I saw Ben, you know, I just- I didn't see anything else."

"And I was too busy trying to figure a safe way out of there, sorry, Mike." Valentine says.

"We'll be going out tonight. I'll be looking for him."

"Well, when you go, I'd like to go with you."

"Alright." Valentine nods before they start up the hill with their waters.

"Hey, do you need a hand?" Lourdes asks as she walks over.

"I got it, but thanks." Hal says.

"I'm good." Valentine smiles.

"Okay."

"You could take mine." Karen says, causing Valentine to roll her eyes.

"Uh, oh. Okay."

"She's kidding." Hal says.

"I am?" Karen asks.

"Karen can carry her own water, Lourdes, but thank you." Valentine says before heading up the hill again. She drops the water off before heading back to her room to rest up for tonight.

"Wake up." Valentine rolls her eyes as she looks up at Hal. "Change of plans. We're heading back to the armory."

"I thought we did that last night."

"Jimmy was worried about his dog and messed the plan up. We had to fall back." Hal explains. "So now we have to redo it and Ben will have to be the next night."

"Well, I'll come with you for both. Let me just get changed, I've been wearing these clothes for too long." Hal nods as he leaves the room. Valentine changes into another pair of black skin tight jeans, a black wife beater tank top, her boots, and her leather jacket before slipping her gloves on and weapon belt. Her weapon belt goes around her waist, while a strap goes down her right tight, wrapping around it with velcro and holding a pistol on it. On her left hip is a big hunting knife, while on her back is her assault rifle. She slips two small knives inside the hidden compartment of each boot before heading out the door. Her boots also, when you click a button inside the shoes, blades shoot out from the toes and heels.

She is a lethal weapon. She heads outside and loads her guns along side Hal and Karen as everyone else gathers their things. "Jimmy, come here a second." Valentine hears, causing her to glance over at the thirteen-year-old kid before returning to her weapons.

She finishes loading them and turns to see poor Jimmy having to sit the mission out. "Alright, you ready?" Tom calls, causing them all to nod and head out.

They reach the armory and go through the shadows to get inside. They head inside and down the stairs as quickly and quietly as they can. Valentine has just reached the bottom of the stairs when she hears Click gasps, she turns to see him falling down, his gun firing off as he falls. "Click!" Valentine hisses before rushing over.

"Vale, don't." She moves behind him, the table on the stairs blocking her from being hit as she drags Click's body over towards her.

"Hold on, Click. I'll try and get this out." She whispers as she pulls out the two arrows, holding down on the wound to stop the bleeding.

"Vale."

"Just hold on, Click, it'll be okay." Click stares up Valentine with a weak face.

"It hit a vidal organ, I can feel myself bleeding out." Tears run down Valentine's face as she shakes her head.

"No, no, Click, you'll be okay. I promise."

"When I first saw you at camp that day we met... I thought you were some kind of angel." Valentine fights back a sob as she can see him fading.

"Click, you have to hang in, it'll be okay. It'll be okay."

"Once I got to know you I knew you were an angel. You were always," Click coughs as Anthony hurries over. "You were always so beautiful and perfect." Valentine cries as she stares at Click.

"Not gonna die. Not gonna die, hear?" Anthony says to Click, but it's already too late. Anthony stares at Valentine, tears in his own eyes. He pulls Valentine into his arms and they hold onto each other for comfort. Click, Dai, Hal, Anthony, they are all her friends. She can't lose one. She can't.

"Oh! Oh, Johnny, man, I've been hit, buddy." Anthony hears a man say as Anthony and Valentine pull away. They look at Tom, who is asking if Click is okay, they both shake their heads as Valentine forces herself to get it together. There'll be time to cry later, for now, he needs to focus and be able to help. "I've been hit, bro." The man whines.

"What the hell happened?" Another man asks, presumably 'Johnny'.

"What do you think happened? I've been shot." The first guy yells.

"'Cause you shot first!" 'Johnny' yells.

"No, I didn't. I didn't."

"Shut up! We're supposed to do this on the quiet."

"I was quiet!" He yells.

"Shut up a second!" Johnny snaps. "There's no way the robot didn't hear that gunfire."

"What do you want?" Tom yells.

"Well... you... and your guns." The second man says. Valentine freezes as she hears the mech's stomping.

"Listen. You hear that? Now, you start firing, robot comes in, whereas you don't do what we say, we will start picking you off without so much as a whisper. So you have a choice. Put down your guns and come with us."

"Why don't you shine a light on yourself, let me see who I'm talking to?" Tom asks.

"Why don't I shine a light on these two instead?" A boy around Valentine's age come out with a knife at the throat of Karen's neck, while another has a gun on Hal. "Put down your guns now, or my boy will skewered this hear girl." The man says as she shines a light on his face. "Right Sage?" The man asks, the boy tightening his grip on the girl, causing Karen to close her eyes. Tom and the group look at each other before dropping their weapons.

"Whitey, Cueball, get Billy. Let's go. Sage, let him take the girl. You grab one of them." The man says, causing the boy to hand Karen off before he follows the others to grab the members. He grabs Valentine, but she clicks her boots, about to swing, but he grabs her leg and twists, causing her to fall onto her back.

"Try that again, I slit your throat." The boy hisses as he motions to her shoes. "Take them off." Valentine glares at him, causing him to slip his knife to her throat. "Take. Them. Off."

"Vale, just do it. Take off all your weapons." Tom says, causing her to glare at the boy before untying her shoes and kicking them off. She unstraps her belt, letting it fall along with her pistol and knife.

"Anything else?"

"No."

"Good." He grabs her arm, pulling her up, and begins walking her towards the direction the others went. "Let's move." The boy says quietly as gunshots come from above by the mech.

The boy moves Valentine quickly through to the back as the mech gets in.

They walk down the hall as Billy, the injured man, screams. "Just take it easy, will you." The lead says. "We're taking the access tunnels to home base."

"Ah! Watch my leg."

"Shut up, already, Uncle Billy." Sage, the boy, snaps as he leads Valentine passed him.

"You keep talking to me like that boy-

"Billy, Sage, behave. You're acting like a couple of kids." The leader snaps. "I only I have one son, don't make me think I have two." He leads them up some stairs to what appears to be a boiler room.

"Easy!" Billy snaps as Sage rolls his eyes.

The men and boy forces the captures on to seats after blind folding them to keep them from knowing how they got there. Once they are seated, however, they unmask them. Valentine sees the boy clearly now, the one who had grabbed her. She watches as he throws her boots down beside a stage and he sits on the stage, while the men bring Billy onto it to lie down on. Sage is a boy around seventeen with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He's dressed in green cargo pants, a pair of combat boots, a gray long sleeved shirt that has three buttons near the top, the first two buttons left undone, and he has a leather jacket on over it.

"Urg! Get it off! Come on, man, get it off! Come on!" Billy says, causing Sage to look back at his uncle with a look of annoyance.

"Can't you give him something to shut him up? Like a rock to the head."

"Shut it boy. I can still shoot you." Billy growls.

Valentine looks around to find that they're in some kind of auditorium and on the stage is a dead skitter on some kind of podium.

"Are you gonna dose me up?" Billy asks. "Come on, buddy." Sage rolls his eyes. His eyes meeting Valentine.

"Here it comes, Billy." Cueball says.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on." The leader ruffles Sage's hair before hopping onto the stage with the others.

"Here it comes." Cueball smiles as Billy groans. "You ready?"

"Yeah, yeah." Billy says as Cueball jabs the needle into his neck.

"You got that? Attaboy."

"How's he look, Whitey?" The leader asks as he glances over at his brother.

"He's bleeding hard in the leg."

"Probably nicked an artery. Sage, get up here and see what you can do." The man says.

"Severed it, he'd have bled out already." Whitey says as Sage takes his father's hand and allows his father to pull him up.

"Use your belt. Bind it tight." Sage's father says as Sage walks over to his uncle. He presses down on the wound, causing Billy to growl.

"Keep that up kid and I'll burn those fucken hands."

"Sage." His father warns.

"Opps." Sage says in a tone that tells he's not sorry as He rips back the jeans some to get to the wound. "Give me your belt, Cueball." Cueball takes his off and hands it to Sage, who wraps it around his uncle's leg, a bit tighter than necessary.

"Kid, when I get better I'm killing you." Billy growls.

"Billy." Sage's father warns. "Nobody touches a hair on this boy except me." Sage's father says as he touches Sage's head to make a point before going and sitting down. "Anybody happens to be a board certified microsurgeon, fix my brother?" But no body answers as he walks down the steps. "Then what good are you?" He mumbles as Sage wraps the wound with a cleanish shirt before joining his father. "So where you from?"

"Cambridge." Tom answers. Sage's father looks at Sage.

"Cambridge. And how are things in Cambridge these days?" His father asks.

"Worse than they are here." Tom answers.

"What are you, family?" He asks as he looks down at them. "Well, obviously not all." He adds upon seeing Dai and Click.

"No. Just came together a couple months ago."

"You part of some resistance?"

"No. Just a group of people trying to survive."

"Then where'd you get the weaponry?"

"Dead cops, national guard."

"So, Sagey boy, what do we got?" He asks as he throws an arm around his son. Valentine notices how the boy flinches as his father's arm hits his back. "Papa Smurf," The man smiles as he points, obviously not noticing his son's flinching. "Sexy freedom fighter girl, strapping young man, sexy tough girl," This one he points at Valentine. "Black... Looks like a gandbanger, and a... oriental of some sort." Sage rolls his eyes as his father says that. The guys on the stage chuckle as the man looks at his son. "What you think Sage?" Sage moves away from his arm. "Where you going? Sage?"

"I'll be back." Sage mumbles, causing his father to shake his head.

"He's sensitive. Gets that from the bitch that is his mother." The man says. "Doesn't like racial terms and shit like that." The man shakes his head. "Told him plenty of times he needs to toughen up or he'll be too much of a pussy like his mother." The guys laugh on stage as the man points to Valentine, Hal, and Karen. "We'll take the two girls and the boy." He says before looking at Anthony. "The black?"

"Hell no." They say together.

"What about the Chinaman?"

"Asians are good at fixing things." One of the men says.

"That's true." The man says. "We're not gonna let you drive." The guys laugh some more as he says this. "Which brings us right back..." He drags his sword as he walks towards Tom. "To Papa Smurf." The man says as he taps Tom on either shoulder with his sword. "See, now, I'm figuring, since you're the only one willing to speak up, that you're their leader. We need another leader, boys?" He asks, but they don't answer. "Nah. I didn't think so." He gets his gun out and aims it at the man's skull.

"W-We can get you more guns." Hal jumps in to say.

"Where?" He asks. "I thought you were all just a bunch of strangers thrown together by fate."

"We're with the Resistance. We're part of the 2nd Massachusetts."

"Hal." Valentine hisses, trying to get him to shut up, but he gives her a look.

"The what?" The man laughs as he puts his gun away. "The 2nd Massachusetts? Well, how revolutionary war. So, what do you got, fife and drums, tri-cornered hats?"

"No. We have guns." The man grabs Hal and throws him to the floor as the other men hold the group from getting up to save him.

"What you have, punk, is a .50 cal mounted to the back of a GTO. You got hundred and eleven fighters and two hundred civilians camped out in the big meadow. I've been watching you... for two days. That's why we were staking out the armory. Figured you'd be looking for guns." The man takes out his knife. "I'm not gonna kill your old man." He puts the knife to his son, causing Valentine and Tom to try to break free. "Now, he is your old man, right? I can't imagine you shouting out like that if he wasn't kin." The man looks at him before lifting his knife. "You know what?" He cuts Hal free, dragging him by his hair to stand up. "We're not gonna kill anybody. Not yet." The man says as he kisses Hal's cheek. "You're all way too valuable. So, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna make a deal." He crouches down before Tom. "You lot for the .50 cal on the back of that car." Tom shakes his head. "Maggie! Sage!" The man calls. "Darling, please escort young prince charming here back into town." The man says as the two walk out. "So that he can bring the terms of our deal to the supreme allied commander of the 2nd Massachusetts. While you, Sage, get to stay with me and Uncle Billy to deal with this man," He points to Tom. "And... well, why not through the tough girl in too." He says as he waves for the others to be taken else where.