For the rest of the day, they don't speak. Bass refuses to look at her. Charlie steals a glance every now and then. With the sun setting, Bass finds a spot near a small river to make camp for the night. There'll be water for the horses and to replenish their own supply. Unhitching the horses, he gets them settled, and to his surprise, when he gets back, Charlie has gathered wood for the fire and is in the process of lighting it.

"I'll see if there is anything other than beans in there," Bass says to her. Then, a few minutes later, he comes back with a can of stew and another can of peaches.

Charlie sits watching him as he prepares their meager meal. "You and Miles were friends?"

Looking at her, he shrugs, "best friends, brothers. We grew up together, met in grade school, we did everything together. I joined the Marines for Miles. He got himself into some trouble, drunk driving. The judge told him it was the military or jail. I had a baseball scholarship for Indiana University. My parents were furious. Then, later, Mathesons made me part of their family when I lost mine."

"What do you mean? What happened to your family?"

Bass sighed and hung his head. This was a subject that he usually liked to avoid. "While Miles and I were in Afghanistan, I was notified that there had been a horrific car accident. My mom, dad, and two little sisters were killed."

Charlie chewed on that for a moment. "I'm sorry, Monroe."

"Yeah."

"Did you know me? Back then, I mean."

"I did. I would go home with Miles whenever we had leave." Bass shakes his head and chuckles at the memory, "You would make me play tea party and princess."

Then remembering, "Bastian… I called you that."

Bass nodded and went back to stirring their supper.

"Did Miles have a red car? I think I remember a red car."

"He did, loved that car. We were driving in that car the night of the blackout."

They finished the stew and the peaches and cleaned up.

"Charlotte, I haven't slept more than a few hours in over two days. I need to sleep. Can I trust that you won't try and kill me in my sleep or steal the horses? Do I have to tie you again?"

"Yeah… you can trust me."

Later Bass laid down to get some rest while Charlie offered to keep watch. She sat and stared into the fire, trying to reconcile how the man who came to her house and played tea party with her was the man in front of her. She hadn't known about the loss of his family; she was too young. Shaking her head, as she thinks about what he'd told her, her feelings are becoming conflicted. (Maybe I don't hate him as much. Maybe I don't need to kill him.)

They're on the road again the following morning and again riding in silence. An hour down the road... "How did the Republic start?"

Bass gives her a side glance, "Huh… well…it just sort of happened. Evolved. Two months after the blackout, with no orders coming from command, Miles and I finally decided that the Marines were finished and left our base in North Carolina. Miles wanted to find your family, so we headed towards Chicago. We had been on the road for about six months when we finally reached Chicago, but you guys were nowhere to be found. We didn't have a clue as to where we should start looking for you, so with nowhere else to go, we just kept on walking northeast with no destination in mind.

Things were bad, Charlie. People were attacking each other, killing for food and supplies, or just because. Women were being raped." He went quiet for a moment, then continued, "One day, we're walking along when we came upon this man that was being beaten to death by two men. Big guys, they looked like clansmen do. Miles stopped, looked for a moment, then called out to them, 'hey assholes', he yelled. They stopped, looked at us, told us to piss off and mind our own business, or we would be next. Miles drew his service weapon and shot them both between the eyes without another thought."

"Jeez…"

"I was shocked. I asked him if he was going to just go around shooting people. 'Someone has to do something. If not us, who?' is what he said."

"What happened to the man, the one getting beaten?"

"We brought him with us. His name was Jeremy. He stayed with us, became a friend."

"I met him once, I think. Blond guy? Crooked smile?"

"Yeah, where did you meet him?"

"I was with Miles, looking for Danny when we ran into a Militia squad. We were overrun, but then Miles managed to capture Jeremy. Jeremy told me that Miles was the Butcher of Baltimore, and Miles had overseen the whole militia. Jeremy said, 'do you know who this is?' then he told me."

"How was that?"

"I couldn't believe it.; didn't want to believe it. I was shocked.

We were still outnumbered and about to be overrun, so Miles offered himself to Jeremy if he would let us go. Jeremy was going to bring him to you."

"Huh, and did he? Let you go, I mean."

"He did, but then Nora and I rescued Miles… we took him back."

Bass gave a little chuckle… "Damn…. Nora Clayton?"

"Miles picked her up and convinced her to come with us. He said that she was really good at blowing things up. He was right. What happened to him? Jeremy."

Bass goes quiet then says almost in a whisper, "I had him killed."

Charlie just looks at him, horrified. "Why? Because of that?" (He is a monster! )

"No, it was later. I thought he'd betrayed me."

"Had he?"

Bass was silent again for a moment, then, "No."

That night as they were making camp, Bass came out from the back of the trailer carrying Charlie's crossbow and quiver of arrows.

"Can I trust you to find us some meat and not shoot me?" Bass asked.

"I won't try and kill you."

"Good to know," and he handed the crossbow to her, "a show of faith." Taking the crossbow, Charlie set off in search of supper. As she was hunting, she couldn't stop thinking about Monroe and his story; she still hated him for her father and Danny, but she didn't want to kill him anymore. At least right now, she didn't.

An hour later, Charlie came walking back with two plump rabbits. Bass had the horses cared for and their camp setup. The fire was going, and he had made a couple of roasting spits.

Without being drunk and passed out, the nightmares came back. Tonight, it was Shelly and the baby. Bass started whimpering and talking in his sleep, calling out for someone. (There's a river of blood, and he was covered in it… so much blood...Shelly screaming, then Shelly lay dead with their baby on top of her.)

Charlie noticed that Bass had started to thrash in his sleep, crying out, 'NO, PLEASE NO,' then a name she couldn't make out. Charlie decided to wake him.

"Monroe! You're dreaming. Wake up," she said, tapping his shoulder.

Bass sat straight up and grabbed her by the throat. Charlie fought with him and finally got him to break his hold and wake up.

"Jeez, Charlie, I'm sorry," he said, wiping his face of the tears that were there from crying in his sleep.

"It's okay. Guess I know not to touch you when you're sleeping. You were having a nightmare."

"Probably a good idea."

"A bad one, Monroe? You were calling out for someone…."

Bass said nothing. He sat for a moment, got up, and walked to the river. After splashing some water on his face, he sat on a rock. The tears came again, and he sobbed quietly. The dream always feels so real.

Charlie laid down; seeing that Bass was up, she figured he could take over the watch. As she lay there, she thought about Monroe and was even more confused about what she felt. She knew that she no longer wanted to kill him; that much she knew. She had always thought of him as a sociopath, a master manipulator, at least that's what her mother called him. Miles just called him paranoid and crazy … (Who was he crying out for? He's right; I really don't know him.)

Bass knew that he wouldn't get any more sleep that night, so he took up watch. Charlie managed to sleep off and on. Then, after a breakfast of leftover rabbit, they started out again.

"Are you ready to tell me where we're going yet?" Bass asked after they were on the road for about ten minutes.

Charlie remained quiet, then, "Willoughby. Willoughby, Texas. We're about another week away."

"Alright. Why Willoughby? Any special reason they settled there?"

"My mom was sick, and my grandfather's there. He's a doctor."

"What was wrong? Is she alright?"

"Like you care," Charlie snarked; she couldn't help herself.

"I still think of her and Miles as family, Charlie, even if you don't think of me that way."

Charlie lets a few more minutes go by, then she answers. "She went into her head after the tower. Wouldn't talk. Wouldn't eat unless someone fed her. She was doing a little better when I left."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Charlie."

Charlie gets quiet again, and another hour goes by. The clouds are building, and it looks like another storm in the making.

"You were going to tell me how the Republic started."

Bass looks at her then turns his eyes back forward.

"Like I said, it kind of just...evolved. The three of us, me, Miles, and Jeremy, just kept walking. It had been a couple of weeks since we picked up Jeremy when we happened upon this large camp, fifteen, maybe twenty tents. Some families, some singles. We joined them. As it worked out, with our military background, Miles became the enforcer, sheriff sort of. As with any large group of people, there will be troublemakers. These ruffians were running wild, unchecked. Miles kept order.

It seems like it was overnight that Miles was organizing a protection force. To protect the camp from attack both from inside and out. The camp grew as more and more people straggled in and joined us. Safety in numbers, I guess. The protection force became a militia, with Miles at the head. They started calling him 'General'. That's how that all started.

There were fifty or so tents two years later, and Miles' militia was one hundred strong. We collected the guns from everyone; after all, we were the protection, so we needed the weapons. And if the populace didn't have guns, they couldn't shoot at anyone, us included. Not everyone was thrilled with the new militia. Tom Neville was a part of that group."

"Neville was with you then?"

"Yeah, and he was the same slimy weasel. The storm's getting closer. Look for a farm or something."

They rode quietly for a few miles.

"You were telling me about the Republic."

"Yeah, well… I'll tell you more after you tell me some of what happened to you."

"I don't remember much of our journey out of Chicago. Danny was always sick; his lungs were bad from birth."

"I remember that... your parents took him to all sorts of specialists. Then, he kind of got better all of a sudden." Bass said.

"I don't remember, except that he had asthma pretty bad. When my mother left, she told me that I was his big sister, and it was my job to look after him and keep him safe. So, I would lay awake at night listening to him breathe."

"How old were you?"

"Eight."

"That's an awful lot to put on an eight-year-old."

"Yeah, well, she was being held prisoner by a maniacal dictator."

Bass huffed, "Where was your father? By the way, your mother came to us willingly, Charlie. She came to Miles. Ben was supposed to be the one to come. You all could have come. You would have been well cared for… wanted for nothing."

Shrugging, she couldn't imagine living in the capital. She was always told that it was an evil and awful place. "I remember my mother walking away from us, supposedly going for supplies. She barely even looked back as Danny, and I cried watching her walk away."

Charlie wiped the tears from her face as she remembered that day.

"While they were traveling, my parents heard that you were looking for them to turn the power back on. Mom said they couldn't let that happen. When Mom left, Dad took us into hiding."

"Why were your parents afraid of us? We wouldn't do anything to hurt you. On the contrary, we would have protected you," Bass tells her. "You are family."

"Probably because of the horrible things being done by the militia. Your militia."

"Miles' militia." Bass corrects. "What horrible things?"

"You didn't know?"

"I don't know. What didn't I know?"

"You had all of these taxes. We could barely feed ourselves over the winter."

"Taxes are necessary for any government."

"But so much that the people starve?"

"That's not how it was supposed to be."

"The militia would come into the village and take whatever they wanted, and that included women and girls. They would conscript kids as young as twelve!"

"That conscription business, that was all Miles. We needed to build the militia numbers. The cut-off was supposed to be seventeen. The commanders were given bonuses for their conscripts; obviously, they were scamming the system. What else? Taxes? Taxes were supposed to be 10%. What were they, do you know?"

"I remember Dad saying how you were getting rich by charging us 35%."

Bass looks stunned. (Militia running rampant, over taxation, conscripting children. Jeez. How did things get this far away from us? No wonder that there was a rebellion.)

"Charlie, I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to be like that."

"Like, I said, you sucked at your job."

"It wasn't all me; your uncle was there too. In fact, the whole mess was his idea. I followed him into that venture like I followed him into everything. Then he left me when things started to get shitty with the rebels. I was right there for him every step of the way, and Saint Miles, he just left me with the whole mess. What else? Lay it on me."

"You asked. One morning Neville and his merry band of militiamen come riding into our village, looking for my dad. Someone thought they were protecting my dad and shot an arrow into one of the soldiers and others just opened fire. Dad was killed while Neville just sat there on his horse and watched. Then he took Danny prisoner."

"Charlie, we asked for your dad in the first place. He wasn't to be harmed. In fact, like I said, we thought that all of you would come. Miles was sure that Ben knew how to turn the power back on. Mainly because of his frantic phone call to Miles right before the blackout. Instead of your dad, Rachel showed up. She showed up for Miles. Those two never could stay apart. She never intended to help with the power.

Miles got angry with her and threw her in a cell, thinking that would bring her around. Miles put her in a cell. Well, we all know that it didn't."

"What are you saying? My mom was with Miles while she was married to Dad?"

"Sorry, Charlie. For years. Before you were born even."

"You're lying!" Charlie is furious.

"Charlie, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar. I will never lie to you."

Charlie is momentarily speechless. She wiped her eyes and continued, "as Dad was dying, he told me to find Uncle Miles in Chicago, that he would know how to get Danny back. So that's how I ended up with him.

Why were you so bent on getting the power back anyway? Miles said it was so that you could get bigger weapons, take over the continent."

"Better weapons would have ended the rebellion. It was war, Charlie. By then, we just, I guess, needed to protect the Republic, just like any country would defend itself.

You didn't tell me how Danny died."

"Your helicopters attacked our Rebel base. Miles tried to shoot them down but got knocked down from a rocket blast. Danny picked up the launcher, fired it, and hit the helicopter. When the helicopter was hit, the gun went off, shooting Danny in the chest."

"And how was that my fault?"

"They were your helicopters firing rockets at us!"

"And your rebels weren't attacking us? Tell me, how many of my militia did you kill? How many fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers did you and your rebels kill?" Charlie got quiet. She hadn't thought about it like that.

"Getting the power back wasn't just about weapons. Power would mean better hospitals." Bass went quiet for a moment, then softly, almost a whisper, "Maybe if there hadn't been a blackout, Shelly wouldn't have died. You blame me for killing your father and Danny even though I never ordered that; I never wanted that. So, by your logic, your parents killed my wife and baby!"

(Wife and baby?) Charlie was struck dumb. Then, "You wanted better hospitals?"

"Of course! And running water, sewerage, factories for goods and clothing, and all that would come with having the power back. Yeah, I know, I'm a monster! I'm a monster for wanting to make life better for the people!"

Bass was on a rant now, tired of being the whipping boy for all that went wrong. "Do you want to know the real reason your mother wouldn't turn the power on? It wasn't because of weapons. It was because she put some nano-thingy in Danny. That was what made him so much better. If the power was turned on, the nano would be turned off, and Danny would most likely die. So… I'm a monster. She let billions of people all over the world die. Of course, it didn't matter anymore once Danny was dead, and she became hell-bent on turning the power back on. And another thing! Just how did she think that I was going to take all the power for myself? How would I have that kind of control?

The fact is your uncle, and I thought that we were working for the greater good. Things got out of control. Things got out of control, and Miles cut and ran. I admit that I had spiraled down a black hole. What didn't help was waking in the middle of the night with your uncle's gun in my face. The man who called me 'brother'. The man I spent my entire life following into whatever shit he wanted to get into.

Before the blackout, after my family died, I almost ended it, couldn't deal with the loss. Your uncle saved me, and your family adopted me into theirs. I wasn't alone. When I lost Shelly and the baby, the depression returned, and again your uncle pulled me out. Then he tried to kill me because I was getting sick again. My brother wanted me dead rather than help me." His eyes were filling again. Bass always wore his emotions on his sleeve.

Taking a breath, "I became obsessed with ending the rebel opposition. Obsessed with growing the Republic. Obsessed with getting Miles to come back. I did become paranoid after my brother shoved a gun in my face. Who could I trust if I couldn't trust him? I became irrational and out of control with no one to anchor me. Jeremy tried…

Maybe… maybe if Miles had stayed, he could have helped me out of the blackness that was overtaking me, could have intervened before I did something irrational. Instead, he left me alone… again. I had no one, Charlotte, no anchor, and I so needed one. I became paranoid and brutal, and I hate myself for it… The Republic…It all started off for the greater good, and then it got away from us and turned to shit."

Bass wiped a tear and was frustrated with himself for getting so emotional. He went silent, and all that was heard was the clip-clop of the horse's hoofs. Charlie didn't know what to say. (Wow! Shit…) This was a lot to take in, and she retreated into her own thoughts. (Things aren't black and white, right, or wrong, are they. Rachel wasn't innocent...Ben wasn't innocent. They had killed countless people…and my hands aren't clean either; Monroe's right, I have killed sons and fathers all in the name of revenge.)

They traveled another five miles in silence.

The sun was now low in the sky, and the storm on the horizon was getting closer and looked like it would be a strong one.

After a few more silent miles, Bass tells Charlie that they need to find shelter. The storm would be on them soon. They can see lightning in the distance and hear the rumble of thunder. As the storm approached and the thunder grew louder, the horses were getting nervous.

"Monroe, there," Charlie pointed, "a dirt track. Maybe a farmhouse?"

Bass grunted and guided them onto the narrow lane. The lane opened to what was once a wide driveway that led to a small farmhouse. To the side was a barn that was in reasonably good shape, considering.

They checked out the house, then Bass unhitched the horses and led them into the barn.

While Bass was settling the horses, Charlie explored the house more thoroughly. The place must have been lived in post-blackout. (Maybe the owners moved closer to a town?) and was in surprisingly good condition. The kitchen had a working wood stove, and there was a fireplace in the living room.

Monroe was still in the barn when she went out the back door and found an old woodpile. After moving a couple of layers, she found some decent wood and hauled enough into the house to last them the night.

Bass was finished with the horses, and Charlie helped him bring in what they would need from the wagon as the rain started to come down, lightning flashing and thunder roaring. Scrounging around in the wagon, Charlie found more cans of beans, something called 'Dinty Moore', and several packages of this stuff called 'Ramen'.

"Monroe, I grabbed some cans from the wagon and this stuff. What is 'Ramen'?"

Bass laughed. "College dorm food."

Charlie just looked at him. "Boil some water, drop the dried noodles in, and a flavor packet. You'll see. Actually, fairly tasty by itself. Add some vegetables and meat, and you've got soup."

Bass got a fire going in the woodstove in the kitchen. There was some kitchenware left in the kitchen, so he was able to come up with another pot. He boiled water for the noodles and heated yet another can of beans.

"These are good!" Charlie said around a mouthful of noodles. "Why college food? And what's a dorm?"

"Because they were ridiculously inexpensive and could be heated in a dorm microwave or hot plate. A dorm was rooms where you would stay at college when away from home."

"What's a microwave?"

Bass sighed, "It was like an electric oven, cooked fast."

After they ate, Bass went rummaging through the house. He found a couple of old books on a shelf in a bedroom and then a deck of cards in one of the drawers.

"Here," he said, handing a book to Charlie.

"The Hunger Games?"

"I think you'll like it. It's about a badass girl and a crossbow," he said, chuckling. "Wanna play some cards?"

She looked at him a moment, then… "Alright." (Beats staring at the walls, she thought)

After two hands of gin rummy, they called it a night. Charlie offered to take the first watch.

"With this storm, I think we'll be alright. Take a bedroom and get some sleep. I'll sleep out here." He grabbed a blanket and settled himself on the dusty couch. Charlie retreated to one of the bedrooms.

The storm was raging, the lightning ferocious, and the thunder shook the house to its foundation. The rain was so heavy it was almost as loud as the thunder as it battered the roof. Bass was quietly worried about a tornado.

He was exhausted from driving all day, and because he hadn't been sleeping well with the return of the dreams, he could barely stay awake.

Charlie had been reading, and just as she was about to doze off, she heard Monroe whimpering and crying out from the living. She got up. It appeared to be the same dream, Monroe calling out for Shelly. Not sure what she should do after what happened the last time, she decided to avoid his fists by shaking his foot.

"Monroe! Monroe! Wake up! You're dreaming."

Bass sat straight up and rubbed his hands over his face.

After a few minutes, Charlie asked, "Shelly was your wife?"

"Yeah, I told you that. We met in the tent camp." He got up and padded into the kitchen, got a drink of water, and splashed some water on his face. When he returned to the couch, he found Charlie sitting in one of the chairs.

"When did you get married?"

"She came wandering into our camp with a small group… Shelly was beautiful, smart, funny, and kind… I loved her. We got married, such as it was. When she got pregnant, we were excited, over the moon happy, and couldn't wait for our baby."

"What happened? You mentioned she died?"

"Everything was fine until it wasn't. Shelly went into labor. One minute we were talking baby names, and the next, she was bleeding out. Our baby died with her… there was so much blood…so much… I lost her and my baby girl.

I went dark, murderous. I lost another family. I was ready to end it once again, and once again, Miles pulled me back."

Bass sat and stared as the memories came flooding back.

"My God, Bass, I'm so sorry." (I called him Bass?!)

(Did she just call me Bass?)

And just like that, Monroe became Bass.

Bass got out the flask of whiskey that he found in the wagon and sat brooding. Charlie was sitting watching him. Over the last two days, she had started to see him differently. She always thought of him as a sociopath, a master manipulator. But as he told his story, she saw something else. He became not so much the monster but human. She was still angry about Danny and her father, but she wasn't sure she hated him anymore.

(He's a broken, lonely man,) Her hate was being displaced by...what?... she was afraid to put a name to it. (He projects all this hardness, but there is softness under those layers. What if Miles hadn't left him? Would he have been able to stop his downfall, his madness? He never would have attacked Jasper if Miles had been there. He wouldn't have needed to…)

The storm went on all the next day. They used the time to wash their clothes and then hung them by the stove to dry. They read, played cards, and talked some. Once Charlie let go of her hate, she found Bass' company enjoyable. He was funny and smart, and she wondered if this was what he was like before all the tragedy in his life… before the blackout.

They woke on the second morning to a glorious sunny day. Bass was hitching the horses while Charlie loaded the wagon, adding a few things they had found in the house. She had started reading the book that Bass had found, and she liked it, so she kept it with her on the wagon bench.

They were about a week out from Willoughby and settled into a comfortable routine. They would ride all day, then camp. Charlie would hunt while Bass would set up camp and care for the horses. Bass' nightmares seemed to lessen.

Sitting around the fire one night, Charlie asks him about the day of the blackout.

"I was only six. Danny would have been two. I remember we were watching a TV show, Bugs Bunny, I think when everything went dark. Mom and Dad had candles burning in the kitchen. Mom took ice cream from the freezer. She told me to eat as much as I wanted, that she wanted me to remember what it tasted like. A few days later they put us in our little wagon and started walking out of the city. The craziness had already started. I remember this man coming up to us and demanding our food, or he would shoot one of us. Dad didn't move; Mom grabbed our gun and shot him."

"Yeah, your mother always was the strong one. Miles and I had been on weekend leave and were heading back to base after a weekend out. I was texting a girl that I had met."

"Texting?"

"Yeah, writing a message to be sent with your phone. Anyway, Miles gets a call from your dad. He was frantic and kept telling Miles that it was all going to turn off and it wouldn't be coming back. Then the phone went dead. Miles looked at me, shrugged, then the car died along with the phone and every other car on the road. We got out of the car, stood there in the blackness, and watched as planes dropped from the sky. It was terrifying.

Luckily, we were only about ten miles out from the base, so we started walking. Six hours later, we were at the guard gate.

When no orders came after 8 weeks, we packed up and started walking to Chicago. Miles wanted to find you guys."

"I'll take watch," Charlie offered.

"No, it's okay; I won't sleep anymore anyway."

Six days later, they pass a sign…Willoughby, ten miles. They're both a bit uneasy knowing that the arrival of Bass was not going to be expected or even wanted.

It was mid-afternoon when they finally reached the outskirts of Willoughby. It has taken a little over four weeks with the stopping for the weather.

Bass stops outside of town. He wants to see if there is anything to worry about in town. They climb up onto the roof of a nearby shed. It was high enough to allow them to see over the town walls. Using the binoculars that he scoffed from the bounty hunters, Bass looks over the town. What he sees is a town full of soldiers in khaki with US flag patches on their shoulders. On the flagpole in the town square is a huge American Flag.

"Well, shit…God Bless America," he says, passing the binoculars to Charlie.

Charlie goes to jump down from their perch, and Bass grabs her arm. "Whoa, where are you going?"

"Let me go! I have to warn my mom!"

"Charlie, hold on, we have to be smart about this. Scope out what's going on and not just rush in."

Charlie takes a breath and knows that Bass is right.

They go back to the wagon and find a place to hide it and the horses. Then it's decided that Charlie will sneak into town, find Miles, and bring him out to Bass. He'll be waiting near an old railroad trestle.

After sneaking into town, Charlie hides in an alley watching for Miles. Finally spotting him with a Texas Ranger going into the old sheriff's office. Ten minutes later, they both come out and go in separate directions.

Miles is heading back to Gene's. Charlie got lucky; he will walk right past where she is hiding. When he was close, Charlie tossed a handful of pebbles at his feet. Miles stopped short, turned to see who had thrown the rocks, and spotted Charlie. Rushing into the alley, he grabs her into a bear hug.

"Charlie! When did you get back?"

"Just a little while ago. I heard about these Patriot guys and figured you would need my help."

"They are definitely no good. Your mother is going to be so happy to see you."

"I know, Miles, but I need to show you something first. I need you to come with me."

"What?" he says, grinning.

"You'll see."

They leave town through the break in the town wall the same way Charlie got in.

"Charlie, what are we doing out here?"

"Okay, I need for you not to go crazy and explode or something."

"What? No, why?"

Then Bass steps from the tree line. "Hello, Miles."

"What the hell?" Miles yells, stopping in his tracks. "Charlie, what is this? No! Just No! He can just crawl back under whatever rock he's been living under. We're leaving. How did he get here? Why is he here?"

"I brought him."

"You brought him?" Then Miles charged at him. Bass had his hand on his sword in case Miles went after him. "Bass, you son of a bitch! What did you do to her?"

"Nothing, Miles. I did nothing except save her life."

"I don't believe you! I know you! You son of a bitch!"

Charlie reaches out and places a hand on Miles's arm. "Miles, he didn't touch me." Then she positions herself between the two men. "He saved my life… twice. He's been the perfect gentleman."

"Miles," Bass says while holding out the bounty poster. "Look at this."

Miles snatches the flyer from Bass and looks at it… (What? Rachel?)

"Why Rachel? She's right there in town. Why haven't they picked her up?"

"They must have another agenda," Bass says.

Miles lowers his head for a moment then glowers at Bass one more time.

"Okay, so why are you here?"

"You're going to need my help, Miles, if you plan on doing anything against these Patriots."

Miles stands thinking, shaking his head, clearly not happy. "Okay, alright, Bass... You can't come into town with the bounty on your head. I know of a place where you can hide out until we figure out what to do."