General rumbled wearily, turning to the corner of the room where Tank sat. What was once an air filled with witty comebacks was now replaced by the silence of anger.

"I've been meanin' to ask you, Tank, you pulled some pretty fancy moves on Rig there. Almost like you had Thunder's powers," General said.

Tank was quiet for a moment before he said, "Acid figured out how to knock out Defects with a taser, then mounted it on me. As of right now, though, it's only good for one shot before it has to be recharged. You see, it packs just enough voltage to kill a man, yet enough to knock a Defect on his ass."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you need somethin' like that?"

"Acid recycles spare parts from dumped vehicles to manufacture new technology. Sometimes a Defect or two gets added to the batch."

"So you kill them?"

"We strip them of any valuable parts, then we sell them."

General paused, looking at him in disbelief. The storage shed grew quiet, neither of them speaking. Tank's headlights flickered as he turned towards the door.

"They're lookin' for you," he rumbled.

"Oh yeah, and who's that?" General asked snarkily.

Tank turned back to look at him. "Your friends."

"You guys have any luck?" Cooter asked.

The warm, morning sun peeked over the horizon, casting long shadows across the ground. A light breeze caused the branches of trees to sway, rustling their leaves ever so slightly. The distant cawing of a crow echoed over the lot, along with the skitter of plastic and the crumple of a newspaper.

Bo lay on the hood of Cooter's truck, one arm draped over his face. Luke stood leaning against the rusted payphone, the one with at least three different flavors of gum stuck to the bottom of the coin tray. Grime coated it in a thin layer, however-to his surprise-the phone still worked.

After giving whatever spare change he'd had to Autumn, he and Bo had had to root through the glovebox and pull back the seat of the truck to come up with some thirty-eight cents.

"We talked to Autumn, figured out what little we could about Acid. Turns out they've got warehouses all over Savannah, but I think we've got it narrowed down to the port," Luke explained, rubbing off some of the dust on the payphone with his thumb.

"Sounds about right, that's what KITT's people said. They headed out about ten minutes ago. Where y'all at right now?"

"We're at a truckstop just South of the fairgrounds, I reckon we still got roughly a two-hour drive to Savannah."

"More like three in that ol' beater. Look, y'all just wait there, I'mma send Rosco up with KITT cause I know damn well Jesse'd tan my hide if y'all went in without backup."

"And he'd tan ours too if we made it back alive. Appreciate it, Cooter."

"Keep 'er 'tween the ditches."

That said, Luke hung up the phone and started walking back towards the truck. As he did, Bo sat up and climbed down off the hood.

"Just got off the phone with Cooter, KITT and Rosco are gonna meet us here in roughly half an hour, should give us some time."

Bo looked up at him, a mix of concern and confusion in his eyes. "Time for what?"

"Well… I wanted to talk."

Bo dug his wallet out of his pocket. "About?" he asked, not liking where this was going.

"Hollow Hill, Russell, Clayton, just… I don't know, what all went down back in April."

Bo shrugged and started walking across the lot back towards where the payphone was. Against the building was a set of trash cans and a soda machine.

"You want a soda?" he asked.

Luke sighed, knowing that he was stretching it by even asking. "Please don't change the subject."

Bo didn't say anything and pulled a dollar bill out of his wallet inserting it into the soda machine. It gave him four quarters, to which one he returned and pocketed the other three. He started pressing buttons, ignoring Luke as he continued to talk.

"Bo, c'mon, that shit's killin' you, I can see it," Luke said earnestly.

Again, Bo ignored him, grabbing his soda from the machine.

Luke sighed and rolled his eyes, beginning to get frustrated. "Alright, look, if you ain't gonna say nothin' to me then at least listen."

Bo turned around, cracking the soda open and taking a drink. "Why you wanna know so bad?"

"'Cause it's just gotten swept under the rug for the longest time."

Bo smiled and pointed a finger at him as he took another drink. "Exactly."

That said he started walking away, however, Luke wasn't quite finished with him yet. He grabbed him by the arm, steering him back towards him.

"I just have one question for you, alright?" Luke said, looking him in the eye.

Bo thought for a moment, growing quiet. "Alright, deal, but you first."

"What?"

"Vietnam, let's hear it, what was your darkest moment?"

The tension between them continued to build as Luke just shook his head slowly, his expression cold. "I can't say nothin'."

Bo shrugged, pulling his arm out from Luke's grasp. "Alright, no deal."

Luke sighed, dropping his gaze. He pinched the bridge of his nose, bad memories resurfacing. "God, where to start," he muttered. "Alright, we were walkin' into a small farmin' village after about a week of fightin' out in the Bush. We were followin' the river South on the hunt for a troop of VC that'd gotten too close for comfort to our base camp. We stopped for some food and water in the village, and one of our men found a hole. We contemplated sendin' a man down into it. I volunteered my buddy Allen as a joke 'cause he was so damn thin, but he was too tall to even dream of crawlin' through the Holes.

"In the end, we decided against it, and we started packin' up to leave. A couple of the guys wandered off, not too far, just by a hut." Luke shook his head. "A little girl came up to 'em and one of 'em reached into his shirt to grab a piece of bubble gum for her. That's when I saw the grenade in her hand. Me and Allen started runnin', yellin' at 'em to run. I grabbed my nine and shot her, in the head, she went down right away. Allen pulled the two of 'em outta there right before that grenade went off." Luke sighed and swallowed hard, trying to force down the lump in his throat. "When I got back to Atlanta, I got called a baby-killer, and… well, maybe I deserved it, but the last thing I wanted was that little girl and my men dead, so I had to make a choice."

They were both quiet for a long while. Luke stood, leaning against the truck, Bo stood in front of him, soda still in hand.

"I'm… sorry," he said quietly, still stunned at having been told this.

Luke gave him a faint smile and scoffed. "All this just to ask ya if you felt any better since the barn burned down."

Bo nodded. "Yeah, a lot, actually. Look, I-"

"You didn't think I'd actually do it, did you?"

"No, I didn't."

Luke scoffed again and grinned. "It's that easy, Bo."

t.

Just then, the sound of an engine grew from a faint rumble to a loud whistle. The sound of KITT's turbines blowing pure power as he sped into the lot was almost deafening. He skidded to a stop, throwing his driver's side door open, and Rosco stumbled out. Rosco ran to the set of trash bins against the building, quickly pushing the lid off of one and vomiting into it.