Chapter 16: Nebraska

Rick lowered his gun. He took his eyes off Jim and looked around the group, at the people around him, most of them still in shock.

They all stood there for a few seconds before it was Beth's sobs that drew their attention.

Maggie looked behind her to see Jimmy holding Beth to him as she cried. Maggie had her hand on her father's shoulder as he still knelt down on the ground in front of her, his hands covering his mouth as he looked at the devastation in front of them.

Beth pulled away from Jimmy and started walking forward, to where she could see her mother's body.

"Shh, shh." Rick said to her as she walked towards him. He held his arm out, trying to block her from going around him. "Wait, wait." He tried to stop her, but she backed away from him, not wanting him to touch her.

She sobbed as she got to her mother, Annette, who was laying face down in the dirt with another Walker on top of her. Beth grabbed the other Walker's arm and pushed it off of her as she grabbed Annette's shoulder, turning her onto her back as she knelt down above her head. "Ma." She cried.

The lower half of Annette's jaw was distorted and covered in blood from the holes Daryl's shotgun had left. But no head shot.

At being touched, Annette growled and grabbed at Beth's long blond hair, that she had in pig tails. Beth started screaming as the group ran to her aid, Glenn quickly putting his shotgun down as he came up behind Rick.

"Come on!" Michael put his arms around Beth's waist as he tried to pull her out of the Walker's grasp. Rick and Dale grabbing her as well as they tried to pull her back.

Glenn ran up and grabbed the Walker's arms, trying to get them off of her. "Pull her away! Pull her away!" Glenn yelled as he got the Walker's hands loose.

Michael and Rick pulled Beth up so that she was standing as Hershel and Maggie came to their side.

T-Dog ran around Rick and Michael and gave the Walker a swift kick in the side.

Rick handed Beth off to Hershel, who held her close to him as she continued to cry.

Glenn was starting to struggle as the Walker tried biting at him. His face only a little over a foot away from it as he continued to hold it's arms in place.

"Right there, right there!" T-Dog shouted to Andrea as he pointed at a scythe that was laying on the ground near her.

She grabbed it and ran to Glenn who pulled the Walker into a sitting position so she would have a better angle. T-Dog jumped out of the way as Andrea held the weapon like a bat, trying to get a good shot.

She stood a few feet behind it and swung the scythe as the Walker growled and tried to bite at Glenn again. It was quickly silenced as the scythe went through the back of it's head, the sharp point appearing again, covered in dark blood, right between it's eyes.

Andrea pulled the blade out of the Walker's head and set it down as Glenn let go of the Walker's arms, letting it fall to the ground with a heavy thump. Dale and Glenn both looked around at the other Walkers, doing a once over to make sure the others were actually dead.

Jimmy walked up behind Beth, putting his hands on her back trying to soothe her as Hershel held her. They all looked at Annette's now lifeless body once more before Maggie put her hand on her father's shoulder, pushing him to start going back towards the house.

Rick looked back at what they'd done as the Greene's and Glenn started walking away. Jimmy stayed behind with what was left of Rick's group as Patricia and Otis helped Hershel walk Beth to the house.

Shane helped Merle pick Ed up. He dragged Ed and put him between himself, Rick, Michael and Glenn as they walked behind the Greenes.

"We left him on the side of the road while heading to the CDC. We told y'all about him and he was in there all this time? You knew." Ed said.

"Leave us alone." Maggie yelled as she looked behind her at him.

"Hey, Ed, just stop." Rick said, grabbing at Ed's arm and giving him a tug.

"Get your hands off me." Ed slapped Rick's hand away and continued after the Greene's. "You knew and you kept it from us."

"I didn't know." Hershel said, fighting tears. Everything this man just did on his property and now he is accusing him of this?

"That's bullshit. I think y'all knew." Ed said as they neared the house.

"We didn't know!" Maggie yelled at him as she turned to look at his face again.

"Why was he there?!" Ed yelled as the Greene's walked up the steps. Patricia rolled her eyes. He wasn't going to let up.

"Your-" Hershel started but stopped. He let Patricia and Otis help Beth up the stairs as he stopped before them and turned around to look at Ed. "Otis put those people in the barn. Maybe your friend wander in the forest and Otis found him, put him in there." Hershel said. Glenn was standing next to Ed with a confused look on his face as Rick, Shane and Michael stood beside them.

"You expect me to believe that? What do I look like? I look like an idiot to you?" Ed said as he took another step towards the old man.

Rick came between the two, putting his hand on Ed's chest, pushing him back. "Ed. Ed, hey, hey, hey. Ed!" Rick shouted as Ed tried to push against him.

"I don't care what you believe!" Hershel yelled.

Rick held up his hands to either of them, pushing Ed back again. "Everybody just calm down. Please."

"Get him off my land!" Hershel yelled and pointed at Ed.

"No." Rick said softly, holding his hand up to Hershel as he tried to get everyone to settle down.

"Lemme tell you something." Ed pushed past Rick's hand trying to get closer to Hershel.

"Hey!" Maggie came down the steps and pushed against Ed's chest before she slapped him across the face. "Don't touch him!"

Ed took a step away as Glenn came up beside him, grabbing his shoulder and pushing him back. He was afraid he would hit Maggie. Ed was a loose canon.

"Haven't you done enough?" Maggie said before she turned around and walked back up the stairs to the front door, Hershel behind her.

He stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at Rick. "I mean it- off my land." Hershel said as he looked at Ed. He turned and opened the front door, following the girls into the house.

Glenn looked at the four men before he climbed the stairs and followed Hershel.

Rick, Shane and Michael watched Glenn walk to the door before they looked at Ed, who turned around and looked back at the barn. They waited to hear the door open and close from Glenn before Rick said anything. "What are you doin?" Rick said to Ed but he didn't look at him. "Hey," he said again, "What are you doin?"

"Carl almost died when we were lookin for survivors, Rick. Any one of us could have." Ed said in a low voice as he raised his brows and looked at him. He walked closer. "I'm gonna tell you right now- that son of a bitch," Ed pointed to the house, "he knew."

"He didn't know. He's not like that." Rick said. "He opened his home to us."

"Put us all in danger. He kept a barn full of Walkers." Ed looked and held his arm out towards the barn before he turned to face Rick, again.

"So you just had us start an insurrection, force us to hand out guns and make us massacre his family?" Rick said, taking a step towards him.

"His family's dead, Rick." Ed raised his eyebrows again.

"Well, he doesn't believe that. He thinks you just made us murdered them in cold blood." Rick said as he pointed to the house.

"No, man, I don't care what he thinks! Why would I-" Ed raised his voice.

"I was handling it. I was handling it and you just went ahead and-" Rick yelled, but Ed cut him off.

"You and Michael had us out in those woods lookin for survivors that every single one of us knew that there are none! That's what you both did. Rick, you two are just as delusional as that guy." Ed pointed at the house again before he scoffed and started walking away. "You were handlin it, huh?" Ed said over his shoulder, walking back towards the campsite.


Back at the barn

Andrea had gotten an old blanket out of the barn and was kneeling in front of Jim. She and Jacqui had covered the man's body with it and pulled it over his head. Andrea lifted Jim's cold hand and tucked the old fabric underneath it before she gently set it back on the ground. She put her own hand on the back of Jim's head as she looked over the covered body and to the bodies beyond it. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

Andrea looked behind her to see Dale and Amy walking over to the two bodies that Otis and Hershel had been leading to the barn before the fire fight had rung out. Jimmy and T-Dog were standing near her, waiting to see what they were going to do next. She saw Carol and Sophia, with Daryl and Merle walking them back towards their tents in camp. She saw Shane walking back through the gate to the barn, followed by Rick and Michael a few paces behind. And she saw Lori and Carl, sitting in the same spot they had been in during the whole thing.

Rick walked closer to his family with Michael right next to him. He had his son's brown sheriff's hat in his hand that he had picked up off the ground closer to the house.

"Hey, you dropped that." He said as he put the hat on Carl's head as his wife stood up and so did Carl.

Rick looked over all the bodies laying in front of the barn once again. At least Jim's body was covered up now.

"You want us to start buryin?" T-Dog asked.

"We need a service. Jim would want that." Andrea said.

"Yeah, we all want that." T-Dog said as he stood next to Andrea.

Rick just looked at Jim's body but didn't say anything. Lori followed his eyes before looking at him again, waiting for words he wasnt going to speak. "Let's um- Let's dig a grave for Jim, and Annette and Shawn...uh," Lori looked over the land ahead of them for a second before pointing, "over by those trees."

Everyone looked to the spot she pointed at a little bit away from the barn.

"And we'll need a truck to move the bodies." She said as Andrea looked around at the corpses behind them.

"I'll get the keys." Jimmy said and started walking before Shane quickly stopped him.

"No, no." Shane held his arm out as he turned and started walking towards the vehicles. "I got the truck."

They watched Shane walk away before Jimmy turned to look at the Walkers. "And the others? That's a lot of digging."

"We bury the ones we love..and burn the rest." Andrea said. Rick nodded his head slightly.

"Let's get to work." Lori said as she took a few steps closer, coming to stand in front of Rick as the others started to move the bodies. Carl stayed with Michael. "What did Hershel say?" She whispered as she turned her back to the others, placing her hand on Rick's side, pushing him to walk a few feet away as they talked in hushed voices.

"He wants us off the farm." He said as he looked at her. "Or Ed at least."

"That's not a surprise." Lori looked at the RV and their camp before down at the ground. "We're lucky someone wasn't killed..And all that gunfire-" She looked at Rick, "more Walkers could've heard it."

They continue to talk and then Lori comfort Rick. Then they went to help the others.


Moments later

Except for Ed, the entire group, along with the Greene's, Patricia, Otis and Jimmy, were gathered around the three graves, forming a line. No one said anything. What was there left to say at this point?

Everyone stood in silence for a couple minutes before Shane was the first to walk away, back to Otis's truck to start moving the other bodies they were going to burn. Everyone went their separate ways.


Moments later inside the house

Glenn and Maggie were talking to each other when they hear a thump from the kitchen, followed by a crash, then Maggie cries, "Oh my God!"

Maggie and Glenn ran into the kitchen, seeing Beth on the floor.

"Sweetie, can you hear me?" Maggie said as she tucked Beth's hair behind her ear. Beth was staring up at the ceiling. Glenn had carried her into one of the nearest bedrooms in the house as Maggie yelled out the door for Lori, telling her Beth had fainted.

Lori made it to the house and leaned into the doorway of the bedroom, seeing Maggie leaning over the young girl. At least she was awake now.

"What's wrong with her?" Maggie asked, looking at Lori.

"She might be in shock. Where's Hershel?" Lori asked as she looked at the 16 year old laying on the bed, completely unresponsive.

"We can't find him anywhere." Glenn said from his spot at the back of the room.

Lori looked at Beth once more before she backed out of the room and went outside to get Rick, Michael and Shane so they could try to find a trace of Hershel.

Maggie grabbed Beth's hand as she sat down on the bed next to her little sister, "Hey, kiddo." She said softly as she sat down on the bed next to her. She touched her face again, trying to get her to say something.

Shane, Lori, Rick, Glenn, Maggie, and Michael stand in Hershel's bedroom, where boxes are on the bed and the closet door is open. The boxes are full of Hershel's wife's, Annette, things. Rick examines one box. "Your stepmother's things?"

"He was so sure she'd recover," Maggie answers. "They'd just pick up where they left off."

Shane picks up a flask from the dresser. "Looks like he found an old friend."

He tosses it to Rick, who turns it over in his hands. "That belonged to my grandfather, gave it to Dad when he died," Maggie informs the officer, taking it from him.

"I didn't take Hershel for a drinker," Rick says.

"No, he gave it up on the day I was born. He didn't even allow liquor in the house."

"What's the bar in town?" Rick ask after a minute of silence.

"Hatlin's. He practically lived there in his drinking days."

"Betting that's where I'll find him," Rick says.

"Yeah, I've seen the place. I'll take you," Glenn says.

"I'm going with you guys." Michael said.

"All right. I'll go get the truck."

"Okay."

"No, no," Maggie argues.

"It's an easy run," Glenn says.

"Like the pharmacy?" Maggie asks.

"Hey, Maggie," Rick say, laying on hand on her arm. "We'll bring him back."

After Rick, Michael, Shane and Lori had a short talk with each other, Glenn and Michael went to get there shotguns. They Rick waiting for them by the car, saying goodbye to his family. Glenn and Maggie kissed each other goodbye. As did Michael and Andrea. Rick, Glenn and Michael then got into the car and drove off to bring back Hershel.

Rick driving, Glenn sitting in the passenger seat, and Michael in the middle. They drive in silence for a while.

"Maggie said she loves me," Glenn says, breaking the silence. Rick and I don't say anything. Glenn scoffs. "She doesn't mean it. I mean, she can't. Sh–she's upset, or confused. She's probably feeling like—"

"I think she's smart enough to know what she's feeling," Rick interrupts.

Glenn shakes his head. "No, no." Rick laughs. "No, you know what? She wants to be in love, so sh–she needs something to, like, hold onto."

"Glenn, it's pretty obvious to everyone that Maggie loves you," I interrupt. "And it ain't 'cause you're one of the last men standing. So what's the problem?"

He chews on his lip before answering. "I didn't say it back. I've never had a woman say that to me before, except my mom, of course, and my sisters. But with Maggie, it's different. We barely know each other. What does she really know about me? Nothing. We're practically strangers. But I didn't know what to do with it. I just stood there like a jerk."

"Hey, hey, this is a good thing," Rick says. "Something we don't get enough of these days. Enjoy it. And when we get back, return the favor. It's not like she's going anywhere."

Glenn looks down as we pull into the town. Rick stops the car, pulling the keys out. "Rick?" Glenn says, and the officer looks at him. "I know about Lori, her being pregnant. I got her those pills."

"I figured," Rick replies.

They climbed out of the car, carrying their guns as they head towards the bar.

"Hey, I'm sorry I kept it from you," Glenn says.

"Don't be. You did what you thought was right," Rick replies. "Just so happens it wasn't."

Rick shoved open the door to the bar, guns ready to fire. Glenn and Michael looked in over his shoulders and the soft clanking of his boots was the only sound the echoed through their ears. Once in, Michael shut the door behind them and stared at Hershel, who neglected to look who had entered behind him,

"Hershel?"

"Who's with you?"

"Glenn and Mikey." Rick, Glenn, and Michael all walked towards him slowly, and he looked up to the ceiling,

"Maggie send Glenn?"

"He volunteered. He's good like that." Hershel looks over his shoulder as Rick makes his way forward, stopping he's at the bar. Glenn and Michael follow, and Rick leans on the bar. "How many you had?"

"Not enough," Hershel answers without humor.

"Let's finish this up back at home. Beth collapsed, is in some sort of state. Must be in shock. I think you are, too."

"Maggie's with her?"

"Yeah, but Beth needs you."

"What could I do? She needs her mother. Or rather to mourn, like she should've done weeks ago. I robbed her of that. I see that now."

"You thought there was a cure. Can't blame yourself for holding out for hope."

"Hope?" Hershel asks, sitting his drink down. "When I first saw you running across my field with your boy in your arms, I had little hope he'd survive."

"But he did."

"He did. Your man Shane and Otis made it back and we saved your boy and a day later Michael shows up when we all thought he was gone. That was the miracle that proved to me miracles do exist. Only it was a sham, a bait and switch. I was a fool, Rick, and you people saw that. My daughters deserve better than that." Hershel pours himself another drink.

Michael and Glenn heard something outside and quickly moved to the door. Rick looked back and walked to the door with them, his reasoning becoming invalid,

"So what do we do, wait for him to pass out?" Glenn whispered,

"Just go," Hershel says. "Just go!"

"I promised Maggie I'd bring you home safe," Rick says.

Hershel chuckles. "Like you promised your friend, Jim?"

Rick starts forward. "So what's your plan? Finish that bottle? Drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?"

Hershel's glass thuds on the bar as he stands, turning to face Rick. "Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm. You people are like a plague! I do the Christian thing, give you shelter, and you destroy it all!"

"The world was already in bad shape when we met."

"And you take no responsibility!" Hershel snaps. "You and your brothers are supposed to be their leaders!"

"Well, me and Mikey are here now, aren't we?" Rick snaps.

He pauses. "Yes. Yes. Yes, you both are."

Hershel turns away, and sits back down. Rick follows him, landing on the bar next to him. "Come on. Your girls need you know more than ever."

Hershel pulls his arm out of Rick's grasp, turning to face him. "I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe that. But when Ed shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming, that's when I knew what an ass I'd been. That Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotten corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope. And when your friend came out of the barn, the look on your face, I knew you knew it too. Right? There is no hope. And you know it now, like I do. Don't you?" None of them say anything. "There is no hope for any of us."

"You know what I'm done, I'm not doing this anymore...cleaning up after you, you know what the truth is nothing has changed, death is death it's always been there whether it's from a heart attack, cancer or a walker whats the difference? you didn't think its was hopeless before did you? and neither are people back at home trying to hang on, they need us. even if it's just to give them a reason to go on, even if we don't believe it ourselves, you know what this isn't about what we believe anymore, It's about them". Rick said.

Hershel sighed and grabbed his glass, swirling it around and drinking the rest of it in one swing, then standing to his feet in defeat. Michael knew that Rick had finally convinced him and getting him home was now the new task at hand. But just as they turned, they heard the loud squeak of the door handle turn, seeing the door cracking open slowly.

Two men walked in, one heavy and wearing a hat, the other skinny and wearing a muscle-shirt. "Son of a bitch," the skinny one says. "They're alive."

The skinny man sits at a table, while the other slouches in a bar stool. Glenn stands behind the bar, while Michael sit on it. Hershel remains where he was, and Rick stands in front of the skinny man. "I'm Dave," the skinny one says after Rick finishes pouring glasses of whiskey. "That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony."

The other man, Tony, chuckles. "Eat me, Dave."

"Hey, maybe someday I will," Dave says, picking up a glass. "We met on I-95 coming out of Philly. Damn shit-show that was."

"I'm Glenn. It's nice to meet some new people," He said.

Rick hands Glenn and Michael a glass. "Rick Grimes," the officer says.

"Michael Negron." the other officer said.

Dave looks at Hershel. "How bout you, pal? Have one?"

"I just quit," Hershel answers.

"You've got a unique sense of timing, my friend."

"His name's Hershel," Rick says. "He lost people today, a lot of them."

"I'm truly sorry to hear that." Dave raised his shot glass in a toast to the fallen members of each party, "To better days and new friends and to our dead, may they be in a better place." The five men took their shots,

Dave dropped his glass and then reaches for the bottle. Rick eyes the SIG-Sauer P228 handgun poking out from under the waistband of Dave's jeans. He pulls it out. "Not bad, huh. I got it off a cop."

"I'm a cop," Rick states.

"So am I." Michael said.

Dave grins like an idiot. "This one was already dead."

Rick glances at the outsiders. "You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia."

"It feels like we're a long way from anywhere," Tony says.

"Well, what drove you south?"

"Well, l can tell you it wasn't the weather," Dave says. "I must have dropped thirty pounds in sweat alone down here."

"I wish," Tony replies.

"No, first it was DC. I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highway, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing."

"One guy told us there was the Coast Guard sitting in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands."

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the county. Kansas, Nebraska."

"Nebraska?" Glenn repeats.

"Low population. Lots of guns," Tony says.

"Kinda makes sense."

"Ever been to Nebraska, kid?" Dave asks. "Reason they call 'em flyover states. So, how about you guys?"

"Fort Benning, eventually," Rick says.

"I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. Said the place was overrun by lamebrains."

"Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?" Glenn asks.

"Sadly, I am. Ugly truth is there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab ahold of you when you sleep."

"If you sleep," Tony adds.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here. You holed up somewhere else?"

"Not really," Rick says after a pause.

"Those your cars out front?"

"Yeah. Why?" Glenn says.

"We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear?"

"We're with a larger group," Hershel says. "Out scouting, thought we could use a drink."

"A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit," Dave says with feigned surprise. He becomes serious when we don't laugh. "Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it safe?"

"It can be. Although I have killed a couple of walkers around here," Glenn replies.

"Walkers? That what you call them?"

"Yeah."

"That's good. I like that. I like that better than lamebrains."

"More succinct," Tony says.

"Okay, Tony went to college," Dave says.

"Two years."

"So what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development?"

"Trailer park or something? A farm?" Tony asks, walking over to the other side of the room.

"Ol McDonald had a farm…" He sang as he trailed off, looking over at Tony, who laughed, unzipped his pants, and began to urinate on the wall. Dave looked back to Rick, "You on a farm?" Rick heard the trickling and looked over at him disgustingly. "It's safe, it's gotta be. You got food, water?"

"You got more cooze? I haven't had a piece of ass in weeks." The group looked over at Tony and Dave rubbed his forehead,

"Listen... pardon my friend here these city kids, they have no class or respect. So listen, Glenn—"

"We've said enough," Rick interrupts.

"Well, hang on a second. This farm, it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?"

"Yeah, real sweet," Dave's companion says.

"How about a little southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We could pool our resources, our manpower."

"Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option," Rick says.

"Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem."

"I'm sorry. We can't," Hershel says.

"We can't take in any more," Rick adds.

Dave chuckles. "You guys are something else. I thought, you know, I thought we were friends. We got people we got to look out for, too."

"We don't know anything about you."

"No, that's true. You don't know anything about us. You don't know we've had to go through our there, the things we've had to do. I bet you've had to go some of those same things yourself, am I right?" Rick gives no reaction. "'Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So come on, let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other."

Rick looks down at the glass in his hands, then back up. "That's not gonna happen."

"Rick—"

"This is bullshit," Tony snaps.

"Calm down," Rick says.

"Don't tell me to calm down. Don't ever tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you four assholes in the head and take your damn farm!"

Rick stands, and Michael slide off the bar, both of them ready for a fight. Dave stands. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody. Nobody's shooing anybody. Right, Rick?" Dave says, climbing over the bar.

Rick and Michael turn to him, Their hands hovering over their guns. Tony reaches for his Mossberg HS12 shotgun, and Dave puts his handgun on the counter. "We're just friends having a drink. That's all," Dave says calmly, taking his hands away from the gun. "Now, where's the good stuff, huh?" He puts his hands together, rubbing them as he looks below him. "Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff. Let's see." Dave lays his hand on the counter, causing Rick to start to pull his gun out, but stops when Dave pulls out another bottle. "Hey, look at that. That'll work." He twisted off the cap and began pouring his drink, "You gotta understand, we can't stay out there. You know what it's like."

"Yeah, I do," Rick answers. "But the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking."

"Keep looking," Dave repeats. "Where do you suggest we do that?"

"I don't know… I hear Nebraska's nice this time of year…" Rick suggested and Dave only laughed while stepped back from Rick's words. He was completely intent on finding the farm,

"Nebraska…" Dave shook his head and laughed, looking over at Tony, "This guy…"

Dave reaches for his gun, but Rick and Michael are ahead of him. Rick fires, hitting Dave in the head and killing him instantly. Michael turn before Tony can fire and put a shell in his stomach and shoulder. He slides down the wall, firing into the ceiling, and Michael walk over, putting a shell in his brain. Glenn and Hershel look at them in shock. Rick stands over Tony's body, his gun aimed at his head, even though he's dead. Hershel and Glenn appear beside them, Hershel next to Rick and Glenn next to Michael. Rick holster his gun, staring down at Tony's body.

That's it for this chapter. Stay tuned for the next chapter. As always, read and review. And May the Force be with you!