AN: Dear Petulant Octopus and Star of Fate,

That was fucking hilarious XD. Both of you seem to think that your OC is playing the other for a fool – it's awesome to see that :D But let's be real here, we both know who's really in charge…

Ellie, of course! She's a scheming, little mastermind! Nothing passes without her consent! NOTHING!

BTW, if any of you saw last night's episode of season 5 for the show… holy shit. Carol legitimately SCARED ME last night. That was the coolest and most intimidating thing I've ever seen from her, and the fact that it also involved cookies of all things somehow made it even creepier. I'm going to draw inspiration from her speech in one of the parts here, hopefully you can spot it if you've watched the episode :D

Ahem, anyways, here's the next chapter…

Tommy's POV

My legs feel incredibly stiff. Stiff, paralyzed, broken, whatever you want to call it – I am unable to get myself to move. As I stand there, wide-eyed and staring at Bo in shock, I watch as he bends down to clean up the mess I've left on the floor.

"You really should be more careful with these kinds of things, you know," he exhales, struggling to collect the fallen papers and putting them back in order. "James doesn't appreciate people looking through his stuff, much less leaving them all over the place. He likes to keep things in order, you know."

Before he can put the binder back on the bookshelf, I roughly grab him by the shoulder and squeeze tightly; stopping him in his tracks. "I want answers," I tell him hoarsely, feeling like my voice has suddenly gone and disappeared, "right now."

"About…?"

"Don't fuck with me right now, Bo! You damn well know what I mean!" I fiercely yell as I snatch the binder away from him and open to one of the pages. "Patient seventy-four, extensive brain damage – now dead! What in the fucking hell is this all about?!"

Shrugging me off, Bo grimaces when he sees that I'm not about to let this go so easily – the questions or the binder. No way am I just going to ignore something like this, not with so many others around. He and James are always huddled together up here, all locked away and secluded from the rest of us. We all just assumed that they were just trying to work together on finding a cure and getting us all out of this nightmare.

This certainly doesn't look like it to me!

"…James and I have brought in bite victims in the past," he tells me hesitantly; the focus in his eyes telling me that he's said this kind of thing before. "We've taken in people who were in critical condition, tried to fix them up as best we can, and then wait for whatever happens next. Those patients on that there list have all died peacefully – we put a knife in each one's head afterwards to prevent them from turning," he elaborates with a shrug.

Lighting a candle to keep the room a little bit brighter, Bo waves the match around and blows it out before placing it gingerly into the garbage can. With his laid-back attitude and calm, calculating demeanor, I reckon that he's been delivering this clever story many times over. His words are smooth and unwavering; enticing me to want to believe what it is that he's saying.

Wordlessly, I lean against the counter and continue to stare at him.

"It can be a pretty messy job at times," Bo admits; his stump hidden underneath a long-sleeved shirt. "But we do what we can to make sure that the process is as painless as possible. Wouldn't want them to have to go through too much trauma on their last day…"

When I do nothing but narrow my eyes at the Italian-looking man, he sighs and awkwardly shuffles from foot to foot. "Well," he remarks, "if that's everything, then… I'll just see you out. Gotta lock up the room and all that stuff, you see. Wouldn't want everybody looting around in James' belongings."

"Hey, Bo?"

As I finally do recover my ability to speak and turn to him with a disbelieving smile, the tranquility almost immediately gets erased from his smug little face. He knows that I've caught him in one of his own traps.

"I don't think you're a bad guy – in fact, most of the time I think the complete opposite of that," I mention, standing to my full height to match his gaze. "So come on, tell it to me straight. Man to man," I tell him, my voice barely above a whisper, "how's about you drop the act and tell me the truth? I reckon you don't have much of a choice in the matter, seeing's how I know it'll take you a lot longer to draw your gun with one hand. Go ahead and get that off your chest."

"…I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure you do. How's about we try this again?"

Glancing my way for a solid ten seconds or so, Bo suddenly bursts out in a fit of chuckles as he shakes his head and rubs his face tiredly. "Wow man… I really didn't expect you to try this. Threatening one of the people who could kick your sorry ass out of this place… You really didn't think this thing through, did ya?"

At my questioning look, Bo lightly kicks the door shut behind him and sits up on the examination table; swinging his legs back and forth like a kid.

"You kill me, and then what happens? Do you really think James won't hear the gunshot? And when he sees my body on the floor, you don't think that he'll automatically assume it was you?" he rapidly pesters me with questions as my head starts to spin. It seems that he's in control of this conversation, and likely has been the entire time. "Seems pretty pointless, doesn't it? All over some hunch that isn't even correct…"

"I know what I've seen and – "

"And you've seen… what? A bunch of papers with symptoms on them? That's what you're basing your entire theory on here?" he cockily states as he leans his head to the right. "Look, I'd rather not have our reputations tainted by your little… ahem, conspiracy theories, so how about I propose something here?" Bo continues as he glowers at me. "The way I see it, you've got two options. Option one – you get to stay here and live out your days as a Firefly and never say a damn word about this to anybody. Not one person. Or, option two – leave the space centre and never come back, no matter what."

"And if I refuse this offer of yours?" I probe further, trying not to feel intimidated at how bloody threatening he's making this out to be.

Sliding off of the table, Bo walks right up towards me and stares intently into my eyes; looking completely calm on the outside but having a hidden meaning behind his words.

"Well, if you do, one morning you'll wake up… and you won't be in your bed," he remarks slowly, making sure that I hear every word. "You'll be outside the walls – far, far away. Tied to a fucking tree. And you'll scream, and scream because you'll be so afraid. But nobody will come to help… because no one will hear you," he whispers in my ear; so close that I can feel his breath against my cheek. "Well… the walkers will hear you, anyways. They'll come in packs and you won't be able to run away. And they will tear you apart and eat you up all while you're still alive. All while you can still feel every single bite into your delicate skin. Nobody will even know what happened to good, old Uncle Tommy."

As soon as he says that last part, images of Sarah pop into my head and I instinctively grab onto his shirt; pushing him away from me as my fingers trace over the pocket with my gun secured inside. It could be so easy to kill this man right now and have his venomous words repelled right back at him.

But I can't. I can't do it.

"Or," he continues, unfazed by my presence, "you can promise never to tell any of your lies to a single person here – no matter what, and nothing will happen to you. I'll know if you say something. Trust me; I've got eyes and ears all over this place. So Tommy… how's about you try this again?"

Feeling whatever camaraderie and friendship we may have had almost indefinitely deteriorate, replaced by an intense loathing for the man, I consider my options. Tell my suspicions to the rest of the group when they return and face the possibility of this nutcase following up on his word, leave the space centre behind for good… or bite my tongue.

Fuck… if only Joel were here with me right now… We'd fix these fuckers up real good. But my brother ain't here with me – I'm by myself, and killing Bo on the spot would look mighty suspicious to the rest of the group. I'd likely end up having to sneak out anyways, with the rest of them hunting me down until either one of us decides to give up.

Gritting my teeth to the point that it physically hurts, I huff out in anger and toss the binder onto the counter as if it's some kind of hot potato. My body tenses with seething rage as he smiles and nods towards me.

"Glad we could reach an understanding," he sighs with content. As I turn on my heel and head to the exit without another word, he hollers after me in a fake friendly kind of way. "Oh, Tommy? Lemme round you up a beer or something when I can! I'm sure there's one loitering around in the basement somewhere!"

Slamming the door firmly behind me, my stroll turns into a light jog as I head outside. I need some air… and a lot of time to think.

Realizing that coming here may have been a mistake after all, I sigh heavily as I close my eyes; digging around in my pocket as I pull out an old picture that I've kept with me for more than a few years now. God… Sarah's championship soccer game…

Joel was so proud of her that day – you should've seen the look on his face.

"Wherever you are, big brother," I say to the sky, hoping my voice will carry on the wind, "I sure hope as hell you're doing a lot better than me."

Ellie's POV

"I wanna fly in the helicopter!" I exclaim with excitement, capturing Jake, Luna, Scott and Clem's attention as I put on a pleading look. "Please? I'll be extra careful in there, I promise! I don't want to stay in the crappy car again!"

Clementine looks hesitant about it, as she usually does about everything, but Luna seems to think that it's a great idea.

I like her already – she lets me do all the fun things!

"Driving's for suckers, that's for sure!" she agrees with a big smile on her face. Why is she talking so funny? "Flying is where the party's really at – you haven't lived until you've had a taste of my shamazing piloting skills! Hehe…"

Putting a cautionary hand on my shoulder, Clementine arches a brow as she looks over at Scott and Jake with a worried glance. "No offense or anything… but should she be the one flying the chopper?" she quizzically asks, making me frown in confusion. Why wouldn't she be allowed to? Did she try to fly to the moon or something?

"Oh… well, you might find this a bit hard to believe," Scott chuckles in embarrassment, "but Luna's our pilot, and well… she kind of flies better… under the influence. It's gotten to the point where she can't really focus that well without some kind of alcohol…"

Scratching my head in confusion, I look up at the grownups (including Clem) and try to get their attention. I don't understand what this dude's talking about! Under the influence? What the heck does that mean?

"I don't know about this…" Clementine says doubtfully, probably thinking that they're bad guys or something. I hope she's wrong about that! "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you three are coming with us, and we could really use your skills… but this? I find it hard to believe that any of this could be true."

"If we weren't positive that Luna could do it, then we wouldn't be letting her fly the aircraft. She's helped us out of a jam more than once," Jake insists, jingling the keys around as Luna snatches them from his grasp. "If we wanted to hurt you with her flying, then why would we be putting ourselves at risk too? You're just going to have to trust us, Clementine."

There's that word again – trust. The adults like to use it a lot for some reason, but that makes no sense to me. Trust people? Why wouldn't people trust each other? That makes no sense at all! If you can't trust each other, then nothing would ever get done!

Hmph… grownups are fucking weird…

Oops! I accidentally thought of a bad word! Now my brain's gonna have to be washed out with soap… I guess?

…tee-hee! I'm such a bad ass!

Looking like she's about to cave, I go up to hug Clementine tightly around her stomach as she finally says yes. She's gonna come fly with me too so that she doesn't miss out on anything!

Man, how cool is this gonna be?! I'm so excited right now!

While Clementine goes to explain what's happening to everybody else, Luna offers to take me up to the roof so we can sit down. "You can be my co-pilot, squirt!" she tells me as I widen my eyes.

"R-really?! You really mean it?!" I ask, bouncing up the stairs as fast as my little legs can carry me. Being small really sucks sometimes…

As Luna holds the rooftop door open for me, sending my hair to whip back and forth against my face, that bubbling excitement I had just a moment ago turns into something a little scarier. Gulp… co-pilot? Doesn't that mean that I have to help her fly the helicopter? This thing is so big!

"What if… what if I mess up?" I ask her as my voice shakes. "I've never even been in one of these things before – I don't wanna crash!"

Laughing to herself quietly, Luna ruffles my hair around as she opens up the front door; letting me go in first as I sit down in front of the steering wheel thingy.

"No worries, kid. I'm gonna be doing most of the flying part – you get to point out all the cool things we see along the way," she explains, confusing me a little bit. Okay… if she's flying this birdy, then why is she showing me the controls?

"There's so many buttons in here!" I remark as Luna sticks a flight helmet onto my head and adjusts it so that it can fit on snuggly. "Whoa! It's like I'm wearing a space helmet! Hey, did Clemmy tell you that we've got a rocket ship back in Houston?"

"Get out of town! No way!"

"I'm serious!" I giggle, watching as her face lights up like a Christmas tree. "It's just sitting there not moving at all! I used to go inside and play with the stuff in there sometimes, but… nobody really wants to do that stuff with me anymore… I have to act all m…matuche?"

"Mature?" she finishes for me, blowing a raspberry as I scoot over for her to sit down. "Trust me, Ellie – being mature is totally overrated. You get almost no time for fun things to do, and people always get fucking pissed off whenever I try to play practical jokes on them. I'm like, really? You're pissed off at me because of one little pack of eggs being thrown at your garage?" she rambles on, totally losing me as I shake my head and try to get all of these confusing thoughts out. "Anyways… don't be in any hurry to grow up too soon, you feel me? It's uh… it can get pretty depressing pretty quickly…"

Aww… Luna looks sad to me! Her shoulders are all slumped down and she's got a small frown on her face. I don't like it when people get all blue and down in the dumps… I hope that she can feel better before we have to go up into the air.

They might put me in control of the chopper for real if that happens! I don't even know how to ride a bike yet, let alone a helicopter – don't tell Clementine, Jane or Lilly that though, okay? It's really embarrassing…

"Everything set, Luna?" Scott suddenly asks, snapping me out of my daydream as Clementine follows closely behind him and Jake.

Giving him a big thumbs up, Luna turns towards me before motioning towards one of the big switches that say START.

"Can I?" I ask, more so to Clementine than anyone else. As she nods at me for the go-ahead, I bite my lip before flipping the switch and trying to cover my ears; getting blocked by the helmet that's covering my head. Man, is that loud!

"We've got contact," Luna's voice suddenly rings in my ears, as I turn towards her in wonder. "It's the helmet, Ellie. There's a microphone inside of it," she remarks, tapping the plastic device. Clementine, Jake and Scott all pile into the helicopter as I place my hands in my lap. "Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gents. We may experience turbulence upon our ascent, so please keep your arms and legs inside of the aircraft at all times. Or don't and just fall out to your death – whichever you'd prefer."

Suddenly feeling a little more scared than I was before, I feel Clementine grasp onto my hand in comfort. "No worries, alright? Nothing's gonna happen to you so long as I'm around," she tells me, making me smile as she does so. Clem's got some crazy way of making people feel better about themselves. "Oh, and make sure that you wave to everyone once we take off, alright? They were pretty jealous that the two of us got to sit in the helicopter while they all had to drive – especially Lilly. I kind of forgot that she worked at an air force base before all of this…"

Laughing to myself quietly, I put my hands up against the glass as I feel the bottom of the chopper start to lift up into the air. Whoa… this is sooooooo cool! We're starting to fly! I never thought that I'd be able to do this kind of thing in a billion, gazillion years!

Rapidly waving back and forth and tapping on the window, I grin to myself as Lilly, Jane, Alden, Emily, Kelly and Kazuki all wave back to me casually before hopping into their cars and disappearing. "They look like ants from up here," I comment as Luna continues to raise us higher and higher into the air. Frowning, I look ahead in the distance as I sigh and feel a little bit crappier. "But so do the walkers…"

"…you can probably land on the roof of the building when we get there…" Clementine mumbles, not looking at anybody as she folds one leg overtop of the other. "Get some sleep, Ellie. It's gonna be a long trip."

"Ha! I'm not even tired!" I brag, feeling fully confident that I can make it all the way back home without even blinking an eyelid.

By the time that we actually do make it back to the Houston Space Centre, I end up finding out that I slept almost the entire way there; missing over half the trip in the process.

Shit!

Nobody's POV

Hunger is on everybody's mind as they gather round the campfire tonight, having just been denied yet another place to live after having it swarmed by walkers. Hunger and homelessness – those are the two main issues to be tackled, especially recently.

But it's always some new kind of problem with this group. Two months ago they were nearly all quickly dehydrating and praying each night for some kind of rain to come crashing down on top of them. Then it was people leaving and cutting all ties to the group. Then it was disease. Depression, anxiety, paranoia – the list goes on and on. Each problem seeming, at least in their troubled minds, more difficult to cope with than the last.

But somehow, with a great deal of effort along with trial and error, Tracy has somehow managed to keep this dangerous rabble together. With some help from Joshua, of course.

She still doesn't know why he's stuck around after the last few years. The group's had some pretty close calls, that's for certain.

"…you're back," Tracy states plainly, looking at Joshua's silhouette through the blazing fire. Somehow it makes him seem more like a devil than a man. "Did you spot them? Anything we can take with us?"

Chuckling sinisterly to himself, Joshua takes a seat on the log beside her as the two of them watch their group of forty-six and counting talk and gamble amongst themselves. The game today is who can get the closest to the tied-up walker without getting their fingers bitten off.

The prize? Who the fuck really knows…

"You're never gonna guess who I found out there," Joshua remarks, giving her a look as she smirks and nods silently to herself.

Oh yes, she knows exactly who Joshua found.

"Looks like we've got some decisions to make," she remarks, clinking her canteen of water against Josh's as she takes a swig of it. "But first thing's first – we're taking Ranger's Grove, one way or another. Whether by force or peacefully remains to be seen, but you need to be ready for a fight regardless. That's usually how these things go."

"Trace… shouldn't we take them out first?" Josh questions as he uses a stick to move the firewood around a little bit. "I know that Alden was out there, and that little bitch with the ball cap, too. They got Lilly back as well…"

"No worries, my friend. All in due time," Tracy insists, going over every little detail in her head as she watches one of her group members nearly get a hand ripped off from a dead guy. "Leave everything to me."