Lilly's POV

"Bah… another dead end…" I groan, getting even further discouraged when I realize that we've actually come across this same exact dried-up pond at least three times by now. We've been going in circles trying to find out where that girl may have headed off to, and it seems that Racheal's been having pretty much the same bad luck.

We've been keeping the soccer fields on our left shoulder just so that we have a sense of where to regroup should we have to, but that's also meant that a lot of the wooded area around us is going to remain unexplored. Kazuki could be lying dead in a ditch and we'd have no idea.

I told Jane that Ellie and I would be a team and cover this area over here, but I'm not so sure that she was too pleased with the setup. In truth, it really was just so that I could get a small sliver of time to myself. I don't really know what it is, but Jane and I… we're not really connecting like we used to. There's something missing between us that we haven't been able to get back, and I can't exactly pinpoint the exact reason behind it. Is it me? Have I become… boring?

Maybe… maybe it's just a combination of the both of us not being as compatible any more. I don't know.

But lately, I've noticed that the spark we once had three years back has started to stagnate and decline. I still deeply care about her, and probably always will… but is it bad that I'm starting to lose some of those feelings towards Jane? Gah, I'm so confused!

"Are you okay?" Ellie suddenly asks me, confused as to why I've been standing here looking off into the distance for the past five minutes.

Trying to play it off as nothing, I quickly nod and fiddle around with my torn ear; placing a strand of hair overtop of it as I pick the fire axe back up.

"Yeah, bud… Just getting a little off-track, that's all."

"That's what Clemmy tells me sometimes, too," she explains, sounding adorable when she calls her Clemmy. They're gonna grow up to be so close-knit to each other, I swear. "I see her all the time looking up at the sky – she always says that her head's up in the clouds… but that's kind of a dumb thing to say, isn't it?"

Chuckling quietly, I turn back towards her as we prepare to head back to the soccer fields. You know it's bad when you have to take a child over to a place filled with dead or dying corpses because the alternative is even more dangerous – out in the open, we could be vulnerable to an attack from all angles. That's why it's always a better idea to be on the move whenever you're outside friendly territory.

And aside from our little base in Houston, it seems that the entire world is unfriendly territory.

"It's just an expression," I say to her, clarifying a bit more when she gives me a puzzled look. "It's something that people say when they aren't really paying attention to what's going on around them. Like… like if I was talking to somebody for a long time while walking, and wasn't watching where I was going as I smacked into a lamp post."

"Did that happen to you?"

"…maybe."

Giggling at my expense, Ellie covers her mouth and grins childishly as I can't help but snigger a little bit myself. Seeing the girl actually having a little bit of spark left in her is a really nice thing to witness – I was starting to worry that learning of her mother's death would cause her to collapse.

As soon as she had mentioned Clementine, however, most of my thoughts had started drifting away to our little intervention back in Houston. Mainly feeling a little dismayed at the prospect of Clem not fulfilling her part of the bargain and coming to us for weekly sessions, I can't help but wonder why she would choose to hide something like this from us for so long. Does she not have enough faith or trust in Jane and I to be able to actually talk about the voices in her head? Thinking like that is a little disturbing, if I'm being honest. It's making me obsess over the little details that she may be omitting in our conversations.

What else isn't she telling us?

Caught off guard a little as a lone walker wobbles its way over from the suburban homes, most likely looking to feed, I frown in concentration and grip the handle of the fire axe as if I'm going to war. One should be easy enough to deal with.

Taking a few steps forward, I'm surprised to hear Ellie's little voice behind me halting my progress.

"Can I do it?" she asks out of the blue, with me doing a double take to check if I just heard that right.

"Seriously?"

"Well… they try to hurt people, right? So… do shouldn't I try to get the monsters away?" she points out, making my head spin as I blink in astonishment a few times. Since when does Ellie, or any eight year old for that matter, actually want to kill one of these things? I don't even want to, and yet I'm killing things almost on a daily basis!

I can only internally debate with myself for so long, given that our undead chum has spotted us and will be upon the two of us pretty soon, so, against my better judgement, I slowly lower the axe to the ground before jogging back towards the redhead.

"We'll take him out together, then," I affirm, pulling a pistol out of my back pocket and holding it in my hands. "Don't worry about the noise – if there were a lot of those things around here, then they'd have already picked up the scent and been here hours ago. We're mostly in the clear on this one," I explain, watching as she gulps in anxiety, perhaps realizing that this might be a big first step. "Here," I hand her the weapon, making sure that she has the barrel facing downwards at the ground before briefly checking to make sure that our friend is still a ways away.

Instructing her on the proper, yet basic techniques of how to fire a pistol, I correct her posture a little bit and tell her not to hold her breath for too long. Just a short burst of it will be all that she needs to aim it correctly. We'll need more time for her to hone her skills to a further degree, but these things can't be rushed. Forgetting the basic safety maneuvers could be potentially life threatening.

Grasping her hands in mine as I bend down behind her, I tell Ellie to relax as the walker's hungry moans get louder. "Ready?" I ask, feeling her cheek brushing against mine as she nods her head. "On three then, we'll shoot this sucker down. One, two… three!"

Although we manage to land a direct hit on the target, it still isn't exactly enough; only managing to take out the walker's cheek as the chunk of flesh hangs off of his head in a grotesque manner. Unfortunately, and it shows, Ellie can't really un-see something like that.

Firing another shot that penetrates right through the skull, our team downs the undead foe as I pat Ellie on the back and start to search the guy's pockets. Hopefully our friend here is packing something useful.

"…damn, nothing but pocket lint…" I mutter, honestly not having expected much with him obviously being dead for such a long time. "Anyways, that's the idea, Ellie. We want to keep them as far away from us as possible if we can. This guy was just by himself though, so we can't get cocky, alright? But this was good for your first – "

"Guys?!"

"…attempt…" I trail off, knowing fully well that Jane isn't going to be mighty too happy with me. However, along with Racheal in tow, the rest of the missing crew has also come along for the ride. But for some reason, most of them look as if they had just seen a ghost. "Umm… everything cool, guys?"

Not getting a response from any of them, I watch as Katie sticks a loaded gun warningly up against Kazuki's back; eyeing her like a hawk as she keeps her mouth firmly closed. Marcus can't even crack a smile upon seeing Ellie and I, which is weird considering how damn cheerful he always seems to be. Kelly appears as though she'd just rather be anywhere but here, and Clem… Clem just looks… disappointed.

It's obvious that I'm not going to be getting any clear answers at the moment, but I get the feeling that Kaz must have really done some bad shit to get into this mess.

Upon glancing over at the walker with a skeptical glance, I sigh deeply as I try to explain things to Jane. "Ellie and I handled it – I was just showing her how to use a gun properly."

Waiting until everyone else is out of earshot as they head back towards Alden and the rest of their camp, Jane brings me to the side as Ellie just kind of stands there awkwardly; unsure of what to do.

"Couldn't you have given it a rest with the walkers? Hasn't she gone through enough shit for one week? Haven't we all?" Jane lists off question after rhetorical question, but I won't break under the pressure. Just like old times, I'll stand my ground and make sure that I get my valid argument across to her. "That gunshot could've drawn out more of them – you know that! What's more, how can you be sure that we won't need those when we head back home?"

"We checked every nook and cranny of this area – it was clear. And besides, she'd have to learn this at some point or another. What better example than dealing with the real thing?" I point out, despite realizing that she has some valid concerns of her own.

Running a hand through her shortened hair, Jane shakes her head in annoyance and pokes me right in the chest. This means war, apparently.

"What the hell is happening with you, Lilly? This isn't like you!" she exclaims, getting all up in my grill as I can hear her concern coming through in her tone. "You've never been one to take risks like this…"

"No, that's usually your department. But sometimes… sometimes it's necessary, Jane," I rebuke, feeling the strength in our relationship start to wane as we argue for about the billionth time. Usually, it's just friendly banter going back and forth, but these kind of heated debates haven't really been a common occurrence over the past few years; not since when we had first met each other back at Howe's Hardware. "Just… would you just get off my ass about this? Look, Ellie's fine, and we got the job done. I don't need a lecture about this right now."

Seemingly sensing that she needs to back off a little bit, Jane takes a couple of steps back; looking as if she's about to say something, but then swiftly shutting her mouth closed and frowning at me.

"Don't make me be the one to bury you… I don't know if I could handle that," she whispers, leaving me temporarily speechless as she motions for Ellie to walk with her back to Ranger's Grove where the rest of the crowd is awaiting us.

Meanwhile, as I watch their figures slowly get smaller and smaller as they get farther away from me, I contemplate the meaning behind those words. Out of context, that could almost sound to a passerby that Jane had actually wanted to kill me, but I know that's not what she meant at all.

Jane thinks that I've grown reckless – reckless and foolhardy. In my mind, this couldn't be further from the truth. Ellie had wanted to learn, and I knew at that moment that teaching her to defend herself would be the best option, especially considering all of that craziness with David that I had heard about.

I don't want to throw my life away. Not now, not after finding a place in this world where I actually fit in and can make a positive difference. No… I can't be wrong about this. Perhaps it's just the Caul stubbornness kicking into high gear, but I'm not wrong.

Jane is.

Clem's POV

Look at this place. Nothing but a disease-ridden, body-filled slaughterhouse with almost no hope of it ever returning to its former state. These poor folks are seriously considering living in a place like this? They may as well just abandon the soccer field altogether!

"We need to help them," Kelly whispers as some of my fellow comrades nod in agreement. It looks as though they've changed their tune pretty quickly after the dust settled. "Isn't there something we can do? There's barely any food around here, and good luck with waiting for these guys to try and settle on anything. I mean… just look at them."

Most of the remaining residents of Ranger's Grove are either lazing around here, licking their wounds and looking deeply confused – mainly about what they're supposed to do with their lives now that their camp is in such disarray. For some, this place is all they've ever known aside from their own houses, and to try packing up and leaving without a real destination must be so nerve-wracking.

A bunch of the men and women still look extremely hostile, glaring at us intensely as they clutch their weapons close to their chests. They've definitely figured out that Tracy is still locked away inside, and are just itching to get a crack in at her. I can't believe that I actually kind of feel bad for Tracy, especially with all of the harm she had inflicted upon our group.

Then again, after seeing Kazuki basically torch a guy to death, it's not exactly hard to see why.

As about ten to fifteen residents start to head towards the office building behind us, getting blocked as a bunch of us raise our guns out warningly and snap at them to back off, I know that the time to step in is now.

With Jane and Lilly to help back me up, even though they appear to be at odds with each other, I clear my throat and step in front of a great brute of a man; causing him to laugh as I frown up at him.

"Out of the way, pipsqueak!" he tells me, yet I just step in front of him again and hold my arms out to try and block him. "Look, kid, this ain't about you, alright? That bitch in there fucked us all in the ass after she promised that we'd have a better life, and she fucking lied straight to our faces! Now either get out of the way, or get prepared to be mauled to death!"

Whistling for Marcus to stand down upon hearing those threats, I fold my arms together and shake my head. "Tracy's been through enough – killing her won't bring the people you lost back to you."

In response, the great big lug of a man grasps me firmly by the collar of my jacket before tossing me to the ground and paving the way closer towards the office building; leading to a heated argument with our own people as Racheal, Katie and Alden all start throwing insults and threats their way.

Jane's got a hand on the hilt of her hunting knife just in case, but I motion for her to back off as Ellie helps me to my feet. Smiling sweetly at her, I pat my little protégé on the arm tenderly as I glance at the impending mob; having broken through our ranks as more of this camp start to join in. Tracy must be shitting herself right about now.

Getting annoyed with their rowdy, obnoxious behaviour, Lilly places four fingers up to her lips as she whistles extremely sharply. "EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" she bellows as slowly but surely, some of their group start to turn around.

The big guy and his cronies, though? Nope, they keep on banging against the door, not realizing that Alden has actually had the key to the room this whole time.

"We don't have to keep fighting each other anymore!" I exclaim, wanting this to be as peaceful as possible. "Enough blood has been spilled this week as it is! You can't keep blaming one person for all of your problems, guys! That's… that's just stupid!"

"Oh yeah?!" asks an obviously distraught woman, trying to voice the raging, desperate thoughts of her friends. "And what the hell would you know about this shit, huh?! Look at you, riding into town like a sheriff coming to save the fucking day… Don't act like you're taking the moral high ground here, missy!"

"We're all in the same community now…" I disagree, shaking my head and holding firm in my belief. "There's no reason for any of us to try and kill each other over our differences. Our real enemy is out there, out in the wastes! If we try shooting each other, then the walkers have already won!"

Having captured the attention of pretty much everyone except for the guy who shoved me at this point, he turns around slowly as his face flushes crimson from embarrassment. Was that really so hard for him to do?

Giving her input, Jane steps up to the plate next as I look over in pride. She's come so far from being the lonely, isolated woman that I had met back at Howe's, and I'm actually pretty glad to see this change come through. She's finally seen the benefit of having people watch over your back, even though it practically took parts of her fingers, her life and some of her sanity in order to crack that message through her skull.

"She's right," Jane agrees, standing next to Racheal as she stays relatively quiet. "There's no sense in shooting up the place just to get some kind of revenge. That can destroy someone, and you don't want to fall any further than you've already sunk. You guys need to start rebuilding and thinking about your future – how are any of you supposed to live if this is what it's going to take to satisfy you all?"

Alden, from his spot along the wall and still holding up his ankle somewhat, chimes in next. "The way I see it, if you guys charge in there and rip her to pieces, then she's already gotten to you. Don't let her win," he mentions as Emily nods her head in support.

"Then what do you suggest?" asks a man looking to be in his late forties or so. "Do you expect us to just drop our guns and hold hands? Is that what you'd have us believe?"

Shaking my head, I speak up once again as I relay to them a plan that we (Jane, Lilly and I) have been cooking up for some time now. The inner council back at the space centre was actually good for something after all, apparently.

"One of the reasons that we came out here in the first place was to look for other survivors – people like you," I emphasize. "We've been trying to make contact with people from wherever we can… but you guys and the people at Hunter's Retreat have been the only big groups we've found in a long time. We want to get humanity rolling again."

"What part of the fucking undead apocalypse did you pricks not understand?!"

Getting a chorus of nods and yells thrown my way as one troubled soul voices his own opinion, Katie rolls her eyes and scoffs as Kelly tries to get her to keep her voice down.

But, as usual, Katie's got an opinion on just about everything.

"Call it what you want, but you've got either two options here. There's us, and the dead – there's no in-between with this shit. Like it or not, we didn't come to this fucking place just to dick around. So why don't you listen to what the kid has to say instead of just flapping your gums like a bunch of assholes?" she deadpans, actually making me smirk slightly. I really didn't expect to hear Katie praise me like that, even if it was a pretty sarcastic way of doing so.

"Thanks, Katie," I nod appreciatively, before turning back to the crowd. "Look, our group is based out of Houston, Texas. We're all holed up in a base with walls, food and protection," I explain, trying my best not to get their hopes up for fear of some of them trying to attack once again. "Those houses you have over there? You can't just find something like that out of the blue – you've got something really special around here, and you can actually start building a community. We… we can trade with you! Food, supplies, medicine! We can get a system going here, and if we all work together to ration it properly, then we might never have to go hungry ever again!"

"…that's a damn big maybe," the gruff man says, although looking as if he wants to believe my words. "How… how do we know that this isn't some kind of trick? How do we know that you're not just gonna leave us here in the dust and not follow through on your so-called plan?"

Contemplating a suitable response that would be enough to satisfy their desire for peace and prosperity is proving to be quite a challenge, seeing's how most of them have been shit out of luck for quite a while now. They're close to starvation with little to no hope of renewal, and they need some sort of reassurance that things will turn out alright. I don't know for sure if I can provide that kind of support by myself.

However, after mulling it over for a few seconds, I put on a determined face and try my best. That's really all that I can ask for.

"There are never any guarantees… but what do any of us have to lose at this point?" I shrug, eliciting a few dry chuckles as I bring Ellie closer to my side. "All we can do is try our best, because we're this world's last hope. If we can't get things rolling again… then who will?" I continue, grasping onto Ellie's hand as she gives me a comforting squeeze. "We're the future now – it's up to us to bring ourselves back and make something of ourselves again. Today is when we stop just surviving… and start living."

Hours later, I'm sitting in the back seat of a pickup truck as Ellie's head rests on my lap; her body slowly bobbing up and down as she starts to gently pass out. I don't blame her – I'm about ready to fall asleep, too!

Glancing out the window as Lilly makes some last-minute arrangements with the elderly couple from Hunter's Retreat, who along with a handful of others have decided to try and move into some of the suburban dwellings over in Ranger's Grove, my eyes start to flutter as I absentmindedly stroke Ellie's forehead back and forth. Somehow, such a simple gesture has become enough to calm me down from all of the excitement.

"Pretty epic speech there, boss," Jane comments from the driver's seat, glancing at me with approval through the rear-view mirror.

I can't help but chuckle slightly in embarrassment, not being used to that kind of thing. It actually made me feel more like Lee than I ever thought it would. "Yeah? Well I kind of had that in my back pocket for a while now… I'd been thinking it up ever since we left this place," I tell her, feeling Ellie shuffle a little bit on my lap. "And we're a team, Jane. All of us. I'm nobody's boss…"

"Try telling the rest of them that, Clem. They all look up to you in some way or another – that display pretty much cemented the fact."

"…I don't like being in the spotlight…"

"Me neither, kiddo," she agrees, sighing as she rests her foot on the dashboard. Kenny had gotten angry with her the last time she did that. "But sometimes that's the role we were meant to play, right? Sometimes we all have to do things that we don't like… even when it hurts the people we care about…"

Knowing fully well that there's something going on between the two strong women that I've grown to care deeply for, I frown slightly as Jane stares longingly out the front window.

"Jane?" I ask, my voice quiet enough as to not disturb Ellie. "Are you and Lilly… fighting about something?"

"…it's complicated."

"That just means that you don't want to tell me."

"So maybe that means you shouldn't be asking then," she mutters sarcastically, sighing when I give her a knowing look. I'm not somebody that she can just brush to the side. "She's… I dunno, Clem. I still love her like crazy, but… lately I get the feeling that Lilly… maybe… maybe we'd actually be better off if we… if we…"

Waving it off, I slowly get the message as she bites her lip and huddles into herself; deep in thought as I try to sort through what this might mean. If Jane and Lilly were to split up… how would that affect the two of them, I wonder? I'll admit that I don't know very much about the concept, with my expertise mostly going towards killing walkers, survival techniques and trying to keep the peace (along with some pretty epic speeches, apparently), but if they're unhappy being with each other all the time, then wouldn't this be the best solution?

"…I want you both to be happy – that's all I really care about," I mention, watching as Lilly finalizes things with the elderly couple and slowly starts to walk around the side of the truck. "So when we get back… maybe you should tell her that. Maybe it's for the best."

Cutting myself off further as Lilly opens the door and steps inside, I briefly glance at Jane as rests her chin on her fist and stares out the opposite window. I guess that I'll find out whether they're still together in a few days' time.

Secretly, I've always liked the idea that Jane and Lilly have grown so close to each other. I know that not everyone really sees it that way, and claim that their relationship could potentially compromise the two of them from seeing straight (no pun intended).

But if the two of them want to be with each other and enjoy themselves amongst all of the crappiness and despair that we have to deal with every single day, then who are any of us to stand in the way of that?

"Tracy isn't coming… gave Emily some line about not wanting to live like that. If they break into the offices, then there's really nothing we can do…" Lilly explains as I nod my head slowly in acceptance, looking over at Kazuki who's in the seat next to Ellie and I. With how deathly quiet she's been, it would be easy to mistake her as not even being there at all. "Some of the people here are coming back with us in the other vehicles, so Racheal and Emily both have radios if we need to keep in touch with them."

"How many are we bringing back?" I inquire, curious as to whether or not we might end up having a capacity problem after all.

Counting in her head as she drums her fingers over her leg, Lilly pauses for a moment as Jane rolls down the window and sticks her head out. Shouting to the back compartment to ask if everyone's seated properly, Alden smacks his palm on the side of the truck as Jane starts the engine.

At least the truck we came with still has enough juice in it.

"Including us, I'd say about twenty-five or so," Lilly finalizes as I nod. That's a pretty decent number, and would be enough for now to at least fill our empty beds some more. The space that we have is going to waste, although I doubt that Luna, Jake and Scott will all see it that way. They probably had gotten back from Georgia days ago. "And we've set up that trading route – we had to finalize some details and give them some weapons for reimbursement, but they've mostly agreed. Some of them are farmers, and apparently there's a stretch of farm land just up the road for them to try and grow corn, soybeans, that sort of thing."

"That'd work perfectly," I tell her, feeling quite pleased at what we've all accomplished today. As Jane pulls the truck onto the dirt road, honking once to wave goodbye as Lilly once again pulls out the map, I glance out the window and gaze upon everything that we're leaving behind. We're going to have to assign people to be runners going back and forth in order for the trade routes to actually mean anything, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll end up being our pilots back home, but for once, I'd say that we've actually had a pretty happy ending for this week.

You did good, sweet pea, Lee praises me as I see his face faintly in the blue-coloured sky. You did good.

Bo's POV

Knocking over and tossing whatever I can get my one remaining hand on, including old computers that don't work anymore, a couple staplers and various assortments of chairs, I try to vent my anger as James sits there and leaves me to my grief. He knows just as well as I do that out here, out in this space centre with no hope of therapy in sight, I've basically just been given a death sentence.

I don't care how childish it may seem, and I don't care if James can see the pissed off tears forming in my eyes as I keep screaming out to the heavens. This such bullshit, and the good doctor knows it too. I've already lost my arm, my family, my home and my friends… why would I be chosen to carry this burden? How could I have been so naïve?! So fucking naïve?!

Wearing myself out as I make a complete mess of the place, I sit down in the only other chair that remains as my shoulders shake in grief. Cancer… I should've known that it would come to this. My buddies always used to joke that I was practically invincible, and that absolutely nothing would be able to keep me down.

Well fellas, this might be just the thing to prove you all wrong.

"…I don't suppose that you've got a chemo lab on you by any chance?" I ask sarcastically, my heart sinking further as he shakes his head solemnly.

"No," James admits, "and the one in Houston is a dud with all the dead walking around…"

Leaning my head back in defeat, I slouch my shoulders as I let out a huge sigh. "Looks like I've punched my ticket then," I remark, not expecting my friend to immediately glare at me and smack me across the head. "Ow! What the hell was that for?!"

"Don't ever fucking say that again, you hear me? You're not giving up, Bo! I won't let you! We'll find a way!"

Not appreciating his optimism at the moment, I glare fiercely over at him before leaning forward and practically spitting hot fire in his face. "Oh really?!" I sarcastically exclaim. "Well why don't you go ahead and tell me then, James? Go for it! Go right the fuck ahead, because I'm more than willing to listen to suggestions! Go ahead, I'm all fucking ears!"

Holding up a finger, James actually twirls in his swivel chair back to his desk as he practically barrels through a various assortment of papers, most of which appear to be maps of some kind.

"Urgh… wait… there… there was a place out in Utah… Salt Lake City," he rambles on, getting the same look on his face whenever he feels especially driven and determined about something. "I had a few colleagues of mine coming from over there, said the place was a gold mine in the healthcare field. When things started to take a turn for the worse, that's one of the first places they locked up," he explains, looking into my eyes as he repeatedly nods his head. "St. Mary's Hospital, we could try there!"

Groaning as he continues to dig through more files, flinging them to the desk at nearly lightning speeds, I wander on over to him and hover over James' shoulder. "What makes you think it's still up and running? The city could be covered in roamers! How would any of your buddies know?"

"They're good sources, alright? They're reliable, and I trusted them! They wouldn't be wrong on this, and St. Mary's had one of the best cancer wards in the country," he recalls, flipping through some more notes until he stumbles upon the correct one. "Look here, see? They had to have left some equipment behind."

"Sure, but you wouldn't even know how to work it regardless. You're a scientist, James, not an oncologist!"

"Well I can sure as hell try my best! I'm trying to save your life, man! How can you not see that?!"

"I do! I… I do…" I soften my tone, knowing that he truly cares and that he doesn't understand my reluctant behaviour. "I just… don't wanna go all that way and waste your time if there's nothing we can do about it…"

That settles him down a little bit, as James leans forward in his chair and buries his face tiredly in his hands. I truly appreciate all that he's trying to do for me, and I would absolutely try to do the same for him were the roles reversed. However, as much as I'd be willing to go to the ends of the Earth for him… I don't want him to have to do all of this shit on my behalf.

Ignoring my worries as he sternly shakes his head, James clears his throat and looks deflatedly over at me.

"…we're going to have to tell the others if we're heading out that way…"

"I know."

"What do you think they'll say? More importantly, what do you think Clementine will say?"

Frowning at that, I shrug my shoulders in ambivalence; honestly not too concerned about what she might think of this little adventure of ours at this point.

"You know just as well as I do that she can't stop us – not unless she wants her secrets exposed," I reason, admittedly feeling a little shitty about potentially blackmailing the girl, but also still feeling pretty annoyed and frankly ashamed of her at the same time.

With James also looking a little uneasy about me saying stuff like that, considering that Clem has actually been a pretty big part of getting this initiative to take flight, he nods silently before turning his head back to look at the screen; leaving me to my thoughts as I decide to take a walk in order to clear my head.

Salt Lake City, huh? Well, James… I sincerely hope you're right.