“I’ll go get some stuff together for us to take with us. Get us as far as RV will take us Bricks.” Scott headed towards the back and recruited Vanessa and the now semi-coherent Yumi to help gather everything they needed.

“You hit?” Vanessa asked Scott

“Just a graze, you?” he replied

“My butt is on fire, and my side is killing me, but I’m afraid to look,” Vanessa replied

Scott looked at his friends' wounds.

“Your side looks like it nicked you. Your butt looks a little more serious.”

“Damn it, Scott. My butt is easily one of my five best features.” Vanessa quipped

Brick’s coaxed almost two more miles before the RV’s engine began to flame noticeably under the hood. He pulled over to the shoulder, and the group loaded up with the supplies and headed into the cover of the woods. Alexia managed to keep up due to her heightened athleticism combined with the fact the Brick’s carried her and Vanessa's portion of the supplies. Scott and Yumi made their best impressions of human crutches for Vanessa. Once the road was no longer visible, they stopped for Yumi to wounds.

“We need to get the bullets out first,” Yumi said the group

“Ooooh, this going to be fun.” Bricks stepped forward with a pocket multi-tool that had pliers on it.

“Alexia is first, Bricks, you hold her steady, and I’ll pull it out.” Scott reached for the pliers and grabbed them from Bricks’ hand.

“That ain’t no fun.” A look of disappointment grew across Bricks’ face.

“I don’t need anyone to hold me still. I am a big girl.” Alexia announced

“Yeah, she is a big girl. Now give back those pliers, fool.” Bricks threw his open hand out towards Scott.

“How many bullets you ever had removed from you?” Scott questioned Alexia

“None of your business. I know what I can handle, Scott,” Alexia shot back

“You got shot yourself, Scott. Look at the blood all over your arm. You gotta let me do this, partner.” Bricks said

“Just hold her still!” Scott snapped, all patience gone from his words.

Bricks went over to the woman and held her as still as possible. Scott delicately put the pliers into the wound until he felt it hit the lead. Alexia was gritting her teeth and growling. He extended the pliers wide enough to grab the bullet and every expletive he had ever heard, and several that were new to him began to pour from Alexia’s mouth like water shooting out of a fireman’s hose. Scott could feel her trying to move, and ripples of Brick’s tremendous strength holding her still moved their way through both bodies. Scott made sure he had a good grip on the bullet and slowly pulled it out. He dropped it on the ground and stood up.

“All done.” He proclaimed.

“I hope you die, Scott,” Alexia yelled at him.

“See, I knew I should have done it. I never touch the sides when we played that game Operation as kids.” Bricks puffed out his chest, flashing his pride.

Almost in perfect unison, the entire group said: “Shut up, Bricks.”

“You guys are mean.” Bricks’ chest deflated, and he put his head down.

“Yumi, go to work on Alexia. Bricks, same thing for Vanessa.” Scott barked

“I get the pliers this time, right?” Bricks asked

“You are never touching my butt, Bricks. Never!” Vanessa exclaimed

Bricks held Vanessa down, and Scott repeated the process of finding and removing the bullet. Vanessa went with a primal scream over expletives.

Yumi kneeled over Alexia, put her hands over Alexia’s wound, and closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as possible. Yumi’s whole body began to shake rhythmically, and suddenly it stopped. She removed her hands and looked at Alexia. “You should be good now. The blood loss may leave you a little weak, but the wound is healed.”

“Now, it’s your turn.” Yumi looked at Vanessa.

Yumi repeated the same process as she did with Alexia. After completing Vanessa’s backside, she repeated the process on the woman’s side. She held up her hands to signal she was finished.

“Done. Now for you, Scott.”

“Damn, I don’t even get a snuggle,” Vanessa said as she rolled over onto her back,

“Ok, but it’s just a graze,” Scott said as he removed his shirt. He winced in visible pain as he had to peel his shirt off the wound. The shirt stuck to the drying blood on the wound. The pain flashed intensely, and in that instant, his mind transported back to that warehouse where he encountered Newton. He winced as the memory of that pain flood all his senses. He quickly shut it down, but not before everyone present had noticed.

“That looks like it hurts real bad there, partner.” Bricks said with genuine concern in his voice.

“I am fine, and Yumi will have me as good as new,” Scott said, trying to extinguish the looks of concerns in his friend’s eyes.

“I certainly will,” Yumi said as she laid her hands on Scott’s shoulder and absorbed the damage deep into her reservoir. She could tell there was a lot of pain still inside Scott, but it was the type of pain that she would never be able to absorb.

They all decided to give Alexia and Vanessa a few minutes to rest and allow them and Scott to change their bloody clothes and clean the blood off themselves before they got back to their journey.

Once Scott was as clean as he could get and in fresh clothes, Scott walked slightly away from the group and pulled out his phone. He had limited signal but enough to make a call. He dialed the number he had for Camilla, and after a couple of rings, she answered. He quickly and angrily explained the attack on them at the hands of Ewan.

“Scott, I swear I did not know, and I won’t let this stand. I will ensure that anyone looking for you will cease their search immediately.”

“Camilla, getting everyone on board to work with you was going to be a hard sell, a hard sell I could have made before your people tried to kill us.”

“I get it, Scott. I will take care of Ewan, and I never thought he would disregard a direct order. Stick to the deal we made, and I promise it will be worth your while. Let’s move forward, and I promise nothing like this will ever happen again.”

“I will do what I can. Get Ewan off our trail, and I will be in touch.” Scott hung the phone up. He looked back at the group, and Alexia was cleaning the blood off her body with the help of Yumi. Vanessa was collecting some food from the supplies. Bricks was checking over the other supplies taking stock of what they had available to them. Scott looked back at his phone and made another call.

“Hello.” A sweet voice said on the other end.

“Hey, Baby.”

“Scott! Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, Jeanie. I miss you. How is Walker?”

“He gets bigger every day. He misses his daddy. You going to be home soon?”

“Not too much longer. I got to go, Jeanie. I just needed to hear your voice.”

“You sure that you’re alright, Scott?”

“I am, I promise. Jeanie, I love you.”

“I love you too. Get home to me quickly and safely, Scott Carr.”

“I will.”