"Bala-Tik." We heard Han greet the leader of the gang from above us, "What's the problem?"
"The problem is that we loaned you fifty thousand for this job." The man with the accent snarled at him.
Rey crawled in between Finn and me and asked us quietly, "Can you see them?"
"No." Finn and I both whispered back at the same time as we tried to find where the gang was.
Rey nudged us and motioned at us for her to follow her. We crawled through the small tunnel and kept looking until we found the gang. Rey stopped when they were right above us. The man with the accent was saying, "I also heard you borrowed fifty thousand from Kanjiklub."
"You know you can't trust those little freaks! How long have we known each other?" Han asked the man. His 'talking himself out of it' plan didn't seem to be going so well.
As Rey examined the gang above us, her eyes widened and she informed us, "They have blasters."
"A lot of them." Finn confirmed.
That's when I saw that each member of the gang had two blasters on their belts. I felt myself become nervous as I listened to the conversation above us continue.
"The question is, how much longer will we know each other? Not long." The Guavian Death Gang leader told him, then demanded, "We want our money back. Now."
Han sighed exasperatedly, "You think hunting Rathtars is cheap? I spent that money!"
"Kanjiklub wants their investment back, too." The leader informed him.
"I never made a deal with Kanjiklub!" Han exclaimed.
"Tell that to Kanjiklub."
Before we knew it, the door on the other end of the hallway opened up, and there were more footsteps heard above us. The three of us looked at each other with wide eyes nervously since Han, Chewie, and BB-8 were now surrounded by two gangs.
"Tasu Leech." We heard Han say, but he sounded pretty nervous, "Good to see you."
The leader from the other gang spoke in a different language that the three of us didn't understand. Han told the two leaders, "Boys, you're both going to get what I promised. Have I ever not delivered for you?"
"Yeah!" Bala-Tik exclaimed.
Tasu Leech hissed another remark that we didn't understand.
Han hesitated for a moment before asking, "What was the second time?"
"Your game is over. There's no one in the galaxy left for you to swindle." Bala-Tik hissed at him, while Rey, Finn, and I slowly started to crawl down the tunnel back towards Han.
Then, I heard Bala-Tik say, "That BB unit. The First Order's looking for one just like it... and three fugitives."
Rey, Finn, and I all stopped in our tracks and looked at each other with wide eyes. The gangs know we are on the freighter. I immediately became scared for BB-8, who was still with Han in plain sight.
"First I've heard of it." Han told him.
Kanjiklub didn't seem to believe him since the leader barked out an order and we started to hear footsteps. Rey, Finn, and I quickly started crawling through the tunnels, but we tried to stay quiet. When we came to a four way intersection, we saw that there was a control panel on the wall. Rey saw it and said, "Wait, wait." We crawled over to it, and she told us, "If we close the blast doors in that corridor, we can trap both gangs!"
"Close the blast doors from here?" Finn asked.
Rey nodded her head and said, "Resetting the fuses should do it."
She began to reset the fuses on the control panel. Finn and I held our arms up to protect us from the sparks that were flying from the panel. Then, the lights in the ship slowly turned off, and my heart dropped to the floor when I heard a loud roar from inside the freighter.
"I got a bad feeling about this." I heard Han say from above us.
"Oh, no." Rey said nervously with wide eyes.
Please tell me she didn't accidentally do what I think she just did.
Finn turned to her and asked, "Oh no what?"
She inhaled a breath and looked around nervously, "Wrong fuses."
Right after she said that, we heard the gangs pull out their blasters, and Bala-Tik yelled, "Kill them! And take their droid!"
A small gasp escaped my lips, but since it was now loud up there, they didn't hear me. I went to crawl to where BB-8 was, but Finn grabbed me quickly and stopped me when there was loud roaring above us. Then, there were screams coming from the gang members above us and my heart dropped.
The Rathtars are out.
"We have to go!" Finn said to me.
"But BB-8-" I started to argue, but he cut me off.
"Han and Chewie will take care of him. Come on!" He urged me.
I let out a small sigh of defeat before following him and Rey down the tunnel. As we crawled as fast as we could, worry immediately overcame me. Not for myself, but for BB-8. We needed to make sure he was safe. Not for my sake, but for the galaxy's sake.
"This was a mistake!" Finn exclaimed as we dodged the sparks flying everywhere while attempting to crawl through the tunnel.
"Huge!" Rey agreed.
When we finally reached an area where it was somewhat silent and there were no signs of Rathtars or gang members, the three of us worked together to move the floor panel above us. Once it was removed, the three of us stood up and looked around to make sure there was nothing in sight. When I saw the coast was clear, I told them, "Lets go."
Rey nodded, and we both placed our hands on Finn's shoulders and pushed ourselves up out of the tunnel. The pressure on Finn's shoulders must've been too much because he ended up falling back into the compartment. He managed to climb out of the tunnel, and the three of us took of down the hallway. We were careful in the directions we ran, but it was hard to tell which way was the right way back to the Falcon because all of the corridors looked the same.
"What do they look like?" Rey asked us as we ran.
But when we turned a corner, we halted to a stop, and her question was answered. Right in front of us, there was a large Rathtar holding a gang member, who was screaming for his life. It's long, slimy tentacles swung at us, but we all dodged them quickly. Rey and I both stared at it in horror. It looked scarier than I imagined it.
Finn grabbed both of our arms and said, "They look like that."
A small gasp escaped my lips, and Rey's hand flew up to her mouth terrified as Finn pulled us away from the Rathtar. Since I was now horrified, I pushed myself to run faster down the hallways because I really didn't want to get eaten today. Or ever.
When we came to another intersection, Finn looked in all directions and randomly shouted, "This way!"
"Are you sure?" Rey and I both asked him at the same time, but still followed him anyways. Before he could even answer us, we saw Finn suddenly fall to the ground and started to be dragged away from us. When we turned around, our eyes widened at the sight.
One of the Rathtars had Finn.
"Finn!" I shouted as Rey and I began to Chase after him and grab him.
"Elyse!" He screamed in terror while trying to reach out to us, "Rey!"
"Finn!" Rey shouted again.
The two of us tried to reach out and grab Finn's hand, but we stopped in our places when one of the Rathtar's slimy tentacles almost grabbed onto us. Once it was gone, we continued to run after Finn and the Rathtar. But when we turned the corner, it was gone.
I turned to Rey and asked panicking, "Where did he go?"
Rey seemed scared as she looked down the corridors for Finn. She grabbed my arm, and we continued to run through the freighter calling for Finn. When we finally heard his voice close by, we followed it to a room with a small control panel. We looked at the cameras and saw Finn was still being dragged through the corridors by a Rathtar. We spotted the buttons on the control panel, and the two of us looked over at each other. When I nodded my head at her, she looked back at the cameras and held her hand over the button. When the Rathtar just went through the door, she pressed the button. The doors closed, and the tentacle that was holding Finn was cut off, which allowed him to break free.
"Nice!" I said while high fiving her.
She just smiled at me in thanks before the two of us ran down the corridors to find Finn, who was sweating bullets. When we got to him, he still seemed shocked about how he just got free.
"It had me." He panted to us, "But the door-"
"That was lucky." Rey cut him off.
We both grabbed his arms and dragged him down the corridor with us. As we ran down the corridor, I told them, "We need to get back to the ship... god, I hate running."
"Where the hell is it?" Finn asked us.
Rey and I didn't answer him as we continued to run in the direction we came from. We let out a sigh of relief when we found the bay where the Falcon was. Luckily, Han, Chewie, and BB-8 were already there. When I saw Chewie holding his arm, I immediately ran over to have a look at it. He must've gotten hit with a blaster because it's bleeding pretty bad.
"You, close the door behind us." Han told Rey as we all began to run onto the ship.
Then, I told Han, "I'm a doctor. I can fix Chewie up."
"Take him in the back and take good care of him." He told me, and I immediately nodded my head. Han looked at Finn and said, "You go help her."
Finn just nodded his head, and the three of us ran to the back of the ship while Han and Rey went to the cockpit. As I helped Chewie lay down on the bed, I turned to Finn and said, "Get me the first aid kit."
He immediately ran to the other side of the room, and I turned to Chewie, who was roaring in pain. I assured him, "It's going to be okay, Chewie. I'm going to take care of you."
He just roared to me a little quieter than before. Finn ran back over to me with the first aid kit. As I began to examine Chewie's arm, I felt the ship start up. I immediately braced myself as we took out of the hangar at light speed. Once I was used to the speed, I continued to rummage through the kit. I pulled out the bandages and motioned Finn over to me.
"Okay, I'm going to need you to hold him down." I said quietly.
He looked at me with wide eyes and repeated, "Hold him down?"
"Yes?" I repeated, not understanding why he was so surprised by this.
"He can fling me off of him with a swing of his arm! How do you expect me to hold him down?" He asked me.
"Just try." I said annoyed with an eye roll. Then, I continued, "I need to wrap the cut tight so that way there's pressure on it so it'll probably hurt. That's why you need to hold him down."
He just stared at me like I was crazy, but then he eventually sighed, "If I get a major concussion or something, it's on you."
I just gave him a look before turning back to Chewie. As I got the bandages ready, I told the Wookie, "Okay, I'm going to patch you up. Now, I'm not going to lie to you because that never helps. It's going to hurt so... try your best to sit still."
"Oh boy." Chewie responded.
Then, I began to wrap his arm up, and it became a wild house. Chewie roared loudly in pain and immediately began to squirm around. Finn was doing his best to hold him down, but it really wasn't working that well. As Chewie swung his other arm, I had to duck down quickly so I could dodge it. When I popped back up, I said to Chewie, "Chewie, please try to relax!"
He just roared loudly again and continued to try to fling Finn off of him. I continued to wrap his arm as tightly as I could, but I couldn't help but tell myself that treating a Wookie is just as hard as I expected it to be. Poe is probably laughing at me right now.
Finally, Finn shouted throughout the ship, "Okay, I need some help with this giant hairy thing!"
I heard Han shout from the cockpit, "If you hurt Chewie, you're going to have to deal with me!"
"Hurt him? He almost killed me six times!" Finn said, but that caused Chewie to grab him by the shirt collar and roared in his face. Finn just added, "Which is fine."
I took this opportunity to quickly finish bandaging up Chewie's arm. Once it was finished, I gently pushed Finn off of Chewie and assured him, "All done."
"Thank goodness." Chewie replied, "Sorry for moving around so much. Your friend didn't do a good job holding me down."
I just laughed and said, "Don't say that. You were fine. Do you need anything?"
He just shook his eyes and closed his eyes to get some rest. I stood up so he could rest and went to sit down next to Finn, who was sitting at a small booth with a round table. As soon as I sat down, I asked him, "Are you okay?"
He just nodded his head and replied, "I'm never doing that again."
A small smile just formed on my lips before turning back to look at Chewie, who was already asleep. Then, Han and Rey walked out from the cockpit. Han looked over at Chewie, then looked at Finn and me, "Good job, and thanks."
I nodded my head and replied, "You're welcome."
"Yeah, no problem." Finn added.
He went to put his elbow down on the table, but when he accidentally hit the 'on' button, the table lit up and a bunch of holograms of small creatures appeared on the surface. Finn was in awe while I just stared at all of the different creatures. I never saw a game like that before so I wondered curiously what it was. When the pieces started to fight each other, Finn quickly turned the table off.
While glancing at Finn amused, Han asked us, "So? Fugitives, huh?"
Fugitives. Just the word put a weird, nervous feeling in my stomach. If Poe heard me getting called a fugitive, he probably would've burst out laughing.
"The First Order wants the map. Finn and Elyse are with the Resistance." Rey told him, "I'm just a scavenger."
Han looked at me for a moment before turning to Finn, who he eyed warily. Then, he turned to BB-8 and said, "Let's see what you got."
Instead of showing the map, BB-8 turned to me. I assured him, "It's okay. Go ahead."
Since he had my permission, he rolled over in front of us and a blue projection appeared in front of us. It was the map that Lor San Tekka gave us, but I frowned when I saw that it didn't look complete.
"This map's not complete." I said quietly.
Han nodded his head, "It's only a piece of it. Ever since Luke disappeared, people have been looking for him."
Then, Rey stood up and asked, "Why did he leave?"
"He was training a new generation of Jedi. A boy... an apprentice turned against him and destroyed it all. Luke felt responsible and walked away from everything." Han told us while he examined the piece of the map.
"Do you know what happened to him?" Finn asked.
Han paced the room as he answered, "There are a lot of rumors. Stories. The people who knew him best think he went looking for the first Jedi Temple."
Rey's eyes widened in amazement as she asked, "The Jedi were real?"
"I used to wonder that myself. Thought it was just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, a magic power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light." Then, Han turned around to face us and said, "The crazy thing is, it's true. The Force, The Jedi, all of it. It's all true."
We all just stared at Han in awe and processed all of the information about the map and Luke. Before any of us could say anything else, an alarm began to beep from one of the consoles. Chewie went to stand up, but Han said, "No, you rest." Han turned to Rey, Finn, and me, and said, "You guys want my help? You're getting it. We're going to see an old friend. She'll get your droid home. This is our stop."
As we made our way to the cockpit, I only hoped and pray that Han was right. We need to get BB-8 back home as soon as possible. Especially with all of the information we know.