Angela accepted her own fish from Helmet without complaint and tore into it without care. After swallowing, she frowned momentarily and carefully examined the creature with crimson eyes. It didn’t taste right, not like fish, at the very least. She looked to the others, who happily ate and bantered, and let the matter go. Either it had been too long since she had a fish, or the flavor had somehow changed; she wouldn’t put it past the invaders to have caused something like that to happen.
“Alright!” Helmet chipperly bellowed after everyone was finished, “We have a long walk through the woods tomorrow. Is everything prepared?”
“I have seen to making sure everything will be in order,” Slacks replied cooly.
“No worries, boss, we have nothing that will lead us to a loss,” Bandana added.
The older man nodded and pulled apart his rifle, taking care everything was in order.
“Is the forest such a big deal?” Angela finally asked after a moment of silence. She had trudged through so many in her machine without issue that the strange care of the group caused curiosity she couldn’t help but satiate.
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“Most likely not for someone who gets to be cozy in a Reaper,” Slacks snidely replied.
The young woman’s brows furrowed, but she kept her mouth shut long enough for Coat to jump in.
“The Worms like to let pets and stuff loose occasionally, think animals, but modified to be ten times as deadly, and they tend to hide in forests. We think it might have been their natural habitat. Either way, there is always a possibility we might get ambushed.”
Angela took a moment to reply. Most aggressive things she squashed without care—some nonaggressive things she did as well—being in the machine gave her a different perspective from the group with boots on the ground, and Slack's snide reply prodded at the back of her mind. She bit her lip and clenched her fists while trying to think of a response to the bald sniper. She wasn’t sure if she ought to let it go or not.
“I take it that this means you’ll continue traveling with us?” Helmet asked.
Angela’s red eyes grew wide momentarily, and she stared beyond the group, out in the distance. Behind the river was the forest the group planned to pass through the next day, and beyond that was a range of mountains hauntingly lit by the pale moon above.
“Until we cross the mountain range…” she muttered, her voice trailing at the end.
“Great! We’re happy to have you!” Helmet replied, but she mostly zoned out what he added afterward. Angela had already gotten lost in an internal debate over what she was doing.