The jeep stopped at the base of a stepped mountainside, and Helmet whistled up to the platform. Some people scrambled, and they lowered a hammock down after shouting a few details back and forth. The group gently set Coat on the hammock and climbed up several ropes dropped with it.

“I think I’m getting too old for this,” Helmet grunted once he finally reached the top.

“Age is just a number, though I wish I was younger,” Bandana replied.

Coat was loaded onto a food cart, proper medical stretchers were unavailable, and wheeled to a doctor with the others in tow. They remained silent as they took him into a back room, and a doctor younger than Glasses went in to operate.

After what felt like hours, the doctor came back out while wiping his hands clean. He set the rag down and shook his head.

“He’ll live, but that’s a nasty wound. I’d refrain from physical activity for the time being. At least three weeks of rest, if I am being generous. Otherwise, it could turn into something serious,” said the doctor in a cracking voice.

Helmet frowned.

“Is there no way for him to continue traveling? We do not intend to stay in this town that long.”

“No. You’ll have to leave him.”

“Even if he just rode in the back?”

“What could be so important that you have to leave right away?” the doctor shouted. He didn’t bother waiting for the group’s answer and simply waved to the door. “He’s awake, so go talk with him.”

The group met with the patient sitting up in the bed. His torso had been stripped of all garments, and the coat was draped over the chair nearby. Slacks picked it up and began to silently sew the holes shut. They wrapped bandages from his stomach to his neck, and the man scratched where a newly closed wound lay underneath.

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“Quack doctor, let me tell you,” Coat grunted.

“I take it that means you heard our conversation?” Helmet asked.

“Of course, don’t worry about me! Go and get some supplies or something; I’ll be ready to leave even if I have to break out of this place.”

“He seems fine to me,” Slacks said with a roll of his eyes. He set the coat down and slid his sewing kit into a back pocket.

“Bandana, you stay behind…just in case. We’ll see where we need to get supplies and revisit this later.”

After exchanging nods, Helmet and Slacks left the building and went into town.

“What do you plan to do?” the sniper asked once they got out into the busy stone streets.

“What do you mean?”

“We picked up trouble, and now Coats injured. It might be best to leave them both behind and continue.”

“Do you really think we wouldn’t have had the same trouble in the woods without her?”

“Beasts could have been attracted to the machine. There’s no way to be certain, and I don’t like uncertainty. Besides, I feel you want to help her escape that thing.”

“Is there anything wrong with that?” Helmet asked as he stopped to peer in a shop window. The light from the sun was aimed directly at the mountain face and made it difficult to see through the window. He gave up and continued walking with Slacks.

“Besides the fact we don’t know how,” Slacks said coolly. “You get attached too easily.”

Helmet’s head twitched, but his face remained calm.

“What are you getting at?”

“The same way with Glasses, you treat him like a son; you’re giving this girl too much attention. She shares no relation with you; it would be healthy to drop it.”

“I have always valued your opinion, but these years of travel have made you cold. Do you feel nothing for the poor child?”

“It’s not rational to do so; I prioritize my life.”

Helmet fiddled with the strap pressed on his chin. He loosened and tightened it several times while adjusting the head ware before returning it to the same tension it had before.

“I see. Whether or not we like it, she has joined us for at least a while. You must be willing to compromise something, at least a little, right?”

Slacks said nothing as he stared out into space. When Helmet didn’t get a reply, he turned to look in the same direction as the sniper. An enormous black cloud was breaking up, and in the holes that had formed, three dropships were headed straight to the town.