“I did when I had to. Most of the time I stuck to vehicles.” Which made him sound like a coward, so he elaborated. “Got assigned to be the driver for the supply trucks that went into the city. Wasn’t too often I had to travel the roofs, though.” He nodded approvingly when she gave the Scout promise that she wouldn’t venture onto high, dangerous places.
Silas felt his smile widen when she laughed. “Cheese Man? That’s a tame name for a dude who smells that damn bad. Feel bad for his neighbors, if he has any.” He chuckled at the story she shared about her experience with the Cheese Man. “Pretty sure I couldn’t hit him hard enough to beat the stink out of him, but I could try.” A pause. “Second thought, it’d probably make my cane stink, too.”
“Or ones that have the capacity to dig their way in. Sure as hell hope this is just a dumb theory and not somethin’ that could actually happen.” He’d already said something to that extent, but it bore repeating. “Does make ya wonder how they mutate, though.” He wouldn’t suggest that Team Science pursue the study; not after the recent tragedy. It wasn’t his place to be a thinker, anyway. He was muscle, pure and simple.
Silas nodded, taking a few seconds to look at their immediate surroundings. Lots of rooms (the better ones, especially) had already been claimed, but there were just as many empty rooms and cells just waiting for somebody to come along and set up house. For the first time in quite a while, Silas wasn’t worried about where his next place of residence would be. “I’ll be sure to check that out, closer to winter time.”
“Yeah, that guy.” He supposed it made sense for a plant nerd to work with bees, too. For pollination and whatever the hell else. “Well, yeah, but if you accidentally stirred ‘em up, I can’t imagine getting’ stung by fifty-thousand bees would be healthy.”