“What the fuck do you mean there are survivors!?” I repeated, some of my lingering anger slipping into my voice.

“There is a group of Digits that survived from earlier drops, but they are difficult to find considering the size of the wilderness around the city,” exclaimed Koma.

He was obviously alarmed at the response of our group. The others had quickly shaken off sleep and fallen in behind me, partially surrounding Koma, and blocking the path to the door. Beta handed me my wrench without me having to ask for it, but I set the head down on the ground.

They need to know.

No. Not about the Calforn. That is for you and me only. If they get off this moon they can know.

The conversation between Koma and I that went unheard would determine the interaction between our group. I could guess why the Calforn had not approached the group even when he knew about them; he would have been attacked outright. I was sure that if we fought Koma we would win, but not everyone would come out of it in the end.

“Alpha! We need to contact them right away! Lord knows how long they have been stuck here.” Zeta spoke up, getting a hold of my arm. There was desperation in Zeta’s voice, surely assuming the worst.

“They have been here for approximately three months,” said Koma.

“Why did you not approach them? You said yourself you were following us, ‘keeping an eye out’.” I questioned the Calforn.

“There was no way for me to interact with them without them trying to kill me. The only reason you all did not outright kill me was because of you.” Koma accentuated his point by jabbing his finger on my armored chest, causing the others to flinch.

It dawned on me, that if the other survivors had made it this long they would have encountered humanoid mutants as well as animal ones. Koma did not seem able to retract his extra arms or even hide his features long enough to interact with the survivors properly.

“Very well. We will look for them when we are more establish-”

“No! We need to go and get them! There is strength in numbers, you know that Alpha. Look at how we took down that horse thing!” The look in Zeta’s eyes told me she would remain adamant about contacting them. I sighed, shaking my head gently.

“Fine, fine. We need to see Starden first otherwise we will be in a tight spot food wise. Especially with me having to eat more to umm… perform.” I just barely managed to placate the woman, so knew I would have to keep to my word.

“I think the girls and I can manage the delivery with Marvin. Delta, how about you and the others search through the buildings and gather what else you can find.” I saw the shock in the others as I spoke of splitting up. I felt bad gambling with their lives, but Koma was an asset we needed to use while our goals alined.

You know I can hear most of your thoughts still, yeah?

I cursed silently, but I pushed my plans to the man mentally. To the others it looked like we were eyeballing each other menacingly, but I moved past that before it made them nervous.

“I think Koma has proven himself enough with that weird creature outside. Plus, everyone seemed to be okay with him following us here.”

“Well… that was because you were here Alpha,” said Gamma from behind the others.

I turned to look at her, spotting the same concern she had shown when I had mutated in front of the others.

“It’s alright, Gamma. Koma will behave or I will come back to rip all his arms and shove them down his throat.”

The details of my threat caused the girl’s eyes to widen, but I said it more for the benefit of Koma. I looked over my shoulder at him before he replied with, “Noted.”

“With that settled, Koma can you separate the ape upper body from the rest? I’m gonna take it, and one of the dog bodies, to exchange for rations.” The man replied with a curt nod. “Good, get me once that is all done and we are ready to move out. I might need a nap to finish recovering.”

The others chuckled, Delta and Gamma still eyed Koma suspiciously, but they all began descending the stairs. I watched them leave, Marvin remaining behind in case of a worst case scenario. I hobbled over to the ATC and plopped down on the ground, my back resting on the robot. Before I knew it, I had Koma slapping my face to get going.

I felt a growl escape me, but I quickly reeled it back in. I could tell my instincts and emotions were heightened since the mutations started in full swing, but I needed to keep them in check. I had Marvin follow us downstairs and I loaded the ape body onto him. Once that was done and I had the girls stand on either side of it to make sure it didn’t slide off I picked up one of the exsanguinated mutated dogs and threw it over my shoulder. I winced slightly; my muscle and bone injuries from the fight with the experiments had not fully recovered, but I grit my teeth and faced the group.

It was odd seeing Koma in his simple pants while three armored humans stood around him. I wished them all good luck and activated my helmet as did the girls. The trek to the surface was well known now, but I kept myself alert.

Test your mental range, Alpha.

Good plan.