Worlds Apart

Confrontations

"Well, this is lame." John voices after some time on the road, clearly bored.

Brian shrugs but says nothing to confirm his agreement.

"Jackie, could we get some base bumping in here?" John follows when no one decides to comment on his complaints.

Luckily Jackie grins before sparing a brief glance to Carter. "Babe?"

"Already on it." He confirms, leaning forward to select a song off the cue.

Jackie grins by the time the erie intro of Add It Up by the The Violent Femmes is echoing through the speakers. "Good one." She states, sparing back a glance through the rear view mirror towards a clearly confused Eadric.

"What is this?" Eadric asks, looking to me.

"It's a long ride." I merely comment with a shrug, resting my forearm over his shoulder closest to me. "Besides, it gets somewhat less weird in a bit."

Brian confirms this as the he mimics the drumline kicking in enthusiastically, John slyly singing along while looking Ukaleq over sensually. She may raise a brow judgmentally, but her wry grin shows she is at least somewhat amused by all of this. Alice starts pulling away as soon as Brian has attempted to wrap his arms around her once the chorus has kicked in, but her shouts of protests drowned out by her giggling prevent her from effectively doing so. Carter glances back at some point, clearly entertained by the scene unfolding before him before looking to me with an apple in hand. I nod, catching it and take a bite from the tart fruit by the time he has turned back ahead again.

My own grin is wide by the time Eadric has looked to me, somewhat shocked by the lyrics being blared through the speakers as Jackie turns the volume even higher.

I merely shrug in answer before offering him a bite of the apple given he brought nothing to eat himself for the journey.

He takes the apple from my hand to take a large bite out of the fruit, shaking his head a little as he chows down on it gruffly.

His awe causes a my grin to widen even more so as I set my arm back over his shoulder after patting his chest a couple times in mocking reassurance.

Soon enough John is out of his seat, locating the large opening of the sun roof up above us before he abruptly stands to raise his arms, releasing a loud cheer that all of us bust out laughing to.

"I'm the king of the world!" He shouts, probably quoting some old movie from one of the archives or something.

"Not this one." I mock in time for Eadric to scoff wondrously.

An alarming ringing from one of the many monitors along the front of the truck abruptly halts our little jam session of sorts, however, as Eadric and I immediately tense up, looking to the front.

Jackie cuts off the music before calling back to direct us, "Guys, up front."

"What is it?" I ask, sitting forward slightly by the time she has brought the rover to a complete stop in the middle of one of the many open plains around us.

"Motion trackers near the Dropship." Carter states, resting an arm over the back of Jackie's seat to get a better look at their positions. "We might run into some trouble once we're back in the woods."

"Any idea what it could be, Commander?" Brian asks, directing our intent expressions to a focused Eadric.

"My best guess, wolves." He concludes, his authoritative tone inarguable. "They hunt at night but given we're only a month or so away from our first snow, they might be stocking up."