Lena was still shaken by the news, and had half a mind to join Cathy herself. But there was really no point. She wouldn't be any safer up there, anyway.

"Water's a good idea," she said wearily. "That'll wake him up. I really don't want to be anywhere near John's grav-- wher-wherever John was... put," she paused, stumbling over her words, "I don't want to meet any more hungry animals." Especially if there was a chance that said animals could go into a feeding frenzy.

"Moving camp's probably a good idea too," she continued, regaining her composure. "Maybe we'll find a more hospitable spot than this."

Andrew headed back to the fire with five more of the strange burrowers, and began cooking them.

The others seemed to be doing fine with the first aid, and so now getting food into everyone was priority.

Trevor sat down next to Andrew's fire in an attempt to dry off. In doing so, he noticed Andrew roasting several of the scaled creatures, and gave them a look of apprehension. "I could go for a tuna fish sandwich about now..." He sighed. "Wait a minute... what am I saying? Since when do I like tuna fish?!" Noticing his ridge-patterned arm, he rolled his eyes. "Oh. Right."
Standing up again, he turned to the group. "I think we should get moving as quickly as possible."

"EEEEEEEEK!" Cathy lost her grip on the tree and fell to earth. Surprisingly, she landed perfectly on her hands and feet. She turned and glared at Thomas.
"I was FINE up there, thank you very much, and I had heaps to eat. Those leaves looked nice!"
She stood up awkwardly, dusting herself off.
"And the wolf monster will probably get bored of watching me anyway," she huffed to herself.

"Or he could only get hungrier, become more determined, and then he'd get you." Flora said, pulling the sentence together in bits and pieces as she spoke. She shrugged. "But we might be going in circles if we try to leave, so finding you again, still clinging to a tree will help us somewhat."
Flora was smiling slightly, amused by her own thoughts.

We're trying to get away from the monsters and we come across this girl again, and she tells us "You dumbasses went in a circle! Try going that way!" ...Hilarious if this wasn't a serious situation.

Thomas's stomach growled loudly. All this talk about hungry wolves was getting to him.

He reached down near the fire and grabbed one of the roasting burrowers, and dug his new fangs into the flesh. It wasn't completely cooked yet. However, Thomas didn't really care at that point. Meat that was a little rare would be good for now.

"If she did stay in the tree, then we'd know for a fact where the wolves would be. Then we wouldn't need to worry about running into any more of them."

"We can move camp later. Right now, I want to know how much longer until those things are edible." He saw Thomas grab one and start eating. That thing isn't cooked. And he has fangs now?! Jeeze, I kinda wish I was becoming inhuman like the others. Harry looked himself over again. No, hair doesn't count.

"Oh, Tom, thanks for not bringing John back here. I appreciate not having to see him again."

Andrew poked one of the burrowing creatures that were still there, and turned it over.

"They should be done for those who still have normal eating habits soon." After a few minutes, he added "Okay, they're done now"

He reached down into the fire and pulled them out, carefully removing the skins and the organs, and then putting the meat onto one set of skins and the organs on another.

"Dig in"

"Thank you very much," Flora said with one of her prettier smiles and sunk her teeth into the cooked creature. Her face froze for a few seconds.

Nah...I'm too hungry, and I'd only antagonize myself if I told him how bad it tastes.

Flora chewed. And chewed. And chewed. Then she swallowed. It wasn't tasty at all, but it was tolerable, and that meant that she could stomach the whole thing if she absolutely needed to. She absolutely needed to. She didn't know when she'd get to eat something as substantial as this so she better take in every last bite offered.

Lena grabbed one of the cooked creatures, her stomach growling loudly. She sniffed. Eeughhh... Her nose wrinkled in disgust, but her stomach frantically reminded her that she was starving.

It's this or nothing, she reasoned with herself. She took a bite. It was very hot, very tough, and very disgusting, she decided. But it was also very edible and very likely to keep her alive.

She could hear faint noises, above the sounds of her friends moving and talking. Wind, creatures moving... She could also smell a thousand different odors, each one unique and alien. It was both fascinating and disturbing, as though her every sense was on maximum overdrive. Sometimes it was so overwhelming that she feared she would go crazy.

She remembered reading about Sensory Overload and its side effects in a Psychology class once. The body has a type of 'selective hearing' for all of its senses, in order to prevent overstimulation. If a person could feel everything that touched their body in a single moment at the same intensity, or put equal emphasis on every sound that entered the ear at the same time, the body's sensory organs would overload. The person wouldn't be able to concentrate or sleep. Eventually, they could go mad. Until Lena's body adjusted to this new level of awareness, she probably ran the risk of similar side effects. She dearly hoped that insomnia would be the extent of that.

She forced herself to focus on her food rather than the whispering of the wind in various types of plants, the rustle of clothing on bodies, the rhythmic breathing of so many different people... Damn, this sucked.