He starts laughing, mostly in relief, and he drops back on his ass on the sand to watch the spectacle of the weight of the creature resettling in itself.

She flops back to a seat next to him.

"Still super weird to be fine with killing worms, but not humans, though. Where does that leave weirdos like us, huh? Do you have a flow chart or something for me."

"If it's a person it's bad to kill," he explains. "...though I confess that after today I might be needing to revise what I think a person is."

"Ahuh. And what if that person is going to go and kill other people. What then."

"I haven't yet needed to kill someone to prevent that." The times he failed to prevent people-killing were not ones where killing someone would've actually fixed it, or was actually possible.

"Well good for you, then."

She lights another cigarette, because she didn't really get to finish her first one.

"Your girlfriend's going to come pick us up, right, we don't have to walk back?"

"She's not my girlfriend. ...and probably."

"Whatever you say, man."

She does, in fact, drive out to come pick them up.

"So the diner has a built-in water purifier, a shower, and beds!" she says brightly, popping out of the car, looking perfectly clean and her clothes practically sparkling white again.

Both Zash and Morgan are covered in sand, goo, and blood, so the contrast is very drastic.

"And we have dinner," he says, gesturing at the monster.

"And, technically speaking, a source of water, too! Well done. No kid, though?"

"Kid was a worm in disguise."

"I have additional questions."

"Can I have that shower first."

"They're mostly directed at the state of the world, my understanding of it, and worm physiology, but since I do in fact have some for you and your healing factor, yes of course."

Back they can all go! She has put towels down on their seats, and they can lash a large hunk of worm meat to the top of the car.

"I'm really not sure what to make of Zazi. I did not think worms could get that intelligent."

"Zazi being the kid-who-was-a-worm? I mean, I know that they're a sort of... networked intelligence thing, smarter in larger groups, dumb as rocks in smaller groups, so. It does stand to reason that there could be enough of them to make a proper intelligence. I've just never heard of it before. Or one that large. Or there being a worm that looks human! And talks! Because he, they, it? definitely talked, right, I'm not making that up?"

"Oh, yes, they talked. And somehow I don't think they came with English pre-installed, so."

"So the original life on this planet that we puny humans crash landed on has been secretly watching us all and judging and learning about us. For an unknown period of time."

"Looks like! But speak for yourself, I was human, but I don't think I count anymore."

"That was targeted," Zash says, because it obviously was. "At... me, most like." Then he looks at Morgan. "How could you tell? I—couldn't," and Yvette will know enough by now that she'll see why that's weird.

"That the kid was the killer? It was really, really obvious. Nothing else made sense. No signs of anyone leaving recently, the blood was still kinda fresh, the kid was right there in the closet. There aren't a lot of ways a kid could overpower adults, but surprise and a knife is one of 'em. I still don't know why it didn't seem to occur to either of you."

"I... really wouldn't expect a kid that age to be capable of such. Cold blooded murder?"

"You need to meet more kids."

Zash shakes his head. "They looked innocent," is what he can say, which sounds lame but it's not like he has anything better than that. No one's ever hid this well from him—other than Nai.

But it would make sense, for an entirely different type of mind. He doesn't know what to do about that.