He watched her approach, not approving, and started to move forward, to pull her back - so they could, at least, have a plan - when she turned back on her own.  He breathed a sigh of relief that was transmitted through the link they had.<br/><br/>"Why bother?" he said when they were far enough away that the sound was distant.  "To kill it.  Because you're pissed off that it almost got you?  Or that it preys on people's soft emotions?  All the time, I watch predators start to eat their prey when still alive - I've done it, myself.  They could kill it, but why bother?  There's nothing like morality down here."  The echoes of what he said earlier:<i>the world doesn't care, the world is chaos, indifferent to suffering; we give the cosmos order</i>.  "Avoid the trap feeders - and there are a bunch down here, lying in wait, or having lures, wait until you get a scent of the vat feeders, it's like fucking ambrosia, like all the best foods you've ever wanted to eat - and tell others about them.  They're just trying to get by, not too different from us, except they're stupid and we're their food if we fall for their shit."<br/><br/>He nodded.  "Today, we'll be places I've been.  About three hours up ahead, there's a place I've stayed before.  It's under a hot part of the city, but there's clean water and we can do some scavving - I think it was a place the Old People went to to use these carriages that flew down these tunnels, but there's a lot of stuff they left behind, and probably a few muties.  A few hours past that?  It's exploration.  New ground."  He paused for dramatic effect.  "Your guess is as good as mine."