“If he cared about you beyond how being the big man made him feel he’d teach you how to shoot,” Forest pointed out softly with a frown. “Can’t always rely on him being there, able to do what he seems to think he’s capable of doing. It could just as easily be the other way around one day; you having to save his stupid behind. Any of us, really. We all need to be sharp. To look after one another.” Lex hadn’t had a choice in the matter up until that point. He probably had even seemed like the savior with what the young man was saying, but it was growing old. Lex was tired of it and Forest had a different method entirely.<br/><br/>“He’ll change his tune the first time something goes wrong on that farm. What he doesn’t realize is people want what we have. Not like the city where things aren’t sustainable. People don’t want to be nomads if they can help it.” Which meant they were going to have to defend it if they wanted to keep it, same as Forest and his father had done.<br/><br/>Forest took a known path out of the woods and into the mountains. The horses were surefooted even on the narrow paths and he felt they were safe. The large rockfaces would throw the noise around and he didn’t imagine most people in this day and age anymore would seek out gunfire. Not if they had any sort of sense. And if anyone did Forest would take a shoot first ask questions later sort of approach because they were not likely the kind of people they wanted to bring back home. After they dismounted Forest showed Lex how to hobble the horses so they wouldn’t get far from them and allowed them to graze.<br/><br/>“You haven’t been in a situation where you had to shoot one?” Forest asked as he took Lex through the basics of gun-safety followed by loading and unloading. After that he set up anything against the backdrop of the mountain to use as a target. The ammo would be well spent and they could collect shells before they headed home to reload. Resources had to be spent in order to further the skills of the others.<br/><br/>“I’ll have to do the same with Wallis probably. Mason said the man was all bluff with an unloaded gun so I don’t imagine he’s got much more experience shooting than you do.” Same as with the horse, Forest gave Lex some tips and instruction and then let the man have a go at it. He didn’t get frustrated and instead let him figure out how the different weapons shot. Practice was the best way to get better at anything.<br/><br/>“Most targets will probably be at closer ranger than this, so if you can at least get near the target at a distance we’ll be in a good way.” Forest smiled, encouraging.<br/><br/>“You think you could shoot someone if you needed to? Answer that honestly. It was nothing I took lightly, personally. From a moral standpoint. It’s why I was upset at first when I saw your group, before I realized it was Mason. I didn’t<i>want</i>to. I might have, but I didn’t want to. I don’t like that it gets easier.” Frowning now, he looked a little troubled. His conscious weighed heavy on him but it was something that might have been easier to process if he’d had any chance to think about it before the first time he’d been forced to take the life of a human being. It brought up another question.<br/><br/>"Mason, has he killed anyone?"