Pip launches into the air the moment Didi clears the exit.

"I'll check ahead," he says, so loudly Jackus could have heard him from about a two kilom radius. She just waves at the bird, grateful he's willing enough to come along without further argument.

The gunslinger is a continual surprise, and she finds herself glancing back over her shoulder to check on him as she moves through the paths in the trash. She needs to resist thinking of him as a person, but it's ...