“Good luck,” says Yvette, who does not want to go back in the worm, thank you, and will begin running accordingly. “I’ll be with the car!”

"Yes, I am going back in the giant worm that thinks like it's people for some kid I don't know who may be a psycho, next question, and ask it fast if you want to have enough time to run."

Because the worm is very much starting to pick up speed to get to them.

"Do you have literally any exit strategy or are you just hoping you'll be sneezed out again."

"I'll figure it out."

"Well screw that noise, I'll use my gigantic gun."

Apparently she is going into the worm with him, then.

He offers her a small smile.

And then he gets ready to be eaten again.

He will have his wish.

It is not more fun the second time around!!!

"Yeah, okay, that's settled. Not calling you dad, this would be child abuse," she grumbles.

He dusts himself off as he gets to his feet again. "You chose this, I did not impose it on you. Now let's look for that kid."

"Yeah, yeah, fine."

Up she gets, and then they can get to looking. In this giant worm. How are they supposed to find someone in here again?

Well, you put your right hand on the wall and you start walking along it.

(Not literally. But metaphorically. Follow the wall.)

This is a dumb plan, but she will nonetheless support him in his choices, because without her it would in fact be even dumber. Grumble grumble, squish squish as they travel through the worm.

But they don't need to look very far; this time the kid is right there, standing in the middle of one of the open areas in the "stomach".

They turn around when they hear Zash and Morgan, let out a little squeak, then run directly towards Zash to wrap their arms around him in a tight hug.

"—oh. There you are. I was so scared, are you alright?"

Morgan, meanwhile, is frowning again. Suspiciously.

Zash—

—freezes. Then releases the kid and takes a step back. "That noise..."

The kid... starts grinning, and a whole host of flying worms starts surrounding them. "You can hear it? Wow! Normal humans usually can't."

"Yeah, funny thing, I think we left the only one we had back outside. Fresh out."

"...that couple. Did you kill them?"

The kid turns their grin to Morgan before looking at Zash again. "You should've listened to your friend. People always assume, when they see adults and a kid, that the kid must be theirs, right?" They lift their hand to touch the front of their hat. "But we're truly touched..."

"...that you came back for us," they finish, and as they pull their hat off their appearance changes, their pupils contracting into slits, a thick bumpy fleshy collar emerging around their neck.

"Yeah, okay, fuck this."

Gigantic laser gun! It's BLASTING TIME. The worm around them, not the kid, because she's increasingly suspecting that the kid is... just some kind of puppet thing.

The various smaller bugs now try to intercept the laser and absorb whatever they can of its power. The kid jumps out of the way of the laser blast anyway, and the bits of the shot that aren't absorbed by the bugs are still bad enough that they carve a hole on the worm, showing that it's... well, not underground, at the moment.

"So rude!"

"Who are you?" Zash is still not going to waste bullets on the small bugs but he's considering wasting them on whoever—or whatever—this kid is.