His finger raised to head level and his mouth opened to reply to JJ but Vin's sudden outburst surprised Nate into a moment of silence. Only a brief moment though.

Nate furrowed his brow at Vin in confusion, glanced at JJ and then back at Vin. "Can't I do both?" he asked, only half joking. "The plan, [i]Vincent[/i] is to wander into that there mine, check all the nooks and crannies and make sure there are no snakes or bad guys or fiery bears with machete claws that can kill is in our sleep. I went to a lot of trouble to secure the area around here and I don't want to not check the other end of our new digs and regret it when something creeps out on us from the shadows."

He started to move away from JJ towards the mine but half turned around to her and said. "And Jennifer, don't worry about it. This isn't going to be like that movie." He turned his back to her again and muttered "Because we're not friends."

As he passed Eric, Nate suddenly spun around to the kid and put his fingers to his temple as his face scrunched up.
"EW!" reacted Eric with a look of disgust on his face as he recoiled from Nate.
"Sorry." apologised Nate as he put a hand up. "My mind drifted. You stay out here and keep the entrance safe. If Eli comes back, let him know where we are."

He spun around to the rest of the group and yelled "The rest of you. Get in the hole."