"I have no intention of passing out, promise,"  Tess said with a slight laugh, before tucking the pistol in the back of her shorts and starting for the stream.  A rinse couldn't do her any harm, and soon she was crouched in the shallows cupping slightly muddy water over her face and trying to scrub the drying dust, grime, and blood from her hands and arms.  At first she started out with sure movements but eventually the gestures became frantic as she desperately tried to erase the glaring reminders of what had just happened not two hours ago.  

Marcus seemed to have to think over the question, looking down at his pilfered rifle and fussing with the mag clip on it.  
"I'll be fine."  He said after a second, raising his head and giving her a nod.  No smile, it wasn't a time for smiling.  "How about you, and the others?"  He hadn't had much chance to speak to them before, but throughout the hike when he wasn't thinking of Casper and Kyle he was instead mulling over their situation.  They were all pilots save for him.  Granted Richard apparently had some ground combat experience, but who knew how long it had been since any of them had been in a real firefight?  
This was all familiar to Marcus, even the dull ache of loosing someone.  Kyle's squad wasn't his first, after all.  The crack of gun fire, pumping adrenaline, and smell of smoke and ash was as much a home to Marcus now as anywhere else had been.  Sick as it was, it was his comfort zone.  But without a combat suit or back up he would have to approach this whole scenario very differently then any other.  And if that wasn't enough, the risk of Rin in the middle of it all only ate away further at his fraying nerves.