"Good idea," Gabriel agreed, far more sanguine than he felt. A day's walk had proven that he really wasn't in the condition of most of the others, a fact he regarded with envy and disconcert. He added innocently a moment later, "And if all else fails, we can always throw that twitchy guy to them."

He was joking. Mostly. There were a few people here he suspected he might have enjoyed pranking, but he couldn't say for sure whether they were ones he'd use as bait.

And right now it didn't matter. He hefted his rifle and stepped a bit closer to the Doctor. The archangel didn't particularly want to go hand-to-hand, since it wasn't his speciality anyway (speciality being, of course, a relative thing), but particularly given his current body. And the little old man was funny, besides. Gabriel didn't particularly want him to be eaten; who else would he have some stimulating and ungrudging conversation with?