What-- His eyes narrow in on the nearby figure yelling out to him. Wonderful, just what he needed right now. Alan's hand moves to his gun, trying to get across that he's not completely helpless.

Scratch doesn't need to know he's out of bullets.

"Fuck off, I'm not falling for that!" he yells back. Does the Herald really think Alan's going to fall for the oldest trick in the book? Really, he's surprised that Scratch is already at the bottom of the barrel for creativity.