Fox searched for Coco. He knew her well enough to pick her out of a crowd, and it was even easier because she was above the crowd, on a rooftop at the edge of the square. He leaped up lightly and joined her.

He heard chaos down below. People shoving and fighting in the alleyways, fists hitting flesh, bodies hitting the ground. Out of the mess of minds clustered below, on top of one another, Fox noticed some of them heading away from the crowd. Heading out of the settlement. Not a bad idea if the Grimm were on their way, though they would be more exposed outside the village walls.

Are those people running away armed? Do they have supplies?” Fox asked.

“No,” Coco said.

“Then they’ll die in the desert, or come crawling back later,” Fox sent. And since they had fled instead of helping defend their settlement and people, they might not be welcomed back so warmly.

“If there is a later,” Coco said.

Fox heard groups of people sobbing, arguing, shouting. Shouting everywhere. And they were so worked up, their thoughts so unguarded, he was even being flooded with snatches of their thoughts, impressions of their feelings carried telepathically to him and then amplified by whatever was causing this. As if his own feelings weren’t enough to try to control.

We’re going to die was the most common thought, from people all around him.

We’ll be together again soon, Mariah, came another stray thought.

Why aren’t they doing anything?

Where’s Slate?

My kids. I have to save my kids.

We’re going to die.

“Shut up!” That thought was Fox’s, and it wasn’t until he heard momentary quiet in the square that he realized he’d inadvertently mentally shouted at everyone in his immediate vicinity. They were probably more confused than cooperative, though.

“Ow,” Coco said. “Thanks for the headache. But that was good, Fox. What else you got?”

- RWBY: After the Fall, Chapter 4