Obligation to a community is something that pulls at Oliver whether he wants it to or not and in spite of all his efforts to keep himself separate and apart from everyone else, to not trust anyone else, he's drawn to community and to taking care of a group of people. He's not the mayor of the village (They have no government, which works for their current size. Any larger, though, and some kind of law and order might become necessary) but he does feel an obligation to work toward bettering it, toward keeping people safe and toward being someone that they can rely on.

When he sees the list of names, those chosen to go on the expedition for lack of a better term, his first reaction is the sting of disappointment. Their captors chose these people, specifically, and didn't think him capable? Perhaps it's just ego but he'd rather go and do something himself and keep everyone else out of harm's way than sit back and hope that nothing bad happens to others while it's out of his control.

Control is something that always makes him feel better. His life has had a disturbing lack of control lately.

"What happens if other people go? I'd volunteer to go with them, to be an extra hand. I don't want to mess anything up by replacing someone but I have no problems with being someone additional. I've got decent experience with rough terrain and survival."

Sometimes survival is all he does, whether it's in a place like this or it's back in Star City.