That evening, they were all exhausted. Vizim crashed almost immediately, despite not participating in the previous excursion other than making the explosion. Derrin wanted to keep watch, but Red forced him to sleep. The man hadn't slept the previous night despite going through just as much as they had. Even though his body was stronger and more durable than theirs, two days without sleep wasn't good.
Besides, Red's thoughts were a muddled mess. Their plan had worked perfectly. Once the sun had begun to set, Red and Derrin snuck the bomb into position on the opposite side of the camp. That was far more difficult than they had expected. With so many of the pirates returning for dinner, it was hard to remain hidden. But they had managed.
With the timer set, the two of them had retreated to their hiding place on the plateau. From there, everything worked perfectly. The bomb went off just as they planned, causing panic. Everyone moved to the sound of the distant explosion. Derrin had been able to sneak in and retrieve plenty of food for them without being stopped.
That was the source of his turmoil. Derrin had wanted him to return to the plateau and wait there. Red trusted Derrin and knew the man would be able to escape if it came to it. Despite this, he hadn't returned. They were a team now, even if he didn't want to admit it. That meant having each other's backs in dangerous situations.
So, he hadn't gone back to Vizim. Instead, he'd remained hiding on the outskirts of the deserted camp. His guns were ready to go, and he was prepared for a fight. He had thought he was anyway.
When the man had come stumbling out of a tent in front of Derrin, he had frozen. Surely the man would scream and alert the others. Even if he could get his gun up in time, the shot would give away their position. Red wasn't even sure that he could shoot the man if he wanted.
It hadn't come to that.
In one clean motion, Derrin had ended the man's life. Red had watched the body fall to the ground in astonishment, Derrin casually stepping away. He had been in battle before, well, only the one on the gearborn ship, really. However, seeing the man drop like that was different.
He wasn't sure what he felt. He wasn't scared of Derrin and didn't think badly of him for killing the man either. It was just that seeing a human die in front of him was not something he could just ignore.
Red had seen death before. He'd practically swam through the bloody corpse of one of the sailors. That had been a horrifying and gruesome experience. In contrast, this man's death was instant. He was dead before he hit the ground. There weren't huge, gruesome remains left either. Just a body.
Even knowing all of this, Red was still left uneasy. What would have happened had he been in that position and not Derrin? Would he have been able to silence the man before he could alert his companions? Could he even have killed the man at all?
If it was that man or himself, he reckoned he could. But in Derrin's situation? The man hadn't even been a threat. They all could have escaped without the pirate being able to stop them. Everything would have ended the same, just with one more pirate.
The pirates now knew of their existence, or if they didn't, they were at least more wary of the surrounding jungle. Perhaps they thought the attack simply came from the fort. It didn't matter. They were now being far more cautious. Derrin had forced them to move immediately without even stopping to eat. While the chaos was taking place, they'd managed to travel to two different plateaus.
Red sighed and tossed a pebble into the dark trees. There was barely any sound around him aside from the quiet breathing of Vizim and Derrin. Pulling out a few pieces of wire, he began to fiddle with them absently. At the end of the day, everything had gone better than they could have hoped.
Red just hoped that he wouldn't be stuck in a position like Derrin. He chuckled softly. Hoping for something like that was foolish. It was only a matter of time, and he knew. Perhaps it might yet happen on this damn island. Who knew?
For now, at least, they had something to look forward to. The fort was a genuine solution now. They could make it there in a day or two if everything went to plan. It was a safe haven. Well, maybe not safe, but probably safer than where they were currently.
The bit of wiring he had been fiddling with snapped in his hand. He cursed quietly and stuck the pieces back into his coat pocket. They'd still be usable somewhere. That bomb had cost him a lot of his supplies. He knew it would have, but it was still more than he liked. They wouldn't be doing anything nearly that massive the rest of their journey.
What food they had would likely have to last them the rest of the time. In that, Red considered themselves both very lucky and unlucky. They had managed to acquire a ton of food that could last them a week if it didn't all spoil. It was going to spoil much sooner than that, though. In the humid jungle, it might not even make it to the end of the following day.
Red briefly considered whether they should have been traveling now that night had fallen. Derrin had pushed them hard to put distance between the explosion and themselves. However, he had been adamant against traveling during the night. Red could only guess he was worried about increased vigilance from the pirates.
Not being sure what else to do, Red decided to train. He didn't dare do the extreme punching training Ayjax had forced on him. That could be very dangerous. Instead, he simply practiced manipulating the mist within his body.
His control greatly improved under Derrin's tutelage. In fact, he had gotten to the point that moving mist around his body took little effort. Forcing mist into his fists and feet during combat was still difficult, but simple actions like healing had become no problem.
Red almost decided to practice his color-changing, too. He chose against it. Bright, glowing red and teal lights in the jungle were not a good way to remain hidden. Eventually, with what little mist he had remaining, he recharged his shockblasters. The water had seriously damaged their ability to hold a charge. He could barely fill them enough to counteract the speed at which they emptied. It was quite sad, really. After all the time he had spent making them, they were now broken.
"I wish I could be back at my machine shop right now," He scowled.
What a joke that was! He had spent years wishing to be away from the blasted place, and now he wanted back. He wanted to be on firmer ground. That was it. With engineering, he at least had an idea of what was in store for him. Here, in this cursed, tangled island, Derrin was the one who knew what to do.
Red knew that only happened after years of practice and experience. Thus was the way with all things, including engineering. He had spent a long time feeling inferior about his creations. He had felt he wasn't good enough which was the same problem Vizim still had. It just took him practice to learn that he could be good enough to rival anyone. Perhaps that was all he needed to do here? Practice.
Scoffing to himself, he dropped back and stared at the star-filled night. Perhaps it was just the way of things. Not knowing, never knowing what one would have done in what ifs. One could only guess what they'd have done. So far, he was not very happy about his guesses. Neither did he want to improve his chances by practicing.
There was a certain exhilaration that came from having your life on the line. He had now experienced that in a few different ways, both aboard the robot-filled ship and now on this pirate-infested island. But there was no exhilaration in the killing of another person. At least, that was what he thought. Perhaps he was now getting self-righteous, but he believed that if it came to it, he'd rather let a person live than kill them.
Red grimaced, thinking about what it sounded like. It sounded like something a damn hero would say. He was no damn hero, and neither did he have any desire to be one. He was just an engineer and they often had to make the difficult choices.
Shaking his head, he murmured, "Curse me, I need to sleep. I haven't been this scatterbrained in a long while."