The trek back to the cave took them over an hour. Red had gone far off the path in his mad dash through the jungle. He felt himself wander in a haze after Derrin, who seemed to know everything about their surroundings. Red caught Derrin studying him a few times, but his friend never spoke. He didn't speak either.
Their journey took them back up the ravine and towards the massive cliff. Twice, they heard the approach of marching pirates. However, they managed to avoid all encounters with the enemy. Red could see the reaction the pirates would have to finding the dead man. The sense of loss and anger that would overwhelm him. It was too much.
Even as they traveled, the sun began to glide low in the sky. Shadows began to cast across their surroundings. Normally, this would have left Red with a sense of unease and instilled a watchful caution in him. In the current circumstances… well, he was glad Derrin was here.
When they reached the cave mouth, Red was overjoyed to find it empty of pirates. That was until he was forced to step over the dead men. These weren't slain by him, but he had seen enough dead men for one day. It took an effort to continue forward towards the secret passage beneath the rocky cave.
In the end, the pair vanished inside, leaving the bloody jungle behind. His first trek through the dark tunnel had filled him with a grim unease. Red remembered the strange discomfort he had felt while traveling. This time, he barely noticed. His mind was elsewhere, which made the darkness all the more damning.
The darkness seemed to close in around him and threatened to suffocate him. He wasn't present in the tunnel, even if his body was. They traveled, but it was as if he were standing still.
His shockblaster fired again. The pirate fell again. The smell of burning flesh filled his mouth and nose. The horror of the dead man filled his vision.
Again.
Again.
An endless cycle of death and horror.
Neverending. It was all never-ending.
"This is your fault," the darkness echoed.
No.
"You murderous scum. A man is dead because of you."
Red knew he was going insane. Surely he was going mad. The darkness laughed around him, cold and empty. Its voice, a cruel joke, crying out at his expense. His heart pulsed in anger, and he tensed.
Was he going mad?
Maybe he was already mad?
Where was he?
The first trek through the tunnel had felt like days. He had felt his sanity fall apart in that terrible darkness. Red wasn't sure why the cold darkness affected him so. He wouldn't be certain why for a long time. However, one thing was certain. This second trip through the tunnel did not feel like days. It felt like eons. Like eternity. All the while, he felt himself cracking beneath the weight of the crumbling darkness, slowly cracking beneath the unbearable accusations.
Derrin's glowstick flashed upwards towards the trapdoor. Red stumbled and crashed into him. It took a moment for him to catch his breath and come back to himself. To come back from that damning experience and horrid stench. Derrin glanced at him and hoisted himself upwards. The trapdoor flipped open, and the vestiges of sunlight flitted into the hole.
Red stared, feeling the light from the setting sun echo down the passage. His grip tightened instinctively, and he found himself still holding his shockblaster. The same weapon that had fried the dead man. He pushed it back into its holster in his coat. Red practically vaulted up and out of the tunnel. Staggering, he crashed into the wall above, and it took Derrin to prevent him from toppling over.
"Are you alright?" his friend asked, worry tainting his voice.
Red steadied himself with a hand. His mind raced from anxiety, but more so. It raced from the feelings of death in his mind. It didn't matter what he tried. All he could see was his gun, burning the flesh of the man. Over and over again.
If only he hadn't been so overconfident in himself. For once, his own weapons had betrayed him. If he had learned to properly fight, then maybe, just maybe, the pirate would not be dead by his hands.
"Red!" Derrin's voice knocked him out of his stupor.
"Yeah?" Red turned, looking at his friend.
Derrin stared back, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he said sharply, too sharply, he knew.
He also knew he was not fine. He was feeling crushed beneath the weight of his actions. Nothing he could tell himself, no argument he said, could convince him to move on.
"You guys are back?" Vizim's figure stepped into the doorway.
Derrin turned away and shut the trapdoor. "Yes."
"Did it go well?" he inquired. There was a tone of excitement or maybe anticipation in the younger man's voice.
Derrin glanced at Red and replied, "It went alright. We got the bomb planted and got out well enough."
Well enough was an understatement.
They had struck a major blow to the pirates. Even more so, the chances of Zara's success were extremely high in the chaos beneath the island. All in all, they could not have hoped for much of a better outcome. So then, why was he so bothered by the dead man lying in the jungle? Why wouldn't the vision of his death go away?
"Is Zara back?" Derrin asked.
"Not yet," Vizim replied, "I've been keeping track of the surrounding jungle as well. The pirates don't seem inclined to make any moves today. I am worried how they'll respond to this, though."
"They should be more worried about what we'll do now that there is no leverage."
Vizim shrugged, "Red? Are you alright?"
"Huh?" Red shook his head, "Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
Vizim's eyes narrowed, but he said no more.
"Well, there's nothing left to do but wait, I guess," Derrin rose and exited the room. Vizim followed, and Red found himself trailing behind.
If only he had prepared more, then he wouldn't be haunted by these visions. That wasn't really true, he knew. There was a high likelihood that the pirate would have died by his hand, no matter the circumstance. It could have been fate or something else that drove them together. Still, he needed to put his mind to something, and right now, engineering was not it.
For once, it was engineering that had hurt him, not anything else. It was his designs that had caused it, and he needed to do something else. Red wanted to fight. More exactly, he wanted to learn how to fight. He could throw punches and kicks, but none of that was helpful against an opponent that had a mist blade.
So, he wanted to learn to summon his own.
He should be powerful enough by now.
No, he needed to be powerful enough.
All of his plans and ideas were momentarily forgotten when the secret door at the far end of the fort opened. A group of figures stepped inside. It wasn't just Zara, but a whole string of people. It seemed she had succeeded. The plan had been a success after all.