Its day 4 in the tumor. 3 more days until the next core rises.
Havoc booted up his system, shutting down night mode. He looked at the bed,
"Morning Albur, rise and shine."
No response, he scanned the bed, to find that no one was on it.
Havoc looked around the room, then, the door opened. Albur stepped into the room, and looked at Havoc.
"Wow, you awake already?"
Albur didn't say anything, he just walked to the rifle and picked it up. He then walked out of the room, sat the rifle on the table and sat down on a chair.
"You look better now."
Albur gently nodded. He took a sip of water, and sighed.
"Hey....buddy." Albur's voice is strangely soft.
"Yes?"
"...thank you...."
"Huh?"
"I feel...better now...."
"Wha- but I, did nothing."
"You did, you gave me quiet times to slowly calm down, and not keep blabbering about motivating words."
"Huh, well uh, your welcome I guess."
"Though.... I wanna apologize too...I'm sorry, I went a little too far."
"Its fine, but I don't think you should apologize to me only."
"I know, I know."
"By the way, I got something for you."
Albur raised an eyebrow, Havoc then pointed at a box on the table. Albur looked at it, and took it.
"I saw this box already on the table, what is this?"
"Open it."
Albur opened the box, and he was shocked to see what's in there. It's some of Johnson's belongings. Like the RNP executive medal, the special wrench and his device that has his sister's last recordings in it.
"i found these at the place he died. Prob fell out from him when he struggled with the entity."
Albur stared at the box, and slowly closed it, his hands held the box tightly.
"I would never let these get destroyed."
Albur took a nutrient capsule from the resource box and swallowed it.
After a while, Covie and Mysty came out from their room, they finished their morning routine and walked to the living room of the hut. They were surprised to see Albur up already.
Albur noticed them, he put down the rifle, and smirked.
"Morning...."
No one spoke, Covie slowly floated to the door and tidied the stuff. Mysty looked at Albur, she could see he got a lot better, she is still holding onto the same fist that hit Albur yesterday and kept avoiding eye contact.
Then, Albur stood up.
"Uh...guys?"
Mysty and Covie turned their head to him. Albur scratched his head and sighed.
"I want to...thank you all....."
Mysty and Covie blinked at looked at each other before looking back at Albur again.
"I..... really would've done something stupid yesterday if it wasn't you guys....."
"And I...wanna apologize too....I couldn't control my emotions."
Covie slowly smiled, and floated to Albur.
"As long as you're back on the right track, we can forgive that."
Albur smiled, then turned to Mysty, Mysty stared at Albur in the eyes, but none of them spoke for a while. Then, they both opened their mouths.
"I'm.....sorry."
The 2 of them gasped, and blinked. The air felt awkward, Covie and Havoc stared at each other.
"M-me too...."
They both was surprised again. Albur awkwardly laughed,
"Thank you for the things yesterday anyways..."
Mysty's fist loosen, she slowly let go of the fist. Albur touched his face, still aching lightly.
"That was intentionally holding back....isn't it."
Mysty chuckled, not happy, but in relief.
"I'm sorry too, but I'm happy you finally make a step forward."
They both smiled, Covie want to heal the injury, but Albur stopped Covie.
The crew got ready to continue their journey. They ensured the survivor is alright and exited the hut. And when they exit the hut, like they expected, Rhea is already outside. Except today she did not do any work outs, she just stared at the buildings.
"Ahem."
Rhea turned around, and found the crew standing behind her. She didn't say anything, no good morning, no mock, no jokes.
Covie put the hut onto the trolley. Before leaving, the crew walked to the place where Johnson died. The hand is starting to have smells of rotting. Albur held the tears, he kneeled down and closed the fingers on the hand. Covie choked in tears and waved the final good bye. Mysty put her hands together at her face and slowly bent down.
"Good bye, bucko."
Albur stood up,
They walked back to the hut, then stared at Rhea.
"So, where is the next core?"
Rhea stared at Albur, irritated. She took out the energy detector, and threw it. It landed next to Albur's feet. He stared at Rhea, she grunted in frustration and crossed her arms.
"You lead."
Albur slowly picked up the energy detector. He looked at the rest of the crew, they nodded.
"Let's go,"
The Glitch Wipeout Crew (and Rhea) set off. They may have lost their crew captain, but that doesn't mean he would want them to stop.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The energy detector sensed the third core being super far away from their current location. It would take roughly 6 hours to get there by foot.
The crew started heading to the next core. No one spoke during the walk, everyone is still slowly digesting and adapting to Johnson's death.
After a while, the crew found something strange. They noticed the tumor's walls started squirming more frequently. And instead of glowing faint purple lights, it is now accompanied with cyan and violet lights.
"You guys seeing this?"
"Why is the tumor looking so strange?"
Rhea stared at the walls, she scanned it, but after that no words came out from her.
"This color scheme.....looks like a glitch...." Covie stared at the lights shimmering on the tumor walls.
Albur took a step forwards, but then, the floor beneath his feet sank, he nearly lost his balance and fell. He quickly stepped out of the sink hole.
"Dang it, the corruption is getting worse and worse."
The crew continued walking. Virus lifeforms nearby were all confused by the sudden change of the tumor as well. They all learnt their lesson to avoid attacking the crew. Even so the crew made sure their weapons are loaded in case the lifeforms attack.
Just then, something caught Mysty's attention. She noticed there is a small glowing thing on one of the fibrous virus substances covering the buildings.
Mysty walked towards that glowing thing. She leaned closer and looked at that thing.
"Uh, guys? Come take a look at this!"
The crew turned to Mysty, they walked to her spot.
"What's wrong?"
Mysty turned her head to the glowing object. The crew noticed it. It is a glowing cyan thing as small as a piece of shattered glass.
Rhea scanned it, but then, the scanning device alerted. Flashing red lights and warning screens pop out.
"Warning, warning, dense glitch energy detected!"
Albur turned to the object, he looked around, then, he found a broken building with its metal rods popping out. He ran to it and blasted it with his rifle. Then he took a tiny metal rod and ran back to the object. He slowly pried it out, and picked up the object before inspecting it.
Turns out, its a corrupt splinter, with a sharp end.
"Its a corrupt splinter...."
"What is this thing doing here?"
Rhea closed the warning pop out signs and the scanning device. She leaned closer to inspecting the corrupt splinter.
"It looks like it was intentionally being cut to this sharp shape by someone."
Just as the crew was looking at the splinter in confusion, they heard footsteps. Loud footsteps. They followed the direction where the sound came from, and was shocked to see what made it.
It is Wilton, standing at some purple substances. Next to him is Juggler Juggernaut. Both of them are holding a special bag with cyan glows inside.