INTERSTELLAR NIGHTMARES - DISTANT TERROR

Chapter 11

   After a grunt from Morris and a securing arm from Kurt, they made their way back to us. "Alright," Fredrick grunted, "now to finish this mission and get home! To the drop pod!" He looked around for a moment before the light blared over the dirt-covered hills of the cave. "There! I was about to ask! Let's get to stepping," Fredrick announced.

   As he began to march forward, we followed in his steps. I kept watch behind the three as Fredrick watched the front and Kurt the sides. We trudged on quite a ways before any word broke out from our lips into the still, damp air.

   "You feel a bit lighter today," Kurt said to Morris, "you lose weight or is it the blood comin' out of ya?" Morris only responded with a shrug. "Both are plausible," he answered, "I haven't been eating things to fatten me up since I've been here. Could be the blood though, because it is quite cold and I feel weak." Kurt's face went from joking delight to a soft concern before he forced the look away in favor of a set, serious face.

   The M.U.L.E. waddled on passed me, followed by three smaller shadows. Their light lit up the dark spots the flares couldn't reach at their angle as the walked by. The yellow glow of their lights almost reminded me of the comfort of my own home.

   I thought about the warm lights accompanying me throughout some of the best and worst times of my life this far. From things as important to getting money straight to the very minute things like eating my favorite breakfast food in the yellow light.

   I was slowly dragged from my thoughts from the pulsing red glow of the drop pod. Some of the paint was flaking off, but otherwise it was in good condition!

   "Here we are! We got everything?" Kurt questioned everyone, "Besides ammo." Fredrick took his chance to dump everything from his bucket into the drop pod's side buckets, not too far from Molly's. "Ah, gobblesnarks," he grunted, "I think I dropped my bloody keys in there..." he patted himself down as Kurt shook his head.

   "I'm calling the RSP down, check yourselves," Kurt announced as he set Morris beside this large olive drab green box with some screens on each long side. Must be the uplink for Mission Control to see us, I recalled as I watched.

   Kurt then took out a small disk from his bag, checked it over, nodded, and placed it on the ground, pressing a button on top of it after. It sprang up a little bit and displayed a holographic image of a pod with three bullets on it. On each side was an exclamation point.

   "I heard you," Mission Control came to, "resupply inbound. Careful though, they come down with a bit of a boom." Kurt looked up for a few moments, seemingly waiting on the pod to get down to us. "It'll take about a minute," I informed him. His bottom lip poked out a bit in response before it was sucked back into position. "Right," he chuckled, "we're underground about a thousand meters."

   "Hey, I found my keys!" Fredrick cheered, "Say, did you healing supplies for these two from those last time?" Kurt thought for a moment, but then tilted his head into a nod. "They ought to if they know what's good for 'em." Kurt said half-jokingly.

   The pod busted through the top of the cave and smashed into where the device was, though the device had flown back into Kurt's bag before it landed. "RSP here! Come on boys, dig in!" Kurt boomed. Me and Fredrick immediately went for it, collecting ammo and ordinance for ourselves. "Ah!" Fredrick exclaimed, "Red sugar packets! Why didn't we use the red sugar before?"

   I tilted my head at him. "Red sugar?" I asked. "Yeah! It's a healing mineral, but highly addictive... supposedly." I looked to my arm, wondering if I want to gamble with more pain or a possible addiction. The clash eventually called for risking the addiction, because I'd be unscathed but fiending rather than injured and mentally panicking.

   I realized that, despite my own pain, Morris needs it way more than I do. "Give it to the nerd, I'll have him help me with mine if he can walk after." I told Fredrick. Fredrick nodded q couple times and ran over to Morris, in which was talking to Kurt.

   I watched Fredrick read the instructions, unwrap the wound, and pull out the gauze. He then poured the red sugar in a secondary, smaller canteen, sloshed it around for a minute, then poured the liquid into the wound.

   The wounds looked they they started shrinking! Morris looked happy about this. "Oh wow! It really works!" Morris said in shock. "Yeah, it's concentrated!" Fredrick chuckled. After most of the canteen was emptied on his leg, he... popped up onto his feet, but he was still a bit lightheaded seemingly from his lack of genuine balance.

   "I... I feel powerful!" he growled, "I wanna fight some more bugs!" Kurt was now dumbfounded by this effect, putting a hand out to Fredrick. Fredrick gave him a high-five, but Kurt looked down at him. "The packet," he commanded, which Fredrick just said "Oh," and gave him the packet.

   He read for a moment and his head tilted back a bit. "What is it?" Fredrick asked. "It says here," Kurt began, ""Side effects of red sugar intoxication is a fever, a flush in the face, brighter colored vision, twitching, energy increase, increased heart rate, euphoria, and a sense of power.""

   Oh boy, I thought as I looked back to Morris. "At least you're alright... besides the blood loss." I sighed. "Yeah, I feel amazing!" he shouted, "But I won't try to get addicted to this stuff."

   Fredrick looked at the canteen as Kurt added an extra note to the side effects. "Oral consumption leads to stronger effects... good thing we aren't eating this stuff." I looked at my arm, then to Fredrick. "Gimme some of that on here," I told him, and he perked up and jogged over.

   I unwrapped my arm and got ready to jam it out. "On the count of three," I said. He got the canteen ready to pour. "One... two... three!" I shouted while knocking the sawn-down spine out of my arm. I let out a yelp of pain, but it was immediately numbed out by the rather cool concoction. I panted a bit as I looked at the gnarly wound, then it started to close up too.

   That's when that air of power came into me too. I was ready to fight. Good thing that fight came soon enough.

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