23 Blaming Oneself

"Wait... wh-what's this, Curl?" Red leaned forward to get a closer look at the locket.

There's no doubt about it. It was his photo!

Red suddenly felt a series of mirrors cracking in his mind as soon as he saw the name engraved in the photo. He felt a mind-splitting headache, making him profusely sweat and groan in pain. Red gasped for air, but something in his nervous system suffocated him to the point where he passed out.

"Red... RED!!!" Curl shrieked as she stood up and lightly shook Red to consciousness. "Oh no, oh no... what do I do."

Suddenly, Blond rushed into the scene, he just finished testing the humanoid when he heard Curl's scream. "What did you do?!" Blond grabbed Curl by the shoulder and shook her. Although Red had a fever, he never convulsed, not even once. That's why it was a rare sight to behold when they saw Red like that.

"I-I don't... I don't know I... I showed him the item from my hidden pocket. He told me he will tell us everything he knows later, that's why I... " Curl sniffled as tears flooded her eyes. "I want to trust him... I feel like he doesn't trust any of us... that's why I showed him... I wanted to tell him that I trust him... " Curl erupted in a fit of sobs as she fell on her knees.

"Stop moping around, Curl. Get yourself together!" Blond persuaded her, shaking her shoulders one more time to emphasize his point. "That's just normal. We have no memories of each other and we found ourselves in this strange place. We all don't trust each other because of our circumstances. That's why you can't blame Red nor yourself for his decisions."

"Scar, can you change the towel on Red's forehead? And Cat, please wake Freckles up, we need her to check up on Red." Blond barked his orders and once again, everyone moved like clockwork.

In a few seconds, Red was back with a newly changed wet towel from the hidden bathroom. Freckles was a heavy sleeper, that's why Cat had no choice but to push her out of her bed. "Why what happened?!" Freckles shot up, adjusting the collar of her shirt before seeing Blond, motioning for her to come over.

"What's wrong?!" Freckles checked Red's vital signs and breathing. For a moment, the thought of Red's heart stopping almost made her panic. To her relief, Red was just having a mild case of post-fever convulsions.

"Is everything alright?" Gadge asked, carrying something metallic in his hands.

"What are you holding?" Blond whispered at Gadge, seeing the mysterious mechanism in his hands.

"Oh, this, it's a mechanical arm I salvaged from the outclass humanoids the other day." Gadge impulsively hid it inside his oversized white shirt.

"You what?!"

"You were panicking that time so I figured I'd get a few parts from the outclass humanoids," Gadge responded. "I also got a few motherboards from them... and their radioisotope generators... And both their heads... " Gadge's voice trailed off. He was so keen on studying the outclass humanoids that it didn't even occur to him that he pretty much salvaged the whole thing.

"Let's talk about that later. Right now, we have Red to worry about." A crease appeared in Blond's forehead as his expression became grim. Although all of them unanimously decided that Red will be their leader, he knew that things would only get out of control if he didn't take Red's place temporarily. "That's why you have to wake up soon, Red." Blond prayed, clenching his fists due to his incompetency. Blond's capability was on par with Red but he blames himself for letting Red end up in a sickly state.

It wasn't his fault but he felt like he was partly responsible for it.

His thinking wasn't entirely distorted though, since everyone thought the same thing. Ever since the first day, they kept on relying on Red more and more and the end result was getting him to the brink of death.

"Alright, you can stop worrying about Red... for now at least." Freckles plastered a half-smile on her face to calm everyone down. "I know you're all worried. I mean, each of your faces tells me that you blame yourselves for what happened to Red."

Everyone's pupils dilated from shock as they gaped at Freckles. Each of them thought they were the only ones blaming themselves but as it turns out, they were thinking the same thing.

"Looks like I hit the nail on the head." She continued. "In any case, why don't we stop thinking about our incapacities and focus on assisting Red. That way, we could function as a better team when Red wakes up."

"When will he... " Curl was about to ask when Freckles cut her off.

"A few hours later at the minimum or tomorrow at the maximum. He's just experiencing his final lapses of convulsions. Pretty soon, his temperature will die down and he will get better." Freckles informed them. "It's a normal bodily reaction since his broken bones are recovering. Prepare a few towels just in case. I'm anticipating he's going to sweat a lot more later."

"Thank you, Freckles. We probably wouldn't know what to do if you weren't here." Blond looked down and sighed in relief. "I guess I really am incompetent." He said to himself.

Everyone gave a resolute nod towards Freckles as they rode on Blond's gratefulness. "Thanks, Freckles." Some of them repeated.

"Veerius Genesys... veerius... " Red mumbled in his half-conscious state. "Veerius... "

"What is he talking about?" Scar put his ears closer to Red. "Veerius Genesys? What's that? Some sort of corporation like Nexus?"

"It's probably something associated with the 'Outside' or something like that." Gadge assumed. "In any case, it sounds rather familiar."

"Yeah, I think I heard that name from the past before... something... I might have seen or encountered that name in the past. I'm confident I heard it before." Blond put his hand underneath his chin as he thought harder. "I'm sure about it... I think it's a name from the past. A person... I think it's a person."

"Yeah... it is a person." Curl finally spoke up. "And it's someone we all know."

Once again, Curl got the locket from her hidden pockets and showed it to everyone. As soon as she opened it, a series of gasps reverberated all throughout Block-16. "What do you think? It's Red's name right?"

"Obviously!" Scar agreed. "It was carved underneath his photo... Still, Veerius Genesys is a weird name."

"I think it's a pretty cool name, like a mad-scientist type of name," Gadge added. "But I don't see Red as a Veerius Genesys... he's more like a Strikus Genocyds."

... pause...

"Okay okay! I just wanted to lighten up the mood." Gadge broke the awkward pause.

"Let me just confirm something. You found that from your hidden pocket, right?" Freckles interrogated Curl with a hint of suspicion. "Right?"

"Yes, I think I'm connected to Red pre-testing." Curl affirmed her statement. "I actually discovered this one the night after Gadge revealed his knife to us. It was a shock for me but back then, I didn't have the courage to trust Red nor everyone."

"Then why tell us now?" Blond muttered. "You clearly didn't reveal it to us since you were doubting us... you were doubting that one of us is a traitor, am I correct? Then why tell us now."

"Because... I think it's what Red would've wanted." Curl straightforwardly answered. "He kept on telling us that we're not ready, right? What if he was waiting for everyone to trust each other before he could trust us? Remember when he showed everyone what his item was? Or how he showed everyone about the map that Blond hid from us?"

"Wait I was going to reveal it to all of you at a later date." Blond defended himself.

"Exactly! You also thought we weren't ready for that information right?" Freckles butted in the conversation. "I think I get Red's point. We're clearly not ready. We don't trust each other at all... "

"... he was the first one to trust us back then. On the first day we got here, he revealed the stolen earpiece from us. He knew the risks- that there were probably traitors in our group. Still, he didn't keep it a secret. He wanted us to trust him and in turn, trust each other."

"I agree... I also didn't reveal my pouch with mysterious herbs for fear that someone might recognize me here. I may be meatheaded but I'm not dumb enough to reveal my cards to potential threats. That's why... I think we should stop this now." Scar grabbed the pouch from his hidden pockets and put it on the right side of Red's bunk bed. "I'm going to come clean and reveal everything I know to everyone."

Curl was the second one, putting her locket beside Scar's pouch. Then Gadge laid his knife, followed by Blond's map. Cat put her wire lockpicks next and finally, Freckles put a vial of chromatic liquid in the mix.

"And then, we got Red's Kumpur wraps, I guess that's it?" Freckles put her hands against her hips. She then received a series of nods as confirmation.

"I guess you're all ready." Someone spoke up, followed by an outburst of what sounded like a chuckle and a cough.