Chapter 24 The Erchius Mining Facility Incident 11 (1/2)

”I'm good now.” John walked toward Lenny, ”Let's get this done. This place is making me sick.”

”Then...” Lenny looked at John's wounds, ”I don't think you can fight in this situation...” John's whole body was covered in scratches from the previous explosion, two wounds from gun fight with Mouro and a more deep injury in his abdomen.

”I'm alright...” John mumbled.

”No you're not. Sit down while I search for a med kit or bandages.” Lenny sternly ordered.

”Fine...” John grudgingly sat down.

Lenny shook his head and started to take out the belongings of Mouro.

Tungsten Pistol, Tungsten Sniper Rifle, Steel, a strange object that looked like a cellphone that had a antenna on top of it, Knife and grappling hook. That was the items that were outside of Mouro's inventory.

Lenny separated the items, took Mouro's PIPS and started look inside the inventory. There was food, water, flashlight, a med kit, bullets and maganizes for the weapons.

”Here...” Lenny took the med kit and went toward John, ”Take out your Chestguard, let me take a look.”

”Fuck off, I will do it myself!” John snatched the med kit from Lenny's hand.

”Okay.” Lenny just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

John carefully took out his Chestguard.

”Urgh...” He silently groaned in pain when the armor passed through his injuries.

He opened the med kit and saw the contents, there was some syringes that had a red liquid inside, some natural salves and bandages.

The red syringe was in fact Regeneration Induce Liquid or RIL for short. It is a red liquid that once it enter the body it induce the body to prioritize the healing process of injuries rather than any other bodily function. That's why when people use the liquid they feel weak for 1 to 5 minutes, depending on how bad or quantity of wounds there is.

John took the salves, put them in the bandages and started to bandage himself. After he placed the bandages he took the Red RIL Syringe and injected in himself.

He lumped weakly by the stone wall.

”Say...” John started a conversation while he waited for the Red Syringe to do its job, ”How was your... First kill?”

”Really?” Lenny glanced at John, ”Are you really in the mood for this?”

”I don't know...” John shook his head.

Lenny sighed, ”It was 20 years ago, when I was 23. I was already a explorer, togheter with... Oscar. But in this particular day I was alone. I was traveling around the planet when I met a human wearing a complete set of purple clothes. He was heavily wounded and I, innocently, decided to help him. He was unconscious, so I carried him back to my and Oscar's camp. Oscar was away, hunting. I bandaged his injuries and even sewed his purple clothes back. But...”

Lenny's face became grim and his fist tightened, ”When he woke up, the first thing he did was stare blankly at me. He realized I was a Novakid and started to say things like 'You filthy non-human, you dared to touch me with those foul hands!' and other frases like 'By the Occasus Cult I must wipe this filthy creature in front of me from the universe' He reached for the knife that I was using to make food and charged toward me. I tried to reason with him, but it was of no use. He was crazy, a lunatic. He kept saying that he must kill me for the Occasus Cult and that he was blessed by his great leader Asra. I wanted to defend myself so I took my pistol to threaten him, but he still charged toward me, so I unconsciously pressed the trigger... He died with a bullet lodged in his brain.”

”...” John kept his head lowered while listening to Lenny.

”I felt bad, but just for a moment. I convinced myself that I was protecting my own life. It didn't changed a lot about myself, maybe because I'm a Novakid. I don't know how humans deal with this kind of situation, or any other race. The only thing that really changed me was that I became more distrustful around strangers.”

”...”

”Well... That's it...” Lenny looked at John and stood up, ”The effect of the Red Syringe must have gone way by now. Take that guy's stuff and let's go.”

John calmly stored Mouro's stuff in the inventory and walked toward the stairs with Lenny.

They steadily wiped out the rest of the Moontants guarding the elevators and search for one that was still working, and in good condition.

”This one.” Lenny found a service elevator at the utmost right side of the giant hole.

John inspected the machine and saw that it was working. He used the young miner's ID and was able to enter in the elevator.