Carl waited.
No answer.
The only sound was Irwin's labored breathing as he looked at Carl with frustration, fear, and anger.
"You… let him… escape," Irwin said through labored breaths.
"Shut up!" Carl shouted in rage. "You tried to assassinate a member of the team!"
Irwin breathed in difficulty for a couple of seconds.
"I did," he said, "but he deserved it. He killed Mark."
"He did not kill Mark!" Carl said with a severe voice.
Irwin didn't answer for several seconds.
"Maybe not," he said with a neutral voice. "But that doesn't matter now anymore, does it?"
Irwin's breathing vanished as his body had finally become stable enough to no longer need it every second.
Carl narrowed his eyes, but Irwin continued talking.
"He saw us," Irwin said from the ground. "He thinks you were in on it."
"He escaped, and if he didn't lie, he's a Runner, and we can't catch a Runner with such a head start."
Carl gritted his teeth.
"He will tell the city," Irwin said neutrally. "He's going to accuse us of wanting to kill him."
"It doesn't matter if you wanted to kill him or protect him. In his eyes, you also wanted to kill him."
"Our lives are over, and Solace is going to abandon us."
But then, Irwin reached into one of his pockets under Carl's narrowed eyes.
Finally, he pulled out the camera from earlier.
"But we still have this," Irwin said with a small chuckle as he sat up.
Irwin waved the camera around. "As long as we have this, he won't be able to prosecute us."
"Instead, he will look like he tried to kill you."
"We're in the same boat now," Irwin said.
Carl glared at Irwin with aggression.
Then, he walked forward.
Irwin didn't move.
He was still very low on Zephyx, and without his Barrier or weapon, there was nothing he could do anyway.
Then, Carl grabbed the camera.
After that, he turned around.
WHOOOOOM!
And threw it into the distance!
Irwin's eyes shot open in absolute terror.
"Are you crazy?!" Irwin shouted in panic. "You've killed us!"
Carl slowly turned around to look at Irwin.
A deep look of disappointment was on his face.
"Who are you?" Carl asked.
Irwin looked at Carl with shock and confusion.
"Are you really Irwin?" Carl asked. "Is the Irwin I know really such a psychopath? Is my friend Irwin really so weak-willed that he has to kill an innocent man to cope with a tragedy?"
"If Mark saw what you did, what do you think he would say? What would Mark think of you?"
Irwin gritted his teeth, and his entire body shook.
A lot of things were shooting through his mind.
Mark's last screams.
The loud explosions Nick created.
Nick looking at Carl with his weapons drawn.
The camera in Irwin's hand.
When he shot at Nick.
When Carl attacked him.
When Carl threw the camera into the distance.
However, most prevalent of all was Mark.
Mark's face shot through Irwin's mind.
Irwin turned away from Carl and put his head in his hands.
His body shook as he violently pressed his hands into his face.
Carl just looked on in severity.
"Fuck, man," Irwin said with a shaking voice as he leaned back.
Tears had appeared in his eyes, and he looked up at the sun.
"I don't fucking know," Irwin said in defeat. "I lost control. I'm sorry, okay?"
Carl just looked at Irwin with a neutral expression.
He couldn't help but feel pity for his friend, but on the other hand, this was completely his doing.
"I'm sorry for pulling you into this," Irwin said. "I was just so angry at him. I saw an opportunity to vent that anger, and I took it. I didn't think, okay?"
"I fucked up. I fucked up majorly."
Irwin put his head back in his hands.
"I'm sorry."
"I should be the one that gets killed for treason, not you."
Carl took a deep breath.
Then, he pulled something out of his pocket.
It was a small piece of paper and a pen.
He handed these two things to Irwin.
"If you want to make things right, write down your confession," Carl said.
Irwin looked at the pen and paper with broken eyes.
Then, he released a small chuckle.
"I guess that's the least I could do."
The next moment, Irwin slowly stood up and walked over to one of the rocks.
Over the next minute, he wrote down his confession.
Lastly, he handed the confession and the pen back to Carl.
Carl took the two things and wrapped the confession carefully around the pen.
Whoosh!
And then, he threw that into the distance as well, but not as far as the camera.
Irwin looked with confusion at the distant confession.
"What?" Irwin asked.
"Take it," Carl said.
"What?" Irwin asked again.
"Not you," Carl said. "Nick."
"What?" Irwin asked in shock again.
"If there's one thing I learned in my conversation with Nick earlier, it is that he's not an idiot," Carl said. "That and that he's exceedingly good at hiding himself."
"Do you think he would have run away to the city after all that has happened?"
Irwin just looked at Carl with confusion.
"He knows that you took a picture. He knows that he would get into serious trouble as long as you still have that picture. Running to the city would only postpone the death he assumed we were planning on giving him."
"There's only one way to get out of this situation."
"To kill you," a voice finished the sentence from the side.
Carl and Irwin turned to the side and saw Nick standing between two boulders.
Silence.
Nick held up a camera.
Naturally, this was the camera that Carl had thrown into the distance.
Carl took a deep breath and sighed in relief.
He had thought that Nick would be here, but of course, he couldn't have been sure until Nick showed himself.
Earlier, he had believed Nick to be an idiot, and a horrible turn of events had occurred.
And instead of repeating his mistake, Carl chose something different the next time.
If he hadn't, they would have entered a battle with Nick within the next couple of minutes, and then, this situation couldn't have been saved anymore.
In fact, Irwin had already believed the situation to be unsavable.
But Carl believed that it could still be saved, and he had gone all-in.
And he had bet correctly.
