NB: All the facts stated here are scientifically backed. Hence abuse of the knowledge is essentially discouraged.

It had been a little bit over two hours when Rayo and Derek retraced their first mine and dismantled it successfully. Right now they were heading for their second one.

Rayo checked her watch. They were 25 minutes behind her estimated time but that was not what was bothering her. She was more bothered by the main reason behind undertaking this task.

Rayo had been scrutinizing Derek throughout their whole journey but there was not a single detail that caught her eyes that she did not know already. And that was a problem. She had to retract information from Derek. Candid information. Information that seemed utterly meaningless but somewhere was a part of a bigger picture that was yet to be crafted. And the thing with these information was that they could not be forced out of someone at gunpoint and neon lights. Derek had to willingly spew those out in order for them to be unbiased and unskewed. But Derek was not much on the extrovert side.

Rayo exhaled. She knew her strengths and she knew her weaknesses. One of her strengths was being able to crush someone's morale without even lifting her finger, a skill that she perfected with adoration and diligence in her years as a Nix. She could break her enemies without breaking a sweat just with her words. But it was a downside in situations as such - she failed miserably in making a casual conversation without sounding intimidating and arrogant.

Not a promising feature for soft balling people

Rayo wondered if she should have paired Derek with Liam too. Liam was an absolute gem when it came to making small talks. There was something about him that put people at ease in their skins. He could talk about the weather to a bunch of toddlers and make them feel like that was the most fascinating news on the planet. Something she hoped Liam would put to good use with Claire. Because at the moment, between the three, Claire seemed like the best target for extracting raw information. After all, she was the bishop on her board.

As Rayo was struggling to decide over a topic that won't slam shut with a yes or no, Derek came in as a savior. He stopped on track beside Rayo which made her halt as well. She looked at him with question.

"Do you mind if I - ?" Derek said motioning to some rocks, " I'm not good at hiking."

Rayo nodded. She put the metal scrapes down and stood against a tree too while Derek sat down nearby rubbing his left knee.

She observed him for a while." Mind saying what happened to your leg?"

Derek looked up. "Oh this? Crashed my knee in an accident four years back. Doctors replaced it with a metal knee cap. It does what it's supposed to do. So I let this little guy stay. Perfect symbiosis," he shrugged and patted it like it was his beloved pet.

Rayo looked stoic.

"Oh, symbiosis is, you know, where both help each other out. So both are benefitted and - "

" I know what symbiosis is."

" Oh!" Derek said with a nervous chuckle," it's just that I'm a marine bio major. That's all that goes on in my head all the time. A really boring person to hike with, I guess ."

Smooth move Rayo

Rayo facepalmed mentally. She did not mean to sound snappy and block the only opening that she got. "It's not that," she responded pronto," it's just that you have an athletic built. I'm pretty sure you were into sports prior to that. It doesn't seem like you've been out of practice for four years."

Derek chuckled, impressed. He opened his mouth to reply when, all of a sudden, Rayo sprang up, her body tensed. She closed her eyes and stood motionless, as if trying to feel something.

Suddenly she broke out of the stance, grabbed the scrapes and bolted to her left.

"COVER YOUR NOSE AND RUN! FAST!!!!" she shouted from ahead. Derek still could not grasp what had just happened but he recoiled fast. He covered his nose and ran in her direction as fast as he could.

It was drizzling slightly with a mild stench of garlic in the air.

This should not be happening

Rayo was shocked how she did not notice it before it spread to this extent. She kept running and scanning the area for heat signatures on the go. She could see Lynx and Xen striding towards their next rendezvous point.
And Jennifer was running there too.

Wait! Why is she- ? She. Did. Not

Rayo clenched her jaw. She did not expect Jennifer to miss this big important detail. She had just unleashed hell on this place.

By the time Rayo reached the clearing, the gas blanketed the forest, thick and strong The mild garlic stench was almost unbearable now. Rayo started to cough. She put on a thin mask that they brought just in case there was any allergen in the air but it was like trying to stop a cracked dam from falling with a scotch tape. Stood no chance at all.

Jennifer reached there and bent on her knees, panting. "Rayo, I-"

"How could you do that? Rayo cut in, her voice cracked and wheezy, " I repeatedly told you not to unlatch all the mines at once. Why the bloody hell did you think you were given six hours? "

Jennifer looked at her with her breath hitched. She just stood there trying to grasp the situation. She was so busy pulling her big gig that she did not even realize the extent of the domino she had pushed. Now it was all coming crashing down.

Lynx and Xen reached the spot too wheezing by then.

"Bloody fuck! What is this shit?!"

"Arsine gas!"

" Arse what?"

"Arsine gas. This forest is filled with naturally occurring arsenic. It reacted with the drizzling rain and formed the gas," Rayo said frantically scanning around. She still could not trace Liam's or Claire's trail. The rain was absorbing any heat signature that they were leaving.

It took Lynx a few seconds to realize what set it off. He looked at Jennifer with bloodshot eyes which she averted with embarrassment. If she had not unlatched all the mines altogether, such a huge amount of water would never have vaporized. She had set out the water cycle and now they were all going to go down in flames. Arsine was an extremely toxic and highly explosive gas and they were standing on a live minefield with no markers anywhere. A tad bit of alter in pressure could set off any mine and a little bit of spark was all that the gas needed. It would be all crackers and fireworks if it caught any spark. And these fickle drizzles were just fueling the fire by forming more of this ferocious steam.

As if just to incarnate their worst nightmare, a mine exploded on the far east and pushed the domino. Dirt and dusts started flying in the air as series of explosions deafened the terrain. The air got heavy with smoke and smogs. Deers and birds came running out of the forest screaming for their lives. The stench of burned meat was dominating the sky. It was like Hades himself came down from hell.

Rayo desperately looked for any high or enclosed place as the arsine symptoms started getting worse. She was already feeling nauseous and losing her reasoning. It would not be long before the gas fogged her consciousness completely. She tried remembering anything and everything about the forest layout from her last time, anywhere where the gas density would be minimum. But knowing its topology too well, she knew it was almost a plain land with not even so much of a thatched house. Lynx could build an earth dome in an instant but that could unearth more arsenic and accelerate their impending doom.

Derek finally sprinted out of the forest, all sweaty and panting. A wave of nausea hit him as the vile garlic stench punched his nose. He stood beside Rayo and desperately looked around for Claire. She was nowhere to be seen. Rayo looked at him and suddenly the fog in her mind cleared up.

Marine, water!

"EVERYONE HEAD TOWARDS THE STREAMS! NOW!!!!" Rayo shouted over the explosions.

" YOU'RE CRAZY! THAT'S THE FRIGGING SOURCE THAT'S FUELING ALL THESE!! Jennifer retaliated.

"AND I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT CLAIRE!" Xen announced, coughing. He could not believe she could even think about leaving her own man and Rayo could not believe how he made it so far with that processing speed. But she did not have time to explain. The situation was worsening by the minute but she could not just leave them there.

"YOUR FRIEND IS WITH A NIX CORPORAL. I CAN ASSURE YOU SHE IS IN BETTER HANDS " Rayo shouted coughing uncontrollably. Her vision was blurring up fast.

They did not seem convinced but Derek's eyes lit up at the realization.

Water can dissolve almost any gas! The smog would be the lowest there!

"SHE'S RIGHT! MOVE XEN!RUN!!" Derek shouted. The explosions were nearer now.

It did not seem like Xen heard what he said but Lynx had shown a horribly extra amount of patience on his part. He grabbed Xen, threw him on his shoulder and sprinted in the direction of the stream before he could even fuss. Rayo and Derek followed suit. Jennifer cursed under her breath and started running. She started rewinding it all in her head trying to figure if she left any traces of her act in the hurry.

Nothing misses this bitch's eyes

A fresh pang of air washed their lungs as they reached the streams safely. They sprawled on the bank, panting. Rayo was right indeed. There was barely any arsine in the air near the bank. Though the drizzling had stopped, still a hazardous amount of arsine was bloating in the air.

The forest was still bathing in fire and explosions. Black and gray smoke gurgled up the sky, fogging it with an ominous veil.

Rayo sat up from the ground and counted the shells. 8 mines had been dismantled in total and they heard at least two more going off. Given Liam had dismantled at least one prior to the fiasco...

There are at least two more live mines out there

Rayo looked at the others and back at the forest. She tried tracking them down again. But failed. The fire was meddling with their heat signature completely. She was not worried if Liam got out of the mess or not. Because she knew for a fact he could. But she wished with all her heart that Liam escaped the rain before it got to him. Arsine was deadly as it was.

The last thing he needs is losing it in the rain

As Rayo looked longingly at the forest for Liam, Derek looked at it with equal concern for Claire. He did not know where she was then. Or if she could get out of there at all. He looked at Rayo and decided to trust a Nix for that once. Especially, after what happened today.

They could have easily ditched us today

He looked back at the forest and prayed with his soul that he was right. Because that was all he could do at the moment.

Little did he know, right at that moment, Claire was standing pitted against a cave wall 500 miles away in front of a glaring pair of amethyst eyes fearing for her life.