Alma waits nervously, her eyes darted to the Noctacian beside her. She's now standing with Rohan in a post a half kilometer from the meeting point. As much as she wants to stand on the front, the leader ordered her to stay in this post until the Noctacian and Visa family agreed to not attack each other for a day. Still, she can't help but be worried.
"Calm down, Alma," Rohan said after he watches her going back and forth. "You looks like your pant is on fire," he added.
"How am I supposed to calm down? What if someone dies because of me?" Alma rambled.
"We face this kind of situation more than you know. In a fight, there must be a victim. What you can do is try to keep yourself alive," he calmed her.
Alma nods her head, she knows that she can't do anything right now. She prayed that everything will be okay.
On the other side, at the meeting point, Raven, Zach, and Deen are standing in front of the Visa family's warrior. Both sides are looking at each other, somehow Raven has a feeling that the humans in front of her are just some small fry in the Visa family.
"I think they don't send their higher up," Zach whispered.
"Hah! To think we send our leader but they send small fry," Deen grumbled.
"We don't have a choice, let's get this over with. Zach, you'll be the one negotiating," Raven said.
"Okay, Raven," Zach answered. The man takes a step forward with both of his hands up to show that he's not hostile.
The people from Visa family looked at each other, three of them also goes forward without bringing a weapon.
"Where's the subject?" one of the men asked Zach.
"Whoa, easy there. Why don't we make a deal first?" Zach asked back.
"We have a deal, Aeternum. You give us the subject and we will leave."
"I'm sorry but we can't do that until you agreed that we won't attack each other for a day," Zach insisted.
"What's the point in doing that?" the man grumbled.
"Who knows after we give you her, you will turn against us and attack us."
"We're not wicked like you!" the man snapped.
"No offense, but I've dealt with your family too many times that I learned to not trust you easily. So do we have a deal or not?"
"Fine, but we want to see the subject after that," the man compromises.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A series of explosions interrupted before Zach could answer the man.
"What is that?" Zach tensed before he smells a familiar scent.
"This smell…. It's Capsicum gas! Shit!" he snapped.
Zach can hear some angry noises from where the Valkyrie is stationed. He sees some of them already launch an attack after getting provoked by the gas. Zach runs back to Raven, he knows everything is a trap prepared by the Visa family.
"Rave, tell them to go back! It's a trap!" he shouted.
"Everyone, retreat!" Raven ordered.
BANG! BANG!
A thunderous voice resounded from the hill, several big oil drums are rolled down from the top. When the drum reached the ground, it breaks into pieces. A thick oily substance flows from inside the drum. Suddenly, a gunshot rang in the air. The bullet hits the oil and sets it aflame. Then, many gunshots rumble in the air.
Raven could see that her people began to fall one by one, she feels her lungs grew out of the air because of the gas. "Zach!" she yelled when she saw him gets shot in his back.
"Go to Alma!" he shouted.
Raven wavered for a moment before she runs in Alma's direction. She knows, she needs to make sure that Alma won't fall into the enemy's hand.
***
Alma looked at her watch for the seventh time, it has been thirty minutes since the exchange started. Times moves slowly for her, each minute seems passed with her feeling more restless than before. She eyed Rohan who are worried but tried to look calm in front of her. There's a nagging feeling in Alma's heart that something bad will happen.
All of sudden, Rohan's body jerked forward and he falls.
"Rohan!" Alma yells, she sees two bullet holes in his back.
"Rohan! Hang on, please! I will help you!" she said trying to lift Rohan's body.
"I won't do that if I was you," a familiar voice said from behind Alma.
Alma turns her head and sees someone she used to know, Daphne.
"What are you doing here?!" Alma snapped. She remembers her uncle said that Daphne was the one who took her to the laboratory.
"What else? I come here to see your desperate face. It doesn't matter even if the Noctacian doesn't give you back to us. From the beginning, we never plan to let the Noctacian go," she mocked while holding a gun in her hand.
"You…! What do you want from me?!"
"You can come back with us or you can stay here and watch more victims fallen because of you," Daphne smirked.
Alma takes a deep breath, she looked at Rohan who's unconscious. She knows that the bullet hits his vital organ, and it will be fatal because the bullet they use is made from a special alloy that is created to kill Noctacian.
"There are many Aeternum killed on-site because they don't want to give you back, if you come back with me you can reduce the victim number," Daphne entices.
Alma clenched her fist, she knows that she doesn't have other options. She can't let more victims fall because of her. "I'll go with you," she said shakily.
"Good choice," Daphne smiled.
***
Raven runs with ragged breath, she can feel her body weaken because of the gas she inhaled, but she keeps running. Her nose sniffed the air, trying to discern Alma's smell. Raven realized that the enemy must have taken her because her scent grows farther. Raven speeds up her run, she can't let them go further since her range of smell only covered twenty-five meters.
She rolls forward and hides behind the trees, a bullet embedded in her previous place. Raven tries to calm her breath, a single sweat runs in her temple. She peeked out from where she hides, but bullet rain greeted her. She moves in zig-zag, trying to evade the bullets, but then one of the bullets hits her leg. Soon, the second and third bullet followed.
"Fuck!" she cursed when she feels her consciousness slipping away.