Chapter 14: Crossing the Minefield

Violet was on her knees comforting Vivian who had vomited from the sight of the nearly dead applicant. Violet felt Vivian’s body shudder and heave again and another puddle of past meals ended up on the ground. The applicant had already been removed from the area but it still showed clearly in Vivian’s mind.

Unsure of what to do Violet began to pat Vivian’s back as a form of comfort. Looking around, Violet saw many other applicants in similar situations to Vivian, many with overwhelming fear in their eyes.

Violet herself was also shaken. She could feel her hands vibrating back and forth out of anticipation and fear of what lay ahead. While she wouldn’t die, she would experience horrible, unimaginable pain.

Roland appeared to have also been affected by this sight, his body slightly shaking and his eyes wide. He was in a state of complete shock, unable to think, move, or respond to any stimuli. His jaw hung slightly open, as though the applicant that had been blown up was still in front of him.

“Roland, help me get Vivian up,” Violet asked.

Roland jumped out of his trance and immediately grabbed Vivian's arm, supporting it over his body. Violet did the same and they slowly lifted Vivian back up, letting her shaking legs slowly settle back to normal.

As she was lifting Vivian, Violet saw Mark for a moment. His face was strange. It was contorted into a strange mix of horror and rage. While other applicants had such reactions, Mark’s seemed different.

Mark’s face was broken and twisted, as though two entities were controlling his facial muscles. Half his face left one with a sense of pity, feeling like this poor boy made a horrible, accidental mistake. The other half left one with terror, as if at any moment a demon would release, and engage in a massacre.

However, it only lasted for a moment. When Violet blinked, Mark’s face had a much more normal reaction.

‘What was that?’ Violet wondered for a moment. However, with the obstacle right ahead of her, Violet disregarded her suspicion for now.

“Are you guys ok?” Mark asked.

Violet, Roland, and Vivian nodded. While perhaps psychologically shaken, they were perfectly fine other than that.

“Let’s all take a minute to rest and process everything. We can come up with a plan after that,” Roland said, his head tilting towards Vivian.

Violet and Mark both understood his intention and agreed. The four of them formed a circle and sat down, about 2 feet apart from each other, each processing what had happened.

Violet’s mind was drawn back to her abuse at the hands of her father. While she had been severely injured by him on numerous occasions, it was nothing like what that applicant had experienced. Entire limbs were destroyed, flames engulfing their body, bones shattered, and skin melting. She could try to shield herself like the Principal had recommended but what if it wasn’t enough? Violet shuddered at the thought.

After a minute had passed the group of four engaged in conversation.

“I tried to manipulate the earth in the area to move or gauge the number of mines, but it doesn’t appear to be real earth. So for now, I think it’s best to just observe.” Roland said.

Mark nodded in agreement, “I agree. It’s just too risky to go in with so little information. We don’t know how much energy to use while shielding, so we could easily end up exhausted unnecessarily or not use enough and be instantly eliminated.”

“But won’t the other applicants catch up to us?” Vivian asked. She had a valid concern. The longer they waited, the more applicants blew up the mines, the fewer mines there would be to avoid and the faster the applicants behind them would be able to pass this section.

“I think it’s a risk we have to take. It’s just too dangerous to go otherwise,” Mark said.

Vivian pursed her lips. While she wanted to ensure that she could enter into the top 20 applicants she had to admit that such a horrific sight had left her scared. She didn’t want to continue forward without a higher chance of success.

Violet nodded her head in agreement, preferring not to speak.

‘I can’t be eliminated here. Father would punish me even more if he found out that I had been eliminated.’

With a plan of action agreed upon, the group began to watch other applicants make their attempts.

While they watched, in between the numerous moments of turning away, the screams of pain from dying applicants, and the orange-haired S-Rank in a gray suit, a problem became apparent.

The mines had been buried in such a way that activating one mine actively launched one into another mine, causing a chain reaction that was nearly impossible to escape from. Once the chain began, the applicant would either find their shield suddenly destroyed from numerous explosions, or end up too exhausted to keep their shield up. While a few applicants made it through, most of them were unsuccessful and were eliminated from the application process.

‘This is bad. I can’t see a way through this. On top of that, the High B-Ranks might have already gotten through. We could try to go over the field but that might count as out of bounds.’

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A High B-Rank would be able to run much faster than any of the Mid and Low B-Ranks. It was very likely for at least one of them to have sprinted ahead of the rest. On top of that, the mines appeared to reconstruct themselves and their environment after several minutes, making it impossible to judge if any applicants had made it through before their arrival.

“Well, let’s gather around again and discuss what we’ve observed,” Roland requested. His face was fixed in frustration he had no ideas on a solution either. With 10 minutes having already passed, it was likely that the other applicants whom they had outran would be catching up soon, likely also influencing Roland's current irritation.

Violet thought for a moment about what she had seen. There was just one variable that appeared out of place. After taking a few seconds to formulate a sentence and potential responses, Violet revealed her observation.

“The S-Rank psychic healing everyone has not once triggered a mine, yet he’s run on the ground numerous times.”

The rest of the group looked at her with realization. She was right, the S-Rank for some reason was exempt from the mines. But how was this? He had rescued multiple applicants at a time, across different locations, and while other applicants were crossing the obstacle. There was no way that a simple turn-off of certain mines would suffice for such a situation without potentially allowing some applicants to move through without an obstacle.

“How does that help us though?” Vivian asked.

“It tells us that these mines are psychic detector mines,” Violet responded to her. “So, the mines won’t explode unless they detect an unfamiliar psychic signature nearby.”

“Ok… I still don’t understand how that can help us though.”

Violet remained in silence for a few moments. She hadn’t expected Vivian to not realize her point by now, and now she was left unaware of how to respond. Luckily, Mark explained it to her.

“It means that as long as the mines don’t detect psychic energy, they won’t go off. It’s commonly used in terrorist attacks. By setting a threshold on the mines, it’ll only blow up when a certain amount of psychic energy is detected, usually only possibly emitted by heroes.”

Vivian nodded now in understanding. Psychic mines worked by being infused with psychic power. When a nearby psychic approached, the natural energy they released would trigger the psychic power inside the mines, causing it to explode with psychic energy.

However, it was possible to restrict psychic mines to only unfamiliar signatures by coding them to explode only based on the type of interaction. A mine would experience different interactions based on whether or not it was already exposed to the signature before. This also meant that if a psychic suppressed their powers, then the mines wouldn’t experience an interaction, allowing the psychic to move through freely.

“But wouldn’t suppressing our powers leave us completely defenseless? If an explosion happens during that time we’ll be eliminated,” Vivian pointed out.

Mark nodded, “Yes that is a risk. If we decide that it’s too risky we’ll have to do what everyone else is doing. I say we take a vote for it, all in favor?”

Violet, Mark, and Roland raised their hands, they saw it as the best course of action based on their observations. Vivian on the other hand didn’t. While she did see the positives in this method, she was still shaken by the scene of the previous applicant and the ones that had come after him. Walking into a minefield undefended was simply too terrifying for her without evidence of its success.

“It’s settled then,” Roland said. “Whose gonna go first?”

Violet looked around at the rest of the group. Vivian was definitely out of the question, she was far too afraid to even consider volunteering. Violet herself was afraid of sudden failure, as it would anger her father even more. With this considered, she had to step down. Violet looked at Mark and Roland, who had begun staring at each other.

“I’ll go,” Mark said, with surprising confidence.

“You sure,” Roland asked, “you’re the only Low B-Rank here. As Mid B-Ranks, we would at least have a faster time to make a shield in the case that an explosion happens.”

Mark nodded in acknowledgment, “That is true. But trust me on this ok? I have a plan. I can’t tell you the plan, but I do have one.”

Roland nodded, despite his worry for Mark he also didn’t want to go first. The four of them had aspirations to be heroes, but building up the selflessness to put oneself in the way of extreme harm, pain, or even death took years to build for most.

Violet held some admiration for Mark. He might have a plan, but his willingness to go first in such a situation proved his selflessness. Thinking about it more, perhaps it was part of the reason why he had scored so highly on the first selection, a test on ideology and morality.

Mark walked up to the edge of the obstacle, right before the path suddenly expanded to the sides. The obstacle area appeared to be about 3 Ameriac football fields in length, and without psychic powers, Mark would probably take about a minute to cross the whole section.

“Mark,” Violet said, “don't uh… don't get eliminated… please.”

Mark smiled at Violet, his warmth permeating throughout every fiber of her body. Mark always gave off such overwhelming warmth and comfort. To see such a person eliminated, Violet didn’t want that.

‘I don’t want to lose a single friend, not one.’ She thought to herself.

Mark turned back towards the minefield and broke out into a run. Other applicants were beside him, running towards the other side. Explosions began triggering all around Mark as multiple applicants were thrown around.

Mark stumbled for a few moments, but he kept running. Violet’s observation held, and not a single mine exploded beneath Mark. Other applicants looked in confusion and astonishment. It wouldn’t be long before they deduced how to cross the minefield.

Mark kept running, for 20 seconds now.

25 seconds…

30 seconds…

40 seconds…

Violet’s heart began to beat faster as Mark approached the end. The closer he got, the more nervous she became, even if it was illogical. Violet began to breathe heavily, as though she was the one running. Violet herself wasn’t superstitious, but in such a tense situation, it was tough not to imagine the universe playing a cruel trick.

Violet saw Vivian clasp her hands in a prayer position as the path in front of Mark narrowed. This was the most dangerous part because other applicants had a chance of flying into Mark, which would cause an explosion that would eliminate Mark instantly.

45 seconds…

50 seconds…

Mark was now just a few feet away from the end and Violet couldn’t have been more nervous. It was in this moment that the universe would determine whether or not it would play a cruel joke, or allow it to pass. A single trip could cause Mark to activate his powers instinctively, leading to a potential elimination. 2 other applicants began to approach the end as well, followed by a trail of explosions.

Debris flew out everywhere about 10 feet away from Mark, the shockwave causing Mark to suddenly stumble, but he did not falter. The applicant directly towards Mark, forcing Mark to engage in a roll. At this point, stopping would only increase the chances of that applicant colliding with him. With only a few more steps now, Mark would reach the end of the obstacle.

This time, the universe did not play a cruel joke…

It was humanity that had. Violet saw a small rock, flying towards Mark at nearly 200 miles per hour. It appeared to be infused with psychic energy and was thrown at Mark by a member of Tarkif’s group who was nearby.

Violet saw Vivian open her mouth to scream as the rock collided with the ground right next to Mark's feet, and an explosion triggered.

As Mark’s figure was suddenly engulfed in a bright flash, Vivian screamed. Where Mark had been standing was now filled with smoke and fire.

Violet saw Vivian fall to her knees. Her mental state having already been on the edge from the previous explosions, seeing someone she knew vanish before her eyes was simply too much.

Violet felt a small amount of tears begin to fill up in her eyes. She did not have the experience to understand how connected she felt with Mark, whether or not their connection could be called anything more than a weak friendship, but it was genuine and filled with kindness. It was something she had not experienced for so many years.

As the smoke cleared, Violet closed her eyes, too afraid to see what Mark would look like after such an explosion. She began to hear murmurs from other applicants, while she couldn’t make out their words, she knew who they would be talking about.

“Violet, look up. You’re going to want to see this.” Roland said, tapping her shoulder.

‘What?’

Violet refused for a moment until she felt Vivian's hand on her shoulder as well.

“Violet, Roland is right.”

With even Vivian encouraging her Violet looked up at the crater. Instead of a burning body, Mark stood there completely unharmed, with only some singes on his clothes.

As Mark took the final steps towards the end, he gazed back at his teammates and smiled. She didn’t know why, but for a moment, Violet saw the face of someone else besides Mark staring back at her. It was a face, that filled Violet with fear, a face that hid beneath its surface, an undying rage. As soon as it had appeared, it once more vanished, and Violet was left confused as to the secrets Mark possessed.

End of Chapter 14