"You foolishly exposed us," Irin clenched his fist.
The viper turned in the direction from which the sound was coming, and Irin went still.
"You clueless idiot!" Irin said in a very low voice. "Hide behind the stone! NOW!"
The shout snapped Dark out of paralysis. He scrambled backward, tripping over the rubble, and then he clumsily threw himself behind the block of stone.
The viper scanned its surroundings left and right, but saw no one.
"Irin, would you just listen to what I have to say?" Darek asked, trying to control his breathing.
"We can work together. If we coordinate…if we think of a plan, we might beat it. Or at least escape."
Irin didn't even look at him.
"I know I screwed up," Darek admitted desperately.
"But I swear right now, none of that matters. That thing doesn't care about you or me. Its only desire is to kill. If we don't plan something together-"
Irin finally looked at him.
'I will trust a starving crocodile before I trust you.'
Irin smiled.
"Fine. If you say so," Irin replied.
Irin turned his gaze from Darek and looked all over the mine. He let his imagination run wild until his thoughts finally fell into alignment.
The coal mine was an enclosed system governed by geometry, force, confining pressure, and stress.
He had only been here a day, and without intending to, he had gained knowledge about the fracturing properties of coal when subjected to pressure.
Coal wasn't granite. It isn't solid in the way people assumed. It's layered, compressed, brittle in its own way, and prone to splitting along fault lines if force is applied correctly.
Irin's eyes caught something at the far end of the cavern. He found a crack in the wall.
It was a thin, uneven line across the coal wall that branched out like a spider's web. If one were to apply force at the right point, especially if the force exceeds the tensile strength of the cracks, that entire section of the wall will collapse.
And the collapse would serve as their means of escape.
'Force equals mass times acceleration,' Irin thought automatically as he recalled Barak's old lessons during one of those cold nights when Barak had spent months, if not years, teaching him arithmetic.
Irin, like many others, would agree that arithmetic is difficult.
'And that creature has both mass and acceleration.'
The viper weighed several tons. With extreme velocity, it attacked, pulling its body mass forward. Given its speed, rapid deceleration or alteration of direction was impossible. And the inevitability of momentum would make it complete its strike.
'If I can make it hit that wall…' Irin imagined.
Irin knew the plan was insane and reckless. On the other hand, there's a theoretical possibility of success.
The creature hadn't been hunting with sight alone. Its eyes were rudimentary and adapted for a dark environment. For the creature's optimal hunting, it depended on something much more fundamental.
It senses: body heat and ground vibrations.
'Take those away….'
His eyes darted across the floor. A water jug made of pigskin, which belonged to one of the dead guards, lay across the floor. And nearby, loose coal debris littered the floor in abundance.
Irin moved carefully, using only his legs to hook the jug and pull it closer, minimizing any sort of vibration that the viper could sense.
"What are you doing?" Darek whispered urgently. "Now is not the time to do stupid things."
Irin offered no response.
Irin scooped coal debris from the floor, made a small pile, added water, and mixed it with his hands. The resulting mixture turned into black mud.
He then proceeded to rub it all over his arms, chest, neck, and face.
He covered himself in coal mud from head to toe, which made him indistinguishably black as coal.
"Have you lost your mind? Darek cast a brief look at him. "Why are you covering yourself with filth?!"
Irin finally looked at him.
"If you want us to work together," Irin said flatly, "then listen carefully and don't interrupt me."
Darek swallowed. "Okay."
"The wall at the far end has a crack," Irin whispered. "Coal layers are weak. The wall will collapse if a heavy object strikes it with enough force and speed."
Darek frowned. "What of the viper?"
"It's the force we need," Irin concluded.
Darek stopped breathing for a moment as he realized what Irin was about to do.
"You're… you're going to use yourself as bait?"
"Yes."
"That's suicide!"
"No," Irin said. "It's math."
Irin pointed to himself. "The coal mud absorbs heat and masks my thermal signature. By walking with care, I also lessen my vibrations. The viper will have trouble tracking me."
"When I get to the wall, I'll wash off the coal mud from my body and stomp the ground hard, exposing my heat and vibrations to the viper. The viper won't ignore this, and it would definitely speed towards me."
"And me?" Darek asked.
"You throw small rocks at it," Irin said. "Small chunks in different directions. Distract it. Make it chase ghosts."
Darek stared at him. "And then?"
"I'll take care of the rest," Irin said quietly.
"…Alright," Darek tried to hide his anxiety. "Alright. Let's do it."
Irin turned and began tiptoeing towards the wall. Darek, on the other hand, picked up pieces of rock and threw them towards the far right, away from the viper.
The viper reacted instantly and sped toward the sound.
Darek threw another piece of rock towards the left, and the viper moved towards the sound only to find nothing.
The creature hissed in frustration. The plan was working successfully.
Inch by inch, Irin moved closer to the wall.
"HEY!"
A guard shouted and burst out of his hiding place with a shotgun positioned in his arm. He opened fire, filling the mine with the sound of gunshots.
The bullets spark uselessly off the viper's scales.
"Noooo! You mad raccoon!" Darek swore. "I thought all the stupid ones were dead? WHERE DID YOU SPAWN OUT FROM?"
Irin turned back and froze when he realized the gravity of what the guard had just done.
The viper reared back and turned towards the guard in pure fury. It let out a hiss that shook the mine.
When the guard discovered his mistake, the viper was already within his reach.
Out of fear, he dropped his gun and ran straight toward Irin and Darek.
Darek let go of the rocks he was holding and ran from his hiding spot.
The viper pursued them both, and in a matter of moments, it had caught up to them.
Just as it was about to open its mouth to rip Darek apart, Darek slammed his body into the guard.
The guard lost their footing and fell to the ground.
Darek didn't look back. He ran until he found a safe corner and dove beneath another block of rock. He covered his mouth with his hands out of fear.
The guard's screams echoed for a few seconds before the sound of bones being crushed was heard.
Raising its head, the viper spotted Irin.
One thing Irin noted about the creature was that it was intelligent.
It was a certainty that the viper would mistake him for an inanimate object. The coal mud ensured that.
This was it.
Irin knew his plan depended on one final variable for it to succeed: speed.
The remaining distance to the wall was just a few meters. If only he could get to the wall on time.
"Screw this!" Irin shouted.
He broke into a run and sprinted towards the wall, and the viper sensed the vibration off the ground and followed suit.
At last, Irin reached the cracked point, raised the water jug to wash the coal mud off, and nothing poured out.
The jug was empty.
Darek flashed through his mind, and then his eyes opened in a sudden understanding.
Darek had drunk the water secretly behind his back when he was busy rubbing the coal mud over his body.
Although Irin felt an intense rage, the Viper's proximity made whatever he felt at that moment irrelevant.
This was the end.
The viper stretched its mouth open, ready to engulf him entirely.
It was at that moment that Irin dived to the side with everything he had.
The viper hit the wall with a slam, causing the crack to deepen and spread explosively.
The wall collapsed, and black dust filled the mine.
Sunlight poured in through the opening in a blinding brilliance. And for a few seconds, Irin lay on the pile of coal.
Irin coughed violently as he staggered to his feet. He looked around and saw the viper lying still on the floor.
The position where the viper had created an exit was high in the wall. And with the help of the pile of coal, Irin climbed out of the mine.
When he was finally outside, Irin coughed for a few seconds before he inhaled the fresh air around him.
"Irin!"
Darek, who was still inside the mine, ran towards him.
"Help me out!"
Darek tried to climb the pile of coal, but the pile kept crumbling down.
"Please! Pull me up!" Darek reached up, stretching forth an arm.
Irin looked down at him for some minutes before extending his hand.
The moment Darek moved to take his hand, Irin pulled it back a little.
Darek stretched his arm further, almost straining himself. And as he was about to grab hold of Irin's hand, Irin shifted his hand a few inches back.
The cycle repeated itself: If Darek stretched forward, Irin would pull his hands back by a few inches.
"STOP!" Darek screamed. "Is this a joke?!"
Irin smiled.
"Well," he said softly, "this is my gift to you."
"…What…gift?"
Irin stood up, took a few steps back, and looked into the mine.
Darek tracked Irin's gaze, and then slowly rotated his head.
He almost fainted in shock when he found the supposedly dead viper slowly raising its head and looking at him.
"Please, I-"
Before Darek could finish, the viper forcefully attacked him.
Darek's blood splashed Irin across his body, which was covered in mud.
The mine began to shake before the viper could get its head up again. The cracks in the wall where the viper had slammed into earlier had spread throughout the entire coal mine.
Heavy pieces of coal and rocks started crashing down as the mine collapsed on itself, burying the viper and everything inside.