Answers

Boone who was hurting and wounded from the beatings he had received so far began to tell the tale of how they all ended up there.

"Where are not southern," he started.

"We've never even been to one of the states, we just like to imitate the way they talk because we grew up watching lots of Southwest cartoons about cowboys and robots."

Edith was nodding in the background when she heard them say this, she knew the TV show they were talking about and she would even wake up at 3 am in the morning to catch the latest episodes before she went to school.

But she had to admit that no amount of watching TV could get her to imitate their clothes or an accent like this. This was a special kind of obsession.

"We were all born and raised here in Australia, but we've never liked this place. There were too many animals for our liking, we were basically living in the outdoors despite having a house. After their mama died," he said as he leaned his head to point at them, "who was also my aunt, we decided that we would rake up some cash for us to move out to Texas."

"The thing is, neither of us is particularly good at any Job. Not one single talent among us," Boone said.

"Not surprised," Cyrus whispered.

"We did odd jobs here and there, ranging from cleaning people's toilets to doing animal control and taking out wildlife that had wandered into people's homes. We made our livings off of that, you would be surprised how many animals walk into people's houses here."

Beau added to that statement, "Yeah one time even we found a platypus with a hat inside of a person's house. How did it get into such a tall building in the first place?" he asked.

"Oh, can it will you!" the girl said to her brother as she hit him with her head.

"Ouch, sorry sis!" Beau said with a tear in his head.

"Hey, don't interrupt him, unless you want me to go around hitting all of you again. Equally!" Cyrus said crossing his arms.

Boone who had yet to be hit again was staring at the crossbar nearby and shook his head as he was determined to not get hit again.

"Anyways," he started, "We may have been making a living but we never got to make "A Living," you feel me!? We never got the money we needed to live the life we dreamed about, we were living off scrapes. We knew we couldn't keep living like this and so we got desperate. Too desperate."

"One of our loyal customers who had been working with us through emails and always paid us without a problem each time had asked us just how odd the jobs we do were. We didn't know any better and ended up working with him on this job right here."

"To burn down this here forest to the ground."

"But why?" Cyrus asked, "Why would he ask you to do something so random?"

"I don't know," Boone said, "I didn't hear all em' details properly as I was focused on the pay rather than the work. This was all before I realized just how messed up this situation was. And he probably wasn't going to tell us anyway, he prefers to keep things, secretive. You know?"

Cyrus nodded, "Well since you don't know anything then I guess there is no point in keeping you all conscious anymore. It was nice while it lasted," he said as he raised the crowbar up high.

"Wait!" the girl spoke, "I know what it's about! You see I have a knack for knowing more than I should and this would generally get me in trouble but you see it can help you here just please, promise you won't hurt my family no more!"

Cyrus looked her in the eye as he was still raising his crowbar up high, he felt an intense stare from behind himself and when he looked back he could see all of his friends watching him earnestly to see what he would do next.

This whole thing felt like it was an intense show where Cyrus was being watched by an audience eager for him to make the right decision.

Looking at Terra and his puppy eyes Cyrus sighed as he put down the crossbar and made that deal with them. 

"Alright, I will no longer hurt you if you agree to answer my questions," he said to them.

With that being said, Boone and Beau were glad that she had finally decided to stop being stubborn and to look out for them by spilling the beans which even they were eager to know of.

"This whole operation. It was orchestrated by a politician who is looking to seek power here in Australia. You people may not be from around here, I can tell maybe that much so you probably don't know, but this forest is right next to an oil mine."

Hearing this piece of information even Minty was curious now as she noted to herself to file this report to Alex later.

"The thing is, despite there being oil here this place has too much forestation, so much so that it was abolished for anyone to try and tear it down in order for them to mine it. Something about preserving the ozone layer or something," she added.

Dawn who had spent an unhealthy amount of time without going outside asked himself, "The ozone layer? We are still talking about that? Isn't that like a thing of the past or is it something serious for it to still be a problem now?" he wondered.

The girl went on, "The plan was for them to burn down this forest with a fire and have reporters say that it was natural or that some oil had leaked here from the mines causing it to spread, something like that, and when it was over they would claim to come and fix the issue and mine out as much oil as possible while using that money to make Australia a better place."

"This would in turn give them the popularity needed to rise up in power and and give them more money to use and spend however they want. It was all a ploy and we were the..." She paused for a few seconds before she looked down and said these words, "Dispensable workforce," she finished.

"Hold on now," Boone asked, "What do you mean dispensable? I was never told any part of this!"

"Yeah me too!" Beau added.

"That's because we were roped too deep, there wasn't much we could do after knowing what they planned to use us for and I didn't want to make you lot worry by telling you this in the first place."

"I'm sorry," she said with her head hanging low.

The whole group was quiet now, it looked like they had said all that they had to say with nothing else left. So this led Cyrus to ask, "Which politician was it?"

The girl looked up to face Cyrus and said, "I don't know, otherwise I would have told you by now. He never revealed his face or name and even with my snooping I couldn't figure it out and was too scared to look any further fearing for my life and my family's lives. It wasn't even him that hired us, it was his henchmen and even they didn't seem to be that high up the ladder."

'Damn it,' Cyrus thought. He was so close to breaking down the case but the most vital part of the information he needed was missing. Without knowing who did it, the reason behind it wouldn't be as valuable for there were many people in power, not just politicians who would do such a thing.

He wanted the 'who' and then the 'why' but he only got the 'why' out of this.

"Minty," he said turning backward, "This is your jurisdiction now." He passed by Minty and went to stand with his friends.

Arriving on the scene Vito and Edith started clapping their hands for him and Terra who had been in his own head staring at the culprits flinched when he heard the noise and joined them as well in clapping for Cyrus.

The only one who didn't clap was Dawn as he looked at them and asked, "What are you guys doing? This isn't a show."

Cyrus whose smile had faded looked at Dawn and said, "Mood Killer," as he crossed his arms right after. It wasn't a habit of crossing his arms that he had, he just liked making a statement by doing so.

Minty walked up to the trio and the girl asked her, "So what will you do with us now?"

Minty didn't think long or hard, she had already made up her mind long ago about what it was she would do.

"I will be turning you in to the authorities, you will be arrested and persecuted for your crimes and after that, you will at least have a safe place away from the people who put you up to this while I'll have someone I know investigate on your matter more."

The girl's eyes widened as she had tears in her eyes as she held back tears, "No, not that! There isn't a life we could live like that in prison! Anything but that! Can't you guys take us in or something? We know you guys ain't from around here, maybe we can hide out with you and help y'all even!" She argued as the guys nodded beside her.

"That doesn't seem possible, besides, it would be better for the authorities of your home country to deal with you," Minty answered in a cold and somewhat demeaning way.

"But we won't be safe in prison! Anyone who has some knowledge would know that prison is just a place where they silence those who know too much! We would be killed before we even got out of the police department!"

"Please I beg of you, don't do this to us! You said you wouldn't hurt us anymore!" she yelled looking at Cyrus.

"And I didn't," he answered looking at the crowbar that was lying on the ground.

Minty had now come between them as she brought the girl's focus from Cyrus back to her, "Actions have consequences, and the only way to learn that is to go through hardship like these. I will put in a word to my people to keep you alive when you are in prison, at least that should ease your worries."

"It's not just that!" the girl said as she was crying herself a fountain. The boys beside her had never felt so bad, it was their first time seeing the girl who was always so strong and brave in front of them break down in tears like this. In the end, they all kept their heads low and tried to accept the undeniable fate that was upon them. There was nothing they could do to stop it.

"Can we just, let them go?" Terra asked raising his hand from behind Minty.

Everyone who had heard him speak looked towards him immediately as Terra wondered where all these intense stares were coming from.

"What did you say?" Minty asked.