Mark got up and started to stretch his limbs. "What are you doing?" Tom asked him. He reached out both of his arms and bent his knees, "Stretching, just in case we need to run."
Tom laughed hysterically, "Do you think all that's going to matter? You're just making yourself look stupid." Mark chose to ignore him as he continued his routine. Jen got up from resting and joined Mark as well.
"You too?" Tom asked her, surprised. "Mark's right in the way that we have to be prepared, we're still not out after all." Jen said as she tried to follow Mark's movements.
"Eh, what the hell." Jim said before joining them. "Now I feel left out." Jug complained, he rushed in and joined the others.
Tom remained sitting however, "Fine, you guys can do whatever you want." He turned away from them, trying to focus himself on something else.
he went up to the walls and noticed just how smooth it was, "Hey Jug, how long did it take for you to make this?"
"I can't really remember, it took me ages, I started digging this tunnel as my last resort," Jug explained, he was still trying his best to copy Mark's routine. "It should be a month after coming here that I started digging this whole thing."
Tom looked further ahead, "And it goes all the way to the surface?"
"Yup, I had to cover the exit up. Make it hidden well enough that they wouldn't notice." Jug told him. He was already sweating from the exercise, "Okay, I think I'm done." He gave up and went up to Tom.
"It's been done for a while now, but there was a reason why I haven't told you guys about it yet."
"Why?" Jen asked, "This looks like it could've been used anytime." Jug looked at her, "Well, you'll see when we get there." He sat down to catch his breath. "Maybe I shouldn't have joined you guys actually."
Mark smirked, "I'm surprised you even dug this with that much stamina." He did his last set of stretches and stopped. "Alright, we should be good to move now." Jim told them, "I don't feel any different than before though, maybe Tom was right."
"Told you so." Tom said with an obnoxious tone. Mark patted Jim's back, "Don't worry, it'll be useful for later." They began to go towards the exit again.
"Wait." Jug said, he was still tired from the exercise. "Mark, can you help carry me?" Mark sighed, he got down and carried Jug in his back. "I would've stood in your hands like usual, but I barely have the energy to stand now."
Jim laughed, "Looks like you're carrying him one last before we get the hell out of here." The others laughed along with him, they knew how much Mark hated the role of carrying Jug around.
Jen patted him on the shoulder, "Just deal with it, it'll be over after this anyways." She tried to comfort him. It made Mark feel better that someone tried, but he still hated the others for laughing at him.
They kept going until they ended up seeing a huge door blocking the exit. "How the hell did you install this?"
"The size of this thing is about a hundred of you," Jim joked, but Jug wasn't laughing. Jug tapped Mark, signaling for him to let him down. He reached his feet down and got up to the door.
"This is it, the exit," He stood in front of the door. "I've actually been keeping a secret from you guys."
"I actually wasn't digging alone. In fact, I dug this path with the help of many others. We mined upwards, excavating the dirt and scattering it around elsewhere where no one looked"
Jug looked at each of them, "You guys, you weren't the first people to revolt against the three wardens."
"What do you mean?" Mark looked at him, confused. "When you went up to me you said that this place was full of hopelessness, that things needed to change."
"You said that when I shake your hand, it'll be the start of the first resistance." Jen stepped forward as well, "Wait, I don't understand, why are you telling us this now?"
Jug held his hand up, "Let me finish." He got back to explaining. "We worked daily, sneaking in and out when we could. It took months only for us to dig no further than the distance between you and I."
Jim looked, they were no more than six steps away from each other.
"What started as a spark of hope for all of us turned to a symbol of despair, reminding us of what it takes to regain what was taken from us."
"That was, until a miracle happened." Jug's arms glowed with a green color. He went up to the dirt walls and swung his hand at it, seamlessly digging the dirt away.
"These hands of mine, they're able to repel anything. Even the hardest minerals we could find"
"But most importantly, it allowed me to dig." He closely inspected his hands. "I was so lucky. When I awakened, nobody was there to witness it. I was able to let out my power without anyone noticing."
Tim was about to step forward and ask him more questions, but Jug raised his hand.
Let me finish.
He read from his lips. He backed down, wanting to know the answers to his questions but also wanting to know how the story would end.
Jug continued, "I revealed my power to the others. Their eyes sparked back with hope as they saw their ticket to freedom. And so I dug relentlessly, as much as I could during those small windows I had."
"We were so close, but someone had noticed the traces I had left during my awakening, the worst person you could possibly imagine to find out."
"Parquatz."
Jug's expression changed to a darker one, "Since he began becoming suspicious, he observed everyone closely. It was then that he began to follow someone as they headed to the secret entrance."
His eyes looked as if he was in pain trying to recall the memories, worsening as he went on. "It was horrible, his short temper bursted the moment he saw everyone working together, all to escape from his grasp."
Jug began to be expressive, his hands were shaking and expressions more visible. "There was no blood spilt that day, but there were also no bodies left. Countless lives were erased from existence."
"I already find the concept of not knowing where in the afterlife you'll end up already scary, but the thought of suddenly disappearing, your very existence gone from this world yet you still remain alive…"
"It terrifies me."
Jim noticed that Jug's eyes had been avoiding theirs for some time now. His instincts were telling him something, warning him about Jug.
"So, when he came up to me he saw how similar our powers were. He told me I had potential, he told me how unlucky my parents were that they weren't able to see how powerful their son was."
Jug traced his fingers along the wall, leaving marks as he dragged it across. "And out of everything, he said what I needed to hear the most."
The group backed off as they started to realize what was happening. Jug wasn't really on their side, he wasn't actually trying to help them.
Jim could only think of one thing as kept backing off.
We should've kept running.
Then, he bumped into someone, a man.
"I said that I needed him." They turned in surprise, seeing that Parquatz was behind them. "It really was a shame how he was born with dwarfism, but opportunities often come disguised as misfortunes"
Tom shook with fury, "What the hell have you done?" He never felt as betrayed as he was now. He ran towards Jug and threw a punch as hard as he could.
"Denied!"
Parquatz jumped between them, erasing Tom's arm. He looked at where his arm was, a stomp with a black hole where his arm was supposed to be was left.
"What the hell?" He asked, confused. He could still feel his arm was there, but he couldn't see or interact with anything with it. As if it was erased from existence, yet still there.
Parquatz kicked Tom away from Jug and towards Mark, "I'll let you deal with the other two, as you requested." He slowly walked towards the two of them, enjoying their expressions as he went closer.