Episode Two, Part 2: 
Debts

"What is this supposed to be?" Quill pondered, crouching down as he traced his fingers across the worn-out scrap of metal that Wynn had led everyone to.

"Looks like a piece of crap, to me," Bas answered, kicking at the pile in hopelessness, causing Quill to flinch backwards, falling over. Somewhat embarrassed, Quill picked himself up, brushing the dirt off of him as he stood up.

"What are you gonna do with this?" Bas continued. "Hide behind it as we crawl to an exit? Even I could have come up with a better idea than this-" 

"Well, you didn't," Wynn rolled his eyes, trying not to take his words too seriously. He knew that the only reason Bas was being so cold was because he was isolated from his family and had no idea if any of them were alive or not.

"This is our exit," Wynn clarified, slightly impressed with himself, almost anticipating everyone's reactions when they realised his discovery. Seeing only confused looks in response, Wynn got down to his knees, taking the large square of metal into his hands and using his entire body weight as he pushed it along the ground, revealing a large opening underneath.

MaReya backed away, feeling like she was close enough to fall down. "W-what is that?" She asked.

Wynn hesitated in his answer; he didn't want everyone to think he was crazy or hassle him for answers about how he had found out about it. "It's a tunnel," he said. "Our way out... Look, no guards," he tried to make a joke out of it to assure himself that it was a smart idea, but his nerves were slowly catching up to him. 

There were mixed reactions from everyone; Quill and MaReya kept their distance from the edge, Ares peered over at his brother - wondering how he found out about it, and Bas smirked, looking as though he might leap down at any moment.

"How did you find this?" Ares asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Wynn shrugged, debating whether to tell the entire truth or if it was best to sugar-coat it. "They put me down for some combat training class, or something," he said. "I didn't want to go, so I just walked around camp for a while until I tripped over this thing. I wouldn't have noticed anything, but it wasn't shut properly and my foot got caught in the edge. When I lifted it up, I realised what it was."

"You knew straight away, or you decided to jump down and have a look without knowing how far down this thing goes?" Ares asked disapprovingly, not liking the idea of his brother acting impulsively when they already seemed to be in such dangerous situation.

"Do you want me to answer that?" Wynn muttered, scratching the back of his head awkwardly as he looked over at Quill, seeing their younger brother amused at the confrontation Wynn had found himself in.

But Ares rolled his eyes, deciding it wasn't worth the argument. "I think we should look for a safer way out. We don't even know what could be down there or where it leads to."

"I'm with Ares on this one," MaReya said. "Anything could happen. We don't even know how far down it is or how long it goes on for."

"What if we found a place in the fence we could squeeze through? If anyone catches us in the tunnels, then they won't trust us. I know these people might not be telling us what we want to hear right now," Quill said, "but they are keeping us alive."

Wynn shook his head, propping himself of the edge of the hole so his legs were swinging over, and jumped down into the darkness.

Everyone momentarily came to a halt, their breaths all seeming to stop in unison, waiting to see if Wynn was okay. Thankfully, the tunnel was only about a 7-foot drop, so Wynn could easily stand without having to crouch over. Once steady, he smiled up at his family, seeing Ares glancing down at him with a look of disapproval that Wynn knew all too well.

"It's just like being back underground again," he joked, amused to see Quill and Bas stifling back their laughter.

He reached upwards over the edge, pulling down a backpack that he had set on the ground, stolen from a guard that he had seen leave it unattended outside of the main building in camp.

"Need I repeat that we don't know where this leads to," Ares emphasised. "Quill was right; there could be a-"

"I know where it goes."

Ares stumbled in his speech, trying to figure out if he had heard his brother correctly or not.

"What do you mean 'you know where it goes?'" He asked. "How would you know that?"

"Because..." Wynn trailed off, suddenly very captivated by the dirt he was picking off of his hands, wanting to face anything but his brother's frustration. "I've already been down here," he admitted.

Ares let out a deep breath, turning to look at the others and figure out their judgement. Quill simply shrugged, not knowing what to say to him; he didn't want to see his brothers get lost in some stupid, half-planned mission they had started, but he also didn't want to spend another night not knowing where their sister or parents were.

"So..?" Wynn called out from the hole, drumming his hands on the metal. "You coming?"

Ares inhaled, willing himself to copy his brother's actions and reluctantly joined him in the tunnel.

"Be careful down here," MaReya said, a hand on Ares' arm as she passed him the second backpack. Her eyes drifted over to Wynn, emphasising her statement. "Both of you."

"I still don't think this is a good idea," Ares muttered, giving in as he jumped down into the space behind Wynn.

"Oh, and one more thing," Wynn muttered, hesitating on their departure. He tugged his bag around to his front, digging inside to pull out a couple of torches and turning them on before passing one to Ares. He then reached back into his bag, taking out a pair of radios and passing one up to the others on the ground.

Quill took a hold of the device, the reality of his brothers leaving him, finally kicking in.

"Don't let anyone see you have this," Wynn told him. "If anything happens out there, we'll call you."

Quill nodded at Ares and Wynn, trying to conceal his fear so they could leave without any distractions. "I'll keep it on me at all times," he assured them. "Just please find the others."

Wynn nodded, anxious to leave him behind, but eventually disappearing into the tunnel, hopeful that his return would be filled with the company of his family, and not another piece of his ever-growing world crashing in on him.

Two // Part Two
They are keeping us alive.

12/08/22.