" EVERYONE! It's me, Princess Viva and heir. We will just use the same tunnel my Dad used. We should be able to catch up. Follow me!" Viva ordered.

Stealing Clay's hand the future Queen dragged him with her as they dashed into the tunnels throwing caution to the wind. There was time to react or question. The Keeper of the Trolls was going to open the cage gate again any moment now with sheep minded Bergens following right behind her. The second wave of trolls joined the pair in the race against the clock for survival.

The middle tunnel was the least unstable but all three were dark and beginning to crumble. Grabbing one of the wall torches the leading princess held high so everyone behind them could see too. The walls continued cracking and the ground beneath feet was rocky and uneven water leaked in creating puddles. The world began shaking even more when the third wave rushed them the other trolls trying to squeeze into the narrow space.

The exit came into view filling the stampede of trolls with hope. Viva grinned determined to see her father on the other side with the rest of the village and her sister. However they seemed to be getting ready to run. Ready to leave. No. They can't leave. Not now. Not without them. The plan had changed.

" DAD! WAIT! NO TROLL LEFT BEHIND!" Viva yelled at the top of her lungs.

Just as her voice reached its peak massive shovels came down into the tunnels digging down and crashing the tunnels. Their fleeting chance vanished in a blink of an eye. The walls cracked above the trapped trolls heads. Viva and Clay hit the breaks resulting in other trolls behind them bumping and piling up behind them. Viva froze falling to the ground. Tears filled her widened eyes as her heart stopped beating. Clay wrapped his arms around her pulling her back up onto her feet as a brief large cloud of dirt and dust hit blinding everyone.

" No. No. No! No! NO!" Viva cried hyperventilating.

Sunlight light peeked into the tunnels as more of the other side continued to collapse and dug up by shovels. The sounds of Bergens groaning, complaining and yelling angrily could be heard from directly above.  The Bergens... They knew. They knew the trolls were escaping. They were looking for them. They were trying to dig them out from the tunnels.

" Viva! We can't stay here. Everyone! Fall back!" Clay scooped Viva up bridal style.

Pushing each other in conflicting directions the trolls were forced to keep moving. Nobody knew where to go. The tunnels were coming on their way to falling on the trolls' heads. Unidentifiable and panicked chatter of trolls mixed with the the Bergens' rage and the tunnels' falling apart. The third wave trolls were pushed out so much that they were back the fork of the tunnels with some still taking up space in the entrance of  the middle tunnel. The other two tunnels had already collapsed and one was leaking a stream of water.

" John! Branch!" Clay called.

" Over here!" John jumped up and waved not out of the middle tunnel yet.

" Here! Here! Here!" Branch repeated.

A couple trolls pushed past John and Branch who didn't move from their spot. Eager to reach Clay Branch stepped forward but JD grabbed his arm pulling him back to keep him by his side. The last thing Clay and John wanted was something bad happening to Branch. They had already lost too much family. Then John spotted a shovel breaking its way through to completely destroy the tunnels right above Clay and Viva's heads. It wasn't just them. Half of the remaining trolls were still back there.

" CLAY! VIVA! WATCH OUT!" John screamed.

The trolls behind John hurried further back trying to get out of the tunnels. Clay threw Viva forward as he jumped back. As the shovel hit rock the  tunnel ceiling collapsed separating Viva, Clay and half of the remaining village from Branch, John and the others. Screams filled the air as the Bergens reached in and started grabbing trolls from the hole. While they weren't buried luckily, the second wave of trolls were still at the mercy of the Bergens once more.

" See, Your Highness. We can still have Trollistise. " The Bergen Chef smirked.

Viva leaped into action trying to pull Clay away but, she got pulled with him tossed into a sack. On the other side of the collapsed tunnels John was desperately trying to pull apart the caved in wall blocking them out of the tunnels completely. Clay's screams were just as loud as Grandma Rosiepuff's scream when she was taken. Suddenly the noise stopped and John just sank down onto his knees with tears flooding his eyes.

In his mind he remembered every single person he saw got taken before him. First his mother then his father. Grandma next. And now he could only imagine Clay suffering the same fate. His heart shattered at the thought of another loss.

A wave of pent up rage pumped up from his sadness causing John to stand up and throw his ski goggles at the failed tunnel system as hard as he could.  An anguished scream escaped him. It was so loud it silenced the crowd behind him staring. Even Branch stood back scared at first until he ran over and hugged John's leg.

Panting heavily the boy band leader's colours began to change. His teal hair faded into raven and his cyan skin turned greyish still maintaining some blue to it. His eyes didn't lose their blue colouring either due the burning flames within its sea. John's hands balled up into fists. Branch kept hugging his angered brother hoping for him to calm.

Branch's own colouring suffered the condition as reality fully sat in for him. The rest of the survivors looked around the Troll Tree fading into grey and black tones  themselves too. They were all back at square one. Again. The escape failed. More of them were taken. What was the point in having hope? If there was a god then they must have a cruel sense of humor when it came to Pop trolls. Nobody was laughing if this was truly a joke.

" JD?" Branch called out.

When the now mostly grey troll looked down his whole demeanor fell apart. He still had Branch. He still had Spruce and Floyd. Not all was lost. Sighing John picked up his baby brother and cuddled him as if he feared Branch was going to disappear too. Seeing a grey version of his sibling did strike an uncomfortable cord in John but, he rather have a living grey Branch than a dead Branch.

" I'm sorry. I'm so,so sorry. " John whispered. " I'll get us out of here. I promise."

" Don't bother. We're doomed no matter what we do." A random troll scoffed angry at the world.

Turning around with perked ears the young man noticed a change in everyone. Not only had they turned grey too but, also had bitterness rolling off their tongues. There were only three moods being shared around. Anger, hopelessness and sadness but, anger was the strongest and most present emotion. It was almost like everyone was fed up with their situation. Had no reason to mask their unhappiness. When King Peppy was already they faked it but, now that didn't matter.

" Maybe so but, I'm not staying here. Anything is better than being here waiting for death." John said.

He walked straight through the crowd determined carrying his baby brother. Branch watched everyone's reactions from over John's shoulders. They were all watching them like they were crazy. Soon John Dory reached the cage gate. It was wide open. As far as he could tell there were no Bergens around. Maybe they were somewhere else outside still looking for the rest of the village. The other grey trolls brought themselves down to the grass approaching closer to John who refused to turn around to acknowledge them.

" Wait! Were you one of those trolls that got through the bars and into town to escape?" A female troll asked.

" Yeah. That was me. Only two of my brothers made it out. Why?" John questioned moving Branch onto his back for a piggyback ride.

" Why did you get caught?" She asked.

" Cause the Bergens heard King Peppy being as loud as Fuck and whatever stupid party lights being setup at the time from inside here landed on us somehow. The Bergens saw us. Then I kept fighting back and staying behind to make sure all of my brothers were alive in one piece. We would have all escaped already if the first two things didn't happen. " John Dory explained.

That answer put all the rumors that once floated around the tree to rest. Nobody knew the full story. All they were told was that there was a group of five young male trolls risking their lives for a foolish escape plan out of impatience.  However now hearing part of John's side of brought new light to the subject. Two unfortunately timed events created a chain reaction and it started with the King they had issues with on how poorly their promised escape was handled over the years. They were not too fond of Peppy.

" So it was King Peppy's fault?" A random troll asked.

" I wouldn't say that. I don't know who did what first but, yeah he was part of it. " John dismissed.

Moving forward John dashed to a telephone pole then whipped his raven locks grabbing the top. Pulling them up into the sky Branch tightened his grip burying his face in his brother's shoulder. With a final swing the determined man landed on his feet on top of the pole. He could see more of the empty town clearly. The Bergens were outside the towering walls on the west side.

The crowd of trolls standing back glanced at each other conflicted. Some nodded their heads in agreement not saying a word. Those select trolls followed John onto the telephone pole. John was already walking and balancing the cable still giving his brother a piggyback ride. Soon the rest of the grey trolls pushed their personal thoughts and opinions aside and followed too. They had nothing more to lose at this point. All they had was each other.

By the time Dory made it to the last telephone pole closest to the wall,he finally turned around. He paused raising an eyebrow at the trolls who were not far behind walking on the cables. Children were being carried by their parents or a random adult while others walked across by themselves one by one.

" What are you doing?"

" What does it look like? Following your lead. " A female Rainbow troll responded.

" You said it yourself. Anything is better than being here waiting for death. " A male glitter troll stated.

Meanwhile outside of town,the Bergens had tied the sack of trolls to a tree. There was not enough for their troll eating holiday. Not even for a quarter of them. They couldn't find any more from the tunnels they dug up. Angry King Gristle Senior yelled at everyone to check the forest for more trolls. Even the chef had no choice but, to search if she valued her position and life.

Inside the sack trolls still holding onto their colours were crying or hugging each other or frozen in shock sitting down. It was too dark to see so Viva and Clay activated the magic in their hair to glow. Seeing this action happen encouraged others to do the same bringing light to everyone. Spotting a tiny hole in their current prison climbed down to it getting down her knees.

" Clay. Help me. Pull the other side." Viva ordered.

Without hesitation Clay snapped out of his thoughts and joined her. He grabbed at the other side of the hole and pulled it loosening more thread. However two pairs of hands were not enough. They needed more. Glancing up at the other trolls Clay pulled harder.

" A little more help here." The teenager grunted.

Nodding their heads more helping hands pulled at the thread and the hole until it was big enough for four trolls to jump through. The princess and her best friend dropped themselves down through it first landing a mushroom. Scanning the area Viva noticed most of the Bergens were distracted so she gave Clay a thumbs up. Nodding his head the other teen looked up and gestured for everyone to come down.

Once every single troll was free they bolted back to the opened up tunnels. Using a Bergen spade together they broke through one of the collapsed exits. The one they opened was to the troll tree. Clay ran through first hoping to see Branch and John but, to his dismay and shock nobody was here. At his feet were John's goggles and Branch's favorite toy,Croco, covered in dust. Picking both items up the he frantically looked around for any more signs.

" John! Branch! John Dory! Where are you?" Clay called out desperate.

More Bergens began filling up the center of town. It wasn't many but, enough to cause Viva to panic. She pulled him back into the open tunnel covering his mouth with her hand. Chef stomped back to the Troll Tree kicking it with rage. Pods and fake trolls fell out of the tree.

" Those tiny, irritating, impulsive, ungrateful-" Chef growled pulling on her light blue hair.

Eventually the rage episode died down. Chef composed herself running her fingers through her hair then adjusted her hat. She walked over to the pot where trolls would be placed in for the yearly trolling eating. Viva and Clay crept closer to see what she was doing hoping to find some sort of answer to what happened to the others.

" Now. Now. Beverly, we can't have ourselves be bigger fool in front of the King. We have enough trolls to cook instead of individually eating raw and their going all in here." The Bergen Chef smirked.

Clay gasped as his mind raced. Was she talking them? Or was she talking about- No! It can't be. They can't be captured too. If they were they would have been brought to Chef by now. However there was still no sign of the others. No sign of Branch or John. Clay refused to believe it was too late.

" Clay... Nobody is here. We gotta go while we still can. " Viva said watching more Bergens come into town.

" No! We can't. Not yet." Clay cried.

Viva frowned. " Their not here..."

Tears flooded Clay's eyes. Hearing those very words from her hit harder than when he received the news from John that their grandmother was gone. John and Branch just being missing hurt more than the thought of knowing. It shattered him.

" Please! We need to find them! We can't just leave without them. What if they're still out here." Clay begged desperate.

Viva pulled Clay into a hug. " I'm sorry..."