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"How long do we have to walk?" Asked Pete.

"What do you how long do we have to walk? We just walked a few meters, you can't be serious there right?" Asked James.

"No, I think what my brother had in mind was, how long do you think, till we get here out?" Dan seemed concerned. Everyone was injured, tired and hungry. No matter how much you are willing, if the body can not keep up, then it's all for nought.

"It's hard to say, the more we walk, the more bones and corpses we see, so the only thing I know is, we are coming nearer and nearer, to whatever is at the end. Hopefully I am wrong, maybe they died of natural causes?" James tried to seem optimistic! He knew there was no other way anyway. Whatever way this leads to, he has to see it through. There was simply no other option.

"Do you seriously believe that?" Asked Dan.

"No, but what else am I supposed to say? *sigh* " James swiped his forehead and bend down to look at the floor, more like he took a whiff of the soil, he touched the soil with his fingers, he tried his best to inspect the soil as much as he could.

'What is this..., this is not simply just dirt, no it smells and feels different. Thats strange...'

"Hey you brothers, you were raised on a farm right? How much do you know about stuff like that?" Asked James.

"What stuff?" Asked pete back.

"I mean farm stuff, agriculture, you know farmland" James tried to be more clearer.

"Well, pete only knows a few things, I know more about agriculture than anyone else in the universe, this, I guarantee you!" Dan was pretty confident.

"Dan, aren't you a little bit too confident there? The universe is pretty big hahaha " Dan's remark made James laugh.

Dan was surprised, it was the first time he made James laugh, he felt he and James were now closer, which made him boost his own confidence!

"Trust me! I watched our father all the time, the things I learned from him, are unmistakable the most treasured memories. His knowledge about agriculture was the best in the universe, that makes me the most expert on the topic!"

'What kind of logic is that...'

"Dan can you take a look at the soil and tell me more?" Asked James serious.

"Sure, leave it to me, if that is what you want!"

Dan then bend down, he let the dirt through his finger, rubbing it between his fingertips. He smelled it, after he smelled it he took a bit and put it in his mouth, tasting it and then proceeded to spit it out.

He frowned slightly. He looked pretty serious. James looked tense, he was now serious too. Pete looked even more serious.

"This soil..."

"Yes..., this soil?"

"This soil is..."

"This soil is...?"

"It's good soil"

James blinked. Dan looked at James, James looked Dan.

"You..., what did I expect from you?" *sigh*

'Im surrounded by idiots'

"D-did I do something wrong?" Asked Dan.

"No, it was my mistake, i should have been more clear with you. What I want to know is not the quality of the soil, what I want to know is, what is different between this soil and the soil where we came from" James tried to be more understanding, even when he held his frustration back.

"Oh..., well, I would say the difference is mostly that, this soil has a stable source of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium, mostly because of the insects that are making their trails here. These trails improves pore places, which in turn better regulates the water ways, basically insects can help the soil and make it more fertile. We used chicken bones, ashes for our soil, it helped grow our crops. " Dan explained.

"Im seriously impressed that you know stuff like that"

"Thats the only thing I really know about though..., im not smart like you.." Dan felt a little ashamed of his shortcomings.

"Hey, dont be like that, everyone has something they are good at, in your eyes it may look insignificant and not of worth, but thats not true, you know, I don't know jack shit about agriculture, but thanks to you, I have a better overview of the situation. Knowledge is perspective and how you use it to your advantage, is up to you. So dont look down on yourself. You are doing great."

'Thanks to Dan, I now know a few things. We are underground, above us is probably a tree of an enormous size, here is a water way somewhere, the insects we saw were ants and worms, that means there must be a colony here somewhere . If we can find the water, we can find a way out, these tunnels are probably, made by ants, that means, we have to find a way up and not down. Easy as that..., argh I get a headache just thinking about it '

"Do you hear that Pete, James complimented me!"

"I know big brother, thats amazing, I wish he would compliment me too, do you think he will if I show him what I can do too?"

"Im sure you can do it little brother!" Dan motivated Pete!

"What are these two crazy bastards taliking about now? *sigh*

Something caught James attention suddenly. His ears perked up.

He suddenly saw a pebble moving.

He got down so he looked at the pebble, it slightly moved, then more and more moved. He held his hand on the floor, it vibrations could be felt, sending him a shiver.

"DAN! PETE! RUN!" James then stood up immediately, he dragged them as fast as he could upfront and began to run.

Dan and Pete shocked didn't know what happened at first, it was too suddenly, until they saw cracks appearing where they were standing!

They run with James as fast as they could! Behind them a giant whole out of nowhere appeared, with it came a giant worm fighting for its life with ants all over, sending tremors everywhere!

It created a huge dust cloud, pebble flew everywhere, but they didn't care. They wanted to kill the giant worm with everything they got!

The worm was bleeding everywhere, it had chunks of its flesh bitten, like craven beasts the ants didn't stop. They won't until its dead.

The worm killed with it tail and bit the ants legs, head, basically anything it could get in its mouth. The ants didn't stop swarming, everytime a soldier or worker ant died, there was a endless supply of ant taking the missing place.

James and the others ran and ran but it seemed like the fight was coming closer and closer to them. They were exhausted. Seriously they were injured and out of breath. James began to think.

'Running away anymore is not an option anymore..., what can we do to avert this damn situation. Think James! Think!'

James stopped for a second and looked backed, then he remembered something.

"Wait, now that i think about it. Where do the lights come from? If the ants created these tunnels, then there must be someone who got the light to work. Someone who installed these things, someone who doesn't get attacked by the ants, but whats the secret?!"

James was deep in thought, he had to think about a solution and that really fast!

"James what do we do now?" Asked Dan.

"Can we just not do the same what the ants do?" Asked Pete.

"Wait..., what do you mean with that? Do the same as they do...?" James asked back, not sure if he heard it right.

"Dig a tunnel." Said Pete.

James looked at Pete if he just ate dirt.

"And here I thought you would say something useful for once, dig a tunnel? You do know we don't even have a shovel right? Or do you think we should just use our hands?"

"Why not?"

They all looked at each other, without saying a word.

"Shovel faster!"

"We are as fast as we can shoveling!"

They began to shovel as fast as they could with their bare hands, through the wall. Thank heaven for the soft soil, which made it really easy for them to shovel!

'This takes to long, the fighting is coming closer, thats not good! I could only recover a bit of my soulpower, but it should be enough for making a way through! Lets hope for the best!'

James then began to concentrate and focused his soul power into his soulweapon, his gauntlets.

Unknowingly he poured his soul power into his hands, therefore his fingers. The runes on his fingers began to glow slightly in a dark matter.

'Hm? W-whats this? The symbols are glowing? What is this?'

James wondered why it would glow up, but didn't have the time to investigate further.

"Make way you two!" Said James as he was going to prepare to punch through!

Dan and Pete obligated and made way for James. Their hands was full of dirt and their clothes was everything but clean!

James then went into horse stance, he pulled his arm back, he breathed in, he tensed his muscles up till he released his breath with the punch. His punch was steady and in form, he used his hip movements and the backmuscles to deliver the punch!

Without a sound, there was suddenly a giant hole. It grew in diameter the further it went back.

Dan and Pete were speechless.

"If you could do that from the beginning then why had we to shovel?" Asked Dan.

"Me personally I liked to shovel."

"Shut up pete, I liked that too, but thats not the point here"

"Its not?"

"No its not, the point is that he could have made the shoveling all alone!"

"But then we couldn't shovel?"

"Wait, you are right, this was probably for the better. Everyone knows its a mans instinct to shovel!"

"Big brother..."

"Little brother..."

They hugged each other, like they have not seen each other for decades.

'What the damn fuck is wrong with these people...'

James then looked away from the brothers, he looked at the hole he made, then at his hand. He balled his fist and decided to think later more about it.

"Come on lets go!!!"

James and the others began to ran, till they found more tunnels.

"Dan take a look at the soil from the tunnels, tell me which ones have the best and the worst."

Dan then probed around and gave James his conclusion.

"The first one is the best, it is highly fertile, it has all necessary ingredients for a perfect soil. The second one is pretty wet, if not to wet I would say, which is not good, as it provides a source for mold, which takes the nutrients from the soil. The last one is the worst, there is not a good thing about the soil."

'I have to say, everytime he talks about dirt, he feels like a complete different person..'

James thought about the things.

'So tunnel A goes deeper into the colony, while tunnel B leads to the water source, meanwhile it seems like nobody uses tunnel C...'

James explained his thought process to the brothers.

"So what you are saying is, none of them are good" Asked Pete.

"Thats right, seriously we are not in a position where we have much freedom what to decide, so we decide together."

"We will follow your decision on that." Said Dan without hesitation.

"Are you sure on that? Don't you want to think more about it?"

"No, my brother and I have decided since long ago that, we will follow you." Said Pete.

"No matter what." Added Dan.

"No matter what " followed Pete up.

"*sigh* just dont regret it later, i don't want you to haunt me for eternity"

"We wont" Dan and Pete laughed.

"Fine, if thats what you want, follow me."

They went into a tunnel...