They fell with a loud thud and passed out. They woke up later and found themselves in a strange cave…
CHAPTER 2: GOOD EVENING, ANT HELL
"Where the hell are we?" Yoshiro groaned.
Senzo snapped his fingers and lit an ember from his fingertips to reveal their location. The place lit up and they saw that they fell into a cave or burrow of some sort. Senzo checked to see if everyone was alright.
Senzo called their names, "Haru? Suzuka? Spex?" "Spex" was Yoshiro's nickname among his less serious buddies, specifically, Senzo and… Senzo.
"I'm fine, I landed on something soft," said Suzuka.
"Mm-Hmm," mumbled Haru.
Yoshiro simply gave Senzo a thumbs up when Senzo pointed the ember in front of him.
Suddenly, Suzuka screeched, "Eek!"
She discovered that the "something soft" she landed on were gigantic insect eggs. In fact, they were surrounded by those eggs, and most of them looked ready to hatch.
"Whoops, Suzuka landed on some eggs... haha." Yoshiro said with a chuckle.
Haru asked Yoshiro, "What color are the eggs?"
Yoshiro replied, "Yellowish, similar to chicken eggs, but I think they have a softer shell…"
"Andre eggs," Haru told them. Haru was a genius in the field of Biology, though he couldn't read because of his blindness. Sensei read Haru's books to him.
"Let's get out of here," Suzuka said, wiping the gooey fluids off her butt. (Don't get any ideas, pervs.)
"We can't," Yoshiro said. The hole was deep, very deep. They couldn't climb back up.
They decided to explore the cave and hopefully, find another exit. They passed a few Andres and Deniros that, luckily for them, ignore them.
They searched and searched and searched but found nothing. They felt hopeless, like flies on flypaper, waiting to starve to death. They searched until midnight, Yoshiro practically dragging himself along the floor. Haru collapsed, and Suzuka was on the verge of breaking out in tears.
"It's hopeless!" Senzo screamed, "HOPELESS!"
"Shut up, Senzo, your enthusiasm is too helpful!" Suzuka said sarcastically.
"We need to rest here." said Yoshiro. He helped Haru to his feet. "Haru, we need some firewood."
"Alright..." mumbled Haru. He took a bottle from one of his pockets and poured its contents on the ground, soon after a few geographers sprouted out and started snapping wildly
Yoshiro killed them from a distance. They trimmed off the wood, which Senzo used to start a fire. They gathered around the newly lit and campfire told each other stories to try to shake off their despair.
Suzuka started her story first: "Sensei took me when I was a small child. I was a only six when my mother died. I was walking home from school when I saw my mother on the road. I asked her what she was doing there, but she just smiled and told me to be a good girl. She told me that whatever path I took from there, it would be my choice.
"I didn't understand it until I got home. People were gathering around my house and I walked into the crowd, wondering what was going on. There I saw, Mama, with a knife in her heart, lying dead with her eyes wide open. I was scared by the sight, so I ran. I ran and ran until I bumped into a stranger. The man told me I had linked my soul to my mother's, and he told me that's why I saw her along the road, even though she was already dead.
"He, Sensei, took me and introduced me to you guys, and said that you were just like me, special, full of ability and potential, lacking only a home." She smiled at them.
"I'm next!" Senzo said, "I was raised by a rich family known for its fireworks business. We lived in a town that hated wizardry, and my family feared we might be found out and driven away for being fire magi. We were found out. The townspeople formed an angry mob that rallied in front of our manor. My parents and siblings were having dinner then, while I was playing outside.
"I don't know what happened, exactly. A strange man told me that a mob had broken into the house and ignited the fireworks in the storeroom. I only saw rubble, ash, and whatever remained of our home. All I could find in the ruins was this," he held up a picture of his parents, "Nothing else. The man told me that the mob had taken my parents' bodies and burned them by the chapel. He told me to come with him and I did… and so here we are!"
"Not much for me," said Haru, "I never knew my parents, and my only friends were flowers and trees, until now, of course," he acknowledged his teammates, "Anyway, one day, Sensei just came over and took me, haha!." This was quite unusual for Haru, he almost never laughed, only smiled. Maybe he only laughed to keep his hopes up.
"Angel…" Yoshiro thought, before starting his story, "Angel was so young... we were together and we never thought we would part... One day, my newfound pride got her killed..."
Yoshiro bowed his head for a moment and continued... "I've decided since that day... As penance for what I had done, I'll never love another girl for as long as I live..."
"A bit extreme, don't you think?" said Suzuka, "I mean, how do you know if it's true love if you were so young?"
"If it's not true, why do you think I held that vow all these years?"
The storytelling was cut short when he saw a woman creeping up behind Haru. Or did he? Was it a woman? Was it even human? It had the body of a giant mantis-like insect and the body of a naked woman from its neck up.
"Haru, behind you!" Yoshiro warned.
Suzuka turned her head and saw it too.
"It's the Maya!" Suzuka said, "We're in her nest! We're in Ant Hell!"
Maya edged closer, behind her thousands of other insects gathered next to her. The Andre eggs had hatched.
"Crap!" Yoshiro cursed, drawing his pistols from the holsters.
They cautiously edge away, Haru with his Axe at the ready.
Maya let out an ear-shattering shriek and lunged towards them, followed by her children. The four of them ran in panic. They could never hope to defeat the Maya and her spawn.
The ants were gaining on them.
Instinctively, Senzo barricaded their pursuers, "Fire Wall!"
The ants were taken aback. Even Maya was terrified by the fire. Suddenly, more ants came from the other side, straight towards the four. Yoshiro was strafing backwards, keeping the ants away with some cover fire.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Oh, god!" Suzuka screamed as the ants were slowly swallowing them up.
They fought their way through the horde, now walking through a waist-deep colony of ants. Before they knew it, they were moving towards the hole they came from.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"It's not working!" yelled Yoshiro as he stomped the ants away.
He aimed one of his guns at the Maya. Maybe if the Maya died, the ants would leave them alone?
BANG!
The bullet hit Maya square in the forehead, but no dice, it only made her mad.
"SCREEEECH!!"
This was bad. It was better to simply run.
Now, they were almost completely swallowed up by the ants, facing certain doom.
Yoshiro looked up to where they fell from. "Yes! That's how!" he thought. He found a way to escape, "Guys! Let the ants rise!"
"Have you fucking lost your mind?!" Senzo bellowed at his crazy idea.
"I've already lost it long ago, Senz! Swim to the hole! We can get out of here!"
Hesitant at first, the four headed to the hole, Yoshiro pulling Haru to make sure he got there. They let the ants rise and before they knew it, they were near the surface.
Stomping down the ants, they climbed out of the hole and touched the desert sand once more.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Senzo said, noticing the ants struggling to get out, too, "Fire Wall!"
The barrier covered the hole like a red transparent lid. Senzo pointed his fingers to the sky and shouted, "Fira Pluo!"
Bolts of fire rained from the heavens and into the Ant Hell's entrance, driving most of the ants back in and killing a few Andres in the process.
They collapsed on the ground, panting heavily and laughing.
"So…" Senzo said to Yoshiro, "You still have those apples, Spex?"
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A few comments from some of my readers
"Sweet chapter, dude! You're my hero!" –Me
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