Chapter 5

"It counts as food. Technically."

"It's a worm, Marian. It lives in dirt."

"So does a potato, but I don't see you sticking your nose up at them."

"It's a bug."

"Think of it as meat."

"It's not edible!"

"I'm sure someone said that about cows too, once upon a time. Now, eat up!" Marian says as she dangles a pink worm in Jean's face. She'd come across the cluster of bugs while digging. She'd crawled out of the hole so quick, Jean was sure something was wrong. Her speed was a real feat too, considering the hole was now long enough for only her knees and feet to dangle outside of.

Jean still doesn't think her excitement at the discovery was necessary.

"Come on. You're a soldier. Surely, you've eaten tons of nasty stuff," Marian says while wiping dirt off the still wiggling worm.

"We either eat like kings, eat the same preserved crap for months on end, or eat nothing at all. Rarely anything in-between, and absolutely no bugs."

"Baby. Big baby raccoon."

"I don't see you eating any!"

Marian glares at him, then tosses the worm in her mouth. Her face puckers like she's sucked a lemon, and there's an audible gulp when she swallows. She even sticks out her tongue, showing Jean she's swallowed it all.

"I can't believe you just did that," Jean says with a head shake.

"I can't believe you're not hungry enough to do it."

As if on cue, Jean's stomach rumbles. He is hungry. Desperately so. Sometime yesterday, his stomach had decided to try and eat itself, twisting in knots, and growling its misery like a symphony. The bits of ice they came across just made it worse. It soothed his parched throat but chilled him to the bone and left his stomach grumbling even louder at the mockery of food it was offered.

Seeing the look on Jean's face, Marian offers another worm.

"Just don't chew. Then you can pretend it's a noodle."

Jean hates himself for considering the offered bug.

"This stays between the two of us." The other Scouts can never know. He'll take Horse Face over Worm Eater any day.

Marian nods solemnly and crosses her heart with a dirt-caked finger.

"Just think of how much easier it'll be to run for our lives when we finally get out of here. All because we had a nice slimy snack."

Jean gives her a glower that would've made Levi proud, then takes the worm and tosses it in his mouth.

A noodle. It's just a noodle, he tells himself. His gag reflex kicks in, and the worm threatens to make a reappearance. He forces it down and squeezes his eyes shut, waiting for a negative response. Instead, a comforting weight settles in his gut. His stomach growls again, only this time it's begging for more.

Marian holds out the rest of the worms.

"No one, Marian. Absolutely no one," Jean reminds her as he grabs two more.

"You got it."

Jean isn't sure if it's the tilt of her mouth, the quirk of her dark brows, or the laughter sparkling in her eyes that makes him question the validity in her words, but question he does.

Jean scoops dirt out from beneath Marian's legs, then tosses it to the steadily growing pile behind them. As much as he doesn't want to admit it, the worms had given the pair some much needed energy and their pace had increased drastically. The tunnel was now long enough for Marian to be completely submerged. Unfortunately, this meant they had to work much harder to get the dirt out of the tunnel.

Jean lowers himself to the tunnel's entrance and pulls himself forward until he accidentally bops himself on the bottom of Marian's boot for the thousandth time that day. He reaches forward, blindly patting the ground around Marian's thighs until he feels a pile of freshly scooped dirt.

"Sorry," he says when his fingers accidentally brush against pant material instead of freshly dug earth.

"What did we say about that word, Jean," Marian's sing-song voice echoes from up ahead. There are dull thumps as she shifts to push dirt down by her legs where Jean can reach it. He scoops it out, being careful not to touch her, then shimmies out of the hole to move it back to the pile.

"I know. I just don't want you to think I'm being...weird," he says. He's hesitant to touch her at all after last night.

"You're plenty weird, but not because you accidentally touch me while reaching around inside a tiny, pitch-black tunnel." Marian's voice strains as she scrapes more dirt away. Jean is secretly glad that the tunnel is barely big enough for him to crawl through, much less do all the maneuvering needed to dig and push dirt out. His skin crawls the moment his head is fully covered. He can't imagine how Marian feels, being completely engulfed by earth.

The only warning he has is a high-pitched yelp and the thundering of dirt falling.

Dust pours out of the tunnel like smoke. There's creaks and groans as their wooden cage shifts but doesn't fall.

It takes a couple breaths for Jean to figure out what happened. When he does, he scrambles towards their tunnel.

"Marian!" he shouts, coughing on the dust still hovering in the air. The tunnel collapsed. It's collapsed, and it's too dark to see anything. He searches the earth, hoping to find a hint of Marian, but there's nothing. Jean spares a glance at the ceiling, but he can barely see, and it isn't like they were able to see how stable the tunnel was before.

And so, he digs. He digs quick as he can, shoveling armfuls of dirt back and kicking it out. The dust and falling dirt chokes him, but he keeps digging. He won't be trapped in this hell hole with her corpse. He won't. He can't.

But this is taking too long. He needs to find Marian before she runs out of time.

At the next armful, Jean's hand brushes against the same hard boot bottom that's bumped his face all day long. He latches onto it and pulls. Marian moves back a few centimeters, but it's not enough. Jean readjusts his grip, then pulls hard as his weak body can.

He hears Commander Shadis' voice screaming in his ear— IS THAT ALL YOU GOT, MAGGOT!?

No. It's not. Not even close.

At first, there's nothing.

And then Marian slides back into him. Jean scrambles backwards, tugging her out with him. Dust landslides out with them. They huff and cough, Jean on his knees and Marian on her side.

It isn't until Jean catches his breath that he realizes Marian isn't just coughing. She's gagging and gasping and making awful wheezing sounds.

She can't breathe.

Jean gets to her side and hesitates only a moment— I'm not gonna hurt her, I'm in control, I'm here, I'm gonna help her—before grabbing her side and turning her towards him. Dirt coats her entire body. There's dirt packed in her mouth. She'd swallowed dirt in the collapse.

Jean turns Marian over, holding her up with an arm under her belly and smacking her upper back softly, then harder as she wheezes like the dying. Earth flies out of her mouth with a sputter. Marian takes rapid breaths. Jean stares with the wide-eyed wonder of someone who'd just survived the seemingly impossible.

Panicked breaths settle, and Jean becomes hyper-aware of how soft and warm her flesh is against his hands. He shifts back, letting his hands drop, and looks anywhere but at her.

His eyes settle on the collapsed tunnel. On the light shining from inside it.

Wordlessly, he crawls towards the entrance.

"Jean, don't," Marian rasps from behind him.

But he sees what she doesn't.

Gray winter sky beaming through a human-sized hole. The collapse created a pathway straight to the outside world.