The Tunnel of Fate

Hello again, and welcome to the third chapter of my first fan fiction. I found a little bit of time today and I typed up a new chapter. I don't have much more to say, so before we begin, I'd like to give my thanks and responses to those who reviewed my work.

Ooobserver: Once again, thank you so much for your support. Favorites and follows are really nice but it's the reviews that help me see that I must still be doing something right. Thanks again.

kojh0124: I hope to maybe find a happy medium between longer and shorter paragraphs but we will see. I'm still a noob at this until I get better. Thanks again for your praise and time.

Adventureinoooh: Thank you, I love the little flashback moments as well. As the story progresses, I hope to still throw some into the writing from time to time.

Author's note: I never had , nor will I ever own Adventure Time. You should know this already.

Chapter 3: The Sun's Existence

Two days have passed. Or, so the young man thought. Two days, being equivalent to having stopped twice for much needed sleep. During his last stop, the young man set alight another flare and took a check on his remaining supplies. One flare left. The water canister… obviously empty.

"No point checking there, I don't want to get my hopes up for non-existent water" the young man thought. He could no longer afford small luxuries such as breathing through his mouth; that would just dry his mouth out even more. It felt like it had been forever since he had a drink, felt the clear liquid easing away the pain of his throat. The man made a note of his remaining food…

"Plenty of dried jerky… Too bad I can't eat it without making my dehydration even worse" the young man thought with an ever-growing frown on his face. Eating would only make him waste the precious water left in his body. The dehydration and hunger were starting to wear out his body. His arms and legs felt as if they were made of stone and his head was starting to droop onto the backpack strap across his right shoulder. If it were not bad enough for the poor man, the magical bubble around his head had been deteriorating at a rapid rate. Almost a week ago, the bubble started to show signs of wear. The thin shell of the bubble used to feel sturdy and reliable. It hugged his head almost like a friend, giving him the assurance that there would always be more air with each breath the he took.

This was no longer so. The air it gave no longer provided him with enough oxygen to perform any sort of physically demanding task. He barely had enough air to walk in a straight line. The bubble's thin shell used to conform to the young man's hand whenever he needed to provide himself with food, water, or anything else needed. Now, he was hesitant to even touch it, afraid that any movement would rupture the brittle membrane. His lifeline was dying, and soon, he would as well. The future never looked bleaker for the young man than right now. However, through sheer will-power he pushed on. He knew that something would kill him eventually; moving forward was the only thing that provided him with a source of hope.

He kept walking further along the dirty tunnel. He debated dropping his backpack and continuing on without it to save him some energy. He debated consuming the fluid gathering in his bladder, that he absolutely refused to get rid of, in a last-ditch effort to save himself from dehydration. That was just stupid, he would still die from suffocation even if he satisfied his thirst. But leaving his bag? It sounded smart and would it not make sense? Having less to carry meant he would need less oxygen and use less energy to continue his journey.

Reaching up to the straps of his backpack, he prepared to drop it onto the ground behind him. However, this would mean leaving behind everything from his memento, to his various medicines, and everything in between. But… he just couldn't do it. He couldn't abandon everything he had, because he had packed everything out of necessity. Even if he made it out of the tunnel alive, he would need medicine and supplies to survive in whatever Glob-forsaken place he emerged in. Eventually, he settled to just keep his bag.

"It not going to matter soon anyway" the young man thought to himself. He was so exhausted; the oxygen deprivation would surely do away with him first. It was just slightly better than trying to breathe through a plastic bag. His lungs screamed for air and in that moment, he made a vital decision.

Reaching his hands up, he grabbed onto the ever-weakening membrane of the air bubble and pulled in two separate directions. A distinct "pop!" cut through the silence of the tunnel followed by the sound of a body falling over onto the cold metal floor of the tunnel. The young man closed his eyes, waiting for his ascension to Glob World. In his last bit of will power, he forced his mouth to form the words, "I'm sorry".

The young man reopened his eyes. He thought that surely Glob World would be much brighter, or at least painted white. His eyes grew as another thought struck his mind. "Maybe I'm in the 37th dead world or any of those other dead worlds". This made him look down at the hands that were propping him up currently. Even if he was in one of the dead worlds, shouldn't he be able to see his own hands or even the ghost of others maybe? Feeling a horrible pain in his stomach, he reached down and felt his torso. He was still wearing the cloak that he had procured at the Candy Kingdom. The pain he recognized as a combination of his still growing hunger and dehydration.

"Am I… Alive?"

He slowly got to his feet. The pain shot through every one of his nerves.

"Why am I still here? Shouldn't I have died from suffocation? Why can I still breathe?"

Questions raced through his head. Suddenly, it hit him. Like a bag of candy brick it hit him.

"I can still breathe because there is fresh circulation of air. For that to occur than that would mean that there must be… an exit."

Renewed vigor that the young man had not felt for months surged through his body. His pain became dulled somewhat, the irises of his eyes started to glow, and the smile on his face could not be contained. There was a hole, a passage, he was sure of it. He must be close to the surface. The young man started walking fast than he had before. He was overcome by a feeling of victory, of accomplishment. Soon, he would feel the fresh breeze of the surface world again. And maybe, he might see his princess again.

During the events of his gleeful vigor, he was suddenly and painfully interrupted by a wall to his face. From the ground, the young man rubbed the now sore spot on his face. He was pretty sure he just busted open his lip. Reaching behind him, he produced his last flare from his bag.

"Dear Glob, make it a good one" he quietly whispered to the darkness of the tunnel.

Removing the cap, he found the correct end and held it away from him.

His right hand came down swiftly… nothing happened

"Please…" he moaned

His hand came down again… light flooded the area.

Covering his face again with his hand, he allowed his eyes to adjust to the new light source. When he believed that he could see again, without fear of burning through his retinas, he removed his hand and let out a gasp.

Bearing down on him from above was a massive, metal vehicle. From the looks of it, it must have been ancient, at least from the Old World era. Red paint chipped off of its body and rust was beginning to take over the entire hull. The entire construct would have looked horrible to any humans of the past; however, it was an absolutely magnificent sight to the man in front of it now. Looking up, the man took notice to a pair of metal beams attached to the ceiling. He had never really taken notice to them before. But if he remembered correctly, he could have sworn that they ran from here, all the way back to where the young man had started his journey.

Shaking out of his state of awe, the young man removed himself from the ground. He looked to his left and saw a sight that only made his smile grow larger, if that were even possible. It was a train station, long ago forgotten by the inhabitants of the planet. He realized that the metal vehicle that he had run into must have been a train. However, this train must be extremely advanced. Even more so than the working trains he had experienced before such as the candy express. Turning and walking away, he reached the side and lifted himself up onto the platform. There was so much dust covering everything. Small rises and disturbances in the dust along the floor suggested long-ago remains of past humans. After looking around for a bit, he noticed two paths leading away from the platform. Using the flare to examine the first path, he noticed that it was completely cut off by huge chunks of rock and debris. Looking over at the second path, the young man decided to take off and hope for the best.

Fate certainly had a way with creating bittersweet scenarios. The path was clear of any collapse, however, it spanned upward for what the man would describe to be miles. In his current state, the stairs to reach the surface were a daunting task. He felt increasingly tired just looking at them. But he needed to climb these stairs, resting now would not rehydrate his dying body. So… the young man began his ascension.

Foot-by-foot, hand-by-hand, he was going to reach the surface even if it killed him. His mind was flooded with different emotions. He was thrilled to finally be out of the tunnel, but he feared how he would get back home. He had doubts that the surface would be warm and welcoming to him and yet he was anxious to see another living creature, even if it was trying to maul his face off. He noticed his surroundings. The staircase that he had taken was constructed of aged concrete. They were breaking apart but they still looked in better shape than the set of metal stairs that seemed to divide the concrete stairs up the center. He questioned the need for the humans to have built stair made out of metal and concrete, however, he was thankful that they had. The metal stairs were heavily rusted and looked as if they were about to drop right out of the floor that held them up. The walls were decorated with multiple advertisements for products that had long since ceased to exist and he even saw a large map hanging from the wall. Stopping to examine it, the man noticed lights sticking out of multiple locations on the map. Red, yellow, and blue lines crisscrossed in every direction and connected each dot to one another by some path or another. He figured that they were train paths, but he could not figure anything else out about the map. He moved on.

Reaching the top of the stairs, the young man noticed three separate metal doors guarding the exit. They rose to the full length of the ceiling and were covered with more rust than the metal stairs. The doors had a large rotating circle in the center of each of them connected to some of the most complex locking systems he had ever seen. It was as if the doors themselves had expanded to keep from ever being opened. A look of worry passed over the young man as he approached the center door. He attempted to rotate the wheel of the door. In a combination of years of rust and the young man's exhaustion, the door refused to budge. Moving to the door on the right he tried again…

Nothing… He scurried over to the far left door and tried…

Once again, the door refused to unlock. The young man walked back to the center door…

"I refused to accept that after all that work, after all that pain, that I will die right here. No, I will break down this door!" he shouted as he pulled a large quantity of strength, from a location that he could not quite determine, and he kicked out at the door. The door did not seem to be affected at all. It took the hit and the resounding metallic bang seemed to laugh at the young man until something happened. The sound of metal bending and creaking grew louder until suddenly, something gave…

An earsplitting screech was heard and dust kicked up everywhere. The poor man could not help but to protect his ears and fall to his knees. It lasted for a lifetime, until suddenly everything became eerily quiet once again. Coughing up the new amount of dust that had just coated his throat, the young man raised his neck to look at the center door… or lack thereof. The young man was in disbelief. The door had broken free from its bindings and dropped straight through the floor into an unknown depth of darkness. Walking over to the new hole, he lowered in his flare and tried to see the bottom. Only then did he hear the final impact, however, this one was significantly farther away. Looking down at the hole, he momentarily shivered at the possibility of falling down such a distance. He quickly hoped over the hole and continued on his way.

He walked into the next room. He believed that at one point, it may have been a waiting area. Looking around, he thought he was mistaken. Everywhere he looked were piles of unmarked brown sacks. There must have been at least a hundred of the things. The young man could not contain his curiosity and bent down to open one of the sacks. After opening it, he reached a hand inside and pulled out a lumpy brown object. It was slightly bigger than his fist.

"What is this?" the young man wondered. Putting down his flare he noticed a sharp rock by his feet. Picking it up, he began to slice through the outside layer. When he had gotten far enough, he dropped the rock and pulled apart the object with his hands. The insides were white and felt slightly slimy.

"Is this… a potato?" the young man asked in utter bewilderment. Potatoes had water right? They were full of nutrients and water… sweet water. The young man dove in, consuming one after another raw potatoes. They tasted so bad, yet to the young man, he was just happy to be refilling on vital nutrients. He didn't really question the reason to the potatoes' existence in the train station until he heard someone behind him. The man meant to turn around but was briefly met in the head with a long wooden bat. He instantly lost consciousness and fell into the sack of potatoes. After he was promptly knocked out, the figure behind him sighed, a tired feminine sigh, and scooped up the young man. She carried him to the door and out onto the surface world.

I'm sorry, this spot was almost too good of a spot to end a chapter, otherwise, this would have been much longer. Anyways, please give me feedback. Likes, dislikes, suggestions? Thank you and peace out!