For countless hours, they roamed through the caves, hands and flashlights both groping the walls for another arrow. Many times they feared they'd finally made the wrong turn, only for someone to finally find the next one a few steps ahead.

How long did the inkling Agents spend running through these caves? Even if they were walking, To have them marked so thoroughly, were there other markers in other caves? Or ones they'd missed? How thoroughly had the domes been compromised over the years? Was anything even safe?

Eventually, they had to stop for the night. Even if Warabi himself could keep going for hours, there were many in the group that needed the rest, and for that he could stop. Though, upon sitting down with a ration bar, he had to admit that running away from the military, followed by several hours of trudging through a cave was pretty exhausting in its own right. Still, he wasn't quite ready to crash yet, so after seeing the kid was nestled in, he joined a smattering of other musicians for the night watch.

Their camp was simple, really nothing more than a pile of bags of music equipment encircled by ration bags and bedrolls. It was functional above all else, ready to be taken apart in a matter of minutes when it came time to continue.

Warabi didn't know any of the musicians who stayed awake well enough to call their names, but he slotted himself amongst them without issue.

"Think we're close to the exit?" Clyde asked the group as he sat down. He still carried the charger with him, and had been since their run in with the soldier.

"Closer than we were, at least." Numi offhandedly answered. A quiet sigh of relief escaped her as she stretched her legs out.

"We've been going uphill for hours at this point," Warabi offered. "I can't imagine it's much further."

"Aye, good point." Rocker, a burly B stage musician was propped against one of the cavern walls, his hands behind his head. "I'm tempted to look ahead myself, but I don't wanna leave the group like that."

A few affirmations met him, but the silence soon returned, laden with unspoken words. Quiet, unsure glances were shared between all of them, a soundless chorus of the same question. What if we're making a mistake? It was impossible to ignore the weight of the decision they were making. There was no way to know if the surface was any kind of hospitable, much less survivable, and the overwhelming bulk of everything they'd brought with them was music equipment for the star's sake.

No one else spoke a word for the duration of the watch, aside from the few pleasantries when they woke up their replacements.

Morning had seen them all awake and moving within 20 minutes. They all suffered two more hours of bumbling through dark caves with nothing but flashlights.

It was all immediately forgotten the instant they rounded another corner, and realized... they could see. It was dim, and indistinct, but they could turn the flashlights off and see what was in front of them.

With reverence, they all slowly stepped forward. With each step, the walls of the cave lit up with such a subtle, gradual increase it was nearly imperceptible. Something far smoother, far warmer than a screen or flashlight could ever produce. They rounded a bend, and felt the temperature increase, rounded another and--

And he could see it. The light. Golden, warm sunlight, playing across the entrance of the cave. He was enamored, the rays of yellow gently washing over the gray of the stone lightning considerably. Without thinking, he took a step forward, and everyone around him did too. They were all entranced, each musician caught in the beam, the moment, the chance, to do what they'd long since deemed impossible.

Slowly, Warabi pushed his hand out of the shadow, and felt the warmth of the sun embrace his hand in turn. One foot moved forward, and then the next, and he was engulfed in the feeling.

The heat felt different than any he'd felt before. The air felt different here. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before. Every tiny sound carried further than he thought was ever possible, the echo so faint it barely even registered to him.

They'd... they'd actually made it. The surface. He was on the surface.

It took over an hour for someone to break the silence. Someone called everyone back and distributed a bottle of water and ration bar to everyone. And they all sat to eat, outside.

Slowly, they started to move once more. Each step was new, the way each clunk of their boots echoed through the canyon, or sunk into the dirt on the ground ground, it was exhilarating. They walked for hours, but no one considered stopping even once. There was so much to see, almost too much to see. Every distinct flower had every musician crowding around it to see. Every birdsong got an excited gasp from somebody.

And when night fell, every single musician was spellbound. The sky was... infinite, the stars so far out of reach it was dizzying. Incredibly dizzying. Warabi soon found himself stumbling to the cover of a nearby cavern, almost desperate to put something between himself and the infinite maw of space above him. Several others joined him, grasping for something to hold to like they were going to fall in, but many others, like Paul, remained out in the open for the whole night.

Things took a distinct turn for the worse the next day. The rocky walls of the canyon soon gave way to an endless, empty field of grass. The mere sight of it made Warabi feel dizzy, like he was staring into the sky again, but the group pressed on.

This time, it was Paul supporting him, the kid having taken his hand and refusing to let go, dragging him up to pace with the rest of the group. That night, when the group picked one of the scarce trees to camp around, he made sure he was as deep under it as he could be. For good measure, he emptied his bag and set it over his head, desperate for something to break his line of sight. It worked well enough to sleep, but only just.

For nearly two days he suffered his way forward, fighting vertigo and nausea with each step, until finally, foliage started to dot their path. A large forest was settled around the base of a mountain. There was a long debate whether or not it was worth it to try and climb the mountain to get a sense of direction, but such a detour was ruled out after taking stock of their supplies. They weren't running thin, but even a day's detour could make things incredibly rough in the long run.

With the decision made, the Hollow's members slowly picked their way through the forest, taking another three days, until finally, a break in the tree line exposed... an access road of sorts. The ones in the domes wrapped around the edge of each dome, giving a way for the transports to circle the dome's contents to make it to each transition. This road... just went on, and on, and on.

Warabi felt that same dizziness return anytime he looked down it, which was not a particularly good feeling when the collective decision was to follow the road. But alas, follow they did, and Warabi kept his eyes fixed to the trees the entire time, since they at least were close enough to touch. Occasionally, a transport would streak down it, faster than any of them were prepared for, so they opted to walk alongside the road instead.

The awe-filled, eager exploration of the group at large met an abrupt end when one of the transports along the road pulled off to the side, and stopped in front of them. An inkling's head stuck from the side window, a hand waving at them as they shouted something. Obviously, no one could understand what they were saying, since none of them spoke Inkling, but one of the A stage members stepped forward and tried to explain the situation. They got an equal amount of confusion back.

The inkling pulled a rectangular light from their pocket. They pointed to them, then to the light, and then the transport sped away.

Brimming with confusion, and with little other choice, the group pressed onwards once more. Maybe half an hour passed before another transport pulled off the road ahead of them. This one was black and white, with some kind of light fixture on the top. Again, everyone tensed, not really sure what to do, as a different inkling stepped out of the transport.

A second figure also exited the transport, but this one... was an octoling. An octoling, on the surface. Working with the Inklings. No one was sure how to proceed.

No one moved a muscle as the stranger stepped forward.

"Heya! Sorry 'bout the wait, it took the boys a second to get aholda me." The octoling waved, as he approached, a friendly smile on his face. He spoke... oddly. Every word was languid and drawn out, a very similar cadence to formal Octarian used in promotion ceremonies.

"Y-you speak Octarian?" Someone asked, voicing the shock the rest of the group felt. No one else moved. The surface Octoling slowed, a bit of apprehension apparent in his body language as he regarded the group.

Warabi strode forward before he could think to stop himself. "Sorry! Heh, we just didn't expect to find another fluent speaker out here!" He took care to slow his words down, trying to match the formal cadence as best he could.

The tension eased from the octoling as Warabi approached. "Well, you're all lucky my vacation isn't until tomorrow! HAHA!"

"Oh, absolutely. We appreciate you making time for us..." Warabi gave his best smile, trying to maintain his confident facade. Even as he fixed his eyes on the inkling, the road seemed to stretch infinitely behind them.

"Dale Corduroy. Wetbrook County deputy officer, at your service." The octoling, Dale, said while offering a hand.

Warabi took the hand, silently using it as grounding to keep himself upright. "Ah, well, It's a pleasure to meet you Officer Corduroy."

After the two exchanged a firm handshake, the Officer put his hands on his hips. "Now if you don't mind, could you brief me on what's happening here? All i know's we got a call about a large group of... musicians walking along the highway that couldn't speak Inklish."

"We just..." Warabi stopped himself from saying something stupid. "...were trying to get to the city, but we don't have a transport."

Officer Corduroy regarded them, an eyebrow raised. "And... y'all chose to walk?"

"It wasn't our first choice." Technically not a lie, but it still wasn't a complete story. "We, um..."

"We had people help us transport this far." Nyx stepped through the crowd up to Warabi's side. Surprisingly, they weren't slouching. It'd be a stretch to say they were at rest, but they were... formal. "It'd be bloody mental of us to walk over the mountain to get here!"

"They couldn't take another 50 minutes to finish the drive?" Officer Corduroy gave them a skeptical look."

Warabi drew in a breath.

"It's complicated." Nyx answered bluntly. "We didn't exactly end up with the most trustworthy lot..."

Officer Corduroy slowly relented, nodding. "I'm catchin' your drift, I think. Here's what we're gonna do. If you guys could sit tight for a moment, I'll talk to Shawn over here--" He gestured to the inkling who'd been standing awkwardly to the side-- "and we'll see if there's anything we can do for ya." The pair walked back to their transport, speaking in inkling.

As soon as the Officer was out of earshot, Pix shot out of the crowd. "Aye, that was bloody genius!" She punched Nyx in the shoulder as she approached.

"Bastard just HAD to announce his title to us." Nyx shrugged as they adjusted their backpack straps. "And it's always morally acceptable to lie to a commanding officer."

Warabi couldn't bring himself to respond. Instead, he staggered towards the nearest tree, falling to his knees the moment it was within reach. Stars, the surface was too open. It felt like he was going to fall up after every step.

"Are you ok?" The kid was suddenly beside him, crouched down awkwardly.

"I'm..." Warabi had to force his rations back down. "I'm fine. Just... stressed by that, is all." The crisp air of the surface still made each breath feel heavy in a new way. "Tell, uh, tell Nix to speak to the, um, surface octolings in formal octarian, if you would please?"

"Ok!" Just like that, Paul ran off to deliver the message. Warabi just sighed, and pushed himself a bit closer to the ground.

He kind of missed everything that came next, but about an hour after they first met Officer Corduroy, the largest transport any of them had ever seen pulled up next to them. The average military transport could hold 11 people 'comfortably', but this... this could carry 50 easily with room for comfort still.

Officer Corduroy stepped between the front doors, waving them all forward. "Here's the bus I was tellin' yall about! Hop on!"