The walls were collapsing and there was no escape.

Well, it seemed that there was no escape. It was rather hard to tell, what with all the lack of easily-accessible lighting that would be needed to tell as to where the exits were.

there was only one way out, it seemed and that was down. Further down into an underground that needed to be hastily ,made in order for escape to be successful, for the doors that lead outward were not visible and there was little time to explore. Quick decisions needed to be made and made they were, for there was little time indeed.

Our protagonists began working together as a team, slowly digging at the ground which, thankfully was already cracked.

They made swift work and quite quickly made more than a small indent into the surface.

The walls were falling in on them. They were slow, yet unstoppable as they fell, piece by piece, collapsing into and over each other, almost functioning as a timer that was counting down the time before there was none left.

Onward and hard the protagonists worked, turning their small indent into something more closely resembling a tunnel.

Once they felt that it was deep enough, they began tunneling in a horizontal direction, in order to make progress that would lead to them being able to get away far enough for the escape to be a safe one.

Of course they were digging mostly blind, but that did not deter them.

Their tunnel was deep before it went horizontal. All that was that was above seemed ,much farther away than it was.

Some debris began to fall into the tunnel and some of our protagonists were hit, yet no one was seriously injured and their progress continued unabated.

there was little time to lose and no time to spare. They continued working hard, sweating hard in order to ensure that they survived. Getting trapped in this building was a bad idea, they all realised, almost at the same time. The horizontal tunneling was causing a few issues and their progress was slowing, but onward they continued as they all had a lot to live for at this point.

Eventually the whole building, or at least what remained of it, came down at once. The tunnel was sealed and sound was silenced.

Outside the crowd was watching, both around the building and on their televisions. There was a bit of shock, but no-one was too panicked. It seemed that a group had failed to escape.

The host of the show asked all those around to not write off our protagonists just yet, as the host had a good feeling about their ability to work under pressure.

The minutes passed with silence.

There seemed to be nothing.

Soon some soil could be seen being displaced. The protagonists managed to get out with their lives.

There was cheering from the crowds and those watching.

Our protagonists successfully finished and went on to the next round.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 09:10:48

Writing with a sprained wrist still is fun.

I had the idea to end this the way I ended this around two-hundred words into the writing.

Not sure as to how well it works, but I think that the ending is appropriate.

I think.

written at UNSW.