Chapter Text
I awoke to screaming.
I sat up and my ears were immediately overwhelmed with the screaming of my tribe. Questions rapidly fired in my head. What was happening?
I raced out of the hall leading to the rest of the bastion and stopped before the rail to peer into the lower floors. A rush of fear took over as I watched the events below.
Some of the brutes were fighting these figures in blue armour. A color of armor you would rarely find in the nether. I had only ever heard of these warriors from above, we called them the Overworlders. The battle was bloody and violent and we were not winning. A loud bang sounded on the second floor and debris, dust and flames erupted from the explosion. I could see some of the invaders leaving bodies of those I called family as they moved to their next target.
I had only been watching for seconds before my arm was grabbed and one of the tribe caretakers was leading me off to where the other youth were. Once we arrived in the room I looked around until I laid my eyes on my best friend, Hubert. He was five like me and right now was sitting amidst the other youth in the room with the same emotion frozen on his face, fear.
I went to sit next to him and wordlessly we reached for each other's hands as some sort of reassurance in the chaos consuming our home.
The caretakers were communicating with our chief who was trying to give us all some sort of
my best friend, Hubert. He was five like me and directions . Sounds of screams from those unable to quickly escape the lower levels echoing through the halls. More bangs shook the walls and though we couldn't see them, we knew they indicated the destruction of our home.
I was only seated there for a few minutes before another bang sounded much closer and then fighting was right outside our room. The caretakers started directing us to the secondary exit and we began following one of them down the flights of stairs. Swords clashed behind us as more brutes tried to cover our escape.
My hand still had a tight grasp on that of my friends as we all fled down the stairwell. It only took a second before the caretaker leading our escape fell to the floor with an arrow protruding from their forehead. We all stopped and everything was still for a second before panic ran rampant. Children started pushing, shoving and running in all directions. In the chaos my friends hand was pulled from mine and now was nowhere to be seen. I tried my best to peer over those around me, but to no avail. My friend was gone.
The stairwell became vacant rather quickly, which only let more screaming echo louder.
Then, there were footsteps behind me and when I turned I was met by a man wearing shiny blue armor with an axe raised over his head. The evil glint in his eyes indicating his bloodlust. Maybe this is where I died. Perhaps if I had been a little older being that the caretakers always said I would grow up to be a brute, one of our strongest warriors, I could have done something.
And then the axe was coming for my head and time seemed to slow. Then he was no longer looming over me about to end my life.
I had been shoved to the side out of harm's way. I looked back to find my savior underneath my pursuers axe where I would have been. Then I realised who it was.
I didn't have to worry about where Hubert was anymore. I wished that I didn't know where he was because now his body lay lifeless at the feet of the overworlder.
I wanted to grieve, to avenge him, but soon enough their attention was turned back to me. I was turned, on my feet and sprinting down the stairs. I ran and could hear the footsteps behind me, growing closer. I heard him grunt as he went to swing his axe to take my head and swiftly dodged the would have been deadly blow. I reached the bottom of the stairwell and turned the corner to leave my pursuer smacking into the wall. I sped down the hall, catching a glimmer of boots outside someone's living quarters and grabbing them as I ran past. Exit in view, I pushed myself to be faster. As I neared the exit an explosion sounded to my left and knocked me and the overworlder off our feet. I took this opportunity to equip my borrowed shoes and then continued out the door.
A soul sand valley beginning a short run in front of me. That could be my salvation. Even though the blue fires set off every instinct in my body to go nowhere near, I had no choice. My pursuer gaining on me as I raced him to the new biome. I passed the divide between the netherrack and soul sand, footsteps immediately slowing and no longer growing closer.
I didn't stop until I passed over the soul sand valley, now out of breath. I turned to see my home in ruins. Fire escaping through new holes in the walls that kept us safe, screams lessened from less people being alive to scream and I found myself to be the sole survivor of my tribe's massacre. The home and people I'd known all my life, gone.