AN: At this point, there is one very important question you need to ask yourself. How mean am I?

Chapter 34: Going Under

"His heart rate is still elevated, but vital signs are stable. He's not in any pain."

"That's good, but let's keep an eye on him. If he starts going under while he's so close to the center we'll have to act fast."

"Hey...it's not visiting day, is it?"

"No, why?"

"We have a visitor."

"Oh, hello. We're sorry, visitors aren't allowed except for specific hours… Well, if you just want to talk… I see. Nice to meet you."

Player's body was moving of its own accord. It did not flag or falter. His breath came in huge filling gasps, and the air ran into his lungs like water and would not come out. The cave was pitch black, but he could tell where the boundaries were by the sounds echoing around him. There were the farmers, all three rather hysterical, and the sounds of their footsteps on the floor, slipping and skittering over gravel and loose stones. Then there was the thing behind them, taking great bounding leaps that Player heard land every second or so. It was not vocalizing anymore, and that scared Player more than its screams had.

A peculiar sort of calm had settled on him. He was terrified and full of adrenaline, but instead of numbing his thoughts this state seemed to be making him more alert. He did not know where they were going besides up, and that seemed to be all that mattered. So far, the passage had not deviated even once.

In front of him, one of the farmers slipped. There was a yelp and a thud, and then a body was rolling back down the slope. Player stooped, seized an arm and hauled them back up. He felt the brush of long hair in the darkness. Ivy.

"Keep going!" He commanded. She stumbled, wincing, but kept running.

They were not going to make it. The thing behind them was not slowing, and there was only so long Player could keep running at this pace, let alone the recently injured Clarence. He could hear the man in front of him. His breath was coming in hard gasps that bordered on sobs.

"Damn it," he swore, and pulled out a torch. He reached out to a wall and struck it like a match. The coal flared into life, light blossomed in the little stone passageway. The way ahead was illuminated just in time for Bit to swerve around an outcropping and avoid falling.

Clarence looked back at Player, but there was no time to acknowledge him. He thrust a hand into his pocket and opened his inventory, trying to focus on running and retrieving his only weapon at the same time. He had been saving his bow and arrows for a special occasion. Player thought this counted.

He swung the quiver over his shoulder and tested the bow string. It would do. He waited until there was a wide place in the passageway, and then he threw the torch behind them.

The thing chasing them let out a reactionary shriek, and Player spun to face it. It was even closer than he had thought. The light toss he had given the torch had caused the burning object to collide with its skeletal chest. It had stopped the things charge, but unfortunately this monster did not appear to be flammable.

It advanced towards Player, staring at him with those beady red eyes. It was not running now. It had never before been faced with an enemy that stood its ground. It shuffled forward, the overlarge sword in its hand dragging along the ground and creating a scraping noise that frayed at his concentration.

Player nocked an arrow, drew back, aimed, and fired, all the while walking backwards. The shot missed by a hair. The thing was swaying back and forth as it approached and instead of hitting the creature's head, the arrow ricocheted off the roof and down into the blackness of the cave beyond.

The creature raised a foot and began to step down on the torch, threatening to eliminate the only light source in the cave.

Player aimed again, this time for the creature's knee of its supporting leg. This shot hit home with a sound like metal on stone and the thing stumbled sideways. Its little beady eyes regarded him with something approaching curiosity. Nothing had ever hurt it before, much less a human. Again he shot, aiming for the same leg, and again he hit. The creature howled in agony and stumbled again against the wall.

Player was satisfied. He had crippled the monster. The farmers had a real chance of escape now.

The thing bent over double, abandoning its two-legged walk, and charged forward at a speed that ate up the distance between them in less than five seconds.

He yelped and quickly drew another arrow, nocked it, and fired. This time he hit the things head, and the shaft of the arrow stuck out through an eye socket, obscuring the red glow within. The creature buckled under its own momentum and fell at Player's feet. It writhed on the ground, clearly not dead, but he did not wait to see if it would get back up.

Player turned and ran again. Ahead of him, Bit had paused for a moment to light his own torch, and now there was a faint orange glow to guide Player through the rest of the cave. The thing screamed, full of pain and rage.

He saw the farmers slowing to look for him.

"Keep going!" he called out, "it's not dead!"

All three of them turned and continued upwards.

Player prayed that this cave was not a dead end. Behind him, he could hear the monster getting to its feet. If they had to double back past it there was no hope.

Then sunlight bloomed shot through the darkness. It was the dim weak sunlight of late afternoon, but it was sunlight nonetheless. Bit gave a whoop of joy that Player would have echoed if there had been any breath in his lungs at all. He managed a grin through the panic still in his system.

The farmers stumbled out of the cave entrance and paused, gasping. They were bent double, their whole bodies heaving with the physical exertion. Clarence straightened up first and looked back for Player, who was still climbing out of the cave. He ran forward and helped him over the last hurdle.

Player dropped the bow on the ground and pulled a stack of cobblestone from his inventory. He gave half to Clarence and started barricading the hole in the ground. He could hear the monster distantly. It was mewling in a hungry sort of way, pouting about the meal it had been denied.

They had the hole covered in less than a minute, and Player started adding a second layer of cobblestone. He wished he had obsidian. If anything could stop the monster, it would be obsidian. Something collided with the other side of the cobblestone, but luckily it did not break.

Ivy yelped.

"We should probably keep going," Player panted. He checked the sky. There was not much time before dark.

"Where are we?" Bit asked.

"I know," Clarence said, "follow me." He straightened up with an effort, and Player saw that his eyes were red from crying. He felt a pang of guilt again and resisted the urge to rush forwards and give the man a hug. They made eye contact, and the man gave him a shaky smile. Then Clarence turned away and began leading them, still at a jog that had Ivy and Bit laboring to breathe again, through the dense forest.

Player kept glancing at the sun. It was sinking fast towards the mountains. He didn't like that. He was recalling the story about the spider-riding skeletons and the zombie he had encountered on the first day in the valley. Since then he had never been forced to face a mob head-on, and he did not want to.

They skirted around another hole in the ground that looked relatively new. The grass had grown up the the edges of it, but the dirt and stone had not yet been eroded to smoothness. Player glanced at it. It connected to a cave system, but the way it emerged from the ground was unnatural.

Ivy flagged for a moment, almost stopped.

"Keep moving," he told her, "we can't stop here. It will still be looking for us."

That scared them all enough to keep them moving.

In the end, they made it back to the shelter fine. Clarence was the first one through the door, and Ivy, Bit, and Player piled in after him. The bunker was large enough for all of them to collapse on the floor in separate places. They all took a few moments to let their bodies calm down after the stress of running for their lives.

Clarence started laughing out of relief first. Then Bit started giggling, then Ivy. Player stayed silent. He had sat up against the wall by then and was putting away his bow and arrows. He would need to make arrows soon. He only had five left.

"Good thinking with the bow," Bit said to him finally.

Player closed his inventory and started wiping stone dust off of his hands, "Thanks," he said, "I was sure we were dead."

"No kidding. What was that thing?"

He shook his head, "I don't know and I don't want to know."

"It looked sort of like a skeleton," Bit offered, "from what I saw."

"Might be. It didn't die when I shot it in the head, so it was probably something like that."

"You got a good look at it?"

Player nodded. He did his best not to picture the thing in his head. He cut them off before they asked, "Let's not talk about that. It was too… weird. It was wrong."

Clarence sat up and rested beside him. He looked exhausted but happy or at least relieved. "I think," he said, "that we should go back to civilization and send back a team of twenty gladiators to deal with that."

Ivy laughed, "Well they won't be from my village. Those guys will get eaten alive by the mobs out here."

"Same goes for me," Bit tossed in. A mischievous glint came into his eyes, "Hey, Player,"

"I don't think the sentries would be very good for that," he supplied, thinking of the man who had made him fight the zombies.

"No, no. Have you seen Hero yet? I bet he could take that monster on, don't you?"

Guilt crushed Player's stomach. Hero. Who knew where the man was now? Clarence saw the look flash across his face and gave Bit a look that shut him up.

"Let's think about that later," the man said. He leaned towards Player for a second, "I still need to talk to you."

He didn't want to hear it, not right then, "Tomorrow," he told Clarence. Or when Ivy and Bit were not around. Whichever came sooner.

It was then that he saw it. It was not a lot of movement. It could have been some dust kicked up by feet. It could have been a zombie on the roof over their heads causing a little debri to fall, except since they had arrived back at the bunker Player had not heard evidence of any mobs outside.

A small area of dirt in the floor was slowly draining away as if sucked from below. The spot was only about a foot away from Player's feet, only about six inches away from Clarence.

He was so relaxed, so convinced that the danger had passed, that it took him a full minute to make sense of what he was seeing. He watched the hole grow round and smooth and widen slightly and watched the black fingers squirm just below the surface of the ground. Then Player understood.

He looked around at his companions. Clarence was still looking at his face, and Bit and Ivy were still on the floor looking up at the ceiling. They didn't see it, and there was no time to warn them. There might not be time to get up.

"Player," Clarence was saying, and his warm hand was on Player's arm, squeezing gently, "thanks. I think you saved us all."

And now I'm going to do it again.

Without a word he seized Clarence and pulled him onto his feet. He didn't try to go to the door, he just put the smaller man behind him and watched the hole in the ground grow wider. Ivy and Bit both sat up when he moved, and then they saw what was happening too and stood, backing against the opposite wall of the shelter.

Player pointed to the door of the shelter, and they all started edging toward it.

The monster mewled beneath them, and he felt Clarence start to shake again. He had to get the man out of here and somewhere safe before he lost his cool completely.

Ivy and Bit bolted for the door, their footsteps loud on the dirt. They made it out just fine, but the monster snarled, and then it was bursting up through the ground, throwing the contents of the bunker to the sides as it scrabbled to get a hold in the enclosed space.

Player turned away to shield his eyes from the debri. The noise of the thing was deafening, and Clarence was trembling against him again. He seemed frozen to the spot.

He spun the man around and pushed him towards the door, still using his own body as a shield. They had only seconds before the monster got its bearings and attacked them.

"Go!" he ordered. Clarence snapped out of his stupor and ran forward. Player half-turned and was just missed by the scything arm of the monster as it lunged after the fleeing man.

Clarence yelped as the monster snatched his right foot out from under him. He screamed in apparent agony, but Player could not see the source of the pain. He felt his face contort in a snarl as he stepped forward.

The monster looked at him, and Player looked back. For a moment, he thought he saw it hesitate. He put his foot on the thing's arm and pressed the bony limb down into the loose dirt of the floor.

The monster disappeared back down the hole, trying to take Clarence with it. The man was yelling for help now, the hysteria in his voice slurring the words. "Get it off me! Get it off me! Please, for the love of god someone get it off-!"

Player took the pickaxe off his back and raised it over his head. He brought it down on the limb beneath his foot, and there was an answering scream of pain from the monster below his feet. It let go of Clarence and almost unbalanced Player as it withdrew the injured arm back into the hole.

He didn't spare it a glance. He pulled Clarence back up and pushed him out of the bunker and into the night air.

"Back towards the mountains! Now!" He told the farmers.

Ivy and Bit were already edging away from the bunker, and at his words they started to turn.

"Wait," Player called to them. He made Clarence join them, and the other two supported him as it became obvious that the man had a lame leg. "Okay, let's go. If we can make it to morning we should be fine." He was pretty sure the monster did not like sunlight.

They turned away and the other two helped Clarence limp away from the bunker as fast as possible. Player stayed for a second, bent double and breathing deeply to regain some energy.

Player did not register the noise of the monster squirming out of the bunker. The sound of his own heartbeat was loud in his ears and his breathing was ragged in his throat. He needed a moment to get his composure back and retrieve the bow from his inventory. He wished that he had a sword, but he had broken it more than two weeks previously and had neglected to craft a new one.

It happened so fast that he did not understand how it had happened at all for a long time. He realized later that the monster had come back out of the ground and crawled partially out of the shelter, just far enough to reach him. One moment he was standing there, trying not to throw up, and the next a cold so intense it was painful was stabbing him in the leg. He was jerked off his feet and hit the ground hard on his stomach. The breath left his lungs in a whoosh and his vision went cloudy. Then he heaved air back into his lungs and screamed as the pain slammed through him. His leg was going numb with it, and it was lancing up his spine like icicles.

Dimly, he saw the farmers had turned, but he knew without question that there would be no help from that quarter. He did not bother screaming for help.

Player twisted around and tried to see what was dragging him backwards. One of his legs was caught. The monster had a firm grip on his left leg just below the knee. That leg was already useless. He could not even kick at the thing with it.

Instead he used his right leg, kicking repeatedly at the arm that was gripping him. It was a bad angle. He couldn't get any force behind the blows.

He tried to roll over, but pain shot the knee and hip of his trapped leg and he stopped.

He scrabbled at the ground beneath him and succeeded only in tearing the pads of his fingers on the pebbles in the dirt.

Clarence yelled his name and stumbled away from Ivy and Bit. His injured leg collapsed beneath him on the third step and he fell. He would be no good. He was too far away to make it in time.

Player looked up and made eye contact with the other two farmers. Neither of them made any move toward him. He felt hatred ball in his stomach, hot and sharp. He opened his mouth to curse them.

And then the bunker passed above him and the farmers were gone. The sky was gone. The sun was gone. All there was was darkness, rough stone, and pain.

Clarence got to his feet slowly. His breath was coming in sobs and his shoulders were shaking. He put weight on his injured leg with a wince, then clenched his teeth and straightened up against it.

Both Ivy and Bit braced themselves. He said very softly, "If either of you try to touch me ever again I'll cut your hands off."

"Clary, look," Bit started, and then trailed off.

"There was nothing we could have done," Ivy offered.

"And how do you know that? Did you try?"

There was silence.

"Let's go back home," Bit said finally.

Clarence spun and screamed, "That was home!"

They both flinched.

"That was the only person who has given a crap about me in a year," Clarence said more softly, "and he's gone now."

"Clary," Ivy said, "he just wanted to look at you, you know. He was gay."

"I know he was," he said.

"He didn't actually care about you."

"Then why did he walk for two months to find me, Ivy, when you only had to hike for a day but didn't bother to show up?"

She flinched, "That's not the point-"

Clarence suddenly looked drained, "let's go." He walked past them, limping a little as he went. His posture betrayed the despair he was feeling.

"What would you have done when he made an advance?" Ivy called after him.

"I would have accepted it," He fired back.

That shut her up.

He clenched his fists to hold back tears, "You know how I met him in a game, before the reset?"

"Yes," Bit offered.

"I was watching him," Clarence brought his hands up in front of them and clasped them together, "he was alone and shy and in pain, and he was cute. I wanted to help him, so I waited until it was just me in a lobby without you guys and he was there, and I went up and said hi. I thought it would help."

"Well it did," the man said, trying to make it better.

Clarence laughed, "That wasn't us!" he sounded almost hysterical again, "That was Hero! All we did was hurt him. We hurt and hurt him over and over. It's a miracle he wanted to find me at all," and he sunk to the ground again, real sobs shaking his body. "All we ever did was cause him pain," he whispered, "oh God, I'm so sorry. He's dead now. He's dead and there's no helping him."

"He's not dead," Ivy said, "he'll respawn.

Clarence shook his head, "if you die here, you die forever. I felt it happening to me when I was attacked. I wasn't even that close to death and I felt it. He's gone."