"I can kill it. I'll need you to keep the others away."
"Steve, I'm a better swordsman."
"Haha. Only for show. Besides, you don't use swords."
"You can't see out there!"
"I can see well enough to fight zombies. I've been doing it for years. And we need to decide on something before it wanders away and we lose it."
"Alright, if I can't kill it quickly, you fight it and I'll cover you." Herobrine tapped the staff against the wall. "You better be hearing this. And absorbing the fact that Steve doesn't have armor and that thing does."
"I'll be fine." Steve drew his sword and tested the balance, then made a few quick steps, testing his foot. Herobrine unsealed the door and peeked out, cheek pressed against the rough stone. The street was deserted for as far as he could see except for sunlight and dust. "Clear?" In answer Herobrine squeezed outside and ran around the building. If he could get in a solid hit before zombie-Yupa noticed him, they might end this and be able to get out before night. No such luck, however. The huge, flame-wreathed figure turned quickly to face him, and the sword flashed up in a streak of violet. He'd have to get past that. They sparred, zombie-Yupa snarling loudly. Another zombie stumbled out of a door down the street and loped towards the noise. Herobrine backed up and shot a ranged spell at zombie-Yupa, who blocked it almost absently with a swish of the enchanted blade. Herobrine swore loudly and went back to sparring. The blade clipped the end of the staff, jolting it in his hands. A chip of wood spun into the air. Herobrine had a brief intuition of fear and discomfort and knew that he must not let it break. Steve was shouting at him. He ignored him. He just needed a hit. He was backing up, letting the zombie follow him, leading it on. Sooner or later he'd have the opening he'd need.

The back of his foot hit the curb unexpectedly. He dropped and rolled forwards as the sword clashed down on the stone behind him. As he spun past the zombie he stabbed upwards with the end of the staff and touched the zombie's chestplate. There was a deep cracking sound. He jumped up, looking behind him. The chestplate was cracked open, but the zombie was unhurt. It started towards him. Herobrine raised the staff, just as Steve jumped between them.
"Herobrine, they're swarming! Cover me!"
"What!" Steve ignored him. Herobrine, looking up, noticed that they were surrounded by less lethal zombies, burning in the sun but pressing forwards even as they burned. Herobrine turned to batting away the closer ones. "Get into the courtyard if you can," he shouted. It would be more open. Less likely to have things to trip over. And there should be fewer zombies. He could hold off the ones from the village at the gate. Steve began leading the zombie swordsman towards the fortress, and Herobrine cleared the way in front of him. More and more zombies were pouring out to join in the battle. How many could there be? Lost Pine wasn't the largest town, and only so many could have come from elsewhere and survived this long. The street was littered with burning corpses. But they kept coming. The humans reached the courtyard just as Herobrine was afraid they would be overwhelmed, and he ran in first and picked off several zombies which had been lounging in shady corners. Steve and zombie-Yupa crashed in a moment later, and seeing that the gate was in working condition, Herobrine swung it shut and locked it behind them. A zombie in light armor ran out of the fortress and he intercepted it, flinging it to one side. It caught fire in the full sun and fell limp to the stones. Steve was doing well, Herobrine saw, and if the zombie had had only human endurance it would have been dead some time before. But it could keep going while it was full of holes and trailing black ichor. Herobrine looked down, noticing a thin line on the ground. He followed it with his eyes to where it disappeared down some steps. Oh. It was a fuse. He remembered now. The people of Lost Pine had been planning for this. In the event that the town was completely overrun, they had planned to blow it up. "Good planning," he muttered. He tugged at the fuse, wondering if he should cut it. Kind of dangerous to leave it lying around like…. why did it feel so loose? He tugged harder and it slithered towards him in a distinctly unconnected fashion. He looked towards the end, where it disappeared down the steps, and realized that he could no longer see the top of the fuse. A flicker of flame was traveling down the piece he held towards his hand. He stared in disbelief for several seconds before realizing what had happened. The zombie he'd tossed aside had landed with its burning hand across the fuse. "STEEEEEVE!" he raced for the gate, mentally cursing himself for shutting themselves up in a narrow place like this.
"What?!"
"Run! Just run!" he threw the gate open and waded through the zombies outside, striking left and right with the staff. Outside he looked over his shoulder. "Steve come on!" he came outside and Herobrine grabbed his arm and started running, dragging him along. Zombie-Yupa followed at an only marginally slower place, spattering the stones of the street with ichor and snarling furiously.
"What?"
"Things exploding! Run!" Steve looked behind him, then towards the nearest downed section of wall, several blocks away. A few seconds later the street rippled under their feet. They fell and rolled, and there was a crackle of falling stones behind them. They leapt up and kept going, knocking zombies out of the way. They were being followed by a green-skinned, fiery mob. Another explosion, this one farther away, rocked the ground as they neared the wall. This might have been encouraging, thought Herobrine, if he didn't know that the entire town was rigged to blow up and that their section, which had been fairly quiet so far, wouldn't stay that way for long. They reached the wall, Herobrine several bounds ahead. He waited for Steve and bundled him over before following. Zombie-Yupa snarled close behind him. They started to run through the apple trees. Suddenly the ground shook under them. For a moment everything was confused. Then, in a sudden moment of clarity, Herobrine registered that he was flying. Straight towards a tree. He swung the staff up. The tree exploded, and now he was flying through a rain of wood splinters and powdered bark. He hit the ground soon after and again everything was confused. When he stopped rolling he was a fair distance from the ruin of the city and Steve was nowhere in sight. He stood shakily, then dove down again as a piece of building thudded into the ground next to him. He scanned the sky carefully before he stood again. Clear. He jogged back towards the wall, which was now in even worse condition. A few final bits of rubble settled to ground as he ran. Steve, unlike him, had huddled in a depression in the ground at the beginning of the explosion and hadn't been carried off, although he was covered with dirt. He sat up and blinked around at the wreckage as Herobrine reached him. A final zombie stumbled burning out of the flattened city and fell in the remains of the wall. Zombie-Yupa was lying immobile and twisted in ways unnatural even for a zombie. "Are you OK?" said Herobrine. Steve gave him a vacant look.
"Explosions."
"Yes." There was another one, and they both ducked. It wasn't nearby. "They did a terrible job at timing. Should've made it so the whole place blew up at once."
"Well they couldn't really test it out, could they?" said Steve, recovering somewhat. He stood, a bit weak at the knees, but apparently unhurt. "Hey!" Herobrine looked.

The enchanted sword was buried halfway to the hilt in a nearby apple tree. Steve tugged ineffectually at the hilt. "It's jammed."
"Of course it's jammed. Step back." Herobrine struck the tree, shattering the section around the sword. The upper part of the trunk swayed back over them and he dragged Steve to one side, grabbing the sword with the other hand. Another explosion, this one close enough to bathe them in its dust as the cloud was carried downwind. They ran for the trees, stopping halfway up the rise and sitting to watch the clouds of dust and rubble kicked up from the city behind them.

A/N: I wonder how many story plots could be summed up as "Things exploding! Run!"
ALSO HEROBRINE IS A JERK TO TREES! And so is the staff! I mean, it's wood itself, right? Traitor.
Also, if you're confused as to why Steve can't see well in broad daylight and Herobrine can't see well in caves, well… short answer, there are two different types of human eye in the Overworld. More on that in The Mark Ch.2.