Land of Memory - a Hermitcraft and last life threequel

Chapter 34: Cleo

AHHHH I CAN'T WRITE THIS CHAPTER

COME ON BRAIN. 

I REALLY REALLY WANT TO FINISH THIS BOOK BEFORE WEDNESDAY

Yeah... I was probably wrong about sending away Tango and Impulse.

The barrage of people leaving the world finally ends, and I'm left realising that the only people left are either in our base, Zedaph, or Beef.

AKA: I made a mistake. 

'Cleo?' 

I turn as Joe appears. With a smile i wave at him.

'Xisuma's called for everyone to gather.'

'Coming.' I stand up, about to follow when I see some people on the horizon. Not sure what to think, especially after Impulse and Tango's visit, I just stay where I am, one hand reaching for my sword. 'Wait, who's that?' 

Joe pulls out a spyglass, squinting to see. 'It looks like Lizzie's returned... Howdy Lizzie! Howdy EX!' 

'Why are you greeting them?!' I drag him away. 'Last time you did that, everyone ended up dead.

'Hey Joe!' Lizzie yells back 'We come in peace!'

'We know how to get out. We want you to come too.'

'We're not leaving until I get my husband back!' Lizzie adds

So they want Joel. Great.

'Come in! Xisuma's called a meeting. You can join us.'
'What?' I reply before I can comprehend what Joe's said. 'As far as we know, Lizzie blew up this entire place and EX is just generally untrustworthy.' 

'We can discuss with the others. And we have no idea who actually did it.' 

'Fine. Come on.'

The atmosphere of the meeting is awkward from the moment we appear. Joel and Lizzie are together, but something happened between them. You can almost cut the tension between EX and Xisuma, and both of the visitors are receiving untrusting gazes from the others. I try to reserve judgement, though it isn't working. I don't trust them. 

'So, do we go with these two to wherever the others went or not?' Xisuma asks. Silence follows. 

'I want to get out of here.' Joe offers.

'Me too.' Agrees Joel. Lizzie looks away from him. No one comments on it. 

'I don't know. Can we trust them?' Keralis asks. I nod in agreement, noticing a sigh from EX as I do. 

'This place is a wreck. I'm coming too.' TFC decides. 'Whether anyone else is or not.' 

'But... can we trust them?'

'Look, I'm not evil!'

'You said that last time. And again, Lizzie's our biggest suspect for blowing up our entire base. Are we really going to pretend we can trust them now?!' 

'I say we do.' Adds Joe unhelpfully. Fighting the urge to shove him, I reply.

'Let me remind you that EX killed you before.' I growl. 

'We can be friends now. And Lizzie's not shown any signs of being a murderous tyrant yet.'

'I blew up your base! Not Lizzie!' Bursts out Joel. Silence. Everyone stares at him, except Lizzie, who continues looking at the ground. 'I...I wanted to get out and was stupid enough to think that would work.'

'Right. We're leaving Joel behind.' 

'We're NOT leaving Joel behind!' Snaps Lizzie, one hand itching for her sword. 'He was angry, and he's my husband.' 

'He blew up our base. You just heard him.'

'All in favour of going?!' Xisuma manages to bring us back to order. BigB, TFC, Joe, Joel, EX, Lizzie and X raise their hands. With a glance at Keralis, I do too, as does him. 

'Right. Let's go.'

'We're bringing the psycho murderer with us?' 

'Cleo, just accept it, or stay here.'

'Fine. Let's all go.' 

'We'll have to be fast. Scar set everything on fire and it's spreading a lot.' Lizzie adds. 

'Sh*t. Let's go, run through the fire, and try to end up alright.' I lead the way, out of the ruined base, towards the burning forest. I hope everyone's following as I charge straight in. 

As I charge through the choking flames, Lizzie and Joel take the lead, the former calling that she knows the way. There's no other options, so I follow behind. The journey is long, and arduous, but eventually we find spawn. 

'Is everyone alive?' I turn around as we reach safety. Everyone's there, or just about there, TFC coming in last, with Joe and Keralis helping. I catch eye contact with Joe and he nods briefly. 

'Now, before we go in, I'll give the heads up that it leads to the maze, and there are Watchers.' 

'Watchers?' BigB interrupts. 'You never said this place was made by the watchers.'

'Surprise, it is. But it's better than being stuck in a burning world.' EX jumps through without seeing if we're coming too. With a look around, I do the same, and everyone follows. 

It takes a moment to adjust to the darkness of the maze. And then another moment to try and figure out where we actually are. 

And then Ren appears.

'There's an attack where the others are. We need to go now.' 

No other explanation, no apparent realisation that we're even here, before we're running towards where the old safe-base was. But it seems we're not the only ones here any more, as a tall, cloaked, masked creature appears in front of us.

'CRAP!' EX yells. 'Right. Uhh...'

'Don't try to fight. It didn't go well for any of the others.' Ren explains. 'And don't let it talk. And wind us up or...'

'Is there another way?' I ask, backing away, staring at the creature as though it would attack if I don't. 

'Uhh... I think so.' 

'Don't try and run, mortals. You know it won't work out for you.'

'Uhhh... shut up or I'll break your legs!' I improvise. The watcher only laughs, drawing a sword. 

'How amusing. I didn't remember mortals being this pathetic.'

'JUST RUN!'

I take the lead on fleeing. The Watcher doesn't follow, and there are no other distractions until we reach the camp. There's a full on fight happening, and I realise with a jolt and our escape is going to be a lot harder than first thought. 

This chapter sucks, but I don't have time to improve it