Pandemonium | Dream SMP

84. Are you going to kill me?

The world outside the White House is not the one I remember. In just an hour it has been transformed into a dark and choking wasteland like something out of a dystopian novel. Black smoke rolls through the grass like a thick fog, licking at my ankles and igniting any small shrubs in its path. There's a small fire burning in almost every building, a punctuation of crackling orange against the grey. Where the sun should be is instead a sky full of smog.

From somewhere in the haze, there's a twang, and I raise my trident up to block the arrow that had been about to hit a clueless Punz in the gut.

"I'm gone for one hour..." I mutter, observing the landscape.

Punz has to take a moment to collect himself, still reeling from the fact he'd very nearly been shot. His eyes dance from the splintered projectile at his feet and up to me.

"Where did you last see Dream?"

"Uh, near the border between here and the Embassy. He was fighting with Tommy and Tubbo."

I almost trip as he says this, and swivel around to stare at him, "Tubbo?"

"Yeah. I was surprised, too. But it was definitely him."

I press my lips thin, a crease crossing my forehead. I knew it was obviously a possibility to see Tubbo on the field, but I didn't expect him to be fighting. Is he even fit enough to fight? He was still bed bound when I last saw him.

"Okay," is all I say, and I begin trudging through the smog, kicking up chunks of dead plant life, the glow of my trident guiding us. We don't encounter any dead bodies on our way, which comes as a bigger relief than I thought it would. Despite not having the closest relationship with the majority of Pogtopia, I wouldn't wish any of them a gruesome death. There are, however, a few patches of something that looks suspiciously like blood stained into the singed grass, and it makes my chest tighten with every patch we pass.

We manage to make it all the way to Prime Path before encountering a hostile, and my stomach sinks at who it happens to be. Her pink hair is sooty, and there's ash streaked across her cheek. Yet despite this, she still looks so incredibly pretty. If only her eyes weren't burning with such an angry fire.

"Ni—" I begin to say, taking a step towards her, but Punz gets in the way, his back to me as he draws his sword.

"I got this," he says, motioning me to continue up to the Embassy.

I hesitate but realise now really isn't the time. We're in a war, after all. A fact Niki seems to know better than me, as without hesitation she raises a crossbow and releases a bolt. I swat it away with a saddened expression, and for a second guilt flashes through her fiery gaze. But then Punz charges and she throws her crossbow away, drawing her sword.

I turn and race along the wooden boards of Prime Path before I can hesitate again, the clang of metal echoing in my ears as I pray that neither of them dies. A stupid wish. This is war.

I'm left uninterrupted as I come to the base of the stairs that lead to the Embassy, and take them two at a time, my heart hammering the closer I grow to Tommy's house till it's all I can hear alongside my short puffs of breath.

I crest the final step and have to physically throw myself to the side as, of all things, a firework launches past where I'd just been. It spirals out past the cliff ledge and explodes in a sharp splatter of orange over Manburg, adding to the smokey sky.

As I roll through the grass, my first thought turns to Technoblade and the dreadful crossbow he'd used during the festival, but when I finally look up, it's not the pig man I see wielding the weapon, but Tubbo! He's stood beside Tommy, the both of them decked out in glistening netherite armour. Tommy has a netherite sword in hand, and its blade flickers with enchanted flames every few seconds. Their attention isn't on me—I doubt they've even noticed I'm here—as they both instead stare down Dream who stands with his back to Tommy's house.