Without warning, something grabbed the back of my chestplate and kicked off of the bottom of the lake, hauling me to the surface. Still not letting go, it dragged me to the shore, where I fell facedown onto the gritty sand. For what seemed like forever I was too exhausted to stand. Finally I gathered enough strength to push myself up, shaking and coughing the water out of my lungs.
“Have... to keep… moving…” A voice gasped from beside me, ending in a fit of coughing. It was Tsoudrei. Grabbing my arm, he once again lifted me up. An arrow landed in the sand next to us, and we started to run. I yanked my sword out of its sheath and whipped it to the side, beheading a zombie. The rain poured down, and it was now fully night.
“We’re… in the canyons.” Tsoudrei panted. He stopped running, an arm wrapped around his waist. “Steep drop… be careful…” I stopped too, and carefully edged forward. He was right; I could feel an empty expanse of darkness just in front of me, as though the land shifted steeply downward. I turned back to ask him where the others had gone- and froze. The moon had moved out from behind the clouds, illuminating the molted skin of a creeper in front of Tsoudrei. It hadn’t noticed us yet, but I knew as soon as we moved to get away it would. Other, darker shadows of more mobs fumbled around farther behind it, and when the creeper blew we’d have them to deal with as well.
“Tsoudrei…” I said quietly. He put a hand up, either telling me to be quiet or keep still. He never took his arm off his waist.
“What a--” I started to ask, when everything happened at once. The creeper’s head jerked up, locking its eyes on me, Tsoudrei was stepping in front of me as an explosion shook the ground… Seemingly uninjured, he pulled me up as a crowd of mobs descended upon us. Turning his back to them, he put a hand on my shoulder, forcing me to look at him. “The City is gone… There’s nothing left here for me. Keep them safe. Tell Knax and Xan--” But I never found out what he was going to say, because at that moment a zombie wrapped its arm around Tsoudrei’s neck. “Run!” He shouted, flinging me away from him. I stumbled, rolling down a sharp drop and into a valley below… with an angry roar, Tsoudrei ripped the zombie off of him, and turned to face the rest of the monsters… “No!” I cried. I tried to climb back up, but it was too steep. As Tsoudrei lifted his sword, I noticed something. A gaping wound in his side… the way he’d covered it since he’d rescued me from the water… I yelled in frustration and, once again unsuccessfully, tried to climb back up. Lightning flashed, and I saw him go down.
He never got back up. I turned, and did the last thing he’d told me to do.
I ran.
