I Will Protect You (Skylox)

     The cave was dark. The night outside was cold. The thunder outside echoed deafeningly against the cave walls even though there was no end to the labyrinth of a cave system in sight.
    As I walked through the cave, I couldn't help but wish that Dan could have joined me on my expedition for some gold - butter - ore. Cave knew the caves better than anyone. His name had a meaning, after all.
    I was almost certain I was close to the surface as I heard raindrops pounding above me. I couldn't help but smile as I quickened my pace, holding my torch up high.
    Then a terrifyingly familiar scream split the air and I stopped dead in my tracks, my blood running cold. My eyes widened and I spun around to look into the darkness of the cave behind me. "Adam." I whispered. I broke into a run back into the cave. "Adam!" I shouted, calling out to him.
     He didn't respond. I ran faster. Wherever he was, he was in trouble. I had to help him before it was too late. I had entered the mines alone, but he must have had the same idea.
     I heard another shout come from somewhere within the mine. Closer. I was closer. I came to the end of the tunnel, skidding to a halt on the stone. Pebbles bounced at my feet as the soles of my shoes caught the stone floor beneath me. As I came to a stop, I looked out over the vast cave the tunnel had opened up into. Lava pouring in from every available space, monsters crawling everywhere, and deadly drops daring you to make a bad move.
    I heard a shout of fear and looked to it quickly. There he was. I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. He was still alive and he was still running. Besides getting the shit scared out of him, all that the monsters chasing him had done was wear him out. He had been running a long time. I could tell. He wasn't like me. I was fast and I could run forever, hardly breaking a sweat. I had worked half my life to do that. Adam hadn't.
    I didn't hesitate.
    The tunnel Sky bolted into was a narrow one, with a dead end. I had been there earlier and I knew it wouldn't be long before he was cornered and defenseless.
    I swung over the side of the rock face and began to climb my way down to his level. It took me seconds to descend the twenty feet I needed as I disregarded safety. Right now, it was all or nothing. Fight or run. Live or die.
    I leapt the last meter to the stone ledge and held my nearly-busted sword ready. I pulled my spare out of the sheath on my back as I ran down the tunnel as fast as my feet could carry me - and that was pretty fast.
     The end came into sight faster than I'd thought. I could barely see Adam ahead. He was cornered, as I'd thought, with a zombie approaching him. Two other zombies were father behind, but they weren't my concern yet. The first was but a foot away, and Adam had no way of defending himself. He just stared into the zombie's cold dead eyes in terror as he waited for his life to end.
    Not as long as I'm his General.
    "Move you head!" I ordered.
    Although taken by surprise, Adam ducked his head to the left just as I ran my sword through the zombie's head. Where Adam's head had been only a fraction of a second early, my sword stayed.
     As the other two zombies grew closer, I turned to face them, standing in front of Adam. I held out my other sword to him without looking behind me. I felt him take it and knew he was ready to fight.
    I charged forward and ran my sword through the first zombie's heart without thinking. As soon as I did, my sword broke in two; it was now completely useless. The zombie kept coming. It was then that I remembered that only headshots would kill the creatures.
     I mentally kicked myself for not realizing it sooner, but quickly dismissed it. It dodged to one side as the zombie swung a heavy arm down on me, missing me by inches. I took a swift step back and kicked it for all it was worth, pushing it back several feet. But it just kept coming. For a split second, I thought I saw two distant purple lights, but they were gone again in the blink of an eye. Then, all of a sudden, Adam decided to return a favor.
    "Move your head!"
    I ducked without questioning him. Above me, Adam stabbed over my head, killing the zombie by stabbing it straight through its rotting skull. It gave a final groan and fell to the ground, truly dead. I looked behind me as I stood up straight again to see Adam staring down at the zombie, breathing heavily. Behind him, the zombie he'd attacked was dead as well, with its head missing.
   Adam rested a hand wearily on my shoulder without looking up from the grounded zombie. He smiled grimly. "Thanks, Ty..." He said.
   I smiled back. "You're luck I was in the area." I said. "Otherwise- AGH!" I let out a sharp cry of pain as I felt something cut a very long, very deep, and very painful gash on my arm. I clutched it with the opposite hand, but it didn't do much good. There was a flash of purple and I felt something slam hard into my lower back and I fell hard to the stone ground.
    "Ty!" Sky shouted in alarm.
    The Enderman didn't take a break. It teleported right next to me just as I was climbing to my feet, and with an ear-shattering, unearthly screech, it kicked me back down, slamming me into one of the cold stone walls of the tunnel in the process. I felt a massive pain in the back of my head, and I saw stars. I blinked several times, but it wouldn't clear. I felt a final slash at my leg before Adam finally decided to make himself useful.
    As it realized it was outmatched, the Enderman teleported off out of sight. Adam knelt next to me. I winced and sat up straight. He looked at me, and I could tell his expression was concerned, even though I couldn't see past his sunglasses. "You okay?" He asked.
   I nodded and stood up. It hurt, but I would be able to get out of the cave alright. Sky smiled and patted my shoulder. I smiled back, if grimly.
    Then we heard a hiss.
    I was faster. Before I could even think, my mind was made up. I stepped forward and shoved Adam out of the way. He fell to the ground several feet away, and I prayed he hadn't hit his head on something.
    But as the Creeper blew up, I knew I had my own problems to deal with. I was launched back and slammed hard against the back wall of the cave. I fell to the ground limply and laid there, teeth gritted and eyes squeezed shut. I felt great pain in my arm and I was bleeding heavily in countless places. Not to mention, I sure my leg was broken. I knew that if I made it out of the cave alive, Adam would tease me for it, with remarks of "#Ty'sfoot".
     Speak of the devil...
    "Ty!" Sky scrambled over to me and helped me sit up. It hurt, but I wasn't in a position to argue. "Ty, are you okay?"
    I could barely think straight through the pain and the daze from my blow to the head, but I managed to say one word. "Hurts..."
   I could tell Sky was panicked. "C-Come on, we gotta get out of here." He paused. When he spoke again, his voice was calm, and hopeful. "I'm gonna help you stand up."
    "C... Can't..." I whispered.
    "That's not an option." Adam said. He slowly got to his feet and pulled me up with him. I knew I had to help if we were gonna get out alive. I put some of my weight on myself, but as soon as I started to stand, pain shot up my leg, sending my whole body off in a shock of pain. I cried out and fell back down, but Adam caught me. "I got you." He said. He didn't give up. He helped me stand more slowly this time, putting one on my arms around his neck, helping me stand straighter. But I was too weak. I hated feeling so useless, but there was nothing I could really do.
   I lowered my head, my eyes squeezed shut, trying to block out the pain I felt.
   "We gotta move, Ty." He said. I couldn't bear the thought of feeling that pain again.
   "N-No..." I whispered. "Hurts..."
   "I know, but we gotta move or we'll get attacked again."
    I knew he was right. If I didn't move, we would both die. It wasn't right for him to die because I was weak. I couldn't let him do that. "Leave..." I said.
    I could tell I had taken him by surprise. For one relieved moment, I thought he would go. But then he shook his head. "No way." He said stubbornly. "I'm your friend, Ty. I don't care what I have to do to get you out of this place alive. I will protect you, no matter what. Now come on. Let's move! We can do this! Just one step at a time. Here we go..."
    Sky took a slow step forward. I winced and followed suit, leaning on him almost entirely as I moved my good leg. He moved again, taking a slightly bigger step. I moved too, once again leaning on him entirely for support.
    It went on forever, but step by step, we made our way up to the surface. Out into the cool midday rain. Adam stopped as we reached to surface and smiled up into the sky, welcoming to cool rain. Then he looked at me, smiling tiredly. "I told you. We made it."
    I used whatever strength I had left in me to look up at him and smile back. We had made it. We were gonna live.
    Then the Enderman struck one final time.
    It shoved me from behind, screeching loudly as the rain hit its skin.
    Caught by the unexpected blow, I fell to the ground hard and cried out in pain. I curled up tightly as closed wounds reopened and the pain grew even more.
    Dimly, I heard Adam scream furiously at the Enderman. "Leave him ALONE!" The creature gave a final screech and I knew that Adam had killed it.
    I heard his sword drop dully to the ground as he knelt beside me. "T-Ty?" He asked. "Are you okay?"
   "No..." I muttered. It was all I could muster. But it was enough. Adam sighed in relief at the sound of my voice. "Can you stand?"
   I could barely move, let alone get up. "No..."
   "Then I'll have to carry you." I let out a soft cry of pain as Adam picked me up and started to move, careful that he didn't touch any of my wounds. I started to feel dizzy from the loss of blood. I felt myself quickly loosing consciousness, but Adam's voice spoke through it like a beacon in the night. "You're gonna be alright." He soothed. "You're gonna be fine. I promise."
    Then everything went dark.
•••
    I thought he would die. When he fainted like that, I was certain I was loosing him. But I didn't give up just yet. I got him back to the nearest house at the edge of a village nearby on a hill.
    I had to kick the door lightly seeing as my hands were kinda full. I looked down at Ty to see that he looked like he was in so much pain. His face was ghostly pale - even more so than usual. His white shirt was almost completely stained red, his green headset askew. I was almost certain he wasn't gonna make it. But when I saw who answered the door, I knew he was gonna be fine.
   I breathed a sigh of relief. "Jason, thank god..."
   "A-Adam!" He shouted in alarm. "What happened?!"
   "We got attacked in the mines. Ty's hurt bad. Can-"
   "Get in here, you're gonna get sick!" Before I could even ask, Jason practically forced me inside, out of the rain. "Put him on the couch, I'll go get some bandages." He instructed.
   I did what he said. I laid Ty down on the couch slowly, carefully. I knew that one wrong move would cause him great pain, but if I was careful, I could avoid it. Ty's head fell limp on his shoulder. One arm laid over the side of the couch, his hand brushing the carpet, the other arm resting over his side. Even in his sleep, he looked like he was in great pain.
   Jason came back into the room and knelt by the side of the couch. We both knew he wasn't anything close to a doctor, but he was Ty's best chance. As Jason started to patch him up, I sat in a chair nearby and watched in silence, too scared to do anything else.
   It took an hour, maybe even more. But Jason got it done. Ty's expression grew more at peace as the wounds were covered and after Jason had given him a painkiller.
   He sighed and stood. He looked at me and nodded once. "I'm not certain, but I think he'll be fine."
   I sighed.
   Jason smiled grimly and patted my shoulder. "I'm glad you came here for help." He said. "Do you want something to eat? Ty's not gonna wake up for a few hours."
    I shook my head. "I'm not hungry." I said. Jason's eyes narrowed. I knew that look. He was suspicious. Then he rolled his eyes and turned away.
    Then I started to feel tired. It was then that I realized that I hadn't drank anything in a full day, and I'd been running far more than what was normal for me. I felt a bit dizzy and had to lean against the wall beside me in order to stay on my feet. How, I'll never know. But through some sixth sense of his, Jason noticed me. "Adam!" He rested a hand on my arm, helping me stand up straight, and smirked. "I knew it. He gestured up the stairs. "I've got a spare room upstairs. Go and take a rest or something."
    Although reluctant, I nodded and started to climb the stairs.
•••
   As I watched Adam start to climb up the stairs, I turned and started to head into the kitchen to occupy myself. But no sooner had I taken a step than I heard a dull thud.
    I turned around and glanced into the stairwell to see Adam sprawled out, face up, on the stairs. He'd passed out there and was sleeping soundly. I rolled my eyes, grabbed a blanket off the couch near me, and tossed it over him. After that I walked off into the kitchen to find something to do.
   I knew there was no point in trying to move Adam. I wasn't exactly the strongest member of Team Crafted and Adam wasn't exactly the lightest.
•••
    I blinked. I blinked again. Slowly, the world came into focus around me. I groaned and slowly sat up, then I winced and placed my weight on my right arm. I looked down at my left to see that it was wrapped in white bandages. My eyes widened as I remembered where I got them.
    I looked around fearfully before I realized I was in Jason's house. I slowly stood, leaning on the wall and placing most of my weight on my good leg.
   Jason had to be around somewhere. I had to know if Adam was alright...
   Maybe he was upstairs.
   I slowly limped my way over to the stairwell. But as I was about to start climbing, I noticed that my friend had chosen a rather unusual place to crash.
   I blinked in surprise. Had Sky seriously fallen asleep on the stairs?! Then I rolled my eyes. Typical. You could never know what he was gonna do next.
   I sighed and sat down on the lowest stair. I glanced behind me at Adam. He'd saved my life. I smiled ever so slightly. He looked kinda cute when he slept.
   I laid down on the stairs next to him and curled up. He didn't wake up. I wasn't really planning on staying there; I just wanted to rest my eyes. But I accidentally fell asleep.
   And when we woke up, Jason had some 'funny pictures' to show us.