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“‘Go get some iron,’ they said. ‘It’ll be easy,’ they said,” Sapnap muttered to himself, the words echoing off the stone walls and coming back louder. Finding iron was not easy.
He hacked at another creeper trying to sneak up behind him with his ax, luckily killing it before it could explode. Three hearts down already. Sapnap couldn’t afford taking more damage if he could help it. Running low on food in caves was an all-too-common problem, and Sapnap knew this leaving the house, but here he was, his stack of steaks gone and golden apple eaten in a hurry when a hoard of skeletons ambushed him from around a corner.
Glancing around carefully, Sapnap sighed. No iron here.
After a few more minutes of meticulous searching, the cave began tilting upwards again. Checking his coordinates on the debug screen of his communication device, he noticed that George had sent a message that he’d missed.
GeorgeNotFound: when will you be back
Sapnap quickly typed a reply.
Sapnap: miss me or something?
He tucked the device back into his pocket, taking note to listen for a new message as he continued up the cave. Turning around now would probably be less efficient than just digging out. Sapnap heaved out his pickaxe and a sigh, preparing to start hacking chunks of stone away, when he heard voices coming from above him. A quick glance at his device confirmed both that he was higher than he thought, and George had replied.
GeorgeNotFound: no. just need to make another helmet
Sapnap: suuuuuuuuure
GeorgeNotFound: shut up are you on your way back or not
The voices overhead got louder, but were still too muffled to make out any words. Sapnap thought he heard digging and the sound of something being placed...grass? Dirt? He couldn’t be sure.
Sapnap: yeah omw now, don’t expect any iron tho. ran out of food
Securing the device so it wouldn’t fall out while he was mining, he began the slow ascent. But before he could get farther than two blocks up, a hissing sound came from above, and the dots didn’t connect in Sapnap’s mind quick enough for him to have time to get out of the way.
The explosion of what Sapnap now knew was TNT shook the cave walls. There was nowhere for him to go. His mind, still reeling, trying to catch up with what was happening, screamed at him to under something stable, but what was there to get under in a cave other than more stone ?
Finally, the rumbling stopped. A deep breath of relief rushed out of Sapnap’s chest, calming his racing heart on its way.
Crack!
The ceiling split open.
For another beat, nothing happened. And then the stone around him collapsed, dangerously large chunks of rock raining down. Time seemed to slow as Sapnap looked up just to see a sizeable boulder in line with his head above him, and then time meant nothing as it collided.
The world is too dark, Sapnap thought, his mind nearly too foggy to come up with words. It took a few moments for him to figure out his eyes were closed. But then even with his eyes squinted open, he still couldn’t see anything, and he realized it was because the rocks had piled up and over him, leaving a hardly big enough pocket of space.
His leg felt vaguely sore. Trying to bring it closer to him only resulted in white-hot pain. Eyes now wide open, Sapnap felt the scream rip through his throat before it registered in his ears.
Okay, so, that was a no-go. He decided to get back to the leg later. Stupid griefing trolls, he grumbled in his head. What does collapsing a cave even get them anyway.
Sapnap considered his options. One, wait patiently until someone miraculously finds him. Two, fumble around in the dark for his communication device (that had somehow fallen out of his pocket despite his efforts to secure it). Or three, stop being a baby and get his leg out from under the extremely heavy, unmovable rock.
The first option seemed the easiest to carry out, but there were obvious problems such as nobody finding him and him wasting away deep underground, starving to death. Option three was out of the question as soon as he thought it. Even shifting slightly made him have to take deep breaths until the pain passed. Wildly patting the ground in a blind hope that his only chance at survival wasn’t completely obliterated it was, then.
It was a terrifyingly long amount of time (a couple minutes) before his fingers brushed up against something other than jagged stone. He quickly snagged it. The familiar shape and feel of his communication device graced his scuffed up hand, and he let out a sigh of relief.
Then he realized the screen was shattered.
This discovery led to two things. The first being a cut on his hand to add to his list of injuries. The second being unrelenting, gripping panic at the idea of having no way to access anybody or any information; he could be on half a heart for all he knew. Despite his efforts to repress it, a small sob burst its way up his throat and melted into the heavy silence around him. Following that came a slightly hysterical laugh. Turns out he didn’t really get a choice in which option anyway.
There was no way of telling how long he laid there, possibly bleeding out and dropping more hearts if he had them in the first place. It must have been somewhere close to two hours before he heard anything other than his own whistling breath. Finally, there was movement.
At the first whisper of a voice, Sapnap’s eyes snapped open (when did they close?) and the air in his throat caught. Someone had found him!
“Hello?” he called, praying they heard him.
“-- nap ?” came the muffled reply.
“George?”
A clearer, deeper voice spoke. “I hear him! Keep yelling, Sapnap!”
“Dream! I’m stuck under the rocks, I can’t move--”
Dust and tiny pebbles settled on his tongue and in the back of his mouth, causing him to cough and choke.
“Shit, sorry, keep your mouth and eyes shut. We’re getting you out.” Dream’s reassuring words washed over Sapnap like a wave of relaxation. Even though dirt was starting to build up on his skin and more pebbles bounced off his eyelids, finally his saviors had come.
The boys began to dig him out, frantically throwing aside boulders. A couple of times the sound of rock shifting on rock made everyone freeze. With each instance, Sapnap silently begged for whatever was up there to keep him safe; he didn’t think he’d ever been so terrified in his life. But the minute all was still again, the two boys above him would continue with a renewed fervor.
Finally, after long last, the warm light of a torch danced on Sapnap’s face. George smiled down at him. Dream looked happy, too, until he caught sight of the leg pinned between the stone.
“Sapnap, keep looking at George. Whatever you do, don’t look away from George.”
Sapnap pouted. “You know that only makes me want to look more.”
George’s eyes, weak to curiosity, flicked downwards. Paling, he quickly redirected them back to stare into Sapnap’s. “You really don’t, trust me.”
After a moment of contemplating, Dream dug into his inventory bag and pulled out a stalk of sugar cane, handing it to Sapnap. “Here. Put this in your mouth, shut your eyes, and count to three with me. George, get over here.”
Hesitantly, Sapnap bit down on on the stalk as George scooted closer to his legs.
Dream began counting. “Okay, one, two--”
Agony flooded Sapnap’s mind, making his teeth dig into the sugar cane and tears rush to his eyes. His ears were filled with noise--noise that he now realized was coming from him. Dream must have set his leg on fire. It was the only sensible conclusion, considering the burning pain settling in from his hip to his toes.
At some point he must have blacked out, because he came to with a gentle hand petting his hair and soft phrases like you’re alright and It’s okay, it’s over now hushing his small, pained whimpers. His head lay in George’s lap as Dream wrapped his leg with makeshift bandages. Sapnap tried to lift his head to see, but George quickly tilted his head back down with a hand on his forehead and more shushing noises. Okay. This was fine.
“Almost done, Sap, almost, almost…” Dream tied off the bandages as efficiently as he could, knotting it securely so there was no chance it would slip. “He needs food, George. Now.”
Pulling out some cooked mutton, George shifted so Sapnap rested on his chest in an upright position. He prompted the younger to eat, which seemed unnecessary as Sapnap scarfed down four pieces, finally feeling his hearts regenerate even without seeing them.
“Woulda called you,” Sapnap slurred, still leaning on George, “b’t my comm d’vice broke.” He held out said device as proof.
“We figured. It’s alright,” George said in a comforting tone.
Sapnap seemed to melt even further into the warm body behind him, too out of it to be embarrassed. All three boys rested. A sweet silence settled between them, hugging them softly in the wake of the terrorizing previous events. Unfortunately, it could only last so long; they still had to make it home before night fell.
As his friends heaved him to his feet, Dream hooking an arm under one shoulder and George the other, Sapnap could see the struggles that lay ahead. But what stuck out to him more was the support he was already receiving, and would continue to receive as long as George and Dream were there.