Taken || Book 2 of 2 in the Sam's Back series

7

***earlier***

"You have to let us help!" Iskall begged Xisuma, who had sealed off the door with obsidian and demanded their pickaxes.

"No. I'd rather have 3 deaths than 5." Xisuma said firmly, just trying to break a line of code.

"But if you let us go, there could be no deaths." False said.

"If you let me concentrate, then there could also be no deaths." Xisuma said, getting slightly annoyed. He was having a hard time trying to reset Scar and Mumbo to normal survival mode and it wasn't being made any easier by Iskall and False talking at him.

"It's not like we're on permadeath." Iskall said. "We'll just respawn if we die."

"Whoever this is had no problem putting Mumbo and Scar on hardcore mode, I'm sure they could easily do the same to you." Xisuma said.

The code broke and he smiled at it.

"Besides, I have quite a simple solution now that I've debugged this." He said, sensing as the hermits calmed a bit. He typed a little into the device, adjusting the respawn settings and putting in place quite a simple glitch, hoping it would help Grian's situation. "There, they're off permadeath." He announced, hoping he was right.

"Well done Shashwammy!" Keralis said.

***

"Get digging, Gree-on." As he took the shovel, he could've used it to hit Sam over the head and escape, but didn't. He would only come back, angrier, and what was the point anyway? Who was he trying to protect? Himself? What was the point in that? What was the point in going back to normal life? Everyone would ask what happened to Mumbo and Scar, and he wouldn't be able to answer. Then they'd think he killed them. And maybe, in a way, he did. He could've stopped it, he shouldn't have told them about Sam in the first place, he shouldn't have even come to the server in the first place. He should've fought harder. But now it was done. What was the point in fighting? "I'd help, but I'm too tired. Your friends were a lot of effort, they put up more of a fight than you." Sam said.

Grian stuck the tool into the ground and brought up the first section of dirt.

"No one's going to want you now, you know." Sam said as he dug. "No one wants a traumatised friend, not that I see why you're traumatised by all this. There are people who go through a lot worse who are just fine, Yuki, for a start. She was fine with watching me kill people, she liked it. Then she helped me bury them."

Grian was done digging the first hole, and he carefully lifted up Scar and lowered him into it, giving him a last hug as his tears dripped onto the unmoving expression before climbing back out and starting to pile the dirt on top of him. He watched as his friend's face went out of view.

"Anyway, they'll think you killed them, and you know better than to tell them the truth, don't you Gree-on?" Grian nodded vaguely. "They don't want a murderer for a friend. It was your fault they're dead, anyway, so even if you did tell them, they'd still blame you. They wouldn't have much time to blame though before I got to them."

Grian was done filling in the first hole and he started on the second.

"They would want to know why you didn't stop me, Gree-on, you understand? They'd think you didn't care about them, and so who's to say you care about the rest of them? They don't want someone who'll just sit around and watch them die as a friend. You'll be lucky if they don't try and get rid of you."

Grian put the spade to the side and went over to Mumbo's body, he picked it up. He was limp and his eyes were open, staring up at the sky. He carried him over to the grave and placed him in, shutting his eyelids and kissing his forehead as goodbye. He picked up the spade again and started shovelling the dirt on top of Mumbo. He never thought he'd ever have to do this, and yet here he was.

"You'll have no friends ever again, apart from me of course. I'll always be there for you, Gree-on, I'll never leave you for such a trivial thing as other people. But, of course I'm not being serious. I hate you, Gree-on. I'm just trying to make you feel better out of the kindness of my heart. Everyone will hate you from now on. If they don't then they're lying." Sam said as Grian finished. "Get used to hate, you're going to have to."

Grian nodded solemnly; Sam was right. Who'd want him? He'd just buried his best friends and hadn't killed their murderer even though he had the chance. He gave Sam the shovel.

"Well, thanks for doing that for me. I'm pretty much done here now, I'll let you get your inventory and then I'll be off."

***

Xisuma had done it. He'd identified the intruder. It had been one hell of a difficult job, but he'd done it. Their username was 'samgladiator'.

He'd managed the get the hang of reversing the type of hack Sam had used to lock the edited coding, so it was quite simple to put in the next command.

samgladiator was set to hardcore mode

He wasn't sure if it would help, or if it would be undone right away, or if Sam would even come up with a new hack to lock in his code and if he'd take another two hours to find it's solution, but all he could do was hope. Hope that it would help. Hope that Grian could do something.

***

As Grian put on the last of his armour and picked up his communicator, it buzzed.

samgladiator was set to hardcore mode

He stared at it for a second, before glancing at Sam. Questions about how Xisuma managed to do it could be asked later. Now was his chance to kill him. Permanently. His mind flickered with doubt, would it make a difference? Everyone would still hate him. But then he caught a glimpse of Yuki's knife that had been left on the table, and all the anger sizzled up inside him. Sam had his back turned. Now was the time.

He pulled his sword out of his inventory as silently as he could and held it, gripping it tightly, before swinging it at the armour-less Sam. It hit him halfway down his back, cutting deeply and hitting his spine.

He cried out in pain, as he hadn't been expecting the blow, before turning to face Grian. Before he could do anything, Grian pushed the weapon forwards, stabbing him in the middle of his chest. Then he pulled it out and put it back in again, before pulling it out one last time and cutting him deeply across his neck. There was no way Sam would survive.

samgladiator was slain by Grian

Grian was now a murderer.

He picked up his communicator and left the mountain, soaring through the sky.