Free the End

8 [Fishy Business]

A6d tried to swallow his fear. A silverfish was possibly the worst thing that he could have been stuck with.

He was waist-deep in water, in the dark, with a silverfish swimming around him and hissing. In real life they were tiny, but the Minecraft ones were as big as cats.
His back was pressed against the little tower made of the crafting table and furnace.
Now he really wished he had been on top of it when he placed them.

He glanced up at Bad and Skeppy; they were just kneeling on the edge watching him, but what could they do. He was the one carrying all the stuff. And it wasn't much stuff anyway.

He had three torches in his inventory, and one log. He had burnt the wood pickaxe as fuel and was really really regretting it.

He pulled out a torch and held it over the water. The surface barely rippled. It reflected the torch in his hand and the once high above his head.

He felt a sharp pain on his leg and his hearts dropped lower as he jumped involuntarily. He screamed and rushed away as fast as he could.

The water slowed him down; he splashed through it away from the torch and Skeppy and Bad. Darkness engulfed him, and he realized he had accidentally lost the torch he was holding when he got hurt. He frowned and pulled the second one out of his inventory.

The torch hardly helped him see: it was just dark water and black walls.
He instinctively put his back to the stone and waved the torch over the pool.
Where is the damn thing?

As if Bad heard him, he called out, "Don't hit it!"

Vincent glanced in their direction and realized they couldn't see him anymore. All they could do was listen to him slowly get killed.

"It will kill me!" He shouted back at Bad. He has to know that.

"But if you don't oneshot it, it'll spawn more," Skeppy said.

"I KNOW!" A6d yelled at them. "I can't do anything!"
He felt a twinge of guilt for yelling, but he was stressed and likely about to die so there wasn't much time for being nice.

He glimpsed the water moving and ran to the other wall; it was noisy and the echoes didn't help.

Vin pressed against the wall and squeezed his eyes shut.
What he would have given to find a zombie down here instead. At least those stayed dead once you hit them enough times. He would have even preferred a skeleton over this damn thing slithering through the water and jumpscaring him.

He had to think. If he could break the furnace he could get above the water, but it could still hit him. But that would take way too long with his fist and then the furnace would be gone for good. No, bad plan.

His health dropped again as the silverfish attacked his bad leg and he winced in pain, pushing off from the wall to stumble around again.

Two torches, one log. What else do I have?

If he had enough time to craft the log into planks then he could stack up, but if he took too long doing that the silverfish would kill him.

"Help,"a6d said. He was out of ideas. His choices were don't hit it and die slowly, or hit it and die fast as they all attack him.
He punched the stone wall behind him bitterly.
What a stupid death. a6d was slain by Silverfish.

"Did he say help?" Skeppy asked Bad. Apparently his voice was hard to hear for them.

"I think so, maybe we should jump down?" Bad said.

"NO!" A6d yelled. "Don't do that!" That's the stupidest thing you could do.
"This is a death trap."

He wasn't trying to be heroic, just realistic. They had nothing, so they would be stuck and the silverfish would kill them too. Even if they killed this one, the other ones would get them. Logically, one person dying was better than three. I shouldn't have even said 'help.'