A Fault in the Code

Chapter 4

The suddenness of it all puts me in shock.

Hands grab me from all directions and start to pick at my flesh. I can hear the ripping of clothing. The growls of whatever these thing are. The hands move up to my face, where one starts to pull on my nose, some digging into my eye sockets, and some trying to rip out my tongue.

I am screaming, and I fight with all my strength against these hands. Man, they smell terrible. Like rotting meat. I try to run, but it makes them hold on even tighter.

I'm gonna die, I think, I am going to get eaten alive.

The hands leave my face and make their way to my head. I can feel their nails clawing at my scalp, pulling out my hair. I hit whatever I can feel that's not my own body, I kick, I squirm. But nothing seems to stop these things from attacking me.

But then, I see two little lights in the distance. White, bright lights. They look oddly familiar... but I can then see the things that are tearing me apart. They're the same things I saw last night, with green skin and cuts all over their body. Zombies.

Suddenly, the zombies stop picking at me and make their way in the direction of the lights. The lights go dark, and all is deathly quiet. Something is wrong.

Suddenly, as if a crack to the center of the earth had opened up and let out all its most terrible creatures, I can just hear hundreds of zombies and skeletons, plus I see a few purple glowing eyes in the darkness. The sounds get louder and louder as they get closer and closer to me, and I try to run from the sound, but run into stone. I run left and right, but all I can find is stone.

The sounds of the monsters get even louder, and I think I can feel something brush across my arm. They've cornered me. I start to breathe heavily and punch and kick with all my might. My fist connects with several things. But none of them seem to stop.

I slide along the wall of the small space I have, and find a small opening in the stone. Hallelujah. It is connected to a tunnel, and I start to run, keeping my hand against the wall in hopes of escaping this cave. I remember hearing about someone trapped in a maze. They kept their hand on the wall and eventually got out. That's what I'm hoping will happen.

I hear the sounds behind me. How do those things know where I'm going? They follow me for several minutes, and as I start to run, I lose the sounds. When I think I'm far away enough, I slow down to a speed walk.

I finally see a light up ahead. It isn't two lights this time, so I'm sure it's the sun.  Although I could just be too far away to see the difference between one light and two. I let go of the wall and walk toward the light. I still only see one. So far so good.

I reach the source of the light, but it's not the sun. It looks like a torch of some sort, but blocky. Beyond the torch is another long tunnel, and it has some broken down railroad tracks, messed up wood, and cobwebs on the ceiling. I'm guessing this used to be a mineshaft. Further down the shafts are more torches. I follow them, because most likely the mineshaft started at the surface of the land.

I find many minecarts with chests in them, and they are mostly filled with TNT, a bomb which I've seen in movies, and some mining tools. There is some food here and there, but who knows how old it is, so I don't take any, even though my stomach sounds like a caged wild animal right now.

I keep running along the tracks, following every left turn (which is another technique for mazes), and after what seems like hours, I see another light. I get closer and closer, and I can tell for sure what this light is, and I feel a sigh of relief exit my lungs.

It's the sun.