Mission to the Moon by Mark Cheverton

Author:Mark Cheverton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Published: 2017-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

GAMEKNIGHT’S FAILURE

“Digger, are you alright?” Crafter rushed to his side and cradled his head in his hands. “Come on, Digger, wake up … please wake up.”

He gently shook his head, trying to draw his big friend back to consciousness. Gameknight knelt at his side and checked his oxygen tanks; he still had lots of air.

“What’s wrong with him?” Hunter asked.

Crafter pointed at the two zombies that stood on the ground, staring up at them. There was a pained expression in their beady red eyes, as if they could somehow remember the horror that had befallen them, but then the expressions changed from sadness to overwhelming hatred as the newly-transformed monsters glared up at the intruders.

Gameknight sighed.

“Those poor villagers,” the User-that-is-not-a-user said.

“They’d be better off dead,” Hunter said grimly.

She notched an arrow and aimed it down at the zombie mother.

“No,” a hoarse voice croaked. Digger reached out and grabbed Hunter’s ankle. “Leave them be. This is my fault. Just like with Topper. I was too late and my failure has doomed more innocent lives.”

“Digger, you can do only so much,” Gameknight said. “We do our best and then we deal with the consequences. It’s all any of us can do.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Digger bit back, trying to sit up. “You didn’t just condemn a mother and child to a life of misery.”

“Digger, it wasn’t your—”

“The other pech,” Crafter suddenly shouted.

Gameknight glanced down at Forpech and Empech. They had put a space helmet and oxygen gear on the newly rescued pech, as the transformed air in the chamber was now completely poisonous. Empech shook the tiny gray creature, trying to get him to wake up. The new pech had been knocked out by the fall, and maybe even gravely injured.

“I think it best we get out of here,” Hunter said. “We need to stay on Entity303’s trail.”

Gameknight nodded, then cast Digger a worried glance. The stocky villager was struggling to his feet, an expression of despair on his square face as he stared down at the zombie child glaring up hungrily at him. The wolves growled at the zombie and formed a line between the pechs and the monsters’ razor-sharp claws, but the two zombies made no attempt to attack … at least not yet.

Gameknight leapt off the raised platform and landed on the cold brick floor. Not slowing a bit, he sprinted for the passageway that led out of the boss chamber. Following the corridor, he ended up in the treasure room. Columns of glowstone lined each corner, as they always did in the treasure rooms, stretching from floor to ceiling. Scattered across the floor were small pieces of wood, a single metallic hinge mixed in with the sprinters.

“There should have been a chest here … a tier-eight chest,” Gameknight said, his voice getting softer and softer, until it was but a whisper. “What are we gonna do?”

He sank to his knees just as the others came into the room, the pechs carrying their unconscious brother.

It was here, Gameknight thought.

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