How the world works

19

Dream woke up with a start, covered in sweat. He grabs at his chest where there had been a sword just moments ago. No one had been there. No one watched him disintegrate into dust, Thanos style. No one cared. He had died alone in a crowd, bleeding out as no one cared. In fact, Punz had actually stepped on him in his last few seconds. He was…. Forgotten. He never wanted to die alone. It is one of his greatest fears, really.

Of course he had bluffed when he had said he'd come alive again far away. He was practically on top of them, in his room. Not even 30 blocks away. If he strains, he can even hear them. They're panicked. He can very distinctly hear Tubbos anger. He can't help but grin when he does hear all this. They found Tommy's cell and no Tommy inside. Maybe not all is lost. Taking his narrow hidden secret passages, he navigates to his destination.

As he shuffles sideways past a part directly next to them. They don't know what to do from there. Do they go back and heal? Search for Dream? Stay here and search for anything else that they might find? They collectively don't know. Dream represses a laugh.

They truly have nothing planned out. They had the sense to administer basic first aid to the injured and to feed them too. But that's not enough to heal them. And the excitement has set off a race against a time bomb. If they don't act fast, people will die. Dream slowly crawls down a ladder to a large open room under the whole base. His biggest security flaw if they had thought to search the underwater caves. Luckily, they hadn't.

The room is about 50 blocks high and 100 square blocks wide, with water covering the bottom 5 blocks or so. 3 walls are sheer cliffs and 1 is a wall of water, held back by literal magic. Dream spots what he had hoped for.

Dream jumps from the ladder and into the water, where someone is flailing weakly for the far wall. But even if they were to reach it, it's a sheer cliff with no edge to grab or rest on. Without help, they'll drown. Dream nimbly pulls a boat out of a concealed chest and hops in it. He rows over to the struggling figure and stands up in the boat.

"Come on Tommy, we're going." Dream declares. Tommy looks up, terrified and oh so tired. He reaches for the side of the boat but Dream kicks his hand away.

"You're rowing. And if you try to pull anything, then I blow the mountain. They came to rescue you, it's not a good way to return the favor." Dream commands.

"Th-they *sputter* came?" Tommy can hardly keep his head above water.

"You heard me. Now get in and row." Dream directs, lifting him from the water and into the boat. Tommy can hardly row but he manages to get to the wall of water.

"Dream, we can't do this, we'll drown." Tommy says, looking out at the ocean beyond. A dolphin swims past, inches from the wall.

"Go forward, don't stop." Dream holds Tommy by his hair and points forwards with his other hand. Tommy gulps, takes a deep breath, and begins.

The water is cold and the salt stings his eyes. At first,he falters and Dream pulls his hair. He involuntarily yelps and watches a huge bubble leave his lips. He grabs for it but it's gone. He rows frantically, hoping for something, anything. But a dark thought forms that seems too real for him. Dream caused him to lose his oxygen supply and is having him row, running it down quickly. He can't go long with either situation, much less without both. He plans to drown Tommy down here. A final message to everyone else. His drowned final body, in a boat. As if he had almost escaped.

The whole thing reminds Tommy of the first time he really had seen a final body. The 3rd life lost. It doesn't disappear into dust, bubbles, petals or glittery light. It stays. And it rots. It smells like... like nothing else really. Just... death. And the first time he saw one in person was when he was 9 years old and fought in a war. Wilbur. He'd been stabbed through by his own father. The closest thing Tommy had to family, gone. But Wilbur had died long before his heart had stopped.

Suddenly Tommy's life flashed before his eyes.

Time spent with Wilbur. L'manburg. All of it. Niki setting the fires. Dream threatening them. War. Death. The disks. It phased through his head like a sideshow until finally, just a few minutes ago.

He had heard the redstone and looked up in terror. But it wasn't the ceiling that opened. It was the floor. Slowly receding into the walls. Tommy tried to escape it, but there was nowhere to go. He put a final message into his phone. A last message to chat. And to his friends. He left it on the ledge with the door, barely more than an inch wide but just big enough for his phone when it was on its side.

The floor retracted further until he was left trying to hold onto the door, yelling weakly for help. He wasn't strong, he couldn't do this. He heard voices outside and wondered if everyone else was facing this too. The voices grew loud and he cried for help as loud as he could. Then the redstone clicked again. The floor began to close, but to his dismay, the ceiling began to open. He could either burn to his death or fall to it. He's tried the latter before, and it sounds much better than a slow burning death. He leaped for the hole in the floor and fell into darkness. He accepted death and suddenly there was light.

"Philza Minecrafts wife?" He asked out loud. Instead, it was a giant room with sunlight coming through a giant hole in the wall. No, a giant wall of water. He landed in freezing water and almost instantly bobbed to the surface. Then Dream came. And the boat. And now....

His vision grows dim and his eyes begin to close. This is ok. It could be worse. They say drowning is peaceful after the whole fighting for air thing. Suddenly the entire boat begins to shake. Afraid of what would happen, Tommy takes a deep breath and begins hacking on water. It burns, holy shit it burns. So badly. As if he had chosen the lava afterall. Grabbing at his throat, he lets himself float a bit as he grabs for something. Anything. WHY WAS HE TOLD THIS WAS PEACEFUL??? And then suddenly, air. He was in a soul sand bubble. He vomits up the water and chokes, snot running down his nose and tears stinging his eyes as Dream takes over the oars. They burst through the surface and shortly after, the bubbles stop. Redstone. Wait underwater redstone?

Tommy's head is fuzzy but he's fairly sure that that's impossible.

"It was 7 seconds, Tommy. Are you suicidal, weak, stupid or all three?" Dream demands, rowing away from the island. Tommy wishes he knew which direction they were headed but he had no way to know because he never listened to any navigational advice he had received.

Nearly having recovered, but his throat too sore to answer, Tommy holds up three fingers in response to Dream's question with a cheeky grin, Dream in turn hits him outside the head. Tommy finishes getting the water out of him as Dream continues to row. Weak, Tommy actually falls asleep with his head on Dream's shoulder. Dream stiffens as he feels the teens head but eventually relaxes as he realizes that Tommy is asleep.

"George, please wait for me." Dream whispers into the now night sky. He has so much that he must do.