~•The Way Back Home•~

Chapter 1

Lexxię's PoV

Everything hurt everywhere. My mind was slowly returning to reality, and although my senses were dimmed, I could still feel the extreme pain. I tried to move, which ended disastrously. It seemed that my left arm had it the worse, as my shoulder and wrist were burning and felt like they were bent at awkward angles. Slowly the pain began to diminish beside the short sharp stabbing in my arm, and the world began to lighten around me. Saltwater and sand drifted through the air, and the aroma was amazing. It felt natural, calming, and refreshing, and though I didn't quite know why I was here or what had happened, I was honestly quite relaxed. It did worry me a bit that all I could recall was my friends and I, and how we were on a flight... And then nothing. What happened after that? I didn't know. But I could hear hushed murmurs floating around me and that brought me fully back to life. My eyes fluttered open to see six more staring back at me. Gentle arms lifted me to a sitting position and I grabbed onto my head when dizziness seemed to take over.

" Lexxię?" I looked up. Kiley. I smiled. But she didn't return it. I gave her a confused glance before she gestured for me to look at what was around us. " You might wanna take a look as to where we are." And I did. Behind us was the plane we were on just hours before, or at least, what was left of it. And before me was something absolutely amazing and terrifying at the exact same time. Blocks. Thousands upon millions, maybe BILLIONS of blocks, stacked on top of each other to make up the beautiful new world we were standing on. There were trees, small lakes, ravines, caves, mountains, forests, and animals. And who knows what else had made this place their home. I stared, dumbfounded, at the amazing piece of work. Was this even real? CJ's worried, raspy voice brought me out of my thoughts. " Where are we?"

" I'm not totally sure," Kiley stated.

" But we should find shelter. It looks like it's getting dark. We can discuss more once we make ourselves a home." The others nodded a silent agreement, and she led us throughout the cubed land to one of the small brooks, harboring a great amount of trees along the riverside. CJ seemed to stare at one in particular, admiring it's unnatural look. " We'll need wood. But how are we supposed-" CJ knocked on one of the blocks that made up the trunk of the tree and it shrunk about three times it's average size. We all gasped as a digitized square appeared in front of CJ, with her standing in the upper corner, a 2 by 2 grid in the other corner, a large section in the middle, and a small strip of boxes along the bottom, where the wood took it's place. We all gave each other a confused gaze, which soon turned to pure amusement as we all began collecting our own wood. After a while, Ella gasped in excitement and called us all over. " Look! Look guys!! If you place one of these wood blocks on this four block grid, you can make four new wooden planks!! We could make ourselves a house with this!" I laughed. " Well I think we've cleared this spot of trees already, and we've already replanted them with the sprouts that fell from the leaves, so why don't we start on it now?" My attention drifted to CJ, who held an amazingly red apple in her hands. She took a bite out of it nonchalantly, barely listening to our conversation. " Uh, CJ?" She looked up, apparently now enthralled in what we were saying. " Where'd you get that?" Ella stared at her, not really sure what to do. " It fell from the tree. And I was hungry. So I ate it." That brought everyone to laughter. And it was honestly really nice to have everyone enjoying themselves, despite what had happened. After our giggling died down, we agreed to start building, and it was much more easier than I thought it would be. In a few mere hours, just as the sun was setting, our shelter was finished, though the inside was rather bland, with literally nothing, but a crafting table Kiley learned how to build, on the inside. But it was a place to sleep, and I couldn't complain about that. We all sat on the grass in front of our house to watch the swirling pinks and yellows painted in the sky sink lower onto the horizon. It was peaceful. And though we didn't know exactly where we were, it was perfect. Perhaps even better than the island we were supposed to be on right now. As the sun set, we took shelter in our new home. We agreed that we'd had a long day, and that we should most likely catch some Z's and then tomorrow we can continue exploring, and see if we can find anyone else that lives here, so maybe we can gather some insight as to where we were, or how to get home. I was nearing sleep when I heard a pounding on the door, and I groggily rose to my feet. I saw that everyone else had sat up and were staring at the wooden door reluctantly. The knock sounded again, followed by a low moan afterwards. " What is that?" CJ asked tiredly, rubbing her half-lidded eyes. " I don't know..." I walked up to the door and crouched beside it, trying to see out the small window. A green, rotted face appeared in the frame, and my heart jumped into my throat. I gave a small yell, and I fell backwards, crawling into the corner of the room. Was that...? " A zombie?" I muttered. My friends stared at me blankly, wondering whether to laugh along with my "joke" or just stay confused. " I'm serious!" I yelled. I attempted to say more, but the door broke down, allowing the zombie, and a dozen more of it's friends into our structure. Everyone screamed, huddling into the corner with me. Along with the zombie, was a few spiders, a couple more rotting flesh eaters, and bony skeletons equipped with armor and bows. We were terrified, to say the least. Did this happen every night? How could a beautiful world such as this hold such nightmarish creatures at sundown? One skeleton stepped forward, a glittering gold helmet lay upon its head, and a bow clasped tightly in his hand, radiating enchantment. It seemed powerful and ultimately scary. All I could think about was that we were gonna die here. The skeleton drew back it's luminescent bow, a frightening scowl on it's face. I was trembling, curled up against my four friends. It was all my fault... We were gonna die here, and it was all my fault. I waited for the arrow to come, for the pain to start, for death to take over, when suddenly I heard a pained cry, and my eyes snapped open. Standing in front of us, protecting us, was a figure in a dark black hood, an arrow wedged deep into his arm. He clutched his bicep, where the arrow wound was, and he turned to look at us. Under his hood was shaggy, ebony hair, and two bright glowing lavender eyes shone from the shadows. He gripped a glistening clear-blue sword in his other hand and he smiled at us. Despite the fact that there was an arrow lodged into his arm, and a mob of monsters in front of us, with no practical escape from this hell hole, he smiled at us, as if we were friends. But a sharp hissing brought me back from my mind, emitted from a dark green, armless creature behind him, and I panicked. " No, wait!" I yelled, not quite understanding what was coming from my mouth. Everything after seemed to happen in slow motion. The dark figure turned, switching the sword from his injured arm to the still usable one and he lunged forward, slicing the green monster in half. A zombie charged him on his right, and he sliced through that, as well as a skeleton, attempting to snipe us from behind. Then I noticed that another zombie had snuck up behind the dark figure that had saved us. It wrapped it's green arms around our savior, and clamped it's mouth onto his neck. He let out a strangled scream and there was a bright flash of purple, then everything went white.