Chapter Text
“My first act… is to REVOKE… the citizenship… of Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit !” The words rang through Tommy’s head as he ran behind Wilbur. Tommy looked up at Wilbur’s back and they kept running. Tommy had no clue where they were going, but it seemed like Will did. Wilbur turned around and started running backward, locking eyes with Tommy. Some sort of signal was passed between them as if Wilbur was telling Tommy that everything would be alright in the end. Tommy shook his head and stared down and the floor that was flowing by them. After a while, Tommy stopped trying to think of his friends that he had left behind. It was easy to lose your train of thought when all you had to look at was leaves and grass and dirt, whizzing by you in a blur. Tommy noticed something out of the corner of his eye and looked up to run straight into Wilbur, who was bending down, panting, with his hands on his knees. Will let out a soft grunt and straightened, peering towards the horizon.
Tommy gathered up his nerves and looked towards the horizon casually as if nothing had ever happened.
“Will? Where are we going?” Tommy blurted, and he turned to stare at Wilbur. “You obviously have someplace in mind,” Will caught his breath, and then looked towards Tommy.
“I know a person.” Tommy snorted. “But that doesn’t mean anything!! You can’t just say that!” Wilbur’s eyes hardened slightly, and he eyeballed Tommy. Tommy felt slightly uneasy at this and glanced away.
“How many times have you said that before?” Tommy realized that what Wilbur had just said was true, he did say that, even when people already knew who it was he was referring to, like Tubbo… Tommy blinked and stood staring at the ground while his chest felt as if it were being squeezed by the biggest bear hug in his life. He looked up at Wilbur, who had turned, and was now admiring a tree.
“How -” His voice cracked and he had to clear his throat to speak again. “How much farther away are they?” Will turned and regarded Tommy, expecting the reply to be some sort of joke on Tommy’s part. Will’s expression softened as he looked at Tommy.
“We’ll reach it in about 15 minutes if we keep walking.”
Don’t be hard on the kid. He doesn’t know what’s happening. Wilbur was talking to himself in his head again. You don’t know what’s happening. True, True. **** TOMMY. Oh shut up. I hope you do realize that he doesn’t care. About what? About you. Sure he does, look at him. He’s all sad n’ stuff. The angry side of his brain grumbled and settled back in its normal position. Wilbur internally smiled and looked over at Tommy, who was staring up into the sky blinking furiously. Will walked beside Tommy and kept the quiet that lay around the forest they were walking through. Will noted that the sun was going down, and realized that they wouldn’t make it before night. He quickened his pace and looked back at Tommy, who had also realized that the light was dying. Wilbur nodded with his head, telling Tommy that it was time to speed up. They came upon the spot where trees started to thin out, and larger areas of grass became visible.
Wilbur was on edge. The sun was inches above the horizon, and they had to cross this open area. Tommy was also on edge. He had heard stories of monsters that came out in the dark, but since their home had always been covered with light from torches and glowstone, they didn’t need to worry. Wilbur gestured to Tommy that they should continue, and in the dying light, Tommy could see the faint shape of what seemed like a house next to a farm in the field far away. Tommy heard a snapping sound behind them, and sped up, passing Wilbur, who had slowed down to check that nothing was behind them. The field was eerily silent, as the two companions made their way across it. Out of nowhere, a hissing sound came from the ground ahead of Tommy, and he faltered. Will came up behind him and whispered,
“Go.”
Tommy had barely taken two steps when a massive spider, its dark red eyes gleaming, jumped up from the ground where it had been waiting, and charged towards Tommy. Wilbur jumped into action and knocked Tommy away from the spider. This got Tommy’s heart racing and he ran towards the house in the distance. Will followed, but they had barely covered half the distance when a green, human-like figure loomed out of the darkness. On instinct, Wilbur swung his fist at the monster and missed, but it took a step back. That gave Wilbur enough time to have caught up with Tommy.
Jeez. I’ve never run this fast in my life! FOCUS! Will’s mind was racing between survival, and ‘oh wow this is cool’. He put his hand on his head, to keep his hat from blowing away, and looked back. He wished he hadn’t. The green monster now had friends, two of them, in fact, and the spider was still following them and gaining fast. Tommy reached the border of the farm and hopped the fence, dropping to the other side, squashing some of the plants behind the fence. Tommy reached his hand over, and Wilbur grabbed it, pulling Will over. They ran a bit away from the fence through the plants, leaving muddy footprints behind, before stopping, out of breath and puffing.
“Where’s this - person you know?” Tommy asked, breathless. Will made a vague gesture with his hand.
“I don’t know, - he said he’d - be here,” They heard noises from the fence, and they watched as the spider climbed the fence with ease, before turning around, and helping the green monsters - zombies, Wilbur decides - tear the fence down. Tommy’s eyes widened.
“They - what?!” Will was just as confused. “I get that the - zombies - would, but - the spider?!” Tommy put his hands on his hips, trying to joke as the spider turned around and the zombies stepped through the fence. “Well, I’ll be. They have brains!” The large arachnid tilted its head like a dog, its red eyes glinting off the light of the rising moon, before launching itself across the plants towards them. Tommy took a step back, scared by the ferociousness of the spider. Wilbur, on the other hand, clenched his fists and took a step forward. The zombies close behind, the spider rapidly flew towards them. Tommy turned his head to see a light turn on inside the house in his peripheral vision, now only a hundred feet behind them, then looked back towards Wilbur. Will didn’t seem to have noticed the light from the house, but the monsters did. Wilbur noted that the zombies’ eyes drifted past them to the house and shuffled their feet a little slower, before snapping back to the humans in front of them. They were less than 50 feet away. 40, 30, 20, 10, and the spider hurled itself into the air. Tommy’s heart beat faster and faster, and he glanced around for something to use as a weapon, but all that was around them were plants. He looked helplessly at the spider flying towards Wilbur. From Will’s perspective, the spider looked almost elegant as it bore down on him. Wilbur closed his eyes as his instinct told him to flinch away from whatever was coming at him. Tommy watched as the spider landed on Wilbur, blinked, and started towards Will to help him. Tommy heard a shout from behind him and he automatically stopped and turned.
Something whizzed past Tommy’s head, and the spider let out a squeal and waved its legs frantically around. The zombies halted their approach and stared past Tommy onto a hill with the moon rising behind it. Will was underneath the spider, and it kept hitting him with its legs as it flailed around. He grunted and felt around for something to help him. He heard another whizz and thunk, as the spider stopped moving. Will felt something wet flowing from the spider and pulled his hand out from under the spider in disgust. He struggled to push the spider off of him, and its fangs came dangerously close to his face. Muffled by the spider’s dead body, Wilbur tried to call for Tommy.
“Tommy?” No reply. “Tommy?!” He heard footsteps and heard Tommy’s quick breathing as Tommy knelt next to the dead spider covering Wilbur.
“The zombies ran,” Tommy stated after a moment.
“Get this darn thing off me, come on!” Wilbur shouted, annoyed at Tommy for some reason. Tommy let out a small “Oh,” and helped Wilbur push the dead spider off of him. Wilbur sat up and looked at the spider. “That was… terrifying!” he said with a laugh. Tommy nodded his head vigorously and glanced over at the hill the zombies had looked at before they fled. Will pushed his hair back and sighed, staring at the spider. His eyes wandered to the two arrows stuck in the spider, and he smiled tiredly, turning to look towards the hill, outlined by the moon’s light. Will shook his head and smiled as he stared up towards the figure silhouetted against the rising moon in the background.