Chapter 7

Punz pointed his sword at my chest, a lopsided grin on his face.

"Take your armour off, Soot." I sit there numb and amazed. Eret had betrayed us, it was a set up.

"You were letting us win…" I breathe, looking up at Eret. I had trusted him, and he had stabbed me, in the back. I look at Tommy, yelling curses at Eret. Some of them are stunned and then there was Tubbo. He sat, slumped against the wall, his armour in a pile next to him.

"We spent days, months together, Eret," Tubbo whispered, looking at the floor. Then he looked up, tears in his eyes, straight at Eret. "You were the last I had expected to betray us, betray me…"

All those bow and arrow fights we had had not long ago had been them going easy on us, giving us hope before they crushed us with our own ally. Dream laughed, a laugh drenched in malice, then looked at me, his sword still pointed at Tubbo and Jack.

"We have to talk." He said to the silence of the room. Before, everyone had been yelling, either in surprise or in triumph and now it was silent, the room seemed to close in on me. I took off my armour and laid down my sword, holding my hands up in surrender. We were herded out of the room, up the stairs, like cattle. Fundy whispered to me, fear apparent in his tone. I didn't look at him, I had failed him.

Dream led me at sword point to a hill, outside of L'Manburg. I sit, head in my hands and Dream stands behind me. We've left everyone else at L'Manburg, it's just me and him.

"All those times you ran off when we were fighting you, it was faked." I deadpan, not looking at the genius behind me. "You could have climbed Punz's tower, you could have beaten us long before that. At L'Manburg. But you, you gave us false hope."

"Yes," I hear him say, no emotion in his voice. "It was easier than I thought to get Eret on our side. You have suffered great losses Mr. Soot."

"All we wanted was freedom." I look back at L'Manburg, watching the Dream SMP walking out of our walls, leaving the citizens of L'Manburg inside.

"You know what I want, Wilbur?" Dream asks kindly.

"What do you want Dream?"

"White flags. Inside your land," I turn and look at the man behind me. It's like Dream said – No mercy. "Or I'll blow the place to kingdom come." I wish I could scan his face, under his mask, to see if he is lying.

"Your bluffing," I decide standing up and facing him, "You don't have the power."

"Let's go to L'Manburg, Will, and I'll show you and the rest of the traitors just how powerful I am." Dream leads me back down the hill and back to L'Manburg. He doesn't threaten me with his sword this time, knowing I'll follow either way.

At L'Manburg I walk past Dream to just inside the walls, my L'Manburgians come to join me,

"Wilbur!"

"You're back!"

"What's the plan?"

"What did the green bastard say?"

"Gentlemen, and lady, I had a nice chat with the big man," I begin addressing my people, "And he said that he will blow us and our land up, if we do not surrender."

I turn to Dream, his team gathered behind him. I motion for L'Manburg to line up with me, a wall of people within a wall of stone.

"And I think we all know the answer to that!" I say,

"INDEPENDENCE OR DEATH." I shout at Dream and his goons, looking at my fellow L'Manburgians in our uniforms. "IF WE GET NO REVOLUTION, WE WANT NOTHING. We would rather die than live under your rule."

Dream nods slowly and then tells his people, including Eret, to back up. He then shoves a stick of dynamite into the ground and sprinkles Redstone, a substance that can carry a current if it's close enough to the next bit of Redstone, leading out the entrance to L'Manburg. The then puts a lever down in the end of the Redstone and flicks it. The Redstone glows as it receives the current.

That's when everything begins to go in slow motion. The glowing Redstone travels down the line until it reaches the dynamite. I look up at Dream, his white mask illuminated by the Redstone and then back at the dynamite. Just in time to watch it explode, a chain reaction happening with other explosives hidden under the ground, unbeknownst to us.

"RUN!" I yell, taking off, away from the exploding ground at my feet. They are screams of fear and pain around me. Bits of ground fly everywhere and the huge bangs make my ears ring.

After all the bombs had gone off, I gasped at the sight around me. Huge craters popped up around me, the van had been tipped over and partly destroyed. Jack Manifold lays off the side, clutching his burnt leg, crying in agony. Tommy, who is closest to Jack, runs to him.

"Watch out for left over bombs!" Niki yells. I run to the van, if the book of 'Independance' was destroyed it would be the last straw. Tubbo has the same idea and runs to the van, he's closer and gets there quicker. He reaches through the torn metal and fires and pulls the book out, a couple minor burns and scratches as a result.

"I've got it!" Tubbo calls to me and I relax slightly, even though the book of our nation is signed by a traitor. Tommy runs over, Jack hobbling behind him with Fundy supporting him. Tommy looks scared, almost to his limit. This is never what I intended.

"It's in times like this that we need to go down this hole under the van and into my bunker!" Tommy stutters.

"Your what?" I snap. He waves us over to where the van used to be, it had been blown into the sky and landed fifty metres away, and I see a hole with a ladder going down it.

We all tumble in there, toppling over each other. I hear Dream and Sapnap cackling on the surface, Jack's moans of pain as he makes his way down the ladder and everyone's shaky breathing. This day will live on in our memory forever, this is not something we will be forgetting.

The ladder is short, it leads into an obsidian room lit by a couple torches, with a lone jukebox in the corner. Tommy slots one of his prized discs into the jukebox and looks around at the beaten and bruised citizens of L'Manburg. We make eye contact and Tommy shrills,

"Any last-minute plans Wilbur? One last hurrah?" I look at him and listen to the music that fills the room. It's upbeat and happy, not very appropriate.

"There is no last-minute plan, we can't win this." I say swallowing hard.

"Well, any last words?" Tommy asks, trying to smile but just grimacing.

"I would be a bad leader if I didn't look for condition of surrender." I look around and the disappointment and defeat in their eyes hurts my soul. We had been fighting for so long. "Tommy Innit, my right-hand man, would you come to surrender with me?"

I look at the blonde boy in front of me, defiantly looking at me with his bright blue eyes. He nods robotically and we agree to make our way back up and to negotiate with Dream to surrender our nation to the Dream SMP.