Previously...

"If we sleep, we're dead."

They stood up and saw what I saw. One by one they handled their weapons, fear written all over their faces.

We couldn't fight, we were too tired. The only one who looked like he could stand a chance against them was Wolf.

Because there were mobs. A lot of mobs.

And they surrounded us.

Zip's POV

Spiders, skeletons, creepers and zombies all surrounded us in an almost perfect circle. There were too many to fight, even if we weren't tired. I gripped my sword tightly. I never admitted defeat, but I didn't see how we could possibly win against this many mobs. They started closing in for the kill.

"It's been nice knowing you guys," Jade said.

"We're not going to die Jade," I told him, trying to convince myself more than him.

"Even if we are, let's take as many as possible with us." Tim hefted his axe.

"I agree. Let's make them pay." Fury had out both her swords.

I held up my sword too. The adrenaline rushed through me, dispelling my exhaustion. Alex loaded his bow and the twins stood back to back, swords ready. We would die, I knew that, but we were going to go down in a blaze of glory.

The mobs came closer and closer. The skeletons drew back their bows, ready to fire.

Then the mobs started falling like snow, arrows sprouting from their heads. 

A male voice yelled out. "Take this!"

Sounds of weapons swinging filled the air, accompanied by the sounds of zombies and skeletons dying. 

"Zip behind you!" Alex warned.

I whipped around and sliced a zombie's head off, then deflected an arrow and stabbed a creeper before it could explode. Around me, the others were also hacking at the mobs, desperately trying to keep them at bay. 

Suddenly, someone waving two double-bladed axes appeared. He destroyed the mobs with ease, his axes going so fast that they just looked like a metal circle as he attacked. The arrows were still coming out of nowhere, and they were mainly targeting any mobs that came up behind the axeman. 

Faced with the lunatic axeman, magically appearing arrows and six people who were willing to kill all of them, the mobs made a smart choice. They broke and ran away. The crazy axeman still chopped at some of the mobs as they ran but he didn't try to stop them as they ran. When the last of the zombies disappeared, the man turned around.

"Okay Dax, they're gone," He called out, then he addressed us. "You guys gotta be more careful."

"Hey, it's not our fault we were attacked by a bunch of mobs." Tim was defensive, and so was I. Why did this random guy accuse us all of a sudden?

"Who are you anyway?" I asked.

"Seriously? You haven't introduced yourself yet?" A girl came up from behind the axeman and smacked his arm. "His name is Zano. I'm Dax."

Dax was wearing a zipped up black jacket with grey stripes. She had black pants and mid shin length black shoes. Her long brown hair was done in a plait and her green eyes were narrowed suspiciously. In her left hand was a bow and a quiver of arrows could be seen over her right shoulder. Zano had dark skin and a camouflage jacket. He had navy pants with hooks for his axes and laced up brown boots. His black hair was swept to one side of his head and his brown eyes glinted mischievously. They both looked to be about 20 or 21.

"I'm Zip. These are Luke, Jade, Tim, Alex, Fury and Wolf." I pointed to each of my friends in turn. Most of them had put away their weapons, but Fury still had her's out and she was eyeing the new people. 

Dax frowned at us. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Fury retorted.

"Fury!" I hissed.

"It's a valid question."

Dax put her hands on her hips. "We saw the large gathering of mobs and came to save the stupid travellers who came through Valley Illusions."

"Well, we were the stupid travellers who came through Valley what's-its-name," Fury answered sarcastically.

"I can see that. Come on, we'll show you to our village." Dax spun on her heel and lead the way across the plains. 

The rest of us hurried to catch up. "Uh, strange question: Does your village have a lot of books?" I asked.

"Yes. The Keeper of Books lives in my village."

"Wow, really creative name," Tim said sarcastically.

Zano laughed and Dax cracked a smile. I realised that she was very pretty when she smiled. Fury had put away her swords and started asking Dax questions about her village. I didn't listen to most of it, preferring to keep an eye out for mobs so we wouldn't be swarmed again. Dax lead us for almost an hour until we saw wooden buildings in the distance. Another few minutes and we were inside the cluster of houses. 

"I'll bring you to my house. You'll be safe here and then tomorrow, you can continue to wherever you were going," Dax said, leading the way to a house that was slightly bigger than the rest of them.

"Actually, we meant to come here," Fury told her.

Zano put his hand on Fury's shoulder. "You are unlikely to get help here. Especially lately."

Dax hummed in agreement. "Let's hope that my father doesn't realise that we're out this late."

"What if he does? Find out that is?" Jade asked.

"He'll probably kill us," Dax said with complete sincerity.

"Oh. Lovely." Fury sighed.

Many thanks to my friend redfrogs for designing the character Dax and to my other friend for allowing me to use him as the inspiration for Zano. Go check out redfrogs, she's a great writer.