"NO!  Nonononono, I have to get back!"

The boy grabbed whatever he could, shoving a spare set of iron armor on him and taking a worn down iron axe.  He only realized until after he ran out the oaken door that he didn't grab any food, but he didn't care.  He'd have enough energy to run back to the desert, and that's all that mattered to him. 

Fear pushed his adrenaline onward, keeping him going despite how tired and hurt his legs already were.  The greenery of the oak-filled forest ahead tore into him and his soul, taunting him with how calm and serene the area was when his current conditions were much less so. Out of habit, he reached into his teal hair to feel for the vibrant red poppy stuck in it, except this time he was making sure it didn't fly off of him already when he ran as fast as he did, rather than just feeling it as a kind reminder of the best thing that's ever happened to him.

Upon seeing the wall of cactus in the horizon, he bolted even faster, jumping over the lava moat and pushing through the cacti without even so much as a pause in his momentum.  The pricks sliced through the clothes where the armor didn't touch, but much like the burning pain in his legs, the feeling was once again minor compared to the anxiety that was making his gut feel like it was twisting and turning at every direction it could.

It wasn't hard to spot the obsidian outline of the bunker and the dozens of players around it.  The sand was tossed in heaps around, the explosions from earlier digging into the stone beneath as well.  Another lava moat surrounded the box, but it looked like someone had already found the cheesy solution of pouring water over it to make it solid.  With this, he crossed the ugliest bridge in the world and tore up the sandstone ground, not wasting a second to get inside.

The sight zapped all of the energy he had out of him, the rush dying down and sending him to his knees. 

There, in front of him, laid his lover's corpse, the near black blood oozing on the floor as multiple arrows stuck mostly out of his chest and head.  The trapdoor to the escape tunnel was closed, whether it was locked or not the boy never got to check. 

Suddenly, even the pins of the cacti were too painful to handle. He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a choked sob.  He covered his face in his hands, tears collecting in his palms like a grand waterfall flowing into the riverbed below.  His long, depressed moment of weakness made him forget the battle that was still going on outside, only to remind him of it when he heard someone step in through the opening he had just created. 

The black-haired man said nothing, standing in the doorway and waiting patiently for the boy to turn his head.  When the opportunity finally came, he swung his sword right across the boy's otherwise untouched face, cutting directly over his left eye and splattering bright red blood over the already bloody sandstone floor.

His scream echoed throughout the walls of the border, and it never truly ceased.

***

A woman flicked some of the levers down and pushed on all of the buttons that seemed to work, trying to power the portal in the front of the room.  The fur on her wolf half stood up, her black hoodie hiding the goosebumps covering her human skin. She didn't have much time at all, and neither did the 4 other people standing behind her.  They could already feel the ground beneath them shaking as the giant chunks of rock started to fly from the sky, crashing down and forming craters bigger than any of their bases combined.  They were lucky that they decided to build this place deep underground, otherwise it would've all been gone along with them already.

Finally, the metal chunks around the obsidian build began to glow a neon purple, filling the room with the gorgeous light.  Soon enough, the portal also took on the purple color.

"Yes!  That should be it!  Everyone through!"  She yelled out to her allies, jumping into the frame of the device before a firm hand grabbed her by her arm. 

"Wait!  Pearl, we don't know where this goes or what it does!"  A dirty blonde avian warned her.  "We could go through the hole and take refuge in the void, it'll be safer!"

"Stuck in the void on a planet waiting to be crushed by the moon?!  You can take your chances with that, I'll take my chances with this!"  Pearl said, waving her head in the direction of the portal to emphasize her direction. 

A good hit from a chunk of the moon above shook the place to its core, shifting the floor around and throwing the 5 out of balance.  It sounded like many of the items there had shattered and broken, but those items didn't include the portal, and so the option was left open.

"We don't have time to argue!"  A brunette in the back exclaimed, pushing himself off of the ground with shaky limbs.  "Are we going through or not?"

"I'm not,"  The avian said, the golden feathers covering his wings perking up like a bird in the cold outdoors of the winter. "If anyone wants to follow me back to Boatem, I'm happy to lead,"

"...Then it's settled. I hope we meet again someday!" Pearl exclaimed.

"Wait, WHAT-"

Pearl immediately ignored the suited man behind her, not even thinking twice before swinging around and throwing herself through the mass of purple, her fluffy grey tail being the last thing her friends saw of her. Her vision went into the violet, spiraling shape for a moment as her body was processing the feeling of being teleported, and the next thing she knew, she was floating far above the ground of... a desert? It looked like sand below her, but at the same time, it was ashy and somewhat burnt-looking, as if a fire somehow swept through it despite sand's inflammable properties. The oak forest across from it was also charred, but with the masses of dry wood, leaves, and other plant life, it actually made sense for it to be looking that way.

It took less than a few seconds for her to realize that she wasn't floating high in the air, she was falling. Her heart began racing, desperately trying to find something that would break her fall, but to no avail. All she could do was brace herself for a painful impact and hope that she either lived or her death was quick.

A deafening crack rang out through the depths of her skull, and an immediate blackout followed.