Once, there was an old engineer. He and his wife lived in a small town
on the plains. They were fairly well-off. One night, the engineer's wife
had a baby. He was different from all the other villagers, for he had a
small head and no nose. They named him Steve.

This story begins
when Steve was seven years old. He and his mother were hurrying to the
village well, to get some water before night-time. "Hurry Steve!"
Steve's mother said. "We don't want to be caught outside at night!"
Steve sighed. "But mom! I've never even seen a monster. I don't think
they exist." Steve's mother turned to him, her face grim. "And you never
want to my son. No you don't."
They quickly got some water from the
well and rushed back to their house, but it was dark. They saw two
zombies breaking down the door with their fists. Steve's mother yelled.
The zombies continued to break the door down.

Steve looked down
to see a lever in front of him. "RUN!" Steve's father said as he came
around a corner. He hit the zombies with his sword, and then took off
running, pulling the lever as he went past it.
As the TNT got closer
and closer to exploding, more and more monsters were crowding around
Steve's father. Steve's father tried to fight his way out, and he was
almost safe when the TNT detonated. Zombies, creepers, skeletons and
spiders all went flying. Steve could not see his father.
"Come, son."
Steve's mother said with a quavering voice. They climbed up a tree to
it's limbs, where two other villagers were. One was dying. The other
suddenly screamed and fell from his perch, an arrow stuck in his head.
"Down son!" Steve's mother said. Steve laid flat against the tree, his mother leaning protectively over him.
Steve cried as he saw his town burst into flames, then cried even harder as his mother toppled from him.

When Steve woke up -yes, he did eventually fall asleep on that dreaded night- he was cold, hungry, and alone.
He climbed down the tree, trying not to look at his mother at the bottom, whith an arrow stuck in her neck and all, and he hurried to the village. He looked around the destroyed village. A zobie was walking towards him, but soon it burst into flames. Steve first went into the library, but found no one there. He then went into the belltower, another library, and all the houses. He found only a few dead villagers, and his hopes began to rise. But when he went into the blacksmith's shop, he saw about fifteen dead villagers strewn about the place. One very old villager was clutching something. Steve opened the mans hand and saw a small, silver orb. He dropped it into his pocket and forgot about it. He then hunted for some things to protect himself with. He found a small knife (which was the size of a sword to him) and a leather cap. He then found a bag and some food. The food wasn't much, just two loaves of bread and five cooked fish. He then decided to look in the belltower once more, just for good measure. Inside he saw a small chest that he hadn't noticed before.
Inside the chest lay a compass, boots, and a slingshot.
Steve put the slingshot and compass in his bag, tried the boots on (but put them back immediately, they would have been boats for him).
Steve remembered one of the villagers telling his father;
"We need you to go to Nerthal, our supplier of Iron. It's in the desert about twenty miles west of here. You can make it in a day or two."
Steve set off west, not knowing how far twenty miles was, and not caring.  He walked until he could walk no more. He climbed a hill and lay down to rest.

Two hours later, Steve woke up to the groaning of zombies and the clinking of bones. He looked around him, the hill was surrounded by monsters. "Fool!" he muttered to himself. He dug down with his knife for a bit, then blocked the top of the hole. He spent the rest of the night shivering with cold.