Escape from the Nether

by Winter Morgan

  An army of skeletons marched through the village, and Brett and Joe gasped. Despite having some help from the residents of Meadow Mews, they were going to have an intense battle. They were outnumbered. Brett told himself that he would do as much as he could to stop the skeletons, but he knew this might be a losing battle.

  Brett raced toward the army with his diamond sword in his hand, and Joe sprinted beside him. As they ripped into the first few skeleton soldiers, they heard a voice.

  “Help me! Brett! Help me!”

  “It’s Poppy!” Brett cried, but Joe didn’t hear him. Joe was too immersed in the battle against the bony beasts.

  Brett rushed toward the voice, and Joe called out, “What are you doing? Are you abandoning me?”

  “No, come with me! I hear Poppy, and she needs our help!”

  Joe couldn’t hear Brett’s words because thunder boomed and lightning struck a nearby tree. The tree tumbled, and Joe narrowly avoided being struck by the tree. He had no idea where Brett was going, and he felt as if one of his best friends had betrayed him. Joe called out, “Brett! Come back!”

  Brett could hear Joe’s scream for him to come back, but he wasn’t going to turn around—he had to find Poppy. He heard her call out again.

  “Brett! Help!” she cried and then wailed in pain.

  “Where are you, Poppy?” hollered Brett, but there was no response. He jogged toward the direction where he had heard her voice and slipped in a puddle, landing on the ground. He looked up and saw Joe.

  “What is wrong with you? Why would you abandon me? We were battling skeletons,” Joe complained. “And the skeletons are following us here.”

  Arrows shot through the sky, and Brett tried to avoid them as he steadied himself and got up from the damp muddy ground. When he finally stood up, they could hear Poppy call out.

  “Please come quick! I need help!”

  Brett didn’t have time to respond to Joe, but Joe knew why Brett had left. They had to find Poppy and help her. Thunder boomed through the town as lightning struck again. Joe called out, “Poppy, we are trying to find you!”

  “I’m over here!” she cried out, but they couldn’t see her.

  “Where?” Brett shouted. “We can’t find you.”

  “Help! Quick!” Poppy cried out again.

  Brett’s heart raced. He wanted to help his friend, but the rain, the skeletons, and the lightning were slowing him down. Brett felt a stinging pain radiate down his arm. He knew he was struck by an arrow, and turned around to destroy the skeleton. As he looked back, he saw over a hundred skeletons clustered together. They all held out their bows and arrows and shot at Brett and Joe, destroying them instantly.

  Brett awoke in his bed and was shocked to see the sun was out. He sprinted from the house and looked for Poppy and Joe. He called out their names, but he didn’t get a response. The only voice he heard was Nancy’s.

  “What happened to you?” Nancy asked as she spotted Brett racing around Meadow Mews.

  “Is anybody still in the Nether? I am looking for Poppy.”

  “Poppy is with Helen,” said Nancy. “We were all destroyed in the Nether, and then we were destroyed again by the skeletons and zombies.”

  “I was with Joe, and we were also destroyed by the skeletons,” said Brett.

  Joe hollered in the distance, “Brett, Nancy. I’m back.”

  Nancy said, “We have to go back to the Nether, and we have to do it right now. Something strange happened when we were down there.”

  “What?” asked Joe as he caught his breath and stood next to them.

  “We made it into the Nether fortress, and we heard something,” she explained.

  Poppy and Helen raced over to them. Poppy blurted out, “Did Nancy tell you what happened?”

  “Not yet,” said Brett. “She was just telling us.”

  Nancy finished, “Someone is trapped in the Nether fortress, and we have to free them.”

  “We must go back to the Nether,” said Poppy eagerly, “and we have to do it now.” She pulled obsidian from her inventory and started to craft a portal.

  4

  BEHIND THE WALL

  Brett had never seen Poppy this eager to go to the Nether. She spoke rapidly as she built the portal. “When we were in the Nether fortress, we could hear someone crying from the other side of a wall, but before we could find out who they were, we were attacked by wither skeletons.”

  “I heard you calling out for help last night,” said Brett.

  “Yes, I was about to be destroyed by skeletons. I knew you were back in Meadow Mews, and I was calling for help,” she said as she placed another piece of obsidian on the damp ground. Despite the sun, the grass was still wet from the rainstorm.

  “I felt bad. We tried to find you, but we couldn’t,” said Brett.

  Joe added, “It was an intense battle. We didn’t even survive.”

  Nancy and Helen shook their heads. Nancy said, “I don’t get why these hostile mobs have to spawn in the rainstorm. There are so many of them, too. It seems like with each storm, the attacks are getting worse.”

  Everyone agreed, and they theorized if this would continue and what they could do about it, but they didn’t come up with any concrete ideas. The conversation stopped when Poppy placed the final piece of obsidian on the ground. She called out, “Hop on!”

  The gang stood together on the portal while Poppy ignited it. Purple mist enveloped them, and they landed in the Nether. This time ghasts didn’t greet them, and the skies were calm as they walked along the lava river toward the Nether fortress.

  They didn’t see any hostile mobs until they reached the fortress, which was guarded by a group of blazes. The blazes rose from the ground as they approached and began to attack. Brett remembered he had a bunch of snowballs in his inventory and handed them to his friends.

  “These are great for annihilating blazes,” he said as he threw the snowball at the hostile mob. It struck the blaze and destroyed it. The freezing, wet snow had felt nice in his warm hand. He didn’t like the severe heat in the Nether. He pulled another snowball from his inventory and placed it against his forehead, immediately cooling him down, and then threw it at a blaze. Blaze rods and glowstone dust fell to the ground as the final blaze was destroyed. The group gathered the dropped items up quickly as they raced inside the Nether fortress.

  “Don’t we have to pick up the Nether wart?” Brett questioned as they raced past the staircase, which had a large section of Nether wart. They hadn’t emptied the fortress for supplies.

  “We will get to that, but we have to help this person,” said Poppy as she made her way through the dimly lit fortress toward the room where they heard the person call for help. Poppy put her hand against the wall. “Do you hear us? We’re back and we can help.”

  There was silence.

  “Where is the person?” asked Joe.

  “They were on the other side of the wall when we were here,” said Poppy.

  “Are we sure this is the right fortress?” questioned Joe.

  “It should be.” Poppy called out to the person again, and when she didn’t hear a response, she also started to question if they were in the wrong fortress. “Maybe you’re right, Joe. Perhaps this isn’t the right fortress. There are many fortresses in the Nether, and we might have spawned in another section of it.”

  “We should empty this fortress. We need a lot of ingredients for our potions,” Brett said as he exited the room and walked toward the stairs. He needed to pick up the Nether wart. He didn’t want this trip to be a waste. They still were lacking a lot of materials for potions, and he didn’t want to be attacked again and then have to make another return trip to the Nether. He pulled the Nether wart and the soul sand from the edge of the stairs, and the others joined him.

  Joe stopped picking Nether wart when he heard a strange noise nearby. “Do you hear that?” he asked the others.

  Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! The noise came from the other room. Brett knew t
hat sound and said, “That sounds like magma cubes.” He pulled his diamond sword from his inventory. Brett was correct. Within seconds, the bouncing, menacing cubes were in the middle of the room.

  Brett and Joe sliced into a large cube, which broke into smaller cubes. The gang used all of their strength as they slammed their swords into the mobs’ red-and-black skin and annihilated the blocky mob. When the final magma cube was destroyed, the gang let out a collective sigh of relief. However, they didn’t have a long time to relax, because within seconds they were under attack again.

  Two wither skeletons leaped at the gang, hitting Nancy with their swords. As the gang fought the wither skeletons, they could hear a muffled voice call out.

  “Help me!”

  Brett slammed his diamond sword into the belly of the wither skeleton, destroying the beast with one whack. The wither skeleton dropped coal. Joe destroyed the other wither skeleton, which dropped a bone. They picked up the drops and bolted toward Poppy. She was racing in the direction to where she heard the voice.

  Poppy called out to the voice, “We can hear you. Are you okay?”

  “Help!” the voice called out again.

  “Are you okay?” Nancy yelled at the top of her lungs.

  Again, they were met with silence.

  “What’s going on?” asked Poppy. “Why can’t they hear us?”

  “We want to help you,” Brett hollered. “Tell us who you are.”

  “Help!” the voice called out again.

  “I don’t think they can hear us,” said Helen.

  Brett took out his pickaxe and slammed it against the wall of the Nether fortress, making a small hole in the wall. He tried to see through to the other side, but it was too dark.

  “Can you see anything?” asked Poppy.

  “Can you give me a torch?” asked Brett.

  She handed Brett a torch. He held it close to the small hole, but he still couldn’t see what was on the other side. He slammed his pickaxe against the wall again, and this time the hole grew larger. He raised the torch toward the hole and looked in.

  “I don’t think there is anything on the other side. It just looks empty,” said Brett.

  Poppy pushed Brett out of the way and screamed into the hole, “We are here to help you. Are you okay?”

  There was silence, and then after a minute, they could hear someone faintly reply, “No.”

  5

  RESCUE MISSION

  Brett slammed his pickaxe against the wall, and the hole grew. The rest of the gang pulled pickaxes from their inventories and ripped into the wall until it crumbled to the ground. They hopped over the rubble and searched for the person who was on the other side, but the room looked empty.

  “Are you there?” asked Poppy.

  “Yes,” the voice called out.

  “Where?” Poppy questioned as she looked around the room.

  “Here,” they replied, but the voice was even weaker than before.

  “It sounds like they are over here,” said Joe as he spotted a door.

  “Open it,” said Poppy.

  As Joe opened the door, the group was caught in a whirlwind of frigid air. Brett’s teeth began to chatter and he realized he had felt this feeling before. “Oh no!” Brett cried. “We are entering a portal.”

  Joe had already walked through the door, and Poppy was following him. Brett looked back at Helen and Nancy. “This isn’t good. We are going to wind up in another time period in the Minecraft Universe.” His voice shook as he spoke and his teeth clattered together.

  “We can’t abandon our friends,” said Nancy as she pushed Brett forward through the door and into the cold unknown.

  Brett was freezing. He called out to Joe and Poppy, but there was no response. Unlike the other trips through time portals, this one didn’t force him to fall down a large hole. With this portal, he simply walked through a doorway and into a large hallway that was as cold as a freezer. He wished he had a jacket, because his blue T-shirt wasn’t doing the job. Brett called out to his friends again, but he didn’t hear a response. He took a deep breath and made his way down the long cold hallway. At the end of the hallway was a wooden door. It was ajar, and Brett walked inside the room.

  “Brett.” Poppy smiled. She was standing next to a person with long green hair and a red jacket. She was handing them a bottle of milk.

  Brett was happy to be reunited with his friends. He was also happy that the room was warm. However, he knew they weren’t in the same period. He just had to find out if they were in the future or the past. He said, “We just walked through a portal. I have no idea if we are in the past or the future, but we aren’t in the present.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Joe.

  “Certain of it. I’ve been through a few portals, and they were all eerily cold like the hallway we just walked down,” said Brett.

  “I’m not concerned with the time period,” said Poppy. “I just want to help this person.”

  The woman with green hair gulped the milk. After her health bar was replenished, she spoke. “Thank you,” she said.

  “Where are we?” asked Brett.

  “I don’t know,” replied the woman. “I mean, I know we’re in the Nether, but I don’t know where we are in relation to where you came from.” She paused. “I hope I don’t sound too confusing. I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Eva. I’ve been stuck in this room for a long time.”

  “Why?” asked Nancy.

  “Somebody trapped me here. I’m afraid that when they find out that I’m gone, they will come looking for me again,” said Eva.

  “Who trapped you here?” questioned Helen.

  “Theo the Alchemist. He terrorizes the Overworld. I used to be a very respected alchemist, but he trapped all of the alchemists from around the Overworld because he didn’t want anybody competing with him.”

  “That’s awful,” remarked Nancy.

  “I know. Once I get out of here, I am going to look for all of my alchemist friends. We were on a group trip to the Nether to gather supplies when he found us. He was able to isolate all of us and trap us. He has a big army,” explained Eva.

  “How long have you been in here? When did this happen? Do you think he will come back?” Helen spat a ton of questions at Eva.

  “Um, I don’t know,” she said nervously. “I can’t actually answer any of those questions. I feel like I have been here forever, but since there is no day or night in the Nether, I can’t figure it out at all.”

  “That makes sense,” said Poppy. “But it really doesn’t matter how long you’ve been down here. We have to get you out of here.”

  Everyone agreed they had to build a portal back to the Overworld. As they sprinted through the Nether fortress, Brett wondered what time period the portal would drop them in. He looked back at the door. He wanted to suggest that they travel through it back to their time period, where Eva would be safe. However, he knew they had to return Eva to the time period where she belonged. As they made their way through the fortress, Joe cried out in pain.

  A wither skeleton slammed its sword into Joe’s back as they were exiting the fortress, leaving Joe with one heart. Nancy gave him milk to replenish his health, and Brett slammed his diamond sword against the wither skeleton, but it wasn’t an easy battle. Brett leaped toward the wither skeleton and swung at it, and he was surprised at his own skill. He had destroyed the wither skeleton and quickly picked up the bone it had dropped on the floor, then followed his friends out of the fortress.

  The landscape didn’t look anything like the one they had seen earlier that day. There were three lava waterfalls and multiple zombie pigmen walking around the Nether. There was a large bridge built of netherrack, and two people dressed in yellow stood on it, looking out at the fortress.

  “Who are you?” the people shouted.

  “Oh no!” cried Eva. “Those are Theo’s soldiers. He makes them dress all in yellow.”

  “What should we do?” asked Nancy.

  Eva s
aid, “Theo took all my weapons and everything from my inventory. If I had a bow and arrow, I’d use it.”

  Nancy and Helen took out their bows and arrows and aimed at the two people dressed in yellow. Nancy and Helen unleashed a barrage of arrows. The two people called out for them to stop and asked for help, but it was too late. Nancy and Helen destroyed them.

  Poppy built the portal, and they all hopped on it. As they were surrounded in purple mist, Brett wondered if they should trust Eva. How did they know she was telling the truth? Maybe she was the bad guy and was being watched by the people in yellow? Why did they believe everything she said? The purple mist grew heavier, but Brett could still make out Eva’s face through the purple-colored mist. He saw her smirk. He was curious to know if she was smiling because she was happy she was free or if she smirked because she had just captured her newest victims.

  6

  DESERT RAIN

  Brett’s heart raced as they stood on the portal. Although the journey back to the Overworld took seconds, it felt like an eternity. Brett couldn’t stop staring at Eva. He wanted to keep a close eye on her because he didn’t trust her. He had to watch her actions and find out if she was telling the truth. Eva noticed Brett watching her, and she turned to look at him.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “Yes, there is just purple mist in my eyes,” he said, rubbing his eyes and then looking down at his feet.

  Once the mist faded, Brett noticed the endless sandy terrain and the extreme heat. He was hoping to get a break from the heat and cool down, but he was out of luck because they were in the middle of the desert.

  “Is this where you live?” asked Poppy.

  “No,” Eva replied. “My town is gone. Theo destroyed it.” Her eyes filled with tears.

  “That’s awful. I’m sorry to hear that,” Joe said.

  “Where did you live?” asked Nancy.