by Mark Mulle
Steve’s Sidekick, Book 1: Zombie Bait
Copyright 2016 Mark Mulle
Author’s Note
This short story is for your reading pleasure. The characters in this "Minecraft Adventure Series" such as Steve, Endermen or Herobrine...etc are based on the Minecraft Game coming from Minecraft ®/TM & © 2009-2013 Mojang / Notch
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
About the Author
Other books by this Author
Chapter 1
“All done. It only took two stacks of wood but we did it before it turned to night.” I wiped the sweat off my forehead and gave the remaining wood to Steve.
“Jake, you do know that I built this entire house as you stood there and watched me BUILD IT?!”
I patted Steve on the back and added the final touch. It was a sign in front of the door that said “JAKE & Steve’s house.” It wasn’t much but what really mattered was the time and effort we took into building it.
“Look at what we can accomplish when we work together as a team.” I opened the door and took a moment to admire everything. This house had everything- an indoor pool, four rooms for sleeping, a kitchen, a fireplace and just about anything a house would need.
“I’m going to find a new roommate that won’t make me build an entire house by myself.” Steve shut the door behind us and stood in the living room.
“But I was helping. I was the cheerleader. I kept you motivated.”
“So shouting stuff like “YOU CAN DO IT. REMEMBER, I’M COUNTING ON YOU.” And the occasional “YOU’RE A FAILURE IN MY BOOK IF YOU MESS UP” is supposed to keep me motivated as you watched me build the house?”
“It got the job done, didn’t it?”
“If we weren’t friends, I would’ve made you sleep in a cave.” He frowned and gave me a pickaxe.
“Why are you giving this to me?” I asked.
“You have to do something to benefit this friendship, don’t you?”
“Come on Steve! It’s been a long day and it’s about to be night soon. You know that I hate running into those inhumane things.”
“Those things are called skeletons, zombies and spiders. Something everyone here has to deal with.” Steve opened the door and ushered me out.
“Don’t we have all the cobble we need? There’s no point in me going, right?”
“We need diamonds, iron, and gold. Maybe emeralds to trade with but I’m not letting you back in until you find two diamonds.” Steve shut the door and broke off the lever on the outside.
“I don’t even think that there’s a cave close by here!”
Steve looked at me through the door and tossed me a map through the small opening in the door.
“There should be a cave somewhere very, very, very far away from here. Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll keep the house nice and cozy for you. Have fun, stay safe and try not to lose all your hearts. That would be really, really bad."
Chapter 2
I slouched and took a look at the map. I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at. I didn’t toss the map but I kept it just in case Steve would get mad at me.
It took me a few hours but I found a cave near the ocean. It looked enormous. Hopefully, I could just run in and mine anything that shined but sadly, that’s not how things work here.
Unfortunately, Steve gave me a stone pickaxe but in order for me to actually mine like a real miner, I would need an iron one.
Steve just loves seeing me nearly pee in my pants and have a heart attack. I would like to say that it wasn’t always like this but it’s always like this with Steve. It’s a love/hate relationship. Friends since we were little and frenemies as we get older. Come to think of it, that’s how most of my friendships work.
It’s been tough to live without my parents here but moving out of their house and starting a new life, a new adventure and a new…. “
Jake?” I heard someone from above calling my name. Steve probably followed me here because he was worried…right?
“YYeah?” I stuttered.
“Jake?” The person spoke again and this time, I almost dropped the pickaxe. It took me a second to realize that this did not sound like a person. It sounded more like a wimpy squeal coming from a hurt pig but pigs can’t talk…
“Who’s there?” I gripped the pickaxe tight and got ready to swing at anything that came near me.
I heard all sorts of sounds bouncing off the walls of the cave. I could just run out but I didn’t know where this thing was. It could be literally ANYWHERE.
A bat came flying out of nowhere and it startled me so much that I dropped whatever was in my hands and I ran as fast as I could.
I swear that as I was running out of that cave, I saw a pair of devilish eyes staring back at me. It wasn’t fun at all.
I remember stopping for a quick break on my way back. I ate two pork chops that I “borrowed” from Steve and a few cookies that just so happened to be in Steve’s book bag. I don’t know why he was hiding these delicious treats and not sharing it with the world but I never understand why
Steve does the things he does.
Now, I don’t care who or what was trying to scare the blocks out of me earlier but I will make sure that Steve never makes me go mining again. If he does, I will never cheer him on like I did when he built the house ever again.
Luckily, the sun was still up but there was no way that I was going to make it home before dark so I started to panic but only a little. I took out the map that Steve gave me earlier and tried to look at it from a different perspective.
When I flipped it to the side, it looked like a half-eaten taco but when I flipped it upside down, it looked like someone sneezed on it…numerous times.
Eventually, I just kept walking and tried to cooperate with the taco map. As I was walking, I noticed torches leading to a cobblestone street. It was definitely not the right way back to my house but the sun was already down and I did not want to be walking in the dark after what happened in the cave. Steve is probably going to be mad at me for losing the pickaxe but in my defense, when someone is about to hurt you, do you A: Stand where you are or B: Drop everything and run out of there? For the sake of my well-being, I will always choose B.
As I followed the street downhill, I noticed that there was a very big wall surrounding the town.
There was a gate that people were guarding from above and everyone had to get checked before they went in.
This seems…welcoming. I put on my best smile and asked one of the people waiting in line if there was anywhere I could stay for the night.
“No way. This town does not welcome any visitors. You have to leave kid or they’re going to feed you to the zombies!” The man’s eyes bulged out and he looked like he hadn’t slept for days. Even the lab coat he had on looked like he was stuck in a dirt hole for days.
I asked the next person in line and she said the same thing to me. Minus the “feed you to the zombies” part. At least she seemed sane.
I refused to sleep outside when there was probably a room or barn that I could sleep in. I started walking around to see if there was a small opening or hole in the gate that I could sneak in through. At this point, even the guards were staring at me like I was a criminal and that’s probably right but is there anything wrong with not wanting to get killed by those monsters?
I was getting desperate and as the last few people were going through the gate, I slipped right in-between the gate and the wall and begged for the guard to let me in.
; “It’s against the rules for me to let you in unless“
I heard people screaming and others shooting arrows as zombies approached the gate. The guard pulled me in and gave me a look that said “if you move an inch from this place, I will feed you to the zombies” so I sat in silence as the guards from above and below shot at a huge mob of skeletons, zombies, creepers and spiders.
It took about an hour for them to destroy every single one of them. The guard who pulled me in came back with a surprised look on his face.
“Thought you would’ve run away by the time I got back.”
“I thought about it but I thought that you would feed me to the zombies so I just sat and watched.”
“It’s a ritual we do here.”
“Uh…What?”
“I’m just joking. Listen, if you need a place to stay I have a small bedroom in the house directly across from the fountain in the middle of the town. It’s not much but with the way things are right now, it’ll be too dangerous for anyone. I’m technically breaking the rules so just try to tiptoe over there. Not many people should be up at this time so just try to go without getting caught. If you do get caught, I do not know you. I never let you in through the gate. Okay?”
“Thank you so much.”
“Directly across from the fountain.” He waved and I ran as fast as I could.
The town looks a lot bigger on the outside than it does on the inside so getting to the fountain only took a minute or two.
When I got there, I got confused because he said the one directly across from the fountain but there were four houses and they were all across from the fountain…
I opened a door to one of the houses and hoped for the best as I closed the door behind me and listened in on their conversation.
“You said that you saw someone from the outside get into this town earlier? No way. Whoever gets caught helping or doing anything like it is going to get tried and exiled, maybe even worse.”
“But I did! He looked a little scrawny, had khaki shorts and a red shirt. I’m not sure if it was one of the guards who helped him in but I saw someone that I have never seen in the fifty years that
I’ve been living here and I can recognize anybody in this town.”
“Someone will probably report it tomorrow. Maybe you’re just tired. When was the last time you got some sleep?”
“I had a forty minute nap yesterday but other than that, I haven’t been able to sleep at all for the past five days.”
“The ritual?”
“Yeah. I mean, do any of us really know if he’s real or not?”
“He?”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve been doing that ritual for the past week and ever since we got that new mayor, I haven’t been able to shut my eyes without thinking that he’s out to get us.”
“Who? The mayor or him?
“Both.”
“You should try and get some sleep, Henry. It’s not going to do any of us good if the only real scientist in our town goes mentally insane.”
“The only real scientist in our town is Sharla but even she’s being convinced by our new mayor.”
“Well, everybody else thinks that.“
The voices slowly began to fade and I didn’t realize how tense I was until I loosened up my shoulders and took deep breaths. I turned around and looked for the room the guard had mentioned.
I looked through all the rooms but I saw something interesting in one of the rooms. It had a mysterious purple glow and I hesitated to even go near the door. If I do this, I’m technically
invading personal property but what if this room just so happens to be the room he’s talking about?
I grabbed the doorknob and counted to three before I opened it.
The first thing I saw was the Nether portal but that wasn’t what made me feel creeped out. It was all of the potions and skulls he had scattered on the floor and all over the desks. I quickly shut the door and came to my conclusion: I never saw any of this but if I end up in that room as a skull, there might be a few problems.
I checked all of the rooms and didn’t find the room he was talking about. Maybe I should just ask him where it is when he comes back. He has to come back and sleep eventually, right?
I took a quick peep outside the window and didn’t see anyone for several minutes but it was the middle of the night so the guards must be patrolling the town one more time?
I must’ve dozed off as I was waiting for the guard because I woke up to the sound of TNT going off and it wasn't very pleasant to hear. I looked outside the window again and the sun was coming up. The TNT didn’t go off anywhere near this fountain but it did sound like it was either behind or next to this house.
Should I risk it and leave? I’m supposed go back home anyways because Steve is definitely worried about me (notice the sarcasm?). What’s going to happen if they catch me? Actually, something tells me that they weren’t joking about those zombies. I stood up and stretched before I looked out the window and made sure the coast was clear. Luckily, nobody was anywhere near the middle of the town but I thought that it was a little odd that the guard never came back to his house. He has to sleep sometime, right? I wrote a little thank you note and left it on his couch before I ran out. I tripped on something as soon as I ran out and I think that I bumped my head on the stone because I passed out as soon as I fell...
