by Mark Mulle
Chapter 3
When I woke up, everything seemed dark. How long was I out? Maybe I’m still dreaming. I tried to move my arms but they were tied together and I didn’t know what to do. I even tried to move my legs but they wouldn’t budge. Now, this was the part where I was about to start hyperventilating but I saw a row of torches being lit and a bunch of unfamiliar faces. They were all wearing the same clothes: green shirt, blue pants, and grey shoes. Did I find this strange? A little. Did it matter at the time? No because I was tied to a wooden fence and surrounded by zombies so no, it did not matter at the time. Even the zombies were leashed so they weren’t able to eat me, yet. I started looking for a way out. Something or someone to help me out but everyone in the crowd just seemed more fascinated by the way I struggled.
Desperately, I screamed for help but nobody responded. I looked around the room and noticed that there were drawing on the walls that looked a lot like Steve but with glowing white eyes that made him look soulless. Well, I had to get their attention somehow so I tried to get someone’s attention by screaming “Can I at least get to say my final words?!”
I heard people murmuring in the crowd and finally, someone stepped out of the crowd and held his arm up and everyone grew quiet.
“As today’s holy sacrifice, we will allow this peasant to say his final words before he is fed to the zombies as an offering to our god!”
At least I was being treated like a human before an offering.
“Can I just ask who that man on the wall is?” Everyone in the crowd gasped and the zombies suddenly looked more eager to tear me to pieces.
“Get ready to release the zombies!” The man ordered.
“Wait! I’m only asking because he looks a lot like my friend!” I shouted.
“How dare you! Comparing our god to one of your ‘friends’, it’s just inhumane and insulting.” He sounded offended and shocked that I said something like that but he calling me inhumane and insulting must mean that tying me to a fence and feeding me to zombies is normal?
“I’m sorry if I offended your...culture in any way but this just seems insane. I don’t even know who that person is but yet, you’re going to sacrifice me without even telling me?”
“You outsiders really don’t anything about Herobrine? The Herobrine? The one who helped
Notch create this world?”
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about because to me, it just looks like you guys are worshipping my friend, Steve.” There was even more gasping from the crowd.
“Steve?” They all whispered and gasped even louder than before.
“If what you’re saying is correct, then you must be his sidekick?” Wait a minute, did he just call me Steve’s sidekick? I am NOT a sidekick...I think…
“Hang on, I am not his sidekick. He’s my friend.”
“It sounds to me like you’re in denial.” He looked at me with pity and stared at the zombies around me. He slightly nodded to the people in charge of the zombies and I thought that they were going to release them but thankfully, they only took the zombies away and untied me.
Did I just get pitied out of a human sacrifice? Is that even possible?
“Weren’t you going to feed me to the zombies?”
The man helped me down to the crowd and they all stared at me like I was an object.
“Well, we were planning on it but Herobrine would not be happy with us killing his friend’s sidekick.”
“I’m not his sidekick!”
“The first step to understanding the great Herobrine is learning to accept the truth. We have many books in the library about it. Let’s have a nice, long talk about Herobrine and help you understand that you’re a sidekick.” He led me outside and the light blinded my eyes. It’s still morning?
“I’m not the sidekick. We’re just friends. We grew up in the same neighborhood.”
He looked like he was refusing to listen to another word of what I was saying and he opened the door to the library. He made me sit down and stay there until he came back with a stack of books.
“My name is Danny. I’m the mayor of this town. Neat place, huh?”
“Well, my name is”
“Wait, is your name Jayayyeekuh?”
Is the name Jake foreign to this town?
“It’s just Jake.”
“Just Jake? Is that how you pronounce it?”
“Yeah but how did you know?”
“Well Just Jake,” Oh no.. He actually...okay...I’ll just correct him later…”Your entire adventure is written in all of these books. Everyone in town knows about you and who Steve is!”
“My entire adventure? The only thing that I’ve ever done is eat and sleep. That’s basically what I do. Actually, it’s all that I ever do.”
“What about your childhood? Didn’t you save Steve and fight off an enormous snake when you were only seven years old?”
“I wish I did something that cool but no, I didn’t fight off an enormous snake to save Steve. I’m pretty sure that the ‘snake’ was just a tree branch that I tripped on when we were on our way back from school and I’m pretty sure that this happened when we were thirteen.”
“Then what about the time you swam across the entire ocean just to find Steve’s diamond sword that he lost in the battle of the Endermen? The one where he injured his arm for the first time?”
“It was in a lake that he was too scared to swim across because he was scared that he was going to get drown after he accidentally threw his wooden sword at something that startled him. The battle of the Endermen was probably us playing hide and seek in the dark, and I’m positive that he broke his arm as he was trying to hide but he fell off a small cliff and broke his arm.”
“The battle of the porkchop?”
“Even I think that the battle of the porkchop sounds ridiculous.”
“So none of this really happened?” Danny looked shocked but so was I. Why did this town have tons of books about me and Steve? It doesn’t make any sense. Half of the stuff in the books just seem made up and unrealistic. A diamond sword, really? We would’ve sold something that expensive in a heartbeat.
“Who’s the author?”
Danny didn’t look up from his daze and I had to snap a few times in front of his face.
“Huh?”
“Do you know who the author is?”
“Not personally. These stories were passed down from generations in this town. There is no exact origin but there are different versions of the stories. There was even one where it mentioned Steve and his sidekick, Just Jake, building a house and Steve has to send Just Jake away to mine because it’s a test for him to see how much he can actually rely on Just Jake.”
Building a house? Sending him away to mine? That’s what happened to me yesterday!
“How does that story end?!”
“I don’t remember. It’s been a very long time since I last read that version. Why? Do you recall doing this?”
“Yeah! Steve sent me away to mine yesterday! After we built the house!”
“Well, technically you didn’t really build the house because Steve did do most of the work.”
“We have to go find that book. I want to find out the Steve you guys know because it’s obviously not the Steve that I know.”
“It might take a while to locate it because there are hundreds and hundreds of book based on your adventures.”
“We need it ASAP.”
“I’ll let one of the workers here get right on that.” He called a librarian over and described the book to her. She nodded and a few other people helped her look for the book.
“Now, can you tell me about Herobrine? Like, why do you worship this guy?”
“Well, have you ever heard of Notch and the Minecraftion War?”
“Notch? Yes? Minecraftion War? No clue.”
“The people of this town see Notch, Herobrine, and Steve as the inseparable trinity. Without them, this town wouldn’t have existed and without them, I woul
d not have been born.” I saw the people looking for the book nod many times after Danny said this. “They are the founders of this town.”
“Then why do you guys only treat Herobrine as the better one?”
“I was going to tell you but you interrupted me.”
“I only interrupted you because I thought that you weren’t going to explain it to me. I’ll stop talking.. Sorry.”
“So...wait, where was I in the story? You made me forget.”
“It was the part about how they were the founders of this town.”
“Before Notch, Herobrine, and Steve actually made this town, they lived in a small house together. They were ridiculously amazing builders and they all knew that they had this incredible talent for building but they all had different intentions. Notch wanted to do it for the ores, Herobrine wanted to improve his skills, and Steve just had fun doing it but none of them knew this about each other. So one day, they came to the conclusion that they should start building a few houses and sell them for a few ores but Notch just got lazier as they started making more ores, Herobrine didn’t feel like improving his skills, and Steve just got fed up with them. Then all at once, they started fighting with each other. This wasn’t just verbal fighting. This was actual fighting. Nobody won the fight and they all parted ways. This was known as the Minecraftion
War. Legend says that Notch got hungry for more riches and he started digging everywhere around the world and mined everything but gave up after running out of space in his chests and all the caves we ever find were made by Notch mining everywhere. People say that Steve just tried to live an ordinary life and Herobrine eventually ended up building an entire town here.”
“Then why do you guys not hate Steve or Notch?”
“We’re thankful. We think that without the Minecraftion War, none of us would’ve existed.”
“None of this makes sense though. I’ve been friends with Steve for years and he never mentioned Notch or Herobrine and if this was true, then Steve is lying about his age because this happened years ago, right?”
“Mmhmm. Approximately two centuries ago.”
“Wouldn’t that mean that Steve somehow changed his appearance because I met Steve when we were little kids and he seemed pretty normal to me.”
“We think that it has to do with potions.”
“Are there any leads on Herobrine or Notch?”
“People have been reporting that they feel like someone is watching them and whenever they turn around, they see a pair of white, soulless eyes staring back at them.”
White, soulless eyes? The same white, soulless eyes I saw in the cave? It could’ve been a bat with no pupils but they looked like they were almost glowing.
“Danny!” The librarian called the mayor over and she shook her head.
“You guys didn’t find the book?”
“Are you sure the book was about Steve and not Herobrine because nobody here recalls reading that book. It could’ve been Herobrine. People mistake the two all the time because of the way they look. If it wasn’t for their eyes, I don’t think anybody could tell them apart.”
“You’re right. Just try looking for a book with a..a...hmm. I don’t remember what the cover looked like. Ugh! I wish that I knew what the title was.”
“I wish you knew what the title was too. By the way, I forgot a minor detail that I didn’t mention about my little trip to the cave.”
“What is it?”
“I think Herobrine was watching me. Those ‘white, soulless eyes’ people are seeing? Yeah, those are the same eyes I saw staring at me when I ran out of the cave.”
“Everyone should be very cautious and on alert. If it really is Herobrine, we’ll welcome him like a true god but if it’s not, I don’t think people are safe if they ever step out of this town.”
“Why is there a gate around this town anyways and why are there so many zombies?”
“We make sure that people feel safe here and that they can do whatever they want without risking their safety. The zombies have always been around. After I get elected as mayor, I decided that the only way to keep the zombies out was by barricading the town and assigning guards.”
“What was up with the whole human sacrifice thing earlier? You guys were actually going to feed me to the zombies!”
“We apologize about that. The guard that let you in yesterday told us that he found someone that we could use as an offering. We were being nice and let you sleep in that house for the night but we setup a tripwire and someone knocked you out as soon as you hit the ground.”
“Why is human sacrifice the answer to your problems!?”
“We were trying to lure the zombies around this area so we could get rid of them but nobody volunteered to do it and you just so happened to be there. We didn’t mean to scare you. We are just going to use you as bait. As you probably saw last night, the zombie population in this area is getting out of control.”
“Danny! I think we found the book!”
“Bring it over here!” She tossed him the book and he hugged the book. “You were a big help.
Thank you Liz.”
“That’s the book?”
“Yep. This is the book.”
“What now?”
“Open it!”
“Sheesh, you sound like my mom.”
“Can you just open the book?” I frowned.
Danny opened the book and placed it on the desk but I couldn’t see anything. Every page he flipped to was blank.
“Yes! This is the right book!”
“Slight problem. There’s nothing written in the pages.”
“What are you talking about?”
“All of the pages are blank.” I flipped through all the pages and thought that Danny was messing with me.
“Haha. Very funny. Now, let’s get back to business. I have to find the part where you go into the cave.” Danny kept flipping through all of the pages and I still couldn’t see anything.
Was he joking or was he being serious?
“Danny, I really can’t see any of the pages. They’re blank.”
“What are you talking about? Are you sure you just don’t need glasses?”
“Yes, I’m positive.”
Danny began to inspect the book to try and figure out what was happening. After a few minutes, he set the book down and sighed as if he just realized something.
“What is it?”
“There was this old legend that my parents used to tell me about. It was about someone who would write books about other people but the people that he wrote about wouldn’t be able to read the books about themselves. I think that it was because letting them know their future decisions would make them change the future and maybe even cheat death.”
“You’re kidding.” I slouched in my chair and slammed my head into the table.
“Just Jake?”
“What?” I mumbled.
“I could just read you the story.”
I instantly sat up and pointed at the book.
“Then read, Danny! Read!
“‘As Just Jake ran out of the cave and dropped his pickaxe, he saw a pair of white, soulless eyes staring at him. It sent chills down his spine and almost cost him a heart but he managed to make it out of the cave. He took a quick break and on his way back to Steve’s house, he accidentally discovered a town. It was turning dark and there were too many monsters out at the time. Just Jake begged and begged but nobody let him into the town. He made the brave decision to sneak in but a guard caught him. A mob of zombies attacked and the guard threw Just Jake to the ground and made him stay there. Just Jake observed the mob of zombies and patiently waited. The guard let Just Jake stay in his house but what Just Jake didn’t know was that the mayor of the town was planning on using him as bait for the zombies. In the morning, they kidnapped Just Jake and tied him to a wooden fence. As Steve’s sidekick woke up, he questioned everything. The mayor decided that the brave Just Jake had enough and untied him. Soon, they went to the libr
ary to talk about’”
“Okay, I get it. It’s accurate up to the point of what’s happened now. Read what happens after you read the book.”
“Fine. ‘As Danny was reading the book, a TNT went off an”
The library suddenly shook and we both looked up at the roof to make sure that everything was still okay.
“Where did that blow up?”
“‘And they ran to the water fountain.’”
“Let’s go!”
We both ran as fast as we could to the water fountain and people were surrounding it.
“Move guys! It’s Danny and Steve’s sidekick!”
People moved out of the way for us and what we saw was not pretty. Water was spraying everywhere and some parts of the houses were gone.
“Did anybody see who did this?” Danny shouted and was extremely mad. Nobody said anything and they all looked around to see who looked the most suspicious. “Starting today, nobody leaves or enters the town! Anybody caught will be used as bait for the zombies or they will be exiled!”
Nobody moved or said anything. Even I was tense. “Get to your houses! It’s getting dark!
Anyone out past eleven will be contained at the town jail!”
“Keep your guards up tonight. This type of behavior is unacceptable!” A girl shouted.
Everyone quickly shuffled out and only I, Danny, and the girl were left.
“I want to find out who did this and I’m going to make sure that we actually feed them to the
zombies. By the way, Just Jake, this is Penny. Penny, this is Just Jake.” Danny stared at the remains of the water fountain and sighed.
“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m a guard that patrols the town and I’m also an investigator.”
“Nice to meet you too. I’m known as zombie bait or Steve’s sidekick.”
“Penny, let Just Jake stay in an empty house for the time being. We can read the rest of the
book tomorrow and see if we can catch the person who did this. Goodnight.” Danny walked
away and Penny led me to an empty house not that far away from the one I slept in last night.
“You can stay here. There should be plenty of food and if you ever need anything, let me know.
I live right next door.”
“Thank you. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
I remember rummaging through the kitchen and just getting ready to hibernate. As soon as I laid down on the bed, I wondered if Steve really was a part of a trinity that he never mentioned to me about. Nothing made sense. Why would Steve be over two centuries old and still look that young?
