We believed it was for a good cause, so my parents ventured out to find other zombies. They still haven’t come back, whilst Bones went to where the skeletons meet. I went back into the depths of the cave with Alex. Don’t worry, we stayed well away from the humans. In fact, we went to the opposite end of the cave. It’s vast enough to shelter multiple civilizations without them even meeting one another. I wonder if The Nether is as big, or even bigger, than the cave. We went down into the cave to mine.
Alex pulled out his axe and started to chip into blocks of cobblestone (he taught me a lot of new words). He got my attention, pointed at various objects, and spoke the words aloud, so he must have dealt with monsters before. I can imagine him extending an arm to offer my parents meat and then telling them what it is. He dug and mined his way into trouble. We hit into this orange liquid (called lava). It resembled the ball of fire in the sky – which I’m told is called the sun – and would have fried us alive if Alex didn’t block it off. It was such a shame, too, because we found diamond, but it was engulfed by the lava.
If that wasn’t enough of a problem, the others zombies, skeletons, and spider kept trying to attack Alex. I pushed them away and tried to communicate to them that Alex is friendly and that he’s with me, but it didn’t seem to work. We had to create a secluded area in the cave with cobblestone to block ourselves off from the monsters. I think my parents would have had more success in telling the monsters to stay away; they’ve probably made a lot of friends down here.
I know Bones wouldn’t have trouble with his weapons. Alex said we should refrain from violence though, and I agree.
The worst of it was the Creepers who tried to blow Alex’s head off all the way back to our smaller cave.
Tuesday – Day 7
We had a group meeting today: Me, Bones, his spider, my parents, and Alex. We discussed the progress of forming a larger group made of skeletons, zombies, and other monsters. Bones said he wasn’t able to convince the skeletons yet, that they aren’t sold on the idea that The Nether exists and, if it did, they probably wouldn’t want to go there. My parents couldn’t speak or write but no other zombies were with us, so I assume that means they had no luck too. Alex looked disappointed for a moment but then looked back up to us with a smile.
He told Bones to teach me how to speak. I don’t think Alex was used to hearing a skeleton talk because his eyes widened every time Bones let out a creak of words. Alex said he needed me to be able to talk in order to tell the monsters in the cave to leave him alone. Imagine that… I’d be the first zombie to speak!
Bones and I got on with it in my corner of the cave, whilst my parents went out to look for more zombies to persuade. Alex rested on his back, on the floor, and shut his eyes. I wrote him a note to ask what he was doing and he said that humans sleep at night, most of the time, so I let him rest, otherwise we’d be in trouble the next time we went into the depths of the cave – I know I feel sluggish when I’m tired.
Bones told me to open my mouth, so I did, and then to push as much air out as possible, which proved harder than I expected. I pushed so much air out that my head started to become faint and Bones began to laugh (in his creaky sort of way). I looked at him to ask why he was making a joke out of my attempt and he told me that no sound came out – I guess it must have been funny to see someone’s head almost explode. I brushed it off and tried again. This time the sound of the moan was louder and longer than ever before. His eyes jumped and he patted me on the back, which made me smile.
He told me to move my lips like he moves his. He mouthed the word ‘Hello’ and then told me to make the same shape with my mouth. Unfortunately I had to get some paper and write that I couldn’t see his lips move because he was just bone. He creaked out a laugh, like before, and then said maybe Alex should teach me. He was sleeping so I didn’t wake him but maybe he will help me tomorrow.
My parents are back without friends but with meat. I’m happy to see they brought me some because I was starting to feel the urge to bite into something again.
Wednesday – Day 8
Alex and I went into the cave again today. We dug for hours to make it deeper into the earth – he says diamonds are most likely to be found there, but they are sometimes scattered randomly. I watched him pick into the rock, chipping it away one shard at a time. He was able to get through the rock quite quickly due to him having pretty big muscles under his armor. My job was to collect as much cobblestone as possible so we could make a furnace. We dug so far down into the earth that we hit the bottom layer. Alex and I were equally stunned when he couldn’t even make a scratch in the bottom layer of the earth.
He sat on the ground as he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. I’ve seen that expression before, recently, from watching the humans from afar – he was definitely exhausted. Zombies do get tired, but never exhausted… I guess we’re technically dead (although I don’t like to be viewed that way). I leaned against the walk as Alex rested, and looked up to the drop we had created. I don’t believe I could see the top even if I had the eyes of a human. I looked to Alex, who rose, and pointed up and moaned. He replied with: “So Bones wasn’t successful in teaching you to speak?” I shook my head.
He told me to moan, so I did, and then he said, “How?” and continued to say it over and over. He moved his lips more than he usually does when he speaks so I believe he meant for me to copy his movements (it was much easier to copy a human’s lips over Bones’). At first the sound came out as an extended moan, but when I moved my lips the word started to take form. Alex said it was a decent first try and that he’ll teach me more when we surface.
“I’ve brought ladders,” is how he replied and then he took out these wooden planks and nailed them to the rocky wall. He could nail about three standing on the ground, and then he moved up the ladder, nailed three more and repeated this process. I stood at the bottom and watched until he was barely visible. He yelled down, “Start climbing up and I’ll continue to create our way out of here.” So I followed him up the ladder until we reached the top. I almost fell a few times, and if I did I probably would have died (for real this time), but Alex would shuffle down quickly to catch me.
If that wasn’t hard enough, we had to run away from those monsters again. Alex could easily wield his sword and cut them down, but he doesn’t believe in killing them, which I admire. He says it isn’t their fault for wanting to attack humans, just like it isn’t a zombie’s fault for having the urge to bite into flesh. We were almost blown up by another creeper.
Luckily we made it home safely. He’s about to show us something really cool…
Thursday – Day 9
I couldn’t believe my eyes when Alex did it. You remember I told you about the diamonds we had collected? Well, he crafted them into armor. Wow… It looks beautiful but, more importantly, it will protect him from the worst The Nether has to throw at us… or at least he thinks it will. I can’t describe how he actually went about merging the diamonds together to make wearable armor, but it was like magic. He’s wearing it now. He’s gone down to the cave, to the drop we made, to collect more diamonds. He said he’s going to make me and Bones each a set too.
My own set of diamond armor!
Before Alex left, he broke some news to us: He doesn’t know how to make a portal to The Nether. Bones didn’t seem too fussed; he said he doesn’t mind where he goes because he enjoys relaxing and he enjoys fighting, but I was pretty upset. I think Alex noticed, because he quickly blurted out, “I don’t know how to get to The Nether, but the other humans do.” The blueprints to a Nether Portal are within the humans’ small town.
Let that sink in. We somehow have to be allowed into the humans’ town long enough to look for the instructions on how to make a Nether Portal. It’s not like they’d exactly welcome us in and I doubt they’d hand over the blueprints to even a different human civilization, let alone one full of monsters and a traitor (that’s what Alex said they call him). While Alex collects more diamo
nd - he didn’t need me there because the armor will protect him - Bones and I had some free time.
He finally showed me how to build a makeshift shack. We went out into the forest area near Bones’ house, quite close to the humans actually, and he brought out two axes. He showed me what to do: First you wield the axe tightly in your hand; then you pull it back; you put all your might into swinging at the tree; the tree should cut up quite smoothly and you use one big block to make multiple wooden squares; lastly, you use these squares of wood to form walls to your house.
It sounded easy enough… until I swung the axe at the tree, making my arm nearly fly off. I wasn’t strong enough to hack down the trunk, so Bones did that part for me. For someone who doesn’t have any muscles, he sure is strong. I wonder if a spell of any sort was cast on him. Maybe I should ask him sometime? I don’t want to be too intrusive, though.
Anyway, I piled my blocks of wood around myself; I took up the entire inner space of my ‘home’. I realized pretty quickly that I was cheating because I could hear Bones cackling. He pulled the block in front of my face away to show me his makeshift shack. I used his as an example, so I ended up making a pretty decent looking little home.
I love learning new things. However, I’d feel too exposed sleeping in a wooden home.
Friday – Day 10
Alex has gone back to the humans. It seems like a long story in my head but I’ll tell it. We went down to the cave again. For some reason it doesn’t get boring, maybe because of all the monsters we pass on the way. We began mining for more diamonds. We went down the ladder, like usual, to the bottom of the earth. Alex suggested we started digging outwards. I believe his words were, “Well, if we can’t go any further down, let’s dig out.” So we did just that - it was like any other day of digging… until a creeper showed up.
I had seen them around before with their mean looking faces and green, black, and white long bodies. I always found it disturbing how they could move their body without moving their head, but they left me alone. They would approach me as if they were going to harm me, but then walk past. We were digging farther out, then we stopped. Alex suggested we had dug far enough out to start digging upwards again (we had enough cobblestone and ladders to go up). He said we might be able to dig into another open cave.
I was a little worried we’d get lost, but he said he had marked our way home on his map and that we could follow the torches back to our original drop. Just as we were talking, a creeper exploded behind us. Luckily, Alex had built my armor, so neither of us suffered any serious damage. It made a hole in the side of our pathway and exposed a bigger section of the main cave. Multiple dead monsters littered the area where the creeper had exploded. It was quite shocking for me…
A zombie’s body had been blown apart; its limbs scattered around the cave. I turned my head to see the dead zombie’s eyes looking back at me. I had to turn away from that. As I did, Alex put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re going to hate me for this being my first thought, but do you remember what I said about The Nether Portal?” I tried to focus on thinking back to all that Alex had said. Eventually I remembered and nodded my head at him, waiting for the news he was about to break to me.
“I could use that Zombie’s… Um…” he looked down but continued. “I could take it to the humans and tell them the zombies tried to attack me, so I killed one to show them I’m no longer in an alliance.” He blurted it all out really fast. I didn’t know how to respond, so I just nodded.
Now that I think about it, I find it to be a good idea. I don’t believe he will betray us. I’m certain he will come back once he has the blueprints to The Nether Portal.
I’m at Bones’ right now and he wants to go out so I’ll have to leave it there.
Saturday – Day 11
Bones and I just made a small area out of the front of his house to grow crops. He crafted wood from the trees into fences to put around the patch of grass where we are going to grow crops and made a set of fence doors. He used this weird looking brush to make the ground suitable for growing food, and dug up the earth around the crops to fill it with water. It wasn’t long until food started to grow. Neither I nor Bones need food to survive, but he said that he enjoys pretending he’s human. I guess his spider can munch on the crops.
I’m starting to actually believe Bones used to be human. He has a bed he lays in to rest even though he doesn’t sleep, and he has a picture of a human woman on his wall (it must have be his wife). Maybe I’ll ask him softly when we become closer friends. I think we’re definitely closer than when we first met. I called him creaky as a joke one time and he called me dead meat. They have become our nicknames for one another. We don’t mean it in a bad way though, not like how the humans would meant it. Somehow friendly poking fun at each other makes me feel like we are close, because neither of us got offended.
I told him all about what happened between me and Alex and what Alex has planned to do. Bones thinks he really has betrayed us – Bones said that Alex probably couldn’t handle being around monsters anymore and missed human life. He said those are the worst sort of people: the ones who act nice to your face but think something completely different and let you find out through their actions instead of telling you the truth. Life suddenly seemed simpler before I went outside and met other people. I’m less lonely now, but I’m starting to understand that not everyone gets along with everyone else.
I think Alex is telling the truth. Maybe I’m naïve… I guess we’ll find out when Alex returns or not. Bones told me to come outside. He’s seen something. I can hear him calling. I’m going to leave the diary in here as I don’t it to get dirty or lose it.
I’ll write another update tomorrow.
Sunday – Day 12
Alex is back with us.
Bones and I were watching the moon rise from inside his little wooden home, as we anticipated exploring the land, when we saw a burning light in the distance. Once the sun had properly set, we opened Bones’ front door and waited for the light to get closer. I felt anxious at the sight of the flames, as I remembered seeing my kind burned by the sun before. We could eventually make out the sight of people moving – it was the humans. They were collected in a group, holding torches, whilst one stray human led at the front.
We quickly realized the human in front wasn’t leading… he was being chased! As the fleeing human got closer to us, I realized it was Alex. I turned to Bones but he had left my side. I looked to his home to see the front door open. Bones came out with his bow and arrow and with his pet spider in his rib cage. Bones aimed his bow at Alex (at first I thought he was going to help the humans), but let Alex pass and continued to aim at the aggressive group of humans.
They said, “We don’t want to start an all-out war. We just need Alex.”
So Bones replied with, “Why?” which made the humans gasp.
The one who had spoken before lifted his sword to point at Bones, “You’re the first skeleton I’ve seen talk. I’ve killed a lot of skeletons who roam the land alone, but I’ve never heard one talk before. I’ve heard plenty crack as I beat them to a pulp.” Bones pulled the string of his bow back along with the arrow as he creaked out a scream of anger, and was about to release the arrow into the human’s face until Alex charged in front and pushed his arm down.
“Look at him,” the lead human said, “he’s still a traitor.” He then looked to the rest of the humans, most of who had their swords unsheathed, and signed downwards. The group put their swords away and looked to their leader in confusion. “He may be a traitor, but he’s gone for good now; we won’t make the same mistake again.” He raised his voice, “You hear that, Alex? If you come near our civilization again, we’ll shoot on sight.” With that, the humans retreated back to their little town.
I turned to see Alex behind Bones. When I looked into his eyes, he smiled. He came out from behind Bones and tapped me on the shoulder, “You doing well?” I moaned and nodded. He continued to talk: “They took my armor,”
he looked between Bones and I equally, “but I took something of theirs in return.” He pulled out a rolled up piece of paper. He opened it, and then shoved it in our faces.
Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Page 2
