Terror on a Treasure Hunt

by Winter Morgan

  “What are you doing?” Ilana questioned Emma. But as the others ran over to back Ilana up, the sky grew dark and thunder boomed throughout the jungle.

  “It’s a storm!” Lily cried.

  “No!” Robin shrieked. “It’s the Ender Dragon!”

  The dragon unleashed a deafening roar as it soared low over the jungle, knocking over a tall tree.

  Lily and the others sprinted toward the jungle temple and sheltered themselves from the powerful flying beast and the falling trees.

  Simon shot an arrow at the dragon, striking its muscular side. It roared in pain.

  Robin grabbed her last remaining snowball and threw it at the dragon, costing it a heart.

  The dragon flew toward the jungle temple, slamming its strong, scaly wing against the side of the temple. A large chunk of the building crumbled, and the gang dove out of the way of the debris.

  Lily raced toward the dragon and ripped into the side of the flying, hostile mob with her enchanted diamond sword. The dragon lost a heart, but it lunged toward Lily and she fell to the ground.

  “Help!” Lily called out as the dragon loomed over her. Emma stood nearby, an unreadable expression on her face. She didn’t move to help Lily.

  Ilana raced toward Lily’s side and splashed a potion on the dragon, which weakened the beast.

  Robin plunged her sword into the dragon, and with a shriek, the beast exploded. It dropped wings and an egg, and a portal to the End spawned in the center of the jungle.

  While Lily’s friends helped her up, Simon looked at Emma, who was scurrying toward the portal. “Stop!” he screamed, and he raced in her direction.

  Emma didn’t turn around. Instead, she leapt onto the portal to the End and disappeared into the toxic world. Nobody followed her.

  “Wow, she willingly traveled to the End on her own.” Simon shook his head, watching the portal disappear.

  “She’s a griefer.” Lily was furious.

  “I bet she captured Michael,” Simon said. “How are we going to get him back? I can’t stand the idea that he is trapped somewhere and he needs our help.”

  Peter suggested, “Maybe we should go back to Lisimi Village and come up with a plan. We don’t seem to be getting anywhere on this trip.”

  They all gasped when a familiar voice said, “I can help.”

  7

  SNOW AND SURPRISES

  “Mr. Anarchy?” Lily asked. “Now what do you want from us?”

  “I don’t want anything from you,” Mr. Anarchy replied. “I want to help you.”

  “Yeah, right. That’s not why you escaped.” Simon was suspicious.

  “Escaped?” Mr. Anarchy said. “I was kidnapped and taken away from the village. I’m not the one behind all this griefing—I’m a victim of it. And I can prove it.”

  “How?” Lily demanded.

  “Follow me,” replied Mr. Anarchy.

  “Where?” Lily and the others stood frozen with doubt.

  “The cold biome. You’ll see that I am not the one who is attacking the Overworld,” said Mr. Anarchy.

  Lily looked over at the others. “I think we should follow him. What do we have to lose?”

  Robin asked, “Mr. Anarchy. Can you tell us what we’re going to see when we get to the cold biome?”

  “You’ll see who is behind the attack. They have an elaborate home base set up in the cold biome.”

  “How do you know?” asked Simon.

  “I was captured from Lisimi Village while I was helping Matthew test ways to escape. The griefers held me there, but I escaped.”

  “Why should we trust you?” Lily asked.

  “I can’t prove it unless you’ll let me show you,” Mr. Anarchy said. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  The group exchanged glances and made a silent decision. Together, they hurried to the cold biome with Mr. Anarchy. As they reached the edge of the jungle, they spotted the icy biome in the distance.

  Large, icy spikes protruded from the snowy ground. The enormous spikes looked as if their tops could touch the blocky clouds.

  “Oh my!” Lily gasped. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “This isn’t a very hospitable biome,” Mr. Anarchy warned them. “All of the lakes are frozen and there isn’t much wood. The people who survive here are quite powerful because they know how to live with very few resources.”

  “Who are they,” Warren asked, “and why won’t you tell us?”

  There was no need for a reply. When the group took their first step into the icy biome, they saw Otto. He wore his now-familiar black jumpsuit, and standing behind him was Emma. She aimed her bow and arrow at the group.

  “Stand back,” Emma hollered.

  Otto barked orders at an unknown army. “Forces, attack.”

  Various players dressed in skins ranging from jeans and sweaters to neon jumpsuits emerged from a hole in a large patch of snow. Otto’s army was ready to destroy the gang. The vicious players leapt at them with swords, arrows, and potions.

  Lily shielded herself from a woman who swung a diamond sword at her, but the sword connected with her arm. Lily was losing hearts.

  “Help!” Lily called out.

  Mr. Anarchy raced to her side, diamond sword raised high. In a flurry of motion, he finished her battle and destroyed the woman with the diamond sword.

  “Thanks.” Lily’s energy was incredibly low, and she could barely speak. She looked at Mr. Anarchy in shock.

  Mr. Anarchy handed her a potion of healing and she took a gulp. Her energy quickly returned to her, and she joined the battle against the large army.

  Two griefers dressed in matching orange outfits shot arrows at Lily and Mr. Anarchy. They dodged the arrows and sprinted toward the griefers with their diamond swords raised. Lily plunged her sword into one of the orange people, annihilating him. Mr. Anarchy slashed and stabbed the other griefer with lightning speed, but the griefer seemed to have an infinite amount of hearts. No matter how many times Mr. Anarchy struck the orange griefer, she didn’t seem to lose one heart.

  “What is going on here?” he asked Lily.

  Lily grabbed a potion of harming and splashed it on the powerful orange griefer, but it didn’t make a difference. She seemed to be undefeatable.

  Ilana noticed Lily and Mr. Anarchy struggling with the powerful orange griefer. She ran to Lily and Mr. Anarchy and whispered, “I think we should use the potion of invisibility to escape.”

  But before they could respond, both Lily and Mr. Anarchy were destroyed.

  Lily respawned in her bed at her cottage in Lisimi Village. When she woke, she wished it had all been a nightmare, and that her friends would be outside and there would be peace in the Overworld. However, once she left the cottage, she knew that it wasn’t a dream—it was reality. Mr. Anarchy stood outside her door, and that meant that her friends were still battling Otto, Emma, and their army.

  Mr. Anarchy seemed fixated on the orange griefer. He didn’t even greet Lily before starting to ramble. “I don’t understand why she didn’t lose hearts. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “That’s all the more reason that I have to go back to the icy biome and save my friends. Are you coming with me, or not?”

  Before Mr. Anarchy could answer, a voice called out, “Lily!”

  Lily was thrilled to see Michael hurrying toward them. “Michael!”

  “You recaptured Mr. Anarchy!” Michael said.

  “Well, actually,” Lily said, “I think Mr. Anarchy is working with us.”

  “What?” Michael was confused.

  Lily explained, “He led us to Otto and Emma. They’ve created a new griefer army in the cold biome and are staging an attack on the Overworld.”

  “I know.” Michael sighed. “That’s where I was trapped. But I thought Mr. Anarchy was working with them.”

  “I’m not,” said Mr. Anarchy. “I don’t want to grief anymore. When I thought I helped Otto go back to the real world, I was proud of myself. I real
ized that I don’t want to hurt people. I want to help people get back home instead. I can’t keep griefing; it will only distract me from my real ambition, and that is to make my way home.”

  “I understand,” said Michael. “We all want to go home. Lily, it’s like you said—that if he had hope, Mr. Anarchy wouldn’t grief.”

  “I just wish we didn’t have to battle a new enemy, and we could focus on finding a way to get back to the real world instead.” Lily looked over at Mr. Anarchy.

  “We will defeat this new enemy together, and I promise to work tirelessly to get us off this server,” Mr. Anarchy said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with Otto and Emma. For a long time after I got sucked into this game, I thought I was the first person ever to be zapped onto the server. I thought it was just a glitch, but it was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. For a long time, the only people I spoke to were Juan, Fred, and Harriet because they were the villagers and they naturally lived on this server. It was very lonely.”

  “When did other players arrive?” asked Lily.

  “It was my fault that other players arrived. At first I thought I had found a way to get off the server by asking people if I could join the servers they were on. They would respond and get zapped in here. That’s how the Prismarines formed. They were the first people I trapped, but at least at the beginning, I didn’t mean to. And I went on believing I had been the first person trapped here, until I met Emma and Otto.”

  “What are you saying?” asked Lily.

  “I believe Emma and Otto were the first players trapped on the server. In fact, I think they were the ones who trapped me.”

  “Are you sure?” Lily questioned.

  “If what I think is true, it means they might be able to help us find out who trapped them on the server. Maybe we can use that information to help us get back home,” suggested Mr. Anarchy.

  “We need to TP to the cold biome, rescue our friends, and question Otto and Emma,” Lily demanded.

  “I can’t go back there.” Michael shook when he heard them discuss the icy biome. “I was trapped there. Emma and Otto are zapping more people onto the server to create their new army. All of these noobs are being trained to destroy us. It’s awful.”

  “We have to stop them,” declared Mr. Anarchy.

  But at that moment, an arrow struck Mr. Anarchy. Emma stepped out of the shadow of a house. “Stop who?”

  8

  TRAPPED

  Michael rushed toward Emma. “You’re the reason we’re trapped on this server!”

  Emma splashed a potion of weakness on Michael, and he used his last heart to deliver a powerful sword blow to Emma’s chest, but she didn’t even lose one heart. She grabbed another bottle from her inventory and splashed Michael with potion again, destroying him.

  Lily slammed her sword into Emma, at the same time shielding herself from the potion Emma tried to splash on her.

  Mr. Anarchy hit Emma with his sword but she doused both Lily and Mr. Anarchy with a potion of harming, and they were instantly weakened. Emma took out her enchanted sword and pierced Lily with it. Mr. Anarchy took advantage of her distraction to splash a potion on Emma, but the potent brew only momentarily weakened her.

  As Lily and Mr. Anarchy redoubled for another attack, Otto TPed into the village and rushed to Emma’s side. “We have your friends trapped,” he announced.

  “And don’t bother looking in the cold biome.” Emma’s lips curved, unleashing a sinister smile.

  “Where are they?” shouted Lily.

  “Still on this server,” replied Otto. “But that’s all we’ll tell you.”

  “Tell us!” Michael demanded.

  “We’ve given you enough clues,” Otto said.

  “You guys were planning a treasure hunt, right?” Emma laughed. “Well, now you can go on a serious treasure hunt. Good luck finding your friends!” She splashed a potion of invisibility on Otto and then on herself.

  Lily was devastated. “We have to find where they’ve taken our friends.”

  Mr. Anarchy said, “I think I have some ideas. I know that Otto and Emma had another base in the desert. They have a large prison in the stronghold.”

  “We have to go there.” Lily felt helpless.

  Michael agreed. “I heard them talk about their stronghold in the desert when I was trapped in the cold biome.”

  “Which desert? There are several desert biomes on this server.” Lily’s head began to spin.

  Michael took out a map. “I guess we’ll have to visit all of them.”

  “That’s an impossible search—it will take forever.” Lily paced, and her eyes welled with tears.

  “We will find them,” Mr. Anarchy said. “I think I know the way. Follow me.”

  Lily looked at Michael and shrugged. They followed Mr. Anarchy. But as the trio left the village, they spotted Matthew up ahead.

  “Matthew! We have so much to tell you! Emma and Otto have trapped our friends on the server, but we don’t know where.” Lily spoke quickly.

  “We think they are in the desert biome,” added Michael.

  Matthew said, “I know where they are.”

  “How?” Mr. Anarchy asked.

  “They kidnapped me, right after you escaped,” said Matthew, looking over their shoulders. “They held me their fortress in the desert biome.”

  “I didn’t escape,” Mr. Anarchy said. “I was captured by Otto and Emma, too. But it was weird—I was down by the ocean, collecting the gravel you said you needed for your experiments, and Otto and Emma TPed right to me. It’s like they knew I’d be there.”

  “That is strange,” Lily said. “Matthew, did they know exactly where you’d be?”

  “Yeah, something like that,” Matthew said, hurrying past them. He called over his shoulder, “Come on, let’s get going.”

  Lily and Michael followed, but as the group left Lisimi Village in search of their trapped friends, night began to set in.

  “We have to TP there,” suggested Matthew.

  “Do you think we should wait until it’s morning?” Lily asked. “It might be too dangerous to travel at night.”

  “I don’t think we should waste any time,” Michael said. “We’ll just have to deal with the hostile mobs.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Lily remarked. “Ilana gave me a potion of night vision. We should drink this so we can have an advantage during the trip.”

  As Lily handed out the potion, hostile mobs spawned in the dimly lit village. Zombies lumbered through the town. Lily sprinted toward an undead mob and attacked it with her diamond sword. Matthew and Michael battled a cluster of skeletons that shot arrows at the group.

  Two Endermen walked past, and one of them spotted Mr. Anarchy and shrieked as it teleported toward him. He tried to escape by running to the shoreline, but it was too late. He wasn’t fast enough, and he was destroyed by the lanky, block-carrying mob.

  Lily, Matthew, and Michael were immersed in their own battles and couldn’t help Mr. Anarchy. After a tough battle, Lily was relieved when she destroyed the last remaining zombie, but she didn’t see the silent, green time bomb that was creeping up behind her.

  Kaboom!

  The creeper destroyed Lily. When she respawned in her bed, she reached for her sword and sprinted into the thick of the night in search of her friends. Lily reached the heart of Lisimi Village where the hostile mob battle had just taken place, but her friends’ battle was over. She didn’t see Michael, Matthew, or Mr. Anarchy.

  Lily called out their names again and again, but there was no response.

  She ran to Matthew’s house, where Mr. Anarchy was also staying, but it was empty. She raced to Michael’s house next, but it was empty, too. Lily was alone. She walked back to her house and climbed into bed. She’d wait out the night and find help and hope in the morning.

  9

  SECRETS

  The sun shined as Lily jumped out of bed and raced toward the cottage window to peek outside. She put on he
r armor and left the cottage, spotting Matthew almost right away. “Where did you go last night? I was looking for you.”

  “Otto trapped Mr. Anarchy and Michael. He tried to trap me, but I escaped. Come with me, and we can try and save them,” Matthew explained.

  “To the desert?” questioned Lily.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  The duo walked through the town and past Juan the Butcher, who held out a hand to stop them. “Are you leaving town?”

  “We have to find our friends. They’ve been trapped in the desert by Otto and Emma,” Lily told Juan.

  “Be careful. Otto and Emma are very tricky players. And watch out for Mr. Anarchy. He said he is on your side, but I am not convinced. I was inside my home last night avoiding the mobs, but I could swear I heard voices that sounded like Mr. Anarchy’s, Otto’s, and Emma’s. It sounded more like they were promising to help him get home than like they were taking him captive.” Juan wished them well.

  Lily and Matthew just looked at each other, eyebrows raised. “Thanks for telling us, Juan,” Lily said. Then she turned to Matthew. “We had better go.” He nodded, and the two left town.

  After they’d been walking for a while, Lily asked Matthew, “Do you think Mr. Anarchy is on our side?”

  Matthew was quiet for a long time. When he finally responded, he surprised Lily by saying, “If I tell you something, will you promise not to be mad?”

  “What? Of course!”

  Matthew fumbled with his words. “Well. Um. I’m—”

  Roar!

  Lily and Matthew looked up at the sound and saw the Ender Dragon spawn in the skies above them. They looked for shelter, but the open, grassy biome they walked through offered none.

  “We can’t battle that beast on our own!” Lily cried.

  Matthew looked at Lily. “I—I have to go,” he said, and he splashed a potion of invisibility on himself and disappeared.

  “Matthew!” Lily screamed. She was left to battle the Ender Dragon on her own. Her heart was beating fast. She grabbed her diamond sword and struck the side of the dragon, but she was no match for this powerful, flying, hostile mob.