The Great Zombie Invasion

by Mark Cheverton

  “I miss my friends, Wilbur.”

  The pig peered up at him with a pair of dark, innocent eyes.

  “That really hurt, being turned away from that village. They thought I might actually be an enemy or something … how could they think that?”

  The pig moved next to Gameknight and rubbed his pink shoulder against the user’s leg.

  “Maybe if I change how I act, and try to be more like them, they’ll let me in,” Gameknight said to his small pink friend.

  “Oink, oink,” Wilbur replied.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Gameknight replied as if he understood the pig’s words. “That would never work. You can only be your real self. Anything else would seem fake and insincere.” He sighed. “What would Crafter do in this situation?”

  “Oink!”

  “Yeah, I think he’d be true to himself and just be Crafter,” Gameknight said. “He’d also sit down and try to think things through with a level head. There are so many questions. Let’s start with what I know. I spawned in Minecraft, but all of the things I’d normally see in this area of the Overworld, like my torch, or the tall dirt pillar I built, or even Crafter’s village—they’re all missing, like they never even existed in the first place. And to top it all off, a strange new village is where Crafter’s village should have been, and all the villagers are mean and unwilling to help me. And one of them claims to be Smithy, as in Smithy of the Two-Swords, even though legend has it that he existed a long time ago in Minecraft’s past,” Gameknight said.

  There were so many pieces of the puzzle tumbling around in his head. Almost too many pieces. Just as he was about to give up, he remembered something his dad had told him: that often, even though it might not seem like it makes sense, the simplest answer is usually the correct one.

  “Of course. There’s no other explanation!” he exclaimed.

  “Oink?”

  “Wilbur, something must have happened and I’ve been sent into Minecraft’s past! Somehow, the lightning strike that hit the house must have done something to the Digitizer. I was transported back a hundred years, to the time of the Great Zombie Invasion. Who knows if that war has even happened or not, but that was Smithy for sure. I have no doubt that was Crafter’s village up there, too, but Crafter and all my friends won’t be born for another hundred years.”

  “Oink,” Wilbur said, then nuzzled his wet nose against his leg.

  The pig could probably sense Gameknight’s fear. He reached out and petted the animal on the head, then scratched one of his soft ears.

  “I just need to wait until the Digitizer activates again and takes me back home. I set it for forty minutes, which is two days in Minecraft. All I need to do is stay safe until then.”

  “Oink.”

  “Yes, that was kinda weird meeting Smithy,” Gameknight said, then stood up. “Think about it. Smithy might not be the only one. I could meet some of the ancestors that Crafter told me about from his endless stream of stories. Maybe I’ll meet his grandfather, or great-grandfather … that would be weird, right?”

  “Oink, oink.”

  The User-that-is-not-a-user glanced down at the pig as a terrifying thought shot through his head.

  “What if I do something that causes Crafter’s great-grandfather to be killed? Then Crafter’s grandparents would never be born, and Crafter himself would never be born. This is crazy.”

  He paced back and forth across the small chamber, with Wilbur staying right at his side.

  “What if—” Gameknight started to say, then paused, clearly too frightened to even say it out loud. He was thinking through all the ways that Minecraft could be different now that he was in the past.

  “Wilbur, all of the things that I’ve accomplished in Minecraft … none of them have happened yet,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “What if—what if that means that Herobrine’s still alive?”

  “Oink,” the pig said softly, and shivered, it’s tiny fuzzy hairs bristling at the idea.

  “Ugh, so many ‘what ifs.’ I need to remember that I can’t do anything about that right now. All I can do is get as prepared as possible and make sure nothing bad happens. And to start with, I need some iron. Come on, Wilbur, let’s get to work.”

  With his stone pickaxe in his hands, he began to dig downward into the darkness.

  CHAPTER 4

  HEROBRINE

  The sky overhead began to blush a warm crimson as the square yellow face of the sun disappeared behind the horizon. The white bark on the birch trees that filled the forest began to glow with a rosy hue as the setting sun shaded the landscape with red light. Most people would have thought it was a beautiful sight, but Herobrine found it disgusting.

  “I hate these colors,” the evil virus mumbled to himself. “Ever since I became trapped in this server, I’ve had to endure all these colors … I hate it!”

  “What?” asked one of the idiotic zombies nearby.

  “Nothing. Go back to your moaning,” Herobrine snapped.

  The zombie shuffled away, its arms extended out in front as if it had no control over them.

  Stupid creatures, he thought. They barely have enough intelligence to be useful.

  He glared at the monsters that surrounded him. His army consisted of maybe twenty zombies, a dozen skeletons, ten spiders, and two dozen creepers. The spiders seemed to come and go as they pleased, never staying long or doing anything Herobrine ordered. The dark fuzzy monsters seemed to all work as individuals and had no concept of the community in which they lived. As members of his army, the giant spiders were completely useless, but that was a problem for another time. Right now, he needed more monsters to add to his mob, and the last thing he needed were additional spiders.

  The creepers were completely the opposite. They were all about community and were nervous whenever they were alone; they were always happiest in a group. But they were so painfully stupid that the spotted, green creatures could do nothing correctly. Herobrine had tried to use the creepers in battle, but the idiotic monsters never knew when to detonate or where to go. That was another problem that had to be dealt with at some point, but not today.

  Today’s problem was getting more zombies. Though they were stupid as well, they were not as dumb as the creepers. The decaying green monsters could at least follow orders and fight. He needed more of them, as well as more skeletons, so that he could go back to that blacksmith’s village and erase it from the surface of Minecraft.

  Closing his eyes for a moment, Herobrine teleported to a rocky outcropping that stood high over the basin in which the monsters congregated. Looking down on them, he cleared his throat to get their attention.

  “Friends, I have gathered you all here so that you can hear my plans for Minecraft,” Herobrine said. “Things changed when I came into this server a few days ago. I have crafted you into living beings.” He didn’t mind lying to these creatures … the truth was never terribly important to Herobrine. Though it was true the creatures had “awakened” and become alive when he entered the server, Herobrine knew it was not intentional. “I gave you the ability to think and feel and plan because I am the first shadow-crafter of Minecraft. My powers will make the creatures that lurk in the shadows, like yourselves, become stronger. Only, you need not stay in the shadows any longer … because of me. That was a little gift from Herobrine, one of many soon to come. But sadly, my vast powers were too great for this server, and they accidentally caused those pathetic villagers down in that village to also come to life.”

  Some of the zombies growled, remembering the treatment they’d received from the NPCs.

  “That’s right, those NPCs are now alive as well. They became aware just a few days ago, at the same time as you. But that does not give them the right to spurn us. The villagers refused to let us be a part of their community and chased us away for no reason,” Herobrine said, his voice getting louder. “They think monsters are not good enough to be a part of their community. If it were up to them, you would be sentence
d to a lifetime underground in tunnels and caves, rather than under the open sky.”

  The thought of living underground caused many of the zombies to utter sorrowful moans as the skeletons shuffled from foot to foot, making a clattering sound.

  “Just after I arrived here in Minecraft, I changed all zombies and skeletons with my shadow-crafting powers, so that the sun would not harm you. You are now impervious to the burning rays of the sun and can walk about in broad daylight without bursting into flames,” the dark shadow-crafter shouted, fanning the flames of the monsters’ anger. “The villagers would hate me if they knew what I did, but I don’t care. I wanted to help all of you because we are brothers and sisters in this struggle for equality. We are all alike. We are the creatures of the darkness, the monsters of the night. But now, we are about to take over the day.

  “Soon we will be resting under wooden roofs, after we destroy the villagers and take their homes for our own,” Herobrine said. The monsters started to growl with excitement. “We should not be expected to live out here in the rain or sleep in damp caves and tunnels while they live warm and cozy in their houses.” The monsters growled louder, and some of the spiders that stood on the periphery clicked their mandibles together, sounding like a storm of crickets. “We tried to join their village peacefully, but they wouldn’t let us into their community. They shunned the monsters, saying you were evil and vicious. Well, we will show them just how vicious you can be. If they won’t let us into their community, then we will destroy their community and take it for ourselves. That village down there with that blacksmith will be erased from Minecraft.”

  The zombies all growled in agreement and the skeletons shot arrows into the air. Spiders clicked excitedly while the creepers hissed and grew bright, starting their ignition process for just an instant, before turning it off and growing dim again. The monsters were becoming angry and excited, ready for battle.

  “When the sun rises, we will strike at our enemies,” Herobrine continued. “But first, we must gather more of our brothers and sisters. Go, search out the caves and tunnels and bring me all that you find. Zombies, I call upon you to round up the most monsters. There is more of your kind than any other on the Minecraft servers, so you must return with the most. Tell all the monsters that tomorrow is the first day of the Great Zombie Invasion. When the sun rises, you will take what is rightfully yours, and that pesky blacksmith will be punished for shunning me … err, I mean shunning all of us!”

  The monsters growled and clattered and clicked and hissed, then spread out across the land in search of their shadowy brethren. As Herobrine watched the monsters disperse, his eyes began to glow with excitement. He imagined what he was going to do to that blacksmith and how he would make him pay.

  “No one denies Herobrine access to anything,” he muttered aloud. “He will be punished until he begs for mercy. And in that moment, when his despair has encompassed his entire being, that pathetic blacksmith will realize that mercy will never come and his suffering will continue until he is destroyed. That is a fitting punishment for his refusal to let me join their village.”

  And then Herobrine laughed a maniacal laugh as his eyes burned bright with evil intent.

  CHAPTER 5

  UNEXPECTED GUESTS

  The sword whistled as he swung it through the air. The sound made Gameknight smile. He loved having a new weapon, and after that pathetic stone sword, this iron one was like having Excalibur itself.

  “Now this is a nice sword, Wilbur,” he said to the pig.

  The animal grunted and backed away, careful to stay clear of the sharp blade.

  Just as Gameknight was going to say something else, a sorrowful moaning trickled down into his hidey-hole. He froze and listened, straining all his senses so he could hear who (or what) it might be. Then came a clattering noise, like a bag full of old dried sticks being shaken.

  “Skeletons and zombies,” Gameknight said as he glanced down at Wilbur. “You better stay down here.”

  “Oink, oink,” Wilbur replied.

  Gameknight checked the furnace; it would not be done smelting the iron ore for a while. There would not be enough time for armor. Shoving his sword into his inventory, he pulled out his new iron shovel and ran up the steps. Driving the tool into the dirt block that sealed the entrance, he tore through the soil in seconds. When the brown cube disappeared, he pulled out his sword again and ran out onto the surface of the Overworld.

  Sunlight shone down upon the landscape, the sun just rising above the tree line, casting a yellow glow across the grassy plain. Before him, Gameknight saw an army of monsters closing in on the village. NPCs were streaming out, ready to face the mob approaching from the west, but because there was no watchtower, the villagers couldn’t see the second group of monsters sneaking up on them from the east. There were at least twenty of them closing in, and the villagers had no idea!

  Gameknight sprinted across the grass towards the mob, hoping some of the villagers would notice and help. He knew there were more monsters than he could battle by himself … if he wanted to survive. If he didn’t get any help from the other villagers, he could be in serious trouble.

  “How are the monsters surviving the sunlight?” Gameknight wondered to himself as he ran, shivers of fear running down his spine.

  Sprinting across the grassland, he headed to the east side of the village, hoping to cut off the monsters before they reached their destination.

  “More monsters coming from the east!” Gameknight shouted at the NPCs. “Over here!”

  He dashed across the landscape, leaping over single blocks as he sprinted, hoping for a response. Some of the villagers stared in his direction, but they were too distracted by the main force of monsters approaching from the west, and they ignored his cries.

  “Those fools … they’re going to be trapped between two mobs.”

  Glancing at the buildings near the edge of the village, Gameknight spotted some blocks of dirt sitting next to one house. He could use them to get onto the roof … perfect.

  Gameknight switched out his sword for a bow and fitted an arrow to the bowstring. While he’d been mining for iron, the User-that-is-not-a-user had come across a huge section of gravel that had yielded numerous blocks of useless material but had also uncovered many pieces of flint. That had given him the idea to hunt for chickens so he could use their feathers for arrows. While doing that, he’d come across four spiders that were quickly dispatched. Their spider web had been used for the bowstring. He didn’t have a lot of arrows, but he knew the ones he did have could be put to good use.

  When he reached the building, Gameknight leapt up the blocks of dirt and made it onto the roof in no time. Moving to the very top, he stopped to catch his breath, then pulled back an arrow and took careful aim.

  Picking the closest zombie, he fired, then drew another arrow and fired again, then again. The three arrows struck the creature one after another, tearing away at the monster’s HP until it disappeared with a pop. He then turned his bow on the next one, erasing it as well as the mob drew near. Firing as fast as he could, Gameknight launched his deadly missiles with practiced accuracy, knocking down the front line of monsters before they could reach the village. But unfortunately, there were more monsters than arrows. After destroying seven of the creatures, his ammunition ran out.

  Putting away the bow, Gameknight drew his sword and ran down the dirt block steps two at a time, making it to the ground just as the monsters reached the village.

  “Zombies entering the village!” he yelled, hoping the NPCs would finally take notice.

  His sword swinging so fast it was only a blur, Gameknight charged at the monsters. The stench of their decaying bodies was almost overpowering, but it made him fight even harder. The ferocity of his attack was so great that the zombies paused for a moment to regroup. That was a mistake. He spun to the left and then lunged to the right, destroying two of the creatures before they knew what was happening. In a blaze of fury, Gameknight tore HP
from decaying green bodies until the ground became littered with pieces of zombie flesh and glowing balls of XP. He refused to let any of them get by and into the village.

  These monsters lacked any strategy or leadership. All of them charged at Gameknight999, each trying to attack all at the same time rather than spreading out and moving behind him, or working as a team. Once he realized this, the User-that-is-not-a-user moved between two wooden buildings, forcing the zombies into the narrow space and eliminating their numerical advantage. Two at a time, the decaying creatures attacked while the others just waited their turn.

  Suddenly, the sound of thundering boots echoed off the walls—help was coming.

  “Over here!” Gameknight yelled.

  The footsteps became louder; they were heading this way.

  The User-that-is-not-a-user fought harder, slashing at a pair of monsters just as a dark-haired NPC moved to his side. Gameknight looked to his right and saw Smithy, his iron sword moving with lethal precision. Around his waist, Gameknight saw a dark belt that held the blacksmith’s hammer. That tool was likely a sign of his rank as leader. Smithy saw the User-that-is-not-a-user looking at the hammer and gave him a questioning look. Gameknight just gave him a grin, then went back to work.

  “Thanks for the help. You should get archers up on top of the buildings,” Gameknight said to Smithy.

  They were between two homes now, with the zombies crowded into the narrow alleyway.

  Smithy grunted in agreement, then stepped back and shouted to the other villagers. “Archers, get on the rooftops!”

  Instantly, Gameknight heard more footsteps as the warriors followed his commands. In less than a minute, arrows began to fall upon the monsters from both sides, the pointed shafts felling one after another. The zombies growled and moaned but had nowhere to go. Villagers had now moved to the opposite end of the alleyway, trapping the decaying creatures. Within two minutes, all of them were destroyed.