Mobs in the Mine

by Winter Morgan

  Lily nodded. “Can you show us where they live?”

  Juan waved his hand for them to follow, then ran to a cluster of houses on the outskirts of town. Lily knocked on the door of the first, but no one answered. The house was silent.

  Juan was already running to the next house, hesitating only a moment after knocking before opening the door. “There’s no one here,” he said, walking back out of the empty house.

  “But where could they have gone?” Robin asked. “Are you sure they came back from their mining trips in time to sleep in their homes last night?”

  Juan nodded. “Yes, I saw them come home.”

  “Then what happened to them after they were destroyed?” Robin asked.

  Lily’s lips were tightly pursed. “It looks like they didn’t respawn.”

  Robin gasped. “But how can that be?”

  Juan and Lily shared a glance. “It could be that Mr. Anarchy put them on Hardcore mode,” Lily said. “But I really thought he wanted to keep us alive. Maybe there’s something special about these mobs?”

  “There were regular skeleton and zombies in the village last night, and everyone that they destroyed respawned just fine,” Juan said.

  “Juan, you have to believe we’ll do everything we can to find out what happened to your friends.” Lily put a hand on Juan’s shoulder. “Now, have you seen Warren and Simon?”

  “No,” said Juan. “I thought they were with you. But I did see Michael.”

  Lily hoped Mr. Anarchy hadn’t used his command blocks to put everyone on Hardcore mode. Maybe she was wrong about his threat of putting them on Hardcore mode being empty.

  “What are we going to do?” asked Robin.

  Lily didn’t know, but she was relieved when she heard Michael’s voice call out to her. “Lily! I have good news.”

  Lily was excited to hear something nice for a change. She didn’t want to tell him about the Nether attack and how many townspeople were destroyed and hadn’t respawned in their beds.

  “Simon and Warren are trapped in Mr. Anarchy’s prison. And so is Leon,” Michael told Lily.

  Lily sighed. “What about that is good news?”

  “At least we know where they are and we can rescue them,” Michael rationalized.

  Lily properly introduced Robin to Michael, and the trio sprinted toward the minecarts, ready to save their friends from Mr. Anarchy’s prison. On the way there, Lily explained what happened to the townspeople.

  Michael frowned. “I seriously hope Mr. Anarchy didn’t put them on Hardcore mode.”

  They all agreed that they had to find out what had happened to the townspeople, but first they had to rescue their friends, Simon and Warren.

  As they approached the jungle temple, Lily suggested they splash a potion of invisibility on themselves so they could sneak in. The trio did just that and walked into the temple, following the sound of Michael’s soft footsteps to the room where their friends were being held.

  “They are trapped in this room,” Michael said in a hushed voice.

  “What’s Mr. Anarchy playing at? He put them right next to his hidden stash of command blocks,” said Lily.

  “Should we try and take a few?” Robin asked.

  The trio agreed and started picked up command blocks. Lily wondered why Mr. Anarchy didn’t have a blue griefer guarding the command blocks or the prison cell. She was suspicious and worried they were about to be trapped. She couldn’t bear spending another minute in one of Mr. Anarchy’s small, dirty, mob-ridden prison cells.

  As they put the last of the blocks in their inventories, Michael said, “We are beginning to reappear. Do you have any more potion?”

  Lily checked, but her inventory was empty. She shook her head.

  Robin had a bottle of potion, but it was barely enough for one of them. “I’m sorry. I don’t even have enough for me.”

  “We’re going to have to break down this door.” Michael stood in front of the door to the small prison cell.

  The group had to rescue their friends quickly, before Mr. Anarchy and the blue griefers attacked them.

  “Look who came to visit me.” A loud voice rose through the jungle temple. “Did you bring me any presents?” He laughed.

  “We’ve come to save our friends,” Lily shouted at the sinister griefer.

  “You think I’m just going to let them go?”

  Michael leapt at Mr. Anarchy with his sword, but two blue griefers stopped him. They struck Michael with their diamond swords.

  Mr. Anarchy called to his soldiers, “Leave him alone. I don’t want to destroy him. I want to imprison him.”

  Lily didn’t want to be trapped in a cell, but she was afraid of being destroyed. She feared she wouldn’t respawn, like the townspeople hadn’t returned after being destroyed in the attack of the Nether mobs. But as she followed Mr. Anarchy to a cell, Michael, Lily, and Robin trailing behind her, something dawned on Lily: Mr. Anarchy had said he didn’t want Michael destroyed. So she was right! Mr. Anarchy wanted to keep them alive . . . but why?

  Mr. Anarchy and the blue griefers led Michael, Lily, and Robin to a cell. Mr. Anarchy said, “Welcome to your new home.”

  Mr. Anarchy opened the door to the small prison cell. Lily was happy to see Warren and Simon, but her smile turned to a scowl when she saw Leon standing next to them.

  10

  PRISONERS

  “Lily!” Simon was happy to see his friend.

  Lily couldn’t pay attention to Simon and Warren, because she was fixated on Leon.

  “Who are you, and what do you want from us?” Lily took out her diamond sword and pointed it at Leon.

  “What’s wrong with Leon?” asked Simon. “He’s nice.”

  “No, he isn’t.” Michael also took out his diamond sword and brushed it against Leon’s face. “He trapped me in the Nether. He isn’t a good person.”

  Robin added, “He invited me onto this server so he could trap me here.”

  “You’re a griefer?” Warren was shocked.

  “No!” Leon fumbled with his words. “I’m not. I’m—”

  “There are no excuses that can save you. You’ve destroyed my life. I’m trapped on this server and all I want to do is go home.” Robin held a potion of harming next to Leon and threatened to splash it on him.

  “I can explain!” Leon shouted.

  “Okay, tell us.” Lily moved closer and her diamond sword touched Leon’s chest.

  Leon tried to move away from the diamond swords, but Lily and Michael stood next to him. He spoke. “I’m sorry, Robin. Mr. Anarchy promised to help me get off the server and go home, if I found a replacement for him. That’s how I found you. I just wanted you to come here and work for Mr. Anarchy.”

  “I’d never do that!” Robin shouted, hoping Mr. Anarchy could hear how much she disliked him.

  “Well, I was desperate. I wanted to go home. So, I found you on a server and I led you into this world. And I’m so sorry about that, I really am.”

  Robin didn’t know if she should accept his apology. She said, “You’d better help me get back home.”

  “I will. I promise,” he looked at Robin. “Just put the potion away.”

  Robin put the potion back in her inventory. “You’d better start thinking of ways to get me back home. Obviously you can’t even find your own way home, so I’m not sure how you can help me.”

  Michael wanted to know why Leon had tried to destroy him when he was in the Nether. “I thought we were friends, but once we got into the Nether, you attacked me. Why?”

  “It was Mr. Anarchy’s idea. He wanted me to find Lily and Robin. I knew if you figured out that I was chasing your friends, you wouldn’t help me. But I knew that if they heard you call for help, they’d come to your rescue—and walk right into my trap.”

  Warren asked, “Are you still working for Mr. Anarchy?”

  “Yes,” Leon replied softly, “but I don’t want to help an evil griefer. I just want to go home. If you guys can get me ba
ck to the real world, then I will help you defeat Mr. Anarchy.”

  Lily wondered if Leon was telling the truth. She also wondered if Leon knew any secrets that could help them defeat the evil Mr. Anarchy.

  Lily questioned him, “How can you help us defeat Mr. Anarchy?”

  Leon replied. “I’m not sure. But I do have some command blocks in my inventory, which can help us a lot. I know Mr. Anarchy turned off the cheats for this server, and the command blocks would be very helpful.”

  Lily looked at Robin. She didn’t want Leon to know that she had command blocks. She wasn’t just going to trust Leon, because he had to earn her trust. Lily was happy that Robin didn’t reveal that she had command blocks, either.

  “Do you know any of Mr. Anarchy’s secrets?” asked Michael.

  Leon smiled. “I know one.”

  “What is it?” Michael demanded.

  “He really wants to go back to the real world. He has a team working around the clock trying to get back to the real world. We are all experiments to him. He only attacks players on the server so he can figure out how to get back home.” Leon blurted this information.

  Lily gasped. “That explains why he’ll torture us, but he won’t destroy us! Could he be thinking of experimenting on us?”

  “I don’t know, but maybe he wants to keep the option open.” Leon sighed. “That’s the team I wanted to join. I was hoping I’d be able to leave if I could be a part of one of his experiments. He’s zapped a bunch of people back. The problem is that it doesn’t work every time. At first he believed he could get home simply by summoning a lightning bolt, but it’s a lot more complicated than that,” he explained.

  “Where does the team work?” asked Robin.

  “He has a room right down the hall. He recruited many skilled players to help him get out. We chose you, Robin, because you’re a skilled fighter. We wanted to amass a team of top-rated players, because we felt they knew the game.”

  Robin was happy to hear that she was chosen for her skills, but she was still angry that they had trapped her on this server.

  Robin asked, “What other ways has Mr. Anarchy tried to escape?”

  Leon didn’t have a chance to finish telling them about Mr. Anarchy’s attempts at escaping from the Overworld, because two skeletons spawned in the small room.

  “We have to defeat these mobs,” Lily cried. “There was an attack in Lisimi Village, and the townspeople never respawned. We still don’t know why.”

  “Do you think they respawned in the real world?” Simon asked, ducking to avoid a fireball.

  The bony mobs shot dozens of arrows at the group. Robin leaped out of the way of an arrow, but the prison cell was very small, and there was no place to hide.

  Lily thrust her diamond sword at a skeleton, striking the vicious mob in the belly.

  “You got it!” Michael called out as the beast was destroyed.

  “We still have one more left,” Lily aimed at the other skeleton.

  Leon cried out as the skeleton shuffled toward him.

  “Strike it with your sword!” exclaimed Lily.

  Leon reached for his diamond sword, but it was too late. The skeleton hit Leon with a barrage of arrows, destroying him.

  Lily’s arrow struck the beast and destroyed the last skeleton.

  “Where’s Leon?” asked Michael.

  “He’s gone.” Lily paused. “And he might not respawn.”

  “Maybe he made his way back to the real world.” Michael hoped this was true. Although they had had issues with Leon, they wanted everyone to escape safely from the server.

  “Or maybe he was destroyed in both worlds.” Lily shook as these words fell from her mouth.

  The door opened, Mr. Anarchy entered and asked, “Did you enjoy battling the ghasts?”

  “Where’s Leon?” Lily demanded.

  Mr. Anarchy smiled. “You’ll never know.”

  11

  SOMETHING SINISTER

  Lily grabbed a potion of harming from her inventory and doused Mr. Anarchy.

  “Attack him!” she called out to the others.

  Michael and Simon stormed over to Mr. Anarchy, striking the sinister villain with their diamond swords.

  “Stop!” Mr. Anarchy cried. “I’ll let you know about Leon.”

  They didn’t listen to Mr. Anarchy. They struck him with their swords, just as two skeletons spawned in the small prison cell.

  “Oh no!” Mr. Anarchy called out.

  A skeleton shot an arrow at Mr. Anarchy. He was destroyed by his own creation.

  “We have to get out of here!” Lily called to her friends.

  The group darted from the prison. They scurried down the hall of the jungle temple, dodging arrows from the blue griefers that monitored the hall.

  “Faster!” Lily cried to the group.

  They ran as fast as they could, until they exited the jungle temple. Lily hid behind a large patch of leaves. The others joined her. They grabbed their bows and arrows from their inventories and shot arrows at the blue griefers.

  Michael spotted someone rushing past the soldiers. “Do you see that person?”

  “Yes.” Lily paused, taking a second look at the person. “It looks like Leon.”

  “So he respawned!” Michael exclaimed.

  “That’s true. I don’t know where or why,” Lily said as she shot an arrow at a blue griefer. “But we are going to find out.”

  Robin said, “We should get out of here.”

  “Not so fast.” Michael hit another blue griefer and destroyed him. “I think we should stick around and see where Leon is hiding. I don’t trust him. And I have a feeling he is planning something with Mr. Anarchy.”

  “But our town is under attack,” Lily reminded him.

  “I know, but we’d be better off helping them out if we stay here. We want to destroy Mr. Anarchy, and this is the place to do it,” Michael said.

  The gang destroyed four blue griefers, but they respawned in the jungle temple. Lily said, “This is pointless. We keep destroying them and they just emerge from Mr. Anarchy’s house. We have to come up with another plan.”

  The sky turned dark and rain started to fall on the group. The griefers looked as surprised by the rainstorm as Lily and her friends. “I don’t think Mr. Anarchy planned this,” Lily noted.

  Skeletons and zombies spawned in the jungle temple, as magma cubes bounced toward the blue griefers. The gang hid behind the bark of a large tree and watched the blue griefers struggle to defeat the undead mobs and the cubes from the Nether.

  “This is our chance to escape,” Robin exclaimed.

  The group reluctantly headed back to the town. Although they wanted to defeat Mr. Anarchy and find out about Leon, they knew a rainstorm could destroy them all.

  The gang found the hole in the ground where they kept the minecarts and each hopped into their own cart. When they arrived at Lisimi Village, Emily the Fisherwoman greeted them.

  “We’ve had another attack from the Nether mobs, and we’ve lost more townspeople,” Emily said.

  Fred the Farmer walked over to Emily’s side. “And people have spotted the person in a green jumpsuit roaming around town.”

  Emily added, “I heard the person in the green jumpsuit has blocks of TNT.”

  Michael asked, “Has anything been blown up?”

  “Not yet,” Emily replied.

  The remaining townspeople gathered around the group. Lily looked at the dwindling crowd. She couldn’t believe the town had become so small. She hoped the people who were destroyed were zapped back to the real world, and she wished one of them would contact them.

  Lily asked, “Has anybody heard from a townsperson that disappeared?”

  Nobody had.

  “Why would anyone reenter this server? They would be stuck in the Overworld,” replied a townsperson.

  Lily knew this was true. She just wished she knew what happened once someone was destroyed by a Nether mob or an End mob. Lily realized that when sh
e destroyed a blue griefer with her arrow, the blue griefer had respawned. And Leon had respawned after being destroyed by a skeleton. She wondered if the Nether and End mobs were more powerful, or if Mr. Anarchy had put certain players on Hardcore mode with command blocks, while he let others stay on Survival mode.

  Night was beginning to fall in Lisimi Village. Warren announced, “Everyone should go home for the night. We don’t want to leave ourselves vulnerable to hostile mob attacks. In the morning, we will have another town meeting.”

  The townspeople agreed and left the center of the town.

  “I don’t have a place to stay,” Robin told her new friends.

  “You can stay with me,” Lily said. “I have an extra bedroom in my cottage.”

  Robin thanked Lily.

  Lily was exhausted and excited to spend the night in her small cottage with Wolfie.

  “I hope you don’t mind playing with Wolfie. He’s my pet wolf,” Lily told Robin as they walked toward the cottage.

  “I love pets. Back in the real world, I have a pet cat named Pepper and a dog named Peanut.” Robin had tears in her eyes when she talked about her pets. She wanted to return home.

  “I have pets in the real world, too.” Lily didn’t want to talk about her pets. She missed them too much. Instead, Lily focused on her cottage. She felt very comfortable there, and it was the closest thing she had to a home now. Lily pointed at the cottage in the distance. “We’re almost there.”

  As she approached the cottage, Lily heard a loud explosion.

  Kaboom!

  “My house!” Lily cried.

  Someone had blown up Lily’s cottage.

  12

  SKELETON SCUFFLE

  Warren rushed over to Lily. “What happened?”

  “Somebody destroyed my house,” Lily cried.

  The sky was growing dark. Warren suggested, “You guys can stay at my house. We can’t be out here now. It’s too dangerous.”

  It was too late. An army of skeletons marched through town, striking anyone who was in their path.

  Zombies followed the skeletons; the vacant-eyed mob ripped doors from their hinges, forcing the townspeople to flee from their homes.