With that, I tugged Lonnie out of the relative protection of the two people in the whole place who had any gear with enchantments that we could use to stay alive, and I marched off into the darkness, not even bothering to light my way.
“Come back!” Anton called. “She doesn’t mean it!”
I heard Esme snort with disdain.
“She does,” I said.
“She’s a jerk sometimes,” Anton said, jogging to catch up with me.
“That’s the first accurate thing I’ve heard you say,” I said.
“Hey. I’m trying to help.” Anton sounded genuinely hurt. And when I didn’t stop walking, he added another “Hey!”
“What?” I whipped back, swinging Lonnie around with me, and then had to immediately help him up off the black, gravelly ground.
I faced both Esme and Anton, silhouetted against the black and orange background of the Nether. I suddenly felt exhausted and frustrated and angry all at once. I would have cried if I could. And that somehow also made me ticked off. I dropped my eyes to the ground, wrestling with the warring emotions of how much I was experiencing was the game, and how much was me creating things in the game. I knew that my friends were trying to get me to open up about my feelings, to talk about what happened that night of the accident. I knew it would probably help clear things up. But I also knew I wasn’t ready to talk yet, and I was tired of fighting with Esme and Anton. A distant part of me finally realized I couldn’t put off this conversation forever, and if what I’d brought from the real world into the game was making things so much more difficult, did I really have a choice? It was time to grow up and deal. So I took a deep breath and prepared to speak.
I lifted my eyes again to find Esme shooting a flaming arrow in my direction, and Anton running toward me hard, with a sword held up over his head in both hands and a grimace on his face.
Before my shocked brain could force me to respond, or move, he was directly in front of me, and brought the sword down just to my right as I felt a sharp pain. Something sharp stung me from behind. I fell forward into Anton’s chest. He kept moving, and I slipped off him, and rolled onto my back. Then I saw what had prompted Esme’s attack and made Anton come running: right in front of me was a group of mean-looking wither skeletons with their swords held high.
And I had been hit.
Lonnie was still standing, and he turned to one of the wither skeletons with nothing but his hands, and started to whale on it. The skeleton seemed startled, getting smacked from behind, but Lonnie kept up a relentless pace of punching, so it had no opportunity to retaliate.
Meanwhile, Anton killed one at close range by slicing its torso, and one of Esme’s arrows found its target, destroying the third one. Then both she and Anton turned back to the first, which was struggling to stand up because of Lonnie’s beating. Anton took it out with one sword blow. He looked at Lonnie, as if he was seeing him differently. But since Lonnie didn’t respond, and didn’t reciprocate, Anton held his hand out to me and picked me up off the ground.
“Did you see that?” I asked.
“Yeah, I did,” Anton said.
I looked at Esme to see if she’d noticed. She was staring at Lonnie, frowning, then she shrugged. “I still don’t know,” she said.
“I do,” I said.
We regrouped near Esme. I stared at Lonnie, the speech I was going to deliver before the attack turning to ash in my mouth. I didn’t know what to say, and luckily Esme had already moved on to something else.
“If there are wither skeletons around, there must be a fortress,” she said to Anton and me. “It was actually helpful, drawing them out like that.”
“You mean just now when I was bait?” I asked.
“Yeah, exactly,” Esme said. One side of her mouth cocked up into a crooked smile.
“I’m glad I could be useful.”
She laughed and simply moved on to the next phase of the plan she was laying out.
We needed to build a bridge to get over a thin rivulet of lava. It might have been possible for the rest of us to jump over, but even I wasn’t sure Lonnie would be able to execute that wide a jump. Esme decided we should stay close to where we had drawn out the wither skeletons, so making a bridge and staying close to our current location was our best option.
A few steps ahead, the dark reddish brown and black dirt of the landscape turned a different shade of brown. It was a grayer color and had no tints of red or orange in it. As we got closer, I could make out faces in the pixelated shades that looked like they were in agony, mouths fixed into screams.
“Soul sand,” I said.
Esme stopped short and turned to see it.
There was the equivalent of a large lake of soul sand a few steps away. Anton moved into it first, and immediately slowed to a crawl. He mined it as he went. I followed, gathering as much as he did. Esme stood with her bow resting against her shoulder, ready for anything that might pop out and kill us.
Lonnie stepped forward, as if he was coming to help, but Esme pulled him back to her and held on to him until we had finished mining. I was grateful that she didn’t do so with a snide comment this time.
We finished mining and returned, pulling ourselves slowly out of the muck. Anton was the first to make it to regular Nether ground, and he held his hand out to me to pull me the rest of the way. I took it, already feeling the effects of both the weight of the sand and the hit from the wither skeleton. I winced as he got me out.
“You’re hurt pretty bad, but we don’t have any potions to help you,” Anton said.
“How long do you think I have?” I whispered.
“In this game?” He looked at me as if he could evaluate my strength with a look, then he shrugged. “We’re going to have to adjust the plan. Soon you won’t be strong enough to help us get all the materials we need for the End.”
“I’m fine. It’s not so bad,” I said. “I’m going to power through to the End.”
“So, you’re not going to say anything to her?” He glanced at Esme. “She should know you’re hurt.”
“What’s the point?” I asked. “I’d only get more sarcasm.”
I walked up to where Esme and Lonnie were waiting. When Esme took off in silence, I followed without even a glance back to Anton. Moments later, a black hill came into view. It rose up as we moved forward, looking like it was cut to resemble a face with a gaping mouth. Both Anton and Esme trudged toward it. And then I realized that it was their home base. I stopped, but no one else did, and Anton bumped into me. I picked up my pace, trying to pretend where we were headed didn’t scare the pants off me, when Anton said, “It’s pretty intimidating. I know.” I nodded, and moved along.
The mini fortress Esme and Anton had built was cozy for two, but a bit of a logistical nightmare for four. We broke down a few of the walls, and expanded using cobblestone and nether brick. A couple of curious ghasts flew by, as if trying to decide whether to attack us now or later, but the brick would assure our safety—so long as we stayed inside the fortress, at least.
One of the ghasts came down low, its dangling tentacles nearly within reach. I scrolled through my weapons to choose a bow and arrows, when Esme pulled me inside, with Anton following.
“I could get it,” I protested.
“That’s not the point,” she said. “You’re not thinking. Again.”
I frowned, trying to understand what she meant.
Anton jumped in. “We’re going to need all our supplies to get to the End,” he said. “We need to hold on to as many as we can now.”
“So why not just tell me that’s what we’re doing,” I asked. “Would it have been that hard to say, ‘Hey, we need to conserve the supplies’?” I walked away, shaking my head.
“It shouldn’t have been that hard to figure out,” Esme said. “It’s pretty obvious that we need to conserve as mu
ch as we can. There are four of us and we’re sharing the few supplies we’ve got.”
“And all I’m saying is that a little heads-up would have been helpful. If there are new rules that you’re making up, Your Highness, maybe you could clue in us commoners.”
Esme stomped toward me and peered real close into my eyes. I count it as a mighty show of bravery that I didn’t even flinch. This, of course, seemed to make her even more angry, and she stormed off to a back room.
Anton looked like he was going to say something, but I waved him off and turned back to finishing up the expansion of the mini fortress.
“Do you want to help?” I asked when I noticed Lonnie tagging along. I gave him one of my pickaxes and turned him in the direction of a wall we needed to smash.
“Nothing could possibly go wrong,” Anton said, as he layered a part of the ceiling with nether brick, observing us from the side.
I rolled my eyes at him and turned back to Lonnie. “Go ahead,” I said. “Try.”
Lonnie looked at me and then at the wall, and moved forward, bumping into it.
“How about like this?” I said, and I demonstrated by breaking part of the wall.
Lonnie mimicked me, and I heaped him with praise.
Anton came around to where we were working. “It’s like he’s a puppy that’s finally pooped outside,” he said. “I’m sure that makes him feel awesome. I’m kind of glad he doesn’t understand much. I mean, we can’t have his self-esteem go through the roof and turn him into a diva.”
“This is hard enough,” I snapped. “It’s just, sometimes it seems like he’s there, but sometimes…”
“Most times,” Anton corrected.
“Sometimes,” I said again, “it seems like he’s checked out, and I’m worried that if I don’t do everything I can to fix him, Lonnie will hate me forever.”
Anton put his hand on my shoulder. I felt the pressure of his squeeze and the warmth of his hand. “The truth is, it’s nice that you’re doing everything you can do as his friend,” he said. “It’s kind of great. I wish I had a friend who’d stick with me like that.” He turned to walk away, then paused and added, “Sorry if I’ve been a jerk. Sometimes I can’t turn my sarcasm off.” He turned back and looked at me for a couple of seconds before he continued. “The first time I played the game, I stayed in here too long, and when I got out, my legs were stiff from not moving, so the nurses hid the goggles for a while. They said they’d been calling me, and they were sure I was ignoring them. But I wasn’t. I just was so into the game that I’d tuned them out.”
“I know how that is,” I said. “I don’t even need the goggles to tune people out when I’m playing, usually.”
Anton chuckled. “Well, yeah. What I’m saying is, it’s really easy to lose yourself in the game.”
I suddenly felt warmth running through my body, as if someone on the outside had pressed in close to me, or had pulled a blanket up to my chin. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure you’re right.”
“It’s easy to forget that this version of Minecraft is so immersive,” Anton said, as he threw his arm out and looked around. “But you can’t stay here forever.”
“What if I want to stay,” I said more than asked. “What if I just don’t want to deal with whatever is waiting for me on the other side?”
“We will still be there on the other side,” Anton said. “You’re not alone in here or outside.”
“Lonnie always stuck by me, even when I was little,” I said. “And we promised we’d always be there for one another.” I took a deep breath.
Esme came back, looking hesitant. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, and I was surprised that she did sound genuinely sorry. “But we’ve got to go to the nether fortress and gather all the supplies we need so that we can get out of here and back to the Overworld. We have to go now, and we have to be fast. You’re fading,” she said to me.
“What? I, no—”
“We don’t have any milk to cure the wither effect,” she said grimly. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? And I can’t see your health bar anymore. It’s bad. I hate to say it, but the time to talk is later. We have to get you out of here.”
Anton raised an eyebrow at me, waiting for my response.
“Well?” she asked. “What are you waiting for? Get your stuff and let’s go. It’s time to raid that fort.”
It’s a good thing that whatever was connecting our brains to the game had not incorporated tastebuds, because I imagine that rotting zombie pigman flesh is not a culinary delight anyone would go out of their way for. But I munched on it anyway, taking the chance of getting food poisoning since it was the only sustenance we had left, as we moved toward the fortress. Luckily I didn’t get sick, and of course, thinking about actual culinary delights immediately gave me the idea of making a restaurant in Minecraft that specialized in Minecrafty dishes that I could construct once we got out of here.
“Hold up,” Esme said, forcing my scattered thoughts to focus back on the mission. She put her hand out military-style, as if we were soldiers in formation behind our commanding officer. She drew her sword and each of us followed suit, holding them up and reflecting the orange light of the Nether.
A group of wither skeletons came up on our right. I immediately flinched, not prepared to take another hit, armor or no.
“Just don’t move,” Esme said. “Maybe they’ll go right past us.”
“That hasn’t worked before,” Anton pointed out.
“Shhh!” Esme hissed.
Anton zipped up, and I nodded once to acknowledge Esme’s instruction, then held my breath, worried that even that slight movement might set them off.
The wither skeletons moved toward us, marching in a jagged formation but all moving at the same pace, with the same dead look in their faces as they came closer.
I breathed. I had to. But nothing happened. Their movements were unchanged.
Even when they looked in our direction, it was hard to tell whether they saw us or not. And it looked like they were going to pass us just to the back of our line. The first wither skeleton shuffled past on the black dirt, and then a second got up close to Anton without turning to look in his direction.
I relaxed. This was actually going to work.
One of them got close to me. So close that I shifted just out of the way to avoid brushing against it. This is almost too easy, I thought.
Lonnie chose that moment to turn and scream, sprinting toward the skeleton. His fists were up, and I tried to get between him and the skeleton, but he was flailing and punching, getting me, the wither skeleton, and even Anton when he tried to intervene.
Every single wither skeleton turned in unison. It was as though they were seeing us for the first time. So much for too easy.
I slammed into the closest wither skeleton, sending it careering onto its back. Then I grabbed hold of Lonnie’s hand and ran.
By then, Lonnie had somehow gotten tangled up in another wither skeleton’s ribs, so it got dragged along. Lonnie kept trying to punch his way out and I tried jabbing it with the tip of my sword, but between the running and Lonnie’s flailing, I wound up hitting him a couple of times. Not my best move, I’ll admit.
The wither skeleton brought its sword down and I shielded Lonnie from the hit, absorbing the stinging pain in his stead, but I could feel my energy sap. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this up.
The skeleton pulled up again, readying for another blow. I lashed out desperately, catching this one in the side of its chest. It tumbled away as Lonnie and I fell backward. I tried to get to my feet, but I was moving incredibly slowly. I thought at first that the blow from the first wither skeleton attack was finally catching up with me, or that I’d gotten another hit in this attack, but hadn’t noticed. I called to Lonnie for help, but he was also moving very slowly. I looked down. We were st
anding in soul sand. And we were right near the edge of it, close enough for another wither skeleton to reach out and attack us if it wanted to, without getting into the soul sand itself.
“Anton!”
“I’m busy, Bianca!” he called back.
“Anton!” I screamed again.
This time he looked back, narrowly missing being cleaved in two by the wither skeleton he was battling. Near him, Esme smashed a skeleton to pieces with her bare hands, then knelt and switched weapons to her favorite: the bow. She stayed in place, aimed, and sent three successive arrows toward Lonnie and me. Each of them lodged in the wither skeleton’s back, and it flopped forward into the soul sand, just missing us, before disappearing in a swirl of pixelated dust.
I worked my way out of the soul sand trap, then yanked Lonnie out as well. Anton grunted as he killed off the last wither skeleton and struggled out of the soul sand, holding its head like Yorick from Hamlet.
“Alas, poor Wither,” he said with a grin.
I laughed. It reminded me of the year before when my sister’s drama club did Hamlet, and in the middle of the where be your gibes now speech, there was the very audible clatter of the skull’s plastic jaw falling on the stage floor. Suddenly, Carrie’s scene was the comedy hit of the night, but she had been furious that everything hadn’t gone perfectly.
Nothing ever goes perfectly, Carrie, I had told her.
That was too true.
“Hold on to that a minute,” Anton said, handing me the wither skeleton’s skull. Then he turned to Lonnie, helped him pull up his limited supplies, took off his helmet, and put the wither skull on Lonnie’s head.
I shuddered. It was like looking at the Grim Reaper. There was even something about the mouth that made me feel it was opening and closing, like it was casting a silent spell. I wished I could take it off, but I knew its use. With the skull on, Lonnie might be ignored by the mobs in the game. Or at least maybe long enough that they wouldn’t immediately attack him, or us. As horrifying as it looked, it was a good strategy.
The Crash: An Official Minecraft Novel Page 16
