Baby Zeke: The Diary of a Chicken Jockey: The Complete Minecraft Series, Books 1-9: An Unofficial Minecraft Book

by Dr. Block

  A few minutes later, the huddling group of zombies at the other side of the cave started to break up. As it did, I noticed some of the zombies looking over at Harold and me and scowling. Others looked sad. Had they been discussing us?

  Zeb approached slowly. I could tell he was nervous. His expression looked a little sad.

  “That is a good hole,” he said.

  “Uh, thanks, Zeb,” I replied. “Umm, is something wrong?”

  Zeb sighed. “I guess,” he said, nervously moving one foot back and forth across the dirt.

  I stood up. Harold stood up too.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Some of the others thought … well, they thought you didn’t pull your weight in that fight,” said Zeb.

  “But, I was scared. I’ve never been in a fight like that. I didn’t know what to do,” I said.

  Zeb put his hands out and pumped them up and down, motioning for me to be calm. “That is what I explained to them, but they didn’t understand or care.”

  I hung my head and shook it back and forth before looking back up at Zeb. “So, they all hate me?”

  “Well,” said Zeb, “it is not so much that they hate you as it is they don’t want you around anymore.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked, trying to process what was happening.

  “Uh, it means the group has voted, and you and Harold are being asked to leave,” said Zeb quietly.

  “What?!?” I was shocked. “But, I can learn to fight. I just need someone to teach me what to do. Now that I have armor and a sword, I can learn quickly.”

  “Yeah,” said Harold. “Give him … give us a chance.”

  Zeb shook his head forlornly. “Believe me, guys, I made those arguments, but no one listened. The vote was 7 to 2 to exile you.”

  I felt like a mule had kicked me in the chest. “But, I can – .”

  Zeb cut me off. “Zeke, don’t make this harder than it already is by begging. I suggest you get your stuff together and leave under cover of darkness. The sun will be setting soon.”

  “Fine,” I said, crossing my arms. “Come on, Harold. Let’s get our stuff.”

  Harold and I walked away from Zeb to where we had been sleeping before the fight started.

  “Uh, Zeke?” asked Harold.

  “Yeah, what?”

  “We don’t have any stuff.”

  “I know. It’s just an expression,” I snapped.

  Harold looked down, surprised by my anger.

  I reached over and put my hand on his chicken neck. “Sorry I yelled. I’m just sad and scared.”

  “Me too,” said Harold.

  Chapter 11

  We left about an hour later. I was riding Harold as we left the cave.

  Most of the zombies turned away, unable to face their decision to banish me. Only Zeb spoke to us as we left.

  “Good luck out there,” he said as he handed me a sack.

  “Thanks,” I said. “What’s in the sack?”

  “A few pieces of beef and some wheat grains for Harold. It should be enough to last a few days while you get settled somewhere,” said Zeb.

  If zombies could cry, I probably would have cried at that moment. “Thank you, Zeb,” I said softly.

  I looked down at Harold and patted him on the neck. “Come on, Harold, let’s get out of here.”

  ***

  Harold and I searched for another cave to hide in. Even though we could move about during the day, we were still tired from the fight last night and wanted to find a safe place to sleep as soon as possible.

  Just as the sun was rising, we found a small crack in a mountain. After checking over our shoulders to make sure no one was following us, we went inside.

  After a narrow passage about five blocks long, the crack opened into a large cave. There was plenty of room for us to hide out and store things.

  “I bet this cave goes back a long way,” I said to Harold.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s huge.”

  “We should explore it after we get some sleep,” I said.

  “I agree.”

  I yawned, suddenly feeling very tired. “I think I’ll go to sleep now.”

  “Me too,” said Harold, also yawning.

  We lay against a comfortable boulder and were both asleep within seconds.

  ***

  I awoke from deep sleep being poked repeatedly in my arm.

  “Stop it, Harold,” I mumbled, still half asleep.

  The poking continued.

  “I’m not kidding. Stop it.”

  Poke. Poke. Poke.

  I sat up angry. “What the heck, Harold? Why are you – .”

  But, before I could finish, I noticed that it wasn’t Harold poking me, but a baby zombie pigman holding a very sharp diamond sword. Wait, I thought, don’t pigmen have golden swords?

  “What are you doing in my cave?” he asked with a menacing voice.

  End of Book 1

  Book 2: Into the Mine

  Chapter 1

  I stared at the point of the ultra-sharp diamond sword held in the hand of the baby zombie pigman. It was only inches from my neck.

  “Cat got your tongue?” he snarled at me.

  “What?” I whimpered.

  “I asked you a question,” he said. “What are you doing in my cave?”

  I glanced over at my chicken, Harold. He was petrified. I had to say something.

  “Well, we were just looking for a place to hide during the day, and we found this place so we thought we’d stay, at least for a little while.”

  The baby zombie pigman laughed. “Yeah, right. You’re here to take this place from me, aren’t you?”

  “We didn’t even know it was your place, so how could we want to take it from you?” I asked.

  “Shut up,” he said, pushing the sword closer to me. “You know it’s mine now.”

  “That’s true,” I said in as calm a voice as I could manage, hoping the baby zombie pigman would relax a bit.

  Our captor backed away a few feet and then motioned with his sword to the cave’s exit. “Get out,” he said.

  “But, it is still daylight. There are probably players roaming around. You can’t make us go out there,” I implored him.

  He chuckled. “I can do whatever I want. I have the diamond sword, remember?” To emphasize his point he jumped at me and waved the tip of his sword a few inches from my nose.

  “You’re not very nice,” said Harold.

  The baby zombie pigman shot him an icy stare. “I don’t need to be nice to stay alive,” he growled. “Get out!”

  “Let’s go, Harold. We’ll find someplace else,” I said sadly. I picked up my sack of beef and wheat that Zeb had given me before our exile from the zombie horde and began walking to the exit of the cave.

  As Harold and I shuffled toward the exit of the cave, Harold looked up at me and said, “It’s okay. There are still a few hours of daylight left. We can find a new cave before the sun sets.”

  I reached over and patted Harold’s neck. “I hope so.”

  Then, just as we were about to leave the cave, we heard a loud clucking behind us and then someone said, “Harold? Is that you?”

  Chapter 2

  Harold and I turned around and saw a chicken standing next to the baby zombie pigman.

  “Bob?” said Harold. “Is it really you?”

  “Yes!” clucked the other chicken excitedly.

  Harold and Bob rushed together, reached their wings around each other and exchanged a long bro hug.

  “I thought you were dead,” said Harold, a little tear of joy running from one eye.

  “Same here,” said Bob.

  As they pushed away from their bro hug, the baby zombie pigman said to Bob, “Wait. You know these guys?”

  Bob nodded. “Yes. Well, I know Harold anyway. I don’t know the baby zombie.”

  “His name is Zeke,” said Harold. “He helped me save some of our friends who got captured by villagers.”

&n
bsp; “Hi, Bob,” I said, waving my hand.

  “Hi, Zeke.”

  The baby zombie pigman slapped his face with his hand. “Seriously? I act all crazy and scare these guys away from the cave and you know one of them?”

  I walked over to the baby zombie pigman and said, “Forget about it.”

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “What’s your name?”

  “Otis.”

  I extended an undead hand and Otis reached his out. We shook hands. “Nice to meet you,” I said. “And, it’s nice not to have a sword pointed at my face.”

  Otis looked embarrassed. “Yeah, well, there are lots of bad mobs out there. I was just being safe. Me and Bob had to go through a lot to survive and find a place like this. I wasn’t going to allow any chicken jockey to take it from us.”

  “Sure,” I said. “I totally understand.” I paused for a moment and then asked, “So, are you a pigman jockey?”

  Otis nodded, “Yes, sir.”

  “Cool,” I said. “We should start a jockey gang.”

  Otis rolled his undead eyes. “Oh, please, can we?” he said sarcastically.

  “I was kidding,” I said. “Anyway, how did you get to the Overworld? Shouldn’t you be in the Nether?”

  Otis seemed sad for a moment, and then said, “It’s a long story. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  I looked down at the diamond sword in Otis’s hand. What is a baby zombie pigman doing with a diamond sword?

  “How did you get that awesome sword?” I asked.

  Otis looked over at Bob and raised an eyebrow. Bob nodded and said, “Show them.”

  “Follow me,” said Otis.

  Chapter 3

  Otis led us across the large cavern in which we had been standing toward a narrow passage. He grabbed a torch from the wall and told us each to grab one.

  “It’s a pretty long walk from here,” said Otis. “Be sure to watch your step.”

  As we walked through the narrow passage, I said to the chickens, “What did you mean back there about thinking you were both dead?”

  Bob sighed. “Well, Harold and I were part of a large group of chickens, maybe fifteen of us, right Harold?”

  “Sounds about right,” said Harold.

  “Anyway, we were minding our own business, scratching the ground for seeds when a wolf arrived and ate one of us.”

  “Rest in peace, Glenda,” said Harold softly.

  Bob nodded. “We all panicked and ran in all directions. As we ran, another couple of wolves arrived and started eating more chickens. We all had to scatter if we had any hope of survival. That was the last I saw of Harold. I met Otis the next day.”

  “You know those chickens we freed back in the village?” said Harold.

  I nodded.

  “They were with that group. A few of us managed to get back together after the wolf attack, but we just assumed all the other chickens were dead.”

  “Intense,” I said.

  After that sad tale, we walked silently for a time, still in single-file behind Otis in the narrow passageway. In some spots, the passage was barely one block wide and we had to move quite slowly.

  After a few more minutes, the passage started to become wider and wider as it slowly opened into a large chamber.

  “Here we are,” said Otis.

  We had entered a broad chamber, probably fifty blocks wide and eight blocks high. A small underground creek gurgled slowly through the center of the chamber. There was a small lava pit in one corner of the chamber.

  “I bet there are lots of valuable ores near,” I said.

  “Yep,” said Otis. “I’ve done a little mining and found some pretty awesome stuff, even some redstone ore and diamond ore.”

  “So, you made the sword yourself?” I asked, totally impressed.

  Otis shook his head. “No. I’ll show you.”

  Otis led us to a cobblestone wall. He pulled a pickaxe from his inventory and quickly knocked away four blocks. Behind them was a chest.

  “I was mining a few days ago and came across this chest hidden behind several layers of stone. My guess is some player hid it in here long ago.”

  “Whoa,” I said.

  “Cool,” said Harold.

  “Yeah, it is,” Otis continued. “When I opened it up, I found all sorts of awesome stuff in it, including this diamond sword. There’s also all sorts of potions, armor and other weapons.”

  “Can I open it?” I asked.

  “Sure,” said Otis. “Why don’t you pick out some more weapons so you have something more than just your iron sword?”

  I rushed over to the chest and opened it. I had never seen so many amazing things in one location: swords, bows, axes, armor, potions and even a book labeled Steve’s Diary.

  “Wow!” I exclaimed.

  Otis smiled. “Pretty awesome, huh?”

  “It sure is,” I said as I grabbed a bow and ten arrows from the chest. “Too bad there isn’t another diamond sword,” I muttered.

  “I got the only one,” said Otis, slashing his gleaming sword through the air and smiling like a madman … er … mad-zombie.

  I rummaged further through the chest. “Any baby-sized armor in here?” I asked. “This leather armor is pretty weak.”

  “No, nothing,” said Otis. “I need some armor myself.”

  I picked up Steve’s Diary and said to Otis, “You read this yet?”

  He laughed. “Of course not. Who would want to read someone else’s diary?”

  I shrugged. And then opened the diary and started reading: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the …” What the heck? I put the diary back in the chest.

  I looked through the potions and grabbed a potion of healing, of strength and a splash potion of harming. “You never know when these might come in handy,” I said to Otis.

  “Agreed,” he replied.

  I looked at the chickens. “I don’t see anything in the chest you guys might like. No grains of any kind.”

  “That’s okay,” said Harold. “Chickens are used to having to scratch the ground to find their food.”

  Chickens sure are accepting of their lot in life, I thought.

  I made one last scan of the chest and was about to close it when a small bottle tucked in the back corner of the chest caught my eye. I reached down and lifted the bottle.

  “Oh my gosh,” I said, “a potion of invisibility!”

  “No way. How did I miss that?” asked Otis, who sounded a little jealous.

  “It was hidden under some sheets of paper,” I said, trying not to gloat about my awesome find.

  “Keep it handy. You never know when you might need it to get away from a player,” said Otis.

  I nodded my agreement and then yawned. “Otis, man, I’m tired. You wouldn’t happen to have any beds around here?”

  Otis grinned. “Come with me.”

  Otis led us down another narrow passage that was only about ten blocks long before it opened up into a cozy room. Inside the room were three beds and a nest made of sticks. The walls were decorated with pictures in item frames and there were glowing torches on the walls.

  “Nice,” I said. “Did you craft all of this?”

  “It was like this when we found it,” said Otis. “All I needed to do was light the torches.”

  I whistled. “Someone worked pretty hard on this cave. Hiding a chest full of loot and building this room.”

  “There is also a deep mine down another passage,” said Bob.

  “Really?” I said.

  I was starting to get worried. If a player – maybe that Steve guy who left the weird diary – built all this, he was sure to return. And, he would not like us being here.

  “Aren’t you afraid that whoever built this is going to come back?” I asked Otis. “I mean, if he is leaving diamond swords and bottles of p
otions laying around, he is probably pretty dominant. He might even have enchanted weapons.”

  Otis did not seem too concerned. “This cave is huge. We’d hear anyone coming – like I heard you – and be able to escape before anything bad happened.”

  Otis seemed to have it all worked out, so I said, “Sounds good to me.”

  After that, we sat down and ate dinner and then got in to bed. Bob gave Harold some of his sticks to use as a nest.

  We were all just drifting off to sleep when we heard and felt a massive explosion from deep inside the cave.

  Chapter 4

  Otis jumped out of bed and lit a torch. “Is everyone okay?” he asked. We all were fine, just frightened.

  “It sounded like it came from below us,” I said.

  Otis nodded. “Yeah, I think it came from deep inside the mine. Maybe the main mine pit.”

  “Do you think someone is down there?” I asked.

  “Could be,” said Otis. “Or, it could be that some lava dripped on some TNT blocks and set off an explosion. The only way to be sure is to go down there and check it out.”

  “Ugh,” I grunted. “I guess sleep will have to wait.”

  Otis turned to Bob and Harold and said, “It is a pretty steep, narrow path through the mine, so we should probably ride you guys.”

  “No problem,” said Bob.

  “Sure,” said Harold.

  Otis and I climbed aboard and got comfortable in our jockey positions. I still felt a little bad about riding Harold, but we made a great team and we could maneuver much more quickly when I was sitting on him.

  “Let’s move out,” said Otis. “And, let’s try to be as quiet as possible. We don’t know who or what might be down there.”

  The rest of us nodded our assent. Then, Otis and Bob took the lead, while Harold and I followed.

  We passed through the short narrow exit from the sleeping chamber into the larger chamber where I had searched the chest. Then, we went to another crack in the wall, almost unnoticeable until I was just a few blocks away from it.