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

by Dr. Block

  “I have a better idea,” said Harold. “Let’s move Zeb into the farm area. We can wall off the entrance. We’ll build him a small house to shield him from the sun’s rays, but he can get fresh air at night.”

  “That’s a great idea,” I said.

  We all carried Zeb to the underground farm we had built earlier. We set him down on the grass. Since it was night, we lit some torches to see what we were building. In a few short minutes, we had crafted Zeb a small, secure house.

  After we carried Zeb inside the house and put him on the bed, I asked, “Think you will be okay?”

  Zeb nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

  “When we get back, we will unseal the farm and have a party,” I said.

  “Your return will be party enough,” said Zeb solemnly.

  The four of us quickly said our goodbyes and left the underground farm. We sealed the entrance with cobblestone, trying to make it look as natural as possible.

  “Looks pretty good,” I said to Otis.

  “Yep,” he said.

  We walked back to the Nether portal. Otis pulled out his flint and steel and scraped them together, making a spark. The Nether portal roared to life, filled with a swirling, purple mist.

  Otis looked at us. “Ready?”

  “Hop on,” said Harold.

  I jumped on Harold’s back and said, “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Otis sat on Bob and rubbed his neck. “Ready, Bob?”

  “Not really,” said Bob. “But, I guess there is no alternative.”

  “Unfortunately, there is not,” said Otis grimly.

  We all looked at each other. This was it. We would either find a way to defeat Herobrine or the world would end. It was time for action.

  And then, we jumped into the portal.

  Chapter 4

  Everything was black. It felt like we were floating, directionless. I was no longer sitting on Harold. I did not know where he was. I did not know where any of my friends were.

  Was this really a portal to the Nether or some sort of trap created by Herobrine?

  I was starting to panic. It felt like there was no gravity. I began to hyperventilate. I felt lightheaded. I was going to pass out.

  *CRACK*.

  I hit the ground hard. I shook my head to try and clear the panic away.

  “Zeke? Zeke? Are you okay?”

  It was Harold.

  “Yes, I think so,” I said without any conviction. “That was freaky.”

  “Yeah, it was,” said Harold.

  “Are you sissies done crying?” said Otis, who stood next to us astride Bob.

  “Didn’t the weightlessness scare you?” I asked.

  “Nah. I’m a baby zombie pigman, remember?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

  “Zombie pigmen are from the Nether. So, traveling here was no big deal for me,” said Otis proudly.

  “Good for you,” said Harold, a hint of angry sarcasm in his voice. “Go ahead, Zeke. Get on.”

  I walked over to Harold and jumped onto his back. “Now what?” I said.

  Otis pointed in the distance. “Let’s go ask those guys.”

  I squinted in the direction he had pointed. It was difficult to see with all the purple stone and glowing orange lava everywhere. It created a strange haze. But, then I saw he was pointing to a horde of zombie pigmen.

  Chapter 5

  “You know those guys?” I asked.

  “No,” said Otis. “But they are my people. They’ll help us out.”

  “Really?” said Harold.

  “Trust me,” said Otis, as he and Bob began walking in the direction of the pigman horde.

  Harold rolled his eyes but followed behind.

  As we approached the horde, the pigmen eyed us cautiously. They stopped milling about and stood still as we got closer.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” I whispered to Otis.

  “Just relax,” said Otis. “Everything is cool.”

  The leader of the zombie pigmen took a couple of steps away from the horde to meet us. “What do you want?” he said in a deep, moaning voice.

  “We are looking for allies,” explained Otis. “We thought you might want to join us.”

  “Allies?” moaned the pigman. “Allies for what?”

  “We have to stop the end of the world” blurted Bob. All of the pigmen looked at Bob like he was insane.

  “What my friend here means is,” said Otis, shooting an icy glance down at Bob, “is that we are in pursuit of Herobrine. We have to stop his plan to bring on the end times and destroy the world.”

  The zombie pigmen considered Otis’s words for a moment and then burst out laughing. Some even fell to the ground and rolled around as they laughed. One laughed so hard, his arm fell off and plopped onto the ground. He looked at his stump sadly for a moment, but then kept laughing.

  “This is serious, you knuckleheads!” yelled Otis. “Stop laughing!”

  The pigmen did not stop laughing. Not right away. Another ten or fifteen seconds passed before they finally calmed themselves.

  The pigman leader spoke again as he wiped tears of laughter from his face. “We are not crazy enough to challenge Herobrine. He could destroy us all.”

  “He will destroy you all if you do nothing,” I said.

  The pigman leader looked at me for the first time. “Then, we have nothing to gain by helping you.”

  “Don’t you want to at least try?” I asked.

  “Not if he is involved,” said the pigman leader, pointing at Otis.

  “Why not? I’m a pigman too. We should stick together,” said Otis.

  The leader grunted dismissively. “You are not a real pigman. The stench of bacon is all over you.”

  “Shut up,” said Otis.

  The leader did not shut up. “We are of the noble lineage of spawned zombie pigmen. You are but an abomination of pig and lightning.”

  “I told you to shut up,” said Otis, drawing his diamond sword.

  “See,” said the leader, looking at me. “It is just like a nasty baby bacon-man to refuse to acknowledge his station in life.”

  I looked over at Otis. There were tears forming in his eyes.

  “So, just because Otis was made when lightning struck near a pig, he is somehow less than you?” I asked the leader.

  “Correct,” said the leader.

  “And because of that reason alone, you are refusing to help him prevent the end of the world?”

  “Correct.”

  I kicked my heels against Harold’s sides to direct him toward where Otis and Bob stood. I put my hand on Otis’s arm and pushed down, forcing him to lower his sword.

  “In that case, if we aren’t able to stop Herobrine by ourselves, at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that all of you ignorant fools are dead,” I said.

  The leader growled at me, and said, “Leave us before something bad happens.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, we’d better leave before we kill all of you,” I said, turning my back on the pigman horde. “Come on, Otis.”

  Otis glared at the leader of the pigmen for a moment and then turned to follow.

  Chapter 6

  “Forget about those jerks,” said Bob to Otis.

  “Whatever. I don’t care,” said Otis, unconvincingly.

  “Those pigmen were jerks, I agree, but we need to focus on finding a clue about where Herobrine went,” I said. “We will never be able to stop him and recover the mysterious objects if we can’t find him.”

  “How can we do that?” asked Harold. “Herobrine is very sneaky.”

  “I don’t know, Harold,” I said. “I guess we just have to keep searching and hope that we can find someone who can show us the way.”

  We continued to walk away from the Nether portal, hoping that we had chosen the general direction Herobrine had gone. We knew the mobs of the Nether would recognize him if they saw him. We hoped one of them would tell us.

  We had
walked for about five minutes when we came to a group of magma cubes, happily bouncing up and down.

  “Hi, guys,” I said.

  “Hi, there,” they responded enthusiastically. “What are you doing in the Nether?”

  “We are after Herobrine,” said Otis flatly.

  The cubes stopped their happy bouncing and stared at us. They looked back and forth at each other in silence.

  Then, they burst out laughing.

  “Yeah, right. You’re after Herobrine?” said one of them. “Not likely.”

  “No one goes after Herobrine. He is too dangerous,” said another.

  Otis jumped off of Bob and marched over to the cubes. He pointed his thumb at his own chest and said, “Well, we are after him because he is going to destroy the world. You better believe it.”

  The cubes started laughing harder.

  “No one can destroy the world,” one said. “It is too big. That is nonsense.”

  “You cubes better expand your vision of the possible,” said Otis.

  “Expanding. Expanding,” said one of the cubes, bouncing up and down and mocking Otis.

  I could tell Otis was about to lose it and kill the cube, so I said, “I once heard it said that a small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. We have that faith, and we will alter history. You should join us.”

  The cubes had settled down and were looking at each other, considering my words. I could tell they had made an impact on them. I sat up straight astride Harold. I had convinced them to join us.

  One of the cubes, who appeared to be the leader of the group, slowly bounced over to me. He looked up at me with his yellow and orange eyes and said, “Dude, you are ba-na-nas.”

  And with that, all of the cubes started laughing hysterically. They were bouncing off the walls of the Nether. Some were even playing leap frog.

  Otis tossed his hands up in exasperation. “Stupid cubes,” he shouted. “I almost want to let Herobrine destroy the world if it will get rid of fools like you.”

  The cubes paid no attention to Otis and kept up their frenzied laughter. As we were turning to leave, one of the cubes paused long enough to ask, “Can you get Herobrine’s autograph for me?”

  Chapter 7

  “Stupid cubes,” muttered Otis as we moved on. “Why won’t anyone help us? This is serious.”

  I leaned to the side, guiding Harold next to Bob and Otis. I put my hand on Otis’s shoulder.

  “Look, man,” I said. “Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission. We both have that. We can do this.”

  Otis grunted. “I’m glad you believe that because, right now, you need to believe it for both of us.”

  As we continued on, looking for some clue as to Herobrine’s location, I suddenly felt the undead flesh on the back of my neck tingle. It felt like I was being watched.

  I quickly turned and scanned the area behind us. I didn’t see anyone. I looked up at the walls of the chamber through which we were passing. That was when I saw it. A shadow of some kind.

  “Otis, look,” I said quickly, pointing at the shadow.

  “What?” said Otis, turning around.

  But, as he turned around, the shadow disappeared.

  “There was a shadow up there,” I said. “I think someone is following us. Maybe it’s Herobrine.”

  “I saw it too,” said Harold.

  Otis did not seem too concerned. “Nah, it isn’t Herobrine. He would just come right out and attack us. It’s probably some wimpy zombie pigman who wants to see us get killed or something.”

  As I thought about it, I had to agree it made no sense that Herobrine would be sneaking around like some coward. But, I did not think it was a zombie pigman. The shadow moved too quickly and fluidly, completely different from the clunky movements of a zombie pigman.

  And, there was another thing. I thought I sensed goodwill emanating from the shadow. As irrational as it seemed, I somehow felt as if it was there to protect us. Of course, I did not tell this to Otis because he would have thought I was crazy.

  “Harold, keep an eye out for anything unusual,” I said. “I have a feeling things are going to start getting interesting.”

  Harold clucked his agreement. “Yes, the further away we are from the portal back to the Overworld, the more likely we will be attacked.”

  “I’m scared,” said Bob, his little chicken legs quivering.

  “I think we are all scared,” I said, trying to comfort Bob.

  “I’ll protect you, Bob,” said Harold.

  “Thanks,” said Bob.

  “Okay, if we are done with the pity party, let’s keep moving,” said Otis. “We need to find something that will lead us to Herobrine.”

  We continued across the chamber and into a short passage which opened into another chamber. The passage curved slightly to the left. As we got to the end of the short passage, we saw a small chamber on the other side.

  As we entered the small chamber, we saw that there were three passages on the opposite wall exiting the chamber. We would have to make a choice about which direction to go.

  “Great,” said Otis, sarcastically. “How do we decide which way to go? We’ll never find Herobrine.”

  “We go right,” said Harold confidently.

  “Why right?” I asked.

  “Look,” Harold said, pointing to the ground with his beak.

  I gasped as I looked down and saw an arrow had been carved into the netherrack. The arrow pointed to the right.

  “How in the name of Notch did that get there?” said Otis.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But it is the first help we’ve gotten on this quest, and I say we go right.”

  “What if it’s a trap?” said Otis. “Maybe Herobrine carved that arrow.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But, even if he did, at least it will get us closer to him.”

  “Or, maybe, he drew it to lead us in the wrong direction,” suggested Bob.

  I sighed. All of these were possibilities. It might be a trap, it might be misdirection, or it might be genuine assistance. Who knew? We had to take a leap of faith.

  “I vote we follow the arrow,” I said. “We have no idea where Herobrine is, so the worst thing that happens by following this arrow is we still don’t know where Herobrine is. On the other hand, there is a chance this arrow will help us find him. We have to take the risk.”

  My speech seemed to have persuaded everyone. We went right.

  Chapter 8

  The passage was long. It got dark very quickly. We had to light our torches to see where we were going.

  “I don’t like this,” said Otis. “Anything lurking in this passage can see us but we can’t see it.”

  “Be ready for anything,” I said.

  We walked through the dark passage cautiously. We tried to be as quiet as possible so we could hear any approaching threats. But, we heard nothing … at first. Then, we started hearing the high-pitched cries of ghasts. Lots of ghasts.

  “Otis,” I whispered. “There must be ghasts at the end of this passage.”

  Otis nodded. “That’s good. They don’t attack mobs, only players.”

  “Maybe they’ve seen Herobrine,” said Bob hopefully.

  As we walked toward the sound of the ghasts, I felt it again: the feeling on the back of my neck. I quickly turned around.

  It was pitch black behind us, but I still thought I could make out a dark object ducking behind a rock. There seemed to be just a hint of light coming from that area, like something glowing faintly.

  If there had been more light in the passage or more room to maneuver, I might have told Harold to turn around and take us back there. But, it was too dangerous and we were almost at the end of the passage. Plus, I felt the goodwill coming from the shape again. I decided there was no danger … at least, not yet.

  A few seconds later, we entered a large cavern. Streams of lava flowed through it, emittin
g a bright orange glow. We extinguished our torches.

  “There must be fifty ghasts in here!” I said.

  “Let’s wake a few of them up,” said Otis as he knocked his sword against his shield.

  A few of the ghasts nearest to us opened their eyes and floated over to us.

  “What do you want?” asked one of them.

  We explained our quest and asked, “So, have you seen Herobrine?”

  “Not for a while,” said the ghast.

  “What do you mean?” I asked excitedly. This might be our first clue.

  “He came into this chamber many weeks ago. He killed three of us and harvested ghast tears. The rest of us shot fireballs at him until he got annoyed and left.”

  “You are telling me you ghasts defeated Herobrine?” asked Otis.

  The ghast shook his tentacles. “No. I said we succeeded in annoying him. Not even a thousand ghasts could defeat Herobrine. He is too powerful.”

  “That is better than nothing,” I said. “Will you join us and help us stop Herobrine?”

  “I don’t think so,” said the ghast.

  Otis shook his head in disgust. “Is everyone in the Nether a coward? Don’t you get it? Herobrine is going to destroy the world!”

  “Why would he do that?” asked the ghast. “Won’t he die too?”

  “Arrrgh! He is evil. He is just doing it because he can,” said Otis, knocking his fists in frustration against his diamond helmet.

  “Look, ghast,” I said. “We don’t know why Herobrine is doing this. Maybe he only intends to destroy part of the world, but we know he is going to do something very bad. We don’t know if we can stop it. Please, help us.”

  The ghast shook his body. “I am sorry. We will stay here. But, if Herobrine comes by, we will shoot fireballs at him.”

  I sighed. “Can you at least tell us which way Herobrine went when you last saw him?”