Escape from the Nether

by Winter Morgan

Nancy said, “I didn’t think she would. We were so worried. She told us we should stay back here and she knew she’d find you guys.”

  Eva was standing by a brewing stand. “Do you guys want any potions? I am brewing potions for everybody. So far we all have a potion of invisibility.”

  Eva walked over to Brett and Joe and handed them bottles of potion. “These are yours.”

  Brett told the group how they were taken to a prison in the cold taiga. “It was Hillsdale, the town that we worked on, Poppy. They do house everyone in your ice castle.”

  Joe added, “They eat the food from our farm. I was devastated.”

  “At least we know that area very well,” said Poppy. “That will help us. I know the layout of the ice castle, and I also did something that I do with all of my homes. I put in a secret room.”

  “You put a secret room in all of your designs? I didn’t know that.” Brett was shocked. He thought he knew everything about Poppy and now he discovered that she had placed secret rooms in all of the buildings she designed in the Overworld.

  “Yes,” confessed Poppy, “and I have one in the ice castle. If we can get in there, maybe we can put TNT blocks in that room and blow up the ice castle.”

  “And destroy the beautiful creation,” said Brett.

  Joe interrupted with, “I don’t think we should bother fighting Theo now. I mentioned to Brett that we have to go back into the past to save the future. We have to attack Theo at an earlier stage.”

  “How can we do that?” asked Eva.

  “We need to go back to the past through the portal in the Nether,” said Joe.

  “Let’s do it,” Eva said, “but first let me finish brewing these potions.”

  “Do we have time?” asked Joe.

  Brett stood next to Joe and saw a pair of red eyes in the corner by Joe’s feet. He quickly grabbed his sword and swung it at the spider. Joe jumped out of the way. “You could have warned me. You scared me.”

  “Sorry,” said Brett. “I saw a spider.”

  “Great, I can use a spider eye,” said Eva as she worked on a potion. Brett handed the spider eye to Eva, and she completed a potion. “I want to give everyone some potions for harming and healing, and then I think we can get to the Nether. I am excited to travel back in time and see Meadow Mews. I’ve only heard and read about it.”

  The gang collected the potions and placed them in their inventories. They bolted out of the mine and were about to craft a portal when they heard the thunder.

  “We have to do this fast,” said Poppy.

  “It’s too late,” cried Nancy. “We don’t have enough time.”

  Skeletons and zombies spawned and surrounded them. They didn’t want to waste their potions on this battle, and they fought tirelessly using their diamond swords, bows and arrows, and energy. Brett slammed his sword into a zombie that seemed to have never-ending strength. No matter how many times he slammed his sword into its gross-smelling flesh, it still leaped at him.

  Joe slammed his sword into the zombie that attacked Brett and destroyed it. Bones rattled as the gang fought the group of zombies that shot arrows at them. The rain was falling hard, and the ground was becoming muddy. The group tried not to slip as they battled the beasts in the rain.

  Poppy wasn’t waiting for the storm to end. She gathered the supplies to craft a portal to the Nether and placed them on the wet ground. She wanted to be ready to ignite the portal the second the rain stopped. As her friends battled the mobs, she carefully placed all the pieces of obsidian on the mud, and when the final raindrop fell and the last skeleton and zombie disappeared, she called out, “Hop on!”

  The gang clustered together as they traveled back to the Nether. The purple mist faded, and they were in the middle of the Nether, but there wasn’t a Nether fortress in sight.

  “Where’s the Nether fortress?” asked Eva.

  “I don’t know, but we’ll find it,” said Poppy.

  Brett hoped Poppy was correct. They set out to search for a Nether fortress, and they all hoped it wouldn’t take a long time. Every second spent in the Nether was always dangerous, and this trip was no exception. A group of ghasts spotted them and unleashed a collective high-pitched shriek as they slammed the group with fireballs.

  As they shot arrows at the ghasts, Brett heard somebody call out, “You think you can escape from me?”

  He turned around to see Theo and his army.

  10

  THE PORTAL

  Brett didn’t know where to aim his bow and arrow. Ghasts flew overhead spitting out a succession of fireballs as Theo and his army shot arrows at the gang. Brett’s leg was burned, and an arrow struck his shoulder. He had one heart, and he tried to grab the potion of healing Eva had brewed for him, but he was destroyed before he could take a sip. The potion spilled onto the netherrack ground, and Brett awoke in the house Poppy had built in the pasture. He wasn’t alone.

  “Get up,” a soldier screamed at him.

  “Okay,” said Brett. “Please don’t yell.”

  “We won’t yell if you get up right now and follow us to the prison,” said the soldier without raising his voice.

  Brett stood up, and the soldier asked him to empty his inventory. Brett’s heart began to race. He didn’t want to empty it. If he did, he wouldn’t have any way to defend himself against an attack. He pulled one bottle of milk from his inventory and fumbled with it. He handed it to the soldier.

  The soldier prodded Brett with the sword, and Brett cried out in pain. The soldier said, “You’re going to have to move a little faster.”

  “I’m sorry, but I am moving as fast I can.” Brett’s voice cracked. “Giving up everything in your inventory isn’t an easy thing to do. It took me a long time to acquire all of these items.”

  The soldier didn’t care if Brett thought this was hard and slammed his sword into Brett’s unarmored shoulder. “Faster! Empty the inventory!”

  As Brett handed over every item from his inventory, he heard a noise outside the large picture window. One of the soldiers looked out the window and ordered the other soldier to go outside and destroy anyone he saw there. The soldier raced from the house and immediately called out for help, but before the other soldier could help him, he was destroyed by Poppy.

  Poppy raced into the house with Nancy. Nancy leaped at the soldier with her diamond sword, striking him until he was obliterated.

  “Brett,” said Nancy, “we have to go back to the Nether. I think we can get into the portal.”

  “Where are Joe, Helen, and Eva?” asked Brett.

  “They’re in the Nether. We were able to defeat the army,” said Nancy.

  Brett couldn’t believe they had destroyed the army. They were outnumbered. He didn’t have time to ask them how they defeated Theo and his army, because his friends were pushing him onto the portal. It wasn’t until they were in the Nether and the purple mist faded that Brett remembered his inventory was almost empty. He had given most of his items to the soldier. He was only left with his diamond sword, a potion of harming, and two snowballs. When three ghasts instantly attacked them, he didn’t have a bow and arrow to fight back. He used his fists, but the flame from the fireball burned his hands, leaving him in pain.

  “Are you okay?” asked Nancy.

  “Where are your bow and arrow?” asked Poppy.

  “The soldiers emptied most of my inventory. I hardly have anything. They were about to put me in prison,” said Brett.

  Poppy had a spare bow, but only a few arrows. “Take this.” She handed him the bow and arrows.

  A voice called out in the distance, “Guys! Over here!”

  Eva stood next to Joe, Helen, and a group of people he didn’t recognize. Brett sprinted toward them, and Eva introduced her friends. “These are the alchemists who were trapped in the Nether. Theo placed them all around the Nether, and most of them escaped and were reunited. We were lucky we found them. They were very helpful in slaying Theo and his army,” explained Eva.

 
An alchemist with purple hair said, “We have to hide. Theo will be back. He will want revenge for our attack. I’m sure he’s infuriated that we destroyed him and his army.”

  Another alchemist with flaming red hair in braids added, “He’s probably also very upset that we escaped. He wanted us to be trapped forever.”

  “We have to find the portal and go back in time,” Eva announced, “and I think we found the Nether fortress where I was trapped. That is the one with the portal.”

  “Where is it?” asked Brett.

  “This way,” Eva called out as she sprinted through the fiery Nether, leading them up a large bridge and through an area with a lava river. Brett thought it looked familiar, and he hoped Eva was leading them to the right fortress.

  “Here we are,” Eva said as they approached the fortress. Again, the cluster of blazes that guarded the fortress met them. When the blazes saw the gang, they rose from the ground and initiated an attack.

  The group collectively attacked the blazes, and Brett took the snowballs from his inventory and struck one of the fiery beasts. It was easier to defeat the blazes now that they had a large group. As they entered the fortress, Brett counted the alchemists. There were seven of them not including Eva.

  “We found Eva right through here,” said Poppy.

  Brett’s heart raced. He hoped this was the right fortress and they would find a hole in the wall.

  “I see it!” exclaimed Poppy. “I see the hole!”

  Poppy led them through the hole and headed to the door. She opened it, and a burst of cold air filled the room. “This is it! This is the portal!”

  The gang walked into the hallway. Brett was freezing as he made the journey back in time. The trip felt like an eternity. He hoped when they reached the other side that they would be back in their old time period, but he wasn’t certain this was the case. He had traveled through portals before and they landed him in all different time periods. The sweat on his blond hair turned to ice as he walked deeper into the portal. When they finally reached the other side, they were in a Nether fortress and were gloomily greeted by six wither skeletons.

  The wither skeletons struck each of them as they emerged from the portal. Luckily, Brett had his diamond sword, and he struck one of them. The gang engaged in a battle against the wither skeletons. As Brett destroyed another wither skeleton, he wondered where they would emerge once they crafted a portal and left the Nether. He wondered if they would find Theo in this time period, and he hoped they could stop him before he destroyed the future.

  When the final wither skeleton was destroyed, they sprinted out of the Nether fortress. Poppy ignited the portal back to the Overworld. Brett hoped they’d emerge in a time where Meadow Mews still existed.

  11

  BACK HOME

  The purple mist lifted, and as they stepped off the portal, Poppy exclaimed, “It’s your house, Brett!” Poppy rushed to Brett’s house and opened the door; the others followed closely behind. She raced to the brewing stand filled with the empty bottles, remarking, “It’s as if we never left.”

  Brett laughed as he looked at his small living room filled with eight alchemists from the future. “No, we definitely left.”

  The alchemists crowded around the brewing stand. One of the alchemists suggested they brew a bunch of potions so they could prepare for an attack against Theo.

  “Sounds like a plan,” said Brett.

  Joe added, “We have to find Theo. Do you have any idea where he is from? Where he lived before he destroyed the Overworld and took over Hillsdale?”

  “No,” said Eva, “but I think we should go to Hillsdale. Maybe he is from there and that’s why he didn’t destroy it.”

  Brett agreed that Hillsdale was a good place to start. “We have to come up with a plan. We can’t just show up there.”

  Eva suggested, “We should make lots of bottles of the potion of invisibility. We can use that to explore the town and to see if we can spot Theo.”

  “Good idea,” said the alchemist with the flaming red hair. “I also think we should note that Theo might not be dressed in his yellow robe. He might have had a different skin in the past.”

  Eva said, “It doesn’t matter what he wears. I’ll never forget his face. He has orange hair, and he always wears those dark sunglasses.”

  “I think we’ll know who he is when we find him,” said Brett.

  Nancy and Helen suggested gathering fruits and other foods for the trip to Hillsdale and left the house.

  The alchemists worked tirelessly to create the potions. They worked all day, and when night was setting in, Brett looked out his window and suggested that he craft beds for the eight alchemists.

  “That would be great,” said Eva, not looking up from the brewing stand. Brett marveled at how many bottles of potion were filled. They had brewed potions to heal, potions to harm, potions to make them faster, potions to help them see at night, and various other types of potions.

  Brett, Poppy, and Joe crafted beds for them, then heard the sound of thunder.

  “Aren’t Nancy and Helen gathering fruit?” asked Joe.

  “Yes,” Brett replied.

  “We have to help them. They can be attacked in the rain,” said Joe.

  Eva was holding a spider eye in one hand and bottle in the other. “Do you need our help?”

  “You guys should stay here and keep brewing. Hopefully this storm won’t last very long,” said Brett.

  As they raced out into the dark rainy night, Brett spotted two zombies with their arms extended. The vacant-eyed creatures lunged toward them, and Brett struck the smelly beasts with his diamond sword. After destroying both of the zombies with two strikes from his sword, he felt very confident, but everything changed when he saw a chicken jockey racing in his direction. The zombie riding the chicken ran into Brett, leaving him with one heart. Poppy raced to his side, striking the zombie with her sword and handing a potion of healing to Brett. He sipped the potion and destroyed the chicken.

  “We can feast on this later,” he said as he placed the soggy chicken into his inventory.

  “Help!” Helen cried out in the distance.

  “Where are you?” Poppy called out. “Helen, we can’t find you.” It was dark, and the rain made it harder to see. Brett, Poppy, and Joe searched for Helen as her cries grew fainter.

  “We are going in the wrong direction,” said Brett.

  Nancy raced over toward them. She had one heart left, and she panted as she said, “They have Helen.”

  “Who?” questioned Brett.

  “The soldiers,” she replied.

  “Where did they go?” asked Poppy.

  “I don’t know, but we have to find her,” Nancy said.

  Brett felt a pain in his shoulder, and he turned around to see three skeletons aiming their bows and arrows at the group. The rain was still falling, and he was exhausted. He didn’t want to battle another mob, but he had no choice. He splashed a potion on the skeletons and was about to hit them with his diamond sword, but the rain stopped and they disappeared.

  The gang sprinted back inside the house and screamed out in horror when they saw the alchemists surrounding Eva. Two of the alchemists were holding diamond swords against her unarmored chest.

  “Help me!” Eva cried.

  Brett looked at the alchemists, and he stared at Eva. He wondered if his first instinct was correct. Maybe she shouldn’t have been trusted.

  12

  THE EIGHT ALCHEMISTS

  “Help me!” Eva called out again.

  “What is going on here?” Poppy pointed her diamond sword at the alchemists.

  “Eva is a traitor. She works for Theo,” one of the alchemists screamed.

  “No, I don’t,” Eva screamed back. “I would never. I don’t understand why you think that.”

  “You were the one who told Theo where we were,” said the alchemist with flaming red hair. She was angry, and her face turned red. It almost matched her hair.

  “I did
,” Eva confessed, “but it wasn’t because I was on Theo’s side. He told me that he put me on hardcore mode and that if I didn’t tell him where we had been hiding, he would destroy me. He said that if I told him where you guys were, we would all be put in prison, but we’d survive. That is what happened: he imprisoned us all, but we did survive. I knew that if we survived, one day we’d be reunited and could defeat Theo.”

  “You ratted us out.” The redheaded alchemist struck Eva with her sword. Eva wailed in pain as she lost a heart.

  “Stop! I’m sorry,” Eva cried.

  “We spent decades in that prison.” The alchemist struck Eva again. “You’re lucky that we were sly and were able to hide things in our inventories so we could eventually escape. If not, we would still be rotting away in a Nether prison.” The alchemist struck Eva another time, and she was losing hearts.

  “Stop!” Poppy screamed. “You don’t have to destroy Eva over this.” Poppy handed Eva a potion of strength. Poppy said, “We can’t let what happened in the past—”

  Brett corrected her, “You mean the future.”

  “Whatever,” Poppy said. “The point is, now we are all working to destroy Theo. If we can destroy him now, then Eva will never have to betray her allies.”

  “That’s true,” said the redheaded alchemist as she put down her sword.

  Eva said, “I am truly sorry. I was so worried that I would be destroyed forever, and I knew I’d never be able to help you. I thought Theo was going to put us in prison together and we could fight him as a group. I never thought he’d leave me trapped in a Nether fortress, where I was subjected to daily attacks from wither skeletons, magma cubes, blazes, and all sorts of mobs that live in that horrid biome. I never meant to betray or hurt you guys. You are my best friends. We are the eight alchemists.”

  Nancy said, “I know you guys have issues from your past that you must resolve, but we have another problem to solve.”

  “Is it more important than this one?” asked an alchemist.

  “Helen was taken by Theo’s soldiers,” Nancy said.

  “Oh no!” the alchemists let out a collective cry.