Rescue Island

by Stone Marshall

I put the new tools in my pocket. "It's still too dark to go outside, so let's go back down that hole and find something useful."

  Verve purrs.

  Mining is a lonely pursuit, but it feels productive. I get in a groove. I'm an organized miner. I follow veins of valuable materials but also mine all the stuff in between. The large spacious caverns I open up are like underground living spaces. Torches on the walls light the space.

  Once I stop finding valuable resources, I dig down. I go down quite a ways sometimes, find another vein of value, and open up another cavern. This seems like a logical practice to me and gives me plenty of resources for building later. I'd like to convert a bunch of this cobblestone to stone in the furnace. I'll use the stone to build Citadel Fort. I have plenty by now and—

  Ssssss!

  What was that! "Who is there?" I yell. Why did I yell that? It makes no sense to give away my location to whatever made that sound.

  Verve is gone. "Verve, where are you?" I yell. Why do I keep yelling?

  HISSS! It's Verve! BOOOOM!!!!!

  Ringing in my ears. I see red.

  Total darkness.

  Eyes open. Or are they closed? I can't see a thing. I've been lying here for some time. It's dark. The ringing in my ears is fading, but I am afraid. This moment reminds me of my first memory on Spider Sands. What happened? An explosion. And Verve? Where is Verve? "Verve! Where are you?" My only companion, Verve, is not responding.

  I'm hurt, but not dead. Verve must have saved me. Verve discovered something very dangerous and took the force of the explosion. Let me think. It's hard with the ringing in my head. Explosions. Yes, I remember something about this from the game.

  Exploding creatures! They blow pixels to bits, like pixelator bombs. The thought scares me! They make me think of Bob-omb from Super Mario Bros. These pixelators move around, nearly silent. I'll never forget the sound I heard before the explosion. It's stuck in my brain. The ssssss sound. Like a fuse burning just before the bomb goes off. I thought cats were supposed to protect players from dangers like this.

  Wait, I know what must have happened. I came down the ladder without Verve. She must have appeared just as the pixelator bomb was about to go off. She saved my life—what little is left of it. I feel pain everywhere. I need to eat something to restore my health. I devour several apples. Well, that's the last of my food store, but at least the pain is gone.

  The explosion blew up the torches. I pull one from my pocket and plant it in front of me. For the first time, I see the devastation left by the explosion. My neatly-organized cavern is in ruins. The place is a jumbled mess of pixels and blocks, resources blown from the floor, walls, and ceiling. The space that remains is jagged.

  How did that thing get in here? How do I protect myself in the future? Looking around, one more question pops into my head, a pressing question that drowns out all other thoughts. How do I get out of here? My ladder is gone, blown away in the explosion. I can't orient myself as to where it was or where the shaft is that leads to my home.

  I'm trapped!

  LOG ENTRY 6

  Grave Consequences

  STOP! DON'T FREAK OUT. Think. This is bad. Look for something positive.

  I'm alive. The food I ate restored my health. I feel much better. I have enough light from the torch to see, and my pocket is full of resources.

  It's hard to stay positive when I look in my pocket. Only three sections of ladder, not nearly enough to rebuild and climb out of here, and that assumes I can find the exit shaft. To make matters worse, I'm down to a few remaining torches. If I had lumber I could easily build a crafting table then more pieces of ladder, but I don't have lumber or wood of any kind in my pocket inventory!

  I have plenty of what I don't need right now, cobblestone and gravel. I don't need this stuff! I need something that will get me out of this hole in the ground. If I don't get out soon, I'm afraid this hole will become my grave!

  Keep calm and carry on. That is a funny little saying that's popular in the real world, or so I seem to remember. And the saying is particularly useful right now.

  I followed a narrow path of blocks down into the jungle cavern yesterday. Why not mine my way out of here by digging a stairway up? Great idea! It's much better to have a plan than to feel trapped. I begin hacking away at blocks three blocks high, one block forward, and then one block up. Hop up and do it again.

  The repetitive nature of carving stairs into the earth is comforting, and the no-brainer nature of the work lets my mind wander. I remember Verve and feel the loss of my companion. No, Verve was more than a companion. She saved me when I was feeling hopeless and vulnerable. I only knew her for a short time, but she saved me on several occasions.

  Clunk! Ruined another pickaxe. They don't last as long as I'd like them to. I pull the last one from my pocket and get back to work.

  My mind quickly returns to thoughts of Verve. First she appeared when I was emotionally lost. Then she comforted me after I slipped from the walkway and landed, stranded on the narrow ledge, inches from death. Later she saved me from the spider in the cave. Cats in this game don't behave that way. But Verve was no ordinary cat. Her presence made this house I built into a home, and in the end she gave her life to save mine.

  "Verve, I will find and care for your kitten!" I yell. My voice echoes through the stair shaft. It feels good to feel the echo reverberate through my body.

  I've been digging for a while. It's totally dark. Every so often I stick a torch in the wall, but I'm at the edge of the light and don't have another torch. I hope I find daylight soon. It's dangerous to dig in total darkness. Fortunately, I can tell the difference between dirt and gravel because they make a different sound when my pickaxe strikes.

  I trade tools for a shovel when I reach those. The pickaxe is best for mining harder blocks, such as stone, coal, and iron ore. But the sound I hear now is new. Harder substances make a ping sound. This is not that kind of sound. It's a lower sound, kind of like gravel. Great, what a time to be out of light.

  I switch to the shovel and dig away. Thud. That was fast, but something is still there. I dig more and thud! Same thing. I think I've found sand! Sand, like gravel, is not structural and falls if not supported from below. Sand! This is great news; maybe I'm near a beach! I wonder which beach. I wish I had some bearing as to which direction I am digging.

  I have a concern. I can't move forward until I take care of this never-ending sand. It keeps falling from above. How deep am I? I hope that when the last block of sand falls, I can take a step up and see daylight through the shaft above. That will light my stairway and give me motivation to continue forward.

  I must be pretty deep. Every time I dig out a sand block, there's a thud sound and another falls in place. I've been at this for a little while now. There must be an end in sight, right? Wait, the last one that fell seemed different. I don't know. Was that a glimpse of light, or was it something else? My eyes are not used to the darkness and must be playing tricks on me.

  Thud! Whoa! Something is pushing me, no carrying me down, down the stairs! It's cold and wet! Water! I must have tunneled under the bay! The sand is at the bottom of the bay, and I just opened up to the water. I can't breathe. I fight it. I swim up, into the current.

  The light behind me goes out. The water must have reached my torch! I keep moving against the current. I can't breathe! I am totally submerged. I see a tiny light. I know what happens if I stay underwater too long. I don't want to feel that pain again! I think I can do this.

  I push into the current, toward the light. It's straight up now. The light is getting bigger. I see the end of the shaft. I swim through and . . . and I'm deep down in a large body of water. I don't have much time, but I no longer have to fight the current of water. It's daylight above me. If I can just make it before—

  Ouch! The pain of drowning hits. I don't have a moment to waste. Ouch! This is getting old. The surface is near. Gasp! I made it and I'm becoming a pretty great swimmer. It's amazing how nec
essity makes me get better at things very quickly.

  With my head above water, I look around to orient myself. The sun is rising; that must be east. Of course it is, I'm not far from the western shore of Rescue Island. It looks pretty amazing with the sun rising over the high point. I swim to shore and take a minute to evaluate my situation. I realize my pixelated plastic body is hungry. Time to go fishing.

  LOG ENTRY 7

  Revenge

  FISHING IS SIMPLE. Cast the lure out, wait for just the right moment, and flick the wrist perfectly. Presto! Dinner.

  Raw fish filled me up, and I put plenty in my inventory. I walk to the house and cook a bunch of fish in the furnace, saving several raw ones for a special little kitty. I wonder if I can find Verve's kitten. I hope so. I hope I can tame it. I store some of the cooked fish in my chest and put the rest in my pocket inventory.

  I replenish my pocket inventory with tools, torches, and ladder sections. I don't want to be stuck without these again. Looking around the house before I leave brings back fresh feelings of emotional hurt. Verve didn't have much time here, but she made it feel less lonely.

  I notice the trapdoor in the floor, the one that leads to my underground mine, and I wonder if the entire thing is flooded. How am I ever going to fix that? Maybe it's for the best. I'll get back to that eventually.

  I feel anger swelling within me. I feel something dangerous growing inside. I feel hatred for spiders and pixelators. I don't want to feel this. I'm generally a peaceful person. But I do feel it. I need to harness this anger somehow. Turn the anger into energy. I'll use this energy to focus my brain. I can only focus on one thing.

  I'm going after those pixel rearrangers! I can't get the rage out of my mind! I feel like Anakin must have felt in Star Wars: Episode Three—Revenge of the Sith. I must avenge Verve. I will annihilate all pixelators!

  From the little I know about pixelators popping creatures, I devise a plan. They will find me. I don't have to go looking for them. I just have to be ready for them. I'll have to go out at night, which would normally scare me, but right now I use that fear to drive me!

  It's still early in the day. I need as much daylight as possible to prepare. My plan is simple, but requires resources that I don't have.

  I put sand in the furnace. I need glass, lots of it. I also need more string. My plan is bold. If I'm going to crush an entire species, I must go full force! I know the routine for string. I only need three pieces, which means I must kill two or three spiders.

  Time for a spider hunt! I make my way back to the jungle, to the deep cavern entrance. I know exactly what to do. I've done this before, with help. This time I'm on my own. But this time I'm not afraid. I make my way down the rocky stairway, sword ready to strike. I picture what will happen in my mind. I see red eyes, hear a hiss, and see my sword plunge into the spider's head. Envisioning things in advance prepares me mentally for what I must do.

  I reach the underground cavern where I slayed the last spider. Then I had Verve to help me. Now I have the rage I feel from Verve's demise to sharpen my senses.

  "Here I come, spider. Coming to get you!" I yell. I have no intention of keeping silent. Just the opposite, I want to attract them. I smell blood. There are killers near. Little do they know I am using myself as bait and their death is imminent.

  I feel blood coursing through my body. I am in a heightened state of responsiveness. I feel ready to take on anything. I make my way into the darkness, unafraid. Ears perked, listening for the slightest sound. "COME GET ME!" I yell.

  Slurp! I spin. It's coming from behind me to the left. Slashing, my sword strikes something. Hiss! It sounds angry now. I didn't kill it. I slash at the darkness again. My sword doesn't connect. Where is it?

  "OUCH!" something bites me from behind. I see a flash of red. As I fall, I swing my sword, falling and twisting simultaneously. I don't know what's more surprising, the sharp pain from the bite or the speed of my sword. I feel it slice through an object. It cuts with such power and force. Not like the thud of previous battles.

  Slurp, hiss, thud! Poof, it's dead, only one string appears, I hoped for two. Slurp! No time to think, as my body reacts instinctively. Slash! Thud. Poof, two strings appear.

  Time to get out of here.

  Climbing the staircase, my mind begins to relax. How did I do that? My body wasn't connected to my thoughts. It was working without waiting for me to think. My body acted as an exterminator; a very efficient spider killer. In a way I feel afraid of my own abilities. How can I move so quickly? My movements felt super human. Maybe I'm not super human, maybe I'm super digital!

  I walk from the cavern entrance and turn to the northeast beach of Rescue Island. That is where I first saw chickens, and I need a bunch of them for my plan to work.

  As I near the beach, I hear chickens. There are six or seven in the undergrowth near the beach. My sword makes quick work of them. No suffering. Each gives me raw meat, but more importantly most give me feathers.

  Now I need a crafting table. I return home and craft weapons. Digging through storage chests, I find the remaining resources needed to execute my plan.

  I walk to the highest place on Citadel Fort hill. This is where I will make my stand. This is the best place to defend against the onslaught I hope to attract. This is where I will build my tower!

  It's simple, a tower of stone. I want it to be high enough to be above the bit bombers heads, but not so high that I'm out of sight.

  I make a tower of single stone blocks stacked four high. I put a ladder on the side and climb to the top. Using glass, I build a platform on top. I'll stand on this platform and look down on the pixelators. I can stand on the edge to execute my attack. I finish the platform with a trap door above my ladder.

  Now I wait.

  I've been busy all day. The sun is nearing the western horizon. I carefully and deliberately select my pocket inventory; sword, axe, and food. I don't think I'll need the hand weapons. I don't plan to get that close to the bit busters. The truth is, I don't know much about them. I have vague memories of them, but as a human controlling my character, I always avoided anything that came out at night.

  Now that I am a digital character for real, my personality seems to have changed completely. Now I want to confront these dangerous pixel rearrangers that come out in the night. Now I am preparing for an epic battle. I'm no longer on the defensive. No longer am I interested in protecting myself from unknown dangers. My strategy has changed. I am taking the offensive. I will use my body as bait, draw them in, and wipe them out. Completely!

  The weapon I choose will keep me a safe distance from my attackers. Little do they know I am not their prey, they are mine. The sun sets. My eyes are peeled. I watch for movement.

  How did I keep from being noticed that first night on Safety Cove? Silence. If silence is the secret to not being discovered, then noise must be what attracts trouble.

  "Hey, bit bombers! Come get me!" I yell. It's strange, but yelling relaxes me. I yell more and more. I don't know if they understand anything I say, but I yell anyway. "Where are you guys! Are you afraid? Come out!"

  Swoosh!

  What was that? Something streaked past me. Swoosh! I see something in my periphery, to my right. I turn and see something completely unexpected—a skeleton. What is that? I don't remember anything like this? And it's holding a bow! Yikes! It's taking aim, at me!

  I jump to the left just as the arrow flies. Thud, I fall from the tower and hit the ground. Glad I didn't build this any higher; that fall would have really hurt! I jump up. I did not expect to be in this situation. I expected to be battling from the safety of the tower. I planned to be launching arrows into my victims from above.

  I feel a familiar tingle—the sense of impending doom. I quickly grab my sword and spin, slashing away. I wish I'd thought to make some armor.

  Thud, a spider falls. Slash, thud, another. Swoosh! Ouch! An arrow pierces me. I see a flash of red. That really hurt! I've got to get to high ground
. I can't take the offensive if I'm running from flying arrows.

  The tower, I've got to get to the ladder and climb the tower. It's not far, only a few steps. I quickly scan the battlefield. It's crawling with dangerous things. I see spiders, skeletons and zombies. But the strangest things are skinny, big-headed things, the color of dynamite, rolling toward me. Something doesn't seem right; these rolling creatures are not familiar at all. I feel anger grow inside me. One begins to hiss, sssssss! Pixelators! I yell, "I will annihilate you!"

  I lunge for the ladder, climb in a split second, open the trap door, and I'm on the platform. My movements are mechanical, no thought, nothing to slow me. Now I can use the spoils of my earlier hunting. The string made a bow and feathers completed the arrows. My hand puts the sword away and grabs my bow. Automatically, I pull the bowstring, take aim, and the arrow sails. It strikes the skeleton that shot me. But I hit low, too low to kill it. I shoot again, this time hitting its skull. Poof. It disappears, a bone drops to the ground.

  I don't have a moment to spare, arrow already notched and aimed. This time rolling anger is in my sights. It's moving toward me. It moves in a creepy, floating way. I let the arrow fly. It's injured, but not dead. Two arrows later, poof! It's gone. It drops a small bag of powder to the ground.

  I did not expect to use so many arrows to take these guys down.

  I keep attacking. Every so often something flies past me, and every so often I see a flash of red. I can no longer push away the pain. I need to restore my health. I can't eat and battle at the same time. I grab the last of the cooked fish from my pocket and eat. Much better. Pick up my bow again and resume my attack.

  I feel like Hawkeye from The Avengers. Every arrow has a target. I'm getting better, sometimes killing an enemy with a single arrow. I'm also moving quickly, avoiding incoming arrows and moving from one side of the platform to another. I am wiping out everything that approaches.