Bones said, “What’s that?”
Alex replied, “The instructions for making a portal to The Nether.”
Bones then added, “So that’s why they were chasing you…”
What Alex said next made me smile. “They didn’t know I took their plans. I just couldn’t stand by and let them talk badly of monsters any longer.” I knew he was on our side.
Monday – Day 13
We all sat in our cave listening to Alex. “In order to create a portal to The Nether, one needs to pour lava into running water to form obsidian. The next step is to mine the obsidian with a diamond pickaxe,” he read from the blueprints, then took them away from his face and looked at us. “I can make a diamond pickaxe easily… it’s finding the lava which is going to be the hardest part. I’m going to need your help again, Brains.” He looked to me as he spoke. I suddenly felt two hands on me, one on my back and one on my shoulder.
It was my parents. They looked to Alex and moaned as if to tell him no. I understood what they meant entirely because I felt it deep in my chest. I had been spending so much time in the outside world that I had been neglecting my parents. I can’t remember the last time we actually did something together.
Alex looked to Bones, who responded almost instantly with, “I can help.”
Alex nodded, smiled and then said, “Are you able to leave with me now?” Bones agreed. Before they left, Alex asked if we could go looking for other zombies to take with us to The Nether. He signed it out for my parents and spoke very slowly as I wrote them a note. I think they understood. As I went to leave through the front door, my Father caught my arm and moaned as he pointed to a spot on the floor where my Mother already sat.
They wanted to spend some time together. I couldn’t blame them, considering how long it had been since it was just us three; our entire family life had been lost whilst I discovered the world beyond our cave. I sat in between my Mother and my Father and we hugged for a while. I shut my eyes to relax as my parents lightly grunted at each other as a way of communicating. It was peaceful and felt like old times, until a thought flashed into my brain…
This will most probably be the last time I spend an affectionate moment with my parents.
I couldn’t relax after that. I stood to get my diary. I ripped out a page and drew an image of this moment and showed them. I’m sure they understood completely because they had both drew images of our family on the cave walls before. My Father got up and picked out some meat he had been saving. We each took a bite out of the same piece of fish. I felt extremely close to them. No other species that I know of has the urge to bite into meat. I see all other creatures eating to survive or not at all (Bones, for example).
It feels like it’s been forever since I slept on my rock. My parents are sleeping on theirs. Bones and Alex haven’t come back yet. I’m sure they’ll wake me when they do…
Tuesday – Day 14
I’m currently sitting outside in the moonlight as Alex builds the portal to The Nether. He and Bones spent all night and day creating and collecting enough obsidian. Alex is lifting the blocks and placing them on top of one another. The blueprints say “…the fabric which bends time to allow for transportation to The Nether is formed by using flint and steel against the obsidian surface.” Alex has been able to obtain flint and steel from the resources he has collected underground. I’ll leave all of the crafting to him.
We’re going to wait for Bones and my parents to get back before we light the portal. They’ve gone to search for other monsters in the hope of them joining us. I’m starting to get very excited, but I’m also worried… Why do we need more monsters? Alex has told me multiple times that Bones and I will be fine there but I’m a little confused as to why we need more of us. Maybe it’s for Alex’s peace of mind.
Alex wants me to go help him with gathering supplies for the journey. I’ll keep you updated.
* * *
The good news is we were able to light the portal, gather all the supplies we need, and even find some willing monster volunteers to help us on our quest. Then there’s the bad news: The humans followed us in!
Alex and I were waiting outside the cave, where we had created The Nether portal, for Bones and my parents to arrive back. Bones managed to persuade two other skeletons to come – they couldn’t talk, which I found interesting – and one other spider. My parents only found one zombie who was willing to help. We greeted each other with nods and moans whilst the spiders rubbed their legs together and let out a high pitched purr (that must be how spiders make friends).
So Alex scratched the flint and steel against the obsidian blocks, which were in the correct formation, and then a sheet of purple transparent fabric wobbled in the space between the obsidian blocks. The more I looked into the purple wave, the more my vision blurred and the more my head started to hurt. I was too mesmerized by the portal to notice the sound of yelling.
Bones shook me by the shoulders then turned my body in the direction of the human mob. The leader from before was yelling, “You stole our scroll!”
Alex looked their leader dead in the eyes and said, “It is our right to explore where we wish; no one owns The Nether.” The humans didn’t appreciate that so they all took out their swords.
Alex turned to us and pointed to the portal. I guess it was the only escape…
Wednesday – Day 15
The Nether was hot but it didn’t burn because there was no sun, yet I still couldn’t see anything at first due to blaring light in my eyes. Once my vision had returned, I got a good look at the land, which was made up of red earth, parts of it engulfed in fire. The surface heated the soles of my feet, threatening to scald them if I didn’t move. The heat dried up my eyes more than they already were, and the air scratched the back of my throat.
I looked to the ground to see that the part of land we were stood on was suspended over a sea of lava. This place looked bigger than our home world, because I could see really far into the distance, due to there being little scenery to obstruct my view. It was simply miles and miles of emptiness.
My view of this bleak land was taken up by a type of ‘monster’ I had never seen before. It was mix of green skin, exposed bone, and pink flesh. It stood across from us. I would have been accepting of it, even though it looked like it was three species merged into one, but it held a sword to us. When I looked to the sky, I saw massive squid-looking creatures with facial expressions that resembled tiredness. When one of them saw us, its face woke up as it opened its mouth, made a squealing sound, and then fired a ball of fiery waste towards us.
This place isn’t what I expected at all. Home is fresh and happy and beautiful for the most part, whereas this place looks like the stuff of nightmares. I’ve never been so disappointed in my life. However, to say I wish I never ventured from my cave in the first place would be a lie. This is another adventure. It’s just different from the one I wanted, but hopefully I can learn from being here.
I wanted to let the words flow to get my emotions out. Tomorrow I will tell you what happened and why I’m safe enough to write this.
Thursday – Day 16
So we followed Alex into the portal. We didn’t have much choice; it was either enter The Nether or die at the hands of the humans. Luckily we were already prepared. Going through the purple wave felt weirder than looking at it. An intense sense of being pulled apart ran through my entire body. It didn’t hurt but it felt strange enough to make me panic. Thankfully it only lasted a split second. It’s what I’d imagine someone stretching your brain feels like.
The zombie pig men charged at us immediately. I ran away but quickly understood what Alex had meant – we weren’t burned inside The Nether nor were we attacked by the enemies roaming the land. I call them enemies because I don’t want to call them monsters. I’m a monster, so is Bones, but these zombie pig men looked like just that: a mix between a human, a zombie, and a pig. I can’t imagine how that came about… Maybe a zombie chased a human, who was holdi
ng his pet pig, into a Nether portal or maybe this place is just the worst place ever…
I don’t like how it looks or feels. I’m really starting to question why we came here. Alex said he had heard wonderful stories of The Nether (that’s how he knew monsters were immune) but it’s a place of nightmares.
Anyway, the human mob’s attention diverted from us onto the zombie pig men. The humans swung their swords at them but the zombie pig men carried on charging and swinging swords of their own at the humans. I don’t think the pig men felt it one bit whereas the humans started to fall quickly. There must have been around ten humans when the attack happened, now there’s only four left.
To put it bluntly: we ran away…
There wasn’t anywhere to go, so we simply ran in a direction which wasn’t towards the pig men. It might have looked funny if someone was watching us, but let me tell you, it was horrible. I know Alex said us monsters were immune, but I was beginning to doubt that. If the pig men weren’t enough of a threat, we had the huge squid looking creatures in the sky firing flaming waste at us. Weaving in and out of the pig men’s attacks and the flaming waste was difficult. It was the closest I’ve come to death (well, dying a second time).
One moment I was looking behind me to see the humans falling at the hands of the pig men, and the next moment I was looking at a wall of red rock. Alex, in his brilliance, had dug downwards to form a small underground base, which I had fallen into. We all fell in one by one and then Alex closed it off just before the pig men could get in.
We are safe for now.
Friday – Day 17
We were sent out to explore the wasteland today. By ‘we,’ I mean the monsters. The humans argued in our little pit at first. “We don’t want to work with these monster scums,” is what the new leader of the humans said (the old one had fallen in the attack).
Alex got angry but I moved between the humans and Alex and moaned. The humans laughed and pointed at me, which made me want to retreat into the corner I came from, but I continued to moan and move my lips until my intended word came out: “Stop!”
It sounded a little bit like I had water in my mouth, but I’m sure they understood what I had said because their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. “He can talk?” was their general reply. Many of them spoke at once so I find it hard to remember what they all said.
“That makes two of us. We aren’t all mindless killers,” Bones added. To my surprise, it stopped the argument almost instantly and it wasn’t brought up again before going to sleep. The next morning (earlier today), I left a note with the humans telling them to remember how they felt when they heard Bones and I speak – I don’t want them to forget that we aren’t here to hurt them, we’re here to help them.
The humans looked equally stunned, if not more so, at the fact that I could read and write. Alex called a group meeting. “As you may know, the enemies outside don’t see the monsters as a threat. They will venture out and look for anything of value.” He looked to us, “Are you okay with that?” Bones nodded, as did I, and the other monsters looked to Bones and I and seemed okay with it. “The rest of us are going to dig this small gap in the earth into a bigger one so we are more comfortable.” Most of the humans were happy with that, but some were speaking as if it was going to be too much effort (I swear some of them are more lethargic than me, and I’m technically dead).
Bones, his spider, and the few other monsters we found ventured out across the red, rocky wasteland with me. The sky squids looked at us, made a loud rumbling noise, and then moved over us without firing. Likewise, one of the pig men ran towards us. It stopped in front of us, all the while Bones was aiming an arrow at its head, but then moved past us slowly. They were clearly trying to figure out if we were a threat or not. It makes me wonder… they jumped at the sight of the humans straight away. The fact that they are unsure of us makes me believe we’re the first monsters from the world of green grass and glowing moon to have come to The Nether.
We roamed the wasteland for hours, but didn’t find anything of value. I’m starting to think the tales the humans were told are lies. If that wasn’t bad enough, I’m starting to get that biting urge again.
We’ve made a temporary settlement out of resources we brought with us. We’ll travel back to the humans tomorrow.
Saturday – Day 18
I didn’t want to face it until now: My parents didn’t follow us through. Writing it down makes me think more about it, which makes me sad. Why didn’t they follow me?
As the humans chased us through the portal, I glanced back to see my parents run towards our cave. They could have been scared, but that’s no reason to leave your son alone. Maybe they trust Bones and Alex enough by now to know I will be safe with them. Are they cowards? The more I think about it, the angrier I feel. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it.
It probably has something to do with my urge to bite, too. I feel it in my stomach first as a dull ache and then it burns throughout my entire body until I’m boiling with rage. I suppose I’m writing this down to process what just happened: I went to bite one of the humans.
We were walking back from our temporary camp after having no luck in finding anything, and I started to feel overheated – I reckon if you leave a zombie out in this place long enough, they would set alight. The heat got to me. I started to feel extremely angry, so my urge to bite into something became more aggressive. I looked to Bones and made a biting motion with my mouth. He looked at me, creaked out a laugh, and said: “You feel that bad?” I nodded and we continued our journey. I was trying to ask if I could bite onto one of his bones but I guess that would be degrading.
I wish I had, though, because I was furious by the time we returned to the humans. So much so that the first human I saw, I approached with a snarl as I stumbled towards him with my arms out. My hands started to act on instinct as my fingers clawed towards the human. The stray human moved back, behind his leader, and pointed at me. Their leader took up his sword and pointed it at my neck: “If you don’t stop, I will have to end you.” Even though I understood his words, I didn’t take notice. Something in my brain was overriding my want to survive with my need to rip apart flesh.
The human leader pulled back his sword as he looked into my eyes… I would have been dead if it wasn’t for Alex – he ran between us at the last second and shoved a piece of meat in my mouth, which I devoured in one breath.
As you can probably guess, the humans aren’t with us anymore. Well, I should say we’re not with them – they wouldn’t leave our little hole in the ground so we left. We made a separate hole in the ground well away from the human group. It was hard to get there with the pig men and sky squids trying to attack Alex.
We’re going to have a group meeting now.
Sunday – Day 19
I’m home.
After hours of searching, hours of waiting, and hours in our hole in the red, rocky earth, we made it back to this beautiful land. The portal was in the same place as when we entered through it but because we had been chased so far away by the pig men, it was difficult to find. Like we expected, Alex began to be attacked again. Bones even had to fire some arrows at a few of the pig men. He didn’t kill them, though – maybe out of mercy but most probably from not being able to (as I said before they seemed to take so much damage) – rather, he just pinned them to the ground with an arrow through the shoulder. I looked back to one of the pinned pig men to see it already back up and chasing us.
After the enemies saw Bones had attacked one of them, we monsters were no longer safe. The sky squids and pig men went for us like we were humans. We kept pushing forward, hoping to find the portal soon, until it randomly popped up in the corner of Alex’s eye. He directed us toward it as we quickened our pace (Bones had to put his hand on my back and push me forward – as a zombie I find it hard to run). We jumped through the portal together. Bones jumped in front, with his hand still on my back, and pulled me through. I was facing away from the portal when I w
ent through, so I was able to see behind us.
Sadly, only Alex, Bones, and I made it through. Bones’ pet spider fell behind trying to save his new spider friend from being crushed. I saw his pet spider snarling at one of the pig men. The skeletons we found were being beaten into a pile of bones and the one zombie who had agreed to come simply was not fast enough. If Bones wasn’t looking out for me, I probably would have ended up being left in that awful world too…
Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Page 3