The students made their way to their dorm rooms. As Lucy walked across the campus with her roommates, she mused, “I wonder what happened to Maya. This isn’t the first time she’s disappeared. Remember how she was destroyed in the Nether?”
Jane nodded. “She acted quite strange when we were battling the wither skeletons. She seemed to have given up fighting and just let them attack her.”
Phoebe added, “It was like she wanted to be destroyed.”
Lucy paused. “I also thought it was odd that she battled the zombie pigmen. They are usually a neutral mob, but she immediately began to attack them.”
“Maybe she thought they were hostile?” questioned Jane.
“No … I think she knows more than she lets on,” said Lucy. “And you know, we’re all assuming that she was destroyed in the attack, but did any of us actually see her fighting the skeletons tonight? How do we know she didn’t sneak out before the attack started?”
“What are you saying?” Phoebe asked.
“I guess … just that I’m going to keep an eye on her,” Lucy told her friends.
“Okay,” Phoebe said. “But don’t get carried away. We don’t know her, so we don’t want to make any quick judgments.”
Lucy knew her friend was right. She shouldn’t assume Maya was behind the attacks. Maybe she had a perfectly normal reason for being destroyed so often.
The trio walked past the jail again, and Lucy peeked in the window out of force of habit. She was relieved when she spotted Isaac sitting in his cell.
“I told you there was going to be another attack,” Isaac called out to Lucy.
Lucy shook her head; it would be a waste of time to question Isaac. He wasn’t going to tell her anything, and they needed to get back to their dorm before it was dark.
As the friends entered the dormitory, Maya came in another door and waved to them. “That was a crazy battle today! I am not very good when it comes to the Nether. It makes me very nervous.”
Lucy raised her eyebrows. “What happened during the talent show meeting? Did you get destroyed and respawn in this dorm?”
“No, I wasn’t destroyed during the meeting. I just thought I saw something suspicious outside, and I went to check. When I came back, the battle was over.”
“What was suspicious?” asked Lucy.
“Oh, it wound up being nothing,” Maya replied.
Lucy wasn’t satisfied. “But what about what happened in the Nether?”
“Oh, yeah,” Maya blushed. “Thanks for not making a big deal out of that. It’s so embarrassing to be destroyed twice on your first day of class.”
Maya really did look ashamed. Lucy wasn’t sure what to think.
“Anyway, they just moved me into this dorm,” Maya said, brightening. “In fact, I think I’m in the room next to yours.”
“Well, we should head up to our rooms now,” Lucy suggested. “It’s getting dark, and I don’t want to be in the middle of another attack.”
“Me neither,” Maya said as she followed them up the stairs.
Lucy and her friends said good night to Maya and entered their room. Lucy crawled into her comfortable bed and pulled the blue covers up to her chin. She thought about what Maya had just said to them. Maybe Maya was just nervous when she was in the Nether, and that was why she had acted so strangely. And her explanation about the talent show meeting made sense. Was Lucy just paranoid because of everything the school had been through?
Still wondering, Lucy fell asleep and dreamed about a peaceful Overworld, where everyone could build whatever they wanted without fear of it being destroyed by some griefers with TNT. She dreamed of a world that was challenging like Survival mode but as liberating as Creative mode.
Chapter 7
JAILBREAK
When they woke up, Lucy was relieved that there had been no attacks in the nighttime.
At the dining hall, everyone ate breakfast, many of them discussing the night before. Lucy overheard two students in matching sparkly pink jumpsuits talking about the attack. One of the students was asking his friend, “Do you think this is going to be another griefer attack like the zombie invasion?”
His friend took a bite of an apple and replied, “I hope not. I came here to learn, not to battle hostile mobs.”
Lucy knew how they felt. She didn’t want to battle these skeletons. She wanted to attend classes like usual, and to replenish her inventory as soon as possible.
Just then, Lucy saw Maya walk into the dining hall, and she decided to go talk to her. “How was your night in our dorm?” she asked Maya.
“It was nice. I have a very sweet roommate named Debbie. She made me feel right at home.” Maya smiled. “Do you want to eat breakfast with me?”
Lucy nodded. She couldn’t blame Maya for the skeleton battles, she decided. She would have to trust her; maybe they could even become good friends.
As they finished eating, the dining hall grew quiet, and Lucy and Maya looked toward the front of the room, where Victoria was about to make an announcement. “Attention, students. Before you leave for your first class, please be sure you have diamond swords and bows and arrows in your inventory. I want everyone to be prepared for battle at all times, even in class. Until we figure out who is behind these attacks, we have to take extra precautions.”
Lucy looked over at Maya. “These attacks make me so nervous.”
“Me too,” said Maya. “At least we made it through breakfast without an attack. That’s a relief.”
Lucy looked at the clock. “Oops! But if we don’t hurry, we’re going to be late for class.”
The two girls scurried out of the dining hall. As they walked on the lush green lawn, the sky grew dark.
Kaboom!
“Was that thunder?” Lucy asked.
“Or TNT?” Maya was shaking.
It started to rain, and skeletons spawned around the campus. Everywhere Lucy looked, she spotted students battling the bony beasts.
“Look out!” Maya called to Lucy.
Before Lucy could turn around, a skeleton’s arrow hit her back, and she lost hearts.
“Lucy!” She heard Adam’s voice, and turned to see him running toward her from across the lawn. He splashed a potion on the skeleton, destroying it, then handed Lucy a potion of healing. “Here, take this.”
“Thanks,” Lucy said, and then struck a skeleton that approached them.
Kaboom!
The loud sound boomed again.
“I can’t tell if it’s thunder,” Lucy said.
“I think we have our answer,” Adam said grimly, pointing at the jail. It had been destroyed by a TNT explosion.
Lucy’s jaw dropped. She quickly destroyed the skeleton she was battling and dashed over to the jail. “Come with me!” she called to Adam and Maya. “We have to find Isaac.”
They reached Isaac’s jail cell and Lucy peeked in the window. “Someone used pistons to help Isaac escape.”
Adam added, “He probably used the TNT explosion and the skeleton attack to distract us.”
“He’s so tricky.” Lucy paced. “What are we going to do?”
“Battle the skeletons that are heading toward us,” Maya cried out as she turned.
But the rain stopped as quickly as it started, and the sun shined on the campus, making their enemies disappear.
They looked back toward the dining hall to see Victoria running toward them. “What happened?”
Lucy stood by the empty jail cell. “Isaac escaped.”
Chapter 8
THE SEARCH
Victoria looked through the rubble. “I can’t believe he was able to get TNT and blow up this jail all on his own. We have to find out who he is working with.”
Everyone agreed that they needed to get to the bottom of the jailbreak. Lucy said, “Luckily he was the only one in the jail.”
“But Isaac is an extremely powerful person,” Victoria reminded her. “Having him escape is like having an entire prison escape. He is both smart and dev
ious.”
“That’s a very scary combination,” said Maya as she looked through the remains of the jail.
“We won’t let him get away,” Adam assured the headmaster. “He can’t be very far from campus.”
Victoria nodded. “I have to call a meeting. Let’s find Stefan. We need to have everyone at the academy help with the search.”
Within hours, Stefan and Victoria had organized a meeting bringing the entire school together. Victoria stood at the podium, filling the students in on the jailbreak. “We are at war,” she declared. “Now we know Isaac is behind the recent attacks on the school. And with the jail destroyed and Isaac missing, our first priority needs to be finding him.”
A person wearing a green sweater raised his hand. “Is class cancelled?” A few of the students assembled in the room snickered.
“Yes,” Victoria replied sternly. “There are no classes until we find Isaac and stop these attacks. But we need every student to assist with the search. We are going to put together search groups. Each group will search a different area of the Overworld until we find Isaac.”
Stefan joined Victoria on stage, and together they called students’ names, putting them into groups. Lucy was happy that she was placed with Phoebe, Jane, and Maya. They were asked to leave the academy and search for Isaac in the desert biome.
“This is great,” Maya told them. “I’m from the desert biome, so I’m an expert in surviving there. I can tell you stories about the tons of treasures I’ve found in desert temples.”
Lucy wished they were just going on a simple treasure hunt. She was worried about what Isaac was planning, and nervous about starting the search with so few supplies in her inventory. But before she could voice her concerns, Victoria walked over to the group.
“You are going to my desert village,” Victoria told them. “If you can, please make sure everyone is safe there, too. I know we are focusing on finding Isaac, but we also need to know if there have been any attacks on the Overworld. We are very isolated on this campus, and the information these search groups come back with will be very valuable.”
Stefan handed them a map. “Good luck. I know you’ll do an amazing job.”
Lucy and her gang said goodbye, and quickly discussed roles in their search party. Phoebe was in charge of navigating, so she studied the map as they left the campus. She led the group up a large mountain, and Lucy stopped at the top to look at the landscape. She had to admit that she found the blocky biomes quiet stunning. “It’s breathtaking, isn’t it?” she asked her friends.
Kaboom!
“What was that?” Jane asked.
At the foot of the mountain, smoke rose from Minecrafters Academy. Lucy shook as she spoke. “It looks like the explosion happened in the Main Hall.”
“I hope everyone is okay.” Phoebe put the map down and stared at the smoke.
“Most of the students just left to search the biomes, so hopefully the hall was empty,” Lucy said.
“Why is someone doing this to our school?” Jane wondered.
Lucy looked over at Maya, who just stood on the top of the mountain and stared at the smoke silently.
“Should we go back?” Jane asked.
Lucy paused. “There are a lot of bad people in the Overworld, and Isaac is one of them. We have to find him, and another group is searching the campus. Our job is to search the desert biome. And we have to do it fast.”
The girls all nodded agreement and climbed down the side of the mountain to enter the swamp biome. Evening was approaching, and a bat flew close to their heads.
“It looks like there is going to be a full moon tonight,” Phoebe said. The moon was beginning to appear in the sky.
“We need to find a place to spend the night,” said Maya.
“Yes, we do,” remarked Lucy. “Let’s start building it.” She grabbed what little wood she had from her inventory and began to construct a house. The others joined her.
“We have to work very quickly,” Phoebe said, looking at the sky again. It was growing darker, and she was getting frightened.
“Yes, we do. Look!” Jane cried.
A witch was gliding toward them. As she reached the group, she splashed the potion clutched in her hand on Lucy.
“Help!” Lucy called out weakly.
Maya rushed to Lucy’s defense, striking the witch with her diamond sword until she was destroyed. She then hurried to Lucy’s side and gave her some milk. “Are you okay?”
“Thanks,” Lucy said after a sip of milk. “I feel better.”
Phoebe called out, “The house is done. Let’s get inside quickly.”
Lucy and Maya entered the house and crawled into the beds Jane had crafted for everyone.
As Lucy drifted off to sleep, she thought about how Maya had helped her with the witch attack. She had made the right choice, she decided, in becoming Maya’s friend.
Chapter 9
JUNGLE HUNT
“Look at Maya’s bed,” Phoebe called out to Lucy and Jane as the three began to wake up. “It’s empty.”
“Where’s Maya?” asked Lucy.
“I don’t know.” Phoebe walked outside and looked around the swampy biome for Maya.
“Do you think something bad happened to her?” Jane asked Lucy.
“I hope not,” Lucy replied, biting her lip. Lucy had just begun to trust her classmate, and now Maya was back to the same suspicious disappearing acts. But, remembering how Maya had helped her fight the witch the night before, Lucy said, “There has to be some kind of explanation.”
“Well, this can’t hold us up; we have to find Isaac,” Jane said as she offered Lucy some apples for breakfast.
Phoebe walked into the house. “I can’t find her outside, and I don’t want to stick around the swamp biome. It’s so creepy here, with the sun never really coming up! I’m afraid hostile mobs will spawn.”
Everyone nodded. “We were just saying that we need to keep moving, no matter what. Searching for Isaac is the most important thing,” Jane said.
“Maya did say she’s an expert at navigating and surviving in the desert biome. Maybe we’ll find her there,” Lucy said as they walked through the murky biome.
“What is the next biome?” asked Jane.
Phoebe studied the map. “It looks like we’re almost out of the swamp biome. Soon we will be in the jungle.”
Lucy was excited to travel to the jungle. Even though they were focused on finding Isaac, she was hoping they could make a quick stop to look for treasures in a jungle temple, and she’d be able to refill her inventory.
As they entered the lush jungle, Phoebe remarked, “It’s very hard to see with all of the leaves. Let’s stick together.”
Jane called out, “I see a jungle temple!”
She rushed toward it, and Lucy began to follow, but Phoebe stopped them. “I don’t think we have time to search for treasure. It looks like we still have to travel through three more biomes before we reach the desert, and we want to reach the desert before nightfall.”
Lucy agreed, but she really needed the resources from the jungle temple. Before she could utter a word to convince them to make a quick stop, they heard someone call out for help.
“Maybe that was Maya!” Phoebe said. She looked around, but it was hard to see much in the dense jungle.
“Maya? Where are you?” Lucy called out as loudly as she could.
There was silence.
“Maya?” Jane shouted.
Again, there was nothing but silence.
“Where can she be?” Lucy wondered.
“Help!” the voice called out again.
“It sounds like it’s coming from the west,” Phoebe said, looking down at the map. “Follow me.”
The gang hurried down a path that was thick with leaves.
“Help!” The voice grew louder.
“Wait for us, Maya. We’re almost there!” Phoebe called out. “It’s going to be okay.”
Just then, there was a whistling soun
d in the air around them and Jane cried out, “Ouch! I’ve been hit by an arrow.”
“Ugh!” Phoebe cried as an arrow hit her.
Lucy looked frantically around for their attackers. She saw a flash of orange through the leaves, and then a flash of pink. Her jaw dropped. “It can’t be.”
“What is it?” Phoebe asked as she grabbed a bow and arrow from her inventory.
Lucy replied in amazement, “I think I see a rainbow griefer.”
“What’s that?” asked Jane.
“The rainbow griefers used to cause havoc all over the Overworld. They were an extremely powerful evil army. But I thought we had destroyed them.” As they snuck closer to where Lucy had seen the flashes of color, she saw that she was right: two rainbow griefers, holding bows and arrows, stood between the trees.
Phoebe stood next to Lucy and looked out through the leaves. “You’re right. There are rainbow people.”
“I don’t think they can see us,” Lucy whispered. “We have to be very quiet.”
“Do you see Maya?” asked Jane.
“No, I just see the two griefers. Come over here and take a look,” Phoebe told Jane.
The trio stood close together and looked out from behind the leaves. Lucy’s heart was racing. She had been sure she’d never see a rainbow griefer again. She didn’t know what to do.
“Help!” the voice called out again.
“Are you sure that’s Maya?” asked Lucy.
Phoebe cried, “No, look!”
The girls let out a collective gasp when the rainbow griefers turned, and they saw that they were holding a diamond sword against Isaac’s chest.
Chapter 10
HIDDEN IN THE MINE
“We have to save Isaac,” announced Lucy.
“Save him?” Phoebe asked. “But he’s evil.”
“But it’s our job to bring him back. And …” Lucy couldn’t believe she was saying this. “Maybe he isn’t the one behind these attacks.”
“But he’s still evil!” Jane insisted.
“Still, we have to take him back to Minecrafters Academy.” Lucy aimed her bow and arrow at the griefers, but she wasn’t sure she was close enough to get a good shot.
Skeleton Battle Page 3