“I see Connor!” Helen called out as she battled a ghast. A fireball from the white fiery beast nearly hit her leg. She pulled back and steadied herself as she shot another arrow and destroyed the ghast.
“We have to get him!” said Nancy.
“How?” Joe asked. There were still six ghasts circling in the skies above them. “We can’t leave unless we destroy these ghasts.”
Kurt fumbled with his bow and arrow. He hadn’t pulled a weapon from his inventory in years, and in the past day, he had used all the weapons he thought he’d never touch again. He looked at the ghast and shot the arrow, and he marveled when he saw that he had destroyed the ghast with a single hit.
“Good job, Kurt,” Nancy commended him.
Helen destroyed a ghast and then Nancy destroyed another one, leading them to believe this was going to be easier than they thought. Brett said, “We just have four more ghasts. Let’s try to keep our eyes on Connor. We don’t want to lose sight of him.”
“That’s impossible,” said Helen as she shot an arrow at a ghast and missed because she was too busy focusing on Connor.
Two zombie pigmen walked toward them, and Brett tried not to engage. He wanted to end the battle with the ghasts and not to start another one with these undead pigs.
Kurt destroyed a ghast, and another ghast tear fell to the netherrack ground. “We’re almost done. Just three more to go,” said Kurt.
Brett was exhausted, and the battle had left him with just a few hearts left. He grabbed a potion from his inventory to replenish his energy levels, and he shot another arrow and destroyed a ghast. There were two left, and the zombie pigmen were walking closer to the group.
Helen and Joe destroyed the remaining ghasts. Without making eye contact with the zombie pigmen, the gang ran toward Connor, but they had lost him.
“I don’t see him,” said Helen. She pushed her long red hair behind her back. Helen stood next to a lava stream, and her hair almost blended into this crimson flow.
Joe looked in all directions and then pointed to a bridge. “Let’s go up there and see if we have a better view.” The gang followed him as he led them up onto the bridge.
As Kurt climbed the stairs, sweat formed on his brow. “I forgot how hot it is in the Nether. I miss the cool stronghold.”
“Hopefully, we won’t be here long,” said Brett.
“I see him!” Helen called out.
Connor was hidden behind a cluster of mushrooms growing by the entrance to a cavern. Joe said, “Let’s get him!” and the gang raced toward Connor.
As they approached Connor, Brett reminded them that they needed proof he was behind the creeper attacks in Meadow Mews. They couldn’t assume he was guilty and that he was behind these attacks yet. They shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
“Are you joking?” Helen questioned as they reached the entrance to the cave.
Kurt said, “I don’t even know Connor, and I think he’s guilty.”
“Why?” asked Brett.
“I was living a peaceful existence in the stronghold until he showed up,” replied Kurt.
“But that doesn’t mean he is behind the attacks. Maybe he’s here to stop them,” suggested Brett.
“That’s a nice way of looking at it, but it’s very naïve,” said Helen.
“I have no idea why you’d think Connor was innocent. I mean, all signs point to him being behind this attack. He showed up in town the only other time Meadow Mews has been attacked in its history,” said Joe, then he paused. “You know I shouldn’t talk about the history of Meadow Mews in front of Brett. He shouldn’t know any more than he already does.”
“Is this the only time in its history that Meadow Mews has been under attack other than the clash of the Withers?” asked Brett.
“Yes,” said Helen, “and here we are confronted with Connor again. I mean, it makes sense that he is behind these attacks.”
Brett understood how it might look like Connor was the one who was destroying Meadow Mews, but he still wanted more proof. At this point, all they did was speculate that he was the one who was destroying the town. As they walked into the cave, they traded in their bows and arrows for enchanted diamond swords.
A voice called out behind them, “Guys.”
The group turned around and saw Franklin walking into the cave. Helen smiled. “You made it back. I am so glad.”
Nancy signaled for Franklin to talk softly. She put her finger over her lips.
Franklin asked, “Is this where he is?”
“Yes,” a voice shouted from deep within the cave, “and you are all my prisoners.”
13
EXPLOSIONS
Brett leaped at Connor and shouted, “I’m not your prisoner!” He slammed his enchanted diamond sword into Connor’s arm.
Connor splashed a potion of harming on Brett, leaving him with one heart. Connor grabbed his sword and held it against Brett’s weakened body. “This is the end of Meadow Mews.”
Brett asked, “Why? It’s been here so long. I don’t understand.”
Connor laughed. “This is something I’ve been planning for years. Every time I hear about Meadow Mews, I am upset. I don’t want this town to exist. I tried to erase it at the start, and it didn’t work. I did leave, but it was always on my mind. I just don’t want this town to exist.”
“But people are living there. They are happy, and it’s their home. How can you do this again? Didn’t you learn how your actions affect others?” asked Helen.
“Helen.” Connor smiled. “I can’t believe I get to battle all of you again. This time, however, there is going to be a different ending.”
“I don’t think so,” Franklin declared. “We will win again.”
“Yes,” said Helen. “We will be victorious.”
Connor laughed. “Never!”
As Connor laughed, Brett slammed his sword into him and splashed a potion, obliterating Connor.
“You destroyed him!” Helen screamed at Brett.
“How can we trap him if he’s not here?” asked Kurt.
“I’m sorry. It was an accident.” Brett nervously sipped a potion to regain his strength. “I was trying to make him weak and vulnerable. I wasn’t trying to destroy him, but I guess I went too far.”
Joe said, “It’s okay. I hate the Nether, and I want to go back to the Overworld. He has respawned there, and we have to find him.”
“Yes,” said Helen. “Let’s make a portal.”
Franklin spotted something deeper in the cavern. “Guys, it looks like there’s Nether quartz in here. I think we should mine for it.”
“Not now.” Helen was impatient. “We have to go find Connor.”
“We will find Connor, but Nether quartz is very rare, and this might be one of our only opportunities to find it,” said Joe.
Brett pulled his pickaxe from his inventory and banged it into the ground, unearthing Nether quartz. He handed it to Joe. “You were right. It is here. You should put it in your inventory.”
“This isn’t the time,” said Kurt. “I live in a cave, and I can tell you that most caves have treasures. I’m sure you’ll find another one in the Nether at another point in time, and it will have a bunch of Nether quartz.”
“That’s not true.” Joe was annoyed. “It’s very hard to find. Brett, can you pick out some more?”
Franklin said, “You guys are wasting time. This isn’t a trip to restock our inventories with resources from the Nether. We have a mission: we have to stop Connor. If we don’t, we won’t be able to save Meadow Mews. We have no idea how he is terrorizing the people of the town as we stand here in this cavern and discuss the benefits of mining for Nether quartz.”
Everyone agreed they should craft a portal back to the Overworld. Even Joe didn’t look back as they hurried from the cavern, which was teeming with Nether quartz. He had to be happy with the small portion that Brett had mined for him. As they came outside, they saw the sky filled with blazes, and they were forced to confront the yell
ow beasts with an arsenal of arrows and snowballs. The gang was down to a few hearts when they started to build the portal. As they hopped onto the portal, Brett sighed. He was happy to be out of the Nether, even though he knew they had a serious battle ahead of them.
When they emerged in the middle of the village in Meadow Mews, they were shocked to find the streets empty. The town was quiet, and it wasn’t even filled with creepers.
“Where’s everybody?” asked Helen.
Brett ducked into the blacksmith shop, but Lou the Blacksmith was missing. “Lou, are you here?” Brett called out, but there was no response.
Brett saw Helen coming out of the library, “Heather isn’t in the either.”
“Is anyone around?” asked Joe.
“We should knock on someone’s door. We have to see if the townspeople are still in Meadow Mews. Maybe Connor was able to do something that got rid of all the villagers,” suggested Nancy.
As Nancy spoke, a familiar face strolled down the eerily quiet main street. “Hey guys. What’s up?” asked Bob, without a care in the world.
“Bob.” Kurt ran toward him. “Where is everyone?”
“What?” Bob questioned. “Who are you talking about? Someone’s missing?”
“We went into the shops, and all of the villagers are missing, but you’re still here. How is that possible?” asked Helen.
“I had no idea that anybody was missing. I was just going back to the cave to look for you, but you weren’t there. I was happy when I saw you walking through the village, Kurt,” said Bob.
“We have to find the villagers,” said Kurt.
“We also have to find out if anyone else is missing,” said Nancy, “I’m going to knock on my friend Allie’s door.”
Helen looked up at the sky. The sun was setting. “Maybe we should go home and start searching for Connor and the others in the morning. I worry that we will be attacked by hostile mobs if we stay out now.”
“Too late!” screamed Kurt.
As the sun began to set, a group of creepers silently entered the town. They detonated near the group, and Nancy was destroyed.
“Just try to make your way home,” Franklin instructed them as they began to battle the creepers before the sun fully set and other hostile mobs spawned in Meadow Mews.
“What about me?” questioned Kurt. “Should I go back to the stronghold?”
“Come with us,” said Brett. “We are staying with Nancy.”
Kurt joined Brett and Joe as they shot arrows at the creepers and tried to race to Nancy’s house. They narrowly avoided being destroyed as they made their way through the dusk.
As they hurried toward her house and away from the creepers, they heard a loud explosion in the distance.
Smoke rose, and Brett said, “Oh no! It looks like it’s coming from Nancy’s house.”
14
FEELING GREEN
“Nancy!” Brett called out. She was standing in front of the rubble that was once her house.
“Are you okay?” asked Joe.
Nancy held a torch as she inspected the damage. “I’m fine. Thankfully, I wasn’t in the house when it exploded.”
“I bet the person who destroyed my tree house was the same person who blew up your house,” said Brett.
“I’m sure it is,” said Nancy as she watched four vacant-eyed zombies lumber toward them. “Guys, we have zombies.”
“We have to find shelter,” said Joe.
“It’s too late to build anything,” said Nancy. “Let’s go to Helen’s house. She doesn’t live too far from here.”
The zombies approached them with their arms extended. The smell from the rotten flesh made the gang gag, and they tried to hold their breath as they pierced the creatures of the night with their enchanted diamond swords. When they had slain the final zombie and picked up the dropped rotten flesh and placed it in their inventories, they raced toward Helen’s house.
“Helen,” Nancy said as she opened her door.
“Nancy!” Helen hollered. “Help me!”
Nancy stepped into Helen’s house. “Where are you? What’s wrong? We can help you!”
“Help!” Helen called out again, but this time her voice was lower and she was gasping for air.
Nancy, Joe, Kurt, and Brett raced through her house, opening every door as they called out for their friend Helen, but they couldn’t find her. She had stopped calling for help, and the gang feared the worst.
Kurt said, “I think she’s down here.” He noticed a small hole in the corner of her house and climbed into it.
The hole led them to a long tunnel. Brett called out for Helen, but again there was no response. Brett pulled a torch from his inventory so he could see in the dimly lit tunnel.
“Ouch!” Nancy cried. She turned around and saw a bony skeleton behind her. She leaped toward the beast and attacked it with her diamond sword. The sound of clanging bones radiated through the small tunnel until she obliterated the skeleton.
“Help me!” Helen’s voice was heard in the distance.
“She is down here!” Joe called out, and he raced toward the sound of Helen’s voice.
“Helen,” said Nancy, but there was no reply.
Joe opened a door and spotted Helen in a small dirt room. Connor was pointing a sword at Helen.
“I see you finally found your friend,” Connor laughed.
“Why did you blow up my house?” asked Nancy.
“Why do you think I blew it up? Why would I do something like that?” he questioned with a snicker.
“Leave us alone!” Joe lunged at Connor, ripping into his shoulder with his enchanted diamond sword. “Stop attacking Meadow Mews.”
“Why do you care so much about Meadow Mews?” asked Connor. “You don’t even live here, Joe. Don’t you live in Farmer’s Bay?”
“I care about this town. My friends live here, and this was the first place that allowed me to create a large farm. It was one of the most exciting events of my life,” said Joe.
“This town has lasted a lot longer than I ever expected. You’re lucky that I didn’t stage this attack earlier,” he said as he slammed the sword on Helen’s arm, leaving her with two hearts.
Helen cried out in pain, “Stop!”
“Why are you destroying Meadow Mews now?” asked Brett.
“I am going to leave the Overworld. Before I end my time here, I want to destroy Meadow Mews,” he explained.
“That doesn’t make sense,” said Helen.
“It does to me,” said Connor.
“You’re just a griefer,” said Joe. “People like you never need reasons to cause trouble. You just want to destroy other people’s happiness.”
“That might be true, but I am being truthful. I am done with Minecraft, and I want to take Meadow Mews down before I go. I’ve already taken care of other things before I left, and this was the only one I had left. I have worked hard to rid the game of certain players.”
“Are you talking about Poppy?” asked Brett.
“Poppy.” Connor grinned. “I’m not sure.”
“Tell me if you’re behind her disappearance.” Brett pointed his diamond sword at Connor.
“I’m not confessing to anything. I am just here to destroy Meadow Mews,” said Connor.
“We will never let that happen,” said Joe.
“Try and stop me,” Connor said with a laugh, “and good luck getting out of here.” With that comment, he splashed a potion of invisibility on himself and disappeared. The minute Connor was gone, creepers began to flood the tunnel.
“How are we going to get out of here?” asked Nancy. “If I get destroyed, where will I respawn? I don’t even have a bed.”
More creepers spawned in the narrow passage, and the gang was trapped. Brett fought the creepers with all of his energy. He had to find Connor. He knew he was hiding information about Poppy, and he’d battle a million green creepers in order to find his missing friend and to save the town he loved.
15
<
br /> HIDDEN TREASURE
The creepers exploded, but the gang was able to avoid being destroyed by the silent but deadly mobs.
“I think I found a way out,” Joe said. He banged his pickaxe against the wall of the tunnel as the others battled the creepers. He created a hole in the blocky wall and crawled through, away from the creepers into another room. The group followed him.
“This isn’t a way out,” cried Nancy. “We are trapped in this room”—she looked through the hole—“and that room is filling up with creepers. Soon they will be in here. We are trapped.”
Brett suggested, “Why don’t we TP out of here?”
“That is the simplest and most brilliant idea,” Franklin remarked, and they TPed into the center of town. When they respawned in front of the blacksmith shop, it was still the middle of the night, and the gang found zombies ransacking the town. The undead beasts ripped doors from their hinges, looking for innocent villagers to transform into zombie villagers, but the town was empty.
“The villagers haven’t returned,” Helen remarked.
“Well, we can’t go looking for them now.” Franklin’s voice cracked as he pointed to an army of skeletons that marched toward the small village. “We have to battle these skeletons.”
“And the zombies,” Nancy said breathlessly as she slammed her enchanted diamond sword into an awful-smelling zombie, destroying the beast with two strikes from her sword.
“Oh no!” cried Brett as he spotted creepers heading toward them. He didn’t know if he should use a bow and arrow or a sword. “We have to get a strategy together, or we will never win this battle. I will battle the creepers. Who wants to join me? I think if we each focus on one mob, we won’t be overwhelmed by all the mobs.”
“I will battle the creepers with you,” said Joe.
Brett was glad to have Joe by his side as they used their bows and arrows to annihilate this explosive mob.
The Creeper Invasion Page 5