“Hey!” someone screamed from our right.
Anton came from around another part of the fortress that was being obliterated by explosions. The ground cracked and crumbled at his feet as he ran.
“Lonnie!” I called. “Where’s Lonnie?”
Anton zigzagged his way through a few pieces of falling rock, and I spotted Lonnie behind him, mimicking his every move. I was about to run toward them, when Esme held me back and shook her head.
“They need our help!”
“We’ll only mess them up if we go out there now,” she said.
I could feel my heart beating as I stood there watching them get closer to us. In my head, I was chanting, Come on, come on, but I didn’t dare say it aloud, as if that might jinx us all. Anton’s face looked deathly scared, but they seemed to be making it away from the remains of the fortress just fine. I didn’t understand why he looked like that until they were closer.
There were ghasts on his tail.
Esme pulled out arrows and lit them, then aimed at the ghasts.
“Don’t waste those!” Anton cried out.
She ignored him, executing hits that I couldn’t dream of, even though it was clear she was severely weakened. Even as she slumped into the dirt, her last arrow pierced the closest ghast, killing it.
I peeled her up off the ground, and helped her run ahead of the boys. As soon as they fell into step with us, Anton turned and threw a couple of TNT bombs at the ghasts. Two of them fell away, but there were another two coming. They split up and then came at us again from different sides. We ran down a low hill to keep away from them until I realized that they were corralling us into an impossible-to-escape-from location, with a lake of lava at our backs and them coming at us from both sides.
“I can’t fight holding on to you,” I said.
“This is bad,” Esme said.
For the first time, I heard the truly scared twelve-year-old girl in Esme’s voice, worried that things were not going to go well. I didn’t want to leave her. But I knew I would have to. Lonnie came alongside me, and scooped Esme away, holding her up against his side, and moving a little way off from Anton and me.
I was at a loss for words. It was like he’d read my mind.
“Stop staring with your mouth open!” Anton screamed. “We’re in the middle of a firefight!”
I snapped back to reality and stood with Anton shoulder-to-shoulder, firing arrows and throwing TNT bombs. We got rid of one more ghast that way, but the final one was still evading our weapons and pushing us back toward the lava.
I looked around, trying to spot an escape route, but there was no way out. The lava was right behind us and we had nowhere to run.
“Bianca!” Anton called. “You can’t just do whatever you want right now!”
Except, it was a world where I could do whatever I wanted, if I planned it out right. I turned to Anton and said, “I’m going to try something, okay? If it doesn’t work, I’ll probably be toast and you’ll have to take it down yourself. But I think this can work.”
“What are you doing?” Esme called out as I stepped forward to draw the ghast’s fireball attack.
“Bianca!” Anton cried.
“This is going to work,” I called. “I’ve got a plan!”
As I watched the fiery projectile racing toward me, I thought about something Lonnie had mentioned during his meticulous planning for our trip to the Nether. He’d said that if you time it just right, you can punch a fireball back at a ghast. “I bet I’ll look like a wizard shooting flames out of my hands, you’ll see!” he’d exclaimed.
He always had a flair for the dramatic.
I punched my hand out just before the attack would incinerate me, hoping against hope that I’d done it correctly. One heartbeat later, I watched as the fireball rebounded and the ghast exploded in flames. I slumped down to the ground, all of my adrenaline gone after facing down the giant mob alone.
Lonnie put a hand on my shoulder and helped me to my feet. I smiled weakly at him. “How did it look? As cool as you were hoping?”
“Seriously?” Esme said from behind. “You could’ve died!”
Anton looked at me silently, his eyes wide in amazement.
I pushed away from Lonnie and walked over to Esme, giving her a hug. She struggled for a second, but then embraced me back. “We’re all fine,” I said, pulling away. I looked back toward where the nether fortress had once stood.
“Did you blow it up?” I asked Anton.
He just grinned.
“So now what?” Esme asked. “The fortress is gone, and I’m not sure we got everything we need to get to the End.”
Anton brought out the nether wart. “We got this.”
Esme looked surprised, then glanced at me. I pulled out the blaze rod. The barest hint of a smile played at the side of her mouth.
“I’ll get to work on the portal,” Anton said. “But while I do that…” He pulled up his inventory and took out two enchanted apples, tossing them to Esme and me. “I found them in the fortress. Maybe this will stave off whatever the withers did to you guys.”
“That’s not how enchanted apples work,” Esme said.
“Yeah, but it’s all we’ve got right now, and you two are in bad shape. Or do you want to keep eating rotted flesh?”
“It might waste resources,” she said.
“Not if we’re under attack again,” he pointed out. “Which is probably imminent given the way this game is going. Besides, resources are for moments like this.”
Esme held the apple back out to him, but he ignored her and set to work on a portal back to the Overworld. Eating the apple didn’t make me feel any better or worse. But Anton was right. You can’t just hang on to things forever.
I walked over to Lonnie as Anton worked on the portal and Esme continued to debate the finer points of consuming a rare resource. “Thanks for telling me about punching fireballs. That really saved our bacon back there.” He tilted his head, and I laughed. “Well, you didn’t tell me right then, obviously, but back when we were planning our initial run to the End.” I went quiet for a moment and smiled sadly. “You’re always there for me. I just…I wanted to tell you—” But of course, I heard the strange, catlike wail of a ghast, and a pair of the giant mobs were coming toward us over the lava river.
Lonnie squeezed my arm and I turned to see a team of ghasts coming at us fast.
“Uh, hey. How are we coming with that portal?” I called over to Anton.
“Are you volunteering to help?” Esme asked.
“No, just noticing that we have some unwelcome company,” I said as I pointed to the oncoming mobs.
Esme looked up and made a sound that might have been equal parts frustration, anger, and exhaustion. She pulled out her bow and loaded flaming arrows.
“Eat flame, ghastlies,” she whispered. She missed twice, and I realized she was much worse off than she was letting on.
“Why don’t you keep working on the portal,” I said. “Anton and I can fend off the ghasts.”
“Bianca’s right,” Anton chimed in. “I’m the only one who hasn’t been hit by a wither. I have the most health points of any of us, and she probably has the second most.”
Esme switched places without argument. I stood next to Anton with my arrows ready. We moved a few feet to the side of Esme, hoping to draw fire away from her so she could finish the portal without being hit.
“What, you don’t want to punch them out of the sky with your deflection technique?” Anton asked as I nocked an arrow.
“I’m not confident I’d be able to pull that off again, to be honest, and especially not against multiple ghasts.”
“Wait until they get close,” Esme said.
“Stop backseat shooting,” Anton said. “We can take care of this.”
She was only q
uiet for a minute as the ghasts flew in closer. “Hey!”
“What?” I asked. “We’re waiting. Just like you said!”
“Not that. We don’t have enough obsidian,” she said.
“It’s not like we’re surrounded by lava or anything,” I snapped. “Nowhere to get any obsidian!” I looked back at her. “I thought you were the one who always thought things through. Pull it together!”
She shot me a steely look, but said nothing. I watched as she opened up her inventory and got the snowballs. When I turned back, the ghasts were right on top of us. Anton started shooting and I followed, missing the first time.
“Don’t waste arrows, Bianca!” Anton said. “We have a limited supply.”
I fired off two more, hitting both the ghasts, and pushing them back a little. “How’s that, then?” I asked with a grin. Anton fired off another arrow, which killed one of the ghasts, and smirked back.
“Could be better. How’s it going, Esme?” he shouted back to her.
Esme threw the snowballs over the edge of the ridge into the lava. Two obsidian blocks formed that she mined, and then she threw a third and fourth snowball.
“Almost there,” she replied, turning to place the obsidian blocks into the almost finished portal. I wasn’t sure if we had the flint necessary to light the portal, but I would worry more about that once she was done.
Lonnie jumped to his feet, running just in front of the last ghast.
“Get down!” Anton shouted. “You’ll get hit!”
But Lonnie didn’t listen. He started to jump, drawing its attention and distracting it from us.
“Lonnie, don’t!” I called out. I moved toward him, ready to fire at the mob with my last remaining arrow, but Anton pulled me back.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Anton said.
“No he doesn’t!” I snapped, then froze.
Anton looked me dead in the eye but said nothing.
I watched Lonnie jump again. A fireball narrowly missed him, exploding a few feet away from the portal frame.
“Come on!” Esme shouted. She was mining the last bit of obsidian for the portal, and it was just out of reach.
I took a running jump from the island to the one block of obsidian, then jumped back immediately, mining as I did so I could bring it back with me. I landed right in front of Esme and passed along the final block. For a microsecond, I thought she might be impressed. I mean, I was impressed with myself, to be honest. We shared a momentary glance, but she didn’t say anything so I didn’t either.
Lonnie jumped directly in front of the portal, and then away as a fireball came streaking toward him. Esme, Anton, and I barely had enough time to dive out of the way before the fireball hit, lighting the portal.
I grabbed Lonnie’s hand, not wanting to wait for the ghast to come back around, and flung him toward the portal. Esme dragged him through. Anton was the next closest.
“Go!” I shouted.
He scrambled to his knees and crawled the rest of the way to the portal just as the ghast came up behind him. I let off my final arrow, missing the ghast but hitting the fireball it was about to rain down on us, deflecting the attack. I ran to Anton and bodychecked him through the portal. The ghast flew past, and its attack put the portal fire out, effectively cutting off my escape.
I was alone, with the ghast circling back for another pass. I looked through my inventory. There was one final TNT bomb, but no flint to make a fire.
“If there was ever a time for a wild plan…”
The ghast was coming in close. I positioned myself behind the portal, in the line of the oncoming ghast, watching through the open archway as it barreled toward me. As soon as it reached the edge of the island, I ran through the inactive frame and threw the TNT bomb. The ghast exploded, and flecks of fire surrounded me in the air. One of them lit the portal and it flashed purple. At the same time, the blast hit me and threw me back. As I flew backward through the now-active portal, I noticed that the explosion fractured the frame a little. The archway looked splintered and the purple portal light seeped into the cracks.
I closed my eyes as I fell, and hoped for the best.
I landed on grass with bright light surrounding me. It took a couple of seconds for my eyes to adjust, but when they did, I noticed things were moving around me. Then I realized that it wasn’t the landscape, but me, speeding along the ground. Something had grabbed hold of my upper back and was dragging me. I struggled to turn, or flip, or get a good look at whatever or whoever it was, but nothing I did seemed to help. All I could manage was, “Hey! Hey!” and that didn’t work either.
I bumped along the uneven ground, jostling to get free until we got past a few trees and bushes. Then whatever it was let go. I immediately got to my feet and whipped around.
“Lonnie!”
“What are we, chopped liver?” Esme and Anton were a little behind Lonnie and to the right, and they were both grinning at me. Anton gave me a high-five and said, “One step closer to the End!”
He turned to give Esme a high-five, too, but she left him hanging. “One step closer to leaving, you mean,” she said.
“What—” I began, when Lonnie grabbed me again and pulled me down to the ground.
“Shhh!” Esme said.
I turned to where they were facing. Beyond the trees, past the portal, an enderman moved through the landscape. Its back was toward us at first and then it turned. It was the same enderman with the scar. I gasped. It turned again, looking directly toward us this time, but it didn’t come any closer. Eventually it moved off, and disappeared down the other side of a hill.
“You’re kidding me, right?” I said as I turned toward the others.
“I wish,” Anton said. He looked exasperated. “Listen, Bianca, there might be an easy way to deal with this mob. You just need to—”
“I’m not causing that,” I said curtly. “So, what do we do?” I asked. “It’s not like we can go searching for an end portal with that thing roaming around looking for a fight.”
“We need a plan to get rid of that particular enderman,” Esme said.
“How?” Anton asked. “We’ve killed that thing twice now. And here it is all over again.”
“Third time’s the charm,” I said. “My grandmother likes to say that.”
“There’s no charm with that particular enderman,” Esme said. “It’s out to get us. No matter where we go, it’s there.”
“What do you suggest?” Anton said.
“We’re going to have to lure it into a trap. Something with a lot of explosives,” Esme said.
Anton grinned. “I think I have that covered.”
“I’ll help,” she said. “It has to be huge. We should use up anything we won’t need in the End.”
I bit my lip and looked at Lonnie. He was still sitting near where he had pulled me to safety, staring out between the leaves at where the enderman had been moments before.
“Hey,” I whispered in his direction. “Lonnie?”
He turned toward me.
“Do you think this is a good idea?” I asked.
He ignored me and looked out again, as if he was on guard.
“You were always devising traps for the endermen, remember?”
Lonnie shifted, letting the hand I’d rested on his knee fall away. When I turned back to Anton and Esme, Anton was standing, scratching something out in the dirt as Esme looked on. I tried not to let my feelings get hurt.
“We’ll have to get the enderman into this spot,” Anton said, jabbing at a brown pixel near his foot. “Then we blow it all sky-high.”
“Listen,” I said softly. Neither of them stopped to look at me, so I said it again, more loudly. “Listen.”
“Yes?” Esme asked.
“I’m not sure blowing that thing up is the right idea,” I said. �
�It keeps coming back.”
“Which is why we’re using all the ammunition we have,” Anton said.
I shook my head. “It’s a waste of time, and a waste of supplies. We really need to get to the End, and leave this thing here in the Overworld.”
“How are we going to do that?” Esme asked. “That thing showed up the moment we got back from the Nether.”
“It’s not going to be long before it finds us,” Anton said. “We need a plan to take it down.”
“I think we should distract it, and make a run for the portal,” I said.
Esme couldn’t hold back her laughter. “Distract and run is your plan?” She laughed again. “You want to run from something that can teleport?”
“There are four of us,” I explained. “We can figure out a way to do this without wasting all the supplies.”
“I’m with Esme on this one,” Anton said. “I don’t see the point in running away.”
I looked at Lonnie, hoping for support, but there was none. Of course. Lonnie wasn’t fully himself yet, especially when Anton and Esme were around. If I got him to the End, maybe he would come all the way back.
“Okay, what if we do both,” I suggested.
“How, exactly?” Esme asked.
“We should split up,” I said.
“What? No.” Anton stood up immediately, shaking his head, and commenced pacing back and forth. “Nope. No. No way.”
“We can get more done,” I said.
“Uh-uh,” Anton said.
“We stick together,” Esme said. “That was always the plan.”
“And every time we’ve split up, things have gone totally off the rails,” Anton said. “We’re not going to do it on purpose.”
Lonnie looked at me, then stood and moved closer to Anton.
“You agree with me, buddy?” Anton asked. He raised his hand for a high-five, but Lonnie didn’t give him one.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “We’ll do it your way for now.”
Esme looked down, but I could see the smile on her face. And I was kind of glad. I knew that in real life, she probably didn’t get her way a lot. Besides, how much could it hurt us to lure the scarred enderman into a trap and blow him to bits?
The Crash: An Official Minecraft Novel Page 18