by Dr. Block
We entered the new crack and had to walk single-file for quite some time. I was starting to feel a little claustrophobic, trying to do some deep breathing exercises to stay calm.
“Are you alright?” whispered Harold.
“Fine, I think,” I whispered back. “I just hope we get into a larger space soon.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t much longer until we entered an expansive chamber carved out of cobblestone.
“The entrance to the mine,” said Otis, sweeping his little arm across the panorama.
“Whoa,” I said. “This room is huge. It’s only the entrance?”
“Yeah, this mine is enormous. Someone or some group spent a lot of time mining here,” said Otis. “And, I can understand why. I’ve only been mining for a little while, and I’ve found quite a bit of diamond ore.”
“Cool,” I said.
Otis pointed across the room and said, “The rest of the mine is through that opening and down. I’m sure the explosion happened down there somewhere.”
“Let’s go,” said Harold.
The path into the depths of the mine was surprisingly organized. Whoever had created the mine would go down a few blocks, then branch out in a pattern searching for ore on each level. After the level had been explored, the miner had returned to the main path, dug down a few more blocks, and then would repeat the branching pattern.
“Great design,” I whispered.
“Yeah, and it will make it easy to see where the explosion occurred,” said Otis.
He was right. A huge hole blown in the earth would be a stark contrast to the almost geometric design of the mine.
A little while later, we were just getting ready to descend to a new level when I heard some skittering noises followed by hissing.
“Something’s coming,” I whispered to Otis as I drew my sword.
Otis drew his sword too. Then, we told Bob and Harold to back us into opposite corners and hide until we could see what was coming. Otis and Bob were on one side of the passage, while Harold and I were on the other.
We waited just a few seconds until a pack of six cave spiders came up from the level below. Six? I thought. This was going to be a tough battle.
“Okay, Harold,” I whispered into Harold’s ear hole. “When I kick my feet against you, jump in front of the lead spider. Let’s hope Otis and Bob follow our lead.”
“Got it,” responded Harold.
I waited until just the right moment and then kicked Harold. He moved swiftly in front of the lead cave spider who hissed with surprise.
I raised my sword, ready for battle.
Chapter 5
I brought my sword down with all my might, hoping to slice the lead spider in half, sending shock and awe through the remaining spiders, making them easier to kill.
But, instead of striking spider flesh, my sword hit diamond, making a cha-PING sound as it bounced off.
“No!” yelled Otis, as he extended his sword in front of mine just in the nick of time, stopping my attack.
All the spiders hissed and surrounded me. Just great, I thought.
“I know these guys,” said Otis. “They’re cool.”
“You could have let me know you had friends down here,” I said, putting my sword away.
The lead spider looked at Harold and me with his eight red eyes and hissed, “You are lucky you are with Otis, chicken jockey, or your fate would have been death.”
“Whatever,” I said, trying to act like he hadn’t completely terrified me. I could feel Harold shivering with fear below me.
“Stop it, you two,” said Otis.
“No hard feelings?” I said to the spider.
“None,” hissed the spider. “The world is a dangerous place.”
“So, Beegu,” Otis said to the lead spider, “do you or your people have any idea what that explosion was?”
“No, I do not,” said Beegu. “We were just wandering through the mine when we heard it. It was huge, and the ground started shaking. It even broke some rock loose around us.”
“We felt it in my sleeping chamber too,” said Otis.
“I decided we needed to move higher in the cave,” said Beegu. “In fact, if the explosions continue, we may wait until night fall and then move to a safer cave.”
“Have you noticed anything else unusual in the past few days?” I asked.
“Nothing other than I thought I smelled zombies yesterday,” said Beegu. “I thought that was odd because the only time I ever smell zombie this deep in the mine is when you are down here, Otis.”
Otis and I looked at each other. Why would a zombie be so far down in the mine? Zombies prefer to stay on the surface near villages.
“Weird,” said Otis. “Maybe you smelled something else?”
“Maybe, but I doubt it,” said Beegu.
“Thank you, Beegu, for the information. We are going to go deeper to see if we can determine what the explosion was,” said Otis.
“Suit yourselves,” said Beegu. “But, for what it’s worth, you are going the wrong direction.”
We watched as Beegu and his group went on their way, their many legs moving up and down like pistons.
“Spiders freak me out,” said Harold.
“I know what you mean, buddy,” I said.
“Quit your whining and let’s get going,” said Otis. “We need to figure this out.”
We continued further down the mine, Otis leading the way. We had walked for a few minutes when we started to hear faint noises coming from somewhere down in the mine. The noises sounded like plinking or scraping sounds, but they were so far away it was difficult to be certain.
“Maybe pickaxes on stone?” I suggested.
“Maybe,” said Otis. “But, it sounds like a lot of them. I can’t believe an entire group of people got past me.”
“Maybe they came in some other way,” said Harold.
“What do you mean?” asked Otis.
“They could have started mining somewhere else and just ended up here,” explained Harold.
“I never thought of that,” said Otis. “Maybe you are correct.”
“Makes sense to me,” said Bob.
“Well, we will never find out just sitting here theorizing about it,” said Otis. “We need to get down there quickly.”
“I’m hungry,” said Bob.
Otis let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, let’s stop and eat for a few minutes. But make it quick.”
After we finished eating, we continued down the mine. The noises were getting louder and louder the deeper we went. I was starting to get very nervous.
“Sounds like a lot of things moving around down there to be making so much noise,” I said to Otis.
Otis nodded his agreement. “We are getting close,” he said.
“Do you really think this is a good idea?” I asked. “I mean, it is probably a bunch of players down there. We won’t stand a chance against them.”
“Don’t be such a wimp,” said Otis. “Besides, if there are too many of them, we can run away and blow up some TNT traps I’ve set. It would take them days to mine through the rubble. They would never find us.”
I had to admit, I was impressed that Otis had already set TNT traps throughout the mine. But then, what if the people making all the noise had done the same thing?
We walked for a few more minutes, the noises getting louder and louder. Finally, it sounded like they were only a few feet away.
It was then that we noticed a huge gash torn in the cobblestone. There were piles of rubble scattered across the path.
“This must be where the explosion happened,” whispered Otis as he dismounted from Bob and told me to get off Harold.
We followed Otis as he crept slowly forward to a low pile of rocks. “It sounds like the noises we heard are coming from in there,” he said quietly. “Let’s take a look.”
We all slowly raised our heads over the rubble to look.
What I saw chilled me to my little undead core.
&n
bsp; Chapter 6
At the bottom of the giant pit created by the explosion, I saw ten zombies chained together. They each held a pickaxe and were slowly mining. Behind the enslaved zombies stood two players.
The players looked very dominant. Each was wearing full diamond armor and they held diamond swords.
“Keep digging, you filthy zombies,” yelled one of the players.
“Yeah, we need to extract all the good ore from this mine as soon as possible, before Steve comes back,” added the other player.
They know about Steve, too! He must have really built all of this and left his diary and weapons in that chest for safekeeping.
I felt sorry for the captured zombies, forced to labor against their will on behalf of these greedy players. Then, I looked more closely at the pathetic captured zombies and recognized Zeb among them!
I sat down behind the pile of rocks. “No,” I said softly. “No, no.”
“What is it?” whispered Otis.
“One of the captured zombies is my friend, Zeb,” I explained.
“That’s lame,” said Otis.
I looked at Harold. “We have to save him, Harold. He was the only one who stood by us when we were with the other horde.”
Harold nodded. “Yes, we should. But how?”
“Are you guys crazy?” asked Otis. “Didn’t you see those dominant griefers down there? We can’t defeat those guys.”
“What’s a griefer?” I asked.
“Seriously? Are you a noob?” asked Otis.
I frowned. “Just tell me.”
“A griefer is a player who likes to destroy the work of other players. Obviously, they found out Steve had created this mine and wanted to destroy it, but not until they first steal everything of value.”
“That’s terrible,” said Harold. “Why would anyone want to do that?”
Otis shrugged. “Who knows?”
“If they are griefing Steve’s mine, does that mean Steve is alive and he might come back?” asked Bob, trembling.
Otis rubbed his chin, thinking. “Gee, Bob, it might. I think we should get out of here and find a new place to live. I don’t want Steve to find us and think we griefed his stuff. I’ve heard Steve is pretty powerful.”
“So, you just want to abandon my friend down there?” I asked Otis.
“What choice do we have? We can’t face those griefers,” said Otis.
I sat there feeling sad. I couldn’t just abandon my friend. Harold came over and put a wing on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. And then, I had an idea.
“What if we don’t have to face them?” I said.
“What do you mean?” asked Otis.
“I have that potion of invisibility. Maybe I can drink it and sneak down there undetected and free Zeb,” I said.
Otis shook his head. “That won’t work. Suddenly Zeb is walking around free. What then? The griefers will just grab him again and you will have wasted your potion.”
I did not want to admit it, but Otis was right. It would be futile.
I was ready to give up hope and leave Zeb to his fate, when Harold said, “I think I have an idea.”
Chapter 7
We talked through Harold’s idea, and thought it just might work. It would be risky, but I couldn’t just leave Zeb there to suffer. Even Otis realized it was the right thing to do and agreed to help.
“Ready?” asked Harold. We all nodded our silent assent. Seeing that we were ready, Harold turned and began walking. We watched as he disappeared into a crack.
A few moments later, we heard one of the griefers say, “Hey, look at that. A chicken!”
“How did a chicken get so far down in the mine?” asked the other griefer.
“Who knows,” said the first griefer. “He probably just got lost. Chickens are so stupid.”
The griefers laughed. Then one said, “Let’s kill it and eat it.”
That was my cue. I quickly drank the potion of invisibility and snuck through the same crack Harold had used. When I entered the mine pit, I saw Harold running from one of the griefers.
“Come back here, you stupid chicken and let me kill you!” said the griefer chasing him.
“Ha! Ha! You can’t even catch a dumb chicken,” said the other griefer.
While Harold kept the first griefer busy, I took out my splash potion of harming and snuck behind the laughing griefer. I stood as close to him as I could and whispered, “Boo.”
“What?” said the griefer as he turned around quickly. Seeing nothing, the griefer said in a panicky voice, “Who .... who’s there?”
As he was looking at me, I tossed the splash potion in his face and said, “Drink up, griefer.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh,” screamed the griefer. “Ahhhhhhhhhh.”
His friend stopped chasing Harold and said, “What is it, man?”
“A ghost just threw a potion in my face. It burns. Oh, it burns,” he yelled as he rubbed his face with his hands.
“You fool, there is no such thing as ghosts.”
While the second griefer’s attention was distracted by his friend’s howls of pain, Otis and Bob snuck behind the second griefer. They placed a TNT block – extracted from one of Otis’s many traps – just behind him and then slowly backed away.
Once they had reached a safe distance from the TNT, Otis yelled, “Hey.”
The griefer turned around and said, “A pigman jockey? What are you doing here?”
Otis shrugged. “Just this,” he said as he flipped a lever in his hands.
When the griefer saw the lever, he looked down and noticed the TNT block. But before he could react, the block exploded, burying the griefer under tons of cobblestone rubble.
The explosion was deafening. My ears were ringing. I was a little too close to the explosion and I felt dizzy.
“What is going on?” yelled the other griefer, still rubbing his eyes and moaning with pain from the harming potion.
“We are freeing our friends,” I mumbled, coughing dust out of my undead lungs.
The griefer slumped down to the ground and started crying. I ignored him.
The explosion had covered my invisible body with dust, and Harold saw my dusty form stumbling around. He bumped me from behind and said, “Get on, Zeke. We have to free Zeb.”
I was grateful for the ride.
Harold trotted over to where the ten zombies were still chained.
The explosion had knocked the unsuspecting zombies to the ground, but they were all still alive … or … still undead.
I dismounted from Harold and kneeled by Zeb. “Zeb, are you hurt?”
Zeb looked where my head should have been and saw nothing but a dust-covered body. His eyes grew wide with fear. “Ahhhhhhh, stay away from me, baby ghost,” he shouted.
“Zeb, it’s Zeke. I drank a potion of invisibility,” I said. “See, Harold’s right there.”
Zeb looked over at Harold. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“Hi, Zeb,” said Harold.
“Wow, am I glad to see you guys. I was getting really weak. Those griefers have been working me to death since they captured me yesterday.”
I stood up and grabbed a pickaxe from off the ground. “Look out,” I said to Zeb as I started smashing the axe against the iron chain on his leg. I was able to break it in just a few hits.
Zeb rubbed his leg where the chain had been. “Thanks,” said Zeb.
Otis grabbed another pickaxe, and we quickly freed the other nine zombies.
“Come on,” said Otis. “We need to get out of here. That potion of harming will wear off soon, and that other griefer might have survived the blast.”
Otis mounted Bob and the two led the way out of the mine pit with the nine freed zombies following behind. Zeb waited with me to bring up the rear of the line.
“Thanks for freeing me, Zeke,” said Zeb, putting his hand on my head.
“You would have done it for me,” I said.
Zeb smiled. “Zeke, I think the potion is wearing off. I ca
n see you again.”
I looked down at my arms. Sure enough, I could see the rotten green color of my skin slowly reappearing.
The other zombies had left the mine pit, and it was time for Zeb and me to follow.
I looked behind me one more time to check that the griefer was still sitting on the ground crying, but he was gone!
Chapter 8
“Zeb, that other griefer is gone,” I whispered.
Zeb looked to the empty space where the griefer had been. “Maybe he just ran away,” Zeb suggested.
I shook my head. “I doubt it. Those guys were evil. Evil players always want revenge.”
Zeb did not disagree with me.
“Look, Zeb, let’s get out of here and warn the others. We need to get to the surface as quickly as possible.”
I jumped on Harold and ran ahead, with Zeb following. We soon caught up with the zombie line and warned everyone. Otis and Bob moved as quickly as they could without leaving the weak, ambling zombies behind.
Incredibly, we made it all the way back to the entrance to the main chamber without encountering the griefer.
“Wow,” said Otis, “I can’t believe the missing griefer didn’t attack us.”
“Yeah, I thought we’d have to battle him,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “And, that would not have been pretty.”
We all walked into the main chamber and collapsed from fatigue. I pulled out some wheat grains and put them in a pile for Harold and Bob. They eagerly pecked the seed. I pulled out some cooked meat and passed it around to the zombies.
Then, I walked over to Zeb and gave him a piece. He looked at me and said, “Thank you, Zeke. You are a great zombie.”
I smiled. “Sure, Zeb. I owe you a lot. You’ve always been nice to me.”
Suddenly we heard an evil laugh coming from across the chamber, and then, “Awww, isn’t that cute?”
We looked in the direction of the sound and saw the griefer standing in front of the exit leading to the outside world.