by Dr. Block
“No!” I yelled.
“Be quiet,” said Harold. “We don’t want the player to know where we are.”
“Okay,” I said as I watched Otis and Bob rushing toward the player.
At first, the player did not notice the baby zombie pigman closing in on him. But then, Otis let out an attack scream and the player turned and saw him. The player actually looked scared.
The player began running away from the village and into the forest with Otis and Bob close behind. After a few seconds, they were out of view.
“Come on, Harold,” I said. “Let’s go see what happens.”
Chapter 5
Harold and I followed closely, but stayed off to the side, trying to avoid being seen by the player. But, since the player was running for his life, there seemed little danger he would spot us.
Otis was yelling things like “onward fair steed” and “we shall slay him” and “die, die, die!” He had gone crazy with bloodlust.
The player ran around some rocks, through trees, and then alongside a mountain.
“Do you think he’s heading for a cave?” I asked Harold.
“Maybe,” said Harold. “Or a fortified house.”
As Harold and I struggled to keep everyone in view, we noticed that the player had run into a V-shaped area alongside the mountain. It was almost like the corner of a room.
“Ha!” We heard Otis yell. “Now you are trapped, player.”
The player looked panicked, but then spotted an opening and ducked inside.
“There is no escape,” said Otis as he urged Bob into the opening. They disappeared from view.
“I can’t hear anything now, Harold,” I said. “What do you think is happening?”
I could feel a shiver of fear pass through Harold as I sat on his back. “I hope nothing bad.”
We sat there for what seemed like hours, though it was probably just one minute. The tension was mounting. There were no sounds of a struggle. What could be going on?
Then, I saw a horrible sight. A different player emerged from behind a large boulder in the V-shaped area below us and quickly blocked off the opening with cobblestones.
“What is going on?” said Harold.
Then, we saw the other player, the one Otis and Bob had been chasing, climb over the top of the mountain and raise his fist in the air. “I got him!” he shouted.
“Oh, no, Harold,” I said, unable to hold back my tears. “They killed them.” I dismounted Harold and sat on the ground crying.
Harold put his wing around me. He was crying too.
It was then we heard something that gave us hope. The two players were now standing next to each other in the V-shaped area, and the second player asked, “He’s still alive, right?”
“Yeah, he is,” said the first player. “Alive, but very, very unhappy.”
“Yes,” said the second player. “Our friends will never believe we caught a pigman jockey.”
“Totally, dude,” said the first player. “Let’s make a YouTube video of him.”
The second player gave the first a high-five and said, “Let’s do it.”
The two players then left the V-shaped area and walked back in the direction of the village.
I looked over at Harold. “So, Otis and Bob are alive, but trapped inside that mountain?”
“That’s what it sounded like to me. Thank goodness,” said Harold.
“But what is a ewe-tube video?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” said Harold. “But, it sounds like they are going to feed Otis and Bob to a sheep!”
“Oh my Notch!” I said. “Why would they want to feed him to a ewe?”
“Because they are freaks!” said Harold. “And, what is a video?”
“It must be what happens when you come out of the ewe-tube,” I said, shuddering at the thought.
“I think I just threw up in my mouth,” said Harold, cringing.
I looked down at my hands. They were shaking with fear and rage. “This is so wrong on so many levels,” I said.
“We have to rescue Bob!” said Harold, resolutely.
“And Otis,” I said.
“We have to rescue Bob,” Harold repeated. “But how?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But Zeb will. Let’s go and talk to him.”
“Hop on,” said Harold. “We need to hurry.”
Chapter 6
When we got back to the cave, we found Zeb sleeping on the ground. We woke him up and explained everything. He shook his head sadly several times as he sat on the ground, listening to our tale of woe.
When we had finished, Zeb sat there for a moment in the dim light of the cave, lost in thought. Finally, he said, “Otis is a fool.”
“We know that, but he does not deserve to die like that … inside of a sheep,” I said.
“I suppose you are right, but if it weren’t for Bob, I’d consider leaving him to his fate,” said Zeb.
“That is a horrible thing to say, Zeb,” I said.
“He’s right though,” said Harold.
I would never admit it to them, but Zeb had a point. Otis was a pretty cool guy, but he could be a bit irrational from time to time. I mean, I first met him as he was threatening to kill me with his diamond sword.
“Whatever,” I said. “Look, Otis saved us from those griefers and now it is our turn to save him. That is what friends do.”
Zeb and Harold looked down at the ground, ashamed.
“Come on, guys. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, but we don’t have much time. How can we rescue them, Zeb?”
Zeb did not respond right away. Instead, he scratched at the ground with his undead fingers, lost in thought. Harold was also scratching the ground with his claws, though I could not tell if he was thinking or just hoping to find some food.
It seemed like Zeb was taking forever to come up with a plan. Usually he knew exactly what to do. I was starting to worry that he had no idea how to rescue Otis and Bob.
The silence was starting to close in on me. I began pacing back and forth in the cave. What could we do? I thought. How can we save them? I started rubbing my head with both hands, hoping to massage an idea into my brain. But all I succeeded in doing was rubbing some of my undead skin from my scalp.
“Come on, Zeb,” I said, flicking the dead skin from my fingers. “Can’t you think of anything?”
Zeb slowly looked up at me. I could see his eyes were sad. He was about to speak when there was a *POP* noise in the back of the cave.
The noise startled us. We all looked toward the source of the noise.
“What?” I said.
“How?” said Harold.
“They spawned,” said Zeb.
There, standing in the dim light at the back of the cave were three creepers.
Chapter 7
“Hey, guys,” I said to the creepers.
The creepers rushed forward and started to flash. Oh no! I thought. They are going to explode!
Zeb put his hands up. “Calm down, creepers. We are hostile mobs too.”
The creepers realized who we were and stopped flashing.
“Sorry,” said one of the creepers. “We are really disoriented. We thought you were players.”
“We understand,” said Zeb. “It is pretty typical to be befuddled when you first spawn.”
“Befuddled?” I said.
Zeb shrugged. “I like that word. I’ve been waiting to use it in a sentence forever.”
I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the three creepers. “Thanks for not blowing us up. We are in the midst of trying to save our friend, so an explosion would not have been ….” And that was when I knew how we could save Otis and Bob.
“So, um, creepers. You guys like to blow up players, right?” I said.
“Oh, yes, we should very much like to blow up players,” they said in unison, furiously nodding their green and black heads up and down.
I looked over at Harold and Zeb. I could tell by their smiles,
they already knew where I was going with this.
“We know where a couple of players are,” I said. “We could take you to them and save you days of wandering around looking for players to kill.”
The creepers started hopping up and down on their four stubby legs. “Oh, goody, goody. Would you? Would you?”
“Sure, we will,” said Harold. “Then you can blow them up and fulfill your life’s destiny.”
The creepers were shaking with excitement. “Let’s go now. Now. Now. Now. Oh, please. Oh, please. Pretty please with gunpowder on top.”
I put my hands up. “Chill, guys. We need to wait a couple of hours until dark. Then we can sneak up on the players.”
“And, I can come with you all to help,” said Zeb. “I’ll burn if I go out in the sunlight right now.”
“Yes,” said one of creepers. “Stealth. Sneaking. Finding. Exploding. It sounds perfect.”
“Great!” I said. “Harold and I have had a long day, so we are going to take a nap before we head out tonight.”
“What should we do?” asked the creepers.
“Think about how glorious it will be when you blow up the players,” suggested Harold.
“Oh, yes. Yes. Glorious. Yes,” they said.
I walked with Harold over to a corner of the cave to take a nap. “Those guys give me the … well … the creeps,” I whispered.
“Yeah, but they are going to help us rescue Bob,” said Harold.
“And Otis,” I said.
“Whatever,” said Harold as he sat on the ground and went to sleep.
Chapter 8
Zeb woke us up just after nightfall. “You ready to go?”
I nodded. “What are the creepers doing?”
Zeb shrugged. “They’ve been hissing to each other for the last couple hours. Probably talking about how fun it will be to explode. They’re crazy.”
“Yeah, but we can use their explosions to blow a hole in the side of the mountain and free Otis and Bob,” I said.
I hopped on the back of Harold and we walked over to the creepers. “Ready to go?”
“Oh, yes,” said one of them. “Most ready. Most prepared.”
“Follow us,” said Harold.
Harold and I led the way to where Otis and Bob were imprisoned. The three creepers followed us, while Zeb brought up the rear.
The moon was nearly full, so it was easy to see in the night without using torches. When the V-shaped corner of the mountains was in sight, we stopped to discuss our plan.
“Okay, creepers,” I said. “We saw the players go inside that rock wall and then seal the door shut. If one of you goes down there and blows up, the players should come running out and then the other two of you can blow up.”
“Yay,” said the creepers, running down to the rock wall.
I watched as the creepers rushed to the rock wall. This was it, I thought. Otis and Bob will be freed. But, then, nothing happened. The creepers walked back and forth by the wall and did not explode.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“They don’t sense a player, so they won’t explode,” said Harold. “Now they know we’ve been lying to them.”
“Netherrack,” I cursed.
The creepers slowly walked back to us. “There are no players in there. They must be gone,” said one of the creepers.
“Or, maybe, they were never there,” hissed another creeper suspiciously.
“Really?” I said. “Gee, sorry guys. I guess you’ll have to find some players on your own.”
“Stupid baby zombie,” hissed the third creeper.
Just then, one of the players who had captured Otis and Bob wandered into the valley below. He was carrying a torch and walking directly at the V-shaped area. He got to the wall and started hitting it with his pickaxe.
“Look,” I said. “Once he opens the wall, we can rush in and free our friends.”
But, the creepers did not hear me. They were already rushing toward the player to blow themselves up.
“No!” I screamed. “It’s our only chance.”
The creepers charged the player, who looked up just in time to run away from them. The creepers pursued, blowing themselves up. But, the player escaped.
“Oh my Notch,” I said softly. “Now we will never free Otis and Bob.”
“Actually, maybe we can,” said Zeb.
“How?”
“Creepers drop gunpowder,” explained Zeb. “If they dropped enough, we can make a block of TNT and blow a hole in the wall.”
I pumped my fist. “Yes! Let’s do it.”
“The only problem is, we need to get some sand and a crafting table,” said Zeb.
“There are crafting tables in the village, and I am sure we can find some sand there too,” said Harold.
“Okay,” said Zeb. “Now, let’s go get the gunpowder.”
We walked to the spot where the creepers had exploded. The player was nowhere in sight. We located five gunpowder piles.
“Phew,” said Zeb. “We need five gunpowders for every block of TNT. This is just enough.”
I reached down and gathered all of the gunpowder. “Let’s get to that village quickly,” I said.
Chapter 9
The village was calm. Because it was nighttime, no villagers were outside. This would make it easier to sneak around, but it would make it more difficult to get access to a crafting table.
“Otis used the crafting table in the blacksmith shop earlier today when he made his leather armor,” I said. “Maybe we can get to it?”
“Let me go take a look by myself,” said Harold. “If a villager spots me, he won’t think anything unusual is happening.”
“Good idea,” I said as I dismounted from Harold. Harold walked into the village while Zeb and I waited anxiously.
When Harold returned, he said, “There is a small door into the blacksmith’s shop. It was unlocked and no one was inside. I think we can do this.”
“Great,” said Zeb. “Did you happen to notice any sand?”
Harold nodded. “Yes, there was a pile of sand just outside the blacksmith shop.”
“How easy is this going to be?” I said confidently.
We all started walking to the blacksmith shop, Zeb and I trying to sneak in the shadows, while Harold walked in the middle of the path.
We had just reached the blacksmith shop when we heard a thumping sound. Oh, no, I thought. I turned around and saw an iron golem.
“I’ll distract it,” said Zeb. “You guys make the TNT.”
“No, Zeb, he might kill you,” I said.
Zeb smiled. “Maybe, but those griefers would have worked me to death if it weren’t for you and Otis. I realize that what I said earlier about abandoning Otis was wrong. So, I’m okay with this.”
The iron golem had started to approach.
“No time to argue,” said Zeb as he ran off in the other direction, the iron golem in pursuit.
As I watched Zeb lead the iron golem away, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was certain I would never see him again. I brushed back a tear from my eye and said, “Come on, Harold. Let’s get this done.”
We ducked inside the blacksmith shop and quickly crafted a block of TNT using the five gunpowders and four sand piles. I put the block of TNT into my inventory, and we ducked back outside.
As Harold and I snuck back out of the village, we could hear the iron golem stomping in the distance. It sounded like he was still chasing Zeb.
“Maybe Zeb can get away?” suggested Harold.
“I hope so,” I said, without much conviction.
“Let’s go save Bob,” said Harold.
“And Otis,” I said.
Harold sighed. “And Otis.”
I jumped on Harold’s back, and we raced toward the mountain prison, hoping we were not too late.
Chapter 10
We got back to the V-shaped area quickly and found it deserted. The player we had seen earlier had not come back to re-open the mountai
n. Or, if he had, he had sealed it again.
We got right up to the side of the mountain, and I put the TNT block down. I positioned it against the rock, so when it exploded, it would be sure to blow a hole deep enough into the rock to open up an escape passage for Otis and Bob.
“Okay, Harold, let’s back up out of the blast radius,” I said.
“Uh, Zeke, I just realized something,” said Harold.
“What?”
“We don’t have any way to ignite the TNT.”
I felt the pit of my stomach sink. How could I have been so stupid? Of course TNT does not explode unless there is a spark or fire or another explosion to set it off.
“Aaargh!” I yelled with frustration and kicked the TNT block from atop Harold’s back. “How can we light this thing?”
Just then, both players walked around the corner carrying torches in the night. They spotted us right away.
“Check it out,” one said. “A chicken jockey!”
“Dude, let’s make a YouTube video about him, too,” said the other.
I was still sitting on Harold, so I whispered, “Run.” Harold responded immediately, darting to the side.
“Hey, get back here you stupid chicken jockey,” yelled one of the players.
“I got this,” said the other.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the player pull out a bow and notch an arrow. When he let the arrow fly, it burst into flame as it came close. I managed to duck just in time, and the arrow buzzed inches above me.
“That was close,” panted Harold.
“Yeah, but it gives me an idea,” I said. “Run back in front of the TNT. We need to get them to shoot at us with those flaming arrows and blow up the TNT.”
“Brilliant!” said Harold.
We raced back toward the TNT. The player with the flaming arrows shot two more at us before we got into position. Then, we just stood there, pretending to be scared.
“You can’t escape,” said the player with the arrows. “We are smarter than you.”