Trapped in the Overworld

by Winter Morgan

  Simon was conflicted. He didn’t want to abandon his friend, Emily, who was missing and could have turned into a zombie villager. But he also wanted to go to the jungle biome to stop these attacks so he could figure out a way to go home.

  “Just give us a short time to find Emily, and then we can head to the jungle biome with you,” Simon pleaded.

  The Prismarines talked among themselves and then one of them replied, “Okay, we’ll help you find Emily. Then we’ll all trek to the master griefer’s lair. It’s useless if we travel there on our own.”

  Simon walked through the village, calling Emily’s name. All around him, the houses and shops of the town were damaged from the attack. Many buildings had their doors ripped off, and folks were busy repairing the damage. Simon saw his friend Juan the Butcher.

  “Juan,” Simon asked. “Have you seen Emily?”

  “Yes,” Juan replied. “I saw her early this morning, when she left to go on a fishing trip.”

  Simon was relieved to learn that Emily hadn’t even been in the village during the attack. With a sigh of relief, he explained, “Juan. I’m not just a player anymore. I am actually living in Minecraft.”

  Juan gasped. “Not you, too!”

  “You mean you’ve heard about people being trapped in the game before?” Simon couldn’t believe it—he wanted to hear the entire story.

  “Years ago, I heard there was a group of players that were pulled into the game.”

  “Did they get out?”

  “Yes,” Juan replied. “I heard they did.”

  “How?” Simon asked. He called the others over to hear the conversation.

  “I think there is a very powerful, mean man that can zap you into the game, but he can also get you out,” Juan told them.

  “It must be the master griefer,” one of the Prismarines called out.

  “Does he have a name?” Simon asked.

  “I believe his name is Mr. Anarchy,” Juan said.

  “I’ve never heard that name,” Brett said.

  “How did those people escape from the Overworld?” Simon didn’t want to get distracted. He had one question that he wanted answered.

  “I’m not sure. I think it had something to do with Mr. Anarchy. But it made him very angry. He staged many attacks on the Overworld. Ender Dragons and Withers flew through the skies of our village for years. Players never wanted to be on this server. I had no customers at my blacksmith shop.”

  “Do you know the people who escaped?” asked Lily.

  “No, and I don’t even know their names. I wish I did and I wish I could help you guys, but I’ve told you all that I know. I’m just a simple villager.” Juan frowned. He really wanted to help them get back to the real world, but he also feared that Lisimi Village would suffer through endless attacks like it had in the past. Mr. Anarchy was a serious menace to the Overworld, and because Juan was a villager, he had no home to escape to if Mr. Anarchy made the Overworld unlivable.

  “You’ve been a huge help already,” Simon told Juan. To the group, he said, “I think we know what we need to do now. Now that we know Emily is safe, we must head to the jungle.”

  Brett studied a map to the jungle temple. “I really don’t think I can go back there.”

  Simon paused, and then suggested, “That’s okay. If you give us the map, your group could stay here and protect the town. My friends, Lily and Michael, and I will head to the jungle on our own. We want to surprise Mr. Anarchy. Once we get there, we will find him, and when we start to battle, we’ll ask you to TP to the jungle to join us.”

  Brett was relieved, but the rest of the Prismarines weren’t too pleased with this idea. They wanted to travel to the jungle, too, but they realized Simon was right. If they all traveled together, Mr. Anarchy might be suspicious. Before they met this trio, they hadn’t even known the master griefer’s name. They felt like these new friends might be bringing them closer to getting back home.

  Greta asked if they had enough supplies. Simon, Michael, and Lily looked through their inventories and realized they were missing potions and were running low on food.

  As the folks in green jumpsuits restocked their inventories, the gang was thankful that these old enemies had become new friends.

  7

  IGLOO

  “Emily!” Simon spotted his friend at the shore as they made their way towards the jungle biome. She was about to cast and, from the looks of the pile by her side, she had already caught an abundance of fish.

  “Simon, Lily, and Michael!” Emily put down her fishing rod. “How are you?”

  Lily replied, “We’re not so good. We’re trapped in the Overworld and we want to get home desperately.”

  “That sounds like the work of Mr. Anarchy,” Emily said. “Have you heard of him?”

  “Yes, Juan told us all about him,” Simon told his fisherwoman friend.

  “Well, he’s a very powerful man. I used to be friends with him,” said Emily.

  “You did?” Lily was shocked.

  “Yes. Years ago, when he was a player, he would trade his emeralds for fish.”

  “Why did he become so evil?” questioned Michael.

  “That’s a good question. He became evil because he realized that he’d be trapped in the game forever. When he tried to leave the game, he was only able to let others out and bring others in, but he couldn’t leave. At first he loved his power, but when he realized he could never go home again, he turned into a very bad man.”

  “I feel bad for him,” Lily said. “Maybe we can help him.”

  “Feel bad for him? He is probably the person responsible for zapping us into this game and trapping us here.” Michael was annoyed.

  “And he blew up my house!” Simon added angrily.

  “He also caused a lot of damage in the Overworld, which our friends are trying to repair right now. And who knows what he is going to do next? And you feel bad for him?” Michael was perplexed.

  “We’ve only been here a very short while. Maybe if we knew we were trapped here forever, we might turn into evil people,” Lily explained.

  “But it’s how someone reacts when something bad happens that shows their true character,” said Simon.

  “Yes, Mr. Anarchy has very bad character,” added Michael. “I think none of us would turn into evil people if we found out we were trapped here forever.” Michael truly believed this. Although he feared being trapped in this world forever, he knew that it wouldn’t change him into a horrible person. He never contemplated becoming a griefer, and he always wanted to help others.

  “You say that now,” Lily responded, “but you don’t really know. At this point, we all have hope. Once that hope runs out, we might turn into different people.”

  “Hope will never run out. I believe we’ll get out of here,” Michael said. He turned to Emily. “We have to go to the jungle. It was nice seeing you.”

  Emily offered the trio some fish she had caught. “Place these in your inventory. You need to have something for dinner. Also, find a place to build a house. It’s almost nighttime, and you don’t want to leave yourselves vulnerable to hostile mob invasions.”

  They thanked Emily. Lily studied the map. “It looks like there is a cold biome over this mountain. Let’s build a house over there.”

  “I’ve always wanted to build an igloo,” Michael said enthusiastically.

  The group trekked toward the cold biome and over the steep mountain. Simon paused at the top of the mountain. “The Overworld is so massive.”

  Lily looked at the map. “And we have a long journey before we reach the jungle biome. We don’t have time to stop and stare at the scenery.”

  “You’re right. We don’t want to be out at night, when witches spawn.” Simon carefully climbed down the mountain.

  “I definitely don’t,” Lily said. “Remember how terrified I am of witches when we play this game together? I can’t imagine what it would be like to actually face one in real life.” She shuddered.

&nbs
p; “Hopefully, we’ll never have to find out,” Simon said.

  “This looks like a great spot to build our igloo,” suggested Michael. He started pulling the necessary supplies from his inventory, while Lily and Simon gathered blocks of snow.

  Suddenly, they heard a noise in the distance. It sounded like a howl.

  The skin on the three friends’ necks prickled, and they stopped what they were doing to look out into the darkening cold biome.

  Suddenly, an animal raced by them.

  “Did you see that?” asked Lily.

  There was a growl, and the animal ran past again. Its coat was gray, and it was quite muscular. It made its way through the snow swiftly.

  “I think it’s a wolf,” Simon said.

  “Let’s tame it!” Instead of being scared, Lily was excited to tame the wolf. She had never tamed an animal before. Simon had his pet ocelot, which he had tamed and Lily always played with, but she didn’t have a pet of her own.

  Lily grabbed bones from her inventory and leaned down in the snow, offering them to the black-eyed, wild animal. The wolf slowly approached Lily and smelled her offering. It grabbed the bones and transformed into a tamed animal.

  “Now we will have a wolf with us for the rest of our time in the Overworld,” Michael complained.

  Simon asked, “What are you going to name it?”

  “I think I’m going to call it Wolfie,” Lily said with a laugh. The happy wolf stood by his owner’s side. Lily was glad that, at long last, something good had come out of their time in the Overworld.

  “Is someone going to help me build this igloo?” Michael asked.

  An eerie voice replied from the shadows, “I will.”

  With a start, Lily and Simon turned around to see who had spoken.

  8

  TRAPPED AND TERRORIZED

  “Do you need help?” the voice asked again, and let out a sinister laugh.

  Lily’s tamed wolf stood next to her and barked. The master griefer stepped out of the shadows, smiling, and stood in front of her.

  “Are you shocked that I found you?” He laughed again.

  “Who are you?” asked Michael.

  “You know my name.” He let out a louder and more powerful laugh.

  “You must be Mr. Anarchy. We know all about your evil tricks,” Simon took out his diamond sword and held it tightly.

  “We’re sorry you’re trapped in the Overworld,” Lily said to Mr. Anarchy. “We know how it feels. We’re also stuck here, and we want to go home. I miss my parents.”

  “Who said I was trapped here? I can leave any time I want. I love it here. And all I want to do is destroy you.”

  “Why?” asked Lily.

  “When you get back to the village, none of you will have any homes left. I will have blown up your precious little cottage and your wooden home. I’ve already destroyed Simon’s house.” His malicious voice boomed throughout the cold biome.

  Night was beginning to fall in the Overworld. Michael stared at the half-finished igloo, knowing they weren’t going to finish it in time, and they were going to be destroyed by hostile mobs.

  Mr. Anarchy looked up at the sky. He pointed his diamond sword at the trio. “You are TPing with me to the jungle.”

  “We refuse to be your prisoners!” Michael said.

  “You have no other choice.” He splashed a potion of weakness at them and the group lost hearts.

  Michael saw four zombies lumbering toward them. He barely had any hearts left, and he knew he couldn’t battle these undead mobs.

  “You have no energy. Being with me is better than being destroyed by hostile mobs,” Mr. Anarchy said as he clutched a bottle of potion that he threatened to splash on them if they didn’t listen to him.

  “If we let them destroy us, we’ll just respawn in our beds and be away from you!” Lily cried triumphantly.

  “Are you sure? What if I’ve already destroyed your homes, and you don’t have beds to respawn in?”

  Simon, Lily, and Michael exchanged wide-eyed glances, unsure of what to do. Finally, Simon bowed his head. “I guess we don’t have a choice,” he said.

  Mr. Anarchy forced Lily to make the wolf sit down and stay in the cold biome. Lily was heartbroken. The group reluctantly TPed to the jungle biome and arrived in Mr. Anarchy’s jungle temple.

  He led them to a small prison cell in the basement. Mr. Anarchy closed the door behind them and laughed, “Good night, my little prisoners.”

  “We have to find a way to get out of here,” said Lily.

  “I know,” Michael agreed. “This is awful, but we were just going to be destroyed in the cold biome anyway. We had no time to craft that igloo.”

  The floor was covered in cave spiders. Simon took out his sword and began destroying them. “This place is terrible. I don’t want to spend the night in a room filled with spiders.”

  “There aren’t any beds.” Lily walked around the small room.

  “We have to craft some,” said Michael.

  As the trio started to craft beds, two skeletons spawned in the prison cell. One shot an arrow at Lily.

  “Get them!” She hollered as she rubbed the bruise.

  Simon and Michael struck the bony mobs with their swords, but the skeletons were powerful and weren’t losing hearts as fast as they hoped. Lily splashed a potion on the skeletons, destroying them.

  “We have to finish these beds. Now that Simon’s house was destroyed, we have to be able to spawn in one place,” Michael said.

  “Why would we want to respawn in this horrible prison?” Lily replied.

  “But if we don’t, where will Simon respawn?” Michael asked.

  “Do you think I’ll respawn in my own bed at home?” Simon asked hopefully.

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” a voice boomed from the door.

  The group looked over and saw Mr. Anarchy standing by the door with a tray of food.

  “Dinner is served,” he said, and he let out another sinister laugh.

  “Why are you feeding us?” asked Lily.

  “I want you to get your energy up so I can have some evening entertainment. I love watching you guys try to battle hostile mobs.”

  “You spawned the skeletons?” asked Michael.

  “What do you think?” Mr. Anarchy smiled.

  “Are you going to trap us in here and spawn monsters all night?” asked Lily.

  Mr. Anarchy shut the door.

  Lily whispered to her friends, “Let’s get destroyed by the next hostile mob, so we can respawn and get out of here.”

  Mr. Anarchy opened the door, “I heard you. And I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You might be on Hardcore mode.”

  “What?” Simon screeched.

  “I said ‘might.’” Mr. Anarchy closed the door.

  “That’s not fair. You can’t do that!” Lily shouted, but it was too late. Mr. Anarchy caused his damage and left them alone to possibly perish on Hardcore mode.

  “If we get destroyed on Hardcore mode, we might be wiped from existence.” Michael paced around the small room.

  “I know! We have to fight hostile mobs and try to figure out a way to escape,” said Simon.

  Four zombies spawned in their small prison cell. Lily lunged at one of the zombies and used all of her strength to strike the mob. Michael and Simon fought alongside Lily.

  “They are losing hearts, but we aren’t destroying them,” Lily spit out while shielding herself from the zombie.

  “I have some potions,” Michael pulled a bottle from his inventory and splashed its contents on the zombie, weakening the undead mob.

  “Attack!” Michael called to his friends.

  The trio annihilated the zombies. They picked up the rotten flesh the zombies dropped and placed it in their inventories.

  Lily pulled milk from her inventory and took a sip. She offered it to her friends and whispered, “Where do you think Mr. Anarchy is watching us from?”

  She walked along the wall, looking for any holes
through which Mr. Anarchy, wearing his blue skin, would be able to peek into the prison and be entertained watching the battle of the trio against whatever hostile mob he spawned next.

  “I don’t see any holes.” Michael put his hand against the wall.

  “Me, neither,” said Lily.

  Simon looked up. “Wait, I think I see something!”

  9

  IN THE JUNGLE

  Simon looked at the floor when he spoke. “He’s watching us from the ceiling. I see a light peeking through.”

  “I think you’re right.” Lily could see the reflection from the light on the ground.

  “We can’t climb up there.” Michael looked at the cell’s dirt floor, not wanting Mr. Anarchy to know they were discussing escaping.

  Two skeletons spawned in the corner of the room and Lily sighed, “Not again! This isn’t even challenging, just exhausting.”

  Michael leapt at a skeleton and said, “I have no idea why Mr. Anarchy would want to see us battle skeletons. It’s kind of boring. I’d think he’d want to see us fight various hostile mobs.”

  Lily yelled, “Don’t give him any ideas,” and then pierced the side of a skeleton with her enchanted diamond sword and destroyed him.

  “One down and one to go,” Michael remarked, then slayed the final mob.

  “I wonder what monster he’s going to send us next?” Lily mused. Simon could tell she was hoping it wouldn’t be a witch.

  The gang didn’t have to wait long for another hostile mob invasion. The floor of the prison was flooded with silverfish. Michael hit the pesky insects with his sword.

  The others destroyed a creeper that spawned in the center of the room. Lily jumped back when it exploded.

  “Creepers aren’t cool at all,” Lily shouted at the ceiling.

  Mr. Anarchy didn’t reply. The gang could just imagine him looking through the hole in the ceiling and watching them as if they were his favorite television show. The thought repulsed Lily.

  “We have to stop this man. This is awful,” Lily cried out.

  “Don’t worry, Lily,” Simon comforted his friend. “I have a plan.”

  Michael remarked, “It had better be a good one.”