Harper thought about it. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Okay, so, what if we convince everyone that their house has termites? No one would buy it then!”
Harper tapped her chin. “I think the only way that would work is if we actually put termites in Ash’s house. And I can’t imagine anyone would be very happy about that….”
“Maybe we can involve the Wildling Scouts somehow?” Jodi asked. “Ash has more merit badges than any of the other scouts, and I know they all look up to her. What if Ash’s troop named her Queen for Life?”
“I was thinking we could rope in Baron Sweetcheeks,” said Harper. “He loves Ash’s big playground set. What if we tell them that moving away will cause our class hamster to sink into a deep depression?”
“It won’t work,” said a voice. They all turned around and saw Ash peek out from behind the tree.
“Ash!” said Po. “How long have you been standing there? I could have used your vote a few minutes ago….”
“I heard most of it,” Ash said. “And everything you said made me happy…and sad….” She looked at each of them in turn. “My mom’s job isn’t giving her a choice. There’s nothing any of us can do to change that. Believe me, I know.” She took a deep breath. “But it means the world that you wish that you could fix this. I’ve never had friends like you before.”
“And we’ve never known anybody like you, Ash,” said Morgan.
“Yeah,” said Jodi. “We don’t want to lose you.”
Ash smiled a little. “Well, maybe you don’t have to. I mean, not entirely….”
Harper perked up. “You have a solution?” she asked happily.
“I have a different way of thinking about the problem,” Ash said. “Listen, we have VR headsets that teleport our minds into a totally realistic version of our favorite video game! It’s like magic. We don’t need to be in the same school or the same town to spend time together.”
“The goggles aren’t magic,” said Harper. “But you’ve got a good point. A great point.”
“You think Doc will let you take a headset with you?” Po asked. “And if you did, you’d be able to connect remotely?”
“I think yes on both counts,” said Harper. “Doc will understand, and the technology will work fine.”
“That’s wonderful!” said Jodi. She crashed against Ash, wrapping her arms around the taller girl and swinging her around in a circle. “We won’t be able to hug, but we can still see you and talk to you every day!”
Harper noticed that Morgan wasn’t smiling like the rest of them. “What’s wrong, Morgan? It’s a good plan!”
“It is a good plan,” Morgan said. “Unless the Evoker King wrecks the game. He’s already changed it for the worse.”
Ash put her hand on top of Jodi’s head. “Then we just have to stop him. Don’t we?”
Now Morgan smiled. “Yeah. I guess we do.”
“Finally,” Harper said, feeling the call to action. “A problem we can solve.”
“Yeah, about that,” Ash said. She bit her lip. “I had another idea. But I’m not sure you’re going to like this one, Harper.”
“Oh?” said Harper. “Why’s that?”
“Because we need help to win,” said Ash. “And I think that help needs to come from—”
Harper frowned. “Don’t say Theo.”
“Theo,” said Ash.
Harper still wasn’t sure what to make of Theo Grayson.
They had started out as friends. Fate (and a class science project) had thrown them together, and they’d found it easy to get along…at first. But then Theo messed up their experiment. And he started acting weird, sneaking around and asking about their Minecraft game. Morgan had even suspected Theo of being the Evoker King, back before they had discovered that the Evoker King was an artificial intelligence.
Theo obviously wasn’t the Evoker King. But Harper and her friends had still never quite come to trust Theo enough to share the secret of the Minecraft goggles. And he had hinted plenty of times that he loved the game, too.
They had worked together again on the school play, and during that time, they had gotten along fine. But Harper had hardly seen him since the play ended. If they were going to ask for his help, she really did owe him an apology for shutting him out.
She found him in the library just after school. She knew he liked to go there to read. She noticed, now, that the books stacked on the table in front of him were guides to computer programming.
She hadn’t known just how much Theo was into computers and modding until Po revealed that he’d offered his tech skills during the school play.
“Hey, Theo,” she said. “What’s new?”
Theo looked up, startled. He’d obviously been absorbed in his reading. And it was clear from his expression that Harper was the last person he expected to see.
But his startled look was quickly replaced with a goofy smile. “Hey, Harper. It’s been a while. You want to sit down?”
Harper smiled back as she took a seat. “I can’t stay long. But I’m curious.” She looked at the stack of books. “Po told me you’re into programming. Is that right?”
Theo nodded enthusiastically. He was obviously delighted that she had finally asked him about it. “Yeah! I mean, I know some stuff, but I still have a lot to learn. Computers are complicated.”
“I guess that explains the tower of books,” said Harper.
“Yeah.” Theo blushed. “Although, actually, you caught me goofing off. I was taking a break from reading to review some of my sketches.”
“Sketches?” echoed Harper.
“Take a look,” he said, and he turned the open book toward her.
Harper saw now that the book in Theo’s hand wasn’t a library book at all, but a graph-paper notebook. Its pages were filled with blocky drawings. There were blueprints for buildings, and complicated Redstone mechanisms, and tons of interesting figures in the shape of Minecraft avatars.
“Wow,” Harper said. “You drew all this?”
“Yeah,” Theo said. “I like to plan out my Minecraft builds on paper before I make them.”
“And the avatars?” Harper asked.
“Oh, I’m getting into modding,” Theo said. “You know, using programming to modify the look of the game? Making new skins is the easiest way to start.”
Harper flipped the pages. Theo had designed a lot of skins. There were reptilian ninjas, robotic monkeys, two-legged dragons, and—
And there, in the back, were a few avatars that Harper recognized.
Theo snatched the book away from her, slamming it shut. “They’re just sketches right now,” Theo said. “Anyway, do you hear a car honking? I think my mom is here.”
Harper blinked, trying to process what she had seen. “I don’t hear any—”
“Gotta run,” he said. “Bye!”
Theo grabbed his backpack and bolted away, leaving the stack of books behind. Harper thought about going after him. But she was too shocked by what she’d seen in Theo’s notebook to even move.
Four of Theo’s avatars—she’d seen them before.
A knight on a dragon mount. A dark magician. A pirate and an ax-wielding zombie.
Those four mobs had nearly defeated Harper and her friends in the deepest level of the dungeon. Harper knew for a fact they weren’t part of any normal game of Minecraft.
How could Theo possibly know about them?
And how could Harper possibly trust him now?
* * *
Harper’s friends were waiting for her in the computer lab. But they weren’t alone. Doc was there, humming happily and bouncing on her toes. And she had put the kids to work.
“These things are heavier than they look,” said Morgan. He was straining under the weight of a glass terrarium.
; “Yeah, we know,” Ash said with a smirk. “The rest of us carried two of them.”
Doc helped Morgan ease the terrarium into its place atop a shelf on the back wall. Harper saw now that the terrarium contained a single colorful flower. So did the seven other terrariums lined up on the shelf.
“It looks like a science experiment!” said Harper.
“That’s exactly what it is,” said Doc. “Sorry to take over the computer lab. But these blinds do a good job of keeping out the sunlight. And the air-conditioning keeps this room at a constant seventy-two degrees so that the computers don’t overheat.”
“I don’t understand,” said Jodi. “Don’t you want the flowers to get sunlight?”
“Ah!” said Doc. “Let’s shed some light on that, shall we?” With that, she flipped a switch, and the terrariums all lit up.
“I should have known,” said Po. “Those terrariums are super high-tech!”
“No wonder they’re so heavy,” Morgan said, rubbing his triceps.
“These were specially made by yours truly,” said Doc. “They provide their own artificial sunlight—along with a precise amount of water, once a day. That way, I can control the exact growing conditions for each flower.”
“And we can enjoy looking at them!” said Jodi.
“But it seems like a lot of work,” said Po. “Why not just put them in the sunlight? Why not just water them yourself?”
Harper knew the answer to that. “In a science experiment, you have to control all the variables,” she said. “You don’t want to leave anything to random chance.”
“That’s right,” said Doc. “A science experiment is not like life. There are far too many variables in real life. Too much is changing all the time.” She chuckled. “Ms. Minerva doesn’t like it when things don’t go exactly according to plan. Some people can roll with a bit of chaos, and others can’t. But no matter how you feel about it, there will always be things happening that are out of your control.”
“Especially if you’re a kid,” Ash said, sounding a little sad.
Doc looked thoughtful. “That’s true. At your age, there’s very little that you control. And that can be scary, can’t it?”
Harper hadn’t really thought of it that way. But Doc was right. It was scary to be unable to make your own decisions.
“But there are always things you can control,” said Doc. “You can’t control how you feel, but you can choose how you act. You can choose to be kind, compassionate. You can choose to be a good friend. You can choose to look out for one another.” She beamed a smile at them. “I can tell that you do that already. You’re a good group of kids.”
Harper felt her cheeks get warm at the compliment. She still idolized Doc. Even after the trouble the teacher had accidentally unleashed.
In a way, Doc had created the Evoker King, after all. Whether she’d meant to or not.
Talk about not being in control.
“Hey, Harper,” Morgan said, and he pulled her aside. “Did you get a chance to talk to Theo?”
Harper frowned. “Not really,” she said. “I’ll try again later.”
She wasn’t sure what to make of Theo’s sketches. All she knew was that Theo himself was a big question mark. In scientific terms, he was a variable. And she couldn’t help but wonder what sort of chaos he might unleash if given the chance.
This group of friends was everything to her. And she wouldn’t risk letting an unknown hurt them.
Not as long as she had any control over the matter.
Ash tried to hide it, but she was worried. Very worried.
She’d always been pretty good at keeping track of the group’s inventory. Even with everything split up among them, she usually had a rough idea of how many arrows, apples, and torches they had left.
Right now, they didn’t have much. The dungeon delve had pushed them to their limits. They hadn’t worried about it too much, because they had assumed they’d be able to resupply when they were back on the surface.
So much for that.
She stood now in the shadow of their old castle and watched Morgan try to gnaw on a piece of cooked fish. “It’s not working,” he said, putting the fillet back into his inventory. “I can’t eat. And that means I can’t heal the damage I took from the skeleton’s arrow.”
That isn’t good, Ash thought. It isn’t good at all. But out loud, she said, “That’s okay. We’ll just have to be really careful.”
She closed her eyes and pulled up her own status bar. Her health was full, but her hunger meter was not. When that meter ran out, she’d start taking damage. It was the same for all of them.
They still didn’t know what would happen if one of them ran out of health here. Ash really didn’t want to find out.
“And you’re sure we can’t go to Theo?” she asked Harper. “I still think a programmer could help.”
“Maybe a programmer could help,” said Harper. “But we can’t risk asking him. Not until we know what he’s hiding.”
By then, Ash thought, it might be too late. But out loud, she said, “All right, Harper. It’s your call, and I trust you.”
* * *
Despite low health and mostly unusable items in their inventories, they set out for the block tower in the distance. It was still raining. With each step, Ash felt gloomier. It would have been smarter to tunnel through the great hill so they could reach the tower without being easily seen. But that wasn’t an option. They had precious few options left to them. What could they do except walk up to the tower and step through its front door?
Ash recognized the tower as an End City a structure typically found in another dimension entirely. Putting the tower square in the middle of the Overworld was just the latest example of the Evoker King’s flaunting his powers. She would have call it arrogance…except his powers were very impressive.
They came upon a waterfall, and Ash gasped at the sight. The blocks of water had stopped mid-fall. It was like a 3D sculpture of a waterfall—utterly still and silent. There was something especially eerie about seeing the water blocks stuck in place while rain still fell from the sky.
The silence was interrupted by the sound of honking. Ash turned to see a villager walking across the grassy field. His movements were erratic.
“He’s a little far from home,” said Po. “The nearest village is a good long walk from here.”
“He seems a little…off,” said Harper.
Ash thought Harper was right. The villager was wandering aimlessly rather than going anywhere in particular. Even his honking sounded confused and desperate.
“Poor guy,” said Jodi. “Maybe he’s a farmer who just discovered he can’t harvest his crop. Maybe he can’t even get his front door open. He must be so confused!”
They all watched as the villager staggered out of view. Then they resumed their journey. The End City grew larger as they drew nearer.
There was another sound, which Ash recognized as clucking. Sure enough, a chicken came into view as it walked atop a nearby hill. It was followed by a cute, blocky chick.
Jodi took a big step back.
“Are you all right, Jodi?” asked Ash. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you step away from an animal before.”
“Other than spiders!” said Po.
Jodi frowned. “I’m just afraid a lightning bolt is going to turn that chicken into a razor-beaked attack skeleton,” Jodi said. “You know…the usual.”
The chicken didn’t transform, however. It led its chick over the hill and out of sight.
“That little chick will never grow up,” said Morgan. “And the mama chicken will never lay another egg.”
“You couldn’t eat any food,” Harper said. “Neither can the animals.”
Ash knew what they were suggesting. Whatever the Evoker King was up to—whatever his reasons we
re for doing all this—his actions were having unintended consequences. The entire game world was malfunctioning.
They had to put everything back. They had to make it right, before it was too late.
* * *
Soon, the End City tower loomed before them. Ash was pretty sure that it was twice as tall as an End City was supposed to be.
Po craned his wizard neck upward to peer through the falling rain. “How much do you want to bet the EK is alllll the way up at the top?”
“We could build a big staircase,” suggested Harper.
Ash shook her head. “We don’t have nearly enough blocks left. We used too many getting out of that dungeon chasm and walling up those skeleton riders.”
“And I don’t think End Cities have any windows,” Morgan added. “Since we can’t cut or blast our way in, there’s no other choice.”
“Just the big, open doorway?” said Po.
“If anybody is suspicious,” Jodi said, “we’ll just say we’re selling Wildling Scout cookies.”
“If only I could use my Wildling Scout skin as we enter this obvious trap!” Po complained.
Trap or not, thought Ash, they had to risk it. The more time went on, the stronger the Evoker King seemed to get….
And now that they couldn’t fix their worn-down weapons or craft new supplies or heal with food or potions, they would only get weaker.
“We have to be more careful than ever,” Ash said. “We’ll stick together and take it one room at a time.”
The first room was a cavernous entrance hall, all purple and greenish-yellow. The ceiling was high, high, high above them. Between the extreme scale and the weird colors, Ash felt almost queasy.
Last Block Standing! (Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #6) Page 3