Notch City

by mattam6

He began his life in an obsidian room. He had suddenly appeared, naked, and sweating. For about ten minutes, his mind struggled to get familiar with existence. He looked around. The room was all black, and there was a single iron door at the far end. He waited, but for how long, he did not know; time wasn't all that clear to him yet.

Notch City

The City:

He began his life in an obsidian room. He had suddenly appeared, naked, and sweating. For about ten minutes, his mind struggled to get familiar with existence. He looked around. The room was all black, and there was a single iron door at the far end. He waited, but for how long, he did not know; time wasn't all that clear to him yet.
A lady came through the door. She smiled and helped him up. She talked to him slowly as she dressed him, and to his surprise he understood her. She told him that he had just "spawned", and that this happens to everyone, and that she remembered her first time she spawned. After getting him dressed and ready to go, he asked where he was.

"Why, The City of Notch of course!" she said enthusiastically as she pointed to the sign above the door. Welcome to NotchCity! it said. He didn't have to learn how to read, he simply knew it somehow. My name is Isaac he thought. She led him through some clean iron hallways with no windows. She said, "Before we can get you to be a part of society, we need to test you first. Everyone needs a job, and we need to find out what you'll be best at!"

After testing him with a series strange objectives: "Pick these up and place them there in this pattern. Explore this dark room to the best of your ability. Plant these seeds" they came up with some results. "Well," said the lady "Your vision is too dull to explore caves, and you aren't too apt at building. Your farming is alright, but that's a job too careful to be less than excellent. You'll be a meat cooker."

After a few insignificant tests and walking through more clean hallways, they lead him to a pair of Iron double doors. The guard looks at him, sympathetic, and says "Enjoy your stay at NotchCity" as he presses a lever.

The doors open.

At first the light from the square sun is too blinding for him to see anything. He squints and takes a look around. The city is amazing, and seems to stretch on forever in every which direction, even down and up.
Streets are built extremely high up into the sky, and all the buildings are a futuristic mix of Iron and Diamond Blocks. Redstone wires spread around along the buildings every which way. He looks over the railing of a busy walkway. He can't even see the ground. The surrounding buildings stretch down into ominous darkness. "Don't look down" says his escort. "No one comes back from falling down there."
"Do they hit the ground?"
"Don't say that word."
"Ground?" People walking near them looked at Isaac as if he had just punched someone.
"Listen," said the escort, "there's two rules here: One, don't say ground. People don't like it. Two, do your work. Do as you're told and you'll be fine."

They stepped into a multi-passenger minecart. The escort pressed a series of redwire switches and the minecart took off through a series of glass tunnels that wound between the labyrinth of tall buildings. They stopped at one with a giant blocky picture of a porkchop on its main wall. Isaac got off the minecart.
"Welcome to your new life." said the escort, and his minecart sped off.

"Why is it forbidden to say ground?" Asked Isaac one day to his working partner, Matthias. Matthias was a tired-looking fellow, but well built. He should probably be a miner, thought Isaac, not a meat cooker like me. "No one has seen the ground in hundreds of years. Some people just forgot what it was. People don't like to be reminded of a past they're unfamiliar with."
Issac thought for a moment. HE didn't even know what the ground was. He just knew it should be there.
"Every new spawner, like you, has all these notions of 'the ground', but they quickly fade away."
Isaac refilled his furnace with some more coal.
"Do YOU know what the ground is?" He asked.
"Yes." Matthias answered.
"How?"
"Because I've been there."
He said no more on the matter.

Isaac had learned a couple of things from his first few weeks in NotchCity. First were the job classes. The lowest were cookers, and next were the smelters and then the farmers. These were the majority. The builders were the next high up; they were actually allowed to use tools and manipulate the environment. Then came the redwire technicians, as they required a high level of intelligence, followed by the miners. Not only were they allowed to access the mines (which nobody knew where the mines actually were), they also had the use of the most powerful thing of all: The crafting bench.

Rumor had it that there was only one crafting bench in existence. Only the highest level person in Notch city was allowed to use it, and he used a complex system of minecarts and redstone to manufacture all the tools to wherever they were needed. And since the tools were made of a durable mixture of iron and diamond, the job wasn't too demanding.

Weeks passed, which turned into months. Isaac was talking more and more with Matthias and had been able to gather some information on the ground. It was speculated that the ground was a solid surface that encompassed the entire planet - a thought that was too strange to comprehend at first. People kept building and building, and more people kept spawning, that after years beyond the mind's comprehension, the ground became packed and cluttered. Add to that the number of "griefers" (people who went insane with the clutter and tried to clear up the ground by destroying things) that kept spawning, and the place became a wasteland. Back in those times, anyone could make their own crafting bench. Armed with this, some simply moved underground and it is unknown whether any still live there now.

Amidst the chaos, a new person spawned. He called himself Notch. He could not be killed. He said that there was plenty of room up above, and that no one had to live in the greifed wasteland of the ground. With this new hope, he managed to pull everyone together and build a new, orderly society above all the wreckage. And the society grew peacefully, and (as everyone does one day) Notch disappeared. What he didn't forsee, however, was that the buildings would keep growing and growing as more people spawned. Eventually, the society had shifted so far above the ground, that they had forgot what the ground even was.

The Ground:

A year passed. Isaac had learned all that he could from the ground from Matthias. He would not explain why or how he had been there before. Isaac lost interest in it eventually. Afterall, what would a blocky wasteland hold for him anyway? He just settled back and followed the two rules.
One Sunday off of work, Isaac decided he wanted to go for a walk and try to explore as much of the city as he could. He walked down from his apartment, through some clean iron hallways, and left the building. The city was very good looking. There were mini parks with fountains in the middle, but no trees (they were made out of wood, afterall) and no one dared to destroy any blocks with the guards standing around almost everywhere. Your fists couldn't compete with their bows and swords.

The only trees Isaac saw was in a far off building, accessible only by minecart. It was made like a giant glass dome with what looked like a forest inside. Isaac would sometimes see a worker chopping one down, or another one planting a sapling. They were heavily guarded, and probably not even told the recipe for a crafting bench. They probably didn't even care, either. The guards would kill anyone trying to make one on sight.

He kept walking and walking, and taking random minecarts to unknown destinations. The city was bigger than he had ever imagined. It just kept stretching into the distance, no matter how far Isaac went. And it was busy, too. Just how many people were in this place?

By chance he walked past the spawning building. A woman was being escorted out. She looked confused, and kept trying to destroy the blocks she passed by. Of course, everything was made of either Iron or Diamond blocks, so she didn't get far. Her escort simply helped her into the next minecart, and they sped kept walking. Night began to fall, and had always felt uneasy about night for some reason. Almost everyone did. He began to walk home quickly, taking the appropriate minecarts to get back home.

Except one wasn't arriving on time. After a while, the people waiting for it simply went away looking for a new one, uneasy that the sun was quickly setting. But this was strange. Minecarts were always on time. Isaac looked into the glass tunnel from which the minecart would travel through. Nothing. He wondered where they would take you if you stayed on one minecart throughout its entire ride and never got off. Eh, he thought and started to follow those who had left. But they were already gone. And night had already fallen completely.

He started to feel sick and scared. Night time did this to him although he didn't know why. And he didn't know how to walk home from here. And everyone was already locking up their doors and going inside. He ran down some unfamiliar streets. Visibility was getting low, and people were putting out their torches and lanterns. He unknowingly stumbled across a construction site, and his next footstep fell through the air.

No one heard his scream as he took a sickening fall thousands of meters down...
And no one heard the splash that ensued a full minute after he fell.

Isaac opened his eyes. He was underwater, and sinking fast. He swam upward frantically and finally broke the surface. He took several relieving lungfuls of air, and quickly swam to solid ground. It seemed that the water saved his life, and strangely enough, not caused him a bit of harm when he hit the surface. He stood up and looked around. In his limited visibility, Isaac could see that this place was a real mess. Random blocks were placed everywhere with no logic, aside from the bases of the giant iron buildings that stretched up into the night sky. He heard something walking along a small patch of grass directly behind him, and decided that he probably shouldn't stay here much longer. That uneasy feeling he got from night time was fully formed fear now.

He made his way in the dark, weaving his way through the random jungle of cubes, often ducking under brick or wood blocks in order to keep going. There was something making noise behind him. He moved at a faster pace, and arrived at a clearing. The thing following him must've stopped making noise because he couldn't hear anything. Isaac strained his ears, as his eyesight was little help in this darkened environment. Something very subtle, like a string being drawn.

TWANG!

Isaac instinctively ducked as the arrow flew straight over him and stuck itself into the wall to its left. "Holy sh-!" He didn't finish his sentence as another arrow flew past and took a fragment of his shirt with it. He broke into a run. He went as fast as he could, awkwardly making his way through the mess of blocks. There was something up ahead, though. Light. He made his way toward it as fast as he could. A simple torch, sitting there on a pillar of cobblestone. The blocks here were denser than before. It was a dead end.

Isaac struggled to catch his breath as he looked to where the thing had been chasing him. A skeleton's head became illuminated as it approached.

TWANG!

Isaac flinched - but the sound didn't come from the skeleton. An arrow flew past him and buried itself into the skeleton's head. It crumpled down into the dirt. A large black man appeared with a bow in his hand. He took a look at Isaac and chuckled.
"Heh, we haven't had someone new in years."
"Not a live one anyway" said an other, with a slight British accent. He was tall and also seemed to come out of nowhere. As he walked over and picked up some arrows from the dead skeleton's body, he said "Most never survive The Fall. Especially during the bloody night time." He grinned.
"What's your name, boy?"
"Isaac."
"I'm Thomas. This is Lawrence." He gestured toward the man who had just saved his life. He offered a nod and said "We're still in danger, Thomas. Let's get to safety."
"Alright. Isaac, consider yourself lucky. Not only did you just survive a goddamn skeleton attack, but you've also stumbled across the oldest society in NotchCity."

They led Isaac around the dense cluster of blocks, through some tight squeezes and came up to a door. Lawrence stepped forward and opened the door, letting Isaac see the inside.
"See what I mean?" asked Thomas.

What from the outside looked like a meaningless tight cluster of blocks, was actually the entrance to a crude but fairly big shelter. Various men and women were sitting around tired, or sleeping on cloth furniture. Some huddled around a fire in a fireplace made from mismatching brick and stone blocks. Whoever built this place had really taken advantage of the random blocks already there. Torches lit some lopsided hallways that stretched into unknown places, and everything seemed as mismatched as possible. But despite its randomness, the place felt warm. Comfortable, almost. It was a refreshing change from the endless Iron and Diamond blocks of The City.

They led Isaac inside. As they walked past a couch, Lawrence tossed his bow onto a man sleeping on the couch. "Breaktime's over Marcus, my shift ended when I saved the new guy's life."
He immediately stood up.
"New guy?"
Everyone that wasn't asleep looked in their direction.
"Let's sit down, Isaac."

They led him to the fireplace. Isaac sat down on a stone block. The warmth was welcoming, Isaac didn't realize that he was shivering until now. His clothes were still wet from when he fell thousands of feet into the pond. Thomas ordered someone to get him some new clothes while they talked. People were gathering around the fireplace to see what the new guy looked like. Illuminated by the firelight, their faces were dirty but bright with life.

"Welcome to The Ground." Said one of them.
"Where'd all you guys come from?" Asked Isaac. "You couldn't of all fallen into the pond."
One of them laughed. "Many of us have. There are a lot of large bodies water here. Sometimes we get tired of living the depressing city life and jump. Some survive and some don't."
"A lot of us were miners," said a large man with muscular arms. "Like me. They never tell you that the mines are below the ground. Sometimes when the guards aren't looking we manage to explore and find our way to the surface."

"The oldest ones of us," said Thomas, "lived underground before everyone decided to move up there. When they finally resurfaced they found that everyone had forgot about them. Instead of going up there with them, they decided to stay here."
"Why don't you guys just build up? There's plenty of blocks around for you to build some stairs or something." "You don't understand. Most of us hated the life in the city. Doomed to waste our life away with monotony. We were like bloody prisoners."
They all nodded. Lawrence spoke up.
"Sure, life may be hard here, but it sure as hell is better than staying up there. Monsters and all."

Isaac thought for a second. It was true. Life on the surface was bland and depressing. But he wasn't sure about staying here, nearly getting mauled by skeletons each night. The man returned with Isaac's clothes. Lawrence argued with Marcus, the guy he woke up, about who's shift it really was.

"Alright." Said Thomas, standing up. "We've got a big day ahead of us. We should go to sleep. I'll show you to a room, Isaac. We can explain more tomorrow." He led Isaac down some hallways and stopped at a door. There was a sign next to it. Matthias it said. This was the former room of his working partner.
"No keys or anything." Thomas said as he opened the door. "No one steals anything down here on The Ground."
Isaac walked in. There was a bed and something else. Sitting there in the corner was something he had never seen before. A crafting bench. Would he get to use it?

Thomas walked in and picked it up. As he took it away, he said:
"Don't worry Isaac, you'll get a chance to earn your own tomorrow."

Monster Fighter:

Isaac slept long and deep that night, although dreams of The Fall invaded his sleep. Falling and falling: that moment had been terrible. Spinning through the air for so long left him without any sense of direction. When his body connected with the water, it came at an odd angle and had left him disoriented. Isaac kept reliving these feelings until he woke with a start. He halfway expected to be in his apartment in the city, and that this was all a dream. But being here instead made him feel better for some reason. He smiled. At least I don't have to go to work, he thought. He got out of his room and made his way to the room with the fireplace. This place was a sort of lounge, it seemed. Through the small window in the door, Isaac could see daylight. There were a lot of people standing around waiting for someone. A man was walking around and handing out stale bread. Isaac got some and ate it quickly.
"Isaac! Glad to see you're awake, boy." Thomas strode into the room, holding a chest. He set it down and opened it. One by one, he pulled out iron swords and tossed them to the people waiting in the room. He tossed one to Isaac, who carefully caught it with both hands. It was a bit heavier than he expected.

"If you didn't already know, Isaac, monsters spawn each night. No one knows why. Usually they burn once they touch sunlight, but with all these damned buildings in the way, only a few slim strands of it ever touches the ground at once. We either have to wait until noon to go outside, or send a party to clear them out first. 'Course we can't waste time waiting for noon, so we go out every morning and do it ourselves. Not to mention that the monsters drop valuable items. We've been missing one person ever since Matthias left, so you'll just have to do."

Isaac looked at the sword in his hands. He held it from the handle and was surprised to see that it felt rather natural in his hand, as if he was always meant to be using this tool.
Thomas raised his voice as he pulled out some arrow quivers and bows, tossing them to about half the people there. One of them was Lawrence.
"Just a reminder! If you spot a creeper, let an archer take it out! We can't risk it blowing us half to hell."

And with that they opened the door and ran outside. There were about 30 people in all, split up into teams of two. Isaac was with Lawrence. Each person had a bag to put the things they collected into. They took to the south, and immediately there was a zombie walking toward them from the ruins of a brick structure. He had a tattered shirt and dead eyes. Isaac wondered if this was what happened to people once they died here.

"I can't afford to waste my arrows, Isaac. You'll have to take it out while I cover you from up top." Said Lawrence, as he climbed up some blocks to their right.
Isaac put aside his fear and ran toward the zombie. He took an upward swing at the its chest, but only managed to inflict a minor flesh-wound. The zombie got closer and tried to grab at Isaac. With all his might, he swung the sword heavily in a downward arc across the zombie's shoulder. The sword cut through and easily cleaved the top half of the zombie's torso from the rest of it's body. Both halves hit the ground limply and bloodlessly. They vanished in a puff of smoke and, strangely enough, left some feathers lying there.

Isaac picked them up quickly, and before he could ask about them he spotted a green creature with a tortured face, four legs, and a longish body walking noiselessly toward them. Those must be the creepers, he thought. He opened his mouth to alert Lawrence, when an arrow flew overhead and stuck into the creeper's head. It simply hissed a little and kept walking. A strange black powder was flowing from where the arrow pierced its skin. Lawrence dug four more arrows into its body with perfect aim, killing it. He hopped down next to Isaac and the both walked over to the powder.

"Gunpowder." Said Lawrence, picking up as much as he could and putting it into his bag. "Let's keep moving."

The came across a clearing of grass. There was a large beam of light illuminating this spot, coming from the sun shining between a gap in the large iron buildings. They walked to the center of the clearing and looked around. A group of three zombies came up behind them. Isaac was just about to run toward them, when Lawrence put his arm in the way. The zombies came closer. The second they touched the beam of sunlight, they burst into flame. They ran around a little and then fell to the floor.

"Don't bother wasting energy if the sun can get them first." Lawrence said.

They continued the rest of the morning much in this manner. Isaac soon found that he was pretty apt at fighting with the sword, as long as he let gravity do much of his job for him. Lawrence would handle all the skeletons and creepers, while Isaac would fight the spiders and zombies. Strangely enough, spiders and creepers wouldn't burst into flame when they touched sunlight. Isaac guessed that only the once-human monsters would do this, although he did not know why. Soon enough, all the groups met together. Once they had made sure that they had cleared their "sector" of all monsters, they went back to the shelter.

Thomas checked all their bags and whistled when he came to Isaac's.
"Bloody hell, Isaac. You got this all on your own?"
"Yeah. I thought everyone would have as much"
Thomas laughed and clapped his hand on Isaac's shoulder.
"Not at all, boy. Say, what was your job back on the surface?"
"Meat cooker."
"Well forget that. Come, I'll teach you how to make a crafting bench. You'll now be considered a monster fighter."

"That's it? That's all you have to do to make a crafting bench?" Asked Isaac after Thomas showed him how to crudely jam four planks of wood together.
"You think more people would know it, wouldn't you? They make quite a big deal out of it in the city, but every one here has at least more than one." Thomas laughed. "We all have to earn our way into it of course."
"Are you the leader of The Ground, Thomas?"
"No, not at all. I'm just the head of this sector. The Ground is split up into many little sectors with their own little leaderships. Our actual leader spends most of her time trying to find a way out of this bloody wasteland that doesn't involve going back to the city."
"Why don't you guys just clear up all the blocks? You have the people and the tools to do so."
"And risk getting spotted by the city? Think about it, Isaac. They think this place is so horrid that they've decided to forget about it altogether. If we make it obvious that we're here, there's no doubt that they'd take us all back up. Don't fool yourself. Plenty of the officials up there still know what the ground is."

"What happened to Matthias?" Isaac asked, suddenly remembering him.
"He was getting more and more uncomfortable with the clutter. He had the beginnings of a greifer, and wanted to destroy every block he came across. Everyone saw it, including him. He slipped away one night and left a note saying that he would return to the city for our safety. A damn shame too; he was one of our best fighters." He looked at Isaac.
"See to it that you fill his shoes."

And Isaac did. Weeks passed, and Isaac was being recruited into monster-clearing parties more and more often. He found himself growing stronger and more skilled with the sword. Soon enough, he was the main person you'd want to join your mining group. In the dark, he'd hear monsters coming before anyone else. Built but not overly muscular, he'd quickly take off skeleton's limbs before they could fire a single arrow, and lop off the heads of zombies before anyone even noticed the danger.

When Isaac wasn't with the mining parties or in the morning monster-clearing, he'd join The Scouters during the day. They'd search for anything valuable. Sometimes they'd find an occasional group of pigs, and that night they'd have a feast. Saplings were really rare, and were thought of as one of the highest value objects in all of The Ground.

A full month after Isaac's arrival, they were having one such scouting party. Despite the noon sun shining down on them, it was chilly. It was going to be winter soon. They weaved their way through the blocks. Seeing all the random blocks so often had desensitized Isaac, and now he could pick out patterns amidst the mess of cubes. There were many little shelters here and there, to protect the occasional person trapped outside at night. They were very well hidden. Isaac would never have been able to see them had he not been living here for a month.

The map readers warned that they were entering uncharted territory. They were walking along as usual, when someone shouted that they found something new. They made their way to where the person had spotted it, and it was immediately obvious what was new. It looked like a doorway, but larger and made out of an unknown blackish material that looked familiar, somehow. It was also incomplete; a block was missing on its left side. The remnants of the room surrounding it was full of bookcases.

Jessica, their scouting leader, spoke.
"Isaac, what do you think it is?"
"I don't exactly know. I think I've seen it somewhere before, but I'm not sure."
"I know, me too. Like something from a dream. Try to take some of it."
Isaac looked closer at the stuff. It was hard to the touch. He reached into his bag and pulled out his Iron pickaxe. He tried to mine away at it, but it was nearly impossible. It simply wouldn't give way. Something clicked in his head.
"I know. This stuff is formed when water touches lava. I've seen it once when I crossed a lava lake with the miners. They poured some over the lava and it got hardened. We've never tried to mine it before. It's too hard."
"But diamond is harder, right?" Asked Jessica.
"True. I've never thought of that. And why did someone take the time to mine some and build this out of it?" "Let's find out." She looked at the bookcases around her. "All these books are here for a reason. Everyone fill up your bags and let's head back."

Isaac filled up his bag. He took one book out and opened to the cover. The Nether, it said in handwriting. He shrugged and kept walking.

It was nearly dark when they got back to the shelter.
"I'll get Thomas," Jessica said, and walked off.
Isaac sat down on one of the many sofas in the room and looked at the books he had collected in his bag. They were all journals of some sort. The handwriting looked rushed, and was sometimes unreadable.
Thomas walked into the room with Jessica as she finished explaining something.
"-found them next to some kind of obsidian doorway."
"Alright let's see them, then." Said Thomas.

The members of the scouting party emptied their bags on a table nearby. Thomas walked over, grabbed a book at random, and started flipping through the pages. He frowned with concentration as he tried to read the rushed handwriting. He set it down and grabbed another book. He flipped through it again and again.
"These books talk about another dimension. I don't know what to make of it, but I can't read these all. Everyone, grab some books and try to read them by tomorrow. We'll have a meeting about it when we're all finished."

Isaac grabbed his bag and headed to his room. He expected to sleep that entire night, but after he started reading, he didn't stop until he finished them all. This was huge.

The next morning, after clearing out the sector of monsters, they had a meeting. Almost everyone from the sector that wasn't working was crowded around the table in the lounge. They swapped information on what they read and managed to come to a conclusion.

"Alright," Thomas said, "The books were missing many parts and weren't clear. We don't know how this alternate dimension will look like if we manage to get there. But we know how to get there, and that's the important part."
A miner spoke next.
"But we need obsidian to get there, and we need diamond to get it."
"The portal was only missing one obsidian block," Said Isaac. He drew a diagram on a sheet of paper in front of him.
"The block above and below it means we can't just make a mold and create some obsidian there. It's only one block, and we'll have to mine it."

"Which brings me to our next matter of business," said Thomas. "We'll need to run a mining op to get diamond. We'll get Isaac and Lawrence to protect the miners while they're down there. Once we do that, we'll find some lava and pour some water over it, get the obsidian block, and complete the portal." He grinned. "I'll find some flint and steel. We can decide who will light the portal if this ludicrous mission ever pulls through."
"When do we begin?" Asked Isaac.
"Tonight."

Mining:

The most elite members of their sector were chosen for the mining operation. Isaac and Lawrence would protect the miners, which consisted of three men: Ivan, Christopher, and Jackson. The party was small in order to keep things fast and concise. They rested throughout the remainder of the day, and were awoken exactly at sundown. Thomas led the five men to the mining station inside the shelter. They got into a rusty multi-passenger minecart that some scouters had salvaged weeks before. It was old but functional. The minecart rails stretched down into the ominous mine.
Thomas put his foot on the back of the minecart.
"Make it count." He said, and pushed. The minecart jolted forward and took its 45-degree descent into the heart of the mines. The walls echoed the rickety sound of the wheels grinding against the steel tracks as torches swished past them left and right at a faster and faster speed. Christopher, the head of the operation, leaned forward and swiftly caught a lever with his pickaxe, jolting the old minecart to the right. They continued switching directions in this pattern for what seemed like a mile. They reached a place where the floor of the cave leveled out, and momentum carried them forward.

Isaac stared in awe as the cave opened up to a massive sphere-shaped cavern, lit by torches and lanterns so far away they looked like twinkling stars. He had never visited a cavern this big before . At its very center was a cube-shaped steel building, held there by enormous stalactites that stretched down and kept it firmly attached to the ceiling. The tracks were now suspended in the air, and heading straight for the building.

Christopher turned back and raised his voice over the now-quieting grind of the wheels against the tracks. "This place is an abandoned center of mining for the city. They emptied this entire cavern of minerals long ago, and how we use it from time to time."
They arrived inside, and their minecart docked in a spot that looked like it was meant to hold many minecarts at a time. The inside of the building was clean and spacious, and chests were organized into spots built into the walls. It echoed the sterile quality of the buildings in the city, and it made Isaac uneasy; he had grown accustomed to the chaos of The Ground.

Each of the walls had three openings for minecarts to arrive/depart through with a big blue number over each. They had just entered through 3. Christopher pointed at number 12 and motioned to lift the minecart. All five of them easily picked it up and set it on the tracks directly in front of twelve.

"This will lead us into a part of the caves that has been unexplored," Explained Christopher as he got onto the minecart. "But we'll be going so fast that nothing should get us. Just prepare yourself for when the tracks run out, we'll probably have to hop out of the cart."
The words hung in the air for a few moments. The tracks seemed old and stretched down into a part of the cavern that was completely submerged in darkness. The torches there must've gone out long ago.

Ivan stretched out his foot and pushed off. The minecart creaked forward and began its descent into the black abyss...

In moments they were completely swallowed by darkness. The heavy blackness seemed to press on them, enveloping them in silence. The only noise to be heard was the metallic clanking of the minecart echoing off the stone walls around them. In their blindness, it seemed to take random and unexpected turns every so often. It would suddenly jolt left and right; the only indication that they were moving.

Isaac felt the fear that he used to get from nighttime creep back into his system. It had been long since he had gotten that feeling, and now his heart was beating in his ears. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face. His hearing got more acute. After he got used to the minecart noises, he realized that there were other things in the background. Footsteps. They'd become louder and quickly die away as the minecart sped past them. The deeper they went, the more noises they started hearing. They were pretty rare at first, only the occasional zombie growl. But soon enough those noises multiplied. Once they heard the iconic 'ssssss' of a creeper right next to their cart, only for it to quickly die away behind them.

And it only got worse. Soon enough, the entire cave seemed to be roaring at them. The noises got so intense and frequent, that Isaac thought he'd go insane if he didn't get off right now. Right when the noise was nearly unbearable, the minecart jolted and got off the tracks.
"JUMP OFF!" shouted Christopher.
They all threw themselves from the cart and landed hard on stone. No longer on any tracks, the cart's wheels screeched as they threw sparks everywhere. It then tumbled over somewhere unknown, leaving a screeching echo that lingered for a few seconds. A torch suddenly illuminated the scene, placed by Jackson. The light shone off all their sweating faces and provided some visibility. There were lightless torches all along the walls of the cave, which spread out in front and behind them. There weren't any monsters to be seen.

"Isaac, Lawrence, make sure we're safe. Jackson, Ivan, and I will relight all these torches," Said Christopher as he pulled some flint and steel out of his bag.
Isaac grabbed his iron sword. He tightened his grip on it as he walked in the direction they came from. A bit of movement in the darkness. He turned to Lawrence.
"Did you see that?"
"No, what?"
"Nothing. Hurry up lighting those torches, guys."
Ivan tentatively walked over to them and placed a torch on the wall to their left.
"Oh my god."

The torch threw light on a group of about twenty monsters advancing swiftly toward them.
Isaac grabbed some dirt blocks to his right and hastily started building up a barrier. All five of them joined him. Some arrows flew past their heads, but they managed to make a wall between them and the monsters. Panting, they slumped against the wall.
"That was too close," Said Ivan between breaths. "I've never seen that many together at once."
"How are we gonna get back?" Asked Jackson.
"The plan is to dig up once it's daylight." Said Christopher, looking at a watch. "Night is about a quarter done. Come on, we need to continue forward."

They started off toward the other side of the cave. The far end sloped nearly straight down about 50 feet. Isaac saw the minecart down there, bent and mangled, illuminated by something out of view. The miners carved out a rough staircase down the shaft, letting them continue their descent. Once they reached the bottom, Ivan walked over and examined the cart.

"The damned thing was old, anyway."
"We weren't planning for it to make it through either way," said Christopher, looking at their surroundings. They were standing near a fairly large lava lake, the surrounding cavern dotted with deposits of coal and iron. "We're only here to get diamond and obsidian, so don't bother mining any other resources. We need the pickaxe life to dig back up."

They carved a precarious pathway along the side of the lava lake to continue moving forward. Isaac was sweating from the heat of standing so close to the lava. They finally reached some solid ground on the other side of the lake. It forked into two unexplored tunnels that sloped upward. They placed some torches in their immediate area, and sure enough, sitting there was a sparkling block of diamond.
Isaac watched the tunnel on the left, and Lawrence the one on the right. Jackson walked forward and carefully mined the diamond out of the wall.
"Woah."
He kept mining digging at the hole with his pickaxe, and down dropped four more diamonds.
"We'll take the extra two back up to the surface," Christopher said. "Just craft the pickaxe. Ivan, get your water bucket out and pour it over some of that lava. I'll mine the block."

He pulled out his bucket and tossed the water over the area of lava nearest to them. The lava hissed as it cooled and became black and shiny. Immediately, their area got darker without the lava illuminating it. Christopher placed some more torches. He then walked over to Jackson, who finished at his crafting bench, and grabbed the shining diamond pickaxe. He crouched and began to swing it toward the obsidian block.

TWANG!

"Aw hell!" Lawrence shouted with more anger than pain. An arrow was sticking out of his side, and a stream of blood ran down his shirt. Furious, he yanked out the arrow, drew it into his bow, and shot the skeleton down in one swift movement. Isaac quickly cut off a strip of his bag and went to bandage Lawrence's side. As he finished, Lawrence slumped down against a wall and held the bandage to his wound, wincing in pain. A zombie growled directly behind him.

Isaac spun around, sword in hand, and buried the blade halfway into its head. He pulled the zombie in, sword still in its skull, and kicked it as hard as he could. The zombie flew down limply and disappeared into the usual puff of smoke.
"How long does it take to mine that thing?" He shouted back at them.
"I don't know, this stuff is really hard. Ivan, Jackson, come help me dammit!"
They pulled out their own pickaxes and helped mine away at the obsidian.

He had to keep track of both tunnels at once. A spider jumped at him. He took a swing at it and missed. It hit him square in the face and made his nose bleed. He stood back and waited for its next jump. The moment it lunged at him, Isaac thrust his sword straight out and skewered it through the head and out its abdomen. It moved its legs around for a few seconds then stayed still. He tilted his sword down and let it slide off. Again, a puff of smoke.

Blood was streaming down out of his nose. He looked up and saw that more monsters were coming into view. Lawrence took his hand off of his wound, and tried to take a spare shot at one of them and missed. He winced and put his hand back on his bleeding side. Watching the man who saved his life be in so much agony made Isaac's blood boil. He ran to the crafting bench, grabbed the two spare diamonds, and expertly put together a diamond sword.

He roared as he dove into the crowd of monsters and immediately began slashing. The diamond sword flew through the air effortlessly and cut through monsters with ease. Isaac fought with more vigor than ever before. He cleaved off limbs and used them to shield himself from arrows until he killed the skeleton firing them. A creeper got close and as it was about to explode, he grabbed it and shoved it into the crowd of monsters. The explosion knocked Isaac back and blew monster bits all over the area.

"We're almost done!" Christopher shouted. "Jackson, be ready to catch it once we finish. There's probably lava underneath and we don't want to do this all over again."

Isaac finished off another skeleton. He got his old iron sword off the ground and threw it like a spear into an approaching creeper.

"Alright, there!" shouted Jackson. "I've got the block in my bag."
"Let's get out of here! Come on Isaac!" Christopher ran over to Lawrence. "Ivan, help me get Lawrence up."

Isaac held back the remaining few zombies as the rest doubled back along their path around the lava lake. Christopher threw the diamond pickaxe to Jackson, who quickly mined out a 2x2 clearing that went into the wall. Isaac ran to them, ignoring the monsters following him, and got into the clearing. Jackson quickly blocked it up with the cobblestone had collected during the trip. They breathed a few sighs of relief, and continued on.

They made a tight spiral staircase straight up and didn't run into anything along the way. Lawrence had to be helped up all along the way which made them move slow. After what seemed like a lifetime of digging up, Jackson finally broke up into the surface. The light nearly blinded them as they climbed out. Lawrence groaned as they helped him up.
"It's just past noon. We should make it back to shelter on time."
Isaac didn't hear that sentence. He was so tired that he collapsed onto the dirt as soon as he got out.

Isaac awoke in his room. He sat up quickly, and immediately regretted the action; his body ached all over. He was covered with rough cloth bandages all over his arms and legs. A man on the opposite side of his room, Marcus, was sitting on his crafting bench. Looking surprised to see Isaac moving, he got up and walked out of the door. Thomas walked into the room moments later.

"Good, you're awake. We were starting to think you were dead. You look like hell." Thomas said.
"How long was I out?"
"A good two days. Everyone has heard about how your mining trip went. You're a bloody hero, Isaac."
"What about Lawrence?"
"With plenty of sustenance, he should be healed right up proper by tomorrow. Although I'm sure he's better than he acts. He gets more food acting that way, the bloody-"
"Have you guys finished the portal yet?" Isaac interrupted.
"No. We're waiting for The Leader to arrive. We're expecting her here today. Here, drink this."

Thomas handed him a steaming bowl of a liquid Isaac had never seen before.
"Mushroom soup. Cures damn-near everything. We don't have much of it, so consider yourself lucky, Isaac."

He drank it down in one gulp and immediately felt better. He slowly got out of his bed and stretched. His cuts and bruises hadn't healed, but he felt like new. Thomas led him out of the room and into the lounge. The monster clearing party was just getting back in.

"Isaac!" many of them exclaimed. They sat down on the various couches strewn about and shared their questions and admiration with him. Isaac was used to getting praise for his monster-fighting skill, but not like this. Everyone seemed downright thankful that he managed to save the lives of their most elite members; the actual success of the mission was more of an afterthought.

Isaac insisted on going with the scouting party that evening. He hadn't done anything for two days, and he didn't like feeling useless. Outside was freezing. A layer of frost coated the ground, and the sky was gray and cloudy, rendering the usually vibrant mesh of blocks a dull and shadowless color. The scout yielded no results, just the usual bits and pieces of trash that the city people above tended to toss over the edge when no one was looking.
They continued on for about another hour, until their scouting leader motioned for them to stop. Snowflakes began landing around them.

"Alright, let's head back." Said Jessica. "We haven't found anything useful today, and we don't wanna get frozen out here."
The snow started coming down heavier and packed onto the ground. The scouting party turned around and started heading back in the direction of the shelter, their footsteps leaving deep and obvious tracks. Despite the biting cold, Isaac enjoyed the snow. It gave him a calm feeling he could not explain. His contentment didn't last long, however; snow made the ground even more difficult to navigate through. If only they had a better place to live, with more space. Then they wouldn't have to live burdened with the massive clutter that invaded their peace.

As they approached the shelter, Isaac spotted something unusual. There were footsteps in the snow, leading up to their hidden door. As no one usually went outside, except the scouters, this struck him as strange. "It must be The Leader," Jessica said.
They wiped the snow off their shoes and went inside.

"You must be Isaac," said a pale white woman with piercing blue eyes and dark hair. She had two muscular escorts with her. "Come take a seat," she said with authority. "We're about to have a meeting."

"My name is Elizabeth." She said. "I'm the leader of the ground." She wore a slightly tattered red shirt with dark blue pants. Her appearance was so common, that aside from her authoritative glance, Isaac would've never guessed that she was the leader of a society like The Ground.

The more important people in their sector sat down around a long table in the lounge. The rest of the people that were present simply gathered around and listened to the discussion that was about to ensue.

"Firstly, tell me all that you know about this new dimension, this 'Nether', you have read about. Your messenger wasn't exactly clear."
Thomas answered. "We honestly don't know much about it ma'am. One of our scouting groups found a near-finished obsidian portal next to some books that described a new dimension. We don't know what is in there, or if the portal will even work."
"And yet you risked the lives of some of your finest men to complete it?"
There was an edge in her voice. After hearing the story about the dangerous mining operation, many were wondering the exact same thing.
"You know as well as I do what a new dimension can mean for us, ma'am. Every single one of us is sick and tired of living in this wasteland. A new dimension means that-"
"We can finally live somewhere with space," Isaac finished.

The hard look on her face seemed to vanish. There it was. What every citizen on the ground hungered for; a real place to live, with freedom and room to thrive and expand. That hunger was always there within every one of them, calling to be satisfied, although not everyone was aware of it. But now that it was called to their attention, the urge to thrive in a clean land was stronger than ever.

Elizabeth's cold expression returned to her face.
"Don't get your hopes up too high. We still don't know if this portal even works, and if The Nether is a safe place either way. And I'm not going to allowing you to simply assign a team to go in there and check it out, like you haphazardly did with your mining op."
"Then what do you propose, ma'am?" Thomas asked, "Call and see if dear old Notch City will help us?"
Hearing his challenging tone, her muscular escorts took a step towards Thomas. Elizabeth put up a hand and gestured for them to stop.
"We'll plan this out, that's what I propose. We'll wait until all of your best members recover and then we'll examine the portal. And if it works, Thomas, you're going in with them. You're not excluded from this mission." Thomas raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't intend to be. Whatever this new dimension holds for us, it could never be as bad as where we're living now."

The snow started falling even harder. Along with the deep blanket of snow on the ground, it produced a thick fog that made traveling doubly hard. It wasn't all bad, however. A scouting party had found some easily traceable pig tracks in the snow, and followed it to a fairly large group of pigs. The resulting meat managed to heal up Lawrence and any others who had suffered injury during the mining op within the day. So the next morning, after clearing out the monsters and packing some supplies, they decided to head out for the portal.

Isaac worked on a rough wool coat that had once belonged to Matthias. Just some months ago, he would've never been able to fit into it. But after monster fighting for so long, now he had the build of his meat cooker friend from so long ago. That world seemed so distant, it felt like a half-forgotten dream. I wonder what has come of Matthias, he thought. And if anyone but him noticed that I was gone.

Everyone gathered in the lounge near the fireplace, warming their hands and waiting for the leader to escort them out. There was the mining party: Christopher, Jackson and Ivan; they carried picks, hoes, axes, and about every other tool that could be of use anywhere. With them were the fighters, Lawrence and Isaac, who carried a myriad of swords and bows in their pack. Thomas carried all the food, and Jessica, who only carried with her a compass and a watch, was coming to help them navigate the new dimension with her years of scouting knowledge.

Elizabeth walked into the room with her escorts. "Alright, make sure you have everything in your packs. We're moving out now." Everyone stood up and walked to the door. Elizabeth examined their packs quickly and then nodded. She opened the door. "Everything is good. Jessica will take the lead. Everyone else follow closely behind, as we don't want to lose any of you in the fog along the way."

They trudged through the knee-deep snow and frigid air. The route that Jessica took seemed completely unfamiliar and wrong to Isaac, but surely enough, as they rounded a giant iron base of a building, the unfinished obsidian portal came into view. The clearing looked almost exactly as Isaac had seen it when they first found it; aside from the snow and empty bookshelves.

Thomas walked up to it and put his pack on the ground. He pulled out the obsidian block and carefully slid it into the gap in the portal frame. He reached into his pack a second time and got out some flint and steel. He stood before the portal for a while, flint and steel in hand, his breath visible in the cold. The air was thick with anticipation.

He struck the flint and steel. A spark hit the obsidian and exploded into a swirling purple mist that quickly filled the frame completely. Light and heat flooded forth from the portal, and immediately the snow around them melted. An ominous, ethereal sucking noise filled the air, and any snowflakes that came close were drawn into the portal. The swirling purple had a hypnotic quality, almost beckoning them to come and get eaten by the swirling mist.

Everyone stood there for a while, mouths gaping open at the anomaly before them. One voice broke the hypnotic noise emanating from the portal.
"I'll go first." Isaac said.
They watched with apprehension as Isaac walked forward, climbed into the frame, and disappeared.

The Nether:

Going through the portal was a sickening experience. As soon as Isaac entered the frame, the world around him seemed to lose it's rigidity. Reality ebbed back and fourth, hypnotically, like the tides of the ocean, faster and faster until the threads of reality finally stretched to a breaking point and then... nothing. For a few moments, existence didn't mean anything. His being was falling through a peaceful void of emptiness for what could have been years.
Emerging from the portal was a different matter, however. Plunging into reality, his consciousness hurried to put itself back together, while his body felt like it was being squeezed through a tube of toothpaste. The portal spit him out onto an unforgiving stone surface. Isaac groaned. Nauseated, he made an attempt at sitting up. He bent over and vomited the contents of his stomach onto the stone floor. He felt much better now. Overwhelming heat called his attention, now. Thinking of the others, he shed his wool coat and with it cleaned away the vomit. Wiping his mouth, he stood up and looked around.

Immediately, his heart sunk. This was no place for living. But despite the hellish nature of the scene, this place was awe-inspiring. The Nether was a giant cavernous landscape, made mostly of bloody red stone and lava seeping through fissures in the rock. A glowing yellow substance hung in clumps on the ceiling, while smaller caves dotted the landscape here and there, illuminated only by lava and pockets of fire that burned on the bloodstone.

Isaac was standing atop a canyon that overlooked a giant lava lake to his left, and curved up into the ceiling on his right. The canyon stretched both in front and behind him, tracing the winding shape of the lava lake. Isaac thought he saw a trace of movement in a nearby cave, but decided that it was only a shadow cast by the flickering fire sources around him. He heard a thump behind him, and turned around to see that Thomas had just emerged from the portal. He was sprawled on the floor.

"Bloody hell, Isaac-" he curled up and retched a few times, but didn't throw up. "Help me up," he gasped.
Isaac chuckled as he extended his hand. "You have a strong stomach."
"I didn't eat breakfast." Thomas stood up straight and rolled his shoulders. He frowned as he looked around. "Damn," he said simply.
"Exactly."
"I think we've found Hell."
Lawrence fell out of the portal. He stood up and breathed heavily for a while, but otherwise seemed fine. They examined their immediate area and helped up the next person that came through the portal. They continued this pattern until everyone was safely out. They checked their bags to see if they had lost anything, which they didn't, and quickly equipped everyone with their respective tools.

Jessica looked at her compass. "This thing is useless here. The needle keeps spinning around."
At that moment, they heard a painful, inhuman scream. A giant white creature rose into view. Defying the laws of gravity, its body was square and had several tentacles dangling from the bottom. A horrific expression defined its face. Tears ran down its closed eyes. It faced them, opened its eyes and mouth, and expelled a fireball that headed straight toward them.

Note: I'm changing a few minecraft mechanics here for sake of plot.

Everyone dove out of the way as the fireball crashed into the obsidian portal with a deafening boom. The black frame fell apart and the purple mist dissipated.

"Grab the obsidian, I'll distract it!" Shouted Isaac. He grabbed a loose stone at his feet at hurled it at the ghastly white monster. It struck, but didn't seem to do any damage. It slowly faced Isaac and expelled another fireball. Isaac ran away from where his team was collecting the remnants of the portal. The ground behind him exploded, sending chunks of bloodstone flying over his head.

A crazy idea entered his head. Isaac stopped and turned to face the floating monster. It came closer. From this distance, Isaac could see that it was really quite massive. It made a high pitched noise and expelled another fireball. Isaac held the top end of his iron sword with one hand and the handle in the other so that the flat part would deflect the fireball.

The ball hit the sword with immense force, immediately rebounding off the iron surface and away from Isaac. The sword reverberated and shook in his hands. The fireball flew in a perfect trajectory back into the ghast's open mouth, which had been primed to hurl another fireball. The two fireballs exploded in a brilliant display of light, leaving little more than smoke where the ghast had once been.

I can't believe that worked, Isaac thought. He caught his breath and looked up toward his team. The ghast had blown a hole in the platform where the portal once was, leaving a gap between him and his team. More ghasts floated into view. Their eerie screams echoed throughout the Nether as they approached. "Get to somewhere safe!" Thomas urgently shouted to him across the gap. "We'll meet back here when those things are gone!"

Isaac watched as the team hurriedly gathered their things and ran into a nearby cave in their side of the wall. Isaac looked around. There was a cave, but it was semi high up, and he didn't have a pickaxe. I'll just have to climb. Isaac started up the wall a ways, when a fireball explosion sounded to his left. He hurried his climb and finally made it inside the cave. It was pitch black, but it would provide shelter.

Isaac walked forward into the darkness, keeping his left hand along the wall so he could feel his way around. The cave was hot and damp, almost like he was traveling inside of a living organism. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he strained his eyes. There was a spot of light ahead. He moved toward it. Unclear humanoid figures stood silhouetted around a fire. At first, Isaac thought they were his team, but as they turned their heads to look at him, he found that he was horribly wrong.

What faced him were upright-standing beasts with unmistakably porcine features. Snouts defined their faces, and crude hooves their feet. What made them completely frightening, however, was the various areas of skin and muscle missing from their bodies. Their skeletons were completely visible in some points of their bodies, which was so repulsive it almost made Isaac gag. At their waists hung crude loin cloths, and in their hands glimmered golden swords, looking well worn from use.

He tightened his grip on his own sword and slowly backed away. The pigmen eyed him cautiously. He kept withdrawing and backed right into one of them. It moved him forward, toward the fire, until he was in the middle of their group. Well, at least they weren't attacking him.

Isaac examined each of their faces. The pigmen looked ridiculously sinister with the firelight shining up into their features, the only things that existed in the pitch black of the cave. Though brutish and frightening in appearance, their eyes shined with something Isaac had never seen in a monster before. Intelligence.

Jessica sat and tried to figure out her compass. It was useless. The needle simply wouldn't stay still. It was as if north was constantly picking itself up and changing its position around them. If there was such a thing as north in this hellish place. The entire team had run into a random cave. Flickers of movement were seen, but no danger had presented itself to them. They settled into a small alcove that the miners carved out. The stone seemed ridiculously easy to mine.

Another boom. The cave shook and small red stones fell from the ceiling. The ghast's attack had been relentless at first, firing fireball after fireball at their direction, but now that the entire team was in the cave, the fireballs came with less and less frequency.

Then they stopped. After waiting a considerable amount of time, Thomas spoke.
"Alright, I think they're gone by now. Not the brightest creatures. Let's go see what's left of the cliff side we appeared on."

They emerged from the cave. The cliff side was jagged and destroyed, their initial portal spot was completely gone, aside from an island bloodstone that remained floating in that general area. One final ghast was floating about, seemingly confused by the absence of his brothers. Lawrence dropped to one knee and shot it down quickly. The monster fell and disappeared in a puff of fire upon contact with the lava far below.

The miners built a wide bridge to the floating bloodstone island with the blocks they had collected in the cave. They rebuilt the portal with a quick shelter around in order to shield themselves from the view of any ghasts that may wander by.

As Jessica crossed the bridge to the island, she turned to Thomas.
"I guess we're not visiting here again?"
"No. Not in my lifetime we're not. It's too dangerous to live here for an hour, much less move the entire society of The Ground to live in this hellhole."
"What about Isaac? We can't leave him behind."
A look of despair crossed Thomas' face. They stepped onto the island. Thomas stepped forward and lit the portal, filling the air with that hypnotic sucking noise.
"We'll wait for him here."

They waited. And waited. Not a word was said, for there was nothing to say. Ghasts wandered past, but as long as the team hid in their makeshift shelter they were safe. If the ghasts couldn't see you, it seemed, they didn't care. Hours passed. No Isaac. After what seemed like an eternity, Lawrence stood up. With a look of great sadness, he wordlessly stepped into the portal, and disappeared. One by one, the team members hopelessly stepped into the portal. Thomas stayed steadfast.
"He's gone, Thomas. We have to go. You can't stay here waiting forever."
"I suppose so." Thomas shook his head. "But I refuse to believe that Isaac is dead. If experience has taught me anything, it's that that bastard doesn't die."

Jessica opened her eyes. Existence breathed into her mind, and it was back to nauseating reality. The crew that had come through before her helped her up. As she tried to gain her bearings, she thought of the trip through the portal. That moment of nonexistence was so frightening, and yet, peaceful. Although portal travel was near-instantaneous, it almost felt like an eternity, floating endlessly through peaceful nothingness. Like death, she imagined.

The sky was clear and the sun was descending somewhere beyond the jungle of tall buildings. Snow still blanketed the ground.
"Jessica," Christopher said. "There's something wrong."
She dusted herself off and looked around. Immediately, the scouting leader inside of her detected something was wrong.
"This isn't where we entered."
"And the sun is going down soon." Added Lawrence.
Jessica looked at her clock.
"We've got about an hour to get back to our sector. My compass is working, so it shouldn't be hard to make our way back. Let's go."

Jessica led the way, following her compass and her instinct equally. Years of navigating The Ground had left her with a remarkable ability to find the right direction every time. So when she saw a familiar pattern in the blocks they started passing by, she steered the group towards it.

"Those must be our footsteps from this morning, look." Lawrence pointed.
In a few short moments, they arrived at their original portal site.
"This has got to be at least 50 meters from our second portal!" Exclaimed Thomas. "But the one we made in The Nether was nearly in the same spot when we rebuilt it!"
Jessica looked at her clock.
"We should discuss this when we get back home. We've still got a ways to go, and the sun will be down soon." "Agreed."

When they arrived at their sector, the sky had already gone dark. Elizabeth greeted them and asked why their trip had been so short. They explained about the hellish nature of The Nether, and how Isaac got separated and eventually didn't show up.

"That's horrible." She lamented. "Any good news?"
"Well," Said Thomas. "In The Nether, when we rebuilt our portal in nearly the exact same spot, we appeared in a spot nearly 50 meters away from our original portal here."
"So if you travel a short distance in The Nether, then you travel a long distance here?"
"That's what we think, Ma'am."
"Well, this could change everything. But we first need to know the extent of this. We'll investigate the distance tomorrow. The Nether may be inhospitable, but it may lead us somewhere worth living."

A funeral service was held for Isaac the very next day. Burials were unnecessary, as there were never bodies to bury, but memorials were built of two cobblestone blocks with a single torch on the top. They were shining testaments to people who died prematurely due to an unnatural cause, and also served as beacons that lit the way for the occasional lost traveler, or survivor of The Fall. Quite literally, the dead lit the path for the living. Isaac's memorial was built near the (now frozen) pond that saved his life. Those who didn't know him personally came anyway, for tales of the best monster fighter were well spread throughout the sector.

It was a solemn day for the people of that sector. But there was work to be done. Elizabeth ordered Jessica's scouting group to find out exactly how much distance was between the two existing portals. After some careful measurement, and a great deal of estimation, they deduced that distance covered in the Nether was multiplied by eight in the real world. Elizabeth called a gathering that night. Everyone that could attend would come.

The citizens of that sector packed into the lounge. Farmers, miners, and builders alike were gathered together to hear what the leader of the ground had to say. Elizabeth glanced around at each one of them. Little did she know that she would repeat the following speech in every sector of The Ground.

She began:

"Life. The lives that each of us have known have never been good to us. Even within the safe confines of the city, our lives were restricted. Monotonous. We were all doomed to waste away doing the same jobs, seeing the same people and not being able to fulfill our innate desire to grow and prosper as individuals. And although The Ground has offered freedom, if only a taste of it, we cannot afford to live this lifestyle much longer. Others before us have been driven insane by this clutter. Sane people that we considered our friends, turned mad by the incessant disorder of the wasteland around us.

" The earth beneath our feet is well worn out and sucked dry of nutrients. Our crops struggle to grow, and yield only the minimum amount of bread to sustain our population. The monsters that come out each night have been taking the lives of our people for years, and is only worse in our current living area. If this pattern is to continue, life for us is only going to get worse. Our future is bleak.

"But there's a solution. There's a way out. Many, if not all of you have heard about the recent discovery of the new dimension. The Nether. It allows us to travel further than any conventional transportation could ever take us before. Traveling through it is dangerous and hazardous, but it's necessary. Not ev

eryone may survive. And that's why I'm giving you a choice. You can stay here and continue this lifestyle you've grown accustomed to. But if you want to help us in a search for new land, you will have all of your belongings and provisions gathered by noon tomorrow. We will be traveling through the portal then. Make your choice."

Portal travel would be done sector by sector, group by group, starting with Thomas' sector. The first to go was Group A: Thomas, Lawrence, Jessica, Christopher, Ivan, and Jackson, and ten others made up the party. This made 16 people in all, and they were the strongest. They were to carve out a relatively safe pathway through The Nether for the other groups to follow in.

Elizabeth greeted them at the door before they left. She handed Thomas a bag.
"This is the obsidian from your old portal. You'll need it to build the new one at the end of your journey. Remember, as you travel, make the pathway as safe and as obvious as you can for the next group. They'll make it safer for the following group, and so on."
"The builders in our group have plenty of stone, ma'am." Replied Thomas.
"Alright, thanks Thomas. Travel as far as you think necessary to get well out of range of Notch City, then build the new portal. I'll be with the last group of The Ground to arrive."
Thomas shrugged. "If we survive. Take care. I'll see you on the other side."

And with that, the first group to brave the journey through The Nether left. The air was frigid, and the snow had frozen into an icy crust. As she took the first few steps toward the portal, Jessica looked back at the mismatching blocky building that had sheltered them for so long. They would certainly never see it again, for better or for worse. It was almost sad.

"Let's get moving, Jessica." Thomas said. Grim determination defined his expression. "No time to mourn our old lifestyle."
"Right."

There was no hesitation this time. As soon as the portal came into view, Thomas stepped forward and climbed into the obsidian frame wordlessly. The ten men and women that they were traveling with had never seen a portal, and the ominous noise it emitted froze them in their tracks. There wasn't time for this. Jessica grabbed hands with the nearest person, and told him to do the same with the rest. When they had finally formed a chain of hands, Jessica walked right in front of the portal.
"Whatever you do," she said to all of them, "don't let go of the person in front of you."
Then she calmly walked into the portal.

Immeasurable time passed, and everyone got spit out the same way they went in: hand in hand. They lied on the floor of the small shelter of bloodstone surrounding the portal. Thomas had already prepared for the surge of nausea, and passed around a bucket for people to empty their stomachs into. Sweat beaded on their foreheads as they gained their bearings and stood up. Thomas took the lead, and they began their travels.

The group ran as fast as they could across the bridge over the lava lake below, and into the nearest cave. There wasn't any ghast activity so far, so they were safe while they placed a sign at the mouth of the cave indicating where the next group should go. They followed through the contours of the cave, placing torches here and there. Flickers of movement were cast as shadows in the darkness as they traveled through.

They traveled and traveled, keeping track of their general direction. The cave seemed endless. Various grunts and primal noises would echo throughout the cave walls, with no seeming origin. It was a full hour before they reached a dead end. Christopher stepped forward and mined a block out of the wall in front of them. He turned his head and listened.
"I hear Ghast moans on the other side. There must be a clearing beyond this wall."
"Then by all means, mine through it. I don't think I can stand much more of this bloody cave."

He swung his pickaxe and took another block out. Light flooded through the opening as lava immediately poured through. Christopher had only seconds to scream before his whole body was enveloped by the molten rock. As the group jumped back from the reach of the lava, a deafening explosion sounded right above their heads. The roof of the cave was gone, and the tortured faces of several ghasts came into view. It seemed the lava activity had alerted them to their presence.
"Get back into the cave!" Thomas shouted.
As the team turned around to run back into the cave, another explosion sounded ahead and lava poured down in the way, blocking their path. They were trapped in a trench, lava approaching on both sides, and a group of ghasts right above. One opened its eyes and expelled another fireball that flew directly at them. It didn't hit.

A figure leaped over their trench, right in front of the fireball, and hit away the projectile with a flash of gold. The fireball flew back in an arch and exploded upon contact with the ghast that expelled it. The remaining ghasts were at once taken down by a flurry of arrows that seemed to come from every direction. All the meanwhile, the group climbed out of the trench. They sat on a clearing of bloodstone while the ghasts where finished off.

The figures that saved them approached, and it was immediately clear that these were not human. The pigmen came closer and eyed them with curiosity, and in their midst, battle-scarred and shirt-torn, was Isaac.

The fifteen of them stared in disbelief.
"Isaac?" Thomas asked. "Is that you?"
For a moment, Isaac looked confused, as if the sight of other humans was impossible. He then shook his head and urgently spoke.
"Follow me."

He led them quickly across the open area, with the pigmen trotting at his side. They reached a small square cave entrance in the bloodstone wall. The pigmen entered first, then Isaac, then the group. Upon entry, they found that this cave had been expertly carved out. Rather than the chaos of regular caverns, this one more resembled the inside of an orderly building. Although lit only by fiery bloodstone, big square hallways stretched into the distance, dotted with rooms with pigmen in them. Some sat around fires, their weapons on the ground. Others were hammering crude swords into shape. All of them stared as the team of Group A walked by.

Isaac turned and walked into a medium sized room. It was empty, aside from a single fire in the center, and a two-block compartment in the wall that held a golden pickaxe. Isaac walked over and deposited his sword into the compartment. He turned around.
"Please, sit down."
Although there was plenty of heat, they all sat around the fire. It was the only source of illumination. Sweat glistened on their foreheads as the dampness of the cave seemed to squeeze them.

Isaac sat down. All fifteen of them stared at him expectantly. He looked at each of them, relief plain on his face that so many of them were well and uninjured.
"Did Christopher come with you guys?"
Thomas shook his head. "He didn't make it. Swallowed by lava trying to mine out of our cave. We'll miss him." Isaac nodded solemnly. "Same thing nearly happened to me. Why did you guys come back? You surely didn't risk the lives of sixteen people just to save me."
The group took turns telling him about their plans, the fast travel properties of The Nether, and their quest for new land.
"But let's talk about the real question. Just how in the world did you survive, Isaac?" Asked Thomas. It was the same question on everyone's mind. Isaac smiled. He began:

"When we were separated by the Ghast attack, I took shelter in a cave, as you did. However, aside from my sword, I had no tools or torches. In the blackness of the cave, I traveled forward using the wall to guide me, when I stumbled upon some strange humanoid figures. At first I thought it was you guys, but as you have well seen, they weren't.

"When they surrounded me, I thought I was going to die. We've never come across any neutral creatures like these, after all. But these creatures, they had intelligence. They seemed fascinated by my appearance. They had likely never seen a human before, at least not these pigmen, and seeing someone similar to them must've sparked their curiosity. It sure as hell sparked mine.

"Although I clearly wasn't hostile, they took me by the arms and grabbed the iron sword in my hand. They led me along their network of caves and took me through some of their crude outposts and small bases they have spread throughout The Nether. I assumed that they were taking me to the head of their little clan. But things went south, and through the course of several Ghast attacks, I ended up trapped in a cave with my pigmen escorts. Piece of the ceiling exploded from a fireball, and all but one of them burned to death from the ensuing lava flow from above. They had dropped cooked pork with their deaths, but it was all quickly consumed by the lava.

"I was at the last little bit of my health, iron sword in hand, and trapped in a cave with a creature that could've easily fed me to health if I decided to kill it. Could I murder this creature? They were so brutish and primitive, that it probably couldn't even be defined as murder. I have taken the life of so many monsters before, that this one would be easy. But would I rather live with innocent blood on my hands, or stay there waiting for death when survival was just a few feet away from me?

"The pigman had backed into a corner and stared at me. My intentions must have been plain on my face, as there was genuine fear in its eyes. The fact that this poor creature was capable of fear, and afraid of me told me that I couldn't kill it. I tossed my iron sword into the lava behind me and sat. We waited for the Ghast noises to stop. When they were finally gone, I stood up and started mining the bloodstone away with my bare hands. The pigman understood what I was doing, and started helping. It took a while, but we finally emerged, our hands bloody and battered from taking the stone apart without the help of tools.

"He led me the rest of the way to the main lair and communicated to what must've been the leader. He was so worn away, he was almost all bone. Just like humans are unique with their facial structures, pigmen can be told apart by the pattern of their missing flesh. With a series of grunts and snorts, they must've decided that I was worthy to be part of the tribe. They showed me how to craft a sword from the glowing material on the ceilings, and I showed them how to make a pickaxe with the same stuff. The tools are extremely crude without the help of the crafting bench, but the pigmen rejoiced at the pick nonetheless. Their bases became infinitely better, and I became part of them. And now that you are all here, we can help eachother."

Isaac saw how his crew reacted to his proposal. Having these monstrosities help them on their journey was one thing, but taking them through the portal along side them was unthinkable. They shifted uncomfortably when he had offered up the partnership of human and pigman moments ago, and now Thomas spoke.

"I don't know Isaac. As helpful as they could be, they're not human. They're still beasts." "They're not beasts." Isaac replied. "They're capable of intelligence, and I'm not leaving without them."

Something happened after that fateful moment with the pigman he helped save. They were brothers now. Part of the same tribe. But to the others, the pigmen were just another kind of monster. Perhaps even more frightening. Their humanoid stature was almost a mockery of the human species, and their cautious neutrality made them all the more mysterious. Too ugly to accept, too human to kill.

"They're not stupid." Isaac continued. "Ever since I came here and started speaking to them, they've been picking up the rudiments of language. I don't know why they're trapped here, but I do know that they've been in this dimension far too long. In these rigid conditions and with such little resources, evolution hasn't been fair. They haven't had a chance to develop like we have." His tone was almost sad. "We can give them the chance they need to develop intelligence. To grow and expand like every being should!"

That had struck a chord. After all, it was the whole reason why this journey was taking place, to grow and expand. To deny these pitiful creatures passage with them would be crueler than any wound inflicted by the sword. After talking it over carefully, the group agreed to letting the pigmen travel with them across the portal at the end of their journey.

The first order of business was to clear up the path for the following groups. The Ghast attack had left the pathway blocked by lava, and it was necessary to clean it up before continuing. Group A's miners were escorted by several pigmen to do the job, while Isaac went to the tribe leader. It was an arduous process, trying to communicate with the old pigman, but one thing did seem to spark his attention. Isaac got it out of Thomas' pack.

A single sapling.

Every pigman in the immediate area gathered to see it. The tribe leader's eyes sparkled with understanding at the sight of the sapling, as if the plant echoed some sort of familiarity in the pigman collective unconscious. It must have been generations ago, when that single object had meant so much to them that they could recognize it instinctively. At some unknown time in the past, their ancestors had thrived on the surface. For reasons unknown, fate had been cruel and left them stranded in this hostile land, and they were hungry to return. The tribe leader lifted his eyes from the sapling and looked steadily at Isaac. The pigmen couldn't speak, but their eyes were as clear as any language could be. Take us back to the surface, they pleaded. Take us back home.

The journey would begin the next morning. At least, the closest thing to morning possible in The Nether. Without the universal clock of day and night guiding them, all they could do was sleep until everyone was well rested. The pigmen themselves only slept in shifts. Isaac found it extremely disorienting to live without the periodic order of the sun and moon.

Earlier, when Group A's miners cleared up the lava blocking the path for Group B, the were surprised to find Group B already there. Sitting around were 10 of them, eyes wide with fear at the world around them. They had been arguing about whether they should head back to the portal or keep going forward. "Your trail ended right there!" they had said once they were in the safety of the pigmen's caves. "We thought your entire group was swallowed by lava!"

The groups were merged now, making 26 of them bound for the dangerous first journey. The miners expanded Isaac's alcove, making it big for all of them to sleep in. The two groups exchanged information about their journey well until everyone was about ready to die of exhaustion. Thomas stood and spoke.

"Alright, we've all gotten warm and acquainted. Everyone sleep as much as you can," He wiped the sweat off his forehead. "We resume our journey tomorrow, and with luck, end it tomorrow. I don't want to spend another bloody moment in this hell."

They awoke to a breakfast of stale bread, which did little to cure some of the more injured people. They wouldn't risk eating their cooked pork while near the pigmen. Luckily, Isaac went to the leader, and managed to get enough mushrooms to feed everyone twice. The pigmen had vast amounts of them collected, and gladly gave Isaac more than he needed.

Isaac smiled. With the mushroom soup in their systems, everyone was energetic and eager to begin the journey. Two groups and an entire pigman tribe would be going, and the added muscle was a welcome addition. Instead of the fearful dread they had felt before, a new sense of anticipation was over them. They would be the first ones to brave the journey across The Nether, and cross the threshold to new land. They all knew very well that many of them would die. But even if every soul taking this voyage died within seconds of departure, they wouldn't care, for they gave their life for a greater cause. They placed the next stepping stone in the voyage for freedom.

Everyone was ready, and all the necessary provisions were packed.
"Alright everyone," said Jessica, at the head of the group. "Let's go."
Thomas drew a pickaxe. "About bloody time."

They started their travels with vigor in their hearts. The pigmen proved to be a vital element of the journey. If the humans had any pent up fear or resentment toward them, their travels together extinguished it completely. Together, they dug right through giant bloodstone formations and built bridges across the largest canyons. They fought away ghasts, side by side, until the danger had passed and the group could continue.

Their journey wasn't easy; very far from it in fact. But every ghast attack, every person lost, and every pigman who died trying to deflect a fireball; it only served to make them more motivated. To make them push forward with more strength. For with every hit they took, they hit back harder. For every person lost, 10 ghasts would fall. Sheer determination provided them with the means to not only overcome any setback, but to power straight through it.

They encountered other pigmen tribes along the journey. At the sight of the sapling, some would immediately join, be it individuals or entire groups, and others would stay adamant in the safety of their shelter. They continued in this fashion for miles, traversing the hostile landscape together. Humans and pigmen, brothers in arms.

They approached a clearing, safe from ghasts. Wordlessly, as if under mutual consent, they all stopped and the portal was constructed. The iconic sucking noise filled their ears once more. It might've been frightening to the pigmen, hearing it for the first time, but to the humans it was the sweetest noise in the world. "Isaac, you do the honors." Isaac stepped in.

The sun shone brilliantly overhead, illuminating the green valley. Clear water cascaded from a waterfall which sparkled in the crisp morning air. Leaves rustled in the breeze as animals roamed freely across the stunning landscape of verdant mountains and valleys. A portal appeared on a hill, next to a single tree. It was there that Isaac awoke. Sunlight filtered through green leaves above him as he shakily stood up. Bruised and battered, he surveyed the landscape before him with awe. Tears welled up in his eyes. Long ago, he had spawned in an obsidian room in NotchCity. But it was only until now, emerging from the very depths of hell into this land of beauty, that he felt like he had truly been born.
Everyone had been amazed upon exiting the portal. Group by group, each one who witnessed the valley broke into tears when they saw the world around them. The verdant landscape was what they had dreamed of. Elizabeth was there when the last of the groups finally came through. By the time she came through, the Nether was relatively safe. They left the portal up, but they soon forgot about it as the landscape caught their attention.

The nagging hunger in their minds was finally gone, and in its place, peace. We were always meant to live in a place like this, they said. They were all so toughened from living on the blocky wastelands beneath NotchCity, that starting a new village was almost easy. The land was fertile and beautiful. Everything was easily harvested, and the locale was rich with all the resources they could ever want. Far from the portal, they settled in the valley next to a waterfall that fell into a medium body of water. It was only fitting for them to name their settlement WaterfallValley.

Isaac built his home with his own hands. It was simple, but it worked and he was satisfied. He wasn't the best builder, but that was fine with him. He spent most of his time helping others build or mine, involving himself in any minor problem the village may have had. He was well known for his deeds in The Ground as well as his involvement with WaterfallValley.

As for the pigmen, there wasn't any contention between the two species. Everyone lived together in peace, and after a while, the pigmen's horrific injuries started healing. They started learning language. It became plainly clear that they were as smart as any human, just not as educated. It was The Nether that had caused so much misfortune to such a beautiful species.

Life continued, years passed, and one day Isaac disappeared. Despawned, as they called it. Rather than a funeral, they held a celebration in remembrance of his life. From a scared newcomer to The Ground, to the celebrated monster fighter, and finally to the bridge between human and pigman. For without him, they couldn't have possibly aligned with the pigmen and endured the journey across The Nether. His life was relatively very short compared to others, but it was fulfilling.

It wasn't all good, however. His absence served as a wake up call. This would happen to every one of them, and eventually, the great village in WaterfallValley would be empty. And their minds returned to their old life. That existence that was so far away, it felt like a forgotten dream. The spawn point was in an obsidian room in NotchCity, impossibly far away. "We have to get back there," they said, "We have to find that spawn point and lead everyone back here so they can live!"

It was only months later, in a piece of forest that they had considered unexplored, that they found the old portal. Inactive and covered with vines, hidden atop a hill dense with trees. They had no choice. The air was filled with an ominous sucking noise as the portal was lit once more.

~~~~~
THE END