No bed, no spawn point…

An open hand smeared across my face, trying in vain to wipe the sleep from my eyes. I looked at the heap of wood and dirt, sighing loudly to the empty woods. Definitely a Cyrus-style house, I thought, it's so garbage my name's practically on it. I brushed my long dark brown bangs from the side of my face and shook the cloudiness from my head. I fished around in my pocket for torches, glowstone, lights of any kind; if I was gonna have a crappy shack, I could at least have a safe crappy shack. My hand brushed a door, a crafting table, all miniaturized the way things became when you broke them down. Objects the size of a person fitting between two fingers, hundreds stuffed into my pocket. Well, maybe not hundreds. I had what I could steal from the server's chest. I continued to finger through my inventory. Iron ore…. Torches and… W- What? I pulled it out and stared at it in my palm. The wooden frame with stretched wool canvas stared back at me. I—WHY DID I BRING A PAINTING?!

My mind numbed and my eyes twitched with a powerful inward irritation. I didn't bring enough wood to build a fort, or even proper tools, definitely no wool. But I brought a freaking painting?! My hand worked on its own, clearing a two block-tall space while the other placed a door, my face still strained in disbelief. I placed the torch I found on the doorway and walked in, shaking my head. Turned out running away from your server and everyone you've ever known was actually a bad idea. Who knew?

The dirt floor felt strange under my feet, more welcoming than it had the past few days. My feet had adjusted to the most dirt and crunching leaves of the forest floor, the wood and stone floors of my server feeling like a memory. I shut the door behind me and started grabbing around in my other pocket, leaning against one of my shed's walls. For the third night in a row, I dug for a bed in my pocket. I knew it wasn't there, but my hands still prodded and stretched at every crevice, hoping to find something, anything. Even just wool crushed down in some seam would be like a miracle right now. Sleeping in a bed after so many weeks of walking and wandering sounded so soothing. So serene. My hand came upon hard with jagged corners and with a strangely shaped frame and I pulled the miniaturized object from my pocket.

It was… A dispenser.

I yanked the door open and wound up my arm, giving the dispenser a good running pitch into the darkness of the woods. A startled zombie belch echoed out from somewhere deep in the void, a signal that I'd hit something. Something that only seemed to happen when I didn't want it to.

For so long been hoping to find another single player out in the woods. It'd been so lonely after I left my server, it would be nice just to find someone to walk and talk with. But no, not tonight, I thought, grabbing the knob of my shed's door. A zombie pushed out from the shadow of a tree and another came shambling through a gap, a dispenser-shaped depression in its forehead.

"YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME, ZOMBIE? GRADE-A CHUMP RIGHT HERE," I yelled into the hazy dark, chucking the picture frame I had in my other pocket. It'd seemed I'd brought a whole stack, "COME AND GET ME!"

A lump traveled down my throat. No bed, no spawn point… I thought to myself, the words running through my head again, just as they had been for weeks. I felt a prick of fear. A fear of dying. Not that I was scared of the Void between worlds. I'd gotten used to that a long time ago. Death was a shortcut to a spawn point where I didn't want to be anymore, back to the server. If I showed my face there again, I'd be instantly mobbed, driven out… I could only imagine what would happen if I dropped into the middle of town square, screaming like an idiot. Shuddering, I tried my best to shake off the image, focusing on the mob. And focusing on my mod.

At the very least, I was far from defenseless.

"TOO BAD FOR YOU GUYS, YOU STUMBLED ONTO THE ONE LOSER IN THIS FOREST WITH A MOD!" I screamed at the shambling masses, posing my arms like claws in the air, (which I immediately took down upon realizing how stupid I looked).

The first zombie stumbled out from the tree line, the distance between us finally closed. I dove forward, my hand spinning, barreling forward. It became steel, expanding into a conical drum that spun with an industrial ferocity and heat. I hadn't had my mod for long, only a few weeks, but as I saw my hand turn to metal, then shape into a drill as it collided with the zombie's face, I finally felt my fear dissipate. My drill arm spun, seemingly pulling me through the air as I burst through the first two zombies. My feet pivoted in the grass and I turned my other hand to a drill, swinging it down like a hammer and smashing the next zombie's boxy head to pulp. Moist dirt scraped under foot as I slid to a stop, my mod serving its purpose and then some. Thank Notch I copied it before leaving the server. Air rushed from my lungs as my body relaxed, my energy seemingly gone. But then there was a sound from the darkness. Leaves crunching under heavy feet.

Two skeletons appeared from the darkness, their eyes like white caves and their skinny fingers drawn around bowstrings. I pulled up my twin drills in front of my face, the metal blockade deflecting the first few arrows. Before they could prepare more shots, I dove behind a nearby tree, taking cover. Just out of reach. Of course I didn't bring any arrows either. Instead of firing back I acted instinctively, or, in layman's terms, stupidly. I dove forward with both drills outstretched, managing to pile drive both skeletons while their arrows bounced off the curved metal. I banged the two drills together as I watched their bones turn to smoke and disappear. Finally, tonight was starting to feel good. All I had to do was ignore how easy it was to kill zombies and skeletons.

But then, eyes caught a familiar sight. Something moving in the darkness between the crossed shadows of trees. Lurching. Crawling. Its body was mostly hidden in the hazy dark of the woods, but when I saw its caved in eyes and its upside-down U-shaped mouth on the green canvas of a face, I instantly recognized it. A wave of terror pushed through me. If there was one thing that was going to send me back to the server, it would be a creeper. It hissed at me, swaying strangely as it weaved between the trees. One misstep and it would explode, taking everything within ten blocks with it. I couldn't just throw myself at it and expect to come out unscathed and I couldn't leave it prowling around to kill me in the morning. Killing it now was necessary, and I needed a plan.

"HEY!" I screamed, pointing my drill over the creeper's shoulder. The creeper turned, freeing me from its gaze. So it wasn't a great plan, sue me, "LOOK OVER THERE!"

As the creeper twisted back to me, I spun on my heel, drill pulled back near my stomach, retracting it like a piston. My hooked the creeper's abdomen, stalling for a minute before bursting forward and sending it flying. I pulled back my arm, eyes closed, smirk stretching across my face as the creeper collided with a nearby tree, a pained "OW!" knocked from its lungs. Its voice was distinctly female, as was the groan that wearily dragged from its collapsed form. I gave a satisfying pump of my arm, the forest finally clear—finally silent—for the first time in a while. I could feel safe for a moment. Able to sleep peacefully. Well, about as peacefully as you could sleep on dirt.

I stared over at the shadow of the creeper up against the tree. Waiting for it to despawn, to turn to smoke and disappear. But I just kept waiting. Does it still have more health? I wondered. Something was wrong. Something about the scream, something about the sound, something about everything about the creeper. I saw it reach up a weak, pale hand. A human hand.

"CRAP!"

Immediately, Iran towards the girl, my mind bursting with questions and devoid of answers. My hands returned to normal, their shapes along with my confidence. It was a terrible scene; blood splattered the front of the tree and the grass underneath her body, her turquoise-blue hair splayed around her face, numb and cold, lips hanging open. The creeper face I had seen was just a design painted on the front of a hood, now crumpled against the bark of the tree she lay jaggedly against. Who goes around in the forest sneaking up on people in a creeper costume?! I screamed in my mind. Even if it was her fault for sneaking on an unstable loser with a drill arm, it was still me who impaled her, and I couldn't just shrug that off. My hands trembled in the air, my mind failing once more to catch up in the time I needed it to.

Her face seemed to glow in the moonlight, the moon glinting off her lip ring and glowing off of her bright green hoodie. A hole the size of my drill bit took up a huge chunk of the right side of her abdomen, the grass beneath it clearly visible. She was the only person I'd seen for weeks. Some innocent, though very dumb, girl who went around scaring people dressed as a creeper. And I'd left a giant gaping hole in her. Things were going so… Almost well up till now! I bent downwards, mouth struggling to work with my mind. Sentences impossible to form. If she was dead however, she'd already have disappeared, despawned in a cloud of smoke, so I tried my best to speak to her. I only managed to sputter out an "Are you okay, weirdo?" Which I repeated over and over again.

She was a griefer, a player devoted to nothing but causing chaos and well… Grief for other players. Most of them destroyed creations other players worked hours on; burning down homes, demolishing towns, crushing monuments, and killing others just for the sick thrill. For a joke. Other players however, like this idiot, just liked the scare. The reactions. I hope you got what you wanted, I thought, gritting my teeth.

Before I could lower myself close enough to check her wounds or touch her body, she sat straight up. It was like her torso had an invisible spring, shooting upwards at an immediate 90° angle. I flew backwards, shrieking at the sight. For a moment I wondered if I had injured her at all, or if I'd just grazed her and she was putting on this strange show in an attempt to guilt me. But the hole in her side was perfectly hollow and oozing with red pixels. She was unfazed, her eyes half-lidded like someone who'd just gotten out of bed. Tired, curious, but perfectly content. The girl turned to me, her eyes blue as the night sky. Blood streamed from the side of her open mouth, which she stuck her tongue out of.

"P- Pranked ya..!"

I sat frozen. The fear and concern gone, my mind fuzzy as I stared at her dumb smile and jaunty bend in her spine. All that filled my mind was a genuine confusion. My brain grabbed at straws, fragments of sentences struggling to form. What's happening? What's wrong? Who are you?

"Wh- What's wrong with you?"

She beamed at me, winking with finger guns blasting, "A lotta things probably, I'm a creeper after all. We're a little nutty," Her hands fell to her sides, one landing in a puddle of blood. She patted her stained clothing with her hand, moving it up till she found the gaping hole in her body. She barely seemed to register it, "How was my delivery though? Was I good? I spooked you didn't I!"

"Of course you did, you freaking maniac!"

As I gazed at the scene in horror, the creeper girl proceeded to poke into the exit wound on her back, while also inserting a finger from the front, seemingly trying to see if she could make her fingers meet in the middle. I felt sick, clasping a hand over my mouth. Relax Cyrus. I thought to myself. At least she's okay. She may be nuts, but she's okay. We need to get her to safety, out of the forest. Get her to my shed before an actual creeper shows up. Unanswered questions screamed through my mind, but I tried to push them out, my only priority becoming getting her to a safe place. It was the least I could do for her after all.

"Hehe… You actually thought I was a creeper, didn't you?" The girl asked again, her form wavering. Her eyes were starting to flicker. She sighed sleepily. The girl had been fighting the effects of her injury like a demon before now, but now they seemed to be kicking in. The girl's body began to sway, "That's good…"

The girl fell back hard, her head knocking against the wood blocks of the tree behind her as she fell, her body falling limp once more in the grass. I stared for a moment, waiting for her to get up as silence fell around me like gravel. I poked her ankle, the limb swiveling in the grass, barely twitching at my touch. She giggled, but didn't speak.

Before I wasn't sure if she was human, but now… I didn't think she could tell either.

Sounds began to trickle out from the depths of the forest. They were quiet, distant enough to be safe, but I couldn't count on that for long. I stood up, turning away from the girl and springing back towards my shed, freezing only as the door caught in my hand. My body was stiff for a moment, but I turned and looked at the girl, laying cold in the grass. I imagined her being taken by the zombies, waking just in time to watch as a spider wrapped her in its webs, or as a skeleton took aim between her eyes. My hand clamped the door tight and I bit down on my lip.

Dying may not have mattered to her—it didn't matter to most, given you can respawn—but the thought of her being trapped, unable to fight back. I couldn't handle that. The sight of someone ganged up on by this world, bullied by its inhabitants. It was too familiar to me.

I took hold of the girl's legs and began dragging her across the dirt, her body leaving a red line in the grass like a soggy paint brush. Trying hard not to gag, I turned my face towards the shack, Just a few more blocks to go. I cleared the shadows of the just as the moss green of a zombie began to poke its head from the darkness beyond, close enough now to come into sight. It didn't scare me, but a sound from below did.

"So why didn't you hit me with a sword back there, nameless guy?"

I nearly dropped her right there. I looked over my shoulder at the supposedly-unconscious creeper girl, her head now tilted towards me as her body sloped up towards me at an unnatural angle.

"I'm not nameless, my name is Cyrus," I corrected, still pulling her through the grass. To be honest, maybe I should have left her there. If she could survive a hit like that after all, maybe she could survive a zombie attack. Although, it wasn't hard to imagine her clipping through the ground or something equally bizarre if I actually did end up setting her down, "And I call this my copy mod. Right now I'm using a drill mod I took from someone in my old server, but I can copy others and–"

"Why not use a sword though…?" She persisted, her voice trailing off sleepily. I guess her consciousness was temporary after all, "A sword probably would have killed me harder…" I sighed, resigning rather than continuing to argue with an insane person.

"Well… I'm not very good with a sword. Or most things in general… Mods help."

She nodded thoughtfully, her eyes half-lidded. I questioned if any of my words were actually being processed or if she was just nodding by reflex. I budged the shed door open with my shoulder, pulling the girl in and resting her body along the wall. I only now realized how much space the two of us took up in here. It felt like the two of us were sharing a single cubical atom of air.

"I'm San by the way…" She said breathily, her body waving like a leaf in the wind once more. I smiled, "Hi San." Though it felt like I was talking to a living dummy. Maybe it was from the accident, but her consciousness seemed to waver more with each passing moment. A realization dawned in my mind, then quickly fell as it formed, crashing against my heart, my stomach, quivering in my legs before crashing in the grass below. The realization that if she died, I'd be alone again. It was a strange thing to fear, considering I'd been wandering the woods for the better part of the last month, but nevertheless it failed to disappear, only growing as I stared at the weak smirk that faded into her lips.

I fashioned some bandages from paper and string, wrapping them around her midsection and fiercely tightening them. "Yeah, keep that in there," I muttered as I trapped the wound, "No one wants to see any more of that." My hands soon found a rhythm, the motion becoming easier the more bandages I laid down, though I would shiver at the touch of her skin. The contact was overwhelming. I didn't realize until then how nice it was to be around another human being.

"Don't you have any meat I could plug up this wound with?"

I almost choked on my spit.

"N- No." I stuttered, pinning the end of the bandage in place. The easiest and least painful way to heal of course, was food. Even if you shattered you femurs taking fall damage, or had a limb cut off by a sword, you just needed to eat some bread and you're back on your feet, your bones just naturally snapping back into place, flesh filling the empty spaces. It was almost scary how much an expert builder could do on a full stomach, most of them leaping off of structures and shattering their legs just to serve as a quick way down. So it was only fitting I'd forgot to bring on this trip along with my beds, spare wood, and survival instinct, "I just have tools and a few random blocks."

"But… You brought paper and string!" San laughed, pulling her hoodie back down over her midsection, seeing that I had finished. She placed a hand in the bloody hole I'd opened in her hoodie, treating the drill hole like it was a front pocket, "What else did you bring?"

I reached into my inventory, more willing to humor her than explain something I wouldn't get to finish talking about. My hand hooked around a flat rectangular object and I tossed it forward. The painting landed against a nearby wall, the watercolor image growing to full size on its length. San tried to contain herself but her laughter was visibly building in her round cheek, audible shards breaking out in small snorts.

"Yeah… I'm really not good at this." I said, rolling into a sitting position. A smirk defied me, creeping onto my face.

"What like, everything?" She questioned, spitting out a laugh. You're one to talk, I thought, Running out into the woods and getting stabbed by strangers.

I nodded, the smirk on my face breaking into a wide smile. "Pretty much!" I replied, my own face strained by a wide grin for the first time in nearly a month. San laughed with me, her booming voice hugging feeling like it was hugging me tightly, squeezing me, and shaking me around. It may not have been the first time in weeks that I'd smiled, but it was definitely the first time in weeks I'd felt at home. Even if it was with a suicidal idiot. Of course, stupid was something we had in common. Getting lost in the endless woods, needlessly provoking mobs, forgetting to bring beds. I was dumb and had a dumb companion, and there was something comforting in that. The forest felt strangely empty, the empty forest cradling us two idiots as we laughed. The sky coming through the small portholes on the door began to glow, turning orange as a new sun rose.

"So… How you feeling?" I asked San. It was a question I tried to ask her before, but one that she never seemed to stay awake long enough for.

"I'm okay, just… Tired." She said, scratching her head, "Starving probably. Feels like there's a big hole in my stomach."

I coughed out a laugh, but she just stared at me with her same stupid smile. Maybe she'd already forgotten about the wound. I wished I could be that scatterbrained.

"Let me take you home then. You said you had a server right?"

San nodded, smiling brightly at me and thanking me with the little consciousness she had left before beginning to drift again. "Weebtown," She whispered, "about 20 chunks east."

I wanted to let out a Really? Upon hearing the name, but she had already fallen back her vague state of unconsciousness. I took it as my cue to move, grunting as I put her arm around my shoulders and lifted from beneath her legs, heaving her onto my shoulders. My legs quivered, and I nearly dropped her, San snickering to herself all the way.

Shifting her body, I managed to get her arms around my neck as she tightened her legs around my waist. She was like a 200 pound backpack. Before long, I'd heaved her upwards and budged my way through the front door, my body heavy and the light of dawn on my face. It definitely wasn't the way I imagined I'd meet someone out in the woods between servers. Much less the way that I'd get a travelling companion. But something about it seemed right. It was just like this world of Minecraft. Strange, unnecessarily startling, and just as confusing as it was natural. Something was comforting about that. And about her.

"Weebtown…" I said aloud. A horrible name, to be sure. But it was a destination. And I hadn't had one of those in a while.

Even if I'm the one who injured her in the first place, I was glad to actually be able to help her. Maybe I'd stick in her memory. No longer the third-person-from-the-left in a crowd but a person she'd actually remembered if she actually ended up dying. Though, I'd rather prevent that. Maybe then I'd have someone rooting for me. Someone to add to my list of contacts after all of the others sent me into the woods. San pulled herself onto my back, securing herself. She pulled her arms around my neck, tightly yet somehow softly holding me. "Hi." She said with a giggle, falling back unconscious almost immediately. "Hi." I replied to the vacant air, laughing to myself. No bed, I thought, but at least I have a crazed, starving backpack.

Before long, she'd pointed me in the direction of her server and I started walking. Leaving the shack and the painting and everything in that part of the forest behind. There was a quiet anxiety that came with the beginning of a new journey, even if it was just a change in direction. A pit in my gut began to grow, threatening to pull San and I down with it. I tried to shrug the feeling off and keep going, but it only seemed to hang on my heels, spreading across my feet like frostbite and only growing with every step. But interrupting the darkness, driving off the anxiety, was San's voice. Mumbling sleepily. But not like before, it was like she was dreaming. The strange girl continued to talk in her sleep, her eyes lidded and head thumping on my shoulder as I tread through the forest's dry grass. I had given up on replying, any retorts or questions falling on deaf ears. She said something about "her," I guess someone she needed to find. Or was heading back to. I listened closer, leaning in, hoping to hear more details. Any information at all, but she fell silent again.

I released a heavy breath, training my eyes on the glowing horizon. As zombies burned away and the shadows of the forest receded under the trees, my chest began to feel lighter, the girl on my back feeling as natural as my coat and scarf. Maybe once we got to her server, she'd even explain to me what in the Nether her deal was. But that was for later.

"Here we go, I guess!" I said aloud, lifting my head, a stupidly confident grin on my face. Regardless of its connotations, I threw my head back and shouted her server's name to the sky, knowing that wherever and whatever it was, it would be better than piddling around in the dark woods. Finally, I had somewhere I wanted to be.

"Onward, to Weebtown!"