Prologue

Hi there. My name is…well I don't really have a name. But you probably know me as Steve; we've met before. This is Minecraft. It's nothing you wouldn't recognize. Everything about this place is orderly and can be reduced piece by piece into something uniform and replicable. You see them as blocks. I couldn't imagine them any other way. Sometimes, we're the same person. It is a way for you and others like you to become a part of this world and create the way I do. We make worlds for fun and the fun of others too, if they feel like joining. Sometimes we make worlds to live in. Surviving what plays out naturally can make the things we end up creating a bit more real and worthwhile. Minecraft is a good place to share with others like us; but this time we're on our own. This is a story of us and stranger things.

I should start around the time when I met the first of their kind.

I was setting down charges of TNT in one of the caves I was working on. It was almost deep enough to find diamond, so I wasn't worried about destroying anything. I made sure the area behind me was clear so I wouldn't attract attention from any lurking mobs. I used some flint to give it a spark and hurried behind some stone, plugging my ears. The detonation busted through the stone wall with a violent explosion. I may have gone overboard with the charges. To add to that, the wall wasn't as thick as I thought and I ended up blowing completely through to the other side, leaving a gaping hole. At least I got the job done. I took out my torch and tried navigating through the rubble until I spotted something. A body was caught under the exploded rock. Shit. I frantically tried to uncover whoever was underneath, hoping they weren't dead.

It was an orange-haired girl with her clothes in tatters. Whether the clothes were like that to begin with or were a result from the explosion, I couldn't tell. I placed my ear against her chest: she was still alive. Her breaths were faint, giving fear that she might not make it if I didn't get her treated in time. I needed to get us out of the cold temperatures of the cave into some place warmer. Only then could I really treat any broken bones or internal bleeding she might've had. We were in deep below the ground and I had to carry her fragile body to the surface; if I handled her the wrong way, I could very well end up hurting her more. I needed to think of a way to bring her carefully up the winding path of the cave while fending off any hostile mobs. Panic started to settle in. I was very limited on time.

I took a deep breath, poured out all my materials from my bag, and started to think. As an adventurer, survival is something you are forced to master. I brought out my crafting table and got to work.

Soon, I had a wooden wheel-barrow stuffed with sheep wool, which was covered up by leather stretching over the top and sides. It served as a one-man gurney that was cushioned enough to handle her over the rocky path I planned to take. Wooden planks were at the ready to make a makeshift ramp up any ledge I might have had to climb. The wheel-barrow had stints on the back so it could rest upright when unattended. If we were attacked, I'd have to put her down and defend the both of us. I carefully picked up the girl, gently laying her onto the bed of the wheel-barrow. I grabbed the handles, hoisted up, and started to jog back up the path.

The journey was repeated motions of setting her down to build a ramp just good enough to support us, pushing her up, and continuing up the cave. I ran into a relatively few number of mobs on the way, not finding it as difficult as I thought to kill off the skeletons and zombies attacking us. None of them even aimed for her.

We were nearing the surface after an hour or so. My body felt exhausted speeding up the long path, but I felt I had just enough energy to make it out of the cave. We turned a corner in front of two creepers. Their heads snapped to us instantly and they began to start their slow creep towards us. In a split decision, I set down the gurney and dashed past them. They sizzled momentarily until they realized I had gotten too far from them. But what I didn't realize is that they saw the girl first.

I pulled out my bow and tried to shoot them down before they could reach her. As fast as I shot, I could only take down one. I charged in with my sword, screaming and yelling to try and get any sort of attention. But I couldn't get close enough and the creeper started to shake.

The explosion knocked me on my back. The cave wouldn't stop spinning around in my head. My ears rang and my body ached. I laid there, panting as I allowed my failure sink in. I could have saved her, I told myself. I grabbed my sword and slowly dragged myself off the ground, afraid to see what was left from the destruction. The gurney had been blown to pieces. But by a miracle, she was still there.

It sparked some hope that she was still alive. I ran over to check her vitals. Her body took some damage from the explosion, but she was breathing. I didn't have time to wonder how and gathered up the scattered materials of the wagon. I put together another crafting table, pieced together the gurney again, and carried her back on. It didn't take long after that to reach the surface.

I ate an apple on the way back. No time to sit down and eat. We finally reached a cabin I had set up nearby the cave previously. I didn't have as much material as I did back at my home, but it was enough to get her patched up. I removed the remaining tatters of her clothes and checked her body for broken bones. None. I take a closer look for any signs of internal bleeding. None. I checked her body temperature. It was pretty warm, but it didn't seem life-threatening. After all was said and done, the worst she suffered were some bad bruises and scratches. This girl was impossibly tough, I thought. I bandaged her up and fed her medicine just in case. I grabbed a blanket and draped it over her naked body. It was everything I could do for her. Her health seemed to be okay for now, which was all that mattered. All I could do now was wait for her to wake up. I brought up a chair and sat down next to her, glad to finally have a rest.

"Hello?" I heard a light voice in my head. My eyes blinked open. I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep. The girl had gotten up and was standing in front of me, the blanket wrapped around her torso. The ordeal her body went through didn't seem to be affecting her, which still surprised me even though she wasn't actually injured. After being exploded on point blank, I thought she'd at least walk with a limp or something. I asked her how she was feeling and if she remembered anything.

"Um...I feel okay." She answered, her curious eyes examining me. They were really pretty now that they were open, their color as bright as her hair. "I remember an explosion."

I nodded, apologizing about that. I told her it was me that caused it and how I didn't think there was anyone else down there so deep into the cave. I made sure to always double check after that.

Her expression turned from curious to confused. "You…did that?" I again confirmed that it was me. A look of awe dawns upon her face and she grabs me by the shirt, the blanket dropping. My eyes only catch a glimpse before she pulled me close to her face, forcing me to look her in the eye. "How?! Are you like me? You look like me... Can you teach me how?"

I had no idea what was going on. Maybe she might have gotten hit by one too many explosions. I asked her what she meant, praying that the one cute girl I found out here wasn't crazy.

"Can you teach me how to explode?"

Yup. Crazy.