Hey guys!
This is chapter two; it came so early because I already had it done, so there will be some delay now. I am glad to say that this chapter is where the plot really becomes apparent in the story. We also have the privilege of bearing witness to Alex's first action scene! I hope you guys enjoy; make sure that you R+R because it really helps me improve my writing!
Anyway, here's some R+R replies from Chapter 1:
Mellifluousness: Thank you so much! Coming from you, well, your writing is outstanding and it means a lot to me that you enjoyed the story so much. And yes, I will most definitely keep on writing.
Kyanite Archer: Thanks for your review. I'm glad you were gripped by the intro, and I know it kind of lagged in the prologue; that's something I need to work on. And as for the blood-cut part, I'm afraid if you don't like violence, you won't like this story. Alas, there are many fights to be picked when you are battling for the world!
Let the story commence!
Chapter 2:
No Man's Land
My dreams are littered with images of glowstone and swords. Eventually, the glowstone fades away, where a diamond sword sits blankly in the blank world of my dream, where the crest of the Imperial Plains forms behind it. The crest is the image of a tall skyscraper with the sun forming on the horizon just below it. With the sword branded on top of this image, I realize this is the symbol of the Royal Guard. I remember seeing it when I was twelve and our class was studying the different jobs of the city.
But my dream morphs back into the sole Imperial Plains crest. But it looks different now. The horizon of a blue and red sky in the distance has turned into a dark night sky with millions of stars and no moon in sight. And the skyscraper in the crest is damaged, as if it has been destroyed by a mass TNT cannon. And I can vaguely smell burning… burning? I was waking up to burning?
My eyes snapped open just as the door to my new dormitory came crashing down. At the frame was Jack Obsidian, where he was brandishing his own stone sword. "Hurry and get up! The city's under attack!" he cried, then headed back out, presumably to kick down Monica Emerald's door, too.
I was still groggy, but I jumped to my feet and picked up my stone sword and sprinted out the door to the staircase. In all the history books we had read at school, I don't think the Imperial Plains had ever been attacked before. Whatever was happening, this was not good.
On my way to the staircase, I stopped at the window. It was hell out there. In the distance, the fortifications around the city were either in rubble or on fire, so the Fortifiers I presumed all dead. The houses on the outskirts of the city were in the same shape, and about midway down the main streets was a large mass of civilians and Royal Guardsmen packed together in battle. And they were fighting monsters! I could see zombies and skeletons and spiders and Creepers, all attacking my city.
I shook my head. I couldn't stand here admiring the battle. It was my job now to go down and fight. I thundered down the stairs, and once I reached the bottom, Jack and Monica caught up with me. We sprinted out of the lobby area into the cold night, where in the distance a mass battle was taking place.
"This definitely isn't a drill. What a great first day on the job," complained Monica as we made our way down Wooden Plank Parkway. I found myself running faster than I normally do… oh, crap! It was because I had left my backpack in the dormitory. So I had to carry everything I found in pockets. Absolutely marvelous.
Our trio eventually made it to the swarm of civilians. They were getting pinned down. The monsters seemed to be using an actual strategy, with the zombies and spiders in the frontlines while the skeletons stayed behind sniping the townspeople. Every couple seconds a creeper would run up from behind the skeletons and knock a bunch of unsuspecting civilians to the ground where the other monsters would eat them alive or just kill them instantly from the force of the explosion.
I brandished the sword in my two hands and took one of the front lines next to the ordinary townspeople. Even if we continued to put up this good effort, the monsters were still pushing us back toward the center of the city. We had no communication with the forces on different streets, and we were getting pinned back.
I took my sword and wielded it on every monster that dared to step forward. I swung it and sliced off a zombie's head, then jabbed it with incredible force into a spider's backside. I lifted my sword where the spider still hung impaled the end and beat a skeleton with the spider like I was swinging a club. I swung the sword hard at an incoming Creeper, and the spider flew off the sword landing dead a couple meters over. The Creeper charged again, and though I struck it, that wasn't enough to keep it at bay. It blew a hole in the street and I was launched backward where I slammed into a wall.
I stood up dazed and saw Monica sniping zombies with a bow and Jack hacking away at spiders. Then a Creeper came from behind Jack and blew up, launching him into the bowels of the mass group of monsters. It was safe to assume that he was torn apart.
I regrouped with Monica and began trying to keep the monsters at bay, but to no avail. She provided me with cover fire and I kept swinging until an arrow from a skeleton appeared out of nowhere and sunk into my arm. I yelled with pain and stumbled backward. Monica threw me a pork chop since I didn't have my food with me. But as she was turning to face me, spider jumped up and latched on to her, scratching and sinking its teeth into any exposed flesh. Two zombies ran forward toward her as well, and I gritted my teeth and yanked the arrow out of my shoulder's flesh wound and hurled it at one the zombies. Not the best attack, but it was all could manage while I was eating my pork chop.
Monica's form sunk to the ground, and the horde of monsters advanced even closer to me and the four townspeople still left standing. A Creeper ran forward and blew two of them to bits, sending me and the other two civilians flying backward. I sat up and realized we were in the round-a-bout surrounding the town square. I could make out the Royal Guardsmen's building and the governor's mansion, both of which looked eerily vacant. I got to my feet as the other two townspeople were torn apart by the monsters. I noticed that Cobblestone Convoy and Dispenser Drive were both spilling out monsters by the dozen like Wooden Plank Parkway. I hurried into the town square, where fifteen people were assembled in a pack to drive off the monsters from all sides in a last effort stand.
I hurried in and noticed that the majority of them were wearing Royal Guardsmen uniforms. "Who are you and what's your job?" asked one of husky men standing near the edge facing my now-vacant street.
"I'm Alex Glowstone, fourteen years old and just admitted into the Royal Guardsmen yesterday," I answered frantically, still trying to grasp that I was the only new member of the Guardsmen that was still alive.
"You are Alex? Go, now, to the top of the Guardsmen building! Everyone! Glowstone is secure! Fall back!" the man yelled, leaving Alex apprehensive as to what was going on.
"Go now, and don't turn back! You're the one they want, you are the herald of the prophecy!" the man commanded, shoving me along. I went up into the skyscraper that I now recognized as the one on the Imperial Plains crest. Before I went to the roof, though, I made a stop in my dormitory to collect my backpack. When I reached it though, it was empty. Someone had raided it in hopes that they could use my supplies to help them survive. But, I told myself, there was nothing I could do about that now, so I swung the bag over my shoulder and hurried up the eighteen flights of stairs to the twentieth floor roof.
I could see the entire city from here. The smells of burning filled my nostrils, and I stood to watch as the horde of zombies overpowered the last survivors guarding the door to the Royal Guardsmen building. Seven people came tumbling out of the staircase's entrance, and they all came running toward me. Two of them were badly injured, and as they slumped down I glanced at the stairway's entrance, expecting more survivors.
"Where is everyone else?" I questioned to no one in particular. But the large man from the town square answered the question. "There were three that were taken down at the front doors, and five more are guarding the staircase at the tenth floor. We're here to guard you," he growled, then resumed bandaging one of the injured woman's leg wound.
"Why are you guarding me? Why am I special? Why are the monsters all attacking with strategies to overcome the whole city?" I interrogated.
The man looked up at me with pity and said, "Kid, just keep your head down while we find you a way out of here. We'll give you answers in time." I took my stone sword into my hands and waited for the monsters to come pouring out onto the rooftop.
"How many Ender Pearls do we have?" the man yelled. There were three people that all yelled that they had one each, and the head man collected all three. "Take this," he said to me and a girl who was his age, probably around twenty. "When we give you the go, chuck the Pearl to that rations building way out there," he said, pointing to a vacant building behind the enemy lines way far out on Cobblestone Convoy.
He kept one of them for himself. Then the monsters came pouring through the door. In a last effort, the survivors hacked and slashed to keep the horde at bay. I sliced a zombie's chest and beheaded a spider, and after that final hit my sword split in two. Useless as it was now, I threw it at a skeleton that was taking aim at one of the people. "Throw the Pearls now!" said one of the survivors, and the three of us hurled the crystal balls to the vacant building.
When it touched the ground, I felt my inside squirming like a tight band was pressed around my chest. I couldn't breathe, and I panicked unmoving.
Then, my feet hit solid ground again. I crumpled down to the street. I could see the rations center in front of me. I turned around and looked off in the distance to the Royal Guardsmen's building. Suddenly, there was an explosion and the side of the building around the tenth floor blew apart. It looked exactly like it had in my dream now, with the dark night sky looming behind it like a black grip tightening around the destroyed city.
Then, the skyscraper leaned over on its side. I could see figures falling off the roof as they lost their balance; survivors and monsters alike. Then, where the building had the hole in it, it snapped in two and the entire building crashed down to my left.
There was a deafening crack and a following explosion as the building blew apart. Dust kicked up everywhere, and the world's black sky was no longer visible through the thick dust. I imagined all the people that had been killed. And for all that I knew there were only three survivors.
That reminded me of the leader and the woman. I looked back to the vacant building beside me. The man was sprawled on his back, slowly getting back up next to the empty door frame. The woman was climbing down the side of the building from the roof. I slowly rose to my feet, taking in the fact that my chest was weakened from the teleportation. I limped inside the building. The woman helped the man inside as well, and then placed a couple of stone blocks to seal the entrance.
As she gave the man steak to eat and replenish his health, I stroked my leg, which was also aching from the teleportation. I didn't have anything with me. No tools, no food, no supplies in general were stored in my backpack.
"So," I said, and then couldn't think of what else to say. Wait, yes I could! "What in the world is going on?"
The man sat up. "First of all, I'd like to properly introduce ourselves. My name is Frank Spruce, and this is Natalie Redstone. We know who you are already, though. Alex Glowstone, we are sorry you hadn't heard the Prophecy of Minecraftia yet, but even it proclaims that you could not know until the attack had started," Frank replied.
"Well that still doesn't explain to me what happened!" I protested, frustrated by lack of cooperation. "I'm having a peaceful dream and the next thing I know I'm being woken up and told that my whole world is on fire! What the hell happened?!" I spat out, as if it was all their fault. I needed someone to blame, though, so don't turn on me.
"We would have told you Alex, but we ran out of time. I suppose it is time to tell you what is meant to happen," Natalie soothed softly. I stared into her dark grey eyes, which were so sympathizing.
"Okay, fine. But I want answers, this whole city is dead," I spat. I cracked my knuckles, and glanced back at the remains of the Royal Guardsmen's towers.
"Two months ago, a mysterious force wiped out a small town. It was a humanoid figure, all black with purple eyes. It took the whole town and all the civilians turned into figures that looked much like it. This has been continuing since then, and one of our Oracles…. That is, someone who makes prophecies about certain life-changing events for a living, a special government position not available to the public…. Anyway, one of ours made a prophecy on these beings, which Notch above dubbed Endermen, a long time ago foreseeing this day. The Prophecy of Minecraftia states that an individual from a major city would be given his last name and job, and the next day the city would be raided by an army of mobs under the Endermen's control. The child's last name would be Glowstone," Frank explained, beckoning to me at that last word. "We tried to make preparations to try and hold off the army, but it obviously wasn't enough."
"Well, what is the full prophecy? If I am to affect this somehow, I need to know what my destiny is," I interrogated.
"Ah, but Alex, you must know that the subject of a prophecy must learn its full contents by their own means. And unfortunately, the Raid of the Endermen's prophecy is no exception," Natalie told me. I knew that, I just wanted answers.
"Well, fine then. But what are we going to do now? The center of the town is where all the emergency supplies are, and we aren't really in any shape to head back there, are we?" I questioned.
"Our only option at this point is to head out of the city. I guess we should make our goodbyes," Frank answered gruffly.
I looked from one to another. "So that's it? We're just leaving? What the hell have I gotten myself into, picking glowstone in the Naming Ceremony," I said, still in disbelief about my current situation.
I stood up. I still had no supplies, so I was pretty much doomed. Natalie and Frank were both still mending their swords, so I walked out of the vacant building.
In the distance, I could still see the town square. The dust from the explosions before had settled, and I could see all of the mobs camping out in the ruins of the Royal Guardsmen's building. What was this, I still didn't understand my drastic change of events.
After Natalie and Frank were both fixed up, we set out on the road out of my home, leaving my old home behind.
At the city limits, I looked back at what was left of the fortifications. At every street, the gates were blasted apart and there were bloodstains from the dying Fortifiers. So many people lost. I imagined all of the fourteen year olds who had been selected to work in defense of the city and were torn apart on their first night.
We set out across a dirt road that had clearly been used recently. It was all a no man's land now, no cities that our group knew of in the whole of the world. At least I could see the break of the sunrise on the horizon; I wouldn't have to fight any monsters for another whole day.
Our group ventured off of the path, Frank claiming that 'it was too dangerous to be on a mobs' transportation route'. Through a large grassland, with nothing but tall grass and the occasional chicken.
At last, at about ten in the morning, we reached the end of the grassland biome and into a forest. "Thank Notch for wood," Natalie said, taking out a stone axe and chopping down a birch tree. Frank took his out too, and began chopping away at some other wooden blocks.
I looked down at my bare hands, feeling pitiful for myself. I guess that this was how the first settlers of Minecraftia got their wood; they punched trees.
I felt stupid slamming my fists into a large oak, but eventually the block two up from the grass popped away, where a small version of it hovered above the log. I reached out and grabbed it, and it flew into my now-not-empty backpack. Congratulations, self. You're harvesting wood like a tool. And not the good kind.
Eventually the entire tree was down, and the remaining leaf blocks floated in the air, starting to decay. I almost felt bad for the tree; it really wouldn't have had to be cut down if it weren't for these… Endermen, Frank called them? I had never read about them at our schools.
I continued punching wood until I had eighteen blocks of birch wood. There were five saplings on the ground and one apple, so I planted the saplings and ate the apple. I met back up with Natalie, who had crafted a workbench and was assembling something on it. I opened my backpack. There was a small 2X2 grid on the outside of the backpack for me to assemble basic crafting recipes without having to craft a workbench. I took one of my blocks of birch wood and put it on one of the squares in the grid. There was an arrow next to the grid pointing to a larger square, which now filled itself with an image of a wooden plank with a white number 4 written in its top right corner. I took the wooden planks, and placed each one in a different block in the grid. This time in the block next to it, there was a crafting table. I grabbed my own workbench and placed it on the ground in front of me.
Frank walked back over with his backpack. He made a crafting table and placed it down next to mine. I assemble some logs I had made into wooden planks into sticks, and then made myself a wooden pickaxe. I punched my workbench to death, and then looked back at my two companions. "So," I started, as Natalie packed away her workbench and Frank finished making a chest, "Should we settle here for now? Or should we see if we can find a more secure location?"
"I think that it will be no use leaving here. Then we would have to walk through the entire forest. Let's make a quick house here and make a simple stone mine so we can make more stone tools," suggested Frank. I nodded in agreement and dug up an 8X8 area in the flat plain out of the dirt next to the forest. Natalie filled it up with wood, and we created walls on the outer blocks four meters high, leaving two block high hole in the front of the house. Frank replaced his bench on the far left corner inside the house, and Natalie placed hers one over. I took the hint and placed it one more over, leaving a hole for my bed right next to the wall.
I suggested that I start the stone mine while Natalie and Frank went off to find nine sheep for beds in the forest. Not to be gossipy, but the way they talked when I wasn't around gave me the idea that they had been dating before the attacks on the city.
I punched the dirt next to the house in a staircase pattern down two blocks wide. Once I had struck stone, I whipped out my wooden pickaxe and mined stone down. When I was about ten stairs down, the block for the next stair wasn't stone like all the others; it was coal! I recognized its black specks, and mined out a little 5X4 room out of the stone at the bottom stair.
Once I had a little room, I mined the coal. I didn't realize how dark it was until I was crafting the coal and sticks into torches on the outside of my backpack. I lit the room up with four torches, and I was left with sixteen. I also had three pieces of coal that I hadn't used for torches, which would be useful for smelting something. I climbed back up my makeshift staircase, placing a torch halfway back up, and out into the fading sunlight. There, I placed two torches on either side of the door frame and two on the backside of the house. Then, I went back to my crafting table and built myself a door. I placed the door from the outside, and then used my remaining planks to make a roof. It was rather dark inside, so I put up four torches inside. Then I waited for Frank and Natalie to get back.
At last, they got back with more than enough wool. Natalie crafted three beds and gave one to each of us. I put mine down on the right corner of the wall and plopped down. Through the window, I could see the sun setting over the trees. I got up from my bed and crafted a furnace, which I put at the foot of my bed. Then I put the remaining coal inside and slumped back into my bed.
I had never slept in the same room as a girl in my living memory. I was never interested in the concept of romance, so it felt really awkward in here right now. I laughed at myself for thinking like that, and then shut my eyes. My last moments awake were filled with the distant calls of zombies and the clank of skeleton bones. My whole world had fallen apart in one day. Had that ever happened to anyone else before?
And the worst part was I didn't know the cause of the raid. I needed to know.
Wow! I hope you guys liked it, Alex finally makes his realization of what is going on, but as we can see he wants more info on his mysterious destiny.
Also, you guys have the privilege of competing in an OC contest, as I think it will be cool to do that. More info is on my profile page. Well, I should have the next chapter done soon, so make sure you check back soon!