PART ONE - PARADISE AND PURGATORY
One – Midnight Fears
Axle
"No!" I sat bolt upright in the hard, makeshift bed. I was covered in a mixture of sweat and tears. I blinked several times then wiped my face with my filthy shirt. Taking several deep breaths, I glanced around the tiny campsite we had made. By the dim light of the embers from the campfire we had built, I could see Doomesdaye and Jay sleeping soundly off to one side. I noticed Wingnuts was awake however, staring at me with a concerned look on his face. I looked away, ashamed.
"You okay Axle?"
"Yeah, yeah. Sure," I replied, trying to convince myself as much as him. I looked up. The moon wasn't visible for the dark clouds that covered the night sky, but it was still probably an hour or two until dawn.
Wingnuts wasn't fooled. I had clearly woken him up with my helpless cries of "No!" "Bad dream?" he inquired in a friendly tone. "You know they're not real."
I shook my head. "No. It's real. I keep seeing... Him. And..." I sniffed loudly. "...and Moohicky."
"Ah."
For a few seconds, Wingnuts was silent in the near-pitch darkness. Then he said, "We will find her Axle. I promise. We all know how much you love her, and besides. She's one of the Grounded team."
I shook my head again. "No, it's useless. She's gone, I know it. He's taken her and killed her..." I broke down into quiet sobbing.
Wingnuts seemed a little taken aback at my refusal to believe she was alive, but he caught on quickly. I had to prepare myself for the worst... If we ever found her and she was dead (Notch help me...) it wouldn't be so painful for me at the time.
"Axle. She's alive, I know it. If Herobrine had simply wanted her dead, he would've slain her and the rest of us the moment he took us by surprise."
It made logical sense. Herobrine wasn't irrational. But... I couldn't believe it... She had to be dead...
I stared up at the clouds again. I felt like dying myself. Four days we had been walking through the forest. Four long, lonely, frustrating days during which I had simply felt like nothing. Like there was a piece of my heart missing, and I would never have it again. I had barely said a word to the other three, preferring to keep my pain to myself. We weren't entirely out of trouble, and I couldn't let my friends be brought down by my solemn mood.
"I... I don't know Wing," I said at last. "It's just that I keep remembering that battle, every time I close my eyes. It scares the crap out of me!" I shivered, trying not to remember the way I had felt when Herobrine looked directly at me. Like I couldn't move, like I was a chess pawn someone was controlling, waiting to be used as a sacrifice in some greater game of fate. It was total, complete fear. And fear, well... It scared me.
"... He could come back at any time and finish us off," I added.
Wingnuts sighed. "There must be a reason he took Moohicky," he said firmly but comfortingly. "And if he needed her so badly, he wouldn't have killed her."
I just sniffed and wiped my eyes. "She's lost Wing... I'm never gonna see her again... I can't survive without her..."
By this time Wingnuts must have gotten annoyed with my constant refusal to believe anything he said, and he shut up. Then he turned around and rummaged in his backpack. I looked over his shoulder and tried to see what he was doing. "Wing?" I asked, trying not to let my voice crack into more sobbing, "What... What're you looking for?"
He didn't reply but pulled a dark blue jersey out of the bag. Standing up, he walked around the campfire remains and handed me the jersey. Then he sat down on the grass and leaf-litter before me, a significant expression on his face.
I gingerly felt the jersey. It was my favourite and only one in Minecraftia. It had also been Moohicky's favourite. Whenever I wasn't wearing it, she was. I was astonished that Wingnuts had it. "You... but how... I thought the monsters burnt down the whole settlement! Where did you find that?"
Wingnuts winked. "It was lying on the ground before we escaped. I think a monster must have picked it up as they set fire to the buildings, then dropped it outside the settlement."
I was speechless. Moohicky had been the last person to wear this jersey, which meant... I subtly pulled the jersey up to my nose and breathed deep. The smell of Moohicky filled my lungs, and I felt a little better. I looked back at Wingnuts, who was trying to grin and grimace at the same time. "Creepy," he chuckled. I smiled weakly. I had always liked Moohicky's scent, no matter what anyone said...
"Thanks Wing," I said quietly. I looked at the sky once more, then said, "We should get some more sleep. It'll be dawn soon."
Wingnuts smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "Yeah, good idea Axle." He looked me in the eye then, and said, "We will find Moohicky. No matter what it takes." Then he turned and walked back over to his bed on the other side of the camp. I watched him lie down with his back to me.
"What'd we do without you Wing," I muttered to myself, before lying back down on my own bed with my back to the embers. I rolled the jersey up and hugged it tightly. At least I now had something of Moohicky's to remind me of her. I smiled weakly, but didn't shut my eyes.
I stared ahead at the short wall we had built around our tiny campsite. It was only wood, but it was the best we could do given the pitiful amount of resources we had escaped with.
I focused on a large beetle that was trying to bore a hole in the wooden fortification, and thought back to that night of terror. Had it really only been four days ago? It felt like a month we had been wandering aimlessly... However long it was, I couldn't forget what had happened. Herobrine's chilling laugh, the monsters all watching us without moving, Moohicky lying unconscious on the ground... I blinked back hot tears and forced my memory to continue the playback.
After Herobrine had disappeared, the monsters that surrounded us had been free to attack again. We had fought bravely, but we had barely escaped with our lives. Our weapons and armour had been all but shattered and worn down and smashed into useless fragments. We wouldn't have survived at all if one of Doomesdaye's TNT traps hadn't exposed a small cave opening. It had seemed clear and we had jumped in to it, the hordes pouring into the entrance behind us. Not bothering to place any torches, we ran through the darkness hoping desperately for a way back to the surface.
We were lucky. Wingnuts, Jay, Doomesdaye and myself all made it out, battered and broken but alive. Doomesdaye set off his last trap just inside the cave as we left, and the exit caved in, giving us a few minutes of a head start. And then we continued to run. We ran until we had found a mountain range and we had climbed over it, and on the other side was the forest we were now in. But we had nothing to call ourselves. We had all knocked some trees down to make the fort we were protected by, but other than the wood, we had nothing save a few almost useless pieces of armour and an iron pickaxe, some torches, and a little food. We were basically back where we started in Minecraftia.
I sighed. After Herobrine had taken Moohicky, Wingnuts and Doomesdaye had to literally pick me up and drag me away from the spot. I had been unable to move from sobbing. I felt bad for it now. I had jeopardized the lives of my friends by sitting and doing nothing. I was a bad person for the Grounded team...
I blinked and tried to stop thinking of the battle, and how idiotic I was. Then I heard Wingnuts' voice again.
"Oh Axle, one more thing. If Moohicky is still alive, she wouldn't want you to mourn her, would she? She'd want you to find wherever the hell she's been taken and rescue her!"
I wiped my eyes and smiled. Wingnuts was right. Even if she was dead, she would rather I carried on with life...
I decided then and there that I would rescue Moohickyalah and kill Herobrine, no matter what it took. And with that thought in my mind and the jersey in my arms, I slowly drifted off to sleep again.
