Chapter two is out! Sorry for taking a long time updating.
Disclaimer: I do not own Minecraft or the Hunger Series series!
I opened my eyes. Where am I? I wondered as I got up. The pain from last time had already gone away. I was lying on a bed. As I looked around I figured that I was on a train which was moving faster than any car on the highway. Ahead of me was a banner with the words "New York" on it. Beside the words was the logo for Minecraft. Then I remembered, I got warped into the Minecraft game. Looking around the train, I realized that the train was very nice. There were couches, tables, chairs, TVs, computers, and many more. But the question was where the heck was I?
"Your finally awake," someone behind me said. I quickly turned around and saw a boy behind me. He looked a bit older. His hair was spiky yellow. He was wearing a black suit with the words, "Minecraft Battle Games."
"Who are you? And why am I here?" I asked bluntly.
"I'm Joshua, your introducer. Before you ask anymore questions, let me tell you a bit of what I know. You are chosen as a tribute to join this year's first Minecraft Battle Game. There are a total of 26 players," the boy explained.
"How come everything isn't pixelated? Everything looks normal," I asked.
He answered, "We aren't in the Minecraft game right now. We are on Earth. Of course, that is going to change once the game begins. Everything will look like blocks, even the animals. However, the tributes will still look normal." Continuing, "The tributes will have to fight one another. During that time period, no one can log out. You guys each get three lives. Once these lives are used up, you die not only from this Minecraft world, but also from Earth."
"So I have to kill everyone else to win? And if I lose then I will die? I quit!" I said in horror.
Joshua shook his head. "I'm sorry. There's no backing up. Once chosen, you have to compete."
"But why? What if I escape? What if I die before the contests?"
"There's no way to escape. You can try if you want. And if you die, then you will basically be letting your state down. You are from New York right?" Joshua asked.
I nodded.
"Exactly. If you don't even try to win, then your letting New York down," he said. It all seem really vague to me but I decided to go along with it. I nodded again. "Well two players, a boy and a girl, are chosen from 13 states. The Capitol chooses them."
"What if we got allies and fight together? Can two people win or-"
"No," he interrupted, "You guys will eventually haveto kill each other. There will be food shortage and Mobs that are programmed to kill you."
"But I'm not good at playing Minecraft. This is my first time playing!" I said slowly. I will surely die, I thought.
"Then you will have to learn fast. There are people here who have been playing Minecraft for years. Don't worry. The people that are hosting the game will give you guys a week of practice. But it's going to be on the lite version of Minecraft so there won't be any hunger and you can't make any items. Also, there won't be any multiplayer. You won't be in the game. It will be more like an RPG game. But the real battle will be a VRMMORPG game.
"What's that?" I replied.
"What? VRMMORPG? Oh that's virtual reality massive multiplayer online role-playing game. So basically you will be in the game. Anything in the game that happens to you will be real."
"So basically you get it now don't you? All you have to do is to kill 25 players and then you will win and get to go back home. That's all for now. Your mentor will tell you more tips later," Joshua said.
"Where are we right now?" I asked.
"In your room on the train. Every tribute has their own room. This is where you will spend the next one or two days. The train is headed towards the Capitol. Now, do't get this confused with the capitol, Washington D.C. or in your case, New York City. We are heading towards a place that is unknown to almost everyone. The host of the 24th Minecraft Battle Game will choose a biome for the game. Now, hopefully it will be somewhere with lots of cattles, lots of plants, and a good place for shelter," he chuckled, "But who knows. You guys might end up in an ocean biome where you have no choice but dig while swimming. Remember that you are not invincible, you can and will at one point get hurt and might drown. Anyways, there should be a director to take us to the Main Room. In the meanwhile, let's just relax and wait for a while," Joshua said.
"Whose the other tribute that came from New York?" I asked curiously.
"Huh, you people just won't relax won't you? But about your question, I'm not sure. We will see at the Main Room," he answered.
"How do you know everything about this game? Have you been in it before?" I asked.
"Um..." he started to say.
Just then, the door opened and in walked a director.
"All set?" the director asked us.
"Yes," I replied.
"Follow me," he said as he turned to walk away. I was led to a large room. Inside there were a few people. "These are all the other tributes," Joshua said. He backed out the door. I looked around the room. The age range seemed to be 12 to 17. I looked back at the stage as the lights start to darken. The mayor in a black suit stepped on to the stage. His bright orange hair stood out.
"Greetings everyone! I'm Justin Grove. All of you guys will be competing in this year's Minecraft Battle Game!" he announced. Everyone stayed quiet, which wasn't surprising at all. "Each individual should have met with an introducer by now," he continued to inform, "Hopefully they told you most of the details of this battle. Next, I will assign tributes from the same states a mentor." Justin began to read off the tributes and their mentor. "Rhode Island, Lily and Nixon. Your mentor will be Owen…" I listened for New York. Who will be my mentor? I wondered. Hopefully it is someone who is fully experienced with this game. I want to win this and get back home, to my family. My family! What will Rick think when I didn't come back home that day? He's probably worried. And Autumn. Hopefully she saw my note, but she'll have no way to save me. Did I disappear from Earth? Or is my body still there… I shook my head. There's no time for grief! What had happened is what had happened. I got to stay focused! "New York, Sophie and Tomen. Mentor, Cameron…" The mayor continued to read of the list. "And last but not least, Maryland. Ashley and Jonah. Mentor, Nick. Now you guys may meet together.
I walked around the room to find them. Someone tapped me on my right shoulder. Quickly, I turned around, expecting to see a tribute or the mentor. No one. I turned the other way. A boy, about the same age as me grinned.
"Ha! You fell for it!" he laughed. I looked at the boy with dark, curly hair. His brown eyes stared back at me.
"So you're Tomen?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.
"What do you think? Of course I am Tomen," he replied. I smiled.
"How did you get onto this game?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I don't really know. I was playing on the computer and I fell asleep. The next day I was here on the train. I don't really like this place. But here isn't much of a choice but to compete. I wish I can escape!" he said.
"Yea, same here. I was playing Minecraft on my computer when this zombie dragged me in. And the next day I'm here," I said back, "Don't like it here either." Do they have the right to do that?To just take someone and force them to kill another? I wondered. I don't think so…so why haven't any winners from the past said anything about this? No one ever heard about this! Who gave the Capitol the control to take over our lives? The Capitol shouldn't have this right! This interferes with the eighth amendment from the Bill of Rights! I'm going to win this game! I have to. It's the only way to protect other people from the nation.
"Hey, you okay?" Tomen asked. I must have been staring blankly at the floor for too long.
"Yeah," I said.
"Do you want to be allies?" Tomen asked.
"Um..."
"Please? We all believe the same thing. We should form an alliance!"
I looked at him, unsure whether I could trust him or not. But what if he isn't trustworthy? What if he's a traitor? I thought to myself. Finally, I reached my decision. "No," I replied simply. I didn't want to form an alliance and having to kill them or watch them get killed.
"B-but" he stammered, "Then we should form a truce."
"Alright," I said after a slight hesitation, "If you don't kill me, then I won't kill you. Unless if it's the end."
"Okay. Thanks. I don't know about you, but I don't like killing people, especially people from where I came from. It just seems wrong," he whispered.
"So you're not going to kill anyone?" I asked.
He slowly nodded his head. "I will kill people, so I can get out of here as fast as I can. The faster other people die, the quicker I get to go home. But anyways, come on, let's explore this place!" He smiled again and ran ahead. After a meters, he looked back to see if I had followed. I sighed. Maybe he could be trusted. After all, all he wanted might just be an accompaniment.
"Where is our mentor?" I asked suddenly, remembering our real purpose to be here. The other groups had received their mentor and were already starting to train. We were the only ones without a mentor.
Tomen walked over to me. "Maybe we don't have one. Be right back, I'm going to ask someone." A few minutes later, he came back. "I don't know, but apparently we don't have a mentor. Cameron dissapeared somewhere."
"What?" I asked. I could not believe it. All the others have a mentor, everyone except us! Now how am I able to survive? I asked myself.
"Don't worry," Tomen said cheerfully, "I have been playing Minecraft for a long time. I'll teach you!"
"Thanks," I replied. Together we walked over to the training room. Tomen led me to a row of computers. He sat down in front of one and opened the Minecraft game. Motioning me to sit down too, I got a chair beside him.
"Alright. Here's how you play..." Tomen said as he began to teach me. I watched and listened to Tomen's instructions and advice. Man. This is way harder than I thought. There is so much recipes that I have to remember. And so many facts about the enemies to remember, I thought. After listening for an hour, I decided I need a break from Minecraft. Not the game itself, but the nonstop staring at the computer screen. As I looked away, black dots invaded my vision. Shaking my head, I stood up.
"Let's take a break and try out some physical trainings. I'll practice climbing trees," I said.
"Okay. I will be practicing some other skills. Want to sword fight together later?" he asked.
"Fine with me." I walked away from the computers and to the place with a variety of trees. Taking a deep breath, I ran up to one and jumped. My hands reached out above me and grasp on a sturdy branch. Scrambling my way up, I managed to reach the top. I looked above me. More trees, more trees, about twice as tall as the one that I just climbed. I can do this! Once again, I was gripping the tree, making my way up. I was almost at the top when a branch that was supporting my legs broke. Fear overcame me as I was left dangling in the tree. As I look down, I realized that I would injure myself if I fall. I looked back up again. There must be a way to climb up. Slowly, I wrapped myself around the tree trunk and inched down until my feet touched a reliable branch. Not letting go with my hands, I slowly added my weight onto the branch beneath me. It stayed.Yes! This will work. I started to work my way back up again, carefully this time, and soon I was at the top. Smiling, I looked down once more. There were many skills that you can learn. Everyone looked like spiders, I thought as I slid my way down the tree until my feet were placed onto the solid ground. I had never climbed that far up. Maybe this game won't be so bad…unless if I died. I need more practice fighting, I decided, walking over to Tomen. "Want to go sword fighting now?" I asked.
"Okay. Just after I finish this set of throws," he answered. He was practicing throwing knifes. I watched in amazement. Every knife hit the target, whether it's moving or not.
"Wow. You have a really good aim!" I said. Okay. Another note to self. Don't fight with Tomen when he has a knife. He'll kill you! I thought to myself. I wonder what kind of abilities other people have.
"Okay. Let's go," he said as I followed him to the sword arena. I picked up a blue sword. It was perfect in weight and balance.
"I'll use this one," I said. Soon the battle began. He ran up to me and started slashing. I held up my sword and blocked every move.
"Your good at this," Tomen panted as he dropped his sword.
"I started sword fighting when I was in fifth grade," I said. "Anyways do you want to continue or do something else?"
"Continue. There's no point in switching now since there's only a few more minutes until lunch," he reasoned.
"True," I agreed. We started to fight again. The same thing happened. He slashing randomly with his sword, and me blocking every move. Soon, the clock rang twelve times, saying it's noon and time for lunch. Everyone stopped what they were doing and went into the lunch room. Tomen and I followed the others. The lunch room was huge. There were circular tables scattered around. At this point, it was obvious who was forming an alliance and who was playing solo. Estimating, there were about six tributes wanting to team up. All of them look strong and tuff. I gulped. "This battle is harder than I thought," I quietly said to Tomen.
Tomen nodded but didn't say anything. Instead he just went to get some food. I felt bad. I was sure that he still wanted to form an alliance with me. Too bad. I'm going solo on this. I thought but this time, I wasn't so sure. The line that I was standing was long. Patiently, I waited until it was my turn. Grabbing a sandwich and a bottle of water, I walked to an empty table and sat down. Tomen was no where to be seen. I started eating my food, not realizing how starving I was until now. In the game, I have to find food too. I thought. By now, I already had a to-do list in my head for the game. And the list just kept on getting longer and longer.
"Hey, can I sit next to you?" a tiny voice beside me said.
I turned around and saw a girl, no older than I was beside me. She had the same hair color as me and the same eye color. "Sure," I said making room.
"Thanks," the girl replied shyly. "So your Sophie?"
I glanced quickly at the girl. "How did you know my name?" I asked.
She shrugged. "In case if you haven't notice yet, most people know you."
I stared at her. "Really?"
She nodded. "Look, they saw you sword fight just then. They know you are good at that. You have to be more careful." She saw how confused I was and explained on. "During training, practice stuff that you are bad at. That way, the other tributes won't know your tactics. Then when you show the game controllers, do the stuff that you are good at."
I was getting really confused. "Wait who are the game controllers? And when do I have to show them?" I asked. I had no idea why this girl was helping me but I figured this must be useful.
"The game controllers are the people who add stuff to the game. For instance, they can shoot fireballs at you or make the water flood. They try to make the game more interesting. You do realize that we are being recorded. They are using this for entertainment. Anyways, in a week, you will be privately performing what you can do to game controllers. They will rank you from one to thirteen. Thirteen being the best and one being the worst. Haven't your mentor tell you these facts yet?" she asked.
"We don't have a mentor. He disappeared somewhere," I replied sadly.
"Oh. Really? That is unusual. Ask me if you have any questions," she said helpfully.
"Thanks. Wait. I never happened to get your name," I said as I ate my food.
"I'm Lily," she said, "Lily Evergreen."
- x.X.x -
That night, I jumped into bed, feeling so exhausted. At lunch they had announced that there was going to be a opening ceremony. Each of us were given a stylist who will give us the clothes that we will wear tomorrow. Also, the following day, each of us will be interviewed with the game director, Micheal Dinks. All of this will be recorded and broadcasted among TV. Now that I think about it, why haven't we ever seen one back at our homes. Was this just for the Capitol people to see it? I wondered. I turned around in bed. Slowly my eyelids felt heavier and heavier as I drifted off to sleep.