The Other Side
{Sorry for the late chapter. I had some trouble with uploading, and it was late so I kind of gave up for that night. Anyway, here it is:
The voices were extremely varied in pitch. And there were many. Most of them seemed frightened, others merely curious. Out of the chaos that was the sound, I could make out a few sentences. "What is it, daddy?" went one high voice. A child's, likely. Another went: "What the hell is that?" This one was extremely masculine. We couldn't go back to the city without proper info. We had to at least see what was on the other side. I stepped closed, motioning for the others to do the same. I kept my bow raised at the portal until I was very close to it, and only then pulling out my sword, incase something came through. If the beings on the other side were intelligent enough to have a language, they could probably use portals. I looked to the others for their opinion. Jess and Kat seemed to be the only ones that disagreed. I waved Raven over to my side. He would be the one I wanted by my side going into a new dimension.
The actual portal blocks felt like a liquid silk, unlike Nether Portals, which were hard and rough. It flowed smoothly through the air, waving ever so gently. The blocks seemed to beckon to me. I placed one boot, then the other, inside the portal, and Raven followed suit. It was too late now. We were going.
Sunlight blinded me as I stepped through. Raven thudded to the ground beside me, bow drawn, as I had mine. We stepped forward and spread out a few feet, securing an area for the others to land. Jason and Jack came behind me, then, a few moments after, Jess and Kat. They were holding hands as if they had expected to die right off the bat. However, once they had gotten used to the blinding sun, they all drew their weapons and surveyed the area.
We seemed to have landed in the middle of a four-way intersection. Everywhere around appeared to be built upon, like some cities in our world. There were creatures everywhere on the sides of the street, including some in what appeared to be vehicles that flowed smoothly along the hard ground. They did not seem to roll on tracks. This was incredible. A machine, that not only could control thrust, but also did not need a guiding track. If we could get one back to Engineering, the whole world of Minecraftia could change.
However, the things that inhabited this realm seemed not to be friendly. A man in a blue uniform with a black hat and a badge pointed a small black L-shaped object, presumably a weapon, from the way he was holding it. The man yelled at us to drop our weapons.
"What is this place?" I yelled to him.
"What the hell are you!?" he responded. No, he was not friendly.
"Alright, let's just settle down a bit…" I said, trying to keep things calm. By this point, several more vehicles carrying several more men in blue arrived. I nodded to the group, and we all slowly lowered our arms. The men in blue did the same, although hesitantly. Once all weapons were on the ground, I motioned for them to come over to us. They moved slowly, as if they expected us to pull a move. When they came within three feet, I spoke.
"We are Minecraftians. We've just killed a major enemy in our realm and a portal appeared. That portal." I motioned to the one that brought us here. "Your turn."
"Well, this is planet Earth, if that means anything," one man in blue responded, the one originally at the scene. "We're human, and you look like you could be too, if you weren't all blocky."
"Wow, thanks." I responded sarcastically, "Anyway, with this portal here, maybe we could help each other. You know, trading."
"I don't know. I mean, you meet a race not native to your planet; you wanna get to know a little bit about them first. How about you get your leaders, and we'll get ours, and meet back here. We can take you somewhere we can talk."
"How about hell no?" Raven interrupted, "How about you meet us through this portal. It leads to our dimension, but an area uncolonized by anyone. A sort of no-man's land."
"How do we know you won't just strike us down when we come through?"
"Because, idiot," Raven continued, "that wouldn't be much for diplomatic relations, would it?"
"Fine. Meet in 24 hours, 'No-man's land,' with your leaders."
"Deal."
He walked back to the other people and began to tell them the "plan." They seemed to mostly agree. Except for one, who kept arguing and pointing vigorously at us. The other men kept trying to calm him, but he wouldn't listen. He broke free of them, and dived at his weapon on the ground. Grabbing it, he took aim, and fired.
There was a huge boom. It was as if the weapon used an explosion to propel an object. The object hit me in the leg, and I fell. I was bleeding badly. Jess stood with her weapon drawn while the men in blue restrained their insane colleague. But Jess was done. Someone had hurt me. And whoever did it, was screwed. Her arrow flew through the air, a true shot, and hit the attacker square in the chest. He was killed instantly. But what happened next was what would create the fear of Minecraftians. The appearance of the body flashed, sputtered, like a glitch, between the normal form, and form that looked like a Minecraftian. It continued flashing while the men in blue backed away in horror, as did we. We did not know our creations had this power.
The body glitched until it finally settled on the 'crafter form. But the madness wasn't over there. Cubes, pixels, of the 'crafter body began to flake off and disintegrate. The man was literally falling apart. Pieces would fly off and disappear. Raven grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me back, back into the portal. I was too bewildered to move.
"COME ON, TYLER!" Raven yelled into my ear, "IF WE STAY HERE THEY'LL ALL TURN ON US!"
The last I saw of the new worlds was the man's dead eyes staring at me, and then flaking away as well.
{Congratulations of finishing the sixth (?) chapter of TWC. I hope you've enjoyed, and thanks for reading. I would love some feedback on how you think the story is going, and any suggestions, which I will happily take and try my best to implement. Keep in mind; I still have a spot for a new character. I will probably take three to five ideas before picking. As always, thank you for reading, and have a great day/night/midafternoon.}
