Trapped
Chapter 7: Netherscape
"So, Cavern just gives a few days off?" Mark asked.
"Yep. He says the water causes people to become delusional," I said.
"Cavern lies," Harris said, looking more crazed than ever, "Plans. His plans are kill. Believe me!"
"We'll see if we do in a few days, Harris," Jade remarked.
The next 3 days passed silently, and afterward, we were called to Cavern's lab (Which was gutted of museum pieces and restored with new machinery) for tests. Each test lasted 2 minutes and by the time they were over, all of us were deemed sane. "I guess actual water would help?" he asked.
"...it would," Mark said, "And would you also mind to tell us what the previous 'water', was, when we got here?"
"Some mildly dangerous liquid we were supposed to use to prevent the dome from cracking. In other words, it was chemical, not water. The worst thing that could possible happen from drinking it would be combustion, and that's why that was also there. It puts out fires quickly. Don't worry, test subjects, some independent company is shipping us 2 million gallons of actual water,"
In a few days, a large aircraft landed atop the dome and several people got out and carried large containers to the deck Cavern's airship was on. The aqua liquid drained from the dome, and actual water took it's place. "There you are. Water. Sure, it was expensive, but at least testing can go on. Now then, it has been said a person is capable of carrying over 100 million Kilograms with them, back in the days of people purposely getting lost and stuff, and that has nothing to do with this test. Just a fact we found in a history book,"
In a few days, something had happened, and nobody knew what it was. It was a sort of monster nobody really had seen. Mark was a technician for the "Redstone", and had never seen it, Harris hadn't been outside to see it, and Jade, who supposedly walked 5 Kilometers until creating a house to live in, had never seen it. There was only a few people left to count on who would know: Cavern and his Scientists.
"Those are Squids," we were told by Cavern's assistant, Marty, "Apparently they can only live in water, and can appear in nearly any source. They don't really so much, but could be a source of dye, but, then again, coloring wool isn't really part of any testing we were scheduled to perform. It's not a big deal. Squids. Woo. Just ignore them if they are bothering you,"
A few days passed before some of the grass that was lost in the flood a few days ago started growing back. "Well," Mark announced, "Cavern finally gave us the somewhat realistic landscape,"
As the next few days passed, the trees started looking more like the ones we were all used to, brown trunks with vibrant, green leaves. However, on the next day, we realized a group of trees were gone, replaced with a large, black frame. "Welcome, Test Subjects, to what should be your most important test. You will be testing "Portal technology", as well as studying up on the 3 types of materials the Nether is made out of. If this does succeed and everyone walks out of that portal alive and well, then you all get 5 days off from testing. If someone gets injured, we can fix that. If someone dies, well... we have our scientists working on reanimation. Good luck, Nether explorers,"
A purple substance filled the frame, and we all walked into it. After a few seconds, the dome we were living in was gone, replaced with a large, dark, red land. Mark placed down a torch and had nearly lit up half of the land structure we were on. It was an oddly-shaped Plateau made out of red rock, and some brown material. On the ceiling was a lot of glowing material, and we started mining right away, Within an our, we had nearly 200 blocks of the red stone, given it took no time whatsoever to mine, about 40 blocks of the brown substance, and enough yellow powder to create 30 blocks of the glowing material. We ventured back into the portal. "Welcome back, Test Subjects. Now, let's just go over what you have. The glowing stuff is called "Glowstone", the red material is "Netherrack", according to Mojang, but I call it "Netherstone", you can use either name, and the brown stuff is "Soul Sand". I guess someone was paid to pull letters out of a hat or make up names based on exactly what it is. Now then, enjoy your days off studying. For now, we will close the portal, and we will re-open it when we need to. Alright, we're done here for now,"
During these 5 days, something unusual happened. On the first day, the hatch near Castle Rock appeared again, this time, I brought Mark up here and he verified it was real. However, it only led down about 2 meters. The next day, it had continued down further, creating a small mineshaft. 2 days later, it had formed into an underground room, with a locked door in the back of the room. Next to the door was a sign reading: "CONFIDENTIAL. TESTING PLAN STORAGE. TO BE DESTROYED IN 28 DAYS."
Every day, we would hear footsteps of scientists walking from their workplace, through a series of halls into the room, and back. Occasionally, a Scientist would climb out of the hatch, but regardless, it appeared they had a lot of plans for us.
Thank you for reading Chapter 7!
Review, Favorite, Share, Enjoy!
