6: We Prepare For the Raid

Our agreement for when we went out on searches for the stronghold was to meet up before sundown. When we arrived, we were asked what happened. As I spoke, their faces went from wonder, to intrigued, to disgusted and depressed. The room was filled with sniffles.

Tiffany got up from her chair, and spoke out in a firm, mono voice. "You heard him, arm the traps, and add more trap holes like Kevin showed you. Allen and Justin, go over the escape protocol in case they somehow manage to infiltrate and try to incapacitate one of us. We will not fall.

We frantically set out traps to protect us from the approaching foes. We weren't sure where their attack would be coming from, so we place traps in strategic patters. Underneath the base was a diagram of around our spot that I built. It showed trap locations, as well as a wall map that I made using the map and item frame trick. (You place a map on an item frame and it displays what was on the map, you can connect a lot of them together and map a whole world).

Once all the preparations and traps were set, it was all about waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

I thought, maybe they got scared off because of their decrease in numbers. Then the first arrow flew. And the next one. Suddenly, it was like that scene from 300 where the arrows blotted out the sun. Except we couldn't see these. As I hunkered down back into the base, I noticed that in front of our base, in the sky, was a long line of hoppers and droppers, shooting out what seemed to be an endless supply of arrows.

"Everyone fall back! Do not let them inside the fortress!" I screamed out for all my people, my friends to come back inside the fort. I made the outsides in obsidian for about 3-4 blocks thick. Even if they breach the defenses, they have to face the traps inside as well as us. And because there are less of them and more of us, we had the advantage. Then I heard the first tacks of someone being hurt. I ran to the noise and before I knew it, I saw one of the younger kids in our group fall over, arrow in his head, and his items exploded over the ground. His death message read:

Rowen was shot to death by Sawyer.

I noticed that above Rowen, or should I say, his items, a hole in the top of the building was missing, which meant-

"THEIR INSIDE AND ABOVE THE FORT! GUARD YOUR THINGS AND REGROUP!" Frantically, traps were set on the inside of the house, as well as on the chests, in-case anyone tries to snoop or steal from us. We all escaped onto the roof to check to see if anyone was there. We saw Sawyer standing at the top, along with the other 2 of his trio (made thanks to me and Tiff). They were stacked in full diamond, enchanted everything.

"So, you finally made it, you like what I did to your boy Rowan? Oh, you don't, oh well. An eye for an eye, right. Well, you took two of our eyes. Now I am going to take another of yours."

"How," Cierra, another one of our people asked. "We are all here, and there are more of us than there are of you." That confidence was short lived when we saw behind him Allen and Sal. They were stripped of their armor and were at the edge of our 30 block tall fortress.

"STOP! YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THIS SAWYER!" I pleaded, asked if there was another way. He wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Silly boy, you just don't get it, do you. While you were busy looking around for the stronghold, we have been planning our victory against you. But alas, you killed two of mine, and I haven't seen them around the spawn. Now I'm taking three of yours. He walked away, turning his back on us, and said, "Kill 'em."

I never screamed so hard in my life. I felt like life went slow. I could hear their screams of fear, as they fell. Their screams of hurt, echoing in my mind to this day. I wanted to cry. The screams were cut short by the cracking of the sound when an entity falls and takes damage.

Allen hit the ground too hard.

Sal hit the ground too hard.

I lost it at that point. I raced towards Sawyer who put an ender pearl in his hand, dropping one in front of him, launching the other, and poof. He was gone. I picked the one on the ground up and tossed it in his direction. As we materialized, we were on the forest room top of the birch forest. We hopped from tree to tree, and as I chased him, my rage grew stronger by the second. 'I will not let him escape,' I thought to myself.

I was growing closer, "Heh, getting a little slow, aren't you Sawyer my friend?"

"If only you knew." He dropped a second ender pearl on the treetop and angled his next pearl for a hard right. I followed. What we spawned onto was something I could barely fathom. It was some sort of battlefield that the must have made. There were potholes, jagged ground, and gravel and pressure plates all around. His pack stopped and turned towards me.

"You plan on 3v1ing me here? Let's go then buddy! I will avenge my comrades, and my friends!" I didn't care if they jumped me, I was ready.

"Oh, we did what we wanted. But now I need to let you in on a little secret.

We know the location of the stronghold."

This made me freeze, the fact that they knew. How long have they known? Is it already set up?

"WHERE IS IT? You have all of the things you need to activate it and end the game and possibly free us all. Why haven't you done it?!"

"Oh, why? Because we like it here. This world is better than the one we left behind. That glass of water is the best thing to happen to all of us. And who knows, maybe when you die, you wake up in the real world. Ever thought of that?"

I never did think that that was a possibility. But still, I would rather not risk that happening to any of my friends. "I don't care, we only killed your people because they attempted to kill us! You have no right to be angry. It was all your fault."

I could tell he was mad, and he blasted out at me, "OH REALLY!? I HAD PLANNED ON LENDING YOU THE COORDINATES TO GET TO THE STRONGHOLD, BUT FORGET IT! Here's some ender pearls. Go home." He and his pals' teleported off into the distance, and left me there. I felt a surge of emotions. Most of them were for my lost friends, Allen and Sal. Maybe they did return to the real world.

Then I got even deeper in thought, and began contemplating my existence in this world. Was I supposed to learn something from what was going on? Is this just some elaborate dream? Maybe, maybe not. But what was certain was that I had a duty to my comrades.