Chapter XXI: The Logic System
As I continued to fear for my life while traveling with Octane down this hallway to the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder what Conner might be getting into with the others. This place was abnormal, most definitely. Not a single one of us expected this be what Xanadu would be. We expected just another generic Minecraft world. This was something else, though. Something more terrifying. We continued on, though. We knew what had to be done.
Every now and then we'd come across a group of mobs wanting our blood. We'd kill them, no sweat, and then continue on. Eventually we stopped at a noteworthy spot in the hallway. Where we stopped was at a window. It was the only window we had seen in the entire place up to that point. On the other side of the window was what looked like a lab. There was a metal stretcher, metal book cases, metal freaking computers - metal everything. How was there a freaking computer in there, though? Damn, Ancient Minecraft had everything.
There was a door to the right of the window, which was on the left wall. Blackfield hacked it open and we entered into the lab-like place. Solstice and I looked at the books on the bookcases (you could actually read them here, but they seemed to be excerpts from child books) while Octane kept watch for any mobs. Blackfield went for the computer to see if there was anything on it. It felt like we'd find nothing since Blackfield seemed to have found nothing, until-
"Guys, come here." Blackfield said to Solstice and I. Octane remained at the door.
On the computer screen was a list of supposed files and the word "Extract". The files were "Wrath", "Gluttony", "Pride", "Lust", "Envy", "Greed", and "Sloth". I remembered that these were the seven deadly sins, but I only remembered that because of freaking Fullmetal Alchemist. What was the point of the "Extract" though? It was just sort of there. Blackfield said that it just sort of popped up on the screen. I felt like leaving it alone and seeing what else was down the hall, but he thought it would be important to press it. So he did.
As soon as he did, however, the entire place began shaking vigorously. I fell over and lost two entire hearts while Solstice fell against the wall and Blackfield held onto the computer. I rolled over and saw that Octane had fallen to his knees, but seemed alright. I stood up and wanted to hit Blackfield badly for not listening to us, "We said to not press it! Why did you?"
"Listen to me, Howie. It did something, did it not?" He asked. It did do something, but we weren't sure whatever it was. I didn't reply. I just left the room. Once we concluded that nothing else was in that room to inspect, we began down the hallway again. It was getting darker and none of us had torches to use. It was even worse because there was no way to make any freaking torches since we were surrounded by completely metal. It was scary to me.
Honestly, the more we traveled into this place, the more I felt like I was in an insane asylum. The eeriness of it all felt like it. Plus, the structure of it felt like an asylum. Was that what this was meant for? Were we going insane and forced into this place? That couldn't be it. At least I hoped it wasn't. What did the seven deadly sin thing mean then? We would have to go on to find out. This place was horrifying. I didn't wanna go on anymore. I was literally to scared.
We reached the end of the hallway much later on. There was yet another door that Blackfield had to hack into, though this one took longer than usual. It must've been more complicated, I guess. Once it was open, we went through and found ourselves in another lab-like room. There was another stretcher with more computers on the far wall. Blackfield and I went to the computers while Solstice and Octane began looking around the rest of the room for clues or hints or whatever.
These computers brought up the same goddamn thing. The seven deadly sins were on the screen along with the word "export". There were two computers here and we pressed export, ready for the goddamn earthquake to follow. Nobody got hurt this time, but we wondered what the hell we were missing now. There was nothing else down this hallway. Since we seemed to had found the end of it, we decided to make our way back to the other hallway to meet up with the others.
As we were almost there, though, we were nearly killed by the biggest earthquake of all. We didn't even use any computers - it felt like four earthquakes packed into one. Once it was finally over (I legitimately thought we'd all die here) we ran back to find the others waiting for us in the intersection. They seemed as shaken as we were, but looked healthy. At least nobody had died yet.
"Did you guys find any computers?" Lyle asked.
I nodded, "Three. We extracted something. Did you guys feel the earthquakes?"
"Yeah. We found computers as well. They must be connected somehow." Contra said.
We were too focused on the earthquakes and theorizing what could've happened to even notice that a goddamn hallway had appeared next to us, to the left of our group. You know, across from where we spawned in Xanadu. The hallway was pitch black, but the only other way we could possibly go. So we did, fearing for our lives and sanity. It was dark and foreboding. None of us wanted to be here anymore. It was at this point that we all actually considered signing out and keeping off Minecraft for a while. I mean, I didn't know if that's what the others thought, but that's what I thought.
As we were walking, I could feel Conner come near me, whispering, "Are we gonna be alright?"
"I hope so." I said. I wasn't sure at all. This could very well be the end of us all. Then we'd all go insane from not knowing what lies at the end of Ancient Minecraft.
We reached the end of the hallway and a sign with a lever on the wall behind it. The hallway was too narrow for everyone to see the sign, but since I was towards the front, I could still read it through the dark. It read, "The Logic System".
"Logic System?" I said aloud so everyone knew what we had found.
"What is that?" Solstice asked.
Conner joined me in the front, pushing Octane back a bit, "Well, that sounds very much like a formal system, which is sort of the name for equations and stuff. Like there will be a bunch of variables and things we can put together for codes and such. What the sign is trying to tell us... I don't know. Why don't you pull the lever?"
"I don't wanna pull the lever!" I whined. God, I hated whining.
Blackfield pushed his way past us and pulled the lever down.
Another earthquake began again. It was the worst of all. Everyone was rolling around, hitting each other, losing health by the second. When the quake finally ended, I stood up and saw that a door was now where the sign and lever was. Everybody slowly stood up and, before I even dared opening the door, I counted out everyone to make sure we were alright. I counted three times before realizing something was off.
I only counted eight.
"Who is down?" I shouted anxiously.
"Me!" I heard Ashland shout from the floor.
Contra and Tyrus picked her up and propped her up on their shoulders. They carried her over to me where she told me her legs were crippled from the quakes. That wasn't freaking good. Not at all, but we couldn't stop. We had to continue on. It would be best to keep her out of the action. I didn't even expect that to be a feature of Ancient Minecraft. You know, breaking your legs or arms or whatever. Then again, this was a game where you could freaking cut yourself.
With Ashland sticking with Contra and Tyrus, I opened the door and proceeded through, wondering when the hell I had become leader. On the other side of the door was a marvelous discovery. It was quite possibly the greatest thing I had ever seen in Minecraft. We were standing on a platform made of metal. In front of us was an endless pit, but we could barely see it for a reason. All along the walls over the abyss were towers emerging and then disappearing. They were white. Some extended all the way across the pit while some only went a little bit. There were hundreds of them. Across the abyss, far across the abyss, I could see another platform with a door in it. That must've been where we had to go.
Blackfield stood beside me, marveling at our discovery, "These must be towers of data. This must've been why I couldn't read any of the files in Xanadu's programming."
Solstice and Conner approached me and looked out at the towers of data. This was The Logic System.
"Are we supposed to cross those?" Conner noticed the platform across the abyss.
"If so, we'd better get started. Howie, if you could lead the way while I back everyone up." Blackfield ordered. Damn, he had just put me in a leadership role. I was really coming along in his eyes.
"Hold it!" Octane shouted before I could begin.
I turned around nervously and saw him approach me slowly.
"It's about time I come out with it and say that Howard isn't the man you think he is," Octane began trying to make me into someone that I was not, "I have seen the true side to this traitor. He attempted to interfere with my quest to bring Conner into our group!"
Everyone was looking at me with surprise.
Just then, I heard a ring on my computer, notifying me that I had gotten an email.
"Why should we let him continue running our group when he is only here to destroy it?" Octane sounded condescending, to say the least.
"1 New Email" it read.
"We shouldn't!" Octane continued while I checked the email.
"1 Email From: Anon."
Oh god no. Not now.
"We should bring this scum down before he can destroy us!"
I read the email.
Wes,
Run. NOW.
Anon.
I returned to the game and found everyone wasn't staring at me, but at Octane.
"What is it? Why won't you believe me?" Octane was sounding more crazy than I was.
"We trust him." Solstice said.
"He wouldn't hurt us." Conner said.
"You have no proof." Blackfield echoed the same sentiment.
Was I really that important to them?
"Damn it! All of you are blinded by your idiocy!" Octane ran at me with his sword, "I'll have to finish him myself!"
I turned and jumped off the edge onto one of the data towers. As I landed, it started inserting itself into the white wall. I ran along it and jumped to another tower that was emerging while Octane remained on the platform.
"Running away, are you?" Octane laughed.
"Right," I said, taking out my golden sword, "because I know you'll follow me."
As a matter of fact, he did. He was fast, too. Like, really freaking fast. He jumped onto one tower and jumped to the next almost instantly. I had to keep running without stopping in order to keep away from him. Sadly, though, he did reach me and I had to fight him off at this point. He ran at me and swung at me horizontally. I just jumped backwards and slashed at him when his defense was down. He jumped back and I was able to get to the next tower with that small window of opportunity. Was this what Anon had warned me about? He told me to run. Had he told me to run from Octane? If so, how did he know about that? Was he in Xanadu with us?
The notification sound for my emails rang again.
"1 New Email."
Damn it, not now.
"1 Email From: Anon."
Again?
Howard,
Keep running. He'll be there soon. Keep running. He'll be there soon. HE'LL BE THERE SOON.
Anon.
Who will?