I Join Team Trees

Calliope

The invasion happened at night time.

I was peacefully sleeping in bed when my mom yelled at me, "GET UP!"

I flew up one block into the air while lying down. I have no idea how I managed that at all.

I yawned, sat up and stared at Mom. She looked pretty agitated.

"Get up, Calli! The pigmen are invading!"

I just looked at her and fell backwards onto my bed. It was probably a false alarm. Last time 'the pigmen had invaded', it had just turned out to be a normal pig. And the time before that, it was a man wearing dyed pink armor and a gold sword. A horrible fashion statement, if I'm being honest.

This time though, it wasn't a regular pig.

The window next to my bed suddenly exploded as a fireball blew through the window and hit the wall, setting it ablaze.

I screamed and flipped sideways off the bed, awkwardly smashing into the ground. I quickly got up and stared at the flames slowly eating away at my room.

"We need to leave, Calli! COME ON!" my mom cried.

I ran around the fire and sprinted out of the house with my mother just a block behind me, but stopped when a thought occurred to me.

"Wait! What about Dad? What about Toni?" I shouted.

"Toni's room was on fire, and I couldn't get past!" Mom cried.

"What? You left her there?" I yelled, turning to face her.

"Don't you think I tried to save her?" my mom said, and then I could truly see the anguish in her eyes. The anguish that came from not being able to save her daughter.

I was about to run back into the house when I heard a whipping sound, and an arrow flew out of nowhere and struck my mother in the shoulder.

"No!" I yelled.

"Run, Cal!" My mom cried as the sound of clicking bones grew closer.

Like hell I was.

I ran forward to help her, only to be blocked by a wither skeleton. The undead being swung its sword at me, and I stumbled backwards as the sword slashed through my shirt, leaving my skin untouched.

I watched in horror as my mom was grabbed roughly by a group of wither skeletons and dragged away. "CAL, RUN!" I heard my mom cry.

I'm not proud of what I did next. In fact, I wonder every day what would have changed if I would have tried to save her.

I stumbled backwards, and ran.

I ran as hard as I could, and heard loud oinks behind me.

The park. There was a pool there. Maybe if I jumped into the pool, the pigmen wouldn't follow me? It was definitely a stretch, but it was all I had.

I changed direction and started running towards the park. I sighed in relief when I saw the green patch of grass ahead that represented the park.

But that relief changed when I saw my dad facing off against a man with what looked to be a big...hoe?

Sparks flew as the two blades struck each other, and my dad seemed to be struggling against the man.

"Dad?" I said, stunned.

That's when Dad noticed me and shouted. "CAL, NO!"

I stepped back, but before I could run the hoe was sent spinning towards me.

The dull side of the hoe smashed into my face, and I was lifted off the ground for a second by the sheer force of the blow.

I landed on my back, groaning and moaning. I put a hand to my face only to find I was bleeding.

The last thing I heard before I passed out were the screams of my father.

!-V-!

When I woke up, everything was red.

I'm not exaggerating here. The floor I was lying on? Red. The walls around me? Also red. The ceiling? You guessed it--red. Even the air felt a little red, if that even makes sense at all.

It wasn't even a bright shade of red. It was more like a really dark red.

Of course, there was a reason that the whole place was red. It was because, in fact, the place that I had woken up in was made out of nether brick. Who would have known?

Thankfully, the lights were not redstone torches, or I would have freaked out. They were redstone lamps, although they did give off a slight orange glow, which was not much better than redstone torches.

The second thing I noticed was the clothes I wore. I was wearing an orange jumpsuit with a tag that had a number on it--093.

And then I noticed the people.

Most of them looked relatively normal, except for the fact that they were all wearing an orange jumpsuit with a number on it, always a three digit number.

"How unfortunate." an old man said in a weary voice. "I'd welcome you to the cell, but this place is not worth welcoming."

I don't remember standing, but suddenly I was on my feet. "Who're you?"

"I'm Jerry." the old man extended his hand. "I'm...well, not the leader, but...I suppose I'm the...representative of this cell. Here, I'll introduce you to everyone."

He pointed to a young boy who looked away when he saw me. "That's Phoenix. He's a bit shy, but nice once you get to know him. She's Jaiden. She used to be a gardener...at least before she got captured. He's Caren. He was a traveling merchant, used to get a lot of emeralds, at least before he walked into a village that was being captured by a fleet of blazes. And that's Jin, he loved to fish until he got captured, and then we have..." he smiled kindly. "You. What's your name?"

"Where's my mom?" I asked, ignoring the question.

All of the prisoners looked at each other.

"Dear, you were the only one tossed in here today." Jerry said.

My face must have went pale, because Caren smiled at me. "Don't worry. This isn't the only cell. There's about a thousand other cells, and I'm not exaggerating. The size of this place...well, it's huge. It's more likely your mother is in another cell somewhere."

I exhaled in relief. So she wasn't dead. That was one big question answered.

Now to the next big question.

"Calliope."

Jerry blinked. "Huh?"

"Calliope. That's my name. But unless I say otherwise, it's Cal. Possibly Calli."

The old man smiled. "Good. Cal. Has a nice ring to it."

I smiled charmingly. "Glad we got that cleared up. Now, how do we get out of here?"

The temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees, which was weird because we were in the Nether.

Jerry's smile vanished. "Excuse me?"

"Escape. You know. Get out of here." I explained. "Like, duh."

Jin frowned. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but no one's ever escaped this place."

I frowned. "How do you know? Have you even tried?"

"You don't think we haven't tried?" Jaiden said quietly.

"Ten months ago, cell fifty to thirty five tried to fight back. Complete massacre. A year ago, cell one hundred to six hundred staged a jailbreak. We almost escaped. But the ghasts stopped them." Jin sighed.

I stood there, stunned. "But what about the opening right there? You know, the one made out of Nether fences. We could--"

"Nothing but a thirty block drop outside." Jin said.

For the first time, I noticed that nothing was in my inventory except for a few dirt blocks, some bone meal, and a sapling.

"They take everything that they think will be useful and leave over anything that's useless. They take wood blocks. Cobblestone. Sticks. Even buckets." Jerry said.

"We could lure the guards in and then attack them?" I suggested.

"You think the wither skeletons are that foolish?" Jaiden said with a sad face.

"We--' I tried desprately.

"I'm sorry, Cal. There's no way out." Caren said.

I scowled. "Fine. So you guys have already given up. Well, I haven't. I won't rest until I find a way out of here."

At that point everyone just kind of gave up trying to convince me and just sat back, watching me running around the place trying to find a secret passageway, or a loose brick that I could hit the guards with, or anything, really. I could have even settled for a bucket.

I started to get tired, but still I refused to rest.

At least until I heard the door for our cell swing open.

I swiveled and saw a big, burly pigman holding a ring of keys.

"Lunch," he said in a deep voice.

I debated rushing the pigman and trying to knock him out, but even I knew that was a death wish.

Everyone obediently formed a line and walked out of the cell, joining a large group outside of our cell. Everybody followed the lone pigman, heads bent down passively and expressions somber. The scene was awfully depressing.

I tilted my head towards Jerry. "You know, we could all take him if we wanted to." I whispered. "He's just one pigman."

"No talking," the pigman grunted without turning around.

I glanced at my cell mates. They were all shaking their heads as discreetly as possible. Reluctantly, I looked down.

The cafeteria, surprisingly enough, looked like a regular cafeteria, except it was almost completely silent, everything was dark red, and there were wither skeleton guards positioned everywhere.

The line to get lunch was extremely long, and the wait was long. However, just like a regular school cafeteria, the food was not worth the wait.

The pigman chef slopped some sort of disgusting red (of course it was) paste with plants and mushrooms sticking out of it.

After I got my lunch, my cell mates took me to an empty table labeled '647'.

It was completely silent as we ate, so I started up a conversation.

"So if there are like a million people here, why are there so little people here?" I asked. 'I mean, don't get me wrong, this place is enormous, but there's not as many as I'd think."

"This is cafeteria 1." Jin said. "Also, you probably shouldn't talk. Just eat."

"Why not?" I asked, and soon got my answer.

Something whacked me upside my head, and I winced, grabbing my head.

"No talking." A pigman grunted at me, and then walked off.

Jin gave me a look like told you so.

I glowered down at my dish of red slop, trying to restrain myself from chucking it at the pigman's head. Instead, I viciously stabbed the slop with my spoon and swallowed a mouthful.

Immediately after, I spat the slop onto the ground with a choking sound. My coughs were dangerously loud in the silence of the cafeteria.

I felt another slap against my head.

"I told you not to talk," the pigman snarled.

"What am I supposed to do after swallowing this trash?" I snapped, which I immediately regretted.

An ugly scowl appeared on the pigman's face. He pulled out his sword, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me like a fish. Instead, he slammed the hilt into my head, and I clutched my head in pain.

"Another word out of you and I'm going to pour harming potions into your eyes." the pigman warned. "Last chance."

The pigman walked away, leaving me sucking in air as I tried to repress the urge to grab the pigman's sword and run him through like a shish kebab. Caren put a hand on my shoulder, and I sighed and turned back to my disgusting food.

I didn't utter a word for the rest of lunch.

!-V-!

Of course, as soon as I got back to the cell I began looking around.

After about ten minutes though, I found pretty much nothing and practically gave up, sitting down heavily.

This place sucks. I gloomily thought.

"Well, did you give up yet?" Jaiden said tiredly.

For some reason, those words annoyed me. "No. I'm going to keep searching once I get a little rest."

"Oh, please." Jin snorted. "I'm sure you've examined every square inch of this place twice already."

"If I get out of here I'm leaving you behind." I retorted.

"I think it's admirable," Phoenix said quietly.

I huffed. "I'm glad one person in here has a sense of dignity."

"If you can call inspecting a whole cell in a day dignity," Jin muttered. "I'd like to take you to an escape room if we really do get out of here."

Before I could snap back, an alarm echoed throughout the cell.

I jumped. "What's that?"

Jerry smiled at me reassuringly. "Oh, that? That's just the pigmen dragging some of the cellmates out to fight in the arena."

I paled. "What arena?"

Caren frowned. "Jin, you're so freaking blunt. Look at her, she looks like she's about to faint."

"Arena?" I said, still slightly pale.

"Yeah, everyday the pigmen choose a cell, and then everyone in that cell is sent out to fight a pigman in the arena. Well, I say fight. It's really more like cowering behind a pillar in fear, hoping the pigman doesn't see you." Jin admitted.

I stared at everyone. "Wait, like one pigman? Just one pigman? So why don't all the cellmates band together and beat him up?"

Jerry sighed. "That makes things worse, trust me. The crowd gets all annoyed, and then they send in more pigmen to kill everyone."

"Oh."

"Oh is right," Jin said. "Basically, the only thing we can do is run. But that's only if we get picked."

"Aren't you worried about being picked?" I said nervously.

Jaiden shrugged. "Hey, there are a thousand cells here with an equal amount of people. Getting chosen to fight is like winning the lottery...except you don't want to win."

I sighed. "I guess. But are you sure? What if today just happens to be the day this cell gets picked?"

Jerry smiled reassuringly. "Cell 647 hasn't been chosen in years. Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Bang.

We all jumped at the sound of the banging of a cell door.

I slowly turned around.

And I saw a pigman with gold armor and a sword in the doorway.

The pigman scanned the room. His face twisted in a cruel smile.

I paled. "Wait."

Jin cursed loudly.

The pigman smirked. "You know what's about to happen. Everyone out."

Everyone stared at each other.

"Sir--" Jerry began.

"Well? Get out!" the pigman snapped.

I had half a mind to rush the pigman, but sighed and walked over to the door.

"You're a good listener," the pigman sneered at me. "Let's see if the rest of you are."

Everyone shuffled over and stood in a line behind me.

This is how it must feel to be in death row, I glumly thought.

With every step my anxiety grew, and it went from bad to worse when we finally came to another empty cell.

"No weapons?" I asked the pigman weakly.

The pigman just laughed, backed out, and then slammed the door shut.

"Okay," I muttered. "That's a no."

I took in my surroundings. There were two benches on the wall, the door that we'd come through, and another door that probably led to the arena on the far side of the cell.

So this is the place you eagerly wait to be executed. Great.

I heard a sniffle, and turned to see Phoenix wiping his eyes with his sleeve, which left black marks on his face.

Jerry patted the boy on his back. "Stay calm, Phoenix. You'll be fine."

"Don't lie," Phoenix sniffed. "I know there's no hope. I'm not stupid."

Everyone was silent after that, and then Phoenix burst out, "I don't want to die. I wanna see my sis."

"I know," Jerry said, his voice cracking.

Then, with a screech that assaulted my ears, the door leading to the arena swung open by itself.

I heard the roaring of a crowd, and Jin glanced at me.

"Ladies first," Jin said. The words were snarky, but his tone was filled with fear. I glanced at him and saw that he was just as terrified as I was. I looked around, but everyone looked at me.

Sure, send the newbie out to die first. Thanks, guys.

I looked at the open door, gulped, and cautiously stepped out.

Immediately, I found myself in the most biggest space I'd ever been in. The arena itself must have been thirty blocks wide, and fifty blocks long. Pillars were scattered around the entire arena, around five blocks in diameter.

And surrounding the arena was a whole bunch of stands with pigmen, blazes, and wither skeletons alike all watching, eagerly cheering.

"What in the..." I said, surprised.

I turned around to see some sort of screen composed entirely of redstone lamps, and it was focused on me.

When I moved, the screen up above followed my movement. I hesitantly raised my hand. The Calliope on the screen also raised her hand.

"Wow...is that even possible with redstone?" I said, surprised.

Behind me, everyone reluctantly slinked out of the cell.

Everyone began cheering, and the image on the screen changed to that of an angry pigman.

"Damn it," Jaiden said.

The door shut with a slam that sounded like a guillotine.

"And so it begins." Jerry mumbled.

I looked away from the screen to see the pigman on the screen all the way on the other side of the arena, just a pink speck among all the pillars and the nether brick and the dirt floor.

"This isn't good," I said frantically. "What do we do?"

"Run like hell," Jin replied.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMOBS, LET THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE WEEK...BEGIN!" a deep voice bellowed.

Everyone else scattered—even Jerry, who must have been at least in his mid fifties, was surprisingly fast.

I turned and started to frantically yank on the door handle to no effect.

The pigman was getting closer.

I set my foot on the wall and pulled as hard as I could.

The door didn't move. Not an inch.

I turned to see the pigman barreling towards me.

I yelped and dived out of the way as the pigman's sword slashed across the door, leaving a mark.

I got to my feet and ran. I ran as hard as I could, but the pigman was on my tail and was wildly swinging at me, barely managing to nick the back of my jumpsuit.

I ducked a swing and then swerved, running around a few pillars before managing to lose the pigman.

I panted as I sat against a pillar. This would be a bit less harder than I thought—these pillars were all pretty close together, making the whole arena like a forest. It was like a game of hide and seek, and all I had to keep doing was hide.

Suddenly a scream rang out, and I jumped to my feet.

I peeked around the pillar and saw Phoenix lying on his back, desperately trying to get up. The pigman stood over him, laughing an ugly laugh as he hefted his sword.

I turned back, curling into a ball.

It's not your problem. I thought. It's not my problem. Natural selection, right? Natural selection...

"You're a good listener. Let's see if the rest of you are."

I clenched my fists. Nothing about this was natural. Nothing about this was fair. I didn't know why I felt so protective of Phoenix. Maybe because he reminded me of Toni.

I stood and then ran around the pillar, running towards the pigman. He was about to impale Phoenix when I tackled him, knocking him to the ground.

The pigman swore and swung his fist blindly, hitting me in the nose.

I fell backwards, blood running down my nose. I heard a sound like someone scraping iron against a stone, and rolled to the side just as the pigman's sword sliced through the dirt next to me.

I got to my feet and ran over to Phoenix, who was still on the ground.

We made eye contact, and I said, "Go."

Phoenix scrambled to his feet and ran off. I turned back to the pigman, who glared at me. He was no longer smiling.

"What's wrong, ugly? Mad?" I taunted.

The pigman snarled and charged, catching me off guard. I jerked back just as he swung his sword, and I felt it slash across my face.

I doubled over, blood running down my face. Some of it dripped into my eyes, blinding me.

I felt him kick me in the chest, and fell backwards onto my back.

The crowd cheered, and I heard the pigman let out a laugh of triumph.

I'd pretty much given up at the point, until I heard Phoenix shout, "Nooo!"

I opened my eyes to see Phoenix tackle the pigman. It was like a puppy attacking a lion—a completely unfair fight. The pigman smashed the butt of his sword over Phoenix's head, and he crumpled.

"No," I moaned. I didn't want someone else to die in front of me. Even if I'd only known him for roughly four hours, something in me wanted to protect him.

"I don't want to die. I want to see my sis."

"Me too, kid." I said as I got to my feet.

The pigman had his back turned to me, and I charged at him, punching him in the back of his head. The pigman stumbled a little, and I kicked him in the shin.

The pigman dropped his sword and grabbed his ankle, hopping around and howling in pain.

I pulled Phoenix to his feet and pushed him behind me. "Stay out of this," I said to him. "And don't come back."

"Will you be okay?" Phoenix said as he clung to me like a koala bear. For a moment, I was struck by how much he reminded me of Toni when she was little.

"Yup," I said. "I'll be fine. Now go."

With a last glance back at me, he ran off.

"You little brat," the pigman snarled, drawing my attention back to him. "I won't show any mercy to you!"

"Ditto that," I responded.

The pigman charged, and I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline.

What have I got? A bent sapling. Some bonemeal. And that's it. What can I do with that, slap the guy with a tree?

That gave me an idea.

"Hey, porky! I heard all pigmen smell like composters! That true?" I yelled.

As if the pigman hadn't been mad earlier, now he was literally shaking in fury.

"Are you a ghast or a pig, cause you look like a crybaby!" I shouted.

The crowd whooped at that last one, though the ghosts floating above didn't look as amused.

"Were you really trying your hardest just then?" I taunted. "Because running from you was a piece of cake! You know what that is, right? Or are you too stupid to know?"

And with that final insult, the pigman screamed and ran towards me. He swung his sword. I dodged. He swung again. I dodged. He slashed wildly, and I dashed to the side as his sword sank into one of the pillars.

The pigman tried to pull out his sword, which wasn't budging. The pigman cursed and let go of the sword, turning towards me.

"That's fine," the pigman growled. "I don't need a sword to wring your neck."

I laughed, stepped back, and flipped him off.

The pigman screamed and dived at me.

I slammed the crooked sapling into the dirt and dumped all of my bonemeal on it.

Green sparks flew, and the tree shook. For a terrifying moment I thought it wouldn't grow.

The pigman stomped on the sapling, and I closed my eyes, preparing for my death.

And then, with a sound like a thousand logs smashing together, the spruce tree extended into the ground, launching the pigman into the air. I stumbled back as branches scratched at my face.

Then and there, a tiny column of green sprouted up among all the red and brown.

The crowd screamed in disbelief, and the pigman slammed into one of the pillars before hitting the dirt.

I walked over to the sword still embedded in the pillar. I wrenched it out, and grasped it firmly.

I walked over to the pigman that wasn't moving.

I raised the sword.

"Wait," the pigman gurgled. "You're making a mistake."

"Go to hell," I said. I swung the sword down.