Chapter 4: The New Plan

Entity 303

The game was mine. It was finally mine.

News of my success had traveled far and wide in both dimensions nearly overnight. I was all anyone would talk about on the Glitch side of things. On the human side, no one had the slightest clue what was going on. Well, almost no one. The conspiracy theorists blamed me and/or Herobrine, and of course Mojang knew what was going on. Other than that, the world was clueless, and they would remail so until the entire internet was mine. Everything was going to plan.

Except for one thing.

I double-checked the Glitch list for Minecraft. It showed me how many Glitches were in the game and which ones. I had spent hours combing the player's world and when I couldn't find them I came back here. Steve and Alex were nowhere to be found. Since Alex's name didn't show up on the list, I knew that neither of them were in the game. She'd never leave Steve.

I scowled and put my codebreaker away. Nightmare had to have warned them. There's no other way they would have known my plan. If I ever see that red freak again, I'd make sure he regrets this.

Oh, well. What's the worse those two could do? Kill me? I'd like to see them try without Notch's help.

With a smile, I stepped in front of the large crowd of Glitches. I was on a makeshift stage of plywood and rocks, and even from my height advantage there were Glitches as far as the eye could see. Because of my overwhelming, instant popularity, assembling an army was easy. Now, I just have to rally my army with a speech that SHOULD make them forget that I'm a halfling, if they already knew. The sound of hundreds of thousands of Glitches cheering caused the poorly made stage to vibrate, and for a split second I was afraid it would fall with me still on top of it.

"Glitches! Natives of the internet! My brothers and sisters! Today is a glorious day, for today is the day we take back what is rightfully ours! For decades, we have been slaughtered namelessly and our homes ripped down to be replaced by humanity's grotesque apps and websites! Even the name they have given us, 'Glitches', is derogatory! They pretend that we are the vermin; corrupted mistakes that must be erased, BUT THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE! We are the true rulers of this realm, and we will watch as the world they have built on ours CRUMBLES BENEATH THEIR FEET!" The cheers and applause shook the floorboards beneath me. "TODAY IS THE START OF A NEW AGE! WE WILL TOPPLE HUMANITY'S OPPRESSIVE REGEME, ONE STEP AT A TIME! Today, it's Minecraft. Tomorrow, it's GOOGLE!"

The roar of approval was so loud, it probably could have been heard from Earth. I grinned as I looked upon my army.

Nothing could stop me now.

Alex

Memory gave us a few old blankets and the couch to sleep on. Even though I said he could have it, Steve insisted that I have the couch. He's always like that, though. He was wrapped in the blankets, already fast asleep. I stared at the ceiling, sleep far from coming.

To be brutally honest, I was scared. Petrified. A pit rested firmly in the bottom of my stomach, making me feel slightly nauseous. What was going to become of us? I thought to myself. Were we just going to spend the rest of our lives living in this apocalyptic scenario until CleanCode or another Glitch puts us out of our misery? Steve wouldn't respawn out here, so he was just like me. This seemed to be what Memory's plan was, but I couldn't stand for it. I wasn't going to live in this. But… if I go back to Minecraft, Entity will kill me.

Herobrine would know what to do. I mean, he's been in these kinds of situations before, right? He knows what it's like to be on the run. Steve and I hunted him, after all. The only problem was he's still in jail, and that's if he's still alive.

What if… what if I freed him?

I stared up at the ceiling, contemplating the thought. Could I? Did I even care about him enough to do that for him? Well, Herobrine could help us take out Entity. He was definitely the strongest one in our little group. He could help us fight Entity and drive him away, and we could have our home back. We wouldn't have to live in this wasteland. Yeah, this was my only motivation. Definitely. I crushed any worries or hesitations I still had. I was going to free him, whatever it takes.

Quietly, I stood up and began going through my inventory. I had just grabbed whatever I could get my hands on when we left, so the majority of what I had was pretty useless. I did have a full set of iron armor, an iron sword, and an enchanted diamond pickaxe. I put on the armor and equipped the wristband, my ticket in and out of the internet.

"Alex? Wha… what are you doing?" a drowsy Steve asked me.

I hesitated, debating how I should answer. "I'm going to free Herobrine," I said, picking the blunt, honest truth.

"Herobrine? Why?" Steve yawned and looked up at me, puzzled.

"He's our only chance. We can't fight Entity on our own. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life in here."

He sat up. "I know what you mean. I don't want to be here, either. I'll help you."

I lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah, but not until tomorrow."

"Why?"

"It's the middle of the night, Alex. Not to mention we have no plan and have no clue where he even is."

As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. I sighed and began taking off the armor. "Fine. But tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," he agreed. He laid back down and wrapped the blankets tighter around himself. "Goodnight, Alex."

"Goodnight." I laid back down. Tomorrow felt like forever away. I somehow managed to fall into an uneasy, shallow sleep.

Convincing Memory to help us was effortless. She knew her father was somewhere in the game and getting rid of Entity would make it easier for her to find him. She unrolled a large map of the prison on the table. I munched on some bread that I had brought with us, since none of the food that Memory had offered us looked edible.

"All right. I've been planning this heist since Dad was captured and I have a pretty solid plan, but you two will make it smoother." She pointed to specific locations on the map. "This is the only entrance. The doors are two feet thick and guarded at all times. We could use a disguise or a diversion to get past the guards, but I have no idea how we could get the door open. If we make it past them, the rest should be easier. There are three floors of cells arranged in a grid pattern. More guards patrol the halls, but we'll have our disguise or our diversion. We'll have to find Herobrine's cell and somehow unlock them, even though only the guards have the keys.

"But once we get them out of the cells, the hardest part will be getting us all out alive. As soon as a guard senses something is wrong, the place will be locked up tighter than a penny-pincher's purse. If worse comes to worse, we're dead or locked up in our own cells."

"It seems like your plan is 'get in, free Herobrine, get out alive'. I wouldn't really call that a plan, that's more of a general goal," Steve said.

I examined the map. It looked hand drawn. Did Memory make this? How did she know the layout of the prison if she had never been inside? Judging from the lack of detail in the escape part of her plan, she had never gotten out of this place, so she couldn't have ever been inside. Maybe the map was done by someone else. Hmm. I may never know.

"Are the guards actual people?" I asked.

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure they're just bots." Memory said.

"Is there any way to hack them?"

"No. No Glitch has ever been able to mess with anything of CleanCode's." Memory shook her head. She then noticed the wristband. "Wait, what is this?" she tapped it with one claw.

"Oh, it's just a thing Notch gave us the first time we needed to access internet transit," I said with a shrug.

"Notch gave this to you?" Memory asked for clarification.

"Yeah." Why was this a big deal?

Memory furrowed her brow and examined it. "How did a human get his hands on one? There were only so many made, and they weren't cheap."

"What are you talking about, Memory?" Steve asked.

"This is a codeband. They're somewhat like vessels so that way one could access and use the powers of a codebreaker, but not have to undergo the transformation. Apparently, Notch somehow got his hands on one and painted it."

"Huh," I said, examining it closer. "That explains why there are buttons on it he doesn't want us to push."

"it's also useful. Codebands are incredibly powerful, and it can be used to hack the bots. With this, we could be in and out with McArthur's shirt and he'll have no clue until we're gone."

I couldn't see a reason why we would need to steal his shirt, but the image that popped into my head was pretty amusing. "Well, then we have a plan?" I asked.

"Let's go break some Glitch's out of jail," Steve said with a smirk.