Chapter Fifteen: The Mansion

As the sound above them cut out, Scott and Max began asking questions.

"What happened!?"

"Are they okay?!"

"What are we gonna do?!"

"Are we stuck down here forever!?"

Alex sighed deeply, her shoulders slumping slightly. "I… I don't know."

"You don't know?!" Max exclaimed, panicking. "You're the grown-up! You know what to do!? You have to!" He grabbed his hair and dug his fingers against his scalp, freaking out.

Scott grabbed one of Max's shoulders. "Chill out, buddy. You got any ideas?"

"No. She's supposed to have all of the ideas…" Max muttered, looking miserable.

Alex sighed. This wasn't fair. She had to lead these two away from the danger of the woodland mansion, but she was just one person, and they were just two kids. What were they going to do? She slumped over and sat down, miserable.

Just as Alex was about to give up, however, the trapdoor opened and Carlos dropped down, followed by David, Mark, and Luke. They were heaving for breath, gasping, and obviously exhausted. Alex looked them over. Why was there only….

"Where's Adam?" She asked quietly, looking over the group that had just entered the cavern.

"He…" Luke sighed hard. "He didn't make it out."

"What?" Scott leapt up, shocked and horrified. "He didn't… make it out?"

"He's dead?" Max whispered, sitting down. "For real."

Matt nodded grimly. "Yeah."

"What do we do?" Alex asked. "We're trapped underground, with no way out and no way to leave, not to mention all the monsters in here. You have a plan, right?

"Somewhat," Carlos answered. "We need to get out of here, but we can't head back inside the building. It's too dangerous. We'll have to tunnel out."

"Tunnel out?" Max asked, looking up at Carlos.

"Dig out towards the forest," Carlos clarified. "Once we get there, we can construct our own shelters and such."

"But won't our inventories fill up before we can reach the outside world?" Luke asked, confused.

Carlos pulled a lava bucket from his inventory. "We'll dig in shifts. I'll make a burn pit. We need to get started going towards the mountains. David, you have the best sense of direction. Lead the way."

David closed his eyes. "We came from the west, towards the east. Let me focus." He took a deep breath, spinning in a few circles gingerly, his arms outstretched.

Just when Alex was about to ask what was going on, he opened his eyes and pointed towards one of the walls. "There. We need to start digging there."

"How did he…" Alex trailed off.

"It's a trait you have to build up," Mark explained as they began digging a two-block wide tunnel. "All of us have it, David just had more time to focus on it than us."

"Interesting," Alex considered this, wondering if she could somehow access the similar thing. Was that possible? Did every Minecrftian have that internal compass calling them back to their spawn point? To their home?

Alex sighed, then kept digging.

"This is the most boring thing ever," Scott grumbled. "Couldn't something cool happen, just o-AAAAAAAAHHHH!" He screamed as he fell through the weak flooring and into a cavern below.

"SCOTT!" Max and Carlos shouted simultaneously.

"I'M KIND OF OKAY!" Scott shouted back, trying to reassure them. "But it's really dark down here and my back hurts!"

"Hang on, we're coming!" Alex answered, mining through the floor beneath her feet and catching herself in a bucket of water at the last second.

The cave was deep, scary and dark. Alex pulled out a lantern, looking for Scott in the darkness. She finally spotted him, lying flat on his back, whining in pain.

"Hey," She smacked his cheek lightly, then pushed a bit of pork into his hands. "Come on, eat."

Scott groaned, but took a bite anyway, swallowing. He sighed. "I'm so useless."

"No you're not," Alex answered, folding her arms and sitting back on her heels. "What makes you think that?"

"I can't hardly do anything right," Scott answered. "I just want to be normal, and boring, and calm like everyone else."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"I dunno," Scott took another bite. "It'd be nice to not feel so pointless all this time."

There was a crash in the tunnels ahead of them, and Max leapt down the hole, landing neatly in Alex's water bucket puddle.

"What's going on?" Alex asked.

"We're being attacked," Max explained. "David'n'Carlos should be here soon."

Alex looked over Scott one more time and sighed deeply. This really sucked. It sucked to feel so powerless, to not be able to fight in her own way, fierce as a she-wolf. Instead, she sighed so hard her body hurt. "Well, we might as well defend ourselves."

Review Replies:

Moatazabou4: Yeah well Braxon is a moron

JimmyPenguin421: Yes… Everyone is in for a really bad time.

Elbert the cookie: Oh, it's comin'