Chapter 2

Waking Up

I woke up in a sleeping bag.

My first thought was: Ow.

Stupid creepers. I had totally forgotten that they explode.

Kind of a hard thing to forget, but don't blame me. I had amnesia.

I looked around me, and my heart nearly stopped.

Surrounding me was a mix of creepers, spiders, and a tall black thing with glowing purple eyes. They were all milling about a campsite, oblivious to the fact that the human they had captured was awake.

I tried to keep it that way by closing my eyes and listening to their surprisingly English conversations.

"Hey, James!" One creeper yelled. A slight opening of the eyes revealed him to be tall and skinny. His voice was deep and commanded authority.

"Yeah, Anthony?" The presumed James replied. He was slightly chubby, and had a more childish voice.

"I think the human needs a few more pillows. Can you get him some?"

Aw, that was nice of him.

"I think we've run out! Katherine, could you go check?"

"Really? James, I thought it was your turn!"

I glanced over to the direction of the voice, and beheld a skinny creeper, who appeared to be writing something down, or drawing. Her voice was cheery and perky.

"I thought it was either you or Mary's." He sounded slightly annoyed, like they had been at this for a while.

"Hey! Don't drag me into this!" Mary shouted from somewhere outside camp.

"Stop that, all three of you!" Anthony, probably the lead creeper, groaned.

I tried not to smile as I listened to their bickering. James and Katherine were obviously brother/sister. Opening my eyes a little more, I saw all of the monsters had identifying marks on their foreheads. Anthony had a dragon. Katherine had a pencil. James had a potato.

Good. That means I'll be able to remember them.

After a moment of indecision, I decided they probably didn't want to kill me. After all, they seemed pretty nice, and I couldn't imagine someone like James trying murder any time soon.

I feigned waking up and yawning.

"Look! The zombie awakens!" A spider said. This one was also skinny, but less so, and he had a slightly humorous voice. On his forehead was a joker face.

"Alex, that isn't funny." I couldn't identify this voice, but it had the same hiss as the other spider's voice. It was behind me, so I couldn't see clearly.

"Sorry." Alex mutters under his breath a few words I probably shouldn't repeat here.

I finally decided to speak up.

"You guys speak English? Weird. I thought this was a different universe."

They all stared at me.

"Umm... did I say something wrong?"

Anthony, the lead creeper, replied:

"Most other humans turn mute from the shock of being surrounded by spiders and endermen. And walking sticks of TNT."

Ah. So THAT was the name of the tall, black, towering humanoid. I racked my memory for any abilities he might have, but my mind came up blank.

"Enderman? Is that what he's called?" I pointed to the enderman.

Everyone laughed except for the tall figure.

"Well, I prefer the term "she", personally, but go ahead and call me what you want."

I had a closer look now. She was tall, and had eerie glowing eyes, much like the white ones in my dreams. Around her was a faint, purple mist, like snowflakes falling up and down. On her forehead was a paintbrush.

Wow. I am such an idiot.

"I'm supposing you don't know our names?" An unidentified spider asked. This one was normal-sized, with a cheery voice and a happy face. On her forehead was a pony.

"What do you think?"

"I'm Amanda. That creeper over there is Anthony. He's the group leader, good at directing us when it comes to both battle and campsites."

Anthony appeared the part. He was battle-hardened, and yet his eyes had the light of humor in them. He stood up straighter when she called his name, like he was trying to prove something.

"Over there is James, the youngest of our group, tied with Katherine, his twin sister. He's the enthusiastic one. Katherine's one of the only creepers combat-trained in our group, along with Reid and Anthony. In battle, she's fierce, but outside, she enjoys painting and drawing."

James smiled and waved. He was a little chubby, but seemed nice. Katherine looked up from her picture-in-progress and grinned. She looked very into her work, as if she were wishing it would come up and talk by itself.

"That creeper over THERE is Dob. He's the genius of the group, but he's still a little dull when it comes to being social."

Dob glared at Amanda, but his frown twitched into a slight smile. He looked smart, and kept talking to himself different formulas and unused jokes. He was writing something down. I squinted and saw tons of math equations and shapes.

"Mary, the one outside of camp right now, she's the wise one. Both in smarts and in attitude. She comes up with all of the plans. She checks Anthony's work. She's also a creeper."

Mary called out that we only have the pine wood left, and that someone needs to collect a little normal wood from the forest.

"Alex is the comedic one. Perhaps a little too comedic."

If creepers could blush, Alex would be doing it right about now. He was skinny but had a permanent smirk on his face.

"Reid, the last spider, is the brawn. He carries stuff, soaks up damage, etc."

I could see that. Reid was very burly and large, but he saluted me and continued on his way over to Mary, picking up a large box labeled TNT on the way. On his forehead was a hammer.

"Finally, we have Chris, the male/female enderman, apparently. She's kinda the mysterious one, but she likes to help around with Katherine when it comes to drawing."

Her eyes had a strong hint of intelligence in them. Her legs and arms were very long, and skinny. Whenever you looked at her, she looked furious, as if saying "You aren't worthy of looking at me. Bow down before me, but wear a pumpkin hat!"

Her dark stature kept me on edge a little bit.

"We're here on a mission of reconnaissance, looking for a rogue creeper by the name of Bryce. I think he had an encounter with a certain human and grew a little frightened, wouldn't you say?"

She grinned, and I groaned at the pain in my chest.

"It'll wear off in a few hours. We're also looking for rebel skeleton and zombie groups, led by a ghost named Herobrine."

She shuddered, and a lightbulb went off in my head.

"Does he have two glowing white eyes?"

Everyone snapped their attention to me, like I was the ghost.

"Have you seen him, human?" Anthony asked me this himself. His gaze, directed at me, did nothing to calm my nerves.

"In my dreams, yes. He usually chases after me and kills me."

His eyes widened. Mary entered the camp, looking a little taller than Katherine, but with the same glint in her eyes as James.

"Mary, when we're done with our mission here, we need to go to the Capital. I expect the King will want to see this human."

And then I remembered something.

"Am I a prisoner, Anthony?"

He stared at me, and for a horrible moment, I thought he'd say yes. Then he laughed.

"No! Of course not! We don't keep prisoners who kill highly dangerous rebels! What do you think we are, zombies?"

The light outside began to grow brighter. The night was over.