Chapter 6

Steve and DC stepped lightly, careful to watch their step. The winding tunnel was narrow and had many jagged edges, sharp enough to pierce through any flesh that lost its footing. Their nerves were on end; they'd flinch at every sound. Droplets of water fell from the ceiling and splashed against the ground, the sound reverberating against the hollowed walls. It was cold - very cold - and difficult to see through the thick fog. There almost seemed to be a slight breeze blowing across the tunnel, although there was nothing that could have caused it. Spider webs covered the area in thin strands of sticky silk.

The elevation dropped slightly at every turn, sprouting seeds of doubt in Steve's mind. Perhaps this wasn't the best path to choose; wouldn't a tunnel to the surface rise upwards?

Something hissed, stopping him dead in his tracks. DC opened his mouth to say something, but Steve shushed him; he recognized the hiss. "Spiders," he whispered. He peered into the darkness before him and could've sworn he saw a metal crate gleaming at him.

A mob spawner.

He hardly had time to react before three fanged, eight-legged creatures appeared out of nowhere and leapt at him with an agility that only spiders could possess. He drew his sword and stabbed the first one through the gut as it jumped for his head. The other two were easily slain with a couple of swings.

Then four more appeared.

He struck the first two, but the third saw its opportunity and latched itself onto his leg. He stumbled backward and fought the fourth one off before shaking himself free of the third.

"Get back," he told DC. "I need to destroy the spawner before more appear."

DC's eyes widened in fear. "Behind you!"

"Agh!" Steve dropped his sword and fell to the floor as something attached itself to his back. A horde of spiders crawled onto him, screeching angrily. He yelped as one sunk its teeth into his leg and held on with a fierce grip. The other spiders followed quickly - first an arm, the neck, and then his torso, until his entire body was covered in bleeding spider bites. The more he struggled under their weight, the more they bit; he could feel the poison slowly reaching his blood stream, a sickly warm feeling spreading out in his veins.

DC, too, was struggling to fend of a few of the bigger spiders, but they seemed to leave him unharmed; they merely shoved him away from Steve. He'd hiss in frustration, only being able to watch helplessly as Steve screamed with every new bite. He couldn't explode; not only would it be the end of him, but in the process he would probably kill the human as well.

Steve was beginning to think it was over; then he saw his sword a few feet away from him, lying on the ground. He reached out with a wounded arm, stretching until he could hear the joints popping. Just a little more, he thought. You can do it.

Finally, he felt his fingers touch the metal handle of his weapon. Feeling a surge of strength rush through him, he leapt to his feet and shook off as many spiders as he could. The blade pierced through the skulls of the ones foolish enough to cling to him. Not allowing himself to rest for even a second, he dashed over to DC and quickly took care of the remaining spiders before pulling out his pickaxe and shattering the spawner with a mere three blows. With the threat removed, he wiped the sweat from his brow and sank to his knees, breathing heavily.

DC came to him. "Are you alright?"

Steve nodded wearily. "I think so… Dang, that was a lot of spiders."

"I'm so sorry. I should have been able to help you."

"Don't be ridiculous. You were in a predicament of your own back there; there was nothing you could do."

"All those spider bites… You're covered in them!"

Steve glanced down at his clothes, which were now soaked in blood and spider spit. "I'll be fine. Seriously, don't worry about it; we're safe now, right? We need to keep moving."

"If you say so…"

After a few more deep breaths, he got to his feet and picked up the torch he dropped. Beyond the spawner, there was only a dead end, so he and DC turned around and returned to the main cave.

The question now was what path to choose next; the first one had obviously been the wrong one, and Steve didn't want to run into the same problem in the future. He didn't think he could handle it.

DC sensed his hesitation. "How about I go first this time?" he offered.

"Yeah… thanks." Steve was happy to oblige. He let DC lead the way into the second tunnel. His wrapped his hand around the handle of his sword in its sheath, ready for battle at any given moment.

This tunnel was noticeably straighter than the first one. It lacked many of the sharp turns that made up its previous counterpart. The fog was also thinner, allowing them to see better. The further they ventured into the tunnel, the warmer the temperature became, until Steve found himself sweating from the heat. A bubbling could be heard in the distance, as if a thick liquid was being melted. As they drew closer to the sound, the fog disappeared altogether, uncovering a large pit of red-hot magma that blocked their path.

DC hissed as a spark flew up from the pit and landed on his foot, slightly singeing it. "We're stuck," he said. "There's no way to cross; we may as well turn back now."

Steve wasn't so sure. "There must be something ahead of here; the idiot who wrote us the letter must have set this up, as he did the mob spawner. He's just testing us."

"But how do we get across? We can't just sprout wings and fly."

"Hold on. I think I still have a few pieces of cobble in my bag that we can use to step on." He rummaged in the pack and managed to find just enough to make a narrow bridge. Carefully, he lay them down over the magma and gently tapped on one with his foot to make sure it was secure. Once satisfied, he signaled for DC to follow. "All clear; let's go."

Steve was right; a little ways from the lava, there was a small chest waiting for them. Opening it, he found that it was absolutely empty. He sighed in frustration, beginning to think the note writer was toying with them.

Just like the first tunnel, the second one proved to be nothing but a dead end. They returned to the cave, somewhat disappointed but still relieved that it hadn't been nearly as dangerous as before.

They didn't get very far in the third tunnel. The straight path narrowed until there was only room for one person to go at a time. Eventually, they were stopped by an odd-looking, locked door that was made from an unbreakable black substance.

Steve immediately recognized the material. "I saw this stuff when I dug too far down in my first mining shaft - it's bedrock."

"Oh… Well, can't we just dig around it?"

"Maybe… oh, wait." He held the torch up to the walls, and they were both shocked and dismayed at the sight; the entire tunnel was made out of bedrock. This had to be the way to the surface; there was no way it wasn't.

"We'll come back to this later," decided Steve. "The other two tunnels might have something we can use to open the door."

Once again, they returned to the large cave that was becoming a familiar landmark to them. This constant back-and-forth traveling was becoming a nuisance, but what choice did they have?

As they entered the fourth tunnel, Steve noticed he had acquired a slight headache since his encounter with the spiders. Was the poison in his system beginning to work? If anything, he was surprised that he hadn't dropped dead by now from all of the bites he had received. He shook all thoughts of it from his mind; they really needed to get out of here.

They made a right turn, and the tunnel suddenly opened up to a small room. The right wall led to what Steve assumed was the fifth and final tunnel. In the room's center was another small chest surrounded by three different mob spawners set in a triangular formation - one for spiders, one for zombies, and one for skeletal archers. Steve cringed.

"I'm sure something is in that chest," he whispered to DC, almost fearing he would awaken the spawners if he spoke too loud, "but I don't want to get too close." He took a few steps back, but he soon found himself bumping into a wall. Turning around, he saw that the rest of the tunnel had somehow been blocked off by bedrock. "Shoot," he muttered. Trapped again.

The spawners began to give off a fiery glow, and in the blink of an eye, an entire pack of hostiles emerged from thin air, growling and thirsty for blood.

Steve wasn't going to deal with this a second time. "Run for it!" he yelled, darting for the chest. He drew his sword in an instant and swung violently at the hostiles in his path, skillfully taking care of a few of them. Once he reached the chest, he threw it open and was relieved to see a lever resting inside. He grabbed it and followed DC into the fifth tunnel, blocking off enemy attacks on the way. Neither of them stopped until they followed the tunnel all the way back to the cave.

"We did it," huffed DC, out of breath.

"Yeah." Steve looked at the lever in his hand. "I guess this is going to open up that door for us. Let's go."

Back at the third tunnel, he placed the lever on the wall adjacent to the door and flipped it, holding his breath in anticipation. Only when the door opened did he exhale and relax his muscles.

The door opened up to reveal a small room with ladders going up the side of a dirt wall. Next to the ladders was a note pinned to the wall. Steve sighed and picked it up.

"If you are reading this, then you obviously must have found your way here past the obstacles I have set up. Oh, don't worry; I know that was quite the simple test. I just wanted to slow you down a bit, have some fun. You haven't forgotten my offer, have you? I'm still waiting. Of course, I would hurry if I were you; it doesn't take too long for the maddening effects of spider venom to take effect.

"Hurry up, Stephen. Time is running out."

DC looked worried as Steve crumpled up the note in disgust. "You did get bitten quite a lot... Maybe we should rest and find an antidote for the poison before it gets too bad."

"We can't!" Steve protested. "You heard the guy; time is running out. It won't be long before he decides to do whatever the heck it is he's planning on doing. We're going to find this guy and get some answers out of him, and then we're going to put a stop to his stupid plan. We can't stop just because I got a little spider bite."

"But, Steve -"

He put up a hand to silence him. "No buts. C'mon, DC, we gotta get going."

"…I suppose you're right…"

"Don't worry about a thing; he was probably just exaggerating about the 'maddening effects' thing. Honestly, I'll be fine."

DC took a deep breath. "Okay. Now, how am I going to get up there? I can't climb ladders."

Steve took out some string from one of his bags. "We'll use this."

"String? Where did you… oh, the spiders."

"Yeah. It looks pretty strong, so if I take a few strands and put them together…" He did so and tied the ends with a knot. "I'll tie this around you and pull you up as I climb."

"You're quite the resourceful miner."

Steve smirked. "I know."

It didn't take them very long to reach the surface; Steve found that creepers were actually quite lightweight to carry. Night was once again falling when they set foot on the grass; apparently an entire day had gone by while they were stuck in the cavern. A mountain was close to their location, so Steve mined a fair-sized hole in its side to make a shelter for the night. Once that was done, he sat down in the corner and leaned wearily against the wall, closing his eyes. The cool, smooth stone felt good against his pounding head, which felt unnaturally hot when he put his hand to it. In fact, his entire body felt warm and clammy, not to mention heavy and limp. Was it the poison?

"Are you okay?" DC asked timidly.

Steve groaned, keeping his eyes closed. "Yeah, I'm fine. I think I'm just tired."

"Maybe you should eat something."

"Ohhh…" He couldn't bear to think of food; his stomach felt queasy. He curled up in a ball in a vain attempt to ease the pain. It seemed that the symptoms had caught up with him when he sat down to rest. Usually he was so healthy, but now… now, he felt horrible.

DC watched him with concern. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again.

"…No." Steve coughed and curled up even tighter. "I'm not okay."