Hey guys. Now that I am back to school (where did the break go?) I will be shooting for one chapter every weekend, and one or two during the week if I have time. Also, I am rather insulted that Mellifluousness's brain laughed at my puzzle, so I'll give you a hint. Write the numbers as WORDS, and not numerals. What does 3 have 5 of?

Story beginning in 3….2…..1….

Chapter 4

Trapped

OK, Will. It's almost time. Time to start the simulation….

I roll over in my sleep.

Remember, just three days… you only need to survive for three days…

"Will! Wake up or I'm cooking Bacon!"

See you then…

A deluge of cold water slaps me in the face.

Choking and spluttering, I leap out of bed and brandish Tamerlein, ready to tear whatever horror awaits me limb from limb.

No, wait, it's just Niegel.

"Sorry!" he apologizes, not sounding very contrite at all. "You can't just lay around all day! We have stuff to do!"

My arrival seems to have fired his determination to find this End place. "Look, Niegel, this whole End expedition sounds like a lot of work. We probably can't get it all done in one day…"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" he retorts. "We need to shore up this town's defenses. I just took a little stroll around, and I ran into a zombie! I barely got away."

Looking at his chestplate, I can verify his statement's veracity. There is a long scratch running from shoulder to hip, cut into solid iron. Ouch.

"Isn't there anyone else in this village that can help us do it?" I ask. There's a whole village, for goodness sake.

"No, actually. No." Niegel looks regretful. "Two days ago, early in the morning, everyone just… vanished. Cut out of the code. I've been hiding out here ever since."

"Why would they be taken out of the simulation?" I ask.

Niegel shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe the Coders wanted you to meet me, and no one else."

The Coders… the people that made this crazy program. I think back to the flash of light that vaporized the zombie on my first night. Was that their doing, too?

I pull myself back together. "Well, before we work on defenses, I left a lot of meat and cowhide outside last night, so…"

We head outside the village. Surprisingly, the meat is still there, although one slab has been dragged away. Zombies, I assume.

I heft the meat over my shoulder and carry it back to Niegel's house. We put it on his grill, which is heated by a furnace below it burning coal, then turn our attention to the cowhide.

Niegel nods. "I know what to do with this," he says. "The tannery is on the other side of town. Why don't I head over there, while you find us some stone for the defenses."

"Wait… how?"

"There's a chest full of tools in the corner. They're made of wood, but I can't make new ones, so they are all I've got."

"I think… I think I can."

He gives me a long look. "Why do you think that?"

"On my second day here, I made a sword out of sticks and a pointy rock. This sword, actually," I say, showing him Tamerlein.

He stares at it. "You can craft?"

"Yes, I suppose," I say, surprised that he used the same term I thought of when I first did it.

"Ok… well, go nuts, I guess," says Niegel as he leaves, seemingly distracted.

I turn back to the pickaxes. I may as well use them for now, because I can make a stronger one in the process of gathering stone.

I take three axes, putting two into my backpack, and set off for the hills with Bacon oinking by my side.

Finding a suitably large cliff, I begin chipping out chunks of stone. It's hard, tiring work, but I'm willing to do it if it means I can sleep safe from zombies.

When I have a good pile of stone, I decide it's time to call it quits. The day is already darkening, and I need to get back soon. How can I transport all this rock back, though?

I look at Bacon, but he only oinks in a confused way. Then I think of an idea. It's unorthodox, but it may work.

I run back into the forest, and come across a river. I look carefully around, attuned to any sound, and then a sight my prey. A lone sheep, drinking at the river.

I slink over to him and silently draw Tamerlein. With one quick movement, I slice off a chunk of wool.

With a terrified 'BAAAA!' the sheep flees deeper into the forest.

I methodically shred the wool into individual strands, then lay them side by side. Placing my hand over them, I whisper, "String."

Ten pieces of white string lie before me.

I knot the strings together sturdily, then once again craft them. "Rope," I mutter. The wool has now become three strong, thick ropes. Is there any limit to what I can craft?

I return to my rocks and arrange them into a more or less spherical shape. Wrapping the ropes around it and securing them wherever they cross, I make a stone ball that I can roll back to town.

I give it a gentle shove, and it begins its journey. Bacon oinks and dives to get out of its way.

Jogging along beside it, the lights of Niegel's house come into view. I stop the stones' roll next to the abode, then turn around, wondering where Niegel is.

The growl of a zombie permeates the silence.

Sprinting down an alley toward the sound, I find Niegel fighting off three zombies at once. He's already been wounded, but continues to fight valiantly.

I draw Tamerlein and begin to join the fray, but Niegel notices me.

"Will!" he shouts. "Run! It's a trap!"

A trap?

I look around, and see crowds upon crowds of zombies encroaching from every direction.

We're surrounded.

The moon rises on our impossible battle.

Meanwhile, in the light-painted laboratory…

One of the scientists watches the clock on the wall. "Aaaaand… Day Three is over! Quick, get him out before the zombies get him!"

Another scientist shrugs. "Hey, doesn't matter. If he dies in simulation, he just comes out, right? He's fine. We succeeded!"

The assembled workers let out a cheer.

"The test run of the Survival Simulator is now finished!" shouts Derek gloriously. "Can you imagine how much the military will pay for this?"

"Remind me why it had to be a kid, again?" asks one of the scientists.

His colleague rolls his eyes. "More creative. Mindset less set in stone. Did you see what he did with that crafting mechanism? Pure gold! The one advantage we gave him… He used it well."

"Now… let's get the kid out. Poor guy. He doesn't even remember agreeing to do this… Oh well, he'll be fine once he comes out."

He crosses over to where Will's body lies recumbent in the chair and flips a switch on the side, lightly slapping Will on the head. "Wake up, Will. Back to reality, kiddo…"

In the zombie-infested village, Will suddenly vanishes, leaving Tamerlein, his backpack, and the pickaxes to clatter on the ground.

"Will!" shouts Niegel, turning his back on the zombies to see where his friend went.

Three zombies jump on him and drag him down.

Will didn't know where he was.

Trapped in some limbo between waking and dreaming, he floated in a dark ether, unsupported and unrestrained.

He saw a light in the distance. Moving toward it, he saw a bleak white laboratory, filled with coated scientists peering through the hole at him. He doubted they could see into this world, though.

He pushed out into the light, and suddenly…

Will's body starts convulsing. His eyes open wide, and he screams in pain.

"Hold him! Hold him!" shouts one of the scientists.

As they struggle to hold Will down, two glowing purple eyes appear on all of the screens. A booming, unrelentingly loud voice intones, "DO NOT END THE WORLD. DO NOT STOP THE GAME."

The eyes disappear.

Will stops moving. His eyes shut again.

The scientists stand in shocked silence.

"He's… he's… stuck in there?" asks one.

"So what happens if he dies?" asks another.

No one decides to answer that question.

Derek adds, "I guess now is a bad time to mention that that software developer we called is coming to look at our simulation and see if they want to buy it?"

"Mojang?" asks a scientist.

"Yeah, them."

I reappear in the simulated village, trembling from my recent ordeal.

I sight Niegel buried beneath the zombies. Snatching up Tamerlein, I sweep the zombies off of Niegel's back.

Tearing a piece of cloth off of my shirt and picking up a pebble from the ground, I hold them in my hand, focus, and shout "Sling!"

A weighty sling appears in my hand.

I pick Niegel up. "Will?" he asks, somewhat disoriented. "Where-"

"No time," I say grimly. "We have bigger problems to deal with…

Boom-diggity! That's Chapter 4.

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