Chapter 14 - Week Three; Day One
Mike
I woke the next morning, weary but exhilarated. I got up and lifted my sword from beside me. None of those zombies would stand a chance against me. I walked downstairs and grabbed the pick. I went to an unused corner of the room and started tunneling down.
After a couple of hours of doing this i had formed a spiral staircase down to, what. At the bottom i hit my pick against the side of the stairwell and got a hollow sound. I shook my head and started pounding my way through. About ten minutes later the tip of my pick penetrated with a little hole.
I slammed myself against the wall and felt it give. I kicked it really hard and the rest fell away. The good news; No bloodsucking bats came out. The bad news; i couldn't see a thing. I shook my head and walked back into my base.
Twenty minutes later i brought back several makeshift torches. I had the first one lit. I scrolled to it on my hot bar and leaned into the cave. Luckily i saw the floor almost instantly; it was 2 feet from where i was standing. I sat down in the entrance to the cave, and propped the torch up against the wall. I cautiously felt the floor as i lit a second torch from the first.
I lightly stepped through the cave. On the ceiling were interesting stalagmites. I broke one off and brought it closer to my face, it flared into fire as it brushed against the torch. I jumped back in surprise as i dropped it to the floor. It lay on the ground and flared brightly for a minute before vaporizing the last of the stalagmite. A word popped up from the recesses of my mind; Fuel.
I gathered the stalagmites and placed them inside in a metal bowl i had crafted. I walked back into the cave and faced another surprise, because there on the walls was something i knew very well. I scraped some up and carried it out into the light to make sure. I examined it but i really couldn't tell. So i laid some down on a stone slab and went to get my torch.
When i came back i lowered the torch's flame delicately towards the powder. I shielded my face as the small pile exploded. With my ears ringing i stumbled inside. My head throbbed, but my mind was chockfull of possibilities. I quickly made another trip to the ruins. When i got there i saw the lone spider sitting.
While the sight of it disgusted me it didn't even try to move against me. I rummaged through the pile until i found several pieces that fit what i needed. I grabbed extras just in case and went to leave the Ruins. As i neared the fence a zombie stumbled from the house in the middle of the ruins.
I bounced back and drew my sword from its makeshift sheath. The zombie stopped when he saw me. He started speaking but nothing registered on my chat bar. It was mainly grunts, suddenly his voice got louder and substantially clearer. This registered on the chat bar.
"Damned son of a-" i shook my head warningly as i repositioned my sword. The zombie registered the sword. "You killed my dogs! Didn't you." I shook my head "Your Spiders attacked me." I turned and slashed through the fence with my sword. "Teach your next ones manners" I walked through the fence and headed back home.
When i got back to the house i put some wood together with the gunpowder in the middle. When i tested it the explosion barely twitched the boards. I went back down and got several handfuls. I put two handfuls between the wood and dropped a rock on it. The explosion broke the wood into splinters i dropped to avoid the shrapnel. I laughed as i went back into my house and grabbed my spade.
I went around and started digging holes around my house stretching around sixty feet from my base. I then put together around 100 mines and put them into the shallow holes. Before filling them up. I lured some rabbits to my house carefully and put them into a little cage with some food.
I looked outside and saw that the sun was setting. I went down into my furnace room. "It's going to be a long night!" Slowly i lit the furnace and started heating the spent iron i had retrieved from the ruins. As the flames rose higher i dreamed of cannons.