The Minecraft Story: The Beginning: Chapter 33
The explosion shook the ground beneath Notch. For a moment, he thought Herobrine was destroying the world entirely. But then, he could see the mushroom cloud. It rose above the trees and was barely visible, but he saw it. He knew where it was coming from, Fort Deepslate. It was decently far. Notch knew whatever made that explosion had to be Herobrine's creation.
Why do you do this? He thought. Why do you have to spread misery onto our creation? Why?
…
All he could see was green. Luscious green leaves. His back was aching.
Where am I? He thought.
He tried to stand, but his foot found nothing but air.
If there's nothing below me, then how am I laying here?
His hand searched beneath him. At first there was also nothing but air, but soon, he felt the rough texture of bark.
What is this? It feels like the bark on a tree. A tree?
Thomas looked down and discovered he was ten blocks off the ground in a tree.
What the hell; what happened?
Suddenly, the memories came flooding back. The creeper blew up. He was blown off the wall. He thought he was going to die, but he landed in a field of trees. He survived. Thomas looked up and remnants of the mushroom cloud still remained.
It hasn't been that long. He thought. Wait, I can see the cloud perfectly. Why is that? Shouldn't the wall be impeding my view?
His eyes trailed down the cloud. There was nothing but the blue sky and the gray cloud. It must be further down. He trailed further and further down, until he could see the mutant creeper. The wall was gone. Only remnants of the base of the wall remained. And the mutant creeper was still alive. His eyes darted back to the mutant creeper.
Why is it still here? It should be dead. That's what happens to them, they explode and they're gone. So why is this one still here?
The mutant creeper stood in place of the Citadel. A building once revered as the safest building in the world, was now a pile of rubble. The mutant zombie slowly got up, its wounds from the battle severely hindered. And now, its body was badly burnt by the explosion, leaving its upper body charred black.
How did that thing not die? These things truly are monsters. Wait, what are they doing now?
The monsters turned around and began to walk back in the direction they came from; back to towards the destroyed gates, back to towards the field, back towards the southern forest.
…
The dust was still settling when Marcus opened his eyes. Pieces of the once impenetrable Fort Deesplate lay all around him. A cloud of dust caked him all over.
So I can't even die correctly. He thought. We couldn't stop that monster and now the base is gone. He stared at what remained of the first wall. Huge chunks were missing and every inch of the wall could topple over at any moment. How many people were killed in that explosion? I need to know; every single one of those deaths were caused by our failure. Marcus's mind raced back to when Franz saved him from the mutant zombie. Why couldn't you just let it kill me? We could've stopped this, but no. His mind then flashed back to their conversion after the mutant zombie attack. No, I shouldn't be thinking like this. I know why he did it. But, if I'd known this was going to be the result of that decision, I think I would've left him there.
Suddenly, Marcus heard footsteps coming his way. They were a combination of normal light sounding footsteps and large, lumbering footsteps. It had to be the pigmen and the monsters. Marcus held his body still as the first of a large group of pigmen passed by.
One pigman snorted, "Can you believe that big boom?" He said with enthusiasm.
"Yeah, those humans went flying in the sky!" Another pigman replied while pointing his finger into the sky, "Good idea to stay back."
Pigmen. Marcus thought. Even if I couldn't stop those monsters. He slowly gripped his sword. Maybe I can at least kill these guys.
Marcus was about to stand up when one pigman asked, "Where are we attacking next?" Marcus stopped himself.
Another pigman replied, "Our lord discovered this large town called Redwater. Lots of humans to kill. Can't wait to see big boom in town."
As the pigmen walked away laughing to themselves, Marcus took a moment to think. Redwater. I think I've heard of it. Yes I do. It's a large town in the Southern Territories by lake Red Falls. But it's deep in southern territory with hundreds of people. Why are they going there?
Suddenly, the mutant creeper stepped out from the destroyed gate. He'd been so lost in thought, he didn't notice the footsteps growing louder. It was practically on top of him. So close he feared of being squished by the long spider-like feet. It was even more repulsive up close. Luckily, it didn't notice him and kept walking back to the south. It was the same with the mutant zombie. However, it looked horrible. It was barely keeping up with the creeper as it wobbled along. Its top half was so badly burnt, he wondered if it could even see. He almost felt sorry for it. The monsters left Marcus alone and he only sat up when he was sure they were gone.
So they're next target is Redwater. Maybe we can still stop them. I need to find the General. If he's still alive, maybe we can formulate a plan to kill these things. But first, where's Franz?
…
Franz found himself in a dark hallway made of stone bricks with a few redstone lamps on the roof to illuminate the hall. His head darted back and forth between each side of the hallway. One side was a dead end while one side kept going.
He didn't know why, but he walked down the hallway. It was completely silent, he couldn't even hear his own footsteps. As he walked, the hallway slowly got darker as few redstone lamps illuminated above.
Where am I going? He thought.
As he continued walking, he noticed the stone breaks were slowly transforming into normal stone. He also noticed the hallway slowly becoming wider. This continued until Franz was walking in a large cave. No longer was he in the man-made hall, he was now in a cave with almost no light.
His terror became more extreme with every step he took into the darkness. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't go back, that would just lead to a dead end. There was no choice but to keep moving forward.
It felt like he'd been walking for hours, when a distant light appeared in the distance. However, it was normal light from a torch or redstone lamp. This light was purple. It was a dark glowing purple. Franz stopped, unsure if it was wise to continue.
What is that? He thought. I've never seen purple light before. Is it man-made or could it be one of Herobrine's creations? He looked back toward the dark abyss he'd just traversed through. Maybe I should go back, maybe there was something I missed back there. He turned back to the light. Or maybe it's just a dead end after all. He stared at the light for a long time. What the hell, I've come this far, might as well keep going.
As the light drew closer, he noticed a rhythmic hum coming from the light. It was nothing like he'd ever heard before. When he reached the light, he finally understood what he was looking at. It was a large four block by five block rectangle of obsidian with a glowing purple vortex in the middle. They'd read about this in the Bible of Notch. It was the Nether Portal. Franz was about to turn back when Marcus suddenly emerged from the portal.
Franz's eyes widened. "Marcus," he said.
His brother had no reply. He simply stared at him with a blank expression.
Franz reached out, "Marcus, are you okay?"
Suddenly, four zombies, two on each side, came running at Marcus and began to devour him. Marcus made no cries, he made no move to ward off his attackers, not even his blank expression left his face.
"NO!" Franz screamed while trying to run after Marcus. The golden sword pierced Franz's back and came out his chest. He was surprised when he looked down and saw no blood on the sword, but he still felt it. The pain was extreme, but to an even bigger surprise, he didn't move, he couldn't move. It was as if his entire body, excluding his eyes, had turned to stone. He looked up at what remained of his baby brother, nearly his entire body had been eaten by the zombies. No flesh remained except for half of his face and one eye. And from that eye, a single tear slowly fell.
Franz awoke to Marcus shaking him. He pushed Marcus's hand away as the shaking made his body ache.
"Stop," Franz whispered, "That hurts Marcus, can you ple- Marcus!" Franz sat up despite the pain and hugged Marcus.
Marcus was surprised, but he hugged his big brother back.
…
General Ausmin was exhausted. It had taken all his strength to dig his way out of the rubble. He was astonished to see the Citadel had been completely destroyed. After he unburied himself, he went to check the nobles. He only found a pile of corpses buried by what little remained of the Citadel.
He was surrounded by dead bodies. Luckily, his desperate search for survivors had not come up empty. At first, he only found a few surviving knights. They informed the General on every detail of the battle. The story horrified him, but they had to keep searching. With each knight they found, the more joined the search. Once they'd found all the survivors, General Ausmin could re-evaluate their battle strategy against the southern heretics.
Those heretics, those monsters. They did this. He thought. They brought these beasts here and they'll all die for it.