The Minecraft Story: The Kingdom: Chapter 5
How long have I been running? An hour? Two? Steve thought as he struggled to catch his breath. How much longer can I keep it up? His leg was getting sore from his iron sword bashing against him while he ran. Suddenly, a twig snapped from underneath him.
"I hear him, over there!" A voice yelled out from the darkness of the jungle.
Shit! I gotta keep going! These are some persistent bastards.
Steve kept running, only occasionally looking back. He heard a rustling noise in front of him and braced himself.
What's it going to be this time? He thought. His answer burst from the jungle with a grunt and reached out for him. It was another zombie. He grabbed the arm and threw it behind him. It was all he could do. In a strange way, the mobs had been both a blessing and a curse. While it was annoying to deal with them, they also managed to slow down the pillagers when he threw them back. Thanks to his chucking of mobs, he'd managed to slowly dwindle down their numbers as they got held up fighting the mobs. He estimated there were about four or five of them now instead of dozens.
Thank god for those cardio days. Steve thought. He looked up to the sky as the orange crest of dawn finally started to poke out from the trees. Another arrow whizzed past Steve, narrowly missing his left side. He turned around to see the pillagers were beginning to gain ground.
What the hell! Steve thought. The mobs must be going back into hiding! He desperately searched the jungle. It was thick with vegetation and the giant trees dwarfed the cave ceiling of his home. My home, the sanctuary. Will I ever be able to go back? Is there anything left to go back to?
Another arrow missed Steve and his focus immediately returned. I need a vantage point, something to help me figure out what to do. Steve quickly ran to the base of a tree and with the little strength he had left, he climbed the vines. He climbed twenty blocks as fast as he possibly could in a zigzag motion to avoid the crossbow. The arrows plunged into the bark like it was nothing. Each time one hit, he remembered Titus being hit in his leg and his shoulder.
I'm sorry, Titus, I'm sorry Rolf. He thought. Suddenly, there was a searing pain in his left foot. He looked down to see an arrow sticking out from the back of his foot.
"OH SHIT!" He screamed.
The pillagers from below began to laugh, "You finally hit him, Terence!"
"It only took you all night you useless pile of crap!" another pillager yelled.
"Look at him climbing the tree, what does he think he is, a spider?" another laughed.
Blood dripped down from his foot and one pillager caught the blood with the blade of his axe and sniffed it, "Ooooh YES! Love that smell! Take a whiff!"
Steve winced as he watched the axe being passed around the five of them and each being in pure euphoria as they sniffed.
"Hey Terence, now that he's up that tree, think you get one of those arrows in his ass?" all the pillagers began to laugh hysterically.
Steve scanned the area as quickly as he could. Trees. Trees. More trees. A really tall tree. Some cobblestone. Trees. Wait, cobblestone? Steve thought as he returned his gaze to the cobblestone. Through the vines and vegetation, he could see a little bit of cobblestone. Above that cobblestone was some jungle oak logs. The rest was out of view, but he was sure of what he was looking at. A house. It has to be a house. There's someone out here! He also noticed some movement in between him and the house. It blended into the foliage, but he could tell what he was looking at. It was a creeper.
He looked down and could see Terence was beginning to aim his crossbow up at him. There was no time to think. He jumped down right onto Terence. Upon landing onto Terence, Steve heard a sickening cracking sound. He wondered if he'd broken his leg or something, but he felt fine; bruised up, but fine. He looked down to find he'd broken Terence's neck when he fell onto him and lifeless eyes stared at him.
The other pillagers. Steve looked around at the slackjaw faces of the four remaining pillagers. They couldn't believe what had just happened.
"I'M GONNA TO SKIN YA ALIVE!" a pillager screamed as Steve jumped up and booked it for the house.
He ran as fast as he could with an arrow in his foot. The terrain was hilly and rough. Several times he almost fell over, but he knew if he stopped for a single second, they'd catch up. The crunching of leaves and sticks were right behind him. However, he could also hear footsteps up ahead, he knew it had to be the creeper.
Steve braced himself and held out his arms. Any second, it would pop out. Any moment, there it was! The creeper broke through the leaves and ran at Steve. It began to charge up its explosion. With one swift motion, Steve grabbed the creeper and threw it behind him.
BOOM!
Steve didn't stop, he couldn't afford to. He did look back and saw the mangled corpses of two pillagers. However, he could also see the red anger of the two remaining pillagers. They're definitely pissed now. Steve thought. That's fine, I'm almost there.
The house started to pop out from behind the trees. In just a few seconds, he'd finally be back in civilization. It slowly crept out from behind as he ran. Soon, the entire house would be in view. Steve crashed through a bush and found himself right next to the house…the whole half of it that was still remaining.
Steve blinked and looked at it again. Half the house was completely missing and what remained was covered in vines and cobwebs. The doors and windows were gone and it was barely standing. He turned around to see more deteriorated houses. The realization hit quickly, he was in ghost town. He was standing in a town that fell during The Dark Ages, 325 years ago.
SHIT! He thought as he stared at the ghost town.
His senses quickly came back as he heard the pillagers busting through the bush behind him. Without thinking, he took off running. In his panicked state, he didn't see the ravine right in the middle of town and he fell inside. As he fell, his life flashed before his eyes. His parents, his friends, the pillager attack, everything, even the weird dreams about the egg.
The egg? Steve thought as he fell. What were those dreams about? I still don't know what egg he was talking about.
When he hit the stone, he blacked out.
…
He opened his eyes to find himself back in the void. He was back in his strange egg dream.
The same voice called out to him again, "It's almost time."
"Time? Time for what? That stupid egg again?" Steve snapped.
"You must find the egg soon," the voice said again.
"Oh, the egg, of course," Steve mocked, "Yeah sure I'd like to get on that, but I don't know if you realized this, but I think I just died, soooo yeah."
"You are not dead my child," it said in the same calm voice, "You fell into the side of the ravine, not inside."
"Oh really?" said Steve, "And how do you know that? Are you my subconscious or something?"
"I'm not your subconscious, I'm something much more than that. We all are waiting for you to find the egg"
"We? We?" Steve growled, "There's more of you? Well, how about you tell me who the hell you are and who the hell "we" are!"
"I must apologize, I cannot reveal ourselves until your mission is complete," said the voice.
Steve clenched his fists, "The mission? THE FUCKING MISSION!? If you know I'm in a ravine, then you have to know that I'm far from home up shit creek! A home that…I don't even know what the fuck happened! A home that has been burned to the ground, everyone I know might be dead…or worse! And as you said, I'm stuck on the edge of a FUCKING RAVINE! SO HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO ACCOMPLISH THIS FUCKING MISSION THAT YOU WON'T EVEN GIVE ME THE MOST BASIC DETAILS FOR!?"
"You will figure it out soon enough," said the voice in the same annoyingly calm demeanor, "But for now, it's time to wake up."
…
Steve opened his eyes again, staring up at the blinding sun beyond the cracks of the ravine. Rays of sunlight ran past the cracks and down to the bottom. He reached out his arm and touched the sunray. As soon as he touched them, they were gone…blocked by the two pillagers staring down at him.