The Sun has set and risen, Makena sits in front of the nether portal waiting for the return of the others.
Steve gets up from his bed and changes his clothes, he goes outside to find no trace of Sunny, Noor or Zuri. Makena goes back into the library.
St: So… Nothing yet?
Ma: Nothing yet.
St: That's it, I'm going in there.
Ma: I'm going too. I should have gone as soon as I knew something was wrong.
Steve and Makena prepare to go into the nether. Merl decides to join them. Steve takes the crossbow and a pickaxe. He takes an insulin capsule with him.
Makena takes a sword, Merl says her goodbyes to PB and the three walk to the portal just outside the village.
St: Okay, it'll be quick. We'll go in, look around and leave as soon as any amount of danger appears. I'll go in first.
Steve loads up his crossbow and walks slowly into the portal, hoping that the first thing he sees is a sign of life.
There is a dark cave with an opening to the left, nothing much. Steve, Merl, and Makena leave the cave and start looking for any signs of anything.
Ma: There's… A thing there.
Makena points at Zuri's makeshift furnace. There's nothing in it or around it. The three keep walking and going further into the world unknown to them. The red fog sets an ominous atmosphere to the place, a structure appears in the distance.
St: Look! They might be in that… Thing.
Ma: That's horrifying. Who knows what goes on in there.
St: Looks a bit abandoned. I think we should go in and have a look.
The trio goes inside the bastion remnant. There's no sign of life in there, they explore a bit more in hopes of finding any sign of life and go towards the opposite side of the structure.
Something can be heard in the distance as soon as Steve puts one of his feet on a staircase. A bunch of gross, animalesque sounds can be heard, followed by a group of creatures walking through the entrance of the building. Steve hurries up the staircase, the girls follow suit. They hide behind a pile of rubble and watch as piglins arrive.
St: What– You think they have anything to do with anything?
Ma: What do you mean by that?
St: I don't know, maybe they imprisoned the guys or something.
Ma: Maybe they–
The piglins stop interacting with one another, they start snorting and looking around.
St: Pigs do have a great sense of smell. We might be cooked.
One of the piglins looks in the humans' general direction, the others do the same. A silence takes over the place, explosions and fire can be heard faintly in the distance.
After a short time of searching, a piglin brute lets out a squeal and points its axe at a pile of rubble.
St: There's no way–
An arrow flies over the trio's heads, lodging into the wall behind them. Makena takes it out of the wall to examine it.
Steve gets up with his hands in the air. Two other arrows go past him.
St: Alright, run!
Makena and Merl run to their left, Steve goes after them and takes the lead. The piglins on the first floor turn to their right slowly and shoot in an attempt to stop the invaders, another small troop goes up the stairs.
The trio ends up in a closed area. Steve stops before a hole in the wall, he tells the girls to go through it. Makena and Merl comply, shortly after they notice that the room doesn't have a floor and fall straight down into a small flat area made of basalt. They get up and get out of the way, as Steve hits the ground.
Me: Nice escape plan.
St: I didn't see.
Ma: Nice, now we… How do we get out of here?
Pillars of basalt surround the trio, leaving them in a labyrinth of ashes and lava.
St: Let's… See if we can find a way to go around this wall. And let's hope to find an exit before the pig looking guys find us first.
After a bit over two minutes of walking, the trio is met with a small magma cube. A bigger one appears behind them.
Meanwhile, Noor leads Zuri and Sunny through the cave, finally reaching a dead end where the floor ramps up
N: Alright, dead end. Just when I thought we were about to reach the surface.
Z: Are you– Ugh, really?
Su: I think we could go back through the portal? Maybe burning to death might not be worse than starving.
N: No, no. We're not stopping now, what is with you guys? We've barely even tried.
Z: I mean… What can we do now?
Su: We can… Like– I don't know.
N: Dude, I remember someone saying something about the pickaxe being my best friend or whatever.
Noor starts swinging the pickaxe, digging a tunnel upwards while Sunny holds the lantern. Zuri follows behind them. No one says anything for five minutes.
N: So… Zuri, how's the arm?
Z: I'm not really sure. I feel like it's still getting worse, but slower.
N: Speaking of. Sunny, how did you lose your arm? This question has been in my head for a while, but I never remember to ask you. Sorry if it's too intrusive, you don't gotta answer it.
Su: Oh, nah it's fine. I never had one. Or probably lost it so young that I don't remember having one.
N: Dude, it's 'cause– How did you not miss a single shot back there? That was insane!
Z: It was pretty cool.
Su: Thanks. Probably something to do with me holding the arrow with my face? Maybe it makes it easier for me to aim, I guess. I gotta test doing it with my prosthesis.
N: Man, I gotta get better at combat. Or maybe not. I don't really intend on ever going back to the nether or having any interactions with any monster.
Noor hits his pickaxe on a bit of dirt, the digging gets easier.
In the nether, Steve, Makena, and Merl find themselves lost from any point of reference. They can only run in a straight line, as an army of magma cubes chase them in a semi-circle formation.
Finally, the trio runs into a lava ocean. With nowhere to go, they run along the beach, finally reaching a wall. There's a small bit of land between the wall and the lava, Merl doesn't hesitate before hugging the wall and walking on it. Steve and Makena follow her.
Ma: Man, this is ridiculous.
Steve tries shooting the magma cubes to his left, but there isn't enough space for him to load his crossbow without pushing himself against the wall. The monsters are inching closer with each hop.
St: Makena, give me your sword.
Steve grabs the sword and starts swinging it erratically, trying to get the creatures away from himself. A magma cube approaches from inside the lava and attacks Steve's leg. He looks back as a reflex and loses his balance, falling back.
Makena and Merl pull his arm, getting him inside of a cave. More magma cubes start appearing from the lava and the three run deeper into the cave, eventually running into another nether portal built into a wall.
They promptly run into the portal. The bright crimson turns into a dead, cold gray.
St: Nice, another cave.
Ma: You think… They made it?
St: I… Can't really see much.
Ma: Is– Are we– How…
St: No way. Look!
Steve points at a line carved on a wall nearby.
Ma: Uh huh.
St: They probably made it out of the cave. Or they are trying to get out as we speak. Either way, we should… Stay here, I'm not risking it.
Ma: Well, the marks are carved into the wall.
St: Right.
Ma: If we're careful, maybe we can use our touch to navigate?
St: That's genius. You know what? We're going.
Ma: No one is coming for us either way, we might as well try.
Makena leads the way, crawling into the darkness, away from the purple light coming from the portal. As it gets darker, the trio has to rely less and less on their sight to locate the carvings. The cave eventually turns pitch black.
Ma: I just thought about something. Hold on, let me organise my thoughts.
St: What is it?
Ma: You two should not move from a mark until the one in front finds the next. That way, we don't get lost.
St: That's actually– We could have used your intelligence before we decided to go into the portal earlier today.
Ma: Okay, how do we do this?
St: What is– Your butt's glowing.
Ma: Heh?
St: Your butt is glowing.
Ma: What do you mean?
St: What do you mean "What do you mean?" Y– Do you have anything in your back pocket?
Ma: Oh, yeah, I got a weird arrow from those weird pig guys.
Makena takes the arrow from her pocket, it starts emitting a faint yellow glow from the tip. She shakes the arrow and it starts to glow more intensely.
Ma: Woah, would you look at that. We got light!
St: WHY would anyone need a glowing arrow?
Ma: So… They could… Shoot it and light up the way.
St: You can't be the only one having smart ideas here.
Ma: Oh, no, I was kidding. It could end up in a hole or it could break when hitting a hard rock.
St: See? This is what I'm talking about!
Ma: But we can…
St: Here it comes.
Ma: Use my sword to reflect the light and maybe make it more intense.
St: The sword fell in the lava.
Ma: Alright. Let's just use it to find the carvings.
Noor, Sunny, and Zuri find themselves on the surface. No civilization in sight or anything. Just a vast plains area with mountain ranges in the back.
Z: Nice, what do we do now?
N: Okay, first: We eat. Then we think about what to do. I can feel my blood sugar drain as we speak. I might have enough of whatever survived in my backpack for everyone, then we can hunt for something.
Su: Y'know what? That's not a bad idea. I think the pig guys gave me some porkchop too. It's probably still warm from the lava.
Z: I think I'll pass on the pork.
Noor takes a bite out of a cookie.
N: Hmm… I don't know. It's kind of a survival situation, you should eat.
Z: Exactly, the sodium will hinder my arm's healing process and probably cause inflammation.
N: Hmm. Word. Take an apple.
Z: I'll have an apple.
The three sit on the grass, not a single word spoken. Just wind and the leaves of a lonely tree swinging.
Su: Man– Nevermind, food first.
In the cave, Makena sees a light, a different hue than that of the arrow. It's faint.
Ma: I think there's something.
St: I see it.
Makena begins to crawl less carefully directly towards the light.
St: Man, be careful. We know there's light, but the path towards it doesn't seem too visible.
Steve crawls, feeling the floor ahead of him with his hand, following Makena's yellow light and Merl goes behind him.
Makena finally reaches a wall, a tunnel can be found carved into it. She looks into the tunnel and is blinded by the sudden sunshine in her eyes. Steve approaches her and does the same.
Merl comes next and leads the way out of the cave. The three go up the slanted tunnel while looking down, trying to adapt their eyes to the brightness. They struggle, slipping on dirt and pebbles.
Eventually, the light becomes too bright for the eyes to bear.
Merl, Steve, and Makena encounter Noor, Zuri, and Sunny laying on the grass.
St: Wuh– AAH there's no way!
Noor jumps from his rest.
N: WHAT!?
Sunny and Zuri get up.
Su: Dude!
Z: What are you…?
Makena runs to Zuri.
Z: Why are you guys here?
Ma: You didn't come back!
Su: HOW did you get here?
St: We got chased into the portal.
Ma: ZURI you hurt your arm!
Z: Oh, yeah. A wither skeleton cut it.
St: What the– H–
Ma: How does it feel?
Z: I Feel like my arm is gonna throw up.
Ma: We should go back home. We need to abandon the expedition.
Z: Yes. In this case, let me do something.
Zuri takes a couple of ender pearls from the bag, he crushes the blaze rods into blaze powder. The pearls are then covered in the powder and turned into eyes of ender. Zuri throws one upwards, it floats in a specific direction.
Ma: This thing shows the way back home?
Z: No, but it can take us to the stronghold, then we can go to the end. When we enter the portal there, we will be back at the center of the world. It's easier to navigate back home from there.
St: That's… Too much. Are you sure we can do it? We barely have any materials
Z: Should be easy. We have enough.
The journey begins, the group follows the direction of the eyes, two of them break in the way. The walk ends at a beach. A couple of islands can be seen in the distance.
N: We're not making it past an entire sea.
Z: Yeah…
Ma: There's a thing in the water, do you guys see that?
Makena points into the body of water, a structure sits at the bottom of the sea, attached to an island.
Z: Oh, that's… The thing right there.
Su: What do we do?
Z: Rafts. Then we get our equipment to that island. Then I'll dig into the stronghold through the land.
N: Okay, get your swords out, we're cutting some trees.
Ma: The idea of going to another whole dimension without enough materials or proper training is insane. Yet, not a single breath is taken against it. I'm glad I met you guys.
The group starts to work. Steve starts to swing at trees with his pickaxe, Zuri and Makena cut the wood with their swords. Meanwhile, Noor teaches Sunny how to build a raft. Merl builds on her own.
Z: We have enough stuff to kill the dragon, it will be fine.
N: Hold on a second, a dragon?
Z: Yeah, the ender dragon.
Ma: A dragon!?
Z: Yes– Oh, yeah… I kept that information from you, didn't I?
St: YES.
Z: Well, we're fighting a dragon. We should be fine if we don't approach it when it perches. We also gotta keep moving because of the acid balls it spits.
After a bit over an hour, four rafts are done.
Z: Okay, Steve and Sunny will go in one boat; Makena and Merl will go in the other; me and Noor will carry the equipment in two separate boats.
N: Are you sure you can row with your arm like that?
Ma: He's right.
Z: Yeah… I can't row, neither can Sunny… Steve, can you replace me.
St: Aye captain!
Z: Merl, you'll go with Sunny, I'll go with Makena.
Ma: Nice.
The group splits into the rafts according to Zuri's plan. They row for twenty minutes, taking breaks to rest their arms. Upon arriving on the island, they set up camp. Noor starts to dig a diagonal tunnel into the ground, he and Steve take turns until they reach stone bricks.
