I feel good, time for a reboot! Small recap A strange meteor, looking a bit like a command block, hit the Earth. At first I thought nothing of it (what can you do anyway?) but the next day many things changed. It was almost as if Minecraft had become real... And now back to our story... Henk and me walk out of the apartment building and towards the grass field, and it becomes quite obvious that Henk is really on edge right now. "Relax", I tell him: "there are no creepers here.. Not yet anyway.". Henk looks up to me: "And how would you know?" he asks. "Well... two things. It seems that the effects only start slowly. That balcony fence didn't turn into a square right away.", I say and Henk nods in agreement. "So I think that things started small and became bigger. It is a guess, but what if it took several hours before it could spawn in hostile mobs? Its day now, and hostile mobs...", at this point Henk starts to jump up and down a bit and interrupts me enthusiastically: "yes! Hostile mobs don't spawn during the day! ur a genius!", he says. I grin a bit. We walk up to the tree. "Now what?", Henk asks. A good question indeed. In Minecraft I'd simply make a dirt pillar and just dig down from the top. But this time I'd also like to try and add a few failsaves. I wouldn't forgive myself if Henk were to trip somehow and fall down. "Dirt", I say. "Huh? what dirt?", Henk asks in return. "We're going to go over to the other field and dig out one or two layers of dirt. That way we can make a staircase which should be much safer for you". "Good plan! lov it!", Henk says. "But first lets try and get one or two wood logs", and I walk up to the tree and start punching a part just like I did before. Henk quickly joins me and starts punching the area below mine. Pop! it sounds when my part breaks and the dropped log piece floats towards Henk. "One down, one to go", I say. After we collected two wood logs I ask Henk to give one to me. He holds out his empty hand, one moment later he's holding a wooden block and then I quickly interrupt him: "Wait, stop right there!", I yell: "do you see any way to craft something? Something to put your blocks on?". Henk remains silent for a moment and I see that he has his eyes closed. "uhhhm", he says slowly: "wait.... wha? yo gaaf zeg! *", and before I can ask what's going on the wood block disappears and a few seconds later I can see a block of planks appear in his hand! He did it!! Henk opens his eyes and jumps up and down while he throws one block at me: "That was SO cool, I even got 3 more of these!", he says excited. * Dutch. Although I am obviously using English we actually speak Dutch around here. So some things will find their way into my story every once in a while "Awesome, you're the man, man!", I say while sticking my hand out: "High five!". We walk to the other grass field when Henk asks me if he shouldn't try to make something else. But I'm not too sure, he looks a little tired to me. As if he got a bit of a setback from that crafting. Hard to explain but something happened back there I think. "Only if you feel like it", I tell Henk: "you could try creating sticks from 2 plank blocks. But don't force yourself!". Henk nods, stops walking but quickly catches up to me. He shakes his head and I have an idea what's up. "Don't worry, one step at a time". "So, uhm...", Henk starts when we reach the other grass field. "It all goes", I say while I start hitting one area with my fists. It doesn't take long for the grass to break and a dirt block flies towards me. "Wait, do u know how to get that out of ur invent?", Henk asks. Touché... "Well...", I start but Henk pushes me aside a bit. "Lemme do this, u want me to do the crafting, right?", he says and I nod. "I'll give it some more tries then", I tell Henk. He nods: "u better, because you need to give me back my piece of redstone!", he says with a grin on his face. I give it my best, several times, but no matter what I try it just doesn't seem to work. And while Henk is making slow but steady progress with digging he seems to be aware of my struggling: "u need to think of opening ur pocket", he says: "but its not from ur pocket but in front of u", and after that he continues digging again. "Peter?! Oh, I'm so glad I found you!", a voice yells behind me. "Wha? Keiko!!?", I shout while turning around. And for sure... My girlfriend rides towards us on her bicycle, steps off and drops it in the bushes while running up to me. And while we give each other a hug I whisper: "I'm so glad to see you're ok, I was worried for a moment". She nods. "Something is really wrong", she whispers back. "yech, girls... Can u two get a room already, puhlease!", Henk yells at us. I grin, that sure brings back some memories. We let go of each other only to see that heart shaped particles appear above us both. "Uhm, thats kinda awkward", Keiko says. I shrug: "You said something about trouble?". "Yes, I spotted it while riding through the forest. The birds have all gone!", she says. "And the animals too?", I ask while grinning a bit. "This is no time for Mononoke quotes, Peter!", she snaps a little annoyed: "I'm serious here!". "Sorry...", I say... "When I was going through that forest it was dead quiet. You could hear no birds, just not anything. But....", and she gasps which really starts to bother me. I've never seen Keiko upset like this before... She looks up to me: "DON'T... think I'm going crazy, because I'm not, but there was something out there. Something not human, I could almost feel it. And it scared me... I almost felt as if...", she abruptly stops while looking behind me. I look around and see Henk standing besides me. He looks up to me: "I finished digging", he said after which he looks at Keiko: "So... what was it u saw, lady?", he asks. "Oh, don't mind me too much", Keiko says with a smile on her face. But I know her well enough to see right through her. She's faking. "Just girl things you know, I was just a little anxious to come here and visit Peter", she says to Henk: "So what have you been up to?". Henk points behind him with his thumb: "I dug out that entire field over there!", he says. I clap my hands once: "Ok then, lets finally chop that tree down!", I say. "But... mister?", Henk asks. "Just call me Peter", I tell him. "Ok, so uncle Peter?", he starts again: "what about those creepers? Its getting dark already u know..". Crap! I look up and for sure... The sun is starting to set. But... we're not awake for that long, it can't have been more than 4 hours! "Don't worry, Keiko here knows karate and some other tricks. We'll be ok", I tell Henk: "But you're right, we need to hurry". Henk looks up to Keiko: "Really, u know fung-fu?", he asks. Keiko grins: "I know a trick or two", she says while making a rather obvious gesture with her hands. "coool!", Henk shouts and while we're walking back to the other grass field he runs up in front of us while making all kinds of make belief karate moves. I look at Keiko again: "So what did you see back there?", I ask softly. She actually shudders for a moment but doesn't say anything. "You think it could have been a creeper?", I ask. She nods. "It was good of you to hide this from Henk", I say while I fasten my pase a little bit and point Henk at the next field: "can you start by removing a small area of dirt near the street as well?", I ask Henk. He nods and start digging right away. Keiko walks up to me and grabs me by my arm: "Some areas of the forest look like a battlefield", she says: "as if dozens of explosions have happened". "Then we'd better hurry up here", I say: "Lets help Henk with digging out that area and then we'll decide what to do next". Next part coming up soon enough.
*wants to read* *Looks over ALL of it* Eh it's too long Please note I am currently reading It, my edition being 1117 pages long. I'm not lazy, just conserving my time... Looks great anyway!
Summary; They descover how to craft and open inventory and start getting dirt, realizing that soon creepers will come out and try to blow them up. Found a crater in forest too
So some people asked me some questions about this.. The only thing real about my story are the names of my girlfriend and me and some of my habits I mentioned. I am also roughly describing my surroundings a bit but that's the fun thing about stories: when you read it you'll have totally different impressions than I do. But everything else is fantasy. There is no real Henk living in my apartment building (not that I know of anyway). Also: my story will not end with "it was all a dream", not this time Keiko, Henk and me are all busy digging out a small grass area near the street. That is: Henk does most of the digging while we removed a few blocks first and are now trying to access our inventories. "Henk says you should open a pocket which is in front of you", I tell Keiko. But to little avail, neither of us manage to do this. Henk only grins at us a bit: "u old peeps", he says: "But can we take a break, im getting hungry..". "Yeah, sure thing", I answer: "But better yet, lets head indoors". We walk back to the main entrance and the sun is almost near the horizon. It's getting really dark now, as I expected the street lights do not kick in at all. Soon it'll be pitch black, fun for mob spawning. Sort off.. fortunately several lights inside the houses do seem to work and there are plenty of people who don't close their curtains. So that's a real help. "Come on, help me barricade the main door", I say while I shove a branch in the door handle. "Brilliant thinking, Peter", Keiko says a little sarcastic: "Just too bad that this door opens to the inside", and while she pulls on the branch the door (obviously) opens. "I knew that", I grin: "I just wanted to make sure you did so too". "Now what?", Henk asks. "We should probably try and get some sleep", I tell him: "At least get you some food". "Oh, that's ok", Henk says: "I found an apple out there which tasted really good". So yeah, what do we do now? "Lets get you home first", I tell Henk and we walk up the stairs to the third floor, knock on the door and soon my neighbor opens the door: "This isn't good", she says: "How can it already be night again?". I explain to her that in the game the day/night cycle is a lot shorter than the 24 hours we're used to and that this is probably related to it. "But that's not what worries me", I say: "if I'm right we could be in some serious problems. Whatever you do I strongly suggest that you don't open the door during the night". She nods: "Thanks for all your help neighbor. Some of the others have doubts but I'm sure you're doing all you can to help us. It really means a lot to us, do you need any food?". "Nah, we're ok. All I need now is some rest", I say to my neighbor while Keiko comes up to us and grabs my arm. We slowly walk next to the balustrade when Keiko suddenly gasps and pulls me by my arm while pointing to the sky. What the... "Is it me or is that moon looking a bit squarish?", she asks. "I don't know anymore..", I say suddenly feeling very tired: "Sorry but all I want now is to sit on the couch for a moment. I'm tired". She nods and we walk towards the main stairs. "Oh, wait, your bike", I say. "Yeah, screw that", Keiko says: "I'm not going out there right now, and neither are you!". Ironic... Sometimes we'd fantasize about it, heck: there used to be plenty of Youtube video's about "Minecraft in real life" but now that things actually come to pass... Yeah, all of a sudden things aren't as much fun anymore. We go inside my apartment while Keiko takes off her jacket: "Finally...", she says while flipping on the light: "I'm going to borrow that orange sweater of yours and....". Oh god... After she turns on the light a repulsive greenish... "thing" turns around and looks at us. I don't have to guess what this is but... The next moment.. I don't really fully recall what happened but then again.. one thing is for sure: Keiko is much better prepared for these kinds of situations than I am, and I'm not too proud to admit it either. What I do remember is that the next moment Keiko pushes me roughly aside while also using me for leverage and kicks the zombie in the chest area -hard-. Hard, but not hard enough it seems. "Shit, Juny was right.. I should train more often", Keiko whispers. She kicks the zombie again, but this time with less effect. "Knife!", she shouts but I'm simply standing there wondering what to do. "for real.. Peter... snap out of it already, KNIFE!" she says while giving me a rough (not that hard ) punch in my arm while also never letting the zombie out of her sights. "Darn, sorry", I gasp while quickly going into the kitchen, taking out my cooks knife and giving it to Keiko. The zombie comes at us again, this time also making some kind of howling noise, and once again Keiko kicks it back. But those kicks are having their effect on her, I see she's gasping for breath a bit. "Zombies are dumb, right?", she asks me. "Yeah, uhm, well: in the game they lack much AI. Skeletons sometimes chase you but zombies...", I start when Keiko gestures me that she heard enough. "So all I need to do is plant this knife in his chest...", she mumbles while the zombie is coming for us again. "That is assuming it is a he and not a she", I say. "Oh stop you!", she grins while, much to my surprise, hitting the zombie with her hand using a fancy looking martial arts move. "auch!", she shouts while dropping the knife and grasping her hand a bit. "Why'd you do..". "Oh shut up already!", Keiko snaps at me: "it it was a burglar he'd be dead by now". I don't know if she's hurting or extremely pissed off but one thing is for sure: I'm not taking any chances Keiko hits the zombie with a kick again, but this time she grabs the cupboard door and slams it into him right afterwards. I don't know if this was smart thinking or pure luck but it also gave her the opportunity to grab my broom from the cupboard. Much to our surprise though, I've never seen this in the game, the zombie slams the door shut which caught Keiko completely by surprise. I don't know what got over me but seeing what could be happening next really managed to snap me out of my ruse and I quickly grab Keiko by her shoulders and pull her back, right before the zombie actually tried to punch her. Keiko hands me the broom: "Hit him!", she snaps. "But.. then what?", I yell. "HIT HIM!", she yells again so yeah... I pick up the broom and hit the zombie right over the head. With all the expected results: nothing. It just looks at me. "Surprise!", Keiko says while she pushes me roughly aside again and plants the knife in the zombies chest. The next moment a cloud of smoke appears and something appears on the floor, something quickly (and automatically) picked up by Keiko when she walks towards me and helps me regain my balance: "You ok?", she asks. I nod and she quickly walks past me to turn on the lights in the living room. "For once I'm actually glad you made such a mess here", she grins. When looking back and seeing my puzzled look she continues: "You left them no room to spawn there, obviously your 'brilliant' strategy at work eh?", she jests. We look at each other and gasp almost at the same time: "The neighbors?!".
I've decided to award this a spot on my wall of great writers of EMC and I congratulate you as I'm difficult to impress!
Autumn is upon us, it's getting dark much earlier again and this also gets me in a better mood to write again. I'm much more motivated, and I'm sure it's the season. Time to pick up on some stories and time I'll also try to continue Summary: A strange meteor fell down on Earth, right in front of the Sphinx in Egypt. It left a crater which scientists soon referred to as "the pixelized crater" and in the center was something I could recognize as a commandblock. My friends on the EMC forums even confirmed and agreed with my ideas! The next day all electronics and machinery stopped working. No TV, no phones, computers, no cars, no nothing. I discovered that something "Minecraftish" was going on by punching a tree. My neighbors came together and I met a young boy called Henk who stayed with his aunt one floor below mine, Henk knows a lot about Minecraft as well. We decided to dig out the grass fields next to the apartment building so that we could plant vegetables. While digging Keiko, my girlfriend, arrives on her bicycle and she tells me that the forest she passed through looked like a battlefield: lots of debris and dozens of craters, it looked as if a lot of explosions went off in there. We go indoors for the night but when Keiko and me step into my house we're greeted with a zombie, and it took us (Keiko more than me) a lot of effort (and a kitchen knife) to defeat it. Keiko and me look at each other in horror: "The neighbors?!", we both gasp. And now back to the story.... The first 'night'.... part 1 "Quick, you take this floor I'll go to the 3rd floor, warn everyone!", I tell Keiko. While I make a run for the elevator (and staircase, the elevator is out of commission) Keiko yells something about doorbells: "Just go in already!", I shout back and with that I run down the stairs. There's a reason I wanted Keiko to do the top floor: most of my direct neighbors know her or have at least seen us together sometimes, so hopefully they won't be thinking that some stranger is breaking into their houses. When I arrive at the 3rd floor I first try to push the bell and when that doesn't work I open the door and step inside: "Hello?!", I ask. "Anyone here? Quick, you're in danger!". "Stop right there, what do you want?!", a man suddenly appears in a door opening and he looks suspiciously at me. I quickly tell him that they need to be careful and leave all the lights on. "If you don't then creatures can spawn in. I know is sounds crazy but I swear I'm telling you the truth!", I tell him. The man looks at me and much to my surprise he says: "No, I believe you.". He then directs his attention to the room behind him: "Ellen? Sorry, but it seems you were right afterall, my apologies for not believing you". When he looks back at me he must have seen my surprised look: "Come, I'll show you" he says while he gestures me to follow him to the living room. We step in, he turns on the light and... "Bats!", I say when I see three bats flapping around. "I thought my wife had left the balcony door open or that she was playing a trick on me, but now I understand", my neighbor tells me: "Well, somewhat. How can this be happening?". "I'll explain later, right now I need to warn the others", I answer him. "Wait, warn them for a bunch of harmless bats?", my neighbor asks surprised. "Bats are only but one type, there are also dozens hostile creatures which could appear", I answer while I make a run for the front door, onto the next house! I decide to follow the same procedure: I open the door, ask around and try to explore a little bit. Note: Now, you have to know that the houses in our apartment building are 'mirrored'. When I step into my house then I have the kitchen entrance in the hallway on my right hand. If I step into my neighbors house right next to mine the kitchen entrance is at the left side. Same house layout, but 'mirrored'. This is why I can relatively easily find my way around someone elses house. The first room, roughly opposite of the kitchen, is quite small and better suited as storage than bedroom. So it doesn't surprise me when I see nothing but stuff in there. I then approach the other room, this one is larger and more suited as bedroom. I knock on the door, but nothing happens. I open it and flip the light switch: "Hello?". But nothing... The room is full with closets and bookshelves. So that leaves only one more room: the one which is directly connected to the main living room. I'm using that room as my workroom / study. I slowly walk towards the (closed) door when I think that I hear something. It's almost... as if I hear vague footsteps. Odd. I open the door, flip the light switch and... nothing. That is: the living room is completely empty. But there's one other room left. I step inside the living room and for sure: the other (front) side is very dark, and I can see something which looks like a bed through the window. Wait... Are those my neighbors looking out of the front window? Phew, what a relief! I step into the room, click on the light switch and there are three people standing in front of the window, apparently looking outside: "Hello there, hope I didn't scare you but I came to warn you. You're in danger and you really need to keep the lights turned on". "Whhhhyyyyyyyy?", one of them asks with a rather bizarre sounding voice. Ok, this officially creeps me out. "I know it sounds crazy but creatures can appear in the dark, hostile creatures..". The three figures don't move and just keep standing there. "Hello?!", I ask: "Did you hear what I just said?". "Whhhyyyyyyy?!", one of them rasps again. "Uhm, why what?", I ask. The three turn around and my stomach turns completely upside down as I look at something which obviously used to be my neighbors but are now... Green, rotting.. "things". I carefully take one small step backwards: "Whhhyyyyyy dontcha JOIN US!", one of them cries out while the other all of a sudden makes a jump for me! I quickly jump back, through the door which I slam shut behind me after which I make a run for the door of the living room. But much to my surprise they don't seem very eager to follow. "Whhhhyyyyyyy?!", one of them cries out again. Ok, this is definitely NOT good... Part II coming soon!
Hm... I suppose you wouldn't like killing your own neighbours, zombies or not! After all, there's still hope for a cure...
