The first night - Part II After having discovered that my downstairs neighbors (3rd floor) have turned into zombies, who apparently are still somewhat intelligent (I think), I get it out of the house and suddenly don't really feel very motivated anymore to continue. I sigh, I suppose someone needs to do it. I walk towards the next house which I can actually skip because it's where Henk lives. But then again, better to be safe than sore I suppose. I go on and as I expected: the house is fully lit. "Hello? Anyone awake?", I ask while carefully walking towards the main living room. "Oh, neighbor, is that you?", a familiar voice sounds from the living room. I walk up to the door, shake hands: "Yeah, I wanted to make sure everything was alright. It's crucial to keep the house lit", I tell her: "but I can see Henk already took care of that.". My neighbor nods: "He's such a driven lad. He had the same idea as you and is warning all the other neighbors". Uh oh, that might not be such a good idea I think.. But before I can start worrying I hear the front door opening: "Oh, Hi Peter, look who I ran into", Keiko tells me while Henk steps inside: "And in case you're wondering: the spiders really are huge now.". "Sounds like fun", I say when telling Keiko and Henk about the zombies next door. Henk tells me that he tried to warn them but they would't listen. And fortunately he managed to contact all the either neighbors and told them that they need to keep their lights on. Well, it's a relief that everything went pretty smoothly. "So, can we do something for those people?", Keiko asks me. I raise my shoulders: "Not sure, I think you can heal zombie villagers in the game but I'm not sure how it works". Henk immediately jumps up: "I know! We need a potion of healing and a golden apple. That works!", to which Keiko responds: "Healing? Don't you mean harming? I thought you needed a potion of harming for that". Henk shakes his head: "No, we need to heal the, not harm them". Keiko looks at me with a puzzled look on her face. "but... Don't you heal zombies by harming them?", she asks. "And this is why I miss the Internet", I say: "But I think I do remember something about the effect going backwards. So instead of healing you needed harming" to which Henk replies: "But if it's backwards and you heal zombies with a harm potion, then why don't you harm people with a healing potion?", he asks. "No, you harm zombies with a healing potion and heal them with a harming potion", Keiko says: "I'm pretty sure it's like that, and normal for players". I sigh: "can we please discuss this tomorrow? You guys are giving me a headache". Keiko grins: "That's my line" she teasingly says when all of a sudden: BOOOOM! The ground seems to shake a little. "That came from the city", I say while I immediately run outside closely followed by Henk and Keiko. "Oh my god!", Keiko gasps while we look at a giant column of black smoke. BOOOOOM, another loud explosion sounds, this time coming from another location which is quickly followed by yet another explosion, but this time a huge fire column rises up a bit. "That almost sounded as if they gas station blew up", I say: "but how..." "LOOK!", Henk yells while he pulls me by my arm and points at the road next to the apartment building. It's a bit hard to see through the trees and bushes what he's pointing at. "I saw a creeper running there!", Henk says. "Running?", I ask: "that doesn't sound like normal behavior for a creeper", but moments after I finished my sentence another large explosion sounds: this time it seems to have come right from across the street. "LOOK!", Keiko yells and pulls me by my other arm. "One at a time please", I say after which Keiko immediately pulls me again: "There!". This time I look at the road on the other side of the building and.. uh oh... is that.. That almost looks like a huge group of zombies. "Maybe we should get inside before they see us", Henk says but.. "PPEEEEOOOPLEEE", a weird voice cries out and several hands are suddenly pointing at us while the group starts walking towards the parking lot, and us.... "Crap!", Keiko says: "Now what?". That is a very good question... Next part soon enough, I've got it planned for this week.
People asked what version of Minecraft I'm using in this story: Not a specific one, I'm keeping things very global. The first night - Part III "PPPEEEOOOPLLLEEEE", the group of zombies cries out once more and several hands are now obviously pointing at us. "Got any weapons?", Keiko asks me. I raise my shoulder: "Can't think of any other than my kitchen knifes", I answer while the group slowly - but steadily - makes their way towards the parking lot: "but even then... you honestly want to try and fight a group that big?", I ask. Keiko shrugs: "It's better than the alternative", she says: "So, now what?". "Let's see what they're going to do. Zombies aren't very smart, so with a little luck... Henk, can you think of any way to remove the balcony fence?", I ask. "He ran inside", Keiko tells me: "But I'll get him". I shake my head: "Don't. If he felt scared then he's really better off inside, and... look!". It seems my plan somewhat worked: most of the group keeps looking at us while they remain straight below us. Just like a regular zombie or creeper would do. Unfortunately.... "There, some keep on walking", Keiko says while she points at the middle of the parking lot. I nod. That could get rough but even so, it still beats getting outnumbered 3 or 4 on one. "So what's the plan", Keiko asks. "Trying to throw 'm off the balcony", I say: "can you check at the end if you can still see some large bolts in place?", I ask. Keiko runs to the end but immediately shakes here head: "that seems to be bolted pretty heavily", she yells. Yah, figures. This building is in a very good state, it gets maintenance almost every year. Still, surely zombies can't climb ladders..... Can they? Well, apparently they can because all of a sudden I see weird shapes appear at the end of the balcony. "How can zombies find their way, all the way up here?", Keiko asks. Good question indeed. "I guess they're hybrids of some sort, only thing I can think off", I say. Fortunately for us they're not exactly fast, but it's not much of a comfort either way. "Quick, get inside!", Henk suddenly yells. "What good will that do us?", I ask: "These zombies can even open doors", I say while I see several actually doing just that: pushing open the doors and making their way onto the balcony (/ balustrade). "Uncle Peter trust me!", Henk yells: "I have a plan!". I look at Keiko and see that she's already making her way to the door: "Worst case we can always try to climb down on the other side", she says: "Can't be worse than getting eaten alive". I shrug: here goes nothing. Keiko and me run inside while Henk yells: "get back, get back, give me room!". Keiko and me run through the corridor more towards the back when I suddenly notice that half the wall of the bedroom seems to be gone. "What the heck..", I start but before I can continue I hear a loud breaking sound. When I look back into the corridor I see that Henk has actually removed the door!! "ARE YOU CRAZY?!", I yell and I start to make my way over there when all of a sudden a loud metallic "cloink" sound is heard and suddenly the doorway is closed by a large white'ish looking door. "What in the world...", I start. Henk turns around with a big smile on his face: "Iron door", he says while pointing backwards with his thumb: "I'm pretty sure they can't open that. I tried it myself, it won't budge", he says. "Where did you get that?", Keiko asks. Henk only points at the bedroom. When I step inside, closely followed by Keiko, it becomes obvious that Henk has been busy, and that's an understatement! The wall between this room and the main living room is almost completely gone and... "Is that a...", I start: "Yeah!!", Henk interrupts me: "I made a furnace!!". He's extremely excited, that much is obvious. "But how...", I start. "Remember those tree logs we punched?, I concentrated REALLY hard and then made a crafting table!", Henk says proudly. (if you don't remember then see here, I actually do plan this story a bit ). Suddenly we can hear bumping and stomping on the door but... As we could somehow expect: the zombies can't get the door open. And they're trying allright! "So where did you get the iron?", Keiko asks. "I broke the balcony and tried to smelt it down, that actually worked", Henk says. This is amazing! "Got any iron left?", I ask. Henk shakes his head: "I used it all up on the door and this pickaxe", he says. What? A pickaxe? And for sure... One moment Henk's hands are completely empty and the next, all of a sudden, he's holding a shiny iron pickaxe. "You did really good Henk", I say: "Awesome work!". Henk looks visibly tired though, and quite frankly I'm also not in very good shape right now. We decide to take a rest and to wait for the morning. Maybe then we can finally finish up on the garden and find out what has happened in the city.
Its really funny those who find this too long... imagine they dont read actual books. If you havent already read it Shell... check out 'ready player one'. Your idea could make another great novel.
A city in chaos... "Peter? Rise and shine!", I hear a familiar voice say while I'm also feeling that something seems to be poking me. Oh, ah, "I'm awake!", I start: "What time is it?". I slowly wake up and see Keiko looking at me: "It's daylight, that's all I know". I nod. I must have been vast asleep because it takes me a little while to get moving again. "Here", Keiko says while she throws me an apple: "breakfast". Hmm... I eat the apple (or should I say munch it?) and it actually feels like a complete breakfast to me. "Henk?", I ask. "Cleaning up his room a bit", Keiko answers. Well, one thing is for sure: the banging on the door definitely stopped. I walk over to Henks room and ask him if he's ready to finally get that food source ready. Of course the only problem we now have is opening up the iron door. But Henk found a solution for that as well: buttons. We decide that he places a button on the inside, but not on the outside. After all: if those zombie hybrids can climb stairs and open doors (see last part) then why wouldn't they be able to push buttons? Instead my neighbor, Henks aunt, will stay behind and if we knock on the window she'll push the button to let us in. "That's odd", I say when we step outside: "No rotting flesh?". "Look down there!", Keiko says while pointing to the parking lot. And for sure: there's tons of rotting flesh lying around. "Let's go", I say and I start to walk towards the stairs when all of a sudden I see dozens of zombie faces behind the window next door. "Psst", I say while beaconing Henk and Keiko and nodding in the direction of the window. We agree that this isn't safe anymore and decide that we all move to my apartment on the 4th floor. Henk removes the iron door and the button, Keiko and the neighbor have grabbed a bag and are collecting all the food and other tools and me... Yeah, I feel pretty useless right now. "I'll check the staircase to see if there are any stragglers", I say. I walk past the balcony and it's a pretty disturbing sight. I think I see some faces and people in the other apartment building across but I can't really tell for sure. But one thing is certain: the whole area almost feels deserted. No traffic, no people, it's bizarre. I carefully check the staircase by going down to the main floor and it is definitely empty. When I go back to the 3rd Keiko and the others are already waiting for me. "All clear", I say. Not much later we're all settled in my place. Henk has removed my door and replaced it with an iron one, so now we can finally explore a bit. First we go down to the parking lot and pick up all the rotten flesh. Who knows how that might come to use. "I guess I should park my bike properly", Keiko says while she heads for the bushes where she left her bike yesterday. "Peter, look!". I quickly run over and see her pointing to something on the ground: "is that... bones?". I nod and beacon Henk to come over: "please pick those up, you're the only one who can retrieve items from his inventory", I say. We search around the the building and find several other bones lying on the ground as well as plenty of rotting flesh. Finally we make it back to the grass field which we dug out yesterday. "Ok, so what I suggest we do...", I start but before I can finish Henk is already busy placing dirt blocks and.... I grin; leave it up to a seasoned Minecraft player to know what he should do. After Henk placed the blocks I start again: "I know we don't have water, but maybe...". Yeah, much to my surprise Henk suddenly holds a hoe in his hand and is actually turning the ground into farmland. Well, at least I assume that's what's happening. "You got this covered", I grin. Henk nods back and immediately plants the potatoes which we managed to collect earlier. "Now, could you do me a favor and try to make bonemeal from one bone? I want to see if we can fertilize the ground somehow...". "That's easy!", Henk says and in no time he's holding a white... well, something which I hope is bonemeal "Which one?", Henk asks. I raise my shoulders: "any will do". Henk touches one of the potatoes he's planted but much to our surprise though it seems to affect all 16 of them. "Look!", Keiko gasps. "Incredible", I mutter. It's like watching a nature movie where they show you how plants grow by recording at a slower speed and then playing it faster. We see roots sprout out and go into the ground, the plants start to create leaves and in only 2 or so minutes the whole field is fully green: filled with plants. "Shall I try to pick them up?", Henk asks but for a moment I'm still too surprised to answer. "oh, yes, sure, please do!", I say. We decide to repeat this process a few times, after which Henk tells us that he got 4 stacks of potatoes out of it (and a little extra). Which should last us for a while. It's been some time already since we ate the apples but I still feel quite good. "Now what do we do?", Henk asks. "Let's explore a bit", I say: "but keep your eyes out on the sun, we need to be back before sunset". We walk a few streets through the neighborhood and everything looks pretty normal apart from being completely deserted of course. After 5 or so minutes we reach the bigger roads and the supermarket. "Oh my god!", Keiko gasps. What used to be a square filled with bikes and such now looks like a warzone of some sort. There's a huge crater in front of the building and several parts of the wall have been completely destroyed. "Must have been that creeper", I mutter: "but why would it attack a building? That makes no sense...". "Look!", Henk whispers while he's pointing to the supermarket: "I think I see zombies inside". We decide not to investigate any further (maybe we'll save that for another day) but instead try to cover as much ground as we can to see if we can discover something. We walk past the main road but other than seemingly deserted buildings we don't really find much. "Uncle Peter?", Henk starts: "those traffic lights are made out of metal, right?". "Good thinking, try it", I answer. Keiko looks a bit surprised but soon understands what Henk is up to. He grabs his pickaxe and removes all the traffic lights in no time. "How much metal you got?", I ask. "Dunno, I'll need to smelt it first but I think we can get half a stack of iron out of this easily", Henk answers. Keiko pats me on the shoulder: "Look, the sun is already descending". I nod: "We'd better head back, I don't want to get surprised by nightfall". We walk quickly past the supermarket while keeping a close eye out for the holes in the wall and any signs of zombies, but fortunately nothing weird happens. It doesn't take long before we're back on the parking lot and... Wait, what's that? Some people have gathered near the entrance of the apartment building. Odd. When we come closer I suddenly recognize the neighbor which made such a fuss the other day when I broke the tree on the grass field. He also obviously recognizes me because he suddenly starts: "That's him, that's the vandal terrorist I told you about!", and he points towards me. Now what? Keiko grabs me by my arm: "Careful", she says: "Those are..", but before she can finish her sentence I nod in response because I've already seen what she meant. What are those two police officers doing here? "Good afternoon gentlemen", I start: "What's this all about?". "There has been a terrorist attack and we believe to be at war. This gentlemen told us that you know more about what's going on here, so we need you to come over to city hall and explain your actions", one of the officers says. "This is not a terrorist attack", I start: "at least not in the way you're thinking off. Also: I'd be happy to help but I'm not going anywhere right now. It's almost dusk and trust me: you wouldn't make it back alive to city hall after nightfall". "Are you threatening us?", the other officer says while the first beacons his colleague to be calm and tells me they insist that I come with them. I shake my head: "Not going to happen. Haven't you seen what happened last night? Trust me: that's going to start all over again in a few minutes. In fact: I strongly suggest you stay here with us to spend the night as well. Like I said before: you wouldn't make it back alive. But tomorrow I'd be happy to comply and help out.". "You wouldn't even make it past the supermarket", Keiko says: "Haven't you seen those things inside?". Much to my surprise (and shock) the other officer really seems to lose his cool all of a sudden. He actually grabs his gun, points it at Keiko and yells: "That's it! You are all under arrest in suspicion of terrorist activities. You will come with us to city hall NOW!". Uh oh.... This can't be good.
Well... I really enjoy & appreciate the attention this gets, but my main drive for writing is to have fun. Both writing but also reading back. So I'm fine with it either way With this story (as well as the fantasy one, which I plan to reboot soon enough) I don't know up front how long or short a chapter is going to be. I have a rough idea and then I work it out. Yeah, well... I'm not going even near that stupid Mojang EULA to be honest. It could make a fun novel but then I couldn't help worrying about Mojang and their "don't make money of our work" stuff. But I do have a few other projects going And I wasn't aware of 'ready player one', thanks for mentioning it!
Hmm, one month between posts, that is most definitely the maximum delay. I'll try to be a little faster. Also: something to keep in mind with the story: Dutch police aren't very trigger happy. So for a Dutch policeman to grab his gun something really serious is going on. "Get your hands up, you're all under arrest!", the officer yells again while he's waving his gun around. We raise our hands while I start: "Look, there's no reason for that. But can we please discuss this inside? There's no telling what is going to happen next". "Oh, I'll tell you what's going to happen", the policeman says: "we're all going back to city hall and then you got some serious explaining to do.", and then he continues to talk to his colleague about how they should keep us in check. However, during that conversation it becomes quite clear that something changed. There's definitely something sinister going on. It's hard to describe: you think you hear zombies wailing but in fact you're not, you think you hear footsteps but when you look around there's nothing to see. And it seems I'm not the only one noticing this: "Did you hear something?", the policeman suddenly asks his colleague while also briefly looking around a bit. "We have to go inside. NOW", I say: "Keep quiet, from now on you only talk when asked to. Got that?", the policeman snaps at me. Hm, do I sense some tension here? Keiko suddenly pokes me in my arm and nods in the direction of the entrance. Uh oh, that can't be good. Dozens of zombies make their way out of the building and are slowly walking towards us. But, oddly enough,without making any sounds at all! "Uhm, you might want to look behind you", I tell the officers: "Shut up already!", the other snaps back at me. I slowly take a step backwards while still keeping my hands in the air and I can see Keiko and Henk following my example. This is not going to end well. "What the heck do you think you're doing?", the first officer starts after we took another large step backwards: "Get back here RIGHT NOW or I'll ... WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!!", he suddenly yells when the zombies start attacking them. "RUN!!!", I yell and beacon Keiko and Henk to get going. "Where to!?", Keiko asks. "Away from here, the parking ... street, head for the street!", I yell back. "Stop, stop or I will fire!", I hear one of the officers yell behind us, shortly followed by a huge explosion and yelling. I stop and turn around to look back, was that a creeper? I don't see any holes in the ground, which is what you'd expect after a creeper attack. But I also don't see those officers anymore either, and I also briefly see quite a bit of rotten flesh on the ground right before those get picked up by the rest of the group of zombies. "Now what?", Keiko asks. "We need to go inside", I say: "Wait here for a moment, let them come after us. Then we'll go back on the other side of the building and hope there are no zombies left near the entrance". "Anyone got a weapon?", Keiko asks. "I still got my pickaxe", Henk answers. "Give it to me", Keiko says: "It'll be better than nothing". We walk around the back of the building and luckily no zombies are around the entrance anymore. We sneak in, go up the stairs and the only disturbance we encounter is on the 3rd floor. It almost seems as if several zombies are posting in front of Henk's house. That's very strange... We continue to the 4th floor, knock on my window and Henks's aunt lets us all in. "That was interesting", I start. "Yeah, now what?", Keiko says: "When those officers don't report back then you can be sure they'll send reinforcements". "Hmm", I mutter. "Henk, you can check how much iron... Henk?". "Already on it Uncle Peter, the iron scrap is smelting right now!", Henk says while looking around the corner of the door post: "But I'm going to need more fuel soon". "Yeah, about that...", I answer: "I wonder how much the ground has changed already. So I want you to make a shovel and a few pickaxes, then we're going to try and dig a tunnel. Lets see what that will get us". "Don't forget torches", Keiko says: "You always forget to bring enough torches with you Peter". But first: waiting for some traffic lights to get smelted down. <I'm going to try and get the next chapter out this week>
Nice! What's this, though? The rest of the text seemed void of mistakes, and these three words seem to feature two.
That is called a typo Ha ha ha, thanks, fixed it. Yeah, I often write ad-hoc, so I start a post and start writing the chapter in one go. Then afterwards I don't always feel like proof reading, even though I should.
