Attack of the Zombies (4 page)

"Darth, seems like you may be a little
outnumbered today" (Out-number-ed - get it!)

He spluttered on that two wimps or one is all
the same to him, but he let me go and stepped away towards the
door. Man that felt good, it was just me and Numbers but Darth was
afraid of us! Cool.

Anyhow, once we ran Darth off, yep I said it,
we ran Darth off, we decided it was best to get out of there before
he returned and found the book. We headed back to our dorm to look
at the copy of the page that we made.

Anyway, here's the page we copied just before
Darth burst in on us.

Hidden in the where? Oh, I knew we should
have stayed longer and copied some more of the book but Numbers is
probably right. If Darth had gotten suspicious and found the book,
Notch knows what he would do with it. No doubt his Dad would arrive
and lay claim to it like every thing else on Minecraftia. No one
knows how they got so powerful but one thing is certain, they are
so rich now that whatever started their rise to power no longer
matters.

Ok, stop and think, if this really is Steve's
journal then he obviously did not die because he came back to
Minecraftia, so help must have arrived in time after all. I wonder
what the Zombie killing thing was or where it was hidden and why
has this never been made public? Man, too many questions, we are
just going to have to wait until we can get back to the storage
room and look at the rest of the book.

I just remembered something really important,
no scratch that, life threatening. The Survival Room is open again
and we have Art of Combat with Mr Mayer in 10 minutes. Darth is not
going to happy, good bye life, it was way too short but I had fun
while it lasted. Wish me luck, and in the words of Steve - If you
are reading this journal then I must be dead.
*gulp*

*****

Yes, yes yes!!!!

I love my life, yeeha!

Art of Combat was totally awesome, and I mean
TOTALLY AWESOME!

It was a little scary at first, we were
brought into the Survival Room in a group - no individual spawning
allowed - and told that under no circumstances were we to go beyond
the marked area. There were guards everywhere, more than a hundred
diamond armored avatars surrounded us. Mr Mayer informed us that
the situation with the Zombies had not been resolved and we had to
take every precaution when in the Survival Room.

Mr Mayer told us that normally we would start
learning about neutral mobs and advance to the more hostile ones
later in the term but under the current conditions we were going to
learn how to fight Zombies and Creepers immediately.

We all read the relevant information about
zombies in our course books then Mr Mayer went on to explain that
Zombies are also vulnerable to Lava, Cacti, TNT, Fire, Falling and
Splash Potions of Healing. He then asked if anyone knew the best
way to kill Zombies? All the usual answers were thrown out, use
your sword, burn him, blow him up but he just shook his head. I
raised my arm and stammered, "shoot him with your bow?"

"Yes Jeb, but can you tell me why?"

"Uh, because you stay a safe distance from
the Zombie while killing it."

"Correct, I'm glad someone here has some
brains and remembers what they have already been taught."

This got a few back slaps from the guys but
if looks could kill, Darth and his cronies would have finished me
off right then and there.

"Right, just like your final Survival Exam,
just in case your have all forgotten, we will practice taking down
Zombies with bows. I want groups of four. Two shooters per group
and two armed with Diamond Swords. Here is how it's going to work.
I will spawn six Zombies per group and the shooters will put them
down, those with the swords will stand defense, just in case the
shooters are too incompetent to kill the Zombies before they reach
you. Do not intervene until the last possible moment, but DO NOT
allow the Zombies to reach the shooters - Do you all
understand?"

Everyone nodded yes and eyed each other
nervously - Zombies aren't the strongest of mobs but they can still
kill you pretty quickly if you are not prepared.
*gulp*

Hoody raised his hand and asked what were the
rules, Mr Mayer just looked at him, using his death stare then
replied.

"The rules are simple Hoody.

Rule #1 Stay alive.

Rule #2 Work as a team. If the shooters fail
to kill the Zombies they step back and let those with the Swords
deal with them.

Rule #3 Stay alive.

Is that quite clear Hoody, do you now
understand?"

"Uh yes sir, stay alive it is then," Hoody
replied winking at Mr Mayer. WINKING again, what is it with this
guy? Anyway, Hoody's charm offensive worked and Mr Mayer cracked
the smallest of smiles.

"Good, now everyone light your torch. First
group, Jeb, Hoody, Numbers and Gravy, out into the open, your
Zombies will spawn in the woods. Place your torches in the ground,
shooters ready, Swords Bearers step behind the shooters and prepare
to defend them. Are you ready?"

We all looked at each other nervously. Me and
Numbers had our bows ready, Hoody gave me wink, I'm really going to
have to speak to him about that, then Mr Mayer shouted, "Good luck
team - Captain, TIME SET NIGHT, lets begin."

And the Survival Room went dark - ah man, I
forgot they could change the time of day with cheat codes! The next
instant moaning emanated from the trees and four Zombies shambled
into the open. Numbers, you take the two on the left, I've got the
ones on the right, wait until they are in range.

Numbers then did something really brave, nah
scratch that, really STUPID! He ran forward, screaming at the top
of his lungs and shot the first Zombie through the head, quickly
notched his second arrow and took down the next Zombie with an
awesome arrow straight through its dead heart. Me and the other
guys just stood there with out mouths wide open, jaws almost on the
floor. It was only the shouting from the crowd that spurred me into
action. The two Zombies that I had assigned myself had turned and
were heading for Numbers, who was in the process of notching his
third arrow and aiming at the incoming walkers.

"You want me to take yours too Jeb," he
laughed, but the look on my face must have scarred him to death, as
the color drained from his face.

I screamed, "behind you Numbers," and I let
loose my first arrow. It sailed over the Zombies heads, skimmed
past Numbers cheek and planted itself between the eyes of the fifth
Zombie that was just about to take a big munch out of Numbers neck.
Well to his credit, Numbers swung around and let fly his arrow at
the sixth Zombie, taking it out just in time. I put an arrow
between the shoulder blades of Zombie number three (yeah, I finally
got around to taking out my Zombies!) and notched my last
arrow.

"Hey, meat head," I yelled and the last
Zombie turned to face me. "Eat this," I shouted as I released the
arrow and it flew straight into the Zombies open mouth. Yeeha, six
Zombies down and no casualties.

"Nice work boys," complimented Mr Mayer as he
strode up behind us, "but Numbers, if you ever pull another stunt
like that I'll shoot you myself. It was totally irresponsible and
could have got you all killed."

A crest fallen Numbers meekly replied that he
was sorry and we were kicked, unceremoniously out of the clearing.
*shame*

The rest of the day was spent observing the
other teams as they took down their Zombies. It got a little hairy
at one point when Fingers missed a Zombie that was charging him and
in his haste to get out of it's way he tripped on a tree stump. I
did not think it was possible for a person to scream so loud, maybe
it was a cunning plan to trick the Zombie or whatever but he just
lay there on the floor, seconds away from certain death when Pippa
jumped in and cut off the Zombies head with her Diamond Sword. I
guess Mr Mayer was right, if you stick to the plan then even when
it all gets out of control you still get to live. Note to myself -
Have another word with Numbers about following the rules. Way to go
Pippa - she was definitely the hero of the day.

We made more potions today. Darth was quiet
for a change, I don't think he wanted a repeat of the Potion of
Slowness debacle. Hey, whatever keeps him quiet is ok by me. We had
to make a load of Splash Potions of Healing, they do exactly what
they say on the label, they heal you but they also hurt undead mobs
like Zombies. Hope we won't have to use them in the next lesson. To
make the Potion of Healing we first made an Awkward Potion, that's
a base potion you make by adding Nether Wart to a Water Bottle in
the Brewing Stand. It's not a lot of use for anything on it's own
but we then added Glistering Melon and Gun Powder and turned it
into a Splash Potion of Healing, well cool.