Quest for Justice (14 page)

I
miss my axe
, thought Stan as he plowed through the dirt with his shovel. He'd had to fight off several monsters so far in the darkness, and he felt awkward and clumsy beating a Spider to death with a shovel. He would have much preferred the smooth decapitation that the axe would have given him.

He punched through another block of dirt and stopped. A sheer cliff face was in front of him. He had dug through to the side of an underground ravine. Kat took the lead. She had found an abandoned underground house a while back with nothing inside except a chest containing a stack of torches. She placed the torches on the wall, illuminating the path ahead, keeping her bow held tight in her other hand. A few times a Zombie lumbered along the cliff face toward her, and once a few arrows sunk into her tunic from a Skeleton across the ravine. All of these attacks saw the monster silenced by her infinite supply of arrows.

At the end of the chasm, Kat put up the last of the torches, and Charlie pulled out the compass.

“We should be near the center of the desert,” he said excitedly. “If there is a secret stash, it should be around here.”

And with that Charlie pulled out his diamond pickaxe and began tunneling into the wall. He went
three blocks in, and his pickaxe struck wood.

“What the . . . ,” he exclaimed as he dislodged the diamond pick from the wood and saw that he'd hit a wooden plank. “What's a manmade block doing this far underground?”

“Maybe it's the entrance to the stash room!” Stan exclaimed excitedly.

“Maybe . . . ,” said Kat. “But you'd think that the King, guarding his most precious supplies, would guard the stash with something you can't punch through.”

“Well, in any case, it's something,” replied Charlie, and he began to punch through the wood with his fist.
This would go a lot faster with my axe
, thought Stan glumly as Charlie broke through.

Light flooded through the hole. As Charlie punched more wood planks around the first one, Stan could see that they had entered a network of tunnels, which appeared to be supported with fence posts. Train tracks ran across the ground, but they weren't complete. Torches were on the wall, and there were chests against the wall to their right.

Charlie jumped up through the hole and examined the fence post supports. Stan followed and looked down at the tracks. He wondered if he could craft a train to run on them. Then he heard Kat yell.

“Hey guys, check this out!”

They walked over to her, and she started pulling things
out of the chest she had just opened.

“Excellent!” she exclaimed, pulling two iron ingots out of the chest. “I can make a new sword out of these! Oh man, there's tons of stuff!” said Kat. She pulled out a handful of white seeds. “These look like pumpkin seeds. They could come in handy at some point. But what's this?” She pulled out a handful of chalky blue stones.

“I think that's lapis lazuli,” said Charlie. “It's used to make blue dyes.”

“Not particularly helpful,” said Kat, but she pocketed it anyway. She continued pulling things out of the chest. “There are also three pieces of bread in here . . . and a bucket . . . what kind of seed is this?” She pulled out the bread and a handful of black seeds.

“Melon seeds,” said Charlie.

“How do you know all this stuff?” asked Kat, impressed.

“I read that book at night before it got burned up back in the forest. I know about lots of stuff. For example, we are currently in an abandoned mine shaft. Nobody dug this. It was here before any players knew about it. Anyway, anything else good in this chest?”

“Just this,” she said and pulled out a handful of red dust. “Redstone dust, right?”

“Yeah . . . hey, let me see those gold ingots.” She handed them to him. He punched four wooden planks off the wall
and quickly constructed them into a crafting table. He laid the gold ingots and redstone out on the table, and moments later he had made a new clock. The face showed that it was about noon above ground.

“All right, so I guess we should look around this mine shaft,” said Charlie, pocketing the clock.

“Good idea,” said Kat, drawing her sword. “Maybe there'll be some more chests down here.”

“Or maybe,” said Charlie, “the King decided to put his secret stash somewhere in here. From what I understand, these things are pretty hard to navigate.”

“Uh, guys?”

Kat and Charlie turned. In the excitement of finding the chest, they had forgotten about Stan. He had followed the train tracks down the corridor, and now seemed to be looking down another corridor that branched off at a right angle.

“You guys might want to check this out,” he said slowly.

Kat walked over to him, followed by Charlie and the animals. The hallway in front of Stan was completely blocked off by thick Spider webs, stretching from floor to ceiling. The webbing continued down the hallway as far as the eye could see.

“What do you make of this, Charlie?” asked Stan, looking uncertainly at Charlie for an answer. Charlie was shaking his head, apparently at a loss. Kat, on the other hand, stepped
forward and slashed at the cobwebs with her sword.

“Kat!” cried Stan, pulling her back.

“What? There's gotta be something that way, right?” she snapped, yanking herself out of Stan's grip and continuing to slash the strings in front of her.

“But what if there's a trap? There could be anything down that hallway. We can barely see three blocks in front of us,” said Charlie, and it was true that, with the cobwebs and lack of torches down the hall, visibility was very limited.

“Do I look like I care?” said Kat, still hacking through the cobwebs. Followed by Rex, she continued on to the point where she was out of sight of the boys, and they could only hear her voice. “I'm sick of all this hiding from the King. I want to find this stash. And if I get in a fight, then so be it. I'd personally prefer a straight fight to all this—aaaaaugh!”

Kat's anguished scream reverberated around the walls of the mine shaft, making it seem three times louder than it actually was. Stan sprinted into the darkness toward his friend, weaving through the path Kat had hacked through the Spider webs. Stan heard a pained whimper as he approached where he judged Kat to be. He pulled back his shovel and swung it, baseball style, as it connected to the Spider that was digging its teeth into Kat's chest as she lay unconscious on the stone floor, with Rex lying lifeless beside her.

As the Spider fell down onto the floor, Stan noticed in the
low light that it was small, only about two thirds the size of a normal Spider. It had the same red eyes, but it appeared to be blue. He only noticed it for a moment, though, before another one came barreling out of the darkness, straight toward him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Charlie kneeling down, tending to Kat, so he batted the Spider back with his shovel as he had the first one. This one landed on its feet, and he had to hit it a few more times before it finally succumbed to death.

More Spiders kept coming, and their numbers were increasing. Stan wondered what was happening. Hostile mobs did not attack like this. There were a variety of them, and they didn't spawn this frequently, even in such low light.

Then, slowly, as he batted down more and more Spiders, with Charlie now fighting at his side, he noticed a faint glow in the distance. He dodged a Spider and stepped close. What he saw was a black cage, one block in size. Every now and then, a small glow of fire would burst from the cage, and Stan could see a miniature Spider, blue like the ones he was fighting, spinning inside. Immediately after each burst of fire, another Spider would appear, which Stan would hastily beat down.

Stan realized that this thing was spawning swarms of Spiders, and if he didn't destroy it soon, they would have a serious problem on their hands. Then he saw Kat's stone
sword lying on the ground, and he knew what had to be done. Without thinking, he snatched up the sword, cut aside two of the Spiders, and, with all his strength, thrust the sword into the heart of the cage, impaling the miniature arachnid inside.

There was a burst of light. Fire flew from the cage, and there was a loud shrieking noise, like thousands of Spiders being murdered at the same time. Then, the cage was silent. The fire within it had died, and no more monsters were being spawned from it. Stan picked up his shovel, cast aside the remains of the ruined sword, and turned back to Charlie, who was just puncturing the body of the last Spider with his diamond pickaxe.

“Good thinking, man,” heaved Charlie, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Thanks,” replied Stan, and he looked down at Kat, who now appeared to be shivering in a puddle of her own vomit. “Is she going to be all right?”

“Yeah, but it'll take a while,” said Charlie gravely. “Those things were Cave Spiders. They didn't do much damage to her, thanks to you, but they poisoned her. The poison will make her throw up anything in her system. I was stupid and tried to feed her one of her potions, but she just threw it back up. Her system will rid itself of the poison eventually. We just need to give it time. When she wakes up, she'll be very weak and very hungry.”

“Man, I'm so glad you read that book,” chuckled Stan. Then he had a thought. “Oh God, you didn't get poisoned, did you?”

“I doubt it,” he replied. “None of those Spiders even touched me. You?”

“I don't think so,” said Stan in relief. “That's good. Even with the bread we got from that chest, we only have six loaves left, and I think that at least two of those are going to Kat when she wakes up.”

Indeed, after a while the unconscious Kat woke up, and the first words out of her mouth were incoherent grumbling, asking for food. Charlie gave her two loaves of bread and one of her two remaining healing potions. Even after this, Kat was very weak and had to walk slowly. She was also on edge.

“What do you mean, my sword's gone?” Kat barked at Stan when he explained what had happened after she was knocked out.

“I told you,” he said, “I used it to destroy the Spider spawner.”

“And you couldn't save it or something?” Kat spat in disgust. “You're useless, you know that? Absolutely useless.”

“Shut up! If you hadn't just barged in like that, we wouldn't have been ambushed by those Spiders. It's no one's fault but yours that your sword is gone. Stop blaming me.”

“To that point,” added Charlie, who had just finished
healing Rex with some rotten flesh, “I still have that stone pickaxe. You can use that until you can craft a new sword, Kat.” He pulled it out and gave it to her. She looked at it in disgust.

“I need to get a new weapon,” she said, spinning the pickaxe over in her hand.

“Welcome to the club,” sighed Stan, his shovel still gripped in his hand. “You, at least, have your bow.”

They wandered the mine shaft, taking side tunnels they had never seen before, trying to find some way out or, even better, an entrance to a secret stash room. Before long, they became hopelessly lost in the labyrinth of tunnels. Stan was just about to say that they should tunnel back up to the surface when something caught his eye.

At the end of the corridor to their right was a door. It was made out of metal, and there were torches on either side of it, as well as a button. He could see a ton of light streaming from the window of the door. But what most caught his attention was the sign above the door.

It read Underground Base of Avery007.

“A
very007?” said Charlie when Stan pointed the sign out to him and Kat. “You mean that guy from the Apothecary's story? Does that mean that he lives down here?”

“Not anymore,” said Kat, staring at the sign. “Remember what the Apothecary said? The King killed him. He's banished from the server forever. This must've been where he lived at one point.”

“Didn't he have operating powers?” remembered Stan.

“Yeah . . . ,” said Charlie, an idea striking him. “And if he had operating powers, that means he probably had some pretty good stuff!”

“Okay, let's go in then,” said Stan, shovel at the ready. “But be careful this time. We don't know what could be in there.”

Charlie nodded, and he raised his diamond pick, ready to defend himself. Kat also drew her pickaxe and held it at the ready. Stan pressed the button on the wall, and the iron door slowly swung open.

He stepped inside, and immediately his foot caught on some string lying across the ground. An arrow flew out of nowhere and snagged his leather cap off his head. Another arrow immediately afterward glanced off his iron chestplate.

“Hit the dirt!” he screamed, and fell to the ground as arrows continued to whiz over his head. Behind him he heard Charlie and Kat doing the same. He looked up and saw that the arrows were being fired from a machine, the same kind that the Apothecary had trapped him with when they first met. He realized that he had stepped on a tripwire that had activated the machine. He hastily brought the blade of his shovel down on the trip wire, destroying it. The arrows stopped immediately.

Stan got up and looked around. They were in a well-lit room, made mainly of stone. Here and there, sections of the wall had been replaced with brick. There were various crafting tables and furnaces around the room, as well as chests. A bed sat in a corner.

“Well, this is disappointing,” said Kat, examining a painting of a sunset on the wall.

“Yeah, it is,” agreed Charlie, pulling a pair of iron leggings out of the chest. “This is the lair of Avery007?”

“It does seem a little basic . . . ,” said Stan, but then he noticed something. Lying on top of one of the crafting tables was a book, similar to the one that he and Charlie had found on their first day in Minecraft. The title on the book they had found on Spawnpoint Hill had read
Welcome to Minecraft
, with the author signed as Bookbinder55. But this book's title was
My Story
, and the author was signed as Adam711. He picked it up.

“What's that?” asked Charlie, walking over, Kat right behind him.

“It's a book, written by somebody named Adam711,” replied Stan, examining the book. “What do you suppose it's doing down here?”

“I don't know,” said Kat. “Why would Avery007 care about whatever this Adam711 had had to say?”

“Let's find out,” said Stan, and he opened to page one and began to read aloud.

Stan paused for a minute to look up. “So Adam711 was Avery007 in a past life?”

“I guess,” said Charlie. “But the important thing is that there is a secret stash down here! I
knew
it!”

“Hold on,” said Kat. “But Avery was looking for it, too. What if he found it and the stash is gone now?”

“I guess there's only one way to find out,” replied Stan, and he continued reading.

Stan flipped to the next page. It was blank.

“It stops there,” he said, tossing the book back on the crafting table.

“So the secret stash is somewhere called the End,” said Kat, looking confused. “Do you know what that is, Charlie?”

“Beats me,” he said, looking down. “The only alternate dimension I was aware of in this game was the Nether.”

“Forget the secret stash for a second,” said Stan slowly. Something didn't add up. Why did the book just stop like that? He asked the other two what they thought.

“I dunno,” shrugged Kat. “Maybe he just got bored of writing in his little diary.”

“Or maybe he was killed,” suggested Charlie.

Stan was about to voice his opinion, but he was cut off by evil laughter emanating from behind him.

Stan whipped around, as did Kat and Charlie. There, dressed in full diamond battle armor with a diamond sword in his hand, stood Mr. A, his black sunglasses dangerously glinting in the torchlight, a sly smile creeping onto his face.

Stan braced himself for a fight with his shovel, strongly wishing that he still had an axe. Charlie drew his pickaxe and Kat her bow, both braced for battle. All three of them sat ill at ease. They knew that with their limited armor and less-than-ideal weaponry, they would be lucky to make it out alive.

Mr. A laughed. “Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you . . . yet,” he said, putting his sword away and smiling. “I think that it would be a shame for you to come all this way and not at least hear the conclusion of the story of Avery007, wouldn't you agree?”

Stan was caught off guard. He lowered his shovel for a moment. “What are you talking about? How do you know the story of Avery007?”

“Because I knew Avery007,” replied Mr. A quietly. “He was like a brother to me.”

There was a stunned silence. Charlie stared at Mr. A, convinced that he was insane. Stan's face took on a mask of one trying to process this implausible information. Kat, on the other hand, merely laughed and said, “Ha! Nice try, buddy. Even if I
believed for a second that that was remotely possible, from what I understand Avery was a friend of lower-level players. You, on the other hand, if you recall, have tried to attack us multiple times. Somehow, I don't think you two would have gotten along very well.”

Mr. A's face contorted with rage, and he drew his sword again. “Fine! Don't believe me! Then let me tell you what happened! It just so happens that after he met those worms that you read about in that book, Adam tried to raise an army with them to overthrow the King. When he told them his idea, they figured that he was a dangerous madman and beat him to death with their stone tools. Just like that, Adam711 was gone from this server, like Avery007!

“And so now, I have made it my sole duty to dispose of all the worthless lower-level scum on this server: the citizens whom my friend tried to help, the citizens who turned on him in his hour of need. The citizens who truly are the bane of Minecraft!”

Mr. A was screaming now, the vein in his head popping. He gave an almighty scream, “And now you die!” Then he rushed in with his sword, straight toward Charlie.

All four warriors attacked at the same time. Mr. A thrust his sword at Charlie's heart. Charlie threw his pickaxe at Mr. A's head. Stan swung his shovel's blade toward the front of Mr. A's stomach. Kat fired an arrow aimed at a chink in Mr. A's chestplate. The arrow missed and knocked the sword to the
side, causing it to strike Stan's iron chestplate, which shattered on impact. The pickaxe missed its mark and embedded itself in the wall, and the shovel flew up and knocked Mr. A's helmet off.

Stan and Charlie scrambled to recover their weapons. Stan could see that Mr. A was dizzied by the blow to the head, while he himself felt like he was about to throw up from the blow to his stomach. Still he snatched up his shovel and ran back into engage Mr. A, but he stopped short when he saw that Mr. A was already taking heavy fire from Kat. Her never-ending supply of arrows flew out of her bow rapid fire, glancing off the diamond of Mr. A's armor and knocking him backward into the wall.

“Hey guys! I think we may have a problem here!” Stan heard Charlie yell. He turned toward Charlie and saw that his diamond pickaxe had hit a button on the wall next to a bookshelf. Simultaneously, he heard a rumbling coming from above him. Seconds later, the roof exploded and sand blocks fell down into the room, burying the entire underground bunker in a vortex of darkness and coarse, grainy earth.

Stan found himself buried. He couldn't judge which way was up or down, and he couldn't breathe inside the coarse blocks. He slowly realized that he still had his shovel in his hand. He came to his senses and punched around with it, finally figuring out which way was up. He dug up quickly, and just when he thought he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he punched his way into the fresh air.