Minecraft Story Mode: Pain and Healing

Chapter 4: Temple

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. I looked around and saw a campfire with my friends sitting around it. It looked like we were in a dirt house. "Hey, Alex," said Olivia, who saw me wake up. "You're awake." I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes groggily. "W-where are we?," I asked. "The portal led us outside," said Jesse. "It was dark out, so we built a dirt shelter while you were asleep. Olivia replaced your bandages, by the way."

I looked at my wounds and saw fresh bandages in place of the soggy, bloody ones. There was also a bandage on my shoulder where the wither scraped me with its tentacle and the bandages on my arms had been removed, revealing somewhat healed bruises.

"Here," said Olivia, handing me a wet sponge. "Hold this against your eye. It'll help with the swelling." I smiled, thanked her, and took the sponge, placing it on my right eye. "Oh, man!," said Axel, his back turned towards us. "What?," asked Olivia. "I'm going to tell you something," said Axel, "you have to promise not to freak out." "What is it," asked Jesse. Axel took out a bunch of cookies. "I have cookies."

"One for me," he said. "One for Olivia." He gave one to her. "One for Jesse." He gave another to him. "One for Alex." He gave one to me. "And one for Reuben." He dropped the last cookie in front of him. "Sorry, Lukas," he said. "I only have five." Lukas looked downcast but tried to hide it. I walked up to him and offered him my cookie. "Here, Lukas," I said. "Oh, no, no, I can't do that," said Lukas. I smiled sadly. "Please, I insist."

Lukas smiled back, took the cookie, and ate it. As I walked back to my spot, I noticed Jesse giving Lukas a slight glare, though I didn't know why. Maybe he wanted that cookie too. "That was for you, Alex," said Axel. "Not him." I frowned at him, making him back down. Everyone else ate their cookies as well. I was beginning to wish I'd broken the cookie in half before giving it to Lukas. That way, I would still have the remaining half to feed to Billy. He gets pretty cranky when he doesn't get anything to eat.

Olivia decided to ease some of the tension in the room. "If you had to," she asked Lukas, "which would you rather fight...a hundred chicken-sized zombies, or ten zombie-sized chickens?" "Choose wisely," Jesse joked. "That's a good one," said Lukas. "Let me think." "How can you guys joke at a time like this?," Axel argued. "Petra is still out there."

"We can't just mope," said Jesse. "We gotta keep our spirits high." "No," said Axel. "We should be moping. That's exactly what we should be doing." "Axel...," Olivia sighed. "I'm right, right?," asked Axel. "Maybe," said Jesse. "But she's going to be fine." "What makes you think that?," asked Axel. "Because she has to," I whispered without realizing it. Everyone looked at me. They saw me looking down with tears spilling from my eyes. Jesse immediately grew worried and ran over to comfort me.

"Fine, then," said Lukas. "We should get some rest. We gotta start looking for this temple as early as we can. Now, my guess is, if we start at the portal and kind of split up--" "Whoa, what are you doing?," asked Axel angrily. "Did I do something to you?," asked Lukas, putting his hands on his hips. "We'll figure it out in the morning," said Jesse, defusing the problem. "Maybe you're right," said Lukas. "I'm pretty exhausted."

"Jesse means 'us', not you," said Axel. "Axel," said Jesse irritably, "we'll figure it out in the morning." But Axel still wasn't done. "You're the only one wearing that stupid jacket," he said. "Don't tell us what to do." "Take that back," growled Lukas, walking towards him angrily. "Can't," said Axel. "Wouldn't." "I get to wear this jacket because I know how to build," Lukas retorted. "But that doesn't mean I don't know how to break things."

"Shut up," I heard someone whisper, then realized it was me. Everyone stopped and looked at me with wide eyes. "You guys are idiots," I whispered, my voice laced with more venom than I thought possible. "Petra's out there, and you two think the best way to save her is by arguing with each other like children? Grow up."