Minecraft Story Mode: A Heroine's Journey

Chapter 9: Companion

Alex wasn't sure how long they've been cramped inside that carriage for. A few minutes? A few hours? When there's barely any room to move and you're constantly gasping for breath in the darkness, you tend to lose track of time. "I don't like being in here," one of the children whimpered. "It's dark, smelly, and hard to breathe in." Another child was hyperventilating, possibly from claustrophobia. Other than their scared whispers, the only thing that broke the silence was the coachman spitting and coughing about every five minutes.

Finally, the carriage stopped. "Are we finally there now?," asked Alex. "I don't wanna go to the other orphanage either," a small boy whined. "I wanna stay with Nancy. "The man riding the horse doesn't seem that friendly," a girl agreed. Suddenly, the carriage door opened, letting in a stream of sunlight that nearly blinded the children. Standing in the doorway was Anton, staring at them as if they were insects. "What are you brats staying in here for?," he snapped. "Get your asses out there!" The children quickly exited the carriage, taking in deep breaths of fresh air. Finally, they were out of that infernal contraption! But something wasn't right...

"Wait...this isn't an orphanage," said one of the children, looking around in bewilderment. Alex had to agree with her. They appeared to be in the middle of the woods, with no building or even other grown ups in sight. Suddenly, Anton jumped onto his horse and rode away, leaving the children behind. "Mister, wait!," a boy cried. Anton ignored the children's pleas and quickly vanished into the distance. The horse's hoof beats slowly faded away as well.

"...he left us," another girl whispered. "He...he left us!" "What are we gonna do?," the boy from earlier cried desperately. "We can't survive out here! We're gonna get eaten by mobs!" The other children began to panic and sob. "I don't wanna get eaten by a ghast!," a girl cried, not knowing that ghasts only spawned in the Nether. Alex didn't say a single word, staring into the direction of where the coachman went off to. As the other children began losing hope, a spark of fire suddenly appeared inside of her, an overwhelming urge to take control and survive.

Alex walked towards a nearby tree stump, climbed onto it, and gave a shrill whistle that caught everybody's attention. "Listen up!," she said, trying to replicate that tone of authority she heard Officer Jones use many times. "Panicking won't get us anywhere! We need to stick together if we want to survive in the woods! Nancy WILL come to rescue us..." At least, she hoped so. "...but in the meantime, we need to take care of ourselves! Understand?" The other children looked up at her in awe before silently nodding. "Good," said Alex, feeling pride well up inside of her. "Now first thing's first. We need to spread out and gather resources, then meet back here before night falls. We need to defend ourselves from the mobs!"

Empowered by Alex's speech, the children spread out and began searching for any resources. Unfortunately, there was a major problem: they were only children. They didn't know how to harvest wood, craft wooden tools, or use coal to make torches. By the time the sun began to lower, the children grouped up again, but with very meager resources at hand. All they managed to gather was some seeds from breaking tall grass, a few blocks of dirt, and an egg left over by a chicken. The children had no idea that they were supposed to gather wood as their first priority, nor did they realize that they were supposed to find coal for torches.

Before long, darkness fell over the entire woods, with only the moon providing any light, which was nowhere near enough to ward off the incoming zombies, spiders, creepers, and skeletons. Without a shelter or any weapons to defend themselves, the children began to panic again and ran around screaming. "Wait!," Alex cried desperately, trying to take charge again. "We can't separate! We have to stick together!" Unfortunately, the children were too busy panicking to hear her, and it wasn't long before each of them ran off on their own, separating in the process. Alex was forced to run away as well when the mobs began to get closer.