Minecraft: a Novel

Chapter 7

 My mind went blank. What did she mean I was the newest member?

While my mind was going crazy, the new guy introduced himself to me. "My name is Ben. I'm the main guy around here. At least for the rest of this week," he glanced down at Jane, and I instantly knew they had been friends for a long time. "Then Janie here takes over."

After Ben a young girl maybe a year older than Grace walked in. She had flaming red hair. With a confused glance, she turned from Ben to me.

"Introduce yourself to this fine gentleman," Ben instructed her.

She nodded. "I'm Ben's sister, Lora."

With everyone's willingness to talk to me, I actually began to feel welcome here, even with the rough start of being kidnapped by Jane. But I needed to ask something.

"Jane, why am I joining your group?"

Instead of Jane answering, Ben turned to me and said, "You're like us, not like we were born the same, but Herobrine made us into something. Each and every one of us was robbed by Herobrine, just like you. I can still remember the day he stole everything I had.

Lora spoke up in agreement, "Yeah. I hate him like I hate dirt."

Looking up from some papers, Jane broke the sad mood. "I think it's time to show Gregor around." She walked to the door. Giving me a smile that was surprisingly not malicious, she said. "Follow me."

I stood up and followed her out of the door. Ben and Lora tagged along while the one named Grace stayed to do some filing, I guess.

We walked down the hallway until we arrived at another door. What was inside looked more like a cockpit than a room. It had buttons, levers, and screens surrounding it. In the middle was a gigantic screen.

"This is the control room," said Jane, waving her arm. "We do pretty much everything in here, except train, eat, sleep, and store arms."

I was only observing the room for a second before I was ordered out. Can't I just look around a little bit more? I thought. All the contraptions were fascinating me. If I were to become a member of the HH, this is where I would like to stay.

"Don't worry, we're going somewhere even cooler," whispered Ben.

We continued down the hall and took a left until we were in a small room full of suits of armor and lined with chests labelled "Arrows," or "Ender Pearls."

"This is the armory," Jane announced, putting her hands on her hips.

"This is my favorite room," said Ben.

Rolling her eyes, Jane sighed. "We all know that, Ben."

Jane lead me to another room. It was much simpler than the rest, and it contained only a bed and chest. "This is where you'll be sleeping." She glanced around, as if she were the one who put it together, which might have been true. "Why don't we all go to bed?" Ben and Lora nodded in agreement.

"Goodnight," said Jane. "I hope you're up to a day of training in the morning!" She shut to door tightly, leaving me alone in the dark room.

I rolled over in the bed. She'd sounded like my mother. If only she were her. I wanted to see my mother and apologize for the casual goodbye that was the last time I saw her. All the times I'd ignored her or blown her off as unimportant rushed into me. If only I could see her for ten more minutes. But I didn't even know where she was.

That was when I realized I wasn't tired. How was I going to sleep?

That was it; I wasn't.

Standing up again, I peeked through my door. On the wall across the hallway were two shadows.

"What are we going to do about Gregor?" It was Ben. The way he spoke scared me. I'd liked Ben the most so far, but he made it sound like I was a problem. Or worse, a threat.

"I mean, it was your idea to bring him here in the first place. You just told me to go around this town and find his house then bring him here. This is where you take it, bucko."

Ben was silent for a second. "I think we should go ahead and count him as one of us. He obviously isn't in league with Herobrine. We can trust him."

"Just because he isn't with Herobrine doesn't mean there aren't forces out there that could have recruited him. But I think you're right. We can trust him."

After that I heard a few footsteps and then the sound of a door creaking open and closed.

For the next few seconds I waited and stared at where the shadows had been on the wall.

Silently, I closed my door and returned to my bed, where it was waiting for me.

My feelings were completely mixed about the situation. Strangely, I felt safer here than at home, but I didn't like how I was taken by force and how they'd taken Herobrine's sword from me.

I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep. It looked like I'd have to get used to this lifestyle of not knowing.