Encore: The Amnesiac and the Deceiver

15: Attack (Riley)

I woke up to my room shaking and a massive rumbling sound coming from outside. I leapt out of bed and looked out my window. The ground outside seemed to be shaking, almost like an earthquake. As I watched, the shaking slowly stopped and everything went back to normal. I walked outside my room and down the stairs to find my friends in a small huddle.

"What was that?" Sky asked when I arrived.

"Earthquake," Steve said, entering the room. He had a pack on one shoulder.

"Vanilla Minecraft doesn't have earthquakes," Jerome said.

"We do now."

"What? Why?" I asked.

"Oh! Guys, remember how Notch added in some extra surprises?" Bajan asked. "I think we just found one!"

"Well that's a horrible surprise," Sub said.

"It's not the worst one," Steve said. "Nether mobs have a 67% chance of spawning on moonless nights."

"Why would Notch put that in?"

Steve shrugged. "But you can find naturally green sheep now. And there's camels in the desert."

"At least it's not all bad."

An hour later, we said goodbye to Steve and parted ways. Steve headed north while my friends and I went west. We had our armour in chests that Steve somehow made transportable and our weapons were at our sides. My banner was rolled up and I had it diagonally across my back. We walked west for the whole day, grabbing apples from the oak trees that we passed to eat as we walked. Sky and Bajan tried to talk to me a few times but I ignored them. I didn't feel like talking. The boring day finally passed into the night and we made a sort of camp under the stars. We rolled out my banner and looked at how far we had come.

"Another day and a half, maybe two of walking, and we'll be there," Bajan estimated, looking over my shoulder.

"That's my line," I said, almost no humour in my voice.

Bajan gave me a little grin. Sky sighed and stretched, then lay down.

"Nothing much to do," he said. "I'm gonna catch some Z's. Night!"

While Sky slept (Or pretended to sleep), the rest of us sat around the fire, talking quietly. I mostly listened and stared at the fire. I have always loved fires, there's just something comforting about them. A branch snapped behind me and Bajan's head whipped up, looking in the direction. He very slowly stood up, making no sudden movements.

"Guys, get up and get your weapons," he said, his voice low and soft. Sky turned and saw what Bajan saw. He copied Bajan's movements, his hand going to his sword that was resting on the ground.

Dread creeped in me. I slowly turned around, standing up at the same time. In the forest, several pairs of red eyes watched us, not attacking, just watching. One bobbed forward and we saw in the light of our fire that it was a skeleton. But skeletons don't have red eyes, they have black ones. All the mobs have black ones. My hand reached down and scrabbled in the dirt for my sword.

Then the mobs charged.

I jumped away as a zombie swung its sword at me, my foot accidentally kicking my sword, sending it spinning away. Dozens of mobs poured out of the forest, skeletons, zombies, spiders and creepers, all with red eyes, all intending to kill us. I sprinted away, my friends just ahead of me. I was the only one who didn't have a weapon. The uncaring moon watched us as we sprinted away, the mobs hot on our tails. A skeleton arrow shot the tree just next to me and I jerked away, running faster. I didn't realise that I was splitting up from my friends.