Quest for Justice. Sean Wolfe Fay

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СКАЧАТЬ about this thing called a Creepy or something like that, but I didn’t think that it was actually real.”

      “Well, let’s hope we don’t run into any of those, or anything else,” Stan said. “Now, do you see that road anywhere? ’Cause I kind of like the sound of this Adorian Village.”

      “Yeah, we should try to find it. But where is the road? I don’t see it anywhere.”

      They glanced around. They didn’t see a road, but Stan noticed something else. In the shadows of the trees was what looked like another player. The figure was the right height and had the right figure, but Stan couldn’t see his face.

      “Hey, Charlie, look down there! Do you think he knows where the road is?”

      “Maybe. Let’s go find out.”

      The two walked down the hill and towards the figure. It was dark; the green foliage above them provided shade from the sun. As they got closer to the figure, he suddenly turned and walked towards them, arms outstretched.

      “Great, he sees us! Maybe he’ll give us directions!” Charlie exclaimed.

      “Yeah …” But something didn’t feel right to Stan. The player completely ignored them until they got close and then walked straight towards them with outstretched arms.

      “Charlie, look out!”

      “Stan? What’s your prob—Oh my God!”

      The figure walking towards them had just walked under a patch of light. It was dressed like Stan was, but it had rotten green flesh and empty eye sockets. It smelled like death, and it was making soft moaning noises. The figure was still walking towards Charlie, who was immobile and wide-eyed with panic. Stan charged at the monster and did the only thing that he could think of.

      He clubbed it over the head with his book.

      The monster stumbled backwards a few feet but stayed upright, and again began to walk, this time straight at Stan. Stan started to run, but the monster was right behind him. He ran out of the woods, across the field, and suddenly stopped. He was standing in front of a ravine that he hadn’t noticed before, which cut straight through the field. It was deep; he couldn’t make out the bottom. He was trapped, with a fall to his death in front of him and the monster behind him. Afraid that he was about to die before he had even started playing the game, Stan balled his fists and turned towards the monster, ready to fight. Then he stared.

      The monster had stopped chasing him. It was running back towards the woods, away from him and not towards Charlie. But the strangest part was that smoke was rising off its skin; Stan caught the putrid stench of burning flesh. The monster was making loud moaning noises and Stan was sure that it would be screaming if it could. Suddenly, the monster keeled over and burst into flames. It writhed on the ground until it had burned out of existence, leaving nothing but a small piece of rotten flesh in its place.

      Charlie walked out of the woods, staring in shock at the small piece of flesh on the ground. Stan wore a look of equal bewilderment. Charlie turned to Stan.

      “What was that thing?”

      “I don’t know man, but it definitely was not a player.”

      “Maybe it was one of those monsters that were mentioned in the book. Maybe it was a Creepy, or whatever you call it.”

      “Let me look.”

      Stan flipped open to the section of the book describing monsters, and on the first page he found what he was looking for. He read the description written next to an illustration of the monster they had just encountered.

       ZOMBIES

       Zombies are hostile mobs, or creatures, that spawn at night or in dark areas. They are the easiest hostile mob to defeat as their attack pattern consists of simply walking towards the player and trying to attack. They will burn when exposed to direct sunlight. They are also able to break down doors, and are the main attackers during a siege on an NPC village. They drop rotten flesh when killed.

      As Stan finished the passage, Charlie said, “So that was a Zombie? And those things are supposed to be really easy to kill?”

      “Apparently so,” replied Stan. He picked the flesh up off the ground. “Do you think this stuff is safe to eat?”

      “I doubt it.” Charlie frowned, staring at the rancid lump of green and tan meat. “Check the book.”

      After a little searching in the Items section, Stan found the page describing the flesh.

       ROTTEN FLESH

       Rotten flesh is an item dropped by Zombies and Zombie Pigmen and found in Temples. It can be eaten, but it is inadvisable to do so as it has a high chance of giving you food poisoning. It is not, however, poisonous to dogs.

      “So, I guess we shouldn’t eat it unless we’re really, really desperate,” said Charlie.

      “Yeah, you’re right,” agreed Stan. “Besides, we each get two pieces of bread from that chest up there, plus a sword. That sword should be helpful for fighting off any more monsters that turn up.”

      “Agreed. So let’s get the stuff and go! It’s still morning; we’ve got an entire day to get to this Adorian Village before more monsters come out tonight.”

      The two players walked back up the hill to the chest, where they each took two pieces of bread and a wooden sword. They then went to the top of the hill and looked around until Charlie spied the path. Bread in their inventories and swords in hand, Charlie and Stan started on the road to the Adorian Village.

       CHAPTER 2

       THE FIRST NIGHT

      The trees around the pathway had been cleared out, so there was light shining down on the two players as they walked down the road to the village. There were no monsters on the path, but they spotted a few in the woods. Zombies seemed to be the most common, as they were all over the place, but the players noticed a few others, too. Charlie pointed out, deep in the woods, what appeared to be a Zombie but thinner and less substantial, and Stan could have sworn that, from what he could see in the dim light, it was holding a bow and had a quiver of arrows on its back. Once, when Stan looked up into the trees at the sides of the road, he saw a flash of blood-red eyes contemplating him from one of the higher limbs. None of these mysterious creatures, thankfully, pursued the players.

      “We’d better hurry and get to that village,” said Charlie, looking nervous. “I don’t want to be out here when it gets dark enough for those things to come out and hunt.”

      Stan nodded in agreement, but things did not go well from that point on. The path became less clear as they went deeper into the woods, and a few times they found themselves accidentally straying onto side trails that led to dead ends. One of these paths turned out to have a Zombie at the end of it. Stan and Charlie barely managed to outrun it before it lost interest in them.

      The sky began to turn a shade of beautiful СКАЧАТЬ