Book Three: Part 2 Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ he were her prized show dog instead of another person. It made him feel powerless, degraded and humiliated. G shuddered and wished that somehow, he still had Jayden to talk to.

      “Charlie, please … let me take a turn, I can see how bad you’re hurtin’ …”

      “Leonidas, for the last time, I am fine!” Charlie bellowed, whipping around to face him. “Stop interrupting me or we’re never gonna get to Element City!”

      “OK, fine, calm down, man!” Leonidas cried out, raising his blocky hands defensively.

      Charlie shot one last steely glare at him before turning back around, and continuing to hack away at the solid cave wall with his stone pickaxe. Leonidas stared at Charlie’s back, illuminated by torchlight. He had been baffled by the hostility Charlie had been showing towards him. Since they had joined up with him and Stan, Leonidas had been pleasantly surprised by how quickly everybody had warmed up to him. Everybody, that was, except Charlie. And even as Leonidas watched Charlie mining, it was clear that he was hurting. Every swing of the pickaxe brought another grunt of discomfort, and every step he took through the newly mined cave saw another limp.

      Leonidas was the only one who even noticed Charlie’s outburst, however. Commander Crunch was busy tunnelling forwards alongside Charlie, while Stan, Kat, and Cassandrix walked behind, talking among themselves. Stan put torches on the wall as they walked, and Rex trailed lazily behind Kat.

      “I still can’t believe that we’re being forced to sneak into our own city,” Kat spat in disgust.

      “Oh, I’m sorry, dear. Allow me to play you a sad song on the world’s smallest violin,” Cassandrix replied, sticking her bloated lip out in mock sadness before reverting back to a scowl. “Kat, we’re all down here together. There’s no need to whine about what we’re all feeling!”

      “Shut up!” cried Kat, so loudly, that Stan cringed and raised his hands to his ears. “There’s no need to be so obnoxious about it!”

      “I’m sorry, what’s that, Commander?” Cassandrix said loudly, looking over at Crunch, who was still firmly fixated on his digging. “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. There appears to be an infant who’s crying because her feelings are hurt. I do wish the parents would take care of her.”

      Kat turned red as a beet, and was about to retort when Stan forced his way between the two of them.

      “Enough, you two!” he cried, indignantly glancing back and forth between them. “We’re all stressed enough as it is in this stupid tunnel. We don’t need your bickering making things worse!”

      “She started it,” Kat mumbled, causing Cassandrix to roll her eyes and shrug with an arrogant sigh.

      “I don’t care who started it, I’m finishing it,” said Stan firmly, as he continued to walk forwards between Kat and Cassandrix. Man, I’m so glad to be back with everyone, Stan thought to himself, trying to think as optimistically as possible. I missed talking with everybody so much …

      “Hey, Charlie!” Kat hollered right next to Stan’s ear, causing him to cringe again. “Are we past the wall yet?”

      “If my calculations are correct,” Charlie replied, trying to keep his breathing steady as he winced with the effort of mining, “we passed underneath the wall a little while ago, and we should be underneath the Merchants District of Element City by now.”

      “Hey, did you hear that, everybody?” Stan asked, looking around the mine at all his friends. “We’re back in Element City! Welcome home, guys!”

      There were lacklustre murmurs of assent around the mine as Charlie and Commander Crunch tunnelled into a sizable natural cave. Stan sighed. He knew that they had to get to Element City as quickly as possible, and the fate of all of Minecraft might lie in their hands. But that didn’t change the fact that they had been walking for three straight days with no sleep, and everybody was worn out.

      “OK,” he said, finally letting his inner exhaustion come forwards. “Maybe we should take a break for a little while and rest.”

      As soon as Stan said this, the entire group collapsed onto the ground, letting the fatigue of weeks of trekking with almost no rest finally hit them. Stan lay down as well, not even caring that the stone-block floor below him was uncomfortable. Rex curled up at his feet, and Stan was just about to doze off when he suddenly had a startling realization.

      “Hey, guys, we can’t all go to sleep yet,” he mumbled, forcing himself to sit up. “Somebody has to stand guard.”

      “I’ll take care of it,” Leonidas said, grabbing a ledge on the cave wall and pulling himself to his feet.

      “NO!” Charlie cried, causing everybody to snap up right as Charlie jumped, wincing as his bad leg hit the ground. “Get back to sleep, Leonidas. I’m standing guard.”

      “Come on, Charlie!” exclaimed Leonidas, looking concerned. “You’ve been mining all day. You really ought to take a rest!’

      “What’s that supposed to mean, huh?” Charlie demanded accusatorily. “Are you saying you don’t think I can do it?”

      “No, I …”

      “Then shut up and sit back down!” Charlie spat out bitterly. “I don’t recall asking for your help!”

      Leonidas stared at Charlie, amazed at the harshness in his voice. After a moment, Leonidas lay back down and, with an uncomfortable glance at Charlie, rolled over to face the wall. Stan was outraged, and was about to chastise Charlie for his harshness when, without warning, an explosion erupted in the wall beside them, showering the entire group with dust.

      Within seconds, all six players and the wolf were on their feet again, weapons drawn, glancing into the misshapen hole in the cave wall. A shadowy form appeared in the smoke, and as the dust settled, a row of figures came into view. The form of Creeper Khan, with Arachnia, Enderchick, Lord Marrow and Zomboy standing directly behind him.

      There was a moment of silence. Stan and his friends stared at the mobhunters, transfixed in horror that they had been discovered. Meanwhile, the members of ELM stared back, their eyes alight with joyous amazement.

      “Fancy seeing you here, Stan,” Arachnia hissed with a grin, stepping forward to the front of the group.

      “How did you find us?” Stan demanded as he uncomfortably forced himself to look into Arachnia’s eight red eyes.

      “Lucky break, I guess,” she replied with a grin. “We were just about to set some traps for you guys down here. We didn’t expect you to get back here so quickly.”

      “We’ve been walking nonstop,” Stan replied slowly, trying to buy time as he wildly thought of how they could escape from these bounty hunters. “We wanted to make it back to Element City as fast as possible.”

      “Aw, poor tragic you,” Arachnia sneered. “You tried so hard, and got so far … but in the end, it doesn’t even matter.”

      “Haha! I ged id!” Zomboy shouted. “Because dose are da words to a song! And you used dem in …”

      “Shut up, Zomboy,” Arachnia said offhandedly.

      “OK,” he СКАЧАТЬ