Creeper Invasion Read online

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  Copyright © 2016 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

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  This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Cover design by Brian Peterson

  Cover photo by Megan Miller

  Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0601-9

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0611-8

  Printed in Canada

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: Lisimi Land

  Chapter 2: The Return

  Chapter 3: Jeepers, Creepers

  Chapter 4: Nether Escape

  Chapter 5: The Invasion of the Wither Skeletons

  Chapter 6: Home Sweet Home

  Chapter 7: Explosive Enemies

  Chapter 8: Confrontations

  Chapter 9: Freedom

  Chapter 10: Testing

  Chapter 11: The First One

  Chapter 12: Creep

  Chapter 13: It Takes a Village

  Chapter 14: Hiding Spots

  Chapter 15: Captured

  Chapter 16: Signs

  Chapter 17: The First Ones

  Chapter 18: Hope

  1

  LISIMI LAND

  Lily looked down from atop the Ferris wheel and stared at Lisimi Land. She sat next to Simon and remarked, “I can’t believe we’ve actually finished Lisimi Land. It’s amazing!”

  “That’s what happens when people work together. You’re right. Lisimi Land is terrific. It’s such a super, awesome amusement park.” Simon smiled.

  Lisimi Land was bustling. All of the townspeople were spending the afternoon enjoying the many thrill rides that filled the park. There was a long line for the roller coaster and another for the fun house.

  “I think I’ve been on every ride.” Lily scanned the park from the Ferris wheel.

  Simon looked out as the Ferris wheel went around. “I haven’t been in the fun house yet. Would you like to go again?”

  Lily thought about the fun house. She liked it, but there were parts of the fun house that bothered her. The fun house gave out a texture pack that made everything slanted. She paused; she didn’t want to disappoint Simon, but she really didn’t want to go through the fun house again. “Would you mind if I don’t go to the fun house with you?”

  “Why?” Simon was shocked.

  “It’s not for me. I find it slightly scary,” Lily confessed.

  “Scary?” Simon questioned. “We’re stuck on a Minecraft server where we have battled every hostile mob in the Overworld, Nether, and the End, and you’re scared of the fun house. That’s funny, Lily.”

  “It’s not funny.” Lily was angry. “I was being honest with you. I didn’t enjoy it.”

  Simon felt badly. “I’m sorry, Lily. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “It’s okay,” Lily said. “I just don’t want to be made fun of for admitting I’m afraid.”

  Simon smiled. “Remember how witches used to terrify you? And now you’re not bothered by them?”

  “They still bother me, but I’m not paralyzed by fear anymore. I’ve destroyed enough witches to know that I’ll be fine if one of them tries to attack me,” explained Lily.

  The Ferris wheel ride was over. Before they stepped off the ride, Simon suggested going for another ride on the Ferris wheel, but Lily didn’t want to. “Where do you want to go next?” asked Simon.

  “I think you’re right. It’s very silly of me to be afraid of the fun house. I’m going to try going through it again.”

  “You don’t have to do that. We can go on something else,” Simon suggested. “How about the waterslide? Or the new roller coaster? Or bumper cars?”

  All of Simon’s ideas sounded great, but Lily wanted to conquer her fears. She wanted to go through the fun house again. “I really want to go in the fun house. It’s the only part of the park that you haven’t been in and I think you’ll like it.”

  As Simon and Lily walked toward the fun house, they spotted Mr. Anarchy rushing toward them. He looked upset.

  “Mr. Anarchy,” Lily asked, “are you okay?”

  Mr. Anarchy caught his breath. “No, something awful has happened. I was experimenting on a way to get off the server and I was with Warren. I think I accidently zapped him off the server.”

  “That’s great news!” Lily exclaimed. “How did you do it? Now we can all leave.”

  “I’m not certain I zapped him off. I could have accidentally erased him from existence. I’m not sure.” Mr. Anarchy spoke fast as his eyes welled with tears.

  “What are you talking about?” Lily asked. “You have to take a deep breath and speak slowly. I want you to explain everything that happened.”

  Before Mr. Anarchy had a chance to reply, Juan the Butcher approached them. “Something is very wrong. I just saw a group of six creepers in the center of the town.”

  “What? That sounds like someone has spawned them,” Lily cried out. “That could only be the work of a griefer.”

  Mr. Anarchy didn’t want to hear about the creeper invasion. He was too upset over Warren’s disappearance. “We can destroy the creepers, but we have bigger problems.”

  “What could be more important than a creeper invasion?” Juan the Butcher questioned.

  “Warren’s disappearance is more important.” Mr. Anarchy took a deep breath as he told Juan what happened to Warren. “We were using command blocks to summon lightning that might zap us back to the real world when Warren disappeared. There wasn’t a lightning bolt or anything. He simply vanished.”

  “How?” Lily questioned.

  “I don’t know,” replied Mr. Anarchy.

  Juan paused. “Do you think the creeper invasion and Warren’s disappearance might be related?”

  The gang wondered if this could be the case. Lily replied, “If that’s true, we might have to battle a griefer.”

  “Has anyone checked on Pablo, Ronan, and Matthew?” asked Simon.

  “I stopped by the prison on my way here and the guards were out front. It looked like everything was fine,” said Mr. Anarchy.

  “We have to get to the bottom of Warren’s disappearance,” Simon said.

  “And we have to stop the creepers!” Juan warned them, as he pointed out several creepers silently floating through the gates of Lisimi Land.

  Lily grabbed her bow
and arrow from her inventory and shot an arrow at a creeper.

  Kaboom!

  Simon and Mr. Anarchy also aimed their bows at the creepers, destroying the fiery mob with their arrows.

  Ilana ran over to them. “What’s happening? Why are there so many creepers in Lisimi Land?”

  “I don’t know, but we’re going to find out,” Lily promised her friend.

  Lily stood in the center of the amusement park and made an announcement. “I don’t want to frighten anyone, but it appears that there are an abundance of creepers in Lisimi Village and this amusement park, Lisimi Land. We have to be very careful.”

  The townspeople all talked at once. Everyone was worried if they were under attack. Michael asked, “Is it a griefer?”

  “We don’t know,” Lily replied.

  A familiar voice called out from the distance, “I think I can give you some answers.”

  Lily was stunned. “Georgia? How did you get back on this server?”

  2

  THE RETURN

  “I’m not happy to be back here.” Georgia burst into tears.

  “How did you get back here?” Lily repeated and ran toward her old friend.

  “When I was zapped back home, it was fantastic. Although I did miss all of you guys, it was so nice to sleep in my old bed and see my family. I got to play with my dog—” Georgia’s sobs grew louder and nobody could understand her.

  “Calm down.” Lily reassured her friend. “It’s going to be okay. Mr. Anarchy is working on a way to get us all off this server.”

  “Mr. Anarchy? But isn’t he a bad guy?” Georgia was confused.

  “Yes, he used to be. But he’s changed, and he’s very close to getting us off this server,” explained Lily.

  Georgia calmed down and explained how she became trapped on this server. “I was playing Minecraft on a new server. I was even playing in creative mode. After being trapped on this server, all I wanted to do was build and not battle.” Georgia took a deep breath and continued, “But there was a rainstorm and I was shutting down my computer when I was shocked by an electric charge. When I woke up, I was back in Lisimi Village. The first place I spotted was Juan’s butcher shop.”

  “Who zapped her on the server?” asked Lily.

  “I knew it!” Simon was infuriated. “I knew there was another griefer on this server.”

  Mr. Anarchy said, “I don’t think it was a griefer. I might be responsible for zapping Georgia onto this server.”

  “What?” exclaimed Lily.

  “How?” questioned Michael.

  “I don’t understand. I thought you were good.” Georgia looked at Mr. Anarchy. She wanted to know why he’d tear her away from her happy life and force her to live on this server again. It wasn’t fair.

  The townspeople were angry with Mr. Anarchy. One of them shouted, “I told you he’d be back to his old tricks.”

  Another called out, “I knew we should have never trusted him.”

  Lily wanted to defend Mr. Anarchy, but even she was suspicious.

  The townspeople grabbed their bow and arrows and swords and pointed them at Mr. Anarchy.

  He cried, “I can explain.”

  “You better do it fast.” Peter held his bow and arrow. He unleashed one arrow that pierced Mr. Anarchy’s shoulder.

  “Please, stop,” pleaded Mr. Anarchy.

  Lily calmed everyone down. “Please let him speak. We can’t prove he’s guilty unless he’s had a chance to explain.”

  The townspeople put down their weapons and waited for an explanation.

  Mr. Anarchy spoke, “When I was experimenting with ways to get us off this server, I had to test some of my old methods. When I was doing that, I think I zapped Georgia back on this server, while Warren was zapped back to the real world.”

  “So a new person has to be zapped onto this server for another to leave?” asked Lily.

  Mr. Anarchy frowned. “It looks like that might be the case with Georgia’s reappearance and Warren’s disappearance. I think it’s a glitch. As I said, I hadn’t even summoned the lightning. I was just experimenting.”

  “That’s awful,” Lily remarked.

  “I feel terrible about it all,” Mr. Anarchy sighed.

  “Well, at least Warren is back in the real world.” Georgia wiped the tears from her eyes.

  Michael screamed, “Lily, watch out!”

  Lily turned around as a gang of creepers silently crept up behind her. Several of them exploded next to Lily and she was destroyed.

  It was still daylight when Lily respawned in her bed. She raced to the window and spotted numerous creepers lurking through the streets of Lisimi Village. While walking toward the door, she heard Robin call out, “Lily?”

  “Robin, were you destroyed by the creepers, too?” Lily walked over to her friend.

  Robin climbed out of the bed. “Something isn’t right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Warren’s disappearance and the sudden creeper invasion—I’m beginning to question Mr. Anarchy’s motives or if there is another griefer trying to attack us. It just doesn’t make sense.”

  “Maybe it’s a glitch? Maybe Mr. Anarchy just set something off when he was experimenting?” Lily wanted to believe Mr. Anarchy. He had proven that he was a good person.

  “I don’t know,” said Robin. “But we have to figure out who or what is behind this. Let’s find Mr. Anarchy and have him take us to his lab where he’s been experimenting with the command blocks.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Lily remarked, and the two hurried toward Lisimi Land to search for Mr. Anarchy.

  As Lily and Robin ran through the town, they kept a close watch for creepers. Every time they spotted a creeper, Lily would aim her bow and arrow at the hostile mob.

  Robin looked up at the sky. “It’s getting dark. We don’t have that much time.”

  Lily could see Lisimi Land in the distance. “We don’t have that much further to travel.”

  “Let’s get there and try to end this creeper battle quickly. We don’t want hostile mobs to spawn and also attack us, then we’ll never win.” Robin sprinted as fast as she could.

  “Lily!” Michael called out from the entrance to Lisimi Land. “Over here!”

  “We’re coming,” Robin said breathlessly.

  “Michael, have you see Mr. Anarchy?” asked Lily.

  “Yes,” Michael replied. “He’s battling creepers with the others. Are you going to help?”

  “Yes,” Lily replied and followed Michael into Lisimi Land.

  “It’s nonstop,” Michael explained as they entered the amusement park. “We just want to destroy all of these creepers and get to safety.”

  Lily spotted Mr. Anarchy and she raced toward him with Robin trailing behind her. “We need to get back to your lab. We have to get to the bottom of this,” she told him.

  “We can’t abandon everyone in the middle of the battle.” Mr. Anarchy struck another creeper with his arrow and it exploded.

  The constant explosions were deafening, making it hard for Lily to be heard. “I think we should leave the others to fight this battle and we should see if we can stop it. If this is somehow related to your experiment, it might be better for us to go back to the command blocks,” Lily said to Mr. Anarchy as she destroyed multiple creepers.

  “It’s our only hope.” Robin urged Mr. Anarchy to listen to Lily.

  “Okay,” Mr. Anarchy agreed.

  Lily, Robin, and Mr. Anarchy ran from the park, but stopped in their tracks when they heard someone call out, “Guys, stop. It’s me, Warren.”

  3

  JEEPERS, CREEPERS

  “Warren? What are you doing here?” Mr. Anarchy was stunned.

  “We thought you were back in the real world?” questioned Lily.

  “I was, but someone zapped me back on this server,” Warren cried.

  “Who?” Mr. Anarchy walked over to Warren.

  “Was it Pablo, Ronan, or Matthew?” asked Robin.


  “Ouch!” Mr. Anarchy grabbed his arm. “Someone hit me with an arrow.”

  Lily spotted a stranger. His dark brown hair covered one of his eyes, making him look like a cyclops. The one-eyed person was wearing a red sparkly jacket skin and hiding behind a tree. He rushed toward them.

  “That’s him! He trapped me in an abandoned mine. He’s evil.” Warren raced after the one-eyed person, but the one-eyed griefer splashed a potion of invisibility and disappeared.

  Lily looked at Warren. “Do you know anything about this one-eyed person?”

  “Yes.” Warren rattled off facts about this new griefer, “His name is Nicholas, and he lives in the jungle biome. He has set up a house near an abandoned mine.”

  “Is he working alone?” questioned Mr. Anarchy.

  “As far as I know he is,” said Warren.

  Lily scanned the area as she spoke; she hoped Nicholas’s potion would wear off and they’d see him. She started to lose hope and asked Warren, “Do you remember where he lives? Can you lead us there?”

  “Yes,” Warren said. “It’s not far from here.”

  Robin looked up at the sky. “We can’t go now. It’s getting too dark and it’s dangerous.”

  “We can’t wait until morning. We have to find him and stop him. We have no idea what he’s plotting.” Lily wanted to annihilate this evil griefer. She was also fearful because he had the power to zap people onto the server. Lily thought Mr. Anarchy was the only person smart enough to do this, and she was scared they were battling a very skilled griefer.

  As evening set in, four skeletons spawned in the darkness. One of the skeletons shot an arrow at Lily.

  “I told you we should get back to the cottage,” Robin remarked as she leapt at the bony beasts with her diamond sword.

  Lily struck one of the skeletons with her sword, destroying it. As she picked up the bone, it dropped on the ground and she heard a powerful roar.

  “The Ender Dragon!” Mr. Anarchy cried out.

  Robin aimed her bow and arrow at the flying beast, hitting the side of its scaly grey wing.

  A new crop of skeletons spawned in the distance as zombies lumbered down a hill toward the group.

  “We’re going to be destroyed,” Warren cried. “And I’ll respawn in that prison.”