Lost in the End Read online

  “And Valentino,” added Steve.

  “Yes, we will defeat the bad guys and set William free, so he can explore the Overworld again.”

  Steve was excited. He wanted to help his new friends. Steve and Julian sprinted back to his wheat farm. As they raced, Julian was worried that he’d get back to the farm and find all of his friends had been destroyed. He was happy when he heard Harriet call out, “Julian!”

  “Is everyone safe?” asked Julian.

  “Yes.” Harriet smiled.

  “Look at what I found.” Julian held up the book.

  “Another journal! That’s great!” Ezra was excited.

  Julian read from the journal, and they all listened.

  10

  JOURNAL ENTRY: FIND ME

  Entry 5: Back to the Nether

  “Why don’t you crawl down the hole to see if you can find them?” I asked Charles.

  I knew Charles had sent most of his army to the Nether to search for resources and he wasn’t as strong as he appeared. This was our opportunity to defeat Charles.

  “I don’t have to go down that hole. My men will find Esther and Molly. They can’t escape this island.” He let out another loud laugh.

  I didn’t want to believe him. I wanted to see him as weak. I wanted Esther and Molly to escape from the island. And I was very upset when I saw one of Charles’s soldiers escort Esther and Molly back into the stronghold.

  “I told you they wouldn’t get far.” Charles laughed even louder.

  Esther and Molly walked back into the cell. They held their faces down and looked sad.

  When Charles and the soldiers left, I asked Molly, “What happened?”

  “The minute we climbed out of the hole, they were waiting for us,” Molly replied.

  Esther added, “But I saw a bunch of them on a portal to the Nether, so he doesn’t have his entire army.”

  “I think we should try and escape again,” suggested Sean.

  We all looked at the hole in the ground. Charles never had us fill it in, so it was still open and ready for us to climb in. We could escape through the hole. We knew there would be soldiers at the other end who would attack us, but if we were prepared, we might have a chance to fight back.

  I was the first to jump in the hole, prepared for an attack. My friends followed. I didn’t want them to know how nervous I was. My heart was beating very fast. When I climbed out of the hole, I looked around, but I didn’t see anyone.

  “There aren’t any soldiers,” I told the others.

  The rest of the gang climbed out. We sprinted toward the shore. We needed to find boats to take us off the island. As we raced toward the shore, a group of soldiers sprinted toward us. They shot arrows, and we tried to dodge them.

  “What are we going to do?” Sean asked me.

  I noticed three soldiers crafting a portal to the Nether. They were putting down the obsidian when I sprinted toward them with my diamond sword. I struck two of them. The soldiers must have been extremely weak, because I was able to defeat them with just a couple of blows from my sword.

  “Help!” Esther shouted as the third solider forced her into the portal. A purple mist rose around Esther and the soldier. We could see her fighting the soldier as they disappeared and traveled to the Nether.

  “We need to save her,” Molly cried out,.

  I looked out at the soldiers that were racing toward us. I quickly began to craft a portal to the Nether. That was our only option.

  “Hop on,” I called to my friends.

  We stood on the portal and watched as more soldiers charged toward us. The purple mist took over, blocking the soldiers from our view. We disappeared, and they were left standing on Mushroom Island.

  When we emerged in the Nether, Molly shouted, “Esther! Where are you?”

  “She can be anywhere,” Sean told Molly.

  “Don’t say that.” Molly was upset. She missed her friend and she was worried that Esther was alone in the Nether with a hostile soldier.

  “We’ll find her. Don’t worry,” I comforted Molly.

  We walked along a lava stream. Sean pointed out a Nether fortress in the distance. “We should see if there is treasure.”

  I added, “That would be a good place to search for Esther and the solider. I bet all of the soldiers are looting the Nether fortresses for Nether wart.”

  We sprinted toward the fortress, but stopped when a blaze’s fireball landed right near us.

  My heart raced. I was still fearful of fire. I grabbed a snowball from my inventory and aimed it at the yellow flying terror. I missed.

  Sean shouted, “Watch out!”

  I jumped back and narrowly avoided being struck by a second fireball. I didn’t like this one bit. My heart beat even faster. I grabbed another snowball and threw it at the blaze. I struck the blaze and it was destroyed.

  “There are more!” Molly shouted as three more blazes flew in our direction.

  We armed ourselves with snowballs and threw them at the blazes while we shielded ourselves from the fiery blasts. When the final blaze was defeated, we sprinted toward the Nether fortress.

  Molly raced toward the stairwell. “I knew it. There isn’t any Nether wart. The soldiers have already looted the fortress.”

  I could hear voices. “It sounds like there is still someone lurking in this fortress.”

  Molly quietly peeked down the hall, and then explored the rest of the fortress. “Guys!” she called out. “Look who I found!”

  Esther was relieved to see us.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  “Yes. I defeated the solider. But there are more. We have to get out of here,” she told us.

  “But where should we go?” asked Sean.

  “We need to back to the Overworld and defeat Charles, or this will never end,” I told them.

  They agreed. But we still didn’t have a plan. We left the fortress, and as we walked outside, I was surprised when I heard a familiar voice.

  11

  NOT THE NETHER

  We have a change of plans. We aren’t going to Mushroom Island. We’re going to the Nether,” Harriet announced.

  Julian put down the journal and said, “Well, we aren’t going anywhere until we help Steve and his village fight this zombie invasion. Did you guys know that Valentino is behind these attacks?”

  Veronica cried out, “Valentino? Are you sure??”

  “Yes, Valentino is the one who has been attacking us,” confirmed Steve.

  “We must stop him,” said Julian.

  The sky grew dark and rain fell on the town. Steve said, “This means the zombies will be here soon. We have to go help the village.”

  The gang ran through the rainy town. They saw zombies lumbering toward the village.

  Julian said, “We need to back to the area where we found the journal. We have to search for the spawner.”

  The group sprinted toward the field outside of the village. It wasn’t an easy journey, and they almost didn’t make it. A cluster of zombies surrounded them and they had to battle their way out. Julian’s energy level was dangerously low and he used his last bit of energy to strike a vacant-eyed zombie. He needed help. If a zombie struck him he’d be destroyed.

  Harriet noticed Julian’s cry for help. She lunged at the zombie that attacked Julian. She struck the undead beast with her diamond sword and obliterated the hostile mob.

  “Thanks,” Julian said weakly.

  Harriet handed Julian a bottle of milk. “Drink this. It will help you get your strength back.”

  The final zombie was defeated and the gang continued to the area where Julian and Steve had found the journal.

  Steve shouted, “I see the spawner.”

  The gang sprinted toward Steve and they worked together to quickly destroy the spawner.

  “It’s deactivated!” Steve cried with tears of joy.

  The gang sprinted back into town. The sun came out, and the gang walked over to the half-built golem. Harriet
looked at the iron golem. “We don’t have that much left to do. Let’s finish it now and then head to the Nether.”

  They all agreed and began to work on the golem. In a matter of minutes, the iron golem was constructed and the townspeople came out to celebrate. A villager walked over to the gang and said, “Thank you so much for helping our town. We are grateful for all that you have done for us.”

  “We’re glad we could help.” Harriet smiled.

  “But now it’s time for us to go,” said Julian. “It’s been nice meeting you all and we really like your town.”

  Jack said, “We know that your town is being attacked by Valentino. We want you to know that we are working to defeat Valentino. We want to stop him from terrorizing the Overworld.”

  Veronica added, “I know Valentino and I know how awful he can be to people. I also vow to stop him and save the Overworld.”

  The villagers and townspeople applauded.

  Harriet began to craft a portal to the Nether. Before she stepped on the portal and ignited it, she looked over at Steve. “Would you like to join us on our journey?”

  Steve paused. He didn’t know how to respond. He finally replied, “I’d love to, but I think it’s better for me to stay here and protect my town. I don’t trust Valentino and I know he will be back. I wouldn’t feel comfortable helping you when I was worried about my town.”

  Oliver looked at Steve and said, “You’re doing the right thing.”

  Steve was honored that Oliver respected his decision. “Oliver, I can’t believe I even got to meet you. Meeting you was one of the greatest moments of my life.”

  Oliver blushed. “That means a lot to me.”

  Steve asked, “When you are reunited with William, will you both come to this town to visit us?”

  “Yes,” Oliver promised.

  Then Harriet called out, “I ignited the portal.”

  Oliver sprinted toward the portal and hopped on. Within seconds they were in the fiery red Nether. Two ghasts flew toward them. Oliver used his fist and punched a fireball and it destroyed the ghast. Harriet destroyed the second ghast, and then breathlessly said, “Welcome back to the Nether. It seems like the fun never ends here.”

  “Don’t joke.” Veronica was annoyed. She didn’t want to return to the Nether.

  “We’re on a mission,” Oliver reminded them. “William might be trapped down here and we must find him.”

  “Where should we look?” asked Toby.

  Harriet spotted a Nether fortress in the distance. “I think we should start with that fortress.”

  The group sprinted toward the Nether fortress. There were three blazes defending it. The gang grabbed snowballs from their inventories and threw them at the blazes. It didn’t take long, but soon all of the blazes were destroyed. The gang raced inside the fortress.

  Harriet noticed the Nether wart growing out of the patch of soul sand on the side of the staircase. “This is the same Nether fortress where William found Esther. It hasn’t been looted.”

  Jack said, “I bet there is treasure here.”

  Ezra was annoyed. “This is no time to search for treasure. We need to focus and find William. I’m sure there are countless fortresses in the Nether. We have to find the one that William was in.”

  “That’s impossible,” said Veronica. “We’ve been looking for William for a long time. It isn’t that easy.”

  Harriet saw a book on the floor. “Maybe we aren’t so far off course.”

  “Another journal?” asked Julian.

  “It looks like it,” Harriet said as she leafed through the book.

  “I wonder how it wound up in this Nether fortress,” pondered Julian.

  “I don’t know, but we have to read it. It’s the only way we can find William,” Harriet told the group.

  “But we’ve read about a million entries from his journal and we still haven’t found him,” said Toby.

  “Maybe this will be the one that leads us to him.” Harriet was hopeful and she began to read.

  12

  JOURNAL ENTRY: LANDSLIDE

  Entry 6: Out of the Fire

  Charles stood outside the Nether fortress. I was ready to confront him. I didn’t use words. I simply leapt at Charles and struck him with my diamond sword. After the initial blow, I shouted, “Stop it. This has gone on far too long.”

  “You escaped and you thought you were going to get away with it?” Charles was angry.

  “You couldn’t keep us prisoner forever. I want to find my friend Oliver. I want to explore the Overworld.” Again, I struck Charles with my diamond sword and saw that he was losing hearts. He was growing weak.

  Charles only had a handful of soldiers with him. This wasn’t going to be a tough battle. My friends battled the soldiers as I fought Charles. The battle was interrupted when three blazes flew toward us. We all tried to avoid getting hit by the fireballs, but one of Charles’s soldiers was struck. Then another was destroyed.

  “No!” Charles shouted as he watched two of his soldiers disappear.

  “You’re losing your army,” I shouted as I struck Charles with his diamond sword.

  Molly grabbed snowballs from her inventory and threw them at the blazes. She destroyed one blaze.

  “Good job!” Thao called out.

  “Watch out!” Esther shouted to Thao.

  Thao looked up, but he didn’t see the fireball headed in his direction. The fireball destroyed him.

  “Thao!” I shouted. I was upset that my friend had been destroyed. I knew he’d respawn on Mushroom Island. At least we hadn’t slept in the prison. He would respawn in the lavish house he had built with Molly and Esther. But he was still gone, and I wanted to be reunited with him. We had to get out of the Nether.

  I didn’t have that much strength left, and I had to battle Charles without getting destroyed from a blaze’s fireball. Molly and Esther were working hard to destroy the blazes and dodge the fireballs, but the hostile mobs were still flying through the Nether sky.

  “We need help!” Molly called out.

  Sean was battling two soldiers. I was fighting Charles. Molly threw another snowball and destroyed the blaze.

  “There’s one blaze left!” Esther was happy.

  “We can defeat it,” Molly said and then added, “But I only have one snowball left in my inventory.”

  Sean destroyed another soldier. Charles was devastated and shouted, “No, not another soldier!”

  Esther destroyed the final blaze. Sean destroyed the last soldier. We were alone with Charles. We surrounded him.

  “You better surrender now!” I shouted at Charles.

  We thought he would give up. We thought we had finally won. But we were surprised when Charles laughed. He grabbed a potion of invisibility from his inventory and splashed it on himself. Just like that, he was gone.

  “What happened?” Sean asked.

  “He is extremely tricky.” I was annoyed. I wanted this battle to end, but I also wanted to find Thao. I knew he was on Mushroom Island. “We need to make a portal back to the Overworld. We must find Thao.”

  Everyone agreed, although we knew traveling to Mushroom Island would be quite dangerous. We didn’t want to get trapped in the stronghold. Since the island was desolate and removed from the rest of the Overworld, we’d have no help. We could get trapped there forever.

  “I’m going to craft the portal,” Molly announced.

  “Great,” I said, “We’ll help you.”

  We helped Molly craft the portal and we hopped into it. As purple mist surrounded us, I smiled. I was happy to be out of the Nether.

  “Watch out!” Molly shouted as we emerged in the Overworld in the middle of the night. Two Endermen carrying blocks walked past us. Molly warned, “Don’t look at them. We don’t want them to attack us.”

  I tried to avoid eye contact with the lanky mobs, but it was too late. One of them had seen me and let out a piercing shriek. As it teleported toward me, my heart raced. I was going to be destro
yed.

  “Sprint toward the water,” Esther called out.

  I looked around. I didn’t see any water. It was so dark that I couldn’t see anything.

  Molly shouted, “The water is over here. Sprint! Follow me!”

  I sprinted toward Molly and followed her to the water. I jumped in the deep blue ocean as the Enderman chased me. The second Enderman followed, and both of them jumped in the water, where they were quickly destroyed. I swam back to the shore.

  “This is going to be hard. We respawned at night. There are way too many hostile mobs that can spawn.” Sean was worried. He looked around for more Endermen and other creatures of the night.

  “I wish I had Oliver here, he was a map expert. He could lead us anywhere at anytime.” I said.

  “Even in the middle of the night?” asked Molly.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  As we walked slowly through the grassy biome, we kept watch for hostile mobs. I was shocked when I heard a voice cry out in the distance.

  “Help!” the voice called.

  “That sounds like Charles,” I told the others.

  A second voice shouted, “You’re not going to win!”

  “That sounds like Thao!” Molly called out.

  We sprinted in the dark, trying to not to trip, as we made our way toward the two familiar voices.

  13

  SURPRISE IN THE MINE

  We don’t know where they are.” Harriet was upset.

  “They could be anywhere in the Overworld,” Ezra said.

  “We need to get out of the Nether,” Oliver remarked.

  “And fast!” Toby cried as three ghasts flew toward them.

  One ghast shot a fireball at Harriet. She used her fist to deflect the fireball and destroy the fiery mob. The others battled the remaining ghasts.

  “The Nether is a death trap. We have to get out of here,” Oliver announced as he started to craft a portal back to the Overworld.

  The gang hopped into the portal and purple mist rose around them. Within seconds they emerged in the middle of the swamp. A bat flew by Toby’s head. He ducked to avoid it. “I don’t like it here,” Toby called out.