Chapter 28: The Maze

[Jesse's POV]

(The Witch glared at me from afar as she stood up on top of the maze wall.)

(We were now only around 12 blocks apart from each other.)

(Just as she readied her potion, I readied my bow.)

(It would be bad if I were hit first, so I fired the arrow as quickly as I could.)

(Anticipating her attack, I immediately ducked down after firing my arrow.)

(The potion flies over my head, falling down below.)

(I stood up again to see how the witch was doing after my attack.)

(No way... I missed?)

(Shit. Curse my bad aim.)

(The Witch doesn't pass up this opportunity to strike; she shoots her next potion towards me.)

(I prepare to duck down.)

(However, in comparison to her previous throw, it doesn't look like this one will clear my head.)

(Actually, it looks like this one will barely strike my leg? I instinctively dashed back.)

(however, it wasn't long until I was forced to stop retreating, as I had reached the end of the top of the wall.)

(I understand now. That wasn't a misfire; she purposely threw it like that to lure me into a corner and to make sure our distance stays that way.)

(My missed shot proved that I'm unable to get a clean shot from this distance, and she's using that fact against me!)

(Crap! I can't waste my arrows without getting closer.)

(And just now I realized that I only have 1 arrow left, thanks to the first one I left behind, who's still stuck on a tree's bark in the swamp.)

(I scramble through my inventory for something else to help me.)

(4 potatoes and one slice of cake Right, since Ivor left himself behind, we only had to feed 6 people, and a cake has 7 slices, so I stuffed the leftover slice in my inventory for future use.)

(Right... My strategy I made up with the cake.)

(Who knew I actually had to use it now? But the question is... will it really work?)

(While I was busy rummaging, the Witch was already preparing her next attack.)

(Her next attack is probably gonna knock me down if I don't move.)

(I have to counterattack now, or I'm losing this fight.)

(I have no choice; I grab the things I need and start running straight towards her.)

(The potion hits me head on, and the nausea effect from earlier returns, but I can't give up now, not in this vital moment.)

(I threw one of the potatoes high up toward the ceiling.)

(The unexpected throw caught the Witch off guard, and she tilted her head up to see what it was.)

(However, that split second she looked away from me was my chance to strike!)

(When she realized that it was just a distraction, it was too late.)

(I had already managed to get close enough to get a clean shot.)

(I readied my bow and fired.)

(Normally, the nausea effect would've prevented me from aiming well, but it was a point-blank shot.)

(The arrow hit the Witch right between the eyes.)

(The Witch loses her balance and falls backwards off the wall.)

(At the same time, the potato I threw falls into the maze as well, landing beside her.)

(I look over the edge to confirm if she's really down.)

(For safety, I throw one of my potatoes over the edge, which hits her body.)

(No reaction.)

(I guess now I can safely assume she's deceased.)

(I gobbled down the last slice of cake.)

(Unfortunately, it didn't seem to remove the nausea completely, but it was everything I could do at the moment.)

(Huff... I take a few deep breaths.)

(What a battle that was... Crap... Now I'm officially out of weapons, and I'm injured.)

(I need to find the others quick; I don't think I can handle any more enemies.)

(I continue making my way through the maze.)

(Urgh... why does this maze have to be so big? It feels like I've been walking forever.)

(This is why I hate mazes; why did Ivor of all people choose to be the one left behind.)

(when he knew we had to eventually go through this? He could've at least given us a map of this place or something.)

(I sigh. From the looks of it, I'm now officially halfway through it.)

(judging from the fact that I can see the end of the maze.)

(Actually, something seems to start appearing in view on the other side of the labyrinth.)

(It's a... cottage on a floating island? A light source was also shining down on that house.)

(There was also a gap between the maze and that island, which I'm assuming is a pit.)

(Great. Even if we make it out of this maze, we'll still need to figure out a way to get over there too.)

(As I turn another corner, I suddenly hear a sound coming from nearby.)

(It came from inside the maze itself, but it wasn't from a zombie.)

(I went to investigate where that noise came from.)

(When I got there and looked down from the maze wall, I saw two, no, one person, and... a pig...! I couldn't mistake it; it was Olivia and Reuben!)

Jesse: "Hey! Olivia!"

(The two jumped at my yell and twirled around, frightened.)

Olivia: "Jesse! Don't scare me like that!"

Jesse: "Sorry, but wait a minute, why are you inside the maze?"

(Before I get a chance to continue speaking, Reuben suddenly squeals loudly at me.)

(This catches me off guard. Huh? Why?)

Olivia: "Jesse! Behind you!"

(When I looked back, I could only see a spider already lunging at me.)

Jesse: "AHHHH!"

(I instinctively try to get away, but that only causes me to fall down the maze wall along with the spider, who's trying to grab me.)

Olivia: "Watch out!"

(The next moment, I crash into the ground below, and in the next, the spider is violently thrown off of me.)

(Olivia didn't wait to plunge her sword into the spider, quickly killing it before anything else could happen.)

Jesse: "Huff... that was a close call."

(Reuben comes over to see if I'm okay. I slowly get on my feet.)

Olivia: "How come you didn't see the spider approaching?"

Jesse: "I don't know. A few minutes ago, the witch from earlier attacked me again, and her potion effects are still lingering."

Olivia: "What?! Where is she now?!"

Jesse: "She's dead. I somehow managed to kill her, but she still managed to injure me a bit. And I'm all out of weapons. I don't think I can handle any more mobs right now."

(Olivia rummages through her inventory but can't find anything to treat me.)

Olivia: "Sorry, you're just going to have to stay in that condition until we leave this maze."

Jesse: "Great."

(I responded sarcastically.)

(Welp, now we're trapped in the maze as well.)

Olivia: "Have you found a way out yet?"

Jesse: "Not really. I just know that the exit is in that direction."

(I point in the direction we need to head towards.)

Jesse: "Let's just hug this wall and follow it until we find a way that gets us closer to the exit."

Olivia: "Will that strategy even work?"

Jesse: "Well, do you have any better ideas?"

Olivia: "No, I'm lost either way."

Jesse: "Wait, why are you inside the maze anyway? I thought we agreed to not go down, and where are the others?"

Olivia: "Oh, well... we got separated..."

Jesse: "What? How?!"

Olivia: "When we were traversing the top of the maze wall, a spider, like the one that just attacked you, suddenly snuck behind us and tried to drag Reuben down."

(Reuben shows the left side of his body, where you can see a small cut.)

Jesse: "Oh, god! Does it hurt? Is the wound infected?"

(Reuben shakes his head, but he's slightly shaking.)

(God damn it. Now I hate spiders even more than I did before.)

Olivia: "I checked; it doesn't seem to be the case."

Jesse: "Huff. Well, at least there's something to be relieved about..."

Olivia: "We all dove down and killed the spider, but then a swarm of zombies approached us from different sides, so we had to flee quickly. I just grabbed Reuben and ran away. I don't know where the others went."

Jesse: "Great. So now everyone's inside the maze?"

Olivia: "Pretty much..."

Jesse: "Jeez, do you even have any good news?'

Olivia: "I guess, we're not dead?"

Jesse: "*sigh* The plan is still to make it to the exit. Let's hope we meet the others there."

(Olivia makes a grunt but doesn't object.)

(Even though we specifically chose not to go inside the maze, in the end, we're still forced to. What a cruel world...)

(We turned a corner and started wandering this shitty maze again, this time from the inside.)

(Using my strategy, we continued heading towards the exit, even though it didn't seem like we would approach it.)

(I have faith it will work.)

(We go through a few dozen corners, and running away from any mob noises we hear.)

(Then suddenly, Reuben stops us in our tracks and starts to sniff the ground along a route to our left.)

Jesse: "Reuben! Don't go there! You'll mess up our strategy!"

(Reuben didn't stop, so we had no choice but to follow him.)

(We thought he just picked up the smell of some rotten food decomposing somewhere inside the maze.)

(but those expectations are fortunately crushed when the next corner we turn to leads to a hallway with a crack in it, where a bit of sunlight was seeping in.)

(We all hurry over to that crack.)

Jesse: "Oh, my god! It's... the exit!"

Olivia: "We're out! Reuben found the way out!"

(We hop over the crack and onto the grassy ground outside the maze.)

(Reuben runs over to me, expecting a treat for his achievement.)

Jesse: "Sorry Reuben, all I have right now is a few raw potatoes."

(Reuben immediately turns dissatisfied, but doesn't pass the opportunity for food and takes the potato from me.)

Olivia: "Uh... I don't see the others..."

(We look around the place, but Lukas, Gabriel, and Soren are nowhere to be seen. I sigh.)

Jesse: "I guess there's still in the maze."

(Olivia's cheerful look shatters instantly, and she turns depressed again.)

Olivia: "Are you serious right now?!"

(Olivia makes a grunt.)

Olivia: "This maze... we don't have time for this! Who even knows where the others are by now!"

Jesse: "Don't lose it now, Olivia. We just made it out. At least we're back together and not alone."

Olivia:" "sigh* I guess... but now what do we do?"

Jesse: "Well, now we need to find a way across this gaping bottomless pit to reach that cottage thing."

Olivia: "The what?"

(Olivia looks over there.)

Olivia: "Oh, I almost didn't see that. I was so focused on finding the others... How are we going to get over there?"

(We are currently standing on a small, grassy island located beside the maze wall.)

(Across from us was a large bottomless pit, and on the other side was that small house I saw earlier, which I assume we need to go to.)

Jesse: "I don't know, but there has to be some kind of way; if there isn't, how would Ivor be able to make it over there?"

Olivia: "Hmm... you've got a point."

(We search around for something to do

the job, and in the shadows.)

(hidden from sight, there is a small contraption made of slime blocks and redstone sitting there.)

Jesse: "What about this thing? Could it get us across?"

(Olivia gets closer to examine it.)

Olivia: "It looks like some kind of flying barge. It would probably get us to the other side... but it's in really bad shape. And it looks really complicated."

Jesse: "So it's some kind of flying machine. Is it fixable?"

Olivia: "I don't know... I think it's out of my league. I wish I'd had more time to study with Ellegaard... She could have fixed this thing right up."

Jesse: "C'mon, it can't be that hard, can it?"

Olivia: "I don't even know where to start! This layout doesn't even make any sense! What was Ivor thinking?"

(Olivia walks around the contraption, looking at it from different angles.)

(I try to help as well, but my knowledge of redstone is even less than hers.)

(so it's not like I can understand anything that she herself doesn't understand.)

Jesse: "Just keep looking; we'll figure it out eventually!"

(At that point, Olivia suddenly stops and sits down with her head slumped.)

Jesse: "Olivia?"

Olivia:" *sigh* Maybe it's just me. I mean, Ellegaard herself said I don't have what it takes to be a great engineer... She was right, I just can't hack it!"

Jesse: "What?! We just managed to beat the maze! Don't just give up now! If she really said that, then prove her wrong! You need to show the world what you're made of!"

Olivia: "Prove her wrong? Jesse... She was the greatest redstone engineer -- ever! She was in the Order of the Stone!"

Jesse: "Sure, but the Order are still people -- just like us!"

Olivia: "Right... Just like us. I mean, how are we the ones saving the world when even they don't have what it takes? Soren and Ivor are always at each other's throats... The 'greatest warrior in history' doesn't remember his own name... All I ever see Ellegaard do is argue... And we both know what happened to Magnus... If the Order can't do this - how are we supposed to?"

Jesse: "Olivia... I know it's hard to pull through, but you can't give up right now. The world is currently depending on us."

Olivia: "Then maybe the world is in trouble; I mean, they defeated an Ender

Dragon. Can you name even one thing we've done right? And I don't mean

managing to stay alive."

(Olivia looks down the bottomless pit with a depressed face.)

Jesse: "Well, for starters, we're the ones who brought them back together again. Did you forget? We found Ellegaard, and Axel found Magnus. And we all went to the End for Soren."

Olivia: "Yeah, I suppose that's true. But did that change anything in the long run? Even when we brought them together, it didn't stop the Wither Storm. It really does feel like everything we did changed nothing! Don't you think it's a little bit hard to still have hope when everything up until this point has been the worst outcome you could think off?"

Jesse: "OLIVIA!"

(I try to snap her out of it.)

Jesse: "Why don't you have faith in us? We already managed to come all the way here; we just have to pull through a little longer! What happened to your mean-spirited tone? I remember that during all the times you teased me, you were always so full of energy. What happened to that?"

Olivia: "..."

Jesse: "Olivia... I've known you for quite a long time. I know you are a strong person. I know this isn't something you can't overcome! I don't care what anyone else says! Did you forget who we are? We are the dream team: me, you, Reuben, and Axel! Even when you thought we wouldn't win the Building Competition, we still did! If you put enough thought into it, there's nothing we can't do! So c'mon! Get up!"

(Olivia looks at me before making her head slump once again.)

Olivia: "But... what if we don't make it? I don't want to believe in false hopes..."

Jesse: "Olivia, I'm not allowing another person to lose their hope, okay? C'mon. Let's rebuild this contraption and get across, okay?"

(Olivia thinks for a long time while looking back and forth with her face constantly changing.)

(Eventually, she ends with a big, long sigh.)

Olivia: "Okay, okay, I'll try to fight for a little longer. All right. I'll try it one more time."

(I smile silently; I'm just happy she hasn't lost it completely.)

(She walks over to the contraption and intensely examines it again.)

(After a while, her head suddenly lit up unexpectedly.)

Olivia: "Wait a second..."

Jesse: "Did you figure it out?"

Olivia: "Okay! Okay, okay, okay! I think I see what he was trying to do! Jesse!

Beak this piston, turn it into a sticky piston, and then place it here."

(Olivia points to a certain section of the barge.)

Olivia: "Then move that redstone block and place it beside the said piston!"

Jesse: "Okay, I'm on it."

(I followed the instructions.)

Jesse: "Wait, where am I supposed to get an extra slime ball?"

Olivia: "Hm, hold on. Okay, wait, I think we can use this slime block here."

Jesse: "Wouldn't removing a block destroy the machine?"

Olivia: "I don't think so. With the way Ivor built it, we can shorten the flying machine a little by removing this part. Yes, the machine will become shorter than it was, but the important thing is that it's still usable."

Jesse: "Okay, got it."

(I have no idea how any of this stuff works, so I'm just going with the flow.)

(I follow Olivia's lead and craft the sticky piston and place it accordingly.)

Olivia: "Okay! As soon as you place that redstone block beside that piston, it'll start."

Jesse: "Kay! See? It wasn't that hard?"

Olivia: "Yeah... I guess I underestimated myself. Thank you for that pep talk; I kinda needed that."

Jesse: "No problemo!"

(We high-five.)

Jesse: "Now let's get on with the thing."

(We hope on, but Reuben seems to be sniffing something again.)

Jesse: "Reuben? What are you doing now?"

(At that moment, we heard the voices of a group of people approaching.)

Gabriel: "It must be this way!"

(Gabriel, Soren, and Lukas jump over the crack and run towards us while a swarm of zombies follow behind them.)

Jesse: "Go, go, go! Quick! Onto the barge!"

(Everyone crowds themselves on the machine, and I place the redstone block to activate.)

(Before the zombies get there, the machine starts steadily flying away and over the pit.)

(The zombies following us all start to fall off the edge from their stupidity.)

Jesse: "That was close! Everyone okay?"

Soren: "For the moment."

Gabriel: "Wait... I remember something. Didn't Ellegaard build a machine like this once?"

Soren: "Yes. in the Nether."

Gabriel: "And you were terrified of flying on it!"

Soren: "What?! Stuff and nonsense!"

(Soren looks away embarrassed.)

Jesse: "Is that true?"

Soren: "Of course not!"

(Soren tries to maintain his composure but is sweating bullets.)

Gabriel: "Well, I supposed I might be mistaken..."

(Before we knew it, the flying barge hit a dock on the floating island.)

(Soren immediately gets off before anyone else, looking like he was about to vomit.)

Gabriel: "Well. That was a-MAZE-ing, get it? amazing?"

Jesse: "..."

Olivia: "..."

Reuben: "..."

Lukas: "I'm amazed you thought that was funny..."

Soren: "I liked you better when you had amnesia..."

(Gabriel grunts.)

Gabriel: "Oh, c'mon, I was just trying to lift our spirits."

Jesse: "Let's go inside Ivor's Cottage first and see what he's hiding in there."

Olivia: "Yeah, it feels rather cold outside."

(We head in.)

[To be continued...]