Second Chances

Chapter 1

Steve trembled slightly. He was on his knees and his hands were tied behind his back. His captor had the point of his sword pressed firmly into Steve's back, drawing a single drop of blood. He flinched.

"You don't have to do this, miner," his captor said. "Come on, we're on the same side. I know what that man did to you. You don't have to protect that murderer. Just tell me where he went, and I'll let you go. No one has to get hurt here, except for him. Besides, don't you want revenge for what he did to you?" Steve grit his teeth as a single tear rolled down his cheek. "You can make it okay. He can pay for his crimes. All you have to do is tell me where he went."

Steve stared at the floor. It was so tempting, like he was a pig with a carrot dangling in front of his face. But... he couldn't bite it. Not after everything he had been through. "I told you; I don't know where he is," he whispered.

Steve's captor sighed. "Fine, we'll play it your way."

"We found him!" A new voice shouted triumphantly. Steve's face drained of color as a struggling six-year-old boy was tossed in front of Steve's captor. His arms were firmly tied behind his back and his slightly oversized clothing was covered in dirt stains. Their captor grinned maliciously at the child.

"Hero!" Steve exclaimed. He tried making a move towards the child, but the sword on his back was relocated to his neck.

"Mister Steve, what's going on?" Hero asked, looking up at Steve with large, tear-filled white eyes. Steve wanted to answer the question, but he couldn't. Hero wasn't ready to hear that yet. Steve just looked away and bit back tears.

"All right, this is how this is going to go," their captor said with a smug smirk. "First, I'm gonna kill Herobrine. Then, I'm gonna kill the miner. And there is no force of the Nether that can save you two."

Two weeks earlier...

The clicking of pickaxes on stone and ores echoed through the cavern. Miners were everywhere, mining out precious minerals or exploring the branches off of the main cave. Steve wiped the sweat off his brow and continued working on the redstone vein in front of him. Each strike of his pick sent a pulse of electricity through the block.

A creeper wandered out of the darkness and headed towards Steve. Its scales began to flash with light, warning of an explosion. Steve yelped in surprise and stumbled back from the mob. Moments before it detonated, an arrow pierced the mob's head and stuck out the other side. It stumbled back a little bit before falling over, dying before its head even hit the stone floor. Steve glanced at the nearest sentinel, who still had her bow raised. The sentinels patrolled the mines, making sure that the mobs stayed in the darkness where they belonged. Steve smiled at her, and she gave him a thumbs-up. He went back to mining.

The last piece of the ore broke, and Steve scooped up the electrical dust. He continued walking down the tunnel and as he rounded a corner, the light from his torch glimmered off something blue in the darkness. His eyes lit up and he darted towards the diamonds before anyone else could. Yes, this was just what his paycheck needed.

The sentinel behind him chuckled to herself. "You miners always get so excited about diamonds."

"You would too, if you saw how much you get paid for each one you dig up," Steve retorted with a smirk.

A zombie shuffled out of the darkness, but it didn't get very far before an arrow was planted between its eyes. Steve glanced back at the sentinel, who lowered her bow. "Do you ever miss?" He asked. She just laughed and didn't answer.

A strange sound echoed through the cave. The sentinel had an arrow nocked before Steve could blink.

"Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Yeah. It was probably an enderman, or maybe one of those sculk sensors going off. We are deep enough; I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into sculk."

"Neither of those things sound like that," she pointed out.

A shiver of fear went up Steve's spine. He had no other ideas of what it could be. He glanced at his fellow miners working in other parts of the cave. No one else seemed affected by it. "I think I'll go check it out," he said, grabbing a torch off the wall. "You stay here, so that way if it is sculk, we have less of a chance summoning the Warden." The Warden was a miner's worst nightmare. There were so many stories of people accidentally triggering it in sculk-infested caves and it killing hundreds of miners. "If I don't come back, tell someone."

"Got it." The sentinel leaned against the wall and watched Steve disappear within it.

The tunnel wound through the deepslate. It seemed to go on for miles, and Steve wondered if he'd ever find the source of that sound. The walls were barren of any ores so if Steve didn't find anything, this trip would be entirely pointless.

He huffed and leaned against the wall for a second. He was in no way in shape and the march he had been going at was too much to handle. Once he caught his breath, he turned the corner and hit a dead end—and his destination.

A child laid on the deepslate floor. For a split second, Steve thought he was dead, but was reassured by the steady rise and fall of the child's chest. His messy brown hair curled just past his ears, and the blue t-shirt he wore was about three sizes too large for his small frame. He wore no shoes, and he had nothing that could identify who he was.

"What the..." Steve started, walking cautiously up to the child. He looked only about six years old and he had light freckles on his nose. Steve brushed the hair out of the kid's eyes. "How did you get down here?" he asked. "Where did you come from?" Of course, since the kid was fast asleep, he didn't answer. Steve put away his pickaxe so he could pick up the child and take him out of these caves. It was far too dangerous for a kid to be down here unattended. He was surprisingly light for his size, and Steve wondered if he was malnourished. Well, that could be fixed when they made it to the surface.