Second Chances

Chapter 13

For the next few days, Herobrine stayed with Clara and Jackson. Other than occasionally asking about him when Steve saw Clara at work, Herobrine had basically left Steve's life again. It felt like a weight had been lifted off Steve's life since he didn't have to take care of Herobrine anymore.

The torch in Steve's hand created a large hole in the suffocating darkness. He walked through the descending tunnel and watched the deepslate consume the stone on the walls. He heard an all-too-familiar moan from the darkness, and Steve tightened his grip on his pickaxe as his heartbeat quickened. He hated all the mobs in the caves. They made his job so much harder.

The walking corpse shambled into view. It reached toward Steve with green, rotting arms, craving his flesh. Steve shoved his pickaxe into the zombie's ribcage, but that did little to stop it. It clawed at Steve with filthy nails and Steve kicked it over, ripping his weapon out of the corpse's body. The zombie tried to get back on its feet, but Steve pinned it down and pierced its skull. With its brain destroyed, the zombie went still. Steve wrinkled his nose at the disgusting, brown blood on his pickaxe and continued walking. He didn't get much farther, however, before he heard the rattling of bones. An arrow whizzed out of the darkness and barely missed his arm. Steve readied his weapon, but the skeleton was still hiding in the darkness. He couldn't fight what he couldn't see.

Another arrow, this time with a flaming tip, flew past Steve and lodged itself in the wall. The flame of the arrow just barely illuminated the tunnel enough to make the skeleton visible, which was nocking another arrow into its bow. Before it could fire, however, a second arrow flew from behind Steve and lodged itself in between the eyes of the skeleton, killing it instantly. Steve whirled around and was relieved to see Clara lowering her bow. Another sentinel next to her held a sword in his hand.

"Thanks," Steve said.

"No problem," Clara said with a smile.

The three continued down the tunnel wordlessly. The two sentinels protected Steve from the mobs that crawled out of the darkness and Steve mined out any ores he found in the walls and floors.

"So, how's the kid?" the other sentinel asked spontaneously. Steve didn't know him very well, but he was pretty sure that his name was Chris.

"What?" the question took Steve off guard.

"You know, the kid you found down here about a week ago. How's he doing?" Chris clarified.

Steve and Clara exchanged a quick glance of panic. "He's good." Steve said simply.

"He's all anyone's been talking about for awhile now. Did you ever find out his name?"

Steve hesitated again. "His name? Uh... Hero," he decided. "The kid's name is Hero."

"Aww, cute. Have you found his home yet?" Chris asked.

"N-no, not yet. But I did contact some... some people who should be able to get to where he needs to go," Steve said. Clara looked a bit horrified since that sentence was in context for her. Steve did his best to avoid eye contact with her.

Luckily, the conversation was interrupted by a creeper proudly walking out of the darkness and crawling towards them, its scales flashing. Steve covered his ears, in case there was an explosion, but he shouldn't have worried. Within seconds there was two arrows sticking out of the monster's body and with a swift slice of his blade, Chris nearly chopped it in half. The creeper was dead long before it was a true threat.

"I just wonder how that kid could have ended up down here. It's pretty dangerous in the caves for a kid. But at least you found him, Steve, before anything bad could happen."

If looks could kill, Steve would have died from the scowl Clara was shooting him. "Y-yeah," Steve said simply.

They walked for a little longer in silence until the tunnel they were walking through opened into a massive cavern. Sunlight poured from a hole to the surface and illuminated the massive cave. Large pillars of stone decorated with glowing lichens held up the ceiling hundreds of blocks above. Mobs milled about through the cavern, making sure to avoid the spot of direct sunlight in the middle. A zombie accidently shuffled into the light and moaned as its decaying flesh caught flame.

"We should head back and tell Thea about this cave," Steve suggested. "We'll need more miners than just me to clear this place out."

"And more sentinels," Chris agreed. They all started heading back. Chris and Clara made small talk, but Steve tuned them out almost immediately.

"Hey, Steve," Clara said, bringing him back to reality, "Would you like to come over tonight for dinner with Jackson and I?"

Steve hesitated. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see Herobrine again, but he had nothing going on that night. He really had no solid reason to say no. "Sure, why not. What time?"

"How about six?" Clara suggested.

"Sounds good."