I knew that sound, that burbling, gravelly growl. I spun to my left, looked down the beach. There it was, black against the snow, slouching slowly onto the ice.

“Guuugh!”

“Some welcoming committee,” I sneered, reaching for my sword and shield.

“Guuugh.” Arms raised, face lifeless.

Here’s hoping these zombies aren’t any tougher than the island type.

They’re not. At least, this one wasn’t. One sparkling swipe of my diamond blade sent it skidding across the frozen water.

“Here we go,” I said, charging forward for a second blow.

I don’t want to brag, but…well, okay, maybe I do just a little. But in case you didn’t find my first book back on the island, you should know that I’d fought enough of these mindless meat bags to make sure Frosty the Deadman didn’t lay one fetid finger on me. A few slashes, a final slice, then puff, I was standing over a rotting hunk of meat.

And to think, I thought, picking up the scrap of carrion, that there was a time when I’d been so hungry that I’d actually lived on this stuff.

“Is that it?” I shouted to the white hills. “Is that all you got?”

Thunk!

The arrow hit me square between the shoulder blades, knocking me forward onto the snowy beach.

Click.

Clickety-clack.

I turned just in time to take another arrow, right in the forehead of my diamond helmet. Its owner, a skeleton, was lining up his next shot when I raised my shield to block.

No problem, I thought, calculating how many shots I’d have to deflect before getting close enough to strike.

Then Thock! Another arrow, this one into my right shoulder.

A second skeleton—no, two more—a little ways down the beach.

Then…

“Guuuggghhh…”

“Ssssp!”

Click, click, click.

My head swung in a quick circle, taking in the entire scene.

They were all around me. Zombies, skeletons, and those utterly terrifying spiders, their crimson eyes sparkling in the night.

How could I have been so careless, so arrogant! Mobs spawned on darkened ground, and right now there was more ground than I’d ever seen!

How could I have forgotten it so quickly?!

Overconfidence can be as dangerous as having none at all.

Click.

“Ssssp.”

“Guuugh.”

RUN!

I headed for the only opening I could, a narrowing gap between two approaching zombies.

Inland, toward the hills.

Whoosh! An arrow past my ear.

Zigzag! my mind screamed through the haze of fear.

Darting back and forth, practicing what had saved me so many times before.

“Guuugh!” A rotting hand reached out for me. Dodge! No time to hit back. Go, go, go!

I made for the shortest hill in front of me, with the easiest slope. Maybe I could find a cave, or even just a hole to block up behind me.

Up! Over dirt and rock.

Thock! An arrow buried deep in the stone block next to my head.

Harder to dodge and climb.

A zombie hand reaching for my foot.

Higher! Almost there.

A spider’s hiss, just behind me.

The summit!

I made it to the top, scanned the landscape before me…

…and discovered the true meaning of irony.

Way back, when I’d first climbed the stunted hill on that alien, angled island, all I’d wanted to see was more land. I’d hoped, prayed, that I’d reached the tip of a continent instead of a dust speck surrounded by sea. Now, here was my wish come true.

Frozen tundra stretched to the horizon. An endless white wasteland broken only by the occasional tree, or exposed rock, or roving, shifting shapes that couldn’t be anything else but mobs!

Too much land. Too many threats.

What to do, where to go…

A light!

Far in the distance. Clear and bright. Not a star. It seemed reddish, orange. Maybe from a house?

Wait! There might be other people?!

“Guuugh!”

With no other option, I tore down the western slope, trying not to slip. I couldn’t afford a twisted ankle now, even with my hyper-healing. No time to eat. I could see mobs converging on me from all sides. Fast spiders, steady zombies, the ever-clicking archers of bone.

And then…

I hadn’t seen one until now, but there was no excuse not to have expected one.

Sssss…

A flashing out of the corner of my eye: a creeper just about to explode. I jumped, taking the blast in midair.

Shot away like a cannonball, I landed hard in a shallow ditch. Ankles aching, ears ringing, the whole right side of my face feeling like it had kissed a furnace.

Keep going! Make for the light!

But where was it? Turned around by the explosion, and without the view from high ground, I’d lost track of it.

Use your head! I shouted in my head. Don’t panic.

I rotated slowly, trying to find the hill. It was right behind me, which meant the light was directly up ahead.

I took off at a limp, which hyper-healed to a wobbly trot.

There it was again! Closer now! Growing with each forward step.

An arrow passed barely one mini-cube past my face. Another skeleton clacking from around a lone tree.

Keep going!

Dodging arrows, watching for creepers.

Enemies everywhere, even the ground! Yes, the ground. Up and down across unlevel terrain. Ditches and hummocks and now a river! Right in front of me, at the bottom of a gulley.

Thock! Shot in the small of my back, tumbling down onto the ice below.

Pain, hunger. My hyper-healing spent. I got up, ready to keep running, then skidded to a halt as the snow before me moved.

The animal was large, white, and shuffling slowly on all fours. At first, I thought it might be…what…an arctic cow? No, too big, plus the small ears, black nose, and long, doglike snout…

A polar bear! It had to be. Had I read about them in that wildlife book I’d found? I couldn’t remember. Probably not. I’d probably skipped that section on the assumption I’d never meet one.

Never assume anything!

And there wasn’t any time to read the book even if I had it now instead of having left it back on the island for other potential castaways who might end up there! If this carnivore was as ferocious as the rounder versions in my world…

The bear swung its black-eyed face toward me. I switched from sword to bow.

Maybe a lucky shot, maybe two…

I drew back the arrow. Our eyes met.

Mammal eyes, like the animals who became my friends on the island. Cow and sheep. Warmth and feeling.

Just because someone doesn’t look like you doesn’t automatically make them an enemy.

The bear didn’t move.

I strained at the bowstring.

“Okay,” I breathed, “I don’t want to kill you, and I really don’t wanna be killed…but if you take the tiniest step closer…”

Whp!

An arrow streaked through the frigid night to bury itself in the bear’s hulking mass.

Not my arrow! I’d already lowered my bow. The shot had come from behind me, from the skeleton on my tail.

“Frrmmf!” The snow-colored giant flashed red, turned toward me, and charged at a shocking speed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I yelped, dropping my bow in a sideways skitter. “That wasn’t me! I didn’t—”

But it was already past, taking another arrow as it raised up on hind legs to crash down on the doomed skeleton.

“Whoa,” I whispered, watching in awe as the sheer brute force of this arctic predator utterly pulverized its tormentor.

That coulda been me…

As the skeleton poofed away, the bear swung back in my direction.

“Hey now,” I said, picking up my bow. “We’re good, right? You just fight to defend yourself? You seem pretty neutral, and since you obviously don’t attack on eye contact like those creepy endermen, I bet we can get along just fine. In fact…” I started looking in my pack for food. Do bears eat veggies and grains?

“Are you hungry?” I asked. “Will food help you heal?” I swapped my bow for a carrot. “Sorry I don’t have any meat or fish on me but…” I took a step forward, holding out my peace offering. “Would this work?”

Maybe we can be friends, I thought, just like Moo back on my island. How cool would that be! With this bad boy as my traveling sidekick, we’d be a force to be reckoned w—

Thk.

Thk.

Two arrows smacked into the ice between us.

“Maybe later,” I shouted over my shoulder as I took off running. Two more skeletons came clacking over the lip of the gulley. Dashing back up the other side, I could see that a spider, three zombies, and a silent, gliding creeper were all in pursuit as well.

I couldn’t depend on another bear-save. I guessed that arrow had been meant for me. No choice but to get away, make for the light, and hope against hope that it held my salvation.

Most mobs give up the chase after a while, and zombies couldn’t catch up if I just kept running.

An arrow whooshed past my face, turning my head.

Another skeleton, off to my left.

But was it a skeleton?

Clothing. Or, rather, gray tatters hung over its bony form. Like the polar bear, this was new and unexpected.

As was the arrow that hit the heel of my left foot.

“Whhhhuuuut tttthhhhe…”

My speech slurred and my muscles locked up. Back on the island, a witch had splashed me with a potion of slowness. This arrow felt like it had done exactly the same thing.

“Oooohhhh c’moooon!” I verbally sloshed, trying to dodge as more arrows punctured my hip and arm.

Slogging, trudging.

I could hear the approaching zombies, closing the distance, helped by this new ragged skeleton. A team effort, or just some really bad luck?

Another slow arrow whizzing past me, buried in the snow, gray bubbles rising from its feathered shaft.

Keep dodging, keep going, keep your eyes on the growing light!

So close! Like a wall of orange, with the top much higher than any hill.

A collection of torches? I wondered. A castle maybe? In this world of armor and swords, why not! A castle with other people like me! Armed and armored and ready to defend me from anything this cold dark continent can muster.

It has to be! I thought, feeling hope well up inside me. Almost th—

Lava.

I was close now. Close enough to make out that the bright wall was just a river of molten rock.

I’d run all this way, been shot and socked, just to get within sight of this world’s version of a volcano.

I looked back at the approaching mobs.

“No, no, no,” I sighed, “what else could go wro—”

I fell!

Right through the snow.

Right into a half-frozen pond at the bottom of a black, snow-covered hole.

“Urgh!” I grunted, seeing that there was no way up. Too dark to see. I groped in my belt for a torch, was about to stick it to the wall, then heard the groans and hisses of the approaching mobs above me.

DIG!

It wasn’t a conscious thought, just pure instinct.

How many times in the past had burrowing saved my life? That first battle with the first island zombie, and that last, final time I’d been cornered and near death in the abandoned mine.

Dig, dig, dig!

Out with my shovel, into hard, cold dirt.

Down! Making steps, diagonally deeper.

Blocking them up behind me. Safe!

I placed a torch on the highest step, then turned back to the wall of soil.

“Not so bad,” I said aloud, as my breathing slowed and my thinking sped. “This is what I was going to do originally, right? Back there on the beach. Dig a shelter, sleep till dawn. No problem.”

After a rejuvenating snack of carrots and bread, I began to hollow out a small three-by-three chamber with just enough headspace to stand.

“Okay,” I said, setting down the premade bed. “By morning the mobs’ll burn away and I can get a better look at where I am.”

Slipping under the thin red sheet, I yawned. “And sleep is just what I need right now. Rest my body, rest my brain.” I felt my eyes drift closed. “Be nice to finally get some sleep.”

But I didn’t.

“Guuugh.” The zombie moaned through the dirt. It was right overhead, barely a few blocks above me, and there were more mobs showing up. I didn’t know if they were the ones that’d followed me or if they’d newly spawned. But it sounded like a heck of a party up there. Clacking and hissing, and, I’m sure, silently gliding like those creeper bombs do.

Can they blow up without seeing you? I wondered. If they’ve got different types of skeletons here, then maybe there’s a different kind of creeper, too.

“Sssp.” I jumped at the spider’s hiss, picturing those red target sensors staring right through the earth toward me.

Calm down. Think!

If they wanted to get me, they would have done it by now.

More moans, more hisses.

I knew they couldn’t get me, but I repeated “You can’t get me!” out loud to the earthen ceiling.

“Guuugh,” moaned a zombie, as if to say, “Maybe not, but we can sure keep you up all night.”

“That’s what YOU think!” I barked at them. Jumping out of bed, I punched it back up into my pack, then started shoveling away at the dirt floor.

“Deeper!” I called to the monsters above. “Just a little deeper and safer so you can’t mess with my head!”

And I knew it was all in my head. I knew I was making myself crazy with nerves. But if the solution was as simple as a deeper hole, why not go that way instead of trying to calm myself down all night?

As dirt gave way to stone, I chirped, “Perfect,” and exchanged my shovel for the pickaxe. “Even creepers can’t blast through a couple layers of solid rock.”

A short time later, I had a hollowed-out bunker. With cobblestone sealed up behind me, I set my torches on the wall, my bed back on the smooth, hard floor, and jumped right in for a good night’s rest. Safer, and even warmer from all the built-up body heat. A final baked potato to make up for those calories lost, and now, mentally and physically, I couldn’t have been more satisfied.

Made it, I thought, snuggling under my blanket. Made it to a new land, made it past an army of monsters, and now I’m finally ready to continue my quest.

Another yawn, eyes closing.

Tomorrow’s gonna be a good day. I might even find my way home…