“This could take forever,” Emily groans as Tank puts the finishing touches on their quick shelter.
“You know, we could always go back for our stuff first before we go solve this clue,” Jake says.
“Do you think our stuff is still there? I mean, the Wizard could have just destroyed everything,” Tank says.
“I think so,” Jake says optimistically. “I mean, there’s no harm in looking.”
“Days and days of walking sounds harmful,” Emily says.
“We’re going to be spending forever getting to the next clue anyways,” Jake says. “I think going and getting our stuff now would be better than wanting it later and not having it.”
“That’s true,” Tank says.
“What about the stuff we had on us before the Wizard killed us?” Emily asks.
Jake shrugs. “It’s just armor and weapons. We can make more. It’s the nether wart that took forever to get, and we still have those potions back at the base. I’m sure we’re going to need them.”
He also doesn’t want all that planning and hard work to go to waste.
Emily and Tank agree to the detour, and when the sun rises they head toward their new goal.
It’s strange how easily they settle into a routine; showing up at the community center, playing for a while and then taking a break to clean. Most of the things are organized now, and every day they bring a box of stuff over to Mrs. Jenkins’s door. Jake’s nervous as the pile grows smaller and smaller. What will happen when they officially finish the service project? They’ll have to give back the gate key and the construction crews would come back and they won’t be able to work on the puzzle anymore. Without the mystery of the riddles, would Emily and Tank still want to play Minecraft with him?
They made it back to the base in record time; luckily enough, it looked untouched, right down to Tank’s intricate flower spirals decorating the crop fields and Emily’s torch-lit paths to her mines.
There was also a chest in front of the western entrance containing all of their missing items and a book inscribed with the following:
Seeing as you’ve discovered this unfinished world and started working on the riddles halfway through
I have devised a completely new challenge for you.
There are seven riddles total to find the treasure—you’ve solved two.
Good luck,
The Crest Wizard
“Whoa,” Jake said when they first arrived back at the base. “Look at this.”
Emily had been surprised, scoffing as she read the book. “Whatever happened to ‘this world is not for you’?”
“I would be mad, too, if someone just started messing around with my world,” Tank said.
“I think the Wizard was impressed with how we solved the riddle,” Jake said. “That’s when he teleported us to the beginning, and then we solved the first two riddles. I mean, it must be awfully lonely to make a game and have no one play it, right? That’s why he made a special challenge for us.”
Jake feels good about this, like winning a soccer game. He feels like they made an impression. The Wizard saw how well they did without any resources, saw their potential, and recognized all the hard work they put into getting this far, too, so he gave them their things back. Since then they’ve been rotating between tasks like building up the base, enchanting weapons, and brewing potions to get ready for the next clue. Once they’ve found enough nether wart for the potions they want, traveling through the Nether is easier without having to navigate the challenges of a fortress. Even Tank feels confident, venturing out toward the map’s location and building shortcuts back to their base through the Nether as they make progress.
The past few days have been busy, preparing for the challenges to come. Jake isn’t sure what to expect, but after trial and error with brewing potions and a lengthy attempt at a turtle farm to try to make helmets, they’ve finally come up with a system. They’ve created enchanted helmets, a bunch of Potions of Water Breathing for backup, and prepared stacks of ladders that can create pockets of air underwater. He feels ready for anything now—another shipwreck, ocean monuments, elder guardians, anything the Wizard can throw at them. Each day they’ve been getting closer and closer, exploring more of the world and new biomes, badlands and plains and snow-covered mountains, and more.
Tank appears through a Nether portal. “Okay, the portal shortcut back is officially set up. I was really close to the spot marked on the treasure map, guys. I think this will be it. Once we come back here it would be within a day’s walk.”
“Thanks,” Jake says. “You ready?”
“If we see the Wizard and he attacks us again, I’m going to be so prepared,” Emily says, laughing maniacally as she brandishes a brand-new enchanted sword in the hallway of the main room in their base. Her diamond armor glimmers, and she bounces up and down in excitement. “Can’t wait to see what the next riddle is! Do you think it’s going to be another set of coordinates?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I think these are some that the Wizard tailored especially for us. I have no idea what to expect.”
Jake follows Tank through the portal. The Nether looks as forbidding and dangerous as usual with its glowing red sky, but this area has been warded off with torches, and marked signs point the way to other portals. He smiles proudly at the way they’ve settled into this world and the various biomes for harvesting resources.
The new portal leads them to open, grassy plains. The map from the second clue shows their destination in clear view. When they log in tomorrow, they should be able to find the next riddle easily.
“Same time tomorrow?” Emily powers down the computer and grins at him.
“Absolutely,” Jake says.
Tank offers his hand to him for a first bump, and Jake taps it with his own before pulling it back and mimicking an explosion. Tank holds his gaze, mischief dancing in his eyes as they both take a step back, the narrow computer lab aisle barely big enough to do this but they make it work. Jake raises his arms and then brings them both down like he’s swinging a pickaxe, and Tank makes clink clink noises and sways back and forth like he’s digging, and then both of them jump up and high five.
“Nerds,” Emily says, with a soft, fond smile.
Jake smiles back at her. Next to him, Tank offers his fist to Emily for a tap of her own, which she gently returns, and to Jake’s utter surprise, they both pull their fists back and open their hands, warbling their fingers as they pull back.
“It’s a jellyfish,” Tank explains.
Emily rolls her eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She waves cheerfully at the two of them before sweeping out of the computer lab.
“Tomorrow,” Jake says, like a promise.
The corner of Tank’s mouth curves up like he’s fighting a smile. He claps Jake on the shoulder, and they walk through the courtyard together before setting off for their own towers.
Jake waves back at Tank as he disappears into the West Tower’s stairwell.
The summer afternoon light is warm and golden, and it makes their little run-down apartment center seem almost dreamlike. The glass doors glitter as the sun dips low behind the distant downtown. Inside the chain-link fence surrounding the community center and the empty lot that once held a garden, construction equipment has piled up. Bags and bags of concrete, impossibly large rolls of plaster, steel beams all stacked together.
It feels startlingly real, and Jake is in shock at how the clock is running out.
But maybe…
After today, Jake feels like maybe Tank and Emily would spend time with him after the project is over. They’ve settled into this pattern of hanging out during lunch, one of them bringing food or going out after it.
Jake’s been waiting this whole time for Dad to get ready to leave, but it’s halfway through the summer and he hasn’t done any of his restless pattern of hiring new people to take over and looking for the next job.
Maybe they are going to stay here. Maybe Jake can have friends.
Something dangerous, like hope, settles in Jake’s chest as he, for the first time, starts to think of Pacific Crest Apartments as home.