Esme pulled out arrows and lit them, then aimed at the ghasts.

“Don’t waste those!” Anton cried out.

She ignored him, executing hits that I couldn’t dream of, even though it was clear she was severely weakened. Even as she slumped into the dirt, her last arrow pierced the closest ghast, killing it.

I peeled her up off the ground, and helped her run ahead of the boys. As soon as they fell into step with us, Anton turned and threw a couple of TNT bombs at the ghasts. Two of them fell away, but there were another two coming. They split up and then came at us again from different sides. We ran down a low hill to keep away from them until I realized that they were corralling us into an impossible-to-escape-from location, with a lake of lava at our backs and them coming at us from both sides.

“I can’t fight holding on to you,” I said.

“This is bad,” Esme said.

For the first time, I heard the truly scared twelve-year-old girl in Esme’s voice, worried that things were not going to go well. I didn’t want to leave her. But I knew I would have to. Lonnie came alongside me, and scooped Esme away, holding her up against his side, and moving a little way off from Anton and me.

I was at a loss for words. It was like he’d read my mind.

“Stop staring with your mouth open!” Anton screamed. “We’re in the middle of a firefight!”

I snapped back to reality and stood with Anton shoulder-to-shoulder, firing arrows and throwing TNT bombs. We got rid of one more ghast that way, but the final one was still evading our weapons and pushing us back toward the lava.

I looked around, trying to spot an escape route, but there was no way out. The lava was right behind us and we had nowhere to run.

“Bianca!” Anton called. “You can’t just do whatever you want right now!”

Except, it was a world where I could do whatever I wanted, if I planned it out right. I turned to Anton and said, “I’m going to try something, okay? If it doesn’t work, I’ll probably be toast and you’ll have to take it down yourself. But I think this can work.”

“What are you doing?” Esme called out as I stepped forward to draw the ghast’s fireball attack.

“Bianca!” Anton cried.

“This is going to work,” I called. “I’ve got a plan!”

As I watched the fiery projectile racing toward me, I thought about something Lonnie had mentioned during his meticulous planning for our trip to the Nether. He’d said that if you time it just right, you can punch a fireball back at a ghast. “I bet I’ll look like a wizard shooting flames out of my hands, you’ll see!” he’d exclaimed.

He always had a flair for the dramatic.

I punched my hand out just before the attack would incinerate me, hoping against hope that I’d done it correctly. One heartbeat later, I watched as the fireball rebounded and the ghast exploded in flames. I slumped down to the ground, all of my adrenaline gone after facing down the giant mob alone.

Lonnie put a hand on my shoulder and helped me to my feet. I smiled weakly at him. “How did it look? As cool as you were hoping?”

“Seriously?” Esme said from behind. “You could’ve died!”

Anton looked at me silently, his eyes wide in amazement.

I pushed away from Lonnie and walked over to Esme, giving her a hug. She struggled for a second, but then embraced me back. “We’re all fine,” I said, pulling away. I looked back toward where the nether fortress had once stood.

“Did you blow it up?” I asked Anton.

He just grinned.

“So now what?” Esme asked. “The fortress is gone, and I’m not sure we got everything we need to get to the End.”

Anton brought out the nether wart. “We got this.”

Esme looked surprised, then glanced at me. I pulled out the blaze rod. The barest hint of a smile played at the side of her mouth.

“I’ll get to work on the portal,” Anton said. “But while I do that…” He pulled up his inventory and took out two enchanted apples, tossing them to Esme and me. “I found them in the fortress. Maybe this will stave off whatever the withers did to you guys.”

“That’s not how enchanted apples work,” Esme said.

“Yeah, but it’s all we’ve got right now, and you two are in bad shape. Or do you want to keep eating rotted flesh?”

“It might waste resources,” she said.

“Not if we’re under attack again,” he pointed out. “Which is probably imminent given the way this game is going. Besides, resources are for moments like this.”

Esme held the apple back out to him, but he ignored her and set to work on a portal back to the Overworld. Eating the apple didn’t make me feel any better or worse. But Anton was right. You can’t just hang on to things forever.

I walked over to Lonnie as Anton worked on the portal and Esme continued to debate the finer points of consuming a rare resource. “Thanks for telling me about punching fireballs. That really saved our bacon back there.” He tilted his head, and I laughed. “Well, you didn’t tell me right then, obviously, but back when we were planning our initial run to the End.” I went quiet for a moment and smiled sadly. “You’re always there for me. I just…I wanted to tell you—” But of course, I heard the strange, catlike wail of a ghast, and a pair of the giant mobs were coming toward us over the lava river.

Lonnie squeezed my arm and I turned to see a team of ghasts coming at us fast.

“Uh, hey. How are we coming with that portal?” I called over to Anton.

“Are you volunteering to help?” Esme asked.

“No, just noticing that we have some unwelcome company,” I said as I pointed to the oncoming mobs.

Esme looked up and made a sound that might have been equal parts frustration, anger, and exhaustion. She pulled out her bow and loaded flaming arrows.

“Eat flame, ghastlies,” she whispered. She missed twice, and I realized she was much worse off than she was letting on.

“Why don’t you keep working on the portal,” I said. “Anton and I can fend off the ghasts.”

“Bianca’s right,” Anton chimed in. “I’m the only one who hasn’t been hit by a wither. I have the most health points of any of us, and she probably has the second most.”

Esme switched places without argument. I stood next to Anton with my arrows ready. We moved a few feet to the side of Esme, hoping to draw fire away from her so she could finish the portal without being hit.

“What, you don’t want to punch them out of the sky with your deflection technique?” Anton asked as I nocked an arrow.

“I’m not confident I’d be able to pull that off again, to be honest, and especially not against multiple ghasts.”

“Wait until they get close,” Esme said.

“Stop backseat shooting,” Anton said. “We can take care of this.”

She was only quiet for a minute as the ghasts flew in closer. “Hey!”

“What?” I asked. “We’re waiting. Just like you said!”

“Not that. We don’t have enough obsidian,” she said.

“It’s not like we’re surrounded by lava or anything,” I snapped. “Nowhere to get any obsidian!” I looked back at her. “I thought you were the one who always thought things through. Pull it together!”

She shot me a steely look, but said nothing. I watched as she opened up her inventory and got the snowballs. When I turned back, the ghasts were right on top of us. Anton started shooting and I followed, missing the first time.

“Don’t waste arrows, Bianca!” Anton said. “We have a limited supply.”

I fired off two more, hitting both the ghasts, and pushing them back a little. “How’s that, then?” I asked with a grin. Anton fired off another arrow, which killed one of the ghasts, and smirked back.

“Could be better. How’s it going, Esme?” he shouted back to her.

Esme threw the snowballs over the edge of the ridge into the lava. Two obsidian blocks formed that she mined, and then she threw a third and fourth snowball.

“Almost there,” she replied, turning to place the obsidian blocks into the almost finished portal. I wasn’t sure if we had the flint necessary to light the portal, but I would worry more about that once she was done.

Lonnie jumped to his feet, running just in front of the last ghast.

“Get down!” Anton shouted. “You’ll get hit!”

But Lonnie didn’t listen. He started to jump, drawing its attention and distracting it from us.

“Lonnie, don’t!” I called out. I moved toward him, ready to fire at the mob with my last remaining arrow, but Anton pulled me back.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Anton said.

“No he doesn’t!” I snapped, then froze.

Anton looked me dead in the eye but said nothing.

I watched Lonnie jump again. A fireball narrowly missed him, exploding a few feet away from the portal frame.

“Come on!” Esme shouted. She was mining the last bit of obsidian for the portal, and it was just out of reach.

I took a running jump from the island to the one block of obsidian, then jumped back immediately, mining as I did so I could bring it back with me. I landed right in front of Esme and passed along the final block. For a microsecond, I thought she might be impressed. I mean, I was impressed with myself, to be honest. We shared a momentary glance, but she didn’t say anything so I didn’t either.

Lonnie jumped directly in front of the portal, and then away as a fireball came streaking toward him. Esme, Anton, and I barely had enough time to dive out of the way before the fireball hit, lighting the portal.

I grabbed Lonnie’s hand, not wanting to wait for the ghast to come back around, and flung him toward the portal. Esme dragged him through. Anton was the next closest.

“Go!” I shouted.

He scrambled to his knees and crawled the rest of the way to the portal just as the ghast came up behind him. I let off my final arrow, missing the ghast but hitting the fireball it was about to rain down on us, deflecting the attack. I ran to Anton and bodychecked him through the portal. The ghast flew past, and its attack put the portal fire out, effectively cutting off my escape.

I was alone, with the ghast circling back for another pass. I looked through my inventory. There was one final TNT bomb, but no flint to make a fire.

“If there was ever a time for a wild plan…”

The ghast was coming in close. I positioned myself behind the portal, in the line of the oncoming ghast, watching through the open archway as it barreled toward me. As soon as it reached the edge of the island, I ran through the inactive frame and threw the TNT bomb. The ghast exploded, and flecks of fire surrounded me in the air. One of them lit the portal and it flashed purple. At the same time, the blast hit me and threw me back. As I flew backward through the now-active portal, I noticed that the explosion fractured the frame a little. The archway looked splintered and the purple portal light seeped into the cracks.

I closed my eyes as I fell, and hoped for the best.