Chapter 8

THE SEARCH

Victoria looked through the rubble. “I can’t believe he was able to get TNT and blow up this jail all on his own. We have to find out who he is working with.”

Everyone agreed that they needed to get to the bottom of the jailbreak. Lucy said, “Luckily he was the only one in the jail.”

“But Isaac is an extremely powerful person,” Victoria reminded her. “Having him escape is like having an entire prison escape. He is both smart and devious.”

“That’s a very scary combination,” said Maya as she looked through the remains of the jail.

“We won’t let him get away,” Adam assured the headmaster. “He can’t be very far from campus.”

Victoria nodded. “I have to call a meeting. Let’s find Stefan. We need to have everyone at the academy help with the search.”

Within hours, Stefan and Victoria had organized a meeting bringing the entire school together. Victoria stood at the podium, filling the students in on the jailbreak. “We are at war,” she declared. “Now we know Isaac is behind the recent attacks on the school. And with the jail destroyed and Isaac missing, our first priority needs to be finding him.”

A person wearing a green sweater raised his hand. “Is class cancelled?” A few of the students assembled in the room snickered.

“Yes,” Victoria replied sternly. “There are no classes until we find Isaac and stop these attacks. But we need every student to assist with the search. We are going to put together search groups. Each group will search a different area of the Overworld until we find Isaac.”

Stefan joined Victoria on stage, and together they called students’ names, putting them into groups. Lucy was happy that she was placed with Phoebe, Jane, and Maya. They were asked to leave the academy and search for Isaac in the desert biome.

“This is great,” Maya told them. “I’m from the desert biome, so I’m an expert in surviving there. I can tell you stories about the tons of treasures I’ve found in desert temples.”

Lucy wished they were just going on a simple treasure hunt. She was worried about what Isaac was planning, and nervous about starting the search with so few supplies in her inventory. But before she could voice her concerns, Victoria walked over to the group.

“You are going to my desert village,” Victoria told them. “If you can, please make sure everyone is safe there, too. I know we are focusing on finding Isaac, but we also need to know if there have been any attacks on the Overworld. We are very isolated on this campus, and the information these search groups come back with will be very valuable.”

Stefan handed them a map. “Good luck. I know you’ll do an amazing job.”

Lucy and her gang said goodbye, and quickly discussed roles in their search party. Phoebe was in charge of navigating, so she studied the map as they left the campus. She led the group up a large mountain, and Lucy stopped at the top to look at the landscape. She had to admit that she found the blocky biomes quiet stunning. “It’s breathtaking, isn’t it?” she asked her friends.

Kaboom!

“What was that?” Jane asked.

At the foot of the mountain, smoke rose from Minecrafters Academy. Lucy shook as she spoke. “It looks like the explosion happened in the Main Hall.”

“I hope everyone is okay.” Phoebe put the map down and stared at the smoke.

“Most of the students just left to search the biomes, so hopefully the hall was empty,” Lucy said.

“Why is someone doing this to our school?” Jane wondered.

Lucy looked over at Maya, who just stood on the top of the mountain and stared at the smoke silently.

“Should we go back?” Jane asked.

Lucy paused. “There are a lot of bad people in the Overworld, and Isaac is one of them. We have to find him, and another group is searching the campus. Our job is to search the desert biome. And we have to do it fast.”

The girls all nodded agreement and climbed down the side of the mountain to enter the swamp biome. Evening was approaching, and a bat flew close to their heads.

“It looks like there is going to be a full moon tonight,” Phoebe said. The moon was beginning to appear in the sky.

“We need to find a place to spend the night,” said Maya.

“Yes, we do,” remarked Lucy. “Let’s start building it.” She grabbed what little wood she had from her inventory and began to construct a house. The others joined her.

“We have to work very quickly,” Phoebe said, looking at the sky again. It was growing darker, and she was getting frightened.

“Yes, we do. Look!” Jane cried.

A witch was gliding toward them. As she reached the group, she splashed the potion clutched in her hand on Lucy.

“Help!” Lucy called out weakly.

Maya rushed to Lucy’s defense, striking the witch with her diamond sword until she was destroyed. She then hurried to Lucy’s side and gave her some milk. “Are you okay?”

“Thanks,” Lucy said after a sip of milk. “I feel better.”

Phoebe called out, “The house is done. Let’s get inside quickly.”

Lucy and Maya entered the house and crawled into the beds Jane had crafted for everyone.

As Lucy drifted off to sleep, she thought about how Maya had helped her with the witch attack. She had made the right choice, she decided, in becoming Maya’s friend.