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JOURNAL ENTRY: LAVA LIFE

Day 2: The Hole

“We need to find our way out of here!” Sean said, frustrated.

“I know,” I told him. “But we must remain calm. I think I’ve heard that voice before. I think I know who it belongs to.”

“Who?” asked Sean.

“I think it’s Thao.”

“You mean Charles’s sidekick?” Sean was shocked.

“Yes, but I don’t think he is working with Charles anymore. I think he’s another prisoner here.”

“Why would he be a prisoner?” Sean didn’t understand.

“I’m not sure, but that is almost certainly his voice. I think we need to find out why he’s here. But first, we need to escape. Time to make a plan. My inventory is empty—what about yours?”

Sean looked through his inventory and took out a pickaxe. “Would this help us?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t believe that Sean had a pickaxe. I was ecstatic. I grabbed the pickaxe and began to dig a hole in the middle of our small cell.

“Stop,” Sean told me. “I think I hear something.”

The small hole in the wall opened again and another carrot was tossed into the room.

“Food,” Sean exclaimed, taking a big bite of the carrot he’d retrieved from the floor. He handed it to me when he’d eaten half of it.

I ate quickly, eager to get back to digging. I wanted to escape so badly.

“Look out!” Sean cried. Before I’d even finished the carrot, a magma cube spawned in our little room. Sean grabbed a sword from his inventory and struck at the cube. It broke into smaller cubes. I wanted to help him, but I didn’t have anything in my inventory and felt very helpless. I was impressed with how many items Sean had in his inventory.

“Do you have an extra sword?” I shouted to Sean.

“Yes!” He stopped fighting for a moment and handed it to me. “Keep it.”

More magma cubes spawned around us. I had a newfound confidence as I struck one of the magma cubes with the sword. Now that I had a replenished inventory, I could battle alongside Sean. It was also nice to have a partner in this.

“More are spawning!” Sean shouted.

“Don’t give up,” I cried as I struck another magma cube and it broke into smaller cubes. Sean and I had barely enough energy to fight the bouncy Nether mobs.

When the final cube was destroyed, we sat down, desperately needing a break. We sat there a moment in silence, until Sean asked, “Are you going to keep digging the hole?”

“Yes,” I replied. I got up and dug the pickaxe back into the ground.

Sean took a shovel out of his inventory and joined me. Between the pickaxe and the shovel, we made a lot of progress.

I looked down at the hole. “Oh no.”

Sean stared at the lava that flowed underneath the floor of our cell.

“Now we’ll never escape.” I watched the hot lava flow by in despair.

“Help!” a voice called out.

Sean sprinted to the wall. “Can you hear us?”

The voice replied, “Yes! I’m being attacked by magma cubes! Can someone help me?”

Sean grabbed the pickaxe and banged it against the side of the wall, making a small hole. He crawled through the hole and I followed.

When we entered the second cell, we saw a girl with pink hair fighting three magma cubes all by herself. She was very low on energy and she was using all the energy she had to battle the mobs.

I struck a cube with my sword and Sean destroyed the smaller cubes. Within the three of us working together, the magma cubes were quickly taken care of.

“Thank you so much!” the girl with pink hair said to us.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is Molly,” she replied and then quickly added, “You guys better leave. If they find you in here, they will destroy us all. I’ve heard that they set some prisoners to Hardcore mode and destroy them for good.”

“Seriously?” Sean was shocked.

“Yes,” said Molly. “I’ve been here a long time. I’ve seen some pretty awful things. I used to have a cellmate, but she disappeared. I don’t know what happened to her, but I never saw her again.” Molly began to cry.

“Who was your cellmate?” asked Sean. “We can help you find her.”

“Her name was Esther. But it’s been a long time since I last saw her. I doubt we’ll find her. Sometimes I imagine her safe and happy in the Overworld. And anyway, we’re stuck in here.”

“Molly,”—I really meant this when I said it—“we’re going to get out of here. I know it.”

“How?” she asked.

“Well, we tried digging down, but there’s lava running below us. We need to come up with a new plan. Luckily Sean still has a pretty well-stocked inventory, so that should help. Do you happen to have any resources we can use?”

“I don’t have much—just a couple of potions and a bucket.”

“A bucket,” I thought aloud, “that might come in handy. If we put some of the lava in the bucket, we can use it to attack the person who is bringing us the food.”

“Why would we want to do that? We need that food to survive,” said Molly.

“We need to escape,” I replied. “This could help us do that.”

“I’ve been here so long, I don’t want to escape. I’d be too afraid to leave,” she confessed.

“We are going to escape. Of course it won’t be easy, but nothing important ever is.”

Molly thought about those words. She went through her inventory and pulled out a potion of invisibility. “Do you think this could help?”

I smiled. “Absolutely.”

Molly followed us back to our cell. I had a million plans racing through my mind. I had to pick the perfect one. Of course, I knew they were all risky.

“What do we do next?” asked Sean.

“We’re going to knock down this wall.” I pointed to the wall that had the small hole where the unknown person dropped our daily carrot ration.

They didn’t ask any further questions. We each grabbed a tool and attacked the wall together.