The Armies of Herobrine Read online

  “People deserve this, Stevie,” Herobrine said. “Whether it’s the Overworld or Earth, it’s all the same. People cheat, people lie, people hurt others. I’m only taking what they already do and repeating it on a much larger scale. I’d say fair is fair.”

  Was he really that sick in the head? “People also help one another!” I said. My sword slammed against his but I couldn’t push him back. He was too strong. “They also come together!”

  “You think the whole Earth will come together over this?” Herobrine scoffed. “People fight too much to know what’s good for them.”

  He pushed back, knocking me down. I fell with a grunt. Herobrine stepped up close, looming over me, his diamond sword pointed right to my face.

  Wait. No ….

  “Notice something?” Herobrine asked.

  I jumped back up at him with a roar. “You monster!” I shouted. “That’s my dad’s diamond sword!”

  “So it is!” Herobrine beamed.

  I was seeing red, and not just because of the lights. I felt my rage boil up in me. That diamond sword was my dad’s prized possession, and he never let anyone use it. How dare Herobrine steal it for his evil gains!

  “Give back my dad!” I yelled. “I know you have him!”

  “Indeed I do,” Herobrine said. “But the question for you is, where? Is he on Earth? In the Overworld? In the Nether? Where do you think I’ve stashed him away, Stevie?”

  I was so overcome with fury that all I could do was charge at Herobrine, screaming. In the background I could hear Maison shouting to people, telling them what to do. I could hear Alex’s arrows shooting through the air. The moan of zombies. The cries of scared people. Mitch and Dirk huddling and whimpering on the ground. All of it sounded far away to me, because my whole world had really just become Herobrine and me. This was it. I was going to take him out.

  I drew back my sword and sent it flying. And as soon as it hit Herobrine, he disappeared.

  CHAPTER 8

  FOR A MOMENT I STOOD THERE, PANTING. WHERE had he gone? I picked up my sword and looked frantically around the room. It was a crazy scene, filled with fighting kids and attacking zombies. But no Herobrine. He had disappeared when he had me at the most angry. Maybe he knew that teleporting right then would also make me the most vulnerable.

  “Stevie!” someone shouted.

  I whirled, and there was Ms. Reid running over, pulling a cart behind her. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The cart was filled with wooden swords like the kind I made in the Overworld.

  “My shop class students have been making these!” Ms. Reid hollered over the noise. She was like her old self again, wanting to be helpful. I remembered Yancy saying that some people weren’t as affected by Herobrine’s magic as others were, and might come back to themselves for short periods. “I’ve been keeping them locked up in case we ever needed them!”

  “Maison!” I turned and shouted out. Maison was right up by the portal, hitting zombies as they first emerged. When she turned at the sound of her name, her face lit up at Ms. Reid’s cart of swords.

  “Everyone!” Maison yelled to the crowds. “Grab a wooden sword!”

  There was almost a stampede as kids ran to get the wooden swords. A few kids accidentally stepped on Dirk and Mitch in their rush.

  “Hey, quit it!” Dirk shouted, but still didn’t get up to grab a weapon or protect himself.

  “Yeah! We’re trying to hide here!” Mitch said.

  Ms. Reid was handing the wooden swords out as fast as she could. Would there be enough swords to stop all these zombies?

  And then it hit me. If I could destroy the portal here, that would prevent any more zombies from getting through! We could take out the zombies already here, and then we’d be able to figure out how to help everyone else!

  “Alex!” I called. “We need to destroy the portal!”

  Alex heard me and nodded. She yanked her pickaxe out of her toolkit and the two of us charged straight to the portal.

  I hit one of the portal’s stones with my sword, using all my might. At the same moment, Alex struck another stone with her pickaxe.

  It should have been the perfect plan. Cut off the source of the zombies and get some relief.

  But of course Herobrine would never let it be that easy. Hitting against the portal was like hitting an electric current of redstones. Alex and I each yelped out in pain, and we fell back. The portal continued to stand there, completely undamaged. And the zombies continued to march out, one after another.

  One of the emerging zombies hulked over me, its mouth open in a moan, its hands reaching out. Right before it seized me, Maison jumped in the way and struck it with her baseball bat. The zombie vanished.

  “Is there no way to break the portal?” Maison exclaimed as she helped me back up. Alex was already back up on her feet, though she looked dizzy from the fall.

  “It’s Herobrine’s dark magic,” Alex said angrily.

  Yancy and Destiny hurried onto the stage with us.

  “Whoa, Stevie, are you okay?” Yancy asked.

  Before I could answer, I heard Herobrine call from above, “You’re not the only one to make special portals, Stevie.”

  My head flew up. There was Herobrine, floating straight above us! I clutched my sword and yelled, “What are you doing? Can’t you see how many people you’re hurting?”

  It was a stupid argument, because of course Herobrine knew exactly how many people he was hurting, and he didn’t care. I was used to being able to reason with people.

  “Yes, I can see quite clearly,” Herobrine said, gesturing grandly toward the movie screen. When I dared to glance at it, I saw it had twenty new scenes on it. The cities were different from the ones he was showing us before, but the carnage was the same.

  Was there some way I could vault into the air and charge Herobrine? I looked around, but nothing was tall enough to get me anywhere close to where he floated overhead. Herobrine knew this, and he smiled wolfishly down at me.

  Nearby, Yancy was trying to examine the portal at the same time as he was hitting at the zombies that emerged. I saw that he’d grabbed one of Ms. Reid’s wooden swords and was using it as a weapon.

  “There’s got to be a way to break this portal!” Yancy exclaimed. “In Minecraft, there’s always a way!”

  “You think this is still Minecraft?” Herobrine scoffed. “If you think this is all a game, you’re sorely mistaken.”

  Yancy struck the portal with his wooden sword and fell back in pain, just as Alex and I had done. “Ouch!” he cried out, clutching his sword arm.

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I charged off the stage and thrust myself as high in the air as I could, swiping at Herobrine with my sword. All around me I could hear the screams of kids and the moans and rasps of zombies.

  Even though I stretched my arm out as far as it could go, my sword just narrowly missed brushing against Herobrine’s feet. Now I was no longer charging—I was falling, back down to the floor, where I could see zombies waiting for me! I flailed uselessly. How could I have gotten so caught up in the moment that I would let myself do something so stupid?

  A hand grabbed me.

  At first I sagged in relief, thinking I was saved. But then, as I hung there in the air, I realized there was only one being who could have caught me.

  Slowly, Herobrine lifted me up, tight in his clutches, until he had my face inches from his. His white eyes bored into mine, his creepy smile cracked like a broken mirror, promising misfortune.

  “Well, here we are, face-to-face, Stevie,” Herobrine mocked. “What are you going to do?”

  CHAPTER 9

  HE HAD ME TOO TIGHT IN HIS CLUTCHES TO MOVE much, and I knew that if I attacked him, he’d drop me to the floor for the waiting zombies. When I looked below, I saw an even bigger swarm of zombies had gathered, staring up at me the way my cat stared when she saw I had fresh fish. That concentration, that hunger. Those zombies weren’t going anywhere until they’d devoured
me.

  “What do you want, Herobrine?” I asked in a begging voice. I realized I was pleading with him, trying to come up with a compromise. My mind was haunted with all the attacked people I’d seen in the videos, the people being turned into zombies against their will. So far the kids at this party had fought the zombies successfully and none of them had been turned, but I didn’t know how long that would be the case.

  “I’m getting exactly what I want,” Herobrine replied.

  “I—I’ll make you a promise,” I said, thinking quickly. “Let everyone go. Take the portals away and stop the zombies. Release my dad. If you do, I’ll—I’ll …”

  I swallowed, the words not wanting to come out. “I’ll let you have me as a prisoner,” I said.

  I could tell Herobrine wasn’t expecting this. It startled him for a moment, then he began to laugh.

  “Well, aren’t you noble,” he scoffed. “But do you really think I want one measly kid when I can have all the worlds bow before me?”

  “Think about it!” I went on. “I’m the boy with the portal, right? I’m the one who stopped the zombie takeover of the Overworld. Wouldn’t you feel proud to say you’d captured me and held me prisoner?”

  I didn’t even know what I was saying. I just knew I had to save the others, and if it meant me spending the rest of my life as a prisoner of Herobrine, that was still better than the fate of living free but knowing how many people he’d hurt.

  But Herobrine was right. Even though I was trying to make myself sound really impressive, I knew I really wasn’t. I’d only been able to save the special portal and stop the zombie takeover because of the help of others. By myself, I really was just a measly, eleven-year-old kid, wasn’t I?

  “I’ll tell you what,” Herobrine said, dipping his glowing eyes closer to me. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Would you like to hear it?”

  My first thought was that he was going to tell me he’d done something horrible to Dad. I couldn’t bear to hear that! But I nodded, because this might be the only way to get information.

  “There is a way to destroy those portals,” he said.

  I almost choked. Why would he tell me this? Was it just a trick?

  His face loomed closer. The red lights kept passing over him like a sunset. “The only way to destroy the portals is to destroy me,” he whispered.

  My heart thudded. That’s why he’d told me—because he was convinced we couldn’t destroy him. He just wanted to rub it in.

  “You’ve been chasing after me for a long time,” Herobrine went on. “You followed music discs with prophecies, attacked me on a mountaintop, even went through the Nether so you’d be able to confront me now. But this is the end of the road, boy. I have powers you only dream of, and all you have is a puny sword and some little friends.”

  He had me held close, gripping my shirt in one hand. In his other hand, he raised Dad’s diamond sword over my face. I saw the sharp blade’s sparkle inches from my eyes.

  “It’s time to say goodbye,” Herobrine said.

  CHAPTER 10

  BEFORE HEROBRINE COULD MOVE, HE LET OUT A sharp cry of pain. He looked down, and I did too, not understanding what had happened. As soon as I saw, my eyes widened. Several arrows had hit Herobrine in the leg, and Alex stood defiantly below, her loaded bow still pointed at him.

  “Let Stevie go!” she hollered.

  Herobrine’s cheeks were flushed with red, and it wasn’t from the red lights.

  “You little brat!” Herobrine began.

  “Put him down now!” Alex said, sending another arrow soaring. Herobrine managed to dodge this one, but I could see the ones she’d hit him with were causing him to lose some of his health. He sagged back in the air, still holding me.

  “Your arrows are pitiful!” Herobrine shouted down to her. She sent another one flying his way and he dodged easily, having expected it.

  “There are going to be a lot more arrows than these!” Alex said, reloading her bow.

  Just like that, Herobrine dropped me.

  I braced myself for the twin terrors of hitting the floor and being attacked by zombies. To my surprise, I landed in someone’s arms. I realized I’d clamped my eyes shut during the fall, and when I opened them, I saw that Yancy had caught me. There was no zombie horde anymore. Maison and Destiny were slashing back at the zombies in the area, Maison with her bat and Destiny with a wooden sword. I realized that, while I was in the air, they must have cleared out the area and then had Alex shoot Herobrine with her arrows so he’d let me go.

  Without a word, Yancy set me down on my feet. Alex and Herobrine continued to yell at each other, him in the air and her on the stage.

  “I’m going to get you for that!” Herobrine threatened.

  “No, we’re going to get you!” Alex answered. “Because you just told us how to close all these portals, and we have a way to defeat you.”

  Herobrine sneered down at her. “And why do you think that?”

  “You thought you brainwashed everyone in the Overworld,” Alex said heatedly. “But I un-brainwashed my mom, and she’s off right now, collecting all the armies of the Overworld! The people on Earth might not know how to fight zombies, but these warriors will!”

  She was trying to scare Herobrine. So when he smiled at her as if she’d said something really funny, my insides went cold.

  “Is that so?” Herobrine said.

  “Yes!” Alex said. “She’ll bring millions of soldiers, and then we’ll no longer be outnumbered! I’d love to see the look on your face when she shows up with her armies!”

  Herobrine disappeared out of the air and reappeared a moment later, standing on the stage. He was a few feet away from Alex and right next to the portal, so close he could touch it.

  No one was coming out of the portal. After all those rushing zombies, why had they stopped?

  Wait.

  A foot came out. I tensed, holding up my sword, then realized it wasn’t a zombie’s foot. It was the square foot of someone from the Overworld.

  Another foot emerged. A regal woman with red hair stepped completely through the portal. In her hand she clutched a diamond sword, and her body was dressed in glinting armor. She was definitely here to do battle.

  “Mom!” Alex gasped in relief. “I’m so glad you’re—!”

  She started to run toward Aunt Alexandra, then stopped with another gasp. This time it was a gasp of terror.

  More people from the Overworld were stepping through the portal, following Aunt Alexandra. These men and women all had iron swords and were covered with armor. They were all dressed for battle, just like she was.

  But they all had blank eyes, just like Herobrine. When Aunt Alexandra looked out at the crowd, the whiteness of her eyes gleamed in the scary lights, her pupils gone. She bowed before Herobrine, offering her diamond sword for him to take.

  “I have brought you the armies of the Overworld, my master,” she said to him. “They will obey your every word.”

  CHAPTER 11

  “MOM, NO!” ALEX SHRIEKED. SHE TRIED TO run to her mom, realized the danger of it, and stopped short.

  “It can’t be,” I heard Maison cry out from behind me. “Alex’s mom was our best chance.”

  “Please, keep the sword,” Herobrine told Aunt Alexandra. “You’ll need it to fight with. Besides …” He made sure to look out over the crowd and focus his evil eyes on me. “I already have a diamond sword.”

  “No, no,” Alex kept saying, shaking her head. “Mom, listen to me! Mom, I know you’re in there!”

  Aunt Alexandra turned and looked at Alex with no recognition.

  “Well, Alex,” Herobrine said. “You were right that your mother was bringing all the armies of the Overworld. There was one detail you missed, though.” He had turned his eyes away from me and was staring at Alex with sick enjoyment.

  “Did you really think you had un-brainwashed your mother?” he went on, relishing this. “Your mother has been working for me ever since I ros
e to power. I only had her pretend to come to her senses.”

  “Mom, no.” Alex was whimpering now.

  “Who is that girl?” Aunt Alexandra asked Herobrine, her lip curled in disgust.

  “She is part of the enemy army,” Herobrine replied. “As are all the other people in this world. Tell me, Mayor Alexandra, did you find the forest of portals I placed?”

  She nodded.

  “And are your millions of soldiers going through all the portals, to make sure they cover every inch of this globe?”

  She nodded again. “I have done everything you ordered, master.”

  “Excellent,” Herobrine said. He turned back to glare at Alex.

  “Oh, Alex,” he said, “I loved seeing the look on your face when your mother arrived with my armies.”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I started charging toward the stage.

  “Well, Alex?” Herobrine prompted. “You say you’re the best shot under age twelve in the Overworld. Aren’t you going to use your arrows?”

  “I’m not going to shoot my mom!” Alex cried.

  Aunt Alexandra looked at Alex coldly.

  “That’s fine with me,” Herobrine said, before telling Aunt Alexandra, “Have your troops take care of every human in the area. Don’t hurt the zombies, because the zombies are on your side, too.”

  “Yes, master,” Aunt Alexandra said.

  “And take care of their leader first,” Herobrine said. He pointed toward Alex. “Her.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Aunt Alexandra turned on Alex with her diamond sword, slashing out. Alex jumped back and the blow missed. She had her bow and arrows out but couldn’t bear to use them.

  I leapt onstage and hurled my sword down, knocking it into Aunt Alexandra’s sword. The blow was strong and Aunt Alexandra had been so consumed with attacking Alex that she hadn’t seen me. Her sword broke through the stage floor and got caught there.

  “Aunt Alexandra!” I said, even though I knew it probably wouldn’t work. If her own daughter couldn’t reach her, how did I have any hope? “Don’t you recognize us?”