The Armies of Herobrine Read online

  “He’s another one of their leaders,” Herobrine said. “Take him out, too.”

  Aunt Alexandra ripped her sword out of the floor, the blade sparkling. Her sword was scary, but the most terrifying thing about her were those eyes, lost and vacant under Herobrine’s spell.

  “Troops!” she called. “Take care of all the humans you find! Leave the leaders of this army to me.”

  When her sword came down, I blocked it with my own, straining. Now that Aunt Alexandra was concentrating on me, she was a lot harder to fight. I felt my feet slipping under me as I pushed with all my strength, trying to keep her sword at bay.

  All around us, the Overworld troops descended on the Halloween party, raising their weapons. Kids were trying to fight them off and having no luck. Their wooden swords easily broke under the iron swords of the Overworld army. Kids were running to corners of the room to hide, followed by the troops and the zombies. In the chaos, I lost sight of Alex and my friends.

  “Fantastic!” Herobrine said.

  Aunt Alexandra hit me hard with her sword and I fell back, sprawling across the ground. My sword flew from my fingers, landing just out of my reach.

  “It looks as if you have this all under control, Mayor Alexandra,” Herobrine said. “Remember your orders. I’m off to make sure all the other attacks on Earth are going as well as this one.”

  With that, he vanished back through the portal. Aunt Alexandra approached me from overhead, her sword raised.

  CHAPTER 12

  AUNT ALEXANDRA’S SWORD FLEW THROUGH THE air. A wooden sword appeared out of nowhere just in the nick of time, blocking her.

  No, wait, it wasn’t a sword that had saved me. It was a bat! Maison had jumped over, blocking the sword attack. The sword sliced partway into it, but the bat stayed in one piece.

  This gave me enough time to snatch my sword and get back to my feet. Aunt Alexandra looked furiously at Maison, who was not backing down.

  “You’re one of the leaders here, too, aren’t you?” Aunt Alexandra snarled at Maison. “I recognize you.”

  “You recognize me because I’m on your side, against Herobrine!” Maison said.

  “You’re a fool!” Aunt Alexandra said, now coming at Maison with her sword. “You could have run for safety, but you come rushing to help this—this—” She didn’t know what to call me. I knew it was nothing good.

  “To help my friend, yes!” Maison shouted. She and I both blocked Aunt Alexandra’s sword, Maison with her bat and me with my own blade.

  Aunt Alexandra tried to take another step toward us, then gasped. She looked down. An arrow had caught her boot, pinning it to the stage floor without actually hurting her foot. A few feet away stood Alex, a look of defiant confidence on her face, her bow and arrow still raised. Several more of her arrows flew through the air, all of them pinning Aunt Alexandra in place by her boots without wounding her.

  “I said I was the best shot in the Overworld under twelve!” Alex yelled out.

  Aunt Alexandra roared in outrage and began snatching the arrows out to free herself. The arrows wouldn’t keep her in place for long, but they might give us a chance to escape.

  “Stevie, over here!” I heard Yancy call. I looked, and he was to the side of the stage with Destiny, gesturing frantically. I didn’t need any more beckoning. Alex, Maison, and I dove off the stage, landing next to them. It was a tiny, wedged-in area, giving us just enough protection to talk. The zombies and soldiers seemed too caught up with what was in front of them to notice us here.

  “Herobrine got away!” I said. I saw that Yancy was staring, wide-eyed, at something behind me, and he lifted one shaky pale finger and pointed. I turned, already feeling sick, not wanting to know what new horror I would have to see.

  On the movie screen were twenty new scenes of twenty new cities. All of the portals had members of the Overworld army streaming out. Just like the troops here, these men and women were decked out with armor and iron swords. And every single one of them had the same blank, white eyes.

  In each city on screen, the Overworld army immediately got to work attacking the people, chasing them into the arms of zombies. Some people were grabbed—I guessed to be taken prisoner. I didn’t know what Herobrine had in mind.

  And then I saw him.

  Him.

  Herobrine loomed over one of the portals in one of the scenes. He was cheering the troops on, telling them exactly what to do. The army, like a bunch of little Herobrines, fought and slashed and attacked with mind-numbing fury.

  “I was so stupid!” Alex wailed. “I thought my mom was going to bring the armies to help us!”

  “We all fell for it,” Destiny said, putting a comforting hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Don’t feel bad.”

  “Herobrine left here because Stevie was weaponless on the ground, and he didn’t think Alex would fight her mother,” Yancy murmured, sounding as if he were in a trance. He seemed to be thinking deeply. “He thought he’d already won.”

  “What’s that have to do with anything?” I demanded.

  “I’m trying to figure out what he’s intending!” Yancy said. “He’s got all this stuff planned out with the zombies and the armies, but he’s also making stupid mistakes.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You saw how Alex got him with arrows while he had you,” Yancy said. “Every other weapon he’s dodged. But he was just so … so consumed in gloating and torturing you that he let his guard down.”

  “You think his ego is of the key to beating him?” Destiny asked.

  I looked at the carnage around me, thinking nothing could possibly end this.

  “We don’t have time to stop and think!” I snapped at Yancy. I was watching Aunt Alexandra struggling to get loose from her arrows. She’d almost made it, and then she’d probably come back after us.

  On the screen, Herobrine was leaping from portal to portal around the world, celebrating and urging the troops on. A few times he seemed to grin and wink our way, as if he knew we were watching him.

  “I have an idea,” Yancy said. “I’m going to even the odds here.”

  “How?” Maison asked, as confused as I was.

  Yancy smiled. “We have to make me into a zombie again.”

  CHAPTER 13

  “THAT’S INSANE!” I SAID, THINKING BACK ON the time Yancy had turned into a zombie in the Overworld. Back when we were still enemies, and not friends. After Yancy had turned into a zombie, he learned he was able to keep his human brain and could order all the normal zombies around. That allowed him to create a zombie army. But right now …

  I stopped. I realized he was brilliant.

  “You’re going to turn into a zombie so you can tell all the zombies here to fight against Herobrine and the Overworld armies, aren’t you?” I gasped.

  “Yancy, that’s dangerous!” Destiny said. “It worked before, but what if it doesn’t work again? What if you don’t keep your mind this time, and you just become a drooling, brainless zombie?”

  Yancy looked at her grimly. “I don’t think we have much choice here.”

  “But what about my mom?” Alex said. “I don’t want the zombies hurting my mom!”

  She had a good point. We needed someone to help us, but could we really trust zombies? Wouldn’t they just make things worse by hurting the people of the Overworld? Deep down, these were all good people who wouldn’t be acting this way if Herobrine wasn’t forcing them!

  “I’ll take care of that,” Yancy promised Alex. “Let me do what I need to do.”

  He’d caught sight of Dirk and Mitch, still cowering. They’d hidden under a table decorated with orange and black streamers, and they were holding each other and shaking. Somehow they’d managed not to be attacked by any zombies yet, which was a miracle. I had a feeling a lot of other kids must have been helping them.

  But most of the other kids had run to the far end of the room, trying to hide from Aunt Alexandra’s army. And several zombies had spotted Dirk and Mit
ch and were closing in on them …

  “Help us!” Mitch cried as Yancy ran in that direction.

  “Yeah, we’ll share our candy!” Dirk yelped.

  I saw the relief on the bullies’ faces as Yancy drew nearer. But when Yancy dove into the pile of zombies like an offering, Dirk and Mitch screamed again and pulled even closer to each other.

  The zombies were only too happy to have their meal jump right at them. They sank their rotten teeth into Yancy.

  “Now!” I said. Alex, Maison, Destiny, and I rushed in moments later, hitting the zombies with our weapons. We needed Yancy to be bitten, but not seriously hurt. We were able to take the zombies out in just a few moments. Yancy still sprawled there on his hands and knees, gasping and choking for breath.

  His hands had already turned green.

  Slowly, achingly, Yancy raised himself to his feet and faced us full on. It was difficult not to shudder at his deep green face. Even his eyes had turned a creepy, dark red.

  “Z-zombie!” Dirk and Mitch screamed.

  “Yancy, did it work?” Destiny asked. She meant: Is that still you in there?

  “Yes, it worked!” Yancy said, his voice raspy.

  He vaulted up on the table Dirk and Mitch were hiding under, using it like a new stage.

  “Zombies!” he shouted.

  At once, all the zombies stopped attacking people. They turned their heads toward Yancy. Aunt Alexandra was just releasing her feet from the stage, and I saw her startled look as she realized the zombies were obeying Yancy instead of Herobrine.

  “Zombies!” Yancy shouted again. “I am your leader now. I order you to stop the Overworld armies and leave the humans alone! Do not hurt the Overworld armies, and do not turn them into zombies. Just push them back through the portal into the Overworld, and don’t let them hurt anyone here!”

  I held my breath, waiting to see if it would work.

  On cue, the zombies stopped attacking the kids huddled in the dark corners of the room. They turned toward the Overworld army, hissing.

  “Stop the zombies!” Aunt Alexandra commanded, yanking her foot loose. She stormed down the stage. Before she could reach us, two zombies lurched in front of her, blocking the way. They began pushing her back toward the portal, only to be cut down by her sword.

  Yancy looked at the kids trying to hide in the back. “I need your help!” he shouted. “The zombies will leave you alone now. Take your weapons back up to defend yourselves, and push the Overworld people back through the portal, into the Minecraft world!”

  Ms. Reid was bringing in another giant load of wooden swords. “Get your swords, kids!” she said. “I have even more in my classroom!”

  The kids and the teachers descended on Ms. Reid’s box of weapons, grabbing wooden swords and running out to fight. The screams turned to roars as the kids cheered each other on.

  My heart gave a thrill of hope. Together, the kids and zombies were pushing the Overworld soldiers back through the portal. No one was getting hurt, but something was being done!

  “You’re brilliant, Yancy!” I called over the fighting.

  Yancy got down from the table, shaking his head. “This is only a small battle in a worldwide fight,” he said. He pointed to the movie screen. Herobrine was continuing to show up in the different shots of cities, egging his soldiers on. He seemed so caught up in what he was doing that he wasn’t aware of anything else. The more he got worked up over destruction, the more his eyes glowed in a sickly, feverish way.

  All my good feelings immediately went away. Yancy was right.

  “We need to get the word out!” Maison said. “We need to tell people how to fight and how to protect themselves.”

  “But I thought you said this world was too big for us to reach everyone!” Alex protested. “What can we do?”

  When I saw a look of triumph on Maison’s face, I knew she had come up with a great idea. My heart started to pound with newfound hope.

  Using her baseball bat, Maison pointed across the room. In the doorway stood a wild-eyed Lilac, her microphone gripped in her hand. Beside her was the cameraman, recording everything that was going on.

  CHAPTER 14

  WHEN LILAC SAW WE WERE LOOKING AT HER, she began to frantically beckon us over. We raced across the room to her, ducking through zombies and battling Overworld soldiers.

  “Do you believe us now?” Destiny called out as we got close.

  “Believe you!” Lilac sputtered. “This is the best story I’m going to get in my life! Tell me what’s going on! You—you turned into a zombie!” She turned her heavily lashed eyes on Yancy’s green skin and red irises, momentarily speechless.

  “Zombies and soldiers from the Overworld are attacking people all over Earth!” I said. “We know how people can defend themselves!”

  “You have to have this broadcast everywhere,” Yancy cut in.

  She nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Whatever you need. This is live, so start talking!”

  The cameraman zeroed his camera in on Yancy and Lilac put her microphone right to his face. I guessed Yancy’s whole turning-into-a-zombie-live-on-camera thing got him special attention.

  “Zombies!” he shouted. “I need all the zombies out there to hear me! Stop attacking the people on Earth. Leave them alone. Push the soldiers of the Overworld back through the portals, but do not hurt them!”

  I looked on the screen, hoping that Yancy’s words would get the zombies to stop attacking people. But it wasn’t working. All the zombies on the screen were as evil as ever, attacking every person in sight.

  Before I could say anything, I saw Lilac was on a cell phone. “I’m getting good stuff!” she said. “Make it so it’s not just going live locally—make it go live everywhere! Yes, I’m serious—I saw this boy turn into a zombie and start ordering the zombies around here, and they’re obeying him. I don’t care what it takes—the whole world needs to see this!”

  Maison jumped into the camera’s focus with Yancy. “If you play Minecraft, this is just like that. Kids of the world, you all play Minecraft, right? Teach your parents how to protect themselves. Fight the attacking zombies with any weapons you have, like baseball bats. If you hit them, you can defeat them. The Minecraft people coming out of the portals don’t mean to hurt you, but Herobrine is controlling them right now.”

  “This is all connected to the streaming videos of Herobrine,” Destiny said. “I know it sounds crazy, but you’re seeing it happening before your own eyes! Those Herobrine videos weren’t a prank, and he wants to destroy the world for real!”

  Lilac clicked off her silvery cell phone. “My boss is working on getting it to go live across the globe,” she said.

  “Yancy’s face is on the screen!” Alex cried, gesturing toward the giant screen.

  I couldn’t believe it! In one of the city scenes, a big building was seen in the background, and there was Yancy’s face on it, talking. “Zombies!” I could hear him say, like a distant echo. “I need all the zombies out there to hear me!”

  It worked. All the zombies on that screen stopped attacking. By the time Yancy’s little speech was done, they were no longer battling the people of Earth. Instead, they were pushing the Overworld troops back into the nearby portal.

  On the screen, the people went stone-still in shock, hardly daring to believe they were no longer under a zombie onslaught. Then Maison’s face appeared on the building, telling the people what to do. There were some kids in that city who were dressed up like people from Minecraft for Halloween, right down to pretend diamond swords. When they heard Maison’s directions, their faces lit up because they understood and knew what they had to do. They began to show the adults how to fight back.

  Lilac had one hand over her mouth. “It’s really working!” Quick as could be, her cell phone was back out. “Are you seeing this?” she demanded into the phone. “Good, good, keep getting it played!”

  In another screen, there was a store nearby the portal with TVs in the window. Those TVs beg
an to play Yancy, and then Maison. The zombies stopped attacking. The people began to defend themselves.

  It wasn’t all good. I saw Herobrine floating over one of the portals, laughing and jumping through the air. Our news footage must not have aired near there yet, because the zombies were still attacking. And Herobrine seemed totally unaware that we were ruining his plans in other places.

  “This is the power of the world wide web and mass communication,” Yancy said with pride, though I didn’t entirely understand what he meant. He turned back to the camera and said, “Everyone, Herobrine wants to ruin this world because he’s seen that people can be cruel, and he thinks we deserve this. He thinks this because he’s the cruelest of all, and he doesn’t believe anyone can be saved or changed. I want this world to prove him wrong. We need to stop fighting over our differences and come together. We need to stop using the Internet as a place to bully one another or harass people or get outraged over every little thing. We need to use it as a way to spread useful information and help one another!”

  “Wow, Yancy!” Destiny said, impressed. “That’s inspiring. You need to join speech class!”

  “I know I look weird now,” Yancy said, laying one green hand over his chest. “And I know I’ve done things in the past I regret. We’ve all done things we wish we hadn’t. But we always have time to make things better.”

  “And we have time to defeat Herobrine!” Alex cut in, as if she thought Yancy was starting to sound too sappy and we needed to get everyone pumped up.

  “Like Alex said!” Yancy replied. “We can do this!”

  More and more zombies on the screen began to change. They were becoming our allies! But as exciting as all this was, there was still something very troubling.

  Even if we pushed the people of the Overworld back home, and even if we had the zombies starting to work for us now, that didn’t solve the real problem. The only way to really stop all this madness was to beat Herobrine.

  We were saying brave words. We were cheering the Earth on.

  But we had no idea how we could actually stop Herobrine. And unless we came up with something fast, he would find out what we were up to and come at us with new monsters and new terrors.