The New Order (24 page)

“Play-ers . . . no . . . kill . . . us?” asked Zombie Oob slowly.

“The Noctem Alliance will not kill you if you agree to join us,” said Spyro, his bow still pointed toward Zombie Oob's forehead. “The prisoners that we give you to eat will not try to kill you either. We will knock them unconscious before you feast on them.”

Stan heard a sound to his left, and out of the corner of his eye saw DZ puking. Spyro ignored this.

The three Zombies looked at one another, and let out a series of moans and groans. Stan watched in horror. How could this be happening? The Noctem Alliance was recruiting Zombie villagers right in front of them, and there was nothing they could do about it!

After the groaning had ceased, Zombie Mella turned to face Spyro and, to Stan's utter distress, managed to get out, “We . . . join . . . you . . . Noc-tem . . . Li-ance.”

Spyro grinned. “Good,” he said. “And you realize that means you must obey every command I give you?”

“We . . . o-bey . . . you,” replied Zombie Oob.

“Excellent,” replied Spyro jubilantly. He glanced over his shoulder to the west. The sun had finally set behind the desert skyline. He was not the first to notice this. Stan had been, for the past half a minute, glancing around the desert, and noticed with growing unease that monsters were spawning all around them. There were the regular Zombies, the bow-wielding Skeletons, the scuttling Spiders, the menacing Creepers, and even a few tall, black, ominous Endermen, with whom Stan was careful to avoid eye contact.

“What are your names?” Spyro asked.

“Mel . . . la,” Mella croaked out.

“Oob,” Oob followed.

“Stull!” spat the tiny Zombie child.

Stan was shocked. Even through the zombification process, they somehow all remembered their names. He realized, with a terrified jolt of his heart, that this confirmed to him that, in fact, the three villagers still existed within the undead monsters.

“Okay then. Mella, I want you to order all the hostile mobs in the area into the vicinity. Tell them to hold their attacks, though,” replied Spyro, his bow still raised at Oob's head.

Stan watched in sheer fright as Mella obliged, opening her mouth and letting out a terrifying roar, an aggressive Zombie moan of massive proportions. As she did, the eyes of all the hostile mobs in the area looked to her. A series of shorter moans later, and all the monsters in the area began to walk toward the players and Zombie villagers. Stan began to shake uncontrollably as the circle of mobs closed in, getting closer and closer. He closed his eyes, unable to bear the tension, when suddenly, Mella gave another moan, and Stan heard the footsteps of the monsters stop. He opened his eyes and saw a rabble of hostile monsters surrounding the five players and three Zombie villagers.

Private Spyro, his bow still trained on Oob, spoke out. “I am giving you this one chance to leave unharmed, President Stan. For reasons that I cannot disclose, Lord Tenebris does not want you or your fellows dead yet. Just know this,
however. The Noctem Alliance now has control over the armies of hostile mobs. If you'd like to take control of the mob armies away from us, you are going to have to kill all three of your villager friends. Keep in mind, President Stan—they may be Zombies now, but there's always the possibility that they could be saved.”

He turned to the Zombie villagers. “Stull,” he ordered, “tell the monsters to allow these four players to pass without harm. Do not pursue them. If they speak, or attempt to arm themselves with weapons, kill them immediately.”

And with that, little Stull gave a series of high-pitched wails, and some of the evil mobs stepped to the side, creating a pathway back toward the train line. Not wanting to spend a second more in the forsaken village, Stan turned on his heel and silently marched through the horde of monsters. As he approached the train, the gears were whirring in his head at top speed. He hardly felt any grief at all now; rather, two feelings were struggling for control over his mind.

One of these feelings was terror. The Noctem Alliance had managed to gain the allegiance of intelligent monsters in the Overworld. This gave them total control over all the monsters in the world of Minecraft. He had no idea how they were going to be able to combat the literally infinite amount of monsters that the armies of the undead would be able to produce.

The second feeling was that of conflict. The armies of the night were incredibly dangerous, and they could be taken from the Noctem Alliance in an instant if they could only kill Oob, Mella, and Stull. But therein was the problem. How could they possibly kill Oob, Mella, and Stull?

CHAPTER 22
THE DECISIONS

N
ot for the first time, a soldier came to the door of Leonidas's hut to check on where he was, and once again, Leonidas turned him away through the tears. Although the bawling had subsided, Leonidas still felt the occasional fit of sobs rack his body. He just couldn't believe it when Captain Drake had delivered the message to him. Every member of the NPC village . . . Ohsow, Mella and Blerge, and even Moganga . . . all dead. . . .

It was his fault, Leonidas thought through the tears, the guilt of it threatening to strangle him. He had been the one to kill the Iron Golem, leaving his family vulnerable to attack. And he had also killed Stan's soldiers, who, as horrible as they were, surely would have defended at least their own lives in the case of a Noctem attack.

As Leonidas thought this, he realized with a start that this was not random. He had been so overwhelmed in his grief over the attack on the NPC village that he had not realized it had been just that: an attack. And it had been committed by the Noctem Alliance, the organization that he, Leonidas had pledged his life to. His organization had just launched the attack that had killed his family.

Memories came flooding back to Leonidas,
threatening to drown him. The massacre of the prisoners' village. The bomb in the Tennis Machine. The attack on the Spleef arena. And now the NPC village, too. All of these attacks were committed by the Noctem Alliance. All of them had been committed for no good reason. And all of them had been committed against innocent beings who were unprepared to defend themselves.
And this
, thought Leonidas,
this was the last straw
.

All at once, Leonidas made a decision. It was not the first time he had thought about making this decision. Indeed, it had been growing in his mind for a while now, slowly sprouting into a full-blown plan over the weeks. Leonidas had always had too many hesitations to go through with it, but now he knew the time had come to put his plan into action.

Leonidas pulled a map out of his inventory and looked down at it. The nearest encampment of Elementia troops was massed a good distance away from Nocturia. Leonidas would order Captain Drake to take all his men and launch a full-out assault on the encampment. Leonidas knew Drake would not question the plan. The armies he had in Nocturia were more than capable of taking the encampment. And, most important, an encampment that size was sure to put up a good fight. With any luck, the offensive would distract Drake long enough for Leonidas to put his plan into action.

The gears spinning in his head, Leonidas walked out of
his shack and into the blizzard, looking for a messenger to tell Drake to attack the encampment. As he did this, he scrutinized the plan in his mind, looking for any way it could possibly go wrong. After all, he thought, it was essential that the plan be executed flawlessly on the first try.

“Stan! Kat, Charlie, DZ! Thank goodness you're back!” cried Ben, leaping up from his seat in the castle train station as the minecart train pulled in. “Quickly, you need to join the council meeting going on. There's been a startling new development in the war!”

“Let me guess,” spat Kat bitterly, and Ben was surprised to see her sullenness reflected on the faces of the three other players. “Up until now, the Elementia army and the Noctem Alliance have called ceasefires at night so that they wouldn't have to deal with the hostile mobs on the battlefield. Since we've been gone, though, the Noctem Alliance has started to fight at night and the hostile mobs have been helping them.”

Ben was flabbergasted. “How . . . what the . . . how the . . . ,” he stammered before finally getting out, “How could you possibly know that?” As he said this, and took in the crestfallen expressions on their faces, he realized what was off. One of them was missing.

“Wait a second . . . ,” he said slowly. “Guys . . . where's Oob?”

Stan sighed. “The Noctem Alliance got him,” he responded, sounding disgusted.

“What?” Ben gasped, his face morphing to dread. “Do you mean he's . . . I mean, do you mean that they . . .”

“No,” spat DZ, “he ain't dead. He's worse than dead. He's working for the Noctem Alliance now.”

Ben heard, but he didn't understand, and couldn't believe. “But . . .”

“He got infected and turned into a Zombie,” explained Charlie, a catch in his throat and tears in his eyes. “That was the reason the Noctem Alliance attacked the NPC village. They must've weakened the village, and then stayed there during a full moon and let the Zombies attack all the villagers, infecting them. The Zombie villagers can communicate with players, so the Alliance recruited them into their army so the Zombie villagers can be a link of command between the Noctem Alliance and the hostile mobs.”

“Come on, we'll explain it more in the council room,” Kat said, and she ordered Rex to sit before she walked down the hallway, followed by the other four players, with Ben still sputtering in confusion.

As Stan followed Kat into the council room, he saw the eyes of four council members sitting at the table shift to them. Stan realized one of them was missing. A quick head count told him that it was Blackraven who was absent. He
didn't really care why.

“Good, you're back!” exclaimed G, his face stressed, as the four players sat around the table. “You four were supposed to go out and investigate the attack on the village. What did you find?”

The four players looked at one another uncomfortably, their gazes eventually settling on Charlie. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, another sob escaped, and he broke down crying, laying his head in his hands on the table.

“Pull yourself together, Charlie!” grunted G harshly. “What did you find in that village?”

“Give him a moment, for heaven's sake!” the Mechanist cried out, his eyes widening with anxiety. “He's clearly upset about what they found there! Stan,” he said gravely, turning toward him. “Is it what I feared?”

Stan nodded his head, glancing down. “Worse, actually,” he replied. To this the Mechanist gave an exclamation of surprise and clutched his heart, terrified of what could possibly have happened.

Before Jayden, G, or any of the other players could ask, Kat jumped in and began to explain everything that they had seen and been through in the NPC village. The faces of the other players fell when they heard of the tragic demise of all the villagers, and then mutated to shock when they heard
that Oob had been turned into a Zombie.

“The good news,” said Stan at the end of Kat's speech, trying to sound optimistic but failing miserably, “is that the Zombie villagers can be turned back to normal somehow, and once we find out how, we'll be able to turn Oob and his family back and take control of the hostile mobs away from the Noctem Alliance.”

“Okay, so I have a couple of questions,” said G slowly, following a moment of dead silence. “First of all, you said that Oob and his brother and mom were turned into Zombies . . . What about his dad, didn't Oob have a dad too?”

“He didn't turn,” croaked Charlie, speaking his first words since they had entered the council room. His eyes were red and puffy, and his words were pained. “Not all of those villagers were killed by Zombies. Some of them were killed by Skeletons, Spiders, and Endermen too. Even if the Zombie villagers can be cured, the other villagers . . . can . . . never . . .” And once again, Charlie broke down.

Stan stood up, walked over, and patted his friend's shoulder, while Kat did the same. Obviously, all the friends were devastated that the NPC villagers had fallen prey to the Noctem Alliance. Stan was doing all he could to keep his composure, knowing that the only way to avenge them was through the decisions made here at this council meeting. But Charlie . . . Charlie had been the closest to the NPCs.

Stan remembered the time they had spent in that village. While Stan and Kat had been planning out their invasion of the End, Charlie had been out in the village with DZ, joking and spending time with Oob and his brethren. Even after the quest was over, it was those two who had gone out to visit the village by far the most out of anybody. Stan could only imagine how traumatic this was for him personally.

“Anyway,” said G awkwardly. “So this latest development means the Noctem Alliance has three Zombie villagers under their command that give them control over the evil mobs?”

“Exactly,” replied Stan grimly.

“They need to go down.”

Seven members of the council spun around. The eyes of all fell on DZ, and Stan was shocked to see the look on his face. His eyes had a darkness to them now, and he exuded an aura of malice that Stan had never sensed from him before. In fact, he had never sensed anything like it before. The dark power DZ was exerting frightened him, especially when DZ continued.

“They need to go down now. The Noctem Alliance took it a step too far this time. As terrible as their attacks on us were, it was because they disagree with our ideals. As awful as the bombing of the Tennis Machine was, it was because we were openly fighting with them. As horrible as the attack on the Spleef arena was, it was because we ignored their
warning. But this . . . nothing in the world could ever justify what we saw in that village.”

“DZ . . . ,” Jayden started, but DZ wasn't done yet.

“The NPC villagers never did anything wrong. They were peaceful. They minded their own business. The villagers and the Noctem Alliance had never crossed paths before this. But now, all those people, all the village people that I knew, that I joked with, that I was friends with . . . they're all dead for no reason other than a way to make it easier for the Alliance to win this stupid war!”

DZ spun around to look at Ben, who had been standing in the corner, quietly observing the council meeting. “Ben,” he seethed, “you need to do something against the Noctem Alliance. Launch some sort of military operation against them. Something big that'll make them pay for what they've done.”

Ben blinked twice, staggered. “But DZ, I . . . I mean, we're already using more resources than we're supposed to, doing what we're doing.”

“I don't care!” bellowed DZ, his face almost inhuman with rage. “Draft more people if you have to! The Noctem Alliance has got to pay! They can't commit this atrocity without retribution! We've got to stick it to them!”

“Calm yourself, DZ,” said the Mechanist, himself taking deep breaths to remain calm. “I understand that you feel a need to do something drastic, and to do it right now. . . .
Believe me, we all feel terrible about this tragic turn of events . . .”

“Not like me!” bellowed DZ, veins pulsating in his forehead. “Not like Charlie!” and he jabbed his pointer finger toward Charlie, still sobbing with Stan and Kat comforting him.

“That's a fair statement,” replied the Mechanist. DZ felt as though he had been slapped across the face. He had been expecting the Mechanist to disagree with him in his claim so much that when he agreed, DZ felt the need to listen to what he had to say.

“You and Charlie were undeniably the closest to the NPC villagers, and it is therefore you who feel the pain of their demise the most poignantly. However, it is for precisely that reason that I ask you two to refrain from suggesting rash actions. The Noctem Alliance will fall. In order to expedite their demise, however, we must act through logic, not through the need for revenge.”

There was a pause, during which nobody spoke.

“Fine,” replied DZ, his breathing deep and exaggerated. “It makes sense I guess . . . but honestly,” he said, looking over at Ben with huge, meaningful eyes, “you're telling me that there's absolutely nothing more in any of our power that we can do against the Noctem Alliance?”

“How does cutting off the Alliance's head sound?”

All nine players in the room spun, once again, to face the
door as Blackraven burst in, an air of excitement surrounding him. As he almost jogged to his seat at the council table, a soldier walked in behind him, looking very proud of herself.

“What do you mean by that, Blackraven?” the Mechanist asked.

“I mean we have the opportunity now to destroy the Noctem Alliance by taking its leaders out of the equation,” he replied with a huge grin.

Stan's eyes widened as he realized what Blackraven was implying. “Wait . . . Blackraven, are you saying . . .”

“Yes, Stan,” replied Blackraven triumphantly. “We've located the Specialty Base.”

Immediately, everybody around the table burst into cheers and applause. Even Charlie managed a little smile of hope, and DZ's scowl vanished in the blink of an eye.

“It was actually this brave soldier here,” continued Blackraven, gesturing to the soldier, who stepped forward, humble as she realized just who it was she was being presented to. “This is Corporal Elaine of the Army of Elementia. She was one of the naval scouts sent out to patrol the Northwestern Islands.”

“Where is the Specialty Base, then, Corporal?” asked Stan, walking away from Charlie and sitting down in his own seat. “And how did you locate it?”

“They attacked me, Mr. President,” Corporal Elaine
responded, respectfully yet proudly. “My commander had told me to patrol the seas to the south of the Mushroom Islands to check the southern coastlines for any signs of enemy activities. I steered my boat in close to the shore, and I came under arrow fire. I saw Noctem soldiers, all in boats, firing at me, and coming at me from the direction of the islands.

“I knew I couldn't take all three of them on at once, and I didn't have any backup with me on that particular day, so I fled the scene. I led them to the east. If they had followed me, they would have run into the heavily armed armada massing at the Elementia Sea Base. I looked back and saw that they had turned back and were headed for the strait between the two Mushroom Islands. The cliff blocked my view, so I couldn't see which of the two islands the boat returned to. I would have gone back and investigated the islands myself, but I didn't want to take the chance of walking into an ambush. Immediately after, I reported all that I had seen to my commander.”