By Shreya G

Rachel woke up to hear another bing from her phone. She slumped back down into her pillow, trying to pretend it never happened. The reason she wasn’t checking her phone(which she usually did) was because she knew what people were texting about. A new video game online called Minecraft.  What’s so great about it anyway? Rachel was 90% sure that this new game was another rip-off, but the chat didn’t usually go blooming with messages just because of a new game. Scowling, Rachel sourly swiped her phone off her nightstand. Gripping it in her right hand, she searched up Minecraft. She yelped when she saw the results. Minecraft was 20$ on the PC. She didn’t even have that much, but her little brother did, because Mom and Dad gave him money for really simple things, like drinking water or being nice. Rachel grabbed her favorite bouncy ball and her scented pencil as in offering. Rachel walked down the hall and knocked on the door. 

“What do you want?” he asked rudely. 

“20 bucks for this.” Rachel dropped the loot in his hand. He glanced at it, then without a second thought, he handed me the money. She couldn’t believe her luck! You could get those on target for $7 dollars.

10 minutes later

Rachel was heavily equipped. Her phone was in my left hand, ready to type awful things about minecraft. My mouse was in the other, ready to play. Heart beating, Rachel clicked minecraft on her browser and opened it up. Quiet, sad music was playing and it said SINGLEPLAYER on the screen. Rachel clicked on it and opened up minecraft.

4 hours later

Rachel endlessly clicked on her mouse, determinedly looking at the pixel zombie on the screen. Whenever it got close, Rachel swung her arm at it and it jumped away. Suddenly, out of the blue, another zombie appeared and the You Died message popped up on the screen. Rachel groaned. Rachel had been killed by a zombie again. Still, Rachel was ready. Next time, she would surely kill the zombie. My phone lay on the table, forgotten. Then, Rachel heard a yell from the dining room. 

“Snacktime!” It was Mom. With a deep sigh, Rachel reluctantly shut off her PC and headed for the kitchen, where a pile of snacks and fruit waited to be eaten. She quickly gobbled down the snacks and headed for her bedroom. 

“Now wait a second. Where are you going?” Mom asked, suspicion flaring in her eyes.

“Room,” Rachel muttered, careful not to attract attention. She didn’t need mom to know that  Mom raised her eyebrows but let Rachel pass. Rachel carefully closed the door behind her, then opened up minecraft, looking to see the singleplayer screen. Instead,  the screen had a bright white color. Rachel slammed down on her keyboard, cursing under her breath. Strangely, she felt a sort of wind. It got stronger and stronger until her hair was blowing. But it didn’t stop there. The wind kept becoming more and more powerful and she had to hold on to her chair. Suddenly, a huge blast of wind swept over her, and she was sucked, headfirst, into her computer. 

Rachel thumped hard on the ground. She moaned as her body started aching all over. Ignoring the screams of pain in her ankles, she jumped to her feet and let out a shriek of surprise. Her arms weren’t normal arms.They were pixelated blobs of white. Rachel let out another scream and was just about to scream again when she thought to herself screaming isn’t going to help. She sat down and thought. Then, a horrific thought came over her and she realized the only possible explanation was that she was inside minecraft. Rachel knew that she either had to find a village or build shelter for the night. Just like in minecraft, Rachel thumped her hand against the dirt until it broke. Before you knew it, she had a small dirt hut which she went into for the night, occasionally breaking a block to check if daylight had arrived. When she saw that daylight had arrived, Rachel cautiously took a step outside and looked around for any signs of creatures like creepers or zombies. When Rachel saw that the coast was clear, she started getting dirt to make some finishing touches to her hut when she heard a soft growl. Rachel yelped and spun her head around. Behind her was the ugliest flaming zombie she had ever seen. Heart thudding, Rachel swung at it with her arm. Whenever Rachel hit the flaming zombie it went red. Finally the zombie disappeared and all that was left of it was rotten flesh. Rachel didn’t know if it was because of her or the flames that the zombie perished, but either way Rachel couldn’t help feeling happy. There was just one problem left. How would she get home? And just somehow, at that very second, Rachel got it. A light flashed in Rachel’s mind. She had to die. 

Rachel hesitantly stepped up to the edge of the pixel cliff. Would it hurt? She wondered. Rachel knew that if she died, she would respawn. Her plan was to respawn back in her bedroom. So, squeezing her eyes shut, she leaped off the edge of the cliff. Rachel’s head hit the back of her chair, a feeling she couldn’t be gladder to feel. The first thing she did was check her hand. It was back to normal. 

“IT WORKED!” Rachel screamed, warm relief seeping through her. She heard a bang and the door flew open, and dad rushed in, glancing around wildly. 

“Why did you scream?” asked Dad, looking a bit irritated. So Rachel told him the whole story, about the flaming zombie and her idea. Once she was finished, Dad chuckled.

“You can make a whole story out of that,” he suggested. So Rachel did exactly that.

Sources  

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/minecrafts-bedrock-and-java-editions-can-now-be-bought-together

About the Author

Shreya G was born in Bangalore, India on May 7th, 2012. In her time, she has written many novels. Shreya likes running and swimming, and has won many ribbons and medals. She is also interested in being a cancer specialist and wants to learn the coding interface.