All Out War

**All Out War** is the third book in Minecraftia: Arc 4. It will be published in November 2018.

## Synopsis

*The Falls is no longer a safe place to live. The group must move to a secluded school on the outskirts of Port Arbello and use the knowledge of a new face to infiltrate the community.*

## Plot

### Chapter 1: Sealed Your Fate

"What do we do with him?" asked Finn.

"We use him as a bargaining chip," replied Ty.

"You really think they'll want him in his condition? He's worthless," replied Allison.

Arbello and Connor had done so much damage. Kenney was gone. Annie was gone. Lydia was gone. So many people gone. Then Evan... I looked at his pile of inventory resting neatly on the floor. He had made it back to the real world. He was the first to go. I kicked Connor in the face once more.

"Where are they taking Kenney and the others?" I asked.

Connor did not respond, and so Warren pointed a sword at him.

"Listen here, douchebag. You killed one of my friends and kidnapped several others. If you don't start co-operating, I'll do to you what you did to Evan," he growled.

"Don't, dude. Killing him is mercy at this point," replied Serge. "Plus, we really need to know this stuff. Unless Johnny-come-lately here has something to say?"

Stella stood in the middle of the crowd.

"He's gonna turn them in to soldiers. Get them to fight for him. Force them to kill anyone who refuses to join. He won't just keep the others. He'll come back for more, then kill the others," explained Stella.

Connor laughed.

"You can't stop him, you know," he continued to laugh. "I could tell you tons about Arbello, but you won't like it."

"Will I not?" I asked.

"We should kill him. He won't talk, so why not?" replied Ray.

Finn crossed his arms, and Serge looked at him.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"We let Gerald decide. Gerald, do we kill Connor or spare Connor?" Finn asked me.

I looked at Connor, then punched him in the face.

"You wanna start talking, or do I have to use the force on you?" I asked.

Connor coughed, and looked me in the eyes with an evil stare, then laughed.

"They're gonna recruit them. Brainwash them in to fighting on their side. Arbello has a secret that you won't like, Gerald, but when you find out, it's going to make so much sense," laughed Connor, his voice now fading.

"WHAT SECRET?" yelled Warren. "HE KILLED MY FRIEND! AND THEN TOOK SEVERAL OTHERS!"

Connor turned to Warren.

"You think you're tough, but wait until you face Arbello. Gerald knows all about it, he just doesn't realize it yet," replied Connor.

"He's not telling us anything. Just do it," Ryland told me.

"Killing him is too easy! His dumb group kidnapped all my friends!" yelled Mitch.

I entered Finn's office. He followed, visibly confused.

"What are you doing?" asked Finn.

I explained to him that my sword wasn't good enough for him. I finally found what I was looking for. I pulled out the trident and pointed it at Finn.

"This'll do a lot of damage quite nicely," I replied.

I walked back over to Connor. Everyone was shocked by my murder weapon.

"Is that a trident?" asked Swarfiga.

"No, it's a shovel," replied Allison.

"Oh," replied Swarfiga.

I pointed the trident at Connor.

"You have five seconds to co-operate. If you don't, I'll stab you for each teammate murdered or kidnapped," I glared.

Connor laughed once again.

"You know I won't respond. I'm gonna die from all this damage any way, why not delay the inevitable?" he asked.

I couldn't even think properly anymore. It was almost like I was going to enjoy what would happen next... like I was thirsty for blood. The first blow went to his chest. The second sliced off his arm, causing him to pass out from shock.

"Finish him off," Allison told me.

The third and final blow severed his head, finally reducing him to a pile of weaponry and supplies.

"That's it. We've killed a guy," sighed Finn.

I turned to him.

"It's not the first time. It's happening again. Everything. That's all this war is. It just reminds me of the war with Cedryth. So many people lost... even.... even Ludwig. I never thought anyone could get him. But he died. It was years ago, and I still think of that day every hour. I can't help it. But sometimes it does me good. Thinking of the past helps me to not repeat the same mistakes. If we find James and accept his help, I can help all of you get your people back. I just... I just need you to trust my people. First, I need to bury Evan. I can't just let his death go over my head, especially if he's going to just be the first one," I explained to everyone.

I was going on a rant, but they deserved to know about my past. I had already opened up to Aasim, but no one else knew except Jude, Witherstorm, Jayden, Jimbob, Warren, Swarfiga, and Ray. I had never even bothered telling Ryland, Louis, or Marlon. I had told Brooke, and Kenney was with me since the beginning, but they had been taken. I never thought it was possible for something like that to happen to Kenney... it reminded me so much of Ludwig....

"I can't believe you actually killed a guy, though," Louis told me.

"He deserved it. Gerald put a stop to any more future lives taken by this madman," replied Marlon.

"Arbello will take even more. That's not a good argument," Allison told Marlon.

I didn't care any more. Connor was dead, and he was responsible for the murder of Evan. I did what I said I would do, and I buried Evan's inventory. I built a wooden frame, then crafted a sign and labelled it "EVAN". Everyone gathered around Evan's grave.

"So, we going after Arbello?" asked Ty.

"Yeah," replied Serge.

I had to pick a team to go with me, not so small we were easy targets. Aasim, Finn, Serge, Trevor, Allison, Rosie, Ty, Baahir, Mitch, Gabriel, Binta, Ryland, Ray, Jimbob, Swarfiga, Willy, and Warren were the ones I brought along with me.

"Come on, guys. We got a job to do," I told them.

The gates to The Falls opened, and we promptly left.

### Chapter 2: The Rendezvous Point

Rosie was on a lead, held by Finn. Ryland, Binta, and Warren refused to bring their pets, and Serge and I were looking on the map for James's school.

"You think it's that wooden blob near Port Arbello?" asked Serge. "Or is that the Woodland Mansion?"

I pointed at a half destroyed brown block near Port Arbello.

"That's the Woodland Mansion. It burned down remember? So that wooden blob near Port Arbello is definitely the school," I replied.

Our large group followed the blob on the map.

"Watch out for any Port Arbello soldiers," Finn told us.

"Yeah, right. Our group is so big they don't have a chance," replied Ty.

"We shouldn't be getting so cocky, or we'll all die out here," Baahir told Ty.

We decided it was best to find a different route to the boarding school in a desperate attempt to avoid Port Arbello.

"This whole war is stupid. We should get Kenney, Brooke, and Annie, then get the hell away from The Falls," Ryland told me.

"Then what? They'll die? These people have maybe one or two offensive fighters," I replied.

"I think we should free the soldiers first. Those people have a right to be free," added Gabriel.

Ryland's attention averted to Gabriel.

"These people are trying to kill us. Why should we care about them?" asked Ryland.

Gabriel sighed.

"They're being forced to fight us. They'd rather die than take part in this," replied Gabriel.

"If they would rather die," Ryland told Gabriel. "They had better do it, and stop this pointless fight."

Several creepers and zombies roamed the path, so we made sure to take them out, including myself with my newly-acquired trident.

"That thing rules," Jimbob told me.

"Man, when we get to the school, we better hope they're well armed," Aasim told me.

We arrived at the school, and James and another woman were there.

"Hey, guys. Made it back alright?" asked James.

"Funny, you pronounce "without seeing your friend get murdered by Arbello and having about 10 more of them get captured" differently than I do," I replied.

James sighed.

"Yeah... they do that," he told me.

The woman stepped forward.

"You must be Gerald. I'm Sophie," she said to me.

We entered the school. It was just me, James, Sophie, and Aasim who sat in the courtyard, however. James put his hands together.

"Where are you from?" he asked. "I'm not interrogating you, just want to know you better."

"Canada, originally. When I got here, I stayed in this place called the Hall of Game. Splegg, murder mystery, hunger games, the walls, anything you can think of," I explained.

James sat up straight.

"Sounds amazing," he told me.

Aasim turned to James.

"I still wonder what we were sent here for," he told him.

He turned back to me.

"Do anything exciting before we got here?" asked Aasim.

I shook my head.

"My grandpa died twelve days before we got here. His funeral was on the day. I just needed to escape for one goddamn day, and look what happened. I'm here, and every single day I just get reminded with even more death. Thibo, Alex, Ludwig, Axel, Tom, Evan... it never stops," I explained.

Aasim patted me on the back.

"Sorry I asked. Can't imagine how hard that must've been for you," he replied.

"We need to go back for the others, soon. Louis, everyone," I told Aasim.

Sophie got up.

"We can send a crew out to get to The Falls. See if that dog of yours can catch a scent," she told me.

"Finn'll help. Then we can go attack Port Arbello. They'll be in for a rude surprise," replied Aasim.

I smiled at Aasim.

"In the mean time, we need to find a way to turn 20-odd frowns upside down. Who's ready for a game?" I asked. "Yo! Ray! Gabe! Finn! Serge! Willy! Warren! Ty! Baahir! Mitch! You ready for a game?"

The group of nine people I called for came over. With the added three of Aasim, Sophie, and James, we were sure to have a great game.

"This game is simple. James and Sophie get to know us, we get to know them. Do you get me, Sophie?" I asked.

"Yeah, I get you, Gerald," she replied.

I pointed at Baahir.

"So, Mr. Baahir, I know you're a chef, but, why?" I asked.

"My dad ran a food truck, in the real world," he replied. "I helped."

I smiled. This game was gonna be interesting.

"Take it you enjoyed working there?" I asked.

"Yeah. I also read a lot of cook books in my spare time. The food looked good and I thought about recreating it," Baahir replied.

I nodded my head with a smile.

"See? Already learning so much about you guys. We know why Baahir loves cooking. Now I'm curious: James, why do you wear that zombie flesh?" I asked.

"I read about it in a book. If you wear a mob head, every other mob thinks you're one of them," replied James.

I decided to stop the game for a second, to address everyone.

"I love games so much. Just gives you the chance to escape from all this hate in the world," I mentioned.

I put my feet up on the table. I was feeling really curious about how Finn came to know Rosie, and so, I asked him about it.

"It was near the beginning. I was surrounded by skeletons. So close to death. Rosie came to my rescue. I picked up the bones and befriended her. She's been my companion ever since," explained Finn.

We were all laughing, all having a good time, our minds becoming oblivious to everything going on.

"So, Warren, how long were you, Evan, Brooke, and Swarfiga together for?" I asked.

"We met up with Swarfiga, maybe 4 or 5 years after we got sent here. Evan and I knew each other before it all happened. We played mad scientist in school," replied Warren.

"I used to love science. Were you two any good?" I asked.

"Evan was really the brains of the duo, but, yeah, we were alright," he replied.

### Chapter 3: A Chance To Disappear

"Damn, isn't anyone gonna ask how I came to love music?" Serge laughed. "My dad was a musician, if you're wondering."

We were interrupted by another woman coming over.

"James, we have zombies on the fence," she told us.

"Seriously, Kate? The sun is rising," replied Sophie. "Knowing you it's probably Daniel and Ethan coming back after going hunting."

Sophie followed Kate to the school's fence. I was confused by what had happened but decided to continue the game.

"So, Ty, did you know Joan and Estella before all this happened?" asked Mitch.

"Nope. Did you get your love for griefing before all this happened?" asked Ty.

They both started to laugh. Sophie and Kate came back.

"I told you it was just Daniel and Ethan," Sophie told her.

Sophie sat back down.

"Anything interesting happen?" she asked.

Ty shook his head, as did Mitch.

"Anything you wanna know, Gabe?" I asked.

He shook his head. Ray put his hand up.  He turned to Warren.

"How'd you guys meet Willy?" asked Ray.

Before Warren could answer, an explosion came from outside. Trevor, Allison, and I ran outside to see what was happening. Eileen, Witherstorm, Joan, and Estella were at the gates.

"What's going on?" asked Trevor.

"You gotta do something! They're here!" yelled Estella.

Trevor was taken aback, but Allison moved him out of the way.

"Who're here?" she asked.

Before Estella could respond, an arrow went through her eye, and she collapsed in Allie's hands.

"Oh my God!" yelled Trevor.

"Someone get her inside!" begged Joan.

Allison carried Estella inside. James, Sophie, and herself all ran inside the building.

"What the Hell is going on?" asked one of the kids.

"That woman was shot!" replied Kate.

The guy was scared.

"Jesus Christ... well, what the Hell are they doing here? Get them out!" he yelled.

Another arrow scraped Eileen's foot, causing her to fall to the ground.

"EILEEN!" yelled Trevor. "INSIDE!"

I listened to him. He grabbed Eileen and we both ran inside. Serge raised his arms halfway, a half confused half shocked expression on his face. Trevor yelled at him to get inside the building. James put the building on lockdown after forcing everyone inside the admin building.

"The crap is going on?" asked Jimbob.

"Arbello shot Estella!" yelled Joan.

"What?" replied Ty.

Finn, Serge, Trevor, Eileen, Allison, Rosie, Aasim and I all stuck together.

"They're here! They found us!" Serge whispered. "What if they take us? What if they KILL us?"

"What if you stop panicking?" hissed Allie.

The door was blown open, and four or five people entered. I peeked around, looking at the name tags. Cain, Victoria, Steph, Evangeline... and Brooke.

"GERALD! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!" the familiar voice of Brooke yelled.

"Your friend? What the Hell?" asked Trevor.

Brooke and Evangeline started to walk forward.

"Kill Gerald. Take everyone else," Brooke ordered her.

Evangeline nodded, and drew her bow. I got up from cover.

"If you want me, then come get me!" I yelled.

Evangeline fired, but I dodged. I pulled out my trident, going behind cover.

"I used this very weapon to kill your guys' Second-in-Command!" I yelled.

I turned around, and the five soldiers became angry.

"The hell are you ding?" asked Eileen.

I signalled her to be quiet, and rushed Evangeline, taking her out with a single blow to the neck with my trident.

"NO!" yelled Brooke.

She stabbed at me, but once again, I dodged.

"Brooke, when will you ever learn?" I asked her. "Didn't I tell you I used to be a ninja?"

Brooke was becoming furious. She knew herself alone couldn't kill me, as I was the one who taught her all of her moves. She looked around, and found Joan and a wounded Estella hiding. She picked both of them up.

"I can't let you lose, clearly," she said. "But I can't let you win, either."

She pointed a sword at Estella's neck.

"Who's it gonna be? Choose or they both die!" laughed Brooke.

She had gone insane, but she was right. I couldn't win. I couldn't choose. I had to let both die.

"NO!" yelled Ty.

Ty rushed Brooke, but she grabbed him.

"Take this one back to base," Brooke told Cain.

He nodded, grabbing Ty. The other soldiers followed behind. Gabriel got up.

"What do you want with them?" he asked.

I became increasingly angry as Brooke explained everything to him. How they were conscripting people to join their war, and those who didn't would be killed. I also learned who Arbello was fighting this war against. Me. He wanted to kill me. I didn't know why, but he wanted me dead.

The reason why would later send a shiver down my spine.

Brooke attempted to grab Gabriel, but Rosie jumped out and mauled her leg.

"Stupid dog!" she yelled.

Finn rushed over to grab Rosie just in time, as Brooke was about to stab her. She limped out of the school. Aasim walked over to the former inventories of Joan and Estella.

"No..." he sighed.

I sat by Aasim. James and Sophie walked over.

"Dude... what the Hell do they want with you?" asked Sophie.

I sadly shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know... but I also don't care. I'm going after them. We all are," I replied.

"Well, we'll need to take some stuff with us. We need food. You know, to live," Serge told me.

Baahir stepped forward.

"I think I can help," he replied.

My group was slowly dividing. The only people coming with me once we were prepared were Finn, Serge, Trevor, Eileen, Allison, Rosie, Aasim, Mitch, Ray, Baahir, Gabriel, James, Sophie, and Swarfiga.

"This sucks. We're spreading too thin," Ray told me. "We got Louis at the Falls, and now most of us are staying here."

I sat down with Ray, Mitch, Gabriel, and Swarfiga.

"I can't believe this is happening. So many people I knew are just gone," sighed Gabriel.

### Chapter 4: What Could Be

The four of us pondered for a while.

"I didn't want to betray you. All that time ago. Ellis convinced me to. He brainwashed me. I killed him, which was what I wanted. But his curse didn't go away," Gabriel told me.

I forgave Gabriel, mainly because we need all the help we can get.

"I'm gonna tear each of those douchebags apart. Alex was my best friend, and if Arbello touches him, I'm gonna pull the trigger," Mitch told me.

Mitch waved his sword around then put it back in his inventory. I needed to get Kenney back. I really needed to. And it could finally happen, as James walked over to us.

"I can take you to Port Arbello. Disguise you, get you passed the guards, distract them, whatever it takes. Me and Sophie will come," James told me.

The people of The Falls who had decided to come were all ready. Sophie also stepped forward.

"We'll need food to take along with us. I'll take you and that guy Aasim down to our fishing bay," Sophie told me.

I nodded, and the three of us parted ways from the rest of the school.

"Come on, guys. Let's get some scran," I told them.

Aasim, Sophie and I all went down to the river. It was full of coral, fish, and also Drowned.

"Watch out for the Drowned. Heard some bad stuff about those," Aasim told me.

"Whatever you heard was probably right then. Those guys suck," replied Sophie.

I sat at the river with Aasim. It was so peaceful, like a break from war. I observed the river, as well as the surrounding trees, trying to make the most of this place. A place where items weren't scattered across the floor, where fire didn't fill the hell that The Falls had become, but a place where I was hoping Louis and the others were okay.

"Can you believe this place? It's hard to after last night," Aasim asked.

"What happened last night?" asked Sophie.

I stared in to the river at the coral and fish.

"A madman called Arbello killed by friend Evan and took several others. Kenney, Lydia, Brody, Brooke, Annie, Alexander... all gone," I replied.

I threw my trident at the salmon fish. It only reminded me of last night, and how I had murdered Connor.

"Could I have a different tool to fish with?" I asked.

Sophie nodded, and handed me a fishing rod. I latched the end on to a salmon, and pulled the now dead fish to my body.

"I caught something, as you can see. Should I just throw it in the salmon bucket?" I asked.

Sophie nodded, and I tossed it in to the bucket of salmon.

"Do you think Kenney is holding up alright? I barely know the guy, but I know you do, and you're probably worried sick," asked Aasim.

"I doubt they'll break him. We've been friends for such a long time that even if they tried, I could easily snap him out of it," replied I.

We filled the bucket up quickly.

"You think this'll be enough?" Aasim asked Sophie.

"Not quite. At this rate, we'll catch enough in around 20 minutes, I'd say," she replied.

I sighed, throwing my rod in to the water for the twentieth time.

"I've always wanted to take on a guardian temple. We should do that if we win this war," Aasim told me.

"I've been to the guardian temples before. They're not that interesting. We should go to the Nether and kill blazes, magma cubes, and ghasts. I'm sure Louis would be delighted with his new chemistry set," I replied, to which we both started laughing.

Sophie walked back over.

"I'm seeing a ton of giggling going on here. What's so funny?" asked Sophie.

"Oh, nothing. We're just talking about what we'll do when the war is over," I replied.

Sophie sat down with us.

"I've always thought about going to the End," she told us.

"Brooke almost died there. Starting to think we should've left her for dead," I replied.

"She killed Joan and Estella. She's out of order," Aasim said.

I knew he was right, but I didn't want to talk about war. I wanted a happy and normal conversation.

"If you could design your own room, what would it look like?" asked Sophie.

"Completely brown, a piano, Basquiat's artwork hanging on the wall, a bunk bed, candles, and maybe some extra decorations," I replied.

"Basquiat?" asked Aasim. "As in one of the top ten most expensive paintings ever made?"

I laughed.

"I can dream, can't I?" I replied.

We picked up our food and left the fishing bay.

"I'd like to explore the world one day. I've only ever lived in The Falls," Aasim told me.

"We can when the war ends. I can show you around," I replied.

"You've explored the world?" asked Aasim.

I nodded. I had seen it all at this point. The Nether, the End, the ocean, mesa biomes, deserts, jungles, ice spike biomes.

"Some days I wish everything will go back to normal. Jude and Witherstorm always talk about how they miss it when it was just them, Ludwig, Thibo, SuperLaserGuy1, and Alex just exploring things and goofing off. I know what it feels like. It was an amazing feeling, and I wish I could've been part of their journey earlier on," I explained to Aasim.

Aasim held my hand.

"It's like you said, when we win this war, which we will, we can explore the whole world and goof off," he told me.

### Chapter 5: Infiltrating Port Arbello

James, Finn, Serge, Trevor, Eileen, Allison, Rosie, Ray, Baahir, Mitch, and Gabriel were all waiting at the gates.

"They're here. Bye, Willy," Gabriel said to his friend.

"Bye," sighed Willy.

"Those Port Arbello chavs are in for a rude surprise," Ray laughed. "Rosie will tear them all apart."

"Don't get over excited, dude. We need to think this out. If we just waltz on in they'll kill us all," replied Finn.

Finn held Rosie's lead. Serge and Allison had their bows ready. Eileen and Trevor had their swords.

"I can feel adrenaline rush through my veins," Aasim told me.

I nodded in agreement.

"I'm excited myself," replied Eileen.

Binta walked over to me.

"Just... be careful. Okay?" she told me.

I nodded, and we parted ways. We could still see smoke coming from the Woodland Mansion.

"Jesus, it's still burning?" Allison asked.

"It's over 100 cubed blocks of wood, of course it's still burning," replied Trevor.

We continued along the path for another twenty minutes.

"I thought James said it was close. The hell is he talking about?" asked Allison.

We all froze when an arrow entered Trevor's foot, and he fell to the ground.

"HOLY CHRIST! TREVOR!" yelled Serge.

Eileen ran to him. I turned around, and saw Brooke.

"That's close enough," she smiled.

It wasn't a warm, friendly smile. In fact, it was the complete opposite. It was a smile of pure evil. She pointed her bow at me.

"Come along, or I will report you to Arbello," she hissed.

I looked around. My group hid behind cover. I looked in to the woods. Nothing was there. Brooke fired at me, but I dodged. I was startled when Leo rushed over.

"That's what's-his-name's cat!" Brooke yelled.

Leo stayed close to me, purring. I looked back in to the woods. Louis was smiling at me, Ryland and Marlon with him. I signaled for him to fire at Brooke, and he did. In retaliation, Brooke shot Marlon in the head with her bow.

"MARLON!" yelled Ryland.

I rushed over, Leo following behind. He wasn't dead. Brooke followed us in to the woods. She grabbed Leo. Ryland was becoming angry.

"GET THE HELL OFF HIM YOU PSYCHO!" he yelled.

Brooke sliced Leo's head off. Ryland became distraught.

"YOU GOD DAMN PSYCHO! I'LL KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU!" yelled Ryland.

Ryland grabbed Brooke, disarming her.

"I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE DURING THE WHOLE EIGHT YEARS! WE SHOULDA LET YOU DIE BACK IN THE END!" Ryland yelled.

Brooke pushed him off, grabbing her weapon, and firing an arrow in the air. She then retreated back to Port Arbello.

"YOU COWARD! JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET TO YOUR CRAPPY CAMP!" Ryland screamed.

Louis grabbed him, trying to calm him down.

"You go on without us. We'll take Ryland back to that school," Marlon told me.

The three of them left.

"Jesus... everything happened so fast... Trevor, can you still walk?" asked Aasim.

Trevor nodded, grabbing his leg. We carried on to the gates of Port Arbello, and got in to position.

"I'm so thirsty right now," Ray told me.

"We should get the others and leave," replied Baahir.

Several guards were at the gates.

"Do we distract them or go straight for the kill?" asked Serge.

I checked the name tags. Victoria, Josiah, Marina, no one we knew.

"Go for it," I replied.

Serge and Mitch crawled in to the forest, placing several blocks of TNT. Mitch ignited a single block. They ran deep in to the forest before the walls were gone, as well as the three bodies.

"RUN!" yelled Finn.

We all charged in to Port Arbello. The soldiers were no where near fast enough to keep up. We hid behind several destroyed Champion City buildings. There was silence for a few minutes... odd.

That was until we heard the sounds of several pairs of footsteps. I looked, and there was Arbello. Kenney, Annie, Lydia, Brody, Ty, Braxton, Ben, Alexander, Chris, Genevieve, Temperance... Marlon, Ryland, Stella, Louis.

"What do we do?" Trevor asked me.

"Easy. Get the others then get the hell out," replied Allison.

Arbello took a few steps forward, then halted.

"Gerald, I know you're here. Come out, and I won't hurt them!" Arbello yelled.

I walked over to him.

"What? Did you think I was gonna take my chances and stay hidden?" I asked.

I heard Brooke yell. She was pointing a bow at my forehead.

"Did you see what he did? He blew up three of our soldiers!" she yelled.

The man next to Arbello nodded.

"You said he killed Connor and Evangeline too?" asked the man.

"Cain, we're not here to make accusations. Then we'd be just as bad. We're not killing any of their people," replied Arbello. "Except for that one dude, but we all know that was self defence."

Brooke had had enough.

"Just let them go!" yelled Finn.

"Gerald, what did you do?" asked Annie.

Brooke pointed her bow at Annie, to which the latter looked away.

"The hell happened to you?" Kenney asked Brooke.

Brooke finally snapped, and released. The arrow hit Ben in the head.

"Oh my God!" yelled Louis.

"I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!" yelled Ryland.

The rest of my team came out.

"Surprise!" yelled Ray. "A little rude one, but who cares!"

Finn shot another member of Port Arbello in retaliation. This was getting seriously out of hand. We all split up. Eileen, Serge, Gabriel, Mitch, and myself wounded up together.

"We have to get them!" yelled Mitch.

Everyone was distracted with the others. We freed each member of our group with ease.

"Lydia! You okay?" asked Gabriel.

"I'm fine. Where should we go?" she asked.

"The spires. No one really goes there anymore," replied Stella.

Once again, we divided. Kenney, Aasim, Brody, Lydia, Gabriel, Serge, Trevor, James, Sophie, Marlon, Stella, myself, and Mitch ran for the spires.

### Chapter 6: The Spark of War

We weren't followed. At least, I didn't think so. We appeared to be in some kind of dungeon.

"What's the deal with this room?" asked Aasim.

"We put prisoners in here. Leave them to starve. I don't know if anyone's still alive up here," replied Stella.

Well, Stella was wrong. There were two people still alive.

"Who are these guys?" asked Marlon.

Stella shrugged her shoulders. The two inmates were fast asleep, so I got closer to read their name tags. Neither of them had one.

"They just leave them here to starve. Brutal," Kenney told me.

One of the inmates woke up, screaming their head off. It actually made me jump.

"Uhh... hello?" stuttered Lydia.

The inmate stopped screaming.

"What's going on? Who are you?" he asked, banging on the iron bars.

"It's alright, man. We're here to stop these guys," replied Serge.

His breathing was heavy.

"Stop?" he laughed. "You can't stop him. No one can," the inmate told Serge.

"We can and we will!" yelled Mitch.

The inmate banged on the bars once again. Mitch took several steps back.

"Arbello... what do you know about him?" asked the inmate.

"Uhh... he's a piece of crap who deserves to die?" replied Sophie.

The inmate panted.

"Arbello has a secret... a dark one," he said.

"What secret?" I asked.

Just as the inmate opened his mouth, the door was knocked down. Arbello entered the dungeon.

"My soldiers aren't here to ruin things now. It's time for a nice little chat. Just you and me," Arbello told me.

Mitch walked in front of him.

"Chat? This isn't a social gathering! Your goons are killing my friends!" he yelled.

Mitch attempted to attack Arbello, but Stella grabbed him.

"I don't believe in retaliation. Really, I don't. But you've done so many things. You gotta go, Gerald," Arbello told me.

He grabbed Gabriel and Kenney.

"Come with me, or I'll happily smash their heads in," Arbello growled.

Lydia attempted to save Gabriel, but Arbello sliced her stomach open.

"Lydia! NO!" yelled Gabriel.

"KILL HIM ALREADY!" yelled Trevor.

I had no choice anymore. I followed Arbello.

"Fine! I'll follow you! Just leave them alone!" I told me.

We went to the top of the spire. Arbello looked over his town.

"Why did you save Binta, and not your friends?" asked Arbello.

I was taken aback. How did he know about the volcano?

"What are you talking about? How do you know about that?" I replied.

"Does it really matter? You're ignoring my question. I want answers. I can, and will if you don't cooperate, murder your friends. I've demonstrated twice now," Arbello told me.

I sighed, letting go of my clenched fist.

"I was scared, okay? I was given a tough choice and didn't know what to do," I replied.

Arbello nodded.

"What about when you murdered those two Elliottowners?" asked Arbello. "Were you presented with a tough choice then?"

He was right. I had done some terrible things in my life here. But so had Arbello, and his guilt trips were not going to work on me.

"What about you? Evan, Joan, Estella, Ben, all dead because of you!" I yelled.

"And what about my people? Mike, Zander, Abraham, Voss, Evangeline, Victoria, Marina, Josiah?" asked Arbello. "They all died because of you."

I had enough, and went to punch Arbello. He grabbed my hand, and somehow made me levitate.

"What the hell?" I yelled.

I fell to the ground. Rubbing my head, I got back up and could see Mitch attacking Arbello. Kenney and Aasim rushed over to help him out, but all three were levitated off of him.

"What the hell are you?" I asked.

Arbello stepped on me.

"I was able to brainwash Brooke, y'know," he replied. "I tried it on Kenney, but he was really hard to break. I was going to do it to the rest of them, but then you showed up."

"How can you do this? What kind of powers are those?" I asked.

Arbello laughed.

"You don't remember?" he asked.

I was so confused. What was he talking about?

"I am a Dark Wizard. I was friends with the Gods themselves. I'm your... oldest friend," he laughed.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"No way," Kenney gasped.

"You? Ravenclaw?" I asked.

Arbello nodded.

"You're not so dumb after all. Only took you two weeks to work it out. Champion City? Recruiting your old friends? Wanting to kill you?" he laughed.

Ryland and Finn ran to the top.

"We've cut our damn losses, Gerald! We need to go! Now!" yelled Ryland.

We ran down the spires and met up with the rest of our group.

"What do we do now?" asked Annie.

"We head back to the school. Hide from these people," replied James.

We ran from Port Arbello. I was out of breath, but I continued to run until we made it back to the school. Willy and Swarfiga were waiting at the gates. We entered the school. Everyone who stayed in the Falls were there.

"The animal pen burned down. Only Lluna made it out," Warren told me.

"Leo and Ben are dead," I told him.

"What? For real?" asked Warren.

"You'll never hear the best part. Brooke's one of them now!" replied Ryland.

Warren walked off. I heard him mumble "Just great." to himself. This is what we were now. Broken. A mess. I sat down alone. Aasim sat next to me maybe 5 minutes later, though it seemed like three hours.

"Arbello is the reincarnation of that Ravenclaw guy... the one who killed Ludwig?" asked Aasim.

I nodded.

"You wanna get back to the others? Baahir's almost finished dinner, and we're having another game," Aasim asked.

I nodded again, and walked with him to the table that James, Sophie, Kate, Louis, Binta, and Stella were sat at.

"Don't sweat it guys. We can have a funeral for them in the morning," Louis announced.

James and Sophie both agreed with the idea.

### Chapter 7: The Graveyard

I put my feet on the table.

"You know, I've been thinking. What better way to enjoy the war break than a nice game?" I laughed.

"What game?" asked Stella.

"We're going to take every game we've ever played and mix it in to a huge game. Every joke we've ever done. Louis crushing on Binta, Annie crushing on Kenney, everything, and compile it into one big joke fest. You'll love it!" I explained.

I called Annie and Kenney over to the table.

"What's the game called then?" asked Kenney.

"Dare or Slap," I replied.

I inhaled, raised my hands in the air, then exhaled.

"Stella... Marry, Kiss, Kill: Arbello, Marlon, Allison," I laughed.

Stella started to think of an answer.

"I'd marry Marlon," she said.

We all started to laugh, then stopped when she opened her mouth.

"I'd kiss Allison," she said.

We laughed once again.

"So, that's means you'd kill Arbello. Good," laughed Aasim.

Marlon and Finn walked over to the table.

"Having a game?" asked Marlon.

I nodded, and we all laughed.

"Take a seat right here, Marl," I told him.

Marlon and Finn sat down.

"I'm gonna go check this place out," Stella said.

She left the table.

"I've got a good one," Annie laughed. "Finn, kiss a zombie."

Finn was shocked.

"The literal Hell?" he asked.

"A dare's a dare," I replied.

"I could die!" he yelled. "I'm not doing that!"

I nodded at Annie, and she slapped Finn. We all started to laugh. Louis paused.

"Hey Marlon. Kiss Stella," he dared Marlon.

Marlon froze, but I nodded my head at him. We all watched as Marlon approached Stella. They started talking, then Stella punched him. We all burst into laughter once more.

"Man, my chest hurts," laughed Binta.

Marlon sat back down. Trevor and Eileen walked over.

"It's time for the funeral," Eileen announced.

Finn and Aasim got up.

"You guys coming?" asked Finn.

We all got up, and went to the back of the school. Five graves read "Evan", "Ben," "Joan", "Estella", "Leo". Ty sat beside the graves of Joan and Estella.

"What the hell is taking Finn so long... We should be fighting Arbello. Not hanging in some stupid school," snarled Alexander.

"Dude," replied Mitch.

"Seriously, Mitch! You and Ben were friends! How can you disagree with me?" asked Alexander.

"Really, Alex? This is a funeral!" replied Eileen.

"We'll speak about Evan first. Warren, if you will," Swarfiga told Warren.

Warren approached Evan's grave.

"Evan was my best friend. We always played mad scientist together, and we'd pull chemistry pranks on our bullies," Warren laughed.

Swarfiga laughed as well.

"Oh, right. Yeah, Evan was a cool dude," Swarfiga said.

The funeral lasted a few hours.

"Lydia, you're my best friend. If we survive , you, me, and Willy could be the next generation of Ludwig's gang," Gabriel said.

"Ditto," added Willy.

"That'd be an absolute dream. You were brave back there," Lydia told Gabriel.

The funeral ended, and we went back to our daily duties.

"The hell happened in the spires? It shook you up," Serge told me.

"Arbello is Ravenclaw," I told him.

"The guy who killed your friend? I thought he died!" replied Serge.

I explained everything to Serge. I recapped the volcano incident, too.

"He's so beefed up about all of it? He's recuiting your friends and killing ours just to get rid of you?" asked Serge.

I nodded my head. Witherstorm walked over. I could tell he had overheard me.

"What? What do you mean Arbello is Ravenclaw?" asked Witherstorm.

"I KNEW IT!" yelled Jude.

Jude, Jayden, and Jimbob walked over.

"Dude... If this is true... should we be worried? No one has faced Cedryth and lived. Gerald did, but that was when he had powers," Jimbob asked.

"Hell yes we should be worried. Ravenclaw killed Thibo, and Alex, and Ludwig," replied Witherstorm.

James walked over.

"Sorry if I'm bothering you, but Gerald, Jude, Gabriel, Lydia, and Brody are on hunting duties," he told me.

Jude nodded, and we got our things ready, then we met up with the others.

"Hunting's easy, Gabe. You just need to take aim," Lydia told Gabriel.

We walked to the hunting grounds.

"Catching game's easy. One of the first things I learned when I got here," I told everyone.

We got our bows ready. Jude seemed a little too eager to fire his, however.

"Something wrong?" I asked him.

"I'm sick of sitting back while all my friends die. Thibo, Alex, Rigby, Ellie, Petra, Ludwig, Axel, Tom, Evan. All of them are just... dead. And what did I do? I just sat in the background doing nothing. That's gotta change. I'm gonna do something," explained Jude.

"You... uh... do that, then," I sighed.

I checked up on Gabriel and Lydia.

"Really, Gabe? You're brave enough to challenge the most powerful being alive but not brave enough to fire a bow?" laughed Lydia.

"I'm not as brave as you. Arbello almost killed you, but you're fine. And you're catching game," Gabriel replied.

I laughed with Lydia.

"How's the love coming along, guys?" I asked.

"Alright. I'm teaching Gabe how to use a bow," Lydia told me.

She positioned Gabriel's arms in a certain way.

"Let go," she told him.

Gabriel let go, and the arrow pierced the rabbit.

"It's for the best Warren didn't come along, what with his rabbit dying and all," Jude told me.

"I'd eat the crap out of Warren's rabbit right about now," Brody replied.

I laughed.

"Holy hell, you guys at the Falls are amazing. Truly," I told Brody and Lydia.

Gabriel was able to catch game quickly.

"See? You're doing great," Lydia told him.

Gabriel smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Think we've caught enough. Seems like a meal, and with Annie and Aasim on fish duties, and Kenney and Swarfiga on greenhouse duties, it looks like a feast," I told everyone.

We returned to the school. Annie and Aasim were carrying buckets of fish and Kenney and Swarfiga each had an inventory full of vegetables.

### Chapter 8: Rosie!

Rosie seemed pretty hungry, too. I gave her one of the rabbits.

"You way deserve it, girl. You terrored that dude," I told her.

Rosie barked. Gabriel and Lydia walked over.

"Almost forgot about you, Rosie. It's been an insane few days," Lydia laughed.

Finn came over and stroked Rosie.

"Good girl," he said.

Ryland looked at Rosie, and snarled.

"Dude, just because you lost your pet doesn't mean you have to be insensitive to everyone," Finn told Ryland.

Ryland attempted to intimidate Finn, but failed miserably.

"That's enough, Ryland," Lydia told me.

"I don't need lectures from a little girl," he replied.

He left the area. Serge witnessed the whole thing.

"Damn, he's ticked. So's Ty, to be honest," Serge told Finn.

Gabriel grabbed Lydia's hand.

"C'mon Lydia. Let's find Willy," he told her.

The two of them left the area. I sat down next to Finn and Rosie.

"This isn't the first time I've ran in to Arbello," Finn told me.

I gave a confused look, which gave Finn the signal to explain.

"He was the one who killed Zach and Mikey. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't wanna start a panic," he told me.

"You gotta tell everyone!" I replied.

Finn nodded.

"You're right. I guess it's better now than never," he sighed.

He left me with Rosie and Serge.

"As soon as this war is over, we should repair The Falls. At lot of it was damaged in the fire," Serge told me.

"Trevor and I could go up if you want," I replied.

Serge nodded.

"Go up with Trev and Allie. You should bring some friends in case Arbello's planning an attack," he told me.

I talked to the others. Aasim, Trevor, Allison, Willy, Lydia, Gabriel, Marlon, and Ray all tagged along.

"We should make this a one time thing for now. Arbello could be watching The Falls," Trevor told me.

"Then we should bring Rosie just in case. She took a chunk out of that guy, if you remember," replied Allison.

We headed to the Falls. It was still on fire.

"Is anything in there made of wood?" asked Marlon.

Trevor nodded.

"A couple buildings near the front. Shouldn't take long to repair," he replied. "Gerald, Allison, we might need to cut down some trees. Could you help me?"

I nodded and we both followed Trevor.

"That school needs to be a temporary. A big wooden building next to a town that wants everyone in sight dead, AND the leader is basically a deity? They have to know that can't last," Trevor explained to me.

"They've made it this far, I'll give them that," replied Allison.

"If anything happens, we'll take our chances in The Falls. It's easily defendable, and big. We can just do what England did in World War One," I added.

We cut down the first tree.

"Nice. If we cut down two more, we should have enough," Trevor smiled.

We moved on to the next tree.

"This place is all I have left, Gerald. We can't lose it. We can't," Trevor told me.

"If we don't defeat Arbello, we don't have a choice. And since Arbello is a God, in other words, we're all doomed," replied Allison.

We cut down the rest of the tree and went back inside.

"Did you get the stuff?" asked Marlon.

I nodded, and showed him the stacks of wood.

"Nice. We've put out most of the fire. Me and Ray, at least," he replied.

"No idea what Gabe and his trio are doing, but whatever it is, it seems like good fun," added Ray.

"C'mon, we gotta repair these buildings," Aasim told them.

Marlon, Ray, Aasim, and myself went to the partially destroyed structures.

"If you'd spread the wood out," Ray told me.

I gave everyone some wood, and we started to repair the first building.

"So, Gerald. I've been meaning to ask. What's the Cannibal Holocaust?" asked Lydia.

I froze.

"Oh... uh... it's not for you. Trust me," I replied.

"It's a film so violent the director got arrested because people thought he actually killed the actors," replied Ray.

"Dude!" replied Marlon.

"At least he didn't tell her about Nekromantik," replied Willy.

"Or Pink Flamingoes," I added.

Marlon sighed.

"This building is done. Let's move on to the one Trevor and Allie are working on," Aasim told us.

We made our way to Trevor and Allison.

"This is my house. We need birch wood for it," Trevor told me.

He gave us all some birch wood.

"You have the smallest house in The Falls. We don't need this much wood," Allison replied.

Trevor glared at her. Aasim and I laughed. We repaired the house while Marlon put out the rest of the fire. We were about to leave, but then Rosie caught a scent.

"What'd you catch?" asked Allison.

She ran towards the gates. We had barely realized the time, and it was apparent that she had sniffed out mobs.

"Dammit! We left our weapons at the school!" yelled Trevor.

"Am I seriously the only one who brought a weapon? The whole point of bringing the dog was if Arbello or Brooke showed up!" replied Allison.

"We gotta go," Marlon told me.

We used the crafting tables to make quick weapons and fought our way through the mobs. Our stone weapons broke so we just ran for it, occasionally getting hit by a zombie or skeleton, but luckily no creepers blew up.

### Chapter 9: Dinner

We returned to the school.

"Guess who's back! Back again!" I announced.

Baahir was almost done with dinner, and we all sat down. Finn, Serge, Trevor, Eileen, Allison, Aasim, Mitch, Ty, and myself sat at a table.

"We shouldn't stay much longer. We need to return home," Eileen said.

"We can't go back. Arbello will come for us," replied Finn.

"He killed my friends. I want them to come for us," Ty told him.

Finn threw his half empty bowl.

"Ty, you seriously can't be so eager to see them again after what they did!" yelled Finn. "Evan, Joan, Estella, Leo, and Ben are all dead now!"

Ty left the table and wandered off in to the building. Witherstorm noticed and came over.

"Can I have the rest of that?" asked Witherstorm. "I'm starving."

Finn nodded, and Witherstorm took it then left.

"We should let Gerald decide. He's made most of our decisions since he got here," Eileen told Finn.

I put my empty bowl aside.

"I agree. With Eileen," I told them. "We've lost more people since we got here. It might not have anything to do with it, but The Falls is bigger. We can hide everyone if we have to," I explained.

"Very well, then," replied Finn.

I left the table, and sat with Jude, Witherstorm, Jimbob, Jayden, and Kenney.

"We should find Ludwig's old hideout when this is older. Never thought I'd see the day where I miss that scrap of wood," sighed Jimbob.

"You, Jude, and Witherstorm are the originals. You've been around in Ludwig's story longer than anyone," I told him.

"I guess you're right," replied Jimbob.

Jayden sighed.

"I met Witherstorm 15 years ago, but I barely knew Ludwig. He was a nice man," Jayden told me.

Witherstorm and Jude both said how they agreed.

"He seemed like he'd stick around for a while. Was hard to believe he died," Kenney sighed.

"11 years ago. Seems like yesterday," I replied.

James and Sophie walked over.

"Sorry to be a pain, but Finn told me about your plans," James told me.

"What plans?" asked Kenney.

"Leaving the school. It's for the best. We can't have so many people here," replied Sophie.

Kate walked over.

"Could we come? This school is small. We can barely defend ourselves," she asked.

"How many people are here?" asked Kenney.

"Eleven. Me, James, Kate, Jack, Ethan, Daniel, Alfie, Ben, Kai, Sherry, and Courtney," replied Sophie.

"You'll have to ask Finn," I replied. "I'm sure he won't mind eleven new people."

After we told Finn, and he said it was fine, James held a town meeting.

"Forget that, dude. No one comes here anymore. We're safer here!" yelled Jack.

"James and Sophie were with them when they attacked! That means we're involved, too! And remember when they took Kari? They know where we live, and we barely made it alive last time!" explained Ethan.

"How can any of us trust these people? They're a big group, they're tied with Port Arbello, we can't be any where near these guys!" yelled Kai.

It was just an hour of each member of the school arguing. I decided to go outside with Aasim.

"Do you think The Falls is safe?" asked Aasim.

I shook my head.

"It's safe-ISH. Compared to the school at least," I replied.

"We should have a rendezvous point just in case. Any ideas?" asked Aasim.

I thought for a minute.

"Elliottown could be safe. Arbello went through there and killed everyone, according to Annie," I replied. "Then again, The Citadel or Xaron Bay have well trained soldiers."

I walked over to a plain wooden wall, and placed a map on it.

"Xaron Bay is three map squares diagonally away from where we are. A portal to the Xaron County is on the outskirts of it," I explained.

Aasim sighed.

"This is honestly just insane. I can't believe Joan, Estella, and Ben are dead," he told me.

"It's okay. We'll get help from the Citadel," I told him.

"Yeah, we will," he said.

I returned to Kenney, Swarfiga, and Warren.

"You guys up for visiting The Citadel?" I asked.

Warren nodded.

"Where do we need to go?" he asked.

"Take Alex, Chris, and Braxton with you. They're... you know... vulnerable," I replied.

"Why? Because they do nothing?" asked Swarfiga.

"Pretty much. Take them there, and ask for some soldiers. I'd like to see Randy, Kyle, and Von again. Maybe Dom, Louis, and Termel too. Just, anyone, alright?" I asked.

Warren nodded, and they went to get the people I asked them to bring. They then left.

"Where are they going?" asked Finn.

"To the Citadel. They might be gone a while," I replied. "They're... um... getting some friends. To help us."

"The Citadel? Your town?" asked Finn.

I nodded, and watched as they left until I couldn't see them anymore.

"I hope Alex and the others will be fine," Mitch replied.

We went back to the others. James and Sophie were done.

"We held the vote. We're coming with you," Sophie told me. "It was decided eight to three."

### Chapter 10: No Retaliation

We arrived at The Falls.

"Home at last," said Serge.

Everyone went to the duties Finn had given them.

"I better get my house in order. I ransacked it myself when I thought we were gonna die," Annie told me.

"You do that. I should plan the safest route to The Citadel. I could use the hands of someone who knows the area," Aasim replied.

I decided to follow Aasim.

"I'll help Annie. You do what you have to do," Kenney told me.

Aasim and I went to our house, and placed the map on the wall.

"The safest route will be the one that avoids Port Arbello, and the quickest one will be the one that doesn't mean everyone will be dead by the time we get back. Theoretically, we need one that falls into both categories," explained Aasim.

I looked at the three safest routes. One that was the back of The Falls, the one we came through when we found The Falls, and the one that lead through the woods. The one that led through the woods seemed safe as we'd be hard to find, but unsafe if we took a big group. The one where we simply go to the back of The Falls would take longer, an the one that we took seemed the fastest.

"The one we took seems best. It only took eight years for us to find you because we didn't exactly take a straight path," I told him.

He laughed, but agreed with me.

"We should check up on Swarfiga and Warren. They could be in danger," Aasim told me.

I opened up the journal we made the night before Evan died.

"If we take Finn, Serge, Trevor, Allison, you, Kenney, Louis, Ryland, Ray, Marlon, Baahir, Ty, Mitch, and Rosie, we could leave a few there to get the others ready. Say me, you, Kenney, Ryland, Marlon, Ray, Finn, Serge, Allison, and Rosie come back, that'd give the others plenty of time to help the others get prepared," I explained to him.

Aasim nodded, and we put the journal away. We left the house to tell Finn our plan. He read our journal.

"Damn, great ideas you've got down. We'll do it A.S.A.P," he exclaimed.

Ryland walked down the streets, looking angrier than usual.

"You okay, man?" asked Louis.

"DO I LOOK OKAY YOU STUPID-" Ryland tried to say.

"Jeez, the hell is going on?" I asked.

Ryland started shaking when he saw me.

"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IS GOING ON?" he yelled.

He tried to punch me, but I grabbed his fist.

"What the hell Ryland?" yelled Allison. "Who do you think you are?"

"I KNOW I'M THE GUY WHO'S GONNA KILL GERALD, THEN CUT HIM OPEN, THEN FILL HIS BELLY FULL OF STONES IF HE CARRIES ON, THAT'S FOR SURE!" Ryland yelled back.

I held him down.

"What's gotten into him?" asked Sophie.

Ryland started shaking again, and some kind of spirit left his body. It was... on fire. It looked chilling, to say the least.

"Ugh... what the hell was that?" asked Ryland.

"The work of Arbello. Probably," replied Jude.

Ryland got up, and I noticed Louis was completely fine. He was talking to Gabriel, Willy, and Lydia, so I went over myself.

"What's the deal with those Jasmine and Luna fellas? They're not fun," he asked Willy.

"I don't know. They don't talk much," replied Willy. "Something happened in their camp that shook them up. I wasn't in it yet, but the person protecting the three of us died."

"Everyone in my group died. Tom, Axel, Sonja, Max, Chloe, SuperLaserGuy1, everyone," I told him.

Gabriel nodded, slowly.

"I've lived behind walls my whole life, and never really experienced death until now," Lydia told him.

I walked over to Finn.

"So... uhh... what did we do with those prisoners in Port Arbello?" I asked him.

"We took 'em back to the school. We've locked them in the basement for now but are expected to be released soon. We talked to them for a bit. Their names are Cam and Phil, and they've been prisoners for about 3 months," explained Finn.

I nodded, and went back to the others.

"These past few days have been crazy. I've never witnessed so much death in one place," Gabriel told me.

Trevor walked over.

"I need help with this Fast Travel system idea I had in mind, in case we need a quick evacuation. Could you and Louis help out?" he asked.

We looked at each other and nodded, then followed him to the back of The Falls.

"What ideas ya got, Big Trev?" asked Louis.

Trevor pulled out some blueprints. It seemed pretty basic.

"That's it? Too easy!" Louis laughed.

Trevor pulled out some Minecart rails, and a Minecart.

"Just take some and start building. We'll have Eileen, and Warren when he comes back, install some redstone to make it like real train tracks," explained Trevor.

Louis and I took some Minecart tracks. Louis was laughing and joking about how this was the easiest job he had ever been asked to do. We got it done in about 2 hours, which seems like a long time, but really isn't when you see the size of this place.

"Thanks, guys. You should see what Finn wants you to do next," he said.

We said goodbye and left to the park.

### Chapter 11: Trip Down Memory Lane

We heard screaming in the courtyard. A hole had been made into the wall, and zombies had entered the city.

"We gotta do something!" yelled Finn.

Louis and I got our swords ready, and we walked into the herd. We started killing as many mobs as possible. Kate, Sophie, and James also helped out.

"We're even now!" yelled Sophie.

We patched the hole up and killed the rest of the zombies... or so we thought.

Kate picked up her sword off the floor.

"I hate these damn things. They just sneak up on you and-" she tried to say.

A pack of zombies grabbed her.

"KATE!" yelled James.

He ran over, but froze.

"I... I swore to never kill," he said.

Sophie rolled her eyes, and killed the zombies, but it was too late. Kate was dead. Sophie and James fell to the floor.

"No... not another one!" yelled Finn.

We were in big trouble. We were letting our guard down because of small things, and we needed to get to The Citadel. We worked out a new idea, and we decided to bring myself, Aasim, Kenney, Marlon, Louis, Ray, Lydia, Gabriel, Willy, Finn, Rosie, Serge, Trevor, Baahir, and Eileen.

"We should get going," Aasim told me.

We left The Falls, and took the same road as when this new adventure started. The woodland mansion, the jungle temple, everything.

"You've been on some insane journeys. I'd kinda like to explore the world," Finn told me.

"This is our chance," I told him.

We walked through the different biomes we had explored. Mesa, ice spikes, taiga, jungle, mooshroom island, ocean, even good old desert, plains, and forest. Pigs, cows, and sheep everywhere. About two days passed, and we were nearing Xaron Bay.

"I'll tell you what, THIS is a nice break from everything," Serge announced.

The day turned to night, and we arrived to the snowy mountains. Aasim and I sat down.

"Well, would you look at that," he smiled.

We looked down upon Xaron Bay. It was much bigger now. It seemed to be on a curfew, as no one could be seen.

"I hope they're just on curfew, and Arbello didn't come through," replied Marlon.

"Should we take a look at Elliottown? See if Arbello did anything other than kill everyone in sight?" asked Ray.

I looked at the portal that led to Xaron.

"Let's go for it," I replied.

We entered the portal, and landed in Xaron. Elliottown was in flames, and every wool building was burned down. The Citadel was untouched.

"How come they attacked Elliottown and not The Citadel?" asked Eileen.

"We had a technique. If we saw a threat, we'd evacuate everyone to underground storm shelters," replied Kenney.

We entered Elliottown. It was just like the volcano accident.

"It reminds me of the volcano so much, it's honestly... chilling," I sighed.

I was happy, kind of, as Ludwig's house and memorial was still standing. The piles of inventory still littered the streets, and it was a haunting site. Lava and magma stained the buildings, and the ground was full of craters. Everything about the state of Elliottown was horrifying.

"Oh my God... I can't believe..." gasped Louis.

Louis ran away.

"I have to see if it's still here!" he yelled.

We followed him. His house still stood.

"Oh, thank God. The fire didn't spread that far," he panted.

I wanted to be sick, and Lydia actually was.

"This is just... it takes a monster to do something like this. It really does," Marlon growled.

"I can't imagine seeing The Falls like this," Finn gasped, wide eyed.

We heard an explosion near the gates.

"Holy crap!" Eileen whispered.

"The Nether Portal is in the Mayor's office. We could duck in there," I told them.

We ran for the Mayor's office, and hid inside. There were three plaques, labelled "RUTH", "OLIVIA", and "THE MAYOR."

"Man... I did that," I sighed.

"Dude, I was the one who killed The Mayor," replied Louis.

We ran into the Portal. We had made an entire obsidian tunnel near the portal when we built Elliottown eleven years ago, and it had helped us all stay alive there.

"Whoa... I'm... actually in The Nether," gasped Willy.

"You've never been in The Nether?" asked Serge.

"Neither have you," replied Eileen.

We walked down the Obsidian path.

"At least we're safe from potential Port Arbello soldiers. For now," I told everyone.

We reached the end of the path, which led into the Nether. Ghasts flew in the sky like planes at an airport, and the Nether Fortress in the background was lit up by blazes, who were accompanied by Wither Skeletons.

"I remember Jude telling me he tried to live out the epidemic here. In the early days," Ray told me.

"This is just so... surreal," Aasim gasped.

We heard the sound of the portal opening up in the distance, and three or four pairs of footsteps.

"What do we do now?" whispered Marlon.

I looked around. There was no where to hide, and the footsteps were getting closer. I was frozen with fear.

### Chapter 12: Welcome to the Underground

Aasim grabbed me by the shoulder, and we ran as fast as we could from the area, not looking back. We hopped to the Nether Fortress. An angry, glowing blaze cornered me and Aasim.

"What now?" he asked.

Willy killed the blaze.

"I can be useful too, you know!" he told us.

The three of us ran to catch up with the others. We ran as far as possible.

"We can't let them find us!" yelled Louis.

"We won't if you don't scream your head off!" replied Finn.

We made it to the end of the fortress. It was just a straight drop down into a lava pit now.

"We could build our way to that netherrack cliff!" Trevor told me.

We did just that. Using cobblestone as a bridge, we made it to the other side. Being out of breath, we decided it best to stay there for a while.

"We would've died back there if it weren't for you. Thanks, man," Aasim told Willy.

We were able to get our breath back, but still decided to stay there.

"Theories on who those guys were?" asked Ray.

We all shook our heads.

"Maybe it was Arbello. Or maybe it was Gerald's friends," Aasim replied.

Gabriel seemed to agree with Aasim.

"I hope it was, or else we're all doomed," replied Trevor.

"Don't talk like that, Trev!" I told him. "What you need is another game!"

Trevor looked at me, and I smiled and nodded.

"I'm curious, you guys. What's the scariest thing you've ever seen?" I asked.

Almost everyone said Arbello.

"Spiders," replied Gabriel, much to the amusement of Lydia. We lit a fire, even though it was almost all fire. We were disappointed that out of everything we could have forgotten, it was something to eat. We had no idea something like this might happen.

"We should head back. We'll need to get some food," Marlon said.

It didn't need explaining how sensible his idea was, so we packed up our things and left.

"We'll continue our little game on the road,"  I announced. "Yo, Baahir, you've been pretty quiet. Been secretly eating all our grub?"

Baahir shook his head. "I've been concentrating on our surroundings," was his response. We managed to make it a quarter of the way when I asked another question.

"What did you guys sell in your dad's food truck?" I asked Baahir.

"Food," he replied.

I glared at him with my face scrunched up. Ray laughed, either at my response, Baahir's, or both. We saw a group of ghasts and decided it was safer to take a different route. So you know what we did? Built a tunnel. The tunnel led directly back to the other tunnel that led to the Portal. Sounds confusing, but the idea works.

"So, Marlon. What makes you wanna be the hard man of the group?" I asked.

"I saw 4 of my friends die," replied Marlon. "I couldn't help them because I was a coward, but things change for better, worse, or both."

The tunnel was blown open by something. When my vision became clear, I could see it was a ghast who had done the deed. We all legged it for the Portal, but the pathway was blown up by the Ghast, and fire surrounded it.

"Crap! Back the other way!" yelled Serge.

We ran back to the tunnel entrance. Several blazes and wither skeletons decided to surprise us. How sweet of them, right? We got our swords out, and fought off the Wither Skeletons, but Aasim had lost his touch. He was no where near prepared for this place. He was set a blaze, and had Wither. A truly deadly combination.

"Hide him! We'll meet you guys back at the portal!" yelled Louis.

I carried Aasim all the way back to the cliff.

"Dammit... no..." he panted. "Hurts so bad."

He sat up.

"This is it for me, man. Just leave me. One last wish for a dying man? Save yourself," Aasim told me.

"No, you're not dying! Ludwig thought so, too, but he survived. You'll be fine," I told him. "Just TRY!"

Aasim forced himself up. He looked like pure crap, but he had enough strength to get up.

"Come on, let's go," he told me.

We made our way back to the portal via the Nether Fortress. Or, we nearly did. Before we were attacked again. Blazes and Wither Skeletons surrounded us. We just had to wait. The others would realize we were in danger and come back for us, right? I even told Aasim this, and they usually did. Surely they'd come back for us?

But they didn't, and we were stuck in The Nether. Aasim was shot by a skeleton, and fell off the Fortress. I looked down in horror as my friend fell to his death. A wither skeleton sliced my face, and I met the same fate as my partner. We both fell fifty blocks to the lava, and my vision went black.

### Chapter 13: Dead For Sure

I woke up, a few hours later. Aasim, too, had survived the fall, though he seemed more wounded. I assumed this to be because of his weakened immune system due to the Wither disease.

"It's been hours. They're not coming back," Aasim told me.

I looked around. We got really, really lucky to hit this island. But were really, really unlucky as hours passed and no one came to our rescue.

"I never thought I'd tell you, man," I told him. "But I don't think we're getting out of this one."

He nodded slowly, with a saddened look on his face. We both knew we were going to die here, and it was only a matter of when.

"How long does death take? You've witnessed it more than me, and you once said dying in an alternate reality feels extreme painful," Aasim asked.

"I don't know, dude. How much longer will it take for the chicken to cook?" I replied.

Aasim sighed, looking into the orange ocean.

"Funny. Just a few hours ago we were joking around, learning about each other. Now... well," he told me.

I looked up. We were fortunate to have no ghasts notice us, at least.

"Wanna meet in the real world? We can meet at the Botanical Garden in Montreal. I'm sixteen and old enough to drive," Aasim asked.

I nodded. I could feel my hunger bars decreasing. We were surely done.

We actually came so close to accepting our fate that day, but nothing can stop Gerald. The gorgeous, gorgeous KenneyKenney123 came to our rescue. He jumped down using a potion of slow falling, and gave us some materials.

"Man, it's a good thing I came to you in time. We all thought you weren't coming back and gave you up for dead, except me. I've been looking for ages now, but I finally find you," Kenney explained, as fast as he could.

I thanked him for the help, as did Aasim.

"We made it to The Citadel. That's how I got the potions. Everyone's so excited to see you again, and there are even a few old faces back there. We haven't seen any of them in a long, long, long time," he explained even faster than before.

We built our way to the top, and made our way to the portal.

"Damn, you must have lost all hope down there. I would, if I were in your shoes," Kenney told me.

The three of us left the Nether, and landed back in Elliottown.

"The people who followed us were Randy, Kyle, and Von. They knew about Arbello wiping out all of Elliottown's people, though they didn't know who did it. They came in when they saw you guys enter, and thought you were dangerous," explained Kenney.

Made sense. Aasim and I took a breather in Elliottown. We had had a pretty rough day. We must have been trapped a while. Kenney said those people came to us last week. The two of us had believed it to be maybe five hours at most.

"It's been a week? Jesus," Aasim told Kenney.

We got up. They had put out the fire in Elliottown.

"I know it was lead by a corrupt Mayor for so long, but it was always meant as a tribute to Ludwig. We need to make sure it stays that way," Kenney told us.

I looked around Elliottown. There wasn't a lot of damage, except to wooden and wool buildings. Everything else remained untouched.

"Arbello needs to be taken down. The fact he's Cedryth or Ravenclaw or what the hell ever further emphasises that," I told them.

"Do you think he's impossible to defeat. From what you've said: First he was Cedryth, then Ravenclaw, then Cedryth again, and now Arbello. Do you think it's some kind of vicious cycle?" asked Aasim. "If that's the term."

I shook my head.

"I reckon me giving Amber that time travelling thing did it. It brought Ravenclaw back as a broken being, and what I found was that him feeling vulnerable made him more destructive, and he's killing more people because of it," I explained to him.

Kenney and Aasim both agreed that my theory made sense.

"Should we go to the Citadel?" asked Aasim.

"Not yet. I'm not ready," I replied.

"Take as much time as you need," he told me.

We wandered around Elliottown, admiring its architecture, and how it followed no specific rule. Some buildings were dark, colorful, colorless, glass, wood, wool, clay, concrete, small, medium, tall. It was an amazing place to live before the violence.

I looked at the llama gardens, which had been partially obstructed by the fire Arbello had created.

"Stella would love this," I said, admiring the building.

"Binta would too," added Kenney.

"Hah, the school was like a really bad romantic comedy. Me and Aasim, you and Annie, Gabriel and Lydia, Stella and Marlon, Louis and Binta, good stuff," I laughed.

"Anyway, wanna get going?" asked Aasim.

### Chapter 14: The Free Lands of Xaron

We left Elliottown, and into The Citadel. The town was still on lockdown from when they saw me and the others. We met up with Marlon and the others.

"Feels good to be back," Ray told me.

A bearded man walked over.

"Welcome back... Gerald," said the man.

I turned around, and could barely believe what I was seeing. It was my Godfather. Sirius. A former splegger, and now one of the higher ups in The Citadel.

"No way... Sirius?" I said.

He nodded.

"We've missed you, really. You were gone for so long without visiting. We honestly thought you died. We haven't had chance to talk to your friends, or get out of lockdown, as can tell," Sirius told me.

Kenney, Aasim and I sat down with Sirius on a bench in the Citadel Park.

"We were gone for eight years, exploring stuff. Temples, villages, ocean monuments, everything. It was incredible. One day, after exiting a jungle temple, we discovered a Woodland Mansion. I, Kenney, Ryland, Louis, Ray, and Marlon entered it, and were attacked by Illagers. We then met Finn and Aasim here, who took us back to The Falls. It was an amazing city, looked just like one you'd find in the real world. Parks, houses, stores, fields, schools, houses, apartments, hotels, everything. We were out looking for food one day, and we ran into this group called Port Arbello. Ryland killed Mike, which sparked a war between us and Port Arbello. They attacked The Falls two weeks later, and killed Evan. They also captured several of our friends, even Kenney. They were able to brainwash Brooke, and she's become a psychopath. She killed Joan, Estella, and Leo, and one of Arbello's goons killed Ben. It wasn't a good day for our group at all. We found a school led by James and Sophie, and we stayed there for a while. Our communities ajoined, and they came to The Falls. We decided we needed help with our war, so we came back here. We need you guys to help us," I explained to Sirius.

He was completely shocked.

"I can't make any promises, but I'll see what I can do," he told me.

He got up from the bench, and headed to The Citadel's admin building. There was something new about The Citadel right off the bat. There was a plaque near the front. I decided to walk over to it, to read it.

"THE CITADEL, HEAD OF XARON. ESTABLISHED YEAR ONE." was the biggest text. The smaller one read "RANDY, KYLE, VON, SIRIUS, DANA, SONAR, TERMEL, DOM, LOUIS, WOLF, KEYNI, SAVIAUNNA, MINNIE, ENDER, NO BALLZ."

"No way, No Ballz came back?" I laughed.

Aasim came over, asking what it was. I presented to him, the plaque of The Citadel, and he started laughing.

"No Ballz?" he laughed.

Sirius came back over.

"Randy, Kyle, and Von are coming out to talk to you in five," Sirius told me.

"Moment of truth, huh?" I laughed.

Sirius nodded, and went back inside. Words could not describe how much ecstasy being back here gave me. I missed The Citadel so much. We all agreed to visit Xaron Bay once the war ended on the road, as we all missed Amber, but The Citadel was what I missed most.

I took one big stroll across the Citadel, admiring it as much as possible before it was time for us to go back. When I arrived back at the entrance, I was greeted by three people. One with red hair, one with black, one with blond. One wearing blue, one wearing black, one wearing red. I recognized them in faster than a nanosecond. Randy, Kyle, and Von.

"Ah, Gerald. Eight years it's taken. Let's play catch up, shall we?" asked Von.

## Characters

### Returning Characters

* Gerald
* Ryland
* Louis
* Ray
* Marlon
* Warren
* Swarfiga
* Jimbob
* Juderonald
* Witherstorm
* Jayden
* Binta
* Stella
* Gabriel
* Lluna

### New Characters

* Finn
* Rosie
* Eileen
* Allison
* Trevor
* Serge
* Arbello
* Mitch
* Ty
* Joan
* Estella
* Baahir
* Connor

## Deaths

* Connor
* Evangeline
* Joan
* Estella
* Leo
* Victoria
* Marina
* Josiah
* Ben
* Alice (Confirmed fate)
* Kate

## State of the Survivors

* **Alive**- Gerald, Ryland, Louis, Marlon, Ray, Jude, Witherstorm, Jimbob, Jayden, Lluna, Aasim, Finn, Rosie, Serge, Trevor, Eileen, Allison, Ty, Joan, Estella, Baahir, Mitch, Willy, Jasmine, Luna, Arbello, Connor, Binta, Gabriel, Stella, Steph, James, Kenney, Brooke, Brody, Lydia, Genevieve, Temperance, Sophie
* **Unknown**- Swarfiga, Warren, Braxton, Chris, Alexander
* **Dead**- Kate, Leo, Joan, Estella, Connor, Ben

## Trivia

* First appearance of Sophie.
* First (and last) appearance of Kate.
* Last appearance of Connor.
* Last appearance of Joan.
* Last appearance of Estella.
* Last appearance of Leo.
* Last appearance of Ben.
* The name was confirmed by Master E. Ludbizzy.
* Annie, Gabriel, Mitch, Connor, and Brody are upgraded to main cast in this book.
* James can be seen in the background of the promotional image.
* Gerald-XR-Donovan accidentally spoiled that Brooke will be the primary antagonist of Book Three.
* Gerald-XR-Donovan rewrote Chapter 8 as Lydia was supposed to die, and he was unhappy with not using Lydia's potential, confirming that Lydia will not die in Book 3.
* Minnie, the protagonist of Gerald-XR-Donovan's series "Not So Minnie Now" is referenced on the Citadel Plaque.