Ch 2

I'm having a nightmare. This has to be a nightmare. During the night, a noise woke me up. The noise was a long loud moan, like someone clearing their throat of congestion and not doing a very good job of it. I sat up, shivering, wondering what the hell was that and why it sounded so familiar, when I heard it again, accompanied by the shuffling and dragging of feet outside.

I froze. There's no way in hell this can be possible. Starcraft somehow existing through me is one thing, but THIS?

You see, I actually recognized the sound of that Zombie moan. Yes, I recognized it. How the hell does one recognize the moan of a freaking zombie, you ask? By hearing sounds just like it millions of times before, which I have. Another sound cinches it for me. It sounded like a chink, like bones smacking together. That's another sound you'd hear from where I'd heard the same Zombie noise before, from MINECRAFT!

What the HELL!? Zombies and Skeleton archers from freaking Minecraft are outside my shelter!? I'm only lucky I haven't heard any spiders or creepers yet. So long as I stay in the shelter I should be fine, since most all mobs are fairly stupid. Heck, they won't even notice you if you look at them through glass! I pray spiders don't show up though. I don't think my shelter could survive one of them climbing on it.

Turning in the direction of the Hatchery, I wonder if it's finished yet. The feelings I'm getting from it don't really indicate it is, though I seriously doubt I'm any real judge of that. I wonder if I asked it, would it answer? Taking a shot in the dark, I focus on the feeling of the hatchery and mentally ask, 'Hatchery, are you finished yet?' I don't get any definitive answer, not that I was really expecting any, just a vague feeling that I could only translate as the word 'soon.' I can hear it though. It seems to be making gurgling noises, like you hear when you select one of the buildings in the game. At least in game though, you'd be able to see a progress bar or something!

For the moment though, I'm stuck. I don't dare peak out at the monsters, in case there not being a 'block' in the way lets them detect me. I'm scared stiff though. I don't dare make a noise in case they can hear me. They might not have detected Steve when he made noises in his shelter, but that was just a game. This is real life, so who knows what rules may have gone out the window. I can only count my blessings and thank God for the fact that they haven't found me yet.

I couldn't tell you how long I sat there listening to the zombies moaning and the skeletons clinking. It might've been minutes. It might've been hours. Finally though, I heard the sound of my salvation. With a recognizable splattering noise, the hatchery hatched. I'm only sorry I missed seeing its birth. I've grown rather fond of that little hatchery after all. More words scroll across my vision.

Zerg mana – 0/1,000,000

Supply – 0/10

Well that's great to know. Now what?

Suddenly I hear the popping noise of a skeleton firing a bow, and the sound of the Zombies shuffling off. I was afraid at first they'd suddenly spotted me, but now I'm worried that they're after the hatchery. Hearing nothing nearby, I take a risk and peak out between the leaves towards the hatchery.

I can't see the hatchery very well in the dark, but I can tell that the thing is really big. It's about five stories tall, but the spikes connected to it at each of the corners raise it's height to more like ten stories. I can't see much more than that. The hatchery is still making that gurgling noise, but this time some information comes with it. It's more like a command list of sorts as well as the stats of the building. It doesn't scroll across my vision this time. It's more like it just pops in my head.

According to the hatchery, I can select the larvae it spawns through it, set up a separate rally point for both workers and everything else, have it open and close its entrances, which it evidently does automatically upon threat detection, and I can tap it to have it refill my mana reserves from the Zerg mana pool. That last one I think is more literal though since it directs that I have to touch a literal Zerg Mana Pool within the Hatchery itself.

The Hatchery itself isn't being attacked though. Evidently the Zombies and Skeletons are after the Larvae and are ignoring the Hatchery itself. The Larvae feel similar to the way the Hatchery did when it was just growing. This makes the fact that the zombies and skeletons are attacking them all but unbearable. Only the fact that there's literally nothing I can do to help and that their attacks aren't doing a thing to the larvae stop me. I'd expect arrows and zombies trying to grab and bite would hurt me, but to a larvae covered in hard chitinous armor that literally takes a hail of armor piercing slugs traveling at subsonic speeds to pierce it, they might as well be playing catch and tag with the things.

Considering this, I contemplate making a break for it and running for the entrance to the Hatchery. All things considered though, I can probably just wait till the sun rises and flash fries the skeletons and zombies.

Making a few more cracks in the leaves to glance around, I spot a few spiders in the trees on the edge of the clearing. They're far enough away not to be a bother though. They seem content to stay there. What I'm truly worried about are Creepers. Thankfully I don't see any, but with the larvae out like that, I can't help but worry they'll be attracted. Arrows and bites, a larvae can ignore. Explosions are an entirely different story. I wish I could command the larvae to go back into the Hatchery, but no amount of mentally ordering them to do so is affecting them. You could sooner command a baby kitten to go fetch a frisbee. For the first time, I lament the literal innocence of these creatures. At least most of the rest of the Zerg can burrow! The only things these larvae understand are orders to grow into something, and so far the only things available to spawn are Drones and Overlords, costing 50 and 100 mana respectively, one taking up one unit of supply, the other giving five more.

That brings me to wonder how I'm going to go about collecting mana. How does one collect mana anyway? I have enough mana myself to create a drone, so I tried to do just that. Unfortunately nothing happened. The Hatchery may be able to give me mana, but I don't think it works the other way around. You'd think being the Overmind would allow me to order it to improvise a little, but thinking about it, I come to realize that's not the way the Zerg work. You can't order a being without intelligence to think for itself. The Overmind does the thinking for the Zerg, not the other way around. Well, ok that's not exactly true. In Starcraft, there were the Cerebrates, Infested Kerrigan, and supposedly the Broodmothers from the upcoming game that are Zerg that think for themselves. Still though, they obey the Overmind without question, or the Cerbrates do anyway. Kerrigan did as well while the Overmind was still alive, but I don't think I want to test that. I wouldn't know how to go about creating an infested ghost anyways, or a cerebrate or Brood Mother for that matter either.

Still though, the rest of the Zerg don't have that intelligence. They're bred to obey the Overmind completely, and since the Cerebrates and the others are delegated the work of the Overmind, the Zerg obey them as if they were the Overmind, which they essentially were.

A sudden noise sends a spike of fear up my spine. It sounded like a vworp noise. That can only mean one thing. An Enderman is nearby. My only hope is to make sure I don't look at it, and pray it doesn't like a chunk of my shelter and decide to steal it.

Murphy's Law must've just cursed me right there. As soon as I thought it, a part of the shelter to my right gets ripped out, causing the entire thing to shudder and collapse on top of me. Flinging my arms to protect my head, I collapse under the branches. Luckily it was only just branches and leaves, or I'd be far worse off. Groaning, I sit up, and carefully look around. Thankfully the Enderman seems to be gone, but a Zombie is headed straight for me!

Pushing myself up, I take off like a bat out of hell towards the Hatchery, making for the far side away from the other Zombies and Skeletons swarming the larvae. I don't think I've ever run this fast before in my life. Belatedly, I realized that the Creep had literally grown right under my feet without my even noticing. All Zerg are faster on the creep, I remembered. Thankful for this small seemingly insignificant fact, I bum rushed the Hatchery, commanding the side entrance to open, and then close after I burst in.

Gasping from running like that, I stretch up and tilt my head back to make it easier to breathe. After a moment, my heart rate slows back down and I catch my breath. Opening my eyes, I look around.

The first thing I noticed is the pool. The Zerg Mana Pool, if my guess is correct. A soft whitish light is coming off of it, lighting up the room. It's not all that big. Curious, I touch it. It feels just like water. Curious, I scoop a little, and remembering the steps to test something to see if it's edible, I push my closed lips against it. It feels cool. No burning or anything unusual. Opening my mouth, I lap a little on my tongue. It tastes like water. Best water I've ever tasted actually. Nothing bad about it at all. Sucking up some of it in my mouth, I swish it around. No bad taste, no burning or unusual sensation. Nothing. Swallowing a bit, I wait for a moment to see if my stomach reacts badly. It doesn't.

Grinning, I bend down and dip my face into the pool, greedily sucking up the 'water' within. It quenches my thirst nicely. I felt like I must've drunk half the pool, but it's levels hadn't dropped at all. I've a feeling it's self replenishing. Sitting up, I take in the rest of the interior of the Hatchery. There's not much worth noting. The room is spherical in shape, much like a teepee, except it has four branching tunnels that are closed off. I suspect those are the closed entrances, one of which I'd come in from. The ceiling slopes upward in a high dome shape, and the walls ceiling are both moving gently, kind of like what I might expect from breathing if I were to be hiding inside of a lung.

I idly brush my hand against the wall. The texture is slightly different, but it feels similar to the feeling of touching my gums, only with no wetness. The wall quivers where I touch, and the Hatchery seems to emenate pleasure from the feeling of where I touched it. Interesting. Quirking my lip, I sit down, leaning against the wall and brush my hand along the floor. It feels the same as the walls, and if I didn't know any better, I'd swear the Hatchery was purring!

It seems the excitement of the day is finally ending. What with the light in here, I won't have to worry about any monsters spawning in here. At least I hope not. The light isn't all that bright. Hopefully that won't matter though. You could sleep in a dark cave in Minecraft so long as you were walled in and not be bothered by mobs.

Seriously though, why Minecraft? How? This isn't the kind of thing you would find on Earth, even if it's just an isolated area! All day, something had been bothering me about this place and I finally realized what it was. A normal forest would be teeming with animals. The sound of birds of squirrels alone would fill the air, then at night there would be a literal cacophony of chirping from crickets and grasshoppers.

This forest though, this forest has been completely silent. No birds, no squirrels, no animals at all. And when night fell that silence just stretched on. The lack of sound had been bothering me all day and I'd only just really noticed it. Unfortunately this clinched it for me. No forest on Earth would be so utterly silent. You couldn't pull that off outdoors. It's just not possible.

The only viable explanation left then is…

I'm not on Earth anymore.

I'm in a Minecraft world.

Will I ever see Earth again? The Zerg are a space faring race. Maybe someday I will. More importantly, just how did I get here? Considering the evidence, you'd think I'd just popped up out of nowhere… which is exactly what happens to Steve in Minecraft when a new world is spawned. Crap, that makes more sense than I'd like…

At this point the adrenaline I'd been running on crashed, and with it being so late, I finally fell asleep.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind mana – 50/100

Zerg Swarm Mana – 0/1,000,000

Zerg Supply – 0/10

Units:

1 Overmind

Structures:

1 Hatchery