Introduction by Author: I've played Minecraft for about a year and it is the first game I have really enjoyed and kept playing. I read this challenge - The Mercenary - and started to play it.
I realized a story could be written telling the experience of a mercenary sent to save a planet/village that had fallen victim to a plague which changed part of the inhabitants and animals into the Minecraft monsters.
I have taken some liberties with the game play to have it make sense in the story - such as turning the respawning after dying into a teleport to a 'safe place' when the mercenary's vital signs reach a critical point. You'll see the other 'liberties' as I go along.
I have the first three weeks written up. I am not sure how far I will go with the story.
I want the story to be real story - not a "I killed this, mined this." I'm trying to have the villagers be real characters and interact with Jonsie, the main character.
I hope someone enjoys reading it. Critique is welcomed. Here is the first week.
The Drop Off
The Drop Off
Corporal Ericka Jones swayed slightly as the boat crested the lazy waves as her fellow mercenaries rowed towards her drop off point on the shore. She nervously twisted her cap in her hands as she scanned the shores of her new assignment. The land looked so much different than her native world as everything including the sun was square. She shook her head at the wonderment of a square sun and moon! The short training films she watched before arriving showed the native people, animals, plants and the newly spawned monsters were all made up of squares blocks. There wasn’t a curve to be found anywhere. It was going to be a strange place to be and she wasn't sure how long this new countryside would be her home. Her missions while being a mercenary had introduced her to many strange worlds.
She mentally reviewed the orders for her mission for this assignment - find the closest village, protect the village, set up an outpost. It was a different than her other missions where
someone else told her what to do and how to do it. Now the leaders of her mercenary group expected her to do everything herself as that is what having the corporal stripes meant - she had proven she could think on her feet and take initiative, now they expected her to live up to the stripes.
The sergeant of her mercenary band sat down next to her to her, "Jonsie, you'll do fine here. You know your orders. Find the closest village, protect it, feed it, and gather supplies. We know people were sent to temporary villages this far out and the monsters from the plague were spotted by our satellite obs posts. The plague doesn't seem to hurt humans, but it appears that a lot of the native humanoid type population has become what we would call monsters, the mindless zombies. We don’t know what caused those skeletons or creepers. Maybe the natives will know more about the plague. All we know is they or someone unleashed a horrible plague on this world.” He grinned at her, “Oh and don't forget the spiders! We are not sure what they came from."
Jonsie shivered at the thought of those spiders - they were huge.
The sarge chuckled at her temporary discomfort, "Glad to see you are afraid of something. The global government radioed for help a week ago and agreed to our terms last night. Adams, Smithy and Charles will be dropped off at other areas along this shore to reach the villages near those areas. Other mercs will be dropped into other areas. I doubt you will ever see them. You will be busy. I don't know how long you will be here. Don't go native on me - remember who you are a part of - the Stonewall Jackson Mercenaries. We'll be dropping you off in about 4 minutes. We will contact you in 100 days. Take care, Jonsie."
She smiled at the sarge and nodded her head. Her arm stung from the 'Stay Alive' implant the medic on the ship had given her. He assured her the stinging would go away in a few hours and told her the implant would transport her to her designated “Stay Alive” spot if her vital signs showed she was nearing death. She could set the “Stay Alive” beacon in her new home once it was set up. Everything she had on her would drop where she died but she would be alive. The technology was new. She wasn't too comfortable with the idea of her body dissolving into nothingness and reappearing somewhere else, but it would help her to stay alive.
The backpack at her feet contained a couple extra sets of clothing, boots, underclothes and some toiletries. Everything else she had to create on site using the mercenary patented workbench system. The system used natural items she collected and placed into the bench according to specific recipes to make specific items. It would be nice if the bench would make a armor piercing weapon or a flame thrower but it had recipes programmed according to the world she was working in. Part of her job was to teach the locals how to protect and even fight for themselves.
Sarge interrupted her thoughts, "Ready, Jonsie? Here's your drop off point. We'll be contacting you in a hundred days. Remember your orders. Stay strong, soldier. Time to disembark." The sarge handed her a waterproof packet containing the recipe book of the items she could create using the workbench system and her letter of introduction to the villagers.
He looked her in the eye and slapped her on her shoulder. She nodded to him and gave a quick smile. She slid the materials into her backpack and scooted over the side of the small craft, swung the pack on to her back, and slid over the side into knee deep water.
She turned to push the boat out of the shallow water. Her fellow mercenaries wished her luck as she waded the few yards to the sandy beach. She turned to face the boat and waved them off. Her fellow mercenaries waved to her then turned back to the oars and started to row back to the main ship to drop the next mercenary off at his post.
She turned back to the forest around her, her senses assessing what was there. Her eyes scanned the forest looking at the strangeness around her. Square stuff everywhere! She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary but until she knew what was ordinary, she had to assume every noise was a potential enemy.
The training simulation and videos had shown her the perils of this world. The mercenary ship arrived at the beginning of the radio negotiations and gathered details on what was happening on the surface. Their computer prepared simulations for her to run through, but simulations could only partially prepare her. This was the real thing.
She knew the only monster she had to worry about during the day was the black spotted green things called creepers. They were probably the worst monsters on the planet as they could cause the biggest damage to her by blowing up when they got near her. The shoreline and surrounding forest looked all clear to her, so she placed a beacon to be her temporary ‘Stay Alive’ point.
She set to work collecting wood and quickly her inventory contained the initial workbench, a couple of wooden logs and planks, a wooden shovel, pick, ax and sword. The sword didn't look very strong but it would work until she could mine some stone to upgrade her tools.
"The sarge said the village should be that direction," she thought to herself. "Okay, Jonsie, let's get going."
She took a deep breath and strode off watching for dangers, ores, and, most importantly, the village.
Week 1 - Day 1
Week 1 - Day 1
She saw a deep dark slash across the land in front of her. As she walked closer to to the slash it appeared to be a deep ravine showing many layers of soil and rock exposed to the air. As she edged closer to the edge she heard the moans of the zombies hiding in the dark areas of the ravine. She knew the plague changed the normal inhabitants and animals on this planet into the spiders, zombies and skeletons. She knew she had to kill them to stay alive, but it felt wrong to do so, but she had to.
A vein of coal caught her eye and she carefully walked along the edge of the ravine to gather the coal. Another deposit caught her eye and she mined a few more until she had about 20 coal.
"Shouldn't be greedy here, Jonsie. That's enough for torches, cooking and maybe some smelting if I can find some iron."
She caught the glint of some iron bearing stone down in the ravine, but her orders were to find the village and that is what she needed to do. She quickly set a few torches along the edge of the ravine and copied down the coordinates - 286, 65, 275 - of the ravine into her notebook for future use.
She glanced up at the sun and knew she had to get going. She swung her pack on her back and settled it comfortably on her back. As she came down the hill she saw the square gray colored outline of buildings across the valley in front of her.
The sun set over the horizon as she walked up to the village. She quickly glanced around. "I need to light this town up. Not enough torches. How have they survived this long?"
She tossed down her pack and pulled out the coal and sticks she had made when she landed and made the torches. "Okay twenty torches. Let's go, Jonsie. Get some torches up."
As she placed her first torch, she saw a creeper and a zombie off in the distance. Her heart sped up at the chance for her first encounter with the monsters on this planet. She pulled out her wooden sword and strode towards the monsters. Unfortunately the creeper blew up and caused a small amount of damage to her, but the zombie died quickly under her sword.
"Need a better sword, ASAP. This wooden one is almost worthless." She thought to herself as she looked quickly around her.
She pushed open the door to a house, looking to see what or who was inside. She caught a glimpse of the humanoid lifeform in the house. She heard a cry of surprise, or at least she thought it expressed surprise at seeing her when they caught sight of her. One of the aliens started towards her but she waved it back and motioned it to stay inside.
"I'm here to help you. Stay inside." she commanded them. She pushed the door shut and went to another house.
"No door, need to fix that later. This is a pretty good sized village. Gotta make it through this first night. Where's an oven so I can cook this chicken."
Her eye fell on a wheat farm. She saw some of it was ripe and took a few of the ripe stalks to get some bread made. "I'll replant in the morning." she thought to herself.
She continued to scan around her. Zombies roamed around the hills. Apparently they were close enough to notice her. Skeletons shot arrows at everything that moved. They looked very dangerous. Those nasty creepers bounced her and there. She had to get the torches up and try to keep the village safe for the night.
A few hours later as the sun slowly came over the hills, Johsie trudged back to the town from her stay alive beacon point for the second time. She breathed a small thanks for the implant in her arm.
"Thank you, sun," she whispered to herself as she watched the zombies and skeletons burst into flames when the rays of the sun hit them. "I thought I was ready for this assignment. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew. I forgot my training. I rushed in and didn't set up anything for myself. I need to look after myself, get a house built, a bed to sleep in, then I can protect the villagers."
Jonsie felt miserable about her performance, dying twice in one night, but maybe her presence helped the villagers. "I need to sleep tonight to set my stay alive point so I don't have to do this hike in the dark. I need to get doors on all the houses, talk to the head guy. Those darn sheep are trampling their crops, That stream flowing through their town needs to be contained. There is a lot of work to be done. First I need to find the town leader."
She walked around the edge of the village. She died on the outer edge the last time and needed to find the few supplies she had gathered during the night. Darn that creeper. It was stronger than the last one. Her stuff lay scattered on the ground around her last death spot. She walked around haphazardly stuffing items in her backpack or in her pockets as she walked around. She found the introduction letter and kept it out as she saw the villagers gathering in a small group to meet her.
Week 1 - Day 2
Week 1 - Day 2
"I bet the guys would be laughing at me now, but the sims were too easy. Or maybe I should have hunkered down for the night in one of the homes instead of blindly rushing out to fight the monsters."
She shook off her disappointment and swore by her newly acquired corporal stripes that she would do better. It was her duty to protect this vilage and she would. She swung her backpack off the ground, tried to wipe the worst of the dirt off of her, settled her cap on her head and walked back to the village where a small group of villagers gathered to greet her.
The villagers stared curiously at her as she stared curiously at them. Some the children stared around their parents legs. An older man stepped out of the crowd of villagers gathered to greet her.
She removed her cap as he walked up to her, "Hello, sir. I am Corporal Erika Jones of a mercenary group your government hired to help you in this difficulty. I am here to protect your village. Here's a letter to introduce me." the translator translated her words into their language.
He took the letter from her and read it. After reading it and passing it to another villager "Corporal Jones, thanks be to the high gods that you are here. My name is Jurath, I'm the new leader of this village. The last leader died two nights ago fighting the monsters off." he stopped for a moment as he took a deep breath. She could see the pain and responsibility he carried in his eyes. She hoped she could help him with his burden.
"Thank you for protecting us last night. We've been in this area for only a week. We were sent from a large city and walked here. It was a very dangerous trip. The houses and the gardens were already here for us. We slept a bit better knowing you had come. I hope you weren't hurt too bad last night. Is there anything we can do to help you?"
"Hello, Jurath. Thank you for the welcome. I am glad to be here. I don't mean to be rude but I have a lot of work to do before nightfall. If you will continue on your normal activities, I need to get things ready for tonight. I'll put doors up on the buildings that don't have them and try to gather supplies so I'm ready for tonight." She sound brusque and rude to her ears, but she had to get some work done and set up for the night.
He nodded his head but didn’t seemed insulted by her brusqueness, "Of course, Corporal. Do whatever you need to do. My family along with two other families is in the large building in the center of town. We were a peaceful race and we, in this village, are not soldiers or farmers. We don't know what to do and were not prepared for this plague that turned so many of us into monsters. We have been at their mercy for the past week. Thank you for whatever you do."
Corporal Jones nodded to the leader. "Can I set up temporary quarters in one of the empty houses until I can build my quarters?"
"Of course you can, I'll take you to an empty one and you can get yourself settled."
"Great. I do need some food for today until I can do some foraging for myself or help you get these farms rebuilt."
He looked worriedly at the small grain fields in his village. She could see him calculating what his villagers would need.
"I only need a few sheaves of wheat to make some bread and I will be fine."
The worry left his face as he nodded his agreement, "Of course, I’m sorry to be so stingy. Come let me show you the house you can use."
They walked over to the house. She thanked him for his kindness and quickly set up her items in the small house and took stock of what she needed for the day.
"Bread, wood, wood and more wood. I need some stone and maybe it would be worth it to hike back for that iron in that ravine, but I think I will put that off for later. Right now I need to get the doors up and fences around those wheat fields. Those sheep were causing lots of damage last night. All right, first order, wood and lots of it." She created a couple of stone axes, a stone sword and put them in her inventory. She placed a wooden chest in one corner of her house and a bed in the other corner.
She hiked out to the forested area. All she had time for was to gather the wood. The days went faster on this planet than she was used to or maybe there was so much to do that the time went so quickly. It seemed like the day had just started and now the sun was setting.
"I have to make better use of my time." she thought as she walked quickly back to her small house.
She found she couldn't sleep in her house. Each time she slept a skeleton showed up. She had to make one night run from her landing point to get back to her house after being teleported out of danger. She collapsed her bed and knocked on the door of one of the larger houses. A young female answered the door.
"Excuse me."
"Hi, Corporal Jones."
"I am sorry to bother you but can I sleep here tonight? I need to get some sleep and the skeletons keep invading the small house when I try to sleep."
The young female looked worriedly at her, "I don't.." she swallowed her fear as she looked at the exhausted soldier in front of her. "Of course you can. I'm sorry I don't have a room to put you in, but.." she waved her hands at the floor in the main room of the house. "if this is okay, you can sleep here."
"That's okay, right now, I can sleep anywhere. Thanks so much. Don't worry.. I'll protect you if the skeletons come in here. I must have something setup wrong on that house. I’m not used to the rules here." She hurriedly set up her bed and quickly fell asleep before her watch awoke her for a short outside patrol.
Week 1 - Day 3
Week 1 - Day 3
The bright light of the morning sun woke Jonsie. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, realizing she had overslept. She stepped out of bed and went to the windows of the house, peering out to see what was happening in the village. Everything seemed to be normal but she wasn’t sure what normal was in the village.
After Jonsie dressed in her uniform the young lady gave Jonsie what she thought was a fried egg sandwich and a cup of hot liquid. The liquid tasted bitter but warmed her to the bottom of her feet.
"It is all I have to give you." the young lady apologized.
"This is great. Thanks for the place to sleep. I'm going to get a house set up for myself and I will come back and get my bed to set it up in my house."
The young lady thanked her, "No, last night was the first night I felt safe in the past two weeks. You can stay longer if you want."
"No, I need to get my base of operations set up for myself, so I can protect your village better. Thanks you for your help last night."
The young lady nodded her head and returned to her work.
Jonsie strode out of the door, shut it behind her and thought to herself. "Okay, priorities, we need to get a house up for myself that I can sleep in. I can't bunk in with her all week."
She walked around the town and picked a temporary place to put her first shelter. Later she could fix it up.
She saw an outcropping of grey stone on one of the nearby hillsides and mined about 80 stones from the hillside. She could hear the rattling of skeletons in the caves in the hill.
"I'll have to go down into that cave at a later date to get that cave cleaned out. Maybe if I light it up, the monsters will stop reproducing down there. For now I'll make sure it is blocked off."
Returning to the village she quickly built a cobblestone house with a dirt roof. She looked at her house, shook her head, "It looks pretty rough but I think I can sleep here tonight."
She returned to her temporary quarters from last night, thanked the young lady for her kindness, and moved the bed in her new home. She set the stay alive beacon for her bed, so if she died, she would return to this house.
Night started to fall. She did a quick patrol of the village The monsters seemed to stay away from the lighted areas and she thought a more torches would be a good idea for tomorrow. After a few turns around the village to make sure everything was okay for the night, she headed back to her house and bed.
She made a mental list of what she needed to do tomorrow. "I need to make a survey of the village and start to make some repairs in the different places and build their defenses."
She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep. Her past mercenary experience taught her to fall asleep quickly no matter what was happening. A few hours later her watch chimed at her and she arose to took a quick patrol around the town. The torches she had put up during the day seemed to keep the monsters further away. Only a few zombies came in to attack her. She returned to her bed. The watch went off two more times so she could do another quick patrol. She woke up tired with another long list of items before her.
Week 1 - Day 4
Week 1 - Day 4
She set out to repair the paths in the village. The paths ended abruptly in certain places, some were uneven with holes ready to trip her up each night. The water canal from one of the fields had flooded another area. The damaged condition of the paths made it hard to patrol as she had to watch her surroundings and her footing. She harvested the wheat in the gardens where it was ripe and reseeded where necessary. She distributed the wheat to the villages after keeping a few sheaves to prepare bread for herself.
The villagers seemed to be in shock. They moved slowly as they went through their tasks. It seemed they had used up all their energy in getting to this village. A few said hello to her as she worked in the village. Jurath came out to talk to her for a few minutes and helped her a bit as she worked in the gardens. The mothers had their children bring her water throughout the day so she didn't have to return to the well to get a drink. That small kindness helped her a lot.
She sweated as she worked under the midday sun, but her training had prepared her for the hard labor. She was in the best shape of her life, but her strength would only get her so far or at least that is what her sarge told her, “Use your head, Jonsie, not just your muscles.”
She thought as she worked. “I need to get these villagers working with me so this village becomes theirs, not mine. They must be willing to protect, feed and take care of themselves.” She looked at the villagers stumbling around the village and shook her head. “I have a lot of work to do!”
Night fell and she grabbed a quick bite of bread and meat to refresh herself. She left all of her valuables in the chest in her home and took a quick patrol around the village. She looked into one house and saw a zombie in the house. The occupants were terrified of the zombie but weren't doing anything to fight it off. She rushed to the house and pushed the door open. The zombie rushed her but with a few quick swings of her sword it died at her feet. The people thanked her, but she waved off their thanks.
"I got to get back out. I'll return tomorrow to see how it got into this house. Sleep well." she told them.
She firmly shut the door behind her and continued her patrol. She fought a few more monsters that came into the village area, then she went home and slept until her chime went off, patrolled again, then slept until the next chime of her watch. This would be her routine until the villagers were ready to help her.
Week 1 - Day 5-6
Week 1 - Day 5-6
The days of the first week started to blend into each other. She worked hard to fix up the village. She knew the burden of the villager's safety was solely in her hands until they could help her. This burden weighed heavily on her. The village was set up in a nice area, water and other supplies were nearby, but this world had turned into a dangerous place to live. Ores were abundant in the area, but the ravines and caves all around the town were a perfect place for the monsters to reproduce in droves.
She knew she had a nest of zombies and skeletons below the town. She heard them moaning and rattling their swords whenever she went near one of the houses. The inhabitants of that house told her they heard those noises since they moved into the house. She asked them why didn't they move. They shrugged their shoulders at her as if to say it would be too much trouble. When she was fixing the wheat farm near the sound, a patch of sand almost collapsed under her. She caught sight of a skeleton and heard the moanings of a couple of zombies. She covered the hole leading to the monster nest so the villagers wouldn't fall into the hole.
She saw coal in various areas around the town but she did want to deplete what was nearby in case of an emergency. There weren't any trees around the town for about 50 blocks. Someone must have cut them down to create the village. So she took another foray away from the village to gather wood and saplings. Wood would be used to turn into charcoal and to cook with and the saplings to plant a renewable source of fuel in the village.
They needed so much and she was only one person. She decided that every seventh day she would rest, visit with the villagers, try to get to know them, and rest to get her strength back. In her training for this assignment the LT told them "Don't wear yourself out. You will have enormous amounts of things you need to do. Prioritize them, but always," he had stopped in his lecture and looked all of them in the eye. "Always take care of yourself. When you need to rest, then rest. These villagers will be depending on you. Yes, your Stay Alive device will bring you back to life, but it takes a toll on you. Take care of yourself first.”
She methodically worked through what she needed to do. Getting the gardens protected and the wall up were the most important things. The nest of monsters would have to wait. They weren't getting out to harm the villagers now that she had blocked them off. The village needed to be made safe and secure, so the following week she could do some serious mining for a couple stacks of cobblestone for their first wall. She had hiked around the area trying to find a good place to do the large scale mining she had to do. She had to safely and quickly gather a large number of stones to create the village wall. Finally she realized the answer had been staring her in the face the entire time.
She walked with Jurath over to a good sized hill near the village, "I need to ask you something, Jurath. I need a nearby source of cobblestone for the wall I must build around the village, for the houses to build and I need a lot of dirt to fill in the empty spaces in this town. Can I take down this good sized hill?"
He looked at the hill then looked at her, "You want to remove this hill?"
She explained slowly to him, "Yes, Jurath. I need a large amount of stone for the wall and a lot of dirt to fix up the village but I don't want to mine too close to the village or mine under the village. This hill should give me all I need to do this. I know I can do it, but I want to make sure it is okay with you before I start. If I don't use this hill then I have to go further off to get the supplies I need. I wouldn't feel safe leaving the village on its own as I would have to spend nights away from the village. Your village needs me here every night to keep it safe until I can get this wall up.'
"That's a lot of work for you, Jonsie," Ericka didn't sound right anymore as all her fellow mercenaries had called her Jonsie, so she had asked the villagers to call her Jonsie. "but if you think this is best way then go ahead."
The hill was going to be a huge challenge, but it was a ready supply of dirt and stone, and hopefully some ore and most importantly it was nearby. She thought she would level it off and make it into the start of an underground mining operation or even a farm of some sort. As she mined the dirt, she fixed the wheat plots and put fences around them. The animals and even the villagers were trampling the crops. As she found holes in the town or as creepers created more holes, she filled them in with the dirt from the hill. As the trees she planted grew, she harvested them and planted more.
Week 1 - Day 7
Week 1 - Day 7
The seventh day came. Her ever growing list of things to do stared her in the face when she woke up in the morning. She had so much to do, but she had to rest. Exhaustion haunted her steps and she knew she would make mistakes if she didn’t rest for a day. She wondered how the other mercenaries were doing in their towns. They had more experience than her, but her sarge told her many times that no one could match her drive and determination.
She sat outside her small house, sipping a cup of what she called coffee, and watched the villagers go about their daily tasks. They were more alert and seemed to know what they were doing. They walked with a purpose. Jurath saw her sitting outside of her house and walked over to her.
"What's up, Jonsie? Are you feeling well?"
"Yes, Jurath. I'm fine. I had to take a day off to rest. Hope that's okay with you."
He nodded his head, "You’ve worked so hard. We’ve been amazed at how much you have gotten done. My wife wanted me to ask you for dinner tonight."
"I'd enjoy coming. When do you want me there?"
"Two hours before sunset, I think. I'll send Janick over to get you when my wife says she is ready. Is that okay?"
"Yes, Jurath. Thanks. I'll be there."
He walked back to his house. She closed her eyes for a few minutes but opened them back again. "I can't fall asleep out here until I have the wall up. Those creepers could sneak up on me and boom. If I am going to sleep I need to go back inside."
She took a quick patrol around the village making sure no creepers were hanging around teh outskirts of the village. When she returned to her home, she organized the storage chests and policed the inside and outside of her quarters. When everything was cleaned she walked around the vilage and talked to some of the villagers. After a bit, she returned to her home. The bed looked inviting so she lay down on it and closed her eyes, not planning to sleep but she did. The next thing she heard was a gentle knock at the door. She reached for her sword as she quickly rose from the bed. She opened the door to see a young boy standing at the door.
"Dad sent me over to get you for dinner, Ms. Jonsie."
She opened the door, smiling at Janick, Jurath's oldest boy. Well, not really not his oldest. Jurath's oldest boy had been missing since the plague hit. They didn't know where he was. Jurath told me they mourned his death and now Janick was the oldest son.
Ericka closed the door behind her and put her sword in the ever present scabbard at her side. "Thanks, Janick, for escorting me to dinner."
He smiled shyly at her and offered his arm for her to take. She took it and they walked over for dinner. As they walked over she realized how dirty she was and wished she had taken the time to clean up a bit. "Bath on the seventh day too - stupid head." she chuckled to herself.
The meal was filling. It was just meat, vegetables and bread..It was the same meal she would have eaten but Marto, Jurath's wife, had a great way of spicing the food so it was delicious. After they ate, they sat around the table talking for about an hour. Ericka looked out the window and saw the sun was going down.
"Marto, that was a delicious meal. Thank you so much for inviting me. Someday when I get a better house built, I'll have you over for dinner, but it won't be as good as what you cooked. I need to make a patrol or two before I get some sleep. Jareth and Marto, thanks for the meal."
Marto smiled at her, "Jonsie, you are always welcome to take your meals with us."
She nodded her head, "Well thanks for everything. Good night."
Jonsie strolled around the village, looking relaxed for the villager's sake, but she saw and heard everything around her. Her ears caught the faint cries of the monsters and the screeching of the spiders. Inside her head she was making another list of what she needed to do in the next week - more planting, mining and starting the wall. The village must be defensible and profitable before the sarge showed up in a hundred days.
She took a few more turns around the village. The villagers learned not to go out at night even though the village was lit up with torches. The monsters seemed to stay of out the lighted village as long as they didn't see anyone walking around. During the day, they only had to deal with the creepers, but if you ran fast enough you could get out of their blast range. The creepers didn't seem to explode near the villagers. They only blew up near her, so she had to keep an eye out on them as she worked during the day. Their explosion packed a wallop.
She sat on her bed rubbing her tired feet. She took out her notebook where she wrote cryptic notes in each nigth to show what she had done each day. She wrote. "The first week is done. The crops are protected by fences surrounding each of the small plots. I turned one plot over and reseeded it. I'll continue to do that for each plot every other day so we have a constant crop growing. I don't know how long each one will take to grow. I might try a new design on the gardens as that long trench of water is hard to deal with. I'm tired of getting wet to get the seeds and wheat that fall into the water. I'd like to get a supply of reeds growing in the gardens.
"I ate dinner with Jurath and his family. It was a good meal and nice to socialize with someone for a night. I've been so busy working, getting things done, that I've forgotten to visit with the villagers. They need to know me, as a person, so when I call on their help in the future, they will want to help me.
"I don't feel that I got much accomplished this week. Most of my time was fixing what the builders of the village had not done correctly. I don't understand why they put blocks of wood around their gardens instead of fences. I asked Jurath. He said the wheat was already there in those plots when they got here. He told me the army had put up hundreds of these small settlements when they saw how bad the plague was going to be. Maybe they didn't have time to get it all done.
"I need to clean the underground nest of monsters out of the middle of the village, so I stop hearing their moans and groans as I walk over their hole. I found another deep cave in the village that I blocked off with wall and a door."
“I need to get the villagers to a point where they can help. Maybe next week, I can approach Jurath about starting a work/militia detail. I know I can teach them what they need to know and having an extra set of hands to help me get things done would great.
A gigantic yawn escaped her. She put the notebook back into the storage chest, lay back into bed, closed eyes and quickly fell asleep until her chime went off again for another patrol.
Introduction by Author: I've played Minecraft for about a year and it is the first game I have really enjoyed and kept playing. I read this challenge - The Mercenary - and started to play it.
I realized a story could be written telling the experience of a mercenary sent to save a planet/village that had fallen victim to a plague which changed part of the inhabitants and animals into the Minecraft monsters.
I have taken some liberties with the game play to have it make sense in the story - such as turning the respawning after dying into a teleport to a 'safe place' when the mercenary's vital signs reach a critical point. You'll see the other 'liberties' as I go along.
I have the first three weeks written up. I am not sure how far I will go with the story.
I want the story to be real story - not a "I killed this, mined this." I'm trying to have the villagers be real characters and interact with Jonsie, the main character.
I hope someone enjoys reading it. Critique is welcomed. Here is the first week.
The Drop Off
The Drop Off
Corporal Ericka Jones swayed slightly as the boat crested the lazy waves as her fellow mercenaries rowed towards her drop off point on the shore. She nervously twisted her cap in her hands as she scanned the shores of her new assignment. The land looked so much different than her native world as everything including the sun was square. She shook her head at the wonderment of a square sun and moon! The short training films she watched before arriving showed the native people, animals, plants and the newly spawned monsters were all made up of squares blocks. There wasn’t a curve to be found anywhere. It was going to be a strange place to be and she wasn't sure how long this new countryside would be her home. Her missions while being a mercenary had introduced her to many strange worlds.
She mentally reviewed the orders for her mission for this assignment - find the closest village, protect the village, set up an outpost. It was a different than her other missions where
someone else told her what to do and how to do it. Now the leaders of her mercenary group expected her to do everything herself as that is what having the corporal stripes meant - she had proven she could think on her feet and take initiative, now they expected her to live up to the stripes.
The sergeant of her mercenary band sat down next to her to her, "Jonsie, you'll do fine here. You know your orders. Find the closest village, protect it, feed it, and gather supplies. We know people were sent to temporary villages this far out and the monsters from the plague were spotted by our satellite obs posts. The plague doesn't seem to hurt humans, but it appears that a lot of the native humanoid type population has become what we would call monsters, the mindless zombies. We don’t know what caused those skeletons or creepers. Maybe the natives will know more about the plague. All we know is they or someone unleashed a horrible plague on this world.” He grinned at her, “Oh and don't forget the spiders! We are not sure what they came from."
Jonsie shivered at the thought of those spiders - they were huge.
The sarge chuckled at her temporary discomfort, "Glad to see you are afraid of something. The global government radioed for help a week ago and agreed to our terms last night. Adams, Smithy and Charles will be dropped off at other areas along this shore to reach the villages near those areas. Other mercs will be dropped into other areas. I doubt you will ever see them. You will be busy. I don't know how long you will be here. Don't go native on me - remember who you are a part of - the Stonewall Jackson Mercenaries. We'll be dropping you off in about 4 minutes. We will contact you in 100 days. Take care, Jonsie."
She smiled at the sarge and nodded her head. Her arm stung from the 'Stay Alive' implant the medic on the ship had given her. He assured her the stinging would go away in a few hours and told her the implant would transport her to her designated “Stay Alive” spot if her vital signs showed she was nearing death. She could set the “Stay Alive” beacon in her new home once it was set up. Everything she had on her would drop where she died but she would be alive. The technology was new. She wasn't too comfortable with the idea of her body dissolving into nothingness and reappearing somewhere else, but it would help her to stay alive.
The backpack at her feet contained a couple extra sets of clothing, boots, underclothes and some toiletries. Everything else she had to create on site using the mercenary patented workbench system. The system used natural items she collected and placed into the bench according to specific recipes to make specific items. It would be nice if the bench would make a armor piercing weapon or a flame thrower but it had recipes programmed according to the world she was working in. Part of her job was to teach the locals how to protect and even fight for themselves.
Sarge interrupted her thoughts, "Ready, Jonsie? Here's your drop off point. We'll be contacting you in a hundred days. Remember your orders. Stay strong, soldier. Time to disembark." The sarge handed her a waterproof packet containing the recipe book of the items she could create using the workbench system and her letter of introduction to the villagers.
He looked her in the eye and slapped her on her shoulder. She nodded to him and gave a quick smile. She slid the materials into her backpack and scooted over the side of the small craft, swung the pack on to her back, and slid over the side into knee deep water.
She turned to push the boat out of the shallow water. Her fellow mercenaries wished her luck as she waded the few yards to the sandy beach. She turned to face the boat and waved them off. Her fellow mercenaries waved to her then turned back to the oars and started to row back to the main ship to drop the next mercenary off at his post.
She turned back to the forest around her, her senses assessing what was there. Her eyes scanned the forest looking at the strangeness around her. Square stuff everywhere! She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary but until she knew what was ordinary, she had to assume every noise was a potential enemy.
The training simulation and videos had shown her the perils of this world. The mercenary ship arrived at the beginning of the radio negotiations and gathered details on what was happening on the surface. Their computer prepared simulations for her to run through, but simulations could only partially prepare her. This was the real thing.
She knew the only monster she had to worry about during the day was the black spotted green things called creepers. They were probably the worst monsters on the planet as they could cause the biggest damage to her by blowing up when they got near her. The shoreline and surrounding forest looked all clear to her, so she placed a beacon to be her temporary ‘Stay Alive’ point.
She set to work collecting wood and quickly her inventory contained the initial workbench, a couple of wooden logs and planks, a wooden shovel, pick, ax and sword. The sword didn't look very strong but it would work until she could mine some stone to upgrade her tools.
"The sarge said the village should be that direction," she thought to herself. "Okay, Jonsie, let's get going."
She took a deep breath and strode off watching for dangers, ores, and, most importantly, the village.
Week 1 - Day 1
Week 1 - Day 1
She saw a deep dark slash across the land in front of her. As she walked closer to to the slash it appeared to be a deep ravine showing many layers of soil and rock exposed to the air. As she edged closer to the edge she heard the moans of the zombies hiding in the dark areas of the ravine. She knew the plague changed the normal inhabitants and animals on this planet into the spiders, zombies and skeletons. She knew she had to kill them to stay alive, but it felt wrong to do so, but she had to.
A vein of coal caught her eye and she carefully walked along the edge of the ravine to gather the coal. Another deposit caught her eye and she mined a few more until she had about 20 coal.
"Shouldn't be greedy here, Jonsie. That's enough for torches, cooking and maybe some smelting if I can find some iron."
She caught the glint of some iron bearing stone down in the ravine, but her orders were to find the village and that is what she needed to do. She quickly set a few torches along the edge of the ravine and copied down the coordinates - 286, 65, 275 - of the ravine into her notebook for future use.
She glanced up at the sun and knew she had to get going. She swung her pack on her back and settled it comfortably on her back. As she came down the hill she saw the square gray colored outline of buildings across the valley in front of her.
The sun set over the horizon as she walked up to the village. She quickly glanced around. "I need to light this town up. Not enough torches. How have they survived this long?"
She tossed down her pack and pulled out the coal and sticks she had made when she landed and made the torches. "Okay twenty torches. Let's go, Jonsie. Get some torches up."
As she placed her first torch, she saw a creeper and a zombie off in the distance. Her heart sped up at the chance for her first encounter with the monsters on this planet. She pulled out her wooden sword and strode towards the monsters. Unfortunately the creeper blew up and caused a small amount of damage to her, but the zombie died quickly under her sword.
"Need a better sword, ASAP. This wooden one is almost worthless." She thought to herself as she looked quickly around her.
She pushed open the door to a house, looking to see what or who was inside. She caught a glimpse of the humanoid lifeform in the house. She heard a cry of surprise, or at least she thought it expressed surprise at seeing her when they caught sight of her. One of the aliens started towards her but she waved it back and motioned it to stay inside.
"I'm here to help you. Stay inside." she commanded them. She pushed the door shut and went to another house.
"No door, need to fix that later. This is a pretty good sized village. Gotta make it through this first night. Where's an oven so I can cook this chicken."
Her eye fell on a wheat farm. She saw some of it was ripe and took a few of the ripe stalks to get some bread made. "I'll replant in the morning." she thought to herself.
She continued to scan around her. Zombies roamed around the hills. Apparently they were close enough to notice her. Skeletons shot arrows at everything that moved. They looked very dangerous. Those nasty creepers bounced her and there. She had to get the torches up and try to keep the village safe for the night.
A few hours later as the sun slowly came over the hills, Johsie trudged back to the town from her stay alive beacon point for the second time. She breathed a small thanks for the implant in her arm.
"Thank you, sun," she whispered to herself as she watched the zombies and skeletons burst into flames when the rays of the sun hit them. "I thought I was ready for this assignment. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew. I forgot my training. I rushed in and didn't set up anything for myself. I need to look after myself, get a house built, a bed to sleep in, then I can protect the villagers."
Jonsie felt miserable about her performance, dying twice in one night, but maybe her presence helped the villagers. "I need to sleep tonight to set my stay alive point so I don't have to do this hike in the dark. I need to get doors on all the houses, talk to the head guy. Those darn sheep are trampling their crops, That stream flowing through their town needs to be contained. There is a lot of work to be done. First I need to find the town leader."
She walked around the edge of the village. She died on the outer edge the last time and needed to find the few supplies she had gathered during the night. Darn that creeper. It was stronger than the last one. Her stuff lay scattered on the ground around her last death spot. She walked around haphazardly stuffing items in her backpack or in her pockets as she walked around. She found the introduction letter and kept it out as she saw the villagers gathering in a small group to meet her.
Week 1 - Day 2
Week 1 - Day 2
"I bet the guys would be laughing at me now, but the sims were too easy. Or maybe I should have hunkered down for the night in one of the homes instead of blindly rushing out to fight the monsters."
She shook off her disappointment and swore by her newly acquired corporal stripes that she would do better. It was her duty to protect this vilage and she would. She swung her backpack off the ground, tried to wipe the worst of the dirt off of her, settled her cap on her head and walked back to the village where a small group of villagers gathered to greet her.
The villagers stared curiously at her as she stared curiously at them. Some the children stared around their parents legs. An older man stepped out of the crowd of villagers gathered to greet her.
She removed her cap as he walked up to her, "Hello, sir. I am Corporal Erika Jones of a mercenary group your government hired to help you in this difficulty. I am here to protect your village. Here's a letter to introduce me." the translator translated her words into their language.
He took the letter from her and read it. After reading it and passing it to another villager "Corporal Jones, thanks be to the high gods that you are here. My name is Jurath, I'm the new leader of this village. The last leader died two nights ago fighting the monsters off." he stopped for a moment as he took a deep breath. She could see the pain and responsibility he carried in his eyes. She hoped she could help him with his burden.
"Thank you for protecting us last night. We've been in this area for only a week. We were sent from a large city and walked here. It was a very dangerous trip. The houses and the gardens were already here for us. We slept a bit better knowing you had come. I hope you weren't hurt too bad last night. Is there anything we can do to help you?"
"Hello, Jurath. Thank you for the welcome. I am glad to be here. I don't mean to be rude but I have a lot of work to do before nightfall. If you will continue on your normal activities, I need to get things ready for tonight. I'll put doors up on the buildings that don't have them and try to gather supplies so I'm ready for tonight." She sound brusque and rude to her ears, but she had to get some work done and set up for the night.
He nodded his head but didn’t seemed insulted by her brusqueness, "Of course, Corporal. Do whatever you need to do. My family along with two other families is in the large building in the center of town. We were a peaceful race and we, in this village, are not soldiers or farmers. We don't know what to do and were not prepared for this plague that turned so many of us into monsters. We have been at their mercy for the past week. Thank you for whatever you do."
Corporal Jones nodded to the leader. "Can I set up temporary quarters in one of the empty houses until I can build my quarters?"
"Of course you can, I'll take you to an empty one and you can get yourself settled."
"Great. I do need some food for today until I can do some foraging for myself or help you get these farms rebuilt."
He looked worriedly at the small grain fields in his village. She could see him calculating what his villagers would need.
"I only need a few sheaves of wheat to make some bread and I will be fine."
The worry left his face as he nodded his agreement, "Of course, I’m sorry to be so stingy. Come let me show you the house you can use."
They walked over to the house. She thanked him for his kindness and quickly set up her items in the small house and took stock of what she needed for the day.
"Bread, wood, wood and more wood. I need some stone and maybe it would be worth it to hike back for that iron in that ravine, but I think I will put that off for later. Right now I need to get the doors up and fences around those wheat fields. Those sheep were causing lots of damage last night. All right, first order, wood and lots of it." She created a couple of stone axes, a stone sword and put them in her inventory. She placed a wooden chest in one corner of her house and a bed in the other corner.
She hiked out to the forested area. All she had time for was to gather the wood. The days went faster on this planet than she was used to or maybe there was so much to do that the time went so quickly. It seemed like the day had just started and now the sun was setting.
"I have to make better use of my time." she thought as she walked quickly back to her small house.
She found she couldn't sleep in her house. Each time she slept a skeleton showed up. She had to make one night run from her landing point to get back to her house after being teleported out of danger. She collapsed her bed and knocked on the door of one of the larger houses. A young female answered the door.
"Excuse me."
"Hi, Corporal Jones."
"I am sorry to bother you but can I sleep here tonight? I need to get some sleep and the skeletons keep invading the small house when I try to sleep."
The young female looked worriedly at her, "I don't.." she swallowed her fear as she looked at the exhausted soldier in front of her. "Of course you can. I'm sorry I don't have a room to put you in, but.." she waved her hands at the floor in the main room of the house. "if this is okay, you can sleep here."
"That's okay, right now, I can sleep anywhere. Thanks so much. Don't worry.. I'll protect you if the skeletons come in here. I must have something setup wrong on that house. I’m not used to the rules here." She hurriedly set up her bed and quickly fell asleep before her watch awoke her for a short outside patrol.
Week 1 - Day 3
Week 1 - Day 3
The bright light of the morning sun woke Jonsie. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, realizing she had overslept. She stepped out of bed and went to the windows of the house, peering out to see what was happening in the village. Everything seemed to be normal but she wasn’t sure what normal was in the village.
After Jonsie dressed in her uniform the young lady gave Jonsie what she thought was a fried egg sandwich and a cup of hot liquid. The liquid tasted bitter but warmed her to the bottom of her feet.
"It is all I have to give you." the young lady apologized.
"This is great. Thanks for the place to sleep. I'm going to get a house set up for myself and I will come back and get my bed to set it up in my house."
The young lady thanked her, "No, last night was the first night I felt safe in the past two weeks. You can stay longer if you want."
"No, I need to get my base of operations set up for myself, so I can protect your village better. Thanks you for your help last night."
The young lady nodded her head and returned to her work.
Jonsie strode out of the door, shut it behind her and thought to herself. "Okay, priorities, we need to get a house up for myself that I can sleep in. I can't bunk in with her all week."
She walked around the town and picked a temporary place to put her first shelter. Later she could fix it up.
She saw an outcropping of grey stone on one of the nearby hillsides and mined about 80 stones from the hillside. She could hear the rattling of skeletons in the caves in the hill.
"I'll have to go down into that cave at a later date to get that cave cleaned out. Maybe if I light it up, the monsters will stop reproducing down there. For now I'll make sure it is blocked off."
Returning to the village she quickly built a cobblestone house with a dirt roof. She looked at her house, shook her head, "It looks pretty rough but I think I can sleep here tonight."
She returned to her temporary quarters from last night, thanked the young lady for her kindness, and moved the bed in her new home. She set the stay alive beacon for her bed, so if she died, she would return to this house.
Night started to fall. She did a quick patrol of the village The monsters seemed to stay away from the lighted areas and she thought a more torches would be a good idea for tomorrow. After a few turns around the village to make sure everything was okay for the night, she headed back to her house and bed.
She made a mental list of what she needed to do tomorrow. "I need to make a survey of the village and start to make some repairs in the different places and build their defenses."
She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep. Her past mercenary experience taught her to fall asleep quickly no matter what was happening. A few hours later her watch chimed at her and she arose to took a quick patrol around the town. The torches she had put up during the day seemed to keep the monsters further away. Only a few zombies came in to attack her. She returned to her bed. The watch went off two more times so she could do another quick patrol. She woke up tired with another long list of items before her.
Week 1 - Day 4
Week 1 - Day 4
She set out to repair the paths in the village. The paths ended abruptly in certain places, some were uneven with holes ready to trip her up each night. The water canal from one of the fields had flooded another area. The damaged condition of the paths made it hard to patrol as she had to watch her surroundings and her footing. She harvested the wheat in the gardens where it was ripe and reseeded where necessary. She distributed the wheat to the villages after keeping a few sheaves to prepare bread for herself.
The villagers seemed to be in shock. They moved slowly as they went through their tasks. It seemed they had used up all their energy in getting to this village. A few said hello to her as she worked in the village. Jurath came out to talk to her for a few minutes and helped her a bit as she worked in the gardens. The mothers had their children bring her water throughout the day so she didn't have to return to the well to get a drink. That small kindness helped her a lot.
She sweated as she worked under the midday sun, but her training had prepared her for the hard labor. She was in the best shape of her life, but her strength would only get her so far or at least that is what her sarge told her, “Use your head, Jonsie, not just your muscles.”
She thought as she worked. “I need to get these villagers working with me so this village becomes theirs, not mine. They must be willing to protect, feed and take care of themselves.” She looked at the villagers stumbling around the village and shook her head. “I have a lot of work to do!”
Night fell and she grabbed a quick bite of bread and meat to refresh herself. She left all of her valuables in the chest in her home and took a quick patrol around the village. She looked into one house and saw a zombie in the house. The occupants were terrified of the zombie but weren't doing anything to fight it off. She rushed to the house and pushed the door open. The zombie rushed her but with a few quick swings of her sword it died at her feet. The people thanked her, but she waved off their thanks.
"I got to get back out. I'll return tomorrow to see how it got into this house. Sleep well." she told them.
She firmly shut the door behind her and continued her patrol. She fought a few more monsters that came into the village area, then she went home and slept until her chime went off, patrolled again, then slept until the next chime of her watch. This would be her routine until the villagers were ready to help her.
Week 1 - Day 5-6
Week 1 - Day 5-6
The days of the first week started to blend into each other. She worked hard to fix up the village. She knew the burden of the villager's safety was solely in her hands until they could help her. This burden weighed heavily on her. The village was set up in a nice area, water and other supplies were nearby, but this world had turned into a dangerous place to live. Ores were abundant in the area, but the ravines and caves all around the town were a perfect place for the monsters to reproduce in droves.
She knew she had a nest of zombies and skeletons below the town. She heard them moaning and rattling their swords whenever she went near one of the houses. The inhabitants of that house told her they heard those noises since they moved into the house. She asked them why didn't they move. They shrugged their shoulders at her as if to say it would be too much trouble. When she was fixing the wheat farm near the sound, a patch of sand almost collapsed under her. She caught sight of a skeleton and heard the moanings of a couple of zombies. She covered the hole leading to the monster nest so the villagers wouldn't fall into the hole.
She saw coal in various areas around the town but she did want to deplete what was nearby in case of an emergency. There weren't any trees around the town for about 50 blocks. Someone must have cut them down to create the village. So she took another foray away from the village to gather wood and saplings. Wood would be used to turn into charcoal and to cook with and the saplings to plant a renewable source of fuel in the village.
They needed so much and she was only one person. She decided that every seventh day she would rest, visit with the villagers, try to get to know them, and rest to get her strength back. In her training for this assignment the LT told them "Don't wear yourself out. You will have enormous amounts of things you need to do. Prioritize them, but always," he had stopped in his lecture and looked all of them in the eye. "Always take care of yourself. When you need to rest, then rest. These villagers will be depending on you. Yes, your Stay Alive device will bring you back to life, but it takes a toll on you. Take care of yourself first.”
She methodically worked through what she needed to do. Getting the gardens protected and the wall up were the most important things. The nest of monsters would have to wait. They weren't getting out to harm the villagers now that she had blocked them off. The village needed to be made safe and secure, so the following week she could do some serious mining for a couple stacks of cobblestone for their first wall. She had hiked around the area trying to find a good place to do the large scale mining she had to do. She had to safely and quickly gather a large number of stones to create the village wall. Finally she realized the answer had been staring her in the face the entire time.
She walked with Jurath over to a good sized hill near the village, "I need to ask you something, Jurath. I need a nearby source of cobblestone for the wall I must build around the village, for the houses to build and I need a lot of dirt to fill in the empty spaces in this town. Can I take down this good sized hill?"
He looked at the hill then looked at her, "You want to remove this hill?"
She explained slowly to him, "Yes, Jurath. I need a large amount of stone for the wall and a lot of dirt to fix up the village but I don't want to mine too close to the village or mine under the village. This hill should give me all I need to do this. I know I can do it, but I want to make sure it is okay with you before I start. If I don't use this hill then I have to go further off to get the supplies I need. I wouldn't feel safe leaving the village on its own as I would have to spend nights away from the village. Your village needs me here every night to keep it safe until I can get this wall up.'
"That's a lot of work for you, Jonsie," Ericka didn't sound right anymore as all her fellow mercenaries had called her Jonsie, so she had asked the villagers to call her Jonsie. "but if you think this is best way then go ahead."
The hill was going to be a huge challenge, but it was a ready supply of dirt and stone, and hopefully some ore and most importantly it was nearby. She thought she would level it off and make it into the start of an underground mining operation or even a farm of some sort. As she mined the dirt, she fixed the wheat plots and put fences around them. The animals and even the villagers were trampling the crops. As she found holes in the town or as creepers created more holes, she filled them in with the dirt from the hill. As the trees she planted grew, she harvested them and planted more.
Week 1 - Day 7
Week 1 - Day 7
The seventh day came. Her ever growing list of things to do stared her in the face when she woke up in the morning. She had so much to do, but she had to rest. Exhaustion haunted her steps and she knew she would make mistakes if she didn’t rest for a day. She wondered how the other mercenaries were doing in their towns. They had more experience than her, but her sarge told her many times that no one could match her drive and determination.
She sat outside her small house, sipping a cup of what she called coffee, and watched the villagers go about their daily tasks. They were more alert and seemed to know what they were doing. They walked with a purpose. Jurath saw her sitting outside of her house and walked over to her.
"What's up, Jonsie? Are you feeling well?"
"Yes, Jurath. I'm fine. I had to take a day off to rest. Hope that's okay with you."
He nodded his head, "You’ve worked so hard. We’ve been amazed at how much you have gotten done. My wife wanted me to ask you for dinner tonight."
"I'd enjoy coming. When do you want me there?"
"Two hours before sunset, I think. I'll send Janick over to get you when my wife says she is ready. Is that okay?"
"Yes, Jurath. Thanks. I'll be there."
He walked back to his house. She closed her eyes for a few minutes but opened them back again. "I can't fall asleep out here until I have the wall up. Those creepers could sneak up on me and boom. If I am going to sleep I need to go back inside."
She took a quick patrol around the village making sure no creepers were hanging around teh outskirts of the village. When she returned to her home, she organized the storage chests and policed the inside and outside of her quarters. When everything was cleaned she walked around the vilage and talked to some of the villagers. After a bit, she returned to her home. The bed looked inviting so she lay down on it and closed her eyes, not planning to sleep but she did. The next thing she heard was a gentle knock at the door. She reached for her sword as she quickly rose from the bed. She opened the door to see a young boy standing at the door.
"Dad sent me over to get you for dinner, Ms. Jonsie."
She opened the door, smiling at Janick, Jurath's oldest boy. Well, not really not his oldest. Jurath's oldest boy had been missing since the plague hit. They didn't know where he was. Jurath told me they mourned his death and now Janick was the oldest son.
Ericka closed the door behind her and put her sword in the ever present scabbard at her side. "Thanks, Janick, for escorting me to dinner."
He smiled shyly at her and offered his arm for her to take. She took it and they walked over for dinner. As they walked over she realized how dirty she was and wished she had taken the time to clean up a bit. "Bath on the seventh day too - stupid head." she chuckled to herself.
The meal was filling. It was just meat, vegetables and bread..It was the same meal she would have eaten but Marto, Jurath's wife, had a great way of spicing the food so it was delicious. After they ate, they sat around the table talking for about an hour. Ericka looked out the window and saw the sun was going down.
"Marto, that was a delicious meal. Thank you so much for inviting me. Someday when I get a better house built, I'll have you over for dinner, but it won't be as good as what you cooked. I need to make a patrol or two before I get some sleep. Jareth and Marto, thanks for the meal."
Marto smiled at her, "Jonsie, you are always welcome to take your meals with us."
She nodded her head, "Well thanks for everything. Good night."
Jonsie strolled around the village, looking relaxed for the villager's sake, but she saw and heard everything around her. Her ears caught the faint cries of the monsters and the screeching of the spiders. Inside her head she was making another list of what she needed to do in the next week - more planting, mining and starting the wall. The village must be defensible and profitable before the sarge showed up in a hundred days.
She took a few more turns around the village. The villagers learned not to go out at night even though the village was lit up with torches. The monsters seemed to stay of out the lighted village as long as they didn't see anyone walking around. During the day, they only had to deal with the creepers, but if you ran fast enough you could get out of their blast range. The creepers didn't seem to explode near the villagers. They only blew up near her, so she had to keep an eye out on them as she worked during the day. Their explosion packed a wallop.
She sat on her bed rubbing her tired feet. She took out her notebook where she wrote cryptic notes in each nigth to show what she had done each day. She wrote. "The first week is done. The crops are protected by fences surrounding each of the small plots. I turned one plot over and reseeded it. I'll continue to do that for each plot every other day so we have a constant crop growing. I don't know how long each one will take to grow. I might try a new design on the gardens as that long trench of water is hard to deal with. I'm tired of getting wet to get the seeds and wheat that fall into the water. I'd like to get a supply of reeds growing in the gardens.
"I ate dinner with Jurath and his family. It was a good meal and nice to socialize with someone for a night. I've been so busy working, getting things done, that I've forgotten to visit with the villagers. They need to know me, as a person, so when I call on their help in the future, they will want to help me.
"I don't feel that I got much accomplished this week. Most of my time was fixing what the builders of the village had not done correctly. I don't understand why they put blocks of wood around their gardens instead of fences. I asked Jurath. He said the wheat was already there in those plots when they got here. He told me the army had put up hundreds of these small settlements when they saw how bad the plague was going to be. Maybe they didn't have time to get it all done.
"I need to clean the underground nest of monsters out of the middle of the village, so I stop hearing their moans and groans as I walk over their hole. I found another deep cave in the village that I blocked off with wall and a door."
“I need to get the villagers to a point where they can help. Maybe next week, I can approach Jurath about starting a work/militia detail. I know I can teach them what they need to know and having an extra set of hands to help me get things done would great.
A gigantic yawn escaped her. She put the notebook back into the storage chest, lay back into bed, closed eyes and quickly fell asleep until her chime went off again for another patrol.
Cool
Story
Bro
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
No one wants to click on your stupid eggs. I hope I see them on my plate tommorow.
I realized a story could be written telling the experience of a mercenary sent to save a planet/village that had fallen victim to a plague which changed part of the inhabitants and animals into the Minecraft monsters.
I have taken some liberties with the game play to have it make sense in the story - such as turning the respawning after dying into a teleport to a 'safe place' when the mercenary's vital signs reach a critical point. You'll see the other 'liberties' as I go along.
I have the first three weeks written up. I am not sure how far I will go with the story.
I want the story to be real story - not a "I killed this, mined this." I'm trying to have the villagers be real characters and interact with Jonsie, the main character.
I hope someone enjoys reading it. Critique is welcomed. Here is the first week.
The Drop Off
Corporal Ericka Jones swayed slightly as the boat crested the lazy waves as her fellow mercenaries rowed towards her drop off point on the shore. She nervously twisted her cap in her hands as she scanned the shores of her new assignment. The land looked so much different than her native world as everything including the sun was square. She shook her head at the wonderment of a square sun and moon! The short training films she watched before arriving showed the native people, animals, plants and the newly spawned monsters were all made up of squares blocks. There wasn’t a curve to be found anywhere. It was going to be a strange place to be and she wasn't sure how long this new countryside would be her home. Her missions while being a mercenary had introduced her to many strange worlds.
She mentally reviewed the orders for her mission for this assignment - find the closest village, protect the village, set up an outpost. It was a different than her other missions where
someone else told her what to do and how to do it. Now the leaders of her mercenary group expected her to do everything herself as that is what having the corporal stripes meant - she had proven she could think on her feet and take initiative, now they expected her to live up to the stripes.
The sergeant of her mercenary band sat down next to her to her, "Jonsie, you'll do fine here. You know your orders. Find the closest village, protect it, feed it, and gather supplies. We know people were sent to temporary villages this far out and the monsters from the plague were spotted by our satellite obs posts. The plague doesn't seem to hurt humans, but it appears that a lot of the native humanoid type population has become what we would call monsters, the mindless zombies. We don’t know what caused those skeletons or creepers. Maybe the natives will know more about the plague. All we know is they or someone unleashed a horrible plague on this world.” He grinned at her, “Oh and don't forget the spiders! We are not sure what they came from."
Jonsie shivered at the thought of those spiders - they were huge.
The sarge chuckled at her temporary discomfort, "Glad to see you are afraid of something. The global government radioed for help a week ago and agreed to our terms last night. Adams, Smithy and Charles will be dropped off at other areas along this shore to reach the villages near those areas. Other mercs will be dropped into other areas. I doubt you will ever see them. You will be busy. I don't know how long you will be here. Don't go native on me - remember who you are a part of - the Stonewall Jackson Mercenaries. We'll be dropping you off in about 4 minutes. We will contact you in 100 days. Take care, Jonsie."
She smiled at the sarge and nodded her head. Her arm stung from the 'Stay Alive' implant the medic on the ship had given her. He assured her the stinging would go away in a few hours and told her the implant would transport her to her designated “Stay Alive” spot if her vital signs showed she was nearing death. She could set the “Stay Alive” beacon in her new home once it was set up. Everything she had on her would drop where she died but she would be alive. The technology was new. She wasn't too comfortable with the idea of her body dissolving into nothingness and reappearing somewhere else, but it would help her to stay alive.
The backpack at her feet contained a couple extra sets of clothing, boots, underclothes and some toiletries. Everything else she had to create on site using the mercenary patented workbench system. The system used natural items she collected and placed into the bench according to specific recipes to make specific items. It would be nice if the bench would make a armor piercing weapon or a flame thrower but it had recipes programmed according to the world she was working in. Part of her job was to teach the locals how to protect and even fight for themselves.
Sarge interrupted her thoughts, "Ready, Jonsie? Here's your drop off point. We'll be contacting you in a hundred days. Remember your orders. Stay strong, soldier. Time to disembark." The sarge handed her a waterproof packet containing the recipe book of the items she could create using the workbench system and her letter of introduction to the villagers.
He looked her in the eye and slapped her on her shoulder. She nodded to him and gave a quick smile. She slid the materials into her backpack and scooted over the side of the small craft, swung the pack on to her back, and slid over the side into knee deep water.
She turned to push the boat out of the shallow water. Her fellow mercenaries wished her luck as she waded the few yards to the sandy beach. She turned to face the boat and waved them off. Her fellow mercenaries waved to her then turned back to the oars and started to row back to the main ship to drop the next mercenary off at his post.
She turned back to the forest around her, her senses assessing what was there. Her eyes scanned the forest looking at the strangeness around her. Square stuff everywhere! She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary but until she knew what was ordinary, she had to assume every noise was a potential enemy.
The training simulation and videos had shown her the perils of this world. The mercenary ship arrived at the beginning of the radio negotiations and gathered details on what was happening on the surface. Their computer prepared simulations for her to run through, but simulations could only partially prepare her. This was the real thing.
She knew the only monster she had to worry about during the day was the black spotted green things called creepers. They were probably the worst monsters on the planet as they could cause the biggest damage to her by blowing up when they got near her. The shoreline and surrounding forest looked all clear to her, so she placed a beacon to be her temporary ‘Stay Alive’ point.
She set to work collecting wood and quickly her inventory contained the initial workbench, a couple of wooden logs and planks, a wooden shovel, pick, ax and sword. The sword didn't look very strong but it would work until she could mine some stone to upgrade her tools.
"The sarge said the village should be that direction," she thought to herself. "Okay, Jonsie, let's get going."
She took a deep breath and strode off watching for dangers, ores, and, most importantly, the village.
Week 1 - Day 1
She saw a deep dark slash across the land in front of her. As she walked closer to to the slash it appeared to be a deep ravine showing many layers of soil and rock exposed to the air. As she edged closer to the edge she heard the moans of the zombies hiding in the dark areas of the ravine. She knew the plague changed the normal inhabitants and animals on this planet into the spiders, zombies and skeletons. She knew she had to kill them to stay alive, but it felt wrong to do so, but she had to.
A vein of coal caught her eye and she carefully walked along the edge of the ravine to gather the coal. Another deposit caught her eye and she mined a few more until she had about 20 coal.
"Shouldn't be greedy here, Jonsie. That's enough for torches, cooking and maybe some smelting if I can find some iron."
She caught the glint of some iron bearing stone down in the ravine, but her orders were to find the village and that is what she needed to do. She quickly set a few torches along the edge of the ravine and copied down the coordinates - 286, 65, 275 - of the ravine into her notebook for future use.
She glanced up at the sun and knew she had to get going. She swung her pack on her back and settled it comfortably on her back. As she came down the hill she saw the square gray colored outline of buildings across the valley in front of her.
The sun set over the horizon as she walked up to the village. She quickly glanced around. "I need to light this town up. Not enough torches. How have they survived this long?"
She tossed down her pack and pulled out the coal and sticks she had made when she landed and made the torches. "Okay twenty torches. Let's go, Jonsie. Get some torches up."
As she placed her first torch, she saw a creeper and a zombie off in the distance. Her heart sped up at the chance for her first encounter with the monsters on this planet. She pulled out her wooden sword and strode towards the monsters. Unfortunately the creeper blew up and caused a small amount of damage to her, but the zombie died quickly under her sword.
"Need a better sword, ASAP. This wooden one is almost worthless." She thought to herself as she looked quickly around her.
She pushed open the door to a house, looking to see what or who was inside. She caught a glimpse of the humanoid lifeform in the house. She heard a cry of surprise, or at least she thought it expressed surprise at seeing her when they caught sight of her. One of the aliens started towards her but she waved it back and motioned it to stay inside.
"I'm here to help you. Stay inside." she commanded them. She pushed the door shut and went to another house.
"No door, need to fix that later. This is a pretty good sized village. Gotta make it through this first night. Where's an oven so I can cook this chicken."
Her eye fell on a wheat farm. She saw some of it was ripe and took a few of the ripe stalks to get some bread made. "I'll replant in the morning." she thought to herself.
She continued to scan around her. Zombies roamed around the hills. Apparently they were close enough to notice her. Skeletons shot arrows at everything that moved. They looked very dangerous. Those nasty creepers bounced her and there. She had to get the torches up and try to keep the village safe for the night.
A few hours later as the sun slowly came over the hills, Johsie trudged back to the town from her stay alive beacon point for the second time. She breathed a small thanks for the implant in her arm.
"Thank you, sun," she whispered to herself as she watched the zombies and skeletons burst into flames when the rays of the sun hit them. "I thought I was ready for this assignment. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew. I forgot my training. I rushed in and didn't set up anything for myself. I need to look after myself, get a house built, a bed to sleep in, then I can protect the villagers."
Jonsie felt miserable about her performance, dying twice in one night, but maybe her presence helped the villagers. "I need to sleep tonight to set my stay alive point so I don't have to do this hike in the dark. I need to get doors on all the houses, talk to the head guy. Those darn sheep are trampling their crops, That stream flowing through their town needs to be contained. There is a lot of work to be done. First I need to find the town leader."
She walked around the edge of the village. She died on the outer edge the last time and needed to find the few supplies she had gathered during the night. Darn that creeper. It was stronger than the last one. Her stuff lay scattered on the ground around her last death spot. She walked around haphazardly stuffing items in her backpack or in her pockets as she walked around. She found the introduction letter and kept it out as she saw the villagers gathering in a small group to meet her.
Week 1 - Day 2
"I bet the guys would be laughing at me now, but the sims were too easy. Or maybe I should have hunkered down for the night in one of the homes instead of blindly rushing out to fight the monsters."
She shook off her disappointment and swore by her newly acquired corporal stripes that she would do better. It was her duty to protect this vilage and she would. She swung her backpack off the ground, tried to wipe the worst of the dirt off of her, settled her cap on her head and walked back to the village where a small group of villagers gathered to greet her.
The villagers stared curiously at her as she stared curiously at them. Some the children stared around their parents legs. An older man stepped out of the crowd of villagers gathered to greet her.
She removed her cap as he walked up to her, "Hello, sir. I am Corporal Erika Jones of a mercenary group your government hired to help you in this difficulty. I am here to protect your village. Here's a letter to introduce me." the translator translated her words into their language.
He took the letter from her and read it. After reading it and passing it to another villager "Corporal Jones, thanks be to the high gods that you are here. My name is Jurath, I'm the new leader of this village. The last leader died two nights ago fighting the monsters off." he stopped for a moment as he took a deep breath. She could see the pain and responsibility he carried in his eyes. She hoped she could help him with his burden.
"Thank you for protecting us last night. We've been in this area for only a week. We were sent from a large city and walked here. It was a very dangerous trip. The houses and the gardens were already here for us. We slept a bit better knowing you had come. I hope you weren't hurt too bad last night. Is there anything we can do to help you?"
"Hello, Jurath. Thank you for the welcome. I am glad to be here. I don't mean to be rude but I have a lot of work to do before nightfall. If you will continue on your normal activities, I need to get things ready for tonight. I'll put doors up on the buildings that don't have them and try to gather supplies so I'm ready for tonight." She sound brusque and rude to her ears, but she had to get some work done and set up for the night.
He nodded his head but didn’t seemed insulted by her brusqueness, "Of course, Corporal. Do whatever you need to do. My family along with two other families is in the large building in the center of town. We were a peaceful race and we, in this village, are not soldiers or farmers. We don't know what to do and were not prepared for this plague that turned so many of us into monsters. We have been at their mercy for the past week. Thank you for whatever you do."
Corporal Jones nodded to the leader. "Can I set up temporary quarters in one of the empty houses until I can build my quarters?"
"Of course you can, I'll take you to an empty one and you can get yourself settled."
"Great. I do need some food for today until I can do some foraging for myself or help you get these farms rebuilt."
He looked worriedly at the small grain fields in his village. She could see him calculating what his villagers would need.
"I only need a few sheaves of wheat to make some bread and I will be fine."
The worry left his face as he nodded his agreement, "Of course, I’m sorry to be so stingy. Come let me show you the house you can use."
They walked over to the house. She thanked him for his kindness and quickly set up her items in the small house and took stock of what she needed for the day.
"Bread, wood, wood and more wood. I need some stone and maybe it would be worth it to hike back for that iron in that ravine, but I think I will put that off for later. Right now I need to get the doors up and fences around those wheat fields. Those sheep were causing lots of damage last night. All right, first order, wood and lots of it." She created a couple of stone axes, a stone sword and put them in her inventory. She placed a wooden chest in one corner of her house and a bed in the other corner.
She hiked out to the forested area. All she had time for was to gather the wood. The days went faster on this planet than she was used to or maybe there was so much to do that the time went so quickly. It seemed like the day had just started and now the sun was setting.
"I have to make better use of my time." she thought as she walked quickly back to her small house.
She found she couldn't sleep in her house. Each time she slept a skeleton showed up. She had to make one night run from her landing point to get back to her house after being teleported out of danger. She collapsed her bed and knocked on the door of one of the larger houses. A young female answered the door.
"Excuse me."
"Hi, Corporal Jones."
"I am sorry to bother you but can I sleep here tonight? I need to get some sleep and the skeletons keep invading the small house when I try to sleep."
The young female looked worriedly at her, "I don't.." she swallowed her fear as she looked at the exhausted soldier in front of her. "Of course you can. I'm sorry I don't have a room to put you in, but.." she waved her hands at the floor in the main room of the house. "if this is okay, you can sleep here."
"That's okay, right now, I can sleep anywhere. Thanks so much. Don't worry.. I'll protect you if the skeletons come in here. I must have something setup wrong on that house. I’m not used to the rules here." She hurriedly set up her bed and quickly fell asleep before her watch awoke her for a short outside patrol.
Week 1 - Day 3
The bright light of the morning sun woke Jonsie. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, realizing she had overslept. She stepped out of bed and went to the windows of the house, peering out to see what was happening in the village. Everything seemed to be normal but she wasn’t sure what normal was in the village.
After Jonsie dressed in her uniform the young lady gave Jonsie what she thought was a fried egg sandwich and a cup of hot liquid. The liquid tasted bitter but warmed her to the bottom of her feet.
"It is all I have to give you." the young lady apologized.
"This is great. Thanks for the place to sleep. I'm going to get a house set up for myself and I will come back and get my bed to set it up in my house."
The young lady thanked her, "No, last night was the first night I felt safe in the past two weeks. You can stay longer if you want."
"No, I need to get my base of operations set up for myself, so I can protect your village better. Thanks you for your help last night."
The young lady nodded her head and returned to her work.
Jonsie strode out of the door, shut it behind her and thought to herself. "Okay, priorities, we need to get a house up for myself that I can sleep in. I can't bunk in with her all week."
She walked around the town and picked a temporary place to put her first shelter. Later she could fix it up.
She saw an outcropping of grey stone on one of the nearby hillsides and mined about 80 stones from the hillside. She could hear the rattling of skeletons in the caves in the hill.
"I'll have to go down into that cave at a later date to get that cave cleaned out. Maybe if I light it up, the monsters will stop reproducing down there. For now I'll make sure it is blocked off."
Returning to the village she quickly built a cobblestone house with a dirt roof. She looked at her house, shook her head, "It looks pretty rough but I think I can sleep here tonight."
She returned to her temporary quarters from last night, thanked the young lady for her kindness, and moved the bed in her new home. She set the stay alive beacon for her bed, so if she died, she would return to this house.
Night started to fall. She did a quick patrol of the village The monsters seemed to stay away from the lighted areas and she thought a more torches would be a good idea for tomorrow. After a few turns around the village to make sure everything was okay for the night, she headed back to her house and bed.
She made a mental list of what she needed to do tomorrow. "I need to make a survey of the village and start to make some repairs in the different places and build their defenses."
She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep. Her past mercenary experience taught her to fall asleep quickly no matter what was happening. A few hours later her watch chimed at her and she arose to took a quick patrol around the town. The torches she had put up during the day seemed to keep the monsters further away. Only a few zombies came in to attack her. She returned to her bed. The watch went off two more times so she could do another quick patrol. She woke up tired with another long list of items before her.
Week 1 - Day 4
She set out to repair the paths in the village. The paths ended abruptly in certain places, some were uneven with holes ready to trip her up each night. The water canal from one of the fields had flooded another area. The damaged condition of the paths made it hard to patrol as she had to watch her surroundings and her footing. She harvested the wheat in the gardens where it was ripe and reseeded where necessary. She distributed the wheat to the villages after keeping a few sheaves to prepare bread for herself.
The villagers seemed to be in shock. They moved slowly as they went through their tasks. It seemed they had used up all their energy in getting to this village. A few said hello to her as she worked in the village. Jurath came out to talk to her for a few minutes and helped her a bit as she worked in the gardens. The mothers had their children bring her water throughout the day so she didn't have to return to the well to get a drink. That small kindness helped her a lot.
She sweated as she worked under the midday sun, but her training had prepared her for the hard labor. She was in the best shape of her life, but her strength would only get her so far or at least that is what her sarge told her, “Use your head, Jonsie, not just your muscles.”
She thought as she worked. “I need to get these villagers working with me so this village becomes theirs, not mine. They must be willing to protect, feed and take care of themselves.” She looked at the villagers stumbling around the village and shook her head. “I have a lot of work to do!”
Night fell and she grabbed a quick bite of bread and meat to refresh herself. She left all of her valuables in the chest in her home and took a quick patrol around the village. She looked into one house and saw a zombie in the house. The occupants were terrified of the zombie but weren't doing anything to fight it off. She rushed to the house and pushed the door open. The zombie rushed her but with a few quick swings of her sword it died at her feet. The people thanked her, but she waved off their thanks.
"I got to get back out. I'll return tomorrow to see how it got into this house. Sleep well." she told them.
She firmly shut the door behind her and continued her patrol. She fought a few more monsters that came into the village area, then she went home and slept until her chime went off, patrolled again, then slept until the next chime of her watch. This would be her routine until the villagers were ready to help her.
Week 1 - Day 5-6
The days of the first week started to blend into each other. She worked hard to fix up the village. She knew the burden of the villager's safety was solely in her hands until they could help her. This burden weighed heavily on her. The village was set up in a nice area, water and other supplies were nearby, but this world had turned into a dangerous place to live. Ores were abundant in the area, but the ravines and caves all around the town were a perfect place for the monsters to reproduce in droves.
She knew she had a nest of zombies and skeletons below the town. She heard them moaning and rattling their swords whenever she went near one of the houses. The inhabitants of that house told her they heard those noises since they moved into the house. She asked them why didn't they move. They shrugged their shoulders at her as if to say it would be too much trouble. When she was fixing the wheat farm near the sound, a patch of sand almost collapsed under her. She caught sight of a skeleton and heard the moanings of a couple of zombies. She covered the hole leading to the monster nest so the villagers wouldn't fall into the hole.
She saw coal in various areas around the town but she did want to deplete what was nearby in case of an emergency. There weren't any trees around the town for about 50 blocks. Someone must have cut them down to create the village. So she took another foray away from the village to gather wood and saplings. Wood would be used to turn into charcoal and to cook with and the saplings to plant a renewable source of fuel in the village.
They needed so much and she was only one person. She decided that every seventh day she would rest, visit with the villagers, try to get to know them, and rest to get her strength back. In her training for this assignment the LT told them "Don't wear yourself out. You will have enormous amounts of things you need to do. Prioritize them, but always," he had stopped in his lecture and looked all of them in the eye. "Always take care of yourself. When you need to rest, then rest. These villagers will be depending on you. Yes, your Stay Alive device will bring you back to life, but it takes a toll on you. Take care of yourself first.”
She methodically worked through what she needed to do. Getting the gardens protected and the wall up were the most important things. The nest of monsters would have to wait. They weren't getting out to harm the villagers now that she had blocked them off. The village needed to be made safe and secure, so the following week she could do some serious mining for a couple stacks of cobblestone for their first wall. She had hiked around the area trying to find a good place to do the large scale mining she had to do. She had to safely and quickly gather a large number of stones to create the village wall. Finally she realized the answer had been staring her in the face the entire time.
She walked with Jurath over to a good sized hill near the village, "I need to ask you something, Jurath. I need a nearby source of cobblestone for the wall I must build around the village, for the houses to build and I need a lot of dirt to fill in the empty spaces in this town. Can I take down this good sized hill?"
He looked at the hill then looked at her, "You want to remove this hill?"
She explained slowly to him, "Yes, Jurath. I need a large amount of stone for the wall and a lot of dirt to fix up the village but I don't want to mine too close to the village or mine under the village. This hill should give me all I need to do this. I know I can do it, but I want to make sure it is okay with you before I start. If I don't use this hill then I have to go further off to get the supplies I need. I wouldn't feel safe leaving the village on its own as I would have to spend nights away from the village. Your village needs me here every night to keep it safe until I can get this wall up.'
"That's a lot of work for you, Jonsie," Ericka didn't sound right anymore as all her fellow mercenaries had called her Jonsie, so she had asked the villagers to call her Jonsie. "but if you think this is best way then go ahead."
The hill was going to be a huge challenge, but it was a ready supply of dirt and stone, and hopefully some ore and most importantly it was nearby. She thought she would level it off and make it into the start of an underground mining operation or even a farm of some sort. As she mined the dirt, she fixed the wheat plots and put fences around them. The animals and even the villagers were trampling the crops. As she found holes in the town or as creepers created more holes, she filled them in with the dirt from the hill. As the trees she planted grew, she harvested them and planted more.
Week 1 - Day 7
The seventh day came. Her ever growing list of things to do stared her in the face when she woke up in the morning. She had so much to do, but she had to rest. Exhaustion haunted her steps and she knew she would make mistakes if she didn’t rest for a day. She wondered how the other mercenaries were doing in their towns. They had more experience than her, but her sarge told her many times that no one could match her drive and determination.
She sat outside her small house, sipping a cup of what she called coffee, and watched the villagers go about their daily tasks. They were more alert and seemed to know what they were doing. They walked with a purpose. Jurath saw her sitting outside of her house and walked over to her.
"What's up, Jonsie? Are you feeling well?"
"Yes, Jurath. I'm fine. I had to take a day off to rest. Hope that's okay with you."
He nodded his head, "You’ve worked so hard. We’ve been amazed at how much you have gotten done. My wife wanted me to ask you for dinner tonight."
"I'd enjoy coming. When do you want me there?"
"Two hours before sunset, I think. I'll send Janick over to get you when my wife says she is ready. Is that okay?"
"Yes, Jurath. Thanks. I'll be there."
He walked back to his house. She closed her eyes for a few minutes but opened them back again. "I can't fall asleep out here until I have the wall up. Those creepers could sneak up on me and boom. If I am going to sleep I need to go back inside."
She took a quick patrol around the village making sure no creepers were hanging around teh outskirts of the village. When she returned to her home, she organized the storage chests and policed the inside and outside of her quarters. When everything was cleaned she walked around the vilage and talked to some of the villagers. After a bit, she returned to her home. The bed looked inviting so she lay down on it and closed her eyes, not planning to sleep but she did. The next thing she heard was a gentle knock at the door. She reached for her sword as she quickly rose from the bed. She opened the door to see a young boy standing at the door.
"Dad sent me over to get you for dinner, Ms. Jonsie."
She opened the door, smiling at Janick, Jurath's oldest boy. Well, not really not his oldest. Jurath's oldest boy had been missing since the plague hit. They didn't know where he was. Jurath told me they mourned his death and now Janick was the oldest son.
Ericka closed the door behind her and put her sword in the ever present scabbard at her side. "Thanks, Janick, for escorting me to dinner."
He smiled shyly at her and offered his arm for her to take. She took it and they walked over for dinner. As they walked over she realized how dirty she was and wished she had taken the time to clean up a bit. "Bath on the seventh day too - stupid head." she chuckled to herself.
The meal was filling. It was just meat, vegetables and bread..It was the same meal she would have eaten but Marto, Jurath's wife, had a great way of spicing the food so it was delicious. After they ate, they sat around the table talking for about an hour. Ericka looked out the window and saw the sun was going down.
"Marto, that was a delicious meal. Thank you so much for inviting me. Someday when I get a better house built, I'll have you over for dinner, but it won't be as good as what you cooked. I need to make a patrol or two before I get some sleep. Jareth and Marto, thanks for the meal."
Marto smiled at her, "Jonsie, you are always welcome to take your meals with us."
She nodded her head, "Well thanks for everything. Good night."
Jonsie strolled around the village, looking relaxed for the villager's sake, but she saw and heard everything around her. Her ears caught the faint cries of the monsters and the screeching of the spiders. Inside her head she was making another list of what she needed to do in the next week - more planting, mining and starting the wall. The village must be defensible and profitable before the sarge showed up in a hundred days.
She took a few more turns around the village. The villagers learned not to go out at night even though the village was lit up with torches. The monsters seemed to stay of out the lighted village as long as they didn't see anyone walking around. During the day, they only had to deal with the creepers, but if you ran fast enough you could get out of their blast range. The creepers didn't seem to explode near the villagers. They only blew up near her, so she had to keep an eye out on them as she worked during the day. Their explosion packed a wallop.
She sat on her bed rubbing her tired feet. She took out her notebook where she wrote cryptic notes in each nigth to show what she had done each day. She wrote. "The first week is done. The crops are protected by fences surrounding each of the small plots. I turned one plot over and reseeded it. I'll continue to do that for each plot every other day so we have a constant crop growing. I don't know how long each one will take to grow. I might try a new design on the gardens as that long trench of water is hard to deal with. I'm tired of getting wet to get the seeds and wheat that fall into the water. I'd like to get a supply of reeds growing in the gardens.
"I ate dinner with Jurath and his family. It was a good meal and nice to socialize with someone for a night. I've been so busy working, getting things done, that I've forgotten to visit with the villagers. They need to know me, as a person, so when I call on their help in the future, they will want to help me.
"I don't feel that I got much accomplished this week. Most of my time was fixing what the builders of the village had not done correctly. I don't understand why they put blocks of wood around their gardens instead of fences. I asked Jurath. He said the wheat was already there in those plots when they got here. He told me the army had put up hundreds of these small settlements when they saw how bad the plague was going to be. Maybe they didn't have time to get it all done.
"I need to clean the underground nest of monsters out of the middle of the village, so I stop hearing their moans and groans as I walk over their hole. I found another deep cave in the village that I blocked off with wall and a door."
“I need to get the villagers to a point where they can help. Maybe next week, I can approach Jurath about starting a work/militia detail. I know I can teach them what they need to know and having an extra set of hands to help me get things done would great.
A gigantic yawn escaped her. She put the notebook back into the storage chest, lay back into bed, closed eyes and quickly fell asleep until her chime went off again for another patrol.
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