The New Order (23 page)

CHAPTER 21
RETURN TO THE VILLAGE

T
he sun was high in the sky as Captain Drake scanned the horizon. He knew that she would be returning soon. Her target was not far off from the Noctem outpost where Drake was. It wouldn't be a long walk for her. A makeshift wall of sandstone ringed the dirt shacks hastily built on top of the sand hill, and it was on top of this wall that Drake was now perched.

As Drake waited for his compatriot to return, he smiled as he thought about his new title. Captain Drake. It felt good just to hear it in his mind.
Captain Drake
. Perhaps he would drop the Count title altogether and just go by the name of Captain.

As Drake looked out into the desert plains, he could see the Elementia camp in the distance, with little dots scurrying around it. He supposed they must be doing some sort of training drill or something. Well, Drake was sure that, whatever they were doing, it was of no concern to him. His job was simply to counterattack anything the Elementia army threw at him, and occasionally to pick a fight if things got too quiet here on the Cold Front, as Element City liked to call it.

Finally, on the horizon, he saw a black dot approaching the hill. As it got closer and closer, Drake made out the pink face of Corporal Tess approaching the gates.
Excited to hear how the operation had gone, Drake climbed down off the wall and walked through the rows of makeshift huts to meet her at the gate.

“Well, if it isn't the big bad Captain Drake,” she said with a smirk as she walked in the door.

“Doesn't it sound good?” he said. “That's the kind of name people remember . . . Captain Drake, hero of the Noctem Alliance . . .”

“Oh, for sure.” Tess laughed, punching Drake in the shoulder to snap him out of his daydream. “You realize we have to win the war before the whole world starts praising you, right, Captain Bonehead?”

“True, true,” said Drake.

“Anyway,” continued Tess, “I suppose you want to hear about the attack on the village now, right?”

“Of course,” replied Drake with a smile.

“Well, you'll be surprised to hear that there actually weren't any soldiers in the village. There wasn't an Iron Golem either.”

“Huh?” asked Drake, caught off guard. “But I thought President Stan sent . . .”

“Yeah, me too.” Tess shrugged. “I didn't even need the Invisibility Potion to finish the job. I just blew up the fronts of their houses, climbed onto one of their roofs, and let the full moon do the rest.”

“Excellent,” replied Drake with a grin. “And did any of the villagers . . . well, you know . . .”

“I don't know yet,” replied Tess. “I've got Private Spyro stationed out there in case any of them turn, and if none of them do, well, I guess we could always find another village.”

“True,” said Drake, nodding his head. “Okay then, the village has been attacked. . . . do me a favor, Tess, and send out a messenger to General Leonidas back in Nocturia. Let him know what a success the attack was.”

As Tess nodded and ran to send off the message, Drake smiled a huge smile to himself.
Fantastic! Chancellor Caesar's plan has worked perfectly! I can't wait until General Leonidas finds out about how well the attack on the NPC village went . . . he'll be so proud. . . .

Stan had been conflicted about letting Oob come with him, Kat, Charlie, and DZ on the train ride out to the NPC village. On one hand, it was his village, and Stan knew that Oob would have hated all of them if they had kept him from going there in its hour of need. On the other hand, Stan knew full well what they were going to see when they arrived at the village. He himself was taking deep breaths, preparing himself to keep from completely breaking down. The thought of Oob's reaction to what they were about to see was unimaginable.

Whatever aversions he had had, the four players now sat alongside Oob, as an engineer shuttled the five of them down the railroad tracks, across the Ender Desert. The setting sun cast brilliant pastel colors into the sky. It was a shame that none of the passengers on the train could appreciate it. They were too occupied with what they were about to see.

After far too short a time, the silhouettes of the houses of the NPC village became apparent against the gorgeous sunset. The convoy of minecarts slowed down before finally screeching to a halt. Rex appeared out of nowhere next to Kat's car. As Stan and his friends climbed out of the carts, it occurred to Stan that the village looked largely unchanged from a distance. However, Stan's stomach sank lower and lower as he walked toward the village and more and more details came into view.

The once-smooth gravel street was pockmarked with craters, arrows stuck out from everywhere, and, most horrifying of all, the fronts of each and every house had been blown out by some massive explosion. There was not a villager to be seen anywhere.

Desperate, frenzied footprints were scattered all over the gravel and sand, and they all seemed to lead straight toward the church. And yet, despite all the evidence of carnage that surrounded them on all sides, only deafening silence rang out as the players walked slowly toward the church. Rex
sniffed around the footprints, and he whimpered, his ears and tail drooping in despair.

“Where are all the bodies?” whispered Kat in a shaky voice.

“They must've despawned already . . . or else they escaped,” came DZ's reply, a catch in his throat.

“No,” came Charlie's hollow reply. “Villagers aren't like players and mobs anymore. I read that their bodies don't despawn nearly as fast for some reason since the last update.”

Oob stepped forward. Since he had entered the village, tears had silently streamed down his face. His mouth hung open as he tried to take in the travesty that was the destruction of his home. Now, though, Oob walked up to the door of the church.

“Oob,” said Stan, his voice incredibly warbly as tears streamed down his face, and he struggled to keep composure. He took a step forward and put his hand on the villager's shoulder. “I wouldn't open that door, Oob. You don't want to see what's inside.”

There was a moment of nothing but the sound of Charlie and DZ choking back sobs as Kat and Stan stood white with consternation, looking at Oob. Then, Oob turned to face the players. His face was streaked with tears, but there was no catch in his voice now.

“No,” he whispered. “I must know.”

And with that, Oob turned around and opened the door to the church.

“AURAUUURRGH!!!”

Oob screamed in terror as the Zombie lurched out of the door, arms outstretched and flailing through the air. In his alarm, Oob tumbled backward onto the ground, and the Zombie knelt down to prey on its target. It never got a chance, though. DZ's sword stuck through the back of the Zombie, pinning it to the ground and killing it with one final choking noise. Rex began barking frantically. As DZ resheathed his sword, the four players became aware of a sobbing sound. They looked at the ground and saw Oob, kneeling and sobbing his eyes out, transfixed on what he could see through the open door. Stan turned around and peered through the door, and was instantly seized by an ice-cold fist clenching his heart.

There were villagers in the church, sprawled out across the seats and littering the floor. All of them had sought refuge inside the church during the attack, but to no avail. Stan walked forward hesitantly, and could do nothing but stare at the terrible carnage before him. Stan felt a dull blow to his stomach as he recognized Ohsow, the butcher, and Leol, the blacksmith. He fought the almost irrepressible urge to vomit when he saw Moganga, the priest and leader of the village, leaning back against the altar, eyes peacefully closed, two
arrows protruding from her heart. And beside her, covered in various monster wounds—Mella, Oob's mother; Blerge, Oob's father; and Stull, Oob's little brother.

Then, as Stan was staring down at Oob sobbing over the bodies of his dead family, wondering how he could possibly say anything to his villager friend, Mella's unibrow twitched.

“Oob!” cried Stan in surprise. “She moved!”

“What?” Oob sobbed, taking his tearstained face and reddened eyes out of the palms of his hands.

“Your mom, she just moved! And your younger brother too!”

For Stull, too, had just twitched his arm. As Stan watched in amazement, Stull and Mella began to stir.

“Guys, come in here quick!” yelled Stan. The other three players, who had been looking in on the situation with dismay, sprinted over to him. Kat commanded Rex to stay as she did so, and he obeyed, looking extremely uncomfortable.

“What is it?” demanded Charlie, whipping out his pickaxe.

“They're still alive!” cried Stan, pointing down to Mella and Stull, who were recovering from their position as Oob's face shined with sudden-onset elation.

The other's faces showed signs of pleasant confusion, when suddenly, in an instant, Charlie's face morphed into horror. “Oob!” he bellowed, lurching forward as Oob bent
down to hug his family. “Get away from . . .”

But it was too late. In a flash, little Stull's face flew upward, his face a sickly green, and his eyes shining bright red as he launched himself forward, his teeth latching onto Oob's chest. The four players stood immobile with shock and horror as Oob cried out in pain, spasmed for a moment, and then sunk lifeless to the ground.

Almost in a trance, Stan drew his axe. He had no idea what was going on. To be honest, his brain was having a problem processing anything at the moment. All he knew was that those creatures were not Oob's family. They were obviously some new type of monster, and they were hurting Oob. Stan raised his axe, his sights set on what he had thought was Mella.

“No, Stan!” cried Charlie, panic in his voice as he knocked Stan's axe to the side. “You'll kill Oob's family!”

“Those things aren't Oob's family!” Stan gasped in horror as Oob's skin began to transform from pale to a disgusting slime green.

“Yes, they are, Stan. They've been infected!” cried Charlie, trying to calm himself down. “It's something that was added on the last update. If a Zombie bites a villager, then they have a chance of turning into a Zombie themselves!”

“S-so are you telling me . . . ,” stammered Stan as the three zombified villagers pulled themselves to their feet,
“that Oob and his family . . . are gonna be monsters forever?”

“No, they won't . . . ,” said Charlie, backing away from the Zombie villagers as the others did the same. “They can be cured. . . . I don't know how, but I can find out.”

“So how long are they gonna stay like this if we can't find it?” demanded Kat as they backed out the door to the church.

“They'll stay like that until someone cures them. Or, you know, until they get killed somehow,” replied Charlie as the Zombies followed them out of the church, their arms outstretched toward the players now. Rex began to bark like crazy at them, only to back down at Kat's command.

“And what are we gonna do with them until then?” squealed DZ, the terror in his voice almost palpable as the family of three Zombie villagers advanced slowly toward him.

“They'll come with me,” came a voice from besides them.

The four players tore their attention away from the zombified Oob, Mella, and Stull to see a player standing in the gravel road, at the edge of a crater. He was dressed entirely in black and had a bow drawn, an arrow positioned in it.

Without hesitation, the four players drew their bows and arrows, aiming them toward the Noctem agent. Stan felt an intense surge of hatred toward this player. This was clearly one of the soldiers who had attacked the village. He was the reason that these villagers, helpless to help themselves, who had shown Stan and his friends so much hospitality, now lay
dead and zombified around them. Stan was about to let the arrow fly, already planning out the following axe strikes in his mind, when the player spoke.

“Drop your weapons or your villager friends get killed.”

Stan didn't have to think twice. His weapon clattered to the ground, alongside the three others. Stan knew that, though the villagers may be Zombies now, they were still villagers. As long as they could be cured, Stan still had a personal duty to protect them.

The Noctem soldier smiled. “Now, don't speak either, or they die.”

As the Noctem soldier said this, the three Zombie villagers became aware of his presence. Their eyes shifted to the bow in his hands, and aware that he was threatening them, they shifted their attention to the soldier. Little Stull seemed to be significantly faster than his mother and brother, sprinting toward the soldier at top speed.

The soldier smiled. “Now,” he said conversationally to the Zombies, “would you really kill me when I can help you get more flesh than you could eat?”

The three Zombies screeched to a halt. They looked at the player for a moment with poignant curiosity. Then, Zombie Oob's mouth opened.

“You . . . give . . . us . . . flesh?” The voice that came from his mouth was like rusty nails dragged on a chalkboard.

Stan was flabbergasted. He couldn't have moved or spoken even if he had been able to, he was so caught off guard. Did that Zombie just speak?

“Yes, I can give you flesh. My name is Private Spyro, and I belong to an organization called the Noctem Alliance. If you join the Noctem Alliance, then you will be able to get all the flesh that you want.”

The Zombies were silent for a moment. Then Zombie Mella slowly asked in her gravelly Zombie voice, “Where . . . you . . . get . . . flesh?”

“The Noctem Alliance,” replied Spyro calmly, as if he were having a conversation with any old player, “is currently at war with a country called Elementia. During the war, we will capture many prisoners. Any prisoners that we capture are yours to eat.”

Stan's mouth dropped open in repulsion, but before any sound could escape, Spyro's bow flipped to face him for a moment, and all the air vanished from his lungs.