(Y/N)'s POV
Way too many portals. Way. Too. Many. Portals.

Bats. Water. Sheep. Squids. Snow. Fire. By now, we're all getting a bit ticked. Especially Aiden.

"I'm sick of all this useless portal-hopping, trying to find our way home!" he complains.

"Look, we're all pretty frustrated right now," I say. "But we all also need to keep sane."

"We're just going through the same tedious circle," he says. "Go through a portal, try not to die, and leave."

"Wash, rinse, repeat?" Ivor asks. "Yes. It would be nice if whoever made these left some sort of signs, guideposts."

"Exactly," I say. "There's no map, so there's going to be some trial and error."

"And error and error and error and error and error," Aiden says. He starts walking away from us.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

"Maybe there's no guideposts, but someone has to know how to navigate this place." He walks to a portal framed with redstone. "Okay, this one's redstone. Redstone means smart people. Smart people could help us get home."

"Aiden, trust me," I say. "We'll find the way."

"Either that or die trying, right?"

"So, what, are you just going to go through that portal and that's that?" Jesse asks.

"So what if I am?" Aiden says. "Maybe I'll make my own decisions instead of (Y/N) calling the shots every time."

I try not to seem hurt, even though I terribly am.

"Okay, okay, maybe we should all just cool down and apologize, yeah?" Faith says, noticing my pain.

"Yeah, I am sorry," I say. "I've kind of just have been going without consulting any of you. I'm a leader, not a boss. I guess I really should've gotten y'all's input."

"I'm sorry, too, (Y/N)," Aiden says. "I shouldn't have flipped out on you."

"See? It's okay," Lukas says. "Friends being friendly. Everybody's being cool." {Lol I love this line.}

"You know what?" I say. "Let's go through this portal. Aiden's call."

"Thanks, (N/N)," Aiden says smilingly.

Into the portal; it's time to go. I hate to leave; I have to, though.

Blah.

*~*~*~*~*

We land in the middle of a mesa biome.

"Pretty," I say. "Desolate."

"Maybe there's some kind of city behind that mountain? Over that hill?" Aiden suggests.

"Hey, it's a rare biome," Lukas says. "That's pretty cool." He takes out his book and writes something down.

"I've been meaning to ask—what is that?" Jesse asks Lukas.

"Oh, it's a . . . y'know, just a book," he says. "I picked it up at the White Pumpkin's place. It's all about these different biomes and stuff."

"Good idea, Lukas," I say. "Hey, you okay, Aiden?"

"So much for my hunch about the redstone portal, huh?" he says. "I just really thought it meant something."

"Don't beat yourself up," I say. "It's fine."

"Yeah, no one's on fire; there's no squids . . . ," Faith says.

"No squids on fire," Ivor adds. {Ivor deals the best lines in the whole game.}

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Aiden says.

"Hm, look at that," Ivor says, examining the area. "Sand."

"Looks like some sort of road," Lukas observes.

"Going to write about it in your little journal?" Ivor teases.

"Hey, it's not little, but . . . yes, probably," Lukas says.

"Roads don't occur naturally," I say.

"But where does it lead? That's the question," Ivor says.

"Lettuce find out," I say.

We walk through the dry, desolate desert, trying to find any signs of civilization. But all it is sand and clay and cactus.

"What was that?" Jesse asks finally.

"Aha! There are people here!" Aiden says excitedly, running away to examine what Jesse was talking about.

"Wait!" I call, chasing after him.

"Get down," he says when I reach him. I crouch behind the small sand dune.

"Whoa." There's a zombie meandering the area in front of us, but it's not burning up, and it's pure daylight. There's a little red button on the back of its head that's flashing.

"Right?" he says.

"Why is it not on fire?" I ask.

"I don't know. Maybe that's this world's 'thing'. The monsters come out in daylight."

"Maybe we should get a closer look?"

"On it." He draws his sword and jumps down to the zombie, swiping at it with his weapon, but it barely hurts it. Almost as if the zombie's skin is impenetrable. "Um, a little help down here?"

"Totally!" I draw my own sword and meet him down by the monster. Its red eyes track me and it slowly staggers toward me. I take a swing at it and it knocks back only an inch or two, making a metal clanking sound. "Yeah, this isn't right." I hit it a few more times and am finally able to hit it to the ground and kill.

"It was just one zombie—what took so long?" Ivor asks, approaching us with the other.

"Uh, that thing was like a super-zombie," Aiden says. "It was stronger and tougher and faster."

"Seems a little weird," Faith says.

"Superstrong zombies? What's up with that?" Lukas says.

Then, as if right on cue, a group of zombies that look similar to the other comes toward us. All of us draw our swords.

"I don't know about any of you, but I think we might need a more efficient way to defeat these things," I say.

They back us into a wall of dirt, and when we aim our swords at them, they stop and hang their heads and arms, as if they've powered down or something.

"That was unexpected," Jesse says.

"Did we do that?" I ask.

"With what? The power of our imaginations?" Ivor asks sarcastically.

"Possibly," I shrug.

Jesse pokes one of the zombies with her sword and it barely budges. I take the opportunity to study the device on their heads. "What is this thing?"

"Looks redstone-ish," Faith says.

"Fascinating," Ivor says.

"Maybe it's what's keeping the zombies so emotionless," I say.

"Possibly," Lukas says, writing something in his journal. "I'm starting to think that maybe we—"

A loud shrieking sound pierces the air, coming from the zombies.

"What are they doing?" Jesse asks over the sound.

"I don't know, but maybe we should get out of here," I say.

We start sneaking past the zombies and they abruptly stop making the noise and mobilize again, turning away from us and walking away.

"Where are they going?" Faith asks.

"This may sound weird, but maybe they're leading us somewhere," Lukas says.

"That does sound weird," Aiden says.

"I mean, it's worth a try," I say. "What other option, really, do we have?"

It takes a long while, but the zombies finally bring us to a promising-looking area. There's what appears to be a long staircase, leading to the top of a butte littered with tiny houses. We continue up the steps to the little city to find that almost all the buildings aren't even whole—just broken shells of what probably used to be nice little homes, at least nice enough to provide shelter for whomever lived here.

"I don't see any people anywhere," Jesse says.

"This architecture is fascinating," Lukas says. "Everything is sand- and clay-based. It's awesome."

"Let's see if we can any people," I say. "Maybe if we can, they'll know something about what the heck is going on."

"Maybe they'll even know where the exit portal is," Ivor says hopefully.

"Hey! I told you there'd be redstone!" Aiden says excitedly, standing at a house with a redstone foundation.

"Nice!" I say.

"Speaking of redstone, I'd like to investigate those . . . things on the backs of the zombies' heads," Ivor says. He steps up to a platform where the zombies had nested and tugs on the device on one of the zombies.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to rip this thing out of this zombie's head," he says. "For science. They're sleeping or something. It should be easy."

"You don't think that sounds . . . dangerous?" I ask.

"More dangerous for this zombie than me," he says. "I think." He proceeds to pull on it and a surge of electricity shocks him, causing him to fall backward.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"It's like it shocked me!" he says.

"Told you it seemed dangerous."

"Well, they can't be removed. Not with our bare hands, anyway."

I spot a figure in the distance. "Look! It's a person!"

"Think they're friendly?" Lukas asks.

"Hello?" I call out. "Hello?" They don't respond.

"Hello?" Ivor says. "Nope. Nothing for me, either."

"Maybe they didn't hear us," I suggest.

"Makes sense, I guess," Aiden says.

"I'll talk to them," I say. I walk to the person, who's digging through a chest. "Hello?" They don't respond. "Uh, hello?" He stands up. "My friends and I were— Oh!" His eyes are red. Like the zombies'. Is wasn't all that weird for the zombies, but for man, it's pretty strange.

He walks away from me and I notice he has one of those devices on his head, too.

My friends join me. "Did the conversation go any better up close?" Ivor asks. "We couldn't really hear from back there."

"He did not seem human," I say. "I mean, he did, but his eyes were red like the zombies' and he had one of those devices on his head."

"That doesn't sound good," Faith says.

I see something, maybe someone, go by quickly out of the corner of my eye.

"I'm pretty sure someone just ran into that house," I say.

"I don't see anyone," Jesse says.

"Like I said, I'm pretty sure I did," I say. " Come on. Maybe this one will be helpful."

I creep into the house to find someone looking through a chest—but this one's talking. The person at the chest stands up, holding a bunch of the devices.

"Hello?" I say.

She drops her handful and whips around to me. She backs away from me. "That you, PAMA?" she asks.

"What?" I ask.

"Okay, then. Okay. Who sent you?" she asks. "I didn't survive this long to get picked off by some scrub. Especially some weird-dressed little scrub like you. Come on, then, out with it!"

"Calm down!" I say. "You're freaking me out!"

"I'm freaking you out?" she says. "How do you think I'm doing right now? Wait! You're serious, aren't you?" She paces around the room. "Okay, eyes . . . eyes not red. But that must mean . . . How is that possible?" My friends join me. "And there are more of you? This should be . . . it's . . . impossible! Out with it! Who are you people? What's going on here?"

"I'm sensing some hostility," Ivor says.

"No kidding," Faith says.

"We, uh, we came through a portal," I explain.

"A portal?" the woman asks. "A portal portal? Really?" I nod. "Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, uh . . . Been alone for a while so this is a lot to take in right now. The people—the citizens of Crown Mesa—you've met them, right? Maybe there were some outside? They're very distinctive-looking no."

"I mean, I kind of talked to a man outside," I say. "'Kind of' meaning he was unresponsive, but, yeah."

"Just the one?" she asks.

"Yes," I say.

She puts a brown-gloved hand on my shoulder. "I know it's probably hard to understand, but if you see anyone else—please don't hurt them. They're my friends. They're good people. I promise." She jumps. "Oh, no, no, no, I've wasted too much time."

"Uh, we've got company," Lukas says. Out the window, four red-eyed people are coming toward our building.

"There's only four of them, and seven of us," I say. When I turn back to face the woman, she's gone. {I keep wanting to call her Harper but I can't yet lol} "Where'd she go?"

"Well, they're definitely not ignoring us anymore," Jesse says. The citizens climb the steps into the house.

"What are we supposed to do?" Aiden asks.

"They don't look happy," Faith says.

"They don't look anything," Lukas says.

"That's even freakier," Jesse says.

"Blend in? I don't know!" I say.

"How?" Faith asks.

"I don't know; look vacant!" I say.

We fall still, but they're still pursuing us.

"Make the sound they make?" I suggest.

Lukas makes some kind of "eee" sound and I mentally face-palm. {Honestly this scene is pure gold.}

They stop, and say in a robotic, in-unison voice, "You are not from here."

"I think you're mistaken. We definitely are," I lie.

"PAMA knows this to be untrue," they say. "PAMA sees all. A decision has been made. PAMA has questions. You will come to PAMA."

"Sorry, but, um, we were actually on our way out," I say. "So, uh, we have to go, but maybe we'll catch you later. Maybe meet up for dinner? You like burgers?" They all try to grab us. "Guess not." I fight one off and head for the door, but one is waiting there for me.

His metallic hand punches me backward and "You will be made useful," is the last thing I hear.

💙A/N💙

Yay! It's finally out! Agh! This took too long!
Listening to Kinky Boots has consumed my life.
Ladies, gentlemen, and those who have yet to make up your minds . . .

Word count: 2,348