Hello everybody, I am back. Enjoy this update :)

K bye.

~<>~

We finally made it to the train station. We disbanded the idea of going in small groups, so we risked going together.

I remember leaving this place when we first came. There was still the open side of the building with the columns, where you could see inside. I remember we came in on minecarts. The idea seems completely stupid now. I can't believe it actually worked.

Yuri led us around to the back of it. It was just a plain wall with a cobblestone floor. However, as I looked closer, I saw gravel mixed in with the cobble.

"Most of the gravel here is just random." Yuri explained. "However, if you look around, there should be a sort of star shape."

"It's too dark to see." Someone complained.

"Well would you rather risk lighting a torch and getting us caught, or spending a few extra seconds to find it?" Infinity snapped at them.

I noticed that she's been edgy since we met Herobrine. Her behavior was more erratic in a bad way. I planned on talking to her later.

"Found it." Mastermind said. Of course the cyborg could see in the dark.

We went over to him. He was standing next to a gravel shape that was an outline of a star.

(10/10 would buy at art show)

"Good work." Yuri said. He walked to the end point nearest to the wall. "Most people would think that it would be in the middle, but the spot is actually right here." He broke the end piece of gravel. There was another piece of gravel under it, which he broke as well. He jumped down, and broke another piece. "Okay, there's a staircase here. You can come down, but one at a time."

"Oh I thought we were all going to be able to fit down the one block hole all at once." I raised my eyebrows.

His head popped up. "Did you just sass me?"

"Yes."

"Fair enough." He threw the gravel on the ground for the last person to place down, and moved right before Ash jumped down.

One by one, we all went down. It went the same order as before, some of our friends in the front, then the random people, and the rest of us in the back. However, instead of being one of the first people, I was one of the last.

When it was my turn to jump, I looked down into the black hole. It was honestly scary. I swept my face around at the part of Bladville that I could see. It was probably going to be the last time I saw it. I then jumped down into the hole, and onto minecart tracks. They must've used them to push the chests. The rest of the group were following each other by the light of a torch from ahead. We were going down a cobblestone staircase.

Jake was the last one to come down, right behind me. He stacked up the gravel, and sighed. "I can't place the last piece from this position." He placed down some stone in front of the gravel so if the police dug down, they wouldn't see the tunnel. "Let's hope they don't dig through this stone."

I nodded, and turned around.

"Hey," Jake said from behind me, "You okay?"

I started walking down the steps. "Yeah. Fine."

"Okay... and you'd tell me if you weren't, right?"

I didn't answer. My eyes were focused on the cobblestone stairs.

It seemed like we were walking for forever. The whole thing was in silence, except for the usual "Are we there yet?" from Gordon, and a sarcastic answer from either Infinity or Abby.

Finally, we stopped descending. I was expecting another stair block, but was surprised to be on level ground. We were still in a tight space of one block wide and two blocks tall. Some of the taller people had to bow their head.

"Is this all there is?" I asked myself out loud. If this was all the tunnel was, then I was started to feel panicky. I felt nervous enough before with the tight space, but now it was even worse. The air was getting warmer and mustier. It was starting to get harder to breathe. Or was it just me?

"I bet Abby's having a mental field day with this." Jake tried to joke.

"It should be much bigger!" I heard her shout from a few people ahead. To that, a few chuckled.

A few minutes later, we stopped. Like the whole line just halted. From all the whispering, I guessed that no one knew why. However, I saw that people were were whispering something down the line.

"We reached the main portion of the tracks." Gordon whispered to me and Jake.

"What does that mean?" I frowned.

Gordon shrugged and turned around. I turned to Jake, and he shrugged as well.

Our group then started moving again. I was anxious to find out what the "main part" was. Finally, I saw an opening up ahead. As I followed the group through, my eyebrows raised. This did indeed look like the main part of the mineshaft. 

It was a very, very long corridor. The section in which we were walking on was a bridge that went along the corridor. It had four minecart tracks alongside each other, and two extra stone rows on each side to be safe. There was a gap on each side each about thirty blocks wide, and the pit below us was probably about fifty blocks down. The far walls did have some fancy designs, but with limited stone brick and cobblestone blocks. The ceiling was maybe twenty blocks above us, with stalactites hanging down.

"Okay," Abby said, "So this is a bit better."

~<>~

We camped out down there for the rest of the night. Some people built out a platform big enough for us to all rest on. The floor was not comfy at all, but it had to do. We had two guards in shifts of two hours for our six hour rest.

I sat down near the edge and hung my feet in the open air, looking at the bottom of the pit. People were whispering among themselves behind me, but I didn't pay attention to them.

"You look lonely." Infinity said as she sat down next to me. "Jake isn't doing his job."

I smiled at the joke, but it faded as I realized that I needed to talk about something important. "Hey, Infinity."

"That's my name."

"Um... This may sound a little weird, but..." I sighed, not knowing how to put it. "Did you know Shade before all of this?"

I couldn't read her face as she stared intensely into the dark. At first I thought she didn't hear me. Finally, she spoke. "Yes."

My eyes lowered to the ground. "Oh."

"In fact," she became more quiet in fear of someone overhearing, "we were friends."

I wasn't sure whether I should've been surprised or not. It was a bit shocking honestly. "How did that happen...?"

She sighed, reluctant to talk at first. "It was a long time ago. We were both in elementary school together. Crazy, am I right? He was just a normal kid back then. Even though he didn't really have any friends, nor did he try to find some. I was kind of the same way."

"And you two found each other."

"More like he found me. Beating someone up."

Of course.

"There were these two guys," she explained, "Brett and Trent. Idiots and bullies. They weren't those classic bullies that would beat up a kid in front of a teacher, no, they'd just bother the nether out of people silently. Well, one day on the playground, I had had enough. I was playing tag with some random kids that asked if I wanted to join. I was running, and running, and then I wasn't. That numskull Brett pushed me to the ground, where I landed hard on my side. He and Trent laughed, and were about to walk away, when I screamed and tackled them."

I raised my eyebrows. "And how old were you guys?"

"Seven."

"Of course you were violent back then."

"I kept hitting one of them in the face while the other crawled away to go get help. I wasn't very strong back then, but he was too scared to pull me off so I was able to give him a black eye and cut lip until third grader Jake pulled me off. Then the guy ran away as well."

To be honest, I really wanted to see Jake as a little kid. He must've been so adorable.

"What happened next was kind of weird. This one kid came over from his corner to us. He was older than everyone in his grade, since he was held back. He told me that I was pretty tough, and hilarious."

"Shade..."

"A few seconds later, a teacher comes over. She demands to know whether what the two idiots said was true or not. I was actually a good student, so I was about to confess, when Shade stepped in and said it was all him. He was a liar, but he also got into fights often, so the teacher believed him. Jake and I were too shocked to tell her what really happened." Infinity shrugged. "After that, Shade and I became friends. We hung out often, pranked people— especially Jake, and had a lot of fun. But two years ago..."

"It's okay if you don't feel comfortable telling me." I untruthfully said. I really wanted to hear the end of the story.

"It's fine." She swallowed. "Two years ago, everything changed. He told me he was working with Herobrine. That Herobrine wasn't as bad as everyone thought he was. He just wanted to make the world a better place.

"After that, I started seeing him less. Our daily visits turned into bi-weekly visits. Jake knew something was up, and somehow got the truth out of me. He didn't want me to see Shade anymore. However..."

She stopped. It took so long for her to respond, I almost thought she forgot she was telling a story. "About a month after that, Shade came to our doorstep. It was risky, so I knew it was important. We slipped out into the woods. And he told me... he told me we couldn't be friends anymore. He said that Herobrine found out about me, and was planning on killing me."

"Did he?" I gasped.

A few seconds of silence. "Yes. Anyways, Shade convinced him to leave me alone, as long as we didn't talk to each other ever again. But... when Shade was telling me about it all..."

"Herobrine found out." I realized.

She nodded. "Went mad. Threw fireballs everywhere. A lot of the forest caught on fire. We managed to get away and—"

"Let me guess." I interrupted. "He helped you escape through an underground tunnel back to the base."

She looked at me as if I were crazy. "Yeah. How did you know?"

I explained to her the dream I had a while ago. Of her and Shade running in the forest, and Shade leading her to the small tunnel under the dirt. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. I thought it was just a random dream. I didn't think it was actually real."

She felt the side of her face. "It's okay. I understand."

To get back into the story, I asked, "What happened after that?"

She gave me a one shoulder shrug. "That's it. We never saw each other again until the council meetings."

"Infinity... I didn't know... It must be really hard for you."

"Nah." She waved it away. "I don't really care, now that I know he's a—"

As Infinity let out her string of curse words, I listened to her tone. I could tell that she really did care about him still. She just didn't want anyone to know that she was hurt.

"But enough of that." She finished. "Story time is over. I'm going to bed." She got up and brushed herself off. "Goodnight, Kat."

"Goodnight." I watched as she walked away. Almost immediately after she left, another person took her place. However, it wasn't someone I was used to talking to one on one.

"Hi Ash." I smiled, but he kept a straight face. "What's up?"

Ash sighed. "I have emotional issues." He said.

"What?"

He laughed. "Nah, just kidding. Listen, it was my creator's birthday yesterday, so I was wondering if the readers could turn the page and check out my sick chapter about my past."

I shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Ash looked at you. "Reader, turn the page."