Minecraft / Minecraft: The Village

CHAPTER 1

Are we headed in the right direction?

Summer asked me this the moment we stepped out of her under-mountain fortress. It was a good question, and I wish I had a good answer.

I don t know. I shrugged. But this direction led me to you, so it seems as good as any.

We were heading due west, crunching over the snow-covered taiga with the frigid wind at our backs.

Swimming this way brought me to my island, I continued, and when I finally left, paddling this way brought me to you.

Can t argue with that. Summer nodded, then, focusing on the land ahead, declared, We ve got a lot of ground to cover before nightfall.

Our plan for day one was to traverse this patch of taiga, then the forest, then camp at its edge before setting out across the next taiga. Day two would end at the jungle, the farthest Summer had ever been from her home base, and beyond that was the great unknown.

It was a simple plan, and very doable provided we didn t run into any trouble. But it had started snowing, which cut down our visibility, hiding any early morning creeper or other night mob lucky enough to be sheltering in the shade of a lone tree.

That s why Summer didn t say anything more, not just because she was done pondering our decision (which she was) but also to concentrate on any potential hazards. Surface mobs weren t the only danger out there. There were also those patches of thin, camouflaged snowtraps, like the kind I d fallen through on my first night in this continent. Just thinking about it made me shiver; the covered hole, the freezing pond, the skeleton shooting from the darkness.

More of these natural threats had to be out there, along with the possibility of new ones. This world was always changing. It had happened at least twice since meeting Summer. New animals, new plants, and, in the case of the Nether, entirely new environments that had nearly gotten us both killed.

Had there been other, recent changes to the taiga? If

Max Brooks is a senior nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point and the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. His bestselling books include Minecraft: The Island, Minecraft: The Mountain, The Zombie Survival Guide, Devolution, and World War Z, which was adapted into a 2013 movie starring Brad Pitt. His graphic novels include the #1 New York Times bestseller The Harlem Hellfighters.