The Apocalypse - Secret Life SMP

III

~1 hour before

Martyn

What did I just witness?

I see Bdubs go into a skeleton exp farm. I see a very different-looking Gem follow. Then they both come out but now Bdubs looks different too? I need to tell everyone that something's up.

"They won't believe you." I realise Gem is talking to me. I'm stood in confusion and a little bit of shock at the state of the two people in front of me. Their eyes are red and their skin is green, like emeralds but less shiny.

"What do you mean?" I ask, even though I know she's totally correct.
"You are the only last life left and no one knows that Scott asked you to kill him. They think you're a murderer."
"So?"
"The less people that know about the apocalypse on the horizon, the better. So, you have killed Bdubs. You're going to say that you saw Bdubs surrounded by spiders and did nothing to save him. And now he looks like this because he's a corrupt last life." Gem smiles wickedly.
"And what if I don't stick to that story?"
"We'll kill you. Right here, right now. You won't respawn."

I consider this for a moment, the words ringing in my head of "They think you're a murderer."
I look at their supplies: Gem has all diamond and Bdubs has a bit of netherite as well. I could probably take on one of them but both of them would destroy me. And for what? Everyone must hate me already. Grian thinks that I'm evil and everyone listens to him.

"Fine." I say.

Present time

Etho

"So what exactly happened?"
Cleo is sitting down on the floor next to a panicked Scar.
"Gem was all green and stuff, and she told me to press a button which activated TNT and then she tried to kill me!"

"She's not on her last life yet though!" Grian exclaims.
Grian is under the impression that everyone on their last life goes mad. I don't think that's true.
"I know! I have no idea what she's doing," Scar says.

I'm sitting, thinking. Gem said that Bdubs was dead, and she is now some sort of zombie? I need to do some research. I get up, and I walk over to my enchantment area. I have the full collection of every book to do with survival. I have books on potions, food, monsters, people and even traps. I pick up the book on monsters and skip to the glossary. I move my finger down to the letter Z and spot the word 'zombies'. Pages 112, 348, 349 and 583. I look at the letter I and see the word 'infection'. Pages 74, 266 and 349.
Guess I'll have to look at page 349.

The page is filled with information. It's the zombie section of the book. I read a passage that I saw had the word infection in it, but it was just how to treat a wound from a zombie before it gets an infection (which is a potion of regen with some rotten flesh mixed in it). I see the word in another paragraph and I realise that this is what I was looking for.

'Zombie Infections

A zombie infection can occur from multiple things. The most common are getting killed by another zombie in any way or drinking the potion of zombie. Some rarer cases can be eating rotten food, using an ender pearl or opening the end portal. The rarest case is opening the end portal as that has only happened twice in the last 800 years.

Zombie infections can take up to 3 days to transform you into a zombie unless it is caused directly by another zombie in which case it is immediate. Zombie infections will very easily lead to zombie apocalypses if not solved within a few hours of the transformation.'

I look for the part where it says how to stop a zombie apocalypse, but there isn't a part on that. I try to imagine what Gem had done to get a zombie infection. And then I realise.

She was the one that opened the end portal. Of course she was. I go to tell the others of my discoveries.

Tango

I'm going to kill Martyn when I see him.

There he is, being all threatening and 'pay your tributes' and the next thing I know our pink heart is being burned to the ground.

I mean, the Heart Foundation's main goal is to get the server to come together, and it feels like the people here don't want that peace and unity. Martyn killed Scott earlier, and I'm still annoyed at him for that.

Scott walks up to our burning heart and says
"Hey guys, have you seen Gem?"
I'm sitting on the leaves on the floor with Skizz and BigB, watching the fire burn our home. There's nothing we can do to stop it.

"Not yet," Skizz says, "Why?"
"She disappeared and she was acting strange earlier."
"Oh, weird." BigB says, "Well we'll keep an eye out."
"Thanks,"
Scott walks off down the path back up to his base.
"Is anyone even going to attempt to put that out?" I ask, indicating at the heart,
"Probably not," Skizz says, "I mean it is our home but there's nothing we ca-"

An anvil drops onto Skizz's head. He screams.
"Ow!!"
I hear Martyn at the top of the heart and he ender pearls down, appearing in front of us and collecting his anvil.
"Hah! You should've seen Tango's face."

I turn red when I imagine what my face must've looked like. I was probably looking like an idiot.

Martyn runs off and BigB calls after him:
"And you wonder why everyone hates you, Martyn!"

"You alright?" I ask Skizz.
"I think so." he replies.