"It's that bad?" Petra stares at me, and for the first time ever, fear breaks across her face.
I nod, making my headache worse. "Harper will be chipped any moment... if not already. If we don't act now... we've lost."
"But how?" Petra's fear warps into helpless anger. "I can't fight! You can barely stand! We have no plan and nothing that could help us! Unless Harper has another 'weapon' here."
I hold my head, trying to think past the pain. "Ugh... Ivor, did you find anything useful- helpful- in the chests?"
"Yes, I most certainly did!" Ivor starts emtpying his pockets. Four TNT, three buckets, a stack of redstone, two levers, some bread, a potion of leaping, a potion of swiftness, four smile blocks, a piece of green wool, and a map.
"Hey, what's this?" Petra snatches the map with her left hand, scanning it. Her eyes widen and she gasps. Before smacking Ivor on the head with it.
"Why didn't you say you found this earlier!? This is a map of Crown Mesa and, more importantly, the area around it."
She hands the map to me and I quickly look over it. I can see why it's so important. Harper has a marked route to get on the mountain where P.A.M.A. is built into. This must've been how she snuck into town earlier. And how we'll be getting into town too.
"Okay, okay, something to work with now."
There's nothing I'd rather do than lay in a bed and go to sleep, perhaps have some stew to help with my stomachache. But instead I furiously think how we can use use these things to defeat P.A.M.A., only to remember that P.A.M.A. will be too powerful if we wait any longer.
"Everyone grab a bucket and fill it, we've got to move quickly."
Petra and Ivor grab a bucket, and I take everything else. An inkling of an idea is coming to me, but right now we just have to get out and start heading towards Crown Mesa. I have no doubt in my mind that P.A.M.A. has already learned how to build an exit portal.
"So Lukie, do you have a plan?" I bend down and fill my bucket up before standing up to hopelessly grin at Ivor.
"Heck no, I just know if we wait to think of a plan, there isn't any plan that can save us."
I can hear sighs from both my friends, but I don't care. I'm assuming that we can get to Crown Mesa pretty quickly and I'm hoping it takes a long time to make a portal traveling to different worlds. We all run out of the lab, yet we have no idea what we're running into.
It's quite amazing what stress does to you. I threw up not five minutes ago and my head still kinda hurts, but everything else is just.... numb. Yet I can see my muscles violently trembling, never stopping for a moment. I feel my heart thump, but it's dull. Almost like a rock just pounding against my insides and not causing pain.
But even if I'm in shock, I might be chipped soon if we don't have a plan by the time we get there. Although first, we have to get out of this cave. The way we came is not an option, but Harper got down here somehow. It was at the first turn she was waiting for us.
"Do we, uh... have like a way to get out of here?" Petra's voice is strained, no doubt from her broken arm and that we have no idea what we're doing.
"Here." I turn into the outlet Harper was at, hoping I'm right. "Harper got down this way, that means we can get up."
My friends say nothing, but you could almost taste the fear. Petra can't even fight! Although none of us can even stand a chance against P.A.M.A. when it's controlling Jesse. Perhaps that's the first thing we need to figure out: how to stay alive when fighting a super computer.
Wait a moment... will P.A.M.A. even try to chip us anymore? Are we being too much of a nuisance for it to consider it practical to keep us alive? Perhaps it just might elminate the threat permanently!
I sigh, unable to even find a sliver of relief when there are stairs up to the surface. Still without a plan, we all run up the steps. There are a lot of steps we climb up, but nothing's changed. Everything's numb, my heart dully thumps, and my muscles shake wildly.
First things first though, fighting P.A.M.A., or at least to keeping ourselves alive. Petra can't fight using a sword, so it makes the most sense to give her the TNT. That way she'll be able to take care of herself. Ivor will need a potion, I have no doubt about that. Probably the potion of leaping since the swiftness one might be needed for taking out that heart thing Harper told me about.
The night sky stars twinkle down on us, lighting our path with an eerie glow. Not stopping or slowing down for a moment, I pull out the map. I correct my direction and the others follow suit. I pick up my speed as well. I mean, Jesse had the flint and steel when he got chipped. P.A.M.A. doesn't have to wait a second once that portal is ready.
Okay, Harper said that there are three towers protecting P.A.M.A.'s... heart? I'm assuming that it's P.A.M.A.'s power source. And that thing is protected by three towers. So it looks like we can't use the buckets as weapons against the chipped lifeforms since all of them will be needed for deactivating the towers. I'm really hoping that P.A.M.A. doesn't have any protection on the heart itself, because we don't have a plan for that.
So, can the slime blocks, redstone, and levers be helpful at all? Since Ivor's going to have the leaping potion, he can first place the slime blocks to keep him in the air. I know Petra isn't very mechanical, but I'll give her the levers and redstone for the TNT.
No, a lever might be needed for taking the heart. An iron door can stop us if we don't have anyway to open it. That means Petra will have the TNT, redstone, and one lever. Ivor will have the slime blocks and potion of leaping. And I'll have the swiftness potion along with the other lever. Although the piece of wool is pretty much useless.
Suddenly, I'm able to feel my heart slam into my chest. Did I just set this plan up to where I'm the one who will be deactivating P.A.M.A.?! I can't do that! I'm just not strong enough to do that! Petra could probably do a better job even with her broken arm! I- I just can't handle this!!
It's crazy to think that my friends and I started out in a tree house, and now we've been to some of the weirdest places in the world.
I blink and try to control my hyperventilating. Where did that come from? Is this a sign I'm going insane? I don't think it's normal for memories like this to suddenly burst forth.
I had my friends with me. Olivia... Axel... Petra... Lukas. They never gave up. On the world... or on me.
The mountain Crown Mesa is on looms in front of us. Taking a deep breath, we start to climb. Although part of me still thinks I'm going insane, I feel a bit better. And it's just another reason to save Jesse. If I somehow survive this, not get chipped, and don't destroy P.A.M.A., then I don't want to be haunted by Jesse's voice until I do die.
"Okay guys.... I have a plan."
Despite at the hard pace we've been running, both Petra and Ivor sigh in relief. I hope they aren't expecting a Jesse like plan that never fails, because this has a low chance of success. There are just way too many variables at play here.
"So what... do we do?"
I turn to Ivor and toss him his slime and potion back. I wait until Petra is ready until I toss her stuff to her.
"P.A.M.A.'s power source is... within a cavern or cave. The... entrance is quite small... and I'm going to need you two to... defend it. That stuff might... help you."
Everything is still pretty numb, but I can definitely feel my racing heartbeat now. "I'm going to need your... guy's buckets to deactivate... P.A.M.A...."
I slow down and Ivor gives me his, then I run over to Petra's left side so she can hand it to me. She isn't left handed and I would hate for it to spill because Petra can't throw well with that hand. How terrible would that be? Every single world becoming chipped because a water bucket was spillt.
Neither Ivor or Petra say anything, or even nod. But what else can we do? We don't have the time to scout or come up with a better plan. We don't have any resources to do much else, and we would have no chance if we stopped to collect some. All we can do is try to stay out of P.A.M.A.'s grasp while trying to shut it down.
And just like that I'm completely scared again.
We get to the top of the mountain, the town would look peaceful from here if it wasn't for the ominous red glow everywhere. I point to where the cave is and we jump down as fast as possible, but that's still pretty slow. None of us want to twist an ankle at this time, and quite frankly we do need to catch our breath. Not exactly a good idea to run in already exhausted.
I for one am caught between wanting this to just be finished with and wanting time to stop. I don't want to rush this and fail, but at the same time I think I might faint of this goes on for any longer. It's been a long time since I've slept too! I might collapse from exhaustion at this point.
We jump down in front of the cave, Petra already getting in a defense position and Ivor starts placing slime blocks. I turn to the cave... and then hesitate. One wrong move on my part... and everything is lost.
"Lukas," I turn to Petra, my muscles trembling. "You can do this, for Jesse."
Taking a deep breath, I nod. "For Jesse."
And not a second later, I run into the cave. Absolutely terrified but determined to save my best friend.