The Shipwreck: An Official Minecraft Novel Page 9

  “It’s going to be amazing for families, for young couples, for singles, for people looking to work and live—”

  Dad laughs, clapping Jake on the shoulder. “You don’t need to do the sales pitch. He thinks it’s cool, right?”

  “It’s cool,” Jake mumbles. He runs his fingers over the new computer lab and center. Looks pretty neat. “When are you planning to do this? Next year?”

  After they move, probably, Jake realizes. Dad’s company does this all the time, swoops in, lets Dad charm everyone and set up the entire construction project and get all the contracts in place. Jake guesses Dad could stay and see the whole thing through, but he’s always ended up hiring another person to oversee the project. In Maryland, Dad always found plenty of interesting things to do, but they’ve moved three times since they left. It’s like Dad can’t stay still, he needs to flounce off to a new city, a new state, bringing Jake with him, before they’ve even spent a full year in one place. Just enough time to feel like they’ve settled in before his whole world is uprooted again.

  “We’ll be starting construction next week,” Dad says proudly. “And then I’ll be overseeing the renovation of the next two towers.”

  “Wait, we’re actually—” They’re staying? Is Dad for real?

  “What did I say?” Dad ruffles Jake’s head. “You’re starting high school at the end of the summer, and you’re always telling me you can’t make any friends. I figured I owed it to my son to invest my time and energy in staying in one spot.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Yeah, I am.” Dad almost looks nervous, looking at Jake for approval.

  Jake knows all he ever wanted was to stay in one spot, but suddenly now that it’s confirmed, he’s terrified. He doesn’t actually know how to do this. He’s acted like an idiot in front of a cute girl, and a scary-looking guy probably hates him, and they’re both going to go to his school and he’s going to be here forever now? For years? And he’s ruined his chances at a good first impression?

  And construction begins in a week? Jake thought—he thought he had more time to figure out the mystery of the server, and the mermaids, and—

  This can’t be happening now!

  “I—I gotta go.”

  Dad looks at him, his mouth falling open in surprise. “I made meatloaf for dinner—”

  “Cool, cool, I just remembered, I had a, a thing, I’m uh, I’m meeting, uh, Tank—” The name is the first thing out of Jake’s head, and he regrets it as soon as he says it because Dad just lights up.

  “Oh, that’s great, you made a friend, buddy! I knew you would. All right, don’t stay out too late and your friends are welcome here, too, I made plenty!”

  Jake exhales as he scoots backward and out the door.

  * * *

  —

  Jake closes the door to the computer lab, exhaling heavily. They’re going to be renovating this whole place? What will that mean for the center? Are they going to start tearing it up right away?

  He catches his breath, trying to steady his thoughts. No, no, the mystery—he has to finish the game, and now that he’s solved one of the riddles he needs to see it through! How many riddles are there? What is at the end?

  He has to know.

  Jake boots up the computer he’s come to think of as his, heart pounding with every second it takes to get from startup to the login screen to loading Bella’s world. He’s made great progress, but he only discovered the server a few days ago, and he needs time, and the Riddle the Eighteenth he found at those last coordinates implies navigating an underwater maze but Jake is nowhere near ready. He’ll need to put in so much more work to even get to the Nether and survive harvesting all the nether wart he’ll need for potions!

  Jake sighs and gets to work.

  CHAPTER NINE

  EMILY

  The summer inland heat rises, settling in the buildings; heat pools in the concrete of the sidewalk, and the old air conditioning unit barely works in the apartment. Emily lies on the cool kitchen tile, listening to Mama clicking away from her home office, occasionally taking a call. There’s some toddlers’ show on the TV, and Minnie is babbling away.

  This sucks. Emily can’t even bother Carmen; she’s hanging out with her goth friends somewhere. With no phone and no computer and no Internet, Emily’s left with absolutely nothing to do, and a whole summer full of plans ruined.

  She’s grounded, so she can’t exactly leave the complex, and her parents would know immediately if she was with Pattie or Nita. Embarrassment of all embarrassments, Mama talked to Pattie’s mom, who agreed that Emily needed to learn responsibility and that they wouldn’t be picking her up.

  Mama allows her one phone call with Pattie once Emily argues that she needs to be able to tell her friends what’s going on.

  “Ugh, parents are the worst,” Pattie says. “So, how long?”

  “Uh. Not sure. Might be the whole summer.” Emily’s a little surprised how easy that was. She thought Pattie would be upset about losing her main camera person for her videos.

  “No way! Ugh, you won’t get to wear any cute summer dresses, and then school will start and we’ll have to start planning for crisp fall outfits.” Pattie sighs. “Is it just no phone and no Internet and no going out? I can like, come over and we can hang out at your place?”

  Emily finds herself smiling, and then realizes with a start Pattie thinks she lives in a beautiful apartment two blocks away. “Oh no, no, I can’t have friends over, either,” she lies.

  Pattie clicks her tongue. “Sucks. Well, maybe you can work on taking some photos with that old camera of yours. The vintage look is totally in, and those Polaroids would look great on your Instagram.”

  A helpful suggestion. Mama reminds her to be careful with her camera, but she approves of it as an activity, so Emily sets off, the old Polaroid heavy against her hip, the strap solid against her shoulder as she walks down the stairs. She looks real cute today, too, in a romper with her hair in a fishtailed braid.

  Emily takes a few photos of herself in the reflection of her window before she remembers the big glass double doors of the community center.

  Bounding downstairs, she can feel the temperature drop ever so slightly, and a breeze ruffles her hair. Emily takes photo after photo: the stark look of the new tower against the older buildings, clouds scuttling across the sky, a flower blooming in a crack in the sidewalk.

  There was a pool at Pacific Crest once; now it’s an overgrown excuse, filled with scummy water and plants growing wild in the empty shallows. Emily sits on the concrete edge, dangling her feet in the air as she takes a shot of the sun dipping behind the rising expanse of the weeds. The little park is empty today, and Emily traipses through the overgrown shrubberies to the base of an oak tree, capturing the sunlight filtering through the leaves.

  Her friends would definitely appreciate these pictures, although she wonders how long it would take Pattie to figure out the perfect hashtags for the caption, and if she would stop and take a moment to appreciate the soft warm breeze ruffling her hair or enjoy the light tumbling through the branches. Emily thinks about all the cool things people have built in Minecraft, wonders how long it would take to re-create this tree and what blocks she could use, if there would be a way to automate leaves flowing down, if Pattie would like that, too; she likes pretty things—

  Emily shakes herself, standing up and brushing leaves off her hair. No, she can’t invite her friends here, and Pattie doesn’t play Minecraft.

  Viv would probably know, but then again, Viv is most interested in making efficient inventions and fighting.

  Emily sighs, shaking her finished photos and tucking them inside her messenger bag before walking through the playground to the glass double doors for her shoot.

  Huh. That’s new.

  The entire community center has been fenced off.
A brand-new chain-link fence wraps around the whole entry building, a big DETOUR sign pointing toward the other exits.

  Emily presses closer.

  She knows they were always planning to fix it after old Jenkins finally sold the place; that poster with the 3-D model of the renovated design complex had been sitting in the lobby forever—the project description promising an entire update of all facilities, tower by tower. New pool and a whole bunch of stuff that Emily doesn’t quite remember, but the renovation of the North Tower took a year. It was a whole mess, people moving out and having to get temporary housing or just not renewing their leases. A bunch of people complained, so it sounded like the other two tower renovations would either not happen or might take years. Emily thought she’d be off at college before the big change actually became a thing.

  The squat gray building now is surrounded by a fence with a sign that reads REYES DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION, COMING SOON.

  “Boo!”

  Emily jumps backward in surprise at the sudden noise.

  Her photos fall out of her open bag, tumbling onto the concrete. Ugh. It’s that guy who calls himself Shark and thinks he’s so tough.

  Emily bites back the curse she wants to shout and scowls instead. She starts picking up the photos, one by one. They’ve scattered everywhere, a few of them caught by the wind right up to the chain-link fence.

  “What are these supposed to be?”

  Emily whirls around. Shark’s crouched a few steps away from her, grabbing at the photos on the ground. He grins at her, showing off a disturbing amount of metal crammed in his mouth as he stands up. His blond hair is slicked back with an abundance of hair gel, just like all those guys he hangs out with.

  Emily’s heart pounds with nervousness as he dangles the photos in front of her, including the best one she got of the towers rising against the sunset reflected in the glass double doors of the community center this afternoon. “Give those back,” Emily demands.

  Shark laughs and then in one swift move, chucks the handful entirely over the fence. “Have fun!” he taunts before skipping off.

  Emily stares in shock as her photos fly into the construction site. Ugh. She hates that guy and all the mean pranks he plays on people.

  “Hey, it’s dinnertime!”

  Emily looks up from the courtyard and spots Carmen leaning over the balcony in the West Tower, waving crossly at her.

  “I’m coming!” Emily says. She’ll have to come back after dinner to get the photos.

  Emily grips the camera strap and walks off without looking back.

  CHAPTER TEN

  TANK

  “Thanh, hand me those pliers, yeah?”

  Tank eyes the pair of legs sticking out from under the kitchen sink. “Ba, what are you doing?”

  “Fixing the sink, what does it look like?”

  “Don’t you have work?” Tank sighs and drops into a crouch to see what’s going on. He shines his phone’s light under the sink and wishes he hadn’t: His father’s face is scrunched up in concentration as he wrenches away at the large pipe, and there’s an alarming amount of duct tape on the lower half of the pipe—he doesn’t even want to know what’s happening there.

  “Eh, going in late today. This bolt won’t move and I just need to see what’s going on—”

  The clogged sink is full of suds and soapy dishes, and Tank instinctively takes a step back as Ba gives the wrench a particularly hard jerk.

  Dirty water splurts from the pipe, and Ba curses as it hits him in the face.

  “Aaaugh! Thanh, the wrench!”

  “What’s going on here?” Auntie Phuong emerges from the hallway, crossing her arms.

  “Ba’s fixing the sink,” Tank says.

  Auntie Phuong shakes her head and sighs. “Again? We can’t keep doing this, I’m calling a plumber—Thanh, make sure he doesn’t—”

  Tank obliges, pocketing the wrench, taking the whole toolbox with him, and placing it back underneath the bathroom sink.

  She’s still lecturing Ba when Tank heads back to the living room and flops onto the couch. He closes his eyes. He’ll probably have to help clean up the mess later, talk to Auntie Phuong and calm her down, and talk to Ba and make sure he’s got something to do.

  Tank closes his eyes and leans back.

  “Hey, Thanh-anh?”

  Tank grunts.

  “I found you some more of the lilacs you were looking for. Wanna decorate your garden?”

  Tank raises his eyebrow at Viv, surprised. “You don’t want me to come adventuring with you?”

  Viv laughs. “Well, I was gonna ask after we decorated your plot in the server. But we also don’t have to go in there if you don’t want to— Oh, and I made something you might like—it’s like a musical wind chime! Wanna put it in your world?”

  Tank finds himself smiling and lets Viv tug him and his laptop into her room so he can set up next to her.

  He’s surprised but pleased when Viv boots up his favorite world instead of connecting to the server with her friends. It’s in Creative, which she only uses when she’s figuring out something; she prefers survival mode and the challenge of making all the technological advancements.

  Tank feels a sense of peace and calm wash over him, the worry about the mess in the kitchen, about Ba and his family, about taking care of Viv, about Shark’s persistence on how he needs to prove himself—it all fades away as his world comes into view.

  He smiles, flying above the intricate maze he’s created in his garden. Tank loves planning and making mazes. A spiral for the center, multiple pinwheels and bubbling brooks of water, fun little sculptures for visitors to discover. Viv’s avatar with her bubblegum pink hair leads the way, navigating through it with only a few wrong turns.

  It’s easy to lose track of time in the game, and they end up playing well into the night, taking a quick break so Tank can make sure Ma eats something before she goes to work, and then they’re back. Vivian’s sure she found a stronghold somewhere, and they’re traipsing all over the world, traversing thousands of blocks to find it until Tank’s tired. “Come on, Viv, what are we looking for?”

  “I know it was here! I wrote it down!”

  Tank eyes the notepad next to Viv’s computer, filled with coordinates and notes like “Safehouse 3” and “Weird jungle” and “Cool rock formation” and even more in Viv’s practically undecipherable scrawl. “You wrote it down on this or you wrote it down somewhere else?”

  Viv ducks her head sheepishly. “Uh, maybe I wasn’t at home.”

  Tank immediately seizes up with a flash of worry. “You know you’re not supposed to leave the complex, Viv!”

  “I know, I know! I was here! The Wi-Fi shorted out last week while I was working on this world so I went downstairs to see if the computer lab had anything, and you know some of those old computers have Minecraft installed on them?”

  “The game’s been around for a while, Viv. It’s not that weird.”

  “Yeah, but anyways, I played on one of those computers for a while and made good progress and I swear I totally found that stronghold. I must have left my notebook downstairs in the lab.”

  “Don’t go out alone, Viv.” Tank frowns at her, trying to let her know how serious he is, but she just laughs.

  “Other kids do it all the time. Look, I’m eleven years old, I’m not a baby.”

  “Yes, you are. You shouldn’t be going out by yourself.” Tank’s heart pounds nervously, and he can’t stop thinking about what might happen, if anything—Ma and Auntie Phuong are always working and Ba’s checked out in Ba-land, and he’s the only one looking after her.

  “Why can’t I have other friends like normal kids? You’re so boring. All you want is for me to stay at home, and you’re not any fun to go exploring with in Minecraft and—”

  “Mean! I’ll go get
your coordinates, just…just stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  “You better!”

  Tank sighs, thinking about summer and how everyone at school was excited, bubbling over with plans, going to the beach or Disneyland or barbecuing with their family or whatever. School’s a lot of work but at least it’s a good chunk of time he doesn’t have to worry about Viv, and he doesn’t quite have enough time or ideas to occupy her. Minecraft and YouTube are good, but she gets antsy, wants something more. She’s started doing a lot of redstone construction and is learning more about programming, but Tank can’t keep up with that. There are some books she’s been wanting, but that’ll take time to save up money for. Still he hopes once she gets them she’ll be so busy she won’t even remember she’s stuck in this apartment complex, just like he is.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  JAKE

  Jake pulls the chain-link fence aside where it’s loose and slips inside the construction site. He carefully pushes the fence back into place and squeezes past the overgrown shrubberies. The past week has been busy; tractor loaders are now parked in front of the community center and rows of construction materials have been stacked carefully. The entire front entrance is closed, with signs redirecting residents to use the west and south doors.

  REYES CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN THANKS YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE

  Jake ducks under the yellow caution tape hastily draped between two tractors and walks toward the community center. The power has been working this week, but he doesn’t know how much longer it will be on. Judging from the rate of the equipment stacking up, the power will probably be shut off soon.

  Too soon.

  The Wi-Fi finally works in the apartment, but his old projects can’t compare to the mystery of Bella’s world, which is only hosted on the local area network in the computer lab. Jake’s been spending all his time on the server, when he can sneak downstairs and away, but there’s been a new development since bags and bags of concrete arrived: a security guard.