As I awoke, I noticed the room was very dark aside from the light from the redstone torch. I could see my brother in his bed, snoring away. Tiredly, I got up and went out to the kitchen to make breakfast. I pulled out some bread from the food chest and took a bite out of it as I searched for an empty bucket. When I pulled one out, I realized that I shouldn't head out to milk the cow this early. Mobs were likely still out. Instead, I settled for a water bottle to drink with my bread.

Once I had finished my breakfast, I made sure I had my stone sword with me before I headed out. Hopefully I wouldn't need it. I wasn't a really good fighter. Then, I took out a book from my inventory and opened it with my quill in hand. I began writing in it.

By the time I had finished I closed the book. I had written a note for Max that I had left early and that he needed to take care of himself until Ashley arrived in the late morning. With my weapon in mind, I proceeded to head out the door and into the semi-dark landscape.

It was still dark, and I kept a watchful eye on my surroundings. Skeletons and zombies were easy enough to hear, but spiders and creepers tend to be a lot quieter so they could ambush people. Fortunately, around this time the monsters of the night would either be retreating or burning in the day.

By the time I had made it to the fishing lake, I had been lucky enough not to run into any monsters. I waved to my boss and he waved back as I brought out my fishing rod and readied myself. It was this early in the morning that I had the best chance to catch fish. I raised my fishing rod and tossed it out to the blue waters. And then I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Then finally, I spotted a trail of water particles skimming towards my bobber and I immediately readied myself.

When the time came as the bobber dipped, I launched the fishing rod high up in the air and caught a cod in my hand. Smiling, I pocketed the fish away into my inventory and recast my line onto the lake. After I caught(and threw away) a tropical fish, I began to notice some of the other fishermen arriving and scowled. It was gonna get tougher to catch fish from here on out-the chance of reeling in junk increased the more people were fishing.

By the time it was lunch time, I had caught four salmon, three cod, and a pair of leather boots. I pulled out a cooked chicken and savored it. I was a huge fan of meaty food. As I ate, I listened in on a conversation some of the other fishermen were having.

"Ya know, I hear them pillagers are gettin' closer to the town. Might be tryna wait for a chance to invade." one of the said.

"Ah, that's blasphemy. Them pillagers ain't nothin. Let 'em come, they'll taste my iron fist." another replied.

"If they think they's gonna raid my home, they's got another thing coming." a third added. "Pillagers're like stray cats, they'll run off if you show them some real muscle." I stopped listening to them after I had finished eating my chicken. I had regretted listening to the fishermen.

I threw my line back out onto the water. The pillagers are getting closer? I thought, What if Red City doesn't send help? What if the pillagers raid our town? What will happen? Will our home be able to survive? My thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of my hook being pulled underwater. I immediately raised the line up, but it was too late. The culprit had gotten away. I sighed and took a deep breath to calm myself.

"Don't worry Tim, Red City will protect us. There's no way they would let a raid happen." I said. Breathing worked, and I resumed my work.

By the end of the day, I had caught eight salmon, eight cod, a pufferfish, a pair of leather boots, two bones, and an empty bottle. I pocketed them all away and went to Mr. Sandhand to present him my collection.

"Here we go." he said as he counted the fish. "Eight salmon, eight cod. That'll get you eight emeralds, how fitting." he said as he handed me the currency. I took them and waved him goodbye as I made my way for the store.

By the time I had arrive at the store, the sun was veering close to the sky. I had more time than yesterday, but not much. I went inside and made my way for the fruit aisle in search for apples and watermelons, only to discover that both of which were sold out. I looked around the store, and saw that many different foods and food ingredients were out of stock as well. I approached the man behind the counter.

"Um, a lot of food seems to be sold out." I said.

"Yeah. The pillagers outside the village seem to be scaring off deliveries, so we haven't got food from outside the village. Unfortunately, until Red City does something about it, we probably won't be getting imports for a while." he explained.

"Oh, okay…" I said, my heart sinking. Max loved watermelons more than any other food. I went over to the meat aisle and picked out two raw rabbit meat and two raw beef. After that, I went to the manufactured food aisle and picked out four bread. Then, I brought them to the clerk for him to count.

"Two rabbits and two beef will be three emeralds. Four bread will be two." he informed as I brought out all the emeralds I had gotten and handed them to him. "Have a nice day." He said and I paused.

"Uh, you too." I replied before heading out.

As I made my way back to my home, I thought about Ashley. I really did like her, but it was so difficult to be able to talk to her personally. It was somewhat easy when it was about business, but when I wanted to talk to her outside of that, I couldn't do it. But I had to this time. Even if it was a simple question. I wanted to ask her out.

Once I had arrived to my home, I found Ashley and Max both waiting for me.

"Big brother!" my brother exclaimed as he held out his newly-crafted item, "I made a clock!"

"I'm so proud of you! That's really good." I said, beaming with pride.

"Yeah, he was really patient and got it once he started focusing." Ashley informed.

"See, I knew you could do it." I told him. I noticed the sun was setting and I could see the moon beginning to rise. "Hey, how about you get ready for dinner? I need to talk with Ashley."

"Okay!" he said and ran back into the house. I closed the door behind him and looked at Ashley. She had a cute smile on her face. The way she looked in the moonlight with her blond hair was gorgeous. She spoke while I brought out two emeralds for her to take.

"Tim, there's something I need to let you know about." she said.

"I need to tell you something too." I said, but as I was about to speak, she interrupted.

"I'm not going to be able to look after Max tomorrow." she revealed, causing me to pause.

"Huh? Why not?"

"My family and I are going to leave the town tonight." I blinked in surprise.

"Um, what? But it's nighttime. Monsters are all around, and I'm sure those pillagers won't let anyone leave the village." I explained.

"We're going to be fleeing underground. You don't know? A bunch of miners are digging through the ground, making a tunnel that will lead out past the pillagers." she informed.

"Wait, really? But underground is where the monsters reside. Going into their territory is asking for trouble." I pointed out. She had a sad look in her eyes.

"It's better to be there then here if Red City doesn't protect us. By tomorrow, we're going to be gone." she finished. I was stunned. "Now what did you want to say?" Ashley asked.

"I… uh…" I struggled to form coherent words. My mind was a war zone. "I wanted… to say…"

"Tim, I need to go now, the moon is rising." she said.

"I… Nevermind…" I replied with a sigh. "Just… take care…"

"Okay, you too." she said as she started to walk off, before she paused and looked back at me. "I really do care about Max. Please do what's right for him." she said before she continued to head back to her home. I stood there, deep in thought, before I remembered it was nighttime and headed inside.

I didn't see Max in the living room or kitchen, so he was probably in our room playing with toys. I went straight into the kitchen and set the two raw beef into the furnace and waited for them to cook. As I waited, I thought to myself.

I was angry at myself for not having the blocks to talk to Ashley. Once again, I had missed a huge opportunity to have some sort of relationship with another person because of my inability to talk to people. I hated the way I was so much. But what she said stuck with me. There was an underground tunnel being dug under the pillagers. Maybe, just maybe, we didn't need Red City after all. But it would be very risky still. Monsters thrived underground, it was their home. And we would be risking everything if we went. But at the same time, if we went, then our home would likely be looted by desperate people. And if that happened, then we would be left with nothing. So, our options were to stay and pray to Notch that Red City would save us or to take our chances underground and likely be forced to live in the wilderness. I needed more time to think. I decided I would make my choice tomorrow.

I noticed that the steaks had been ready and immediately pulled them out.

"Dinner's ready!" I called out. Soon, Max came out of our room and hurried over to me.

"Oh boy." he said as I handed him one of the steaks. Then, he chomped down loudly on it with a clear chonk! I bit down on mine loudly as well and he noticed and smiled. Then, he bit down on his even harder, creating a louder sound effect. I chuckled and did the same even louder. We continued and it ended when he chomped viciously on the remainder of his steak, then let out a surprisingly loud belch. I was genuinely startled at the sound and looked around.

"What was that?" I stammered, my widened eyes causing him to giggle. "Is my little brother a zombie?"

"Yes, I'm a zombie! I want to eat your brains!" Max exclaimed as he began to groan and shuffle forwards with his arms raised.

"Ah! Somebody help! My little brother is a zombie!" I cried out, then ran out of the kitchen. Max followed me, moaning like a baby zombie until he caught me by the window in the living room. We both laughed until our bellies hurt. Then, I realized it was time we got sleep.

"That was really fun Max. But now it's time to go to bed." I told him.

"Aw! I don't want to right now!" he protested.

"How about this? You've been wanting to prove to me that you're a strong person, right? Well, tomorrow I'll take you with me to work and you can prove you're a tough lil man. How does that sound?" I told him. He perked up.

"That sounds nice! Okay, we can go to bed now." he said, causing me a chuckle.

"Well, you're the boss." I replied as I followed him into our room. I waited until he jumped into his bed before I hopped onto mine.

I tried to go to sleep on a happy note, but I seriously couldn't help but worry about the pillagers. I didn't want to leave our home. I was born here. I was raised here. My brother was too. If we were to leave, it would be like leaving a huge part of ourselves behind. But this underground tunnel sounded really tempting. If Red City didn't come through… no, they would. They had to.

Pushing all the thoughts away, I soon fell asleep.

Five Days Left