"Briar, watch out!"

Briar just barely dodged the skeleton's arrow thanks to Sadie's shout. They were sprinting through a dense forest, trying to stay together but finding it difficult as they dodged trees and mobs. There seemed to be hundreds of them packed in this one forest, and they were all after the three girls. Briar really couldn't believe their nonexistent luck. Actually, she could. They had already gotten zapped into a game that wanted to kill them, why wouldn't everything else go to hell? They had tried to survive as Sadie said, but they got as far as punching trees. They didn't know how to open their own inventories. They had tried everything, from shouting out 'e' to waving their arms like madmen to see if they needed to make some sort of motion. But nothing was working. Soon, the sun was setting and they found themselves at the night's mercy.

"Scarlet!" Sadie screamed, and Briar's head whipped around just in time to see a large spider fall down onto her friend. Scarlet screamed and shoved her hands against the spider's face, trying to shove it's snapping pinchers away as it's long and slender legs wrapped around her. Briar was frozen, but Sadie was quick thinking. She grabbed the nearest rock and raced up before she slammed the rock right down on the creature's head. It hissed, scampering back, but Sadie didn't stop hitting it in the head. It flashed red with every hit before it suddenly toppled over and disappeared. A bit of string was all that was left as it burst into white particles.

"Oh my god!" Scarlet screamed, wiping at herself, trying to get her skin to stop crawling. "Oh my god, that did not just happen!"

"It did!" Sadie shouted, dropping the rock before she hooked her arm into Scarlet's and pulled her up to her feet. Briar rushed over to help, and it was from that angle that she noticed the lights off to the side. Her eyes widened before she pointed.

"Look!" The two girls turned. They could see a single torch on a tree, and past that tree, they could see more. "If we follow that, we could find someone! Maybe a house!" She didn't need to say anything else. The three girls sprinted past the tree, following the torches closely. Sadie grabbed one and held it up high to give them better light, swiping it at a zombie that tried to step onto the path and sighing in relief as it stumbled back with an angry growl.

"This is much more terrifying when we're not looking at this through a computer screen!" Briar shouted.

"You're telling me!" Scarlet screamed back, still reeling from the spider that had dropped on her. She wanted new skin. She would never be able to sleep right, ever again. But that was pushed out of her mind as they skidded around a tree, and found themselves on a gravel path. At the very end of the path was their salvation. It was a nice two-story house, made out of oak wood and planks, and a fence surrounded the front yard and the door. It was well lit, and there weren't any monsters too close to it.

"Come on!" Sadie shouted as she saw two zombies and three spiders scampering down the way they had come, coming right for them. She couldn't take a rock to all five of them.

"What if someone's there?!" Briar shouted back.

"Then we're gonna have a sleepover!" Sadie grabbed their arms and yanked them down the path, but she didn't have to drag them for long. Sadie moved ahead and shoved the fence gate open, standing off to the side as Scarlet and Briar raced through the doorway after her. She slammed it shut just as a zombie was about to approach, and ignored the angry growl it gave as it found itself too dumb to open the gate or jump over it. Scarlet shoved the house's door open and fell right in, gasping for breath as Briar stumbled in after. Sadie slammed the door shut as she came in, before she slumped back against the wood, gasping for breath as she slid down to the floor. Briar was on her knees beside Scarlet, who was lying on her back, both girls gasping for breath.

"Christ," Briar finally muttered.

"Notch, actually," Scarlet shot back.

"Shut up," Sadie growled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The house was empty, but someone had definitely been there recently. The furnace was mildly warm from recent use, and the bed upstairs hadn't been made. The chests had things in them, like food, old broken down weapons, suits of armor, and several drops they recognized from the game. They had chowed down on the food, Sadie had chicken and Briar and Scarlet had steak, and afterward, they sat on the floor of what seemed to be the living room and tried to figure out what to do next.

"I think we should wait for the owner of the house to come back," Briar offered. "They might be able to tell us what the hell is going on."

"But what if they're bad?" Scarlet asked. "Then what do we do? We can't fight!"

"But if we just leave now, those monsters are going to eat us alive! And surely they're going to return by the morning."

"Or mid-day," Sadie suggested, leaning back against the chest. Scarlet sighed.

"I guess we could stay."
"Exactly! If we stay, then we can explain what happened and they can help us out!"
"And if we're evil?"
"Well... Sadie can bash their head in with a rock."

Sadie snorted and glared at them playfully. "I saved Scarlet's life."

"In the most gruesome way possible." Scarlet shuddered as she thought about the large spider. "I'll hate spiders until the day I die."

"Ditto," Briar sighed, wiping her hands on her pants. "What do we do now? Do we sleep?"

"There's only two beds up there," Sadie sighed, pushing herself up. "But I suppose I could get some wool out of their chest and try to make a bed on that crafting table."

"Or we could all get real cozy," Scarlet snorted. Sadie rolled her eyes fondly.

"If we're following the Minecraft theme, I get the feeling we all need our own beds."
"Wait."

They looked at Briar, who had gone completely still. She was staring at the front door. Slowly, she stood up and looked back at her friends. "Did you hear that?" They stared at her questioningly, before a noise filtered through from outside. It was the sounds of bones falling apart, and then immediately after they hear a zombie groan and a hollow thud. Scarlet quickly stood up and Briar backed up so she was closer to them. "The monsters are dying."

"And it's not daytime yet," Scarlet muttered. She leaned to the side and squinted at one of the windows near the door before her eyes widened and she stumbled back. "There's someone coming up to the door!" She hissed. Sadie turned and quickly opened the nearest chest before she heaved out a gleaming iron sword. Briar's eyes widened.

"What are you doing?!" She hissed.

"Defending myself! Scarlet, you took archery, right?!"
"Yeah, give it!"

Briar's eyes widened as Scarlet took the bow and arrows from Sadie, backing up quickly. "What if it's the owner of the house?!" She cried as Sadie turned towards the door. "What if they're peaceful?!"

"Then we don't have any reason to worry!" Sadie claimed, trying to push a sword into Briar's hands. When she refused, she grabbed her wrist and pulled her to safety behind her and Scarlet.

"You guys don't know how to use those!"
"Well, we're gonna figure it out!"
"Shh!"

They could hear the fence gate open and close. Footsteps up the porch steps and up to the door. Briar's heart was pounding and Scarlet's hands were trembling as she loaded the bow and pulled the string back. Though Sadie's face was grim and concentrated, inside her heart was pounding. Briar was right. They didn't know how to use these weapons. If they were hostile, they were screwed. Now she wished they had hidden somewhere in the house.

Suddenly, the door opened. Briar screamed by instinct, Scarlet let the arrow go and it embedded into the wall beside the door while she and Sadie screamed, and the person who had just walked in joined in on their screaming as they stumbled back into the door. The mobs outside stared as the house was filled with loud, high pitched screaming.