Minecraft: The Mountain

CHAPTER 1

Cold.

The feeling changed everything.

It d been about a day and a half since I d left my little block-shaped shore, and I don t mind admitting that I was barely seconds from going back.

It wasn t the first time I d turned tail and ran well, paddled. A few days after landing on that strange, new land, I d learned enough about crafting to accidentally produce a boat like the one I was riding in now. That time I d been so inexperienced, so scared and frazzled and eager to escape, that I d rushed right down to the beach and set off at full speed for the horizon.

And nearly gotten myself lost at sea.

This time, what felt like a lifetime later, I d been determined not to repeat that same impulsive mistake. I d spent a week provisioning myself for a long journey. I had plenty of food, tools, raw materials for crafting, and, most important, navigation aids like a compass and a nearly blank map. I say nearly because my little island appeared in the map s far east corner. And I mean appeared. The moment I d lifted it off the crafting table, the entire tan surface filled with a perfect, top-down re-creation of my island.

And me! I was on there, represented by a small white arrow that turned and moved along with me in real life. I remember thinking, This is awesome, and with the compass, I ll never be lost!

Following the manual I d found in the mineshaft, I d learned how to expand the map by surrounding the original copy with eight more pieces of sugarcane paper. I d done it several times, until the island had shrunken to a little brown and green speck, surrounded by a thin blue ring and then a giant, blank space. So small in such a big, unexplored world. I still remember that mix of emotion, fear tinged with excitement. What s out there?

I d have to wait another few weeks before finding out. That s how long it took me to write down my first book, leaving it to whomever might follow me. It was a record of all my adventures, and the

Max Brooks is a senior non-resident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point and the Atlantic Council's Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. His bestselling books include Devolution, Minecraft: The Island, The Zombie Survival Guide, and World War Z, which was adapted into a 2013 movie starring Brad Pitt. His graphic novels include the #1 New York Times bestseller The Harlem Hellfighters.