Chapter 8: Steve Survives a Thunderstorm (And Its Consequences)
Meanwhile, quite a bit of time had passed since Steve decided to visit this resource-rich cave, and it was getting dark. Having left the cave with his pockets full of harvested resources, Steve started walking home. Suddenly, the whole sky got especially dark, and in about two minutes it started raining heavily. Steve tried running, but his heavy pockets got in the way of that; he begrudgingly threw out a couple of stones and it got a lot easier. By the time he stepped on his porch, it was completely dark. After stoking the furnace, he stored all his “riches” in the chest, got undressed and put the clothes next to the furnace to dry them.
Steve needed something to lie on, so he started crafting a bed. In less than five minutes Steve heard a horrible crackling upstairs, in the attic; and, right after that, the reverberating noise of thunder. Abandoning his unfinished bed, he went upstairs to find out what happened. What he saw there horrified and stunned him – the roof was on fire! The fire had already spread to attic floor when Steve finally came to his senses and burst out of the house like a bullet, taking his clothes and storage chest with him.
The thunderstorm was very powerful, and one of the lightning bolts struck the roof of Steve’s house. Steve was watching his entire livelihood, and indeed, his life, burn. After all, no house meant no life. Even the pouring rain couldn’t put out the mighty fire on the roof. The sky itself was not dark anymore, but had a sort of light gray color. It seemed suspicious and strange to Steve. And not without reason, as it turned out; soon the lightning was everywhere and weird creatures, the sort that Steve had never seen before, started appearing, seemingly originating from the lightning bolts. Even their appearance suggested their all-consuming hostility.