YouTube: Dream Gamers: Book 3: The Humatronics

Chapter 11

Nightfall had come. Wade was preparing for the night shift, and Jack was finishing the pre-midnight shift. Mark had assigned it to him, since he needed something to do to keep him busy. Jack was fine by that. His work really started at the midnight shift. Jack had set the A.I.s of the Humatronics to Level 8, but it was on a startup timer. The A.I.s were set to activate automatically at no earlier and no later than 12:00. Jack was quickly finding every feature of the system, and finding ways to use them to his advantage.

Shifts were boring, but since Jack was the only one who knew about the camera in the security room, he was able to watch more of the videos on the siblings' channel without anyone knowing. He wanted to learn more about the Fryes so that he could understand who they were and what their motives were. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find out why they started the channel. Then, he had an idea. Jack searched for Q&A videos on the channel, and up popped an hour long Q&A session. Perfect! Even though it was the only video he could find that was purely a Q&A, it would surely have Jordan's motives for starting the channel in it, would it? Unfortunately, being an hour long, Jack didn't have the time to watch it all in one go. He'd have to listen to it while doing other work, or break the viewing sessions up into smaller chunks.

11:50 struck, and Jack's shift was over. He'd watched the first ten minutes of the video, but had so far come up dry. However, he did learn Jordan's middle name, obvious favorite color, and a few other random things. A few joke questions were answered (there were always at least a few in every Q&A on YouTube), and the serious questions got serious answers. So far, the Q&A had gone smooth.

"Wade," Jack called. Wade looked up from his boondoggling to pay attention to Jack.

"Your shift's up," Jack informed him "Don't die like Bob did, please!"

"I don't plan to, Jack," Wade smiled, halfheartedly. "Hopefully I'll be ok tonight."

Jack smiled and walked off to his room. He sat down at his desk, and continued watching the Q&A, looking for answers. Right before midnight struck, he learned why Jordan started VenturianTale.

"It's the kind of thing where... I couldn't sleep that night. Do you get that? Like, I felt like there was something I had to do, but I didn't know what it was. And it's not like I had a background making videos, well, I guess I always have, but I've never made videos filming myself, as in my personality."

That was it. He had felt a calling to making videos, just like Jack had! This was weird, but oddly comforting. Now, Jack not only knew Jordan's motives for his lifestyle, but he also felt more of an urge to defend him.

Midnight struck, and the Humatronics woke up. A.Is were steady, objectives set, everything was under control, for the most part.

Death would be on the rise that night. Despite how much Jack didn't want it, he had no choice. He told himself repeatedly that this was necessary. Hopefully, Wade would chicken out after this shift and Mark would be forced to take it the next night.

"I'll keep the A.I.s the same for tonight," Jack muttered to himself. "And when Mark takes the shift, I'll raise them."

Jack watched the monitors intently to make sure the Humatronics were on the move. Luckily, they were slowly creeping into position, moving when Wade changed the camera views. Yet again, Freddy stuck to the shadows.

Only a few hours had passed before things started looking bleak for Wade, and Jack began to worry. Would Wade share a similar fate to Bob? Every muscle in Jack's body ached, telling him to stop the Humatronics, but mind conquered matter, and Jack stayed put, as much as it pained him. Jack checked the A.I.s to make sure everything was running smoothly, but something was off. Freddy's A.I.s were quickly rising. He had eyes on his target, and ready to pounce. Gasping, Jack switched his view to the security room camera, and jumped when he saw Jordan right. Behind. Wade.

"Wade, no!" Jack whisper-yelled, but it was too late. Wade had already been jumpscared. The time: 4:56 A.M.

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Upon the discovery of Wade's death, Mark became overcome with grief. Wade, despite having been the punching bag for insults, was one of his closest friends. However, the Voltox wouldn't let him shut down the program.

"If I want you to carry on, you do so!" she shouted. Mark still couldn't handle the emotional burden, and he was screaming internally, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. Wade couldn't be gone! He couldn't!

"Wade can't be dead!" Mark sobbed, screaming at the creature in his head like a three-year-old throwing a temper-tantrum.

"He is, and you'll have to man up and deal with it!" The Voltox's words were brutal, piercing Mark's soul with insults like knives slicing through him. The Voltox punished him for crying, letting his feelings out, denying the truth of the matter. How much death would this evil dream goddess force him to bring? How much trust would be lost? Could he ever move on?

*********

Since Mark had finally decided to take the night shift, Jack was filled with mixed emotions that he couldn't identify. Was he happy? Was he grieving? Was he angry? Was he disgusted with himself? Was he scared for the future? Was he feeling all of these emotions at once? Jack felt unmotivated, helpless to the pull of becoming an anti-hero. Depression began pulling at him like a clingy child. All through his day shift, Jack was a mess. He hadn't brushed his hair, he was dressed like a slob, his skin was even more pale than normal, and it was obvious to the naked eye that something was up.

Mark even walked in to check on him, trying to find out what was wrong, but Jack had lost trust in him, and refused to say a word to him. Every so often, Jack would hear Arin and Dan's desperate screaming, as Mark tortured them, trying to get answers. There were only two other people left "supporting" Mark, and thus, two more suspects left. Jack was anxious for all of this to end.

Mark had still received no answers, and was pissed. Jack decided to sneak in while Mark was performing diagnostics on the Humatronics to make sure they weren't doing this self-consciously, and that it actually was a human being controlling them. Jack wanted to make sure the Grumps still had fight left in them.

Arin and Dan looked horrible, bloodied, pale, and malnourished. They hadn't had anything to eat in days, and barely even had the strength to speak. Jack had brought in two bottles of water to give them something to drink, as he doubted Mark would have the heart even supply them with that.

Getting them to drink without drowning was an ordeal, but it became easier once they understood what to do. After keeping them hydrated, Jack asked how keeping the secret was going.

"I almost slipped," Dan admitted. "I almost said it was you, but I was able to catch myself. Arin stopped me."

"I'm not letting Mark find out that you're behind this for the world," Arin proclaimed, weary, but still determined to keep the secret.

Jack was glad they were still fighting with all their heart and strength, but as he left them again, he began to worry about Dan. Every chain had a weakest link, even if that chain has only two links in it, and right now, Dan was the weaker link, and it seemed that Mark was slowly whittling away at him. Jacki hoped that Dan would hold out, but the chances were looking very bad. Jack had to pull all the stops. He had to make sure Mark was dead.