YouTube: Dream Gamers: Book 3: The Humatronics

Chapter 19

"Jack? Jack!" Mark shouted, rushing over.

"Farcry, how did you know this would happen so quickly, and so spot-on?" Dan asked, shocked that Farcry's prediction was correct.

"That, my friends, is a conversation that you will have soon, but not yet," Farcry explained. "Someone get me a bed or a stretcher."

Arin and Matt ran back to the Safe Room and into the testing lab to get a stretcher so Farcry would be able to assess the damage to Jack better. Jordan, however, stayed unbearably still.

"Jordan," Cierra asked her brother softly. "Why aren't you doing anything to help? This isn't you." Jordan thought about what to say before he spoke.

"I did things against my own morals," Jordan told her. "I think it'll take while for me to get back to normal after we wake up. It isn't easy knowing that you killed three people outside of your right mind."

Jordan stood up and walked over to the unconscious Jack, whose face had landed on the table in front of him. Jordan lifted his limp torso off of the table and sat him back in the chair, making Jack look like an awkward G-mod ragdoll. The doors to the Safe Room swung open, and Matt and Arin rushed out, wheeling a stretcher along. They lowered it next to Jack, so they could easily load him onto the stretcher. Once Jack was safely on the stretcher, they raised up again so Farcry could have a better look at him.

"Head trauma," she stated, barely needing to look at him to get a good idea of what happened. "I guessed just as much. Mark."

"Why are you blaming me?!" Mark exclaimed. "The Voltox made me do it, and I was too scared to defy her!"

"I know," Farcry smiled. "I was just teasing."

Farcry held Jack's head in her right hand and raised her left over his face. Then, something magical happened.

An odd flow of energy flowed from Farcry's hands, through Jack, lighting the dark room in a pale blue light. Everyone in the room immediately felt calmer as a slow, healing pulse wafted throughout the room, healing some of Jordan's remaining wound, and clearing Mark's mind of the lingering dark thoughts that were still rushing through his head.

After the light dimmed, Jack woke up, unalarmed, but not too slowly. All of his bruises had been healed, and he was no longer bleeding. It was as though Mark had never done anything to hurt him.

"How...?" Jack said in awe. He knew exactly what had happened, but he had no idea how.

"Like Jordan was told," Farcry told the group. "Anything can happen in a dream..."

Jordan's vision faded into black. The dream was ending.

"You will awake to a bright, artificial light," said a voice. It sounded like the voice of a sweet, teenage girl.

"Do not be alarmed when you awake, you are in the hospital. Your parents found you and your siblings in comas. The Voltox locked you all in this dream, and you finally broke the barriers. Your true first trial has finished, and you have completed it. Get some rest. You will need it for our meeting before the next trial..."

*******

Jordan woke up slowly to a blinding light, just as the voice had told him. He felt a hand, gently grasping his. He was in the hospital. Had he really been in a coma this whole time? Was he right? That this whole incident had just been a long and terrifying nightmare?

Jordan looked to his right, and saw the concerned, yet relieved face of his mother, sitting there as if she had been waiting there the whole time for him to wake up.

"You're finally awake!" She breathed, hugging him.

Jordan was relieved at first, but felt a sharp pain when she embraced him. It was so surprising, that he shouted in pain.

Paula immediately let go of him and lurched back. Jordan felt a tear in his stomach, and realized, the aura that Farcry emitted had never fully healed him. How could the injuries he received from the Scooper still be there after he had woken up? Had he been dreaming or not? And if he was, how was he able to cheat death by pure willpower?

"Jordan," Paula asked, concerned. "What's wrong?"

"I'm still injured..." Jordan breathed.

"Still injured?" Paula shouted in disbelief. "What do you mean still injured? What do you mean injured?"

"I almost died," Jordan told her. "It's really difficult to explain, and no one would believe me if I told them."

"What do you mean?"

"I dreamt I was in Hell."