Beep! Beep! Beep!

Austin slammed his hand down on his alarm's snooze button. He glanced at the clock.

"7:00?" he muttered, confused. "Why am I up so early?"

Then it hit him. Today was the start of Minecraft Hardcore #5. After beating the Elder Guardians on their first try, the regular team (which now officially included Jeff) had decided that they would try their hands at beating the Wither again. They'd recruited Ian again this season, and, mostly because Jeff thought it would be funny, what with Ian being there and all, Caddy was returning as well.

Austin got out of bed, rubbed his eyes, yawned, and then proceeded to get dressed, comb his hair, then, after contemplating it for about ten minutes, decided that he didn't need to shave today. He checked his clock again. 7:26. Good. He was four minutes early. Nonetheless, he heading over to his computer and discovered that everyone else was already on the skype call. Of course they were. He rolled his eyes, then joined the call.

"Hi!" he said.

"Oh, Austin's here!" Jeff said.

A chorus of "hey"s and a "took you long enough" from Ian greeted him.

"Are we ready to start?" McJones asked.

Everyone answered with "yes", "sure!", or, in Ian's case, "just start the game already!".

Austin opened Minecraft and entered the server he'd created last night. He spawned in a thick forest. "Alright, server's ready. Go ahead and join."

An eruption of notes on the bottom left corner of the screen told him everyone had joined.

Suddenly, Austin felt like he had a headache in the back of his head. He frowned. That was weird. But he didn't really think about it until Dean quietly said, "Uh, I don't feel very good."

"What, is it zombie AIDS again?" Jeff asked, and everyone laughed except for Caddy, who hadn't been on that season, and Dean, who seriously didn't feel well.

"I'm serious." Dean said. "My head hurts."

"Yeah, mine too." I agreed, because it did, and it was getting worse.

"Would it freak people out if I said my head started hurting too?" McJones asked.

"Yes. It would freak me out." Barry replied. "But my head hurts too."

"Mine too." Caddy added.

"Yeah, same here." Jeff agreed.

There was momentary silence, until Jeff asked, "Hey, where's Ian? I haven't heard him talk in forever. And trust me, that's not normal unless he's trying to freak us out. Ian, are you trying to freak us out? Stop."

There was no reply.

"Okay, this is creepy." McJones said. "Is everyone else still here?"

"Yeah." Austin said.

"I'm here." Barry added.

"Present!" Jeff added jokingly. "In pain, but present."

"Yes." Caddy said simply.

"Where's Dean?" Austin asked, frowning.

"Dean?" Barry asked, nervous.

No reply.

"I'm scared now!" Jeff announced.

"Yeah, me too." Austin nodded.

"My head really hurts." McJones commented.

All was silent.

"I think we lost Barry and Caddy!" Jeff practically yelled.

"I'm still here." Austin shrugged.

No one said anything.

"Jeff?" Austin asked, nervous. "Stewart?"

Still silent.

"G-guys?" He stammered.

Then the pain in the back of his head became too much, and there was a bright white light...

Then it all went black.