Chapter 11: The Lure of the Shadows.
Jacob stood in the center of the eighth-floor hallway, his breath hitching slightly as he looked at the diverse group of undead now standing at his beck and call.
With his small army organized, he began a systematic search of the floor, moving from one ransacked apartment to the next in hopes of finding any remaining food or supplies that would sustain him in this long-term venture.
Since he couldn't exactly give complex vocal commands to his skeletons to identify specific brands of canned goods or distinguish between edible supplies and household junk, he found it necessary to stick close to them during the search, acting as the eyes and brains of the operation while they provided the muscle.
The process was slow and repetitive, involving a lot of cautious door-peeking and cabinet-rummaging, but after thoroughly scouring the entire level, Jacob was genuinely glad to discover that his efforts had not been in vain.
They managed to recover several food items, while it certainly wasn't a mountain of food, the mere fact that he was no longer facing immediate starvation brought a massive wave of relief to his chest.
"I'd really like to just head back up to the ninth floor for now and rest and maybe start the expedition to the other floors tomorrow when I've had some sleep," he muttered beneath his breath, his face clouding over with a look of deep contemplation as he stared down the dark well of the stairwell.
He knew his body was reaching its limit, but a nagging instinct told him that time was a luxury he couldn't afford in a shifting environment like this.
"But I think it'd be best to just clear out the building now, while I have the momentum, before any unforeseen circumstances or more monsters decide to move in," he reasoned, his voice firming up as he reached a decision.
The apocalypse itself was not something one could explain with science, if were to take a break now, just what would in the building when he woke up? Just that thought alone was enough to keep his procrastinating nature at bay.
[Vlad the Impaler is visibly satisfied with your pragmatic thought process.]
[Jack the Ripper admits he fully expected you to be more of a coward than this.]
[Jack the Ripper is surprisingly happy with the strength of your resolve.]
'Calling me a coward, isn't that a bit much?' Jacob thought with a flicker of annoyance, his eyes narrowing at the floating text, but he quickly shook his head to disperse the negative thought.
He didn't have the mental energy to argue with anyone of them, especially when their "gifts" were the only reason he was still breathing.
He took a brief detour, heading back up the stairs to the ninth floor to deposit the meager food they'd gathered into the safety of his reinforced studio apartment.
Once the supplies were locked away, he returned to the eighth-floor landing and gathered his seven undead servants, leading them down toward the seventh floor next.
The seventh floor was different from the levels above, as it seemed to be more heavily occupied by the green-skinned invaders.
Jacob peered through the heavy fire door to see several goblins patrolling the perimeter of the hallway, clutching crude wooden clubs and rusted kitchen knives they had likely scavenged from the nearby units.
It looked as though the monsters were starting to adapt to their surroundings, equipping themselves with whatever jagged bits of metal or wood they could find to supplement their natural ferocity.
Smack!
"Kee?" One of the patrolling goblins at the edge of the pack suddenly spun around, its long ears twitching as it felt a sharp, stinging blow to the back of its head.
It growled and bared its needle-like teeth, looking for the source of the insult, but it found absolutely nothing but the empty, shadow-drenched hallway behind it.
The creature glanced toward its other associates further down the hall, but they were simply too far away to have reached out and struck it, leaving the monster confused and agitated. It shook its head, letting out a low grunt of frustration as it turned back to its post, convinced that its mind was playing tricks on it in the dim light.
Smack!
While the goblin was still lost in thought, it received another sharp, disrespectful slap right on its bald scalp, the force of it nearly knocking its crude cap off.
This time the creature was genuinely startled, forcing it to glance around in a flustered, panicked manner as it realized something was definitely targeting it.
"Ke?" That was when the goblin's yellow eyes caught a fleeting glint of metal, the very tip of a kitchen knife gleaming from around the corner of the stairway.
The goblin's confusion instantly transformed into a fit of petty irritation, as it assumed one of its kin was hiding just out of sight and messing with it for a cheap laugh.
Feeling a surge of spiteful anger, it began to sneak toward the staircase with exaggerated, quiet steps, trying its best not to alarm the supposed prankster so it could deliver a counter-blow of its own.
"Kee—!" The goblin leaped around the corner of the stairway with its club raised, ready to strike, but its breath hitched and its eyes nearly popped out of its head when three pairs of cold, bony arms reached out from the darkness.
Before it could even let out a proper scream of alarm, the skeleton soldiers grabbed it by the limbs and throat, violently pulling it away from the hallway and into the shadowed depths of the stairwell, far out of view of its companions.
*******
[Congratulations on successfully creating an undead.]
Jacob stared down at the fresh goblin skeleton that was currently pulling itself up from the concrete floor, its red eyes flickering to life with a hollow rattle.
He stood within the deep shadows of the stairs, watching as the ivory bones of his newest servant began to move.
With this latest addition, his squad of skeleton soldiers had officially reached a total of four, making his frontline significantly sturdier for the battles to come.
Since the "lure and trap" tactic had turned out to be such a resounding success, Jacob decided to continue using the same method to dwindle the enemy numbers without risking a full-blown chaotic brawl.
At first, the plan worked like a charm; he would send a ghost to harass a straggler or show a bit of steel to bait an angry guard, and one by one, the goblins on the seventh floor were pulled into the darkness and added to his growing collection of bones.
However, the luck of the draw eventually ran out as the population on the floor thinned.
Upon the goblin count reaching only four remaining individuals, the monsters finally noticed that the hallway had grown unnaturally quiet and that their comrades were no longer responding to their guttural calls.
"Keke!" one of the larger goblins shouted, looking around the empty corridor with a sudden, sharp realization.
"Keke?" another responded, its voice trembling with a hint of primal anxiety as it realized they were the only ones left.
They tried calling out several more times, their shrill voices echoing off the walls, but on receiving absolutely no feedback from the empty rooms or the shadows, their expressions turned from annoyance to sheer, unadulterated terror.
The four of them realized they were being hunted by something they couldn't see, and in a fit of collective panic, they bolted toward the secondary stairway at the far end of the hallway.
There were two separate stairwells lining the long building, and they were clearly intent on using the one furthest from Jacob to escape and warn the others.
Hearing the frantic slap of their feet on the concrete floor and realizing that they were on the verge of getting away, Jacob's gaze turned fierce and cold.
He knew that if even one of them reached the lower floors to sound the alarm, his "silent clearing" mission would be over, and he would be swarmed by a literal army of green-skinned devils.
"Don't let them reach the door! Go!" Jacob commanded, his voice sharp with urgency.
As if responding to his internal spike of adrenaline, a total of eight resentful ghosts, including the three he had just created from the newest corpses, flew out from the shadows of the stairway he was blocking.
They moved through the air like streaks of dark, hateful smoke, their red eyes trailing fire as they sped down the hallway in a chase, closing the distance on the fleeing goblins with terrifying, silent speed.