"Ha...ha...ha... You are joking, right?" Jake muttered after a few pitiful chuckles. His eyes staring at the creepy, twisted grin from the undead before him. Its fingers were long and dangly, its arms and legs slim and crocked. The eyes hollow, and the blood running from its mouth mixed with the rain that rained over it. It had no hair, and the flesh was rotten but blue.
"A Nyx..." Jake grumbled. It was the name of the water undead, or well, what Don called it anyways. The undead tilted its head to the side with a confused look. The nude creature would point a long finger at Jake then run it along Jake's face.
"Huuuu....maaannn?" The creature tried to speak again, once more in question form. It seemed genuinely confused because the thing before it appeared human, but at the same time did not. It had the smell of a human but the energy of an undead.
"No shit..." Jake said pushed the arm away and pushing off the ground. A flicker of gray appeared in his eyes, and suddenly two zombie dogs rose from the shadows beside him and launched towards the Nyx. The Nyx jumped back and swayed its arm out, commanding the rain to rush towards the zombie dogs.
There was no yelp of pain, but a zombie dog was filled with holes. The other one managed to bite the Nyx in the arm and sink its fangs in deep. Then with a powerful turn of its head, it would rip the arm off, which caused the Nyx to groan.
The Nyx glided along the ground, sliding back and away from the zombie dog. "Lich... Lich... Lich!" The Nyx exclaimed over and over. "Must... run... Must... flee..." It said as it continued to slide around the water, moving as fast as it could to getaway. A sense of fear was within its being. It had seen what Jake did and knew that something wasn't right.
"Not... human."
"Not... human."
The Nyx said with broken English. It used the rain to cloak its being and hide its presence, and once it was out of the courtyard and far enough, it looked back. When it did, a tongue pierced through it. The tongue wiggled around and circled around the waist, then yanked the Nyx back. Soon after, the sound of crushing bones and flesh could be heard with squeals of pain and then nothing.
Jake had managed to push himself off the ground, but actually standing up was impossible. The gray aura in his eyes finally died out once the Eater Undead confirmed its kill, and Jake collapsed onto the ground. His vision was starting to blur, and the sounds around him slowly becoming muddy.
Then he saw something else, a pair of long legs and bare feet walking towards him. He struggled for a knife he kept in his back pocket. The only reason he kept one on him was to try and get over his trauma. He had recently started to do it too but never actually took it out. Sadly, he dropped it since he couldn't get a good hold on it. "Not... another... one..." Jake muttered before passing out.
The others had finished dinner and were now off to their rooms. There wasn't much to do for the remainder of the night aside from just chatting here and there. Some decided to sleep, and others chat the night away then go to sleep when they were overly tired.
Morning came, and the skies were clear. Far too clear, along with it was the bright sun and what everyone seemed to love: Humidity.
Everyone was in the middle of their early morning exercise. The humidity wasn't killing them, but it was annoying. They were sweating more than they felt like they should, and it was difficult to breathe. Still, they endured and finished their daily routine. "Say... where is Jake?" John asked while opening a bottle of water.
"Not sure. Haven't seen him since last night." Josh replied while opening a bottle of water himself.
"You think he went out scavaging or something?" John asked after drinking from the bottle of water.
"I doubt it. He is probably just in his room and overslept." Josh said, but John didn't quite agree. He didn't know why, but something about Jake was bothering him. Jake seemed a little off after the whole ordeal with the Ants.
"I'm going to go check on him," John said and hurried off. As he approached Jake's home, he called out to him, "Jake, you doing alright?" No response came. "Hey, Jake," John called again, but when he saw no one was there, he started to worry a little.
"Something wrong?" Ion asked since he heard John trying to talk to Jake. "Well... I don't know. Have you see Jake?" John asked, and Ion shook his head and shrugged, "Not since yesterday. Why, what's going on?" Ion asked.
"I can't find Jake. It's unusual for him to skip our training routine. Plus, he didn't eat last night either. I wonder if something happened..." John mulled over in thought.
"Hmm... I can ask around and see if anyone has seen him, but you shouldn't worry too much. Jake's probably just doing his own thing. The guy's strong. He has an entire army of undead at his disposal, so I wouldn't worry too much about him." Ion replied while putting a hand on John's shoulder.
"Yeah.... sure," John said without actually giving much thought to Ion's remark. He still found it weird. Usually, Jake would tell someone if he was going off somewhere. Mainly because he didn't want people to worry, but now he isn't here.
Ion went off to go ask if anyone had seen Jake, and so did John. All they got were the same responses. That Jake hadn't been seen since last night. This made Ion wonder if something really did happen to Jake. The fact that no one had seen him since yesterday was a bit worrisome.
John decided to look around the prison. He checked every place, even the watchtowers and storage room, but nothing. As he was walking back to the main building, he noticed a glint on the ground. He moved over to it and picked it up, pushing aside some mud and dirty to pick it up. He brushed off dirt and mud and noticed it was a pocket knife.
"Isn't this the knife Noah made for Jake..." John narrowed his eyes. A realization hit him, and instantly he raced to Don's office. He pushed open the door and pretty much barged in. Don looked over some papers on the desk and sorted things out, with April sitting in his lap with a happy expression.
"Don!" John shouted. April looked towards John, and Don set a piece of paper down and looked towards him as well. "Is something wrong?" April asked, seeing how worried John looked. "Have you seen Jake!?" John asked hastily.
"No." Both of them replied, one after the other. "Did something happen?" Don asked, narrowing his eyes. "Jake's pocket knife was found in the courtyard. I don't think Jake would ever leave it just lying there. After all, he wanted to try and get over his trauma. I think something may have happened to him. No one has seen him since last night." John explained. He had to take a moment to calm himself down before doing so.
"Can I see it?" Don asked while holding his hand out. "The knife?" John inquired, and Don nodded. John moved towards Don and gave him the knife. Don looked it over and flicked it open. It didn't look like it was used. "Have everyone do a quick search for Jake," Don said and offer the pocket knife back to John after closing it.
John took it, "Will do, but what if we don't find him?" John asked. "What do you think could have happened?" John inquired shortly after his first question. Don shook his head. "I do not know, but I doubt he ran away. If anything, A Nyx appeared." Don said with a grim expression.
Don didn't think one would show up so soon, and even at their base. One never appeared at their base in any of his runs, so he never prepared for it. The Nyx generally liked going to highly populated areas like towns or cities, but this prison that had only a handful of people and was out in the middle of nowhere?
'Is this your doing? You are trying to take someone important away from me? If I find out you are the one who sent that Nyx, I will kill you.' Don made an internal statemen. Hee was referring to the boy. He didn't have a grudge or hate for the boy because he didn't think the boy actively did anything aside from granting wishes.
However, he didn't think anyone else could be behind this. The New World Government didn't know where they were, and Don had sent their robot back to them. So they couldn't track them. They were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. So it wouldn't make sense. The undead that was already here from day one was a different reason. Sure, he could buy that if it was wandering around, but this seemed too perfectly timed.
John immediately left to search for Jake, and Don was about to make the announcement, but April stopped him and asked if she could do it. Don just nodded.
"Attention everyone, Jake has gone missing. Just to make sure he isn't sleeping anywhere, can you all search for him? If no one can find him after thirty minutes, a meeting will be called." April's voice came over the intercom. Once she was done, she turned to Don, "How did I do?" April asked cutely and, Don nodded. "Perfect." Don would have had a smile on his face, but he didn't feel like smiling right now.
"We'll find him, Darling. Don't worry. Besides, Jake is strong." April said, trying to cheer Don up, but it didn't seem to work. "I know," Don replied.
"Jake's missing?" Josh asked John who was with him right now. "Yeah," John replied. "What the hell? How? When?" Josh asked, but he wasn't panicking, just trying to get as much information as possible. "Possibly last night. I found his pocket knife outside in the courtyard." John said.
"Was he training or something? Then that means something attacked him, but shouldn't there be a body or blood? Wouldn't we have heard anything?" Josh asked while they continued to search through the prison. They passed the others, who were also looking around.
"Yes, which is why I am both concerned and confused. If there was a fight, then there should be body parts even if the rain washed the blood away, but there wasn't even that. I doubt something ate him whole. Besides, we would have heard a battle going on, but nothing." John said.
"The rain could have masked the noise, but I agree with body parts not being found. I think we should take this as a sign that Jake is still alive. Maybe something took him" Josh said. "Took him? What would take him? Another Contender?" John asked, but Josh didn't know. He was unsure.
They lacked information. All he could assume that Jake was alive. For now, they searched throughout the building, looking all over the place, but could never find him. No undead or bugs showed up, which was a wonderful thing. After the thirty minutes passed, everyone grouped in the meeting room since Don asked them to.
"Alright, so has anyone found anything or have any ideas of what may have happened?" Don asked, he looked rather annoyed right now. It was clear why. One of their own was missing, and they didn't even know if he was dead or alive.
No one had any information, and it looked like some were about to give up hope that Jake was even alive until Josh brought his hypothesis forward. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that this can be confirmed. We do not have enough information, but from what I can tell. Jake is still alive. He was probably taken by someone or something. There were no blood or body parts found. Blood could have been washed away, but not body parts." Josh explained.
"So, what do you think took him?" Don asked.
Josh shook his head. "I am not sure. If it were another Contender, then surely they would have tried to raid us. If it was The New World Government, they would have tried to use him as a hostage or something, but we haven't received anything. I doubt the bugs or undead took him either, so I really can't say. This is why I can't confirm my theory. We don't have enough information." Jake explained.
Everyone was worried and starting to lose hope, but that was when Tyrone rose his hand. "Umm... I may be able to add to this. The only reason I didn't say anything was that it seemed too far-fetched. Still, when I asked a passing dragonfly, they said that some naked woman was seen leaving the courtyard of our base with a human in her arms." Tyrone explained.
"Huh!?" Ion exclaimed.
"Naked woman?" Jessica asked.
"Are you sure you didn't just have some wild ass dream," Jen said, waving her hand dismissively.
Tyrone's ears became red, and he sat back down since he had stood up to explain. He felt embarrassed now.
"Wait..." Don said.
"What did you say?" Don's eyes were serious, his expression grim. As if horror filled his features.
"Umm... the dragonfly saw a naked woman taking a human out from our base..." Tyrone said. He actually didn't want to repeat himself, but seeing Don's face made him do so anyway.
"Did the bug give you any information on what the woman looked like?" Don asked. April's brow rose since it seemed like Don was asking for a bit too much information. "Umm... Darling. If you want to see a naked woman, you can just ask me." April expressed, but Don shook his head.
"That's not it. If there was no battle, no sound, nothing... and this wasn't a Contender or even the New World Government, then that could only mean one thing..." Don explained as he went over is thoughts.
"A stage four undead." Don finished.
A groan could be heard from a man who was sitting upright. His eyes slowly fluttering open and when his vision came to, he could see a rocky ceiling. The room was mildly lit up. His eyes looked around and he lifted his hands so he could look at them. "I'm... alive?" Jake asked himself, his voice groggy.
"My... King..." A soft, audible feminine voice could be heard from his side which caused him to look towards it. He saw a naked woman down on one knee, with her head down in a respectful bow when he did. Her long messy black hair covered up her lady bits, and her skin looked gray and beautiful. Plush even, almost as if the woman was some kind of supernatural creature.
"W-W-What!?" Jake exclaimed.
"King!" A jeer of rough and broken voices could be heard, and when Jake looked from the undead woman, he could see rows of undead knelt down in respect. A descending case of stairs went down to a wide-open area. Jake looked around and saw that was actually inside of a large cave. Thanks to this, he also saw where he was.
He was sitting on a throne made of smothered rocks, and the throne looked comfy.
'What the hell is going on here?' Jake thought to himself. He was surrounded by an army of undead and another undead that was in front of him. If they wanted to they could tear him apart and eat him whole.
"Your orders, my king?" The woman asked, but dared not look up. Jake decided to try and get a hold of the situation. 'Okay, hang on... I was training in the courtyard, then I fought that Nyx, and then I passed out. But before that...' Jake was recalling everything that happened, and that was when he recalled seeing long legs and bare feet, his vision blurred, but he could barely see a feminine figure before passing out.
"Did you save me?" Jake asked.
The female undead nodded but dared not speak.
A soft sigh escaped Jake's lips. He didn't understand what was going on, but he wanted the woman to get off the ground for now. "You can raise your head, you've done well. Please, put some clothes on." Jake said, unknowingly, he said it in a tone of authority.
The woman would raise her head and look up at Jake. That was when he saw her eyes. They were pure white. Yet they still looked beautiful to him. He looked away since he felt himself staring and the woman nodded. "Right away, my king." The woman would rush down the stairs and the rows of undead made way for her.
'Now, what to do with these? If I am their king, then they will listen, right?' Jake inquired. He hadn't really realized it yet, but the Seed inside of him was resonating and pulsating. His eye color had a mixture of gray with its original color.
"As for the rest of you, return to what you were doing. When you are needed, I will call upon you again!" Jake gave an order and the rows of undead stomped on the ground once, "Sir!" They exclaimed and went off to return to what they were doing.
Jake would sigh heavily and message his forehead. "Just where the hell am I?" Jake muttered to himself.