Chapter 9: The Lost Souls

Mmm

Compilation of All Chapters
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Poisalamandr falls to the ground, a lifeless beast that in this particular moment, seems peaceful. Knifrog collapses to the ground, passing out from exhaustion. Alain lifts Knifrog up, carrying him on his shoulders.

Coaliz breathes a sigh of relief. Sapliz leans against a wall. Rika lies on the floor, tired out. Ned sits on a box quietly. Alain stands in the middle of the crossing hallways. Silently. Waiting for the others to catch their breath. But they never do.

A loud, ringing screech echoes throughout the halls. A monitor displaying Pixelsensei appears. “Incoming!”

Quickly, everyone gets up, and they run down the hall. The sound of agonized souls pierces the air. The group can’t pinpoint the source of the noise, they can only run, run as fast as they can, in a direction they hope is away.

Knifrog bobs up and down on Alain’s shoulders. Rika sweats profusely. Ned pants. Coaliz stumbles. Sapliz is barely keeping up. Alain thinks. Clearly everyone else is worn out. They need to find a safe place in this maze of hallways. A closet, break room, anything. Shelter.

As they turn a corner, Alain spots a door. “All or nothing,” he thinks. The door slams open, and just as quickly, shuts. The group is breathing heavy as they are finally somewhat safe.

Lasers are heard firing outside, as well as the sound of crunching metal. Pixelsensei is fighting whatever is out there. Alain looks around the room. Jackpot. There’s a fridge, bottled water, a sink, and a shelf of medical supplies. Also, a couple of hospital beds. Some encrusted with vomit and blood.

The group searches the fridge. In their panicked frenzy, they hadn’t realized that they were f**king starving. Now they felt like black holes ready to absorb anything edible. The fridge, however, was mostly filled with medicine. There were a few snacks, like some yogurt, and expired pepperoni.

Alain, who was the least hungry out of the six, scrounged together some paper towels and cups, and attempted to split the food somewhat evenly. He gave the others a bit extra because it seemed they needed it, and then he passed the food out.

The group sat in mostly silence crunching on their very sour pepperoni and sipping yogurt to wash the taste out. Then Rika spoke up. “What crazy monster do you guys think is chasing us now?”

Ned dully answers, “Definitely not friendly,” to which Alain replies, “No shit, Sherlock.”

Sapliz looks up from his cup. “It’s that tormented cluster of souls from earlier. It has the same screams.”

All of the group stops talking then. They let this peaceful scene play out. They miss home. And they want out of this madness.

As the group nods off, Ned hands out pillows from the hospital beds. Most of the group falls asleep. Ned and Alain stay up, though barely.

Alain starts the conversation. “How much time until that thing finds us?”

“I doubt it’ll be too long. I just hope we can rest beforehand.”

“To think all this started cause Rika signed us up for that stupid program.”

“She meant well. She wanted to get you out of the house. You were locked up in your room for 3 weeks. We had to give you food through the window. Then when we finally found your key, you kick her out, screaming at her. She tries to take care of us.”

“Yeah, well, she should mind her own f**kin’ business. Maybe we’d be in bed at home if it weren’t for her.”

“I’m gonna end this before it becomes an argument.”

Then they went to sleep too.

Day never really seems to come. It’s hard to tell when you’re who-knows-where in a 10,000 square foot building, that’s also like 7 stories, but normally you’d tell by the lights. At night, they’re off to save power, so night shift workers have to do their thing either in complete darkness, or with one hand holding a flashlight.

But right now, even in the light hours outside, the building’s inside is totally dark. As time passes, the group begins to relax, losing all track of the passing minutes, hours, seconds.

It’s almost peaceful. Unfortunately, the plot is moving too slow, so they are not gonna have any longer to rest. Something crashes through the wall, flinging debris across the room. Startled eyes dart around, spotting a shattered monitor in the gaping hole in the wall.

Ghostly eyes peer through the hole, and the group dives for cover, to hide and be out of sight. Knifrog’s hand rests on his spit-knife. Coaliz raises his internal temperature. Sapliz prepares some magic. The humans simply hide. And the beast drifts away from the hole.

A loud, collective sigh of relief passes. And as if right on cue, the skeleton monster breaks the wall down, charging through the room. It breaks down furniture, flips over large objects, uproots various things attached to the floor. Knifrog charges. And the skeleton’s teeth find a target, and sink in.

Knifrog is clenched between the phantasmal jaws of the skeleton. Coaliz warms up. Sapliz waits for the right time to strike. The three humans cower behind a comically large microwave.

As he fights back, Knifrog feels like he’s fading away. He lose his grip on his knife due to weakness, dropping it to the floor, where it dissolves. Knifrog shrinks, his fingers disappearing, his torso warping. He is once again Hoplash.

The others watch in horror. Sapliz understands: this thing can drain the power wisps out of you. Hoplash falls to the ground, lightly bouncing. Coaliz finishes heating up, and blasts a ball of fire at the beast.

It screams in agony, a thousand cries escape just one mouth. The screeching makes Rika sick to her stomach. Sapliz cuts at the thing with his arm blade. He lands a decisive blow, knocking it back, on the ground, where it stays.

And with that, the group stumbles out, with a bit less strength than before, but one less enemy. Meanwhile, the corpse of the creature turns black, with a faint, white glow.