Jake remained rooted to the spot, his hands still raised in the air. When he saw Frank bring up the assault rifle he was armed with, he instantly transformed his hands into claws. Due to one of the upgrades he had acquired for this ability, the transformation took less than a second. One moment he had human-looking hands, the next they were long, intimidating talons. This abrupt change caused the survivors to freeze in shock.
Jake maintained his composure as the platform continued to ascend. He had no intention of attacking the four of them unless absolutely necessary. He hadn’t gone through all the trouble of bringing them to this point just to slay them. However, he was ready to take down Frank if the man gave him a reason to do so. Jake knew that within the tight confines of the elevator shaft, he could easily reach Frank in a split second, long before the man could aim and fire his gun. Even if by some miracle, Frank managed to shoot, the bullets would hardly harm Jake. He was well aware that it would take much more than a few bullet wounds to bring him down. Frank’s shots wouldn’t even be able to slow him down.
For a moment, silence hung heavy in the air as nobody moved or spoke. Then Archie whispered, “What the hell? Those claws look nasty.”
His hushed voice seemed to snap the others out of their trance. They shifted uneasily, and then Frank snarled, “Fucking monster.”
Muttering these words, he continued to bring his weapon up, and Jake prepared to launch himself toward Frank. However, he immediately halted in his tracks when he saw Isra, standing by the leader’s side, swiftly grab hold of his assault rifle, guiding the gun barrel downward toward the floor.
“No,” she shouted at the leader of the group. “Don’t shoot him!”
Frank was taken aback by Isra’s unexpected reaction, causing him to momentarily forget about Jake. He turned his head to look at her, a mix of disbelief and anger evident on his face.
“What are you doing, you idiot?” he snapped at her. “Let go!”
“He’s not attacking us,” Isra said. “If you fire at him, you’ll only make things worse.”
For a moment, Frank hesitated, his gaze shifting between Isra and Jake, who stood utterly still, observing him with his large, unblinking eyes. When Frank acknowledged that Jake appeared non-threatening, his expression softened ever so slightly, taking the edge off.
“I don’t trust him at all,” he said, still tightly gripping his assault rifle but at least not making further attempts to aim it at Jake.
“If he intended to attack us, he had many chances to do so,” Isra pointed out. “But he hasn’t made any aggressive moves toward us, has he?”
Jake lowered his hands but otherwise remained motionless. His hands hung at his sides, still transformed into long, curved talons. He noticed that the two fingers he had lost during the fight with the very first slasher had already grown back. He had no idea when exactly it happened. He had been so preoccupied with dealing with the survivors he hadn’t even become aware of that fact until now.
“Look at those,” Rick said, his voice tinged with awe, gazing at Jake’s claws. “They look nasty. And he turned his hands into claws so freaking quickly!”
“Well, I guess we now know who killed all those mutants on the first floor,” Archie added.
Frank nodded his head. “That freak is dangerous. We need to keep a close eye on him all the time.”
“Don’t call him a freak,” Isra said firmly. “His name is Jake. Despite his appearance, he’s still human on the inside. He can understand everything you say.”
“I couldn’t care less! Who knows what’s going on in that messed-up head of his? Just because he hasn’t attacked us doesn’t mean he’s our ally.”
“He was a survivor, just like us,” Rick pointed out meekly.
“I still can’t believe he was human once,” Archie mused. “How did he become a mutant? What happened? How is this even possible?”
“I’m more interested in why the System says he’s dead,” Rick mentioned, pointing at the PDA held in Isra’s hand.
“Yeah,” Archie nodded. “I’m curious about that too. The System says he’s dead, but he clearly is not.”
“I think when he transformed into a mutant, the System simply stopped recognizing him as a survivor,” Isra speculated. “The System probably classifies him simply as a mutant now.”
“I wouldn’t just label him as a regular mutant,” Rick said quietly, casting a fearful glance at Jake’s menacing talons. “He turned his hands into those claws so freaking fast. I bet he can use them efficiently. And who knows what else he’s capable of? I’ve never encountered a mutant like him before.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying all along, you morons,” Frank grumbled. “We know nothing about him, so we can’t trust him. And who knows where he’s leading us now?”
“Why do you think he’s taking us somewhere?” Rick asked.
“Use your brain, you fool,” Frank snapped at him. “The platform didn’t move when we stepped on it. It only started ascending when he stepped on it. He must be controlling it somehow.”
“You might be onto something,” Archie said quietly.
All four of them shifted their gazes toward Jake as if anticipating him to provide an answer. With no mouth and struggling to write, he lacked the means to convey his intentions. Even if he could communicate with them, disclosing his goal might not be wise. He doubted they would be pleased if they discovered he was manipulating them for his own gain. They would receive no rewards at all for helping him complete the tower climbing challenge.
Before any of them could speak further, the platform finally arrived at the eighth floor. The survivors exchanged puzzled looks, uncertain of what lay ahead. Ignoring their unsettled chatter, Jake pivoted and exited the elevator shaft into a broad empty corridor extending in both directions. In his expanded field of vision, he saw two survivors position themselves on his left and the other two on his right. When they briefly scanned their surroundings and found nothing of interest, they glanced at one another in puzzlement.
“Why did he bring us here?” one of them asked. “There’s nothing here.”
It was then that a message emerged in his mind.
Targets killed: 0 out of 75
Immediately afterward, magical portals began to tear open all around them.