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Jimmy was hungry.
Not for carrots, not for bread, not for beef. He needed… something else. Despite how little his more rational side wanted it, Jimmy needed flesh. Human flesh. He needed to sink his teeth into muscles, into tissue, into bone, into meat- delicious, bloody, fresh meat. He longed to taste the sweet red blood that would drip down when he bit, to feel the muscles contract around his teeth and the crunch of bones-
Something wet falling on his shirt made him snap out of it. The sheriff wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, slightly embarrassed- he hadn’t even realized he was drooling on the jail’s porch. Looking around, he was glad that Tumble Town’s citizens had long since gone to sleep- If he had come across someone- No. The houses were dark, no lanterns lit. The wooden doors would be so easy to break down were locked. He should… reinforce them. Iron maybe. Or a button.
Moonlight dripped down from over the fake sky walls, coating everything in its ethereal glow- including the multiple monsters who had begun to spawn. Zombies groans could be heard echoing across the mesa’s large empty areas as they roamed, spiders skittering around and a few skeletons holding bows in fleshless pale hands. Luckily for Jimmy, none of his fellow husks were out and about. He hated looking at full-blooded husks- the fact he could have been one of them, mindlessly searching for food, never being satisfied, it scared Jimmy more than he would admit.
He needed a distraction. Thinking about his hunger would just lead to feeling it more and more until he didn’t know if he could control himself- The Sheriff was supposed to keep the town safe, not eat the townspeople. For the hundredth time that day, Jimmy regretted not robbing the graveyard. Was it ethical? No. Was it something a Sheriff should be doing? Absolutely not. Was it the only way he could feed himself without attacking someone? Sadly, yes. Jimmy only needed to feed once every few weeks to control his husk instincts. He had figured this out when he was younger, the absolute minimum he needed to eat flesh. And of course, for the first time since his teenage years, he had forgotten.
But Jimmy couldn’t raid the graveyard right now, he had a job to do. And with a funeral being organized in a few days, the graveyard would be swarming with people for a while. So he strapped his revolver on one side of his belt and his sword on the other. He didn’t put any food into his inventory- he wouldn’t need it. Nor would he be able to stomach it, at least at the moment. Undead flesh would have to do for now. Dry, bloodless, rotten. Ugh.
It’s better than nothing, I guess.
He jumped off the porch, and walked all the way to the town’s border. By then, the zombies had clearly heard him. Their groans were louder, hungrier and Jimmy ignored the fact that as his thoughts began fogging up, he could almost-not-quite understand the mumbled, disjointed words they said.
Jimmy shook off the fog. He began sprinting away from Tumble Town- he didn’t want his shots to wake everyone up. The mobs immediately began stumbling behind him, rotten hands reaching out. When Jimmy was sure they were far enough from town, he swiftly turned around, took out his revolver, and began shooting. He made up targets on the mobs to hit, tallying up points. Jimmy grinned after hitting a baby zombie square in the forehead. If there was one thing he could be proud about it was his sharpshooting.
Any zombies that weren’t cut down by his bullets met their ends at the hands of his sword, skin splitting apart and heads rolling off easily. The spiders were slightly more annoying, as Jimmy had to avoid them jumping at him. More than a few times he had to struggle to un-attach one off his shirt. A few stray arrows stabbed into his shoulder, and he cursed, but he ignored the stinging pain and focused on getting rid of the mobs. By the time he was done, he had almost forgotten he got hurt.
Jimmy looked down at the zombie drops. While not human flesh, it was close enough that his mouth was already watering. He didn’t have a lot of time before they despawned, so he quickly knelt down beside the closest and began picking it up. Each piece of flesh was put into his inventory carefully, until Jimmy had at least a stack of rotten flesh. It would have to do for now- the husk hybrid tended to eat these in between the weeks, when he felt the hunger but it wasn’t feeding day yet. He needed it to be enough- because if it wasn’t, Jimmy was screwed. Especially because there was an Emperor meeting the next day. Jimmy could already imagine the ridicule the others would throw at him for being a mob hybrid- a dangerous mob. Or worse, they’d tell Tumble Town and he’d get kicked out. Or killed. Probably killed.
He sighed, exhausted, and headed back. Jimmy had a meeting to get to.