Withstand

As the Staff storms towards us, this dimension begins to crumble down, and the border seems to shrink in the distance very fast, probably shrinking to a normal size Ikea store.

The only question is what will happen to the things and rooms that are breaking right now and are dragged by the shrinking border?

One thing is for sure, the people in here will be screwed because of it, but there's nothing I can do to change that now...

"They are coming... We will fight until we find a way out. Patrick, simply shoot into the crowd; there are a lot, so you can't miss them. John here..."

I hand John the M4 and a magazine while taking out the pistol and giving it to Ana, who is still holding her bow.

"I'm not really good with guns..." she says a bit conflicted.

"Neither is he..." I point at Patrick, who tries to remove the safety even when his pistol has none... and then continue,

"You will not be able to pick your arrows up, but at least you can use the pistol to hit them after the ammunition is empty."

She nods and takes it, then tries to get a feel for it.

"And you?" John asks as he checks the M4, seemingly having experience with it.

"I? I will have some fun..." I say and take out the machete and knife before dropping my backpack. In the end, I need to take care of only one enemy, the thing that is playing with its broken toy right now...

"John, take down the things that are climbing down from the tower; I will make a way for us in the front in the meantime."

John nods at my request and begins to aim at the tower.

Look at that… It seems in times like this, it's not important who or what you are or what you hate; you will simply fight to survive.

Seeing everyone ready, I take the machete in my right hand and the knife in my left, and I dash towards the incoming horde.

Before we crash into each other, I jump and land in the crowd, invoking my telekinesis to create a small shockwave that throws a bunch of them on the ground.

*Bang, Bang, Bang...* while John shoots at the Staff coming down the tower.

"Stay right behind me!" I say and stab down the Staff members who blocked their way.

Then I throw the machete and make it spin around us, to hold the beings off even more, while killing the clones who got past it.

My goal is to reach the suit-wearing one, which is hiding in the middle of them. But since I can sense its aura, I follow it while slaughtering its clones.

I have only a small problem… using telekinesis on the machete while simultaneously fighting and using it to keep them away from my group puts a toll on my body.

And made it hard to fight like I could without protecting someone. Luckily the things are clumsy and only tried to grab or hit you, so I didn't have much difficulty in getting rid of them.

It was simply evading and stabbing or slashing at them while the machete did the rest, with occasional shots that hit something because there were so many of them from Patrick and Ana.

John, meanwhile, was already out of ammo and dropped the M4, before starting to use his baseball bat to keep them from attacking us from the back.

"The store is closed forever, stay here to die," says a colossal staff member around 13 feet (ca. 4 m) tall, that was blocking my way.

Not far behind it, I could sense its suit-wearing leader...

---

It swings down its massive fist, so I evade it by jumping to the side, then jump on its shoulder while calling my machete back and catching it before stabbing it in the head.

When it starts to fall down, I jump off and then catapult it forward with telekinesis to open a path for us, and it seems to work for a second until a dark tentacle cuts the flying thing in half.

"There you are…" I say, even though my voice is barely audible from the stomping of the Staff and the destruction that is going on right now.

I want to dash towards it, but it steps back while the mob of its clones takes its place, and it hides in the crowd again.

What the hell is this thing playing at? I thought it was so angry that it would attack immediately…

*Crack, Crack*

I turn back to see that the tower begins to collapse in on itself.

"The store is closed forever. Stay here—," I slash down another Staff member and then stab the machete in the ground and sheath my knife into my vest.

It's easier to do it with free hands… time to get the upper hand.

I close my eyes to concentrate while the clones come closer, and my group gets cornered.

"Don't worry; simply stay close. I will deal with them now," I say while pointing my hands towards the falling debris to catch them with my trusted power.

Then, like a conductor, I try to control the falling furniture and direct it towards the beings closing in on us.

"The stor—" *Crash* "The store—" *Crash*...

Like an avalanche, I let the furniture crash into them to silence them forever while also thinning out their ranks and burying them under the debris of the sky-high tower.

Luckily, my healing factor is fast enough to heal me from the damage the telekinesis is doing to my body…

In the end, we were standing in a hole surrounded by buried and crushed Staff members under a pile of furniture.

My group stares at me with wide-open mouths and they visibly relax as it seems that we are safe for now.

"That was crazy… did you get them all?" asks Ana, flabbergasted after realizing what just happened.

I get on my knee and grab the machete that was still stuck in the ground and say, while blood comes out of my ears, eyes, and mouth,

"No, I can already hear more of them coming our way, but the furniture should slow them down."

Patrick comes closer and asks, "Are you alright? The blood—"

"Yes, it's nothing," I respond, and when the bleeding stops a few seconds later, I get up and jump on the pile to take a look.

Only to see the suit-wearing freak also standing on the pile also unharmed, while looking in the opposite direction of me.

At first, I thought it was looking at the tsunami of the ruins of this dimension that was coming our way, caused by the shrinking four walls of the dimension.

But since its head was tilted slightly downward, I followed its direction and could see what it was looking at. There was a glass door that looked exactly like the one Patrick and I came in…

It looks at me then starts to walk towards the door, probably also wanting to escape this soon-to-be graveyard.

"The exit door appeared! We need to go there before the Staff and their leader get there." I say to my group while looking down.

Which made John and Ana look relieved even though it's not over yet.

While Patrick becomes completely pale for some reason and says, "We need to hurry!" and starts to climb up the furniture hectically.

After reaching the top Patrick wants to run after the being immediately, but I grab him and ask, "Any ammunition left?" and he shakes his head. 

When I look at Ana, who was also reaching us with the help of John, she also shakes her head, so I say,

"Yeah… thought that. You two stay in between me and John and be careful not to fall down." I say to them, and we begin to walk towards the entrance as fast as we can.

While the first Staff member reached the top of the debris too…

---

While jumping occasionally from pile to pile and evading and killing the Staff, it takes us way longer than the suit-wearing jerk who seems to glide a bit off the ground while moving to get there.

But when we get near the exit, we can hear some familiar voices and shots being fired.

*Bang, Bang*

"Keep them at bay! We need to get the people out of here," screams Rick, who is shooting at the suit-wearing thing, while it is blocking the revolver bullets with its shadow tentacles.

At the same moment, a guy with a crossbow and Michonne are holding off Staff members who are trying to attack a group of people walking through the exit.

It seems that the shrinking of this space has some positive effects as well and they could get here pretty fast.

The wall of the entrance or exit of this place doesn't seem to cause much destruction while moving towards the center, unlike the other three walls that are coming towards us…

John runs towards the Staff beings while I dash towards the suit thing, which has already managed to pierce Rick's side and is now cornering the wounded man.

The being sends out another tentacle to cut him in half, but I appear and cut it off from the air before kicking the being as it knows it into the nearby wall.

While John finishes the invading Staff with Michonne and the crossbow guy, I help Rick up and lead him to the others, who watch me and don't leave even when the door is nearby.

"Thank you... we need... to get out of here," says Rick as Michonne takes over to hold him, making the others nod.

The only problem is if we simply leave, then they will follow us...

"Aaaaggggghhh!" Suddenly they all freeze in place hearing the scream.

I turn towards the angry being, which has already gathered some Staff around it, and say, "Time to go for you guys... I will stop them from passing through this door."

At least until the tsunami arrives here and buries everything in it. But without protecting others, I should be able to deal with Mr. No Face Tentacle Man and its minions easily.

They still can't move, and Patrick appears to want to say something, but I grin at them and stretch out my hand, then use my telekinesis to catapult them towards the door.

Which opens immediately as they all disappear after crossing the still existing membrane… while I turn towards the gathered mob.