Chapter 7

The drive to the new facility took less than a day and when Michael stepped out of the truck, he could see nothing but desert for miles around as the guards quickly ushered him through the well guarded entrance.

As he was brought deeper into the facility, Michael noticed that the design wasn't much different than the one he was used to. It had the same long white corridors and large steel containment chambers. Besides a slightly different layout, the whole place was pretty much the same.

After some time spent walking he eventually made it to his temporary containment cell.

It was nothing grand, being very similar to his other room, but missing his exercise equipment and his nice bed.

He'd need to request to use the guards workout room while at the facility, as well as for a new bed.

He refused to go back to the cot.

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Just like that the rest of the week passed by uneventfully. Everyone at the facility seemed hesitant to talk to Michael, likely wary of him changing his mind about doing this. From what he'd read, 'The Shy Guy' is something they've been trying to kill for decades. Michael was probably their best bet at getting rid of him.

Throughout the week Michael made use of the on facility gym, while also studying the various SCP's on his laptop. However, It didn't have any access to the internet, it had been specifically modified to just hold the SCP information.

So his dream of using it to play video games was crushed early on.

He did however search himself up on the laptop. Although there wasn't really anything on there that he didn't already know. Except for when he looked under what to do in case he purposefully breached containment.

It said to beat him with a foam bat until he behaved.

…

This had to be Hearthgrieve fucking with him, right?

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Anyways, since the two weeks had passed, a long bit of rope was stretched into Michael's cell, with an easily removable belt attached to the end.

Michael put it on, mostly happy with the deal he'd made.

They needed his cooperation in this, that's why he so readily agreed to their terms. They couldn't force Michael to take SCPs with him to another dimension if he didn't want to.

Well, they could, but he could just bring them back outside of their containment chambers. That would be a disaster waiting to happen.

Michael pondered his situation.

He needed to start taking anything of value in the other dimensions. Now that they agreed to let him keep what he found, it was the best way to increase his survivability.

So if he found any magic shit, you better believe he was taking it.

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Bathing became a problem when you could go through a dimensional shift at any moment. He couldn't take off any of his equipment, so sponge baths were the only way to go.

He'd read that one time Tommy had decided to take a bath when he could get shifted at any moment, and gotten transported halfway through. No equipment and no clothes.

I swear that guy should have died sooner. There has to be something he did that I'm not seeing.

Well, I'll find out eventually.

He began washing his face when he started to get a feeling of weightlessness.

"Here we go again."

With that said, space once again consumed Michael, as well as the monster at the end of his rope.

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Once the shift had ended, Michael could hear the 'Shy Guy' behind him let out an ear piercing scream towards the ceiling, before curling up on the floor. It frantically ripped and tore away at the flesh of its face. Trying desperately to hide its face from something it clearly couldn't get to.

Michael couldn't turn around to check, but he could hear it.

It wasn't a pleasant sound to listen to.

Michael surveyed what was in front of him.

Aisles upon aisles filled with furniture and shelving surrounded him.

Standing up, Michael immediately detached the rope tethering him to 'The Shy Guy' and began to walk away.

Once far enough Michael broke into a jog.

He'd quickly decided to move as far away from the monster as humanly possible.

There's no real reason to stay close to the sad man tearing away at his face.

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Walking along, Michael felt pretty good. He'd quickly identified his location as an IKEA, although substantially bigger than he would have thought. He'd found no walls so far, despite jogging for some time now. However, Michael was in a pretty good mood.

He'd gotten rid of a monster and got to steal from an IKEA. Honestly a pretty good day all things considered.

Despite this, Michael stayed alert, not wanting to get complacent in an unknown environment.

This paid off, because after roughly forty minutes of walking he came across another monster.

An abnormally tall humanoid creature moved slowly along, wearing the signature yellow shirt and blue pants of an IKEA employee. Its face had no features, and looked as if someone had poorly molded it's body out of clay.

Michael approached carefully, calling out to it from an advantageous position.

"Hey um, you're not gonna try to kill me are you? If so, I'd appreciate you telling me now."

The creature didn't respond, it simply continued to saunter away.

Well, that's a relief I guess.

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Michael continued walking in the opposite direction of 'The Shy Guy'.

He'd come across many more of the IKEA creatures, which he'd started to refer to as 'Workers'. All of them had been as docile as the first, but Michael didn't lower his guard around them. Some of them had larger unproportional bodies, with arms the size of tree trunks, something he'd very much like to not get hit with.

All of a sudden the overhead lights went out.

"Well that can't be good."

Michael turned on his flashlight and continued moving, taking corners cautiously and being wary of what this change entailed.

It didn't take long for him to come across another one of the workers. However, it behaved differently than all the others he'd seen.

It ran instead of slowly shambling and constantly repeated the phrase, "The store is now closed. Please exit the building."

Its head turned towards Michael, before sprinting towards him full speed.

"The store is now clo-"

Never let your enemy finish talking, a rule to remember.

It didn't get past that word before Michael fired his shotgun. It's head exploded, causing it to violently crash down into the floor, breaking through a coffee table in the process.

It laid ragdolled, clearly dead.

And here I thought I finally got a safe dimension.

Cautiously moving towards the corpse, Michael could discern that it didn't have any blood or bones, it was just completely filled with the same pale skin it had on the outside.

Michael began to move, not wanting to see if these things were attracted by noise.

Despite his gun being suppressed, the sound echoed a lot more than he was comfortable with.

As Michael jogged, things began to escalate. He began to see small groups of the workers, which he easily managed with some well placed shots.

The problems came when the packs of these things began to number in the dozens.

Every monster killed was quickly replaced by another.

Michael ran through the aisles of furniture, trying to break eyesight with the workers as often as possible.

Despite the flashlight cutting through the dark, it was still quite difficult to see.

He could hear the heavy footsteps of the workers behind him, alongside them telling him, "The store is now closed. Please exit the building".

Reaching down to his side, Michael grabbed hold of a grenade, pulling the pin.

Right before he rounded a corner, Michael whipped the grenade behind him as he ran.

The resounding explosion was deafening, causing Michaels ears to slightly ring.

Still running, Michael saw it. A large wall made out of bits and pieces of metal, wood and furniture. Small holes littered the walls, but they looked deliberate. Likely being something to shoot or stab out of.

Several humans stood atop the wall, holding what looked to be makeshift crossbows.

Michael ducked behind a shelf.

He debated ignoring them and continuing on, but the consistent noise of workers moving about was a strong incentive not to.

His body still wasn't ready for this amount of abuse, and he already felt exhausted from the running he'd already done.

Well, time to test my luck.

Poking his head out from cover, Michael greeted the two guards.

"Hey ugh, can I come in?"

They both looked towards Michael with surprise, before opening the main door for him.

"Get inside quickly, we won't keep that door open for long."

Rushing inside, Michael gasped for breath. He'd done way too much running today.

One of the guards walked up, holding his crossbow. He had short black hair and scars covering much of his exposed skin.

"If you were out after dark, I'm guessing you're new here. Even if you're armed to the teeth like that."

He eyed Michael's gear.

"Yeah, I guess you could say I'm new."

The man smiled.

"Well I'll be the first one to welcome you to our little settlement, the village of the low hanging bathroom light."