Into The Backrooms

Chapter 15 - Inconvenience

We had all fallen from the ceiling down to the marble floor, me laying right on my arm. I stood up to see myself with three other people, Dan, N, and Jessica, all groaning in pain

"Ah shit...where are we?" Dan said, looking around

"I have no idea" I replied

"You alright Reed?" N asked me

"A bit of pain, but holding up" I replied

We all stood up, looking around to see where we were, and with one glimpse we knew exactly where we were. We were in Level 480.

The level appeared to be a large system of rooms which consisted of several different storefronts and doorways, which all resembled the entrances to convenience, food, tool and appliance stores. They each lead to different stores which varied greatly in size, some being as small as a gas station convenience store, whilst others are larger, with some being to be as large as an aircraft hangar.

These rooms and stores were all in mint condition, with the floors scrubbed clean, all the shelves being fully stocked and full of food that one could find in the real world, and air conditioning placed all around the store, sending out cool air all around the level.

We walked around, looking through the multiple storefronts, surprised of their size.

So this is Level 480?" Dan asked

"I've never been here" I responded

"And to think, we're still in Cluster I" N said

"Shocking" Jessica said

"So what do we do?" I asked

We all stood in silence, then looking up and seeing the portal we went through, still being there

"Is that...meant to be there?" Dan asked

"No" I responded

"The King's tearing The Backrooms apart, this is a cause to it" N said

"Well if that leads back to Level 94, we can get back to the King" Jessica said

"But how? The portals way to high up" I asked

"Let's look around, after all, we are in a level filled with stores. One of these has to have a ladder or something" Dan said

"Let's split up then, see what we can find" I said

We all walked down a separate path, looking through the store fronts in search of a way to get to the portal.

I stopped in front of a hardware store, walking in and seeing it being like a Home Depot, hell it was a Home Depot. Walking past the cash registers, I walked to the large aisles with the assortment of tools on them, seeing there were drills and saws and what not, then these boxes that had original items, while others seemed like bootleg rip-offs.

I checked one of the boxes, taking a good look at it and turning my back to see the aisle behind me and seeing the same product in a different box. A bootleg rip-off.

I looked down to see a box with a saw inside it, clearly a rip-off product. I took the saw out of its box and held it in my hand. I had some fun with it and swing it like a sword, thinking that this could be a good use of protection. That was when I accidentally stabbed it into a metal bar. I tried to pull it out bit it wouldn't budge. I gave up. I let go of it and looked around the store, but that was when that the lights went out, even the windows in the ceiling were covered up, somehow.

Eventually, it left me in the darkness, like if I was blind or something. I felt my way around the store, staying close to the shelves so I wouldn't get lost. I then heard growling come from the distance, and stood still, hearing it come closer to me. Once I was sure it was gone, I made a run for another aisle, searching it for a light source, and then found a lantern.

I lit it, surprised it actually worked. I then looked down to my radio and pressed the talk button on it

"Guys, do you copy?" I whispered into the radio

"Yeah, you alright?" N asked

"I'm doing fine, where are you all?" 

"We're inside a supermarket and I think we found something that may work"

"Cool, but I don't think it's safe out here now"

"Yeah no shit. Looks like this is a level with Blackouts" Jessica said

"I guess, so how long would it take?"

"A couple of minutes I'd say"

"We can survive till then"

"Just stay in the shadows, be careful of the entities"

"Rodger"

I turned my radio off, looking around the corner only to see a Smiler walk down the halls. I immediately backed up and turned my lantern off. I stood still as the Smiler walked past the aisle, it's massive smile glowing brighter than my lamp.

It walked away, and soon after it did I moved to another aisle, turning the lamp back on and searching the store. I slowly walked down, but my shoulder accidentally hit a hammer off the shelf, falling to the ground and landing with a loud thud. I could hear the entities in the distance make their way to the source of the noise, and immediately I ran away.

I hid in the storage room as the entities made their way inside the store, sniffing around the place for a few minutes. Just then, the lights turned back on, and some of the entities had fled back to their shelter. I took a peek out and saw the coast was clear. I ran out of the store and grabbed my radio, holding down the button

"Team, let's rendezvous back at the portal" I said

I ran back to the portal and there I saw the others having a long rope, one that seems to be more than 50 meters big. Where the hell did they get it?

"So this is what you got?" I asked

"Yep. I'm thinking we could throw the rope to the ceiling at one of the pipes, climbing up it to the portal" N said

"But the pipes all the way up there, it'll never make it" I said, looking at the ceiling being super high up.

"Then we'll need to get up there, somehow"

After many trial and errors, trying to throw the rope up to the pipe, we failed and almost gave up, but soon seeing the large shelves placed all around, climbing up one would help us. When at the top, we threw the top and to our disbelief it made it. The rope could now be climbed.

We climbed up one by one back to the portal, coming back to Level 94, where we saw the storm The King made, had grown worse.

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YES finally a new chapter. omg this bozo was gone for like a week or two idk but yay he finally made a new chapter