The Backrooms: Zeta Code

Chapter 6: Square One

We landed in a parking lot of a megastore. The front of the store was emblazoned with a huge neon sign that read, "BIG-K". Axel lead us inside, and we saw that the interior was lit up and had a few people hanging around. A quick head count brought the number of people to about 30, which shocked me, since I didn't expect so many people to be in the base. Axel asked around, and eventually lead us into a small office soace near the back of the store, where his friend only known as 'H' was. We went into a small office space, furnished with a small rug and a lamp on the desk.

We had to squeeze a little for all of us to fit in, but once we did we listened to what this mysterious new man had to say. H was a black man in his 40s, with a blue suit and tie, topped of with a fancy-looking hat. "Well, look who's come around to my part of the block," H said with a smirk on his face. "I never thought you'd come here. What's happened now? Stretch get brainwashed again?" I shot Axel a questioning look, but he returned it with a look that said, "Later, not now". Axel explained the situation to H, who listened intently from start to finish. Once Axel was done, H said, "Well, I can see why you're so urgent. We have a list of all the levels we've discovered so far that are especially dangerous, you guys can go take a look at which one you wish to go. I'll send a few of my men with you. Don't worry, they're excellent fighters."

H picked up a book and opened it, revealing a small key within a few of the pages. He then flipped a potted plant oh his desk on it's side, revealing a keyhole in the base. He inserted the key and twisted, and the back wall of the room opened up. We found ourselves walking into a room roughly the same size as the office, but now with many folders in the wall shelves. I picked one up and read about a level so cold it gave wanderers frostbite within seconds of entering. Eventually, we settled on going to a level called the Archive, since we figured a code would probably be hidden in a place like that.

H sent two guys with us, a man in a hazmat suit and a guy with a scythe. The man with the scythe introduced himself as Mark and told us the man in the hazmat was Kent. "He doesn't like other people too much," Mark said, "Which is why he does all his sciencey stuff alone." Together, with our new teammates, we left to find the Zeta code to stop Elijah, or die trying.