Alex considered himself just a regular guy even if a bit on the tall and lanky side, being almost two meters tall with brown hair and blue eyes. Though depression and lack of motivation had made him go from athletic, as he was in school to slightly pudgy. Working as a clerk at a retail shop was not what he would consider a dream job. All that effort of going to university and he was stuck as a store clerk. His free time went into computer games as it was the only escape he had from the boredom that was his daily life.

And today he was working the night shift again. Why a supermarket needed to be open at midnight he did not know, especially as there was only one customer wandering the alcohol section. If that guy could just pick whatever he was going to get drunk with so at least Alex could read some more. But no, the customer just kept wandering back and forth. He had been there for at least an hour now.

Everything trembled. Earthquake? Wondered Alex for a moment but before he could do much else his attention got grabbed by a floating text appearing before him. What the hell? Thought Alex it had a large chunk of text with symbols rapidly shifting at the bottom but it did not look like any language Alex had ever seen before.

Alex tried to poke his fingers at the text wondering what exactly it meant. Was he hallucinating? The symbols at the bottom almost looked like a countdown as they were rapidly shifting. Looking over where the only other person in the store was, he was greeted by the sight of the man desperately waving at something in front of himself, something that Alex could not see.

Ok, whatever it is, it is not just me as that guy is freaking out. Thought Alex wondering and staring at the countdown. It had gone from three symbols to just two now. And slowly he prepared himself as much as he could for whatever was about to happen.

As the Countdown was down to one symbol that was rapidly changing, Alex had the smart idea to just in case grab the baseball bat that was for sale on the shelf behind him.

The countdown ended for a moment nothing happened, then the lights turned off, everything shook and sounds of metal groaning as if under massive stress filled the area. As suddenly as it started it ended, everything seemed to go back to normal. For a moment Alex thought that was it and things would go back to normal. But instead, a new text box appeared in front of him. This one as incomprehensible as the previous one. He spent a few seconds puzzling over it before his attention was pulled by a noise.

Thump, thump, thump echoed through the room, it sounded like someone was using a sledgehammer on the wall at the back. Ok, that definitely does not sound good. Alex slowly came out from behind the counter to investigate. The noises kept getting louder and louder. Cracks started appearing in the middle of the wall at the back.

The only other person in the shop was also moving closer to the wall to see what was going on.

The cracks got bigger and bigger finally, the wall gave way and a big chunk fell into the shop. Behind it was the entrance of a cave, the dark tunnel leading off into the distance before turning sideways and vanishing out of sight. There was a big pile of bones off to the side and even pieces of what looked like armor in that pile. But Alex had no time to notice any of the details in the cave itself, his attention was occupied by something far more important. As the source of the noise and what had broken the wall was a giant ogre. At Least three meters tall covered in massive muscles and what looked like pieces of stone growing out of its skin. Its ears were almost comically large, looking like they should be something belonging more onto a cat or a bat, its small beady eyes were rough and uneven making one wonder how it could even see with them. It was armed with a rough stone club, one that had seen plenty of use shown by the bloodstains that covered it  The monster that had entered the room stopped after taking a step in and slowly turned its whole body while it looked around the shop, its ears twitching rapidly towards every sound.

As all the fridges in the cold section next to it were on, its attention was drawn to them as it slowly turned its whole body to face them growling slowly with deep menacing tones.

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But before the ogre could go over to investigate the noises from the fridges, the man who had thus far stood still in shock started screaming. The ogre's reaction was rapid, with speed completely unexpected considering its slow movement this far the ogre twisted around, its club flashing out with blurring speed. The poor man was not an obstacle that could even slow the club down. Blood splattered in a wide arc as the club turned a man into chunks of meat.

Alex seeing that turned and ran as fast as he could towards the front doors of the little shop. O god fuck, fuck, that thing just killed him! Were his thoughts as he desperately sprinted. He could hear an angry roar behind himself as he ran, but luckily for him, the ogre tried to take the direct route to him smashing into and through shelves in its haste to catch up to him. For a moment he thought Noise it reacted to noise! Alex quickly threw his club sideways in another direction for a moment the ogre slowed unsure what noise to follow before resuming his chase after Alex. But it bought him precious seconds, Seconds that meant he reached the door before the ogre reached him.

Alex made it through the door and ran out knowing that there was the security office just across from his little shop. Yet once he made it to what should have been the main hallway of the mall he was met instead with a completely unfamiliar sight. A gigantic hall the far wall was barely visible far in the distance. The floor was covered in dirt with giant stone arcs far above and a glass roof above that showing the sky with the sun shining down. The side of the hall had a mix of archaic-looking stone arches leading into tunnels mixed in with hallways that you would expect in a shopping mall and random shops scattered around.

Before he could decide what way safety could lay he was reminded of why he was running as the crashing noises behind him kept getting closer and closer. So he did the only thing he could think of turned to the side and ran along the wall desperately hoping to find a place to hide.

He could feel his heart pounding and his lungs were burning, he was not fit enough for this level of effort but adrenaline and pure terror gave him the strength to continue. There was not much space in his mind for anything besides pure terror he was certain he was going to die.

The first passageway he reached lead into a gym, with exercise equipment spread all around. His attention was drawn to the bars on the wall right next to the entrance making a ladder up into the rafters where he could possibly be out of reach of the monster.

Alex with his climb fueled by fear managed to make it all the way up and climb onto the rafters before the ogre reached the room. In the huge gym hall, that he was now desperately clamped onto the rafters, sitting on one of the metal poles there hugging the pillar hanging down from the ceiling.

Alex did his best to quiet his breathing and not make noise, the monster, after all, had only reacted to the noise and despite being so afraid he was shaking he had managed to notice that. And it seemed to be working the ogre could tell he was in there but the gym was a large echo-filled room with even the smallest noises echoing all around. So the ogre just wandered around trying to find its prey.

It can't see, it looked straight towards me but it is having trouble finding me. And I don't think those wooden bars I used for climbing would hold him. Thought Alex as he slowly managed to at least somewhat calm down now that the immediate danger was over.

But soon a repeating clicking noise joined the noises coming from the ogre wandering below. The sound was as if someone was rapidly tapping a metal pole onto the ground. And it was getting louder and louder. Alex looked around trying to figure out what new horror was making that noise. Finally, he had a chance to look around properly and the gym, for the most part, looked just like he would expect any regular gym to look. The door he had entered from was in the side of the large chamber. But in both ends of the hall, there was a giant stone arches leading into deep dark tunnels, tunnels that looked very out of place in a modern gym. And one of those tunnels was where that noise was now coming from.

Alex was not the only one who had noticed the noise the ogre had noticed it as well and was moving in to investigate this new noise.

A few minutes later Alex got his answer to what the noise was and desperately wished he had not. As out of that stone tunnel game a  gigantic centipede. One whos body looked as if it was made of metal instead of chitin. And its many many legs were rapidly bringing it into the room. On entering the hall the Centipedes many misplaced eyes focused on the ogre as it lifted its whole front end up exposing a mouth filled with endless rows of teeth. And with no hesitation in its action, it charged at the ogre.

The battle was short and vicious with the centipede tearing apart it's smaller foe followed by quickly consuming it only leaving a bloodstain on the floor. And after seeing that unholy feast Alex could not help but notice several similar bloodstains already covering areas of the floor. There were bits of clothes mixed it that probably belonged to the poor people who had been in the gym when all this madness started.

After it was done with its feast the centipede backpedaled back into the tunnel then headed out again following a trail only it could see winding across the room before exiting from the other end. Its back end only exiting the tunnel moments after its front end entered the other tunnel at the other end of the room, showcasing how monstrous it was in size. During that whole time Alex just desperately clung to the rafters hoping to stay unnoticed.