Seeing the humans begin traveling toward where they last saw the flock of birds, Kohl began clearing out the surrounding area of his entrance of all furniture, making the portal much more noticeable using some of his elementals.
Something to note is that with each level an Elemental gains, their size and power have been increasing, making them more imposing with each level.
A basic level one elemental is the size of a palm, and the level 25 Fire Elemental, on the other hand, has become as large as a small human child, a baby Kohl thinks they were called.
Even then, with their small sizes, they can be quite lethal.
Of course, to prevent exhaustion, Kohl had some of the animals from the biomes help drag furniture into the dungeon before returning to their homes.
So, within half an hour, a large area around the entrance was cleared and only the birds remained outside, waiting for the humans to arrive.
The elementals returned to their caves, and the various other animals returned to their respective homes.
---
[Jay's POV]
"Ooo, what's that?" Bright asked, running over to a random lamp.
"A lamp," Luke dryly replied.
"And that?" Bright asked, running over to a ceiling fan with its own light.
"A ceiling fan," Charles responded.
"And-," Bright began only for me to cut him off, "Cut it out Bright, this will already be a long day, can you keep quiet for just an hour?!"
Quietness...bliss...for about four seconds.
"Why?" Bright asked, starting his annoying game.
Before anyone could reply, a chirp caught our attention and we noticed a bird sitting atop a nearby room wall.
"A Toucan?" Bright asked, confused.
Suddenly the bird leaped off the wall and dived towards our group, before pecking Bright on the head and flying around the wall.
"Ow! Damn bird, get back here!" Jack Bright yelled before chasing after the bird in anger.
Sighing, we all began chasing after Bright, it seems we will have to drag him back to town.
Only for us to trip and fall over Bright after turning the corner and running directly into his stilled body.
"What the hell Jack, why did you suddenly stop?" Charles asked, rubbing his head and climbing off of Luke.
Climbing off of Jack, we all looked at him, only to realize that his eyes were focused directly ahead.
Looking, we froze as well.
A large empty area devoid of any furniture of any kind with a gleaming golden crack in the air with a counter in front of it and a sign that read 'Exchange and Returns.'
Just behind the crack and the counter, was a small room presumably meant for storage whatever would have been exchanged and returned to the store.
Not only that but flying in circles above the crack were what seemed like dozens of birds of varying species and colors.
Suddenly, the whole swarm of birds dived down in sync and whenever one touched the crack, they disappeared in a flash of light until each and every bird disappeared.
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"What the hell...?" Charles spoke.
"A spatial tear," Bright finally spoke.
"You know what it is?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the thing before me.
"We shouldn't even be able to see it..." Bright spoke.
"Where does it lead?" Charles asked.
"Somewhere, maybe even somewhere out of here..." Bright responded.
"We should go tell everyone," Luke spoke.
"We could, but...the crack could close at any moment..." Bright explained, causing all of us to look at each other.
"I'll stay...as much as I hate to say it, if this is a chance of us escaping from this hell, then we shouldn't be the only ones to leave," I spoke out with a grim tone.
"You guys can go, but I'll stay, and I won't stop any of you if you decide to leave," I continued.
Others would kill for this opportunity to escape this hell, but honestly, I had second thoughts.
Sure, it might lead out of here, but what would await on the other side?
Something worse? Our old worlds? How would any of us even be able to return to our old lives after being trapped here for so long?
Could I really ever go back to an 8-5 desk job?
I could see everyone hesitating on whether to go or not, but after a while, I was honestly surprised to see them all turn back to me.
"Im staying," Charles spoke.
"Me too," Luke quickly responded.
"Ah...fuck, fine, I got all of eternity, might as well do some good," Jack replied with a strange tone of tiredness.
"Luke, Charles, can you both stay here while Bright and I return to the town?" I asked my two fellow guards.
They both nodded, and I thanked them.
"Come on Jack, let's get there as fast as we can, can you jog?" I asked the lazy guy.
"I'll keep up," Bright replied
[A/N: Dr. Jack Bright is Bright's full name, in case you are confused as to his name being switched from Jack and Bright]
---
Listening to the conversation was easy after crawling onto one of the men with an insect and watching them from afar with a hidden bird.
Kohl found it strange how cooperative and altruistic the people of this Infinite Ikea were, from both experience and observations to the journal of an Ikea survivor listed in the IKEA's SCP File.
Was this how the SCP chose its targets?
Did it go for only Aultruistic people so that those trapped here would work together to survive? Or was it simply human nature that brought humanity together in these dire times?
What would change when they were introduced to his dungeon? Would they tear each other apart or continue working together after realizing that they were not on any 'Earth' they knew of?
Kohl was curious to see what would happen. Would human nature and altruism prevail? Or would the darker side of humanity rear its head? Kohl couldn't wait to see what would happen.
---
[Jay's POV]
I was somewhat surprised that Jack managed to keep up with me for the two miles we jogged back to the town, but when we did reach the town, I could see he was on the brink of collapse from exhaustion and was covered in sweat.
Banging on the gate I yelled, "Open up! We need to see Clair, now!"
Once we got in, we rushed across the town, eventually managing to find Clair helping Sarah keep an inventory of our supplies.
"Jay? Bright? Why are you two back so soon? Did something happen?" Clair asked in concern, seeing how exhausted and sweaty we were from running.
"Gather everyone you can, we think we found an exit out of here," I told her.
"What do you mean?" She asked, confused.
"We found a spatial tear, we all saw the birds go into it. It could be a way out of here, and back to Earth," Bright explained.
It took a few moments for both Clair and Sarah to process it.
"Are you sure?" Sarah asked in seriousness.
"Yes, the tear could heal at any time, so time is of the essence, the other two guys are still there waiting for us to return," Bright explained.
"...Okay, spread the word, have everyone gather at the gate, be quick," Clair ordered, and we all rushed out of the store and began urgently spreading the word.
The people of the town were clearly confused that we gathered them all at the gate, and it was clear that the people were quickly becoming scared, but within ten minutes, we had everyone gathered.
Clair told everyone that we may have found a way out, a way to leave the store for once and for all, and that we needed to hurry if anyone wanted to escape.
The people got loud, but Clair was able to stay in control and somewhat calm the people down, we armed everyone in whatever weapons we had and tried to organize the crowd so that everyone would be protected, with children and the elderly being in the center of the crowd and the more able bodied being armed with weapons and surrounding our weak.
Clair and I were worried it may suddenly turn dark on our way there, and with this many people out at night, we would be swarmed by staff.
Bright and I would lead the people, while Clair and the other council members would keep the people motivated and moving, there were less than a hundred of us, but it would still be a difficult two mile walk.
---
Kohl watched as the people began traveling to the Dungeon in hopes of escaping the Infinite IKEA, but little did they know, while they would be leaving the store, they'd only be entering a place that was even more dangerous, but far more rewarding.
Knowing they would like create a settlement in the Dungeon thinking its safer, Kohl began expanding the entity count across the dungeon so that the humans wouldn't destroy the ecosystem within a few days by overhunting to feed the settlement.
Kohl also drastically increased the natural food sources such as wild vegtebles and fruits, and also included a wide variety of nuts and berries to create a balanced diet for the settlers.
Soon they'd arrive and explore.