Michael looked down at the corpse of the monster he’d killed. If this thing is what he thought it was, then the current situation is pretty bleak.

The flesh that hates could loosely be called a zombie virus. Except it tended to turn you into meat monsters instead, and looking through the list of sighted infected didn’t fill Michael with much confidence either. Apparently the thing can make behemoths out of the flesh, and they also seem to have a hive mind thing going on.

Not exactly something he wanted to deal with.

Michael walked over to the nearby window and pulled back the curtain. The street down below was likely once a normal suburban neighborhood. Not so much anymore. Tendrils of flesh traveled up and covered nearly every structure he could see, and thousands of pillars of flesh could be seen rising towards the sky. They had human faces covering them that let out spores periodically. The visibility on the ground was simply terrible thanks to the ever-present shroud of spores they produced.

After closing the curtain, Michael stopped to think. 'This thing is supposed to be highly infectious. Although I’m probably immune to it thanks to the jade ring, so that’s good at least, but this is one of the worlds I should probably just abandon. It just has too much risk involved with too little gain. I'm just not currently equipped to handle a world like this.

With that decided, Michael reached into his back pocket and grabbed the small key he’d received from the manager in the infinite IKEA.

Moving over to the nearby closet, Michael pushed the key against the door handle. The key melted, flowing onto the doorway and covering it. A moment later the door looked the exact same as the one he’d seen in the infinite IKEA, complete with the word ‘Manager’ printed onto its center.

Michael stepped through and could immediately see the Manager constructing a small wooden chair.

“Oh, you’re back! Where’s the furniture you promised?” The manager turned and asked, excited.

“I haven't found any that fit your descriptions just yet," Michael said with a shrug. "but do you mind if I hang out here for a while? The dimension I just popped into was kind of a shit show.”

“Oh, I gue-”

She paused, before sniffing the air around Michael despite her not having a nose.

“Get out,” she firmly said.

“What, why?”

“The scent of Order is strong on you. I can’t interfere in the dimension hopping of an apostle he’s taken interest in.”

She shooed Michael away.

“Now get out, only come back once you’ve managed to get me my furniture.”

Michael glanced back towards the exit, indignant. “Come on, don’t be like that.”

She stared down towards Michael, none of the earlier playfulness in her tone.

“I said get out.”

Michael paused for a moment before reluctantly walking back through the door.

Once he’d walked through, the doorway vibrated as the liquified key left the closet door and returned to normal, dropping down to the carpeted floor.

“Well fuck, it looks like I can’t hide in there,” Michael grumbled to himself.

He looked around the room and spotted a small handheld mirror on the dresser. He quickly grabbed it and slid it under the door.

In the reflection he could see a flesh covered man standing inches away from the doorway. Spores puffing out from hundreds of small holes covering its body.

'Damnit, they know I’m in here,' Michael realized. 'I need to leave.'

Michael quickly and carefully walked over to the window and slid it open before quietly crawling through it out onto the roof.

He scanned his surroundings and saw the same fleshy material covering everything as far as he could see. Miles off in the distance, he could see a human figure sitting. Fleshy tendrils swayed atop its skin as literal clouds of spores emanate off of its flesh. The creature was ginormous, easily as tall as a skyscraper, and it was looking his way.

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Worse yet, there was movement all around the house. The pillars of flesh parted as creatures moved towards his location. Weirdly enough though, it seemed like they were trying to avoid walking anywhere that he would've been able to see from the window.

'That’s concerning, it shows a basic amount of forethought on their part,' Michael noted. 'Either way it's decision time. Do I want to defend a house or do I want to run through a forest of flesh.'

'Well, the giant isn’t moving at the moment so that's good. I could just try to hold out until I transport back to my world. I could also abandon the house if it comes down to it. Let’s hope I don’t need to though, apparently this thing likes to burrow underneath its victims' feet. I’d like to have a concrete foundation between me and them. I also don’t want to go running through all that,' Michael thought, looking out at the eerily alive expanse.

He glanced down to the thick cloud of spores covering the street and the movement within.

'Alright let's do it,' Michael decided. 'But first I’ll need to clear the house. I should probably start with the creepy fucker standing right outside the room.'

Michael climbed back inside the house and a quick check with the mirror confirmed the creature was still on the other side of the door. Michael then strapped his gas mask on. Even if he turned out to be immune, breathing in a shit ton of those spores couldn’t be good for you. Besides, he doubted they’d taste very good.

Michael then stood a couple feet away from the door, raised his gun and unloaded fours shells right through its center. The wood easily gave way as Michael quickly followed up by kicking the door open.

The creature spasemed on the ground with a good chunk of its stomach spattered against the hallway wall. Another well placed shot made it stay still.

Michael hurriedly moved from room to room, clearing them as quickly as he could.

No more creatures were on the upper floor, but before he went to the lower one he tossed a canister of tear gas down the stairs. He didn’t know if it would affect them or not, but it was worth a try.

He then moved carefully down the stairs and used the mirror to check each room before breaching them.

He didn’t find any more creatures in the house, but there was one thing he learned from the sweep.

This house had far too many windows to be defendable. Or at least the first floor did.

'Looks like I’m only defending the upper floor,' Michael thought, immediately getting to work.

With his plan of action decided, Michael began to drag a couch up the stairway in an attempt to provide some cover. He barely got it halfway up before he heard every window downstairs break at once. The pillars of flesh had pushed their way in, and spores had begun to rapidly fill the lower floor.

Quick steps could be heard coming around the corner as a disgusting creature made its way towards the bottom of the stairway.

It had legs similar to those of a spider, with each one seeming to have an infected human molded into it. Its main body was made up of what looked to be an infected woman embracing two smaller infected and it screeched upon seeing him.

'Yeah, fuck that shit.'

Michael quickly reached down to his side and chucked a grenade down the stairs before ducking behind the couch.

The creature seemed to recognize what he’d thrown, because it quickly tried to leave the room, though it couldn’t get away fast enough as two of its legs were blown off in the resulting explosion that shook the house.

The woman screamed in pain, and the two children seemed to cry out sepeartely. It didn’t pause long however, as it began to rush towards Michael, flinging a fleshy spike towards him.

It cut through the air quick as a bullet that Michael couldn’t ever hope to dodge. It touched his forehead and he turned translucent as it embedded itself in the wall behind him.

Thank god for the ring he'd looted off of Tommy. Michael raised his shotgun and began to unload into the creature. It was far too big to miss, and it backed away reluctantly as the pellets tore chunks from its flesh.

Things weren’t going terribly, all things considered. Up until Michael heard glass break in the room behind him.

Michael barely paused before flinging a grenade into the room and seconds later a deafening screech echoed out alongside the explosion.

Michael turned his attention back to spider mom, hoping that whatever was in that room was now dead or too injured to make its way towards him.

But fate isn’t kind to the inattentive. A blood red blade soared down the hall like a giant buzzsaw, tearing through the walling and passing through the now translucent Michael.

It easily broke through the far wall and out into the street below, crashing through meat covered cars and houses.

Michael turned back around and could see a large ape-like creature standing in the hall. It had tendrils slithering over its body and it looked to have had a large portion of its left side blown off.

'This is going to shit. Alright were moving onto plan B,' Michael hastily thought.

Michael opened the canister of poison gas at his side and strapped the rifle to his back. Then he ran towards the ape with his mace held over his shoulder as he dodged the incoming punch from the creature, swinging downward with the mace in the process.

A resounding explosion echoed out as the creature was blasted back into the drywall. Michael didn't stop as he ran to the room he’d started in before chucking a grenade back out into the hall.

He didn’t get to do much past that before several fleshy appendages shot out from beneath the floorboards.

Michael didn’t hesitate before throwing himself to the side. The tendrils quickly embedding and pulled themselves out of the roof, as they readied to stab towards him once again.

Michael didn’t give them the chance to counterattack however, as he quickly ran through the giant hole the ape had made in the wall and out onto the roof. He could see movement everywhere, the whole street was alive and the ground was shaking.

The behemoth was on the move.