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

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

Not exactly something he wants 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 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 terrible thanks to the ever-present shroud of spores.

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.

But this is one of the worlds I should probably abandon, it just has too much risk involved with too little to 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?”

“I haven't found any that fit your descriptions yet, but do you mind if I hang out here for awhile? The dimension I was just in 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.”

“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 shoos Michael away.

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

“Come on, don’t be like that.”

She stares down towards Michael.

“I said get out.”

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

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

“Well fuck, It looks like I can’t hide in there.”

Michael 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 puffed out of hundreds of small holes covering its body.

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

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

He scanned his surroundings, and the same fleshy material covered 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.

Worse yet, there was movement surrounding the house. The pillars of flesh parted as creatures moved towards his location. Weirdly enough, it seemed like they were trying to avoid walking anywhere that he could have seen them from the window.

That’s concerning, it shows a basic amount of forethought on their part.

Alright, 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. 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 that.

He glances down to the thick cloud of spores covering the street.

Alright let's do it, but first I’ll need to clear the house. I guess I’ll start with the creepy fucker standing outside the room.

A quick check with the mirror confirmed the creature was still there.

Michael 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, I doubt they’d taste very good.

Michael stood a couple feet away from the door before he unloaded fours shells through its center.

The wood easily gave way to the bullets as Michael quickly followed up by kicking the door open.

The creature was spasming 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 upstairs, but before he went to the lower floors, 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 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 has far too many windows to be defendable. Or at least the first floor does.

Looks like I’m only defending the upper floor. With that 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 began to rapidly fill the lower floor.

Rapid 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. It’s main body was made up of what looked to be an infected woman embracing two smaller infected.

Yeah, fuck that shit.

Michael quickly reached down to his side and chucked a frag 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.

It couldn’t get away fast enough though, as two of its legs were blown off.

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

It soured as quick as a bullet that Michael couldn’t even hope to dodge. It touched his forehead as he turned translucent and 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 upon the creature. It backed away reluctantly as the pellets tore chunks from its flesh.

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

Michael barely paused before flinging a grenade into the room. Seconds later a deafening roar echoed 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.

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 like a large portion of it’s left side had been blown off.

This is going to shit. Alright were moving onto plan B.

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

A resounding explosion echoed out as the creature was blasted into the drywall. Michael 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 embedded 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. Michael could see movement everywhere, the whole street was alive and the ground was shaking.

The behemoth was on the move.