57 Ikea world

Since we currently had no real goal and also didn't know where the Followers could be, Cthylla and I decided to ride towards the West Coast to escape the cold temperatures and get some sun.

So, our next destination became San Francisco...

The problem was that after reaching California, every freaking road was closed down or some other shit happened there, preventing us from riding through normally.

So we had to use side roads instead. Only to encounter one roadblock after another. It was as if someone was leading us to a specific location by blocking the roads...

This continued until we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, on an unknown road next to an old bar near Sacramento, surrounded by roadblocks.

Even when we tried to turn around, there was another roadblock now.

"What the hell is going on?" asks Ctyhlla as I park the car next to the bar.

"It seems like someone wants to talk to us... I only hope that he at least prepared a drink for us."

She takes out her gun and asks while looking around, "He? What are you talking about? Do you mean my father?"

"No. You'll see soon. Let's check out the bar, but stay vigilant."

She nods, so we exit the car and walk towards the old Western-looking bar.

Upon entering, the bar is full of people, as if it's the best bar in the vicinity. Well, it probably is, considering we're in the middle of nowhere...

We walk up to the counter, intending to order something strong to calm our nerves, but the bartender, who looks quite realistic, places four cups of tea in front of us, each containing strongly flavored tea.

Cthylla smells it and then says, "Lapsang Souchong, a good choice. My human father in this world drinks it too."

She takes a sip and seems to enjoy it.

While I wait for the person responsible for leading us through these dirty roads to show up, and I plan to make him clean my car afterward...

*Ring, Ring*

When my phone suddenly rings, everyone in the bar falls silent, seemingly trying not to distract me. It's considerate of them, but it really freaked out Cthylla...

I answer, saying, "Hey Patrick Jane, why don't you come by so I can thank you for the roadblocks?"

"Ah, hello. So, you knew it from the start? The tea is an apology for the roadblocks..."

"Sure, I'll accept it. And I'll only shoot you once for every roadblock now instead of twice."

"I'd prefer it if you didn't shoot me... Actually, I have something that could be interesting for you," he says, and I can almost imagine him grinning, even though I don't know him that well.

"Is that so? Tell me."

"Can we talk normally? It's kind of strange on the phone."

"Sure, come inside. I won't shoot you for now."

Cthylla calms down when she hears me speaking to him casually and continues to enjoy her tea.

"Alright, we're coming in."

As soon as he hangs up, everyone in the bar stands up and walks outside, including the bartender. I must say, they're good at this.

Afterward, two people enter the bar: Jane and Lisbon.

—

They walk closer, and Jane looks nervously at me while Lisbon sighs and says, "I'm sorry for my husband; he's stupid sometimes."

"Amen, sister," says Cthylla, raising her cup of tea, while Lisbon smiles at her.

The hate for husbands and boyfriends is strong in these ones...

As we met the last time, Cthylla's aura immediately got attracted to Patrick Jane and joined Lisbon's aura and his own by circling him.

"So... spit it out. Why did you bring us to the middle of nowhere into a fake bar full of your agents?" I say, also tasting the smoky tea that could become my favorite.

"You could tell it's fake, and I thought we did a good job... Anyway, you know what I am, right?" asks Patrick carefully.

"I can only guess, but you're probably a psychic or telepath, right? You attract the auras of others, so it's one of these."

"Attract auras of others? Is that how you see it? But yes, a hunter would call me a psychic.

This is also the reason I wanted to meet you… because I also have the gift to glance into the future sometimes," Patrick shudders as he says the last part.

"Looking into the future? This is more of a curse than a gift…" says Cthylla out loud what everyone is thinking right now.

Knowing the future is an ability no one would probably be able to deal with. You will always run toward this future or away from it while completely wasting your life.

"Yes, but a curse I have to live with. But that's not the point here. When I got the last report about the vampire nest you cleared, I saw your next adventure.

That is probably caused by me now that I think about it..."

I want to facepalm myself, but I only sigh and continue to drink the tea.

Why am I not skeptical about his future story? Because it's better to accept things that happen in this world and not think about them too much...

He sees my reaction and continues, "I saw you alone, surrounded by faceless creatures, while the dimension around you crumbles, leading to your demise."

I raise my brows and ask, "Dimension around me crumbles? This dimension?"

"No, it looked more like a massive store, to tell you the truth," he says while scratching his head.

"Yeah... are you sure you didn't have a bad dream or something like that?" I ask him to be sure because it's starting to get absurd even for my taste.

But I must say, I'm intrigued by the demise thing…

"I was there; his eyes became white, and he was drooling all over the place. Such an intense reaction I've only seen once or twice from him before," Lisbon says concerned while looking at her husband.

"And I guess you already know where the store is?" I ask him, and Cthylla nearly spits out her tea.

"Wait! You don't really want to go there after hearing you would probably die there right?"

"Why not? Sounds like fun, don't you think?" I ask her with a shrug.

"No... sounds stupid," she says, trying to convince me with her stare.

"There is more... a hunter entered it before we could secure it and never came out," says Patrick, and Lisbon places a folder on the counter.

I open it and see a picture of a black truck with a guy standing next to it, but since it looks like a bad satellite photo, I can't tell who it is.

"This is?" I ask him.

"A secret person… let's say you would probably want to save him," he says with a mischievous grin.

He wants to push my buttons and is successful with it… even though I'm probably too curious for my own good. But as an immortal, you need to be curious, or you go crazy from the boredom.

Then I ask him a question, the answer to which I can already guess,

"Before I agree, let me ask you this... you saw my death, and then you came here to send me in the right direction for my demise.

Is it because you know that I will die, and you will get rid of me that way? Or because you know I won't die and you'll get rid of this store there? And don't give me the crap about accidentally leading me towards it."

This makes him become relaxed, and he fearlessly says, "Both, in any case, my organization would win."

This leads to Cthylla wanting to draw her gun angrily, but I stop her since this would end up bloody, as Lisbon reaches for her weapon at the same moment too, and I ask,

"So this is basically a job from your organization towards me, right? Then I want something in return."

Patrick walks to the counter, takes a sip of the tea, and says, "That's fair. What do you want?"

"Two grenade launchers, cash, and a car wash from you personally."

"Deal. Should we go?" asks Patrick with a smile that makes Cthylla and Lisbon roll their eyes toward the two of us.

—

After we exit the 'bar', the agents start directly deconstructing it.

And since we would continue on foot, we first went to our car and packed some items into our backpacks.

Such as sleeping bags, clothes, machetes, pistol magazines, paracord for various uses, and enchanted knives.

Then we headed into the forest, led by a heavily armed agent. And after a few minutes, we arrived at this colossal tent, sealed with a metal door and guarded by even more agents.

They open the door for us, and Patrick, breathing heavily, says, "Welcome to the restricted area... follow me..."

Great a schemer with no endurance this could make my further plans really stressful...

We follow him through their base, which has smaller tents inside for sleeping and storage. Until we arrive at a seemingly ordinary automatic glass door that is embedded into a hill.

"Is this the entrance?" asks Cthylla after seeing the transparent glass door that probably leads into a store, as some blurry shelves are visible from here.

"Yes, our next step would be to dig it out, but it seems to be a building that appeared inside a hill."

Yeah, why not…

I turn to my girlfriend and say, "Chtylla, you will stay outside while—"

"No, I won't let you go inside there alone. Don't even think about it," says Cthylla firmly, while interrupting me.

"Let me explain... I won't be alone; I'll take Patrick Jane with me while you stay outside and hold the ground in case they try something." I say, pointing at the dumbfounded Site Director next to me.

Another dimension where someone saw me dying in the future... not the best place to have a date.

Aside from that I need her to handle the people here if they attempt something foolish, like destroying the entrance after I enter it.

And having Patrick is an added measure to ensure fair play...

"Wait! Patrick isn't a field agent. Take me or one of our other agents with you if required," Lisbon says frightened after hearing my plan.

But Patrick takes a deep breath to calm down and says to his wife with a weak smile, "He won't take anyone else because he wants to make sure we don't play dirty here…"

This makes Lisbon facepalm herself, and he turns toward me, saying, "I'll come with you, but don't expect me to be much help there… you'll also need to protect me because I'm not a fighter."

I nod at him then approach a nearby field agent with a smile and take his backpack, which presumably contains all the necessities, as well as his M4 and pistol with magazines.

Afterwards, I walk back to Patrick, leaving a saddened agent with tears in his eyes behind.

"Here's a backpack and pistol. Can you shoot?" I ask him, handing over the gear and he nods weakly.

I'll keep the M4 because it could be useful, and I haven't had the chance to get one until now…

"He's terrible with a gun and will probably end up shooting you in the end," Lisbon says coldly, after quickly accepting her husband's decision.

While Cthylla still isn't ready to let me go alone. "It's still foolish. It would be better if we went together or abandoned this silly idea..."

So, I walk over to her and caress her cheek to calm her down saying, "Don't worry, you know me. Let me have some fun, and then I promise you a vacation in San Francisco, away from all this hunting stuff."

She folds her arms under her bosom and looks at me with a mix of annoyance and concern before saying, "If you don't come out after two days, I'll come after you. Be prepared for some punishment then."

"Sounds intriguing," I say with a smile, kissing her. She rolls her eyes but returns the affection.

Meanwhile, Lisbon attempts to romantically convince her husband to change out of his suit and expensive shoes to be better prepared for the inside, by trying to strip him.

But it seems he'd rather get a divorce than change his attire...

—

My clothes and equipment are fine for the mission. I have my cargo pants, outdoor shoes, and a black sweatshirt.

As for equipment, I carry a backpack with outdoor gear, my watch, and a tactical vest that I borrowed from the same field agent for better placement of my knife and magazines.

For weapons, I have my machete placed in a sheath on my backpack, my M9 with three enchanted magazines, the M4 with two magazines, and my sturdy enchanted bushcraft knife.

Patrick is also well-prepared with his blue suit, his holsterless pistol, and a backpack...

I nod at Cthylla after checking my equipment, who looks at me worriedly, and we walk towards the entrance that opens on its own when we approach.

Strangely, there appears to be a blurry membrane right at the entrance… Walking through it, I feel nothing out of place, while Patrick doesn't even seem to notice it.

We start to look around as relaxing music begins to play in the well-lit and massive store.

"An Ikea store?" asks Patrick after seeing the massive name sign and furniture everywhere.

"Yeah, but one where the entrance vanishes when you enter it," I say and point at the wall behind us.

Patrick turns around and nearly drops his gun while staring at the wall.

"It seems that the blurry membrane is the real gate to this place," I tell him and begin walking towards the massive tower in the distance.

Patrick snaps out of his stupor and follows me, asking, "Membrane? You saw something like this?"

"Yeah. You and your scientist didn't?" I ask, raising a brow.

"No... so this place is really another dimension like I saw in my vision," Patrick states, placing his hand on his chin.

"Probably, now only the faceless beings are missing."

In fact, I can't sense anything nearby, as if this place is dead.

"At least it seems there's no shortage of supplies," Patrick says, pointing at the window of a restaurant we walk by.

"Yes, the question is where the supplies are coming from and who is cooking them," I say after seeing the steaming food coming from the buffet inside too.

Afterwards, we come across a small map that shows our location and a brief overview of the 'building'.

In the middle is a labyrinth of small and massive shelves.

While on the outside, there are a bunch of stores like pharmacies and supermarkets that are hidden inside other labyrinths of room setups.

And we are currently in a massive room setup of a restaurant, it seems...

Man, I was never a fan of Ikea, but I don't think this is how a normal one should be. Or do they really have a pharmacy inside called Ikea-Pharmacy?

Patrick places his backpack down and takes out a camera from it. Then takes a photo of the map, even though I don't think it will help much.

Because when I look at the tower and the massive shelves in the distance, it's like staring at a mountain that is far away.

A dimension that's essentially a massive Ikea store... time to get lost in here.