𝓗𝓮𝓭𝓰𝓮𝓱𝓸𝓰𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓽

      Sonic didn't notice how he immediately fell asleep. Maddie held him in her arms like a baby and sat on the floor near the dairy shelf. The hedgehog clearly deserves to be pitied, because he risked his life for the sake of that girl and saved one of their sworn enemies. True, of course it would be better if he left it there to be devoured by monsters! But it doesn't matter! He tries to pretend to be a hero and help absolutely everyone. Even enemies. Next to her on the left side sat Knuckles, who opens a bag of apple juice. None of the sellers and managers were against it, because now there was a state of emergency. Sitting opposite were Tom, Wade and Carl, who were discussing Carl's farm. How is she doing without him? And won’t these spiders finally destroy his house, if Sonic was telling the truth about them? Tails returns to them and brings warmed cookies with milk cartons. — The salespeople allowed me to use the microwave in the director’s office to heat up milk and cookies. Will you eat? — Yes. I haven't eaten or drunk anything since the morning. Let's! — Wade answers. — I can’t do much. So I'll take only one. — said Mad Karl. — Just leave some more for Sonic when he wakes up! — asked Tom. The fox hands out cookies and milk to everyone and sits on the other side of Maddie. — Is that really true? Wade wondered out loud. — G.U.N. is to blame for the appearance of this fog and those monsters from it? How could they? — Maybe they wanted to open a window into some parallel world and see if there were other dimensions? — Karl suggested. — Why did you decide it this way? — Maddie asked. — That woman told me that in Stephen King’s book “The Mist” the plot and events are almost similar to those that are happening now in our real world. Stephen King seemed to know everything, as if a prophet had predicted it in his own way, but many of us did not take his books seriously. This is what it means to not judge a book by its cover! — And in that book there are answers that this is exactly how it happened? — Knuckles asked. While Crazy Carl explained everything to them, the others listened to him attentively, ate cookies and washed it down with milk. — Not really! There the characters only guessed and assumed this. But!... Stephen King also in the book series “The Dark Tower”, which was partly related to the fog, partly explained that the military had everything under control. The horror is that they opened a portal not to another universe at all, but to an interworld. This very interworld was called “Todesh”. This space between universes contains only pure evil incarnate and various terrible creatures of unimaginably disgusting creatures. There's nothing good there. Only all the most evil and terrible things that can happen both in our world and in other worlds. At first the scientists controlled everything and everything was fine. They even sent special robots with cameras there and the experiment was under control. However, a hurricane began, one of the lightning struck the portal and the window opened very wide, thereby opening a gap between our world and Todash. As a result, first the fog and then the monsters inside it penetrated into our world. This is how Stephen King actually described how monsters with fog appeared in the real world. Most likely G.U.N. tried to do the same thing and failed in exactly the same way. — The theory is plausible in principle. — Tails answers. — There’s just a discrepancy. If the door to the world of Todesh opened due to a thunderstorm, then for what reason did this happen to us? There was no thunderstorm or rain today or yesterday. — Well, probably something else happened, which spoiled the experiment with a window into other dimensions. In any case, if that woman’s theory is correct, then parallel worlds, including Todash, really exist, and we stupidly didn’t know about all this or didn’t believe that it could actually be! — Karl answers. Suddenly, Jerry intervenes in the conversation. — Guys, forgive me for everything I said to you! And thanks to Sonic! If it weren’t for him, our daughter would have died, and Maria even more so. — Nonsense! - Knuckles waved his hand. — Just next time be more polite to everyone and always respond to everyone with only kindness for kindness! — Certainly. I promise. — he says and leaves. Suddenly the lights went out and the music stopped again. — Here you go! Again! — they all grumbled at once: — What is this? — The battery board probably overheated there. — the fox suggested, put his cookies and milk on the floor, got up and went to the warehouse to check again. Knuckles also put down his goods and stood up. — Tails, wait! The fox and the echidna went to the warehouse and looked around. Everything was in place and the gates were closed. What was also reassuring was that no one was breaking through the gate. — Everything seems to be intact and in place. — said the fox. — Yes. At least we're safe in the supermarket. No one is breaking through the gate, there are no spiders, so the flying gargoyle flew away long ago, and that giant mantis-like creature did not return. It seems they really only find us by smell and only when we are outside. — Knuckles answers. — Okay, shut up! The generator needs to be repaired again. — Tails says, opening the generator cover. Suddenly the echidna listened and heard some strange sounds, similar to rustling, grinding and chattering. He leaned towards the floor and the sound came a little louder. Apparently there is something under the supermarket. Either there is a dungeon or a basement. Barely noticing the flashlight on the desktop, he takes it, turns on the light and looks around. He noticed another door between two shelves. Approaching her and listening, he realized that these sounds were coming from there too. There's probably an entrance to the basement. Lightly opening the door and going there, he saw a staircase that went down and to the left. The steps of the stairs creaked disgustingly, because Knuckles, out of curiosity, decided to go down and see what was rustling there? When he came down, he could not see the aisle. There really was a basement there. What surprised him was not the basement itself, but a huge pile of huge ants. Echidna bulged his eyes wide and wanted to swear in his thoughts: — “What the...” — Knuckles, where are you? — Tails' voice was heard from above. Red was afraid that the big's ants would hear him and crawl towards them. He ran back, shushed and whispered: — Hush-h-h-h! Do not be noisy! — What's there? Monsters? — Tails asked. — Worse! Huge ants! He opened the door slightly and the fox went down there next. Knuckles shone a flashlight at him and the fox was as shocked as the echidna. — "O, my God! Where did they all come from here? They went upstairs together again and closed the door behind them. — There are a lot of ants there. They apparently ended up there in the basement through that hole in the wall. — the fox suggested. — A hole in the wall? I didn't notice her. Should I tell everyone in the supermarket what we just discovered? — Knuckles asked. — No. Many people in the supermarket are already scared enough. It’s better to remain silent for now and not say anything to anyone. — Tails replies, climbing back into the generator. — But you can’t do that! People need to know, otherwise it will be too late and everyone will panic and go crazy. — You are right. But at least we'll only tell Sonic, Tom and Maddie. Let them at least know and help us! — Will they help?... With the generator? — No, with ants. We must somehow lure them all out of there in order to safely pass through the hole in the wall from where they came. Perhaps the tunnel through which they got here will lead us to the G.U.N base. where that experiment with the portal was possible, as Mad Carl suggested. If so, then we will get there and from there we will finally find the answers to our questions. And most importantly!... Perhaps we will find a way to get rid of this mist on the street once and for all, as well as all the monsters from it at once. — It's unlikely, but maybe you're right. — the fox agreed and replaced the rusty black circuit board with a new and clean one. He then closed the generator cover and turned it on. — Here you go! Now I hope it will last at least a couple more days.

***

      Sonic woke up, yawned and rubbed his eyes. — What happened to me? How long did I sleep? — Four o'clock. — Tom answers and gives him a bag of cookies and milk. — Eat! You need new strength! — Thank you. — the hedgehog thanked him and the lunch began to slowly float away. At that moment the light came on and the music started playing again. About a minute later, Tails and Knuckles themselves returned. — Tom, Maddie, Wade, Carl, Sonic, we had a little trouble there. I need your help. — the fox answers. — What's the matter? — Tom asked and suddenly there was a crashing sound and Mr. T shouting: — A-A-A-A-A-A-A... All the people immediately started to get excited and ran straight to Mr. T. Only in its place was a hole in the basement. Mr. T himself lies on the floor, and huge ants crawl around him. — God! Are these ants? — He needs help! Bring the rope! — It's useless! He can no longer be saved. They are already eating it. Wakowski, Wade, Carl, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles also came running and were shocked. — I told you, I should have told everyone about this! — the echidna said to the fox. — We'll fight later! — Tails waved his hand and looked around the pit. — Apparently they gnawed through the column that was here with their mandibles and the floor collapsed under their feet. — Let's quickly go to the cold section! There is no basement under the floor. — said one of the cashiers and all the people moved away from the pit to the shelves with goods from cold meat to ice cream. Crazy Carl and Wade and Tom managed to take a huge empty shelf and threw it onto the floor, covering the very hole in the floor with it so that the ants would not climb through it to them. — And so, guys. Is there something you wanted to talk to us about? — asked Karl.