𝓗𝓮𝓭𝓰𝓮𝓱𝓸𝓰𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓽

      A group of supermarket survivors walk down a long corridor in an abandoned base and look around. Are there any soldiers or monsters nearby? What's strange is that the corpses of various enlarged insects were lying around. But not a single soldier. Although the blood of all monsters is also red, which they drained from their wounds and severed limbs. In the corridor there were various types of insects lying along the way. There were ants, termites, spiders and even one huge worm. Tails almost vomited when he saw the corpse of such a huge worm, and such an ugly one at that. — “I definitely won’t eat this.” — thought the fox. — Ah! Look! — Sonic noticed a huge mantis head behind the door in the office. Apparently he is also dead. He lays with his head in the office, leaving only a hole in the wall, which he punched with it and at the same time closed with it. — You were right, Tails. All these monsters are ordinary enlarged insects. Even this praying mantis, which we saw first earlier. — You call that an praying mantis! — Jerry was surprised. — Looks more like a dragon from Planet X! — Drop it! There is no such planet and no such dragons either. — his wife assured him. — Oh! I'm not feeling well. I'm go back. — Karl said and was about to leave. — Or not. Let's all go back together? — Do you want to go back to those mosquitoes so they can drink your blood? — Knuckles answered the question with a question and the old man got a little scared, answering: — I changed my mind! Go ahead! Just hurry up please. — Be patient, Karl. We're almost there. — Tom answers. They walked further and leaned along the road, as something large fell from above and landed slightly on the ceiling. — I hope none of you have clousstraphobia? — Wade asked. — What? — Knuckles didn’t understand, and Wade explained: — This is a fear of closed spaces. Having overcome a slightly narrowed passage and going further, the group of rescued people reaches a huge iron gate. Together they grab the edges of the doors and push them to the sides. Inside there was something like a large hall or laboratory. In the center was the main computer, and against the wall was a huge machine with an iron ball and iron disc-shaped rings. There was a folder with data next to the computer. The group goes to the computer, Tom takes a folder and checks each document. — Research number one. Universe X. Not available. — I knew it. — said that woman. — Stephen King was right. — Oh, shut up with your king already. It has been buzzing all of our ears about this for a long time. — Maria answers. — It contains documents about the universes, their names and numbers that they explored. But this huge thing, apparently... A portal. — Tom suggested. — So it was through this that that fog and these giant insects made their way into our world? — Maddie asked. — Apparently yes. — Sonic answers. Knuckles notices several monitors and keyboards on the right wall. He approaches them and asks: — What do you think! Is there CCTV footage here? — Maybe! The main thing is that the records themselves are preserved. — Tails answers, connects to the monitors and rewinds all the recordings to the very beginning. — Now let’s figure out what’s going on here?

***

      A few weeks ago, military soldiers under the command of Bennington created a huge portal portal with the goal of exploring parallel worlds and discovering the real existence of the multiverse. Some military scientists knew their job well and tried to be careful. For example, they used the portal only when everything is calm and there are no hurricanes or rains. The study was successful. Scientists sent robots and druids with video cameras to other universes and received recordings of various parallel worlds. One world was exactly like theirs. They even somehow managed to accidentally open a portal to their universe at the same time as those military scientists who created the same thing and had the same motivation. The second world looked like a world filled with water and resembled underwater planets or the flooded Earth from films about post-apocalepsis. The third world is like a huge desert. In the fourth, everything around was completely black and white. Not a single pretty color. The fifth world was the Lego world. Moreover, all the little people in it were alive, they moved and talked themselves. They saw people in the portal, got scared of them and screamed. The scientists immediately apologized to them and closed the portal with that world. The sixth world was a world from the game MineCraft. Everything there was made of cubes. A square creeper managed to get through the portal. Luckily, the military was ready and one of them killed that green living bush with a shotgun before it blew up their portal. They closed this world and looked at another world. The other world was also similar to their world, only it all looked strange, and all the people resembled huge and living dolls. It’s as if they are looking through a portal not at another world, but rather at some kind of puppet cartoon with their participation. There was even a world where everything was made only of plasticine. The world in three-dimensional animation in CGI and the world of two-dimensional hand-drawn cartoons. The next world on the list turned out to be a universe where there was a big house and something like a nest. In this very nest a brown hedgehog lay and rested. Apparently, he is also anthropomorphic, like Sonic. True, he wore clothes. When he saw the portal next to him and the scientists on the other side of the portal, he was not at all surprised at their appearance. He only answered gloomily: — Well, hello! — A. Hi, kid. — said one of the scientists. — Weren’t you taught that talking to strangers is dangerous?” — Fi! — the hedgehog said boredly, rolling his eyes. — We live in a huge forest. Where could strangers be here? And we haven’t had parents for a long time. Well, family, I mean. — A! So, are you an orphan? Forgive us for appearing so suddenly. It’s just that our military organization built a huge portal to open windows to parallel worlds. — the scientist explained, to which the brown one only yawned, while covering his mouth with his right palm. When the scientist finished speaking, the hedgehog asked: — And what? — Like what? We decided to check whether the multiverse and other worlds really exist. We open the window to each world in turn and look at what kind of world it is, who lives there and how history or evolution went there, for example. — explained the first scientist, and another of the scientists began to ask: — Why are you so boring? You are not even at all surprised that we opened a portal from our world to yours. — Why should I be surprised by this? — he answers with a question, slightly raising his palms. — My brothers and sisters and I have already dealt with an adult double of our brother from another universe, armed with a samurai and his huge striped friend, who also exists in our world. Although ours is a sworn enemy who is still trying to devour us. — Benny, who are you talking to here? — asked him another older hedgehog, who was gray and also in clothes. He noticed the portal with the scientists and was a little scared with surprise. — Hello! — Goodbye! — another of the scientists immediately answers and closes the portal so as not to further traumatize those teenagers and not frighten them with his appearance. The next world seemed more interesting and mysterious even to them. Namely, a world where evolution went differently and all insects and animals became giant. They opened a portal to that world and looked at it. There was giant grass there and apparently it was cool there, since they were now hot and as a result, fog appeared from behind the portal in both worlds, as both air from both worlds mixed and fog appeared in both worlds. Because of this fog, nothing was visible and the scientists did not have time to close the portal, when a huge huge mantis appeared from that very other world and began to kill the scientists, and then destroyed the surveillance cameras. Within a couple of hours, other enlarged creatures emerged from the portal, similar to small creatures from the real world. The energy ran out and the portal, left without an energy source, then closed itself.

***

      After viewing the footage from the surveillance cameras, everyone was shocked as if they were seeing it for the first time. — I can repeat it again if you want? — the girl asked, hinting at the Stephen King book. — They wanted to see other worlds and kept one of the worlds open to ours for too long. — Sonic understood everything. Tails first lowered his head, thinking, and then he became serious and sternly stated: — We must destroy everything here! Destroy the data and the portal itself! — Isn't this too cool? — Sonic asked. — The portal is closed without energy and no one else will come here. Maybe we’ll leave it and just take this incident into account so that we don’t repeat it in the future? Tails slammed his fist on the table and shouted: — I SAID TO DESTROY EVERYTHING HERE!!! BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GRIND!!! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SIMILAR SITUATION TO HAPPEN AGAIN, NOT ONLY HERE, BUT IN OTHER PLACES!!! — I agree with him. — said the girl. — If we destroy the portal, then nothing like this will happen again. There will be no portal, and this fog will not exist. — Okay fog! It’s okay if it still dissolves and disappears someday! What about those giants? — Wade asked. — Judging by that dead mantis and worm, it’s still possible to kill them all. We can handle them all and win if we stick together and spend our ammo wisely. — Tom explained. — Okay. Let's mine everything here and blow it up. — Jerry suggested. So they did. Fortunately, they also took some dynamite and a detonator from that weapons warehouse. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles placed and installed dynamite around the portal, and then at the control panel along with the monitors. At the same time, the flash drive with the surviving recordings was removed from him. The folder with data about the universes was doused with gasoline and burned, after which they moved back, as far as possible from the hall with the portal, and Tom activated the detonator. — Ready! It will explode in ten seconds. Let's run back to the tunnel! While the rescued group was running back, the dynamite exploded and destroyed the portal with the computer connected to it. The entire hall also suffered an explosion and began to fall apart. The tunnel from the ground also shook slightly and crumbled from the explosion. Fortunately, the group of rescued people did not fall asleep and survived. — So what now? — the sheriff asked the hedgehog and he said: — We're probably going back to the supermarket. People did not argue with him and went back, along the same road along which they walked from the supermarket to the G.U.N base. True, on the way, the group of rescued people got tired and the hedgehog asked: — Maybe it’s time to stop and relax? Hearing the question, everyone immediately fell onto the cool and soft ground to rest from the road. Sonic knew he did the right thing here. Still, their group of rescued people was tired and deserved a rest.