"Hmm, I kinda want to see that show…" I say and walk closer to him until we are only a few feet away, while he only smiles confidently at me.
But then suddenly, he reaches into his leather jacket, takes out a flask, and skillfully opens it with his thumb before splashing its contents into my face.
Yeah, I nearly forgot the hunter ritual to make people drink salty water or splash it in their faces in this case...
I wipe my face with one hand while spitting out some salty water and say, "Thanks for freshening me up... So, should we kickbox now or what?"
The Winchester patriarch first looks disappointed, but then immediately puts his poker face back on and strengthens his grip on his bat.
He thinks about it for a few seconds, and says, "Whatever..." in his raspy voice before swinging the bat at me with one hand.
Well, it seems he is one of those hunters who see every supernatural creature as a kill-on-sight target...
To disappoint him more I catch his bat midair with, not caring about the barbed wire around it.
Then grab his neck faster than he can react with my other hand and swing him around before throwing him to the ground while keeping his weapon.
"Agh! You bastard," he gets up after crashing to the ground and looks around only to spot the M4 lying next to my backpack, then tries to run towards it.
But before he can even take a step, I use my telekinesis to throw him back to the ground and hold him there.
Then I walk lazily towards him while spinning his bat around and making some test swings with it.
The bat is probably not bad for smashing the Ikea beings' heads, but I would rather prefer a metallic one for durability reasons in this case.
I release my telekinetic hold on him, but before he can stand up, I place my foot on his chest and keep him down.
If I wanted to, I could have broken his neck the moment I grabbed him the first time, but this was more about taking him down from his high horse than killing him…
"Hgh!" he gasps in pain while trying unsuccessfully to remove my foot.
"So, what should I do now wi—"
*Twang*
I stop talking to him because I hear a bowstring being released and turn around only to catch a self-made arrow from the air a moment later.
It is shot by a good-looking blonde woman who is standing in front of the frightened group at the shelter.
"Let go of him, he is a good man and only tries to protect us!" she screams with no fear in her voice and walks towards me.
"Don't worry, he won't do anything to him, he knows him," says Patrick, who woke up a while ago and watched this play out.
"Actually, I don't know him… I know only his sons and a grumpy old guy who doesn't like him," I say and step away from him while the woman runs to the hunter to help him up.
Patrick scratches his head and walks towards me, saying, "Oh, that explains why you two started to fight and not hug each other. I thought you knew John Winchester too since you spend time with his other family members."
I didn't even know his name until a second ago...
"Cough. Cough, you... what does a thing like you... have to do with my boys?" says John while catching his breath.
A thing? Even after eating dirt, he is still cheeky...
"I know them through Bobby... and helped them out a few times since then," I answer him with a sigh.
Then I throw his bat next to him before shifting my attention towards the Ikea staff members who have appeared again between the shelves that I haven't destroyed yet.
"Yeah, they are basically besties... one question, can we talk about it in the shelter? It seems we have some visitors..." says Patrick, who noticed the staff members too.
—
After John and the blonde woman saw them too, they hurried to get every one of their people inside.
So, I grabbed my rifle and backpack before following them with Patrick into the furniture shelter too. Then the people immediately started to barricade the door while John and the woman gave orders.
In the meantime, I went to the bonfire in the middle to enjoy some of the dried-up beef and water that I had placed in my backpack before coming here.
While Patrick looked fascinated at the spacious shelter and took some photos in the process.
The walls were at least 32 feet (approximately 10 meters) high and were made of stacked up chairs, shelves, and tables bound together with bedsheets.
Because we are inside a building, and there seems to be no weather (or at least I think there isn't any), the people appear to be sleeping openly on some Ikea beds covered by blurry screens for privacy.
Apart from that, there is no toilet or bathroom here, but since they don't smell, and I can't see any holes in the ground, I guess there is a restroom or something similar nearby.
I also can't smell any food here, and they have only some boxes with names on them, so they probably use the restaurants that were in the room setups.
All in all, I think that they could live comfortably here if they can ignore the monsters, the labyrinths, and the whole trapped inside a strange building thing…
*Hiss* My quality time ended when John extinguished the fire with some water while looking angrily at me.
In the next moment, the people in the shelter became deathly silent and didn't move anymore, while listening to the horde of staff members shamble outside.
The expressions on their faces and the atmosphere here remind me of the old sieges when civilians would hide inside the castle while hoping the army outside would give up before they did...
I wish I had some popcorn because it's like a thrilling 4D movie, but since I have none, I continue to chew on my beef...
It took the horde outside half a minute to walk by the shelter, but the people looked like they had endured it for an eternity.
Some of them even broke down and started to cry or kneel on the floor, while having panic attacks. Their reaction was interesting to see since I was always on the other side of the walls during sieges…
The blonde woman, John, and even Patrick began helping the people by talking to them to calm them down.
In the meantime, I collected some boxes and broken furniture, and ignited another fire with my new silver Zippo lighter, which was lying next to the bonfire.
Afterward, most of the people walked to their beds and lay down while sobbing and crying quietly, leaving only a few men and women standing by the walls to keep guard while looking through small holes in them.
—
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you want to kill us all?" screams John as he storms towards me, followed by the woman and a relaxed Patrick.
"No, it burned a moment ago anyway, and it's more comfy this way. Also, it seems there are no staff members nearby, or your wall guards would already be crying in the corner,"
I say while holding some beef in the fire to make it softer.
He stops in front of me and nearly foams at the mouth from his rage, but the woman stops him from swinging his bat at me again by grabbing his wrist.
It's clear where the brothers got their attitude from...
I look at him and calmly say, "You should listen carefully now... a few things will happen in the next few seconds.
First, you will calm down, and then you and your leader girlfriend here will also sit down to tell me everything you two know about this place."
Patrick immediately sits down next to me, and I give him another water bottle and some beef while John asks coldly, "And if we don't?"
Hearing this makes the two people beside us look shocked at him... Yeah, this guy is a moron.
"Do you really want to test my patience? I said sit down," I responded still calmly while throwing another table leg into the fire.
The woman walks in front of John and pleads with her eyes, and he sighs and puts down the bat.
She then sits across from us while John is standing behind her, still playing the tough guy while staring at me...
Patrick notices that the atmosphere starts to tense up again, and coughs to get our attention before saying, "Why don't we introduce ourselves first? My name is Patrick Jane, and this is Aiden Cross."
I wave at them, and the woman responds, "My name is Ana Clark, and you seem to already know John Winchester here..."
"Yes, but only through his sons," says Patrick with a smile while lying through his teeth because I'm pretty sure he never met them before…
John seems not to like the idea that 'we' know his sons, but before he can say anything, I ask her, "So what can you tell us about this place, Ana?"
Patrick takes out a notebook, presumably to write everything down, while she says with a raised heartbeat, "Not much... like everyone here, including probably you, we stumbled inside and couldn't get out.
The only thing we know is that it's a giant Ikea store that is maintained by the monsters that we call The Staff.
Aside from a lot of stores and facilities, it also has a day and night cycle: from 8 am to 7.59 pm, it's daytime, and from 8 pm to 7.59 am, it's nighttime.
But nighttime is the worst since the Staff gets aggressive during this time..."
Yeah, we experienced this aggression…
"We saw a lot of lit-up places in the distance. How many people are trapped inside here?" I ask her after remembering what I saw at the top of the shelves.
"No idea, hundreds maybe even thousands. I've met a lot of different people since I came here one year ago. Most of them are always on the move from the Staff, so it's hard to tell."
Patrick drops his pen when he hears it and asks her carefully, "Wait, you came here one year ago? But the door appeared only three months ago. How is that possible?"
"Because she isn't from our world, of course..." says John, and then he finally decides to sit next to her to calm her down since she seems to be stressed by telling all of this.
—
Since I come from a different world myself, this piqued my interest, and I ask her after giving her some time to calm down, "Why do you think you came from a different world?"
"Because in my world… there were nearly no people left because an illness turned everyone into flesh-eating monsters.
I survived and formed a group with others, only to later find a massive Ikea store that seemed to appear out of nowhere and get trapped inside."
"This was 2004, and since nothing like that happened in our world, she must come from a different reality or something like that," John chimes in.
"Yeah, because we prevented it in our world," says Patrick quietly, but I could still hear him.
"There are more people like us here, who are from a different world, I mean. Next to John and you two, I met people who all came from worlds that were always on the brink or in the middle of an apocalypse.
For example, some said they came from a world where giant monsters are fighting for the reign of the world, others told about a world where angels kill everyone.
And recently, we met some who talked about a world that was simply dying," she says with a complicated look.
Oh, the last one could be my old world…
So this Ikea appears in some messed-up worlds and lures people inside, but why? To save them? And if it appears in worlds that are on the brink of destruction, what does that say about my new world…?
I kind of get excited here thinking about all this… Maybe I need some better hobbies…
We all became quiet for a while, and Patrick asked after a while, "... Do you have clues to escape this place?"
"Yes, the clue is right there; you can check it out yourself," says John and points with his bat at the distance.
Patrick and I turn our heads only to see the giant lit-up tower.
When we turn back, I ask, "That thing is not man-made, right?"
"No, if we believe the reports from the people here, they said it was always there."
So my feeling was right about it…
Patrick chews on his nails hearing this and asks, "Since you guys are still here, it means it's not that easy to get there, right?"
"Getting there is the easy part, but getting inside is impossible. We tried…" responds Ana, and John nods along.
"Care to elaborate?" I ask her because she suddenly stopped talking.
"We—" tries Ana to continue, but John interrupts her and says while placing a hand on her shoulder,
"Let me… when I got stuck in here, I met her original group, and we decided after a while to head for the tower.
But when we arrived there, a massive horde of Staff members who were standing around it attacked us immediately, even though it was day… and only Ana and I could escape."
I think I start to see things… this dick of a human seems to genuinely care about her.
"Then you met other people and built up a new group, right?" asks Patrick to bring the story to an end, and they both nod.
Who knows, maybe if you're not a supernatural being or one of his sons, you can build up a friendship with him…
Anyway, it seems that the tower is my old goal and new goal…