"So, you've been to the backrooms yourself?" Trevor asked Five as the two trekked through the boreal forest with Trevor carrying a rucksack filled with supplies.

"Somehow yes, I still have no clue how it happened." Five replied with frosted breath amid the chilled twilight.

"They're the realms between all universes, like a void, filled with rooms of mustard for some reason. The main theory we have right now is that the entire multiverse is in fact a giant computer program. We could be completely wrong but-"

"The Atlas was right?" Five interrupted.

"The what?"

"The Atlas. It was a giant computer in another universe, put us under some kind of spell. It claimed to be the God and creator of the multiverse."

"This is the first I've heard of it!"

"Honestly, I think it was a false god, when the Doctor asked it why she had never heard of the Atlas, it glitched completely."

"What kind of glitch?"

Five didn't know whether to say the truth or not. When the Atlas glitched, it warned of sixteen minutes till the end of the multiverse. He didn't know how true this could be, it had been more than sixteen minutes since this happened. Unless time moves slower for the master computer of reality itself, it seemed very unlikely that such a thing really was what it claimed to be. Or maybe this was just what Five wanted to think.

"It kept repeating the number sixteen over and over again."

"Odd."

The sounds of the early bird filled the air as the trees grew brighter upon the frosted dirt, illuminated by the rising sun. Trevor and Five continued their trek through the forest with Five following Trevor, doing his best to ignore the chills in the air which slowly diminished under the faint heat of the morning light. Clouds parted and ice thawed gradually, reducing the slip of the ground, stabilising his footing and providing needed grip on the uneven path. Five felt his legs burn a little after a long time of continuous walking. He would have teleported but he had no clue where Trevor was leading him, it seemed very far away from the facility.

"How much further is it?" Five asked.

"Just a few hundred metres away now, last hill is just up ahead." Trevor replied.

By this stage, the sun now shone fully in the sky with its heat providing respite to the rasping breeze which whistled through the wildlife inhabited trees. The sounds of a nearby stream were heard along with the buzzing and chirping of the almost untouched wilderness.

"What does this wound look like exactly?" Five asked.

Trevor didn't have to answer however, as they climbed the final hill, a large floating wormhole like anomaly stood over it. Circular, with bolts of red lightning pulsating through it, and a blurred image of mustard halls in its nucleus, obscuring what lay behind it. The portal echoed with surreal sounds of broken machinery, electrical currents and reverberated screams of unknown origin.

"The backrooms?" Five asked himself, staring into the maw of the open wound.

"Indeed." Replied Trevor. "Many unfortunate folks find themselves trapped between worlds. Thanks to the work of many D-class personnel, including Poison and Dick, we've learnt an awful lot about this place. Wounds, like this one, allow accidental travel between parallel universes, which is incredibly dangerous, especially when monsters from other worlds arrive and threaten our own, whether supernatural or worse."

There was something strangely mesmerising about the void, even the garbled noises it produced sounded almost melodic, as though it were playing the tune of the multiverse. As he listened, the corrupted screams rose in the melody, losing its reverberated quality.

"Watch out!" Trevor warned as a red skinned humanoid with sharp teeth sprinted through the portal straight at Five. He teleported himself out of the way, giving Trevor a clear shot as he pulled out an alien looking pistol from his holster. A few laser blasts erupted from his gun, piercing the putrid skin of the monster as it collapsed, bleeding heavy amounts of yellow bile from each wound. It shook and struggled on the thawed dirt before finally giving in upon one final, well placed shot.

"Dick calls those poor bastards 'insanities.' Us at the foundation however, call them SCP8546-G. Catchy name, I know." Trevor explained.

"Damn! If we hadn't caught-"

"It would have gotten away, little doubt that many of these corrupted beings have already escaped into this forest." Trevor interrupted Five.

"How the fuck are we supposed to close these this portal?" Five asked.

"Sadly, we have few leads on this front, for now we should just try to make sure that no other entities break through."

Five thought it over. A tear through the fabric of time and space, leading directly to a void between worlds. What kind of energies could close such a rift? Presumably, the physical laws of other universes may be different, yet if entities can safely travel between them, perhaps such laws are compatible between lifeforms. The portal didn't move relative to Earth, despite the fact that the planet continued to spin on its axis and orbit the sun. Whatever this rift was, it seemed to be tethered to Earth somehow. The Doctor said Earth was ground zero in terms of the tears between universes, maybe this had something to do with the geomagnetic field? The roaring sounds from the rift distracted him as he tried to form an idea to close it but before he could, another insanity pierced through the veil. Once again, Five jumped out of the way as Trevor decimated the beast with his weaponry. The second monster fell to the ground and didn't get up. The lightning at the rift intensified, blasting between the worlds as though it were sentient with the rage of a vengeful god.

"It's expanded!" Trevor said.

"Give me a gun!" Five requested. "I'm of no use to you without one."

Trevor complied, he reached into his rucksack and pulled out a second ray gun. He handed it over to Five who took it and aimed in the general direction of the rift.

"Be on guard, another entity could bust through at any moment."

Soon enough, more entities came into view through the portal. With a flurry of shots, both Five and Trevor managed to waste several over the course of a few minutes. The rift didn't shrink, in fact it grew with furious power as the red lightning along its ridge became more potent by the second. The blazing screeches of the portal crescendoed even further.

"Fuck! It isn't working! I've only got sixteen shots left!" Yelled Trevor.

A deep, demonic voice bellowed out. "ERROR!! 16161616! Multiversal Destruction Imminent! 16 Minutes of Operating Time Remaining!"

As the voice roared, the lightning shots sped up and began rotating around the rim of the wormhole which turned red with the crimson eye of the Atlas. The ear shattering wails reached a peak as the rift snapped shut instantly, leaving silence and emptiness were there used to be lightning and chaos. Five's heart jolted and raced with shallow breaths, struggling to take in what had just happened. Somehow the wound had healed itself.

"The Atlas?" Trevor asked. "Is that what you were talking about?"

"Well, yeah." Five replied, shaking with adrenaline.

"Shit! Sixteen minutes?" Trevor held his hands on his head with a gaping mouth and wide eyes.

"Calm down! The damn thing said the same bullshit when I stood in front of it days ago! If it really is sixteen minutes till the end of the multiverse, then it seems to be a very fucking long sixteen minutes!"

"I'm sorry, but with all this talk, I'm starting to think maybe reality really is just a simulation. Of what? I can't imagine but at least the goddamned rift seems to have healed."

"Whatever the Atlas truly is, it seems triggered by the number sixteen, same as last time."

"You said it put you under some kind of spell, do you think it's supernatural?"

"Look, I don't give a toss right now, come on Trevor, there are almost certainly entities on the loose. The rift is gone, let's get rid of what it left behind."

Five's attempt to get Trevor to pull himself together seemed to work as he nodded at Five, reloading his weapon. After calming down a little, the two trekked forth through the boreal forest once again, in the hunt for the last escaped entities. The soft breeze and birdsong helped slow Five's heartbeat back to normal levels. Trevor pulled out an electronic map with a built in radar from his ruck and showed it to Five.

"This thing here'll show us where the escaped monsters are hiding." He explained to Five. "There's the little devil." He pointed at a red dot on the map.

The two followed it until they found the entity in question. Hiding under a pile of rotting, collapsed wood, a giant, several feet long worm stood, slithering like a cursed snake. The monster had a circular row of massive teeth surrounding its maw and no eyes. It was chewing on a dead raccoon. Trevor fired at the enemy without hesitation, knocking away its raging teeth as it bled black bile, roaring in pain. It wriggled as more of its putrid body splattered against the grass until all that was left of the being was a grotesque gloop of repugnant froth.

"I'm out of ammo." Trevor said. "You'll have to take care of the next one."

On the way to the last remaining escapee, a bald, light-skinned man in a white lab coat ran towards the duo.

"Trevor!" He said. "We've found the manifesto!"

"The what?" Trevor asked.

"Poison and Dick gave us vital information regarding the so called 'children of the savannah.' We believe they may be planning a massive attack!" A look of fear radiated from the man's eyes.