志正町

ファイル:Exit.jpg
# ***RUN.***

テンプレート:Class !
**Run For Your Life**, also known as simply **Level Run** and also **Level !**, is an anomalous level notorious for being one of most dangerous locations in the Backrooms; it should never, under any circumstances, be entered deliberately.

## Description

 Level !:
The Oscillating Blares
An image of **Level !:Run For Your Life**.

 **Level !:Run For Your Life** is fairly uncomplicated in its appearance and layout, though that does not take away from the ever-present danger here. It consists almost entirely of one long, narrow hallway, reminiscent of hallways commonly found inside modern hospitals. Exact measurements of the hallway's length cannot be made due to the level’s dangers, but it is believed to be about 10 kilometers in length, although this is disputed. While turns in the hallway are uncommon, they are likely to occur at least once during one's journey.

The entirety of **Level !:Run For Your Life** seems to be constructed from a powerful material that strongly resembles concrete in presentation and composition. “EXIT” signs are a common sight on the ceilings of the level, and provide the only source of light on the level, specifically, a deep red hue. Strangely, their positions and brightness seem to be random; one area may have a cluster of them while in the next there may be none. As a result, some areas of **Level !:Run For Your Life** can be extremely dark due to lacking the signs. This makes for a very liminal, disordered, *wrong* kind of feeling present in the level. Another common item seen throughout the level are doors. These are made out of what *appears* to be steel and, oddly, they cannot be opened. Multiple explorers have made the mistake of stopping to try and open a door as a means of escape. However, doing this is *certainly* not recommended, as it is a waste of time, and it will most likely lead to one's demise.

It is currently unknown what lies behind the doors, and any information on this will likely never be obtained.

Safety... for now...
A recovered photo of **Level !:Run For Your Life** found lying on a hospital bed. Photographer is assumed to be The Cameraman.

Despite most people's notions, the first area one will find while in this level is *not* the infamous hallway. When one first enters **Level !:Run For Your Life**, they will be in a small room, which is estimated to be about 25 feet by 25 feet. The walls, ceiling, and floor appear to be made of an *extremely* reflective metal, and the room is dimly lit by dull red light emanating from an unknown source. As the walls appear to be hollow, there have been attempts to break through the walls, floors, and ceilings, but all have failed. It is theoretically possible (though impossible in practice) that the walls could be broken through with sufficiently powerful technology, such as explosives or a mechanized battering ram.

Two doors are located in the room, both opposite from each other. Although these resemble regular doors, both have no visible hinges, seem to be unnecessarily thick, and have no reflectivity whatsoever, despite being made out of metal. One of these doors leads to an unknown area, in which numerous entities will begin to gather. These entities, presumably after smelling, hearing, or “seeing” the person, will begin pawing, scratching, and eventually banging on the door in an attempt to break it down. Normally, the structural integrity of the door will begin to decrease around thirty seconds after the person’s arrival, with dents appearing and the door beginning to visibly bulge. This has been known to cause extreme fear within those who have entered this level, which tends to increase because attempts to open the second door, which would allow them to leave the room, rarely work on the first try, or even the tenth. However, the door is all but guaranteed to open eventually. It should be noted that there have been reports of the entities breaking through the door extremely quickly, approximately 10 seconds after the wanderer arrives.

ファイル:Level ! at start.webp
The hospital as it appears upon entry.

The area the second door leads to is a long hallway with architecture resembling that of a modern medical hospital. Present throughout the sides of the hallway are unlocked metal doors, located at random locations. In a similar manner, “EXIT” signs similar to those found in normal buildings can be seen at random locations on the ceiling. Like a normal hospital, the floor is made out of what appear to be porcelain tiles, with the walls being apparently wooden and the ceiling being made out of white tiles.

Although the hospital seems to be in pristine condition, it is eerily empty. Many have reported seeing “shadows” in the distance walking in the hallway or entering and exiting some of the doors, but it is unknown if they are entities or just hallucinations. However, as time goes on, the hospital will begin to change. After an unknown period of time, the doors will lock, preventing people from entering or exiting if they wandered in. The lights will dim, and the red lights illuminating the EXIT signs will increase in brightness and will take on the hue of the light which illuminated the room one began at. Sightings of the “shadows” will stop, and visibility will greatly decrease. In addition, a faint alarm tone will appear in the distance, and the material that the walls are made of will change to a concrete-type material.

After a certain amount of time, which varies between people, often just seconds after they leave the first room, the first door in the room one began in will finally break and fall down, resulting in an extremely loud noise. Afterwards, a horde of entities, which mainly consist of entities one would typical find thorough out the Backrooms (such as Hounds, Skin-Stealers, Smilers, Partygoers, Lighters, and many more) will emerge from the room, and will begin pursuing the person who entered, forcing them to begin running down the hallway away from the entities.

At some point, the faint alarm noise one heard at the start will become almost deafening, although the source of this noise is unknown.

The apparent objective in **Level !:Run For Your Life** is to run as fast as one humanly can to the exit before the enormous entity horde that is chasing the person catches up to them. Helpful items may be found to aid one during their escape. These helpful objects may include bottles of Almond Water, which can be found laying on hospital beds and chairs, along with energy bars, which usually accompany Almond Water bottles, but they can be found in isolated groups, most likely lay on tables. But, (with a couple documented exceptions,) they are either hidden or out of one’s view, forcing people to backtrack and risk their life to retrieve them.

ファイル:Exit.jpg A close-up photo of the exit.

The entities will adapt to one's capacity of running, to a point of giving difficulty even to the ones experienced at running. However, the further one goes, the entities will slowly decrease in number or fall behind, eventually leaving one alone if one can run for a long period of time. This may convince one that they have escaped, but this is an illusion. The entities will continue pursuing the person who is in the level, but will just be out of their view unless the person slows down. Interestingly, the amount of ”EXIT” signs also decreases in this area, resulting in this part of the level being darker.

Around this point, several “traps” have been discovered, including but not limited to an electrical cord stretched across the hall and a gaping hole in the floor. The amount and types of “traps” one encounters seemingly vary from person to person. As the “traps” can be extremely difficult to see due to the darkness in the level, it is recommended to slightly slow down in this section so as to buy yourself enough time to observe and evade the “traps” while not giving the entities enough time to catch up to you.

It has been reported that different people can be in **Level !:Run For Your Life** at the same time, however one will never meet another. It's presumed the level will create a copy for each person that is in, so there's no way to be with someone else inside the level.

One will eventually come upon an exit door at the end of the hallway. Entering it will lead to a random level, with the Backrooms never sending them back here again. If the horde of entities catches them, however, the victim will be killed in a very painful and gruesome way. The hallway possesses turns, one each few kilometers, leading to a wanderer thinking they've reached the exit early. If one sees the exit door, but notices a turn in the hallway, they should not go into the door as it is a fake exit and it will lead them into an empty room, resulting in them being caught by the entities. The only way to know which one is the real exit is by going further until there are no more turns; if one comes across a dead end with the exit door, then they've reached the real exit.

## History

ファイル:19thcenturyrunforyourlife.jpg
Photograph E.

**Level !:Run For Your Life** seems to have known to exist for centuries. A picture of **Level !:Run For Your Life**, known as “Photograph E” by the M.E.G, was recovered in Level 52 that, oddly, appears to have been taken all the way back in 1863. Strangely, the level still has a modern appearance, despite modern hospitals not existing yet.

It is unclear how this photo was taken, considering that one is in constant danger in the level, and that people trapped in the Backrooms in the 19th century likely did not have the technology and materials to actually make the cameras that existed at the time. Furthermore, cameras used at the time were heavy and unweildly, which, obviously, would not be ideal. Nevertheless, the physical photograph is currently under the ownership of the M.E.G.. As a result of this, some have theorized that **Level !:Run For Your Life** was a safe level at one point, which would make it ideal for 1800s photography. These claims have been backed up by the presence of the aforementioned energy bars and Almond Water bottles. All of these theories and claims are, however, not confirmed as fact, and they should taken with a grain of salt.

However, the level itself was not discovered and catalogued by the M.E.G. until 1963, when a M.E.G. member unintentionally entered it. A log of the event is provided below.

### Archived Log: Discovery of Level !: Run For Your Life

Operative Noah C. Boyle was in Level 5 on his way back to Base Beta, trying to deliver sensitive information about The Clocksmith, when he anomalously appeared in ~~**Level !**~~ RFYL.

**<Commence>**
**Noah:** Right, I did what you ordered. Got all the files which were in Level 472. I believe we can finally know the old man's secrets.

**Base:** Alright, good work. Get back to base as fast as possible. It is possible that one of those "accidents" are prone to happen soon if you don't hurry up.

**Noah:** Yeah, yeah I know. I think I can make it in about 4 or 5 hours. Wait- that wall definitely was not there. It… seems as if I've reached a dead-end.

**Base:** Remain calm, there must be a way around it.

**<The audio cuts out and a static noise is heard>**

**Base:** Hello? Do you copy? Where the hell are you?

**Noah:** Shit… seems that I've no-clipped into another level. This is very different from the other levels that I know, though.

**Base:** Please describe what you see.

**Noah:** It’s—it’s a dark, red room. The walls are metal, and there’s two black doors. Can't see shit through the one-

**<Pounding is heard through the radio>**

**Noah:** SHIT! There's some entities behind the one door, it's a goddamn horde of them!

**Base:** What’s behind the other door?

**Noah:** I—I don’t know. It’s not opening! Shit! I'm gonna fucking die here! They’re comi—YES!

**Base:** What happened?

**Noah:** I’m out of that room. The second door leads to a long hallway. It—it looks like a hospital. It’s strange, though—it seems abandoned. I swore I heard some talking behind this door…

**Base:** Are there entities?

**Noah:** No, but I don’t know how much longer that door can hold. Weird—the lights are getting dimmer.

**Base:** Where did you enter this level?

**Noah:** About a hundred feet from the outpost, down the hall. I don’t like the look of this—the exit signs are lighting up.

**Base:** What? You didn’t mention any signs.

**Noah:** No, there were si—[STATIC]

**Base:** Hello? Hello? Boyle, come in!

[STATIC CONTINUES FOR 1 MINUTE 57 SECONDS]

**Noah:** —UCK FUCK FUCK!

**Base:** What is it? What’s going on?

**Noah:** There’s—there’s hundreds of them! I’m running as fast as I can, but—they’re catching up!

**Base:** Remain calm. We are sending in some of our people to investigate this. They are on their way to your location through Level 5.

**<Heavy breathing is audible>**

[STATIC FOR 5 MINUTES 2 SECONDS]

**Noah:** I'm there! I'm there!

**Base:** Did you escape?

**<Incomprehensible sounds>**

**Noah:** Empty room!

**<A few seconds elapse>**

**Noah:** OH SHI-

**<Several entity screeches and screaming can be heard for the remainder of the recording, before the microphone cuts off>**

**Base:** Boyle? Boyle, come in!

**Base:** Is there anybody there? Christ…

**Base (to someone in the room):** Cancel the rescue operation. Boyle is dead.

**<End>**

Noah is presumed deceased.
Log captured \*\*/\*\*/1963.
## Events and Reports

ファイル:Level ! Exit Photo.jpeg
Another photo of the exit.

Despite how simple **Level !:Run For Your Life** works, there may rarely be events out of the ordinary. As the amount of people known to have survived **Level !:Run For Your Life** is low compared to the amount who enter, many more events might happen.

### Entities breaking out of the doors (19 confirmed reports)

Wanderers reporting this state that sometimes one may find weakened/rusted doors at the side, with noise coming from them. If the wanderer passes in front of the door, about no more than a second after, the door will break down and a hostile entity will emerge from it and join the horde.

### “Gray Halls” (9 reports)

During this event, the level's signature red lighting will fade into a dull grey. The floor will begin to shake and parts of the level will commence combusting. While the fires will reduce the overall entity count, they pose a much larger threat overall.

### "Checkpoint" (9 reports)

This event has only happened nine times, all happening between 8/12/94 and 9/7/95. There will be a room with a sign above it saying, "Safety is near". Entering the room will lead to a room where the entities cannot enter, and you will be able to rest. The catch with this, however, is that staying here for approximately three hours can lead to the walls closing in, crushing the person inside. There is a door on the other side of the “checkpoint,” allowing one to leave without going back the way they came.

In two-thirds of the reports, those who left the checkpoint were brought to an area dubbed the “Orange Halls.” This area was identical to **Level !:Run For Your Life**, besides the fact that there were no obstacles or items here. A thick sludge that was going at an exceptionally fast rate was behind them, forcing them to run for the exit. After running for what has been estimated to be about a mile, they were greeted with a dead end, leaving them to be consumed by the sludge.

### "Level ! EX" (3 reports)

The few wanderers that survived this event claim that the event begins upon reaching the exit door. When the wanderer goes through the door, they will find themselves back at the start of the hallway, with the entities seconds away from breaking through the door. The level will become incredibly distorted. The alarm sound will be distorted as well, changing pitch, reversing, having other anomalies. The entities will be replaced with one large entity made out of an unknown black substance, which seems to be invulnerable or does not care about any wounds it receives.

Upon reaching the exit once again, the level will restart once again, and again, and again, and again. It is unknown what causes the repeat of the level to end, as those who escaped have no memories of it. It is worth noting that every item consumed throughout the run will also be regenerated every time one restarts.

### “Nowhere To Go” (2 reports)

This event was discovered through radio communication. When this event occurs, the whole level will explode, and one will either fall into the Void forever, or, if lucky—or unlucky—enough, will end up in Level 6.

## Entrances and Exits

As **Run For Your Life** can be unpredictable, one may end up in here in completely random ways. Below are some of the confirmed methods of entering or exiting the level.

### Entrances

* **Level !:Run For Your Life** can be entered in any level of the Backrooms via a variety of methods. These methods usually have something to do with something that has an exclamation mark on it, but **Level !:Run For Your Life** can be entered anywhere at any time.
* Very rarely, going through faulty elevators in relatively unstable levels can lead you here.
* The most common way people enter the level intentionally is by no-clipping under a table in Level 521, specifically in the 521-A section, that has "!" written on it.
* One will immediately be transported into **Level !:Run For Your Life** when a certain thought arises in Level 354.
* Sleeping on a bench in Game World! has been known to transport wanderers into **Run For Your Life**.
* Entering "out-of-bounds" areas in Level 357 will lead one to this level.
* Noclipping through Level 2020 will transport one to this level, but will cause any belongs that wanderer has to be left behind in Level 2020.
* If randomly at any time without warning and without any reason, manually, accidentally or intentionally the fire alarms on Level 54's Floor 2 are triggered, the corridor will transform into this level, eventually ending up here.

### Exits

* Run to the end of the level, and one will be transported to a random level.
* Tripping on an object will cause one to no-clip through the floor and end up in Level 52, though this is extremely difficult and this cannot be done with intentions to trip. It has to be accidental.
* In rare occasions, coming across a vent and entering it will lead to the Maze of Vents.
* Rarely, one may find two open doors, one on each side of the hallway; entering any of the two doors will lead one to Level 3635. If there is only one unlocked door on the side instead of two, entering it will lead to Level !-!. However, if the door has been labeled with "Intrusive Thoughts", it will take you to Level 419.
* Opening a fake exit has a rare chance of opening up to a carpenter's room. Entering it will lead you to Level Maker.

テンプレート:Collapse

### 1 additional file has been found. Insert access credentials.

Insert Username

テンプレート:USERNAME

Insert Password

Password Autofilled.

**Welcome, テンプレート:USERNAME!**

If you’re reading this, congratulations on your appointment to leading our research into anomalous levels. You will have a lot of work ahead of you, and many problems which, despite your best efforts, you won’t be able to solve. However, if they handpicked you out of the rest of us, you’ll probably do pretty well.

By the time you’ve read this, you probably know what anomalous levels are. You could probably describe in a couple sentences what awaits within The End, Level ?, and The Hub. You might even have visited them yourself. If you’re lucky—or unlucky—enough, you’ve also experienced Run For Your Life.

Having come this far, you’ve probably noticed a few loose ends in the file for that last level. You might have wondered about the Frenchman’s picture, and you might have wondered what the exclamation mark means. Since you’ve risen this far, you’ve kept your mouth shut about all of it. You might also have heard of the rumors. Things like that the Run is a mistake, or is the torture chamber of an evil entity, or is a metaphor for how we evade our death.

Lies and rumors. I’ve experienced the Run. I’ve studied it for years. And I’ve found no sign of any of those things. They’re all tall tales told by people looking for others to fool.

Just like a lot of what is in the level’s file.

テンプレート:Underline

Let me start with the man with the camera. Jacques Dubois.

He was a photographer, but, in the 1800s, that didn’t involve the high-tech digital cameras which are common today. It involved bulky equipment, several chemicals, and darkness. He ran a small shop in Paris, catering to both the wealthy and the middle class. Although business was good, he never made a big profit, at least, not one big enough to let him expand.

You probably better know him as the taker of Photograph E.

Nobody knows where and when he fell into the Backrooms. Probably some time around 1861. He stayed alive long enough to assemble a small group sometime around 1867 that settled in Level 52, but disappeared soon after. Our knowledge of him is limited; the M.E.G. didn’t even exist yet. The First had not even entered the Backrooms. Most of us who know about him believe he and his fellow settlers were killed by Facelings, but others think he’s still out there.

But that’s not important. What is important is what he left behind. A stack of photographs and journals, weathered with age, found in Level 52. They show many levels. Those who say that iconic picture of Level 0 was the first one? Ignorant. He was there long before that photographer was born.

You know of Photograph E, but his journals add more depth. They confirm that the photograph shows what he called “le couloir métallique”—the metal hallway. This is, without a doubt, what we call Run For Your Life.

The same applies to legends which have trickled down through the years. Tales of levels which can’t be found anymore, all centered around a long hallway with brightly lit signs reading “EXIT.” We didn’t discover the Run by chance in 1963, we first ventured into it in the 1910s to learn more about these tales. We left it knowing that this wasn’t a regular level. This was an unstable place—a location which changed frequently.

The year 1963, though, is still relevant. It is when we found it became what it is today.

And when it ground to a halt.

テンプレート:Underline

You might know that, back when anomalous levels were created, we organized them by symbols. Level 847 became Level !, Level 472 became Level ?, and Level 1000 became Level ->. Over time, we ran out of symbols, and eventually replaced them all with words. Level / became the Manila Room, and Level # became the end of this place. That was when Level ! became the Run and Level -> became the Hub.

The previous names have long since faded into memory. So why do we still refer to the Run as Level ! ?

It’s partially because of its memorability and because of the excellent symbolism of the exclamation mark—or, at least, what people believe is the symbolism of the exclamation mark. So why is Level ?, the only symbol level we still officially have—and one with a name just as memorable and symbolic as the Run—relatively unknown? It’s almost as dangerous, and the symbolism in the name was actually intended.

The question therefore, is why Level ! ?

In 1963, the Backrooms changed. We awoke to find that the doors leading to what we called Level 847 had changed in some strange way. Nobody can describe it, not even me. Something was wrong. Someone whose name has been lost to history by design went in, and never went out. I talked to Ben the other day, who says he can still hear his screams ringing in his ears.

We knew that we had around five years before the next change was going to happen, so we decided to act in our long-term interests. We found all the of the doors we knew of and boarded them up, writing on it a message warning not to enter. Some almost certainly did, but at least we could say we warned them.

But then more doors started to appear. Doors which previously led to regular rooms or to other levels now led to the red hallway, and more appeared when nobody was looking. It was as if the level had known what we had done, and was still seeking visitors. Or, to put it in another way, food.

Five years came and went. Then six years, then seven. It remained the same. We couldn’t do anything about it. The most we could do was stop people from panicking. It was fortunate that we had an empty slot in the database, and so Level 379 obtained more entrances. And if anybody dared challenge the official narrative, and wanted to discover the truth… their disappearance would convince others that they were wrong.

The level continued to expand. I was even “killed” so I could turn my attention to this full-time. When a new entrance was discovered, we blocked it off. It was a game of whack-a-mole, in which humans were facing off against a threat which would not stop. By then, fifteen years had passed. It should have changed three times by then. But it hadn’t.

And that was when the most ominous development came. In 1978, the Kauer Thesis was released. And, as if it had a mind, the doors which led to the hallway began having an exclamation mark located somewhere on them, painted in what looked like human blood.

At the same time, we had the first known survivor. We had never prepared for what a survivor of the level could do to our web of lies about the hallway and Level 379—we didn’t even know if a person could escape the level. Our expeditions had all resulted in death.

Fortunately for us, he didn’t know about the Level 379 connection, nor was he curious. He had just found a strange door with an exclamation mark on it, entered, and survived. But he didn’t know that this was “already” a level—he thought it was a new one. He called it “Level !.” Desperate to avoid the scandal and possible revolution which might result if our lies were uncovered, we went along with the name change, and, to make it more plausible, changed 472’s and 1000’s names to symbols. We even added false details as to why we chose the “!.” Yes, that’s right. The creation of “anomalous levels” as a category was a result of our politics.

We might never know if Kauer is right. But what we do know is that, by now, Level ! is what most people know it as. Somebody eventually realized that, perhaps, the popularity and memorability of the name, along with the now-universal knowledge of what the level is, could stop it from changing to another, safer level if Kauer was right. We tried changing it several times—making it “Run,” “the Fluid Hall,” and even Level 151. None of it worked. The level was still the same, so the horrifying description that could allow the level to survive in its current state remained. And most people kept calling it “Level !.” We had near-revolts in our records department over the amount of notes they’d have to add to documents detailing what the level was known as.

Finally, somebody came up with a way to rename Level ! in a way that made sense and wouldn’t raise questions. For years, several people had argued that the symbol level names were stupid and were impossible to pronounce—arguments that we had ignored, but which we now used. We said that we would rename the three remaining symbol levels that we had. We made Level -> the Hub. We almost renamed Level ?, but the person who had discovered it was now on the Consensus and threw a fit, arguing that it was the “intended name” of the level. For Level !, we knew we’d get blowback. So we resorted to some backroom deals. A bit of a fitting name. We told the public we wouldn’t do it, and then called a meeting of the Consensus. We locked them in a room, briefed them on what was going on, and wouldn’t let them out until they bowed to our wishes. That was what we felt needed to get done.

When they renamed Level ! “Run For Your Life”, building off of its nickname and some half-baked explanation that Mick cooked up, there was a massive storm. But, over time, it disappeared. People started calling it by our name instead of Level !. But at least half of the people in the Backrooms still know it by its former, more popular name.

Today, the Run is still the same as it was in 1963. There has been no change for over fifty years. If the level’s naming itself was a survival mechanism built on the memory of thousands, it has been wildly effective. Everybody knows about Level !, which hasn’t been changed by our renaming it. It has become the Backrooms boogeyman, a story told by people to warn others to not go recklessly exploring. Unless we could use mind control on the entire Backrooms or kill almost every Wanderer, we would not wipe out its collective memory. Everybody knows of Level ! and what it is.

Some even believe now that when the level became its current form, it became sentient. It became alive. It wanted nourishment in the form of humans and to survive for as long as it could.

I don’t know you, and by the time you read this I’ll probably be dead. I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I hope you can do something, but I know that you probably won’t be able to. Good luck anyway.

-Noah C. Boyle

ファイル:Level ! hallway.png