I stood at the edge of the forest looking at what had once been a thriving little town. At one point it had a population of 497, if the sign Celine pointed out could be trusted. Easily over a hundred buildings, going from what appeared to be small farms at the edge to a more densely populated center.

  Now nature was slowly reclaiming the town, houses overgrown with bushes and vines, trees dotting the roads and paths, 70 years was not enough to erase the town, but give it 70 more and it just might be enough. I didn’t have 70 years though and with a growing pit in my stomach, I watched what I was up against.

  With my improved eyesight I could just barely make out the movement in town, the undead inhabitants of Sweetwater… I stood with Celine and Luca, Stalker at my side.

  “I… uhm don’t suppose I can change your mind on joining me?”

  Luca just chuckled, “Hah, nice try boy!” and Celine looked at me with hard eyes, and flatly said “No”

  “We will wait here five days and then we will go in to confirm your death” she took out something that looked like an oversized compass and held it out to me.

  “Prick your finger and squeeze a drop of blood out on the bloodtracker”

  I had never seen something like this before, but the context clues from the name and situation saved me from having to ask awkward questions. I pricked my finger, with my pain resistance I felt next to nothing from the prick, and added some blood to the tracker, it was either that or fighting Luca and Celine right here and now.

  “Good, now we had the talk yesterday, so I hope we will see you again soon, loaded with loot from Sweetwater and preferably unharmed.” and then she smiled, her whole face lit up and I was almost taken in by the sudden change, but it never reached her eyes.

  “Deggan is not a bad boss to have, he knows how to keep good employees happy”

  Luca grunted and then almost reluctantly nodded, “Aye, he is not the worst by far…”

  With a wave and a half shouted “Good luck” from them, Stalker and I turned our noses towards Sweetwater and began a cautious approach.

  Stalker had been very quiet since he had found out that Celine might not be the mating prospect he had thought, but also because he disliked the idea of Celine and Luca just sitting outside and letting us do the hunting. It was not Pack!

  We had most of the day ahead of us, and I wanted to get a feel for the town and maybe even find the Bragona mansion. So I started by asking the best scout in Limbo for help!

  “Stalker, would you take a look around the town, and see if you can find any manmade dens that are larger than the others?” I figured the mansion would probably be one of the biggest houses in town. I emoted careful undead danger! along with my question.

  As he took off towards the center of the town, Stalker emoted back Tiny protector scout, evade undeads, hunt scents! I got the impression that the city was filled with more scents than reasonable, exciting and exotic smells. It took me longer than I care to admit, but I finally connected the many smells with Nelly's story about the town breaking apart… Activating my sense corruption skill I instantly sensed multiple sources within range, the majority in the direction of the town. It would seem that the good town of Sweetwater was indeed the center of a breakdown in reality!

  A blue flash, and a quick check confirmed

  You have unearthed a historical truth (Lesser)!

  You have gained experience!

  I was onto something, but I felt that this was all surface level, why and how had it begun? This might not be the primary reason for being here, but my curiosity was piqued and if I could find out more without endangering us too much? I would certainly try.

  I was sure that Stalker would find me when he had scouted the town. So I decided to go to the nearest source of corruption, a farmhouse, and see if I could glean something from it. As far as I could see there were no zombies on the outskirts of the city, hoping it would stay that way I moved slowly and cautiously towards the house.

  Approaching the house it became clear that the sense of corruption was located in the small barn adjacent to the house. I moved as stealthily as possible, and peeked in through the open double doors. The barn was empty, but following my sense skill I soon located the source. It was a window sized shimmering field about a meter above the ground in one of the horsestalls.

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  It was a diffuse opaque nature, so I couldn’t see in, but the smell coming from there was not pleasant. It reeked of decay and there was a low howling sound, as if there was a vast cavern on the other side, with wind blowing through. Most concerning however was what looked like a dark trail going from the furthest corner in the horsestall to the glitch, as if something had been dragged kicking and screaming into the scary glitch. The years had erased any particular clue as to what had happened here, but my imagination was running wild!

  I quickly used identify on the area and got

  Corrupted dimensional shard

  You have unearthed a systemic truth (Lesser)!

  You have gained experience!

  Dimensional? What the hell was going on here? Was reality really coming undone? I mean, the overflow system breaking down in Ghostwood, the environmental glitches I had experienced and now this? The problems in Sweetwater started over 70 years ago, so I was pretty sure reality wasn’t going to crack totally in the next few days…

  So I was still on the hook for some loot from the mansion, I thought to myself with a smile. Okay, while I waited for Stalker to get back to me, I could test this shard a bit.

  No way in hell was I going to touch it before I knew more, so I found a broken tool from the barn and tried poking the shard, feeling mightily scientific doing it. The broken end of the tool entered the shard as if there was no resistance and I could pull it out without a problem as well. But while I was poking, something changed, the howling sound from the shard got company by a sound that started deep and slowly rose in volume and pitch.

  aaaaaaAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrRRRRRRRooooooooooRRRRRRrraaaaaaAAAAAAa

  The sound almost had a physical effect! It was like hearing a whalesong, but from a very angry, hungry and alien whale… I dropped the tool and escaped the horsestall, closing the door after me, sliding down, so I sat on the ground blocking the door. heart pounding.

  It took me a few cycles of breathing exercises to calm down. It helped that the sound had stopped, when I dropped the tool. I looked for something I could toss, I know I shouldn't, but sometimes you get in a situation where you have to prove to yourself that you are not scared…

  I easily found a piece of broken pottery and standing, I could see the shard, but I remained behind the door, I mean there was proving that you were not afraid and then being stupid. I took aim and tossed the piece through the shard. It entered and didn't come out on the other side. I waited and suddenly a tentacle, as thick as my arms, shot out of the shard and started probing the horsestall, then another and another joined and soon a handful of powerful looking disgusting tentacles were combing the horsestall for whatever had disturbed the shard.

  When the first tentacle hit the door, I took an instinctive step back from it and nearly stumbled, a slight gasp escaping my lips. Instantly the tentacles started focusing on the door… “it” had heard my little gasp.

  Ever so slowly I backed away from the door and the tentacles moving on the other side, I lost sight of them and nearly stepped closer to keep eyes on them, but decided against it. Who knew how far those tentacles could reach, better not give them a line of sight. In my mind I pictured those tentacles reaching a scared horse and pulling it in, creating dragmarks like the ones I had found.

  I backed out of the barn at maximum speed and sat down in a place with sunlight and fresh air. Holy fuck! What had I stumbled into and what had I poked? I hoped Stalker would be okay in the town, I was relatively sure that no zombie could corner my friend, but he didn't know about those tentacle shards!

  Shaken, I decided to check out the farmhouse. 70 years had taken its toll, windows and the door long gone, holes in the roof, the house looked almost ready to collapse at the smallest gust of wind.

  But for now it was still here and as I entered and started to explore, I could see that it had been abandoned and ransacked, stripped of all that could be carried or provide immediate worth.

  This could have been a decent base for our exploration of Sweetwater, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing what was out in that barn. It was still early in the day though, so I decided to see if I could find a place that was free from corruption and closer to the center of town.

  Getting closer to town meant getting closer to the hundreds of undeads currently inhabiting it. I moved slowly from cover to cover trying to steer clear of corruption and any roaming undeads. I frequently tried reaching out to Stalker emoting, Danger special scent, find pack! So far no luck though, I had to get closer to the town.

  So far I had not encountered too many undead, but I had not seen 11 seasons of the Walking Dead and several spinoffs for nothing! I knew that at any moment I could be swarmed. Putting those thoughts aside I finally saw a house that might be free of corruption, now if it was also free from undead, we might have found our base.