Given its name, I found the inside of the café... lacking. There wasn’t even a whiff of dog to be detected here. Nor of people, for that matter, though someone or something had clearly been in here since the change.

A single broken chair lay in one corner, and half of a counter or possibly a cabinet leaned near the doorframe, its other half laying in splinters. Spread throughout the mess was a number of cups and plates, most of them cracked in places or shattered entirely.

In short, it was a mess.

Even Zapper thought so. [You sure about this place, boss?] he asked, casting his gaze around the café. Riley sniffed the air, then wrinkled her nose.

I glanced behind me at the street, where already the coming dark was beginning to encroach. While Zapper and I might be able to navigate through the night, I knew Riley would not find it so easy.

And, more importantly, she would be terrified. Her night terrors were bad enough when she was asleep. I didn’t want to find out what they could be like if she was awake.

[I’m sure,] I said finally. [It’s just one night. Besides, at least this place still has a roof overhead.] Most of the houses on this street weren’t that lucky. Half of them weren’t even standing anymore.

In fact, the entire city seemed to be in a state of accelerated decay. I didn’t know much about human construction—and the bits the system helpfully offered up didn’t illuminate much either. What the heck was ‘reinforced concrete’?—but I was guessing that most of these places should have remained at least habitable for a few years after humanity’s disappearance.

Instead, vines climbed the sides of businesses, houses crumbled inward on themselves, and anyplace that wasn’t infested with monsters seemed to have aged a decade or more.

Was this the system’s doing? I had to believe so. No way this was natural.

Regardless, knowing didn’t help our current situation. This building didn’t look in danger of imminent collapse, so it would do. I opened my inventory and fetched out a safe zone generator.

[One temporary home, coming right up,] I said. Zapper let out a happy bark.

[Oh, boy, it’s about time! I’m starving!]

Involuntarily, my tongue lolled to one side. [Only you would be excited over the prospect of more kibble, Zapper.]

[You aren’t too, Boss? But it’s so good! The same consistent flavor, the same crunchy mouthfeel... what more could a dog ask for?!?]

My tongue lolled further, even as my stomach churned. [Let’s just say I’m glad that Crunch’s inventory included those MREs I gave him.]

[Right!] Zapper glanced at Riley, who was trying to figure out a way to sit in the dilapidated chair—rather unsuccessfully, I might add. [You think we’ll have enough to make it to wherever the humans are?]

I only had two MREs left after breakfast this morning. Frankly, we were lucky to have that many. Watching Riley tear her way through delicious looking maple sausage and muffins that morning had almost been too much to bear.

Even the stale chips had been a rather weak consolation prize.

Shaking my head to clear the memory, I said, [No, we won’t make it to downtown until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. I’m hoping the food at the Chalet House is still edible. We can establish another base there and start exploring the inner city.]

With that, I activated the safe zone.

Just like before, a golden dome expanded outward, engulfing the entire shop. I watched as it passed outside, stopping near the edge of the street. A surprised gasp caused me to spin about.

Riley had leapt out of the chair she’d been trying to sit in. As we watched, it began reconstructing itself, pulling in materials from the floor around it. A second later it wobbled slightly as it settled itself on the floor, looking whole once again.

The counter beside me started to rebuild itself as well. Pieces of splintered wood floated through the air, stitching themselves to its sundered end, which was rapidly expanding further into the café. The new section was a patchwork quilt of color, some of the new material clearly not having come from the original counter.

All around us, rubble pushed itself to the edges, leaving a clear space. A small table appeared beside the reconstructed chair, complete with a tablecloth, napkin holder, and a vase of flowers.

In a corner opposite the counter, a bed rose from the floor, covered in fuzzy blankets showing a picture of what appeared to be an animatronic bear. Matching posters slapped themselves to the wall.

On the floor next to it appeared a me-sized dog bed. At least that was familiar.

[Huh.] I stared at the obviously human comforts. [Does the system know we’ve got a human traveling with us, or are the safe zone’s totally random?]

It had been a rhetorical question, so I hadn’t been expecting Zapper to answer it. [I think it’s because of Riley, Boss. Look at the food!]

[FOOD???] I turned. My eyes widened in a mixture of euphoria, joy, happiness, and utter unbridled glee.

The counter, which had been bare a moment before, was now covered in supplies. Cans with various labels on them sat piled at one end, with several cereal boxes next to them. A bowl full of what I thought might be apples—but couldn’t quite see due to the angle—lay a little further on. Finally, a small white cake stood upon a stand at the opposite end, encased inside of clear glass. My mouth salivated at the sight.

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[There’s even a fridge, too!] Zapper called from where he’d disappeared behind the counter. Riley and I followed after him and found there was, indeed, a fridge only about three or four feet tall. When the little girl tugged it open, a sight more beautiful than an entire mountain of cores greeted me.

Steaks. Individually wrapped in plastic and resting in little Styrofoam trays. A dozen of them, maybe more.

Riley glanced at me. “Doggy want some meat?”

[Oh, very much so.] I wagged my tail and barked, unable to think of any other way to communicate my interest.

Riley giggled, apparently getting the message, and set down a package on the floor. I nosed it about for a few moments, trying to find a dignified way to remove the plastic wrap, then gave up and simply tore it apart with a well-placed Claw Slash.

Which also tore up the steak.

And the Styrofoam container.

And the floor underneath.

Whoops.

But on the plus side, this set off another round of giggles from Riley. At least the human was enjoying my antics.

I turned to Zapper to find he had gnawed his own way into a packet of meat and was in the process of swallowing it whole. His eyes bulged as it got stuck in his throat.

[Slow down, Zapper, it’s not a race!] I nudged the dog with my nose. [Take your time. You don’t want the words on your tombstone to read ‘died doing what he loved—eating’, do you?]

[Okay, Boss, I’ll try!] He hacked the piece of meat back up, then set to chewing on it. Satisfied, I turned my attention to the open fridge.

So many steaks, enough to keep us filled for several days. Or one really big feast...

Quickly, I kicked the fridge shut with my hind leg before temptation could sway me any further. Once we were ready to move on tomorrow, I would declare it time to devour the fridge wholesale. Until then... best to save it.

[I want to know why we rated more than dry kibble just because of a human,] I muttered to no one in particular. Not that I was bitter about the first safe zone I created. Not even a teeny, tiny, itsy bitty bit. No sir. [If this is the kind of fare we can expect, maybe we’d be better off keeping the girl with us after all.]

Not that the upsides were likely to outweigh the down. She still needed near constant management, like when she marked her territory, or played outside, or got into food...

Quickly, I spun about looking for her, and found her seated at the table, munching on an apple. She smiled down at me as I approached. “Good food, doggy!” She leaned in and smelled the flowers. “Pretty flowies, too!”

[Yes, yes,] I said, even knowing she couldn’t hear. It appeared she wouldn’t be having any trouble with food in the immediate future, at least not until we needed to open one of those cans. I didn’t even know where to begin with something like that. Another Claw Slash, probably.

Together, the three of us worked our way through a sizeable portion of the fresh foods, including a slice of cake each (I say slice, but it was more like a chunk torn off at random. Whatever, it worked and nobody complained).

After that, Riley crawled into bed without the usual chase, and was asleep before either Zapper or I could even remember about her hair.

[Huh. Seems like all the walking today wore her out,] I noted. Zapper nodded sleepily from over the desecrated remains of what had once been a box of cereal. [Looks like you could use a good night’s sleep yourself.]

[Uh huh.] Stumbling over toward the bed, he tried unsuccessfully to pull his bloated belly onto the bed. After watching for a minute, I came up behind Zapper and used my head to give him the last little push he needed.

[Thanks, Boss.] He wagged his tail, then did a quick trio of circles before settling down next to Riley’s head. The girl’s nose wrinkled as his tail tickled it. She gave a sneeze, then reached out and pulled the dog close.

The sight of them squished together just about melted my heart. It also left me with a queasy feeling I couldn’t quite put into words. There were flashes of that girl again... Annie... I remembered her snuggling her face into my fur, her breath warm and comforting on the back of my neck...

With that, the memory broke apart. Maybe one day I’d remember more than just fragments.

Maybe.

I eyed the nearby bed, wanting nothing more than to crawl into it and collapse. With last night’s adventures, I was running on a short amount of sleep, after having finally just caught back up, too. Still, my curiosity was stronger than my fatigue.

I’d been waiting for weeks to see what exactly a rare core was capable of. Now I finally had the means, motive, and justification to try some experiments.

Opening my inventory, I reviewed my supplies once again. Three rare cores, as well as over four hundred commons, which I could convert into 4 additional if I needed. The only question was, what did I want to attempt first?

Not healing myself. I already suspected I knew what would happen. Beyond blessings on the Conditions screen, there was another line called 'boons’. If a rare core didn’t provide a random boon, I’d eat my foot. Which left two remaining areas to attempt using them on—my equipment, and my stat screen.

Fortunately, I had the perfect target for the former.

Opening my inventory, I summoned my worn collar, letting it drop to the ground in front of me. I had no idea if these items had to be outside of my interface in order to be affected, but I wasn’t going to take any chance.

That done, I activated one of the rare cores, targeting my collar.

Please select one of the following actions:

Item Fusion

Item Fracture

Interesting! I hadn’t been expecting a choice. This was the first time I could recall seeing something like that before. Still, it was what I had been expecting—hoping—might happen.

I wasn’t entirely sure what fusion would do, though I had some guesses, but I was pretty confident about the second option.

Selecting item fracture, the screen winked away, only to be replaced by another.

Eligible item detected. Warning: fracturing a fused item will allow salvage of only one component. All others will be lost. Proceed?

Hmm. I suppose I wasn’t exactly attached to the worn collar, so I could allow for its loss if it meant preserving my dog tag. Assuming it gave me a choice.

I hesitated before confirming, suddenly worried I might be risking the tag’s destruction. And yet, wasn’t it better to learn this lesson now? The tag wasn’t doing me any good stuck to my old collar. I wanted it back, but if they were lost it just meant I needed to try doubly hard to find a replacement. I wasn’t any worse off.

With that, I confirmed. And figuratively crossed my paws.

Please select which of the following components you would like to salvage:

Worn Leather Collar

Triple Chance Dog Tag

A relieved sigh came out of me in a rush. It seemed I had been worried for nothing.

I confirmed that I wanted the tag, and the message disappeared. So did the collar, leaving just the tag lying on the ground. A moment later, it was back in my inventory.

Alright, I had solved the mystery of at least one more core function—or half the mystery, since I still needed to figure out what a fusion did. I knew the term from the monsters, so maybe it was something similar?

In the meantime, I selected another rare core, took a deep breath, and applied it to my interface.