So the objective today was to try and find the Full Time outpost that Kush had brought me to when he introduced me to the wacky glove contraption that he had pushed on me. The delven-something-or-other.

I knew that the Shimmer where it was located was past the police station. So, I had that going for me.

Walking past the police station with less paranoia than last time— it had been a month, after all, and no follow up had been conducted, thus placing him into the clear, for now— but the erect nature of the building still gave him the chills.

Chippy followed followed at my back in apparent bursts of flittering speed, like he was a flying-squirrel or some shit. He bounced up and down on his belly of air as he tumbled alongside me. Glancing over as much as my head would allow, I saw that him bouncing around like a snack-y otter, it made him look like a familiar from some weird Anime.

Arriving at the alley, I saw little in the way of portals or Shimmers. But I knew one was somewhere nearby. I just had to concentrate.

Or yell?

As the minutes past and I combed up and down the alley, I begun to believe that the glove-thing, delven-thing might have a role to play. Looking at my right hand, I saw the glove gradually materialize through layers of reality until it revealed itself to me; I had forgotten that I was always wearing the glove and that it had that weird tendency to vanish on me when not thinking about it. Unusual, for sure.

With the glove in ‘active mode,’ for lack of a better word, I now resumed my search as Chippy, notable irritated, began to screech at me to hurry the fuck up.

Careful now, Chippy, don’t get me too upset— I could eat you! Legally. You are a bag of chips. I am a human. Do the math.

But I digress.

With my arm outstretched slightly, I focused my attention to find that Shimmer which Kush had found so easily. By now, my muscle memory from before was coming back to me and I started to remember those twitchy little hand movements that allowed me to open the Shimmer all that time ago . . . two months? Hard to tell.

I did it.

It wasn’t easy, but I felt the flow. The vibe. And soon enough, I was wrung the Shimmer open, allowing Chippy and I safe passage.

“‘Bout bloody time, bugger-mugger,” Chippy cursed under his breath. Or whatever sentient bags of munchies had instead of lungs and vocal chords.

Walking into the Shimmer was, like always, a trip. In my strange partially-dimensional perspective, the world of the Shimmer— which, I guess, was a good part of the under-reality— seemed to both loom toward me as if most of the dimensional space was missing, while at the same time, expand everlasting into the distance as though it never ended. But in passing by buildings and trashcans, of which, they seemed to go on and on, Chippy and I stumbled upon the Full Time outpost surprisingly easy. Like all aspects of my life, now, I had expected it to be harder than need be.

Without any locks on the doors, I and my chip friend easily entered the building. This, though, was where things got tricky.

The first time I was here, Kush lead me around. Without him, I was lost in the strange building’s larger-on-the-inside-than-the-outside mystery; I still remember that first night I stayed here and was wandering the corridors and could never find my way past a certain distance. It— the building, something else? — always led me back to the central command post. The office.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

But, maybe that would help me in this case? Maybe I would meander my way into the office and it would be as easy as expanding the Shimmer?

As the minutes dragged on, though, it became evident that wandering around from the outside-in, would not lead Chippy and I to the office.

I looked to my glove contraption— my Delvendive, was it? — and wondered what I should do. I knew that I couldn’t stay here and wander aimlessly forever. Chippy had to get to the store and I had to continue my search for Felix and Kush. Becoming lost in never-ending hallways would not help anyone.

Thinking deeply about my associates, friends, perhaps, I found my Delvendive glowing. Instinctually, I touched the wall and found that reality instantly shuffled. That was the word— shuffled, like a deck of playing cards. The walls re-arranged themselves not unlike a video game enacting a cheat code. Instantly, then, the many doors and splintering halls of this place vanished— squished into the walls and each other like sand in a tourist’s asscrack— and Chippy and I were led down a single hallway which emerged into the office space.

“What a bloke. You din’t even know what ye were doing, eh?” Chippy said.

I could only concur, because I primarily didn’t understand a word that the bag of fat was speaking. But it was hardly a secret that I didn’t know squat. Honestly, it would have been more awkward if I had known something. Then again, the bag of chips only had just came back to life a day or so ago as far as I knew, so I could cut him some slack for being slack-jawed on the happenings in my life.

“ME, you here?! Where are you, ME?” I shouted, surprised just at actually remembering the name of the mechanized voice which spoke to me over a month ago.

“Who . . . what— huh?!” Chippy gasped as he was totally ignorant of what I was shouting for.

“ME is a voice I met here when Kush first introduced me to Full Time.” I said, as if that explained everything. But, hey, I didn’t know what Chippy already knew about Full Time and them in general. For all I knew, Chippy was an encyclopedia on everything supernormal.

“Whatever, mate . . . whatever.”

I searched around the office and pressed buttons on terminals and old computers. Nothing much was happening until I heard ME’s electronic voice beep from a terminal; walking over to the desk, which I saw very belatedly had actually belonged to me, I sat down in an old office swivel chair and stared into the screen.

“Hello?” I said to the crusty computer monitor. “Is that you, ME?”

“Marcus? Marcus. Good. You are here when you are most needed.”

“I supposed I am. Do you know what happened to Felix and Kush?” I asked.

“I know what happened to them. But I do not know their fate. Why is a Snack Clan associate with you?”

I looked over and down to the ground. Chippy was standing tall on my shoes.

“Why not?” I simply said. But that didn’t seem to amuse ME, so I added, “he needs some help with something related to his clan. Corruption or whatnot. I don’t really know. He had wanted to talk to Felix.”

“I am unaware of corruption. But we can tackle that problem later. For now, it is imperative that you rescue your close associates.”

“You mean Felix and Kush?”

“Yes. Your close associates . . .”

I didn’t know why ME didn’t just use their names instead of saying ‘close associates,’ as if he were some manager in a retail store, but I was past caring. Mostly.

“So, yeah. Point me in the right direction and I will help them out.”

“Important: did Kush teach you about combat? Remember the importance that I had laid upon it when we last me?” ME said.

I had, in fact, remembered, because it was during that initial meeting with ME that I had become scared shitless that I was going to be knifed in my sleep by Kush or somebody else from Full Time. “Yeah, I remember, bud. But no. Kush never taught me anything about combat. I know some good swings already, though; I know my way around a baseball bat and a kitchen knife. Just ask Chippy over here.”

Indicating toward Chippy, he did perk up at being mentioned. And said, “Yeah. The bloke-bugger ain’t too bad. He can swing.”

“Good!” ME boomed through the terminal, the words appearing very stylized to match his tone. “But you will need more than that to rescue your associates. You will need to learn to fight like a Caretaker.”

“Sweet. I think. So, what’s the first step?”

“Not dying when in five seconds the door to your right explodes and a Weirdy tries to eat you.”

At first, I was flummoxed by what the fuck had just been said to me. But then, literally five-seconds later, I had no time to be flummoxed as the door did, in fact, blast to pieces and in the room came a slobbering, sordid tongue demon from the abyss.