As I slowly woke up, I felt my head laying on the dashboard, I noticed, a lot of smoke came out of the hood of the ambulance. I opened the door and tried to get out, of course, I slipped and fell down with my face in the mud, it even tasted strange compared to normal mud. After getting up, I looked around to see if we were still in that cave. All I saw was an eerie swamp, after wiping most of the mud from my face, I walked over to the driver’s seat and opened the door.

Abby groaned in pain as she woke up.

“Abby?”

“Steve?”

I nodded, “Yes, I think that we made it, you did kill a tree, though.”

Abby looked up after blinking a couple of times. “Oh, that might be a problem, I don’t think this ambulance is going to work anymore.”

I chortled softly, “No shit, Sherlock.”

Abby chuckled and climbed out. “Where are we, Steve?”

“In the reality next door, I presume.”

Abby seemed to be scanning the area, “Hold on a second, where is Alice?”

I shrugged, “Who knows? It might be a good idea to start looking for her.”

Out of my sweatpants pocket, I pulled a joint. “Oh fuck, I don’t have a lighter.”

Abby sighed, “Perhaps this is not the time for that?” I just looked at her, she felt in her pockets and handed me a lighter. “Thanks, Abby.”

I lit up the joint, After taking a hit, I gave it to Abby, she sighed as she stepped out of the ambulance and took a hit, “Just don’t get it too close to the ambulance.”

I looked around me, there were tar pits all over the place, dead swaying trees with moss on them, Slippery paths lead to multiple places.

Abby handed me my short sword. “What do we do now?”

“We smoke this joint, and then we go find Alice, I suppose. Oh, and trying not to die would be a smart thing to do as well.” I sighed, “There is not much of a welcoming party, We have no clue where to go or what our best action is.”

Abby looked around, “At least the sun is shining, even if the swamp is blocking most of it.”

I started looking around, “We should go north, if my knowledge is correct, and it usually is, and my internal compass is also right, then that way is north.”

Abby looked at where I pointed. “That is just more swamp and dead trees.”

I sighed, “Are you okay with going that way?”

Abby shrugged, “Fine, it is not like I have much choice anyway, this way, I can blame you if we get lost.”

Abby looked around, “Before we leave, are you sure we are not missing anything here?”

I crossed my arms, “Like what?”

Abby smiled, “We can take some medical equipment with us, we have a special inventory now.”

“Oh shit, we do?”

Abby nodded, then she hung her head, “You are going to take the ambulance with you, aren’t you?”

I looked at her, “You know me so well, of course, I am, you know I love to collect stuff.”

Abby nodded, “I remember how greedy you are, while not being greedy at the same time, do you remember when we went to that restaurant, and we almost got thrown into jail because you took the fucking utensils? I am still mad at you for that. Like, why would you take the spoon with you? It is just a spoon, you had money to buy a million spoons, so why take a damn spoon?”

I sighed, “How should I know? It is merely an urge I have, I looked it up, it is called kleptomania, I will take stuff wherever I can.”

Abby looked at me, “At least that explains some of your weird urges, But you really should not take the ambulance, What purpose might it even serve?”

I shrugged, “Who knows? It might be a barricade one day, or it will work as a weapon when I drop it on someone.”

Abby hung her head, “You are weird, here we are in a different reality, and we are arguing about you putting an ambulance in your hammerspace.”

I just stared at Abby, “Did you just make a joke about comic books?”

She giggled, “Yes, I did.”

I picked up a rock and put it in my inventory, it just, vanished. I started turning circles, “How do I get it back?”

Abby facepalmed herself, “Just, think about the stupid rock, and it will come back, that is common sense, idiot”

I did exactly what Abby asked of me, and the rock came back. I cheered, “It worked, what if, I pick up a human and make it vanish.”

Abby shook her head, “Don't even joke about putting people in interdimensional inventories. Why would you even need the fucking ambulance!?”

I put my hands on my waist. “Because I want it.”

Abby crossed her arms, “Fine, just, stop complaining and take the ambulance.”

I walked over to the broken ambulance, “I am not complaining here, I just want to take it with me.” I put the ambulance in my inventory. “We should go, we have no idea what is waiting for us in the swamp.”

Abby grunted, “Fine, but just let me tell you what I think about—”

I kissed her before she could tell me what she was thinking, when I backed off, she continued talking, it did not even bother her.

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I hung my head and sighed, After Abby had stopped complaining about me taking the ambulance with me, we made our way north. As we crossed a mud pit filled with muddy water, it looked as if hands came out of the mud, Abby kneeled, “those hands look creepy, what do you think it means?”

“Give me a second, Abby.” I checked the surroundings.

“Do you hear that, Steve?”

I looked at her, “No, what do you hear?”

“It is, as if my sister is calling me.”

“That cannot be right, Abby, she is dead. She died in that accident, remember? We should move on, it is best not to linger here.”

“Abby?” I put my hand on her shoulder, I gently tried to pull her away, she shoved me aside, and I fell down on my butt, Abby grabbed the hand, she got pulled into the mud pit. I dropped my sword and got ready to jump in after her.

Without even thinking twice, I jumped in after Abby, it felt as if I swam in normal water, Brown undead spirits tried to take her down to the deep. They tried to drag Abby away, and push me up, I pushed them aside, I swam after Abby and I put my arms under her armpits and tried swimming up with her. One of the brown spirits grabbed my leg, but I kicked it away, With some struggling, I managed to drag Abby onto the shore.

She coughed up water, Her head lay in my lap, She looked at me, “Steve?”

“Yes, do you have a death wish or something?”

“I am sorry, it just, happened.”

I caressed her cheek, “It is alright. Try to ignore creepy people who call out for you to follow them.”

She let out a warm smile, “Do you mean that I should ignore you?”

“Very funny, can you get up?”

Abby got up, water and mud drooped off her, After making sure, she was fine, I went back to pick up my sword. As I came back to Abby, who seemed to be catching her breath, I spoke up, “We should continue making our way north, or do you need some time to process this? We can sit down for a moment if you need it, Abby.”

Abby shook her head, “I am truly fine, I want to go and get out of this swamp as soon as possible.”

We had just left the mud pit with doomed souls or something, and something else happened. I felt something slimy grab my ankle, when I looked at it, I saw a huge slimy tongue, it yanked and as I fell face first in the mud, I got dragged through the mud. Not that it mattered because of the recent events, I was already covered in mud, After a few seconds, I rolled over and looked at a tiny frog.

I laughed, “That sucks big time for you, mate.” I got up and squashed the frog with my boot. With a victorious pose, I put my hands on my waist, “look at that Abby, I killed the first monster, the swamp is now free of evil monsters!”

Abby looked at the tiny squashed frog, “It sure had a big tongue for such a small creature. However, what do you think it is doing here? Did it really try to kill you?”

I looked at the dead frog, “Didn’t you see it attack me!?”

Abby shrugged, “You have a point, the tiny baby frog asked for it.”

Before I could even respond, a giant frog landed next to us, the ground shook, and the mud flew in the air, it screamed, “The baby, the baby, the baby!”

Abby looked at me, “Steve?”

“Yes?”

“Did you just kill a baby frog?”

The giant frog screamed even louder, “The baby!”

I looked at the giant frog, “Assuming that weird talking frog keeps screaming the baby, I guess so.” I gripped my sword handle tightly, it was best just to end the screaming of this annoying frog, I ran over to the frog and stabbed it.

The big frog just kept screaming, “The baby.”

It suddenly slapped me with a giant frog paw, I landed against a tree and I could hear the tree snap. Abby started shooting arrows at the frog, I picked up my sword and ran at the frog. It shot its tongue at me, I tried to dodge, but I was not nimble enough, it did not just hit me. It wrapped around my waist, the slimy tongue drooped sticky goo, and the frog started dragging me to its mouth.

“Abby, a little help here!?”

She screamed, “I am doing my best here!”

While Abby kept shooting arrows at the frog, the mouth came closer and closer. Trying to wriggle my sword free did not work, The frog leaped forward, and the upper part of my body disappeared into the frog’s mouth, it reeked of dead bugs inside the frog's mouth. I felt Abby pull on my legs, I got my sword free after fumbling around a bit. I saw a glowing core right under its tongue.

Since I did not have any other option, I stabbed it a few times and I felt that the frog fell down. Abby pulled me out of the frog, “Steve?”

Totally surprised to see the sunlight, I answered, “I fucking hate this place, and it smells bad.”

Abby chuckled, “Thank god, I thought you were a goner.”

“No, I am fine, but after this and those undead brown souls, give me a moment before we go on.”

Abby sighed, “I agree, but you had this coming, you should not harm babies.”

I coughed a few times while laughing, “Fine, I’ll keep that in mind, I miss home.”

Abby shook her head, “You don’t, You hated that place, and you know it.”

I sighed, “I know, but we did leave a lot behind, with no feasible way to go back.”

Abby looked down, “I fear, I won’t see my parents ever again, but at least, we are going to have an epic quest, once we had a moment of peace.”