Just squirrels.

A lot of squirrels. Several dozen squirrels.

Enough squirrels to out weight me two or three times over and all of them scampering out of trees and closing in behind me.

Turns out you can't run all that fast in homemade medieval armor.

Armor that may work great when someone is trying to smack you with something, but probably not all that great on stopping tiny little teeth and claws when you get covered in furry little maniacs.

Both the women had gotten to the corner of the store up ahead of me and had paused to see what was taking me so long. Tok took one look pass me, had her eyes go wide and decided to kept going. Chloe at least shouted out, "Run faster!" before booking it around the corner.

Very helpful, why didn't I think of that.

As I passed the corner I could see both of them standing there in front of the store with their back to me, frozen in place.

They stood there looking at the even larger horde of squirrels arranged in a half circle around the front of the store, all looking at us.

Gathered up on the ground in a mass several feet deep, and scattered on tree branches all above. Each of them twitching in place, bushy tails violently thrashing back and forth, all ready to spring forward at a moments notice.

I looked over my shoulder to see the ones chasing us had slowed down to a steady crawl as they crept up behind us, closing the circle. Any possible escape route now involved running through them while getting dog piled by angry leaping rodents.

I realized I was not going to have the time to drill out the lock on the front of the door, but... I ran for the door and gave it a push, then a pull on the off chance the door was suddenly opening the other way.

No luck.

Slowly I turned...

One squirrels was standing on it's hind legs, tail limp behind it as one by one it stared deep into each of our eyes, causing both Chloe and Tok to take a step back as it lifted it's right foreleg above it's head.

Then let it drop down to point at us.

Your know that chittering sound squirrels make when their pissed off at you, it kind of cute when a two pound little furball does it.

When you have well over a hundred doing it? Not so cute.

I tried the door again, like I really thought it had somehow unlocked itself in the last three seconds, only to get hip checked by Tok to get me out of her way. She did it hard enough to almost knock me off my feet.

The Orc woman pressed her first knuckle with her thumb over the top of it up against the key hole, and then pulled her hand away as a light blue transparent bar stretched out from the lock to her hand.

Then she turned her hand sideways and the bar of light, along with the lock turned with her.

She pushed her way into the store.

My thoughts went something like. Door open, how? Don't care, get inside. Squirrels? Chloe?

My friend was posed in between me and the horde, the mop of honor held up high, ready to sweep along the ground and catch as many furry little buggers as she could get in one hit.

"What are...? Get inside!"

The dirt bike padded vest came with a convenient handle on the back just below the neck part, and I was motivated.

I grabbed hold and yanked her nearly off her feet before she turned with the force of the yanking enough to realized I was trying to drag her through the open door behind her.

With a few off balance steps she managed to half follow, half fall through the door behind me as Tok pushed it shut against the resistance of the thing at the top of store doors that closed doors behind you. Which also managed to prevent them from slamming shut.

Which gave the leader of the squirrel horde just enough time to leap and bound over the top of his forces and come flying in the door just before it did finally slam shut. The resistance from the door mechanism giving out in the last few inches.

The beast managed to turn around even as it was sliding along the floor. From this close I could see and the dark grey film covering it eyes and teeth, and leaking out to stain it's fur.

It's eye were full of hate, and locked in on Tok.

The first of a series of thumps sounded off behind her as the first of many squirrels following along behind their leader began to slam into the glass door. Each of the furry projectiles leaving a smear of red on the glass they piled up, all still scratching at the clear barrier between them and us.

I wasn't that worried about them, a glass door in this neighborhood wasn't going to be made of anything that any number of mere squirrels could bust through.

Then I heard the deep growling coming from the darkness deeper in the store, too deep to come from some little animal. And it wasn't coming from the one squirrel that had made it inside, but from behind it.

It had a moment to get what resembled a look of resignation on it's face before it began to turn to face the half grown German Shepard pup racing out of the darkness at it, barking up a storm.

And then stopping just short of the squirrel to bark at it some more.

Tok screamed "More beasts!" at the pup and even Chloe look a bit nervous as she held up her stick between her and the dog.

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Oh yeah, she told me once about the dogs her father kept, not as pets, but for fights. Not her favorites animals, but really, it's not the dog we needed to worry about. It was the squirrel that looked like it was infected with something.

It would be hard to try to hit the thing with my hammer, so... looking around... By the door. A broom.

I grabbed it and used the broad end of the broom to swing down and smack the little devil. Everyone else, including the dog jumped back as I flattened the squirrel beneath the broom.

Pulling my mighty weapon back for another swing I could see that the little bugger looked more offended then hurt, so I smacked it again.

Tok let out a yell and pushed her back up against the door as the sheer weight of the squirrels pilled up against it began to push it open. A few furry little arms got pulled out from the gap just before she pushed it shut.

Then Chloe began beating her stick on top of the broom head, taking advantage of me keeping it pinned down and unable to scamper off.

But the beast was clawing it's rapidly breaking body free, and I could hear scrambling up on the roof.

Just how secure is the roof of a old store against little suicidality motivated furry things?

Then as Chloe paused to change her grip, the dog jumped forward, planted it's paws on top of the broom along with the struggling squirrel, and bit down on it's head that had been squirmed out from beneath the broom.

I swear I could hear a note of frustration in the squirrel's scream before the pup began to shake it's head back and forth until something came off in it's mouth.

"...Good dog! Good boy, or girl. Such a good dog."

I bent over a bit with one hand out for it to sniff, instead it wagged it tail and did the bow thing dogs do before they play. Dropping the squirrel head and then snatching it up again as the hound bounded playfully back a bit, apparently wanting to play catch, but at the same time not wanting to let go of it's new toy.

Tok eased away from the door, giving the dog a fearful glance. "They're leaving."

Outside I could see the confused animals looking dazed and some of them beginning to head off with darting runs to the trees, as other stood around looking lost.

Chloe looked around at them as well. "It's like when Tok smashed Fancypants, once the leader was gone they all just fall apart as a group.

The dog barked at us, reminding me that we were supposed to be playing with it, instead I glanced around the store and tore open a two ounce packet of off brand jerky I spotted near the till, much to the pup's interest. I took one chunk for myself and tossed another to the dog.

Which Tok was slowly backing away from.

"Take it easy Tok, it's a dog. Dogs are good. A pet, but if you act scared you'll make it nervous."

She shot me a half angry half scared look. "Me? Make it nervous?"

Another packet emptied into my hand got the, girl it turns out, up close enough for me to rub behind her ears as she emptied out my hand and I got a chance to check her collar.

"Good girl, you're name is Cazadora huh. How about we just call you Zadora or Cazy?"

Chloe was keeping her distance, but didn't seem all that scared of the pup anymore. "I don't think she cares all that much about what you call her as long as you keep feeding her. And with all that jerky, you should probably get her some water ass well."

I looked around the dark store. "If we can find any?" Not even the fridges had lights on, we could only see anything at all by the now purple light coming in from the sky outside, which gave the store a strange almost alien look.

I looked over to the still nervous orc woman backed up against the medicine shelving to the left of the doors. "Can you try the light switch behind you Tok?"

She jumped a little, nodded hesitantly at me and felt around behind her, unwilling to take her eyes away from the dog. She still managed to flip the light switches, but nothing.

Chloe looked around the store, "Looks like the power out."

Tok gave us a odd look. "There isn't a energy conversion field on this building, there is nothing here to convert the background magic into electricity."

I gave her a blank look. "Ah, their isn't?"

She looked back and forth between me and Chloe. "Your people, they don't use magic?"

We both shook our head as Chloe admitted. "No, we make up stories about it, but it's not something that we ever had any evidence of being real back home."

She almost sputtered while gesturing back in the direction of the church. "But, but... you have a advance field etched into the ethereal brane that covers the entire building. How can you.." She lifted her hands in bewilderment at us.

I thought about it. "The Upgrae? Maybe this building didn't get it because no one was in it other then a dog, or maybe because nothing was on."

Chloe had dug out a flashlight from the Bag, and had headed off deeper into the store while carefully keeping her distance from Zadora as she circled around her. "Coolers are all empty."

I looked around near the front and fount some keychain lights for myself as Zadora poked at me with her nose, only to look up as the room lit up softly with a blue light as I saw Tok slowly widening her finger and thumb apart as a faintly glowing blue soap bubble grew in between.

She touched it up against a the end of a snow scrapper and handed it to me while still standing as far away from the dog as she could. Another bubble was pressed up against her shirt just below her left shoulder, looking like it had been squished down to keep it in place.

Magic I guess? I wonder if she could teach me?

We began to search the store, finding all of the coolers, bread and other goods likely to go bad had already been cleared out. While a stack of boxes, and a industrial tape dispenser to seal them up, had been added to the back of the store.

Chloe caught up with me with a little doggy bowl just as I found the aisle with bottled water.

Zadora barely even let me start filling the bowl before she was forcing her head past my hand to lap at the water. "Guess you were thirsty girl. Now let me finish filling the bowl." I ended up having to kind of kick the bowl over, then pour in more water before she caught up with it again.

Chloe watched all this with amusement. "Theirs's a water dish that has a spot to screw in a bottle on top, but all it had was a twenty ouncer in it. Bone dry."

I glanced toward the pack. "Whoever left her in here probably figured, less water, less pee to clean up."

She sniffed at the air and wrinkled her nose as the same faint spell I had noticed.

Tok wandered over, carefully keeping me between her and the dog. "Well the translator field doesn't cover the written word, but this looks like food, I think."

I glanced over to see she had found some knock off pop tarts just as another message got send directly to our heads.

Not everyone was recovered clean, some of the toxin got through.

In my hurry to create a environment to save a many as I could.

I didn't notice.

It became part of the Context at a fundamental level and can not be removed without destroying the Context itself.

As such, it gained a enhancement as well, and gained some degree of consciousness.

As such, I spun off Envoy and tried to make contact with it.

Envoy had to be severed from me. They are now one.

The disaster emergent manifestation offensive network is innately hostile and capable of taking direct control of manifested entities, and influencing others while entrenched.

Such as the ones I made to fill up the manifested lands.

They are a danger and you will need help protecting yourselves.

After the sky cycle had finished it's run, each sophont will receive a template that best fits them within the Context.

For those who have survived an encounter with a DEMON, rewards will be granted.

You're welcome.

Genre. We worked really hard to come up that anacronym.

Hashtag. The toxin group mind may be referred to as the Adversary. Sound sufficiently spooky and all biblical like.

We looked at each other. "So..."

Chloe nodded to herself. "Fancypants and the squirrel. Wonder if it was the same one, in different bodies?"

Tok glanced down at Zadora. "Then the beast will not attack me?"

I shook my head and began to pet the dog as she panted then she leaned over to lick me on the face with her muzzle still soaking wet. "Ugh. Let's find some paper towel next."