Vitaly S Alexius

Where the Dead Things Bloom [43-45]

Added 2025-04-26 14:18:10 +0000 UTC

43 Superstore Assault

The dream came in fragments—flashes of light splitting the darkness, the scream of twisting metal, tens of glowing red and white eyes burning through a landscape of twisted wreckage. Something massive pursued me through an endless junkyard, magnetic pulses rearranging the landscape before I could locate an exit. Each time I thought I'd found safety, the labyrinthine walls of scrap would part, revealing a monster in the distance.

Incorporating whatever metal it touched into its frame, the lynx haunted me growing in size as it absorbed metal—car doors transformed into armored plates along its spine, rebar twisted into grotesque limbs with jagged edges, shopping carts fused to form a rib cage protecting a pulsing, black magnetic core. Its face was a horrific collage of sunken headlights and twisted chrome, jaws fashioned from scissored sheet metal that gnashed with a sound like industrial machinery failing.

I scrambled backward up a precarious mountain of debris as the massive beast stalked forward, each step sending tremors through the junkyard. Fragments of abandoned appliances shifted beneath me, threatening to send me sliding down into those waiting jaws.

"WHERE IS THE DOG?" The thing’s voice was a horrific chorus of grinding metal and electrical interference, more felt in my bones, than heard, vibrating through my entire body as searing pain. "THE ONE WHO DESTROYED MY NEST, SMOTHERED MY YOUNGLINGS?!"

“I'm sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to, sorry…” A soft whimper reached my ears from somewhere below. Glancing down, I spotted a flash of black and white fur through a gap in the scrap—Nessy, cowering in a small alcove formed by a crushed refrigerator and a bent car axle, trembling as she pressed herself deeper into the shadows.

In that moment, clarity struck me like lightning. This was a dream.

Not just any dream—a System-influenced nightmare in the Astral Ocean where the boundaries between worlds had thinned. And in a dream, I didn’t have to be a mere human, didn’t have to obey physical limits of reality.

I stepped outside of the dream, outside of myself, became more, realised what I truly was.

I was Reconstituted. I was Pack Leader. I could not be killed, could not be easily broken, especially not here, amidst this illusory rubble.

"How about you fuck off," I called down to the beast, my voice stronger and more resonant as if woven from a chorus of myself, echoing across the junkyard. "She’s my dog!"

The lynx's headlight eyes flared with blinding intensity, electricity arcing between its antennae-ears. It coiled its massive form, metal groaning and screeching as it prepared to pounce.

"YOU CANNOT STOP ME, LITTLE MEAT THING," it growled rushing towards me.

“We’ll see about that,” I replied, grounding myself.

As the lynx leaped, I imagined stretching, being more.

My body responded to my will in ways that my lucid dreams usually did but times a thousand. My hands suddenly unfolded like impossible origami, multiplying—tens, hundreds, thousands of fingers and hands blooming outward like branches from a central trunk. My legs rooted into the ground, boots splitting and multiplying to anchor me, creating a forest of limbs expanding in all directions.

I was transforming, unfolding into a monument of human form repeated endlessly. A tree of myself, each branch a perfect arm, each leaf a hand, fingers reaching out to catch the beast leaping at me.

The lynx crashed into this forest of arms, and I felt the pain as jagged metal shredded my flesh, as fingers broke and snapped under its weight. Blood rained down in crimson rivers, yet the pain was distant, almost abstract—a necessary cost, accepted and transcendental.

I was a vast tree and trees do not break so easily.

For every hand it destroyed, ten more grew in its place. I was an ocean of humanity that would not yield, would not break, would not let this monster reach Nessy crouching below my roots. My countless mouths opened in unison, speaking with the voice of a multitude:

"SHE IS UNDER MY PROTECTION!"

"Vile flesh tree… you are nonlinear!" the lynx howled as thousands of my hands grasped and tore at its metal hide, pulling wires and bending steel.

"No," I agreed through a hundred mouths. "I'm a tree!"

We struggled against each other for a minute or two, flesh branches snapping but holding on against metal bones.

A streak of blinding light suddenly cut through the junkyard—violet and silver, trailing electric arcs that left burning afterimages in the air. It manifested into a raptor-shaped figure with magnificent wings of crackling lightning that spanned twenty feet.

“What? Who?!” I blinked with a thousand eyes, momentarily blinded.

It took me a moment to realize who I saw, as she slowed, tearing with dark claws at the body of the lynx.

Krysanthea.

She was transformed—her feathers flashing with electric discharge, her scales gleaming with violet and green reflective shimmers, her eyes glowing like miniature suns.

The thunderbird-raptor screeched, a sound that split the air and made reality itself tremble. She tore right into the hollow chest straight for the magnetic heart of the lynx, her talons extended, electricity flowing between them to form a crackling spear of light.

She punched right through the shopping cart cage with a single strike, unleashing a thunderblast that illuminated the entire junkyard in stark white light. Lightning arced from her wings, striking the lynx's vulnerable core and causing catastrophic interference.

The lynx howled in agony, its form destabilizing as the magnetic field fluctuated wildly. Metal parts began to detach and fall of it.

It howled and snarled, pulling itself away from me with a horrific grinding of gears and metal. "Vile thunder and tree! I WILL FIND THE DOG. You cannot shield her dreams forever! THIS IS NOT OVER!"

The beast leapt backwards, leaving a trail of scattering metal parts in its wake, its headlight eyes flickering off as it melted into the shadows.

I turned to look at the thunderbird-raptor that landed beside me, my thousand-handed form still blooming outward like a fractal pattern. Her electric wings cast violet shadows across the junkyard as she stared at me with equal shock.

"Who… whaaa… Alec?" she whispered, her voice carrying the static charge of a storm.

"Kristi?" my chorus of mouths replied.

Our dream-forms regarded each other with wonder. Her dark taloned claws reached out towards one of my many hands and—

I woke with a gasp, my heart hammering in my chest. Pink morning light filtered through the RV windows, casting the interior in a soft glow.

I realized that I was holding tightly onto Kristi's right hand. The realtor's orange eyes shot open.

“Damn it,” she exhaled. “That conversation about the lynx must have inspired a new nightmare. Thanks a lot, dog.”

“Waaarhh,” Nessy let out from my other side, sounding half-asleep. "So many tree and thunder noises."

"Tree noises?" I rubbed my eyes, trying to shake off the lingering images from the dream.

"Yeah, like..." The husky opened a single eye and made a rustling sound with her throat. "Tree-ish. A tree in a thunderstorm?”

"You were in my dream?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"I think we were in each other's," she replied thoughtfully, opening both eyes now. “Our tinfoil guru did mention that.”

“Heh. You were there too,” I turned to the raptor. “You had pretty cool wings.”

Her clawed hand let go of me and moved unconsciously to her shoulders, as if checking for electric wings. "Wings? What?”

“You were… A bit different,” I said. "Like a… thunderbird or something."

Nessy looked between us with growing interest. "How romantic! Did I have wings too?"

"No. You were hiding from a giant magnetic lynx," I told her. “We chased it away.”

"Sounds like a typical Tuesday night for me then," Nessy quipped, then leaned down to give my cheek an appreciative lick. "Welp, thanks for being my valiant dream-knights!"

Before I could respond, she offered the bewildered-looking Kristi a lick too and bounced off the bed and headed for the bathroom. "Dibs on first shower! Gotta look smashin’ for our Superstore invasion!"

Once the bathroom door closed, Krysanthea turned to me, her expression serious. "That wasn't an ordinary dream."

"No," I agreed. "I think it was... connected somehow. To reality."

"System-influenced, you mean," she said. "The way you looked—all those hands..." She shuddered slightly.

"Calvin—the Mini-Mart archmage—warned me about dreams being more tangible now," I explained. "He said it's important to stay together in dreams or risk not waking up."

Krysanthea's feathers ruffled slightly. "That's... disturbing."

"Why do you think you appeared as a thunderbird?" I asked.

She shook her head, brow furrowed. "I don't know. I've always dreamed of flight and thunderstorms, even as a hatchling. My sisters teased me for it—said I was trying to be more bird than raptor."

“That sounds kinda neat,” I said. “What else do you usually dream about?”

“A white citadel atop hexagonal cliffs,” Kristi said. “A boy with green eyes… You, but slightly different. More cheeky, I guess? Sometimes you are a fox too. A cute, orange fox.”

“Even neater,” I said.

“That's exactly what you told me last time too,” Kristi smiled and wrapped me in a hug of feathers and scales. “I guess that you are really a tree of Alec-ness and maybe… I didn't lose you after all.”

I hugged her back, not confirming or denying anything.

The bathroom door opened after a few minutes, releasing a cloud of steam as Nessy emerged wrapped in a towel. "Your turn," she announced cheerfully. "Talking about fancy dreams n’ cuddlin’, are we?"

After we all took turns in the bathroom, we gathered in the kitchenette for breakfast. Nessy rapidly whipped up a respectable meal of eggs, bacon and toast, humming to herself as she worked.

"How's your Scrutiosmia this morning?" I asked her between bites.

"Fully charged after leveling up!" she replied cheerfully. "Tots ready to sniff out all the soul fragments!"

While Krysanthea and I cleaned up after breakfast, Nessy wandered to the front of the RV, examining the dashboard controls with curious eyes.

"Hey, guys?" she called. "You might want to see this."

We joined her at the front to find the dashboard lit up with what looked like stat screens—except they weren't ours.

I noticed that silver-glass roots had spread through the dashboard, connecting to the steering wheel, pedals, and various controls. The same crystalline network we'd seen spreading across the floor had now integrated with the vehicle itself.

"Holy shit," Krysanthea breathed. "The tree's taken over the entire effing RV."

"She's not 'taken over,'" Nessy corrected, patting the dashboard affectionately. "She's become one with it! Bulwichu is the heart of our mobile domain now. See? It can send bees to sting hostiles!"

"Where's the fuel coming from?" I asked, tapping the gauge that showed full. "This RV hasn't been driven in years."

"System magic," Nessy shrugged. “Probably got filled up like your healing skeeel when you levelled up.”

While Krysanthea continued to examine the dashboard with mild dread, Nessy began digging through the RV's storage compartments.

"Yass!" she exclaimed, pulling out a wooden baseball bat from under the passenger seat. "Perfect!"

“Ah,” I said. “My old baseball bat. Haven't seen it since leaving for uni…”

“Is mine now,” Nessy stated like it was a fact.

“Aight,” I shrugged. “I wasn’t that into baseball. Running after balls is your thing.”

“Mhmmmm.” She continued rummaging until she found some old rusty nails and a hammer in a toolbox. Taking her treasures outside, she set to work hammering the rusty nails into the bat's head.

"What are you doing?" I asked, stepping outside to watch her impromptu crafting session.

"Making a proper weapon," she replied, driving another nail through the wood with alarming enthusiasm. "For bashin' Superstore baddies!"

By the time Krysanthea joined us, Nessy had created a dangerous-looking nail-studded bat that looked like something from a post-apocalyptic film.

"That looks... lethal," Krysanthea observed.

"That's the idea," Nessy grinned, swinging it experimentally. "Ready to roll?"

“Don't give yourself tetanus,” Kristi rolled her eyes at the husky.

Before any of us said anything else, Nessy disconnected the power line and hopped into the driver's seat of the RV. She then fished a metal key out from a dashboard, turned it in the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.

“Slayer,” Kristi commented. “The hell?! This thing is actually drivable?!”

“Why else would it have a full fuel gauge?” Nessy asked.

"You can drive this thing too?" Krysanthea asked.

"I can drive everything, my dude," Nessy replied smugly, adjusting the mirrors. "I'm a mechanic, remember? Now buckle up, ya’ butts! Superstore, here we come!”

I took the shotgun seat beside Nessy. The raptor-girl simply stood there, looking genuinely shocked.

“Wait,” she said. “I gotta relocate all the weapons from my car trunk. Give me a few minutes.”

“Go go, raptor-bae,” Nessy said and Kristi rushed out.

In about ten minutes, Kristi returned and buckled herself behind me. We pulled away from the campsite, the RV handling with unexpected smoothness despite its age and the crystalline modifications. The tree twinkled with crystal bulbs, flowers and leaves. As we drove through Ferguson, early riser dogs paused their morning jog to stare at the vintage Airstream making its way through town.

At the town exit, we found the Strand sisters already waiting—two in a police cruiser and another in a pickup Toyota truck with what appeared to be a machine gun welded to the back. The female fox officer I met at the cave quest manned the weapon, her keen eyes scanning the surroundings.

Katerina approached as we parked, her golden eyes narrowing as she examined the RV. "The fuck? Why aren't you in Kristi's cruiser?! How is this thing even running?" she demanded. “Wasn't it totally dead for like… decades?”

“It was,” Kristi said from her seat. “Now it's not. We're… driving it to the store.”

"I fixed it!" Nessy lied with a broad smile, her tail twitching behind her. "I'm an awesomesauce mechanic, remember?"

“That effing old thing better not die halfway on us,” Katerina's suspicious glare suggested she wasn't buying Nessy’s explanation, but there wasn't time for further questions. The rangers were already unlocking the first of several heavy metal gates that secured the mountain tunnel leading out of Ferguson.

The passage through the tunnel was like moving through a militarized zone. Sandbag-fortified machine gun emplacements lined the walls, manned by grim-faced and somewhat bored rangers who watched our small convoy pass by with vigilant eyes. Each gate required verification before opening, the entire process designed to prevent unauthorized entry or exit.

Finally, we emerged out of the gloomy tunnel onto the valley road. Waterfalls rushed down the green cliffsides. I relaxed as Nessy drove the RV, humming merrily.

The green valley ended in about ten minutes, the road emerging onto wide open, rolling yellow-orange wheat fields.

At a fork, large, blue and white road signs pointed toward two destinations: "Highway 69" and "Superstore."

"There it is," Katerina called over the radio strapped to Kristi's chest. "Stay in formation."

The Superstore loomed in the distance—a massive white, big-box retail structure that should have looked ordinary but somehow didn't. Its proportions seemed slightly wrong, the parking lot too vast, the building itself somehow looking wrong perspective-wise.

We parked in the empty lot, close to the front doors, joining a handful of abandoned vehicles—likely belonging to shoppers who never made it out.

Nessy turned off the engine and was the first to exit, her nail-studded bat swinging loosely at her side.

"Hrmm… the RV won't fit through those doors," she observed, eyeing and sniffing the glass-door entrance. "Bulwichu will have to wait here for now, I guess.”

She approached the Superstore with confident strides and paused at the entrance. Through the glass doors, we could see rows of abandoned checkout counters, their conveyor belts mysteriously still running despite the lack of groceries and cashiers.

My mind slid sideways as I stared at the rows of isles past the checkout counters. The isles went on forever, vanishing in distant gray-white fog of flickering lights.

“Slayer,” Kristi breathed out beside me. “It's actually become fucking infinite. What the fuck. Fuck my life.”

Her hand closed around mine and I felt her fingers trembling. I turned my eyes to her. She looked extra-stern, but it was just a mask that was barely held on. Through the tremor in her fingers, I felt that she was terrified of the infinite, endless isles, afraid to take a step into the store.

44 The Infinite Superstore

“I got it!” Nessy declared.

With a grin of sudden inspiration, she advanced towards the doors that slid open for her with a whoosh.

She leapt onto the nearest checkout conveyor belt. Balancing expertly, she began walking atop it with an exaggerated swagger as it carried her backwards, her nail-bat raised triumphantly above her head.

Then, using the moving belt as her stage, she grabbed the employee-summoning loudspeaker microphone and began to sing and dance, her voice echoing through the abandoned store:

"Superstore beware, we're coming for you now,
Soul-stealing spider, before us you'll bow!
Got my bat of nails and my nose so keen,
I'll sniff out your web, your secrets unseen!"

She spun on the moving conveyor, her tail swishing in perfect tempo as her voice gained power. The overhead lights flickered in response, as if the store itself was listening.

"My pack's got power, pack's got might,
Raptor's claws in morning light!
Tree-man walking, death defied,
Strand sisters' souls we'll find with pride!"

The raptor sisters stared at her with wide eyes. Nessy leapt from one checkout to another with canine grace as she continued her performance. A halo of lights seemed to refract above her, lighting up her entire figure with silver sparks.

"Your aisles stretch toward infinity,
My nose cuts through your trickery!
Your discounts fail to catch my eye,
Your membership we'll nullify!"

Kristi squeezed my hand hard as both of us stepped into the endless store, her sisters following behind us. The fox stayed in the car, guarding the entrance.

As Nessy sang, her expression suddenly changed. Her nose twitched rapidly, her ears swiveling as she detected something beyond our perception. The silver glow around her flickered and her movements became less certain, her balance wavering on the conveyor belt, tail twitching.

"Wait—what's this I smell? An ocean vast and deep,
Endless shelves where shadows creep!
Corridors that twist and bend,
Without a beginning or an end!"

Nessy stumbled, nearly falling as her eyes widened with shock. She grabbed a register to steady herself, looking genuinely disturbed by whatever her enhanced senses were detecting. She blinked tears out of her eyes and wiped her face quickly, claws tapping on the bat.

"Divided by zero, my mind's astray,
Lost in this impossible maze today!
Too many scents on too many trails,
My tracking wavers, my focus fails!"

Despite her clear disorientation, she stood taller, her determination visibly hardening as she continued her performance with a snarl. The silver glow around her stabilized, pulsing like a heartbeat.

"Yet I won't yield to your endless halls,
I'll find those souls behind your walls!
I'll breathe deeper, sharpen my senses clear,
Push through endlessness without fear!"

Krysanthea and I exchanged worried glances as we watched Nessy's struggle playing out before us. Whatever she was sensing within the Superstore was clearly overwhelming even her enhanced abilities. But then, her expression changed again—this time to one of sudden clarity, her eyes lighting up with revelation as she hummed to herself, banging the bat against the registers to reinforce her catchy beat.

"There's order in this madness, I can tell,
Rules that govern this retail hell!
Work within the system, that's the way,
To navigate this labyrinth today!"

She spun back toward us with newfound purpose, her tail wagging with excitement. She pointed back toward the RV with the nail-covered bat, her voice rising with triumph. An echo of something distant and inhuman resounded from the endless isles wrapped in gray-white fog. Nessy shuddered and opened her mouth wide.

"I smell it now! The path unfolds!
Bulwichu, our chariot of steel and gold!
More than transport, she's our shield,
Our fortress of logic to cross your shopping field!

We'll drive her through those sliding doors,
Crash right through your twisting floors!
Our mobile stronghold, crystal-heart,
Will tear your limitless aisles apart!”

Something invisible seemed to echo her words as eerie female whispers from the shadows with “part… art… warrtt.” Nessy’s face became alight with manic certainty as she delivered another verse:

"Pack united, strengths combined,
Those missing fragments we will find!
Superstore, your time has come,
Your spider web will be undone!"

She finished and swung her bat through the air. “Wooo-ooo-ohhh! Our deal swapping's done!!” She yelled and slammed the speaker microphone down and jumped off the moving belt, panting furiously.

Then she waddled over to me, gave me a peace sign and collapsed into my arms.

“You okay?” I asked.

"Noppers. Negative fitty outta elevenses," Nessy mumbled, sagging into my arms. "Trying to smell infinity gave me brain big ouch."

"What the hell was that?!" Katerina snapped, gesturing wildly at the now-silent supermarket loudspeaker system. "Did you seriously just announce our presence to whatever bullshit lurks in this place? With a goddamn musical number?!"

"You know what they say... go big or go home," Nessy murmured weakly from my embrace.

Kaledoniya stared at Nessy with a wide open raptor mouth. "That was... kind of amazing, though? How did you do the echo thing with your voice? And the music in my head? And the glowing?"

"Skeeeeells," Nessy replied vaguely. "Like your zoomies bracelet."

The youngest Strand sister touched her glass-eye bracelet self-consciously.

Kirra stepped closer, eyeing Nessy with new interest. "I've never seen anything like that. It was like she was... Musically negotiating with the store itself."

"Precisely what we should NOT be doing," Katerina growled, checking her weapon with swift, agitated movements. "We don't negotiate with Systemfall-altered buildings. We take stuff from them. Stuff our town needs to survive!"

Krysanthea had been silent since Nessy's performance, her amber eyes fixed on the endless aisles visible through the entrance, that fearful quiver still present in her scaled fingers intertwined with mine. Now, however, her professional demeanor reasserted itself like armor sliding into place.

"Everyone, back to the vehicles," she ordered, voice sharp with authority. "I have a new plan."

"But we just—" Katerina began.

"Now," Krysanthea cut her off, leaving no room for argument. "Alec, bring Nessy."

I lifted the husky-girl into my arms. She wasn't particularly heavy, but she made no effort to help, instead dramatically draping herself across my chest like a swooning damsel.

"My hero," she whispered with a weak grin, though I could tell she genuinely wasn't well. Her usually bright eyes were unfocused, pupils unevenly dilated.

I whispered “Stats” and glanced at her stats, noticing that her Rifwell was at zero.

Dang.

Krysanthea opened the trunk of the RV. Inside was what looked like a small arsenal – several blocks of putty-like material, detonators, and various tools arranged in foam-lined compartments.

"That’s the C4, right?" I asked, eyebrows raised as she began removing packages.

"Mhmm," she replied with a shrug. "Good for starting avalanches to bury invaders. Though today, we're creating an entrance big enough for the RV."

"You're going to blow up the Superstore entrance?" Kaledoniya asked, eyes wide.

"Yes," Krysanthea confirmed, expertly attaching detonation devices to the plastic explosives. "I'm creating a proper vehicle entrance."

"And what if it attracts attention?” Kat asked.

“Like I give a damn,” Kristi said. “The husky already made too much noise here.”

She worked methodically, placing charges around the entrance doors and framework while the others watched. Nessy had recovered enough to stand, though she still leaned heavily against me. Then she quickly rushed inside and decorated the checkout area with explosives too.

"Get into the cars," Krysanthea ordered when she returned. "This will be loud and some brickwork and glass might rain down."

We retreated to a safe distance, Nessy and I climbing back into the RV while the raptor sisters took positions inside their respective vehicles. From the relative safety of the Airstream, I watched as Krysanthea joined us, closed the door and raised a detonator.

"Fire in the hole!" she called, then pressed the button.

The explosion was a sharp crack followed by a plume of smoke and debris as the entire entrance structure disintegrated, leaving a RV-sized hole where the sliding doors had been. Glass and metal fragments rained across the parking lot, some bouncing off the RV's aluminum exterior with loud pings.

Before the dust had even settled, Krysanthea grabbed the second detonator.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "These stores are designed to funnel people through specific paths. We need a direct route in and I’m making it."

Another loud detonation and a section of the checkout area became vaporized, creating a clear path wide enough for vehicles to enter the store itself.

Kristi relocated to the driver’s seat and drove the RV into the store.

The other vehicles followed in.

"The RV will function as our mobile base of operations. We stay together, maintain a defensible position, and push forward methodically,” Kristi declared.

"Fort Pack road trip, yay," Nessy commented weakly from atop me.

Kristi parked at the front end of the store, positioning the RV so that its door faced away from the endless aisles stretching into the distance.

“You should try negotiating with it too,” Nessy commented at the raptor.

“Hrm,” Kristi said. “Think it’s gonna listen?”

“It might. I sniffed that it’s… alive.” Nessy said.

“Fine.” Krysanthea stepped out of the RV and grabbed a megaphone from one of the tool boxes. The other vehicles pulled in behind us, forming a loose semicircle of protection.

"Attention Superstore management," Krysanthea's voice boomed through the megaphone. "This is Chief Ranger Krysanthea Strand of the Ferguson Valley Authority. You have illegally acquired soul fragments from Ferguson citizens."

Her words echoed strangely in the vast space, seeming to travel much further than they should have before fading.

"Return what you've taken immediately," she continued, "or the Ferguson City Council will declare this structure condemned, with demolition to begin immediately."

Behind me, Nessy made low whining noises, shaking her head slightly as she leaned against the RV doorframe.

"Furthermore," Krysanthea added when no response came, "You are to cease all predatory pack-binding merchandising practices targeting Ferguson residents, or face immediate closure under Municipal Code 7.11, which prohibits commercial operations without proper permits."

I watched the entrance where we'd blown our way in and noticed something disturbing – the edges of the destroyed doorframe were... growing. Tiny crystalline structures were forming along the broken edges, fractal patterns of glass and metal slowly extending outward like a time-lapse of frost forming on a window.

"Uh, Kristi?" I pointed toward the self-repairing entrance.

She followed my gaze, her feathers rising slightly in alarm. "Well, that's bloody unsettling. It’s growing the doors back."

Nessy opened one eye from where she leaned against the doorframe. "This place can't be destroyed by mundane means," she said wearily. "It's a dungeon aligned to Infinity."

"What do you suggest then?" Krysanthea demanded, lowering the megaphone. "Can you smell where my sisters' soul fragments are? Or the core of this place so we can destroy it?"

Nessy winced, rubbing her temples. "I tried exactly that. That's what knocked me on my tail. This place is... it's like trying to smell the entire ocean at once. Or like ten million oceans. I can't pinpoint the core or the soul fragments because everything leads everywhere. It's paradoxically both infinite and contained concept-wise. It’s limitless… but has rules."

Before Krysanthea could respond, a strange rustling sound drew our attention. From behind a partially destroyed customer service counter, something was rising – a humanoid figure composed entirely of what appeared to be constantly printed receipt paper, its body folding and unfolding as it moved with jerky, unsettling motions.

The paper creature's face was blank except for a price scanner where eyes should be. A mouth-like opening emitted a horrible, electronic screeching noise. In its hand was what looked like an oversized invoice.

"What the hell is that?" Katerina demanded, raising her rifle.

The paper construct screeched again, then began advancing toward us, waving the invoice threateningly.

"UNAUTHORIZED DEMOLITION DETECTED! PROPERTY DAMAGE. INVOICE #69420-7," it screeched in a voice like a malfunctioning credit card machine. "PAYMENT DUE IMMEDIATELY!"

“Chief!” Officer Lavros glanced at Kristi. "Permission to engage?"

Krysanthea nodded grimly. "Light it up."

The fox-girl manning the machine gun on the pickup bed didn't need further encouragement. She opened fire, the heavy weapon spitting a stream of bullets that tore through the paper creature, shredding it into confetti that scattered across the floor.

"Like shootin’ fish in a barrel," Kirra remarked.

Nessy moved wobbling side to side. She dropped to her knees beside the scattered remains of the paper creature. She picked up fragments and examined them.

"No, no, no," she muttered. "This is very, very bad."

45 Debtors

"What is it?" I asked, kneeling beside her.

She held up a scrap of paper–not a receipt as I'd first thought, but part of an invoice. A bill with Katerina's name clearly visible on it.

"This thing," Nessy said gravely, "was made almost entirely from bills. All three of your names are on different fragments."

"Our names?" Kaledoniya asked, looking confused.

"See for yourself! It’s literally made up from your bills. For all the stuff you've been taking from this place," Nessy explained. "You have been paying for the groceries and gear you've taken from here, right?"

The three raptor sisters exchanged confused glances.

"Why the fuck would we..." Katerina began defensively.

"Yeah, it's not like there are cashiers here,” Kaledoniya added.

"There were self-checkout kiosks," Nessy pointed out.

"That's ridiculous," Katerina scoffed. "The world's ended and you're worried about retail ethics?"

"You don't get it! This is a dungeon – it has rules," Nessy insisted. "And one of those rules, I’m pretty sure, is that you're supposed to pay for what you take. You can't just... loot the place."

"Already did," Katerina replied dryly. “Kinda too late for that.”

“No it isn’t!” Nessy gathered more scraps, arranging them to show the sisters. "Look – these are invoices for everything you've taken. Food, supplies, weapons, even those dungeon-binding artifacts. The store's been keeping tabs." She tapped the bullet-hole riddled paper. "And according to this fine print... if these bills remain unpaid, the balance will be extracted in... alternative currency."

"What alternative currency?" Krysanthea asked, her voice taking on a wary edge.

"Souls," Nessy said simply. "That's why your sisters' souls are fragmented now—they've been making installment payments without realizing it."

The group fell silent, the implications of Nessy's discovery sinking in.

"So what are you suggesting?" Kirra finally asked. "That we pay for everything we've taken? With what? Our credit cards?"

"Maybe," Nessy said, standing up and brushing paper fragments from her fur. "Or maybe there's another way to settle the debt. I just… think we need to work within the rules of this place, not against them.”

“Why?” Kaledoniya.

“Because you can’t kill something infinite with a linear weapon,” Nessy sighed. “The C4 and machine gun and whatever else you got in those boxes is pretty much useless against this place.”

She shifted through the receipts. “Blargh, we got billed for destroying the door and cash register too.”

“I’m not paying for shit,” Katerina crossed her arms. “This is bullshit.”

[Quest-state FYI: The Superstore looks SUPER serious about those unpaid bills! Refusing to pay a sentient retail establishment aligned to Infinity? Bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them!]

The silver System message hung in the air for a moment before fading away.

“Is it… making fun of us?” Katerina growled.

“Yes,” Nessy stated bluntly.

Suddenly, all of the nearby cash registers began to whir and hum ominously. The receipt printers began churning out receipts at an alarming rate—long strips of paper unfurling onto the floor, piling up in undulating heaps.

"Uh, that can't be good," I muttered, watching as the paper began to move with purpose, folding and reshaping itself.

The receipts twisted and folded like living origami, gradually taking humanoid form—paper arms, paper legs, paper torsos with name tags that read "COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT."

Then, they slowly began advancing on us.

"Shoot them!" Katerina ordered, drawing her sidearm and firing at the nearest receipt-man.

The bullet tore through its chest, leaving a perfect hole, but the receipt-creature barely faltered. It looked down at the damage, then back up at Katerina with its scanner eyes flashing indignantly.

"DAMAGING COMPANY PROPERTY: $25 FEE ADDED TO YOUR ACCOUNT." It hissed out sounding like an old photocopier.

"Lavros!” Katerina snarled. "Light 'em up!"

The officer opened fire, the heavy machine gun deafeningly loud, tearing through the first wave of receipt-people. Shredded paper flew everywhere, momentarily halting their advance. For a second, it seemed effective—until the vast line of checkout printers simply produced more receipts that slid across the floor to reform into more store employees.

“Bloody hell,” Katerina snarled. “We have to destroy all of the registers!”

"No! Get in the RV!" Krysanthea shouted over the gunfire. "Now!"

I helped Nessy to her feet, half-dragging her toward the Airstream as papercraft men reconstructed themselves faster than the guns could destroy them. The fox officer kept firing, buying us time as we retreated.

"Move your scaly ass, Kat!" Kristi yelled at her sister, who was still emptying her clip into the advancing paper horde.

"This is effing bullshit," Katerina growled, backing up slowly. "It just keeps printing more of them!”

One of the receipt-people lunged suddenly, wrapping paper arms around Kaledoniya's wrist. She screamed, slashing and kicking at and shredding it.

“Owwwuhhh,” Kaledoniya hissed, rubbing her wrist. “I gave me like ten papercuts.”

“Kale, help get everyone into the RV!” Kristi barked.

More store employees tried to grab at Kaledoniya. She snarled, activating the eye-glass beads. The artifact glowed blue, propelling her away with supernatural speed. The paper construct held on, coming apart, stretching out and getting dragged along like a bizarre streamer.

Aided by the accelerated violet-ish blur that was Kaledoniya, we piled into the RV in a chaotic tangle of scales, fur, and panic. Krysanthea slammed the door just as the first wave of receipt-people reached us, their paper hands slapping against the windows with eerily loud thwacks.

"Drive!" Kirra yelped from where she'd landed, half-sprawled across the kitchenette counter.

"Where?!" Krysanthea demanded, sliding into the driver's seat and turning the key. The engine rumbled to life as paper creatures began climbing onto the hood, their scanner eyes peering in with menacing red light.

“Out! We need to get flamethrowers or make a bunch of molotovs against these bastards!” Kirra hissed.

"No! Get to the nearest functional checkout!" Nessy managed, pulling herself onto a chair. "We need to pay the bill asap!”

"Are you insane?" Katerina snarled. "We're not paying these parasites!"

"Those 'parasites' have pieces of your soul!" Nessy fired back. "Unless you want to become a permanent part of this place, we need to start to settle this debt!"

“Kale,” Katerina turned to her younger sister. “Block the entrance with the cruiser, those doors look like they’re gonna regrow back soon.”

“On it,” Kaledoniya saluted and vanished. The side door flickered open and closed.

She appeared inside of the police cruiser. Tires hissed and spun as the vehicle reversed directly into the store's gaping entrance, parking it sideways to create a makeshift barricade that would keep the reforming glass door from closing up permanently.

"There!" she called on the radio. “That’ll prevent it from locking us in. Berb.”

The RV lurched forward just far enough to reach the nearest undamaged checkout lane, as Krysanthea maneuvered between explosion-obliterated registers, crushing a few papercraft employees under the wheels.

Inside the RV, tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Six people crammed into a space meant for four at most—three agitated raptor sisters, a fox, a tired-looking husky, and me—trying desperately to maintain some semblance of sanity.

"This is your fault," Katerina hissed at Nessy, who had slumped against Bulwichu’s trunk. "Your stupid singing alerted everything in here!"

"My fault?!" Nessy shot back, her ears flattening. "Who's been shoplifting from here for weeks? Who brought cursed artifacts back to town? Who failed to pay for a single item they took?"

"We were surviving!" Katerina snarled. "What would you have us do? Let Ferguson starve?"

"Pay for your goods like decent people!" Nessy retorted.

"ENOUGH!" Krysanthea shouted from the driver's seat, her voice cutting through the argument like a whip crack. "Fighting each other solves nothing!"

The side door flashed open and closed and Kaledoniya appeared on the couch, panting. “Hi guys. What’s the plan?”

"Nessy, can you smell what we need to do?" I asked.

“Can't,” she said. “Outta Scrutiosmia.”

"Are the fruits ready to eat?” I asked her, eyeing the glass fruits. “Have some. It’ll help reload your stats.”

“Ah!” Nessy's eyes lit up. “Right! Thanks Leader. My brain is a bit of a soup right now to think for myself." She turned and grabbed the nearest fruit.

“Is that… safe to eat?” Kaledoniya asked.

"Yes," Nessy muttered, bringing the spherical fruit to her lips. The glass cover melted upon contact with her breath like sugar, revealing a small spherical salmon sandwich inside.

She bit into it, her eyes immediately widening as silver light briefly illuminated her veins beneath her fur.

"Whoa," she breathed. "That's... Yummy.”

“I see,” Katerina said, eyeing the glass tree, noting its roots spreading across the interior of the Airstream. “This entire RV is your empowering artifact. That’s how you got it to run after it's been sitting dead for decades on the Foster farm.”

“Ye,” Nessy grabbed another glass fruit, swallowing it in one bite, then another.

“Does this refuel all skills or just yours?” Kaledoniya asked.

Nessy sniffed the tree. “Bulwichu only works on our pack cus she’s part of our pack. It won’t do anything for you and will probably taste like eating glass and a normal sandwich, so don’t try to eat it.”

“Mkay,” the younger raptor made an annoyed face, clearly wanting to eat the ‘tasty’ sandwich ball.

“Uhhh,” Kaledoniya looked out the window at the double doors leading out of the store. “That doesn't look right.”

We all turned to look. Where the raptor had parked her cruiser in the doorway, something was growing around it—red bricks slowly but steadily forming out of nowhere, building upward and outward like accelerated ivy. The bricks encircled the cruiser, gradually sealing the entrance completely.

“Shit,” Nessy said. “It’s sealing us in.”

The police cruiser groaned and then became bisected by bricks. The light from the glass door vanished. The windows across the entire entrance turned black.

“WHAT?!” Katerina barked. “This never happened before. We've been in and out dozens of times, and the store never sealed us in. Not until Dog-girl here decided to put on a concert!"

"This isn't because of my singing!" Nessy protested, her ears flattening defensively. "It's because of your massive debt! You've been stealing from this place for weeks—the store was bound to take action eventually!"

"Bullshit!" Kaledoniya joined in, her feathers bristling. "We never had brick walls appearing out of nowhere before you showed up!"

"Oh, so it's my fault you've been shoplifting from a sentient extradimensional shop?" Nessy fired back. "Maybe if you'd paid your bills like decent citizens—"

"Don't lecture us about decency, you self-righteous mutt!" Katerina snarled. "Some of us have been actually working to keep Ferguson fed while you were out searching for your precious…”

“Kat,” Kristi growled, interrupting the spiralling argument. “Shut it before I smack you. Nessy can probably smell another way out. Right?”

“Uhhhh…” Nessy let out. “Yeah, maybe?”

“Maybe?”

“It’s really hard to smell specific stuff in an infinite location, sorry,” Nessy sighed. “So far I’m smelling that the store wants us to start paying our bills or it will continue to escalate the harassment. It’s kinda annoyed with us, I guess… because we damaged the door and the registers. Until we pay that bill, it’s not gonna let us out back to our Ferguson.”

“Are there doors to other places then?” I asked.

“Yes,” Nessy nodded. “This place is big and ancient.”

“Ancient?” I blinked. “Didn’t it become infinite like a week ago?”

“Nope,” the husky shook her head. “It’s really, really effing old. Like more than a hundred million years old.”

Everyone’s eyes struck the husky girl either with expressions of disbelief or shock.

“What?” I sputtered. “How can it be THAT old? Is this a time thing? Does time run faster inside or something?”

“No,” Nessy replied. “It’s just bloody old, okay? It’s like… connected to a bazillion other dimensions, so maybe… one of those dimensions built a Superstore a hundred million years ago and then Systemfall happened to it and then it bloomed into this place. I can’t even sniff out what level this place is. My point is that we’re effed unless we start playing by its rules.”