During this period of stagnation, on their fifth day at the new base, exactly seven days after the end of their grand battle, the environment changed.
Without warning, the distant magical core at the old den suddenly flickered, its light pulsing weakly before its effect diminished. The fog-clearing effect radius collapsed.
The fog, which had been pushed back kilometres away, surged forward to reclaim the land, covering the same area it had when the machines first used the big core.
The wall of mist was so close to them now that they only needed a ten-minute walk to reach its edge.
The safety bubble had shrunk. John sent Luke, Elena, and Ricky to check on the core and see if they could somehow haul it back to their current position, while he decided to stay behind and try something, using the chance the fog came closer to him, hoping it might finally trigger a quest for him.
