143 143 Wasteland

When they finally crawled out of the cave, the snow-covered field was gone, replaced by churned earth from the vehicles passing by and scattered craters.

A tank still burned in the distance, and a tracked crew transport that looked to have been ripped apart by giant claws lay on its side only a few hundred meters away.

Wolfe tried to sense his familiars, but only one of them came in clearly. Stephanie was making her way to him, but the distance was still too far for mental communication.

The Witches that Wolfe was bonded to still gave a vague sense of their emotions and direction from him, but it felt vague and fuzzy in an uncomfortable way that he wasn't sure could all be attributed to distance.

All of the others had severely faded, and Wolfe wondered if they were sick or injured since the sky seemed to be normal again. Perhaps they were simply exhausted, and the depletion of their aura would recover with a bit of time.