I found it. I finally found it!

Ground zero, the first Olive Garden, the one that started this four decade long nightmare! I'd heard stories of what the world was like before humanity went one leap too far, and meddled with forces beyond their comprehension.

I'd like to able to say I yearn for the world to be like that again, but I have smaller ambitions. I just want my friend back, anyone who tries to drink the sauce doesn't stop, they just lose themselves, drinking more and more sauce for days until they're submerged, and I don't know what happens after that.

I tried to warn them! But they were desperate, water has only been getting scarcer and scarcer since the sauce started rising again.

I know I'll never get them back, but I can make sure the oceans of sauce never rise again, and that the forests of breadsticks and endless fields of pasta never destroy another town.

At least that's what the stories said, and stories aren't always true.

I just hope they are, as I stand here, lighting a torch.