Walker Stretch

"The lawless desert that divides us. Between the recognized and the forgotten, there is only the Stretch."

Walker Stretch is the name given to an undeveloped area next to Miner's Yard. It separates Campwall and Oreditch from the so-called "Decay Belt" in the southwest, and except for a train tunnel and a few abandoned buildings the Stretch is an empty plot of barren, desert-like land.

In local culture

"Stretchwalk" or "Walk the Stretch" is a widespread slang term originating from the Decay Belt, which over the years has acquired multiple meanings. Its original use was to describe the common act of smuggling illegal goods across the Stretch, from the inner city to the Cluster and surrounding areas. The danger of such activity is however well-known, and "Walking the Stretch" has later also been used as an expression for dying (compare with euphemisms such as "crossing the bridge").

Infrastructure

A cargo train tunnel from Miner's Yard runs underneath the area and out of the city heading west.

History

When the modern Miner's Yard facilities were constructed in 2022, the already large area was planned to cover almost double the space it does today, with ambition to be the largest rail service yard in the region. However, a combination of bad building ground and unexpectedly high construction costs led to the entire western part of the planned yard being abandoned. Even though the ground turned out unsuitable for heavy construction, the area had already been bulldozed and cleared, creating the anomalous desert-like stretch of land we can see today.