“What do you mean we’re in Minnesota?!” demanded Jill MacLeod, newly minted Trucker of the Infinite Road. She sat in the driver’s seat of Bertha, her former big rig truck and now Soulbound modular vehicle, a budding fortress on wheels and home to over 5000 people. She stared at an unfolded travel atlas pinned to the dashboard in front of her. “Did some monster shove all the rest of North Dakota up its asshole while we weren’t looking?!”
Aman Bati, owner of the map and a Class Power that could fix their position on it, shrugged. “I suspect we simply bypassed the area if it is still there,” he said. One corner of his mouth lifted. “But stranger things have happened than your anal monster theory.”
A roar sounded outside that rattled the armored windows. Tammy, an oversized T Rex turned flying feathered wyvern, swooped past them, screaming with joy at her new form. At over 200 feet long, she was a formidable boss monster, and she twirled through the air with deadly grace despite it being her first flight. Her roar transitioned into a white-hot lance of flame that carved a spiraling gouge in the plains around them.
The monster was unique among the thousands that Jill had encountered since magic and mayhem had come to earth: not only was it intelligent enough to speak, in a limited fashion, but it also didn’t immediately want to murder every human it saw. Capable of teleportation and invisibility, it was a wily creature that had, through a dream, enlisted Jill and therefore all of Bertha’s residents to help kill a twisted invader to its territory.
In return, it had used its portals to move Bertha to the other side of the North American Rift, a wall of Mana Singularities stretching from north to south that had blocked their path. The extreme levels of magic expanded space, and the distance they had to drive over, to unfathomable size; new terrain poured out of the rift itself like fliers from a hacked printer, formed from nothing but raw magical potential.
Jill glanced at the truck’s side mirror. She’d driven them far enough away from the rift that the ground underneath Bertha’s tires wasn’t visibly stretching, but it still took up the entire western horizon. It was so bright that it hurt to look at, even for her. She was high enough Level, had enough magic coursing through her, that her body was nothing short of superhuman, even if her own Class was only partially designed for combat.
Before their crossing, Aman’s power had placed the rift in western North Dakota, just over the border with Montana. Or, rather, what had used to be those places before the terrain had grown to thousands of times its previous size. But now the ability put them east of Fargo, over 350 miles from their last position.
“So, what,” she said, “the state’s just gone? Everyone in it, poof, fucked into pixie dust and devil farts?”
“It’s almost the definition of a singularity that we don’t know what’s on the other side, don’tcha know,” said a younger man. Babu Bati was Aman’s son and one of the first people Jill had rescued after the apocalypse had struck. He’d been in the process of moving to a different city from his family, traveling with his brother Ras, when the end of the world had proven to be too much for their rental truck. “Maybe they are all, uh, dead,” his speech stumbled and he gave a quick grimace before brightening, “but maybe they just think everywhere else disappeared! They could be in a new world surrounded on all sides by glowing walls, with so much mana that it’s already larger than the whole earth used to be!”
Jill privately thought that he was being too optimistic, but didn’t want to burst his enthusiasm. Just days earlier he’d been very nearly twisted into a sociopathic monster himself and had only survived by giving up every bit of magical power, every experience point and level, he’d earned.
“We should keep moving,” said Ras. “If the eastern side is as dangerous as the western, we’ll be attacked soon.” A Swordsman by Class and wielder of a Soulbound weapon, Ras was the most dangerous melee fighter on the truck. He’d been in the huge Cargo Module for crossing the rift, alongside a contingent of other fighters named the Cloud Killers in playful tribute to Jill’s last name, guarding the truck’s vulnerable rear doors.
The inside of Bertha had, just like the outside world near the singularities, been stretched by magic. So much so that, with the help of powers from officially becoming a Settlement, it now had its own pocket dimension a kilometer across in addition to hundreds of rooms in the Habitation and Cargo Modules. Most of those rooms were safely tucked away in the interior of the pocket dimension, but the rearmost part of the Cargo module had walls that bordered with the outside world. It was there that monsters could attack and claw their way inside. But that was only if the creatures could catch the truck which thanks to its Propulsion Module could drive at over 300 miles per hour, survive a hail of bullets from the turret-mounted machine guns, and carve their way through thick magical armor.
It had happened. Recently.
“Damn right,” Jill said. She turned in her chair and looked over her shoulder. Over two dozen people were in the former cab, now control room and host of Bertha’s Settlement Core: Karen, Babu and Ras’ aunt by marriage, and her backup, Amy, hunched together over a glowing console linked to Jill’s own Captain Speaking power, allowing them to listen in and talk to anyone in the truck; Katie, a younger woman wearing a punk leather jacket, and another dozen people formed the damage control crew, a group ready to dump their mana reserves into repair powers to keep Bertha going in the event of damage; and the person Jill was looking for, Jim Chen, one of the most experienced crafters on the truck, who was lying on his back under the consoles controlling the truck’s magical, monster-detecting radar.
“Hey, Jim,” Jill said, “how are those repairs coming? Can you just zap the dish with some magic and get it going again? I’ve already patched up the console.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“That’s what I said,” grumbled Jake, whose job it was to normally operate and monitor the radar. He still had burn marks on his face and clothes from when the radar console had exploded, overloaded during their teleportation journey when Tammy had decided to take them on a shortcut over the back of an irate kaiju.
Jim pushed himself off the ground and scowled at Jill. “It’s not easy! All of the control crystals are out of alignment and the central eye is almost burnt out!” He jabbed a finger at Jill. “I don’t know what you did, but don’t do it again!” He blew out through his nose, hard, and bent back over the device, his hands glowing with power.
Jill rolled her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” she said.
The chatter in the cab dimmed just a bit as the people who’d been pretending not to listen in had a collective moment of worry. More than a few pairs of eyes flickered in Jill’s direction.
“Ms. MacLeod,” Aman said, “there’s going to be a next time? Is that wise?”
The feeling from when they had crossed the rift surfaced in Jill’s memory; the windshield stretching away from her, sounds falling in pitch and volume, her entire being smearing across infinity. It was an experience that, if she was being honest with herself, she didn’t want to repeat. But it had been the catalyst for her finally gaining a Class Evolution that resonated deep inside her soul. She pulled up the notification for the evolution that the System had sent her.
Trucker of the Infinite Road: You have taken your vessel where it cannot go, sailed the infinite depths of magic itself, and lived to tell the tale. No other expanses could ever compete and you will cross them all. Your new Class Powers will enhance you and your chosen vehicle’s ability to go where you will.
She smiled and a warmth bloomed deep inside of her. Just as soon as they were out of danger she was going to take that upgrade and find out where it led.
“We might not do that exact brand of queef-ripping magical bullshit again,” Jill said, “but we’ll do something else crazy eventually, whether we want to or not. I’m sure of it.” She paused. “But Ras is right. Our first priority is getting the fuck out of this super-high mana death zone.”
She was going east, back to Boston, back to her family. Her father, brothers, and girlfriend were all waiting for her, they had to be. That was the only reason she’d pushed the truck into so much danger, kept them heading east despite swarms of monsters more dangerous than anything they’d ever seen before, despite literal walls of magic. Everyone in the truck had agreed to her terms, that east was their course, when they’d come on board, but Jill doubted any of them had even imagined how extreme their situation had gotten.
The mana engine was still on, filling the truck with a low rumble of waiting power. Jill turned back forward, grabbed the wheel, and put her foot down on the accelerator; Bertha leaped ahead, its huge knobbled tires throwing up a cloud of churned dirt behind it. Jill didn’t push them too fast, not while the radar was still broken. At the truck’s maximum speed, they could stumble into a bad situation far too quickly. A leisurely 100 miles per hour would be enough.
Jill activated her communication ability and projected her words to the turrets. “How are things looking up there? Are we clear?”
“I/we see only our new friend,” replied a single multi-tonal voice from many throats. One of the Turret Module’s upgrades tied the gunners together into a hive mind, sharing their reflexes and Class Powers. The hive had taken on a personality of its own, one that mutated depending on exactly who was behind the guns. “She has scared away the few monsters that had been within sight.”
“She scared the pants off of me with that flyby,” muttered Zeke, one of the gunners and an ardent lover of all things flamethrower, his words carried to Jill’s mind by Captain Speaking despite their low volume.
“You should pay more attention,” said Melissa, another gunner.
“Focus, constituents!” the hive said, using both of their voices alongside the rest to admonish them. “I/we see a dust cloud to the south that may be trouble.”
“I’m turning us north,” Jill said and did so. A minute passed and the cab settled into almost its usual rhythm, though it was punctuated by the occasional swear from Jim as his repairs failed. A shadow flickered across the ground ahead of them and Tammy swooped down in a spiraling twirl that made her feathers stream out, streamers of green and gold. Someone in the cab oohed in delight and clapped.
“Yeah, she’s pretty and she’s friendly,” Jill said, raising her voice, “but remember that she’s still a monster over level 100 who could rip you a new one if she felt like it. And that’s if she’s not dumping monsters on your head for your own good, to toughen you up!”
Another roar shook the windows as if Tammy could hear her and agreed.
“Don’t worry, boss,” said Bobby. “We sure ain’t going to forget what they can do.” He was one of the backup drivers who kept the truck moving when Jill was busy, or asleep. “Do you, uh, want me to take a shift?”
Jill’s hands tightened on the wheel in reflexive possession, but she forced herself to relax. She would have plenty of time to drive after she’d dealt with her class upgrade. “Yeah,” she said, “I-”
“Hachacha!” Jim’s shout of triumph interrupted her. “Got it! One fixed radar and a bucketload of experience points as a reward. Now let’s, uh, see?” his voice trailed off.
“Oh that’s not good,” said Jake, seated in front of the radar consoles and staring with wide eyes as the screen populated with its first returns.
“Spit it out already,” Jill said and sighed. “How fucked are we?”
“Monsters incoming from the south!” Jake said. “A swarm of fliers, at least 50 of them, and a boss at Level 92! Range and bearing to follow!”
“Oh,” Jill said and grinned. “Is that all?”
She was easily the highest-level person in Bertha. As its Soulbound owner, the one who’d invested her own Class Points into it, who had sacrificed the millions of experience points needed to transform it into a Settlement, she received a tax of experience for almost everything that happened in the truck. Every kill from a gunner, every item made by a crafter, every completed Quest, every time one of the children learned something new, it all gave her a trickle of magic. That had built up on top of her own achievements to get her to Level 100, with stored experience to push her even higher just as soon as she evolved her class.
The people firing Bertha’s guns were much weaker than her, much weaker than the monsters coming their way, but that didn’t matter too much. The power of the guns relied on Jill, just like the toughness of the armor and the truck’s speed. Without Bertha, the swarm would kill all of them. With it, they would only grow stronger as they reaped experience points for the kills.
“Time for a fight everyone,” Jill said. “Hold on to your butts and let’s get some XP.”